Dear Reader,

After a long absence from this board I have decided to pick up my quill again. It's time to lay this particular story to rest.

For those of you too young to remember, or those of you too old not to have forgotten, you may wish to visit the previous volumes in this Trilogy (Yes this really is the final episode). They can be found at

 Arka's Return
and
Arka's Return 2: The Tower

For those of you of just the right age to remember or too curious to spend time revising, here is a taster. I hope you enjoy reading as much as I have enjoyed living it.

Arka

The Reckoning

Part 1: Prologue
Many months have passed since Arka’s encounter with the evil Dermorian, Sudisir. Nothing more was seen of him since his fall from the Tower and in time he slipped from memory. But Arka still had an uneasy feeling; he was never far from her thoughts, and this tormented her secretly. She could not explain it but she knew he would be back one day and that she had her greatest challenge ahead of her.

Not long after the tower-top battle, Drahlian had led the Dwarvesbane against Hammerwielders and Stonebreakers alike, in what had become to be known as the ‘Dwarven Wars’. Because of her position at the University, Arka had played no part in the wars, although she itched to fight alongside her Dwarven brothers and grieved to see so many of them fall. One by one, her students left the University to join the Dwarven Star and fight against Drahlian’s evil hordes. Many of them did not return.

Eventually, the Dwarvesbane were defeated and Dwarven Star was disbanded. Peace reigned again, but the episode had left Arka deeply troubled. She was sure that the wars had been stirred up by Sudisir and that he had intended to use the slaughter of her brethren to draw Arka into another direct confrontation. She had resisted, but not without deep feelings of guilt and responsibility. She was convinced that this was Sudisir’s revenge for being almost destroyed by her.

After the wars, nothing more was heard of Dwarvesbane, nor Sudisir. Arka became more and more involved in her teaching duties at the University, spreading knowledge of the Stonebreaker language and culture to anyone who was interested. She spent her evenings poring over her mother’s notebooks, gradually piecing together the history of the Stonebreakers, as related by the elders of her clan.

Then the day came when Lordbug retired as Director of the University, and Arka took his place. She continued to teach Stonebreaker, but more and more of her time was taken up with University business. As time went by she felt more confident with her position at the University and to her students and colleagues appeared calm and relaxed. But hardly a week went by without the dreams that had tortured her since that day on the Tower top, each one ending with the disappearance of Sudisir’s body. And each time, Arka woke, sweating and afraid. Very afraid…

Arka walks up to the notice board, a little nervously. She doesn't often post public notices, but this one is special.

From her satchel she takes a sheet of parchment and four small nails. Using the flat of her axe-blade, she nails the notice to the board. Stepping back she takes a final look to make sure the notice is straight, smiles and heads off back to the University.

Knowledge Seekers will be 2 years old on 13th November, and to mark the event we invite all and sundry
(and I'll leave you to guess who fall into the 'sundry' category ) to the BIG KNOWLEDGE PARTY!! 

     

Where?	Brado's Tavern Akkaio
When?	13th November (Yes I know it's a Monday)
What time?	21 GMT
Who will be there?	Everybody (who's everybody)
What's the point?	No point. Just to have a good time
What can I look forward to?	Food, Ale, Party hats, Ale, little things on sticks, Ale,

Oh yes and ENTERTAINMENT!  Including The Great Yliakum Grofeltoe Championship (First 8 to sign up get to compete for a CASH Prize!)
Proglin's (In-)famous WHEEL OF FORTUNE   
Songs and stuff and (time permitting) A TALL TALE competition (Biggest whopper takes all). 

Many Many thanks to Proglin and Indygo for their help in making this happen     

(Did I mention there would be Ale?) 

Be there - or be a non-round thing!

Arka

Part One: Awakening

Arka woke to a cold, wet dawn. The tree she had crawled under last night offered no shelter from the rain. She was wet to the skin and cold to the bone. Worse still was the humiliation. She had travelled the whole stalactite over during her long life, and survived almost intact. She had encountered Rogues, thieves and vagabonds, but had always managed to defend herself. But last night?

And to happen within sight of the place of her youth, Hydlaa! She tried to move but her legs were stiff and painful. Rolling up the leg of her breeches she saw the bruises, blue and yellow, on her shins. Her ribs ached. She had taken a bad beating. She should have stayed in Akkaio, should have taken a room at the night in th? Broken Door. She had the money for it, but not now. She looked around. Her possessions were scattered around where the Robbers had left them. Clothes, books, trinkets, all trodden into the mud. She checked her satchel. Inside was the tight wad of papers, wrapped in Tefusang skin. She sighed. At least she still had that. All was not lost.

She painfully massaged her legs back to life. Nothing broken, except maybe a rib or two. The leather armour had helped, until they had taken it off her. Then the tall one had come back and kicked her in the ribs. That was when she blacked out.

She crawled about gathering together what was left. There was a shawl, big enough to use as a makeshift backpack. Some of her mother?s jewellery, her clothes, a pair of boots (obviously too small for the Robbers) a belt, and her precious package. That was all she had left in the world. The Great Axes that she had worked on so diligently as an apprentice, they were gone. She fought back a tear, remembering her father?s pride when she had shown them to him. He?d kept them all that time. All the years she had been wandering over the Stalactite....

As you progress in axe or sword or melee skill you become able to fight the more \'challenging\' monsters. However it becomes ridiculously easy to kill lesser monsters. This means that new players with less skill get crowded out of the easy areas (like the Tef arena) by more able players.

My idea is this. Make the less strong monters sensitive to the power of the attacker. This means that instead of attacking they run away. The threshold could be set to different levels for different monsters so that (for example) everything but the most powerful monsters run away from a player fighting at level 70.

Hitting a moving target takes more skill so more experienced players would have more difficulty attacking an easy target than a new player. This would encourage them to take on creatures of a higher power, leaving the easier ones to newer players.

In a group, the monster would react to the player with the highest skill so run away from him/her. This could make for interesting tactics when fighting in groups!