Zonorhc

Actually, I'm pretty sure that a javelin is a consumable item.

Camembert and Philladelphia. :D

All of you shut up. Assess his posts on a case-by-case basis. Ignore unless you really have to make an observation. End of discussion.

I think the old boards had a sticky along the lines of "How to Make a Good Post." One of the points in it went something like "Please make sure that you have given sufficient thought to any idea you may think is worth posting."

CHAPTER SEVEN: The Styx Oarsman of Avernus Vriskath's eyes lazily followed the blazing fireball that streaked down from Avernus' blood-red sky. He knew Emma behind him was doing likewise. They had plodded through the furnace-hot wastelands of Baator's first layer for several days - exactly how many was hard to tell for lack of day and night. A bearing taken from an enormous iron fortress on the horizon to their right gave them a general direction in which to head. The fireball's rumbling report rolled towards them from several miles ahead. "That way," said Vriskath with a small inclining of his head. It would be safe in that direction, as anything hostile would have been obliterated by the fire. Vriskath never looked behind him, but he knew Emma was there. She had been quiet since leaving Acheron, and the tense silence between them was punctured only by his duosyllabilic directions. Hunger had been ignored since leaving Avalas, for stopping to refresh themselves would risk being chanced upon by a Baatezu patrol. Vriskath's mind burned with a sensation that had grown stronger since arriving in Avernus. The bat-winged devil's wicked skull seemed to drip its acidic saliva continually into his consciousness like a poison. He knew that they would be found soon if they did not leave the plane. The dead silence continued between the pair. They arrived at their short-term destination after some time. Charred husks and smouldering globs of flesh alongside broken weapons littered the seared dirt, evidence that the fireball had struck the fringes of a running battle. The brimstone scent of Baatezu still lingered in the air, though from the corpses and equipment on the ground, it was obvious that the Tanar'ri had been winning this skirmish. Vriskath waved lazily at a fallen dagger as he passed it, a metallic scraping on dirt telling him that Emma picked it up. "It's hot," she said hurriedly, a rustling of cloth telling him she wrapped it in loose fabric to better handle it. "It'll cool. Ye'll need it." He nodded in the direction of another fireball hurtling for the ground, and they changed their course slightly to head to the site, ensuring that the iron fortress was still more or less to their right, with that ominous mountain of black rock looming over it. They trudged on towards the distant rumble, still silent. Reaching the top of a low rise overlooking the site, Vriskath gestured vaguely to his left. A rain of small flaming darts cascaded to the blasted ground in the distance like a veil of molten glass. He followed a cut track that led down into the bowl. "That was beautiful," whispered Emma as she caught up with him. "That's why this is still th' first layer." "What does that mean?" "That's th' only beautiful thing ye'll ever see in this place. Mark that tower," he added as they climbed the other side of the bowl, waving at a glimmering pillar that soared into the crimson sky near the iron fortress, before obscured by the huge mountain. "What is that?" Vriskath was silent as they continued on. A time passed, and the iron fortress was now behind them, still on the horizon to the right. The strange pillar had also dropped behind. Smoke came in from the distance, blown in by a hot gust from ahead. It came with a putrid odour of rotten flesh and all manner of unpleasant things Vriskath felt best not to think about. He heard Emma gag behind him. "What's that smell?" "The Styx," he said as he nodded in the direction of the smoke. Some time later, they climbed another low rise, this time overlooking a small valley, harbouring what could be called vegetation. Blackened soil stretched down, marked here and there by stands of sickly blue-green plants, towards a river flowing from a cave to another similar hole in the rock. The water's passage was like a death march, silently mocking but possessing an audible rhythm that was morbid and thoroughly abhorrent. A small battle raged along one stretch of the riverbank, clearly between a Tanar'ri landing party and Baatezu defenders. They waited in the shadow of a rocky outcropping for the fiends to finish each other. Emma's face was dirty - he assumed he looked much the same; the hot air of Avernus carried soot which built up over time. Her eyes still sparkled, though. "Will I have to use that?" she asked, indicating the dagger, sitting on top of her travelling pack at her feet. "Hopefully not." "That's good." "Not really. Hope doesn't really exist down here." "Well, we're here," she said defiantly. "And we'll get out, no matter what." He smiled. "Determination ain't hope. Still, as long as we stay clear o' th' Waste, we're more or less fine." "Do you have a plan?" "I'm thinkin' any of those fiends down there who survive'll head out o' here to fight more. Th' marraenoloths'll stick to their skiffs and sit tight 'till a body comes to hand over jink in exchange fer a safe passage down the Styx. If it all goes well, we'll be off th' Styx when it reaches Pandemonium, and we'll make our way to a Bleaker stronghold, th' Madhouse. "'Course, these're th' lower planes, so don't rely too much on a plan." Emma seemed relieved when they finally moved from the shadows towards the water, though she still suppressed gagging at the smell. The battling fiends had gone, and the two marraenoloths stood astride their skiffs staring off into the distance with red pinpoints of light in their skulls. One turned to the other, who pushed away from the bank with his pole, his skiff gliding down the filthy river and out of sight. Vriskath approached the bank cautiously, a bag of coins in his hand. He offered the bag to the marraenoloth's outstretched, skeletal hand, and boarded the boat with Emma. The silence had returned between them, and Emma was clearly intent on fixing her gaze on something in the skiff, rather than look out into the water where ghostly images of mortals clawed at the passing skiff, as if to capsize it and steal the memories of those within. "No dodgy business, 'loth," said Vriskath as the marraenoloth poled away from the shore. "Of course not, Vriskath," it said in its hoarse, airy voice. "The other one was the one you would have watched out for." "A friend of yours?" asked Emma with a raised eyebrow. The skeletal figure emitted what could have been called a laugh; a wheezing cough-like sound came from its bony skull and it said, "No, though I know him well, old blood warrior he is. He saved this skiff you ride now from a battalion of Tanar'ri on Gehenna. I was -" "- Lying face-down in th' boat, with a Tanar'ri axe in his back," finished Vriskath. "Why were ye helpin' th' Tanar'ri get to Avernus, then?" "You know the trade, Vriskath," said the marraenoloth throatily. "I work for the highest bidder. It's how we Yugoloths do things. You should know that by now." "Didn't seem that way when ye deserted yer post with Graekvar's battallion to pick our squad up." The marraenoloth momentarily paused his slow guidance of the skiff through the Styx to give Vriskath what could have been a glare. "You must know, boy, that not all fiends are spawned from the mindless petitioner larvae that the hags of the Waste sell to the Tanar'ri and Baatezu. I have existed for a hundred centuries and more, and I have had the time to ponder my place. "I may have died once or twice, but always when I emerge from the ashes of Oinos, I take up the marraenoloth's robe and pole. I am a man of the Styx, as much as that would mean to me. "I left Graekvar's Baatezu because they fought a losing battle, and I had not been paid to save them." "Ye weren't paid to save - Vaethis! It was Vaethis, wasn't it? The one Arcanoloth posted with us. Ye came to save her." The marraenoloth became silent. For a time, the only sound was the marraenoloth's pole slipping in and out of the oily water, and the persistent whisperings of damned souls. Every now and then, something along the bank would move, and red eyes would regard them for a long moment before disappearing. At last, the marraenoloth spoke. "I was once an Arcanoloth. It was a cold day on Oinos. She came to me, battered and indignant. Her patrol had run into a Tanar'ri warband, and she was the only survivor. I was younger, then. It was no matter, I told her. Those who were with her would be reborn once more. She said that she did not care about those, but about her own safety, for the Ultroloths did not tolerate failure. "As I have said it before, I was younger then. She was under my command, and thus the duty of punishment was on my shoulders. I told her that it would be fine, and she could consider herself punished for the failure. I loved her then. She was older than I. At that sign of weakness from me, the masters were informed immediately and I was cast down from that position, never to rise high in Yugoloth ranks for the rest of eternity. She was then given a higher rank for her efforts. "I did not see it as weakness then, and resented being given the station of marraenoloth. Over time, however, I understood the mentality of my own kind and knew why she had betrayed me though I had saved her. I had always been a slow learner and deviant among the other Yugoloths, though I was powerful. Over time, I accepted my station as marraenoloth, though I could have risen to Nycaloth. "That day on Gehenna, I knew that Vaethis was fighting once more. Though her grasp of diplomacy and politics rivalled that of the Baatezu, her mind was not made for tactics and strategy. Though she had betrayed me in the past, I did not wish her to be punished for her failure, so I came to rescue your squad. I tell you this now because you allowed me to save her. Had you not been there to pilot this very skiff, she would have been lost. It is a strange thing, for a fiend to develop as I have, though stranger things are not unheard of out here on the planes. "The day will come when I will drown myself in the Styx and be reborn without memories, though that time has not yet come." The silence returned soon after as the marraenoloth guided his boat through the waters, several times avoiding treacherous water only through his innate ability to sense subtle changes in the currents. The landscape was already phasing quickly from Gehenna's volcanic rocks to Oinos' muted grey expanses. Avernus had been left far behind, and the devil no longer grinned in Vriskath's mind. As the skiff plied its way through rougher waters as it entered Oinos through that mysterious boundary broken by the Styx as it flowed from infinity to infinity, Emma leaned over to him when she thought the marraenoloth could not hear. She whispered, "Fiends can love?" with a note of awe in her voice. Vriskath whispered back, "What I said before about th' firestorm on Avernus being the one thing of beauty that existed down in these planes, forget that. This makes two."

The textures look really awesome on the mountains to the back, but as it gets closer it doesn't look so good. You probably could've amended that by picking a higher angle to view everything from a little further away. Something about the mountains to the right looks... off. It's like they're made of opaque crystal the way they're faceted. You may have wanted a riverbank there, but I understand how hard it is to control placement when all the altitudes are so close to each other. A little more slope on the grassy areas could've given you enough space to place banks, but it's not really a big worry. Overall, I love the piece except for the above points. You HAVE to tell me how you get the clouds to look like that.

Just so I can get my opinion of you from the few posts you've made out in the open: You're an idiot. Stop acting like a moron and grow up. Leave your personality at the door, we don't want it in here.

That's a lot better. It doesn't look as blocky anymore, and there's a definite edge. Keep it up, I want to see this thing in colour.

Well, it was about time I lost the interim sig, and I decided to dabble a bit in World Machine and Terragen. I like the result, except for the left part... Anyway, yes! Comments are welcome. Constructive criticism is very welcome!

I think it's one of the more interesting pieces I've seen recently... Mostly because it's not chock full of Runescape references as far as I can see. The only thing that bothers me about it is the sword... It's a bit too blocky for my liking. If it's a double-edged sword, it should only have four faces.

If you fail, you'll have to start the mission all over again. Thanks for the feedback, guys. I'll try and get the next segment thought out and ready by tomorrow.

I'd do it personally, but y'know, your brain might explode from reading it.

Shut up noob. You're not really in a position to flame anyone here. Maybe you should think of something more serious than scimitars, pizza or whales...

That's the wrong motivation. Anyone who says that or implies it really takes down their reputation a few notches in my eyes.

One of the main selling points of Runescape is that it's accessible from virtually anywhere. Limiting it to a few IPs will remove that incentive to play.

Thanks for the feedback, people. I'll get to rebalancing things soon. The Art of War Mission Two: Ambush Quest Location: Vendric the Swift, North-west of the Draynor Village crossroads. Requirements: Must have completed Mission One: Reinforce; Ranged level of at least 20 Vendric: Hello there, [character name]. Could you spare a moment? 1) Sure. What do you need? [continue] 2) No, sorry. [end] Vendric: Well, the thing is that my sources tell me that one of Asgarnia's greediest merchants is returning from a trip to the northern wastelads. He's going to be passing through a narrow valley, and I want to remove him for the good of the land. 1) I guess if you want help, you could ask me. [continue] 2) Good luck with that. [end] Vendric: Excellent. Let's get there straight away. Remember, our target is Harran the Merchant. You should be able to recognise him by the red clothes he wears. You are then brought to a ridge overlooking a small mountain pass. As before, the area is individually generated. Quest area: As before, your insertion point is the green spot on the north-eastern corner of the mission area. Your target is marked with a red dot, and his escort is marked with yellow dots. Blue dots indicate friendly highwaymen. Black dots indicate trees. All NPCs begin with full health except for the two mercenaries at the back, who are on half. The entire area is multi-combat, and you may not exit the mission boundaries. Vendric: Here they come. Remember, do not let Harran the Merchant escape to the south. The archers begin to fire on the group below as soon as the first two mercenaries pass by the northernmost tree on the gentle slope. While on a higher elevation (at least three squares upslope), you gain the benefit of +3 squares of range with any ranged attack. For this combat only, your Ranged or Magic levels (depending on the type of ranged attack) are treated as being 5 higher for the purposes of accuracy and damage as long as you are on higher ground. The first hit against any enemy by anyone with a ranged attack will stun them for two seconds. The mercenaries all wear iron chainmail and iron helms. They all carry two-handed swords and have the ability to use the Shout, "Brother, I will help thee against this infidel!" Harran the Merchant wears red clothes and has a steel dagger. Each of the archers wear leather armour and chaps, a black cape and use a longbow with iron arrows. They will switch to a shortsword when confronted in melee. The archers all have 20hp and the equivalent of 15 Ranged levels and 10 in every other combat stat. The mercenaries all have 20hp and the equivalent of 20 Strength, 15 Attack and 12 Defence. Harran has 15hp and the equivalent of 10 in each combat stat. The main objective here is obviously to kill Harran. Once the archers begin shooting, the mercenaries will proceed to charge up the slope and engage the archers in melee. The archers will continue to fire on Harran until they are engaged, at which point the fight is left up to you. One of the most obvious strategies is to kill off the mercenaries first, to leave the archers to begin shooting at Harran again, but this may take too much time considering the distances. Another idea is to either shoot Harran until he falls, then eliminate the mercenaries. Note that if you try to engage Harran in melee, he will begin running. Naturally, what must be done is to concentrate attacks on Harran from higher ground to bring him down as soon as possible and prevent him from leaving the area. After that, the mercenaries may be dealt with at your leisure, or you can speak to Vendric to end the mission and receive your reward. Vendric: Well done! You have removed one of Asgarnia's most evil individuals. The people will thank whoever eliminated this parasite of society. Vendric awards you with 300gp. Additional "rewards" may be collected while in the mission area, by looting the dead bodies before leaving. You also gain the Shout of the highwaymen, "Stand and deliver!"

And he's damn right. What's your position to be flaming Godslayer? Exactly. None. Buddy kits are considered taboo on this board. Search for them, but don't let anyone else know. You'll have that "Buddy kit user" label on you for a while.

This is a suggestion for a quest series which will introduce a new level of tactical play in Runescape. The series will span both member and non-member worlds, though free players will have a very limited amount of options with regard to tactical combat. The first in the series will be the most basic, and thus will be available to both free players and members. The Art of War Mission One: Reinforce Quest Location: Captain Al-Shadeen, Al Kharid Palace Requirements: Must have completed the Prince Ali Rescue quest; Attack level of at least 20. Dialogue Captain Al-Shadeen: Greetings, [character name]. How may I help you today? 1) I heard that you've been having trouble with some bandits. [continue] 2) Nothing, sorry to bother you. [end] Captain Al-Shadeen: As a matter of fact, yes. We've been encountering small groups of bandits along our outer patrol routes, and we've lost a few men over the past week. I received a report just a few minutes ago that one of our camps was under attack! 1) Oh, send some soldiers to help, then. [continue 1] 2) Is there anything I can do to help? [continue 2] 3) Oh, that's too bad. I'll be leaving now. [end] [1]Captain Al-Shadeen: I can't spare any more soldiers! Between reinforcing our other patrols and defensive positions and the soldiers who are too far to be of assistance, I can't spare any men to help that patrol! 1) Maybe I could lend a hand. [continue 2] 2) Oh well. Good luck, then. [2]Captain Al-Shadeen: I would welcome any assistance at this point in time. Move south to reinforce Sergeant Razeem's force east of the river Elid. I'll send one of my trackers to guide you. You are then brought to a rocky hill north-east of the skirmish site. This area is generated individually for players, so when you go in, you go in alone. Quest area: Your insertion point is the large green spot on the eastern slope of the hill to the north. The bandits are all marked on the map as yellow dots, and the Kharidian soldiers are marked with blue dots. All NPCs here begin at full health. For obvious reasons, the entire area is multi-combat. You may not exit the mission boundaries. Each square on the grid represents one square in the game world. Tracker: There's the battle! Get in there and help! 1) Why don't you come along as well? [continue] 2) I'm on my way! [end] Tracker: Ah... Sometimes, discretion is the better part of valour. [end] You enter combat with the eleven bandits. The three who are not engaged in melee combat are using bows to help the frontliners. The archers have 15hp each and the equivalent of 10 Ranged levels, and use standard shortbows. The melee troops have 20hp each and the equivalent of 10 of each melee stat, and use wooden shields and steel scimitars. All of the bandits wear leather armour and an iron helm. The Kharidian soldiers each have 25hp and 15 in each combat stat, including Ranged. The melee troops all carry steel shields and scimitars, and the two ranged combatants - one of whom is Sergeant Razeem - use crossbows. All of the Kharidian soldiers wear iron chainmail and an iron helm. The main objective of this quest is to ensure that Sergeant Razeem survives combat. Even though he is not being targeted at first, as soldiers die off, he will eventually be concentrated on. All of the bandits must be eliminated to complete the quest. If Sergeant Razeem dies, the quest must be started all over again. It is a point to note that while the Kharidian soldiers are flanked (they have an enemy in front of them as well as behind), they take extra damage from every attack that hits from behind, and they are hit more often by the enemy behind them. You can use this to your advantage as well, since if you attack any enemy from behind, you attack and deal damage as though your Attack and Strength levels were increased by 5. You can also be flanked if the Kharidian soldiers start to die off. Naturally, what you must do is eliminate one of each pair of bandits so the Kharidian soldiers can dispatch the other without difficulty. Once the melee combat has been reduced to one-on-one battles, you should kill the three archers then mop up the remaining bandits. Once all of the bandits have been killed and Sergeant Razeem survives, you can talk to the tracker and ask him to guide you back to Al Kharid. You should speak to Captain Al-Shadeen to complete the quest and collect your reward. Captain Al-Shadeen: I have heard of your bravery in aiding my men in battle. For this, I thank you and present you with this reward. He awards you with 100gp plus 50gp for every Kharidian soldier who survived. You also gain the "Shout" of Al Kharid warriors, "Brother, I will help thee against this infidel!" Shouts Shouts help you or your party members in combat. You gain the ability to use Shouts through the various Art of War quests. You can learn as many Shouts as you want, but you can only have three "prepared" at a time. You prepare Shouts by speaking to any of the NPCs who begin the Art of War quests. Each Shout is assigned a number, which you set at the time of preparation. You may check your assigned Shouts at any time by clicking on the button labelled "Shouts" just below your mini-map. This button is greyed out if you do not have any Shouts prepared. To activate a Shout, you type /x, where x is the assigned number of the Shout. Only one Shout may be in effect at any given time from each player. That is, if you use one Shout, you cannot use another one and gain its effects as well - they override each other, like the protection prayers. However, your party members can use different Shouts and you can gain benefits from those. The effects of Shouts last only twenty seconds, and you must wait at least thirty seconds between shouts. This means that if your Shout's duration expires, you still have ten seconds before you can Shout again. Shouts can only affect party members or monsters who are within ten squares. A player or monster may leave the area after the Shout and still keep the bonuses for the duration, but they cannot gain the effects by entering the area after a Shout has been used. Outside the Wilderness, Shouts only affect players who have the "Accept Aid" option turned on. Shouts in effect are represented by semi-transparent symbols down the left side of the screen. The various shouts are as follows: Brother, I will help thee against this infidel! - Whenever you or any nearby party members attack an enemy from behind in melee combat, your Attack and Strength stats are treated as being five levels higher than normal. This Shout is represented by a sword with two arrows pointing to it from opposite sides. You will suffer for this! - If you or any ally within ten squares is below 50%hp, all enemies in the area have their Defence levels halved. This Shout is represented by a pair of crossed swords over a heart. Stand and deliver! - Whenever you or any affected party members attack an enemy from a higher elevation (at least three squares "upslope"), your Ranged or Magic levels (depending on the type of ranged attack) are treated as being 5 levels higher for the purposes of accuracy and damage. Furthermore, the first hit against an enemy by you or any of your party members will stun them for two seconds, preventing them from moving or teleporting. This Shout is represented by a flaming arrow pointed downwards and to the right. (Other Shouts pending. If anyone can tell me about any other things that NPCs shout in combat, that would be great. I don't exactly have access to P2P worlds, so I don't know what kinds of things can come out of there.) Party Members Parties may be formed for venturing into the Wilderness. A party may be of any size, but can only be formed near a "Danger!" sign (a signpost with a skull and crossbones symbol). You may not leave a party unless you are outside the Wilderness or you log out. Party members may not attack each other. They see each other as light blue dots on the minimap. The main advantage of party members is that they can benefit from each other's Shouts. A party can be formed through the "Party" option in the Friends List, which would be greyed out unless you were within ten squares of a Danger! sign. You may check the list at any time to see who is in your party and what their combat levels are. As you can see, I'm still working on these ideas. The quests for different Shouts are still in development, and I'm looking for any information on what NPCs in P2P say during combat. Hopefully I'll get around to tweaking and adding onto this later.

Sounds like Blaziken here has never even SEEN a whale before. News flash, my ignorant friend - they're bigger than goldfish.

Let's try something a little more original than PK scenes... A cloaked spearman walking up a muddy path leading up to a castle on a cliff. The spearman is wearing a light breastplate over chainmail, with marching boots and leather bracers. He holds his spear in his right hand, lowered and angled off to the side. The scene should be quite dark and rainy, but without lightning.

What you think is inconsequential. It looks terrible.

You know what? Get over yourself. One, the fact that you've admitted that you get images from a site instantly reduces the amount of work you've actually done to less than 20%. Prices should scale accordingly. Just because someone does it doesn't stop you from being the bigger man and not sinking to their level yourself. Two, you're not the only one being flamed. Stop being a self-important fool. Three, nobody said that pixel art is the only style that matters here. It's a trend and nothing more. Don't jump to conclusions. Four, nobody cares about what you would've done. Five, you put minimal effort into making these. Stop making a big deal out of what you've done. End discussion.

Check the droplists of monsters around that level and scale it accordingly. It's a better balancing tool than sitting there waiting for replies. And a knife to put PASTE on a weapon to REPAIR it? You're not serious, are you? If you are, then you're evidently quite oblivious to the whole concept of reforging and repairing edged weapons. What you need: A heat source to make the metal malleable again, an anvil and a hammer to reforge the metal, and a water source to cool the metal before re-heating and hammering it some more. What you DON'T need: Paste, nails or a knife.

What's your point? The medium helm is poorly designed, along with about 95% of the equipment in the game. In fact, given a choice between non-Dragon "medium" helms and "full" helms, I'd choose the open-face equipment, simply because it offers more protection than a plumed lump of trash. Does JAGeX understand that, though? Highly doubtful, because the attitude towards equipment seems to be "The more extra aesthetic but practically useless features we add on to it, the more protective it becomes!"

Calm down, people. I didn't say that he ripped them. Half of those sigs aren't your work at all. Googled images and game renders aren't exactly hard to put on top of bad abstract or grunge backgrounds. Try making your own art.