Sloth Mysteries... Can you Help?

[jezer]

Mystery #1, On the map for crystal falls, there is a room behind the ward... but how do I get there?

where
You are in Crystal Falls. Also in this area are:
Name - Location

look
Cave of the Wyvern
The cavern is immaculately clean. The walls are polished from wear. To
the south a trickle of clean, cool water drips down the rock face into a
small pool. The air smells of crushed flowers and dragon scent. The
combination of odors could only be the scent of a wyvern. A glowing ward
has been enscribed upon the north wall.
Exits: East

examine ward
A glowing ward has been placed upon the north wall. It glows brightly in
the dim light. An almost tangible feeling of power emanates from it.

open ward
As you try to open the ward, a booming voice proclaims right into your left ear:
'Mortal, thee shan't try to open thith ward. Or else!'

Mystery #2, Popped this key on Mayor Galio... and I wondered what it's for, or what the gossip about it is.

id key
Ok.
You feel informed:
Object 'key golden city', Item type: KEY
Item is: NOBITS
Weight: 1, Value: 10gold, Worn in: TAKE HOLD

inv
You are carrying:
golden city key

[13]

It's a trig trap to get in, Zarc and Foogey and I included it in the area for
the benefit of smart pthieves.

[jezer]

I'm neither a pthief, nor am I smart...

[slobe]

I think the key is just like the key 2 the city. Wich ofcourse the mayor should have

[Rynquald]

After playing with the Crystal Falls ward for a while, I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the west wall, for example:

'look west' returns "You see nothing special." in teal, while a normal 'look [dir]' is a white "Nothing special there...". Attempting to open any keyword to the west produces "I see no door there." (if you happen to try for door), while a normal dir is "There is no opening northwards.". The message on 'open ward' also says the voice comes from your left, which would be west if you were looking north, at the ward.

None of my attempts to actually find out anything about the west wall have worked though (perception, look, exa, etc.).

My only real theory at this point is that it might work if you while boarded while trying to open.

[jezer]

Well if Ryn can't solve it... the rest of us are doomed... I did have the thought though about being boarded giving one entry to the ward... cause it says mere mortals can not enter... which suggests to me it was doing a check on some player flag?

Despite the ward and it's secret... you'd have to question the morality of immortals building a safe room for pthieves when they and their friends were running pthiefs themselves. (If in fact it is a safe room for pthiefs.) I think 13 has admitted to being both an immortal/builder and a pthief in his time at sloth? I'm not sure of the facts... cause they come in bits and pieces on this board.

The thought of an area builder, making a special safe room for himself and his buddies, with a nonsense trigger trap entry that no one else can work out, smacks to me of corruption. Not only was pthiefing stupid and destructive, to think immortals and area builders were in on the act, ripping people off who cycled mobs for hours... well it's just wrong.

I love sloth, but hearing stories that make me believe that the immortals in the past have actually been the crookedest of the bunch brings a certain feeling of despising to the games existence. But on the other hand, it confirms my feeling that thieves have always been the 'teachers pet' when it's come to immortals. You can't tell me a skinny dude with a knife justifies 3 times the xp in a given amount of time, without telling me there has been some shady bias.

[Sind]

I bet they had endless vault in that room as well!
AA cmon sell me some keychain and decanter =)

As for sloth mysteries, hmm, if I remember right, there was some mysterious room past xorn.

[13]

It was something that anyone could figure out and I was never allowed to pth
after I became an immortal, give the admin some credit. There is a room in
Xanthippe kind of like that too, but less tricky to get around/to. Also FMH/Smokin put in a sneaky room in Chaeston in the main stair, but I can't
remember what it's name was. He put it in so he could hide there when
boarded for screwing with people, not stealing. Imm's are only human
and they play the game to have fun like everyone else. The pth sit.
added a nice laid back criminal element to the game which some of us
enjoyed a lot. The fencing of stolen gear, knowing who would change a
restring for you and keep it quiet, the stealing of the gear and just general
mind games that went with it were all neat aspects of it. People used to get
so bent out of shape about it, it really gave me/us a chuckle. I have worked
for gear just like the rest of you, and I would kill someone for stealing just
as quickly if not more. Finding out who took it would be the main concern
normally, which encourages people to be more resourceful and less of loners
..makes you get to know people. I always knew most evryone who played
when i was serious about the game so it didnt seem to hard to find out who was takin what. The only thing that I thought was unfair was the whole IP address tracking thing that a couple immortals used to their advantage.
I guess, once again, if you are resourceful, you can get past that as well tho. moot point..pthievin is gone now, much to my chagrin.

[Rynquald]

The only thing that really made pthieving unbearable imho was the fact that it was always carried out by ultra-low level chars that would rent as soon as they stole something. If it had taken a little more effort to make a workable pthief char, and there had been more than a 5 second window to kill a thief after the steal (assuming they didn't get boarded while doing it), it could have remained an enjoyable part of the game.

My opinions only cover the last few years of course, can't speak for the old days.

I'll have to check out Xanith and Chaeston now

[Weasel]

thucking fiefs.

[13]

I can't believe no-one simply asked me if I knew who had their shit
98% of the time.

[Sind]

[quote:1seapnsu]The pth sit.
added a nice laid back criminal element to the game which some of us
enjoyed a lot. [/quote:1seapnsu]

100% agree. was huge fun, and peeps even knew all the pthieves by names.

[Jag]

Pthieving wasn't fun for me. Maybe it was because I was a new to Sloth when things came to a head and it was eliminated.

They way I remember it was a bit different from those old timers who were just having a bit of excitement. But then I was on the other side of the phieving.

My first character (2005) spent many hours of cycling for iouns (well, I was new) and then had all 6 swiped in one theft. This was the first I had heard of pthieving and prior to this didn't know it was even possible. The thief sold them with seconds of the theft and laughed when I asked what was going on. He was a high level character I was level 20 and I had no coins or higher level character. No help was offered other then it was for my own good to teach me a lesson. Revenge was not really possible and it was a big loss to me at the time.

I found this typical of pthieving. A big character raiding beginners and calling it educational. It was also common at the time to hit groups during regen which put a damper on grouping for a while.

After playing a few years I can see the humor and I would be fine with an opt-in or opt-out pthieving system, but mostly the pthieving that I saw was jerks hitting on newbies. IMHO we are better off without it.

[13]

for the record I never stole from newbs

billybob
strider
Eos
giengen
genesis
Etc

(etc was a character's name, one of the FMH alts)

[Weasel]

I have a much bigger list of thucking pfiefs (or ex-pthiefs as the case may be for now) ..should I publish it here?