980210 - Today I sold out all my scrolls three times over, I simply cannot keep up with demand in Vesper. One customer, Hapheastus, commissioned 10 Recall scrolls on the spot. I managed to commission Certyl to write some low-level scrolls for me, fortunately. My associate BlackTouch has set up my 3rd shop, it is located at the crossroads on the plains west of Covetous. I will get back to you with screen-shots from there, and a map, as soon as I get my own vendor up, the market for magical weapons seems to be excellent down there. BlackTouch will be handling part of the market fortunately. I've also managed to contact the owner of the large mage tower down there, he seems to be a reasonable chap, I see business to be done here, profitable business to all that. But right now I'm just so overworked with writing scrolls in Vesper. Oh yes, I made it to master mage today, thanks to my excessive writing, but, dear me, so much money I make. You wouldn't believe it, unless of course you happen to be around when I go down to the bank of Vesper and say "balance". Doing so usually annoys the heck out of everybody else present, but triggering envy is usually a good thing to do, maybe some players will start thinking about their own doings then, and what to do instead...

I also practice the polymorph spell whenever I have the mana to spare - a rare occasion. I usually go around in troll or ogre shape and chase newbies around inside Vesper, a bit obnoxious behavior maybe, but I need to relax as well, life isn't just scribing and scribing. I do not attack them of course, just run after them at top speed and grunts, and you know me, I can run *very* fast, even in polymorphed shape, few other players can outrun me if I don't let them. Sometimes I polymorph into a chicken instead, that's even more fun. A talking chicken is not what most people expect, maybe I should prowl the countryside in this shape? No, of course I won't, that would be very nasty to anyone taking a huge notoriety hit just attacking a chicken, and few Dread Ladies would ever take their time to assault a lowly hen. But then again, an Energy Bolt casting chicken would be a nice surprise to certain individuals don't you think?

At last, the gripe and moan of the day. Can't these stupid jerks which opens up gates inside mage shops understand that they block off every body else when doing so. That gate gives off an aura of anti-magic in a small radius around it, effectively canceling everybody else's recall spells. Stop gating into mage shops you stupid lamers - go to Covetous and get PK:ed instead - we would all be so much happier then!

980209 - I sold out all my scrolls again. When I logged on, not even a handful magical scrolls remained, I went to work immediately. After a trip to Occlo, I was all set to write. I had not written more than 20 scrolls when Barak came to visit. I'm so glad that he made his escape too yesterday, and was even more pleased to know that he finally managed to get his house in place, I will go visit him someday soon. I was less pleased to hear that Barak had been looted while casting an illegal spell in town. I offered to help him out and Recalled to my Main Office to get him some things. That was the shortest trip I've ever made there, waiting outside my house was not only old Mr. Twoheads, but also something looking conspicuously like the ghoul that chased me yesterday, I bounced back to my Vesper shop immediately. Then my old friend Blackstar arrived on the scene. Together we decided to go there and clean up once and for all. I prepared my gate and we went through it, all three of us. When we arrived, there was no sign of the ettin, we might be grateful for that, the ghoul turned out to be a specter, and specters are bad news. However, Blackstar is an armored assault mage and Barak is a pretty good fighter nowadays. Both Blackstar and me opened up with a "Vas Flam" each, while Barak engaged the undead monster. Then both Barak and Blackstar started to hack away at the specter with their big twohanders while I switched to the heavy artillery - Energy Bolts. The specter went down surprisingly easy without dealing any significant damage to any of us at all. I'd like to thank both Barak and Blackstar for helping me keeping my rose-garden free from monstrosities. The monsters seem to increase both in numbers and in size, this might get dangerous.

Other than this incident I had plenty to do today. My Island hopping kits were sold out again, now are those good business or what? And what a good deal it is to a prospective buyer - eight runes for only 999 and 3 complementary Recall scrolls as well, run on down to my store and get your copy today! When I marked in Occlo I met poor Lord Leoric, hmm that name rings a bell somewhere, from some Diablo world was it - nah couldn't be? Anyway, he had been looted by another one of those "Great Lord Grand Master Bug Exploiters", it's so sad. I gave him a small, well maybe not so small, sum of money to help him get back on his feet. And you know what, he was really grateful! It feels real good to help somebody who has the courtesy of saying "Thank you" afterwards. There's too many jerks who run around thinking that persons should just hand out "stuff and such" as they say to them - forget it - those "k00l D00ds" get nothing from me. But it's nice meeting a civil person in UO once in a while. Speaking of money, house prices have doubled! Now this may curtail the obnoxious building boom we've seen in the Sosarian country side, it also is a major setback in my plans to get my own personal mage tower - those towers cost a whooping 250 k nowadays! But I will not give up, someday I will buy one... Oh yes I forgot - "Dread Lag" was worse than ever today...

980207 - I thought that old exploding box trick was all washed out, but no. This morning I found one of those devices at the entrance to the Spinning Wheel. Well, I do what I normally do when I see one, I picked it up to be placed inside my Main Office later. How did I know it was an exploding box then? Well, not five seconds after I entered the tailor shop, a man in orc helmet and death robe (nice telltale clothing isn't it) suddenly made him self visible outside and went in. There he stood just looking at me for two minutes while I was working. In the end I couldn't stand it anymore and said to him "Thank you for the exploding box, it will fit nicely into my house". Like all of these clueless lamers he retorted "fuk you". (He had to misspell otherwise it just comes out as %&#!%). "Oh", I said, "A comedian, and a dyslectic one to all that". He left. Dear me, some people are just so out of touch, three weeks ago those boxes were the highest fashion and a pretty clever little trap but nowadays - bah. That's how you know who's in and who's not. If you don't know - just ask me - Sandralene, the fashion queen of Vesper. I put the exploding box inside another exploding box - I like doing that - it will annoy whoever's going to open them some day.

My neighbor Cess bought a lot of items, scrolls mainly, from me today, with my regular sales that got my vendor in Vesper back to normal turn-over. I hope things stays that way, I'm beginning to have to be careful about depositing money into my bank box, I've heard a rumor that gold may disappear on you when you have more than 55 k in the bank. My only concern right now is just how much that raise in house prices that OSI has threatened us with is going to be. Maybe I won't be able to build a private mage tower after all. That's a pity, mage towers are definitely one of the most fashionable buildings in the game, it even has a usable roof from where you can stand and shout "Vas Flam" at passing warriors all day long, and thumb your nose at them. That roof would also be a terrific place to park your pet dragon, if you only could find some way of getting it up the stairs...

I heard various reports today that the rune market was dropping, strange, I still don't seem to be affected of that, all my runes sell out very quickly. Maybe it's because I specialize in one line of runes - island runes. That's what I've been saying all along - "Don't go supermarketing" - it's not a good idea at all, trademark is not only more of a fashion statement, it's also more economically correct. I've let my pure magery trail for too long now. I have to drop scribing for a while, and concentrate on casting spells directly. It's pretty nice to be able to polymorph into a small "KFC" every now and then, I just hope no one's going to try to eat me while in that shape, maybe a slime would be even better? No, becoming a slime is absolutely not Prêt-a-Portèr at all, too many human ones out there already... Lastly I'd like to thank Tinkerbell for the boxes, and, of course, the guild member of 'Sir Robin's Minstrels' together with which I killed a big ugly troll just outside my main office - now *that* was fun. Vas Flam to all of you until tomorrow.

980206 - Magic was the thing of the day. I practiced a good deal with common simple spell-casting, as well as training my inscribing even more, must have written some 50 scrolls, some of them 6th and 7th circle. Needless to say, I was completely out of mana for the best part of the day, during those periods I tailored or shopped. I finally have gotten together an acceptable number of magical accessories, necklaces mainly, to actually incorporate them as a regular item for sale at my vendor in Vesper. My vendor in Minoc, Trianon, has not seen very much business over the last couple of days, I wonder why, maybe I need to start selling promotional runes to that shop from my vendor in Vesper. I also sent a scout to Trinsic to check out a good place to open my third shop, I gave him not one but two runes leading there, I know that sometimes people loose a rune along the way due to various accidents - better safe than sorry. I also managed to pick up a number of very interesting magical weapons, the best are still left in vault for special customers but some fairly powerful are put out for sale to the commoners. For instance that exceedingly accurate scimitar of mages' bane - isn't that just the weapon to poke at a nasty PK:er with? My item identification and arms lore is getting good enough to actually use on the things that even NPCs sell, without running the risk that someone grabs it just before you can, sometimes you have to be *very* fast if you want to buy a particular item. I also bought a lap harp so I can make some music for myself, sounds pretty good when I play it correctly, maybe I should buy some more instruments? If nothing else, I could terrorize my surroundings with relentless use of my bardic skills. I just got to remember not to annoy my neighbor Leafbeach too much, now that he's been so nice as to manufacture six chairs for me (one of them I accidentally put into one of my trapped boxes and I can't get it out again, without either disabling or setting off the trap) :) But at least my large main office starts to look like it was inhabited, I will get back to you with screenshots from it in a while.

I also saw something really funny today, a Dread Lord somehow managed to go astray into the guard protected area outside the Spinning Wheel, and was instantly killed by a nearby guard. Now this person must have carried something extremely valuable to him, like for instance the key to his house and vendors. I saw him trying to insta resurrect time and time again, and the guard kept on killing him the second he touched his items. After a while he ran out of resurrection points and just stood there as a ghost. Needless to say, looters nearby picked him clean thoroughly, not even his multiple death robes were left on the scene. I didn't take anything myself, seeing a Dread Lord getting screwed like that gives me enough pleasure. And of course, resurrecting yourself makes you take a terrible hit on your stats and skills if your notoriety is that bad, even if you just do it only once. Doing it 5 times in a row reduces even a Grand Master to newbie status. He's demise will be mourned by very, very few, I'm sure, that's one PK:er less we have to worry about for a while.

980205 - This day started off in a great way. First of all I strangled a snake that stupidly slipped into my Main Office, I do not like rats, reptiles or invertebrates there at all. Then when I came back to town I met Certyl again. I suggested to him that we go see Occlo for a while, to get him a little larger view of the world than just Vesper. When we were talking in the Spinning Wheel, 3 large trolls spawned just outside the shop - hmm neat - but I was out of reagents, and besides taking on three trolls alone would be just a little bit too tough for me. When we arrived in Occlo though my gate, a town crier there announced disturbances outside Vesper and other cities, indeed... I worked in Occlo's tailor shop for a while, as Certyl took a trip to the tanner to get hides. After we were done, I gated us back to my shop in Vesper; yes I'm a one-woman travel agency when I need to. Just as we arrived, a warrior named Leif, came running begging for healing, an ogre hot on his trail. I fixed him up and sent him back into battle, the place was swarming with ogres and trolls, great fun for everybody (except those who got killed). Unfortunately real life called me away prematurely, but I sincerely hope that these disturbances continue. While it's bad for regular business, there's nothing more helpful for your reputation as playing the role of a defensive mage, healing up warriors or casting reactive armor on them. And besides it breaks routines, we all have to do something different every now and then don't we? It's like having Orc Fort coming to you instead of you having to travel all the way there, I like it.

I also got my first taste of the soft stat cap today. When I raised my dexterity and strength by 1 each, my intelligence dropped by 1. I must take this into consideration from now on, so I do not hinder my development in any manner, at the same time keeping up with my business. I started to produce 7th circle scrolls for commercial use today. I have been scribing them for private use for a couple of days, but I felt I got them correct so often, it was time to make commercial use of it now. 7th circle takes away 40 mana every time you try, whether you succeed or not, and that much mana takes quite a while to regenerate. That is a logistic problem in itself since I would love to practice normal spell casting while scribing, but when I go to 7th circle scrolls I cannot. I hope Apex got a new bag of reagents with the money I gave him, and that he learns that PK:ers do exist and kill every day - there's nothing novel with PK:ing at all - nor is it a fashion statement, except of course in the case of the Insidious Brotherhood - they do have some style to their doings, however twisted. Speaking of business, there have been several reports from my neighbors that their profits from their vendors are dropping, I have yet to experience this myself however, could the troll attacks have anything to do with it...?

980204 - Today was another day of work. First of all I met Otis again, and he delivered the remaining items I had commissioned. He had even manufactured a few more, now my house is lavishly sprinkled with deathtraps in form of small boxes. Naturally all the boxes are completely empty except in a few cases where the trapped box contains *another* trapped box. I'd like to see a thief cope with that. I got another little box as well from a supplier of mine, it's tricky to describe its content, I figured it would be better if I showed you a little picture.

Then I went on a long business trip. Except the usual stops in Occlo and Skara Brae, I had two new destinations on my list today. First out was Trinsic, yes I know this is mainland, but one of my really good customers is stationed down there and I wanted to return a visit. Trinsic is a boring town, nothing much goes on there, but it's neat and well-ordered, and I admit - Trinsic is a little easier than Vesper to find your way about if you're not familiar with the town in the first place. Oh I found some fifty-odd hides in their tannery which I converted into female leather armor and sold off, I had already checked at a provisioner to see that female leather was sellable. Oh, the rune I've gotten to Trinsic leads to the rooftop of the bank. Now I certainly don't mind banking from the roof in Britain, it keeps thieves at a distance. But it's a waste of reagents having to teleport down when you want to go somewhere else besides the bank. I'm going to make another rune there for private purposes shortly. As you know I absolutely refuse to sell mainland runes in my shop - it's not stylish going mainland, but sometimes business requires you to humiliate yourself. Then I went to Yew and Empath Abbey. I can't imagine a more dull and backward place than Yew. I looked at more than 20 vendors for items, all of them very neatly ordered, but almost sold out. The items that were sold were preposterously marked-up, as could be expected in the magic-starved countryside. I saw for instance a lowly durable long sword in so-so condition being offered for 300 - yes three hundred - gold pieces, and it wasn't even identified with the vendor - I had to do that myself. I would feel ashamed selling such an item for even 50, if I would sell it at all. The same thing went with scrolls, what little offered carried ridiculous price tags. Yes, I know, I could make a killing if I established myself in Yew. But then I would have to advertise so very long and hard to get these farmers to understand that they should go to my shop instead of any of the 20-30 other tents and huts clustering the abbey, that I do not feel it would be worth the time anyway. No, I stick with my original plan - Britain's next on my list. Hmm, just got an idea though, many of the businessmen and women on my street in Vesper are skilled enough to be able to cast that Gate Travel spell, just like I am. Maybe we could organize shopping trips from Yew to Vesper and back, it would be like that suburban mall killing off their downtown competition by offering a free ride, I wonder, could this be organized and done...? Make mental note: Talk to all neighbors with vendors about this subject.

I'll be back with more news at the situation warrants. Until next time - stay safe from PK:ers

Even a tailor can walk around semi-nude in UO

/Sincerely