What’s New

2026-03-04 v1475
Love is much nicer to be in than an automobile accident, a tight girdle, a higher tax bracket or a holding pattern over Philadelphia. — Judith Viorst (b. 1931)

• We’ve had to make a rather sudden server move, despite having just moved it once already, back in October. Let’s hope the practice makes will have made today’s move less dramatic than last time!
• We’ve made significant changes to the Champion stonegirdle ability. As more and more of the population has suffered from total-body paralysis, we now offer the following relief from the epidemic of petrified exiles:
  • Corsetta’s stonegirdle training is capped at 100 ranks (yes, even if you trained more).
  • Uncorsetta will help affected Champions forget their lessons beyond 100 ranks, returning the entirety of that experience to use on other training.
  • Champions may, at their discretion, choose to depetrify early without shattering.
  • Champions may find it tiring to repeatedly re-petrify in quick succession.
  • There is no minimum training requirement for Champions to use a stonegirdle. This doesn’t mean amateurs should expect to be very skilled.
  • There are a few other changes that we think make it more fun and rewarding to actively use a stonegirdle.
• Feedback is welcome: we know this is an ability that is utilized by many and loathed by many. Adjustments to areas and monsters are planned as we see how players adapt to the change.
• Meanwhile, over in the East Forest…
  • Boostus, at the University of Puddleby, has announced that he’s now offering much more advanced courses. Even if you think you’re pretty tough, you may still qualify for his awesome lessons. Pay him a visit if you’re interested.

2026-02-04 v1471
Love is the canvas covering the furniture that you’ve become a part of. — Josh Stern (b. 1961)

• The Savannah areas should sound a little less rainy.

2026-01-04 v1467
Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right. — Oprah Winfrey (b. 1954)

• Happy New Year!
• The players who inadvertently failed to receive the v1453 compensation experience (see below) did eventually receive it at the next opportunity, in v1458.
  
  But due to another oversight — a new and better one! — they were accidentally re-awarded that same experience again in v1462. That left the original set of players short a few ranks vis-a-vis their “untimely” peers.
  
  Today, those players receive their second dose of XP, leaving everything shipshape and the universe back in balance. Phew!
  
  (Also, the gerbils responsible have been, uh... re-educated.)

2025-12-03 v1462
In omnibus requiem quaesivi, et nusquam inveni nisi in angulo cum libro. (Everywhere I have sought peace and not found it, except in a corner with a book.) — Thomas à Kempis (1380–1471)

• Happy Bawkmas! Season’s Beatings!

2025-11-05 v1458
Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. — Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)

• A small minority of players inadvertently failed to receive the v1453 experience awards that were meant to compensate for server woes (see v1453 notes below).
  Those players should receive the belated XP — plus a little bit extra, for their patience — at the start of v1458.
• The server gerbils now seem fully acclimated to their new grander and more spacious home.

2025-10-03 v1453
I don’t know that there are real ghosts and goblins, but there are always more trick-or-treater than neighborhood kids. — Robert Brault (b.1938)

• At about 10AM EDT on Saturday 3 October, we began a “nothing counts” Wild Day, in conjunction with moving the game to a new server. The intention was that when the new server went live, it would start from a backup taken shortly before 10AM. In other words, everything that had happened on the previous server after 10AM would be rolled back once the server move was complete.
  
  Unfortunately, due to human error, the 10AM backup was corrupted and rendered unusable. We’re very sorry about that.
  
  The most recent usable backup was several days older, from approximately 30 September. We have reverted to that version, which means that any progress you’ve made during the last four or five days has been lost. We are of course very sorry about that too.
  
  In compensation, all players have been awarded several pecks’ worth of ranks.
  
  
• Update (5PM EDT 4-Oct-2025): apparently not everyone received those ranks who should have, although most did. We’re looking into why that happened. All missing ranks will be awarded (for sure!) at the next update.
  
  
• You’ll have to explore to see what is new.

2025-09-03 v1449
Hoarding can never end, for the heart of man always covets for more, its raging appetites can only be quenched by the heavy sands of the grave. — Bangambiki Habyarimana (b.1977)

• It will be necessary for you to explore if you wish to discover what’s new this Chaos Storm.

2025-08-06 v1445
A vacation is what you take when you can no longer take what you’ve been taking. — Earl Wilson (1907–1987)

• Remember to take a break, eat, and sleep.