>Channeling the siphoned mana, Urrem'tier's fearsome stinger, once a bringer of definitive end, now glows with a dualistic light: the inky blackness of absolute cessation merges with a burgeoning, radiant gold, the nascent energy of creation. You are left with the distinct feeling that something about your mortality has fundamentally changed.

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Hi folks!

This is a project we spent years talking about behind the scenes, and multiple GMs put in planning and proposals for it over that time. At long last, with the conclusion of the Wild Magic event, it's releasing and changing many aspects of death, graves, recovery and more. Favors are VERY important!

There will certainly be parts of the changes that aren't popular as things get harder/more expensive, but we tried to balance it out with some positive changes to make other aspects easier and more friendly to folks, while also overall keeping our desire to increase community interaction in mind as we made these changes.

There's A LOT that changed, so I'm going to try and cover it all in list format grouped by aspects. Forgive the forums formatting! Here we go!

Graves + Item Recovery:
-- Graves no longer spit out items.
-- Only the owner and/or their CONSENTed designee can DIG the grave.
-- Only the owner, consented targets, and Rangers with the proper beseech can see the grave.
-- Graves turn into a recovery bundle when the owner DIGs them.
-- The owner can DIG their grave with 0 RT -- get your stuff and get to safety! Anyone else trying to DIG your grave will have RT, but only the CONSENTED person can actually open it.
-- ^If the owner is alive and present and the consented person tries to DIG, the consented person is told to let the owner handle it.
-- When you DIG your own grave, subscribers will attempt to auto-dress (like jail sacks). If something was left in the grave for some reason (hands full, etc), you're given a recovery bundle with the remaining items. F2P folks will be given a recovery bundle with their items to manually re-wear.
-- When the consented person successfully DIGs your grave, they're given the recovery bundle. When the owner has it and OPENs it, the auto-dress mechs trigger for subscribers.
-- When a grave 'expires' (about an hour after creation, same as now), it's recovered and stored with the Rundmolens. You can speak to any account vault secretary NPC to recover your belongings by asking them about GRAVE.
-- There is a fee for using the Rundmolens to recover your belongings. It's based on the number of worn/held/atfeet items that were stored (not items in containers), your level, and a random roll. These fees are applied to your debt in the area the Rundmolen you're speaking to is in. There are discounts for Platinum and Premium subscribers, AND a discount for citizenship in the area.
-- If you died in a dangerous place and don't think you can safely return to get your items on your own, you can ask these same Rundmolens about RECOVERY for them to fetch it and store it instantly rather than waiting for it to expire, for a fee (also applied to debt). Once done, you can then ASK them about GRAVE as above.
-- There is a limit to how many items can be safely stored with the Rundmolens. They can safely hold a maxed out inventory, but you absolutely should not try to use them as additional vault-like storage. After a point, they stop storing and you can lose items.
-- Damage to gear (weapon/armor) items in graves has changed. It used to be a flat amount. It's now a random initial amount (under 10%), and it increases by an additional 1% every 2 hours the grave hasn't been recovered. Damage does cap around 66%.

Dying, Departing and Death's Sting:
-- Skill loss associated with death is gone. You will no longer lose ranks when departing without assistance.
-- Instead, field exp you had at the time of death is tallied into a bit penalty that must be paid back. ANY exp gains after you're alive again are reduced by 50% to pay down that penalty. When it's gone, you go back to 100% exp gains. This has nothing to do with draining exp, it modifies the amount you get when you do an action that grants experience.
-- ^This bit penalty is SEPARATE from Death's Sting, and it can stack -- if you die and depart unassisted while still having a bit penalty from a previous death, the new debt is added to what's left of the old one. We'll talk more about this in the Resurrection and Abilities section!
-- Death's Sting was meant to be disruptive, to make you pause and maybe reconsider running back to doing what you were. It wasn't behaving that way. Now, Death's Sting has MUCH more of a bite...
-- Death's Sting lasts 1 hour, but can be reduced by 1.5 minutes per favor (up to 20 favors) -- minimum of 30 minutes.
-- Death's Sting has a 20% penalty to your stats that can be reduced by 0.5% per favor (up to 20 favors) -- minimum of 10%.
-- Death's Sting has STRONG offensive+defensive combat penalties, based on the # of favors you have (up to 50 favors). Essentially you get 1% of your OF/DF capability per favor up to 50 favors (50% capability). The system maintains a minimum, so you never truly have 0%, but you will not be running back to gale drakes after you depart unassisted.
-- Death's Sting disables using rested exp.
-- Death's Sting can be avoided by being properly resurrected (see below!), and some items/abilities will continue to reduce or remove it.

Resurrection and other Abilities:
-- Being fully Rejuvenated by a Cleric before DEPARTing will restore 50% of the field exp you had when you died.
-- Cleric's Uncurse spell continues to remove Death's Sting, no changes.
-- Cleric's Resurrection spell removes any bit penalty from previous DEPARTs. It also can restore up to 100% of field exp based on the corpse's # of favors. Fully rejuving the corpse (or having Resumption active) grants the base 50% noted above, but it will then increase by an additional 2% per favor the corpse has over 25. Full rejuve + 50 favors = full field exp restored.
-- Cleric's Murrula's Flames spell restores 50-100% field exp depending on the potency of the cast.
-- Necromancer's Spiteful Rebirth can similarly restore 50-100% field exp based on your rebirth power. The strength and duration of Death's Sting imparted by Spiteful Rebirth is also modified to mimic the behavior favors grant non-Necromancers.
-- Paladin's Alamhif's Gift continues to remove Death's Sting at the cost of a favor from the Paladin, no changes.
-- Paladin's Glyph of Warding still acts as a favor cost reducer when DEPARTing, but now it ALSO allows a Cleric to resurrect a player who is favorless and/or died of a spirit death.
-- Ranger's Seal Beseech now grants protection to gear items (weapons/armor) in graves. Those items will take no damage no matter how long they remain in the grave.
-- Trader's with the Resumption spell active restores 50% of field exp you had when you died when DEPARTing. If resurrected by a Cleric while Resumption is active, you're treated as being fully rejuved (even if you aren't) which provides a base 50% restored field exp.
-- Reminder that alyssum tea can be crafted or acquired from login rewards, and it can fully remove Death's Sting if strong enough.

I THINK that's everything right now! I am positive that (in time!) this is going to open up additional dev to further refine and improve existing mechanics as well as new projects that haven't been thought up yet! We hope that more folks will take advantage of Clerical resurrections, but even if not, not losing ranks from quick departing should be a nice change for everyone!

There are too many people to thank individually for the ideas and discussions and support and QCs that contributed to all these updates; I am certain I'd forget someone! Alyssum tea released in HE2018, and that definitely came after the initial proposals and discussions that got the ball rolling.

(These changes are live in Prime only for now, and will release in the other instances in the future.)

Zadraes