Steel DarKnight

Silver DarKnight: Currently GM SMITH, GM TINKER, MASTER MINER, ADEPT CARPENTER.

I have been informed, via Knight Schneider, that Decenturion Rand has requested training sessions for legionares, and squires. The tactics PGoH employs are vital to our success and all members should be knowledgable in their use. Were many have failed and fallen, we succeed due to disipline and skill. Profiecency requires practice. A short drilling session will be held at Olympus this Saturday the 22nd at 5:30 pm est. Any assistance that ranking members (Knights upward) can provide is appreciated. If any are unaware of the tactics used by PGoH in large scale conflicts. Wolf, before his illness, created a very informative guide. I am sure someone can post its location below. I seem to have misplaced it. Steel DarKnight

No worries Triston, my statement at the time, was in general Thank you, for adding some flesh to the idea. And starting the discussion. I am very pleased to see so many of PGoH interested in this idea and opportunity. The opportunities to role-play an area many of us have not previously considered. The opportunity to assist in making PGoH not only a military might but an economic one as well. The opportunity for *grin* profit. Now that I have some time to write, I wish to flesh out the vague ideas I had posted previously on the reasons for and possible structure of a PgoH merchant “conglomerate”. As I stated previously I feel that group ownership of the business would be of an advantage to all. The reasons for which I will further detail below. 1) As a group resources can be gathered in far larger quantities and in much less time than can be done independently. This will assist in allowing more time for the individual to pursue his own goals for his non-mule characters. I even think that resource gathering can be made “Fun” by making it into a PgoH event such as was mentioned by Emperor Borg previously. (“The mad dash for ore! Ready Go!”) 2) The potential for PgoH to become a “economic” force within the realms. As we have all seen prices for goods, services, and items have skyrocketed. These prices have made it almost impossible for your “casual” player to be able to acquire anything of value. As a group, with our large variety of tradesman and potential for large quantities of resources to build upon, we can help to establish the market. Now in this I do not mean not being profitable I refer rather to the business theory of a “Buyers market”. The “Buyer” not the “seller” control pricing in a competitive market. The “customer” will go where his or her currency has the highest value. The “Seller” must modify the value of his product to compete. If, as a group, PGoH agrees on a market price for a particular item that is less than the “standard”, with proper advertisement, the volume of sales on that item will increase. As other vendors business drops on that item they will drop pricing to compete. Thus, a new market standard is set. The advantage is during this process the PGoH “conglomerate” has established a “reputation” for quality pricing and a has then aquired consumer base. 3) Non-home owning members will have the opportunity to participate in UO trade something they may have not been able to previously. One must only be proficient in one trade skill to participate. 4) As business grows Olympus will become a “hub” for the realm. This will increase awareness of not only “PGoH” but of the ideals in which the empire follows. This will also help recruitment by leaps and bounds. 5) Members with family capable of multiple trades will not be limited to only one aspect of their abilities. One week one may be called upon for ore resources where the next week they may be called to gather wood. This will add variety and help to make things “fun” 6) Adventures are to be had in this for our non-mule brothers. Sold out on Dragon Scale armor? “Hmmm now where can I get the necessary resources” *brandishes sword*. Feathers for arrows? *Watch out harpies* Now as for the structure of this “conglomerate” I would like to present the following ideas has a baseline for further discussion. 1) I agree with Tristons ideas as to the structure and voting rights of the “council” of tradesmen. Although, we must remember that the “ancients” have already set up a head of trade. I agree with the council but the council should be led or overseen by the current “senator of trade”. 2) The council will, as a group, establish pricing for the most common items. Therefore the council members should be knowledgeable in the current market value of items. (This should be fairly easy as all of us use outside vendors) 3) Certain elected members to be responcible for certain aspects of this enterprise. + A vendor controller + An inventory head that reviews stock and issues weekly quota’s for the membership. + Recordkeeper- someone who not only tracks pricing but also records current market averages. 4) As I mentioned, as a group we can pull on the abilities of the whole instead of the individual. Each member will be assigned weekly quotes of resources to gather based on his/hers “Families” ability. Failure to meet this goal will not be considered reason to withhold income as long as it is felt that the member did what he/she could to gather what is necessary. Judgement on this should be left to the council. 5) Resources can be stockpiled at the store location. From this stockpile, which was gathered by the “group”, Craftsmen will produce finished goods. Individuals participating will not need to pull from their “private” stock. 6) Not only shall resources be stockpiled but also finished goods shall be stockpiled. This will allow the “head of vendors” to rapidly resupply sold goods. 7) All vendors will be placed by one individual. This individual will be responsible for attractive placement of goods and the accumulation of “profit” from goods sold. This profit will be stockpiled and distributed on an agreed upon timeline. Each vendor will not be controlled by an individual it will be a cumulative effort by all members. 8) Per Emperor Borg’s previous decree a vendor(s) to be placed to cover all aspects of trades available in the realm. 9) We should all take part in promoting the group’s wares. I would like to see a “Grand Opening” with a crafts bazaar. This would be accompanied with members making and dropping runes to the tradehouse at strategic locals (i.e. Britt Bank, Rune Gates, Shame hehe). Now with the Emperors and the Senator of trades permission I would like to see a list of interested participants by posting your name below or as listed above. It would also be of great assistance if you would place what areas of trades you can participate in. Also I feel that an in game meeting of all interested participants would be warranted at this time. How about before or after the meeting Sunday? Please feel free to post any suggestions, or comments. Steel DarKnight.

*Grins* I see you have taken the idea we spoke of and run with it. You also have stated the exact reason for which this enterprise should be undertaken. The time required for one person to mine, harvest, and slaughter the resources necessary to operate a large volume, profitable operation would be immense. I have seen that such operations have the potential to be highly profitable. Unfortunately one person, alone, would soon lose focus of our true purpose here. (i.e. FUN!!) Now any conglomerate of individuals must continue to follow that very same Golden Rule. To further what we had spoke about: Ingots are and will continue to be the most sought after resource. Versions 16 will only increase this demand. But let us not forget the other resources. Wood and leather, are, and continue to be a highly sought after bulk resource. While these items will not have the sales value of ingots but will still be highly profitable in bulk sales. Also, we would be better served by offering one stop shopping for our customers (Wal-Mart anyone). Plus I would like to mention that my initial thoughts on this conglomerate were not limited to raw materials only. I had envisioned a total store of partners these partners would participate in all areas that they are able. Such as weapons, armor, raw materials, etc. Socialist as it may seem I had envisioned equal distribution of profits to all members. To keep things simple a quota of product required would be issued after our weekly meetings. This would be assigned to each participate to match the abilities of their tradesman. This material would be delivered to the stockpile the following week and new quota’s issued. In case of someone coming short on quota’s (which will happen for various reasons) they are still in line for equal reimbursement. Missed quota’s are logged and are expected to be brought to date and soon as possible. But, as a rule we are FAMILY. I would not something like this to cause tensions or conflicts. As long as all operate in good faith I feel we should find this to be an enjoyable and profitable venture. Now as far as other items I previously mentioned. There will be times when the party responsible for a certain category of items will not have what is necessary. Again, this is where a total coalition comes in. Need a bronze Runic for the shortage on a particular item? Well the smith responsible may have recently broken his but as a coalition others can step in to fill this gap. Of course this will affect them because the loss of that particular stock item may, infact, reduce sales as a whole cutting total payment to the coalition. I look forward to future discussion on this issue. Please feel free to contact me.

Great, I am sure he will be happy to find that all is not lost. His icq is 141182921. I will be sure to tell him of your message.

Honored friends, allies, and guildmates Last eve I conducted my third scouting mission the Lord Blackthorn’s. I was honored to have by my side one of my former guildmates and instructors Sir Ironside. Ironside of C*C is a valued tactician, warrior, and friend of HONOR. In order to detail our actions and hopefully provide some useful intelligence that we may use in future operations I have attached a copy of Sir Ironsides recount of our activities. Sir Ironside Sir Ironside's War Journal 5/27 Tue May 28 01:37:21 2002 12.230.220.195 Well I have been sitting idle for the last few days, as I look about seeing everyone comfortable after the withdrawal of the Juka. I think to my self *funny how they can be so comfortable & that makes me uneasy* Must be the warrior in me? They the fine people of Sosaria may feel at ease thinking we won the war with the Juka, but I still do not believe we have seen the last of them. Well one day I was napping when Thorn my Dwarven Handyman had received a pigeon by a PGoH officer, that goes by the name of Steel DarKnight. He quickly gave the message to Aleena who ran it to my resting place. As my eyes tried to focus from my slumber I couldn’t believe it. Even their Parchment has a tint of purple in it :o) I learned of his exploits in his duty to Scout Black Thorns Castle in the lands of Ilshenar. He told of a place in PGoH to read his reports. I could feel my blood boil again at the thoughts of the forces that occupied our cities for so long. This time I planned on being thee aggressor not the defender! A couple days past to this eve, where I ran into Steel again, we talked more of our common enemy. I figured he being recommended for promotion to an officer of PGoH & runs most missions to Ilshenar (so is my thoughts) & I am to head this war for the Champions of Camelot, it would be a good idea to recon the Castle. So off we went. We met little resistance on the way, although near by the castle we saw a couple of Bog Things & Plague Beasts. We slipped by them since that was not our objective this evening' As we turned the corner to where Steel knew of an entrance to the Castle we were ambushed by Three controllers & 3 boglings. They quickly found out we were two seasoned veterans in this war, not new recruits that did not work well together! As stood there in a pile of bodies wiping the blood from my face I turned & looked at Steel "looks like they were waiting in ambush for us Sir" Steel replied as he looked around at all the bodies "appears so Sir" We wandered over to the entrance seeing that they had built up quite a force inside. As we stood there wondering how they knew we were coming? Was there a spy on the inside of one of our groups? Did they have lookouts around the Castle, even if they did they were well prepared with such short notice. These things puzzled me, if not also bothered me. Knowing we were outmatched, I explained to Steel I had not come all this way not to examine a defensiveable position. Steel *sighed* then smiled & said between you & Tyr. I was kind of puzzled by the comment but smiled knowing his comments were enlightening. He then explained that between the two of us we seem to put him into some hairy spots :o) So upon his request he had me go away & he would lure them away from door into the great outdoors. As I did this, by the time I came back I had seen he had not shaken a Controller, Golem & a Lizardman, & ran in with my blade a'swinigin' As he ran around I yelled "form up!" as we quickly took our battle positions, we took them down with our Skill & training. I was glad to see he had not slacked on his training, & had no reserve about my command. It truly was like old times with us fighting Acknowledging each other’s moves & complimenting them with the back up that seasoned Veterans should know. Now we turned to go inside, our goal almost met. However as we entered more came running at us. We were hacking & slashing forever, but it seemed they just kept coming out of nowhere, we would drop a wave of them & another wave would come. Finally we fell back to the high grounds of outside. We decided we needed more men to investigate further. So we investigated the surroundings of the Castle, which we found, were not very safe eiWe located the Main entrance to the Castle, but we did not dare go in alone. It was heavily guarded & a few Betrayers stood guard as well. However even though I did not get to recon the inside of the Castle I have devised a plan. I wish to get a force of four (preferably 2 warriors, an Archer, & a mage) to deal with either the spawn at side entrance, or to patrol outside. Then I would like to get a big Strike team to infiltrate the Castle Walls. About 4 warriors 3 Archers & two mages. This leaves one spot open for any of the three classes. (or my King who is all of these classes) We definitely will need more than one mage in the group! So any who read this that have a desire to take an offensive against the Juka plz send me a pigeon (ICQ) 28446394 I want to strike Black Thorn on his own Ground for once. You must be brave & disciplined in War combat. You must leave your Egos at the door, cause I will expect you to follow Orders! I call all Warriors of Honor to Arms!!! Let Blackthorn know he will not prevail, while we breathe! It seems me & Steel have the same goal here, & maybe working together a lot on this Strike! Blackthorn will not hide In Ilshenar, for I will hunt his evil Hordes to the end of thee lands! Your Honorable Knight Sir Ironside I will leave the discussion of an assault or lack of, to our commanders. But I have offered my services, due to my knowledge of the terrain, to any forces willing to assault this dread enemy. I am sure any support that can be provided by any others will be appreciated.

I spoke to a young mage bythe name of Tyros. He is formerly of FKH. He pulled me to the side today to warn me that FKH is intending to not follow ROE although they may say otherwise. There plan is to loot as heavily as they can. Tyros mentioned that he would be at our meeting this eve with the hopes of meeting our leader.

Fellow members, I was HONORed today by being asked to command a scout force of squires and potential recruits to the land of Ilshenar. At the request of Decurion Rand, I led a group consisting of the following personnel Kurt, Azuden, Angie Sans Ailes, and Deacon. We engaged in this mission shortly after the retreat of the Juka from our cities in Tram. Our mission, to determine the affects of the retreat on Lord Blackthorne’s forces and to scout his stronghold for future engagements that may be forthcoming. We entered the land of Ilshenar at the temple of Honor. Once gathered and organized we proceeded to first investigate the city of the Gargoyles to verify that the retreating Juka horde had not occupied this city. In route we encountered slight resistance from non-Juka enemies that were easily dispatched by the gathered PGoH soldiers. Upon investigation we found no evidence of any assault on the city nor could find any evidence of a emanate attack. After a short stay we proceeded to the outskirts of Blackthorn’s castle. Again we were assaulted by light non-Juka forces but continued to prevail against the inferior forces facing us. Based on the light resistance I ordered our forces closer to the fortress and again failed to encounter any significant resistance. This continued until we reached the doors of the evil one’s abode. Again no Juka were visible to this point so after organizing the group into formation outside of the doorway, I entered the fortress. To my regret I found that the Juka were amassed in a large force right inside the entryway. It appeared that all the former forces that had a raid against us in Trins had amassed here. I retreated to my forces and we engaged the enemy. Initially we were successful but were only able to enter only slightly into Lord Blackthorn’s fortress before I was forced to call a withdrawal. The large forces were separating my troops and I feared complete separation. As a note, the forces present were of strict Juka ilk and did not contain Golems Betrayers, or any non-Juka species. I wish to thank and praise all members of my attachment for a job well done. Yours in Honor Steel DarKnight.