FreshScumFlash: Wraithform

Damn, I've been a slowpoke and no one even tried to stab me in the back over it... I surely hope you scum are alright... In my lack of defense, I've just came back from Graspop (a metal festival in Belgium) and working hard now because at the end of the week I'm off to Roskilde (a huge festival in Denmark). Anyway, better late then never I hope. So let me stop babbling and introduce you to our newest member.

He has been on our waitinglist for quite some time now, getting himself ready to become scum by maxing his scrapbook and levelling past level 200. The fact he has been patient all this time tells me that he will be a great addition to our guild. That and the fact he wrote Magnumpower an hilarious poem, that I sadly lost in a recent  mailbox accident (otherwise I obviously would have posted it here for you to smirk at).

Anyway... Welcome Wraithform. A level 205 dragonriding mage. With his 95,41% scrapbook he is an instant member of our 95% Club, wich is a nice way to start a new job. To say it in his own words:

"In a one-hit fight, no one strikes back. Why defend, when you can just attack?"

Let's kick some butt! And while we are at it, lets do some celebrational stuff too.

Valley of Awful XP

Condolences to you scum.For you have reached an epic level, but will have to beat many dungeons to get out of this XP Valley.

• 250 - Wordplay
• 200 - Rizzo34 (the last one to hit 200, no more small scum!!!)

Nice Round Numbers
Congratulations to you scum, your level looks nice and round.

• 290 – Ghettoforce, Gregor Clegane
• 240 - Mohdd, Venkman, Mhorg
• 230 - Neithe, TDI, Srike

95% Club
One new member this week: Wraithform, nice entrance. And congratulations to Kossar too, because he jumped almost 14% over the last two weeks and reached 89,41%. You're almost there.

Random Data of the Week

Something Important to get you through the week.

• 48 scum
• Looking for 2 new scum
• minimum requirements:
• level 200+ Scouts
• level 225+ mages / warriors
• 30% mount
• 75% scrapbook
• check in for ALL battles
• use daily thirst
• be fun!

I ran across a webcomic today that blew my mind, in weird and wonderful ways.  If you had to distill the essence of this comic down to one word, it would be WTF??!!?

The artist's work is mind-blowing and this first panel is from his website.

The webcomic itself needs some explanation and I .. well ... I'm not really sure what's going on.  Here's what Vitaly has to say about it:

A classically trained artist who moved from Russia to Toronto, he has discovered how photoshop can help his paintings and photography break down conventional archetypes.  I urge you to visit his site and check his photography pages.  He brings post-apocalyptic imagery to you with care, attention and love.

Okay, okay, you get it.  He's good.  But he also has a wacky sense of humour.  This is a panel from a series called "81 Shoes."

  

And since this next series sported one of our favorite Scum memes ... I thought I'd post it too.

He has a blog on his site as well, so you can follow along, kinda, with the Captain and his musings.  I haven't figured out whether the author is writing in character or not.

Usually, this article is about comics I recommend you read.  After reading a great number of episodes and doing the extra bit of research that lazy Scum do .. I'm still shaking my head and wondering what's going on.  For sure I'll be watching to see where the crazy train is going.  If you'd like to catch the express, click the logo link below.

ScumFlash: Recent changes

There have been some changes over the past couple of days. About time that I tell you about them. First some good news. MaxPower found his way back to us. He got hit by some real life issues but as becomes a real Power, he overcame them.  Welcome back Max. If life becomes rough again he volunteered to go help out Zenith for that time being. Especially now it seems they are starting to climb the Hof again (from 17 to 13 already) and might even reach for top 10 in the near future. We’re cheering for you  Zenith!

Talking about Zenith, you might have noticed that Pizzar, our friend from Denmark, has left us for Zenith. That is not because he doesn’t like us anymore, although for some reason AAylia scares the hell out of him, but because in the summer season he has another hobby that takes a lot of his time (as we can remember from last year). There for he asked to move to Zenith to help them out. Because he felt he could be a lot more useful there for the little time he has atm. But don’t fear too much, we’re already looking forward for him to come back to us when it gets cold and boring outside again.

Our recently refound chatty friend Beanhead III has sadly gone missing again. That probably means the real life issues that made him be away from the game last time have came back to bite him in the ass. We wish Bean all the best in dealing with them and hope he’ll come back to us again when he can.  Because his babysit period has expired we decided to let him go for now.  But as always, just give us a poke when you resurface Bean!

And to close this ScumFlash with a truly depressing statement; AAylia managed to sneak back into the officerclub once more. This time under the disguise as battlemonkey for the 0.00 PST time slot. To be on the safe side: “...dont talk. just bow down, kiss the toes and pay your homage in gold.”

A really big thank you

For the past two months I have been working out of town with no internet connection. So my officers from Zenith have been taking care of things while I was away. I want to say thanks to them and this is the best way I could think of doing so.

Therefore, "Thanks!" Mugelf, Spotty, Bloodshadow and FlyingJoe for taking care of Zenith in my absence. You all did a great job and proud to have you with me.

I would like to thank Mistress AAylia for torturing Neithe in her dungeon. He came out of there battered and bruised but kept going back for more.

I also want to thank Ghetto for his help while I was away.

Again, Thanks to all of you for helping me out. Greatly appreciated.

Lord Judicator - Zenith

Trippy.  A reference to hippy drug culture seems most appropriate when discussing this web comic and the places it will take you and the people you will visit.

Our protagonist, Garland, is a bona fide guitar god, a master of fretwork, a man on top of creativity, living the rock star life all of us dream of when we pick up a guitar and sing our first wobbly song.  More importantly, he is 27.  

Those who follow music like its more than a passing song on the car radio, you may know that 27 is a year that fate seems to call the brilliant .. Hendrix, Joplin, Cobain.  And perhaps now, Garland.

For those who follow mathematics like numbers open worlds of infinite possibilities, 27 is also .. well, here it is in their words ...

The panels above get you a bit ahead of the story .. let me bring you up to speed.  Garland's left hand .. his fretwork hand seizes up and he can no longer play.  He goes to see doctors all over the world and eventually ends up in the lab of a kooky magician who promises him a cure.  And in order to further the story ... something goes wrong.   Garland ends up with an electronic panel on his chest that allows him creative genius when he pushes that button .. except, as you can see above .. he's just found out the ability is finite .. he can only use it 27 times before he dies.  And the muse, Number 9, is a living entity who controls the lives of the brilliant.

The writer is Charles Soule, whose blog "Land of 10,000 Things: can be found here.  Artist Renzo Podesta's blog is here.

27 is published every weekday and there is about an hour's worth of reading in order to catch up.

It's not an issue

that gnomes are short in stature...

thank you, mini skirts!

Birthday Bashes & More

Valley of Awful XP

Condolences to you scum.For you have reached an epic level, but will have to beat many dungeons to get out of this XP Valley.

• 275 - Parrish
• 250 - Zot
• 225 - TDI

Nice Round Numbers
Congratulations to you scum, your level looks nice and round.

• 280 – Zimmi
• 260 – Nargoth
• 240 - Rido Fatesmiter
• 230 - Kamisama
• 220 – CrusaderBin

95% Club
No new members of the 95% club in this period. But Kossar finally woke up, gained almost 3% this week and managed to hit 76.76%. Yes. scum he finally hit 75%+. Congratz to you Kossar, now go get 95%. Only one scum left with under 75% scrapbook.

  

Random Data of the Week

Something Important to get you through the week.

• 48 scum (we lost two recently)
• Total levels 12291
• Average level 256 (funny enough exactly the same as last week)
• Average scrapbook 93.20%
• Average ranking 222

 Come on scum, we can do better then that!!

I think I've mentioned before that I am a sucker for a swashbuckler, especially when given a backdrop of stars.  Meet Sabre, a heroine with shady business practises, a fast sword and a ship of her own ...

... the Pegasus.

Now meet Drake, a straight-laced lawman with a mission, a fast gun, and something that Sabre needs ...

... a key to open a case that she has "appropriated." 

Our two protagonists meet up ...

and the rest I'll let you discover for yourself as wild west meets deep space.

The art is generally well done, despite the artist's penchant for drawing water underneath the Pegasus .. let's call it a quirk that we can live with.  The story seems well paced.  It publishes Mondays and Thursdays, but is on a bit of break until the beginning of July while they get their next chapter ready for publication. They seem interested in keeping their readers interested, however, and have ongoing postings on their blog component.  In the meantime, catch up on their backlog .. which is not that long.   I've bookmarked this for my reading.

ScumFlash: No more touching Power

Sadly, MaxPower hasn't logged on for over a week now, without informing us about his absence. We hope he is alright and just decided one day to stop playing. Whatever the reason is, more then a week's absence without information is too long. So I decided to remove his toon from the guild. If he comes back and this was all a misunderstanding, we will do our best to invite him back as soon as we can.

Scum, if you can't be online for more then a day, please let Tofurkey or myself know. Not only might we be able to arrange a babysitter for you for that period, but we will at least know what's going on! And on a similar note: if you decide to stop playing, don't just disapear. At least leave us a message like Bain did, so we know you are allright. Most of you have been members of this band of lowlifes for a very very very long time, so make sure you say goodbye to us if you leave.

To end with Max's "own" words: "He's the man whose name you'd love to touch... But you musn't touch!  His name sounds good in your ear, but when you say it you mustn't fear because his name can be said by anyone!"

No more touching...

Thinking up poems

takes a lot out of a gnome.

I should just say "boobs."

- sbbenhcs, short and sweet (no wait... that's aa.)

I know, I know... three weeks off, and THIS is what I come back with? Well, it's tougher than it looks, having such a naughty mind. The limerick is getting too long (that's what she said!), I find I'm just going through the motions (also what she said!), so I'm going to have to work harder to focus my attention and refine my technique... (actually, she's quite pleased with my technique, so... BAZINGA!)

ScumFlash: Goodbye to Bain

Good news and bad news. The good news is, we heard from Bain. This time there was no burning boat engine in the middle of nowhere  or a helicopter that couldn't bother to stay airborne. The bad news is that he is going to stop playing. To put it in his own words:

Hey Ghetto,
Sorry for not logging in sooner.

I dont think Im going to play shakes any more. No real reason, I just missed a couple of days, had intentions of logging in, all of a sudden its been 3 weeks. I had a pretty good 3 year run. Enjoyed being part of the guild. Dont think Im gonna be on much in the future.

Thanks for the memories,
Bain.

It was great having you here Bain. If you ever reconsider you know where to find us. And be carfull out there, especially when it comes to transportation!

Bazinga!

Birthday Bashes & More

Valley of Awful XP

Condolences to you scum.For you have reached an epic level, but will have to beat many dungeons to get out of this XP Valley.

• 300 - Redwood18
• 250 - Usturarch, Ciciz
• 225 - Kamisama, ziglabeu, Scrubby, Valind, Neithe, Srike

Nice Round Numbers
Congratulations to you scum, your level looks nice and round.

• 310 – Quilp
• 290 – Alyzyn
• 240 - Masterdodo
• 230 - Ziglabeu, Revliss
• 220 – Srike, Bakryu, Moora
• 210 – Kossar, Ahkdar

95% Club
No new members of the 95% club in this period. But still 2 lowlives below 75%. Come on scum... work on that, it is getting shamefull.

Random Data of the Week

Something Important to get you through the week.

• 50 scum
• 30 95% +
• 18 80% +
• 2 75% -