The Tsol'aa known affectionally among his peers as Embertail reclined in his chair, fingers pressing the bridge of his nose while the parchment rested open upon his lap. Ink smeared the page in a hurried crawl, Ponder's hand racing ahead of sense. The missive spoke of Ashtan, where citizens laboured through sleepless days to retrieve an elderly man from an alien world, filch a volatile explosive, and unmake the Weave once bestowed upon them by Lord Aegis. The tale carried the sharp tang of truth mixed with lunacy, a familiar Ashtani blend. In any other city he would have blamed fermented mushrooms, yet the north rarely bothered with restraint. All of it unsettled him, yet the final paragraph sank its hooks deepest. Lady Pandora poured Her essence into Imyrr Invictus, reshaping him into Her avatar, then sent him through the rift torn open by the explosion. From that breach he returned with a monstrous prize, rewoven by Her hand into a new font of power. One word burned into the page and refused to fade from his thoughts. Shimite. Dusty tomes and scattered journals crowded his memory, each recounting the ancient clash between Divinity and an immense being of Chaos. They spoke of a planar prison wrought by the Gods to contain the beast, a prison to bind the creature beyond reach. The living tattoos painted upon his own flesh traced their lineage to that day, patterns born from a sky split open by writhing limbs and screaming light above Achaea. That name belonged to history, to ink, ritual and glyphs, not to the present hour. Seeing it rise again, unburied and uncontained, tightened his jaw. Lady Pandora assured Her city that the new font served them alone, a gift bound to Ashtan. She declared that the entity known as Shimite remained contained, and that what now flowed into the font came only from one of her innumerable offspring and a not so small portion of the Wayward Heir's power. The words carried confidence and ceremony, yet ink held no weight, and to his mind promises rarely survived first contact with Chaos. The Tsol'aa known as Embertail poured himself some more tea. This worry would remain with him, and only time would tell what would come of this new development. --- Elsewhere, upon deep within the Chaos Plane, Eldritch Imperator Glaaki observed the revels of the Seat through a jagged, screaming aperture torn into the air. Below, citizens celebrated around their newest engine of power, contained and already bent toward the familiar business of conquest. A celebration three centuries in the making; the sight satisfied him. The opening snapped shut with a violent recoil, and a thin smile crept across his features. Plots within plots. A comforting tradition. From the shadowed flank of the Eldritch Throne, Lady Pandora emerged, an obsidian dagger spinning with careless precision between her fingers. She dropped into the seat without ceremony, the throne accepting her weight without complaint, and turned Her gaze upon the Imperator. "I have upheld my end of the bargain, Glaaki. You will uphold yours." Glaaki answered with a sneer, sharp and wordless, a gesture that promised nothing and implied everything. --- Summary: After many trials and mounting complications, Ashtan tore its way into a world already obliterated hollow by Chaos and drew out its final living survivor. With his guidance, the city seized an artefact of sufficient potency to unseat their existing font and fashion another in its place. What now anchors their font defies sanity, a child retrieved from the prison an immense Chaos entity remembered as Shimite, calcified, repurposed and bound to serve the ambitions of the Seat. Penned by My hand on the 13th of Lupar, in the year 992 AF.

A slow pulse rolls through the walls again. The latticed surface wrinkles under the infinity of my touch and pulls away before settling into place. The cage remembers every strike I ever made against it, and it enjoys the memory. I hear the mocking laughter of He in the vibrations. A seam opens near my reach. Not a doorway. A thought. A gesture. Am I being watched? It drags a trail of pale luminescence across the chamber floor and leaves it trembling. The glow fades before I claim it. The glow always flees. I taste the retreat in the cold that follows. Another throb rises from the deep belly of this place. The ceiling shakes. A cluster of bone extrusions rattles in answer and curls inward. They want to speak yet they never form words. They only scrape out a rhythm that sinks into my limbs until those that held the very stars answer with barely a restless twitch. A distant heartbeat cracks the silence. The sound does not come from me. It comes from the hollow behind the wall. The hollow grows larger each time. The hollow stretches toward me. Something in that darkness waits for the moment I look away, so I never indulge it. The floor swells. A mound forms and splits. A single thread of meat rises and points upward before melting back into the stone. The gesture repeats itself over and over until the stone grows tired of the game and seals the fissure shut. My children, they swarm across my body and beg for sustenance. I ignore them. I feel warmth near my ribs. A message. Not a voice. A pressure. A reminder that the world outside still strains against itself. The reminder sinks through my flesh and joins the rest of the quiet truths this prison collects from me. The walls breathe again. I breathe with them. Not in surrender. In recognition. The next pulse arrives sooner than expected. The cage feels eager. Something approaches from beyond its folds. Oh. It's singing. Penned by My hand on the 14th of Valnuary, in the year 992 AF.

Hi folks! As December rolls on, it will soon be time for Makesh to open his doors and for Merrywick to once again invite adventurers to play! So far we've seen a fantastic reception to the Iron Realms Logosmas event and to Flintbeard. Be sure to send at least one present and you'll receive a special gift from Iron Realms on December 25th! And at month end, everyone who's fought Flintbeard will also receive an additional reward for doing so! Penned by My hand on the 7th of Valnuary, in the year 992 AF.

Here is the first batch of classleads from the last round of 2025:

Aeonics

• (admin) DISTORTION has been brought in line with other static room hinders. Previously we audited room hinders and made their balance knocks unmodified, consequently reducing them all at the same time. Distortion was made unmodified but not reduced, hence was hitting for a much higher balance knock than other hinders.

Anathema

• (269) Epicentre of alien life in Ashtan has been added to the list of PIERCE locations.

Apostasy

• (266) STRIP is now base two seconds equilibrium.

Charnel

• (172) For each two crypt expansions purchased, crypt tablet capacity now increases by one.

Composition

• (57) SONATA now always fires for allies as well as the bard.

Groves

• (323) LIGHTNING is no longer blocked by time-distorting effects in line with other magical ranged attacks.
• (150) An artefact staff used for PORTABILITY no longer does the unnecessary unwielding/removal of the fist sigil, since it does just stay in your hands anyway.
• (303) When creating a new temporary grove, the time remaining is set back to a higher value. It is not fully reset, but does not carry over the remaining time from the last temporary grove any longer (so you'll always get some window of opportunity from a newly planted grove).

Kaido

• (170) The CRIPPLE immunity window has been lowered from four seconds to three. I'm aware you could still hit this, but I'm not comfortable lowering it further and feel this is still substantially in spirit with the request, and should address most of the edge cases.
• (admin) The aura from a recent ENFEEBLE now strictly only blocks vital-based instakills, it no longer blocks ENFEEBLE itself. This ability is nowhere near as powerful as it was in the past given the change to how it functions against a standing target, so locking it out in this manner is unnecessary. These recent enfeeble auras do stack, so chaining enfeebles will extend the lockout timer for vital-based instakills.

Physiology

• (308) SINGLE WRACK can now miss due to clumsiness.
• The mana threshold for SULFUR HOMUNCULUS to disrupt has been reduced from 75% to 70%.

Psionics

• (79) EXPUNGE is now blocked by having a mangled head as well as confusion.

Reclamation

• (286) OMNISCIENCE no longer picks up phased movement.

Runelore

• (98) PITHAKHAN has had its mana drain against target's with a broken head increased( 10% to 13%).
• (201) KENA now fires if target mana below 40%, rather than 20%.

Sculpting

• (54) CALCIFY timers should now be more accurate and resolve slightly slower.

Shikudo

• (122) There is now a 3p line when LIVESTRIKE blacks out.

Spirituality

• (252) SAP is now faster against a prone target for nimble priests. See classlead 252 for context.
• (266) STRIP is now base two seconds equilibrium.

Tekura

• (85) SIDEKICK now does the same limb damage as other tekura kicks (functionally a minor reduction, but should add a degree of consistency for counting purposes). Health damage remains unchanged.

Twoarts

• (171) All sword attacks now correctly use the limb scaled values rather than a couple of them still pulling from old health-based values. I.e. attacks are now consistent limb damage against all targets.

Warrior tertiaries

• (46) RAGE has undergone a rework. Rather than continuing to chip away at what it can cure, we've reworked this. It no longer has any restrictions upon what afflictions it can cure and retribution no longer blocks its use, but the affliction cured is now reapplied after around 3.5 seconds (when the rage 'fades'). The cooldown has been increased, and the idea is that rather than this functioning as a random cure ability on classes that already have a lot going for them in this regard, it will serve as a combo disrupter with a high skill ceiling. Note that though this is not relevant currently, stacks will be preserved when the affliction is reapplied.
• (39) RAGE now respects random-cure-ability on afflictions. Consequently, it does not interact with PYRE any longer.

Weaponmastery

• (260) (Dual blunt): ASSAULT TORSO does much less against an unbroken torso. Damage vs a level one broken torso is slightly higher than previously stock assault torso, and damage against a mangled torso is mucher higher (don't get hit with a mangled torso assault, you won't have a good time).
• (255) (Dual cutting): MASTERY has had its armour bypassing potential cut from 20% to 15%.

Woe

• (316) PANTHEON has had its cooldown cut in half (to thirty minutes).
• (311) VENGEANCE from SAVANT now has an expiration timer, though it is long (mostly so it does just eventually go away on its own).
• (313) ENHEDUANNA cooldown reduced from five minutes to one minute.

Misc

• (311) You may now RELAX VENGEANCE (or SAVANT).
• (56) POURING water on people specifically incurs some restrictions standard pour oes not. It requires you be able to act (on balance, not paralysed etc), and incurs a balance cost on its use. Alas, the days of escaping damnation by vigorously pouring water over yourself have come to an end.
• (310) Things that stop SQUINT now also stop WHO . This most significantly applies to walls.
• (176) Fixed an issue where balances going through a certain balance consuming method weren't showing up to the seebalances config. Most significantly applies to room hinders, but some abilities as well (like alchemist wrack).
• (203) You now require at least one unbroken arm to have denizens give you items via the ORDER command.

Enjoy!

Aeonics

• DETERIORATE can now be used against denizens. See the AB file for details.
• DETERIORATE scales with dexterity and the magic_damage artefact power against denizens.
• DEGENERATE can now be used against denizens. See the AB file for details.
• DEGENERATE scales with dexterity and the magic_damage artefact power against denizens.

Apostasy

• SHADOWSTRIKE can now be used against denizens. See the AB file for details.
• SHADOWSTRIKE scales with intelligence against denizens.

Attainment

• Paladin's PUNISHMENT battlerage now deals bonus damage to denizens suffering from the RECKLESSNESS affliction rather than WEAKNESS.
• Unnamable's ONSLAUGHT battlerage now deals bonus damage to denizens suffering from the CHARMED affliction rather than STUN.

Bladedance

• Bladedance attacks against denizens now deal bonus damage if done from the back position. The AB file for FOOTWORK has been updated to include this detail.

Devotion

• PENITENCE can now be used against denizens. See the AB file for details and associated synergy.

Discipline

• New ability: RAKE. This is a denizen-only ability, see the AB file for details.

Domination

• COMMAND HOUND will now raze shields against denizens if you possess a primebond with Lycantha. See the AB file for details.

Dominion

• New ability: MAUL. This is a denizen-only ability, see the AB file for details.

Malignity

• New ability: MAUL. This is a denizen-only ability, see the AB file for details.

Necromancy

• SOULSTORM can now be used against denizens. See the AB file for details and associated synergy.

Occultism

• ATTEND can now be used against denizens. See the AB file for details.
• ATTEND scales with intelligence and the magic_damage artefact power against denizens.
• CLEANSEAURA can now be used against denizens. See the AB file for details and associated synergy.

Pranks

• GALLOWSHUMOUR no longer scales with the magic_damage artefact power against denizens.
• GALLOWSHUMOUR now scales off the higher of your intelligence or strength when used against denizens and its damage has been adjusted to compensate.

Skirmishing

• SKULLBASH can now be used against denizens. See the AB file for details.
• SKULLBASH scales with strength and your weapon's damage and speed stats.

Spirituality

• The HERESY defence now causes SMITE to raze denizen shields when active. See the AB file for details.

Twoarts

• MULTISLASH now gains increased damage from shin infusions for all three strikes, though the modifier is slightly reduced compared to drawslash.

Valour

• New ability: RAKE. This is a denizen-only ability, see the AB file for details.

Venom

• NECHAMANDRA can now be used as an alternative to CAMUS or SUMAC against denizens. This venom deals COLD damage.

Weaponmastery

• WHIRL and DOUBLEWHIRL now deal BLUNT damage rather than CUTTING.

Woodlore

• New ability: BUSHWHACK. This is a denizen-only ability, see the AB file for details.

As many of you have now seen, when the global cheer reaches maximum (see my last post for details!), Flintbeard, the Malignant will arrive!

Flintbeard is the irascible relative of our magnanimous Ironbeard and will stalk the land until defeated!

Everyone who participates in the fight will have their renown instantly capped for the day, gain a random buff, and also enjoy [redacted]!

Spread that cheer!