Found it! Post #814, "A Stone's Throw From Danger". Shaene said the Scarred One was "a fallen druid", amongst other things.

Of course, Bergdis is also a Spirit Shaman, which can cast Druid spells, so the Stone must be keyed specifically to the class, not just spellcasting and nature magic. If it were, I guess a Ranger could use it too. Anyway.

Just to give a heads up, I'll be incommunicado for a bit - I'm moving to Yokohama for the next 6 weeks for some intensive Japanese study, so I might be out of touch from Monday to Wednesday or so.

Just a note that if this game picks up again please rMail me.

Cheers!

   Last night I sat at my computer for the third time that day, just as I had twice on thursday and three times the previous sinday, and the wednesday before that and so on for the past three weeks. My computer problems were pretty much a thing of the past after four or five weeks, but since then I've found myself literally paralyzed with apprehension bordering fear at returning to any of my games on RPOL.
   This feeling is amplified when I see how many of the games in which I am involved have purple numbers awaiting my return. Obviously this means private messages are pending, and for those in which I am a player it no doubt means that my absence, despite being announced prior to its occurrence, has probably outlasted its allowance. Twice this year I've been in games that I felt were outstanding and worth every ounce of my effort, only to have the GM of one unceremoniously pull the plug and the other ditch me and move the other players to another thread group. My brother, now facing fatherhood with his second child, has dropped out of two games with me, which is kind of the end of an era between us, and I'd be lying if I said it didn't bother me.
   Worse than that, though, are the games where I am the GM. My mind imagines that I'll return to most to find that several people have abandoned them, probably almost immediately after my [anticipated temporary] departure in june. I fully understand the transient nature of RPOL, but do you know that I've got one game that I've been running for five years, I've had 58 people come and go; over 50 of those people quit in the first month, and the majority of those did so before they even made a single post as a player? Do you know how many times I've had someone quit my game because they didn't have time and were paring back their game-loads, only to have them send and RTJ to me in another game I run? Embarassing for them, frustrating for me.
   I liken my situation to the standard joke running around the GM circuit wherein an energetic GM spends countless hours crafting a realm or adventure only to have the party solve the riddle or defeat the bad guy on the first night of gaming by doing something totally unexpected that the GM did not forsee. For me, it is less that the party is completing or sidestepping the adventure - they are losing players so quickly that I have to remold the plot or recast the villains or tweak the CR of the encounters, only to have to change them again a couple months later. It is both infuriating and depressing.

   This particular game has run its course, with only the conclusion of the adventure requiring dissemination to you folks. It was only a few posts away, given the direction of the discussion at the hole and the discovery that Vicril could control the Stone. I'll post the conclusion in narrative form and give you folks the XP I've been meaning to for the last two months, and then open the region up for control by another GM. I'm sure I won't be continuing in Rashemen [or any other region besides Thesk] for the forseeable future, unless a large number of orphaned characters should find themselves desiring to band together and join a region and request a DM take up the reins again.
   Look for character sheet updates later this week.

I think we've all been patiently awaiting your return, so welcome back.

It's a shame that you have had it that way Lobo. I must say that it saddens me to hear you are planning to leave the reins of Rashemen to another GM. I've always loved playing in your game, and consider you to be one of the best(if not THE best GM) I've ever had the privileged to play with. Maybe I'll travel to Thesk one day and join you again with Vicril when I'm done with my year of Service in the Norwegian Royal Navy. It's still  great to have you back with us again.

And thank you DM Lobo. It took a long time, but it was a suitably epic quest, and quite enjoyable, with good characters and NPCs and interesting events. Thanks for everything.

   Ok, I've determined where the virus came from that decimated me two months ago. How do I know it's origin? Why, because it hit me AGAIN friday night! >:|   Apparently one of my old hometown friends got it and it used his Yahoo instant msg to send out offline messages with a link enclosed, and a suitably typcial blurb like my buddy would use 'dude check this out', and like a naive idiot I did. Twice. Lol

   Anywho I learned how to get rid of it the first time so it was only a two day excursion into madness this time, though I have to reinstall much of the OS again as many dll files and such are corrupted. Again. :(

   Anyway, I updated personal XP rewards and most people have reached a point only a few hundred XP from levelling up again. The kind DM in me wants to nudge you all along that extra little bit, in part, as a reward for your patience with me, but the realistic DM in me says you'll get it in the first couple encounters in your next adventure, and shouldn't expect to make more than one level per adventure. I hope this is acceptable to you all. :)

   I've cut back my RPOL gaming to just two things now, down from six this spring and eight last summer. I'm still in the deciding mode as to whether I want to pick up another region in RoA [Rashemen or otherwise] or set it aside for a couple months and bring out one of my own semi-retired characters for an adventure. Comments from you folks would be appreciated in helping me make this decision.

My sister's stuck with a similar virus, which I've been remotely helping her fix, so I feel your pain.

You should do what works best for you, regarding your time, enjoyment, etc. But in either of my roles I know I certainly wouldn't say no to you sticking around here. ;)

Am I the only one still here?

   Could be. Cecania wanted an rmail if the game picked up, but all I did was write the finalization post so I didn't contact her. Relgar is busy with another character in another region. Vicril is out to sea, literally. Bergdis and Harto both ditched a while ago.

Yeah, busy in other game with Ashton. But I write my own conclusion to this game as Relgar.

Hello everyone, I'm DM Suspdra, just brought on by DM BadCatMan, I will soon be starting a new adventure up in Rashemen since the other DM for this region, DM Lobo, has cut back his load. A little about myself, I have been DMing/co-DMing in the Forgotten Realms setting for 5 years and I've been playing/DMing on rpol.net for the last year.

It will take me a few days to go through all of the information on the Rashemen threads to see what has happened in the previous campaign/adventure that was run. As I understand you guys were able to stop a Thayan plot to use a artifact of earth power...I have a few ideas for what I am wanting to do, I am just reviewing the threads to see if there are any loose ends I might want to incorporate.

I would like it if each of you would either post here or send me a PM letting me know if you still want to play in the Rashemen region. Feel free to message me with any questions you may have as well.

Hi there and welcome.

Eirik is your standard northern barbarian. :) I thought about retiring after my Heroic Sacrifice didn't go through, but I'll stick around.

The last adventure was split over two threads: 'Rashemen: A Stone's Throw From Danger' and 'Rashemen II: Rocking And Rolling'. As you can see, it was very long.

so i see, it'll take me a few days to look through the over 1200 posts between the threads, along with other pertainent Rashemen information that is up. After I'm done I'll get a new ARP thread up, or maybe highjack DM Lobo's thread he made, and run through what I've come up with adventure wise.

For those still interested in playing I am still reading through the adventures DM Lobo had you guys on so as not to duplicate them. It should only take me a few more days.

You should probably PM the other players to get their attention. They might have stopped checking in.

Well, Relgar is barbarian/ranger of Mielikki who hates undead. So I am in to the game so PM me when your starting roll again.

Hello, the way it appears I'll be your resident summoner replacement. Glad to meet you all :)

Just waiting for final word on DM Kilric's PC and we'll be ready to go

Seems the Sheet has not been checked yet.  A lot of the sheet checkers have been out, and others are busy.

Since the Character has a VOP there is very little to check in teh way of weight and equipment, so other than the Feats shouldn't be a difficult check.  I would be wildly surprised if it doesn't get approved..  since 95% of the sheet errors deal with weight and equipment.

Anyway...  Here's to hoping it gets done soon.

I will be your friendly neighborhood monk.  I have a vow of poverty, but I am quite capable as a fighting class.  I specialize fighting with empty hands and feet.

Character is still in review, but should be out shortly.

Good to have a playground to play in.

[Private to DM Suspdra: I have not set anything else up, just added the character.  Please note that even though I have GM access to the game forum, I do NOT meta game, and wont be using outside information.  I actually play my characters outside my own game knowledge, simply cause I know a lot more about certain Monsters than my character ever would.  Though I have been known to ask interesting questions about things OOC *wink*]

We should be good to go then, pending final approval of Pysies as he is. I will be posting a thread with a list of adventure ideas for you guys to vote on within the next 24 hours (have some rl stuff to take care of also).

Hello and welcome to new players.

So far we've been wandering the wilds of Rashemen for several years. I'm not sure how much treasure you might find out there, or folks to give it to. :)

DM Suspdra, please please let us not spend several years lost in the wilderness. :D

No problem, I intend to post the ARPs here in about half an hour so you can start voting. Once an adventure is chosen I'll also be closing out this older OOC thread and opening a new one to "clear the air" a little bit.