The next morning, tragedy struck. I don't need to go over the details. Even here in Alaska, we felt it. Federal buildings were closed down, police and firemen were patroling the streets in force, and instead of C-150 float planes constantly buzzing overhead, we heard the roar of F-15s every five minutes.

I have two Russian friends, foreign exchange students, who were supposed to go home next week. Their stay in Alaska has been extended because of the attacks. Russians are often thought of as being very strong, very guarded with their emotions. Yet one of them began to cry.

This tragedy has been felt the world over. I'm proud that the human race has joined hands in this moment of need, yet I'm still full of grief as I watch the effects linger.

I don't know what else to say, so I'll let John take it from here.

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

I'm going to wait for RS2 before I revise Sosaria for one last time. Then I'll forge on ahead with Argos Island. Long live RuneSword!

Meanwhile, here's a heads-up from another RuneSword gamer, TR. Evidentally, if you're using version 1.0.05, you may have problems changing the rune.ini file to something else. So if you want to change the character creation screen (to best experience Sosaria), you'll have to move the regular rune.ini file to another directory. Then, rename the sosaria.ini file to rune.ini and put it in the folder your old rune.ini came from.

Thanks for the solution, TR!

Meanwhile, save the game often. The wraiths, spectres, liches, and all other monsters that invoke fear are being buggy. Fortunately, it's only a 1 in 10 chance, but if that die roll comes up a "1" your game will crash.

I'll get it fixed ASAP!

This will be my last update for a while, as I am moving back to Alaska. I'll be back as soon as I get myself situated at wherever I'll be living. Meanwhile, of course, I'll be hanging around the Shrapnel Games forums.

Journey onward!

Other than that, I'll be shifting gears towards a tome based in the RuneSword world of Eternia. It'll be based on the monks of the Argos isle, and will be a philosophical journey as well as a fun adventure.

I just can't make myself do a tome based on Asheron's Call, because that game is so fluid and alive right now. I'll probably update the map of Dereth, and leave it at that (hence the change to the title splash above).

And as for Ultima, I will return there again, but not until I've given myself free reign to do more original work. I have my own world to consider, as well as my neat-o idea based in Eternia.

So many adventures, so little time!

Fear not. I got it all to work. And I'll be putting it up on Shrapnel Games' forums tomorrow morning, and on this site by the end of the week.

Prepare to return to Sosaria....

Also, bear in mind that the Sosaria you download from this site is not done. There are a lot of bugs in it, but most of them are fixed in the update posted to the Shrapnel Games forums. After you're done downloading the tome from this site, please go to Shrapnel Games and get the rest of it so you can actually play it. ;-)

My first attempt was a series of cut scenes, interspersed with combat. This was turning into a very Final Fantasy style game, which is fine, but it's not what I want to do. Therefore, I'm going to do something that I wish Turbine Games would do. I'm going to rework the surface of Dereth.

If you play Asheron's Call, you know that the lugian citadels are completely swarming with adventurers. You also know that Ayan Baqur is the seat of commerce for the whole island, and that there are about a thousand adventurers diligently patrolling the Obsidian Plains. There are towns elsewhere that haven't seen a living soul for years.

So what happens when the lugian citadels are defeated? What if merchants realized that the Obsidian Plains are an ideal place to set up shop? How long can Tufa survive, with monsters on its borders, with no brave adventurers to protect their town? Surely after 10 game years, something's going to change. Be sure to stay tuned!

And a final note: if you're downloading Sosaria for the first time, be sure to check out the Shrapnel Games forums for any updates I've made. The files on this site will likely remain the way they are!

Until then, all of my work will be posted on the Shrapnel Games forums.

So I took a walk around the lake, quite pleased with myself, and I got home, and was watching a nice movie on TV, then it hit me. I left my Sword, Armor and Shield of the Gods in Lord British's bedroom! I designed those for playtesting purposes, and forgot to remove them. So, the download on the Forging Sosaria page is deleted for now. You can get the current files from the Shrapnel Games message forums, but you have to download it in two parts; the original, buggy version, and the updated files.

I'll have the current, totally fixed and playable and I mean it this time version on this page later tonight.

Other than that, I've figured out how to deal with going up a pit that doesn't have a ladder attached. Naturally, you will be able to add ladders from the other side of the pit, as well!

Self-imposed deadline for Sosaria Version 2.2 is now this Friday, April 20th.

• All orc archers now have their bows equipped.
• The Time Lord speaks to you now.
• Lord British recognizes when you find the plans.
• The ophidians and the thieves all attack as they should.

The following problems continue to elude me:

• All archers (goblins and orcs) close to melee range before using their weapons.
• You can keep equipping and unequipping a lich's staff, to keep boosting your will stat (despite the fact that it subtracts 2 points from your will every time you unequip it).
• People are having a hard time getting their ladders, ropes, and wooden boards to work when they're supposed to.
• If you go through Ambrosia, you can leave one dungeon behind and climb up a different dungeon. Now, if you were to go up the Dungeon of Fire, for example, you would inevitably climb up a pit that had no rope or ladder down it. Since pits are obstacles, this causes an error when you try to leave the pit.

By the way, the playguide is done, but I don't want to release it until the dang adventure works. I'd hate to say, "Here's how to make Gwenno give you the uber-sword," if that part of the adventure isn't working yet. (Just as an example; there is no uber-sword.)

By the way, the link on my downloads page leads to the previous Sosaria, not the improved one. I'll be putting the improved Sosaria up here as soon as I get the play guide done.

And now it's 7:30 P.M., and it's done. Really, really done. I'm going to go ahead and post it to Shrapnel Games right now, and it should be available in an hour. I'll post it here later tonight, or this morning, along with a little play-guide I've made.

It's really, really neat. ;-)

Other than that, Sosaria is done! Yes, it's finished. The only thing keeping me from putting it up here, is the character creation. RuneSword is telling me I need at least one human-controlled character in the party, even after I've made one. As soon as I get this fixed, you can look forward to more exciting adventures in Sosaria!

I'm going ahead with the revision to Sosaria, but I'd like your input. Would you rather see a polished version of what I've done so far? Or would you want to go ahead with the storyline, and see what happens after Lord British claims the land and Britannia is formed? In the first case, I would simply finish the thieves' guild quest, add more NPCs, and fix the bugs that are in the tome. In the second case, I would change the land more, removing certain things, adding new ones, and the world would progress toward the Britannia we know in Ultima 4. Send me an e-mail and let me know what you think!

• Missing images for Layla in Devil Guard, the Daemon Scouts in Fire 1, and the archmage in Castle Britannia.
• If you have added members to your party, you cannot restore a saved game.
• There is no linking stairs between levels 4 and 5 in the dungeon of Fire.

Thanks to Paul for the heads-up. Keep the input coming!

Dereth is quickly becoming a very railroaded game; it's just walking from one story point to another, with fighting in there somewhere. But this is only my second game, and with all your input, I'm sure there will be improvements down the road.