Overlord Mata Muram fell for the first time on Antonius Bayle tonight, and with his dying wail, the entire continent of Kuua trembled visibly, from Dranik's scar to Riftseekers. Those that have already beaten this mob have more than adequately covered the basics of the fight itself, though personally I will not praise any encounter that ultimately bases the outcome somewhat on mere luck. Certain occurrences throughout the endeavour, based solely on luck of the draw, will render a wipe all but inevitable.

Amongst the favourite excuses used during this encounter were; "I clicked the mask, really, I did!", "I panicked and could not find my dodge button, but atleast I landed a heal instead!" and last but not least, the overall winner; "I was browsing for a cloak upgrade on lucy and missed it". One can only begin to guess who the latter excuse belongs to.

Having completed the Omens of War expansion, there are currently no encounters left unbeaten by Raging Fury, though I am certain we all eagerly await the new and improved Vishimtar event. Speaking of patched events, Antonius Bayle has once again been left behind in comparison to the other servers. Sometime during March, the Eye of Vishimtar was added to the final encounter in the Dragons of Norrath expansion, on all servers, excepting Antonius Bayle. I might be mistaken when it comes to the actual numbers, though I remember seeing a developer mentioning the fact that since the patch, Vishimtar had merely died about 20 times on all the servers. How many of these deaths originated on Antonius Bayle? Eight. Both Darkwind and Raging Fury killed Vishimtar four times each during this period, but the Eye of Vishimtar was never implemented on this server, in other words, we were forgotten anew, highly reminiscent of when Arch Magus Vangl was left unaltered for weeks post being fixed on the American servers. It is pretty disconsolate to witness the lack of attention towards our server time and time again, if nothing else, utilize post-it notes to remind yourselves of the fact that you are actually hosting a European server. One that actually requires your attention every once in a while.

Secondly, but equally important. While I remain uncertain of how this situation is on the other servers out there, Antonius Bayle has had a dramatic increase in regards to the usage of illegal aids. Post the merger with Kane Bayle a few months back, there have been countless incidents involving people warping back and forth throughout various zones, relocating themselves to a safe spot within the zone to heal prior to warping back in and engaging the mob. No drop items are being traded with equal ease thanks to recently added plug ins to Macroquest, these might have existed for some time also, though personally I had never even heard of such until it started infesting the server. What used to define your character, i.e. your equipment, is now available to anyone that is willing to pay the price for it, whether it be rotting items from within Anguish, or outdated Tacvi gear from someone having moved on to better standards.

Other online role playing games have suffered a similar faith, leaving behind a player base consisting of solely cheaters. Do you seriously intend to watch your own product be reduced to such a state while doing nothing? The monthly fees you might salvage through not banning these individuals might seem alluring for now, but rest assured that if the cheating progresses in the same pace it has now, the gaming experience will be all but ruined for most that still enjoy spending time in the world of Norrath.

Condoning the sale of droppable items and characters is one thing, I will not indulge myself in a rant concerning that issue, but these extremes that have been mentioned here needs to be addressed, immediately. It might not be possible to prevent the usage of it 100%, we are all aware of that, but through making a few examples, I am certain the usage will be highly limited. It is sad to behold unnamed players zoning into the Walls of Slaughter, warping to the zone in area of Anguish, and blatantly displaying their ability to do so, confident in knowing that as of yet, those responsible have not deemed this important enough to even remotely look into.

All said and done, we still enjoy the game, and thrive in overcoming the challenges it has to offer, but if your vision of keeping Everquest running for another 6 years bears any semblance to truth, action is needed, and it is needed yesterday.

Lastly, onwards to somewhat more jovial aspects. As many might have read, we recently lost our old message board + point database as those hosting it decided to display their authority in a childish manner. Merely a week later, a new message board and point database has been established, and as such I would like to utter a few words of gratitude to the people that dedicated their time and effort into restoring these vital functions of any raiding guild sans delay. First and foremost, Rigwit, who was responsible for tweaking the forum into a semblance of our old one, utilizing the already existing colour scheme and board functions, definitely easing the transition for many of us.

DeIllusional from Shadows of Doom greatly aided us in regards to implementing a customized item database in the eqdkp system, one that surpasses anything we have ever used in this guild before. On behalf of the guild, thank you kindly.

While displaying such a vast array of gratitude, two people that should have received thorough thanks as last year drew to an end were unfortunately ignored. Anthas and Uren literally led the guild in solitude through one of its toughest periods, having recently lost close to 60% of our older members due to various reasons. If not for the unprecedented display of devotion from these two members, our guild would be nowhere near its current level of progression. Thank you both.

As many of you might have noticed, our message board no longer exists. Our point system database along with our message boards were both hosted at a former guildmembers work location. While we still remain uncertain as to why this tantrum was thrown, rest assured that we will have a new message board + point system up and running shortly. Thankfully, alot of our newer recruits have IT backgrounds, and as such, I am actually glad we will finally get this over and done with, this has been a "threat" hanging over those of us that still play for far too long. Personally I never expected the people involved to go this far, but times of adversity display the true color of people I guess. Either way, this newspage will be the primary source of information for the next week or two. And lastly, for the worried members, I managed to copy the current point standings prior to the database dissipating, so worry not.