Important changes to come at the Fraternity of Shadows!

[Joël of the FoS]

Esteemed members of the Fraternity of Shadows,
Miladies,

We are quite delighted to let you know of important changes in staffing at the FoS.

First, we will change the status of Nathan "Dmitri Stanislaus" Okerlund, Leyshon "DeepShadow" Campbell, and Sharon "Rotipher" Dornhoff to Emeritus status, as they retire from being active FoS members. We thank you all for the work done here, and understand completely that you have less time these days for the site.

They are joining a very short list of famous retired FoS Emeritus: Stephen "ScS" Sutton, Eddy "Wiccy" Brennan, Dion "Midway Haven" Fernandez and Jason "Javier" True.

Guys, you have all our respect for previous work done! That said, you know that you do not need an invitation to come back and mingle with our esteemed guests!

Of course that leaves room for new people to join us. We plan to finish the SoS report this year* and we need good creative writers to join our team. We will also ask the boards here for ideas and other contributions. You'll see an announcement for this project soon.

We are finalizing the method for how to choose new FoS members and will be back with you later this week with our method of choice.

The Fraternity of Shadows.

* we’ll try hard but delays are possible

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

It was late in the afternoon. A fog had rolled from the vast swamp of Maison d'Sablet, slowly engulfing Port d'Elhour. The lights in the streets seemed blurred from the thickness of the fog, looking like motionless will-o-wisps in the dark alleys of the town. The streets were mostly empty, as it felt safer to be indoors than roaming outside with almost zero visibility; stories of the serial killer Jean Tarascon attacking people in Marais d'Tarascon still haunted the minds of the Souragnians, but the birds have not such fear. A mockingbird flew to the south of the town and stood in front of a large window of a grand estate. From within the Library of La Maison Soulombre, Viktor Hazan looked towards the window, spotting the little bird.

"Yes, it is quiet. Usually these birds sing up until late at night, even past midnight."

Hazan had a look of surprise on his face as Zoltan Demir rolled the dice on the wooden board. It wasn't the first time he had felt Zoltan being intrusive on his thoughts; it was one of the main reasons he preferred to play backgammon, a game of chance and strategy, instead of a more purely strategic game like the Sri'Rajian chaturanga. The two bone cubes rolled on the wooden board, both spinning around their axis until they stood motionless and silent.

"Aces again?"

said Zoltan with his heavily Hazlani-accented Mordentish.

"Seems like I had a visit from the Black Rose myself."

Viktor's thoughts seemed hazy, as they were invaded by the story of Oliver Arkwright, a professional gambler who had legendarily won a massive amount of gold upon La Demoiselle du Musarde, and survived winning a pair of diamond cuff links from none other than the dreaded Duke Gundar himself. He was also famous for his motto "I'd rather be lucky than good," until his luck ran out, when he encountered the dreadful death knight Lord Soth in the Land Of Specters. These thoughts were not his own; he had never heard of that story before. Could it be that Zoltan was projecting his thoughts?

Zoltan seemed a bit annoyed and confused; he touched his bald head with his right hand, a tattoo covered most of the skin on his hand - a spear bound in coils within two merging diamonds, configured to form a third diamond, the symbol of the Lawgiver. The headache seemed to pass and he moved his discs, leaving one of them exposed to Hazan. Viktor took the dice and placed them in the dice cup, he shook the leather object and rolled the dice on the wooden board.

"Aha!... gotcha, Zoltan"

Zoltan's horn tattoos moved close to each other as his angled face became annoyed, if not angered, by Viktor's lucky roll. Viktor managed to both block his home board, creating a side prime and hit Zoltan's exposed disc in a single move.

"I guess you will not be rolling for some time"

Said Viktor mockingly, as the mocking bird outside the window began it's late night singing...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvEttTGPkpc


--------------------------------------------

The time has come to announce our methods for choosing the three new member of our society. The Fraternity's initiation rituals have always been a closely guarded secret, until now!

We all love deeply the stories and lore of the world of Ravenloft. But we always remember that they are more than just stories. Ravenloft is a Dungeons & Dragons world, and Dungeons & Dragons is, first and foremost, a game. So we embrace the game, and embrace that most holy element of the game: The Dice.

We will choose our next 3 members completely at the whim of randomness. Let the dice fall where they may!

Every member of this forum has a unique user_id number of up to 4 digits. You can see these by clicking on their profile pages and looking at the URL in the address bar. From the very first member, Admin, user id #2:
http://fraternityofshadows.com/forum/me ... rofile&u=2

Up to our latest guest, CheshireCat, #3167:
http://fraternityofshadows.com/forum/me ... ile&u=3167

(They are also visible when quoting someone)

Later today, using the forum's dice roller function, we will be rolling 4d10 3 times, or 3d2d%, if you prefer that notation. This will give us three 4-digit numbers. Those three user_ids will be our picks to join the ranks of the FoS! (Of course, we will reroll if we hit an unused number, or one of the prior FoS Umbra). And that's it! The Dark Powers of Fate will decide!

(I hope none of them are Spammers we missed banning, that would be embarrassing.)

Good luck to all!

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

The dice have been washed in spring water, and shined with fine scented oils. The sacrifices to the gods of fortune have been made. The Dice Tower has been cleared of all dust and cobwebs ... virtually, of course. These are electronic dice, after all. So, the random number generators have been primed, all the bits on the server have been cleaned of any internet debris, the 1's have been straightened, the 0's rounded, and the electron spins have been aligned....

Time for the moment of truth! Time to roll the dice!

Remember, the 4-digit user_id is what we are looking for. The sum of the dice will be displayed, but isn't relevant to the outcome. Rolls of "10" will be taken to mean the digit "0". So, without further ado....

Our first new member is user_id #:
4d10

Our second new member is user_id #:
4d10

Our third new member is user_id #:
4d10

Congratulations to the winners! Once I lookup who they are, I'll make a formal welcome in the next post!

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

OK, so let's check the user id's that came up. Remember, if there is no user with that number, or it's one of the existing FoS members, we will have to reroll.

Our first new member is user_id #:
4d10

Our second new member is user_id #:
4d10

Our third new member is user_id #:
4d10

3047 is
http://fraternityofshadows.com/forum/me ... ile&u=3047
Mephisto!

2927 is
http://fraternityofshadows.com/forum/me ... ile&u=2927
Wolfglide!

1100 is
http://fraternityofshadows.com/forum/me ... ile&u=1100
Rock!

Congratulations Mephisto, Wolfglide, and Rock! You are the latest additions to our Fraternity!

[alhoon]

Congratulations to the randomly selected people! I am not sure the IDs were right but I trust the FoS to figure it out.
Also, what would you do if you rolled the Ids of the Emeritii Gon?

VIEW CONTENT:

VIEW CONTENT:

Check the date if you think they were indeed randomly selected.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Well, this is a surprise! And a golden opportunity.
By order of me, all future submissions for Quoth the Raven will have to use the GURPS format.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Congratulations to the randomly selected people! I am not sure the IDs were right but I trust the FoS to figure it out.
Also, what would you do if you rolled the Ids of the Emeritii Gon?

Guess we'd have to draft them back in again, I suppose! Lucky they dodged that fate.

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

Well, this is a surprise! And a golden opportunity.

An opportunity for profit!

I would like to announce that I will be auctioning off my login credentials once I am made an administrator. More details to come as the situation evolves.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

Wow! I should have played the lottery, seems it was my lucky day, now I missed the chance.
But I have a question, what are the extra tasks of a FoS member that is different than being a member of the forum. OK I understand that we will probably be tasked with editing and compiling QtR or look for spam posts and any prohibited action in this forum but is there something more members do? I am asking cause if it is too much work I don't think I will be able to to do much, what for instance if a member doesn't want to have an extra job, I like the forum and all that and I respect the people who have been working for it but I don't think I can fit the part. I think you should ask which people want to join and then make a lottery, how come you decide randomly who wants to participate? How does this even work? I am sorry if I seem ungrateful but it seems a bit off way to choose members.

[SkiBird]

Congratulations, fellas.

(I thought the random bit on Apr 1st was a nice touch.)

[Joël of the FoS]

This was of course our joke to welcome three new guys at the FoS.

Thanks to everybody who liked it, and those who PMed me so I could considerate their application at the FoS, etc.

Also, during the day, I had to delete a few posts that were spoiling the joke too early. Apologies to them.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Congratulations, fellas.

(I thought the random bit on Apr 1st was a nice touch.)

Thank you. ^_^

[Mistmaster]

Also, during the day, I had to delete a few posts that were spoiling the joke too early. Apologies to them.

I guessed that much.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

Wow! I should have played the lottery, seems it was my lucky day, now I missed the chance.
But I have a question, what are the extra tasks of a FoS member that is different than being a member of the forum. OK I understand that we will probably be tasked with editing and compiling QtR or look for spam posts and any prohibited action in this forum but is there something more members do? I am asking cause if it is too much work I don't think I will be able to to do much, what for instance if a member doesn't want to have an extra job, I like the forum and all that and I respect the people who have been working for it but I don't think I can fit the part. I think you should ask which people want to join and then make a lottery, how come you decide randomly who wants to participate? How does this even work? I am sorry if I seem ungrateful but it seems a bit off way to choose members.

I 'm taking it back!!!
Thanks for having me and a big thanks to all of you who make this forum community going, admins, contributors and posters alike also would-be-member lurkers (I was one for almost two decades )
I definitely don't thank spammers though (LEAVE US ALONE!!!... WE have DONE NOTHING TO YOU!!!).

[Rock of the Fraternity]

They want us to do something for them, i.e., fall for their scams so they can have our money.