Hello, folks. :)

You remember that pesky SSP (Somewhat Secret Project -- can't really call it secret if you guys know it's coming, right?) that I've been working on forever and a day? No, I'm not telling you what it is yet, but I am going to give you a series of hints of what you will need to get the ability and to complete the quest to get said ability. It is beginning to get close to completion (still needs QC, though), and I want to make sure that as many of you guys have the opportunity to take it as possible when it comes out. Not that you may be able to finish the quest <insert evil cackling>, but hey, you won't be able to yell, "But Loriene and Nionon didn't give us any idea what we need to get this ability/do this quest!"

Okay, you can still yell it. Just don't expect us to pay much attention when you do so, because I am giving you an idea now. ^_^

What you will need, in no particular order other than what I thought would provide the greatest dramatic effect as you read through:

1) Lore. Lots of it. I won't getting any more specific than that, but once you learn what the ability is, you should be able to guess what skills are utilized. Knowing that the SSP will be an Empath-only ability, you should be able to guess one of those of the required lore skills off the bat. Hint hint.

2) Charisma. Personally, I wouldn't go and dump my TDPs into the statistic immediately just because I've said that it's important. If you want to go on ahead and do that, you won't get hurt in the long run of Empath guild development. I definitely would be holding some TDPs in reserve instead of pouring them into mental statistics or whatever until the ability comes out, because this stat will play a significant role. If you really like it, you can then pump up Charisma cheerfully and get results, and if you don't...well, you can go back to pumping whatever are the 'in' stats to raise that particular week.

Which brings us to...

3) NOT Discipline. Sure, you'll need some ability to concentrate (which does use discipline), but discipline is far from being a primary factor. I saw no sense in giving out what would have been in essence a double bonus to those folks who have ridiculously high discipline by having it used in both the concentration checks and the overall ability checks.

And finally -

4) Some other stuff that won't be named. Have to keep some stuff secret, after all.

For those of you who were wondering if any preliminary events have started already, they have; at least one person commented on them on the events boards. :) Mwahahaha. More should come shortly, probably immediately after examination/term paper madness ends for me here at university. Ah, the joys of the end of the semester!

Good luck training, and keep your eyes open!

Regards,

Nionon