Editing Announcements - 2008/07 - Shattered Lines (section)

== Rollout Article ==

{{Turbine 2005
 |  Link = <nowiki>http://ac.turbine.com/?page_id=590</nowiki>
 | Title = Rollout Article - July
 |  Text =
Yawning mightily, Ardry leaned back from his table in the Shining Shield tavern of Hebian-To.  He was the only patron in the tavern at this hour, in the dark before sunrise.  He looked down at the remains of the meal he'd consumed and shuddered, and felt a corresponding rumble from his belly.  As if echoing his thoughts, the barkeep approached his table with a disapproving expression on his face.
<br><br>"Is there anything else I can get you, Master Ardry?" he asked.  "More pickled eggs, perhaps?  Or another bottle of sake?  If you wished to eat and drink yourself into a sleep of exhaustion and nightmare, I think you are very nearly there."
<br><br>Ardry snorted.  "Your sarcasm is just as biting now as it was three hours ago, Ya-Un.  I think sleep deprivation sharpens your wits."  He belched loudly and explosively, and the barkeep took a step back, wrinkling his nose at the smell.  "Maybe just some green tea.  To settle the nerves."
<br><br>Fo Ya-Un bowed as he retreated from the table, muttering darkly.  He returned a moment later with a steaming pot of green tea.  Ardry offered up his sake mug for the barkeep to fill.  Ya-Un hesitated and frowned.  "Perhaps Master Ardry would like his tea served in a proper bowl, so he may drink it as a civilized person should, and not slurp it from a dirty mug like some ignorant toad-belly barbarian.  Perhaps he would be kind enough to have some respect for the humble proprietor of this tavern, after tracking in his boots with the awful Moarsman smell."
<br><br>Ardry waved the mug in his face.  "Just pour it into the mug and I'll be out of your hair, Ya-Un."
<br><br>"You are much like your uncle," Ya-Un sighed dramatically as he poured the tea into Ardry's mug.
<br><br>Ardry stood, wobbling a little as he got to his feet.  "I will choose to take that as a compliment, Ya-Un.  My family's brought you a lot of valuable custom over the years.  More than enough to make up for the furniture we've broken or floors we've stained in that time."
<br><br>Ya-Un scowled and pointed at the slimy bootprints that Ardry had tracked in.  "This stink of Moarsman will not go away with a hundred scrubbings.  Maybe you owe me for a new floor, eh?  No matter, just go.  Next time you throw yourself into a tunnel full of those awful things, you visit Arwic or your drunk uncle in Ayan Baqur.  Visit the Viamontian city!  Share your stink with those blue-skin foreign devils.  Leave my nice floors out of it."  With that, he waved his hand dismissively and retreated into his storeroom.  Ardry dropped a pile of coins on the table, picked up his pack and his mug, and shuffled unsteadily towards the tavern door.
<br><br>He opened the door and stood in the entryway, breathing in the fresh of Hebian-To, enjoying the salt smell of the sea and how it mingled with the fragrant green tea in his mug.  It was almost enough to cover the ripe stink of Moarsman coming from behind him.
<br><br>He sipped the tea and tried to blink the bleariness from his eyes.  When his eyes cleared up, he looked around to survey the central square of Hebian-To.  The sun was just beginning to crest the horizon behind him and right now the other buildings were mostly dark silhouettes against a slowly lightening sky.  He saw the rather dramatic shape of the mage's tower rising to his right and the squat bulk of the blacksmith's shop ahead of him.  Between them, on the path leading into town from the coast road, a lone adventurer strode into view…
<br><br>Ardry did a double-take.  In the dim pre-dawn light, it was hard to make out… but this figure approaching the town center was not human.  It moved with an unnatural shambling gate, and seemed to be wrapped head to toe in filthy rags or bandages.  It carried a dagger in its right hand.  Ardry set the green tea down on the threshold of the tavern, just inside of the door.
<br><br>"Ya-Un!" he called back inside.  "Might want to bar the doors…"
<br><br>As he yelled to the tavern keeper, the shambling figure noticed him and jerked its head in his direction.  It bellowed something guttural and pointed its dagger at the sky.  There was a flash of purple light, and all of a sudden the center of Hebian-To was filled with hulking, stinking Moarsmen.
<br><br>Ardry cursed.  "Not again… Not today… Can't I have just one day without getting Moarsman slime on me?"  He drew his blade and advanced, hoping for a quick and not-too-smelly death.
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