On July 16 1999 another permanent shard was introduced. Although there are many similarities between Siege Perilous and the rest of the shards there are also a lot of differences. First and foremost, this shard is meant for the veteran player who knows how to build a character and is able to set long-term goals. The newbie player most likely will have a hard time getting started on this shard.

This short history written by “The Stranger” describes the fiction behind the shards in general and Siege Perilous in particular.

Many changes have been made to Siege Perilous since it’s inception. Below is the current Siege Perilous rule set.

Siege Perilous uses the same rules as all the other shards, with the following
(rather important) exceptions:

Your Character

• There will be only one character slot available per account.

The Siege Blessing

• Players on the Siege Perilous shard can bless one item of any kind. Use the character context menu (left-click on your character,) select the option, then target the item to be blessed. Blessed items will remain with your character when you die, rather than remaining on your corpse, and cannot be stolen.
• Items can not be insured on Siege Perilous shard.
• Clothing bless deeds can not be applied to items which have magical properties.

Townsfolk

• The shopkeepers on Siege Perilous hoard their gold greedily and will not buy items from players.
• The set price for NPC’s selling their wares/services is 3X that of normal shards. However, Faction pricing is in effect on Siege Perilous, so if you search every town, you are likely to find one that is set at, or below the normal price for items on other shards.
• The NPC craftspeople of the town guard their knowledge jealously and will not train players in exchange for gold.
• NPC shopkeepers do not sell gatherable resources (ingots, boards, leather, wool, and feathers).
• Considering these differences and the ones noted under “Your Character”, it would be very wise to befriend, rather than to attack, your local tradesmen. A skilled blacksmith, alchemist, tailor, or scribe can be a very powerful ally.

Magic

• Spellcasters adventuring in Siege Perilous should be wary of the changes to their trade. Most noticeably, the spell “recall” will not function.
• Telekinesis will not work on trapped or locked chests.
• You will not be able to mark runes in dungeons nor cast Gate while in a dungeon.
• For those involved in faction or guild wars, it is vitally important to note that direct damage spells will work in towns.

Breaking the Law

• Characters that hue red will not be attacked by guards when they venture into town. Healing a red character is a criminal offence, but will not get you guard whacked.
• Although you must still be in the Thieves Guild to steal from players, you will not be removed from the guild for collecting a murder count, nor are there any skill or time requirements to meet before joining.

Skills

• All tools, including fishing poles, herding crooks, scissors and axes used for lumberjacking will wear down with use and be destroyed. Caution: using your best swords or fencing weapon to carve meat or shear sheep will class it as a ‘tool’ and it can wear out.
• Those seeking to gain treasure from chests are advised to have skill in “detect hidden” because all chests in dungeons, in the wilderness, and in towns will be trapped. Opening a chest without detecting the trap first could have deadly results.
• When a tinker fails at making a trap, he will always take damage (fatal!).
• The following skills will not unhide you when they are used: Snooping (when used succesfully), Detect Hidden, Item Identification, Anatomy, Arms Lore, Animal Lore, Evaluate Intelligence, Forensics Evaluation, and Poisoning.
• Arms Lore gives a bonus to resists for exceptional armor creation on Siege Perilous of 1% for every 12.5 points of Arms Lore. The maximum bonus is 8% bonus resists at Grandmaster Arms Lore.
• When a weapon is exceptionally crafted, the damage increase modifier will increase by 1% per 12.5 points of Arms Lore. The maximum bonus is 8% at Grandmaster.
• Rogues will find it a bit easier to sneak up on their marks as there is no ‘passive detect’.

Rate over Time system

On Siege Perilous and Mugen, the RoT (Rate over time) system applies for gaining skill points above 70. RoT resets once per day, at 8pm EST/1am GMT.

• Skill points for skills less than 70 points will gain as normal shards.
• Skill points for skills between 70 and 79.9 points have a time limit of 5 minutes between points gained. (250 minutes min to gain 5.0 skill)
• Skill points for skills between 80 and 89.9 have a time limit of 8 minutes between points gained. (320 minutes min to gain 4.0 skill)
• Skill points for skills between 90 and 99.9 have a time limit of 12 minutes between points gained. (360 minutes min to gain 3.0 skill points)
• Skill points for skills between 100 and 120 have a time limit of 15 minutes between points gained. (750 minutes min to gain 5.0 skill points)
• Players will be allowed to gain 15 stat points a day.

Monsters and Players

• Dark wisps: These creatures appear as “a dark wisp,” and are a noticeably darker color than their light blue counterparts. These behave as monsters and will attack players on sight!
• Siege Perilous contains the Ilshenar, Malas and Tokuno facets. All have the “felucca ruleset” and allow faction fighting.
• Siege Perilous is geared towards group PvP, with many large guilds of both PKs and Antis.
• One of the favorite expressions on Siege Perilous is that blue does not always mean innocent, and red does not always mean PK. Guild affiliation is a much more effective way to determine which side of the battle a person is on than hue is.

Factions (Hero/Evil)

• Factions is active on Siege Perilous, with a different ruleset than other shards.
• The True Britannians and Council of Mages factions will be considered “Hero” factions. The Shadowlords and Minax factions will be considered “Evil” factions. All four factions will still be at war with one another, in addition to being integrated with the Hero/Evil system.
• Killing faction characters who are in your own faction will incur a penalty. The killer in this case will lose 50% of his current kill points, lose 100% of the lifeforce accumulated, and be able to be reported as a murderer. An exception to this will be the killing of guild mates, thus allowing characters to spar with guild mates. Another exception is that if your character is attacked by another, you are allowed to defend yourself with impunity.
• Faction characters will gain lifeforce equal to 20% of the life force of the character killed, and that character who was killed will lose an equal amount of lifeforce points.
• Faction characters will gain 1 lifeforce point for each faction enemy monster which that character kills.
• The maximum number of lifeforce attainable is 100 points.
• Players will be able to spend lifeforce points toward special Hero/Evil powers. Players will be able to use a special phrase (“I invoke my good powers,” for Hero characters, and “I invoke my evil powers,” for Evil characters) to bring up a special menu through which they may control the following effects:
  • Colored Armor (5 lifeforce points; duration is permanent; turns an article of
    armor or clothing white for Hero, black for Evil) (items which have been
    turned “Hero” or “Evil” will only be equipable by someone in the appropriate
    faction.)
  • Detect Evil/Good (1 lifeforce point; duration is immediate; allows Hero
    character to scan the area for Evil, and Evil to scan for good)
  • Summon familiar (10 lifeforce points; duration is 30 minutes; allows character
    to summon a familiar to fight for the character, silver wolf for Hero or dark
    wolf for Evil)
  • Bless (60 lifeforce points; duration is 30 minutes; temporarily “blesses” one
    equipable item, item will note time remaining)
  • Silver/Dark Steed (30 lifeforce points; duration is 30 minutes; creates a
    silver steed for Hero character to ride, or dark steed for Evil character)
  • Holy/Unholy Shield (40 lifeforce points; duration is 60 minutes; character is
    ignored by all monsters and faction guards while this power is active)
• Evil characters will not automatically hue red, and any Evil character which kills a blue innocent may gain a murder count. The faction system hue will be in effect to handle aggression and flagging.