Imperial Ravenna

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Area Designer:

Steppin Razor

Directions:

Port of Ravenna 6s2e2s11e3n;og;7n6e;og;7e3e3nen2en3es4e6n3es4s7ene3ndw3ne2nen3e (from Temple)

Port of Ravenna s*s*s*s*e*e*e*e*e*e*e*e*e*e*e*n*n*w*n*n*d*w*n*n*n*e*e*n*n*n*n*e*e*e (from Skara Docks)

Reset Time:

45 minutes (empty)

Story/History:

With the dawn of the new age of exploration, and the opening of land routes to Sanctuary City and Skara Brae, the old imperial city of Rome became strategically less important, and the modern emperors moved their glorious capital to a more powerful location. Now, the seat of Roman imperial authority rests near the eastern coasts of the Great Sea, within a day's sail from the forests that surround Skara. Weakening in its old age, the glory of the Roman Empire has been enfeebled both from within and without, rebellious garrisons breaking out in riot at the slightest excuse, and hungry Gothic hordes beating down the city gates. Even so, the beauty and majesty of the city survive, and its call is powerful to all who will listen.

Ravenna is a historic city in Italy, located southeast of Milan and south of Venice on the Adriatic Sea.  It served as the seat of Roman power near the end of the Western Roman Empire Period, c. 400 AD. For more information about this period in Roman history, click here.

Mobs of Note:

Augustus (diadem , purple slippers ), Claudian (Poet's Wreath), dog (torn leather leash, torn leather collar), fan (rock, stone), gladiator (short wooden club, small shield, gladatorial net, dull shortsword, trident, trident (mana regen), penitent citizen, (vial of holy water, rosary), Pope Clement IV (papal tiara), Rufinus (blacksmith's hammer (Singing Sword component), laced longsword), Sarus (massive mercenary's shield), Standard Bearer (imperial eagle standard), Stilicho (consular axe), Telemachus (graven cross on a beaded necklace), citizen - (roman toga), elite palace guard - (graven breastplate), packhorse - (worn storage pack: gold bars, stolen jewels), Gothic Mercenary - (gothic war axe), Roman Legionary - (idis), Melania - (tattered robes), mercenary - (scutum), panicked citizens (load on random zone reset- aggro!) - none, slave - (gladius), Roman Cavalry - (lancea), Ghosts of the Fallen Gods (hidden, aggro!) - none

General Zone Strategies:

To be granted audience with the Imperator, Honorius Augustus, have a thief pick the outer door to the Capitoline Palace. You'll need to scan the inventories of the guards near the outer door to identify the guard holding the key to the inner door. Because the atrium colonnade is !violence, you'll have to mage charm or bard mass charm the elite(s) to get the brass key and open the inner doors.  The elite also holds an intricate key, which is the key to the outer doors.

All mobs in Ravenna cannot see invis (seems logical, doesn't it?).  Use this knowledge to your advantage.

Torn Leather Collar

To run the collar, there's a few things you should know about this zone load. First, the collar is a 4% load AFTER a 25% leash load. The leash, therefore, blocks. Check for the leash and make sure you junk it before the next reset. Also the leash/collar load on the fourth dog, (max six) in the zone. Make sure you remove all dogs so that there is always a chance that a fourth dog will be loaded on zone reset. Use a jedi to track the dogs. The paniciked are a nuisance, but you can eq invis (like chameleon cloak) between dog kills. Just type "save" after melee.

Purple Slippers/ Diadem

Augustus will attack sleeping characters in his room. Fumble to prevent PZAR healing. Hold Augustus with your mage to prevent his wimpy flee near the end of combat. Use Bard/ Ranger/ Mage/ Cleric debuffs. Augustus tosses and casts hurtful wishes on tank followers. Standard grapple chain to block his procs.  Ninja/Damage Cleric duo multi works as well. Augustus is strikeable, but damage capped. Augustus will reflect magic attacks, so beware. Clerical offensive magic attacks are effective against Augustus. Stay ungrouped to avoid the hate followers proc.

Eunuchs will attack sleeping players and mutinous soldiers (spawn approx every four uptimes) are aggro! Eunuchs and mutinous soldiers can be SUGGESTION slept between resets to reduce their annoyance factor. Beware the palace guard! While they are not aggro!, they have the NO_CALM proc and will attack the caster of a calm spell.

Battle cleric / Ninja vs. Augustus Walk-through:

This is a super long and probably needlessly complex set of instruction. If you're still interested, click here.

Sohei vs. Augustus Walk-through:

Don't bother debuffing Augustus. Strike with your sohei, healing, rejuvenating and restoring as necessary with your 600+ mana cleric. You'll get tossed a bit, so there's little chance of premature sohei death. Just keep at it until you collect your letter (or slippers / diadem).

Prose:

Steppin paints a picture of the final days of the Western Roman Empire, now situated in the northeastern city of Ravenna after the fall and sack of Rome.  His beautiful prose evokes a sense of desperation and loss, a sense of sadness and irony, as Augustus faces his final days.

Here is a letter that Honorius Augustus bears, a testament to the immersive writing style of Giovanni Ruffini:

To your surprise, you notice that the thin, flowing script is not in Latin:

What is the Bridge? Say: it is the crossing over, it is the point of
greeting and transformation. It is a place of nobility and beauty, the
old world meeting the new. Revere it, but do not stand on it long. The
Bridge is not meant to be worshipped; it is meant to be traveled upon
and forgotten.

What is the Crossing? Say: it is a genocide of the purest kind, the
death of an entire nation. You have heard already of the thousand lights.
They flicker now, dimly, and shudder out of existence. In this other
place, in this nether-space of the electron and the byte, they blink
back into reality, the genecide reversed and made glorious. This is the
Crossing, the simultaneous birth and death of a people, the united
destruction and flowering of a single world.

What is this Creation? How has this place come to pass, and to whom do
we kneel? Say: It is part of the eternal cycle, the ever-spinning cycle
of bridges, of crossings, of new realities. Say: It has existed always,
and yet still does not. We breath life into it, expand its horizons, make
ourselves appear as gods within, and yet all credit is due to that above,
and to that beyond.

What is the Closing, and what will that day bring? Say: When all who will
come to believe have made the crossing and have come to live, to worship,
and to thrive, there is little left for that older world to accomplish,
and the signs shall be brought close to hand. The bridge shall be broken,
and the two sides divided. Those on the near shore shall be cast in to the
abyss, and those on the far shore shall be left to judge the worthiness of
their own acts of divinity within the new creation that we have been granted.

Equipment:

ITEM	TYPE	MOB	LOAD %	DISPLAY
Gothic War Sword	weapon	Alaric	75.0%	mL 18 !mctwpnjsrb e! 4D5 12.0 avg !mort
twisted black silk leggings	leg	Fate		mL 10 !ctwpanjrb 1 int 10 mana
toga, roman	body	citizen		mL 0 !rests
wreath, poet's	head	Claudian	50.0%	mL 15 n! 2 cha
collar, torn leather	neck	dog	1.0%	mL 5 !n 1 ac 1 dam -30 mov
leash, torn leather	other	dog	25.0%	mL 0 !rests max 3 tier to collar
intricate key (outer)	key	elite palace guard	95.0%	mL 0 !rests
palace key (inner)	key	elite palace guard	85.5%	mL 0 !rests
rock	weapon	fan		mL 0 !rests 1D3 2.0 avg 3 hit 3 dam
stone	weapon	fan		mL 0 !rests 1D3 2.0 avg 3 hit 3 dam
club, short wooden	weapon	gladiator		mL 0 !rests 3D2 4.5 avg
net, gladiatorial	hold	gladiator		mL 0 !rests
shield, small	shield	gladiator		mL 0 !rests 5 ac ench!
shortsword, dull	weapon	gladiator		mL 0 !rests 3D4 7.5 avg -1 dam
trident	weapon	gladiator		mL 0 !rests 3D5 9.0 avg 2 hit 2 dam
trident	weapon	gladiator	75.0%	mL 15 !mctwnb 3D3 6.0 avg -10 mana 15% mnR
gold bars	treasure	gothic auxiliary		mL 0 !rests
stolen jewels	container treasure	gothic auxiliary		mL 0 !rests
storage pack, worn	container	gothic foot soldier		mL 0 !rests
axe, Gothic war	weapon	gothic mercenary		mL 5 !rests 4D4 10.0 avg -1 hit
letter from Prosper	note	Honorius Augustus		mL 0 !rests max 1 blocks diadem
slippers, purple	foot	Honorius Augustus	5.0%	mL 22 !cb !n 3 ac 25 mana 10% mnR
the augustan diadem	head	Honorius Augustus	4.0%	mL 22 !mctb !n 16 ac 2 dam 10% hpR
gold key	key	imperial praepositus		mL 0 !rests darkened hallway door
idis	head	legionary		mL 0 !rests 12 ac -3 ss ench!
robe, tattered	about	Melania	95.0%	mL 0 g! -2 ss
scutum	shield	mercenary		mL 0 !rests 11 ac -3 ss ench!
saddle, leather	other	packhorse		mL 0 !rests
graven breastplate	body	palace guard		mL 0 !e 27 ac -1 ss
holy water, vial of	head	penitent citizen		mL 0 !rests 1 x bless (1 unit)
rosary necklace	neck	penitent citizen	75.0%	mL 8 !a g! 2 hit 5 hp
dirty toga	body	Pinian		mL 0 !rests
the papal tiara	head	Pope Clement IV	35.0%	mL 20 wp! g! 24 ac 15 mana 8% hpR
lancea	weapon	Roman Cavalry		mL 5 !rests 4D4 10.0 avg -1 hit 1 dam
hammer, blacksmith's	weapon	Rufinus		mL 0 !rests
longsword, laced	weapon	Rufinus		mL 10 !mc 6D4 15.0 avg 2 hit 2 dam ench!
longsword, steel	weapon	Rufinus		mL 0 !rests 4D3 8.0 avg
shield, mercenary's massive	shield	Sarus	85.0%	mL 15 !g 20 ac -1 hit
potion, black	potion	Serena		mL 15 !rests restore sanctuary stone skin
gladius	weapon	slave		mL 0 !rests 5D3 10.0 avg 1 dam
imperial standard	hold	Standard Bearer	17.0%	mL 12 !rests 2 dam 20 mov
axe, consular	weapon	Stilicho	44.0%	mL 31 !rests 100D1 100.0 avg
lictor rods facses	weapon	Stilicho	75.0%	mL 0 !rests 7D3 14.0 avg
graven cross on a beaded necklace	neck	Telemachus	75.0%	mL 15 !rests -2 str 20 mana
key to the treasury	key	The Praepositus		mL 0 !rests
a piece of papyrus	note	Renatus		mL 0 !rests

Maps:

• 
  Ravenna
• 
  Danks's fabulous hand-drawn map with annotation by his son, Vince.
• 
  Michael French's Imperial Ravenna masterpiece with mob annotations.
• 
  Michael French's Imperial Ravenna (Royal Palace) masterpiece with mob annotations.