Sword 150: Viron

To: Office of Pioneering Support

I wish to inform the Office of Pioneering Support that Ashardalon family has returned to Granado Espada after fulfilling its commitments in mainland Vespanola for almost 2 weeks.

On our way back to the New World, we stopped by Viron, the island previously known as the End of the World. Viron is still under direct rule of Vespanola, and its citizens are apprehensive of New World pioneers. Later, we discovered that Captain Ricardo has managed to open a route to Viron from Port of Coimbra. Several more things have changed in the New World since we left. For details, see [Sword2] Revelations (v6.7).

Meanwhile, Mirajane (Lisa) reached Lv.100. The family also bought Centurion Costume for Reboldeaux Soldier, which can be upgraded with Superior Centurion Costume Quest, at the cost of 600k feso. Please be informed that some family members have re-registered under new names with the officials in town by paying 2 Great Stones (100k feso) each. They are as follows:

1. Aribeth (Romina) was renamed after the troubled half-elf paladin in Neverwinter Nights game.
2. Archimedes (Jack) was renamed after the famous Greek mathematician and engineer.
3. Yaoi (Andre) was renamed after the male homoerotic genre of Japanese media.
4. Brisingamen (Karjalain) was renamed after the flaming necklace of Freyja, the Norse goddess of love.
5. Shotaro (Viki) was renamed after the ten-year-old boy in Tetsujin 28-go manga, from which derived the phrase Shotacon (i.e. attraction to young boys).
6. Sasori (Summoner Catherine) was renamed after the ninja puppet master in Naruto manga.
7. Angelica (Adelina) was renamed after the female pirate played by Penélope Cruz in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides movie.
8. Lourdes (Grace) was renamed after a small town in France which is famous for its Marian apparitions known as Our Lady of Lourdes.

Several characters now have extended friendship/training quests. Angie decides to take the initiative to get close to Gertrude by becoming a detective herself. Karjalain wants to train up to have a re-match with the "White Pervert". Adelina needs to atone for her murder of Bardi, learning that vengeance just begets more vengeance. Alejandro turned out to be a stud in his younger days, and now tries to rebuild his ship - the Pequod. M'Boma becomes depressed after being discriminated for being an Absinian, and now we have to feed him. His reaction was most amusing after we asked him to sell his shop to support our pioneering efforts.

Despite the short time spent pioneering thus far, we managed to squeeze in a few raids. Artemisia (Calyce) and I completed 2 Griffon missions, and looted Symbol of Gemini, Symbol of Capricorn, and Elite Ziz Bracelet Recipe. The roulette chests of raid missions were still quite poor. Joaquin Underground Prison proved to be still horrible after update. Getting 3 Honor B Cards for a single roulette chest is really too much. Adorabelle (f/ele) also acquired Elemental Otite from Gwraig inside Dr. Torsche's Basement, but it was stolen by Montoro from Dr. Torsche later. Even with v6.7 update, things are still somewhat boring, since what is left to do is mostly training characters and raiding. The friendship quests are somewhat amusing, but they won't last long.

For Colony War, the previous week (i.e. July 23, 2011) ended with the following colony occupants - ShakeTheHeavens (6), Othrys (6), Soniere (4), Phalanx (3), Core (3), and ~Galactica~ (1). Phalanx clan lost 3 colonies as a result. After much deliberations over the past few months, the 2 leaders of Phalanx clan - Lorelle and Misericordiia families - have left the New World so as to better manage their commitments elsewhere. So when we returned, the family was already removed from Phalanx clan, after having spent 70 weeks out of a total of 150 active weeks there. The 3 Phalanx colonies were scavenged by other clans during the next war.

Thelandira