Greetings folks,

This report is probably going to be pretty short and to the point, cause the Crusades just ended and the DB as a whole is still catching its breath. Anyways, onward!

Headlines that you Need to Know

• The Crusade Results
• Double XP Weekend in TOR
• Teamspeak Server
• Howie got an Emerald Dagger
• Thank You

The Dark Crusades are Over

I already sent out an email discussing the end of the Dark Crusades, and talking about how proud I am of Taldryan. I can't say it enough, so I'm going to tell you again. I've been in the DB for over 16 years now (that's like 4/5ths of a Sid) and though it took me a year or two to find my home in Taldryan, I am thankful almost every day that it did. When the Dark Crusades started, the unit that was Taldryan at the start of the Dark Crusades is almost unrecognizable to what Taldryan has become today.

We managed to find our fire once again, and we started to push ourselves. During the last 3 skill based rounds of the Dark Crusades, we threw our gauntlet down early, and decisively, and only Odan-Urr had the gumption to challenge us repeatedly. We invited all comers, and were victorious over the ones who would come at us. It was a spectacular display from you, the members of Taldryan, and brought to mind the days of glory in the past. I expect this to only continue to grow, and become better over the coming months, so that when GJW XI shows up, Taldryan once again shines brightly as the most feared unit in the Dark Brotherhood.

But today? Today that honour belongs to House Plagueis. If Taldryan was a unit reborn in the Dark Crusades, Plagueis very well personifies the mythological phoenix rising from the ashes and becoming a big old fiery bird of awesome. So, to all of Plagueis, and especially their Quaestor Montresor, I say this: Congratulations on becoming the First House of the Brotherhood. You earned it.

SWTOR Double Experience Weekend

Expect there to be more news regarding TOR in the coming weeks, as the new feature/expansion/whatever, Galactic Starfighter is dropping on December 3rd. This new feature that will be getting added to SWTOR opens up feature of Starfighter based player vs. player combat. There've been some news posts, and I'm actually writing a review article on the expansion for work that I'll probably send out to the Tal list, when complete.

However, the thing to note here, is that starting today at 10AM EST, TOR has been hosting another Double Experience weekend in honour of the American Thanksgiving Holiday. This is a great opportunity to level up your characters faster, and get prepped for the release of Galactic Starfighter. You can read the details of the double xp weekend here and sign up for TOR if you don't already play it at http://www.swtor.com/

In related news.. Teamspeak is Back!

Now, I, like the Fist, have always selected Ventrilo as my voice chat program of choice, but the DB has been using teamspeak for a little while now. In case you're interested in hopping onto the server, and chatting with your fellow DBers, you can access the instructions/credentials to login to the DB TS server here

I'd like to echo the sentiments of the Fist in thanking Rayne and Archangel for having hosted the server the DB had been using up until recently on their home PC's. Anyways, if you're playing games and want to jump into voice chat, the option is now available to you, care of the Fist and his team.

Howlader awarded an Emerald Dagger

Yesterday, Howlader was awarded an Emerald Dagger for his service in the MAA's Office. Since he joined the staff back in June, Howie has essentially been the singular face of the Master-At-Arms Office, helping finally modernize and update ridiculously outdated policies that had fallen into disrepair and obscurity. He's been at the fore of ensuring that dossiers have been updated and made whole, in preparation for the eventually implementation of the Dark Brotherhood's credits (in conjunction with possessions) system.

Despite all the extra work he volunteered for, Howlader was without a doubt the fastest and most efficient worker in the MAA's Office that we've seen in years. While he was around, medal response time was rarely longer than 8 hours, much less than the 24 hours that people tend to think is right and proper. In every essence, Howie did the work of 3 men, and still managed to be a complete and utter badass for Taldryan during the Dark Crusades.

To you Howlader, I salute you, and thank you for your service in making the MAA's Office the best I've ever seen it.

Thank You

Can't say it too many times, because it'll never stop being true. The Dark Crusades have been hard, they've been exhausting, and they've pushed everyone in the Dark Brotherhood to their very limits. This is not just something that we the members have had to deal with. Writing fiction after fiction was hard for members. Someone had to read all those fictions. Someone had to grade those fictions. Being a judge in the DB is no easy feat, having done it myself a few times, it can be excruciating. These people deserve our thanks as well.

But Rian and I aren't responsible for the members of the DC. What we are however, is responsible for the members of Taldryan. So, in the near future, the members of the summit will be sitting down together, and discussing how we're going to reward you for your work. We already know that Muz is working on two sets of robes that we earned for our efforts in the Crusades, which will likely be suitably epic. We're going to be evaluating members for medals, honours, and cookie based rewards; and we're coming for you.

That's it this week. For all of my yankee friends down south (yes, every American is a yankee, deal with it), I hope you and your families have a Happy Thanksgiving, and nobody goes too bankrupt on Black Friday.