The Sword's Edge

Issue 51: 9th January 2021 - Forged in fire, tempered through wisdom, sharpened by resolve.

 Happy New Year!

When a year like the last one can be full of so many highlights in game for us as a cabal, I cannot help but get excited about our year ahead. During our New Year event, as you can read below - we already started thinking not of resolutions, but of things we can do a bit better and set five goals for us for this year. The goals are our ambitions or efforts we want to carry out, they give us an aim which we will work towards, a direction to follow. Even with a cabal that has stood the test of time this long, it is important not to come up with ridiculous big changes. Goals that are realistic and reachable will definitely help steer our course, and when we achieve them will push us gently to aim another step forwards next year. 

So, what does lie ahead for us in 2021.. well Hollo has already started thinking about MEGAversary, a date for Cabal Pride needs to be figured out so we can start planning that AND this year Nine Swords will turn NINE!! I have no doubt that these three things will be packaged between lots of fun and activity! 

As always, keep safe and well. Be positive. See you in game! 

~ Katelin

Hello 2021

For sure we had an interesting and different year behind us. But now is a good time to look forward to another year that's likely to be just as eventful and challenging.

As the number of gas leaks we had to successfully fix in New York was staggeringly high, we almost developed a routine in it and some of us even started to tackle even the highest difficulty raids. I'm positive a good amount of community events will similarly keep us all engaged and entertained. And in July, it will have been ten years since we started our work on the Nine Swords web site, so that will be a nice anniversary to celebrate, even though we didn't even have a fixed name back then yet.

Besides all these fun developments though, the best thing to hope for might just be to have safe, healthy fun and hope that the coming year can soon just be "business as usual".

~Durendal

Thank you Jess for this beautiful artwork of a wonderfully warm Hel 

New Year Parade of Museums

We rang in the New Year together by looking back at our accomplishments in 2020 and talking about our ambitions for the year ahead. We also spent time touring some of our members museum wings that they were particularly proud of, or where they were ecstatic never to have to go near a certain monster or location again! 

 While we were in our museums, we established 5 goals for this coming year - so here they are:

Nine Swords: Goals for 2021!

1. Encourage others in the cabal to join in with what you are doing (and if its a scheduled event, put it on the calendar!)
2. Ask in cabal chat to do things before asking in LFG
3. Schedule things if you know you are on a tight timeframe! You can get a lot done in an hour if it's planned.
4. Ask for help / training if you want to learn something new (DPS / Tanking / Healing / AND cabal roles)
5. Cake gathering

It has been really encouraging to see a few of these points already being worked on over this last week. As for point 5 - we will just have to see whether the valentines event provides us with cake again this year, and how many of our members run the mission during the event duration! 

Working on your museum?

Following the fantastic parade of museums event, we are definitely seeing an uptake again of members looking to get their museum pedestals upgraded. If this is you - maybe you could use some tips?

1. Plan what you want to achieve

• It may seem like a good idea to just do everything at once, and I am sure you will pick up lore and work towards monster achievements without it being a fixed goal in some cases - but when you want to work on a specific wing, incorporate the things you need into your gaming! 

2. Find out if anyone else is working on the same thing

• We all know achievement hunting is much more fun with cabal mates. Ask in cabal if anyone wants to join you in hunting! 

3. Tell the cabal when you are looking for specific items

• We are all out and about all over our Secret World. Let the cabal know that you are looking for a specific item to help you complete an area in your museum. 

4. Organise Shard Runs

• Your museum needs a LOT of shards. We have a thread in our forum that is dedicated to suggested side mission run routes in Kaidan. Doing these shard runs in a team will often make them go faster, and help you feel less alone in your shard gathering!

5. Use our resources!

• Quite often, someone else has already figured out an efficient hunting route. Make sure to ask in the cabal or check in our Bestiary for tips for your monster hunting expeditions!