The Sword's Edge

Issue 7: March 9th, 2016 - In Ferro Veritas

Welcome to the March 2016 issue of The Sword’s Edge. Issue 7 already – time is flying and we are not running out of content nor contributors for our cabal newsletter, so thank you all very much for continuing to keep it up!

Things have, in their ordinary fashion, been busy this month – especially I am sure for Aberlour and his team who provided a fantastic prize for the Seollal event that was held at the beginning of February. Still waiting on those screenshots, Abe!! Since the launch of Shambala-la-la-la-laaaa (Tony Christie eat your heart out) we have seen a surge of members giving the new PvP area a shot... though sometimes to the demise of other cabal members – in an incredibly hilarious and sporting way! Roleplaying has continued in the Tuesday and Saturday night timeslots, if you are interested in getting involved just head along – the events are always scheduled on our calendar so you know where you are going at what time! That said, head over to our Noticeboard for all our scheduled events, Swords!! If you want to do something that isn’t being scheduled and you want help – then approach our leaders who will all happily help you use the tools at our disposal. If you want specific help leading events, then try to approach leaders or division members who have skills in the area your event is related to. You can find all our division members and leaders in the cabal roster here.

Time for that cuppa and a biscuit – enjoy Issue 7!

Winners from our Issue 6 Competition!

Did you enter "Name their match!" ?

As I am sure you remember from Issue 6 of The Sword's Edge, there was a competition run by Antanahe. With a Valentines theme, the idea of the competition was to find the "couples" in the Secret World. You needed to find the in-game match / associated person to link with the names in the list that we gave. We are very happy today to tell you that there were 2 WINNERS!!

• 1st prize: Mellified - Who chose a Grievous Augment as a prize.
• 2nd prize: TS-13 - Who will get to choose between winning an Orochi Hover-Tech Snowboard or a Hermes MT600 motorbike

Congratulations to you both. And thank you Antanahe for offering up such fantastic prizes!! If you were curious about what the answers were.. here they are:

• Dame Julia / Miss Plimmswood
• Gozen / Richard Sonnac
• Cern / Sophie
• Luminita / Tibor
• Lilith / Samael
• Katelin / Durendal
• John Galahad / Callie James
• Tango / Cash
• Montgomery de la Rock / Arun Singh
• Vlad Dracula / Mara
• Freddy Beaumont / Cassandra King
• Nassir / Saïd

Interview with TS-13!

The Sword's Edge interview this month is with TS-13.

Katelin: Hi TS-13, thank you for agreeing to be the subject of my questioning!

TS-13: No problem!

Katelin: You joined the cabal just 4 months ago and said you thought we appeared to be a friendly bunch in the interview you had with Sonno. Now you have had the chance to actually get to know us all a bit better - what do you think now?

TS-13: I think you're all monsters! *laughs* Really, it's ONLY been 4 months! Well, I can say this, I'm happy with my decision to have joined Nine Swords. Every member I've run with or chatted with has definitely made me feel welcomed and I hope that I can do the same with our veteran and newer members. I definitely like the atmosphere of the cabal both, in game and on the website, that those who came before me have created. It makes playing TSW a lot more exiting. The fun never stops around here! :P

Katelin: Since joining you have been really involved in helping schedule and run events. What motivates you to do this?

TS-13: Well that's easy. I'm using you all! *cue evil laugh* Truth is before joining Nine Swords, I didn't run any group content besides dungeons and that was because I liked them. This kept me going despite being in groups that wouldn't communicate when the group would hit a wall or someone was just being a jerk. Now, I run maybe one pug a week. Scheduling and running events allows me and hopefully other members of the cabal to run group content without pressure and just enjoy TSW for what it is. Don't get me wrong, failed events hurt my motivation. However, when you finally get a cabal group run together and accomplish whatever the objective of the event was, it's all worth it. Unless, the game bugs out and I don't get my loot. *chuckles*

Katelin: We have a member base that is really quite spread out over different time-zones. What would you say to other Nine Swords members who are perhaps looking to get things happening at a time that suits them?

TS-13: My best advice is to just schedule the event on the website and remember that you may have to be flexible. Real life does exist. *gasp* There are days in which some members only log on for an event and then log off. This is perfectly fine. What I'm getting at is this, just because it "seems" like no one is on around the same time as you does not mean that people can't make an event, especially if you schedule it a few days in advance. Aside from this, we have pretty vocal members that will tell you I'm interested, but for "x" reason can't attend. I recall several attempts to scheduling an Eidolon Raid. Eventually, I got enough feedback and two things were happening. The day of the week was bad for most and the loot was not very appealing to some. Which reminds me I need to start scheduling that raid again.

Katelin: What is next for you within Nine Swords? I know you quite like trying to encourage people to join in and do things together.

TS-13: I'm quite happy being a division member, hanging out, etc. Who knows maybe leadership somewhere down the line. As for future events, I have some ideas in mind. Just trying to work out some details before I try to get anything going.

Katelin: Anything else you would like to add?

TS-13: Not at the moment. If you need help, have questions or are just tired of running solo, just let me know. I am by no means an expert, but I don't mind trying to help or direct you to someone who can. P.S: Can you guess what mission we just finished in the picture above!?!

Katelin: I know exactly which mission.. and I still don't have all my bears hehe. Thank you for your time!!

TS-13: You are very welcome.

Nine Swords is Recruiting!

The Secret World in the Real World: by Floryn

A lot of things in the Secret World are based on actual stories, events, art, etcetera. The Real Secret World will highlight one of the things you can see in the Secret World and tell you something about it’s origin in the real world.

Today’s highlight is a painting that (amongst others) can be found in the Temple Club.



This painting is titled 'Ivy Bridge Devonshire'.

Joseph Mallord William Turner was an English Romantic landscape painter, watercolourist and printmaker, whose style can be said to have laid the foundation for Impressionism. Although Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, he is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting.

The narrow medieval Ivy Bridge still carries Blachford Road across the River Erme in the centre of Ivybridge, a few miles east of Plymouth in Devon. It can be seen upstream to the north from the footpath beside Harford Road, just above the eastern bank. There is a later bridge carrying Fore Street a little way to the south.

Big Trouble in the South China Sea - Episode 3

Templar Briefing - Squad eyes only

Mission
Crispy Black Swan

Background
A brilliant but unhinged theoretical mathematician recently approached a Templar intermediary claiming to have developed a fool-proof method of predicting outliers - events that lie so far to the end of the probability curve that they could be classed as impossible (however, they are just vanishingly improbable). Examples would include a whole bar of lead spontaneously turning to gold (possible within Quantum Theory) or the price of oil dropping to one cent per barrel.

If this method proves to be demonstrably true and practical, then it could lead to the possibility of causing these outliers to occur by manipulating current events. This has the potential to become an incredibly powerful tool in the right or the wrong hands.

Current Situation
The mathematician (Nicholas de Vlamingh) developed his method while ensuring his privacy aboard a small craft (the Ludic Fallacy) with a local crew in the South China Sea. A meeting was scheduled at a berth in Manila harbour, to which the Ludic Fallacy and its crew arrived, but not Mr de Vlamingh. The crew were at a loss to explain his whereabouts, as they had sailed from the Sprately Islands without a stop. Templar interrogation techniques revealed that they were telling the truth - they knew that de Vlamingh had been in his cabin (he rarely emerged) and had issued orders to travel to Manila, but he was not on board when they arrived. His laptop and papers were also not to be found.

A cursory scan of the local shipping arrivals and departures has revealed that a small but significant number of cargo ships and other vessels have recently been arriving without some of their cargo - their journeys all took them close to the Spratelys. There have also been a number of hushed up insurance claims to Lloyds of London concerning high value items lost at sea in this area.

Objective
This information is only hours old. Investigate the area around the Sprately Islands and search for Nicholas de Vlamingh.

Current goings on in 9S...

Forget that there was the huge valentines events in The Secret World this last month - for Nine Swords I think February 2016 will have to be known as Lair Raider month. We have had so many members achieve their jacket in this last month.. I am going to dedicate this whole section to it! Monday nights are generally the time that we embark on the Lairs, though with the quantity of signups for help with Lair Boss Achievements in our thread in the PvE forum, quite a few extra runs were held.

If you are now turning green with envy and want to get your hands on a Lair Raider Jacket - what are you waiting for, use the thread linked above to let us know which bosses from which lairs you are missing. We will then plan a time to run the lairs with you and help you to achievement victory!!