Page 2 of 2
To Fog or
Not to Fog
By Lady Berylla Ithylian
I am a fogger. Yes, that's right! I finally made it to my goal! I have dedicated my life in the lands to healing the good (and some not so good) people around me....and have finally made it to the point where I have the ability to fog to fallen townspeople. But what does this mean? What does it entail? The more I talk to people...the more I realize that most don't have a clue as to what goes into it! And what about the other foggers! Do they all know the right way and wrong way to fog? IS there a right and wrong way to fog at all? Does anyone even care about this article at all? Well...hopefully by the end of this article we'll all know a little bit more about this thing called fogging.
When I first got the spell 225, Transference, I thought I had made it to the big time! But then I quickly realized, what good is having the spell to fog TO someone, when you have no way of getting them back to town again? And having to wait 10 seconds every time I prepped the spell! Yuck! So I waited....and waited. Then I learned the spell 130, Spirit Fog. Yahoo! Now I'm in business! But then I started to do the math. Let's see....16 mana to locate, 25 more to get to the person, 30 to get home, and then another 13 to cast minor sanct so that the area was safe! 84 mana! Just to rescue one person? And then half the time when I got back to town, I landed at the North Gate and the body was healed by someone else anyway. Oh well, at least they're ok now, right? Right? Needless to say, I didn't have enough mana to fog to anyone for quite a few more trainings.
So now here I am at 50 trainings and for the first time I can actually do some good and be a help to people! I have a cleric friend who is my regular fogging partner, which is something I highly recommend to anyone going into the field. On a normal day, we stand around somewhere quiet and as we sense people dying, we take turns locating them to make sure they are all right. If they are all alone and it seems they need help, one of us fogs to them, then the other one follows. If the area isn't safe, we cast minor sanct so no one dies while we're doing the rescue. The cleric casts preservation on the body and then we ask who would like to accompany us back to town. Why don't we just raise them there you ask?
Well, as most people know, once you are raised you
aren't up to snuff when it comes to defending yourself. No spells
to protect you, low on spirit.....no, the safest place for you to
be brought back to life is within the town walls. Sure some
corpses might prefer to be raised in the wilds, but that is rare
and of course, we try to do as we're asked. So once everyone is
joined up, miscellaneous treasure lying about has been scooped up
in case the fallen adventurer wasn't able to gather it before
they died, we all fog back to town.
Simple right? Or is it? The latest illness that has come over foggers across the lands is this strange sort of air sickness! No sooner do you land back in town (hopefully) than you become nauseous, your head pounding, everything around you becomes a blur and next thing you know, wham! You're flat on your back staring up at the clouds! And on top of that....it can take up to a minute or more to recover from this loathsome sickness, during which time you are unable to stand or even move.
Well again, this is why fogging as a team is helpful. If the cleric fogs back to town, the empath can heal up the person and have them prepped and ready for life by the time the fogger is back on his or her feet. The corpse is healed, the cleric gives the person life, the empath unstuns them both and voila! A successful fog! The last and my favorite part of rescuing someone is taking just a few more minutes to making sure the person is feeling well, that they know where they are, how to get back to the center of town and everyone is safe, sound and hopefully not too upset that they have to replace a deed.
Well this is where some of the foggers have a problem. It seems there is a new breed of fogger in the lands. The blind fogger. This type of fogger doesn't seem to care about his or her patients. The point of fogging for the blind fogger isn't to help the person who has died or restore them to life but to raise as many people as quickly as they can and to learn as much as possible. Do they care if anyone else helps them in their endeavors? No! They can do it themselves! Do they ask if anyone wants to join them? Ask the poor guy who was left in the spider temple when a fogger came in, grabbed the body lying next to him, then fogged out again leaving him webbed and bleeding. But most of all, do they really care about the bodies they're rescuing? Or do they patch em up, raise em up, then fog off for the next body quick as you can say "Hey! Who are you?"
I've asked some of the more famous foggers around the Landing what it is they'd like people to know. What kind of rules do they follow? What kind of advice would they give to someone just starting out? Here's some of the things they've had to say.
If someone fogs in and casts minor sanct making it impossible for you to keep hunting in that room, don't yell and scream about it! We're not doing it to ruin your hunting, but for everyone's safety. That sanct will leave about a minute after the fogger does. You will be able to resume hunting soon so don't make a fuss.
If you want to hitch a ride back to town, just join the fogger! It saves time and there aren't any foggers I know of that mind this.
There are times when two or three foggers all go to help the same person. If this happens, the rule is, first person there runs the show! When I perform rescues, if I see another fogger got there first, I will join them and hitch a ride back to town. If I'm the only empath there, I will go ahead and heal the body. If there is an empath there before me, then I will usually stick around to unstun anyone who needs it and help as I see fit. Making sure everyone is safe is the main objective.
As for new foggers, there's some rules that many of us have been trying to follow. The first one is... always locate before you fog. It's important for your own safety, but also it gives other foggers a chance to help also. There have been days when I locate one dead body after another only to see the same person there over and over. We all want to help...give someone else a chance!
Also, if you've fogged to three bodies in a row, go take a break! You've earned it! Stop by Helga's or Hearthstone....grab a drink and kick your feet up for a minute. That doesn't mean let the people out in the fields rot where they're lying! But if you locate the bodies first, you can see quickly who needs help and who doesn't!
For empath foggers, sometimes when you land back in town with a body at your feet, other empaths will mistakenly heal your patient. When this happens....take a deep breath! Usually, I will try to whisper to the person who did it, explaining to them how to look and see who is with a body. Yelling at them in front of the whole town won't do anything but make them mad, whereas a well-placed whisper can do wonders! If you're really worried about someone healing your patient while you're trying to regain your composure, you can heal the person before you fog. Just make sure you don't heal bad head or nerve wounds! You'll be stuck out in the wilds, unable to cast and will most probably need a rescue yourself!
Fogging can be fun, and it can be frustrating. But if we all respect each other and do our best to keep our townspeople safe, there shouldn't be any troubles. Working together is what it's all about. We're all on the same team after all!