And for the record, for every ounce of chest-pounding here there has been a pound of problem solving.

Barbers were once surgeons, in addition to their other roles. The red on a barberGÇÖs pole is a reference to bloodletting. Barbatorem is both, a warrior of sorts, acting with surgical precision on whatever target he is directed at. A recurring theme in earlier stories suggests that he was sent against the summonerGÇÖs enemies, almost always powerful figures, and he brought them to ruin in the worst ways. He does not seek out mischief with those who summon him, but he takes advantage if one is offered. For this reason, he is a reasonably safe entity to summon if one takes care to follow instructions. He serves as a better deleterious sending against an enemy than he does as a boon-giver. This author and three acquaintances have summoned and used him without issue.

Physically, he rends his victims, and the surgeon aspect becomes evident in how he inflicts the maximum damage possible without ever killing them, though the methods change as his form does. He will mend the damage with an expert level of care that exceeds typical modern standards, if it means keeping the victim alive. Despite the blood shed in this process, his victims typically die by other means like starvation or dehydration, unable to move under their own power or communicate a request for aid, due to a lack of limbs, missing tongue and teeth or a lack of working sensory organs, and the isolation that follows an attack.

On a more abstract level, Barbatorem deals a deeper form of damage that is hard to encapsulate in this text. Rather than state the myriad ways he might harm his victims, this author would suggest a few key points to note, suggesting the wider variety of feats he can accomplish: It is believed that he can sever his targetGÇÖs ability to access any higher plane, forever and irrevocably denying them whatever good things might await them after death.

YouGÇÖll find him waiting in the tower room, which you will need the key to enter. Staying outside the circle is first in your list of things to keep in mind, which I list here because there are no better places to put the warning. I should hope such obvious things donGÇÖt need to be stated.

Cast aside all notion of manners. Do not greet him, do not ever say please or thank him. Do not ask him if he would or could do something. Give him no food or succor. There are older meanings in these things and they will either free him or give him power over you. Sometimes it is very little power, and sometimes it is all the power he needs to achieve his ends.

Put aside all metal and reflective things before entering the tower room, and ensure the space remains dark. He exists in a more abstract capacity, whatever physical forms he takes, and if his image is cast in a surface, he will exist in that surface, allowing him to step free of that surface and the confines of the circle. For these same reasons, do not ever look directly at him, even for a moment, lest he be reflected in your eyes. Rest assured, he will not ever step free once he dwells there.

Yikes, my eyes rolled over at that conversation and I skipped it mostly. Guess it's to early in the morning for me.

Remember to wish your mom happy Mother's Day!

I could never dream of being a feared knifer. But then I use the min scout as a tool to try to win matches. (A particularly fun one).

If the situation calls for the suit, I pull out my adv one with ZNs, place links, hack stuff, stab people that get in the way. Rarely do I go on an ishnok killing spree.

[...]Dreis i challenge you. If you are so good as a knifer, run NO cloak for 7 days....see how you perform without it

My Pub fits have 197 hp total [...]

"No cloak elitism" was more an assault-lite mantra than a sneaky bastard standard. [...]

[...]
If the situation calls for the suit, I pull out my adv one with ZNs, place links, hack stuff, stab people that get in the way. [...]

[...] Try different Minja styles - look at say Kaeru's style compared to mine - he uses cloak and EWAR, I use 10.38 m/s and headless chicken - he is more competent BTW.

Otherwise just have fun with it.

We both came to the final conclusion that all the styles are important. There's a time to sneak, and a time to rush in headstrong, a time to be patient and a time to move along. Being able to flow between each is what makes the great scouts. One step in front of the other, you impress me more and more, my friend. Though I disagree with your opinion of my competency. :3

"Fuu Rin Ka Zan"

My mantra.

Hi everyone, been working 10+ hour days so I haven't been around much. What have I missed? Am I hearing correctly about a new update? What else went on in the barbershop.

In other news, I recently read Pact by Wildbow.

I can never look at the term 'barber' in the same way again.


Has anyone else read it? Here's an excerpt from what it has to say on the 'barber'.






Really really ******* creepy. The tale also features a demon that obliterates things so totally that all memory of them is also lost, a creature that eats parts of people so it can torment their ghosts, and a number of other ridiculously dark things.

It's pretty damn good. It's worth reading - the same author wrote Worm, if anyone's read that too (1.8 million words! It's an epic tale indeed).

o/ Steve

Warlords 1.1 was deployed on April 28th:
https://forums.dust514.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=2734048

An unnamed balance pass went live on May 7th:
https://forums.dust514.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=2762832#post2762832

From what we know so far, HF Foxtrot will be Logi-oriented; I suspect it'll be deployed later this month.

This is sick. Is this like a handbook on summoning demons? Like a low fantasy Hitchhiker's Guide? Because I would be all over that. Fiction writers so rarely manage to tap the true potential of demonic/satanic imagery. It's such a waste because it's a really really cool aesthetic that most of the time just boils down to red dudes with pitchforks and horns.

Nice! Editing of the apex suits? SWEET! any drama happened here?

Not quite.

It's all about dealing with demons, though. That's just an excerpt from the book that the protagonist inherited.

It's well worth reading though.

Guys, I need your help in regards to this comment in my blog:



How may of you genuinely believe that I can eventually become as good as musturd, or maybe even surpass him?

Dreis i challenge you. If you are so good as a knifer, run NO cloak for 7 days....see how you perform without it

Sounds like it. How many pages is it? It seems like quite the undertaking, I've never read a web serial before

Yikes, my eyes rolled over at that conversation and I skipped it mostly. Guess it's to early in the morning for me.

Remember to wish your mom happy Mother's Day!

Uh, pages...

It's 950k words, IIRC. Not sure how many pages that translates to, but the average novel is 40k words long and War and Peace is something like 500k, for comparison.

It'll keep you busy.

If that's not long enough for you, you can try Worm, which is a dark superhero that just so happens to be 1.8 million words.

That's not a challenge, that's telling him to stop using something that cripples him.

How's not running a cloak crippling?
Infact I take that as a insult as a no cloak scout!

Oh jesus, that seems like a bit more than I could handle. I've got the attention span of a doorknob, I doubt I could stay committed to something of that length. I'll definitely look into it though.