Detective Wakefield

[Wakefield]

One month shy of a year, my second character's story has come to an ending. It was insanely fun playing a detective on CoR and tooling around 99 to find clues and secrets. I regret not getting into the Rings earlier, but the tiny bit of them I saw was really well done. I'll be sure to try again on a build that wasn't so focused on just RP.  Originally I was going to do a full plate rogue detective who was kind of like a former town guard, but was repeatedly told by game-savvy people how stupid that would be. They were definitely correct.

Ultimately, I went with a classic hardboiled Raymond Chandler brand detective. His look was inspired by Columbo, another detective I dearly love. Being an annoying, badgering sleuth who was constantly looked down on made the Columbo angle work even better. Wakefield was anti-magic, turning down buffs when he got the chance. He claimed that magic gave him allergies. CoR definitely didn't sit well with him.

I was a pure rogue, zen archer and had the Treasure Hunter, Investigator and Detective perks. Very fun to scan you all and see so much information. Wish it worked on DM NPCs, though!




I'm sad that the Agency couldn't stay as a group, but schedules just didn't work out. Magor Laughingskull, Camile Fairbrace and Arvo were huge influences on Wakefield's actions and later motivations. He was a broken man when they sacrificed themselves to give him an escape. Uncovering the secrets of the rings, the Nothing and how everything tied together consumed the old man to a destructive level.


Here's the highest level I reached:



And my final XP value at level 7.



EFUSL stuff:



His portrait and model:




I've got lots of screenshots and other images to dump in here, but let's start with the fun stuff: loot!
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This is cool semi-loot since others got copies as well:


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And now, tons of screenshots and reminiscing in a vaguely chronological order.
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The detective agency trio didn't get a lot of group shots, but here's the few I had.



Maggie was the muscle and heart of the group:



Camile was the magical expert and reliable scholar / voice of reason:



We spent our early days saving up money to get Merchant Guild Membership, finally paying off a loan for it. That's right, we actually paid money back after borrowing it!



The Agency's biggest group win was helping the Prospectors bring Zelia back from the Hesh Mercenaries. Super cool plot that had lots of lasting impacts later on. It was nice to use diplomacy to get things done, too!




We rented the Hall in Ticker, then the more appropriate leaking, shady Basement. Eventually it got upgraded to full power, but the office was only ever used a single time. Boo.




When he wasn't with Maggie and Camile, Wakefield was off searching for clues to the big mystery of the rings. Like-minded people were met and many, many, MANY hours of conversations were had:




Three big figures got Wakefield the furthest along in things: Saint Outis, Jeor Layman and, inadvertently,  Drusilla Peake. The deaths of Jeor, his drinking buddy, and Outis, the one who set him on the right path originally, hit Wakefield hard.
Wakefield had a drunken downward spiral after Jeor:



He was more collected when he said farewell to Outis (but still drunk):




Drusilla, oh man. All of that player's characters have been treasures, but Drusilla was the first Sunpurse member to hire Wakefield to find Phelan. I loved all the secret meetings and all the plotting.



By the way, four other Sunpurse retainers hired Wakefield to find Phelan, but because none of them talked to each other or made notes, he just kept taking their coin. The Phelan case was successfully closed, by the way. Not that he ever told Sunpurse... ;)

Drusilla did wind up going off the deep end, though.


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Next big thing was all the stuff with Trystan and the march on the lizards. It's all been seen before, but here's what I've got:
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Trystan's arrival.


His ever-dwindling army.


The scumbags he was left with.


Wakefield was a Trystan supporter from the start and even up until the end. The true story never got made public, unfortunately.  Surviving  the permadeath event for the lizards was blind luck and cowardice. I felt bad that no heroes lived to do the powerful battle thing. I couldn't hit any of the enemies at the end and I completely forgot about a bomb I had in my inventory. It might not have worked, but if I could do it over I would've had Wakefield chuck the bomb at the feet of the warlord, hoping to topple the bridge.

Trystan's second march didn't fare much better.



It was the last time the three members of the agency were together. I was a blubbering mess that night, thinking about it all and ugly-crying while trying to talk about all the characters and their stories.


Maggie and Camile stood against the Prince in Shadow to by time for Wakefield, telling him to run back and warn the city about what was to come. People didn't listen too well...

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More recently, Wakefield got to do a fantastic murder mystery case run by YMD. It was lots of work on his end but it'll stick with me forever. I never thought I'd get to do an event like that. Thank you again, YMD!
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Much too late, I started making an effort to get into the rings to fill in the gaps of Wakefield's theories. I didn't get far, but I liked what I got to see.
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And finally, the King of Nothing made a return. He brought some grudges with him.
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Here's some random screenshots I had!
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Vanity shots!
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Wakefield Detective Agency ads / maps:
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(Without dutiful Camile to hold him to a standard, this was what he eventually put up)

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Wakefield Detective Agency Cases:
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Case 1: "No News is Good News"
Case 2: "The Case of the Poisoned Peer"
Case 3: "Maria and the Pumpkin Patch"
Case 4: "The Mended Map"
Case 5: "Flew the Coop"
Case 6: "The Biggest Ever" -> Drusilla and Phelan. <3
Case 7: "Bringing Back Belacq"
Case 8: "Burned Bridges"
Case 9: "The Sundered Sword"
Case 10: "The Man from the Deepest Ring"
Case 11: "The Case of the Missing Mind"
Case 12: "The Lizard Prince in Silver"
Case 13: "The Case of the Beaten 'Biter"  -> Tons of legwork on this one, good god. https://www.efupw.com/forums/index.php?topic=697097.msg719610#msg719610
Case 14: "The Curious Case of Catsby"
Case 15: "The Many Faces of Golfaldus"
Case 16: "Null's Void"
Case 17: "Reaping What's Sown"
Case 18: "Open Door, Closed Casket" -> YMD's event, super cool.


I can't go into too much detail about the people and events involved for others, but they were all a lot of fun to explore. Way too many clients just died within days of hiring Wakefield, though. Y'all are cursed.

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Images that reminded me of the detective:
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Arc's Cipher:
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I made a Google spreadsheet with programming to fill in the spaces, which made it a lot easier to try variations. Simply put, it's a substitution cipher (Z = A, Y = B), but it isn't substituting for English. The entries all substituted Katakana characters from Japanese. The vertical lines represent sounds that are extended, with the dots being periods. Those two were huge hints that I didn't notice until months of effort. It was a nightmare puzzle and I loved how much it kicked my ass.
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Cool art by EFU's talented players!
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I loved these so much. It was very flattering to see people draw Wakefield. Thank you for each of them!

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I can't get into Wakefield's big grand theory on the City of Rings due to all the spoilers, but hopefully he's dropped enough hints and seeds of thought into people who are smarter, braver and (most importantly) alive. I won't get to find out if I was right about all my ideas until the chapter ends, I imagine, but it will be worth the wait. Thanks to everyone who interacted with Wakefield. You guys made for one hell of a year! :D

Special thanks to Easy to Remember, Drink with Me, Drusilla's everchangingly-named player, SFP, Ironside, Arc, Howlando and YMD.  Love you people. I'd buy drinks for you all if we hit a bar some time.


Catch ya on the next.  :)

[Wench]

It was a pleasure seeing you grow into your character on Mairead.

Great work, and I truly can't wait to see what you do next.

You get the award of playing one of my favorite PCs on this server to date.  ;D

Seriously, you are the definition of what players should strive for IG, good fucking work.  8)

[Bio]

great character dude

[Sublime]

Everything Wanch said. A great PC and played with such style, and consideration for other players.

Particularly glad we got to share that YMD murder mystery experience. I am still blown away by it and it was a fun, unusual and interesting RP experience to share with another player the way we did.

Love ya!

[Pigadig]

Bravo and well done!

[SkagHunter]

One of the staple characters of COR for a long while. Real glas to have had him around. Can't wait for the next

[TheShadow]

I knew him as a Coward, for it is not good intentions that defines a man, but what a man does. And Wakefield, fled.

Yet know that has high praise to you, the player. Wakefield had *Character*.

This is something that shouldn't be understated. Bravo, and see you on your next :)

[LiAlH4]

Simply fantastic. :)

[greypawn]

I feel like Wakefield has been around since I joined this version of the server.  Which oddly makes this sad for me.  Hope you roll up something new you enjoy as much! (If not more)

[VanillaPudding]

Awesome work man. It takes a ton of dedication to play something for that long and constantly make it fun. Every character I've been on I would see you stroll in with that HAT and it gave me a little smile :)

[Kiaring]

It's amazing how one single meeting with a long-haul PC like yours, played with supreme dedication, helping to instill the server with love, can completely alter the path of another character. I had the great opportunity to hear Wake's first-hand account of the Fall of Trystan Moonspear on Elene, and it is something that will forever remain with me.


Thank you! Hope to see your next soon! <3

[Poolson]

Damn son, you trucked on for the longest time. I was briefly convinced that Wakefield was immortal.

He had a good run in the sun, though. I'm happy he got his time to shine. See you on the flip side, sport.

[RNN]

What a cool PC, one I knew by reputation alone. Really wish I got to see more of him.

[SN]

Legendary.

[Walrus Warwagon]

Cole Wakefield has become a forever part of the city lore.