Ah! I'm sorry! I was trying to find who first mentioned it, but I couldn't remember and the thread is too long to look through. That was such a great idea of yours. I was just wondering who the next one could be about ten minutes before I read your post and started typing a few in. There's a list in the Subetapedia, but I didn't get through all of them. :)

Perhaps Elwood gives a battle advantage. As was mentioned above, he might give a way to get out of an obstacle. But what if he specifically 'confuses' a target enemy or something? There are less of them to fight, or they have lower health.

Then again, he could just hinder both teams in some way. Maybe he's the one that's broken all of the bridges over the chasms and such. He just likes to see everyone scurry around trying to beat each other to his next prank!

I thought about sabotage being Elwood's perk too, but then that would be too mean. I think having him use his trickiness to get his own team out of obstacles or something would be okay though.

If that is indeed what he's here for. ;)

imagines Elwood lurking behind the trees giggling at the two teams throwing their leaders into the ravine ...That's it. That's what it is.

I don't know if you were around when I mentioned it earlier, but I have my own theory that maybe he's the one who sent Blake the maps and is lurking about following us.

Especially since the first map Blake got was for the event in the Sacred Lands, and guess who lives there according to his character bio... Yep, it's Elwood.

Guys, it's a sign. Got this while questing

"Tempest has descended from above in order to play! You receive a storm item so she can get close enough to give you a MIGHTY BEAR HUG. [item2=How To Befriend Tempest] "

- yes I still have a bunch of gold trinkets in my vault. Didn't remember that's where they came from. Thanks for the reminder.

- we will miss you during the work week, but look forward to your return this weekend.

- hope you are feeling lots better soon. Please take care of yourself. We much appreciate all your help, but you are more important than anything happening here. And you did everything you were able to for the team and more so you should be proud of your contribution. Sorry that you missed getting in on the double quests. That is a pain. I was amused because I decided to finish off all the quests while I waited to find out what new task we would get, and was just relaxing because they were almost done when they suddenly reset and I got to do them all again. So I wound up basically doing all the quests three times in a row. Felt like I was questing forever, but it was something I could do to help out.

- congratulations on the lizard minion event.

- another questathon would be nice - especially now that so many of us have active gold accounts and want to quest more anyway. Something else would probably be okay too - just happy it won't be another donation drive. Whatever it is, I'm sure our team will handle it. This team does an excellent job of working together. So glad to be part of it.

- yes, it was. It was the test system before the general release and our bosses felt that having and using it would help us do a better job developing the first release. The truly awesome part was that they paid our phone bills - including long distance which was very expensive at the time. Every time I got stuck in traffic, I would get on the phone with my friends and family.

- yes, the questathon should end right before we get back on the trail (staff said between 5:30 and 5:45pm) so about another hour.

- unless they've readjusted food consumption again, the best thing to do when we have battle obstacles is to play Survivor. Many of us can kill either battle opponent with a single hit, but our food supplies drop a bunch during obstacles. So it is good to have less advanced battlers hunting then. Not to say that you shouldn't work on your battle pet. After all, you may want to join in a boss battle for this or some other plot. I suggest doing Shinwa's quests every day - do her first, because she just asks you to do the other quests and her bracelet piece is added to the regular quest reward, so you don't lose anything. Once her five are done, then you can go back to questing in your preferred order. Many of Shinwa's rewards are stat boosters and you usually earn a bit of sP besides. Also most battlers seem to recommend doing battle quests every day. And, of course, just remembering to train.

Happy Trails

- really? Just...fragging? that seems kind of boring. I was hoping for something more fun like battling or playing games.

I'm going through them right now. I'll let everyone know if I find more! :D It could also be that more might not show up for another day or two. I'm surprised about Elwood showing up so soon. I really thought staff would hide the NPCs better to avoid the spoilers!

That's a pretty good theory. Ofcourse the question would then be...why? :O

There was one other thing, but I can't remember it. e__e But it was on a similar note of getting rid of items...

THAT IS SUCH A GOOD SIGN! ❤

What was even better was she was pulling me away from doing Saggi quests to play with me so clearly she has no interest in him

That's what I'm wondering, if it is true. He's supposedly friends with Blake, so why be sneaky about it? And why would he want Blake to explore in these places anyway, part of a prank or something? I have no idea, it was just a thought. :P

It could also be that he'll just be another of the NPCs with a bonus thing. But it would be weird too if he ended up with Saggi's team since he's Blake's friend. lol

Thank you so much for the tips! I should make a list of dailies to actually remember to do. I keep saying I will, and then keep forgetting. Constantly. I'll probably stick with playing Survivor for the trek part of the plot. But I'm definitely working right now to improve ommetaphobia, just in case. If there's something else that comes up that requires battling, I definitely want to be able to pull my weight and help the team out. ;u;

Unless it was someone else who wanted Elwood and Blake to cross paths? :O I don't really know how they met. I wasn't here during the desert plot and I admit I know very little about both characters.

Maybe Elwood would like the idea of a friendly competition with his BFF. ;)

I'm not really sure how they met either, and I didn't participate much in the Sacred Lands plot myself.

I just know from the Snowball competition this past winter that he and Blake are friends and they play card games together or something.

I think that's about all that we really know about their relationship. Although they have both gotten revamps recently as well, by the same artist I think.

[edit]Also just a note, not sure if it's important. But all of the NPCs involved so far (except Saggi and the Islanders) also participated in the snowman event.

Whoo finished all my quests with...not much time to spare lol

Had to quit one cause Nori's a jerk who asks for Tique less than 3 hours after its release, but apparently Esther still counted it so that's cool.

collapses The lag monster was vicious at times, but I fought him off and got all my quests done. And damn, look at that lead we have, over 25k! Damn guys and gals, we're pretty awesome. :D

falls over Did all quests for today except Sarah's. I think we have a big enough lead and it's close enough to this portion being done that I don't really need to do them today. lol I'm just trying not to whimper at the thought that we might have to do another 300 quests for tomorrow's NPC. Hahahaha

I literally just realized this. Very interesting. Could mean something, or it could mean nothing. They are pretty popular NPCs.

- someone found Esther the same way right before she showed up. So maybe it's just the next NPC who can be found that way. After all, staff probably need some time working on it before it's released to us.

- cool idea. It might be just like Elwood to be sending anonymous maps to people.

- you're welcome. And you certainly don't need to worry about pulling your weight with the team. You have clearly done all you can, as have most of our teammates. And every one contributes in different ways with the resources they have to give. Which fits with life on the trail.

- great job. And very interesting to hear that Esther counted quests that couldn't be completed. That would have been nice to know earlier for people who may have stretched their sP budget. Fortunately, we've had lots of team support from people with sP, token and GA account medals. We're really lucky to be part of Team Steele.

Happy Trails