the ancient hood of whispering shadows

[Gorka]

Not sure I got the "fuel" to rush forging this new artifact as I have in the past, sloth is tired for me now, but here is what I know...

Vain, the master shadow assassin tells you 'Ahh yes, the ancient hood of whispering shadows...Here is a
little bit of information for you:'

Object 'ancient hood whispering shadows', Item type: ARMOR
Item is: GLOW PERSONAL
Weight: 1, Value: 20000000gold, Worn in: TAKE HEAD
AC-apply is -0.7
Can affect you as:
Affects: MAX_DEX by 1
Affects: SAVING_SPELL by -1
Affects: HITROLL by 2
Affects: REGEN_MOVE by 10
The item has 1 additional magical ability.
Only those who have attained supremacy in at least six classes may use this
item.

Requires: 10000000 coins,
1x the mask of the great thief (0), milipede - Temple Ruins
1x a ruby dragonscale helmet (0), Ajkllyflljyk - Magma
1x a prison guard helmet (0), captain - yoopers
1x a jeweled billiards cue (0), envy - roost
1x ring of the underworld (0), Adrean - Ligrea
1x a death's head signet ring (0), emissary - plan of earth
1x an octiron-tinned poniard (0),
1 x a small ruby - various - BH
1 x a silver stiletto - various - dark dreams
1 x a ring with an octarine aura - Mara - LAME
1 x a sliver of Antrodemus clavicle - Brum - LAME
1 x a ring of conflagration - Agox - Hades
1 x a gold-pommeled stiletto - Captain - Wagoneers
1 x a razor-sharp silvery dagger ??
1 x [19157] - ??
1x a sphere of madness (0), Bargrivyek - Abernus
1x the talons of a large raptor (0), the red-tailed hawk - Amaryllian
1x a flask of ghostly whispers (0), The Pit-Fiend, Hutijin - Caina
1x a book of arcane knowledge (0), reporter - Judges
1x the kusarigama (0), critic - Mnem
1x pelt of the black panther (0) - Cheba/Flight/Shade - DOT

In the context of the head slot, what it means for me as a warrior, my play style and the final stat, it looks like it would likely be completely worth it.

[Gorka]

Somehow I have mustered the desire to cycle for the cp's. Only 5 more to go.

The problem is looking to be this item...

a razor-sharp silvery dagger

It has no popper, which suggests it's an AQ Item. Searches of all my logs, and notes have come up with nothing. It's possible the item has only ever been forged once or twice. I believe Krok was the original first forger, who sent the information to Blackmore. The eq list suggests the item was ID'ed [08 Jan 2020]. The forge note doesn't give any clues as to who the popper is. I have one item in the LAME area not yet handed in through the conquest system which might explain the source of the item... but I think the rush to forge might be for nothing until this mystery is solved.

[Gorka]

Ok.
You feel informed:
Object 'ancient hood whispering shadows *Gorka*', Item type: ARMOR
Item is: GLOW PERSONAL RESTRUNG
Weight: 1, Value: 20000000gold, Worn in: TAKE HEAD
AC-apply is -0.7
Can affect you as:
Affects: MAX_DEX by 1
Affects: SAVING_SPELL by -1
Affects: HITROLL by 2
Affects: REGEN_MOVE by 10
The item has 1 additional magical ability.
Only those who have attained supremacy in at least six classes may use this
item.

ask hood
You look at the the arcane hood of whispering shadows and, feeling
a little foolish, you speak to it. To your surprise, the hood speaks back.

'Master, I am at your service. I am an artifact of great power. First and
foremost, I extract pain from creatures when you exercise your thief skills,
backstab, circle stab, or garrote. Each creature that you attack utilizes a
soul signature within my pain reserves, and that pain will remain intact
until it is released. Once my pain levels for a given soul signature has
reached a certain threshold, you will be able to unleash that energy by
evicesrating the creature [Eviscerate]. This attack can either initiate a battle
or can be used in the heat of battle. To check on my pain reserves for a given
soul signature, simply peer at the creature of interest.

Note that across Jord there are dozens and dozens of soul signatures, but as
a powerful artifact I am able to track them independently from each other.
The following is a list of useful commands that I honor:

ask hood <anything>: I will repeat this message.
look hood: I will report my xp and level, plus capabilities.
peer <creature>: I will report my pain levels for the soul
signature associated with that creature.
eviscerate <creature>: If I have enough pain, I will unleash the pain
upon the creature you specify.
offer <object> hood: When I am ready to level, I will require you to offer
me the specified object for me to gain level.

One final note to consider is that not all creatures have the same level of
pain. The stronger the creature, the more pain I am able to
extract. I think you will find that it is not wise to spend our time
trying to exterminate kobolds off the face of Jord to gain xp.

As you end your query, it seems to you that the hood is laughing to itself.

l hood

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Hood level: 1
* Hood xp: 0
* Next level: 1000
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Note: Each level stands on its own (does not accumulate as chart goes down). *
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* - Eviscerate is the attack performed when the hood is sufficiently charged. *
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* [x] Level 1: Eviscerate - 25% of max dam, 10% chance of hemorrhage *
* [ ] Level 2: Eviscerate - 38% of max dam, 20% chance of hemorrhage *
* [ ] Level 3: Eviscerate - 50% of max dam, 30% chance of hemorrhage *
* [ ] Level 4: Eviscerate - 63% of max dam, 40% chance of hemorrhage *
* [ ] Level 5: Eviscerate - 75% of max dam, 50% chance of hemorrhage *
* [ ] Level 6: Eviscerate - 80% of max dam, 60% chance of hemorrhage *
* [ ] Level 7: Eviscerate - 85% of max dam, 70% chance of hemorrhage *
* [ ] Level 8: Eviscerate - 90% of max dam, 80% chance of hemorrhage, *
* + 1 Bonus Reduce Dam *
* [ ] Level 9: Eviscerate - 95% of max dam, 90% chance of hemorrhage, *
* + 1 Bonus Reduce Dam, *
* + 7 Bonus Circle Dam *
* [ ] Level 10: Eviscerate - 100% of max dam, 100% chance of hemorrhage, *
* + 1 Bonus Reduce Dam, *
* + 7 Bonus Circle Dam, *
* + 7 Bonus Stab Dam *
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks to Ezekiel for loaning a cp, and helping solve the razor-sharp silver dagger mystery.

Regarding the razor-sharp silver dagger, I offer you the clue "Cerath."
Regarding the a small octiron ingot I offer you the clue "Braye."

Be careful with the small ruby cp, you want the one from Catacombs, not pirates.

[Gorka]

I think for the majority of players (non-prime thieves), the proc part of this item will prove to have limited use.

Without circle stab or garrot, non-thief primes really need to stab epic sized mobs to level it quickly. Currently you have to backstab 100 erinye sentinels, to get one proc AND they are level 41! Then if you actually use the proc on an erinye sentinel - it's completely overkill. Which means this item is geared for stabbers of group mobs. The other artifacts - at least level with spells players can use multiple times in combat.

The item's niche use, is a prime thief who groups. That's not to say you can't "cheese" the leveling process solo... just to say that it really has no great use for non-primes, and build's procs unbearably slow doing small solo xp of which are a waste to use on small mobs.

Putting the proc to one side for a moment, the stats of the item are nice. I love the -1 spellsave, stabdam, damreduct and move regen... less excited about the MAX_DEX - that's actually a pain in my case.

I think in general artifacts could be improved better for solo. In general I have never really been a fan of "Proc Sloth" but in my opinion it would be better if procs did less damage, but more frequently, rather than atom bombs every blue moon.

Group power is already insanely OP. I've seen a 1 run Lucifer without choppers, by 6 players. If any of you remember the pre-proc days... this should be a "what the hell!" moment! The old imms will be turning in their graves. You can't have as much fulfillment without an equal amount of struggle and achievement. The game has become very high on grind, and very low on art. But these are just my opinions.

I forgot to mention that the item has problems with the "peer" command on some mobs, and unfortunately the damage the proc does is not shown in counters.