Chaos! Yes, that's what this week amounted to, thanks to Macstorm's casting of Chain Lightning. He returns this week and makes a mess of things, but it leaves UFJ with a chance to win if he can hold his own next week. Good luck to you, UFJ.

This was definitely a week of Vampiric Touch. (That link should finally work now. It saddens me that I missed it that long.) I was beginning to think the immunity rule was never going to kick in; sadly, it happened to Leaper, who has had such bad luck with spellcasting. I'm sorry, but Karlinn got you with his casting of Haste. Otherwise, it's a normal contest week... hopefully we can get an entry by someone else to make it easier for someone to win. Crestlinger enters the contest late, though he's very unlikely to be a threat to the leaders at this late stage. Sorry, Crestlinger, but you might get a streak of luck.

Now this was an interesting week. It was quite a flurry of spellcasting, and poor Bainick got hit by two magic missiles, guessed wrong on the story, and was far enough off on the bonus guess to earn no points there either. Meanwhile, UFJ guessed the correct HP exactly and was the only one to guess correctly on the story, while Karlinn manages a middle of the road performace with his very close bonus guess. The net result is that Bainick falls to fourth place, I go back to first, and Karlinn and UFJ are very close together in second and third places; Bainick lost first place even before the spellcasting began. Better luck to you in upcoming weeks, Bainick; you've played this game quite well so far.

Well, I see I managed a total shutout this time on the story, though I didn't mean to. I may have inadvertantly set it up with the gaming tip of the week; I'll have to be more careful about that. Bainick's spellcasting still manages to put him into first position, though, and so this may be a crucial week as he can attempt to cast Victory and end the contest. I know the rest of you aren't about to allow him to win this contest after winning the last one, so you'll need to steal his narrow lead from him. XeroZohar also joins this contest and has a particularly good bonus guess, though he has a lot of work to do to catch up to the leaders.

Well, this week is certainly making things interesting. While Bainick is still looking to be the first to steal first place from me, Karlinn has certainly closed the gap. UFJ and Leaper aren't out of the running either; all they need is a good week to catch up and possibly vault ahead. It looks like we could have a winner soon, and it's hard to say who that will be now. Leaper is having bad luck with his fireball, but his luck could change at any time.

Note: Bainick gets his casting of Vampiric Touch for free this week since I forgot he intended to cast it on me the week before. Thus, he retains full MP.

I felt bad about how ineffective the spellcasting was this week. When I designed these spells, I was expecting there to be more participation and thus more points being gained each week. For this reason, I've decided to give 1 extra MP per week to everyone who participates in these last weeks of the contest. The bonus guess went well for all of you, but then, I did manage to roll the exact center of the possible range, so I suppose some bonus points were guaranteed this time since you have to be 50% off before you gain no points. Thus, I made it too easy and have corrected it now; the score for the bonus guess drops off by 2 for every 5% off the guess is.

Leaper manages to tie with Karlinn this week, but other than that, the positions remain stable. UFJ steals some of Bainick's points, making it harder for him to achieve first position. Other than that, this was a typical week in the contest, but the new bonus guess is likely to speed things up next week.

Well, this one was a difficult one, but a couple of you managed to get it right. Bainick has some bad luck, though, and he misses a great chance to pull ahead of me. Macstorm also returns this week, but a bad guess doesn't allow him to gain much ground. Perhaps he'll have better luck next week.

Bainick makes a rare incorrect guess this time, leaving me still in first position, though that may change soon enough. Otherwise, it was a slow week, possibly due to all these finals I keep hearing people complain about. Hopefully, we'll get a couple more guesses next week.

Well, this one came to a 50/50 with Bainick once again proving an excellent guesser. The spellcasting this week had an unexpected result. Though Antipathy and Vampiric Touch have different methods for determining how many points are gained and lost, this time, it worked out so that UFJ and Bainick essentially cancelled out each other's spells. Despite this, Bainick is approaching the Victory threshold and is still close to beating me in the rankings.

With this being a holiday week, I think it's a good idea for the contest to take a week off. Everyone's likely to be busy anyway, so better for any contest entries to come next week when everyone has time to guess. Feel free to write one and send it in if you wish; otherwise, you can expect to see another one from me next week.

UFJ manages to climb to third place this week with his entry and casting of Fortitude, though he does have to share third place with Karlinn. The new Saving Throw assistant, wambatboy, also makes his first guess and starts out on a high note with a correct guess. (Don't worry. Unlike me, he doesn't have access to the correct answers.) Bainick comes close to claiming first place, but he loses some ground this week with a rare incorrect guess. All in all, an interesting week.

Well, this is a first for the Saving Throw contest; everyone who guessed got it right. Unfortunately, no one knew this was going to happen, even me; otherwise, the smart move for most of you would have been casting Fortitude. But even I might not have, as I expected that entry to be fifty-fifty in terms of correct and incorrect guesses. Bainick, though, makes his smart move with his spellcasting this time around and I'm finally in danger of losing first place, but that's okay, as I have no particular attachment to it. It'll be interesting to see what happens now that he has a good lead.

Well, RedBeastMage benefits from his submission of a difficult entry, vaulting easily over the inactive players. Only UFJ failed to take the bait of the more sensible ending, and he too manages to climb a little in the ranking because of it. I'm still ahead by a wide margin, and it could get wider this week as I again submit another entry in the absence of any others. I must be taken down sometime, but I've endeavored to make that easier for you with seven new spells (loosely inspired from their Dungeons and Dragons counterparts): Antipathy, Charm Person, Etherealness, Haste, Jump, Sympathy, and the risky Teleport spell. Make good use of these new spells to dethrone the high rankers and take me out of first position, and good luck.

Again, I find myself a little surprised, thinking my false ending wouldn't be very convincing, but it was clearly more convincing than I thought. Leaper even cast Fortitude, which unfortunately didn't help him this time, but at least it only cost him 2 MP. I also made a couple of adjustments to the rules to make things easier. The first is that participants must be active to increase the victory threshold; players become inactive after two weeks of not guessing or submitting entries. You can see this by the gray scores and MP in the sidebar. Also, the threshold has been adjusted down to ten times the number of active participants. I did this because scores are increasing more slowly than I anticipated; I thought we'd have had at least one two-entry week by now. Still, my score will need to be decreased as well; you still need to be in the number one position to successfully cast Victory.

RedBeastMage, our Sound Test curator, joins the contest this week, but unfortunately guesses badly and starts out with only two points and a single MP. This entry ended up being worth a fair amount to those who guessed right as an equal number guessed wrong. Otherwise, this was a quiet week in the contest with no spells cast. Some people are getting high MP, though, so I expect we'll see some spells cast next week.

Well, much to my surprise, I didn't get hit at all. Instead, Bainick draws first blood with his casting of Vampiric Touch against Macstorm. Also, since it occurred to me that multiple people could cast Vampiric Touch against the same person, I realized I better decide how to handle that. Thus, the description for the Vampiric Touch spell has been updated. Otherwise, this was a slow week aside from two new participants coming in on a high note with both getting a correct guess. Let's see if the combat gets any more furious next week...

Karlinn pulls into second place, just inching ahead of Macstorm with his use of a Fortitude spell. The rest of you waited, and that leaves me with an uneasy feeling in my stomach, as most of you now have enough MP to cast some combat magic. I have this odd feeling that I have a bullseye painted on my back as well... why would I be getting that feeling?

Anyway, having given this a little reconsideration the last week, I decided that I made the Victory spell a little too hard to cast. After all, it'd be very difficult to save up 5 MP and actually stay in the lead or pull ahead. Thus, the casting of the Victory spell will take only 2 MP, but unlike before, you will lose those 2 MP should the spell casting fail. Also, since the speed scores go up and down largely based on the number of participants, the score threshold for casting the Victory spell will now be 15 times the number of current participants. Right now, that means you only need 90 points to be eligible to cast Victory.

This week was certainly a surprise, especially given that I expected everyone to get this one right without any trouble. Instead, everyone guessed wrong. It makes me sorry that I waited a week on making a decision to introduce spells to the game, because you could have used them. It doesn't matter, as you wouldn't have had the MP to use any anyway, but this week, you do. Also note that the condition for victory has changed; for details, check out the Victory spell. Now, before you look at my lead and tell me I'm insane, note that I am a valid target for spells. Additionally, note my lack of MP. I can't defend myself, so I doubt I'll be much of a barrier for long, especially since Macstorm sent in the entry this week, slowing the increase of my score. Good luck to you and happy casting!

At first, I thought everyone was going to get this one right, but to my surprise, a couple of you did indeed make a bad guess. It was interesting reading the reasons why you guessed the way you did, though, and it's still very early in the contest, so there's still a solid chance to catch up with the leaders. As you'll see this time, I'm going to be posting my own score. I only earn points from writing stories and having people guess incorrectly, though; I can't earn any points from guessing since I know the answers. Like with all other staff, however, my score doesn't affect your chances of winning; you only have to beat the other readers to win.

Shawn "Wishing you the best of luck" Bruckner