10K Giveaway Contest #3 - Raid Tales

[Hagglebaron]

As always everyone is welcome to participate. This time the contest will revolve around raid stories from live or Project 1999. Funny, tense, just plain epic, everything is fair game, but please keep them pre-Velious.

Share your story here (one per person please ;)) and i will select the best three in my opinion next Friday. I'll then make a poll and allow the community to decide who wins the 10k pp, similar to the process for the previous contests.

Good luck!

[Calais]

E'ci: from socialist 'paradise' to capitalist lockdown

While not the story of an individual raid, I think this story about raiding is interesting. (And fellow E'ci players feel free to correct me on the details, but I think I got it all).

We start our tale in 1999, on the E'ci server. This server would soon become known to some as a 'commie' server. Unlike many other servers in classic EQ, E'ci did not have a strong guildbase for raiding from the beginning.

At the very core of E'ci raiding was the public raid. Yes, the public raid: that unwieldy beast which ends up being a mixture of luck, wipes, trains and morons. The main proponent of public raiding on E'ci back in these days was Hottoq, a squat loud-mouthed dwarven paladin who was regularly at the centre of VNBoards shouting matches.

While public raiding suited some, more 'sinister' forces were at play (depending on your outlook) who wanted to rise above the chaos of public raiding and carve out an elite force of raiders. Souls of the Shadow was born.

What followed was an epic struggle between the lithe Souls of the Shadow raiders and a motley crew of public raiders, known as Hottoq's Red Army. Chaos, infighting, and failure hounded the Red Army at each step of the way, with Souls of the Shadow taking more and more Vox and Nagafen pelts every week.

The fighting reached fever pitch, with frenzied races to get to the dragons first, generally ending up with the crack team in Souls getting the kill. Finally the Red Army and Souls attracted the attention of the gods who, in their wisdom, had deigned to stay out of things as much as possible.

The GMs stepped in and 'sorted it all out' (Yea, right!). Souls of the Shadow was inexplicably renamed Night's Watch, and it was said that Mr Smedley himself got involved in this war of ideology. Unfortunately, the days of Hottoq's Red Army were numbered.

Soon the resolve of the public raiders began to flag. An attitude of 'if you can't beat them, join them' arose. Some defected to the enemy in search of results and treasure. Some perservered.

In the end the chaos and fighting continued, and an agreement was struck where Night's Watch would be transferred to Zebuxuruk. Night's Watch would go on to be Dark Horizon and dominate Zeb's raiding scene. This left a void that many hoped public raiding could fill entirely.

This was not to be. In the space previously occupied by Souls, two new contenders sprang up. In the blue corner, we have Reconstructed. In the red corner, we have Militia (formed from a number of guilds joining forces, including Hottoq). These two guilds would war over the very treasure most of them had banded together to acquire only months before. Friendships ended, battle lines were drawn.

And true public raiding would never be the same on E'ci again.

- previously Garamor (Reconstructed)

[Gert Groinwounder]

I'll keep mine short and sweet. My first raid ever on live was a Fear raid. We had close to the 72 man limit and I was the only Shaman on the raid. No group buffs yet. Loooooooooooongest day of my life...lol...

[Fwank]

Quellious server (I think) way back in the day, late classic era, 30ish man raid of level 8-10's on crushbone keep. Lord Dvinn and Emp felt our wrath that day let me tell you. Still my finest hour of raiding ever.

[godbox]

I used raid behind my fridge to kill roaches. didnt work their poison resist too high
=(

[Ele]

TMO zoned into the Plane of Fear and wiped.


Hence the saying: "TMO break Fear yet?"

[trollitc]

I've never had a character high enough level to participate in a raid, so no stories from me.

However, I vow that should I ever reach a level of wealth where I can give away 10k platinum, I shall hold a contest like this!

[Servellious]

I've never had a character high enough level to participate in a raid, so no stories from me.

However, I vow that should I ever reach a level of wealth where I can give away 10k platinum, I shall hold a contest like this!

Amen brutha. His money his rules though =(

[trollitc]

Amen brutha. His money his rules though =(

Oh, I have absolutely no issue with this contest, or how he chooses to give away his own money! :)

[Hagglebaron]

Sorry guys :( i figured the vast majority of people playing here would have been vets from live and have raid stories to share. The previous two contests were i believe for train stories, and just plain favorite stories from here or live. You can google them to see how they went, i'll be doing more in the future and will try to keep them accessible to all.

[Handull]

To preface this story I want to add that the cleric was lvl 59, the wiz was probably lvl 60, but the rest of us were low 50's at best. This was also my first time fighting the reavers and being past the locked door in CoM. It was a smaller raid, but it was a nail-biter for sure and a ton of fun for everyone who was there.

The beginning: What might have started out as a joke from Mordavin lead to a full 12 main raid of the reavers in CoM. Starting out with a lower level tank and one cleric didn't go so well, and lead to a wipe after killing the first reaver and his first repop. As we gathered up the corpses and reorganized, a few more people came over, and we had a solid force ready to go. We quickly got into the rhythm of killing these guys and went straight for the top, the three rooms in the sky, skipping over the room of 5 reavers up the lift. The final spawn of the zone dropped easily and we evaced out to EJ to head back in to find the remaining reavers.

What happened next: At this point we lost a few people, including one of our clerics, and were down to an 8 man force. Luckly will still had our rogue, main tank, and a great cleric to keep us going. We went back in and quickly cleared the first room again, moving to the back hallway. It took a while playing around with the lift to find ways to safely pull the non-reavers in that room (though a straight pull just might have worked), but once we got up there the reavers started falling without a problem. We were under the impression that Lord Rak'Ashiir would pop after all 5 of these mobs had been killed, and we were happily killing the 3rd repop of the 3rd reaver when, you guessed it, the Lord popped on us.

The fight: At first I was very worried, and was on my toes ready to evac, expecting his AoE spells to drop us quickly. To my surprise, he seemed to be a pushover. Within almost no time he was down to 70%, and it seemed like we had this in the bag. At some point, though, he dropped his first AoE nuke, and everything changed. I mean sure, I'd watched the tank's HP drop a once or twice by 25% due to a nuke, but all of a sudden the melee half of my group was down to 2% HP, 30% HP, etc. I got one more heal off before they started dying...

"Camp Out": At this point I told the main healer to camp out, and I started spamming Sup Heal on the tank to give the cleric enough time to get out of there and rez us all later. He was part way into his camp when he stood up and yelled "burn hin down". In the panic to heal the tank, I hadn't checked the mob's HP, and he was around 36%. I switched over to nukes, and we were going big or going home. He was quickly down to about 8%, but it seemed like just not enough. The druid and the wizard were out of mana, and while the melee's that were left were slowly bringing his HP down, you could see it also creeping back up. So there we were, down to bones of the raid. Main tank barely hanging on, cleric trying to keep the tank on his feet, and the druid and wiz waiting on mana to nuke. Everyone else was dead! The mob was at 1%HP, but no one else was left. The mobs HP ticked up to 2%; all seemed lost. Then I remembered something. Something I hadn't really needed up until now at all. The Mod Rods the mage was handing out before! Being at full health, I quickly clicked my Mod Rod, cast the last nuke, and landed the kill shot!

The Aftermath: Unfortunately the cleric died in the final moments of the fight, but it didn't matter, we had the loot, and now just had to med up and do a bit of a CR. Of course it wouldn't be that easy though... Suddenly the two non-reavers in the room popped, and the three of us reamaining, low on mana and the tank sitting at 9%HP, had to act fast. We were able to quickly root the mobs, reform into one group, and evac to safety!

After the very satisfying corpse run we handed out our shiny new Atramentous Shield and went on way adventuring across Norrath. The final team of 8 consisted of a druid, cleric, warrior, sk, paly, mage, wiz, and rogue.

[mail4youtoo]

It was cold on that winters night. The moon was full, lighting the landscape in an eerie glow as I waited on top of the small hill. My lizard scales had an almost bluish shine to them in this light, making a strange contrast with the leather armor I was wearing. I was cold, but I didn't move to find warmth. I waited silently, holding onto my Iksar beserker Club. I was cold but I waited. My raiding party was here for one reason and one reason only.. and that was to kill a vicious ice dragon that roamed these lands feasting on the bodies of the weak and scared for months now. Her name was Gorenaire and someone needed to put an end to her wrath. We called ourselves the Triad. We were 38 strong and seasoned warroirs of Norrath. We took it upon ourselves to rid these lands of this horrid beast

As I waited in the darkness of this vast area known only as the Dreadlands, I could see other creatures of the night roaming by. Large evil, spider like creatures from the nine planes that called themselves the Draccnids. I could hear the howls of the Drolvargs off in the distance making their home at the ruins of Karnor's castle. The suddenly a movement in the distance. Something large was heading in my direction. As the object grew closer I knew what it was... It was Gorenaire. Her white scales were gleaming in this winters night. Her long legs moving gracefully as she crested a hill not far from me. I could feel the tremors with every step of her razor sharp clawed feet. It was time. I knew this was the reason I was here. This was it and I made my move.

I threw a small dagger at her from my hiding spot and quickly turned to run, not even taking the chance to find out if the dagger hit her or not. It didn't matter. The terrible scream she launched in my direction was clue enough. There was no tuning back now... it was on.

I sprinted back to were the rest of my party waited. We had camped in the valley leaving these rolling hills of icy grass and into the high lands of the Burning Woods. We decided on this spot for the ambush as it would allow our ranged fighters to keep as far out of melee range as possible without the risk of attracting the attention of other creatures that may be near.

I ran.

"Incoming!" yelled another lookout from the darkness. "She's here!" Yelled another.

Everyone quickly moved into action as I ran into the valley with this beast on my trail.

Our big Ogre warrior, Scratch, stood his ground and taunted the wicked beast. His large arms bulging has he swung his huge two handed sword for her head. For what seemed an eternity, nothing moved but the 2 beings in this mortal dance of death. I couldn't move... I couldn't look away... I was frozen... What have I done leading this beast here... She was sure to kill us all. My fear was overcoming me.

A shout from our half elven bard leader snapped me from my inner thoughts. "Attack!!" he screamed and the raid had begun. Lightning bolts and arrows flew through the air as the rest of the melee team closed to deal the death blows to this foul beast. Our Cleric healers stood back from the fray casting their powerful healing magic on those who were injured or dying. This was going to be a long fight.

Being a monk, I knew I had to get close to do damage and sprinted to her side. I swung with all my might but it seemed as if every move I made, every swing of my club was in slow motion. I had to keep trying. Members of my guild were dying around me. I could hear their death cries and the beast cheered with every victory

"Another lost soul has found it's way home." She yelled with a gleam in her eye.

A few party members ran away in fear. But for what ever reason they had in running, they soon returned. Live together or die together. The battle raged on for what seemed like hours

"Casters!" our leader yelled. "Give her all you got! Arrows and fireballs and disease spells flew all around. The cuts on the dragon were increasing even though she would cast her own healing magic. We had her and she started to feel it as well.

Then it happened... she turned and ran. Running back to whatever gaping hole to hell she emerged from... we had her and she knew it. The remaining raid surged forward in a death ball to finish her. She never made it back out of the valley. With a final blow from the mighty warrior, she fell. Gorenaire was dead.

[Hagglebaron]

Some great stories thus far! If some of you don't have particularly interesting raid stories to share, i'm very interested to know just what it was like to first step into the planes of Fear and Hate back in the day when they were new.

Was it something that the players mostly discovered for themselves? Or did the staff give alot of information on the planes in an announcement. I just envision a wizard seeing the spell "Alter Plane: Hate" and experimenting with it, eventually finding himself in the plane of Hate for the first time. Or a raid coming upon or fighting Innoruuk for the first time. Stories involving any of that would be interesting to read, i never got to experience any of that when i played during live.

[Goraith]

When I get off work I'll post about the great PoF wipe on Prexus, circa January 2000. It resulted in eight hours of CR.... naked with several hundred other naked people.

[Slave]

My bard, my wonderful, wrist-snapping bard...

One fateful day In the Year 2002, I saw a few notes flickering off a Singing Short Sword up in the Bazaar... that moment changed the course of my destiny. Loading up the trusty Allakhazam site, I determined that I would get one for myself.

Armed in the bright red armor of the Fierce Herald, I sallied forth into the Plane of Fear to earn my Amygdalan Tendril. What followed can only be described as epic or retarded, depending on your point of view.

It took every skill I had ever learned, every nanosecond twist, to careen through that unpopulated zone and survive. The mobs summoned me, dispelled me, shadowstepped me. Weaving in heals with Selos, charms and resists, for a week straight I was a one-bard assault on the fortress of Cazic Thule. My mantra of attaining the Sword at all costs sustained me, and every Amygdalan I looted was simultaneously a bright beacon of hope and a swift nutshot of despair as I truly realized this quest above all others was going to be the long haul.

In a week, I saw no one else in the zone.

Eventually I formed groups and ushered them into this red-skied nightmare. They were balanced, they were well-armed, and they were led by someone who, by then, really knew what they were doing, if I say so myself.

They all died.

Slaughtered one by one or wholesale, it made no difference: the combined might of the adventurers of Norrath was absolutely no match at all for the fury of Fear. It soon became apparent that after the (multiple) corpse runs for my followers, I had a better record going it alone... so I did.

I notched another hole in my belt, rubbed my aching hands, steeled my heart and eyes, and resolutely marched back in through that damned portal.

[MeleeMurder]

Back when I was on Rallos Zek (Pre Merge and nerf) We went to raid Old Seb and as we set up another raid showed up. Before we new it there was 50+ people in there destroying everything that moved. It was pretty epic, we must have been fighting for 2 hours. I got items that day from Seb drops and PC's.

[Flunklesnarkin]

Based on a true story..


"So there i was watching Real Housewives.. god i love that show.. when i got a text message. I walked over to my computer.. logged in and zerged a dragon.


3 minutes later i was back to watching real housewives.. the end"

[Teeny]

My favorite EQ story happened back in late Kunark on the Veeshan server. A friend and I decided to form our own guild and try our hand at doing a little bit of raiding. We weren't the best, nor were we super experienced, but we still god some stuff done.

We decided the best course of action as a guild was to get one of our most active/best clerics her clicky. So we started off heading down to chardok royals. As we started to clear from the very beginning I started to warn people about the traps, and the hole in the ground. I spoke about it so much, people were like yah whatever. Anyhow we start moving into Royals, and again i warn about the hole. We start clearing, and the first patch of mobs we fight, I myself fell in the hole agro'ing the queen and most everything in that direct area. The raid wiped, and to this day anyone who was with it won't let me live down the fact that i warned the entire raid about it, and was the one who did it when we got into position. That was the longest CR I ever had to do, probably one of my least favorite moments in EQ, but in a sick demented type of way I found it kind of funny. We made our way back down, got our clicky later that week. Every raid after that though, whenever there was a hole, i caught flack for falling just one time. :)

Probably a close second favorite story, happened during early Luclin. My guild found out that Lodizal was up, so Myself (Rogue, Paladin, Wizard, and Monk) drop over to IC to our druid who was kiting lodizal thru the water. Only to be met by 22 people from another guild. After we immediately engage, they jumped on lodizal, i remember we called to burn all of our discs, the wizard Manaburned, and we got the XP. We promptly took our loot and ported out. They were mad to say the least but they learned quick, you never mess with a rogue/monk disc'd with a wizard Manaburning and hope to get xp. 5 vs 22 and 5 won! :).

[Plyssken]

I wanted to be the 1st warrior on my server with my Epics and no one would touch the Plane of Sky. The Uber guild on the server had better fish to fry then deal with that zone so I researched and took a team up after a lot of work. Had to make a pact to do the raid over several days & had people promise to log out & come back at certain times. We had pooled members of several guild & were the 1st guild on the server to take out the Sprioc Lord. We even had some /anon members of the Uber guild along for the ride so they could try & get key pieces for their Epics. ;-)

We were the people on the server busting into a crazy zone that no one touched, it was the biggest rush I think I ever had on EQ! And I led the raid. For years I kept the hot keys I had about the zone I remember one was no Area Affect spells on Island one! :-)

All that & the dumb parrot didn't even drop the sword I needed. Ah well.
Classic EQ

[Daliant17447]

My best EQ moment (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B6zlwQ_tuE)

[thxer]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2255330.stm

Made the BBC on this one. After Gore raid or something I ported a group to SF to check on Ragefire and saw he was up with nobody around him. I sounded the alarm and we went in and quickly finished him off, then this blew up into a huge issue on the boards and a BBC article about the whole ordeal and how we "KS'd" a cleric named Seyiyes' Ragefire.

He eventually joined our guild. =D

[Vernar]

So back on live I was High Elf Paladin on Tallon Zek in Knights of the White Rose.

One of the nights I will never forget is during a Plane of Hate raid.

Our guild was super loaded on Paladins, guild leader was the first Paladin to get Fiery Avenger and Fiery Defender and he also won BotB.

Anyways, so that night we are in PoH clearing and going to attempt Inny for one of the first times. During this particular night of raiding on the same pull I: a) Ding 55, b) obtain Darkmetal Falchion, c) got the awesome shield for which i can't remember the name, d) killed the Corrupter of Life for my Elf Pally Epic. Was a very good night for me :)

[aegeryen]

This happened just after Kunark came out on live . We had just formed our guild , and were attempting our first fear raid as a guild .

Naturally , when we went to break in , someone went the wrong way , the ensuing train to the camp area on the wall was on of epic proportions and of course we wiped .

For the next 14 hours, as I remember it . we attemped to rebreak , and recover our corpses . One of our necros , in either a testament to his foolhardiness or intestinal fortatude , I'm not sure which , tryed repeated to recover our corpses . He lost levels 55, 54 , 53 and 52. He just kept going back in , determined ... and eventually really really angrily ...but determined all the same .

By the time anonther guild came in to give us a hand and cleared the beginning area , his corpses , and there were a LOT of them , were all passed the rez timer . Even now 12 years later , we dont speak about that fear raid around him , when hes not around , we still laugh our asses off .
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EDIT : I have rewritten this , to give it a little more drama , and to show a little of the emotion of the situation .... I hope this doesnt violate rules , its just a funny story either way ................................


I am leaving the names characters and server name out of this , mainly because I really dont want to anger the person this story is about . Facts are it still hurts even after 12 years ......


It all began late one night as the leaders of our newly formed alliance decided it was time for us conquer fear , or at least kill some trash for fat loots .


Our denizens arrived at the zone in frothing over items and planar gear to be had. We were divided up in to groups , and recieved our instuctions for the break in . Slowly we filtered in and ran to prescibed meeting place . Then out of nowhere a dreadful shout appeared , " TRAIN ". In a matter of a minute or so , our dreams were dashed , as we began spawning in various parts of norrath .


Guild chat lit up with a series of , OMGs , WTFs , and lot profanity . FIngers began to be pointed , and accusations were being made .


Then one the leaders calmed the riotous rabble . "Do you have any back up gear , " he proclaimed as if he had had a great epiphany , The replys came in : " um , no ", " I sold mine so I could twink a necro ", and " we're supposed have back up gear ??", and the like .


"No Worries", claimoured our leader ," Ill ask other guilds for help ," he exclaimed as though he had come up the the great solution to our delema. The replys he recieved , were not promising : "we got 3 guys online right now and 1 is drunk and the other has been playing for the last 60 or so hours ," and " DUDE, it's 3 in the morning good luck with that ", were all the other guilds had to say .


About that time a hero rose up from our ranks , a man of skill and daring , a man who wasn't going to let the situation break him , and man that was probably a little too stoned. An undaunted lvl 55 necro . "I'll get our corpses " , He proclaimed , and bound himself at the entrance and rushed into the zone ..... only to reappear moments later , swearing .


This went on for what seemed like hours , each failed attmpted fueled our hero more . He would charge into the zone only to reappear moments later .


Slowly we saw his levels slip away , first 55 , then 54 . We tryed to tell him to stop , but undaunted , and again probably a little too stoned , our hero trudged in to reclaim our lost goodies .


He lost level 53 , and 52 , then a mighty shout went out that shook the foundation of the Feerrot , even the most indifferent of ogre noobie ooc'd ," WTF is going on ," as our hero excaimed ," I QUIT !! THIS STUPID F***ING GAME", followed by a list of profanities that made even the gods shiver .


The next day I was on an alt reflecting on the previous nights events , wondering if I would ever get my stuff back ,when I received notice that another guild had cleared the zone and it was safe to go loot my corpse .


Upon entering the realm of my friends demise , I was taken aback by the sea of naked gnome corpses , there seemed to be hundreds littering the entrance area .



Glover lvl 9 cleric P99
Methidone lv 60 cleric Live server not disclosed ...

[khanable]

Alright, I'll bite

I was a youngin', about age 13 or so, when I went on my first Lady Vox pickup raid. It was organized in EC and anyone over level 45 was invited. I, being the baller ass iksar warrior that I was, signed up immediately and was oozing with joy that I'd finally slay a dragon.

So we make our way over to the ice wench and proceed to clear/buff. Being my first raid, I wasn't aware that it was going to take hours. About an hour before we actually engaged I knew I had to take a dump, but I didn't want to miss any action so I held back. Instructions were given out -- basically a group of us lower level people hang back and wait for the call to charge in. I did as I was told with extreme anxiety. I hadn't even seen a damned dragon before in this game.

The call goes out -- we rush in. I'm in awe of this fucking massive ice dragon. I'm approaching her, I get feared, and then I don't really know what happened. I ended up in some fucking pit dead. I then proceeded to shit myself.

They killed her and divvied up the loot before I could get a rez. As shitty as the day was, I saw a dragon. Was worth it.

[Swish]

My best EQ moment (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B6zlwQ_tuE)

Totally awesome! :)

[Trojanman]

Dont know if this counts but:

Me and my friends used to run a guild on tallon zek called "tiny knights".
If you're not familiar, tallon zek was racial team based pvp (dwarves, gnomes halflings, VS all goodie elves, vs humans, barb, erudites, vs evil races) with an 8 lvl or so pvp enabled range.
I just remember a sea of little midgets probably 40 or so destroying everyone who set foot in or around the crushbone area for several hours. we did this about 2x a week, and traveled to all sorts of places in and around the lvl 12-25 range.
Best raiding ever.

[kazroth]

This is incredible - Hagglebaron, you are a baws! Unfortunately, no raiding stories for me. I was a wide-eyed 15 year old kid back in 99 - I played for two years and I think my highest character ever was 28. I just spent way too much time exploring the world and making new characters to ever advance.

With my new incarnations, I hope to see classic end-game!

Good luck to the winner!

[Hagglebaron]

This is incredible - Hagglebaron, you are a baws! Unfortunately, no raiding stories for me. I was a wide-eyed 15 year old kid back in 99 - I played for two years and I think my highest character ever was 28. I just spent way too much time exploring the world and making new characters to ever advance.

With my new incarnations, I hope to see classic end-game!

Good luck to the winner!

It's always worth running these just to see all the stories/experiences that people share :D the next one i do will be more accessible to those who haven't attained higher levels on P99 or live.

[Naerron]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2255330.stm

Made the BBC on this one. After Gore raid or something I ported a group to SF to check on Ragefire and saw he was up with nobody around him. I sounded the alarm and we went in and quickly finished him off, then this blew up into a huge issue on the boards and a BBC article about the whole ordeal and how we "KS'd" a cleric named Seyiyes' Ragefire.

He eventually joined our guild. =D

haha i bet the cleric who lost his epic worked at BBC and there was no RNF forums he could shout loud enough on....seriously tho, wtf BBC, find some fucking news other than cleric epic bottleneck rofl

[Vostok]

Sorry guys :( i figured the vast majority of people playing here would have been vets from live and have raid stories to share. The previous two contests were i believe for train stories, and just plain favorite stories from here or live. You can google them to see how they went, i'll be doing more in the future and will try to keep them accessible to all.

I wish I had seen that train stories one. I have one that I will share anyways:
On live I had a high level shaman, well I was pretty stupid back then so I thought it would be hilarious to go to crushbone and just train the zone around.
I ended up getting the whole zone and trained them around for a while and basically killed everyone in the zone. Well on my second time to do this I went LD, came back into the game 30 minutes later to see that I had fallen in water and drowned. Ended up getting revived by one of the Low level people in the zone or one of his alts or something. Then I did it again got those same people killed and logged. I was such a dick back then.


Now for this raid story?
I had just come back from my first vacation from playing this game, don't remember what guild it was with, but we were doing some stuff in hate. someone was talking to me and i was just saying like yeah I know how to do this, its just hate its easy etc... Well first pull we started wiping on something. The call was made to just wipe and get rezzed. I had the bright idea to I guess save the cleric some mana and.... gate out! because don't worry guys, I can just run back! fail.

Another time I had been playing and I was very drunk and canni'd myself to death, got rezzed, got laughed at, we moved on. Well I had just come back from being dead and figured shit I need mana. I started spamming my canni button without paying any attention. The next thing I hear is a bunch of people laughing in my headset. Sure enough checked what they were laughing at was me and my Loading... Please wait screen

[Hagglebaron]

Will be selecting the three best stories (imo of course) for community voting soon, get your submission in if you haven't and plan on doing so.

[tea_money]

One of our guild's first hate raids way back in the day on Brell. I'm a 49 cleric who stupidly binds in a spot I assumed was safe (to be fair, I was told it was safe). Power goes out half way through raid. Is out that entire night and I can't get back on until the next day.
Next day log in to some very upset mobs. Stun locked and unable to get gate off.
Bind spot is not so safe it turns out.
Lost 3 levels trying to get my body back and gate out of there. Eventually logged on an alt to wait for a hate clear.
Finally happens, but is not a complete clear and I die a few more times to lose another level and drop to 45.
Can't get back into hate.
Leave for a vacation with family the next day for a week and a half.
Good bye coprse, good bye gear.
Started a new character after that one.

[waldo]

I was in this guild on vallon zek called Order of Black Rose. We were a rogue only guild, so therefore we had a hard time killing anything. This was back in the kunark/prekunark times and we were raiding runnyeye. I know this may not sound like much of a raid, but we were all rogues and none of us over level 35. So it was pretty dificult. After some hard work we were able to kill the goblin king and the blackened iron crown dropped. I didn't get it but i can remember that was the first time i really really wanted to win a roll. Rolled a stupid 3.

[Teddie1056]

There I stood. The massive fire dragon Nagafen bearing down on me. I looked around at my fallen comrades. But lets back up.

I had trained and studied my craft with the Guardians of the Vale for 3 years for this moment. I had heard tales of the great and powerful dragon residing in the volcanic caverns of Lavastorm. I was no stranger to conquest. I had slain the evil goblin king of Runnyeye, trampled the gnolls of Blackburrow. I had even killed a giant or two. But I had never even considered attempting to slay a dragon.

"Warriors, priests, magic wielders, I bring to you a chance for fame and fortune," shouted a charismatic human monk. "There are great treasures, just waiting to be collected. They lie under the belly of Lord Nagafen, most fearsome dragon in the land. I need 50 or 60 men willing to assist me in this conquest." This was my chance. I quickly enlisted in the monk's ranks, as did 60 others just as eager as I. We set off for Nagafen's Lair.

Right off the bat, our raiding party was put to the test. While we had the sheer numbers, there was a lack of organization and skill in this menagerie of adventurers. In the daunting tunnels you would here a scream of a poor soul who took a wrong turn and got lost. Right before we planned our assault on the Fire Giant stronghold that guarded the dragon, a massive wave of bats and bugs descended on our group. At least 20 of our army met an early end. After they were revived, 5 or 6 people left. They scoffed and stated that such an unskilled party had no chance. We ignored them and pressed onward.

The giants proved no match for our band of merry men. Only one person died, a poor iksar monk who ventured a little too far ahead. The spoils of our victory over the Giants were magnificent, but we had our sights on bigger and better things. We reached a massive opening. There I saw him. Massive, awesome, terrifying. He just stared back at us. All of us began to doubt our chances, he was bigger than even legends said. Nonetheless, our biggest and bravest member, an Ogre Warrior stood at the front line ready to fight this beast. The leader of our party shouted, "CHARGE!" We said our prayers and sprinted toward the behemoth.

Instantly, Nagafen thrust aside the Ogre, killing him in mere seconds. The clerics had no clue who to heal, the casters started burning him down with all their mental capacity. Lord Nagafen ran around his throne room, pulverizing person after person. We were injuring the dragon, but he still massacred our men. Some of our army showed their inner cowardice and started to run, only to be chased down and disemboweled. Perhaps it was my small stature, or maybe the Dragon liked halflings, I don't know, but seemed as if he was ignoring me.

The Dragon was bleeding heavily, and I could tell he could barely stand. All that remained were me, a wood elf druid, a high elf enchanter, and another warrior (a barbarian). The Barbarian charged and swung his axe for the final blow. But before he could sink his weapon into the skull of Nagafen, he let out a blast of fire that tore the robust Barbarian limb from limb. The enchanter and druid were both out of mana, and had retreated. I swear I heard them both playing to Tunare. I, however, was not going down with out a fight. A slashed into the Dragons flesh, only to be launched across the throne room. I was badly injured, but I charged again. I put as much energy into my strikes and I swung in a berserker frenzy. Again, the dragon mauled me. Once more, this time barely hanging onto consciousness, I stabbed my swords into his flesh. The Dragon appeared invincible. He crushed me under his claw and I closed my eyes. I embraced death. Nagafen's lair was to be my final resting place, an unmarked grave shared with thousands of previous would be heroes.

No, no it wouldn't. I opened my eyes and emerged from unconsciousness. I dodged 4 consecutive attacks from the legendary monster. I sank my swords into his skull. The Dragon screamed in pain and readied one final fire blast in my direction. This was it, I had come so close, only to be burned alive.

I resisted the blast. Having lost my blades underneath the Dragon's scales (ok, so that part is made up), I did the only thing I could do. I ran up to the dragon, jumped on his head, and stomped the sword deeper into his brain. He stuttered a moment, looked up at the sky (while I held on for dear life), and finally collapsed.

I sat down, stared at me new wealth: A fiery cloak, a magical backpack, and a scale that had come removed in the fight. I said as short prayer for the fallen, and started to bind my wounds. On this day, I became more legendary than even the dragon I had just slain.



PS: After we rezzed I rolled terribly and got 0 loot... I actually did purple bar, come back, dodge multiple attacks and then kick Naggy to death. Still my top video game experience ever. I ran around the house shrieking like a damn fool.

[Lyzard]

This story was my first any only ever raid in Chardok, right after the release of Kunark meaning I would have been around 14 years old. Up until this raid I’d only ever done a Hate and Fear run on my slightly higher level monk. I forget the name but it was an Enchanter doing the open raid invites and calling for more in EC.
The shout called for players 40+ to join the ranks and delve into the new, unknown lands deep within the mountains of Kunark. Neither myself nor any of my guild had been down there yet so I rounded up a couple of those who were willing and online and joined up with the adventurous Enchanter. I was only level 39 at the time and I’m sure the fact I was a cleric and that I had a few comrades in toe swayed the Enchanters decision to take me.

The raid started out surprisingly well enough for a PUG in brand new content, the pulling went smoothly and it felt like we were moving with some real pace and determination, when in actual fact we barely made it anywhere. It wasn’t long before the cracks began to appear and it showed by people falling of the first bridge whilst other people got lost.

We were about half way down when we realized that pets were causing some funky aggro. The decision was swiftly made by the lead Enchanter to kill the pets and all bard songs so that we could continue our decent. Things however got bad to worse and by this point your probably thinking this would be a raid I’d be wanting to forget? Never mind share with you folks…
Anyway, as the bards halted their songs, the skeletons dissipated into rubble and elementals vanished into thin air… But sure enough, someone was AFK and they still had their pet. Good ol’ “Gobarer” ended up aggroing about 20 mobs. As corpses began to hit the deck, spell effects filled the screen from all sources followed by the inevitable shout for clerics to camp. It’s was crazy, and my heart began to race as I struggled to find a spot amongst the madness so that I could begin what would be the longest 30 second camp in my EQ history... In the end only I made it out.

I logged onto my Monk and was given to go ahead to log back in, They told me to res another cleric and tank and a chanter. Being young and always being one to follow instructions I manoeuvred as carefully as I could around the countless number of bodies and the mobs still ready to squish me at will. I could feel the expectation and hope from my guild mates and new comrades alike. My heart had crept up into my throat and was pounding as I began the rezzing process…
The next couple of hours that were to follow were awesome, I was inundated with tells of congratulations and thanks for such “a heroic effort” rescuing the raid from what would have been several hours’ worth of corpse running.

It was one of the most fun nights and one of those times I felt truly scared playing EQ. Never have I felt so much immersion from a game and although I’m not at the point of raiding yet I love the experiences I am already having with you guys here at P99! Huzzah!

[Vladigan]

My first raid ever was when i was a freshly dinged level 47 magician, and the destination was Plane of Fear.

Consequently, this was my guilds first attempt at a raid. Long story short, we spent over 3 hours just getting "ready" to enter the portal... meanwhile, the huge Mexican style feast i had 4 hours ago, was starting to upset my stomach...

So, since it appeared that nothing was going to happen soon, i decided to make a trip to the bathroom to expel some of this horridly spicy food from my system... As this was a time before laptop computers... I had to walk away from my PC.. so I woke up my wife from her slumber, and explained the situation to her, telling her that she needed to come sit at the computer desk and let me know if anything happens.... (I know pathetic huh?, This is TRUE addiction)

So while I am on the can experiencing a wondrous moment of relieve, my wife blurts out that people are moving into a "mirror thingie" and wanted to know if she should move my character to follow them...

Apparently me screaming "NO NO NO, sounded like GO GO GO, from the echoy confines of the bathroom...

Being that this was not the first time my wife has had to move my character, she knew enough about using the arrows keys to move me around....

Now... to fully appreciate this next part, you need to understand that connected to my PC was a 500 watt surround sound system with a 300 watt sub that I cranked when I played EQ...

So while I am... uh... finishing my time in the bathroom, I hear the sound of chaos erupting from the living room (where my PC was), unknown creatures wailing, the sound of battle every, and the panicking cries of wife wondering what the hell is happening....

So here I come running down the hallway, pants around my ankle and a stream of toilet paper as a tail, screaming at her to "stop and die"... too late.... She took a little marathon run around the entire portal area and managed to pull i think half the zone back to where everyone was gathering...

The entire guild wiped... what ensued was 3 more attempts to break in using summoned mage gear, until too many of our members lost the level restriction to re enter....

I don't remember how this ended except that it was well into morning before I got my corpse back, and I was not a very popular guy in the guild, that was until after the whole story came, then I became the butt of every joke... and was thus crowned "Number 2" (a reference from Austin Powers)

Morale of the story... when you are planning raid night, stay away from the mexican food, and no matter how logical it seems... never let your wife operate your character, even if you are under the influence of alcohol...

The End...

[Hagglebaron]

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