Shits Classic - Story Time w/ Pictures
 

Gonna be lots of classic shit and killshots. I want these screen shots to be archived as they present the history of Red99. Also I thought it would be cool to share. This is not the beginning of my story but at the moment I can't find my early classic screen shots. This story picks up at a time when Red99 was deader than dead. CLICK THE SCREENSHOT for detail.

Deciding I wanted to make a unique guild that centered around being "good," I rolled a human cleric who worshipped Rodcet Nife. I met a guy named Nez in Qeynos and we became good friends. After a few days of discussing the details we went ahead and formed <Vae Victis>. Our goals were pretty simple in that we just wanted to have a good time.
http://i.imgur.com/MWdxUtT.png

On my main, Samwise, I remained in <Brotherhood> which was another leveling/casual guild led by the great Nips/Greegon. Being a druid on a dead server meant you were often the only porter available. Especially if you weren't in Nihilum. So a lot of the times I'd just log in and port people around looking for targets.

Here is some good old fashion corpse camping. Back when a pvp death = xp loss.
http://i.imgur.com/eqNR3SB.png

Nizzarr to the rescue (was Troriste in classic)
http://i.imgur.com/lUjwxhW.png

And hes down.
http://i.imgur.com/x5dvo7s.png

More came to the rescue and the corpses piled up.
http://i.imgur.com/nUgBTi1.png

http://i.imgur.com/3lyt1SL.png

I love this one Zarah says, "Samwise has a mouth"
http://i.imgur.com/H8ttJlG.png

http://i.imgur.com/eFDpXAX.png

http://i.imgur.com/49Wjj7r.png

Server was still deadish at this point. There were times it would be single digit pop late at night. Kunark was coming but no official word was given when. Red99 had been abandonded it felt like until Lord nilbog started appearing throughout Norrath.
http://i.imgur.com/5AVsd5j.png

I guess I should mention the other reason my druid wasn't tagged in my own guild was because initially we were trying to base our guild around the good deity sullon zek team which didnt allow followers of bristlebane. Just thought I'd throw that out there because shit would eventually change.

I learned to aoe kite in unrest where I would let people sit in my group. Here you can see the ORIGINAL Wanyo, one of the chillest people I've ever encountered on the internet... EVER. I ran into him in east karana. He was naked as fuck soloing spiders or some shit. I was like dude come to Unrest, its way better xp. He said alright and he became one of the original guild members I recruited. Note: All my unrest screen shots get jacked up once I upload them to imgur so the sky will look funky in some of them.
http://i.imgur.com/rIRmFqk.png

So we knew Kunark was getting closer but still no official word. Population started increasing a little and so I started building an army. Many power levels were had between CB and Unrest.
http://i.imgur.com/BtMcmpD.png

Here is the original Oppressor.
http://i.imgur.com/fOIDgjb.png

I assured Krak Windchaser his people were safe.
http://i.imgur.com/Ps28A22.png

But I lied.
http://i.imgur.com/txrAmR6.png

The first of many new players to join the server with the sole purpose to join Nihilum. "Pixels mean alot in this game unfortunetly."
http://i.imgur.com/dEyNLg3.jpg

Flowers and some of the other heavy hitters who weren't in Nilly formed another called called Super Friends. At this point a lot of Nihilum were leveling alts in preparation for Kunark. Sniffins had me fooled for awhile but don't worry I will have my vengeance.
http://i.imgur.com/2cOzcTy.png

Basiah executing another Nilly alt
http://i.imgur.com/VyTEw6F.png

Jibekn was the ORIGINAL Unrest Griefer of Classic. He had a paladin named Delita that would ruin any newbs day. Frequently I would have to go in and OOR heal or evac the group out of there. Also RIP compass.
http://i.imgur.com/JXT4tLH.png

While still a leveling guild, many of us started to say we were in this guild for the long haul. At any given time we would have a full groups in Unrest or MM or both. Basically anyone wanting help on the server was ported to Faydark and told the leveling path is CB > Unrest > MM. Later we would add SolB. PLs, gear, and plat was given out. Even Nilly would come out to Unrest and shower us with classic loots. Server started feeling alive.

One thing I always did was react to any guildy being pked. This may have been Oppressors first kill. This guy was giving Oppressor and other guildies problems so I brought my bard along to help deal with this dark elf scum.
http://i.imgur.com/COjcWDm.png

I'd also assist anyone who was fighting the good fight. Despite our past differences, in the face of a greater enemy we would unite. I want to add this because I think it is cool. A little before this timeline around when the original Holocaust was banned, Brotherhood and Flowers went at war with each other. It is interesting because we were both lower leveled casual friendly guilds. We had a few awesome battles in HighKeep and other zones. I hope I can find those screenshots because they were some of my favorite moments from classic.
http://i.imgur.com/IzDIHKp.png

Nothing better than killing someone as a cleric. Look at all dem sprites.
http://i.imgur.com/sthZkVQ.png

Basiah 2.0
http://i.imgur.com/Pjejn3r.png

Random Gank of someone I thought was a Nilly. Ended up later being a Nilly
http://i.imgur.com/l6Wn3ZW.png

Guild was getting bigger. 16 people on at one time.
http://i.imgur.com/PVXrycE.png

Met the hilarious tres amigos. Sadly they were never seen again
http://i.imgur.com/xJH2fi6.png

Still up to this point, no official date was set for the Kunark Expansion. It seemed like it was never going to happen until one day nilbog appeared to me in a vision. This time giving a more definite answer.
http://i.imgur.com/d09rYWi.png

Kunark was coming and at this point I had power leveled dozens if not hundreds of people. Some of my guildies were out leveling me. I decided to buckle down and level my characters up. With a borrowed manastone, I killed ice giant after ice giant like they were nothing.
http://i.imgur.com/CNfecVL.png

http://i.imgur.com/Q0EjNsC.png

Back then level 42s were in pvp range of level 50s. It was a good place to be if you wanted the most targets. It was a bad place to be if you wanted to fight level 50s though :)

My first of MANY macho kills. It sucked to be a monk in classic.
http://i.imgur.com/ApGHyrA.png

Heartbrand comes back to the server and starts doing bat PLs in SolB on his druid Zibby. He contributed a lot to the guild as far as items and experience. I'll elaborate more later but Heartbrand joining the guild was pretty significant. Up until that time Nilly kept griefing down to a minimum however they told me if we allowed Heartbrand in the guild they would basically shut us down. I considered Arzak a friend at the time, we talked quite a few times about the direction of the guild (he was one of the major influences on allowing anyone in the guild) and offered his advice. He even offered to tank raid mobs for us. Little did I know while Arzak was pleasant in-game, his forumquest alterego was talking shit to me and pretty much trolling everyone. Arzak and Nizzarr had a severe hatred for this man. Probably more Arzak than Nizzarr but either way we lost our innocence with the welcoming of HB. We instantly had a big red target on our back.
http://i.imgur.com/VSe6RPM.png

familiar faces began popping back up. here can we can see Karsten smoking some nilly bard in da swamp
http://i.imgur.com/8F0LWkI.png

Remember that nilly alt Sniffins from earlier? Well Heartbrand had access to it and so one day he logged on it and started killing nillys as they were being rezzed after a raid. Pretty funny honestly. click to read the OOC. that is heartbrand still OOCing as Sniffins.
http://i.imgur.com/Ww7iKIf.png

As for the guild, the PLing never stopped. we grew and grew. I guess you could say we were crootin heavily. Citizenn, muglug spotted.
http://i.imgur.com/T95fE9y.png

http://i.imgur.com/BnX2SWs.png

I believe this was the first time anyone from red reached out to the blue community to join us. I openly advertised free PLing and plats. Although many didnt make it past 30, dozens of bluebies were trying red for the first time. Here is a poster from one of my ads.
http://i.imgur.com/Lxq8Ivo.png

The various tribes of red99 began to stand united against the enemy. druid superstars Znif and Chubs joined the ranks. gank master Salem and the Gnomish holo pledge Rushmore are seen here as well. Other such as Tombom and lennart (the dwarven paladin brothers) join as well and become key players in our nightly gank squads to come.
http://i.imgur.com/pLRCK4d.png

from time to time I would return to the Shire and clean it up a bit.
http://i.imgur.com/EPW0FRt.png

Another druid legend Mornin returned, thanks for the assist in killing this nilly ranger.
http://i.imgur.com/Z0lufHz.png

Boring screenshot but it does show that Ezpk is back and also that Nilly is still trying to get me to cut heartbrand from the guild. HB has probably rustled more jimmys than anyone on this server.
http://i.imgur.com/ivcN4Di.jpg

It got to be an everyday thing, I kid you not.
http://i.imgur.com/90m5zYk.jpg

But enough with the HB drama. Grimtoad returned to the box as a violent and deadly Enchanter named Mandarin. The server became very hostile and it was pretty much you were either with us or against us. The gank squads were formed and soon all of Norrath would be covered in blood.
http://i.imgur.com/VfY7HC9.png

http://i.imgur.com/xTgDTQZ.png

Macho, this poor bastard ate shit everytime he logged in.
http://i.imgur.com/BjEN3Gg.png

The backbone of our Army. So many kills were secured because of our paladins and their chain stunning asses. Tombom one of my fav people to pvp with because he never gave a fuck.
http://i.imgur.com/Ko7canX.png

I took this next SS after getting obliterated by Rettiwalk, Nerfed, and Hughman. I wasn't sure if they would go back to Nilly or not but I was happy to see more people back.
http://i.imgur.com/SbEswfh.png

The double paladin uppercut landed us this rare spawn kill. Dekadenz nilly bard. great guy and good sport.
http://i.imgur.com/diYAm6m.png

Every night there was pvp. Mind you the server was no where as populated as it is right now. One thing I miss about classic pvp was it was so easy to recovery from besides the planes. it allowed guilds to respond quicker to pvp and thus more fights occured. There was also less plugging because no YT.
http://i.imgur.com/HW5N9rO.png

Macho truely payed for Nillys sins.
http://i.imgur.com/8gWOfdv.png

in classic there was always pvp to be had in CT.
http://i.imgur.com/wRL4EEP.png

there were some players out there who were more vile than nilly. all this scum did in classic was train people and dispel their mobs while being OOR. Red had no GM for a long time so it was pretty much the wild west when it came to things like that. he was messing with people in Misty Thicket of all places. so glad I killed him here.
http://i.imgur.com/0IwviKS.png

If there was one thing you could count on it was that the gank squads would be there to catch a nilly slipping. not even banks were safe.
http://i.imgur.com/d9GnoyT.png

even the temple of sol ro was a battleground. GOD I MISS CLASSIC!!!!
http://i.imgur.com/BURschn.png

Insane was a druid who you could tell within 5 seconds of talking to him he was gonna join Nihilum. always read the chat in the screenshots. usually something funny to be found.
http://i.imgur.com/0wOe11S.png

http://i.imgur.com/n5MfykB.png

http://i.imgur.com/RxxM6nr.png

this is a pretty good one. I think everyone in this screen shot eventually joined Nihilum but Tombom and I.
http://i.imgur.com/kNXN1VE.png

Clerics are a pain in the ass to kill in classic. thankfully I had 350lb Karsten to tag in and end this nerds life. this was the first time Batlle would miss a raid. 100% attendance gone thanks to VV.
http://i.imgur.com/Dux6X3R.png

Ezpk being Ezpk. I miss his tunnel vision and him being all about the pvp. nilly turned him into a smurf :(
http://i.imgur.com/lrH7YTK.png

Lavastorm/Nek Forest is such a classic battleground. Best part about it is no trains.
http://i.imgur.com/8qhW9Pw.png

It was becoming clear that VV could actually become a force who could contest Nihilum once Kunark was released. Guild vs guild pvp were becoming frequent trust me when I say this, EVERYONE was happy about it (Nilly and us). the mass pvp brought back some of nillys original members.

To think only a few months before we were scrapin the bottom of a barrel in crushbone to going head to head with a guild who has had the server on lockdown for close to a year. This is one of my favorite SS of all time so sorry if this "caption" is long winded :)
http://i.imgur.com/Gx2WgEZ.png

Original Duress now played by Retti got left behind after winning a skirmish against Nilly and forcing them to evac.
http://i.imgur.com/Xsl7Su0.png

Moonzi was a good guy but he had been giving me the run around about where his loyalty was for weeks. Finally I said fuck it and killed his ass.
http://i.imgur.com/toP60rU.png

Big Jenn makes her first cameo in the series. SolB was our level 40s+ home. PvP was always popping off there and because charmed bats were always involved when Nilly attacked, they tried to campaign to nerf their stun. I miss throwing my bat on someone and watching them get destroyed. In this screenshot one of nilly members leaks their leets strats of targeting me first in pvp. You always have those people who cry about "I am always the first to be targetting in pvp", well guess what. I actually was. :)
http://i.imgur.com/rrYfPYp.jpg

sorry bigrossane!
http://i.imgur.com/TggN5G0.png

greenthumb, nilly druid and ulimate farmer of items. as blue as they come. felt so good to club him to death.
http://i.imgur.com/e34gthN.png

somtimes the ganksquads became gank raids lol. intel reported Nihilum was farming lev cloaks in South Karana.
http://i.imgur.com/MX58yMr.png

Charge!!!!! to bad they said naw and got the fuck out :(
http://i.imgur.com/qmfYqQv.png

Often times we had them on the run and would catch a few stragglers.
http://i.imgur.com/f3OZNBe.png

like when you port your nilly group to feerott, dont sit at the rings while they run for the zoneline
http://i.imgur.com/vWj6HO5.png

the only thing better than catching stagglers is catching people as they log in randomly
http://i.imgur.com/NWzFZvN.png

I loved it when starfire could make them touch their knees with their elbows.
http://i.imgur.com/JV0NKyY.png

Told this nilly bard to get aouttamy zone. his "never!" reply angered me so I took this opportunity to pvp with the one and only Iceberg. I wrecked his shit.
http://i.imgur.com/ZI1Igfv.png

almost 500 pp, pretty good money in classic
http://i.imgur.com/NUbhTHy.png

It wont let me post any more pictures so that is all for now. I will probably re-write the captions to tell a better story with less rambling at a later time. At this point in the picture story we were about a week away from the launch of Kunark.

Obviously there were many many more battles than depected from the SS. I didn't always remember to screenshot shit and honestly I died alot, especially in group/mass pvp so I was usually out of the battle early.

If there is a lesson to gain from all this it would be that "recruit and contest" is possible if you are willing to put work into the guild. Expecting everyone to be level 60, geared, and keyed before they can join or get any help is just dumb. Everyone on the server knows the timers so get to it.

Nice pix history man. Read it all.

Def one of the more chill vets.

Moar pix!!

I forgot Salem was in FoH.