10K Giveaway Contest #3 - Raid Tales

[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]

The window for submissions is closed, thanks to everyone who participated. The voting thread to decide who takes the prize is currently up and underway.