25 Holiday coins given away to the best story....

"but not necessary"
=)

After harassing LOL guild (Bart, Google, Liberation, et al) for many days, they finally grew tired of dying at their PK spots, and tower. Eventually they moved to a small sandstone house in the middle of nowhere. They used this as a base of operation for the night and then logged off thinking I wouldn't find them. I noticed they weren't returning home for a few days and set out to find them. At the cA HQ I had hundreds of runes to the map that I could recall to and track. Each rune slightly overlapped the other runes by the tracking skills max distance. I used this means to track the entire would and hunt down any one specific player I needed to find. It took about 35 minutes.

I found their little sandstone hidey-house easily. It had their trademark "gate next please" runebooks on the floor and a few misc supplies. There was one rune locked on the floor that looked quite suspicious. A stealthy cA ranger waited near their new base of operations for the door to open, and deftly snuck in before the door closed. There was nothing to loot, secure containers and runebooks... and the one mystery rune. The cA ranger, being an expert at his craft, donned some sand-stone orange colored clothes and ran a hide macro from a small corner of the house, they never tried to detect hidden anyway.

In the afternoon, when all the LOL ruffians went to bed (cA operates on the chumbucket island time zone), My compatriot cracked the door open to let fellow cA members in. We inspected the runebooks default locations (couldn't open them because.. trammel), and we checked out the single mystery rune. It was a rune to the Tower they were previously using at the chaos shrine. We were going to conceive a plan involving many EQ scrolls and/or purple potions, and tables to trap them inside,.... to you know, give them a really good surprise "welcome home" party. After the plan was hatched, and the house was thuroughly inspected, we decided on another plan. Franz I think it was, scooted off to get an axe, a couple red boxes, and some blank runes marked to a busy area in town with a lot of NPCS, but not so busy that some bank-sitting trammeler (Blaise) might stand and block the rune.

Now, if you put an item in a box, and axe it while it's in your backpack, it falls to the floor at 0z height. Many items can, in fact, occupy the same space in the UO universe. The "mystery rune" was locked down, and no manner of casting MARK would mark over it while it was in a house locked down! Instead, we brought in the axe and boxes.

Several runes to the area in town where you would DEFINITELY get guard-whacked for being red were renamed to exactly match the mystery rune. I think we may have even added a "[Locked Down]" to the string for good measure.

I placed one in a box, stood over the mystery rune and chopped.... PLOP, it hit the deck. Unfortunately it was "behind" the real rune, and using recall to check, we identified that it still led to the Chaos Tower. Poop.

After a few tries at this we got one of the cA runes to appear on the top of the pile! Of course, to anyone outside the plan, it looked like one single rune on the floor.

We were careful not to touch ANY of the other crappy items (vanq weapons and other garbage) on their floor, and left the house, Franz shutting the door securely behind him.

One last stop! A quick trip to the stables to get some cats (actually I forget what type of animal it was) to deposit at around the area where the cA rune went. The cats all had UO appropriate names like "LOLOWNED" and "REDPOTSONLY". After that, we wiped our hands of the situation and went about playing the game as normal until I retired for the evening.

The next day, I awoke to an IRC message from bart "How did you get that rune in there?", I giddily replied and got confirmation that he had in fact recalled straight to town, utterly perplexed at what happened.





Bart reminded me of this the other day in IRC. Shamefully, I didn't document it in picture form. But it remains one of my fondest memories of UOR. If you select this story as a winner, please make a post so I can tell you what charitable organization to donate the reward to in my absence. Thanks

In the days of yore when "Netflix and Mining" was the cool way to spend Friday nights on UOR, I went around marking a bunch of runes as I considered taking up this illicit hobby. I was checking out one rune in the Hidden Valley near Trinsic, the little cave on the west side with the teleporter, when I noticed some activity to the east at one of the four small stone towers in the valley. I recalled out and came back, without horse, to stealth around and see what was happening. All of the stone towers in the clearing seemed to belong to the secretive Order of the Skull. I was able to deduce this because all of the house signs said "Order of the Skull". For those not in the know, this was the first well coordinated Harrower guild (Edit for Blaise to chime in and say he and Les had a Harrower guild on UOR back in 1985). Instead of public harrowers, which seemed to be standard operating procedure on UOR whenever one assembled the requisite skulls, this secretive bunch kept them all to themselves.

Anyhow, after I finished checking out the surroundings for a bit, they open up a gate to Terathan Keep and I stealth on in, and it sure looks like they intend to summon the dread harrower! So I stealth off to the side to gate in my cousins Dalavar EboltMeditateLoopMacromage and Dalavar AllKillThenJustSitTheremage, well known as specialists at killing this most fearsome creature in Ultima Online. Noticeably absent from all of us was the [O^S] that marked those who had been through the Order of the Skull initiation process, so there was some concern from those with actual invitations that I might spread the word beyond the equally prestigious DAL guild.

Alas, their fears were not realized, and thus the Harrower riches were received solely by the Order of the Skull, plus one stealthy mage who happened upon a secret guild, in a secret hidden valley, just as they were secretly about to summon the endgame monster of Ultima Online.

This is actually the Ending of a a very long story. LOL . The tale actually happened at East Brit bank, this part is what I had originally wanted to post here, but the character wanted more. So I wrote his entire history as well and decided to post it with the ending in a separate thread.


This tale takes place in the early days of the world. I will not add pictures as I cannot re-create how the community looked or felt back than. For instance, reds wandered about towns and were a portion of cities populace. The mighty grizzly bear was as red and savage as any human murdered. People were more pedestrian, walked or rode horses throughout the world. There was no colored ore. Etc. Thus, I will let the reader remember those times with their own memories or let their imaginations create visions of long ago.




Part One


"The Thief, The Assassin, and The One Who Raged."


For many months Jordan lived in Marvin's House Thieves; he found it to be a welcoming home,

embracing all of low repute who entered with easy comradeship. Many came and went. A

few,like himself, stayed to hone their skills.
Mostly, he kept quiet, but listened intently to all the tales of the visitors. How many

people hated them for their craft. True it was, this hatred, for many times the house became

under siege by those of good repute. He learned to heal his brothers with bandaids, to

assist them in their battles. If nearby, fellows of the red would join in the battle against

attackers.
With each invasion, Jordan's own aversion to those high and mighty citizens which

threatened his home deepened; until he realized that the person who was Jordan was no more.

That now he was truly Jordy the thief.

He learned of the Honor of Thieves and the Brother Hood of Thieves. That for each act of

evil, one performed it damaged your aura, until it could actually glow red. But, you could

pay healer monks to repair this damage.
He found that reasons for living a thieves' life were as many and varied as there were

thieves. Some like himself, felt to target certain classes of people, while others cared

not if murder was performed to complete the steal.

When he felt confident that his skills where enough to make his lively hood by

stealing, Jordy decided it was time to leave this sanctuary. It was with both sadness and

excitement he choose West Brit to be his new home.

Once at the City, he found it to be even more than the story's he had heard. Immense,

bustling with people of all walks of lives. Even late into the night crowds met around the

bank. Perhaps best of all, many were the arrogant High and Mighty, showing off their plate

armor and bragging about their deeds of glory.

Prefect and now these lords and lady's were not so grand as they became his prey. His

delight in lifting their valuables worth the price of the occasional punishment by the

city's guards. The insults and curses people snarled or shouted at him, substance for his

hate.
He choose not to disguise his person, but proudly wore the traditional rags of a thief

while he worked. He became well known as West Brit's Bank Thief. Although many were leary

of him, when he approached, many also learned it was only the High Class he targeted. Of

these,Jordy did not make friends, but would occasionally indulge in light conversation with

them. At times he would allow his aura to go red, at others he would pay a small fortune to

the healer monks to cure it.

"The Thief, The Assassin, and The One Who Raged"

Part Two


But even a thief must rest from work. At these times Jordy enjoyed East Brit. The population around the bank less. He would dress in trouser and shirt, leaving his feet bare, as he enjoyed the sensation on his feet of the sand at the little beach at ocean's edge. He took up music, and would often set at the beach playing his lute.
It was during one of these visits, Jordy was about to put his lute in the bank, but noticed the man standing next to the door,he wore commoner's clothes did not move away from him.
"Hail" Jordy greeted. The man said nothing.
Jordy decided to peek into his bag. Perhaps take one item to teach the fellow not to nap at the bank. A bad practice indeed.
Just as Jordy was about to lift a bag of food, the man said "Hello", "Hmmm," Jordy thought "no anger or dislike, but a tentative tone, unsure of it's acceptance.
Carefully Jordy removed his hand, than responded with a smile.
The man's sigh was clearly audible, his voice even more so. "Oh thank you. Thank you. You are the only one who will speak to me, I am so lost and all these people, no one will say hello," his voice growing more frantic with each word. "I am so lost. I don't know where to go or what to do. I've asked for help, not for charity, just advice and no one will answer. I don't want their gold. I just want to know what to do."
Menories of his first visit to Empath Abby and how awed and naive he was came to mind. This man will not have the same experience as I, Jordy vowed to himself.
Keeping his tone as soothing as he could, Jordy began. "Calm down. Take a few deep breaths and listen." Seeing that the man was trying to comply, Jordy continued. "First off, never nap at the bank. Always put your items into your bank vault as soon as possible. Otherwise someone like me..
Jordy could not finish the sentence, he fell bleeding to the ground. An arrow buried deep in his side. Shocked, amazed and in pain, Jordy managed to gain his feet. As he scrambled off to the healers, the the man's loud, priecing cry filled the world.
His flesh healed, Jordy returned to the sence of the mysterious attempt on his life occurred. The man's screams could be heard before even the bank roof was visable.
But these screams were not ones of anquish, oh no, they were screams of anger, raging words directed to a man of the red hue. The red man was attempting, without success to get a word or two out, before another onsought flooded him.
The Red man saw Jordy approaching. "Thank the gods you are back" he blurted, yelling above the others words.
This drew the other's attention to Jordy. Jordy thought for a moment he was going to be embraced with unwanted hugs. Instead the man calmed down enough for Jordy to speak.
"I am in good health now, My friend" Jordy said. The man grinned as a school boy.
Jordy turned to the red man. "Why and how did you manage to harm me, without guards punishment?"
"I am a licensed Assassin," The red man explained. "Lord British gives his premission for me to kill in town. Although he does express that assassins only kill for reasonable causes."
"What possible reasonable cause." the other demanded in a shrill tone." For hurting my friend? He was the only one to help me. He talked to me. He...
"One cause," Jordy intervened before the rant continued..."I am a theif. Lord British considers me a bad person."
"Last night he stold from my wife." The Assassin added.
"so, you see, he had reason to try to kill me." Jordy inserted, but not mentioning that the Assassin's wife was more than likely a stuck-up snob.
"But you are not bad. You are good." The man cried,"You wanted to help me."
"Fellow,listen".Jordy decied. "I will tell you how the big, bad, world works."
"And I, ways to avoid the bad." The Assassin added.
Over the mans shoulder and above his flow of gratitude, The Thief and Assassin, two of the worlds most hated people, smiled at one another .



Hope you enjoyed.

"The Thief, The Assassin, and The One Who Raged" has won the 25 Holiday Coins.

Many good tales.
Of note are cA's exploits and the song shared by Paddy.

Oh wow. thank you.

I liked all the stories myself.

Orcus won second with TEETH!
Good depth - 10 coins

Thanks all for sharing!!!!

Congrats Newme and Thank you Zyler.

Thanks.