backs against the wall

it was a little ways past noon.
a mostly sunny day that felt like spring.
occasionally a few clouds would roll by overhead.
no big deal.

things had been going well for the brigands lately.
their camp had been expanding and membership on the rise.
patrols were happening often and were met with little resistance.
summer was rushing in, signaling the winters hardship coming to an end.

Bayara had called a meeting in the tavern.
the camp was buzzing with activity.
scouts had spotted a large group of armed individuals marching along the road.
word on everybody's lips was "war" and it was headed our way.

reports were of an uprising.
it wasn't an army... too small for that.
it wasn't a militia... to mixed to be the case.
diplomats, warriors, mayors, farmers... weapons in hand and headed our way.



Bayara spoke to the crowd.
this was not some hunting party that was passing through.
these people were coming here for them and preparations needed to be made while their was still time.
nobody looked surprised, we'd all been waiting for this day.



they left the tavern and barricaded themselves within the camp.
"there is only one way in here, and that is through those" she yelled, pointing at the massive doors.
"I'll make an effort for negotiation, but I don't believe they are coming here for that" she snapped.
clanking could be heard in the distance now...
they were close.



the group was larger than the scouts had described.
the combined force of several groups: Project Sanctuary, Knights Templar, the Dark Octopus...
safe passage was offered to them if they agreed to drop their weapons and leave at once.
this was not a feasible option.

Bayara declined in her most polite form...
by attacking the leader of the Knights Templar with her warfork.
all hell broke loose and the entrance overrun...



archers and their attack bears were immediately on first few to break through the entrance.
once the assault had begun a roving group of orcs revealed themselves from the bushes across the road.
they too had seen the march advancing on the encampment and had decided to keep to their agreement and lend a hand.
the deep woods of Yew was no place for outsiders and they would be made to pay for their intrusion.






with the help of the orcs and the hungry determination of the bears, the first wave of attack was repelled.
a cheer was let out among the survivors but it was short lived.
no sooner than they clanked their bottles of ale did they hear a war cry bellowing from outside the wall.
another charge was making it's way through the entrance.



molotovs flew from the hands of the brigands engulfing the entrance in flames.
they weren't going to allow them a second chance at pushing their way into the camp.
as the invaders shielded themselves from the explosions and backed their way out into the road...
the brigands saw their opportunity and perused them outside the walls.






once the clanging of steel and screaming had died down it became possible to look around and see the carnage that had taken place.
bodies strewn as far as the eye could see both inside the walls and along the roadside.
Bayara gritted her teeth and smiled as she surveyed the damage... her men, though a little worse for wear, were mostly still standing!
"HAH!" she yelled "you came all this way for satisfaction and revenge... yet you get neither! you leave with NOTHING!"

the war party gathered their troops and bandaged their wounded.
it had been a fierce battle, casualties on all sides...
but it was clear from those left standing that the brigands were there to stay.

now as both sides assembled in the road to see the other off...
Emiele gave word that though the battle had been lost the war was not yet over.




*** at this point the orcs promptly surprise attacked Bayara and left her face down in the dirt.
no doubt as a way to show their undieing love and friendship towards the brigands.
pictures from the orcish perspective can be seen at the below link!
http://uorforum.com/threads/pictures-from-the-event.25124/#post-242346

thanks to all those who came out and fought!
whether you be orc, brigand, or agitated government official...
we had a blast and were thrilled to see such a turn out!

Was a pretty awesome event! Wish I got the 3ed round on video.

Zeke polished his lucky cursed plunger as Bayara was giving her rousing speech to the brigand horde, consisting of encouraging words mixed in with vague threats using a phallic-shaped object. Soon, the stench of stale gruel, vomit, piss, and unwashed brigands would be overwhelmed with the stench of blood and guts. This battle wouldn't be like terrorizing the campers at Camp Anawana or cleaning the toilets, this was an invasion. Zeke looked around at the new recruits, many of them unproven as of yet, some of which would experience their first battle. Anxiety was high amongst some of the new recruits, and many of the veteran brigands' trigger fingers grew itchy. With Bayara's orders given, the brigands took up positions around camp, looking towards the gate. Zeke steadied his crossbow upon the barricade and peered at the door, waiting to pincushion anything that stepped through. At last, the sound of marching boots grew closer and closer... the brigands were caught off guard by the sheer number of boots. P'S and the Templars must have brought new allies and recruits... Bayara stepped out of the gate to confront them as the brigands listened closely but couldn't hear anything until the clanging of a kryss piercing skin and the thwack of bows and crossbows as she burst back through the gate giving the orders to attack.

The brigands let loose a volley of explotion potions, firebombs, arrows and bolts at the invaders, the attack was on!!







The do -gooders came in three waves, the brigands sustaining minimal losses but the opposition force growing more determined. The third wave came from the north, which was only evident by the battle cries and screams of rage coming from the Urks who were holding the line. Soon the invaders broke through and the last battle was on, but the brigands held the fort. Zeke and Ricky had broken through the fray to pursue a deer-maskedman, a firefight with bolts/arrows and ebolts being exchanged through the forest until they lost the trail. Soon the battle was over, but the blood was drawn and the invaders would most likely regroup and seek revenge another day...

Before the Brigands could have some celebratory ale and gruel in camp, their fearless leader was assassinated by their turncoat allies, the Urks! Most of the brigands had dispersed, leaving just a few to defend the fort from the opportunist Urks, who ended up victorious and dining on brigand meat. Surely at the next Brigand gathering , this injustice will be brought up and dealt with!!


[And here's an epic bonus shot I found of @Keza (I think?) delivering a final hammer blow to one of our brigand npc bretheren! This was an AWESOME event and such a high turn out, this is where the epic pvp is at folks! It's amazing what can happen when people check their egos at the door and just fight for fun and a purpose! ]

Another Orcish Viewpoint:

Vishakt and Ne'rull were out scouting the lands, looking for people to interact with, when they stumbled upon an interesting scene.



The Bloodclan orcs left without blood being shed. They couldn't have been outside the fort for more than moments when a rising noise began to pick up to the southeast. Footsteps. Lots of them. Some of them in tin cans by the sound of it. Vish took position behind a nearby tree to watch.

Strangely, the bandit leader came out to speak to the other humans alone. This confused the orc greatly...what tactic was this? Vishakt was still very young when his elders taught him that if you are going to go out the fort gates with enemies outside, you better be charging with the horde. And yet, the brigand leader did just that.



Thankfully there wasn't a lot of blah. The humans seemed to be speaking politely towards one another but Vishakt could see in their eyes that they would soon begin killing each other. And then suddenly they were.

Humans are pretty worthless. We all know that. But there are shades of that...levels. The orcs knew who they would prefer to win this battle. Ne'rull and Vishakt sprung out of hiding. Nearby Vish could see that the Bloodclan had already joined the action. Before long the two clans formed an unspoken agreement and began to work together against the forces of 'good'.









The humans took heavy losses. They seemed unprepared for the orcs and for the stout brigand defense. Vishakt was taken a bit aback by the numbers of the brigands himself. Anyway, while foul, humans aren't all stupid. One of them learned and eventually they hit the orcs first by flanking the brigands fort. [[I was by no means eating a hotdog as this took place nor did I get ketchup on my keyboard and phone getting back into the action]]

Vishakt and Ne'rull had switched cape and robe as we knew the humans would be targeting the orc shaman but I am not completely sure the plan was successful. Or maybe it was because I got....got.





When it was all over the humans lined up (very orcish of them) and Bayara and the brigands began to boast. "BLAH BLAH BLAH" they said. "BRIGANDS RULE". And so on. Ne'rull was getting twitchy. If Vishakt could read the humans expressions earlier, you know he could read this one. So he found a conveniently created hole in the brigands line and stood next to Bayara, hoping to appear to be trying to look important. And then it was on.... again.

The brigands were taken by surprise, especially with the quick loss of their leader. The combined orcish forces were able to prove a point.





ORC > HUMIE.


--------------- NOTE: HUGE thanks to all who participated. Those were some good fights there. I do not look forward to the brigands revenge, although I felt we owed them for some fights back when they first formed. Nice to see PS out in numbers as well. I tried to convince you guys to pay us to switch sides after round 2...was curious to see a fully assaulted brigand defense.

Super fun, thanks for recording @Keza

This looked like great fun!

silly rabbits... everyone knows it takes an appointed seer to have events

YOU JUST CAN'T GO AROUND AND MAKE YOUR OWN EVENTS LIKE THIS!





good stuff ya'll... here's to many many more

Odd, my actual body is where the two naked guys on the ground are, in fact my body is where the bald guy with the beard is standing (behind the tree). When I went back to get my gear for round two my body was empty. Dry looted!!! I was pretty pissed about it, not the gear, but having to run all the way back to town to re-equip and by the time I got back the battle had ended. I mean someone oculd have at least left the town runebook so i could recall to town and get back. Missed most the fun, though i did kill 1 Brid player and an Orc player, so that was satisfying.

In fact, i was still salty about it this morning, figuring some RP player broke the "no looting" rule of the RP PvP and ruined my fun.

But in this screen shot my fully clothed body is in a different spot (Bottom-right with cape, helm and war axe). It wasn't there when I came back for it. No body there, or remains there at all. So now, I'm a little less angry, maybe i wasn't looted after all. But how can my entire inventory just be deleted like that? I even restated the client and came back to the spot still nothing on the body and no other bodies of Sir Allistar. I'm confused.

NOTE:
It was a great event and purely player driven. Hats off to those that made it happen. Brigands as the defending unit planned very well, with traps and tactics. Attacking forces rushed the fort and abandoned tactics as they assumed they would overrun the defenders. Lots of fatalities on both sides, but defenders survived in the end. I just wish i could have enjoyed the whole thing.

When there is a LOT of bodies I think it gets a little buggy. Also, there is a bug where you open your body and it looks empty, but if you close and open it again, all your stuff is there again. It's possible you opened a brigand npc body or someone elses's body instead of your own. Sorry you had a bad time getting your stuff, I hope no one actually dry looted you!

In Keza's video it looks like your corpse vanishes at 9:31. I'm guessing it turned to bones then that you would need circle of transparency on to see. Of course, you thought your body was elsewhere so no one found it and your goods were lost.

So hopefully you are not salty anymore but it definitely sucks. Also, there were a few accusations of orcs ressing (maybe once he didn't know not sure if he fought) but as Keza did it once that first round as well I suppose it's all good. I probably would have that first round if I'd been killed as I didn't know if it was a FFA or not.

Those two minor grievances aside it was great. Maybe PS would like to defend itself against retaliation from the bad guys soon. I'd love to burn down those god awful pink trees.

Merek, sorry you had a bad experience with your corpse but I think Paddy and Vishakt are on to something. I seriously doubt you got looted but hope it didn't ruin your fun completely.

After the first battle, everyone hung out in front of the gate and got rezzzed and got their gear. I think we all though that was going to be it and awaited the RP stuff to happen (as it finally did later) with the Brigands, KT and Orcs. But everyone had so much fun they all decided to do a second and third attack. At that point i think everything was fair game as the actual battle had happened and ended.

This certainly wasn't our perception of how it happened. We were treating it as an attack in 3 waves, so I don't think any of us thought of it as fair game after the first attack.

edit: At least these issues give us an opportunity to work out the kinks and make the next one run more smoothly.

Maybe you're right. I was busy running to find new gear during the 2nd and 3rd attack.

My issue aside. I agree 100% here. From out side of the camp all that was really stressed was we were going to an RP pvp event against Brigands and no looting and no murder counts was stressed half a dozen times.

Also no actions or fighting until the "speeches" ended. Other than that no one really knew anything else. Like rezzing rules, return to combat, limits on types of fighting (other than no horses).

That said any efforts to do this again and/or fix some miscommunication will be well worth it. Our guild chat after this was 100% positive and peeps saying they had a blast, a few long timers evening saying it was one of the most fun pvp events in game they have done. So the interest is definition there.

What the hell happened here and how can I get involved next time?

I included the same no looting clause in my speech as well.
and I would be very surprised if someone among our group had violated that.
especially to spend time dry looting every item when there is a big battle going on and you have to stay moving.
could be very possible that it was an issue like Paddy mentioned with a brigand NPC corpse interfering with you accessing your body.
whatever the case, I'm sorry to hear that you spent most of the event running back to town to re-equip when you could of been there lending your sword.

for the sake of transparency... Krake/Kizama/myself didn't really chat about this till day of.
we should of had this conversation days earlier and covered more than horses and looting haha.
like poisoned weapons? mages? tames? deathrobe looting etc....

also...
I think whenever you have that many people involved it becomes exponentially easier for things to get missed/overlooked.
when I'm giving a rundown to 3 people it's pretty easy for me to make sure they all got it.
when I'm doing that with a dozen [not that we had 12 brigands on] it becomes a lot harder to tell.
a few might be AFK in the bathroom or heating up pizza or paying attention but getting text blocked.

this makes me so happy to hear.
1 - that you are willing to do it again
2 - there was so much positive guild chatter about it.

HELL YES

Next time...I taking off work! Haha, sounds and looks like this was a blast!

I think we've had the event planned between the brg, P'S, Templars, and the orcs for at least a week or so, and then a few others joined in. I recommend getting involved with one of these guilds, especially the good aligned guilds like the Templars that are growing and need more recruits. Of course you can always just run by the brigand camp and there is usually someone to interact with most of the time

I'm not going to belabor the issue. After seeing the photos and videos it seem pretty clear my body died in a different spot than where my "remains" were on my screen. So I've backed off my original stance of being "dry looted". Probably will never figure out for sure what happened. Everyone seems to agree it was a strange bug or weird client issue. I've moved on.

I still had a solid round 1.

Sir Allistar is never one to trust a Brigand so when the others rushed into the fray with reckless abandon, he stayed outside the gate and avoided the traps of explosions, bears, and archers. His prudent instincts paid off and was one of just a couple crusaders of justice that saw the incoming trap from the woods. He managed to slay an Orc clan member in hand-to-hand combat and then gave chase to a Brigand into the forest. The Brigand proved elusive and managed to escape.

Hearing the dying cries of his fellow brothers inside the camp Sir Allistar rushed into the breach and immediately saw one of his fellow knights under attack from a sleuth of cursed bears. He quickly helped vanquish the threat and delivered a massive blow to a Brigand, who was then struck down by one of the good guys.

Sir Allistar was in great health and spirit, deflecting several arrows and bolts with his shield and set his sights on the leader Bayara hiding behind the tent. He thought to himself, "what a coward, staying in the back while his/her forces are being assaulted." So he rushed to combat and could only get off a swing before being descended upon by a horde of his/her minions. One of which delivered a powerful poison which crippled him and forced him to make a hasty retreat. He reached for his cure potion, "ah, i was wise to bring this", he thought. But alas, a Brigand archer shot the potion bottle out of his hand and he died (IN THAT SPOT). Cursed and foul Brigands, poison, have they no honor?!?!

Complete understandable. You can't prepare for every contingency. But it was a good first effort. You got to see it in action, see what worked well and what didn't. What can be done to fix or improve things next time, and next time it will be even bigger and better.

YES. & HELL YES