Over the past weeks we have had the immense pleasure of reading through your most memorable moments. Every entry was very entertaining, heartfelt and reminds all of us how amazing Ultima Online truly is. We have reached end our Most Memorable UO Moment contest, but are happy to share with you the final winners. We received 12 entries from the Sonoma shard and had another tie!

Here are the 7 winning UO memories from Sonoma:

A Fish Tale

My most memorable UO moment happened a couple years ago at the Capt’n EM Rumbelly’s Deep Sea Fishing Adventure on Sonoma. A call went out stating that fishing crews were wanted. All brave sailors, fishers and healers were needed as a rumor was spreading the towns that someone had spotted a huge fish in the waters off the coast and Capt’n EM Rumbelly wanted to see the proof since he believed it is was just a long fish tale.

The tale also spoke of grave peril, that ghost ships long sunk had given up their dead and they were wandering the seas. Although I was not a fisher, and far from being a sailor, I figured the least I could do is offer my healing assistance and perhaps I could get in a shot or two to help defend others.

We headed off from New Haven docks and before we got to far the captain of the boat I was riding on managed to get us a tad lost. We had to circle around and try to find the other ships. It was ok though since the brave sailors remembered to bring a large stash of rum on board to share. We were a bit intoxicated by the time we caught up with the other ships but we sure had fun telling wayfaring jokes and reminiscing about former barmaids.

We did our best to defend the fisher of our boat but the deep sea monsters attacked us fearlessly and a few of the sailors gave up their ghost. The other ships did come to our aid and our fisher did manage to catch a pretty darn good sized flapper. However, even though we came in last place for the weight of our fin friend we had a blast trying and I forged a bond with the other players.

Because of that fun and memorable event I developed an interest in seafaring. I took up the skill of fishing and I was certainly ready for the deep sea adventures we have now with pirates. Maybe one day Capt’n EM Rumbelly will return to take us on another deep sea adventure. If he does I will be sure to bring an extra keg or two of fresh distilled brews to help us brave the waves and sea monsters.

It was supposed to be like every other night then I logged into UO. Log in, find Ghengis and Libby and see what mischief we could accomplish for a few hours of playtime. That’s how the night was supposed to go.

Instead, I logged in &  found Ghengis standing around Moonglow Bank and learned Libby was not online yet. Ghengis and I  talked for a short while and something felt very “off” to me about him. What a surprise for me to learn that Ghengis this night was actually a real life older brother that also played that account and I would learn to know him better as “Lestat”.

Over the next few hours of  this night, Lestat showed me a side of UO I had never experienced. We killed Blood elements with our pet dragons in Ilshenar. We provo’ed  Shadow Wyrms with our bards in the bottom of Destard.  We visited all the towns in Trammel. He explained to me what a “mule” character was. To say the least I was sad when he said he had to log out because he worked the next morning, but promised he would log in the following evening to play beside me. I knew then a friendship was born.

Over the course of the next few months Lestat and I were inseparable. We did everything together from working our Blacksmith skills at the same forge, working our provocation skills up at Shadow Wyrms. I’ll always adore those long nights we spent playing the game and voice chatting at the same time.

To end this story of one night logging into to Ultima Online and discovering a friend, Lestat and I live together in real life now, engaged, and we both still log into UO almost every evening from different rooms of our house and yell back and forth from room to room such things as: “Hun, can you heal me??!!” or “Baby can you kill that dragon before it eats me?!?” Not only did I meet a friend from that one night, but I met my Best Friend for life.

Server Down

When the server down message pops up, everyone, including myself equip our best weapons and armor and head on over to the Brit Graveyard. There you see all sorts of characters. Everyone has their best of the best equipment on and ready for battles that would have no consequences.  There is no fear of losing your Supremely Accurate Weapon of Vanquishing. There is no fear of losing your Indestructible Armor of Invulnerability. I was one of those that bared it all for the great fights night after night at the Brit Graveyard.
My weapons of choice have always been a Halberd and a Katana. So with that being said, I equipped my Supremely Accurate Halberd and Katana of Vanquishing. I loaded myself with Reagents, Potions, and my Teleporting/Invisibility items for the nightly battle. Once there, you can see the masses gathering. Blues would congregate on one side. The reds would gather on another side. Without warning, some blues will flag grey and it would be an all-out war between blues on greys, blues on reds, blues on blues, reds on reds, and greys on greys. As a PK, I did not care what color you showed. I killed whoever was close to me.
I precast my Explosion, and find my target. Once the Explosion is upon him/her, I would run in with a swift whack of my Supremely Accurate Halberd of Vanquishing, and then back up a few steps and cast an Energy Bolt at my victim. If they are lucky and survive the initial assault, and would then either blast them with an Explosion/Energy Bolt combo, or just simply equip my Katana and slice them until they are dead and seeing grey.
I have to admit, there are times where I would have to flee with the numbers not in my favor. That is when my Teleporting/Invisibility items come in handy. Drink a Greater Heal Potion and teleport away and turn the corner and *poof*, hidden. I would then gather my thoughts and run back into the masses and pick them off one by one.
Out of all the battles, duels, and fights I have been in, the server down wars was the best in my mind. It has always stuck in my memories. This was the time where the reds can be red; this was the time where blues can also be reds.
This was the most carefree fights I have ever been a part of. This was a very memorable moment in my life on Ultima Online.

‘DragonSnack in the Dungeon of Blood’
(queue scary music)

Once upon a time, I decided to change professions.
More than that, I changed me.
New name. New house. New skills.
As I was redeveloping myself I stumbled upon my new profession quite by accident.
I decided to become a raconteur.
One of the things that I needed to assist me in my new job was a horse.
After a few test drives I settled on a creature known as DragonSnack.
He is known as DragonSnack since the dragons did not think he alone equaled a full meal.

In those days I traveled Sonoma alone.
I enjoyed exploring new places and telling people about what I saw.
DragonSnack was my company. His refusal to comply with the standard rules of RNG fascinates me.

I had never stepped in Blood Dungeon.
So, I grabbed my Sword of Dullness and my Shield of Metal Attraction, and DragonSnack and I headed to Blood Dungeon.
I decided this dungeon would be easy.
After all, it was only one level.
At first I had no problems in the dungeon alone.
It was just Imps and Hellcats.
Moving deeper I encountered more powerful denizens, but we squelched those.
I was doing pretty good attacking things and backing off to heal when necessary.
I was feeling pretty good and advanced further into the dungeon and spotted a Balron (Paragon).
He spotted me too!
He was SOOOO happy to see me!
He ran right over and hugged me to death.
I had tried to run but he was fast.
As my vision turned gray, I saw DragonSnack head toward the Balron.
“Great. Now I have to find a res for him too!” I thought as I ran from the dungeon.
I had to run about 1189 miles to the nearest Moongate for a res.

Once getting back to the dungeon, it took me a few attempts (and one more death robe) before I reached me body and could recover my precious junk.
Now, all I needed to do was get DrgaonSnack’s ghost.
Now the kicker to this was that ol’ Balron (Paragon).
It saw me coming and chased me back out of the dungeon.
I tried several times but that balron was persistent.
I had to figure out a way to outsmart that Balron.
I decided to take a nap.
If you take a nap and your pet isn’t with you when you fall asleep it will be there when you awake.
So, I took a quick nap, but there was no DragonSnack when I woke up.
I tried a few more times, still no DragonSnack.
I talked to some friends and no one had any ideas.
I was certain that DragonSnack was gone to some RNG glitch.
My sons joined me and mourned my loss with me.
We decided to try one more trip to Blood to look for DragonSnack.
We slowly fought our way into the dungeon.
As we reached the dungeon, there stood DragonSnack. Alive.
We killed the Blood Elemental standing beside DragonSnack.
I mounted him and we raced out of the dungeon.
Just as I was almost out of the dungeon I was finished off by an imp.
The imp killed DragonSnack too.

This time, I was able to recover my body and DragonSnack’s ghost.
DragonSnack has escaped a balron (Paragon), walked past several Blood Elementals and camped in the dungeon, unscathed (until I returned).
How does that happen?

The King’s Visit.
I scurried from my room at the Empathy Abby in Yew over to the bank.  How silly of me to log off last night with some gold in my backpack, I’m shocked that the gold is even still with me and not lining the purse of some thief.  But its ok now, I’ve got it safely stashed away in the bank.  My house funds are growing nicely and soon I will have enough money to get that small stone and plaster house!
But now is not the time for playing around in the bank, I have to get my knife and get down into the orc valley below the Yew Graveyard and start killing the orcs and get more gold and stuff to sell before anyone else gets there and takes over the spawn!  I can remember with a pang of fear when the pack of reds attacked last night seemingly out of nowhere with their Uzi Bows, all with the same name… SpAwN.
*supresses a shiver of fear and excitement*
Ok, need a plan of attack here.  First off ill hit the yew sheep pen and get some wool then over to the YMCA (The Yew Merry Center for All, a landmark on the Sonoma shard of a Large Tower directly across from the Yew Graveyard) and make some Band-Aids and then it’s off to the yew graveyard to get some bone armor.  Then it’s straight down to the Orc Valley to make some gold!
I leave the Abby in my short pants and shirt, knife in hand.  I stop for a moment to put my grey robe on as I supress a giggle.  “They will see this death robe and think I’m freshly resurrected and leave me alone”.   I’m so much smarter than those reds I swear!
I expertly sheer the wool of some sheep and roll into the YMCA, as the door swings shut behind me I see some names I recognise and some I don’t, I take a second look at the names I don’t know, for while the YMCA is a safe haven for those in the wilds not everyone plays by the rules of the house and more than one person has dropped dead from a well-placed flame strike when unbanned reds rushed the famous player run Inn.  I deftly spin my wool into cloth and then into Band-Aids and I’m ready to leave when a flurry of activity descends upon the YMCA.
Men on horseback have arrived at the Inn and from the fine cut of their clothes and the well-used weapons they carry these are men of means and knowledge.   And then a name stands out amongst their group…. Lord British!
“Oh my god” I whisper.
I prostrate myself down in front of the Creator of all we know as he ambles into the Inn and starts to chat freely with all of us that are in here.  He inquires as to how my night is going.  I say something cheesy like “I’ve rid the world of those pesky sheep across the way” to which he laughs and moves on to the roof of the inn with his entourage. 
We, being dutiful followers of the Crown follow our liege lord up to the roof to hear what he has to say.  I put the call out to everyone I know that the King is at the YMCA.  And from what I can tell everyone else has done the same, for people are arriving in droves and pouring in from all directions.  The atmosphere is festive as there are so many people here easily more people then play on this entire shard!  Soon my joy turns to fear as riots of new characters are running down from the Abby, obviously newly made people coming from other shards to see the King on one of rare public appearances.  And then the beast rears its ugly head…. The Lag Monster has arrived! 
And who can blame the Lag Beast for coming, everyone else in the game is here, why not the Lag Beast!
In amongst the cut purses and rouges that are here we listen to our Lord British talk about how happy he is to see all of us and how happy he is that we are all enjoying ourselves.
Beer and Spirits are passed around and we all hoist a glass and a cheer!
And later that night when the lag beast has left and I’m down in the Orc Valley below Yew plying my trade and making some gold towards my first house I can’t help but smile, for I have met my King.
Big Bad Wolf of WGW (Warriors and Guardians of the Woods)
(Later to be the Bard Poo)
July 11, 1999

A Memorable First – Addax’s First
Trip to a Dungeon

Addax had long been a lumberjack making
his way by crafting bows and furniture for profit.  After a while, he began to feel lonely in the forest and decided to join a guild for comradeship.  Addax joined the Guardians of Truth (GoT) in early 1999.

One day early in his membership, Addax
was sitting alone in the guild house admiring his new uniform and plate armor.  Suddenly, his fellow guild member Rodimus burst in the room asking for help. Vile leprechauns had been popping up all over Britannia and attacking people.  Rodimus spotted large numbers of them in Shame dungeon, and he needed assistance to slay them.

Addax had never been in any dungeons
before.  They had always sounded too dangerous for a humble woodsman like him, but he was an armored soldier in a strong guild now.
Surely he could brave the danger.  He picked up his ax and followed Rodimus through a gate to the depths of Shame Dungeon.

After adjusting to the darkness, Addax
found himself in front of a tower surrounded by water.  The front door opened and out came a man dressed in a fancy white shirt, short green pants, a green cloak and a feathered hat. It was a leprechaun!
Addax immediately charged, waving his ax wildly. Battle ensued and Addax quickly emerged victorious.  Just as Addax sighed in relief and began to heal his wounds, two more leprechauns advanced out the door. The tower was full of them!

The battle was tough, but Addax and
Rodimus quickly worked their way through the tower picking up mugs of green ale from fallen leprechauns.  They also took what clothing they could find without bloodstains intending to play at being leprechauns themselves.

Once they tired of killing, Rodimus
went home to rest and Addax returned to the guild house to report to the guild leader.  Several members of the guild gathered to listen to his tale.  Once he was done, they ventured forth to Shame Dungeon to kill some leprechauns themselves.  Addax, however, had seen enough blood for one day.  He returned home to enjoy drinking some green ale.

There are several memorable UO moments that come to mind; weddings, festivals, battles, EM events, but for me there is one that says it all about UO. It is when our UO world came together in 2004/2005 to support the people that were struck by the natural disasters of the Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Katrina.

UO players from around the world wanted to help those in need by offering to donate their time, gold, items, thoughts and prayers. A vet player named Crazy Joe organized a way for players to show their support with a new concept to the virtual world. With the approval of the UO administration, he developed Gamers Charity. This virtual charitable organization would auction off donated UO items for real dollars that would then be donated to the Red Cross.

More than half of the UO shards participated. The UO Players helped raise thousands of dollars with billions worth of virtual goods. When the fundraiser was done, the amount in real life dollars donated to the Red Cross/Salvation Army was more then $10,000.00. This united action lifted the spirit of human kindness to a level that had not been seen in the virtual world. The charitable movement hit national recognition and Crazy Joe was interviewed on MSNBC about Ultima Online and Gamers Charity.

As a ‘UO Wedding Cleric’ I was honored when asked to hold memorial services on the different shards. I was also given the chance to help Sosaria Live Radio (now Whispering Rose Radio) run a 3 day music-thon to raise as much gold as possible. Players donated so much gold it was unbelievable. A bit of fun developed during this sad time which helped us to stay focused on the main goal. There was some shard to shard competition but the best was when a challenge came forth that if we reached a certain amount in donations Crazy Joe would shave his head bald! He actually looked pretty good with no hair … players began calling him Crazy Joe Kojak.

The reason why this UO memory is most memorable to me is not just because I have forged many great friendships from sharing a united goal but also because since that time I realize that behind every paper doll there is a real person. Behind every pixel on screen there is a real person whose talent and creativeness is being shared. Behind each publish there are real people just like the players who make up our UO World. For me, UO is not just a game, it’s really a way of life ~ Real and Virtual life entwined.

Over the past 15 years UO has helped touch and shape all of our lives. Join us in wishing everybody another wonderful 15 years rich with more memories and great friends.

We received 12 creative entries from the Origin shard. Of those entries there were 5 memories that received the most votes from our judges.

Here are the 5 winning UO memories from Origin:

My most memorable moment in UO is when I achieved the title Grandmaster Fisherman.  It may not seem all that special anymore, but back when I was working 65+ hours a week, I could only dedicate 5 – 15 hours a week to Ultima Online.  The magic of fishing up items from a shipwreck or the highly desirable message in a bottle seemed like a fairy tale to me for so long.  I never thought it would happen.

Fortunately there was a system known as power hour that helped me get fishing gains around midnight to 1:00AM.  I would also use a technique called 8×8 where you move your boat 8 tiles, and fish.  If you got a gain, you would stay on that spot, and keep fishing until the fish stopped biting.  If you didn’t get a gain, you just moved another 8 tiles.

It was an adventure, because you would travel the seas over all of Sosaria.  I got very familiar with the coast lines, the islands, and soon I always knew where I was.  Just as in real life, when fishing your mind would wander, you could imagine all the things about the game you loved, or wish you could change.  It was very relaxing.

Soon after I became grandmaster, I hunted for these MiBs, and when I found my first one, I pulled out the water-stained scroll to read about some poor soul that got trapped in a squall only to drown going down with ship because they couldn’t abandon their treasure.  How nice of them to take the time to leave me this note with the coordinates to find their loot.

It was exciting the first time I used my sextant to find the site of the shipwreck.  I pulled up body parts, clocks, boots, and pillows, but I really wanted the large painting.  I was addicted.  I couldn’t believe it when I the line on pole pulled something heavy out of the sea into my backpack.  An unlocked treasure chest, what a relief, because I had no lockpicking.

Later I would pull up more messages in a bottle, and fishing nets to.  Today fishing is even more exciting as it was back then.  Its an element of this game I hope continues to evolve, as I will never stop playing.

My story about Origin began more than twenty years ago, before the time of the MMORPG, even before the magic we call the internet…

I first journeyed to the land of Sosaria as a lone hero when my cousin brought the first Ultima game to my home in 1986.  I ten years old, yet I became a hero when I came home from school, so long as my chores were done.  The game was on a single floppy disc for the Apple IIe.  The monitor was green monochrome, yet I fell instantly in love with the wench in the tavern, though I think she robbed me blind more than once.  I finally traveled back in time to destroy the evil wizard, Mondain.
I set out immediately to find the rest of the series, but, I could only find Ultima IV.  When I became an Avatar by reaching the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom, I heard some amazing news:  Ultima V was coming out soon.  I saved my allowance for several months, and after several weeks of anticipation, the box finally arrived!  The artwork on the cover was incredible, with the Avatar facing three evil-looking foes.  On the cover was the Origin symbol. 
Unfortunately, I was unable to complete my quest.  I had arrived at the final dungeon, when my computer stopped working.  We couldn’t afford a new one, and it would be many years before I would journey to Sosaria again…
Years later, I discovered that the Ultima series had been collected for the PC.  I immediately bought the collection, and more than ten years after I had started the quest, I finally rescued Lord British from the clutches of the upstart Lord Blackthorn!
When I began to play UO, I was scrolling through the different shards, when I suddenly saw a familiar name:  Origin!  I struggled against Mongbats, and finally used the advanced character token to become a powerful mage.  I scraped together my first LRC suit.  As I wasn’t doing more than just killing random monsters, I began to branch out and ask the bustling community for a little help.  Arafel brought me to her house in Tokuno to help me train my mage skill.  She told me to wait at her house, then she ran out and brought back a Hiryu.  I didn’t know what I was doing, so I leapt off her porch and was instantly killed.  Arafel laughed a little, “lol,” and told me, quite sternly, to stay on the porch and cast two energy vortexes next to the Hiryu.  When the vortexes were killed, she told me to cast again.  I didn’t have any mana, so she told me to meditate.  I knew what meditating was, so I began to slowly take off my metal armor, piece by piece.  She burst out laughing, “LOL, Wow, you really do need help!”  And she proceeded to contact her friends to make me a proper, medable, LRC suit.  That was when Origin became my home.

The Hammer

Lord Blood Ghoul opened the front door of Hanse’s Hostel and took the seat closest to the fire.  The chill of autumn’s breeze slowly leaving his bones as the warmth from the flames washed over him.  This was his favorite drinking spot, even though he was the only patron he’d ever seen at the establishment. Looking around he notices a rudimentary calendar on the wall and his eyes lock on one day in particular, Halloween.
Opening his pack he removes a piece of parchment, takes out his quill, and begins to write.

Let It Be Known

It was the first year of our world and I resided on a shard called “Eastern.” The shard was plagued with criminals, murderers, and small areas labeled “unused” which no matter how hard you tried you could not walk upon. Life was hard those days and I hold nothing against anyone for what they did to survive.
Blood Ghoul cringed at the thought of how many Nobles he had promised to escort to their desired location, only to lead them beyond the range of city guards to murder and loot their belongings.  He looks back down to the parchment and continues to write.
I had been walking around the land outside of Britain when I came across a large group of others gathered around a peculiar looking individual. This person was instructing the group that it was Halloween and the undead in the cemetery were amassing a formidable force. The entire group began running to the north until we reached the cemetery where I stopped in my tracks at the sight. Ghouls, Zombies, Skeletons, and numerous worse undead were wandering the area.
The fighting was brutal and long.  All of my training in the wilds came into use and when the last of the undead fell I surveyed the carnage.  Bodies of both the living and undead littered as far as the eye could see.  In those days when someone fell in battle you could take all the belongings from their corpse.  I believe the overwhelming number of “heroes” who came to stop the undead spent their time participating in that repulsive act.
The strange individual we had followed to the undead stood in front of the crowd and congratulated us on a well earned victory. He then stated one warrior was to be recognized for bravery and called my name. He asked me to approach and I was handed a named magical war hammer called “Heavy War Hammer of the Dead.”
The world was difficult and I ended up losing my prize. I heard it passed through many hands over the years and ended up on the shard called Drachenfels but it has since slipped into history. I have searched many shards but to no avail. I fear my hammer is lost forever.
Lord Blood Ghoul gets up from his chair and approaches the bulletin board. Posting his most memorable moment he then heads back out into the autumn’s chill.

It was one early morning 1998 when I woke up for class. I thought to myself let’s see what the world of Ultima Online has to offer before I head out the door. I logged onto my 56k AOL connection “eeeeawwwwewwwwwaaaaa, chssssss, chssss” and there I was sitting in the brittania mint. My character was named Strider and he was almost a 70 something Swordsman/Smith. I have the Ultima Online classic music just cranked up in my apartment running around the brittania bank and then  I run across a character and his name was Oslo. We talked for a good hour about everything under the sun and near the end of the conversation he said “Hey let me see your house” . I was very proud to show my 7×7 home off to someone that did not have a house, so we ran to my house. It was right before we entered my home that I noticed my key was missing! Oslo says “The Thief King strikes again” and then runs…… I pursue him trying to type and run at the same time “Wait, Wait!” but before long he has vanished. I return to the scene of the crime and behold Oslo shows up. I immediately attack him but am no match for this thief and he quickly kills me. At this point I have missed a college class (later finds out that I missed a pop quiz and coincidently fail the class). I return to the brittania mint and find no other than Oslo looking for his next victim. I beg him for the return of my key to my house and he replied “Whats in it for me?” I literally gave him the clothes/armor on my back in order to retrieve my key. In the end Oslo and I became good friends and played Ultima Online together for 10 years before he had to leave the game. In the end it turns out missing that class, failing a quiz/class and getting man handled by a thief led me to 10 exciting years of Ultima Online and a great friendship

From Farmer to Lord – My Story
I guess you can say I was born on the islands of Jhelom, well at least that’s where I first obtain my consciousness.  With nothing but the shirt, pants and shoes I had on I wandered the streets for days not knowing what I was supposed to do other than knowing my name was Orion.  I particularly remembered a day approximately 2 weeks into my conscious existence that I came across a large farm.  There was a small house that looked like a shop of some sorts but behind it was a massive forest.   I stopped by the shop for a glass of water since that was all I could afford and had the urge of wanting to take a stroll into the forest.   I found a path leading into the forest and began walking.  It was about 20 minutes into the walk did I hear loud claps of thunder.  It didn’t make sense to me at first because it was a clear blue sky so naturally I was even more drawn to the source of that sound.  I walked another 200 yards or so before I saw this old man dressed in a robe summoning what it appeared to be lightning bolts and fireballs out of thin air and directing them towards these 2 large silver serpents.  What he didn’t see was a giant spider slowly creeping up behind him and was in a position to pounce on him.  Needless to say I was scarred but also excited at the same time and out of my mouth I yelled to the old man “there is a huge spider getting ready to eat your ass – look behind you”.  He turned with incredible speed for his age and muttered some words and next thing I knew he was next to me.  He then muttered some more words and a bluish looking pool appeared in front of me.  He grabbed me by the shirt and tossed me into the pool and everything went black.
I woke up in a bed in this giant room decorated with what looked like expensive things and at the foot of the bed stood the same old man I met on the island.  He looked at me with a smile and said “welcome Orion, how are you feeling?”   I didn’t know what to say at first other than “huh?”  He smiled some more and said “well I guess you must be wondering what is going on, so let me do the talking and fill you in”.  He began telling me his story about how he was a high wizard in Lord British’s court who worked all of his life and was never married.  On that particular day, he was trying out some new combination magic spells and was careless not paying any attention around him and would have probably died until he heard me yelling.  He thought that was a sign from above and decided to adopt me as his child.  While I was unconscious from the moongate traveling (my first time of course), he found out from the locals that I was an orphan and just appeared out of nowhere one day and had been wondering around the streets for days.  He then said he will teach me everything he knows and that his fortune was not made through magic or service to the throne but through antiques trading- for he as the foremost expert on antiquities. 
Over the years he has taught me many lessons.  I’ve been on countless quests under the services of all the Britannia rulers from Lord British to Lady Dawn and established long time friends.  And when my adopted father passed the title of Lord was bestowed upon me as the sole heir of his estates.  To honor him, I changed my name to that of his family crest which was a creature of a lion with dragon wings – Manticore.  So when you asked what this world means to me, the answer is simple, “everything

The Ultima Online team has received another set of questions last week. Here are the answers.

Ultima Online Bibliothek Dear Devs, UO has been in our lives for 15 years, how about new merchandise to celebrate? The red Dragon with the 15years font would be a perfect and very cool object for (coloured!) T-Shirts, Hoodies, Lanyards and Stickers! (Medea, )
Mesanna: There is a new Tshirt on the bioware store for UO if you go to this link.  

Ultima Online Bibliothek Hello Devs, is it possible to get rid of the timer on the green thorns? I think there is no reason anymore to not get rid of it, because to hunt for Vines or Vorpal Bunnies is nowadays no real issue anymore… thank you! (Medea)
Mesanna:  Currently there is a 3 minute delay on the thorns that the team have honestly not thought about removing .  We will do some research and talk it over.

Ultima Online Bibliothek Hallo UO Team, what happened to the plans about New Naven, meaning replacing New Haven with the old Haven or Occlo? (Waldschrat)
Mesanna:  We have not made any plans to go forward with this change as of yet.

Ultima Online Bibliothek Dear UO Dev Team, how about a nice and somehow useful list about what action will bring how much points for Town Loyalty? Or even a formula on how the different options are calculated? I am a little confused about all the things we can do. For example: I hunted on Champion Spawns for hours for my tamer’s standing, but there was very little or not much standing earned. But my tailor has no problems maintaining and even get more standing with ease when she gives her BODs to the local workers! (And yes, I login daily to get the loyalty points refreshed). Thanks!
Thanks for listening! 
Kyronix: As I am sure you realize its combination of Love, Hatred and Neutrality.  Given the past loyalty decisions of the character it might take longer to build the relationship with the city you desire.

I’d love to know from the team if they plan on releasing these thrones in the spring cleaning or something before anyone makes a poor choice of purchase thinking it’ll be the only release. (Assia Penryn)
Mesanna:  I don’t have issue adding the throne to Spring Cleaning.

Japanese Players Question 1
Question: Are there any plans to revamp the aquarium?
Nickname: Ivy
Mesanna:  We are looking to add new items not necessarily revamp it.

Knuckleheads.dk In the recent storyline Dupre and Lord Blackthorn appeared ingame. Why didn’t you/the EMs not use their special armors/skins (can be seen here and here)?
Mesanna:  The old armor was not used because it was not visible in the EC client so we had to remake Blackthorn.

Over the last few months, the size of my guild has more than doubled. Admin, things like promoting folks or doing guild titles, was ok while we were small, but now we’re so large, and so many folks have a alts with us too, it’s becoming a true pain in the ass. For example; scroll through 6 pages to find the char that needs a status altering, as soon as you’re done, it drops you out of the guild roster page. To get to the next char to alter, you have to go back in scroll through 6 pages, etc etc. Is there any way of making this simpler? What I would like to see, ideally, is
1) If I click on a char name, I get all the chars that one person has in the guild.
2) I can work on those chars, from that list, without being dumped out of the guild admin section and having to navigate back through.
3) Maybe some way of working on the admin bits from the UO site, available to me as a guild leader, with a choice of giving access to emissaries?
Also, guild titles. What’s with me not being able to give someone the title ‘Dragon Master’ or ‘Hunt Master’ or similar? Those aren’t offensive in any way, what’s the problem? I know it fits, but it tells me it’s disallowed. And if you look at that, maybe you could fix the problem that’s causing my chest of glassblowing supplies to show up on engraving as ‘gla$$blowing supplies’!(Cailleach, ask the devs)
Mesanna:  We would like to redo the guild system as we are aware of a lot of issues we would like to change it in.  I know this is not the answer you want but it is on our list.  As far as the title Dragon Master or Hunt Master those were disallowed due to the fact that you can not name yourself after a NPC in the game or a skill in the game.    I have no problem at all for allowing glassblowing to show up as it should.

We received 13 excellent entries from the Siege Perilous shard. Once again, the entries challenged our judges to make some hard decisions that resulted in another tie!

Here are the 6 winning UO memories from Siege Perilous:

     Aang was making his rounds. He wondered if these lands would ever make him feel alive again. He had walked them for nearly 10 years and had experienced all of the blood-curdling, hair-tingling action that Sosaria had to offer and he yearned for those days again. As he wandered the forest and mused about a life without adventure, a large structure loomed on the horizon.

     “Ho there, good sir!” bellowed a hulking man from inside the building. His large, brown beard appeared to be brambles falling over the expanse of his mountainous belly but, even as surely as this man was larger than life, a spark of kindness gleamed in his eyes.
     “Grog’s the name. Who might ye be?” he rumbled.
     “Aang, good sir. A-a-ang.” I stammered.
     “Ho there, A-a-ang! Join me for a drink!” he exclaimed, as he motioned me inside and to a rustic, albeit surprisingly quaint, tavern.
     That night and over the next few evenings, in Grog’s tavern, we discussed a great many things, including my impending retirement. At one point, Grog said to me, “You know Aang, if’n ye not be having fun in these lands, then maybe retirement is your best choice. I always make my own fun. Not taking yourself too seriously is the key!”
     One evening, I made my way to the man-mountain’s tavern, eager to discuss my day’s musings. However, this time when I arrived, the doors were shut, the house still. There was no tell-tale scent of meat wafting out to greet me. The house seemed…sad. I returned home to check my pigeons. I had no message from Grog but I did have one from a mutual friend. It said simply, “Grog’s gone. He passed away last night.”
I sat alone, in shock, at my dark granite table. I fumbled with the book he had given me with his wish-list of Christmas decorations he was missing for his amazing tavern. As I ran my finger down the leather bound spine of the book, his words rang in my mind: “Have fun.” I knew what I had to do. I started packing up my things and began preparing for my new life, in a new land: Siege Perilous!

     Aang is just a character of mine on Catskills, however, Grog was a real man, larger than life, who affected me in a way that I cannot begin to express. His words, “Have fun!” are tattooed on my leg, a memorial to a man whom I only knew for a few short weeks but whose philosophy I still try to live by today. Life is so short. If you are doing something that you don’t enjoy, stop. Pick up, move on, and try something else. That’s what I did. Siege Perilous has been my home for nearly 5 years now. Had I not met the man called Grog, I would not still be playing UO for 15 years now and having as much fun now as I did the day I started.

One of my fondest and oldest memories of Ultima Online was my first trip to Felucia.

About three months after I had started playing UO, my friend (whom had got me in to the game) and I decided we would take our first steps in Felucia. We were both master mages and had killed almost every monster and traversed every dungeon in the game so we thought we were well prepared.

We headed out to Minoc moongate; the less popular of the two player vs. player areas, second only to the infamous Bucaneer’s Den. We, along with other players, stood at the moongate hoping for one of the infamous “PK’ers” to appear. Anxiously we waited with the spells ready at the command of our finger tips. We waited and waited but none ever came.

All of the sudden I saw a fireball flying at me and my screen said that my friend was attacking me. He hardly had time to type out, “mistake!” but it was already too late. He had flagged as a criminal and all of the other players were attacking him – casting spells and shooting arrows at him. He ran off into the distance like a madman. Panicing, I didn’t know what to do – I had to help him somehow! I casted greater healing and ran after him. Finally catching up to him I landed my heal on him, saving his life but coincidentally making me a criminal also. A few short seconds later and we were both dead, laughing our butts off.

“Well, we didn’t see any PKs but we still managed to get ourselves killed!”

Still to today he claims that he accidentally attacked me but I don’t buy it. Nonetheless, we will never forget our first failed attempt into Felucia and the rush of adrenaline that we got from our first time fighting other players.

I started playing Ultima Online within the first few weeks that it was released. I was very obsessive about the game (some things never change!) and I played every minute I had spare. The result of this was having very high skills very early on in the game.

Everything was new to most people, so of course not knowing a thing, my first character was a bit all-over the place skill-wise. My swordman was not only a fighter but also a miner, lumberjack, blacksmith, and various other skills. I only had the one character… the thought of making a “mule crafter” was not yet invented!

One day he was out doing some lumberjacking near the forests of Britain. I had not seen anyone in hours so I figured it was safe to get up and use the restroom. On my way back I stopped to make some more coffee and grab a quick snack.

As I began to head back to my computer I hear the sounds of combat – the oh so familiar sound of swords swinging and hitting metal armor. I hurried back and my heart sunk as I approach my computer. A PK (player killer) was attacking my guy and upon comparing our hit point bars I was actually winning! Just as I sit down at my seat he landed a lucky blow and my guy keeled over.

The PK then started to talk to me. He was not making fun of me, infact it was the opposite. He said it was one of the best fight he has ever been in and because of this he was not going to loot my corpse. He was so impressed he helped me find a healer so I could get ressed. After I was ressed, he escorted me back to my body and guarded me while I reequiped my gear. We spoke for a few minutes and then headed our seperate ways.

I saw him several times in the weeks to come but I never, ever, had the heart to tell him that I was AFK and my character was automatically defending himself the entire fight. I have thought about this many times over the years and still brings a small chuckle.

It was within the first year of moving across the seas from Lake Austin. I had never really learned how to master the art of a magi before crossing to play within Siege Perilous.  It was a normal night, all was quiet and calm..  All of a sudden a tournament was being announced through the mountains. I quickly dropped everything and I raced over to where it was held. I was just in the knick of time to receive entry into the tournament. I was nervous as all could be when I looked upon my opponents… Many names who I had fought in the field before and was lucky to have survived. They had even accidently added an additional person to the tournament, thus throwing off the ladder. I was to be pitted against 2 players for the first tier instead of just one. My first fight was Uncle Check which I was able to battle my way through him to victory, only to be faced with another opponent, Dequique Deprone. A short battle was fought, however I was to emerge the victor against him as well.

  In the second Tier, I faced one of the better opponents; Mangar of Minoc. He was skillful in the art of Fencing, but was also part magi. It was quite a long battle, as he a was a courageous warrior. However, in the end he would take a mighty fall. It was so exciting after I won against him, as I knew he was one of the better competitors in the tournament. For my third battle, I was to fight against the villain known as Wyrm. He was known for practicing the dark arts and sacrificing poor innocent souls. I was excited for this fight, as I wanted to put this murderer to rest and seek revenge for those lives he had sacrificed in his journeys. The battle was quick and mostly blur. I was so focused on beating him down to prove victory over the evil doer. I was to walk away to the final round still undefeated as Wyrm crawled back into his dark hole of demise.

The final fight was against a female warrior known as Cattiebrie. She was a skillful swordswoman and wielded a wicked cleaver doused in poison. This was it, the final battle for the championship. I was very nervous as I stared at the edge of her mighty cleaver, dripping with the deadly toxin.  The battle started and felt like it lasted a life time. I was poisoned again and again only nearly escaping death a few times. Eventually, I would manage to wrestle her cleaver away from her and put her face first into the dirt. I had finally done it.. I had won the Tournament! I couldn’t believe that I had finished first place amongst all of the other competitors. This was a day I would never forget, as I had become a skillful mage and gained confidence in my abilities.

A moment that is filled with sadness, accomplishment, success, anger, and then back to sadness… This was and is a fond memory that has it all.
Back in my early days as a young girl wondering the lands of Sosaria, I learned of a sacred basket of fruits known as “Fruit Basket”. Wonderful is such an item that many has obtained, and many still seek to obtain, I too desired it. After obtaining the whereabouts of such an item, I was determined to seek out this “Fruit Basket”. I soon came to realize I was not alone on this adventure for this prized basket of fruits. Many were there in the wake of the morning seeking to profit and satisfy their greed. I myself was there for greed, but the greed for obtaining it for my personal enjoyment. As many mornings passed, I find myself inching closer and closer to grabbing the elusive “Fruit Basket”. Some mornings I wake and find the basket has already been taken, those mornings were quite sad. The mornings that I grab hold of the basket and only to have it bounce back onto the table and another grab it right in front of me was the saddest of the mornings… I always knew that one morning I would be that early bird that would catch the worm, or rather basket. One particular morning I was the one that had the fast hand, I was that early bird… As I grabbed it, and noticed for a few seconds it was still in my grasp, I quickly placed it in my bag and ran as fast as I could and placed it safe in my bank. Oh the accomplishment I felt… The feeling of success has finally come upon me…
I quickly called upon my older brother to share this extraordinary news. As I stand there staring at this basket with joy, my brother says to me, “Hey little sis, you want to see something really cool?” I thought to myself, what could be cooler then this? My brother looks straight into my eyes and says… “Double-click on it and you will see how cool it really is!” My brother has always been my rock in the lands of Sosaria. Him and his band of “red” friends has always protected me and sheltered me under their wings. So without a second thought, I doubled-clicked on it… “You feel quite full after consuming the food”… What the heck! As I stand there in dismay, my brother with a gentle smile on his face says to me, “Cool huh? Once you eat the fruits, it becomes a container. Now you can put stuff in that container.” As the clouds grow darker above us, he quickly realizes that his little sister was about to kill him… As he recalls away with about a thousand apologies, the only thought I had was… I was wish I had a “Fruit Basket” to place into this stupid container…

Years ago, there was a night our guild remembers as “Who has a thief? QUICK!”….

The year was 2006 and our alliance consisted of 3 guilds. There were about 40 of us at this point and, more specifically, there was a ‘late night crew’ that would consistently be in-game from 1am to 6am almost every morning.

The late night crew was doing their thing:  some running champ spawns, some farming keys for peerless, and a couple guys were down in Doom hoping for an Artifact drop.  It was nearing time for server down time, and one of the Doom party went to log out in Nix’s Secret Shoppe.

It took him a moment to utter the words, as he was shocked to see the rarest of Doom artifacts hanging on the wall!  The Ruined Painting!  As one of few Artifact Level 12 items, very few of our group had ever seen this item and we all knew this would be a chance to get a priceless item.

The word shot out thru headsets across the globe! (We have players on 3 continents in our alliance)… “Who has a thief!?!?! QUICK!”

As the night crew goes, it’s a mixed bag of skill-sets that are logged on at any given time, but as fate would have it, my original character Slick Jack is a Legendary Thief!  I answer the call to pilfer the painting and several guildmates start to scoured every famous vendor for a golden skull to pay my passage across Lake Mortis.

When we arrive in Nix’s shop, we gazed at the Ruined Painting on the wall. The elation we felt was only matched by moments of stellar teamwork when we had defeated a Harrower or the defense of our faction base!  This was a moment to savor!

And then fate stepped in and crushed our dream! 

Server down.

In the excitement, we had completely forgotten we were nearing the nightly server re-set… Would the rare painting, modeled after the Italian painter Parmigianino’s 1535 “La Madonna del Collo Lungo” still be there when the shard was re-awakened?

We waited in agony as no one knew the answer to the question: does server re-set ALSO re-set stealable items?

Server up.

To our delight, the famous Ruined Painting was still there, right in front of our eyes! I let my well trained rogue work his magic and the artifact slipped quietly into my pack!  Cheers rang out, messages were sent around the world! We had won the day!
After much deliberation, we decided to NOT sell the rare item, which would have gotten us all great riches: the painting would forever grace our guildhall as a reminder of that glorious night and the awesome camaraderie that this wonderful game, Ultima Online, had provided us.

Today marks the 15 year anniversary of Stratics! They have been a great asset and support to many players as well as the Ultima Online team. We are truly proud of their accomplishments and hope you will join us in giving them a heartfelt congratulations.

In recognition of their 15th anniversary, many Stratics staff members share their insights and memories in one of the oldest MMO fansite networks. In addition, they will host a 2-hour live hangout on YouTube today, 10-21 from 2pm to 4pm EST. You can hang out with the staff and even have the opportunity to win some great prizes!

Read all the details here.

Of the 13 entries from the Pacific shard, there were 5 entries that made the biggest impression on our judges. We hope you enjoy these most memorable moments as much as we did!

Here are the 5 winning UO memories from Pacific:

I have been playing UO since February, 1998. The time was not really late from game beginning, but it was hard to find a good place to build a house. I lived my friend’s house which is only 4×4, and there were five people live in the same house. With the time of playing growth, I earned some money, however, the houses was still expensive because there was no space to build my own one. The only way to get an own house is buying from other player. The main reason of hard to get a house for myself was because I lived in Taiwan, but my playing shard is pacific. The shard ping was very high that around 200-900. I missed many chances to build one. Therefore, I was like hermit crabs that always live in friend’s home. Finally I had a chance…

2004, the new edition “samurai empire” released. To me was not only a new update, but also a big moment in my UO life. The Island of Takuno opened few spaces for building houses, and each shard had different opening time. I had been thinking my own house for a long time, and my bank was very full of each character. The desire made me to have a strong determination that I want my own house. I tried to use house placement tool in the test shard, went to each shard to measure the distance of the house, tried to find a absolute point to make sure the target would be correctly, and finally, I set a hot key for building house. I didn’t have UOA on that time, so the hot key only works for place the house, and I must click yes to make sure the house is built.

My ping was still high, and I was so excited because the place of the house is what I like, and I only had one chance to get it. The website only had a date of opening house system, but there was no exact time for sure. I had a different time zone; my time zone was 12 hours more than EST time. It made me to have more challenge for getting my house. I back home and took shower quickly, set in front of my computer when shard opened from daily maintained. That was 8pm in my time. I took my dinner and hide in front of the place I want to build. Time went by, I was so sleepy, but I still in front of the desk. My left hand was still pressing the hot key, and my right hand finger was ready on the mouse of left click.

The 4AM of my time, it was 4PM of EST. I took a lot of energy drink, but the most significant reason of making me awake was because there were 7-10 people stood in the same place, and that was the people shown. I was one of players who didn’t show up.

Around 10AM of my time, I almost fell sleep, I didn’t go to work because I felt very tired. Suddenly, I shocked, I could feel my heartbeat stopped for 1 second because I saw the pop up window that showed ” are you sure you want to build the house?” I waked immediately and clicked the mouse. The house popped up, people around my screen. I saw many people wanted to go inside of the house. I wasn’t sure if the house is mine, so I did same thing, and I cried. I had had no sleep for over 24hours, and finally I made it. 

Now I still live in the Takuno Island, Pacific, and left site of the city. Go by left, and turn left for count for the third one. That is my sweet home, and welcome!

I recall eagerly anticipating the launch of Ultima Online. I had never played an online game, but was very familiar with the classic Ultima games I’d played on my Commodore 64. I didn’t know what a beta test was but I followed reports about it in the computer gaming magazines. They all warned about PLAYER KILLERS who would attack from ambush any unsuspecting player and kill them simply because they could. When UO finally launched I went in, keeping all those PK caveats in mind. Back then you didn’t have a choice of where you were born, and the UO Gods delivered me into Yew. I wasn’t happy about this because Yew is a fairly remote place, buried deep within the forest. I knew this from having played the classic games, and then as now there was nobody else in town. I spent the first couple of hours attempting to master te rudimentary game mechanics ie: walking, speaking, arming, ec. Once I felt reasonably confident I armed my trusty dagger [that they had so kindly provided me with] and ventured forh into this strange new world. I hadn’t gone far when I noticed a building on my “radar”. Suddenly, as I approached it a name appeared on my screen. I saw some guy standing in front of what appeared to be a house. I immediately remembered the articles and thought, “it’s a PK!” I veered off and began running in a different direction when it happened AGAIN! Another name loomed overhead and  just like the magazines said they appeared to be lying in wait. Changing course I ran again and almost ran into the NEXT one head-on. The accursed woods were teaming with PKs! All I could do was to run back to Yew. I arrived breathless, and as luck would have it there was a town guard wandering around. I ran to him and began yelling HELP SAVE ME THE PK’s ARE COMING!….no response, he just kept moseying along. I tried again “yo Guard! PK’s KILL…nada. At that point I was ready to quit. Stuck in a dead town with a useless guard and beset on all sides by PKs. It was then that Providence intervened, in the form of a girl who rode into town. Her name was Laura and I asked if she could help me. She said of course so I told her in exact detail about my harrowing, near-death encounter with the murderous PKs. At first she smiled, then soon she began LOL, which annoyed me no end. I said “what’s so funny? I could have been killed!” She finally regained her composure and patiently explained that there was a BIG difference between a PK and a vendor that somebody had placed on their steps. She told me how it was “All Names” that was causing the vendor’s names to appear. Well needless to say I felt like a complete idiot, having run for my life from a bunch of stationary player vendors. But fortunately I got over it. Thanks to one player taking the time to explain things I stayed with UO, and still do to this day. All this happened in January of 1998. Thanks, Laura, I hope you’re still around. I know I am, which proves that Paul Simon had ME in mind when he sang, Still CRAZY After All These Years:]…

At the time, I had been playing UO for close to a year, my bank boxes, and my backpacks were full on all five characters.  My roommate and friend that I got signed up for UO nine months ago was in the same situation as I was.  We needed a house, and we needed one badly.  Yet everywhere we looked had a house already.
Both in felucca and trammel, we scouted and tried to plot any house we could.  We checked the obvious places close to cities.  We hoped to find any spot along a road leading from place to another, then maybe someplace along any mountainside.  We even tried the areas outside the dungeon entrances.  It got to the point we went to the farthest points of every peninsula throughout the land, and any island our boat could bring us.
As we grew discouraged, we resigned ourselves to trying dangerous places surrounded by monsters that easily ran us down with our slow internet connection.  So we searched the swamp near the Britain crossroads, the swamps and jungles around Trinsic, the desert by Compassion, the arctic landscape of Dagger Island, and finally the demonic temple ruins of Fire Island.  It had to be the hardest thing we ever had to do, we only had mere moments to use our house deeds, before we got killed, and sometimes lost the deed.
I cannot tell you how many months we searched and died while searching.  There were times we almost gave up.  One day, while searching, a player asked us if we wanted to go hunting.  We explained we were busy trying to find a place to put down a house.  To our shock and amazement, this mysterious stranger opened a gate, and said, “Follow me”.  He brought us back to Fire Island, where he proceeded to walk and stop, walk and stop, walk and stop, until we found ourselves on a beach pointing west towards Serpent’s Hold.  It was on this site our first small tower was born.
That Good Samaritan, I can no longer remember his name, because after placing the tower, and giving it to us, he said his farewells, and recalled away into the ethers.  Later that day we met our neighbors on Fire Island in the large marble house next door to us.  A little over a year later we would be visiting our neighbors in the state next to us, a 45 year old Father and his 14 year old Son who only lived 4 hours away.
Owning our first house was triumphant, but the quest to find the house was unforgettable.  UO brings people together.  It also hosts players who are infinitely kind and charitable.  It’s a place I can call home.

Please let me tell you a story of Trisha the Tamer … back in around 1998 1999  i had a small home in cove  where i would mine in the city .. to keep from being killed by the reds running around outside the gates…  i was a single father of two girls …..i started playing uo  simply for some adult conversation ..well eventually my girls were old enough to show interest in what daddy was doing..always asking whats that ?….can we play ….. so i set them up on their own chars i know i know supposed to be 18 to play but they were closely monitored by me …in the house at cove i had a naked mage i was working on  and anyone who played back then knew that  if you were to see a naked mage it was best to hide or take cover …so this mage had 10 hit points i had only built the magery skill at that time  ..anyway  my daughter Trisha wanted to play for a bit she was 6 yrs old at the time ..so i let her log onto her char while i made them lunch  ..she had a tamer  she was so proud of her first horse and  she loved her little kitten she had tamed all by herself  she named her zoey ..so i told her to mess around in the boxes of all the way kewl stuff dad had  lol yeah mostly junk I’m sure…….all of the sudden i hear her  saying yes! like she had found something awesome ……then again i hear yes!..callin from the next room i asked her did you find something you want and she says to me yeah  dad this guy is dropping all kinds of neat stuff on the ground ….so before i could get into the room i hear her death cry from her char ..then from her …. as i watched her tears coming down he continued to kill her little cat as well ..she was devastated  omg it took me hours to convince her this was a virtual cat after it was all said and done … so here comes dad to the rescue …on a naked mage  i rush outta the house and after this blue i go …here i am with a small bag of reagents  no armor at all with 10 hit points…I’m sure i will let her down once he kills me… she watches the screen yelling get him daddy …so i run up to him and he says wait!  don’t kill me i was only playing… i was so angry at him for making my little girl cry  …. i look at her again and the excitement in her eyes was like  he’s gonna get it! … so i begin to cast …starting off with paralyze  then flame strike  and he begins to run  then i cast e-bolt and another e-bolt and down he goes…… my kids both were jumping up and down screaming yeah we got him! i run up to his corpse to see if i could retrieve her belongings  the whole time he was oOooooooooOOOOOooo trying to talk to me …my daughter kept saying whats he saying daddy ..i tell her i dunno i don’t have spirit speak lol… so to my amazement on this guy was his house rune and a key ring loaded with keys…. so i tell my daughter i think we may have hit the jackpot…… on the ring were keys to 4 boats and a small house ..so first i looted the house  giving it all to my daughter  then we emptied all the boats  giving it to her as well  she was once again happy  …so all in all i got to make my point to my daughter that she always has to listen to daddy or she may get hurt doing something I’ve told her not to do …and also i hope that i taught the guy (wish i could remember his char name) something i have been saying to people that play this game for along time …never run….. stand and fight….. and 9 times outta ten you will win ….had he only hit me once  i would have certainly died  but he got scared  and chose to run

Ultima Online had a huge impact on my early gaming experiences; it was the first and only game I played that allowed me to become involved with other people from around the country, and later on, the world. In my early years I made a lot of friends throughout Britannia, but once I left and all my free time was now dedicated to university, my connections were cut and online friendships lost. It wasn’t until my return to the Pacific shard and the world of Britannia in 2006 that really got me thinking how much of my life was impacted in those first 4 years of playing UO in my early teenage days.
I came back to the game, a noob, not knowing what to expect. I entered the world as a mage, as this is what I knew before I left many years prior. Entering the New Haven area I ran directly to what I thought was a guarded zone, somewhere safe, having no idea that the facet of Trammel even existed at this point.  I saw many blue names entering and exiting my screen, at this point I knew I was in a safe area. 
After about 30 minutes of familiarizing myself again with the classic client I was off to the edge of the city.  I had not even made it two screens from the bank when a brightly colored, funny hat wearing character charged up to me stating my intentions. I said, “Excuse me?” he replied, “Sir, I see you have a (young) player tag, may I assist you on your travels?” I took the mystery man up on his request and sent a barrage of questions his way; I must have sat there for 2 hours talking about the old days, the new days and what has changed within the lands of Britannia.  If was a refreshing feeling to see that there were still people within the game that shared the same interest as I did when playing, community and player involvement, isn’t that the point of a MMO game?
After that night I met many great people, and befriended even more. My journeys throughout the lands of UO have not stopped, and I still find myself enjoying the game every time I login. Outside my Ultima Online days, at university, it was interesting to meet people who had once dwelled within the realm of Ultima Online and how much of an experience it was those first few years (97-2000), there had never been anything like it, it really changed the online gaming world. I had the same feeling and when I made my return, even though the game play style had changed, the same feeling of community, I once had, was still present in the game, making my return to UO in 2006 and the first player experience I had the most memorable.
Long Live UO!

TC1 will become The Shard of the Dead till November 1st  starting today.  Hope everyone has a Spooky Halloween!!

We are proud to announce our annual Shard of the Dead. Dungeon Shame is once again your battleground for spilling your enemy’s blood. Here’s how it works:

You must create a character on the Shard of the Dead. You will arrive without any items, money, or pets on a platform where you must choose to join a team. Enter either the Slasher Gate or the Exodus Gate, and you will be transported to a safe haven for your team. Here, you must obtain some gear and supplies, in order to prepare to enter the Infernal Battlegrounds.

Lucky for you, the dungeon floors are literally strewn with powerful magic items. All you have to do is survive long enough to grab some and put them on.

Once you accumulate enough to fight the monsters in the dungeon, you will find they drop still more powerful loot, along with gold and items that allow you to summon strong pets.

Be careful, though! All your equipment is cursed. If you die, you must start naked again in your team’s base. You are granted one blessed item at a time but must remove curse from items using the “Cleanse Cursed Item Deed” which is a battleground reward. If you can gather a group of friends, have a go at the Disciple of Lucifer. He’s extremely tough, but his loot is very worthwhile.

Every few minutes, a gate in each team’s base will open, taking all who dare to go to the Infernal Battlegrounds. Here, team Slasher and team Exodus engage in a struggle to capture each others’ bases, and to hunt down and slay The Butcher. Fighting in these battles offers opportunities for still greater rewards, including the Supreem Headless Bomb and the Flask of Invulnerability, along with your pick of the cursed items picked from the corpses of your slain enemies.

Scoreboards in each team’s base show battle records and players’ mouse over tooltips show their PvP stats.

So once again come on down to Shard of the Dead and join us in the slaughterfest!

Once again, it is time to announce the next set of winners in the Memorable Moments Contest. Our judges enjoyed reading the 13 entries we received from the Napa Valley shard and selected 5 excellent winning entries.

Here are the 5 winning UO memories from Napa Valley:

“Come try this game with me! You can do all kinds of things- make any kind of character that you want to play and you can get a house and decorate it!” Peering over their shoulders, I found that I was intrigued with every aspect of the game. I wanted to run those lands and fight those monsters and have as much fun as they were having…I was hooked.

After many weeks of training and saving gold, I was told to go explore and see the world. I ran until my horse was out of stamina. I stopped to rest my horse, and looked around. Mountains were along my left and forest to the right. My friends looked over my shoulder and realized that I could put a house where I was at. I had not seen any creatures, except for a rat. It was the perfect place to settle and create my next character, a blacksmith. My first house was placed, a small marble workshop!
I mined and mined those first weeks, with not a care in the world. I thought I was invincible! I had handled any of the monsters that have shown up outside my house even on my miner. The day started like any other, I logged in and prepared to go mine when I thought I saw a red name on my screen. I knew this wasn’t possible as I was in Trammel, so I went about my business as usual. I mined a load of ore and recalled back to my house. I walked into my house, and out of nowhere all these red names appeared on my screen. I was surrounded and didn’t stand a chance! I was paralyzed with fear as they came into my house and my screen went gray. I had died! How were they able to come to Trammel and kill me?
I frantically called out to my friends to get their guild together and demanded that they come kill all these red players. They recalled to my house and proceeded to kill all the reds. After they resurrected me, in-between their fits of laughter, they explained that these were red npcs not players. I will always recall this memory as my most memorable moment in UO- my first encounters with reds!

Lunata was created to be a crafter.  Never a hunter, but often hunted in those early days of Napa Valley’s beginnings, she tried her best to sneak into the North Minoc Mines for her chance to acquire valuable ore and someday become a GM miner/blacksmith/tinker.  This was before valorite, insurance, sending bags, LRC , or fire/blue beetles.  Outside of towns, besides monsters were PKs…player killers intent on stealing everything from your corpse.  If you left your house, you would first go bank your house key. Losing  your key to the PKs meant they could own your house and all of its contents too. So for the first few months of her existence she would train mining in those caves, and leapfrog  the ore across the lands to a forge to smelt her ore.  No matter how careful she was,  the inevitable game of fox and hen would commence.  Lunata always….and I mean ‘ALWAYS’ ended up as the dead hen.  She would run as fast as she could on dial up modem, rarely reaching safety, and usually lose her hard earned ore as well as tools, ingots, and reagents for spells; but she was wise enough to never lose her house.

She had a brainstorm; constructed a key ring with dummy keys on it for the next PK brazen enough to take the bait. She would make keys and save them.
Any time she crafted a wooden box, she’d add the key to the ring.  Back then, there wasn’t a limit of 10 keys to a ring, so Lunata’s ring probably had a few hundred keys on them.  She lent the ring to her sister Cutty Sark, a rather daring character with not enough sense to stay out of Felucca dungeons.  You can guess what happened next.  Cutty was able to avoid the many monsters residing in the dungeon, but not escape the coldblooded red Dread Lord, PK extraordinaire, that lived to kill and loot innocent civilians.  She watched in fascination and grey tones of her corpse being liberated of belongings…including Lunata’s key ring.  Of course the PK believed he was the owner of a new home and double clicked the ring, releasing all of the keys into his backpack.  He was instantly overloaded and couldn’t even take a step out of the dungeon until he emptied each key from his backpack.  Haha…a monster saw his predicament and thought this was an opportune moment to slay him.  Short time later we were both ghosts in that dungeon, but I was never happier to be dead in game than at that memorable moment.  Crazy Lunata got her sweet revenge on one red with only her brain and no brawn.

P.S.  The Devs added a limit to key rings shortly after that incident. Darn!

My most memorable UO moment was in August 2000… just a few days after I opened my account.  My husband (boyfriend at the time) had been playing UO for about 18 months and had finally suckered me into trying it out.  He was adamantly opposed to letting me try playing on one of his characters and insisted that I had to create my own.  As a journeyman swordsman I had managed to work my skill up on stray dogs and cats in Skara Brae and was ready to journey out into the wilds on the mainland.  Killing orcs was hard work, but I had managed to earn enough gold to purchase my first horse, armor set and a good weapon.  I was so excited with my progress that I returned to the forest to continue saving up gold coins.  After another hour or so my coin purse was getting full and I decided I better get back to town to deposit my days work into the local back.  Before I made it back to the road, a murderous mage emerged from the woods and paralyzed me with his magic.  His words… “Drop gold or DIE!”  I was mortified!  All my gold, my hard work… I fought back the tears.  I could fight him couldn’t I?  But if he wins I would no doubt lose my gold plus my horse, armor and weapon.  I would be left with nothing and my whole day’s worth of hunting would be for naught.  Resigning myself to the fact that it was better to turn over my coin than risk everything, I placed my gold on the ground.
But my story does not end there… by this time my boyfriend had become aware of the robbery and was on his way.  After the would-be robber collected my gold I informed him that he should hang around a minute, there was someone I wanted him to meet.  He laughed manically as two more of his plundering crew emerged beside him.  Three reds… this could end badly.  No sooner than their laugh subsided my back-up arrived and a battle ensued.  Cracks of thunder and lighting split the silence.  The hiss of ebolts and the searing heat of flamestikes crackled through the air.  Almost as quickly as my ordeal had started, it was over.  Three red corpses lay strewn across the forest floor.  Not only did I get my gold back, but I happily collected their equipment and magical reagents.  In a moment of pure revelry, I donned one of their robes and danced around the corpses singing “look at me, don’t I look good”.  The last I heard from them as I entered the moongate back to safety was a trio of “OoOooOo Oo OOo oOO “.
12 years later and many UO memories behind me, I will never forget… “Drop gold or DIE!”

The Day that Changed the World

Won over by the descriptions of this world from my brother, and the possibility of playing a RPG with a myriad number of real people, I had to try this game out. My first time stepping onto the virtual soil of Ultima Online was just absolutely amazing, a real paradigm shift in my daily life. It was my introduction to a new world, a new way of gaming and socializing, of downright enjoyment.

I recall the awe of entering the world in Britain as Talon the Red, the top knotted fencer, and seeing a city packed with bustling citizens swarming the streets chatting and hawking product. I wandered around the cobbled streets a bit waiting to find my brother, tamed a dog to keep me company(named it after his character in jest), and waited at The King’s Men Theater for the rendezvous.

Our adventure began by heading west, crossing over Gung Farmer’s Bridge and into the outlying farmsteads, leaving the city behind. It was explained to me along the way that you can chop the trees for wood, mine the mountainside for ore, harvest the fauna for resources, all of which were needed for different career paths. He spoke excitedly of all the skills and environmental interactions, ways to earn gold, dungeons to crawl. A whole world unto itself.

The journey continued through a western mountain pass and was warned of the outlaws that roam beyond guard patrol, that we may likely end up running for our lives. Inside this pass I encountered my first giant spider, a fearsome thing, luckily on the heals of a friendly tamer. In the wood thereafter we chanced upon dilapidated ruins of crumbling stone walls and broken furniture. We were met inside by a woman who asked if we wanted some fresh cookies she had just baked. I recall thinking, ‘how bizarre’, yet exhilarated this exists in a virtual world, especially at this role playing level. After we left I believe he mentioned something about poisoning, ‘beware o’ what you eat’.

We meandered a spell, changed direction a few times, and eventually the outskirts of Skara Brae slipped into view. We traipsed into town safe and sound, a successful attempt on my first venture through the sticks. I was certainly not quite so lucky at other times.

My first day, first countryside crossing more precisely, in the Ultima Online world would have to be my Most Memorable Moment for it has stuck with me for over a decade now like it was yesterday. It was love at first sight.

After nearly 15 years of playing this game on a almost daily basis I find the project of deciding my personal most memorable moment in UO a daunting task.  I suspect for myself though I could narrow it down to about Sept of
1998 give or take a few months.  UO was in its most violent and chaotic period with PK’s and Anti’s running the lands.  People were doing all sorts on interesting things from forging alliances, building player ran towns, role playing on a scale not since seen and generally enjoying the vast amazing game that UO was and still is.

I was in the dungeon called Covetous which was a dangerous place back then rampant for PK’s coming to kill and loot people on a near constant basis.
A small group of players who were killing the various monsters and looting gold, we were not a guild and I suspect no one knew each other in the slightest.  Suddenly a random player zoomed by us attempting to leave the area but he stopped to warn us a group of PK’s were coming.  At this moment one of two things always happened, you either ran or stayed to die as winning a fight against these organized people never happened but this time was so different it changed my view of the game for ever.  The small group I was in stopped killing the harpies and moved deeper into the dungeon to an area where no creatures spawned.  A long hallway presented its self and we waited for the onslaught.

I was playing an archer as were another two players and assisting us were two magic casters but at this time in the game people at GM skill level was a rarity so the overall weight of our forces was light compared to the better skilled PK hunting teams.  Then the PK’s arrived.

They were a clear group, dressed the same and prepared but we had guts.
Our mages casted a pair of fire fields and this stopped the attacking group as the spell was much more powerful than in current UO times.  Our archers, seemingly assisted by an unknown force, targeted one of the attackers and managed to kill him in the first few seconds of the fight, AMAZING.  We pushed forward and brought the fight which I had never experienced before in the year of UO prior, victory was close.  The PK’s regrouped but they were off kilter and the battle raged with arrows, spells and randomness everywhere.  We fought and eventually a stalemate occurred to which both sides retreated but the event forever changed my view of PvP in an online game and UO as a whole. Mere moment lasted hours.

Victory, or finally not loosing, changed everything and I only wish that all the other people who left UO during those dark times had the same event occur to them as did to I.

We received 15 great stories from the Legends shard. Our judges had a wealth of memories to be entertained by and, once again, we ended up with another three way tie!

Here are the 7 winning entries from the Legends shard:

When I look back at the ten years, I have played Ultima Online my favorite memory is of the month I was stuck in the Lost Lands aka T2A.   When I think about it, I laugh and laugh.   I really was the noobiest of newbies.  I am sure you are wondering how anyone becomes stuck in T2A for a month.  Well it started with an ostard, yes an ostard.   It was 2002 and I was on my tamer Serena hanging out at West Britain Bank like everyone did in those days. A pair of fellow players, whose names have long been forgotten, approached me, wanting to know if I could tame one of them a forest ostard.  I replied that I was a newbie tamer, but my skill was high enough to tame a forest ostard.  However, I did not have a rune to where the ostards were located.  Not a problem, my new friends had a rune and could gate!  “Great!” I replied, “Let’s go!”  The mage cast the gate spell, and we departed.  

Shortly after our arrival, we were accidently separated, but we had partied up so we were still in communication.  I gleefully announced over party chat I had found an ostard, where were they.  Well, what I had actually found was a FRIENZIED ostard, the psychopathic cousin of the mild mannered forest ostard.  Oh yeah, he killed me like a newbie on a mongbat.   I told my new “friends”, I was dead and needed a rez.  They dropped party and I never heard or saw them again.  I was dead, my body had poofed along with it my reagents, my armor, and my glorious finds from the bank floor.  I started down the road and on a month long adventure.  For several days, I would log in and run looking for a town.  One day I saw what looked like “civilization” on my paper map.  I ran as fast as my ghostie feet would go to this town.  Snake people!?!?  Spider people!?!?   This is NOT a friendly place!  Then I ran to the next town on the paper map.  It was infested with UNDEAD!!!  What kind of place is T2A?  After two weeks, I found the city of Papua, and got rezzed.  Well at least, I was among the living again! I decided to sail away from T2A.  I took all the gold in my bank box, bought a boat, and for four days tried in vain to sail away from T2A.  I did not know about the serpent’s pillars; I was sailing in circles.  Disgusted, I put ashore at Papua and despaired that I might never escape this place.  Then I saw a glorious sight, a fellow player!  I ran up and begged him to tell me how to escape T2A.  The wise veteran player told me.  There is a pentagram in the mage shop, stand on it, say “recsu”, and it will take you to Moonglow.  I could have cried!

I was hanging out at Luna bank when I saw the herald spamming to meet in Jhelom.  Little did I know this was the beginning of a long and interesting event arch!  Armando Pascal told us about these mystical creatures called Sea Dragons. To some they look like Blue-Green Sea Serpents but soon to us Sea Dragon Herders they became an icon of Legends shard.  After many drunken meetings we learned there were 3 Sea Dragons swimming in the vast semi-uncharted waters of Britannia.  After many long and uneventful hours, a call came over gen. chat.  We spotted one off the shore of Vesper. The coordinates were given out, many rush to see and even help in the capture of the beautiful creature.  I and my shipmate Spelosity continue our search, up and down the shores.  And again the call came over the Gen chat.  Another Sea Dragon was found.  Alas the third one was never found or at least I was never sure if it was found. I believe the poor thing was killed by the dastardly pirates.   The 2 Sea Dragons we did find and capture started their new lives at Vesper. We use many a boat to block them in the area.  After this we begin to feed and care for the Sea Dragons.  They stayed only a little while in Vesper.  We were give orders by the shady Armando Pascal to move the Sea Dragons to Nu’jelm to the small water way.  This was done by “Herding” the Sea Dragons with boats of all size and description. This took a lot of time and patience as we moved one Sea Dragon at a time.  We again fed and observed the Sea Dragons.  Much to our surprise they were a male and female Sea Dragons.   Soon we had a baby to study and protect.   Sadly, we were unable to protect the little fella and he died in an epic battle.  Not all was lost as we were able to breed the mom and dad again. This time we had two special locations to take them to do this.  One was off the Coast of Dagger Island and the other was off Fire Island.  We soon had two more babies, a fiery Sea Dragon and an Icy Sea Dragon.  We worked as a team to feed and care for the Sea Dragons.  The small group of us that constantly fed and checked up on the babies earned more than the title “Sea Dragon Herders”.  We built friendships that will last beyond the day they close UO’s doors.   The Sea Dragon Herders include Selador, AliceWonderland, Erigo, Bearded McNuge, Jedediah McNuge, Spelosity, and me. (Luc)  There are a few honorary Herders too.  We even have inside jokes. Our favorite is “last time I saw Bearded McNuge, he was sailing off into the sunset with Scalis on his ass!” This was from an incident involving fabled nets and feeding the dragons  If you ever visit Legends you just might hear it.

I was boating one day for a change of scenery when I noticed the island just southwest of serpents hold had activity on it. Not planning to see any players on my journey I was quite excited and docked my boat as fast as I could. As I approached the other player, introducing myself and starting a conversation, I noticed the house he was standing next to was IDOC. A sense of fear overwhelmed me, as I am not usually a visitor to felucca. The other player was being very nice though so I decided to stay and chat for the duration of his IDOC and maybe I would even grab an item or two. All of a sudden a third player showed up and we were under attack! Apparently he was not planning on sharing the riches. Surprisingly the other player helped me defeat the attacker and we resumed our conversation. Just then the house fell! We hurriedly picked up items when our attacker appeared once more, we prepared to defeat him once again when he laughed and ran away just as a harbinger appeared!  My new friend and I forgot about the IDOC, we had already decided neither of us wanted a house in that spot, and turned against the harbinger. It took hours to defeat the horrendous monster that had been spawned upon us, but we stuck through it to the end, healing and resurrecting each other countless times. We even carried out our conversation, in shorter bits and pieces of course, throughout the fight. Much to our attackers dismay, we defeated the harbinger and although most of the IDOC items decayed and neither of us received a conjurers garb, the friendship we had made throughout that morning was infinitely more valuable. We have remained friends to this day all thanks to that one player determined to win the IDOC.

I was wandering just near the city limits of Skara Brae as I noticed forces
gathering just West of the famous “Hedge Maze”.

Pack horses stood, their bags bulging with materials and resources.

Many warriors, mages, and crafters stood nearby ambitiously awaiting orders.
As the anticipation grew amongst this group, individuals began emerging from the
nearby woods bearing town sigils.

As an eighth person emerged, the group was ecstatic.

Then what appeared to be the leader of this group shouted “Move Out”

The group immediately began marching towards the docks of Skara Brae, a ferry
awaited their arrival.
The speed at which all were transported, was quick indeed.
The march then continued to Skara Brae moongate.
At this point, the same individual that had ordered the group to “Move Out” then
instructed all to “Move onward to Britain.”
From Britain moongate the group moved North along the road and then through town as
a tight knit unit, finally arriving at Castle British.
All of the crew immediately took position inside the East Castle wall.
As the last member of this group stepped foot inside the courtyard, the portcullis
was dropped with swiftness.
The crew then rushed into the throne room and split into two groups…
Craft persons within the first group, warriors and mages within the second.

The crafters immediately began constructing a barrier at the entrance of the throne
room.
The second group moved towards the monoliths within the throne room and began
placing their sigils upon them.
As the eighth sigil was placed upon a monolith, this group of warriors and mages
took stand back at the throne room entrance, watching the crafters cautiously.

Upon completion of this barrier, the crafters amongst the group made way to the
hallway just West of the throne room.
In this hallway they made use of their remaining resources by creating parts
required for yet another barrier.
The mages and warriors within the group remained at the barrier located at the
entrance to the throne room.

Hours had passed. The crafters had finished building their materials, their
resources devoured.
They stood silently, awaiting orders to tend to the barrier.

Just then, the portcullis rose.

A group of mages approached.

Followers of Minax.

The Followers of Minax proceeded to rush the throne room entrance. They then began
dismantling the barrier in place.

The warriors and mages within the throne room attacked back with might to slow down
their attempt to remove the barrier.

The crafters amongst the group made swift repairs to the barrier for hours as this
fight progressed.

What happened next was amazing to say the least…

What appeared to be reinforcements of the group inside the throne room, pushed in
through the castle gates.

The Followers of Minax were instantly slaughtered by forces attacking from each side.

My best hunting experience happened a night I was running with my two best mates, Leoltus and Junebug. Two buddies were never more opposite than these guys. Junebug was a bit of a reckless clown, he was never much worried about dying. He even preferred wearing a jester’s hat to advertise his jaunty air. Leoltus was the opposite- always very serious in his honorable mage role and took character deaths personally. Inevitably he’d revert to railing at anyone around that could have contributed to his toon’s demise. This was compounded by the fact that it often was one of Junebug’s kamikaze stunts that had reduced us all to gray screens and text limited to OOooOOs. One might think a team like this is a recipe for disaster, but beneath the very different play styles was a streak of strong respect and downright affection. The night in question, Junebug had managed to talk Leoltus into actually doing a Fel hunt. This was no small feat since Leoltus had just regained his Lord title from his last unfortunate fatality caused by our flaky friend. Fel was not something we normally did. We were bona-fide, unashamed Trammies, baby! Yet, Junebug was persuasive with his arguments of much grander treasure and glory than our normal hauls. Also, it was a weekday night so surely all those mean little kids playing reds were already in bed- we hoped. We were going to do an ‘easy’ peerless we had done dozens of times in Trammel, Lady Melisande. It was gonna be a cinch, according to Junebug, anyway. Five minutes into the hunt we rediscovered the nasty little Fel fact of life that Trammelites always forget- the stamina issue. Surrounded by monsters and tripping over each other, we were soon wiped out from our own inexperience. I couldn’t help but chuckle seeing Leoltus fire off an angry string of Oos and Junebug’s LOL. After regrouping, rezzing, and body retrievals we were back to the business of key gathering. A few more accidental deaths, loss of Leoltus’s prized title and much chortling by Junebug and we were finally ready to go in. Unfortunately, we were cursed with even more bad luck that night, as who would pop up but a few reds! Leoltus immediately fell dead (again) as Junebug transported us into Mel’s lair. I landed in a pile of satyrs and died. For once, Junebug managed to save the day and we were soon all back in the fray. After the battle I was astonished to open Mel’s corpse and snag my first ever crimson cincture! Junebug got the most coveted of hair dye. Even no-longer-Lord Leoltus was crowing about the final piece of set armor he’d needed and had just scored. I’ve never heard of anyone else bagging such awesome loot off the same boss, and we never had it happen again. But man, was that the best hunt night we ever had, made even better by sharing it with my best friends.

Nightmare Casino

I was but a peasant on the shard of Legends; unremarkable by any measure.
I lacked the wealth of the Sorcons of our world, the wisdom of the Devils Owns, the fighting talent of the… ahem… well let’s just say Legends has never been known for its fighting talent.  Even in the lands of Britannia, I wasn’t good at anything.  I was a lost soul, or at least I felt like one.  Until one day an opportunity like none other presented itself.

I was sitting by West Brit bank when an enormous bog thing appeared out of thin air.  He was dark as night and spoke as if he’d seen one too many Tim Burton movies.  He was new to town and taking job applications for the Nightmare Casino.  The jobs sounded awful; casino manager, games dealer, bartender.  Who would apply to be part of such a despicable part of Legends?  THIS GUY WOULD! *Points to self.* This quickly became the pinnacle of my UO experience.  Everything I had worked for; all the hours of working the grind finally paid off.  I BECAME A PART-TIME BARTENDER IN A TRASHY CASINO.  EeeeeHEEHEEHEEEEEEE! My life was complete.

After a brief training session, I started my first shift.  My job – hand out rotgut wine to all interested patrons.  Now, as any EM will tell you, running events and managing item hand-outs is a big responsibility.  And, as a player given the enormous responsibility of handing out event items, I can honestly say, IT. IS. AWE-SOME!!!  For that week as a part-time bartender in a trashy casino on Legends, I felt like Lord British.  The entire shard must have been at the casino, with me being the center of attention.  The bar was always packed with patrons; the casino floor filled with risk-takers ready to win it big.  It truly felt like the Legends community had come to experience this great event together; that guilds and factions set aside their differences to have fun as one unified community. *
*

The morale citizens of Legends couldn’t handle the sinful nature of Nightmare Casino for long.  After a week of watching their colleagues lose their livelihood, the casino was burnt to the ground.  There was so much rotgut wine in the fire, flames burned from the rubble for years to come (no seriously – it took like four years for the EMs to put out the fire).

I visited the site of Nightmare Casino the other day; the foundation still exists.  To me, it’s a reminder of one of the greatest weeks I’ve had in UO and a reminder as to how unique this game and community truly is.  As UO turns 15 this month, I turn 30.  I’ve graduated from high school and college, worked in three industries, and lived in five cities.  The one constant throughout my life has been UO.  I’m privileged to have been a part of this community for half my life, and look forward to many years to come.

Thank you, UO, for your contributions to my life over the years

I looked at him nervously as the gate opened. The blue orb loomed in front of me, advertising this adventure a complete stranger had invited me on. With a slight nod to him, I stepped through the gates, where I was barraged with the cold winds of what I recognized to be Ice Island. In front of me lay a vast castle, inside of which I could make out the figures of countless people moving. My escort, a young warrior named King, stepped through the gate and offered our entrance fee to the greeter outside. With a nod, we were given access.
It was explained to me that the goal of this adventure was to discover the identities of the delegates from each city in Trammel, through bribery, chatting, and anything else we could think of. The prize has eluded my memory. All that I know is it was substantial at the time. However, you only had one guess. If you failed, you were kicked out and unable to return. The castle was decorated lavishly with all the supplies necesarry for such a feat. Game boards littered the hallways. A kitchen with an in-house bartender was right above the meeting area, where every night of the event it would be announced who had made a guess and failed.
We set out with the intent to bribe our way to all the knowledge we needed. It soon became apparent that we didn’t have the funds to fuel this mission, and we had to fall to other, more devious ways. I discovered that the yellow-robed man was from Britain after a couple rounds of a drinking game. King wagered all his armor in a game of chess and won against a blue-robed woman who admitted, as per the terms of her loss, that she was from Moonglow.
Every Saturday night for almost a month I met King at this gathering. After the second week, it stopped being about finding out who the delegates were and started being about making friends. In hindsight, I realize the connection between the delegates’ robes and their city of origin, but at the time we were too young to notice. Eventually, we stopped going to the event altogether. A small group of us founded a guild, called Knight or something else equally short. We began honing our skills together. Me, the tamer whose magical powers helped keep the team alive. King, whose skills with a blade rivaled that of all the well known masters. A sibling team that used their skills with a harp to calm or turn enemies against each other. This became my family for a few years, helping shape me into the woman I am today. I don’t have faces to associate with their names. Aragon, Arwen, King. I just have memories of pixels flying across the screen. Those pixels, however, were just as important to me as the ‘real-life’ friends I made that carried me through my childhood.

Written by members of the community

Issue 9

WORLD NEWS

SCHOOLBOY SLAIN BY PUMPKIN

Guards recovered the body of an elementary school boy from a local pumpkin field in Yew following an attack by dormant pumpkin entity which had been allegedly awakened by the young boy’s summoning activities. Fellow students claimed that the youth was fixated with the entity for several past Halloweens where he repeatedly made a vigil with no manifestation of the entity in question. Regettably, the lad would finally get his wish. His screams were heard by his elementary school teacher who immediately called the guards, but they were unable to understand her due to her speech impediment. His schoolmates who were nearby claimed that they were unaware of the tragic incident, as they were gorging themselves on fruit pies and dancing like idiots. Standing around the body draped under his own security blanket, his classmates reflected how fortunate they were that they had ignored his many invitations for them to join him in the past, and perhaps that the entity will leave them in peace having feasted upon the soul of their friend.

TRICK ‘R TREAT BAGS CHECKED FOR SAFETY

Mages in Moonglow are offering their services at the Lyceaum by checking treat bags with ID wands or make sure there is nothing harmful present. This service is offered free of charge, so that trick ‘r treaters can enjoy a safe holiday season.

 
LOCAL WOMAN SAVES COMMUNITY FROM UNDEAD SCOURGE

They came without warning, lumbering through the darkness into the sylvan town of Yew, its inhabitants unaware of the invading undead force. Fortunately, one valiant woman met the menace head-on; armed with only a cudgel mercilessly bludgeoning the vile undead menace until they lost the will to fight. The defeated army fled into the darkness, and was not seen since. Our reporter marvelled at the feistiness of the grizzled senior and was further amazed to discover that she was in fact blind. When asked if her disability may have been an advantage to her in fighting the undead in the dakness of the moonless night, the rather surprised defender retorted “Undead?!! I thought they were just another group of those pesky trick-or-treaters!”

CAMPERS TERRORIZED BY APPARITION

Three campers reported that their campsite at Lock Lake was attacked by a ghostly pirate with a hook, forcing them to flee for their lives. This marks the sixth such event reported in the area in the past 3 weeks. Authorities have dismissed the incidents as hokum, malarkey, and complete poppycock.

FURNITURE WINS TOP PRIZES AT COSTUME CONTEST

A chair took first place for its imaginative ghost costume in a contest sponsored by the Britain Crafter’s Society. A lamp shade and a mannequin partnered up and became “The life of the party” for second place. A rattan coffee table donned a pointed hat and took third for its “wicker witch” costume to the dismay of present non-furniture contestants

ENTERPRISING DENTISTS MARKET CANDY TOOTHBRUSH

Trick R Treaters are going wild for the newest and hottest Holloween item, the SweetBrush. The colorful and sinfully sweet, oversized toothbrush is advertised as an incentive to get kids to brush their teeth after meals and snacks. The tasty confection not only comes in a variety of flavors, but also lasts over a whole month, so Halloweeners will be getting their money’s worth. Denta-Treats is also debuting their product, Sucro-floss; the candied floss that gets between teeth where Sweetbrush can’t reach.

TRAVELOGUE

SCHOLARS DISCOVER OLDER HALLOWEEN PRECIDENT

For years now, many of the inhabitants of this land have considered the celebration of Halloween to have been brought over by Lord British when he first came to this land from his native Earth. However, a recent discovery by scholars of Sosarian archives indicate that our ancestors have been observing this tradition long before the days of the first cataclysm. Back then it was referred to as Griefing Day, and has since evolved into the form that we practice today. The practices of the customs, however continue in several ways, though many have forgotten the original message. Before the virtues tempered the hearts of men, the people were a sick, barbarous lot; wantonly inflicting abuses upon each other, until it reached a point where progress was being hindered by these constant, malicious antics. It was decided that one day a year would be set aside for this behavior, and those who wished not to participate, would ensconce themselves inside their houses until the day had safely passed. Not to be deprived of victims, the mean-spirited would devise schemes such as setting fire to a burning sack of excrement which would be placed on the victim’s doorstep as they knocked on the door then hid. Oft times, the prankster would be spotted snickering behind some cover, recognized and mercifully beaten on his own doorstep the following day; thus resulting in the innovation of the Griefing Day disguise. The Holiday Celebratory Council enacted several changes in the custom, including the prohibition of any use of arson to provoke the homeowner from leaving his home. Long gone are the days where one would witness resident and guest grappling with deadly intent at the threshold of a home. Nowadays, a trick or treater is content to receive a mild shanking at the doorway or have paint thrown into his or her face. The traditional holiday greeting evolved from flipping the bird to a more cheerful “trick or treat.” The greeting itself became manditory following a series of incidents whereupon a number of hapless door to door encyclopedia salesmen were killed by uptight homeowners on the fated holiday in cases of mistaken identity. Today, the hostility of the occasion is greatly toned down, but there still lingers the residual ancient emnity between resident and holiday extortionist. Spouses have long done away with the custom of handing out poisoned bottles of wine to visitors and have contented themselves with doling out foul pitchers of milk that have been patiently curdling in the pantry since the beginning of the month, or distributing the specially formulated pain wrenching candy that sends a rictus of agony through one’s skull when consumed. Gifts of miniature iron maidens and guillotines hearken back to the days when disgruntled victims would threaten pranksters with torture or decapitation. When these customs are viewed in the light of latest findings, it seems to lend proof to the old addage of the more that things change, the more they remain the same.

ADVERTISMENTS

BECAUSE ADULTS SHOULD HAVE FUN TOO

When Trick or Treaters come to your door, don’t forget to pick up a something special for their mom and dad, or even their Uncle Joe. Because when adults take the kids out for an evening of fun, they need a little something to take the chill out of their bones. So, make sure to stock up on mini bottles of heartwarming cheer, to put that fire in their belly that’ll keep them going the whole night. And nothing makes pumpkin carving with the kids more fun than matching shots and hacking a gourd with sharp knives. So, be a good neighbor give them a night that they probably won’t remember, and keep mini-bottles in your treat bowl this Halloween.

CLASSIFIEDS

If anyone is in the market for human heads, come see me first! I have been particularly overzealous in preparing for the big head demand for the Halloween season, and now I am overstocked. I have some good quality stuff here, and talk about fresh! You won’t find a fresher head unless you removed it yourself. I’m charging a one time only price of 20 gold pieces per head. How do I keep my prices so cheap? Because, I cut the head off the middle man, and pass the savings onto you. And what a selection! If you are interested in a high quality head, I’ll be standing outside the gates of Umbra. Let me show you what I have to offer! Just walk up and say “Do you think the rain will hurt the rhubarb?”, and we’ll discuss what I can do for you. Because, here at “Some guy with sack standing outside Umbra”, we’re heads and shoulders above the rest.

ARTS AND LIVING

HOLLOWEEN COSTUME IDEAS

This week’s Holloween costume idea comes from Cecil of Jhelom. You can dress up as famous impressionist artist, Vincent Van Gogh this Halloween. You will need: a fake beard, orange hair dye, a straw hat, an easel (to tote around). Entertain partygoers by offering to paint their portrait, or bring along some gift boxes with severed ears in them to give to potential love interests.

KIDS CORNER

Hey Kids! Nothing gets a person into the Halloween spirit better than a tradition Halloween arts and crafts project. This year we have something very special planned. We are going to make our own Hand of Glory. “What’s that?” you ask. Well, back in the day, whenever a thief wanted to ransack a home, he just brought along one of these handy items(no pun intended) with him, and it would render the entire household helpless and unable to take any action. The hand itself acted like a candelabra, where each of the fingers would be lit prior to entering the home. It also had the added benefit of unlocking doors as well, which pretty much made door to door burgularly a breeze. To start our project, we are going to first need a hand; not just any old hand, but the left hand of a hanged thief. This is very important, because nothing can be more embarassing than being hacked to death by an angry and fully ambulatory homeowner. It might be a good idea to test the hand on a friend before employing it in actual use. You might be thinking to yourself, “Well, how do I get my hands on the left hand of an executed thief?” That’s easy as pie. You just need to speak with your local constable or prison official have them contact you should a thief be executed, and hint that you would be very interested in obtaining a left hand if one should become available. Public servants are usually eager to assist law-abiding citizens with these things; just don’t go into any detail why you want the thing. And don’t tell them that you want to use the thing for black magic, because you will end up being asked a lot of questions. Oh, and you may want to ask them if they wouldn’t mind taking the body to a crossroads under a full moon before removing the left hand. This is a very important step. Once you have the detached hand in your possession, you will marinade it in a burial shroud soaked a mixture of natron salts and mandrake until mummified. It’s that easy! Now you are ready to make a killing on Halloween candy or any other valuables that strikes your fancy. Happy Halloween!
This month, the Yew Times will be interviewing local witch, Grizelda and hear her views on the new edict concerning the Halloween period extension. Our reporter has made his way over to a rather run down residence past several odd signs stating “Gingerbread house ahead.”

TY: Excuse me maam, I am with the Yew Times and I was hoping to get a word with you regarding the recently changes in the Halloween schedule.
G: Well, I’m rather BUSY at the moment..
YT: It won’t take but a few moments.
G: Well, come in already. As I said, I have a lot of preparations to make.
YT: You mean, regarding the change in the holiday schedule?
G: Yes. Now that everything is starting almost a whole month earlier and running until the end of the month, I have less time to get ready, since everyone will probably be tired of the whole thing in 2 weeks.
YT: I noticed the signs for the gingerbread house along the path leading here, were you planning to magically transform this house into gingerbread somehow?
G: Signs? I have no idea what you’re talking about. I bet it’s some kind of prank. You know how some of these kids are. Just a bunch of rascals.
YT: I see you have a bunch of apples over here, probably ready for the trick or treat bags.
G: Actually, those are for the apple bobbing game over here.
YT: But, that’s a cauldron.
G: I’m trying to go with the theme, you see.
YT: That is a mighty large oven you have. It looks brand new.
G: I just had it installed. That is for.. um.. all the baking I have planned. Cookies, cakes and all that. I sure am going to be BUSY!
YT: Are all those wooden cages in the corner, part of the Halloween festivities?
G: Let’s see… That is for..TRAPPING THE IMPS AND TROUBLESOME GOBLINS! That’s it! You don’t want them showing up and ruining a good time. Let me tell ya!
YT: And that’s quite a lot of boxes of instant stuffing you have set out here on the counter. Stove Top stuffing…”for CHILDREN?!”
G: I’m sure that’s a typo. It’s supposed to be “for chicken”
YT: and what about these decorative roast frills? They look big enough to put on the drumsticks of a roast ostrich.
G: Well, look at the time. Well, it was nice having you stop by for a visit. And mind the trap door on your way out. Very BUSY here!
YT: Well, thank you for your time.
YT: And there you have it. Witches working overtime getting ready for the new schedule. Surely, many witches will be similarly affected, but we’re certain that it will not disrupt celebrations overall.

 

ADVICE:

Confused, distraught or just looking for direction? Let Esmerelda, gypsy oracle and diviner of truths peer into the infinite and find the answers you are looking for.

Dear Esmerelda
Gladys Abernathy is a shameless gossip. Now that she knows about my little indiscretion, I suppose that I will just have to face the music once the dirt is out. Do you think the spirits might find it in their hearts to propel that hag down a flight of steps?

My child, the spirits have heard your plea and they are willing to intercede on your behalf. No, they have changed their minds again….. The spirits are fickle. So, Esmerelda will provide her own solution. You must at the setting of the sun, venture to the plains of the dead and collect the spores of the potent and hallucinatory weeping maiden mushroom. Then acquire the petals of a midnight orchid, the sap of a spiderwood tree, and a vial of wormwood. Slowly grind these items in a mortar then stir with the tail of a speckled scorpion until a heady intoxicating vapor results. Add to a large pitcher of gin and add ice. Drink deeply until problem is no longer an issue.

Dear Esmerelda
I used to look forward to the Halloween season, but the vandalism caused by certain inconsiderate individuals has decreased my enthusiasm considerably. Is there a remedy for this sort of anti-social behavior?

Daughter of sorrows, I can read your thoughts like book. You must remember, revenge has a price; 5000 gold pieces this week including service charge. A gypsy of some talent could cast a curse on someone who has caused you pain. This would be a simple enough matter, Trust me, they would very likely suffer greatly! Either way, no refunds. For little extra coin, it could even be something perfect for the coming holiday! You know you want too. If you are on a budget, you can always put burning bag of dog poopie on enemy’s doorstep. Yes, it is immature but very satisfying.

HOROSCOPES!!

The Peddler-January:
Be cautious when dealing with reverse vampires this week. Reverse vampires are invisible but can only be seen in mirrors. However, they like to look at themselves in mirrors, crave garlic, wear crosses and have exaggerated tans. So, they are almost like guidos, but invisible.

The Mongbat-February:
If you sit in the darkness in front of a mirror and say “Bloody Mary” three times, a spectral bartender will serve you a vodka and tomato juice drink complete with a celery garnish. This offer is good only for the month of October.

The Phoenix-March:
You will be enjoying an outing with that special someone camping and enjoying some fishing. The sun will begin to set and the fog will roll in as you continue to fish. You’ll open the Yew Times and read an article to your partner about the ghost of some pirate with a hook for a hand who has been recently terrorizing outdoorsmen at the very lake at which you are currently fishing. Your date will plaintively suggest that you quickly return back to shore and go home. You agree. But it is not until you get the boat onto shore that you see hanging from the very edge of the boat…..A HOOK!

The Sea Dragon-April:
Take special precautions when partying this month by becoming a member of Kindeys on Kall. So, when you are drugged by a stranger and wake up in a tub of ice with your kidneys missing, you can breathe easier knowing that a new set of kidneys are right on the way in under 15 minutes.

The Hermit-May:
Should you be stalked by talking crows that cry out “Nevermore” in your home, just remember that those babies are worth 50k turn in points a piece when you dump them in the trash barrel.

The Llama-June:
No one likes going to funerals. But, just remember, if you don’t go to their funerals, they won’t come to yours.

The Ancient Wyrm-July:
You will finally meet your evil twin this week, who will look exactly like you except for a goatee. However, if you are evil, you will meet your good twin, who will have no goatee whatsoever. In which case, you should consider growing a goatee or wear a fake one in preparation for your first encounter.

The Anvil-August:
The old man told you not to go out to Wooly Swamp but you just didn’t listen. The provisioner in that small store told you that if you go out there, you had better make sure that your lantern was full, but you just didn’t listen. When that creepy old lady with the claws for fingers told you not to go into the basement of that delapidated house in the swamp alone, you didn’t listen. Now you are locked in a pitch black basement with a burned out lantern and you can hear things moving around in the dark. So, what are you going to do now, smartass?

The Weaver-September:
Beef bullion cubes are great for dropping into the bags of Trick or Treaters. Not only do they look like individually wrapped foil treats, but they look convincingly like chocolate up until the moment they pop them into their mouths. Mmmmmm, salty goodness!

The Wisp-October:
Things will be looking up, as you’ll soon have the opportunity to get your hands on some nice little asset that no one else knows about. It could be an map to an old silver mine, or some hidden treasure in an abandoned house. To be on the safe side, it might be a good idea if you come up with a plan to keep the competition scared off; perhaps with a pirate costume, rubber mask, luminescent paint, and clever props. Just watch out for meddling kids and their stupid dog.

The Unicorn-November:
Fishermen, sailors, or just any guy with a boat is a good friend to have when you need to get rid of a body. That’s something nice to have to fall back on when you’re really in a pinch, so why not befriend a boat owner today.

The Wanderer-December:
You will be drinking in a tavern soon and you will see death staring at you across the room, and you will hastily depart and ride a great distance to escape him. Finally, thirsty and exhausted you will stumble into some distant backwater tavern for water, and there death will be standing. Death will look at you and be like, WTF dude, why are you stalking me?!

IN MEMORY

Below is something we have written in an honor of a passing of one of our friends of this time last year. We would like to share with you on what was published on Atlantic server and not change the words that we had came up with last year. We still think of you, Wolfthistle…
August 9, 1981 – October 25, 2011

“”I wanted to dedicate this issue of the Yew Times to one of our close friends, Wolfthistle, who recently returned to Britannia with his lovely wife, Ferocia. Wolf was a old member of the alliance from days gone by, whom I had just recently met. I recall him as being extremely courteous and generous to a fault, and would go the distance to help people out. We all had been preparing for the upcoming Octoberfest even in Yew, and Wolf, like many of us was very excited getting things together. Everyone was just happy to have their old comrade around again, and they spent a good deal of time showing him all the new things that came about while he was absent. Wolfthistle had just purchased a piece of real estate from an Alliance member and was very immersed in its decoration. He had invited some decor savvy friends over to help, and had tried to turn a non-rotatable item with the decorator tool, which had obviously opened a rift to the spirit world. Chests began rotating of their own accord, and those present thought we’d have the first bona fide haunted house in Britannia. All that was absent was a voice crying “Get out!” It was just 2 days before the event. Food preparation and game planning was in full swing, and Wolf was helping a guildmate with her costume idea. I remember Wolf mentioning that he was experiencing chest pains from climbing the stairs. The following day, I greeted the group and everyone was quiet. I asked what was up, and Southern Devil told me that they were having a moment of silence. I asked for what. Southern then told me that Wolf had died the previous night. I was dumbstruck, and many of us were so disheartened, that we were considering either calling off or pushing back the event. If we moved it back any further though, we’d have to call it Novemberfest. In addition, Wolfthistle himself had been looking forward to the event and had help to make it possible. And if we knew Wolf, he wouldn’t have wanted us to cancel the celebration. In the upcoming days, when the time is right, we plan to have a memorial in his honor. We will miss you, Wolfthistle.””