2017 was an interesting year for Siege Perilous. The year started off with the Town Hall Meetings and Kang Kelmo. The Brit Hub had just been built a few days before the new year – and my, look how it has grown! UWSP Town was founded. Guilds and players came and went, with all the popcorn-inducing drama that goes with such things. NOOB served its purpose during a baby boom and then faded away. There were a handful of player events, Gilfane's ever-reliable monthly auctions, and a continuation of VvV Sundays. There was the glory of the pet revamp, and Ultima Online celebrated its 20th year.
For me, my fun in UO is generally centered around the things that are NOT farming. This typically means community projects and events, so for me the best thing about 2017 was the shard once again having our own EM. So, while a lot of fantastic things happened in the year, this chronicle has a focus on that. Not ALL of them, of course, or even most (there were a LOT of events!) but the ones I personally enjoyed the most. Feel free to add your own comments and/or pics about what you found to be the most memorable!
EM Bennu's final events as Siege's 'borrowed' EM were fun, and I at least am grateful for the time we were given. In the past, Siege has simply done without an EM. We were told our very own EM would soon be graduating from training, and so EM Bennu bid his farewells. EM Kincaid introduced himself at a Meet and Greet at the EM House of Commons on March 18th. There were munchies, the answering of questions, and a death.
The next order of business, within the same week, was the long-awaited recognition for Siege's triumph in obtaining – and keeping – the shard record for the Void Pool in May of 2016.
Our monthly governor meetings with King Blackthorn resumed the very next day. I was not able to attend this meeting, but I heard tales of death and bloodshed as Siege got its first taste of Soulless Minions. Aah the tale of the Soulstealer! Minions began popping up around Sosaria after that. First in small numbers, scattered all across the lands, in dungeons, and even in the heart of cities. Creatures whose souls were stolen, leaving them with a thirst for blood.
As we learned more about this invasion, and rumors of a shadowy rebellion, the Black Watch was revived to defend Britannia. Life continued despite the threats; a bull competition, the remodeling of the House of Commons. The King set his royal cartographer on a mission to dig up many chests of buried treasure in a bid to aid the cities struggling to keep their coffers from being empty, beginning what seems to have become a tradition.
Ah, and who can forget April's bunnies? These fearsome little furballs of cuddly doom swept across the land, terrorizing the countryside, cities, and local towns. Seeing mortal enemies fight side by side was a lovely thing indeed, for me.
In May, there was a Gilfane Auction that was particularly memorable to me. A month or two before, the monthly event had been sieged by raiders. Nothing too spectacular about that, in the grand scheme of things, though, a bit of excitement is always welcome to me. But this month when I arrived to take my seat, I saw that the walls of the Arena had been fortified and the raiders had made a statue to commemorate the attack. Very amusing!
Still, the flood of Soulless Minions increased and the Black Watch continued to build in strength. The first promotion ceremony since the return of King Blackthorn was held on the 27th of May.
On the 16th day of June, the long-standing player town of Motherlode and the new UWSP Town were given their town banners and made official.
Soon after that, the Black Watch and all who would follow them took up arms and invaded the lair of the Soulstealer. The Hatchery was decimated - a major setback for the Soulstealer, but not a defeat. Left behind was a dying technition with a little mystery to be solved, and around the lands travellers had to watch where they stepped as soulfire flames appeared with a link to the lair. The Soulstealer blocked all entry to the Hatchery, and life on Sosaria continued as we waited for the next move. A fund raiser for the City of Minoc at the very end of the month was interupted by an earth elemental uprising and the need to liberate the captured Governor Otto.
I spent a good portion of the soggy month of July running around in a pirate outfit. First there was the cleverly done word puzzle Boat Race test of endurance.
Soon after, Juxmani, the leader of the uprising against King Blackthorn, attempted to take advantage of the weakened forces of the Black Watch. The clues began in Buc's Den with some rather salty old sea dogs, and eventually led to an invasion of sea creatures at the king's own castle. This plot was foiled, of course. Before long, the Black Watch learned that the Soulstealer was attempting to rebuild the hatchery and learned of a secret entrance. Once again, arms were taken up and the Hatchery invaded. Everything was laid to waste, but still the fight was not over.
On the 12th of August, a final confrontation saw the end of the Soulstealer. Liberated Souls appeared around Sosaria for a time afterwards, until well meaning citizens sent them moving on to the next plane of existence. The Soulstealer story arc was a lot of fun, my favorite PvM EM series that I have been a part of, and this little summery does not do it justice. There were just so many fantastic little bits, and I limited myself to only one or two pics per month for this summary.
Just as we thought there would be a time for peace, strange things began happening. September started off with a bank heist in Vesper, leaving behind some suspicions leveled at Governor Spyderbite.
Fortunately for him (but not for the rest of Sosaria), these allegations were forgotten as trade routs suddenly came under attack and invading forces set upon the cities of Britannia. The Daemon Arcadion escaped from his prison, and the War of the Titans ended with a victory parade in front of the King's Castle. I'ma sucker for shiny things, so my favorite was Moonglow, but they were all lovely and many of the celebrating NPCs had funny little things to say if you stood near them and listened. The month ended with an attempt to awaken the seer. I appreciate the creativity and time that goes into conjuring up the items and stories for all EM drops, but this event gave us my personal favorite of the year. The Dreamer's Moon isn't fancy or shiny, but instead a gorgeous little thing in its simplicity.
With all of these invasions put to rest, October gave us the traditional season of Trick or Treat, pumpkin patches, and Dev Butchers. This year though had the extra treat of a return of the bone containers with player names and a new Nightmare Before Christmas themed dungeon invasion with Enchanted Origin drops to trade in for shiny things. There were unlucky cats, and the first chapter of the Virtue arc. An extra special treat for the month was Motherlode's yearly event hosting Deal or No Deal on Siege.
November gave us a break in the series of global events, but it was still a busy month. There was an attempt to bomb King Blackthorn's castle, the second installment of the Virtue arc, murderous turkeys seeking revenge, and UWSP held its 3rd festival.
At last, we come to December. Aaah the Artisan Festival!! I won't cover that here, since it has a thread all to itself, but it was a fun time as the community of Siege came together to build Festive Trees in all the cities. I will add though that the wish to cover the ugly gruesome standard marring the lovely tree in Moonglow did not go unheard! A later wish that we had completed Vesper's tree (the only tree that didn't) was also granted in a purely Siegely manner as a star was snuck in by 'some one'
There was the 3rd installment in the Virtue arc, and 3 wise but confused goblins (that event still has me giggling when I think about it!). Ilshenar was flooded with paragons the land had never seen before, with many echoes of players, including EMs. I even managed to catch a few of the EM names before the echo faded away.
Finally though, 2017 came to an end – but it did not go down without a fight! The Death of 2017 was a blast, with so much eye candy that it really deserves a thread all to itself. I have over 50 pics from this event for my little album but I will end this summary of the year with only this:
May 2018 be filled with as much Siegely Spirit!
For me, my fun in UO is generally centered around the things that are NOT farming. This typically means community projects and events, so for me the best thing about 2017 was the shard once again having our own EM. So, while a lot of fantastic things happened in the year, this chronicle has a focus on that. Not ALL of them, of course, or even most (there were a LOT of events!) but the ones I personally enjoyed the most. Feel free to add your own comments and/or pics about what you found to be the most memorable!
EM Bennu's final events as Siege's 'borrowed' EM were fun, and I at least am grateful for the time we were given. In the past, Siege has simply done without an EM. We were told our very own EM would soon be graduating from training, and so EM Bennu bid his farewells. EM Kincaid introduced himself at a Meet and Greet at the EM House of Commons on March 18th. There were munchies, the answering of questions, and a death.
The next order of business, within the same week, was the long-awaited recognition for Siege's triumph in obtaining – and keeping – the shard record for the Void Pool in May of 2016.
Our monthly governor meetings with King Blackthorn resumed the very next day. I was not able to attend this meeting, but I heard tales of death and bloodshed as Siege got its first taste of Soulless Minions. Aah the tale of the Soulstealer! Minions began popping up around Sosaria after that. First in small numbers, scattered all across the lands, in dungeons, and even in the heart of cities. Creatures whose souls were stolen, leaving them with a thirst for blood.
As we learned more about this invasion, and rumors of a shadowy rebellion, the Black Watch was revived to defend Britannia. Life continued despite the threats; a bull competition, the remodeling of the House of Commons. The King set his royal cartographer on a mission to dig up many chests of buried treasure in a bid to aid the cities struggling to keep their coffers from being empty, beginning what seems to have become a tradition.
Ah, and who can forget April's bunnies? These fearsome little furballs of cuddly doom swept across the land, terrorizing the countryside, cities, and local towns. Seeing mortal enemies fight side by side was a lovely thing indeed, for me.
In May, there was a Gilfane Auction that was particularly memorable to me. A month or two before, the monthly event had been sieged by raiders. Nothing too spectacular about that, in the grand scheme of things, though, a bit of excitement is always welcome to me. But this month when I arrived to take my seat, I saw that the walls of the Arena had been fortified and the raiders had made a statue to commemorate the attack. Very amusing!
Still, the flood of Soulless Minions increased and the Black Watch continued to build in strength. The first promotion ceremony since the return of King Blackthorn was held on the 27th of May.
On the 16th day of June, the long-standing player town of Motherlode and the new UWSP Town were given their town banners and made official.
Soon after that, the Black Watch and all who would follow them took up arms and invaded the lair of the Soulstealer. The Hatchery was decimated - a major setback for the Soulstealer, but not a defeat. Left behind was a dying technition with a little mystery to be solved, and around the lands travellers had to watch where they stepped as soulfire flames appeared with a link to the lair. The Soulstealer blocked all entry to the Hatchery, and life on Sosaria continued as we waited for the next move. A fund raiser for the City of Minoc at the very end of the month was interupted by an earth elemental uprising and the need to liberate the captured Governor Otto.
I spent a good portion of the soggy month of July running around in a pirate outfit. First there was the cleverly done word puzzle Boat Race test of endurance.
Soon after, Juxmani, the leader of the uprising against King Blackthorn, attempted to take advantage of the weakened forces of the Black Watch. The clues began in Buc's Den with some rather salty old sea dogs, and eventually led to an invasion of sea creatures at the king's own castle. This plot was foiled, of course. Before long, the Black Watch learned that the Soulstealer was attempting to rebuild the hatchery and learned of a secret entrance. Once again, arms were taken up and the Hatchery invaded. Everything was laid to waste, but still the fight was not over.
On the 12th of August, a final confrontation saw the end of the Soulstealer. Liberated Souls appeared around Sosaria for a time afterwards, until well meaning citizens sent them moving on to the next plane of existence. The Soulstealer story arc was a lot of fun, my favorite PvM EM series that I have been a part of, and this little summery does not do it justice. There were just so many fantastic little bits, and I limited myself to only one or two pics per month for this summary.
Just as we thought there would be a time for peace, strange things began happening. September started off with a bank heist in Vesper, leaving behind some suspicions leveled at Governor Spyderbite.
Fortunately for him (but not for the rest of Sosaria), these allegations were forgotten as trade routs suddenly came under attack and invading forces set upon the cities of Britannia. The Daemon Arcadion escaped from his prison, and the War of the Titans ended with a victory parade in front of the King's Castle. I'ma sucker for shiny things, so my favorite was Moonglow, but they were all lovely and many of the celebrating NPCs had funny little things to say if you stood near them and listened. The month ended with an attempt to awaken the seer. I appreciate the creativity and time that goes into conjuring up the items and stories for all EM drops, but this event gave us my personal favorite of the year. The Dreamer's Moon isn't fancy or shiny, but instead a gorgeous little thing in its simplicity.
With all of these invasions put to rest, October gave us the traditional season of Trick or Treat, pumpkin patches, and Dev Butchers. This year though had the extra treat of a return of the bone containers with player names and a new Nightmare Before Christmas themed dungeon invasion with Enchanted Origin drops to trade in for shiny things. There were unlucky cats, and the first chapter of the Virtue arc. An extra special treat for the month was Motherlode's yearly event hosting Deal or No Deal on Siege.
November gave us a break in the series of global events, but it was still a busy month. There was an attempt to bomb King Blackthorn's castle, the second installment of the Virtue arc, murderous turkeys seeking revenge, and UWSP held its 3rd festival.
At last, we come to December. Aaah the Artisan Festival!! I won't cover that here, since it has a thread all to itself, but it was a fun time as the community of Siege came together to build Festive Trees in all the cities. I will add though that the wish to cover the ugly gruesome standard marring the lovely tree in Moonglow did not go unheard! A later wish that we had completed Vesper's tree (the only tree that didn't) was also granted in a purely Siegely manner as a star was snuck in by 'some one'
There was the 3rd installment in the Virtue arc, and 3 wise but confused goblins (that event still has me giggling when I think about it!). Ilshenar was flooded with paragons the land had never seen before, with many echoes of players, including EMs. I even managed to catch a few of the EM names before the echo faded away.
Finally though, 2017 came to an end – but it did not go down without a fight! The Death of 2017 was a blast, with so much eye candy that it really deserves a thread all to itself. I have over 50 pics from this event for my little album but I will end this summary of the year with only this:
May 2018 be filled with as much Siegely Spirit!
