EM Site Feed The minion and the egg

[UO News]

Saturday 24th June 2017

10 pm BST / 5 pm EST


King Blackthorn’s face was like thunder as he put down the reports from the Commander of the Black Watch and the Royal Detective. The death tolls between the two reports were astronomical. But to find that the beasts had been making use of the dungeons beneath his very castle for one of their bases of operations was a bridge too far. These beasts, and their unseen master would pay. Enough was enough.

A knock at the door jolted him away from his fuming. “Enter!” he barked. A small man, almost naked, his skin covered in a fine white powder, stepped in, followed by a large, heavily armoured guard.

“Sire!” barked the guard “As requested, this individual is here! I shall stand here and guard your Majesty in case he proves difficult, sire!”

At this, the little man casually reached out a hand, grabbed the guard by the belt, flipped him onto his helmet, and strapped his hands and feet together behind his back with the very same belt. He then turned and grinned at the king. “Yes. Very difficult, this one. Indeed. Hallo Black Thorn.”

“I do not believe that will be necessary, guard.” said Blackthorn. “Ghrom here is an old friend of mine. Do not judge him by his appearance. And do get up – you are making my study look most untidy.”

Ghrom made a quick slicing movement with a bone dagger that had somehow found its way into his hand, and the guard found himself free. Bowing out the door, one hand holding his breeches up, the guard quickly excused himself. Ghrom turned and smiled at the king again.

“Old friend, I have great need of your skills. My best men have failed to track these beasts to their source. Are you able to help me? Can you track them?” asked the king.

Ghrom’s smile grew wider, and he produced a rolled up animal skin from his pouch and unfurled it on the table. A map was drawn on it, showing all the old towns. But the map only took up the middle part of the parchment. Around the edges were drawn other shapes, symbols, beyond the edge of the seas. Ghrom’s finger pointed to a spot far to the east of Ice Island, beyond the edge of the seas. “Here.” he said. “Enemy here.”

Blackthorn stared, wondering how he would ever find a ship that could sail off the edge of the world.

Ghrom then produced an aging book from this pouch, opened it, and pointed to a page. The words read “Liedlan spulger idstrinfaun beast fentri chemas”. He also handed Blackthorn a strange item, which turned out to be the dried wing of a bird. Blackthorn raised an eyebrow and gave Ghrom a look of utter incomprehension.

“The spell take Black Thorn up.” he said “Up to where enemy floats in his cave”.

Blackthorn looked at the front cover of the tatty book for a moment. He could just about make out the title : “The book of Amber runes”.

For the first time in what seemed a long time, Blackthorn felt hope growing inside. He smiled, and led Ghrom to meet the commander of the Black Watch.



What you need to know:

• Gates to the event will be provided from the usual locations.
• Town Criers will announce the event as usual.
• A reminder will be made in General Chat an hour before it starts.
• Most of the event will take place outside of the guard zone.
• The Book of Amber Runes is from Ultima III.
• Ghrom is named after one of the earlier UO developers.
• This is not exclusively a Black Watch event, although members of the Watch will get points for attending.

Continue reading...

 

[EM Kincaid]

A good attempt was made, but the monsters still stand.
I made those present the offer to approach the Great Lady Mesanna, to have the monsters weakened, but several players have now asked me to give you a bit more time to try to kill them. So Siege, you have another day. If by tomorrow evening, you have not managed to kill at least one of the hatchery technicians, I will approach our Great Lady, and see what can be done to bring victory a little closer. Maybe reduce their HP regen a lot.

In the meantime, I have added an extra gate outside the EM Hall, which will take you straight to the area where the monsters lurk.
This is going to take a lot of you, and it is going to take teamwork. Go on - make Siege proud!

 

[Drakelord]

So, I implore you - work together.​

Again the Umbra stable master and Kenzie had words, which came close to punches being tossed. Its seems the three little pigs were missing, and the Big Bad Wolf had put on some weight, but the wolf denies seeing the three little piggies, but did see carts of straw, sticks and bricks out back, which are now gone.

SO Kenzie was late for the big speech, but someone was kind enough to send a pigeon with our Commander’s speech. Below is this stirring speech from the beginning to end.

Commander:

Ladies and Gentlemen.
Normally, at a time like this, I would call upon the Black Watch.
This situation is so dire, I call upon anyone able to harm another being, in any way.
Is your weapon a sword? Bring it. Do you cast spells?
Prepare them. Are you a tailor? Sharpen your needles!
Are you a gardener? Bring your most poisonous plants!
Listen carefully, for we do not have much time.
Lady Luck is smiling on us, but we do not know how long for.
Our greatest experts in the magic ways have had a breakthrough,
and so have our scouts.
Our scouts, using directions from the wounded man rescued from Doom,
found a gateway to a near-dead realm.
They made their way through, and found the shattered remains of an empire
that was great, not so very long ago. There, they found a giant, the last
of his race, breathing his last breaths. This noble being was easily
the size of this building, and yet he had been struck down with ease.
His fellows lay dead, as far as the eye could see, and the ground beneath
groaned and cracked, crumbling to dust.
Before he died, he spoke of the being we face, the Soulstealer, who had come
to his realm, and drained every last spark of life from it, before leaving.

Worse, the skulls of every giant our scouts found were cracked open, their
brains taken, their bodies drained of blood. We know not why.

Our scouts waited, compassionately, so the last of the giants did not die alone.
Then, as his world crumbled to dust, they escaped through the doorway, back here.

Still, our mages have likewise found a doorway. This, it seems, is not to a dead realm.
We only dared peer through this portal briefly, but through it we saw many
of those ghastly minions. This appears to be some sort of breeding ground.
Our foe resents our intrusion, and already begins to strike back -
You will see shortly, strange fires flow through the door.

I cannot tell you much. What I can tell you is this:

There are some beings who look much like the controllers of the Exodus creatures there.
They appear to be guarded by many, many minions.
The minions swarm together, to project a protective field around these
beings.
Our scout found that out to his detriment.
So, I implore you - work together. Protect each other. Guard each other.
You will not overcome these beasts without someone watching your back.

Our scouts saw no means to heal or resurrect in there.
But! Our royal mages and mystics will hold the door as long as they can.
Should you fall, should you need aid beyond that which your fellows can give -
run back through the gate. Aid will be waiting for you.

I hope your spells are ready, your blades are sharp, and your pets teeth even sharper!

Now, the gate is held open at The Black Watch Barracks.
The blue gate outside will take you there.
Wait for me to give the magic users their instructions.

Now Kenzie seeing they had already left for this near-dead realm sought her way there, when she enter she saw all in battle with nameless minions of this realm and for a short while the forces were able to hold them in check, till they were betrayed by one of their own, a known Bandit of the lands. After which the attack fell apart and all were forced to withdraw.

Kenzie returned later to once more battle these minions of the Realm, evening joining a temporary truce with a member of the Bandits, only to be betrayed by another member of these same bandits. Knowing that it was a fruitless battle, facing not one enemy but two, possible three if the short truce she had was broken, she withdrew leaving the area.

As for the three little piggies, it was found that due to high rent cost at the stables they had moved out. Big Bad Wolf has offered to help each and ever one of them move to their new houses of straw, sticks, and bricks.

 

[Drakelord]

A few of us went back this morning, UWSP and GIL, took a while but we did manage to take down a boss.

Makes EQ noise when locked down in your house. Looks like an ant hill.

 

[Sparviero]

I didn't take any pics but it was really really fun ... And i'm really happy because i saw so many people red,blue and orange in a place all helping each other ! Go Go Go Siege

 

[Drakelord]

I posted full snaps of my tour of the NOW empty dungeon at my Facebook page. Congrats to all of the Siege players who made that so. https://www.facebook.com/michael.clevenger.10. Here a few edit snaps of that tour.

 

[Tanager]

Thank you Drakelord for posting pics! This dungeon has so much little detail in it that I do suggest folks go take a close look at it while it's here. Here are even more pics, of some of my favorite bits!

A giant telescope peers through a portal, and snatches souls at will. Bit leaky, though.



If the soul makes it through the crude plumbing, it's taken to a Strange Device for processing.



Minion Gestation:



The larva hatchery:



And in case anyone is wondering what happened to the population of Siege over the years...



And last but not least, a map of the place overall.



A lot of creativity obviously went into the creation of this place, and I am so pleased with Siege for coming together to end this menace! Although... Is this only a setback for the Soulstealer?