The Courant: July 2001

July 31, Tuesday

Humility Fragment Found: Maria's Account - Intaria

The day started out pretty much as usual. I had just ran from my third mongbat and finally made it into the Tavern. Mr. Roggran and Mr. Fro talking to Miss Aife, a ‘witch’, met me that had appeared around the town a couple of times. Mr. Fro said that it was time to find the Fragment of Humility, and a little confused, I grabbed my books and jumped into the portal made by Kyp. After being updated on what had happened by Mr. Fro, we found ourselves in Britain. We split into groups, one went to the castle and contained Mr. Roggran and Kyp, and the other went to the virtue monastery and held Mr. Fro, Laesha and Myself, along with an annoying gentleman who had joined us just before we left. We studied the shrines but could find no clues as to the fragment, and Mr. Fro was busy explaining the riddles to the annoying gentleman. I decided to go off by myself and look, as I was also looking for my grandmother's grave but that is a different story. I was thinking about a clue Morrigana Aife had said at the tavern, "circles begin where the end". That explained the Britain part of our search, but perhaps there was more to it. Clumsily taking out my map, and dropping my lunch in the process, I looked around for circular things. The most obvious was the lake, so I headed there. At the lake stood a handsome Bard who was playing his lute while staring out over the lake. Sending out some pigeons, I waited for the others to come, but only Mr. Roggran replied. After speaking to the bard, who introduced himself as Mr. Pryyde, I discovered he did not know where the fragment was, but he did know a song about humility. Sitting on the rocks around the lake, I managed to get this down; - "Seven Sisters came to seek, All of beauty bold and wild, Past the cliff of life they went Lost and lonely as a child Seems they chased their shadows all Till at last all six did fall Some by dishonour, some by shame In a darkling place she lay Sister blue who'd gone away Dark the place in a world without fear Waiting for many a lonely year Right and right, stay to the right It is not far to the lonely gravesite A circle of tunnels there is laid A dragon shows, the way is made Some day her champion will come And play upon a simple drum Humility will all unwind...." The bard then left us to our thoughts, after receiving a kiss from me as payment for his song as I promised at the beginning. After a short 'discussion' with Mr. Roggran, he grudgingly decided to agree with me that the next place was Trammel Shame, which is a dark place in a world with out fear. We met the others at the bank, and headed straight for the dungeon on the other facet. We were met by earth elementals and scorpions, but I wasn't afraid, much. After running round in a circle, turning right 3 times, we reached a small gravesite near a dragon statue. Kyp took out a drum the Bard had dropped earlier, and played a short tune. A parchment dropped at his feet, which gave us the clues to the location of the fragment. It was then that the men of the group showed their 'courage' after saying the word wisdom by mistake. This word caused them to be teleported away to deep in Shame, a place where they all must of felt at home *giggles slightly* After going there myself to 'save' them, we finally ended up at the entrance again. They decided to go back in. The less said about the next hour the better. It ended with me running around alone looking for ruins with a procession of ettins after me, and finally being saved by Mr. Roggran, who lead the group back out after he found us all, or we found him. We searched all around and finally found a circle of stone pillars with a spirit that seemed to be trying to escape from it. The ghost was dark, almost black and hard to see. The ghost called me the Epitome of Humility, and said I must go to the ruins of a home in the land of dead trees. There I must ask for the fragment in the name of the Lady Blue. After agreeing to help it, I nervously placed a moonstone onto the floor and stepped in; it was good I came prepared. The whole group of us followed me in, and we set off for the ruins we had found earlier, but this time on the Felucca facet. There was a golden chest, which when I asked in the name of the lady Blue for the fragment, the fragment appeared inside. Grabbing the fragment, we all left for Spiritwood Tavern, leaving the monsters on the other side of Kyp's gate. Our next quest is for the Fragment of Valor I believe, and copies of the Fragment of Humility are with each of the people mentioned above and should be on the quest pages soon! *Signed* Maria Bitterlark, (Epitome of Humility)

July 29, Sunday

The Great Trinsic Horse Race - Elv'eng

News from Trinsic All citizen's are welcome to take part, young and old, and horses will be supplied for the event, which can be kept as souveniours afterwards *smile* The entry fee is 1000 gold pieces, and the prizes are as follows: - Winner : 20000 Gold Pieces, and 60% of the entry fees. 1st Runner Up : 10000 Gold Pieces, and 30% of the entry fees. 2nd Runner Up : 5000 Gold Pieces, and 10% of the entry fees. If you would like to enter please send your name, character name, and contact details in a letter to - iainwatson@yahoo.com. All entries must be received by 30th July 2001, although if there are spare spaces on the day people are welcome to participate. Once your entry is received we will send a letter (email) to you will the course route. Rules and Regulations will be released on the day. For more information contact me (Mentazm) by letter - iainwatson@yahoo.com - or pigeon on 9921764. Good luck over there and may the best horse win! *grins*

July 28, Saturday

Guardian of the Sanctum - Elv'eng

Here is something i found on the European UO pages. Might be intresting for you to read. Grint delicately unravelled the worn parchment, and stared at the map it portrayed. Drawn in days of old, it was rough and lacked perspective, but contained the vital clues needed for a man of his knowledge to decipher. Something similar did not exist in all of Britannia, at least not to his knowledge… Days spent translating ancient texts had stifled Grint’s keen mind, and finally curiosity had gotten the better of him. His seniors would be furious, he thought to himself, as he held his lantern closer to the parchment.... Guardian of the Sanctum I Guardian of the Sanctum II Guardian of the Sanctum III Sound very intresting.

July 17, Tuesday

Honor Fragment Found! - Intaria

Rats! Hello there everyone! This is Nicolas! You would not believe what happened tonight...well ...maybe you will * grins * It all started when I was born in...No wait...it started much later then that... * Thinks * It started when some lady in a bar asked me when I was born and it seemed that after I told them when I was the person they sought. They wanted to know if I knew when the 2 moons of our land aligned with Jupiter and after some research I told them it was today on Monday... Anyway...today I tried on my new disguise...its a necromancer one * smirks * Fun to scare people out of their wits. People gathered at the Spiritwood tavern to start the search for honor's fragment and as I was the one who represented honor, I was also the one to lead them on the search. Imagine: everyone wobbling after a necromancer * laughs * After everyone was ready I told them we would head for the Britain sewer system for that is a place bulking with rats and other sorts of foul beasts.Not wanting to upset someone I placed my disguise aside and put on my dungeon crawling clothes and opened a gate for everyone to Britain and its sewer system. Shortly thereafter we entered the sewers we encountered a madman who was killing rats, babbling riddles and speaking of an old man. He was truly a mad man for he attacked a man he thought he knew, namely Kyp Durron, with a dagger and perished soon afterwards... His last words where that the old man was in town so we headed back out of the stench and into Britain to look for him. Splitting up in groups I thought we had a bigger chance of finding him faster and lo and behold my plan worked. Only mere minutes later some of the adventurers that had came along brought the old man called Raet Cyning , which is old tongue for Rat King, to the place where me and the man having the dreams, Kyp Durron, where waiting. We spoke a bit to him and let him go underground to his home , the sewers, and we followed in. Once we thought we where deep enough inside the sewers , we had the master of Rats cornered and asked him “politely” to hand over the book or tell us where it was and after some * ahum * persuading he told us to look for light in a dark place... Also being told by him that he found the book in the sewers, I told the gathered adventurers to go search there for a light and soon some found it. As foretold in the book of spirituality the one to whom honor is a banner –me- must call forth for the dogs of war, Hence I did but every dratted time I called for those pesky dogs , sewer rats appeared! Now that we are on the subject of rats: they where everywhere, together with bullfrogs and I think I even saw an alligator, but mostly it was rats, rats, rats rats rats... * feels eyes looking at him annoyingly * Errrrrm... Anyway...when I called for the dogs a few times the book of honor appeared and also an apparition of the lady in white! Knowing that our job in the smelly sewers was done the group headed for Spiritwood again, with the book in my possession. Arriving there we where waited upon by some lady in black to whom we handed a copy of the fragment and we drank some drinks to a successful evening. Rats! I forgot my necromancer Costume in the sewers... * runs off *

July 13, Friday

Quest for Honor's Fragment! - Intaria

On Monday night, July 16th, we will be gathering at Spiritwood Tavern to help Nicolas. He has found out some valuable information, and many believe the he, the scholar of Honor at the University, may be the vital piece to recovering the fragment. Each fragment has clues, it seems, handwritten beneath the actual text. Here is the clue left in the last volume of Spirituality: Curse the ones who find this book! Curse all mankind! I am the dark power that drives the rats forth. Rats shall you seek when the stars are right. If Honor you would find. But honor alone is not enough! Fools! Cowards! You will never have that which you seek. There is no more honor in this world, only falsehood and deceit! Only the hand of he to whom honor is a banner may ask for Honor’s part. Despair! Cry the Dogs of War - call them forth to show honor’s part. Only when Jupiter aligns with the two moons may you search among the rats. We shall begin that evening after 8:30 gmt. What dark power drives forth the rats? Where are the rats that we must seek among? If Nicolas is Jupiter (the ruling planet of Sagittarius) and the two moons align next on the 16th, we may be on the right track here! Yet... how will he retrieve the book? And who... or rather what... are the Dogs of War? Help us solve the still unanswered questions, and we shall find where it leads us. Hope to see you there! On a side note, if you see Kyp Durron ask him about his dream. It is believed by many that the dreams he is having have something to do with all that is happening. He must interpret them correctly, and soon!

July 8, Sunday

Introduction from Dreamstone - Glenikins

Hail from Dreamstone! I am Glenikins, Master at Arms in our town, and recently honoured with the ability to post News items here. This is my first submittal, intended purely as an introduction. I have travelled the lands of Sosaria for a little over 18 RL months now, finally founding the town of Dreamstone, to the south of Yew in Felucca some months ago. Details of our town and it's citizens can be found at http://dreamstonetown.tripod.com.

July 5, Thursday

BNN: Fighting Back - Elv'eng

A new story from Calandryll was posted on the Britannian News Network site. He also said on the MyUO boards that this time the players are going to be able to alter the out come, but since we all been in this world for quite sometime, we'll just have to wait and see. Though its a good story. Jogug kicked a stone and watched as it skittered across the floor and hit the cave wall. He hated this place. No humies to bash, never enough food, and the cave reeked, even by orc standards. He mumbled some irate complaints to the other orcs in the room, although most of them were too busy with complaints of their own to listen. The cave had been carved out (actually, blown out) by the orc bombers and reinforced by the orc choppers. In truth, it was well built (again, by orc standards), but many of the orcs had grown weary of it. Orcs cared little for the beauty of the outdoors, but Jogug missed the warmth of the sun and the openness of his home near Cove. Jogug wasn't exactly the bravest of orcs, but he had had enough of this hiding. And so had his lord, Sorgulg. Jogug quieted his mumbling as Sorgulg raised his voice. "NO!" the orc lord shouted. "No more hiding!" This was followed by more shouting from the orc mage Opathu. Jogug could not hear the words exactly, but he could tell the mage disagreed with Sorgulg, preferring the safety of the cave. Jogug thought the sentiment typical of the mages. He didn't trust any orc that didn't bash things with an ax, although he did want to get his hands on some of those bottles the orc bombers kept. He liked the noises they made. "NO! We go without you den. Take back home. You hide like mongbat if yub want to," Sorgulg retorted, his temper quickly rising. Jogug knew his lord and the mage well enough to know what would happen next, and was not surprised in the least when he heard Opathu yelp, no doubt dodging an attack from Sorgulg. Jogug would have smiled at the thought, and in fact was about to, when he heard the orc mage yell for help. The ground shook a bit. Jogug suddenly realized what was coming, and his smile quickly faded into a frown. Gathering what courage he had (which wasn't much), Jogug prepared for a fight. The ground shook again, this time much more forcefully, as a hulking brute of an orc entered the room. Easily twice Jogug's mass, with muscles bulging, the large orc immediately went to enter the room where Sorgulg and the mage were arguing. Jogug, trembling despite his attempts to hide his fear, stood to intercept the brute. The huge orc smiled a wicked grin as it picked Jogug completely off the ground and threw him headlong into another group of orcs. The brutes had a habit of throwing any orcs who got in their way, since it not only made them feel powerful, but watching the smaller orcs grapple with whatever creature they had been thrown onto was really great fun. The brute was just getting ready to hurl another hapless orc when Sorgulg stormed out, boldly striding right past the imposing orc. Jogug quickly followed Sorgulg as they left the cave, wanting nothing more to do with the hulking orc or those that wished to stay in the cave. He liked the idea of clomping more painted humies and more importantly, he wanted his home back. "No more hiding," he thought, echoing his Lord's words and looking nervously back at the cave as another orc yelped and was thrown from the dark cavern. It was time to clomp! * * * * Duncan gathered the men and women of Cove into the Inn and waited for them all to settle down. The people were tired and weary from the fighting and it took him a while to secure their attention. Duncan was happy for the time to compose himself and gather his thoughts, since he knew the proposal he was about to give them would not be a popular one. Finally the room quieted and all eyes and ears went to Duncan. The young Paladin, who had only months ago just begun his questing, was suddenly acutely aware of all the faces watching him. How had he become the leader of this desperate group? He cleared his throat and began speaking, cautiously at first. "My friends, for weeks we have defended our town against these orc raids, hoping we could weather this terrible storm. Now these savages threaten our homes as well. It is time we took the fight to them and ended this nonsense before all of Cove is destroyed. Neither the orcs nor the savages seem willing or able to end this themselves... so it is now up to us." The Paladin paused for a moment, watching the faces of the townsfolk for any sign of reaction. He saw their eyes still focused on him, and continued his speech. Conviction began to creep into his voice as he realized that they were actually listening. "The time has come for us to leave the relative safety of our homes and take this fight to the orc fort! With these," the paladin held up a mask of orcish kin, "we can rid our land of the savages and put things back the way they were." At this point, one of the elders of the town jumped from his seat, glaring at the paladin. "Help the orcs? Are you mad!? We've endured their attacks for generations; we'd be better off helping these savages! They're at least human... maybe we can reason with them!" Duncan had expected this. He knew the deep-rooted hatred the residents of Cove held towards the orcs. But he also knew there would be no negotiations with the savages. The savages were intelligent, cunning, crafty, and were better equipped than the orcs. He had also heard rumors of savages mounted on huge, unfamiliar beasts and powerful savage spellcasters capable of raining lighting down on their enemies from the skies. That, coupled with their terrifying prowess against the most powerful of beasts made the orcs seem to be the lesser of two evils. Before Duncan could respond, the elder spoke again. "We have already made up our minds, Paladin. We will use their own war paint to blend in with these savages. They'll never know who we are, and we can destroy the orcs once and for all." With that, the elder left the room, and at least half the gathered people followed behind him. Duncan watched them leave and wondered if this moment would mean the difference between living with the savages or the orcs. Not a happy prospect either way, but he knew he had to do what he could to see that they were not left to the hands of the savages. Turning back to the remaining townsfolk, Duncan began to lay out his plans, and handed out orc masks to those who would fight with the orcs. Those without masks would remain to defend the town. The time had come to drive the intruders out for good.