Lady Vox

[Orrernoeth]

I went searching for this story to share. This was written by my very own beloved Ravenns after our first battle with the imfamous Lady Vox over 500 years ago. Still has me rolling every time I read it, and I thought I would share it with you.

/quote

High level raid...
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Well, my first high level raid is over...thank the Divine Light!

And after all that we went through, it makes you wonder why we bust our tails to get to high level! Better to stay at home and kill rats and wasps! At least that way you can keep deluding yourself...

Orrernoeth, Keiren and I went on our first high level raid last night. We joined the gathering masses in Permafrost and stormed the Keep seeking the dragon, Lady Vox.

It only took 3 hours for everyone to assemble. Most of that was my fault, however. We had to go through Blackborrow to get to Everfrost to get to Permafrost. I have only ever been to Blackburrow once in my entire life. That was on my honeymoon. Remind me not to follow Orrernoeth through unfamiliar territiry in the future. I never pay attention to where we're going when I follow her. Too distracting. She fascinates me and I can't take my eyes off her.

Everyone was yelling for us to hurry up and get to Permafrost so I tried to lead the way through. I had a map and figured, hey! how hard can it be? That was right before I fell down a hole and ended up in the heart of the Burrow. I must have run around for 30 minutes trying to find someone to ask directions from. (you believe that, right?)

Orrernoeth kept trying to convince me to ask someone for directions. I kept trying to convince her that I didn't speak Gnoll so there was no point in asking anyone I met.

Azketh finally came to rescue me. He and another guy (I assume Orrernoeth got impatient and asked this guy to come fetch me so we could get going.) wanted to know where I was. I told them if I knew where I was, I wouldn't be lost. They wanted me to describe my surroundings. I told them I was looking at this HUGE waterfalls with a pool at the bottom. They both told me to jump cause they were next to the pool and would show me the way out. And you wonder why men don't like to ask for directions!

"You take 134 points of non-melee damage."

Well, we finally got to Everfrost. I decided to follow this 46th level cleric who was with us. She seemed to know where she was going. So we headed across Everfrost. That place is a terribly confusing maze! Valleys everywhere that never seem to go the direction you need to go. I followed this cleric out onto the ice. She decided to swim across this one spot where there was water and she ended up under the ice on the other side and couldn't find her way out. So here I am, on autofollow, on top of the ice, following this cleric who is swimming under the ice, looking for a way out before she drowns. I'm amazed she got out alive. The way I swim, I would have died right there.

We finally made it to Permafrost. There were over 50 people, most of them over lvl 40, who turned out for the barbacue. (kinda tells you how the night went, doesn't it...?)

I had heard that the dragon has 16,000 hit points and can completely heal herself. That's 32,000 hp! Who in their right mind would volunteer for such an undertaking!? In any case, I felt optimistic that we would last more than the average 34.7 seconds against Her Magesty. Turns out I was clueless. I had no idea what was involved in killing a beast of those proportions, nor did I have a clue how wrong things could go.

*tip for lower members...remember Murphy's 4th Law: If there is a possibility of 2 things going wrong, the one that can do the most damage will; and at the worst possible moment.

Mattor led the operation. He did a good job right up to the point when he had to log. (fearless leader?) Maybe he was just smarter than the rest of us or had seen her in action before. In any case, the guy who took over in Mattor's place seemed to know what he was doing. (what do I know, right?) The first clue I had that maybe he didn't was all the complaining from everyone within earshot that he wasn't doing things the usual way.

This guy didn' t like to form a buffline. So all 50+ of us milled around on the dragon's doorstep for 35 minutes trying to get the right buffs in the right order. (I had 14 buffs when it was all said and done. I think i may have missed a few though...)

After getting buffed, we were supposed to log to the chatroom and get instructions and have questions answered. I only had one question. My buff icons were blinking when I logged to the chatroom and I wondered how I was going to get re-buffed...

So, after not getting that question answered, it was time to go back and reform our groups. Um...I have another question before we go. Who was my leader and what group was I in...?

Someone said, "Ask Mattor. He set that all up." I was the last person to leave the chatroom and I saw myself say to no-one, "But Mattor logged!"

So it took another 30 minutes to get regrouped. I never did find my group. Thankfully, they found me. The leader told us all what we were to do. Being a tank, my job, of course, was to run across the clearing and engage this dragon in hand-to-hand combat.

*another tip for lower members: Dragons don't have hands. What they have are claws, fangs, breath weapons and spells.

I started running toward the dragon. I was about to turn the corner and run into her chamber. I was so excited. I felt it would be worth dieing just to SEE her. I never made the corner.

Did I mention that dragons roar? When they do that, everyone around them usually runs away as fast as they can. I assume the only people who don't are those with very low intelligence. As I was reading the message, "You lose control of yourself" and watching myselfr run all over the place, I thought to myself, "Well, this must mean I am at least marginally intelligent. I'm running away, aren't I?"

That was right before I fell into a pit and ended up in the chamber below the dragon. But all was not lost! Before it was all over, a whole bunch of LoDL members were in that pit with me. I was thinking, "Well, we might get out of this alive after all. Mordachi is here...Macdari is here...there is my beloved Orrernoeth. We were having a regular Legion Bazaar!

I asked Mord if we shouldn't try to find our way out. He said "NO! Just stay put and they will have an easier time finding our corpses."

"Corpses?! I'm not even DEAD YET!"

Did I mention that dragons have the ability to cast a summon spell on you? This is the reverse of a fear spell. You run TOWARD her instead of away from her. All of a sudden, Orrernoeth took off running. I thought maybe she knew the way out. I tried to follow her but I ran into a wolf and a big hairy snow spider who started in on me. The spider took off after Mord or Mac, so I figured I could handle one measly wolf. You remember Murphy's 4th Law that I told you about earlier, right?

Well, things started out well enough. Let's see...What strategy can I employ to handle this wolf, since I am alone and it is pretty tough? Ok..first, just start in on it with the sword and see how it goes. I looked at my health bar after a few rounds and at it's health bar. Hmmm...mine is going down pretty fast and it's isn't moving at all. Ok..better root it and then I can get the heck out of here. Maybe I can find Mord or Noehy or anyone else to help with this thing.

"You begin to cast root."

"Your feet adhere to the ground."

ACK! I had never targeted the wolf and there were 20 or 30 messages reminding me of the obvious.

"Try attacking someone else. It's more productive."

Yeah! Try rooting someone else too! Shees! So much for having fairly high intelligence. I concluded I am a blithering idiot!

I was so mad that I targeted the wolf and rooted it correctly.

At last.

Wait.

I'm still rooted too.

Dang!

The bad news is that the wolf killed me before the root wore off.

The good news is that at least the poor wolf had something to snack on while waiting for it's root spell to wear off.

Me.

*sigh*

I found out later that Noehy got summoned to the dragon who threw her in a bear pit where the bears killed her.

Keiren got summoned to the dragon and I'm not sure what happened. Ask her when you get a chance. I think she said that the dragon only had the bearest sliver of life left She knew that because she was the only one left alive in the dragon's chamber. Then Lady Vox cast comlete heal on herself and went looking for the rest of us.

The raid ended up a dismal failure, as we did not kill the dragon. But the evening was emmensely entertaining and educational.

Noehy and I both had to get up for work the next day. But the corpse recovery was happening right then and we needed to be there. So, Noehy and I sat around til after 3:30 AM when we were told that the recovery party had been killed by bears trying to get Noehy's corpse out of the bear pit.

We were told to try tomorrow.

I am happy to report that after several interesting adventures and conversations, we both managed to get our corpses recovered and got all our gear before the time limit was up.

My thanks to my beloved wife, Orrernoeth. And to Azketh, Tojizimitz and her fiance', Kazael for helping us with Corpse Recovery.

To do list:

Kill every bear you ever meet.
Never go to Permafrost again.
Pay attention to your surroundings when following Orrernoeth.
Kill Murphy.

With respect,

Sir Ravenns Pureheart

/end quote

[Ravenns]

oh man!  I remember that raid!

My hands were shaking and I was terrified!  I remember a lot more of those moments in EQ1 than I do in EQ2.  Ever been there?  Scared stiff, sitting up close to the screen, eyes wide open, heart pounding, hands shaking so bad you can't work the mouse or type...then...all hades breaks loose and someone screams:

RUN!!!!!!!   TO THE ZONE NOW!!!!!   GO!!!!!!!!!!   AAARRRGGGHHH!!!

Sometimes you make it...sometimes you don't

Or...you freeze up, and just stand there and die in a terrible place to rez.

Wonder why I haven't had many moments like that in EQ2...

Maybe it's because I am a vereran, and the newbie-ness has worn off long ago...

[Jezerai]

I think the change happens when you discover that that raid leader you are in such awe of is actually a sixteen year old kid.

[Anaris]

/bonks Bou and Ravenns over the head!

Silly kids!  You're supposed to post your commentaries on Library Shelves stories here:

http://sagafamily.org/index.php?topic=542.20



Ahh, who am I kidding, I'm the last person who follows forum rules...

[Ravenns]

oops!

Sorry Anaris, I didn't realize that.

I just felt bad that no one commented on Noehy's story and wanted to give her some feedback.

Hee..maybe I need to go check that other thread out.

[Anaris]

Not so!  I gave you two kudos for the story as soon as I ready it, just in a different thread.   The story is hilarious.   

Ahh...  Generally in the Library Shelves section we tend to not comment on people's stories directly since they are usually in journal format or storytelling format or what not, so we have a general "Kudos" thread of sort stickied at the top of the "Library Shelves" stories.

Ongoing Kudos for Library Shelves stories

Though I suppose if two or more individuals were collaborating on a storyline then that would be different?