I died.
I died some more.
Then I died again.
It was one of those weekends
.
It started out full of hope and promise. Our gang decided to go try the "guy on the horse" in Plane of Nightmare. Someone other than me "knew what they were doing" and so I was just following orders. We moved to the edge of the canyon thingie and started clearing a path into the caves/tunnel. We cleared and the puller (Necro) said to move down. We moved down (we had mustered two groups), the hobgoblins began respawning (popping like rabbits), what can best be described as a "free for all" broke out.
(Now, let me just say that our gang is no where near being a bunch of "newbs" all of us have played a while, have played multiple higher level characters and several of us 2 box 60+ characters, just saying this so you can appreciate the irony).
As you may know, once you descend over the lip of the "canyon" in PoN, it is very difficult to get back up on the GY side. (I have never managed it, but the Necro puller seemed to be managing some how.) At first we were still sort of co-ordinated, tanks were tanking, melees were supporting, healers were healing the tanks, but then we started to get overwhelmed, the two Necros and one of the Druids began kiting some bunches of hobgobs around. Iluien was now tanking as well, one of the warriors got isolated from his healer and went down, one of the bunches caught up with one of the Necros and he went down. Now we had hobgoblins everywhere, they added to all the other little skirmishes and our leader called bail/evac, every man for himself. Celeni and Iluien began to run, couldn't get back over the rim of the canyon, Celeni got caught by our little share of the hobgob population and went down, Iluien happened to be far enough away for them not to come straight back to him, decided to hide and see what happens. Hide stuck (a miracle) suddnly he is alone in the middle of hobgob land. Asked how the hell to get out of the place and got told the only way was to run up the other side, about that time the hobs spotted him and he made a dash for the port stone at the hedge. Just got out in the nick of time.
We regroup, the night is still young, begin to discuss how to get through the caves, Necro goes and does a recon, says that maybe we can fight through, then said Necro says that he has to log. Someone says lets go to UP instead.
We all head over to Umbral Plains, the plan is to take out all the names. Prep and head to Tawro's caves. Along the way Celeni's IVU drops, we pick up the inevitable skelly. No probs we are "uba" these days, Ilu will just kill it and we will catch up. Lol. Iluien actually gets the skelly down to about one third before its mates begin showing up. Our warrior buddy had come back to look for us by this time, so he joins in and starts to grab aggro, more skellies turn up plus the hooded bozos. Iluien goes down. The mobs Iluien had been holding turn on Celeni of course, she goes down. The rest of the group arives back and things are brought under control, the dead are brought back to life and we get into the caves and re-prep.
We clear through to one of the named spawn points and begin clearing the waves. Our Chanter (the one and only) goes LD. No probs, we can handle a wave if we are careful, while she gets back. Wave spawns, the two druids manage to get a couple of them rooted, the two warriors tank, one breaks away and Iluien tanks. We have a really good cleric and two druids, so healing is no probs, we grind them down and all is good. The Chanter logs back in and pops underground
. Nothing either she or we could do could get her out, she has to gate. Next wave pops, oh well we did it once we can do it again. Hah. This time there is a Swarm Lord amongst them, he can not be rooted or snared. He proceeds to beat the crap out of the healers. Mobs are running loose everywhere, the druids are trying to kite them around, one by one the healers go down. Monks and Necro FD and the rest die.
We do the cr back to zone, and several people say they have to log so rest of us went and did a LDoN and called it a night.
Next day, we had another go, this time it runs like clockwork, we take out Tawro, Radir, Swarm Lord and much nice loot is had. Iluien even got lucky on a nice 1hp from Radir.
That night, gang gets together and decides to go to Veksar. We meet up inside at the zone in and invis for the run through to the chosen camp spot (trying to get a belt for our Monk), get all the way through to the golems when Cel's invis drops (don't ask me why she hadn't used her ISC). I look back and see the biggst train of Golems I had ever seen in my life. Well, if you have been to this spot you will know that there is no where to run to, there was little hope of bringing it under control (our Chanter had not logged in) and Nec and Monk FD the rest of us die. We do the cr to zone, re-prep and start again. After a couple of hours of killing PH and no names our Monk has to log. We decide to go try the Highborns. First pull is OK, second pull we get two, no worries plenty of healing will will tank through it. An add arrives, we now have three, warrior calls evac, Celeni casts succour, the spell casts and we are all still standing there (must have been a last second interupt??), we all die. We do yet another CR port out to PoK and go to bed.
Next day, no one is around so Celeni and Iluien decide to go to PoG to get some planar oak. Port into Wakening Land and stroll off toward the lake. Iluien spots Priest Bejk, hmm he was an old time quest target, he is now blue, lets take him. Just as he is about to tag Bejk a panther jumps us. Bloody nuisance, its green. Start chewing down the panther another turns up, one panther dies, the Corrupt Panther pops, hmm, he is dark blue. He is doubling for 200, Iluien is barely scratching him, this is going to be tough. A panther attacks Celeni, oh ****, try to cast succour, to many interupts, better run Iluien now is at 10% reverts to newbie running and jumping, thinks he gets far enough ahead to cast a heal, stops and get killed by half the animal population of WL. Celeni runs aound in circles until she looses the darn things and then goes looking for Iluien. Can't find him, no loc, no land marks.
Port out to Pok by some chipped bone rods, pick up Iluien in BB and head back to find the corpse, no one around for a rez, so poor old Iluien eats it. Mess around with Geos for a while then get the itch to recover some exp. Head to Sirens Grotto, surely at 61 Iluien can tank these bastages now? (We had been handed our butts by the bulthars and walruses many times in the past).
Port to CS, hop across to Sirens zone in, bulthar standing right at zone in, instant action. Celeni goes almost oom healing Iluien on the first bulthar. Oh well maybe the walruses will be easier, pull first walrus, don't even recall what it is hitting for as I could not take my eyes off the health bar for a second, Cel zones oom, Ilu zones at 10% again. OK back to Maidens Eye. Where the next several hours are spent slowly dragging Iluien back to within two yellow of 62, where he had been two days before.
Monday, what the hell, its almost the weekend, only four of our gang are logged in, warrior, monk, Iluien and Celeni, we decide to do a 4 man LDoN, decide that MM is the "easiest" set up, reject the first "30 collect" in favour of getting the "easiest" we can, get a 20 collect. Head off, and zone in. Monk says this room might be a ***** to break?
Monk starts first pull, gets three, FD fails, he dies. We stand there dumbstruck. Monk runs back loots we re-buff and start agian. We begin to slowly clear the first room. Celeni is having to cast three or four CHs on every mob, we get about half way through the room and have to stop to med, first time Cel has had to stop to med in years! Iluien checks track, notices that many of the mobs are even con to him (61). We clear the room and move in (4 out of 20), Cel needs another med break. We notice a wanderer coming to the doorway while we are medding, agree we better take him first. Cel says 90 mana, monk pulls, gets a single, we engage, a wanderer runs in and joins the fight, no probs, Monk and Iluien take one Warrior takes the other. Celeni goes out of mana trying to heal Monk and Warrior, Monk dies, Iluien dies, Cel and Warrior zone out.