Saturday, July 26, 2008

A Quest That Never Was...

There once was a Pirate called BlunderBeard....
Who tried to take over Everwind....
*laughs*
But he was a sorry match for a Dragon named Zeno.
*sighs and shakes her head*

The Pirates was a great epic quest to start, I was looking forward to seeing it pan out. We first met Captain BlunderBeard one fateful day, he was running around, bumbling and talking as if he had spent too many days at sea in the sun without food or water. It turned out he was a wonderful actor as well, cause he fooled everyone, including the Queen. She had him behind bars and in hindsight, it would have been a good place to keep him a long time, but she released him and he threw a curse upon us all. Knocked out and crumpled on the ground and completely helpless he took the time to taint the water in the village fountain, before leaving us with his promise...to return with his crew and take Everwind as his!

Hail the new King of Everwind!....oh wait, not yet.

So we spend days watching for signs of the Captain and his crew, planning how we are to defend the Realm from such an attack. After being through a number of epic quests I was getting into the flow of things...I had a feeling we weren't meant to win this up and coming battle...we would have a quest to follow in order to bring down the Pirates.

The battle comes...we are all panned out across the Realm waiting for the pirates to show up. And the moment it starts I was already confused, cause with everyone in position the Pirates happened to be in the very human Castle, having not been seen even coming into the Realm. So bad roleplay, they POOFED into the Realm, didn't care how much time and effort everyone put into planning their arrival and got down to fighting.

I think the only good thing I found out this night was how useless bows or any range weapons are in lag. And it has come in handy ever since, as due to lag SL can't rezz prims, can't rezz the prims of arrows and no damage...WOOT! Good to know! *toses her bow, draws her sword and gets back to fighting*

We fought, finally gave up, but some didn't want to leave the fight even after retreat had been called over and over. It didn't take long to realise that BlunderBeard and all his crew were returning alternates from the Demon/Sorceress Epic Quest and others....they wore the same god meters and fast healing powers...we weren't meant to win this fight.

When the final few that had stayed behind to fight finally rose and joined us outside the castle as we heard the Captain's voice shouting for us to welcome their new King...him! Joy!

At this time a few of us that are willing and wanting to move past the battle and continue to the quest turn to Merrick one of the High Mages of Everwind and he is already talking sense. We can't stop the Pirates as is, they are protected by a powerful magic, we have to search the realm and start looking for their chest of gold,t he key to their power and their downfall if we can get our hands on it first.

At this time two things happen....BlunderBeard and his crew come down from the castle and the battle continues out into the woods. And those of us that are willing to listen to Merrick go off and start hunting for this chest.

A quest that never was....at least that is how it felt by the time the evening ended. We searched the castle, we divided up and retraced each other's footsteps looking for this chest. The whole time I keep an eye on my mini map and I can see the mass of green dots, and I know there must be a lot of people seeing red, and I am glad I am not in that battle, knowing the pirates must be at the center of it all.

Word comes that they have been captured, I don't know a lot of details of all that happened. I just remember standing on the far side of the fountain in the village with Merrick and a few others as we watch two of the pirates dragged up. BlunderBeard is taunting and angering one of the greatest dragons in the Realm, Xeno, who now stands near him in bi-ped form. As thing continue you know it can't be good...something is wrong, and in a fit of rage Xeno ends the Captain's rants and snaps the bound Pirate's neck.

That was the end of it, a few days of watching pirates in a cell and going on to escaping. Xeno was banished from the Dragon Wyre for his actions and meddling with human affairs and became a Drow. And some of us were left thinking...was that really how it was meant to end?

I am not really sure, but it seemed a rather empty ending.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

An interesting tale. It seemed to bypass me that whole one...

I sometimes think that in these more "epic" quests, it would be helpful for people to have a little clue as to how it is expected to play out... without too many details. For example - " a spirited resistance is expected, but there will be another solution involving a mage... keep your eyes and ears peeled". Otherwise some people just revert to fight to the death and it loses something. That's my tuppence anyway :-)