Found this old UO story on Usenet that I wanted to share. The original date of the post is from December 4, 1998 2:00:00AM. Not sure how long these type of stories will stick around so I’m thinking about preserving them.
_brandon
https://groups.google.com/g/alt.games.ultima-online/c/JfZo7w27rWg?pli=1
MARTOO SAUL AND JENIN PINCE DEAD ON PACIFIC!!!! (Long)
Crow Dec 4, 1998, 2:00:00 AM to Last night had started like many other for me. I had just logged on and went to Skara Brae to pick up some supplies. An hour after I arrived at the Shattered skull tavern though, the Town Crier started yelling that a BlackRock Pentagram had been spotted west of Justice (this is the one i wrote about earlier in my post-subject {Black Pentagram!??!?!?!}). Knowing this couldn’t be good, cause i had just left Empath and aside from the Minters and usual Monks i had been the only one there. I immediatley did the sacred Eye-Sea-Que chants and asked a few friends to meet me there. But being the adventurer that i am i had to see what was going on for myself first. I recalled a few screens away from where i had found the pentagram last week. As soon as i got within 3 Screens of it, my tracking went OFF (i knew this was bad cause i’ve just started using Tracking and only have a 44 Skill in it.) There were Orcs, Evil Mages, and Ettins all over the place… Enough to consume over 100 Bolts from me and still keep coming. I managed to elude them though and made my way toward Empath. No sooner than i Arrived i was met by the brave and noble warriors, Sand, Verbal Kint, Azmodan, and Solinari. They were all being led by Lord Halstan Montil, he pleaded with them to go fight, but they being Dungeoners knew not where the evil awaited. I got there and told him i knew where it was, so we all set out…. Upon arriving close again we encountered the mage lords and all his orcy friends… letting them take the orcs i ran to the pentagram. Martoo Saul came out of hiding and jumped me immediately. Being weakened by the Orcs and Having an ettin on me on top of that (and once again running low on bolts) i was no match for him while i was alone…..
I started spamming OoOoOOOOo’s on the screen and my friends came running, they all surrounded Saul and with the help of a few Ettins they easily slayed Saul (Sand, i believe claimed the final blow). I got ressed and recovered what was left of my stuff that the Ettin that helped Saul kill me didn’t take. Realizing that quest could not yet be over (creatures just kept coming, nothing too bad though just orcs) we started attacking the Wisp of Darkness that had been on the pentagram since we arrived. By this time more Yewbies had shown up at joined the fray…
Once we attacked the wisp the Creatures became more and more fierce, being the tactical geniouses that we are however us archers focused on the wisp (which had virtually 1000 HPs and Infinite Mana {This is not joke, we were all either Master or Grandmaster Archers and it took FOREVER to even begin to damage it spells seemed useless and any summonings were immediately dispelled, it seemed to love Mass Curses and Flamestrikes as it’s offense}). Just as we think we have the Wisp where we want it the largest and most deadly attack comes Blood Elementals, Poison Elementals, Lich Lords, Orgre Lords, Hell Hounds, and More Orc Mages and Ettins than you can ever imagine. Also about this time the Wisp had left its Posistion on the pentagram, it quickly went back and was healed by about 30% this turned out to be the last of the wave of monsters tho and the wisp was surrounded and slain after they were soundly defeated.
Upond defeat the pentagram disappeared and a pure black chest appeared. it’s weight was 1200 Stones Inside were 4 Bags and a small wooden chest. I know not the contents of the bags for the lesser moraled persons got there before the people that had been fighting all night even had a chance to see what was there.
The wooden chest was locked and Halstan informed us that the Key should have been on the Wisp of Darkness’s corpse…we searched high and low but now key was to be found. As a matter of fact someone had initially took of with the wooden box; they didn’t make it far though because it weighed 1200 Stones. And Halstan discovered a way to make it float out of their pack into his (heh). After we couldn’t find the key, i mentioned the Pentagram in Destard, he agreed that it could be of some use. I had to recall back to Empath first to re-equip myself before i would be any help at all in any kind of fight. When i got to Destard i couldn’t find Halstan for the first few minutes. I then saw him with the Original group of Sand, Verbal Kint, and Solinari (Azmodan had Apparently had to log off). I asked if anyone had a Sextant and upon recieving one i started looking for the Coordinates which had been reported to me. They managed to find the other Piece of Blackrock before i could though (I never said i could use the damn sextant good). And a fierce battle once again took place, from what I could tell this one was just undead however (no Bloods, Poisons, or Ogre Lords) and was more easily defeated. I missed this fray because i had became seperated with the group.
Jenin Pince was at the Destard location and once again had a Wisp of Darkness with him. This wisp seemed easier to defeat according to the warriors that fought it. And Jenin was laid to rest by Verbal Kint. Upon defeat the Pentagram changed into a black chest. Inside the chest was the 4 Bags and a smaller wooden chest. This time however the key was recovered by Verbal…..
Sadly along this time is when the Immaturity of UO started to show it’s ugly head. A thief by the name of Puffy began harrasing the crowd. Even though we killed him several times for his actions. After that when VK opened the chest someone made off with the piece of Black Rock (we know who you are, and your time is coming….)
After the defeats at Destard and Justice the FOA had nothing else left for us this night (morning actually, we had all began the quest around Midnight and it was now 3 AM CST) We escorted Halstan back to Empath Abbey, and slowly one by one the group of Yewbies that pulled together when evil reared it’s ugly head began to disburse…..
Crow Yewbie and damn proud of it.