Nine years ago, I left Ultima Online – one year ago, I came back. I didn´t prepare my comeback, I didn´t read any content. I just ordered a timecode and logged in. I found myself with my alter-ego Eaerendil III. sitting on the back of a nightmare in the midst of a jungle… I remembered that I once had a house and it must have been the right spot. But it was lost now. I had some weird weed in my backpack which helped me to cast some spells – ah, I was a grandmaster mage. Wow, a powerful guy, hehe! Killed an ogre with Corp Por and was happy. At least something that felt like yesterday…
After running around for a while I found the road to Britain and went back there. When I entered Britain I noticed it was very quiet there. It was easy to find the Bank, as this place was really one of my favorite places. I visited this place in all those lovely Offline-Ultimas and took a sightseeing through Britain to refresh my memory. Aha, Lord British´s Castle was still there – but no Lord… Ah, and there was the stable. I checked it and found a nice White Wyrm named Whitey Whiteman. We went to the cementary – another place I remembered well – and I tried to kill some zombies, just for fun. But Whitey refused to obey my orders and decided to leave me. Well, I wasn´t sad, I havn´t visited him for 9 years, I could understand his motives.
In my backpack I found a runebook with some safe-spots. Nice – I recalled to a place in Dungeon Shame, which I remembered well. But nowadays this place wasn’t safe at all… So I died and I had no idea how to get out there. I called a friend named Radagast who helped me and killed those blood elementals – but my nightmare was lost. Unfortunately, I didn´t know about a concept called “Bonding”. Well, “Bondage” did mean something to me, but “Bonding”…
My alter ego was now a mage-tamer with no pets and an “old-fashioned” suit – these were the words of a certain Gilmour who was standing at the bank all day long. He told me that I should get a better suit, he and his friend Stephen would help me out. I had no idea that it was possible to cast spells without reagents – great new world!
I went through a gate and had to die because of some strange "Easter-Event"-gag. Weird kind of humor. Lucky me - the gate back was still open and this Gilmour was still standing there. So he could ress me and told me better not to go there again...
Some days later I visited a Knuckleheads-Auction. I had about 20.000 pieces of gold in my bank account and wanted to learn what I could afford. Answer: Nothing. Seemingly, all inhabitants of Britannia were millionaires. I felt, that it would be a good idea to find some friends…
Next day I wrote a letter to Stephen and Gil and formally requested DK-membership. They gave me a warm welcome: Tons of good advice (“INSURANCE, NICK!”), a new suit, powerscrolls, a greater dragon, a nice amount of start-capital and a house for my stuff. It was like “This could be the beginning of a wonderful friendship”.
Day by day I learned more: New skills, new places, new monsters, new game-mechanics. New chars have been born, which I now love much more than my old ones (Dr. Alzheimer, Lemmy, Nick and Largo LaGrande). My Knuckleheads-friends prepared me for all those adventures out there and they did it step-by-step – with empathy and sensitivity. You guys became true friends – thank you for showing me this wonderful world. And thanks to Radagast who showed me Ilshenar´s beauty!
My love for the game, for Britannia, for the way I could freely decide how to play and - of course – my love for my brave guild became stronger every day. I spend many hours ingame and we had really thrilling adventures together (never forget our 5 hours-trip to the shimmering…).
After about three months I was able to convince my wife to become a citizen of Britannia, too. She came in, joined DK and fell in love with the game and my friends, which are now her friends, too. Her decision made the game for me even more valuable. We are parents of a little boy and there is nothing more relaxing after a long day with the baby than sitting in bed with the laptop on our knees and meet our friends… As you can´t leave your apartment because somebody has to look after the baby, this was a very welcome alternative to other forms of social life. And you guys made it possible , thank you again.
Today, Mani and I feel like being accepted and integrated inhabitants of Drachenfels and respected members of the Knuckleheads. We cannot imagine a more sociable and lovely group of people – the Knuckles are our true home.
And here is a little record of the last year:
Killed about 400 Navrey Night-Eyes – got about 5 Tangles. Ok, it does exist. You were right.
Went about 10 times to Doom. Hell, first time I peed my pants. Now it´s routine…
Opened a public bar and established some pirate business (Harrrr!)
Stealthed through the Abyss and stole everything that wasn´t locked…
Learned how to manage all those Mini-Champs and got almost every single Artifact from down there, except those damn Tinkerer Leggins (WHEN? WHEN??? WHEN????)
Won one of those EM-Event-Items in a massacre and sold it for NICE money. Multi-Millionaire now
Met many new and lovely people (e.g. Easy, Bea, Nico...) – which I am now really happy to know…
Gave birth to a bunch of new chars and became Legendary in Imbuing, Blacksmithy, Fencing, Archery, Swordsmanship, Mysticism, Resisting Spells, Spirit Speak and so on.
Learned that I hate playing tamers and love playing melee chars and mages/mystics…
Learned that peerless-hunting is my favorite hobby, especially the Stygian Dragon (love him), Melisande, Medusa and the Slasher.
One year is over, there is much work left to do… I never got a drop from Melisande – that would be a nice thing. And I still want the Animated Leggins of the Insane Tinkerer. Have to finish Mace Fighting and there is some work left improving my Bard. My little vendor is running nicely, there is still room left for improvements. But most importantly, I wish to spend more time again with my DK-friends… But I think, this won´t be a problem, right?
See you all ingame!
very nice to read.
