Wireplay Extravaganza Event!

Hmm, why am I doing a write-up of this event then, you may ask. It's not to blow my own trumpet or anything, and if it sounds like that then I'm sorry :) It's just that a lot of people have asked me how the hell someone like me managed to win it ahead of people who are far better than me (I really am crap you know), like Seamus, Coolio, Foz, etc, etc. Well I don't really know, but maybe writing it will help, you know? :)

Okay well I logged on about 8:30pm or something, since I wanted to get a flavour for it, and also to test my connection - there's nothing worse than logging on to find you got a laggy connection, right?

Well there were quite a few people there already, and the place was quite buzzing. Karya had her birthday prefix (happy birthday btw, you don't look a day over fifty-fou ... erm ... twenty-five?) and was the only visible wiz on. I chose the name Moondancer, I don't know why; it just seemed nice :)

Anyway after speaking to Seamus (who played as Jeggburt), we compared tactics. We thought the best place to stay would be somewhere pretty easy to get to, but somewhere that not many people tend to go. The middle of the mine seemed fine, and not many aggro mobiles go there anyway (unless you count the canary I suppose ...).

So at about five past nine Karya let us go, and at this time a few more wizzes had gone visible - Turrican, Gandalf, Sepultura and of course Foddy. It must have been the most frantic kit dash in history - I'd already made up my mind I was going for a weapon (maybe the staff or the mallet, I'd just see where my hands took me) and as many low-level wafer's I could find.

Passing by the swamp with my mallet and three wafers, I saw the first bundle of the night - Maverick fighting Quina and Sebastian. Not sure who won actually, although I *think* that Mav died. So after a few visits to the busy spring, I retreated to the side passage and bumped into my comrade, who had done far better than me with 6 wafers and a few vials.

38 of us on at that point, with around 28 in the event. Arrgghhhh died at this point, becoming the first death of the event, bringing good-natured cheers from everyone (including himself) hehe.

After discussing targets with Seamus (we needed to take the good players out first quickly), we decided to just attack anyone. Seamus chose Illmatic, and we searched for and attacked him. We got a flee out of him (thanks for the halberd btw <g>), although I used my wafers in the process. After a quick zzz, I decided to spring to swordy and found the raft on the railway to help. Seamus went for more wafers I think. I then had a plan ... no one generally attacks you when you're invisible, right? :) So springing invisibly with some help from the raft, I got to near swordy and then went to the passage for zzz again.

*A male voie in the distance shouts "I WAS THE FIRST TO DIE".

That made us laugh every now and then, and Seamus and me were still discussing targets, with Quina being mentioned a few times. I wanted to attack Jesus, not only for the comedy value, but he had decent kit and could well have turned out to be a major player.

It was at this point that the annoying shouts started coming from a 'female voice in the distance' <eyes roughmagic>. Apparently in the tearoom they could see what we were up to using a magical orb provided by the wizzes! So of course they thought it funny to shout out where people were sleeping <G7gt;.

We were down to 20 competitors at this point. Kazoo had got the ls, so we would soon be down to less than that pretty quickly ...

Sailing on my raft in the sea, heading towards the spring, the stupid shark1 picked the WORSE time EVER to attack, and I fled and drowned ... of course I could still play because I wasn't dead dead. Ahem.

*ql Elizabethan tearoom. Lying here is a curious glass orb inviting you to look into it. An age-old worn sign bearing instructions for the Wireplay Extravaganza Event has been left here.  You the protector is here holding a cup of tea. Sally the heroine is here holding a cup of tea. Mrsoft the swordswoman is here holding a cup of tea. Xan the sorcerer is here holding a cup of tea. Jericho the necromancer is here holding a cup of tea. Funaki the japanese swordsman is here holding a cup of tea. Phantamist the protector is here holding a cup of tea. Azzuri the protector is here holding a cup of tea. Roughmagic the protector is here holding a cup of tea. Arrgghhhhh is here holding a cup of tea. Maverick the protector is here holding a cup of tea. Standing here, wondering who pinched his cloud, is Foddy the loopy arch-wizard. Cccc is here holding a cup of tea. Turrican the sinister wizard is here. Sepultura the wizard is here. Gandalf the extrovert wizard is here. Daggaz the superheroine is here holding a cup of tea. Pippin the scout is here holding a cup of tea. Rincewind the guest is here holding a cup of tea.

I went out and zzz'ed in the mine, and Jeggburt had gotten the good old two-handed sword, which could come in very, very handy later on, and I made do with the rolling pin hehe.

Then BANG, we were all 20k better off, and I made a dash for the touchstone as quickly as possible before the bundlers arrived. Grabbing a talisman and the scarab, from the cottage I luckily survived the touchstone. Quite a few people didn't though, so bad luck them. :(

Getting hold of some wafers and alternating my sleep patterns between the side passage and the pantheon (very obscure, and not many people were heading up that part anyway), I did my first obit count ...

*obit The following players have died in fights this reset: Statesman the extravagant sorcerer, killed by Kazoo the extravagant necromancer, Sebastian the extravagant sorcerer, killed by Benjymin the extravagant sorcerer, Fate the extravagant superhero, killed by Kazoo the extravagant necromancer, Quina the extravagant championne, killed by Kazoo the extravagant sorcerer, You the extravagant warrior, killed by the goblin and Mike the extravagant warrior, Supacilius the extravagant protector, killed by the electric eel, Golbez the extravagant warrior, killed by Obiwankano the extravagant warrior, Maverick the extravagant protector, killed by Sebastian the extravagant yeoman, Quina the extravagant yeowoman and Obiwankano the extravagant warrior. The following non-first-game players have died to the touchstone this reset: Tharg the extravagant champion, short of luck by a quite small amount, Obiwankano the extravagant champion, short of luck by a very small amount, Illmatic the extravagant champion, short of luck by a very small amount, Hawumph the extravagant champion, short of luck by a very small amount, Jesus the extravagant champion, short of luck by a fraction, Roughmagic the extravagant yeowoman, short of luck by quite a significant amount.

A who revealed we were down to 8 left, and most worryingly, Kazoo was a fully kitted necro at that point.

I decided I needed a firestone (damned helpful things), and the best place to get one from was to nick it off Mike <waves>. I've always been really crap at stealing though, and he hid in the shrine after I tried to get it off him loads (acc mike.steal fs f mike ... didn't work too well ...<G>). Kazoo was cleaning up at this point, and would have almost certainly have won if the game hadn't crashed ... forcing us all to restart from scratch. The ones still competing were allowed back out, and five minutes to get up some kit, although I'm sure Kazoo wasn't a happy chappy.

Anyway. After the restart I managed to pick up a few decent wafers, my beloved staff, and a few other bits and bobs (about three of those weird talismans too ... didn't realise how helpful they would be later on ...). I decided to leave Mike alone at that point, since he probably had enough to worry about and didn't need another sorcerer on his back. I just got more kit for a bit.

It's worth pointing out here that I have NO luck with magic, and after failing to summon heiach about 6 times, I found myself on about 5 magic because my chances always went wrong ... and then BOOM 20k again, and I was a necro now, with loads of cool new spells at my disposal. Invisibility was disallowed (no one likes invisible warlocks, especially me hehe).

Bell tolled, and it was Mike. Killed by Kazoo. He did great to get that far considering how long he has played for, and being killed by Kazoo isn't something to be ashamed of, so go Mike :)

Now armed with a rice flail, 4 wafers and 2 talismans, I went to the pagoda, where Kazoo, Henryviii and Puppet were tangling with each other, and a poor and rather worried eagle. Kazoo came off worse, with a bell toll leaving just me, Jeggburt, Puppet, Heiach, Nilez and Henryviii left in it.

I chose to get Nilez then, and cornered him in the graveyard. After laying him to rest (sorry), with the help of puppet (thanks for attacking him on close to death hehe), I retreated to the mine and made my plans whilst zzing (well, not really zzing, since motormout ... ahem, roughmagic wouldn't let us sleep). That was probably the most annoying bit, although whenever she shouted my location, I knew to move because someone was on the way so it was kind of a blessing too.

On my way to get some more wafers from the pagoda, I attacked Puppet, who fled too fast for me. Seamus decided to jump me then whilst he wasn't on full stam, and he fled after realising I had 4 wafers that didn't come up on the wh wf list :) I chased him to the scriptorium but he fled again, leaving me with his decanter (which for some reason I didn't drop again till the very end <puzzles>).

There was a stalemate now, with all of us on low stam and needing to sleep. We couldn't get a moments peace with the constant shouts of where we were. Still, anyone who deafed themselves were foolish so we had to put up with it.

I found myself not at the mine, but at the dense forest near the swamp. I decided to try and get a really easy kill, and with the help of the talismans (ah ha! they were useful for something, although I didn't know at that time) I forced Heiach to "zw............w.....k player............." which meant I got about eight free hits on him. I should have crippled him, but didn't so he fled.

Another bell toll brought cheers from the tearoomers - henryviii was killed by puppet, who was now a warlock!! Uh oh ...

So anyway, Jeggburt was being egged on by the crowd now, and was playing it cool by sleeping the confusing dark part of the mine. Me and him had a bit of friendly banter at this point, and I accused him of siding with Heiach, who was also sleeping in the dark part of the mine.

I tried to force Heiach again, but ended up with low magic and slept deep in the scriptorium to try and recover. The tearoomers erupted, as Seamus attacked Heiach in the cottage hall. One of them fled I think, and our 30 minutes were up, so Foddy picked us up and took us to the dragon's isle. I used this oppurtunity to sleep in his arms <G> <thinks>, that'll be the only time I ever say THAT hehe.

After we got dropped on the isle, I gathered as many wafers as possible (they were littered around the place) and looked for people. I couldn't really think straight at this point - my heart was pounding - just the four of us left. The wizzes were waiting at the ring of stones, and I waved cheerfully as I left and slipped on a tree root. The placed was littered with good weapons too, and I chose the battered pilum (the good old staff just didn't compare ... <sniffles>). I soon found heiach sleeping in the arcane forest and attacked him.

*i You are carrying the following:         3 wafers, the decanter, 2 talismans and the pilum.         The decanter contains:                 claret. Weight carried: 5kg 210g/100kg. Objects carried: 7/12. You are keeping any objects in your possession of the following type:         pilum and talisman.

Still got me decanter hehe :)

So after a long battle he fled, and I followed him. I caught the poor guy on a reattack just before he could eat a wafer. Nice 7k, I was now a warlock! Not that it mattered, we couldn't use magic anyway, the isle still wouldn't let us.

At the same time, puppet and jeggburt were fighting, and I was on decent stam because of I had just raised a level. So I waited till Jeggburt fled, and chased puppet like a madman. I was trying to be cautious, because of the stupid tree roots, so he kept getting away hehe. I don't think anyone else had wafers at this point, and I still had three so I was very lucky.

I caught up with him on the steep slope, and we fought - broadsword vs pilum, warlock vs warlock. A lucky 20-29 hit finished Puppet and another 12k was mine. Jeggburt had probably not slept whilst we were fighting, because everyone was cheering for him hehe.

As I was looking around for him, he charged in and attacked me. I was right about the sleep - he fled on critical (I didn't have time to reattack him ... again, I'm a lousy pk hehe). I stopped for a few seconds, since one of the items I'd picked up from puppet had drained my magic away and I was now Moondancer the extravagant legend. I decided to drop all the unneccessary stuff.

After a few scuffles near the fairy ring (I was REALLY worried about my magic now ...), we fought on the same steep slope that I'd fought puppet on. Then ...

You attack Jeggburt the extravagant necromancer. *You hit Jeggburt the extravagant necromancer (5-9). You have killed Jeggburt the extravagant necromancer. (Persona saved on +7,278 = 77,414). Jeggburt the extravagant necromancer pushes up the daisies. In the distance, you hear a bell toll.

And then it was like...well it's hard to describe. I went to the ring of stones, where Sepultura, Karya and Gandalf waited and I was like, shaking hehe. Who says online gaming isn't fun? :) It was like I'd just scored in the fa cup final or something :)

*i You are wearing the following: the cape. You are carrying the following: the pilum, 3 wafers, the decanter, 2 talismans and the amulet. The decanter contains: claret. Weight carried: 8kg 709g/100kg. Objects carried: 9/12. You are keeping any objects in his possession of the following types: pilum and talisman.

I should have drank from the decanter really ... hehe.

In a weird haze I asked Karya if I could touch the touchstone - I would have been sooooo gutted if it had killed me. Fortunately I survived because everyone was helping (thanks guys!), and got transported to the tearoom (I REALLY needed a cuppa then).

*sc name:           Moondancer sex:            male strength:       100 dexterity:      100 stamina:        100     max:    100 magic:          100 score:  77,445 points    this game:      0 points        value:  15,564 points level:  9       warlock weight carried: 1kg     max:    100kg objects carried:        1       max:    12 games played:   6 *lvl You are currently level 9 (warlock). You need 24,955 more points to reach level 10 (mage).

So there you have it. Finally I'll just say a big thank you to Karya and the wizzes for organising the event, and it was amazing to see nearly fifty people turn up - just like the old days <sniffles>.

See you all on the new server anyway, where years of more cool fun await!

- Eric