Last night, I was about to log for the night in the Nexus when I saw "/ooc
Anyone who needs a ride to Naggy, let me know!" Well, durn. I'd only been
on one successful Naggy raid (and two failed Vox raids) during my 46-52
period, so I decided to tag along. I got teleported to Nek Forest and ran
into Lavastorm. There were a bunch of folks at the druid rings, not doing
much. I sat and wait, not putting LFG on, just observing.
Well, I didn't have /roleplay on, so inevitably I get a tell asking if I can
rez someone in SolA. So I run over and rez this guy. I buff him and he
sows me in return. While he's sowing me, someone says, "Baron, can you help
a nekkid warrior, plz?" That's said one more time before I turn and run
away. Then I realize.... *I'm* "Baron". I completely forgot about the AA
title. So I run back and do a /whotarget on the guy, and it's a naked 53
warrior. I ask him what's wrong... he says he was on his way to Effy when
he got killed.
Effy? I think to myself that I'm pretty sure Effy is in SolB, but I don't
say anything. Instead, I group with him and buff him, and we head back into
SolA. He loots a couple of weapons off of dead goblins and we begin to
fight our way down. The warrior is practically in tears over how little
damage he's doing with the garbage weapons. Finally, after he gets lost a
couple of times, we find his corpse and I rez it. I wish him luck with effy
(um, if you can't handle a few mobs in SolA, do you really think you can
solo Effy, I don't say to him) and head on back outside to Lavastorm.
Alas, the zone is nearly empty; the Naggy raid has begun. I zone into SolB.
I don't know this zone at all, so I pick one path at random. Oh, hi Mr.
Kobold Shaman. Meet Mr. Judgment.
Not even bothering to loot the corpse, I head back to the zone-in area and
chose another path. Ah... a dead kobold, an encouraging sign. I follow
along the corridor and run into more corpse, finally, I find a group of
perhaps eight or nine folks fighting a bunch of LDC's. I sit and watch,
occasionally throwing out heals. No one says a word, and after fighting off
add after add, all the LDC's and stuff are dead.
The move off en masse and I follow them. They lead me to a bunch of other
people standing in front of a pool of lava - this is beginning to look
familiar. Everyone gets levitated... except me. No problem; I cast DA and
swim across the lava. Everyone gathers on the other side. I sit down and
leaf through my spells, wondering which to use.
Suddenly I get a tell: 'You too." I respond, "Me too what?" I get up and
notice everyone is huddled against the wall, so I assume an instruction has
been sent out to stay against the wall. So I move closer to the rest of the
casters even as I'm getting the response, "Hug the wall." I reply, "What's
the channel?" No response.
So I decide to /join Nagafen. One player in that channel. I leave and
/join Naggy. Forty-seven people in that channel. Bingo.
Three people have died in the lava. Their corpses are dragged, to us, and I
say into the chat channel, "Rezzing". No response, no complaints, so I rez
the dead. I do a /who enchanter and see a 47 chanter is nearby. I ask her
for a clarity and she gives me one. It's not KEI, but it stacks with my
Blessed Armor of the Risen, my FT1 earring, and my brand-new FT3 boots, so
I'm actually getting decent mana regen. (Heh, listen to me, sounding like
some uber-d00d, contemptuous of what a 47 chanter can do. In reality, the
clarity helped out a lot.)
A pattern is being formed: the monk goes out to pull some giants, gets back
to camp, and dies. The raid leader screams "WAIT FOR ASSIST" over and over
as one or two people ignore him, then the assist is called and everyone
rushes. I aid as best I can by healing the main tank. I try to MoR the
giants, but I never land a single one - must be un-MoR-able, which would
make them the first mob I've totally been unable to MoR.
After each battle I rez the dead. There's a 51 cleric there who sends me a
tell saying hi, and I apologize for stepping on his toes, but he's just as
happy not to have to worry about rezzing, and the folks are happy about
getting 96 rezzes.
The fire giant King gets pulled and killed. He's got some 13 WIS neckpiece
that raises my eyebrows. But I told myself going in that I wouldn't be
asking for any loot, so I remain quiet as the neckpiece is lotto'd off.
Finally we move into the throne room. The first thing that happens is
people begin jumping onto the throne. The phrase "GET OFF THE THRONE" is
repeated many, many times. One person describes it this way, "Sitting on
the throne will set off a trap that will DT the whole zone."
More fire giants, more deaths. A mage goes LD and his pet goes berserk,
causing some hilarity. Finally, we run to the buff room.
People begin applying dummy buffs. I offer my dummy-buffing services, then
announce that I will Group Aego the charging groups. I immediately get
inundated with tells asking for Aego. I try to sort them out, and determine
that there are three groups charging Naggy. I immediately cast Blessing of
Aegolism on one of the groups that *won't* be charging. (You sigh at
Monual, clearly disappointed)
Anyway, I med and apply another BoA. Now I'm seriously low on mana. The
mage, who has reconnected, runs over and starts force-feeding me mod-rods.
With his help, I'm able to BoA the other two charging groups. As they get
organized, I'm still getting tells asking for Aego. I BoA one group, and
then the last group *just* as the call to charge takes place.
Everyone runs in - first the charging groups, then the rest. I dawdle for a
bit, then run up behind them, stopping on the other side of the bridge. I'm
honestly not sure how close I can get before getting ported out of the zone,
but from where I am I have an excellent view of the battle. It's an
entertaining sight: I see groups charge in, then almost immediately turn
around and run back out as the AE fear gets them. Still, enough are getting
through to begin putting the beat-down on Naggy. He turns this way and
that, letting loose the occasional jet of flame. It's fun to watch from a
distance. People keep charging in and running out. I try to target the
Main Tank, but he's too far away.
It only takes a minute for Naggy to fall. I'm the first to say "WOOT" in
the channel. I run into the lair, stare wistfully at the place where
Ragefire used to spawn, and proceed to rez the dead. Amazingly, only two
people died. I'm sure the extra 1K of hitpoints they received didn't hurt.
=).
The first thing the raid leader does after Naggy falls is scream at everyone
to get away from the corpse. I wonder why, until his next command is for
one guy to loot the corpse. Ah... he's afraid of ninja-looting. Loot is
announced: no pally book, but a bag, two bard drums... and two CoF's. There
is much cheering. The bag is rolled on, then the leader attempts to award
the two drums to the two bards on the raid. One of the bards refuses - he
wants in on the CoF roll. So one of the drums is openly rolled on.
Finally, the CoF's are rolled on (which takes a long time because just about
the whole raid wants one, and the leader, in making the roll list, assigns
two people to 11 and two people to 16). The bard that refused the drum is
last on the list, and whines that he'll never win the roll. On the first
roll, a warrior gets a CoF. On the second roll, the whining bard wins.
He's ecstatic beyond words, other than spamming "OMG OMG OMG" into the chat
channel. =)
Is there controversy? You betcha! A wizard went LD just as Naggy fell and
re-connected after the bag had been rolled on. He's upset. There are other
people who complain about a bard winning a CoF - they can already haste
themselves, dontcha know? (My sympathies are with the bards on this one;
just because they can haste themselves doesn't mean they can't benefit from
a CoF. Should chanters be excluded from all FT items that drop?)
What did I get out of it? I burned through 30 dots during the raid and
spent two hours that should probably have been spent sleeping, since I had
work the next day. I never asked to be included on any of the rolls, and
thus didn't get anything that dropped. But it was immensely satisfying to
go on this raid - just watching the Naggy battle from a distance was fun,
and the thought that I helped cut down on XP loss with my rezzes and my
Aego's gave me warm fuzzies. I got lots of tells thanking me for the Aego's
and the rezzes. That by itself made the whole venture worthwhile.
Now, if only I can get in on Vox sometime... have yet to lay eyes on her.
Mebbe another time. =)
-Richard
Monual Lifegiver
High Priest of Rodcet Nife
Avengers of Honour
Drinal Server
This page is Copyright by Skaarak; Everquest (TM) is property of Sony Online Entertainment
All stories and art work are Copyright@ by the origial owner/writer.
Most, if not all stories, were taken from newsgroup alt.games.everquest (AGE), I recommend that anyone who gets a chance to read it should!