Happy Thanksgiving!

What a great way to kick off the long Thanksgiving Holiday weekend by downing that cack with ~50 - we all have a lot to be thankful for, and what comes to mind with respect to LoS is we have returned to our traditional A game (which was MIA for a while there, I'll admit). It's no secret we hated the SoL Emp-style raids which took 60-70+ people; you get to a point, as a guild, where you lose your focus and, individually, you stop knowing everyone in your guild. LoS has never been a family style guild, but when you spend so much time together, there's a reasonably familiarity and trust with one another - and being forced to expand so quickly... it wasn't always fun.

Anyhow, of the PoP encounters, this was definitely one of the best, especially with the rabid pace we were setting offing the minibosses, and I was a bit surprised when the four kings spawned - no question we were primed on this Holiday eve and without the traditional GoP. We'd had one honest try at Bertox prior, getting him to 54% but eventually falling victim to the chaos of pull, but on this second real attempt, I was very proud to see the Evil Empire score another one for Team North America in defiant T-Day fashion.

The one thing that did suck, however; people got jablowned out of legitimatly earned flags,

I mean, yah, of course we'll kill Bertox again and it'll all be mote, but like Whineboss above said, it totally sucks that missing one Hail on some two bit Erud cacksugger can hold you up when you've been at the very center of the hardcore team that cracked the encounter - while others can just layback and read the HOWTOs on the Safehouse. I can understand wanting a natural progression of events, killing this boss or that, to keep the story line roughly in tact, but it's homogay bullshit when you do the major events in sequence, without any intent to skip over content or exploit the game, you can lose out so easily on a flag which is only tangentially involved. So much for risk and reward, even when you win, you can still lose.

Oh well - time for me to go get some Turkey, I suggest you all do likewise.

Happy Thanksgiving from LoS.

Stalkers, Wanna-be's and Unoriginal Bastards

Quotes of the Day

Hey - what the hell is up with the HoH nerfs? I'll pass over the fact we finally caught the PoV dragon up after 10 AM PT and say, despite the fact LoS needs many more, I agree spectral parchments were dropping too frequently, but hot damn, why - and realize this is semi rhetorical - why hot dammit are there UNDEAD in the Halls of Honor? Why do these undead, who hit for 1k and do other gay shit, would fown the leet Mith Paladins? I'm not a roleplayer and the only reason I learned any trade skill was to get pottery to 122 so I could rip off rogues who needed vials 3 years ago, but it's a homogay knee jerk reaction to drop in undead in the middle of a zone of Paladins, much less, again, the Halls of Honor. If you were that concerned about people invising around the zone and wanted to impose some risk, why not a few Inquisitors amongst the ranks, or given the Greek and Roman overtures, Andabates, the blind fighting gladiators who could innately sense both invis and invis vs undead?

Oh well - I did have lots of fun with the trials,

especially how we didn't know exactly wtf was going to happen, I just liked how the answer seemed BARDS KITE SHIT!! Running in tight circles in overhead view to bellow kite mummies like a little pussy in NRO those long years finally came to bear, and we rolled through things, though the insta spawning dragon tore us a new one, sorta like Bertox did again - next time both are gonna take a dirt nap,

LoS style

and if you're a cleric, you just might have what it takes to be there and be a part of the Evil Empire,

Now accepting cross server apps - send email to galiaan@legacyofsteel.net or shoot nameless.Bzul a tell if interested!

So anyhow, I hurt my wrist (don't ask), and it was really fucking hurting so I figured I might as well get my money's worth for the absolutely gouging Cigna charges in insurance premiums, and I get set up with this really cool immobilizing brace - demi-gloss black and pliable synth leather/neoprene, fixed with this small round metal gear and rods at the joint which can be set for varying degrees of freedom and angle of closure. I was pretty happy with the thing, but I type a lot each day and it was really cramping my style after a few hours, so I took it off and doubled up on the pain meds, chalking another one up to already rampant waste, fraud and abuse in over engineered medical supplies.

And this would be where most people would just leave it, but the brace was sitting on my monitor and I started playing around with it and managed to disassemble it... and I don't know what hit me, it was one of those moments where curiosity and serendipity meet and you read about it in the Darwin Awards, but I noticed sans the rigid plastic insert and with some stuffing, tugging and pulling, that I was able to outfit my penis with the latest modern medical science has to offer in unapproved and unsanctioned phallic devices.

All this monkeying around... with things, lead to trouble, because while it was funny to pose my penis with the brace at contorted angles, when things started to stiffen up, the already engorged remainder of a brace started to fucking hurt, and I'm fucking squirming and dancing a jig to untweak this now suddenly impossibly tight set screw, thinking Oh Jesus Lord, how do I explain it in the ER that I broke my dick in the vise grips of a wrist brace without making a scene and/or police report - it'd be my luck the same ER crew would be there as when I originally got the fucking thing.

Finally I managed to relieve the pressure and my penis, I shit thee not, ejected out, with the metal gear making a grinding noise which spoke of its fine Germain craftsmanship, before slapping against its stops as it proceeded to gnash my dick in its maw, my penis looking like some Giger-esque creation silently screaming, with its purpling head pulsing to my jacked heartbeat, constricted by the black brace and metallic gear-caught twisted flesh. I had to stifle a scream of my own, and made a noise somewhere between OHMOTHERFUCKER and an unabashed squall as I reflexively writhed around in this new predicament, but I made the mistake of slamming my fists down against the table as if that would some how mollify the pain, but instead, I banged the fuck out of my already tender wrist, and jumped back, jamming my cack against desk drawer edge - when shit goes wrong, God gets his money's worth laughing at my sorry ass. I instantly assumed the fetal position, rocking myself to the sobbing chant "fuckfuckFUCKFUCKFUCK..."

Composing myself and doubling up with my feet up on the chair, I was able to work the damned brace off, and pitched that instrument of a malpractice lawsuit waiting to happen across the room with a vengeance. I just sat there, my breath coming in ragged sips as a thin sheen of sweat chilled my forearms, and leaned back thinking WHAT THE FUCK, yet coming up with no good answers, but I tell you what I did notice - I don't have any tattos, but I think if I got one, I'd like to get my penis done up with tiger shark tip like a US warplane during World War II.

Of course, to add insult to injury, I wound up having to retrieve the brace and piece it back together - I am now wearing the fucking thing as it turns out I had gone on ahead and actually hurt my wrist for true in that flail where idle curiosity almost killed the cack.

Dada: Sai Wiz Exposé!

Humble Tribute to the Bubbling Brook

Stalkers, Wanna-be's and Unoriginal Bastards

Quotes of the Day

The PoV dragon was due up, and as usual, we all got our hopes up that he'd be alive at 5 PST, but with the usual courtesy given towards pessimism and Team Timezone owning us, but holy shit - for what reason and at what cost I do not know, Aerin`Dar was up! The problem, ccc, was we got jumped by another guild who rushed past and clicked down - nothing, I can assure you, is simple around here~ I rarely want people to fail, unless it's Virginia Tech (Jesus Christ - fucking castrated turkey is their mascot), but I unabashedly was thrilled to fine out the wanna be ninjas had wiped out. Thanks to Jangos eloquent and stirring words, the Evil Empire swooped down for the win, finally unsealing the Halls of Honor to the Western World. I'm not sure what Mauvin did, but killing Mith Marr, god of missed LoH's and "We need defensive!!" whiners, is gonna make my day...

And speaking of killing Gods, I've been remiss to mention 7th Hammer going down like Desp on a boy scout a week ago. It was actually one of more enjoyable aspects of EQ - the late night crew, and with drive, determination and 9 people, we figured wtf how can we lose. Turns out there were many ways for us to lose, but two evolutions and mild YOU NEVER HELP ME trial drama later, we fielded another group and took him out in back of this courthouse and tried a little bit of his honor on, LoS style:

The trials are a lot of fun, I mean, we pioneered ghetto AE, but I like how the challenges and objectives are laid out such that any particular group composition can win with heads up play. And like doing trials with 3 or 4, now I'm anxious to get back up there, and see just how few it takes to own that Halas homo.

Keeping with killing the cocksuckers, as much as I like CoD, why the fuck does that little pusling give out only 30 keys per kill? Here I was ready to compliment VI on the planar projections eliminating a lot of my concern with flags (aside from the fact if you miss one flag, you're assfucked for days and possibly longer), and then the little shit poofs on us. Anyhow, I'd hope with all the competition and cockblocking, intentional or otherwise, VI will reconsider the use of limited flag/key mobs - if you're at the event, you should be put at odds with the rest of your guildmates over who can and cannot progress.

All that aside, and me still being in shock over getting PoV dragon, we found Bertox ring not blown! How fortuitous~ This is another event I really enjoyed, it was a run and gun, hack and slash, frantic race that reminded me a lot of the constant small trains err pulls in PoH (with golem pets). The multiple fight management and resource coordination was a blast, and after 1h 20m, I hit track and saw...

Somehow after 80 mins of chaos, the confusion of the pull owned us, but I can't wait for the ring to respawn, this rough mofaka is ours:

So close it hurts~

Random ring loot~

So, on to other things,

Karana, you pussy, I owe you big time for that shit back in SK many levels ago...

with Bzul at the helm~

In closing, not that anyone asked me - hey, you're reading the page - but amid the usual retardry on the message boards, someone noted, "Everything has the *feel* that the people that are left, are just kinda playing to pass the time until something new comes out, and everyone can get away from VI/Sony." And, again, not that he'd have been the first person to say such, but at the time I think it merits some comment. Right now there are decidedly two camps in EQ, those are caught up in the new expansion and working very hard to explore/exploit it, and yes, those who are passing time - with very few left in between. The greatest common tie in both, however, remains the people and friendships we've made over the 3+ years of devoting more time to this game than many people do to their jobs - check our your /played sometime and compare it to the average working time per year, about 87 days.

What's next, who can say for certain, but if anything MMORPG's, for all their problems, addiction, and Crying Game surprises, have brought together a tremendous number of people and legitimized the nature of net friendships. The recent fan faires and informal guild RL gatherings are a good indicator this is much more than just a game, and so while people are busy right now, God knows I am, I don't think the community, on the whole, is on the decline.

Stalkers, Wanna-be's and Unoriginal Bastards

Quotes of the Day

Welcome to Quavvy - who starts thing out right: