In the spirit of bardic excesses ... a long tale of a brave band of
adventurers fighting against the odds to seek treasure and fame. With
apologies for the length and quality ;-)

An epic tale of boots
by Melaniel
(Currently entertaining a small but loyal audience in Freeport)

It was a cold and wet Saturday evening as our heroine, Mel, stepped
off the stage in Freeport. The set had gone down well with the locals
and soon she was quenching her thirst with the latest local brew.
Later, as she donned her armour to leave the city she looked down at
the boots and vambraces ... bronze. Sighing, she picked them up
disdainfully with her fingertips before adding them to her lambent
ensemble. Closing her eyes she stood in front of the mirror and
imagined herself all in blue, a striking figure streaming across the
landscape turning heads as she drummed by, hearing the sighs of
delight as she walked through the city gates, rather than the silent
laughter as they saw her sickly yellow pieces. This was going to
change.

"Tonight is the night," she shouted to no one in particular.

A few miles away, some fire goblins awoke with a shiver.

Out came Mel's diary ... hmmm, some firewalker boots and some fiery
vambraces. Fire goblins. Solusek. "I know where that is!!" she
exclaimed. "North of the bad elves, near Cryssia and her crew!"

Waving to her loyal groupies in Freeport, she left the guildhouse and
wandered to the western gate to say farewell to the city for a while.
A strange young man walked up to her. "Can I have a sow please?" he
asked. Smirking, Mel closed her eyes and began to speak the words she
had heard the wolfy ones speak many times before. Dramatically waving
her arms she pointed at the feet of the stranger and commanded them to
be filled with a wolf spirit. Breathing out slowly, she settled down
and resumed her song. The young man looked pleased, thanked her
kindly and ran off. A nearby halfling giggled as he watched the
scene, patted Mel on the rear and ran off. Pleased with herself, she
headed out to enter the dank depths of the Nektulos Forest.

Her first piece of luck, the guards had abandoned their bridge posts.
Beginning her beat, she felt the music deep inside her body and
stepped up her pace speeding through the forest along the path,
pausing only when a feared Dragoon came into view guarding the
Northern valley into Lavastorm. Taking a deep breath she stepped
forward and sped past the guard leaving him dizzy at the blue and
sickly yellow blur that knocked his helmet off on her way past.

Nearby, the fire goblins chanted and prayed to their gods for help.

Finally, she arrived at the entrance to the caverns of Solusek. Her
first time. Taking a brave step she wandered inside.

A wave of heat greeted her, with echoes of weapons and shouts from
deep down in the cavern depths. Mel struck up a light melody
distracting the guards at the entrance area while she surveyed her
surroundings. It was warm. Very warm. Hot in fact. The smell of
the lava filled the air. Her backpack full of water for her long
quest ahead, she looked around her and saw a lone ranger resting his
wounds. He was looking for adventure himself and they agreed to fight
together. A quick skirmish with the forward guards followed and they
were victorious together. As they rested more brave souls entered and
soon a band of adventurers was formed. An experienced ranger, from
Mel's home of Kelethin no less, knew the location of the boots and
vambraces. The group had to face the goblin King and his subjects!!!

Not to be dismayed, Mel resolved to remain until she could lift the
boots and vambraces from the goblins herself and be rid of the rotten
bronze. Together, they began to fight their way inside.

After only a couple of brief skirmishes, the group found a quiet base
from which to conduct their raids into the King's throne area. The
goblins would never find them, although an escape would be dangerous
and likely difficult. A high risk strategy, but by this time Mel
could taste the pieces of lambent armour and knew she could not turn
back.

Sitting down, the group began to organise themselves, preparing for
the fight ahead. They could hear the goblins nearby, the magic was
heard, the grunting, the little scuffles they would all have. And so
the fighting began.

The rangers began to make small raids, luring away the weak goblins
from their posts, there were many of them, but together the
adventurers fought bravely and successfully. And then a goblin
champion appeared, news of the outsiders had begun to spread. It
roared a war cry, and hurtled into the group, fists flying. A music
critic, it picked on Mel in spite of the others. Trying to silence
the song, it fought with all its might, finally falling to the loudest
shout Mel could muster.

Mel bent over the goblin's corpse and examined it. "YES!!!" she
shouted, and then shut up quickly as the rest of the group glared at
her for making so much noise. Happily, she picked up the goblin's
vambraces. These are just what I need for my new armour, the night
was starting to be a success already!

Prepared again, the group stood ready to invade further towards the
throne, when a shout went up! The rangers had been surprised by the
King and his guard. Rapidly they returned to the group to face them
together. Mel stood awaiting the onrush. In the distance she could
just make out a few shapes running at them. The bright haze of lava
that hung in the air made seeing difficult, but the sound was
unmistakable. The goblins came toward them, there must have been five
or six all at once. They began their vicious assault on the rangers
who held them back bravely. And then the King came. A fearsome sight
indeed, but this was no time for fear.

Mel unloosed her lute, this was a time to distract as many as she
could. A soothing lullaby filled the air, a couple of goblins began
to snooze. Switching to her prized flute, Mel played to her limit and
found a champion still chewing on her friends. She charmed it to her
will and it fought by her side keeping the younger goblins busy while
her group began to take down the King, hoping to weaken the morale of
the others with their beloved King dead. It was a difficult fight,
the goblins began to hate the music, the lullaby had its effect, the
champion remained loyal to Mel and protected her to its ability,
dispatching one, then two of the younger goblins. As the enemy
numbers reduced Mel began to boost the morale of her group, their
weapons hit more, they attacked faster, the chains on the King began
to have their effect, and then it happened. The killing blow took the
King down with a scream, the remaining goblins lost their nerve, the
group turned to them and now the advantage had switched. With
fearsome speed the group tore through the enemy and soon stood
victorious atop the corpses.

The group stood in silence. Stunned at their success, relieved at
their survival, but triumphant in victory. The King was dead.

As the word spread among the goblins, it seemed they began to throw
themselves at the brave adventurers in increasing numbers, fighting to
their last. Warriors, champions, wizards, priests, the whole
ensemble. And then came the Solusek Mages.

One came to investigate and was quickly dispatched. Mel recognised
it. This creature was where her new boots were to come from. And so
the group began again to invade into the newly departed throne room.
The mages came to investigate their disappeared comrade.

Another appeared, this time with warrior support. As a pair they were
very dangerous, but Mel had learned from her fight with the King. She
charmed the mage, made it bend to her will and it rapidly destroyed
its recent warrior friend. Depleted of its magic pool, Mel turned on
the mage and the group finished it quickly by hand. Alas, it had been
fighting barefoot.

And then it began. Wave after wave of mages hurled themselves at the
group. With growing frustration, Mel found them all fighting
barefoot. As one fell to the floor Mel grabbed it, screaming at it.
"Where are the boots, give me the boots! Are you coming out here
deliberately barefoot or what you stupid thing!!" It simply smiled
and went limp.

The hours passed, the mages continued to come. All were barefoot.
The group found the recently departed King's son had become the new
King. Again, in a frantic battle the group were victorious as the new
King fell. There were more mages, more champions.

And then finally, many hours after the first entrance to the caverns,
the mages became impatient. Instead of handing the boots to its
comrades before heading out to assault the invaders, a single careless
goblin mage attacked. The group again fought bravely and finished it.
As Mel examined its corpse she saw some boots. Unable to look at
first, her hands trembling, her breathing short, she finally got the
courage to touch them. To look at them closely she sensed immediately
what they were. And fainted.

The healers brought out their smelling salts and brought her back to
consciousness. This time she picked up the boots without fainting.
And hugged them to her chest, her prized possessions now! The group
cheered, genuinely happy to see their member gain the item she had
been looking for.

Buoyed by this success, the group again fought their way through to
the throne room, but the royal family line had not recovered and there
was to be no more Kings.

And finally as Mel put the finishing touches to her 30th composition,
the group withdrew from the caverns and departed. Mel returned to
Freeport, happy from her excitement, happy to have made some new
friends, and happy to have gained the treasures she had earned.

And the next day's task was to look up a couple of cyclops who had
some runes. Mel was sure they would be kind enough to just hand the
runes over. Wouldn't they?

====

And now the translation :-) After 7 hours in Solusek, having never
been there before, I was delighted to finally get some of those damn
boots!! Honestly, there must have been 30 mages over that time until
finally a pair of boots appeared. And then as luck would have it, the
next 2 mages that appeared each had a pair! *sigh* Tons of vambraces
kept appearing, I could have had enough to make many many pairs of
Lambent ones!

But it's at times and fights like this that I really enjoy this game.
When you're in a good group, it is difficult to leave, and the group I
had with me on Saturday was excellent. Great support, everyone knew
their role, and there were only 5 of us for most of the night after
the second ranger left! Monk, ranger, bard (me, obviously!), cleric
and cleric. No zap-style finger wagglers ;-)

The group worked well, and I learned how to use charm very effectively
in that situation. Pull a wizard and some warrior types, charm the
wizard and use its mana ;-) Worked every time!!

Strangely, after trying out Another Game(tm) which has a lot going for
it, I find myself bizarrely drawn back to EverQuest and moments like
this seem to make me think I made the right decision in spite of the
many many annoying things it has! Oh well.

To complete the story, sunday morning I got the 2 runes off the
cyclops in West Karana, still using charm to good effect ;-) And now
all I need are the lambent gloves, although I'm not sure I'll give up
the Elf Hide Gloves I'm already wearing because they have some
sentimental value! But it's time to return to Mistmoore anyway and
try to complete the lambent set.

Anyway, just a little (long!) story that I wanted to put in print
because I came away from Solusek feeling good that night, made the
whole of level 29 around the King room, learned a few things about how
effective a bard can actually be, especially when a group appreciates
and understands what you can do *and supports you doing it*, and
perhaps most importantly met some good people who I hope to meet again
and fight alongside.

Safe travels to you all, and happy entertaining!!!

--
Melaniel, Wood Elf Bard (30)
Jilanna, Barbarian Shaman (9)
High Elf Wizard (30 retired)
... and a host of others
Mith Marr server