AKA: A RoMS's Camping Trip

It was a lovely afternoon in Sparkfly Swamp, though we weren’t quite at the swamp yet. Today was the day of the Guild’s annual camping trip. Our fearless leader, Rain, had chosen Sparkfly Swamp because he wanted us to experience the original thrills of Jurassic Park… Whatever that meant.

We had set out from Gadd’s Encampment early: right before dawn’s first light type of early. Now, I love spending time with my Guild. Roses of the Moonlight Sigil was like my second family by this point. But I don’t do mornings… At all. This is evidenced by the charred remains of every small animal we came across. I simply didn’t feel like dealing with them at the time.

But it’s been several hours, and I had begun to feel much better. Twylight and Kelandry, otherwise known as Fyo (Cupcake Princess) and Kel, had starting singing lovely songs with me. I tried to convince other Guildies to join in on the cheer but Nairo was being as much of a grump as I was and I believe he was silencing them with a few well places glares. Rain and his girlfriend slash second in command, Avari, didn’t seem to notice so I took it in my own hands to cheer Nairo up.

“Naaaaaairy!” I called out, “You need to turn that frown upside down, Mister Not Smiling Face.”

If anything, his glare only got worse. Obviously the only thing I could do was try harder. I had recently learned a new spell from the Ebon Vanguard. Spells were my thing, being an Elementalist and all. I closed my eyes and let a wave of magic run down my body. Just as it reached my feet, I twitched my ankles and disappeared in a puff of smoke. A spilt second later I appeared by my Nairy’s side, hugging him and giving us both a boost in energy. Quite a lovely little spell, if I did say so myself.

Surprisingly enough, this didn’t cheer Nairy up. Instead he hit me with his bow once or twice… maybe eight times. I may have lost count.

“Get your pink self off of me.”

“But but but… I loooooove youuu! RAIN! Make Nairy love me back!”

Our intrepid leader turned and shouted from the front of our pack like camping group. His voice carried ridiculously far. I’m assuming this is why he was our leader.

“Nairy, I henceforth command you to love Loden back!”

“NO!”

“Ok!”

I was saddened immensely. Totally and completely crushed. I had no idea how to handle this level of emotional pain. So I opened my pack and started eating my stash of cookies and candy canes. I immediately felt better! But I knew deep down that later I would have to deal with Nairy and get him to open up.

-----

It was lunchtime and we had made camp in the plains, just south of the swamp. We had effortlessly cleared out the surrounding dinosaurs so we could settle down. And by effortlessly, obviously I mean half of us ran around like chickens without a head the minute we saw raptors attack. And the other half… the Elementalist half… may have cast a synchronized Meteor Shower and taken out most of our Guild at once. Thankfully nobody leaves these days without a packed Resurrection skill or scroll, so we were all up and fighting again in no time.

Several members of the Guild had made a fire and started to cook our lunch. I was part of the group who wasn’t allowed to help with this task, no matter how many times I feigned ignorance of the previous event.

“I’m telling you, Rain, I have no clue who gathered all the other Eles and led them all into a single casting frenzy by shouting “Dinos were wiped out by meteors before and they’ll be wiped out again the same way.” I mean, really, does that sound like something I would say? Nairo, come on, help defend me here!”

Before Rain could reply, Nairy had already begun waving a random crowbar at me.
“Defend you?! YOU SET MY HAIR ON FIRE!”

“It was an accident.”

“An accident? THREE TIMES is an accident?! I heard you tell me I would look better with short hair!”

“Well you would…”

At this point Rain had fallen over laughing and Nairy had stalked off into the swamp itself. I looked around to see if anybody was going to go with him, but in typical RoMS fashion, most of the Guild was now locked into a discussion about which dino corpse would make the most suitable tent for the night.

Being the only one who was watching where Nairy went, I took it upon myself to follow him. I had planned on being sneaky at first, but immediately said screw it and started casting Ebon Escape. I appeared next to Nairy in a poof of red smoke. There! I could follow him without taking a step! Sadly, he wasn’t answering anything I said to him.

“Nairy, it’s pretty dangerous out here.”
*poof*
“Nairy, come on. I don’t want you getting hurt.”
*poof*
“Will you listen to me? I’m sorry, I am! Now let’s go back.”
*poof*
“Um, duck!”

“What?”

“DUCK! See, there’s a little duck over there in the water. Isn’t it adorable? Can we go feed it? I have cookies left over. Do you want one?”

“…Loden. Go. Away.”

“Nope. I refuse. Somebody’s got to watch over you.”

“I am a RANGER. Being alone in the wilderness is what I do.”

“And I’m a Loden. Being with you is what I do. So the-“

Suddenly, Nairy grabbed me and threw me roughly to the ground. My first instinct was to yell at him. Did he even realize how long it had taken me to make the right shade of pink dye for these clothes? Not to mention this was an Elite Kurzick design. The whole outfit cost me an arm and a leg. Then I realized he was on top of me.

“Oh… Nairy, I didn’t realize you wanted to-“

“Stop there, or I swear to the gods I’ll run off and let you fight these guys by yourself.”

I looked over and saw what he was talking about: Heket. I hate Heket. And there were a lot of them. Nairy rolled off me and got into a crouch, while I took position standing behind him, staff in a defensive position. This wasn’t the first time the two of us had fought alone. We’d been with RoMS for years now and tended to get in more trouble than most. While he set up a few spirits and preparations, I scanned the approaching frog monsters.

There were Warriors and Paragons throughout. Some Ritualists in the back and Mesmers moving fast from the left. Those would be my problem; I couldn’t cast confidently with them targeting me. But Nairy was already on it. Flaming arrows flew from his bow and began to explode on contact, dazing them.

Wind began to swirl around me as I called lightning down on all the Heket with swords and spears. A blinding surge jumped from one to the next, burning out their eyes. Gusts of wind knocked them down and arrows finished them off. It went on for a while, but we held out amazingly, if I said so myself. We ended up getting pushed farther and farther back into the swamp. I had begun using all kinds of magic at this point, not just Air, even though it was my favorite.

“Ok, we only have a few left. I vote when we get back, we never come out here again. Deal?”

“Deal,” Nairy replied.

We had struck down the last Heket and began to laugh as we looked at each other. Finally! He was smiling. It only took two of us wiping out an entire clan of violent Heket to do it. But before I could say a word, our laughter was interrupted by a deafening roar. We jerked and looked around us but I didn’t see anything. Next thing I know, a huge purple Heket is dropping from above and smashing in Nairy, throwing him into a tree and knocking him out.

“Well… [Redacted]”

My heart was pounding. I knew exactly who this beast was. Waray Skullflayer. I had heard stories about him, and they weren’t children’s bedtime stories. I didn’t have much time. I was weak, tired, and Nairy was a few yards behind me knocked out. I had to make sure nothing happened to him. I decided to take a hint from old stories and throw in some Rhyme-o-mancy into my spell casting. Maybe it would help.

“Ground, hear my voice and heed my call.
Rumble, twist, and shake.
Open up, let this beast fall.
Let him die in this Earthquake!”

I’ll be the first to admit, I was surprised when it worked. I had cast Earthquake many times before, but it was nothing of this level. The ground literally broke open and Waray dropped to his doom. Swamp water came rushing into the giant hole as I turned towards Nairy. I saw him shake his head as he opened his eyes. As I raised my hand to wave at him, something impossible happened. I felt something wrap around my foot. It was a tongue; Waray’s long freakish Heket tongue. The next thing I knew, I was on the ground being dragged backwards into the hole with Waray, and Nairy was shouting my name.
At least he was ok.

-----

It’s been a year since then. Somehow I survived the fall. Waray didn’t. I thought it was probably my only consolation at the time. Thankfully, I had fallen into a cavern being explored by an Asuran Krewe. Having no idea who I was or why there was suddenly a gaping hole in their underground tunnel, I was interrogated, but I was lucky. They were highly impressed with my story and the fact that I was the cause of the hole. They had never seen such raw power in a Human caster before without some object of amplification. After spending quite some time with them and finding I was able to give repeat performances of this boost of power, they took on my name for themselves: Krewe Van Baruse. I was flattered. I believed they wanted me as part of their family or something like that. I found out later it meant that their Krewe dedicated their lives to studying me and my family. Still flattered, but also slightly creeped out.

Upon making it back to my Guild, I was subject to hours of tackles and hugs and tackle/hugs and questions about what happened. My favorite discovery though was this: I found out Nairy had made a promise to his patron goddess, Melandru. If I were to survive and make it back to RoMS well, he would take my name for one of his future children as thanks for me saving his life and as thanks for my life being spared. Though to this day he denies to my face he ever made this promise.

162 Views | 9 Replies

Way back, at the dawn of five years past, before even CoAF was even imagined, a group of intrepid adventurers set out to form a guild.  What sort of guild, they knew not what, but the ancient tomes of the Pointed Stick as well as other lore suggest that this guild was shaped by the founders in very specific ways.  

The intrepid monk known by all as The Artful Nudger decreed that all things about such guild should be hilarious.  No meeting of guild members would ever be complete unless it involved silly pictures, silly hats, silly walks, silly puns, or other forms of silliness causing uncontrollable laughter.  

The keen-eyed ranger Quiet Talen brought faithfulness in friendship and perseverance in seeing tasks through to the end.  Through his example these qualities suffused the fledgling guild forever setting a course towards helpfulness and diligence.

The deep-thinking elementalist, Rogan of Ebertoni, declared that communication should be held in the highest regard, with abbreviations such as 'y', 'u' and '2' being acceptable only when referred to in their original meanings.  The glorious beauty of our English language became displayed in fullness through insightful and grammatically correct communications that strengthened the bond between these young adventurers. Freed from the shackles of internet slang, conversations were free to roam to the depths of meaning found in various intellectually challenging topics.

Lastly, this little ranger here, Arzu Ashurbeyli, called the guild a family. Not just a guild or a random collection of people anymore, but a community of those who love and care for each other.  

You have been all of this, and more.  Thank you OOPS for this amazing 5 years we've been able to spend together.  It doesn't matter if you've been part of the guild for 5 years or 5 months, because once you're an OOPSer, you inherit all of our wonderful guild history.  Thanks also to our amazing allies who have traveled on this journey together and supported us unconditionally. We are honoured to be a part of this alliance.

So, the long and the short of it is that we are going to have a PARTY!  Mark your calendars for June 25th, 10am PST (1pm EST, and 6pm GMT).  There will be games, trivia, prizes, and more!  Everyone is invited!  If you have any friends who need a guest invite to come party with us at the GH let me or Zan know.

1205 Views | 13 Replies

Last Friday cupcakes started to fall in the lands of Tyria, Cantha and Elona. These mysterious pink gifts of the gods mark the 6th year of Guild Wars. We've been given the stories of the Flameseeker Prophecies, hunted and killed (again) Shiro, and been dragged around by a blind woman who used us to become a goddess.

But the most important thing is that we also made our own stories, jokes and dragged around countless unsuspecting Alliance mates in our adventures.

So, my question is: What is your Guild Wars story? How did you end up playing Guild Wars? How did you get in your guild, alliance? What is your favorite memory? Write a sentence, a paragraph, a novella or an epic tale in three parts (a collection of haiku's as an ode to GW would also be acceptable).  Some remember when Sorrows Furnace was the 'it' spot to be on a Friday night.  While others can't remember when we didn't have heroes to help, some henched so many times they know Cynn and Mhenlo would probably file for divorce within 6 months of marriage.


Either way; Happy Birthday Guild Wars! (and give us our minipets!)

1849 Views | 36 Replies

We've all been there.

Enjoying a nice pahnai salad in Kamadan or a hot bogroot rum in Lions Arch. When suddenly a name you know flashes across the screen with a title affixed to it.

We've all been there. The flash of pride in knowing someone who has reaching to great heights of accomplishment and dedication. But how do you congratulate them? A plain 'Grats' or 'Congrat, or 'Congratulations' sounds so informal. Hallmark doesn't have an e-card for Guild Wars accomplishments and a haiku is so cliché.

Or you log on and you've missed someones defining moment of awesomeness! If you thought finding a plain congratulations card was hard, try finding a 'belated' one.

What. To. Do.


Well my friends! The answer is finally here!

This thread is the answer to the question you never had! Post up accomplishments your fellow Alliancers have done so that we never miss a moment!

1727 Views | 14 Replies

So, after reading one of the threads, it is clear that we are way overdue for a new alliance picture. Therefore:




We'll probably start with the classic GH picture, but I think some action shots would be great as well. We need as much people as possible so by all means get on early and join the fun!

PS: Times CAN be adjusted, let your voice be heard so we can coordinate and get as many of us in there!

 

1950 Views | 15 Replies