[Gallain Dryleaf]

My longest marathon was in support of my guild's clerics camping the original Zordak Ragefire spawn for the Cleric-epic Resurrection-on-a-stick. Then, the task was to fight your way deep through the fire giants of Nagafen's Lair to reach the old dragon's nest. Nagefen had to be killed in order for the spawn timer to start for Ragefire 72 hours later.

At the time, many clerics were after this spawn - in order to establish your 'claim' to the spawn, you had to hold the camp for the whole 72 hours. During that 72 hours, the fire giants had to be cleared so they would not come running in to assist Ragefire when he spawned - so you had to have a force capable of keeping the giants down.

If you noted my signature by now, you would see that this story is from the perspective of a supporting ranger. I was the 'radar' to help keep the group holding the camp alerted to the spawns of the giants once they were broken up. For me, this was a getting-to-know-you session. The giants would spawn every four hours, but in between, you just sat there and chatted with your guild and groupmates while annoucing to all who came and asked for a 'camp check':

/ooc RAGEFIRE CAMP!

The first Ridgerunner of Innoruuk cleric to camp for Ragefire was Angelika Lleopardbait. I learned that she and her husband played (he's Lleo Lleopardbait), and that he was playing from work (a video store he owned) and she was playing from home. For myself, I was working for a start-up telcom company in the throes of funding problems, so my absence wasnt adversely commented on the Friday morning the camp began. The Lleopardbaits would tag off each other controlling the cleric for the camp while various guildmembers put in appearances to hold the camp until the final hours. I managed to put in 23 hours to start the camp, then about 17 more hours after some sleep and then about the final 18 hours to get to the named spawn.

Right on schedule, 72 hours later, Zordak Ragefire spawned in his human form. In the hour before the spawn, the guild slowly moved into the lair for the fight. The fight was intense as I remember it now - all that time put in, nobody wanted to wipe-out and have another guild swoop in for the kill. In the end, Ragefire (dragon-form) was defeated, most of the raid force dead in Nagafen's lair, but Angelika did receive the quest piece. There was practically a parade to Timorous Deep carrying Angelika to the quest NPC for the final turn in for Water Sprinkler of Nem Ankh.

Now I've spun that tale to tell another...

Some weeks later, Lleo Lleopardbait began his 72 hour camp of Zordak Ragefire. Again the monotonous killing fire giants, fending off challenges to the camp and napping between giant spawns leads up to the Ragefire spawn. Again, the guild moves in to kill the human that becomes a dragon. And again the Ridgerunners of Innoruuk are victorious over the red dragon. Lleo loots the quest piece and..... YOU HAVE BEEN DISCONNECTED!

The server crashed just after we completed the kill and the cleric looted the quest piece, but because the server crashed, the event wasnt saved. We logged back in about an hour later to find all the player corpses in Nagefen's Lair, but no Ragefire, and no Shimmering Pearl Shard in Lleo's inventory. I think everyone there spammed Verant with emails about the injustice inflicted upon Lleo. About a week later, a GM spawned Ragefire for the Ridgerunners to take down again for Lleo. After that day, the watch-word for any major quest was Loot-and-Logout to force the save.