True Sosarian Stories, Part III

Welcome to the final installment (for now) of True Sosarian Stories, a series of follow-up posts to my original entry on Old School UO Nostalgia. You can check out the first and second parts, then read on for stories of old school Ultima Online, along with a song from the original game and a screenshot of the upcoming Kingdom Reborn.

If you ever fought anything in UO, you’ll probably know today’s song intimately. Why? Because today’s song is from Combat! As a special bonus, you can download the entire range of the original Ultima Online music, courtesy of Mysterious Sosaria. Enjoy the final retelling of my UO campaigns.

Anyone recall the black dye bin craze? The REAL black dye. Jet black, that made you blend into cave walls. Those things were worth a pretty penny after a while. Black garb was the choice color of evildoers everywhere, except those of us who felt we were above such trite practices and continued wearing our normal colors (which were red cape and sash when we were hunting for people together, and whatever we wanted otherwise. I personally preferred normal plate, a silver kilt, and a silver sash with no cape).

How about when all us Dread Lords decided to go APK (Anti-PK, which really meant “PKs of everyone who is red for any reason without mercy”)? It took a while, but we became Great Lords and joined Order. I had the neato shield! Then, simultaneously in an act of… who knows, my buddies and I attacked people in town, at which point our Order shields all exploded (because we no longer had max rep), and us with them.

And there were the little baby exploits that they let happen, the kind that you weren’t entirely sure were exploits but they felt too cool not to be. Like sailing a ship to the backside of a mountain and mining. Or, even better, jacking someone’s only house key, taking their stuff, then leaving the key inside so they would have to watch the house rot. It’s the little things that count.

I still remember when I became the real ultimate wrestler so I could defeat a guy named Hulk Hogan. After defeating him somewhere just south of Britain in a clean match, I traveled by foot toward Minoc. I killed a few members of the uber PK guild that resided about halfway between Britain and Cove, then continued on. Much to my surprise, after I passed by Cove and ascended north toward Minoc, I ran into a massive group of… naked… people. They had nothing on but capes. I immediately took off all my clothes too, tossed my cape on, and someone gave me a dye bin and an orc helm to wear. What a sight.

And now for the last screenshot of Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn. You can find more at UOGuide as well.