Many of you have heard the legends—the drunken tales of seafarers slurring their words in some East Freeport tavern—talking foolishness about an elusive Ancients Cyclops who is supposed to have in his possession the Ring of the Ancients. The great ring, the key to the quest for the spectacular Journeyman Boots—boots that can make you run like the wind with nary a click of the heels. Ah yes, I am certain you have heard the fables before, but I am here to tell you that myth and legend they are not, for I have seen the AC with mine own eyes. I helped to slay the great beast and with my own hand I took from its body the coveted ring. This is my story…

 It began Saturday afternoon...

For sometime now I have known about the existence of Jboots and told myself that one day I would try and get a pair. I assumed they were something only high level adventurers could obtain, but on a lark I went to the Dragonchow Guild Library and checked out the book on Items, looked up the ring and discovered to my shock that the quest was listed at level 35! (In retrospect I doubt this unless the 35^th brings a full group with him). Elated I quickly gated to the Eastern Wastes and ran to my wife, the Enchantress Sarenia, who was busy, sitting in the snow on the Dragon Bridge, crafting some bit of jewelry.  

“Jboots!” I shouted nearly slipping on the snow.

“Excuse me?” Sarenia said looking up. “Did you say Jaboots?”

“No, Jboots! Journeyman Boots, we can get them!”

“Oh, honey don’t be silly, we couldn’t possibly get Jboots yet.”

“No, we can I have researched the whole thing. All we need is 325 plat, well in gold of course, a Shadowed Rapier—we got one of those in South Karana with Darsus not too long ago remember? Of course it went poof the moment we fell asleep—I hate it when things go poof! The only real problem is getting the Ring of the Ancients.”

 At this point Sarenia began to laugh hysterically.

 “What?” I said.

 She only laughed harder.

 I waited tapping my foot in the snow. “Oh, quit it will you?” 

“Honey that ring is just a myth. People have gone after it before and have never been heard from again. Now why don’t you go back to snaring your little Uthork Hunters. You like snaring the Uthroks remember?”

 I rapped my fingers on my Stein of Moggok and glared at her.

 Sarenia stopped laughing. She put down the earring she was working on and faced me. “Ok dear, tell me what you found out.”

 I knelt down beside her and began drawing maps in the snow. “The Ancient Cyclops is the one who has the ring we need. He has only been seen in South Karana, South Ro, and on the Island of the Ancient Cyclops in Ocean of Tears. Spotting him in South Karana is so rare that hunting him there is absurd. South Ro is so heavily populated, and since you never know where he might appear, the chances of catching him alone are astronomical. No, I think our best hope is the Ocean of Tears. He lives on an island there.” 

Sarenia blinked her eyes and smiled at me, “And am I too assume I have a ticket on the next ship leaving the Freeport harbor and that you have already memorized a translocation spell to send me there?” 

“Well, yes.”

 “You’re so predictable.” 

“So we’ll do it?”

 “Hummm, no sense us both wasting out time.” Sarenia stood up, shivered and surveyed the bleak landscape of the Eastern Wastes. “You are almost to your next level. You should stay here and get the experience you need, as for me…a little vacation to the islands actually sounds rather nice. Velious is a nice enough place to visit, but I don’t want to freeze to death here. Ok, I’ll tell you what, I will go ahead and scout things out. If it looks hopeful I will call you.” 

“Woot!” 

Sarenia looked at me puzzled. “What does that mean anyway?” 

“You know, I have no idea, but everyone in the guild seems to like saying it when something good happens. Right now however it means I’m gonna get me some Jboots!”

 The warm southerly breezes were blowing out of the west that afternoon, as Sarenia sailed the Ocean of tears. She sent word ahead and asked about the AC and it’s availability. She received the reply that no less than three adventurers were in line waiting for it. They asked if she wanted to be put on the list. She sent word back that she did. When Sarenia arrived on Sisters Island the elvish islanders greeted her warmly, with Kiola Nuts—a local custom I think. She looked into renting a little catamaran but all they had left at the dock were paddle boats.  Hating paddle boats Sarenia rolled up her robe and swam the inlet. The Island of the Ancient Cyclops appeared before her as a small mountain thrusting up out of the sea shrouded in a thick mist. Rising above the fog she could just make out the broken remnants of a stone building on the top of the island’s high point. What it once was she couldn’t tell for now all that was left was a shattered ruin covered by moss and lichen. Sarenia reached the beach and wrung out her clothes and looked around. The island was oddly silent. No sounds of birds, no chatter of rodents. The place was deathly still.

 “How dreadful,” she thought, “not at all the vacation paradise I was expecting.”

 She wandered along the beach until she heard the sound of voices. There, not too far away, were several people sitting on the sand.

 “You all wouldn’t happen to know where I might find the Ancient Cyclops would you?” She asked.

 “Aye, we would,” said one of them. “He pops here right before us. You must be Sarenia, or number three as you’ll be known here. I am Kiross, 57 enchanter, I am number one.” He bowed. “Back there, the 39^th necro is Brumael, he’s number two and that’s his buddy the mage is Windrover—he’s just here to help. The 57^th ranger there, Evenstarr, is number four. He’s after you.”

 Kiross sized up Sarenia for a moment. “You here alone?” he asked. “You look kinda young to be soloing the AC.”

 “My husband is a wizzy, he’ll port in when I need him. Actually we are trying to get the boots for him. As an enchanter I can usually get SoWs easily enough as most druids and shamans are eager to trade me for Clarity.”

 “I see.”

 “But wait, I thought I was number four? I was told I was on the boat at least.”

 Just then a cyclops appeared before their eyes. A huge powerful beast that shook the ground beneath its feet. The one-eyed freak spotted the group and bellowed, “I’ll spill your blood to make my bread, and grind your bones when you are dead!”

 He charged attacking wildly, but the group had pets guarding the beach and after a few quick spells the monster fell with a deafing thud.

 “Hehe, never get too far. Now where were we,” Kiross said, “Ahh yes, you were number four, but Goreldar killed his AC, won his ring and left.”

 “Really? Great! So how long until the next one?”

 There was a disturbing silence among the adventurers.

 “What? Did I say something wrong?”

 After a time Brumael spoke. “No one knows how long he will take to return, but best estimate is about 4 to 12 hours.”

 “Oh dear.” Sarenia gasped.

 “I hope you like Kiola nuts,” Windrover said, cracking one on a rock and eating it.

 The afternoon slipped by, hours passed. Every six minutes a new spawn appeared, Cyclops, ogre, pirate, Cyclops, Cyclops, pirate…no sign of the Ancient. Then it happened. All at once he appeared. He conned 40^th level, and was no harder to take down than any of the others.

 Kiross looted the ring, but remained behind to help the others with their efforts. Now Brumael was up. He and Windroaver moved to the front line and the wait began anew. Cyclops, ogre, pirate, Cyclops, Cyclops, pirate…Then they all heard foot steps scampering up the sandy hill.

 “Hello! I am Zenren,” a little 49^th gnome wizard greeted them. “I am here to kill the AC.”

 “So are all of us, my friend you will need to wait in line.”

 “Line? Line?” He seemed put out. “But I am a wizard, I could just KS the next one and be done with it hehe.”

 The looks on the adventurer’s faces went grim.

 “You could,” Sarenia told him, “If you wanted to be a bastard, and have us broadcast that you are a KSer to each zone we enter.”

 “Hummm.” He pondered this. “Ok can I join your group then?”

 He joined then sat down beside them briefly then got up and ran around them several times, kicked sand in Kiross’ face and laughed at him. Kiross looked annoyed. 

“This is really boring.” Zenren said at length. “I am going to have to go soon, can I have the next one?”

 The party laughed at him.

 “Very funny Zenren,” Sarenia said.

 “What was funny?”

 “You don’t find humor in what you just said?” Brumael asked.

 “No why?”

 “Because we have all been camping here for hours, and there is no way we are going to just hand you the next AC.”

 “You know I could just KS it.”

 “You mentioned that before.”

 The gnome sat down and fidgeted. He ran down to the water and back. “How long does it take?”

 “We don’t know,” Brumael replied.

 “This really sucks.” The gnome fidgeted some more.

 Meanwhile, I had finally achieved my goal of dinging 40, and thought it was high time I joined Sarenia at the camp. When I arrived the mood there was somber. The only one talking was Zenren, and he wouldn’t stop.

  “I’m going AFK brb.” Zenren told us and sat down in the front row.

 No sooner had he said this than a powerful Cyclops popped. Perhaps it was divine justice, karma or just good fortune, but the monster went right for Zenren. Pets were sent on it, and spells were cast, but when the smoke cleared both the Cyclops and Zenren lay dead. No one had wished him dead, but there was little remorse.

 “Wtf!” Zenren’s spirit shouted. “I said I was AFK!”

 “Sorry guy,” Brumael said. “He went right for you, there was nothing we could do.”

 “Bullshit! You could have cast fear!”

 “Tried, he resisted.”

 “That’s bullshit! Get me a rez!”

 “There is only one cleric in the zone and they are AFK right now,” Kiross said.

 The group really didn’t want the gnome back and hoped he might leave. Zenren left the group without a word, then after about an hour they saw that Zenrens’ body was gone.

“He’s sitting over there invisible.” Kiross told them.

 We all put see invisibility up and it was true Zenren sat on an adjacent hill. The party sent him tells, but he refused to reply. Then another Cyclops popped, and immediately Zenren cast a damage spell on it.

 “Ah-hah!” Brumael exclaimed, “So he intends to KS the AC from us!”

 We prepared for an all out damage war on the AC when two GMs arrived on the scene. Brumael had petitioned them and they arrived in mere minutes. They talked to the gnome, and Brumael went over to discuss the situation. Brumael offered to allow Zenren to stay, as long as he stopped trying to KS. In the end however, Zenren, clearly nervous by the presence of the two GMs logged and was not heard from again.

 Cyclops, ogre, pirate, Cyclops, Cyclops, pirate, Cyclops, ogre, pirate, Cyclops, Cyclops, pirate, Cyclops, ogre, pirate, Cyclops, Cyclops, pirate, etc.

 The time began to drag. It was now 10:00 at night. No sign of the AC. The conversation had dried up. The hunt stopped being fun for everyone. With so much time invested no one was giving up. Sarenia decided to make the most of her time and swam across the inlet back to Sister’s island there she purchased a fishing pole and bait for everyone at the camp, as well as several bottles of beer. She swam back and handed them out to each of the group’s members.

 “We shall have a fishing contest!” She declared. “Who ever gets the most fish when the bait runs out wins. Oh, and be careful with the beer if you aren’t used to it.”

 “Thoo Laate!” Brumael slurred. “Woooww, neaver trried this befhore!”

“WOot! Inetlegence is 46!” the Mage said.

Sarenia drank as well, but since her days of drinking kobold loot in Stoneburnt, it didn’t effect her.

“Tthiss is the graetest  camp evver!”

 Hours later the hangover set in and things quieted down once more. It was nearly 2:00am now. Sarenia had fallen asleep about an hour ago, and I decided enough was enough. I headed to bed, but Sarenia woke up and stuck around for a few more placeholder kills.

 “Ok, I will leave after two more. Too tired.” She told the rest.

 Then POP! The Ancient Cyclops was there grinning stupidly at everyone. Everyone grinned stupidly back with bags under their eyes. Sarenia roused me from sleep. Adrenaline rushed back in. Suddenly everyone was very awake. The battle went as before and was over in seconds. Brumael looted his ring.

 Kiross and Evenstarr left as did Windrover. Brumael fitting the huge ring onto his wrist and smiling happily, paused at Sarenia and myself. “Humm. You two gonna be alright?”

 “We are going to try and get some guild mates to help us.” Sarenia told him.

 “Ok,” He said, “Listen I’ll tell you what. I am going to go get the boots, then I will swing back here and see if I can’t help you out. After all you were there for me all night.”

 “Thanks,” we said. Then he was gone and we were all alone on the island. It was our turn.

 We went over battle techniques and prepped for combat. When the next Cyclops appeared. He was yellow to us, and the fighting ensued. We killed the first Cyclops fine, but he was white. When the second appeared he was yellow and things went bad. Snaring, rooting, and nuking. Sarenia tired to mez him only to be told she can’t mez this creature. With mana depleted. I medded, but Sarenia died. With my last bit of blue I threw my last nuke and he dropped. Sarenia awoke on the other side of the island and walked back.   

“Ok, that could be a problem.” She said.

“We need help,” I said. “While we could continue to let ourselves die and then return and attack with full mana, I think there is a better way.”

 “But who in their right mind would be willing to undertake such a quest starting at 2 am?” Sarenia asked.

 We called out to our guild and to our surprise two answered the call. Scalezz the 45th necromancer Iksar and Drukinpoinch the Iksar warrior. What they were doing in Thrugadin at 2:00 am, I have no idea, but they were willing to come help. I gated to the Great Divide, and picked them up and ported us to North Ro.

 “How’s your faction here?” I shouted to them over the dry whistling winds of the Ro desert.

 “Not good,” they replied.

 “Ok, we’ll go invisible and through the tunnels just to be safe. Have you done this before?”

 The both shook their heads, “I have practice sneaking on boats in Overthere though,” Druk said.

 “This will be a little different,” I told them. So with the two in tow I lead the way into the tunnels of Freeport and worked my way to the secret ocean outlet. There we levitated to the Shark Rock and awaited the coming of the ship.

 “Humm.” Scalezz said. “there’s no guard on the dock, just a feeble, defenseless fisher girl. Why don’t I just kill her?” 

“You Iksar necros are all alike.” I told her. “ I honestly don’t care, just don’t get killed.”

 A nasty gleam came to Scalezz’s eyes and a grin to her thin lizard lips, but just then just then the ship appeared and in the dead of night we slipped aboard. We jumped off at the Sister’s isle as well, and swam toward the Ancient’s Island.

 Meanwhile, Sarenia was holding the camp alone. Hiding from the spawns and letting them depop, until at last Brumael, true to his word, returned sporting a new pair of Jboots and showing them off. We all formed a new group and began to tick off the new spawns. Boredom set in faster at 3:00am than it did at 3:00pm. Brumael called it a night. Drukinpoinch needed to log for a while, but now the minutes were weighing far too heavy. It was nearly 4:30am. At last, Scalezz admitted she was getting way too tired to keep the camp up, and Sarenia and I admitted defeat and camped at nearly 5:00am. Exhausted and depressed we fell asleep.  

The next morning we woke up at 9:00am and found, as expected, someone else was already camping the AC. His name was Taladhan, and he was a good sort, and offered to send us a tell when he was through. So Sarenia and I ported back to the Eastern Wastes and hunted Uthorks again. The frozen land never looked so good. It was about 1:00 that Taladhan called to tell us he had his ring, and we gated back to the island.

 We called again to the guild and this time Masive the ogre warrior responded. He was in the Dreadlands and I ported him, to North Ro, then just as the night before I lead the big brute through the tunnels of Freeport to the ship. It dipped noticeably when he stepped aboard despite the levitate spell. We reach the island just as Sarenia was hiding from another spawn and together we polished him off. Masive could only stay a short time, and soon he had to leave, but he wanted to try soloing one just to see if he could. So Sarenia and I sat back and watched. Masive engaged a nice 40^th level Cyclops and was doing pretty well, he had the beast down a good quarter or more, but the beast had him down three quarters. When at last he gave the word, Sarenia and I jumped back into the fight and finished it, and Masive said goodbye to us and camped.

 It was just us again, but in watching Scalezz fight the night before, Sarenia had an idea. She would use fear on the Cyclops and hope I had enough mana to snare and nuke it to death. The pop came. The fear worked and while mana was getting low it looked good. Then just at that moment Scalezz appeared  out of no where and came to our aid. We finished him easily.

 It was now around 2:00pm on Sunday, we were still a bit tired, but we had the camp to ourselves and the firepower to hold it! Things were finally looking hopeful. Still I kept wondering what ever became of Druk, as he was probably trapped on the island. I hoped he would log in so I could punt him back to Kunark or Iceclad.

 Cyclops, ogre, pirate, Cyclops, Cyclops, pirate, Cyclops, ogre, pirate, Cyclops, Cyclops, pirate. The march went on and on. I started to remember Sarenia’s words at the start of this. “People have gone after the Ring and were never seen again.” I was starting to see why. It was nearing dinner time, when moral was at an all time low that unexpectedly the AC popped.

 “Calm down,” I shouted as I felt the air tense with the charge of mana about to be released, “Just wait. Take a breath. Check your shields!” This was it, what we had been waiting for and I didn’t want everyone rushing into the battle out of excitement and make stupid mistakes. We had waited far too long to screw up now. Besides he wasn’t going anywhere. In fact, the great one-eyed giant was just standing there with his back to us staring off at the ocean.

 For a moment I pondered what he was thinking. Was he bewildered at his short life, that had an expectancy of about 48 seconds on a good day? Was he cursing the ring he possessed that brought death to him over and over. Was he looking out across the see dreaming of a place where greedy little fiends didn’t slaughter him over and over for the same silly ring? Of course he might just be thinking of crossing the inlet for a Koila nut and sister sandwich, after all he was a Cyclops not Socrates.

 In one abrupt blast, like a massive tidal wave, the fury of 19 hours of pent-up camping was released upon the unsuspecting giant. Snare, fear, dot, nuke, nuke, nuke! The Ancient Cyclops was knocked back. He  spun on his enemies and charge up the beach. Fear drove him up the slope of the island toward the ruins. Nuke, nuke, nuke! In a blaze of fire, ice and poison, the great AC staggered, groaned, and fell, first to his knees where he hovered for a brief moment. His eye, twisted up with pain and agony, looked at each of us in turn, then closed for good, and the ancient monarch of the island toppled over and fell with a deafing collapse.  

We all stood there in shock for a second.

“Do we roll?” Sarenia and Scalezz asked in unison.

There was a brief discussion, then Scalezz told us, “You have camped this for two days, while I have only been here for about 6 hours. I think you should have it.”

 It was a generous offer, too generous for us to take with out some offer in return. “We will stay and see that you get one as well Scalezz.”

 “Take it El,” Scalezz  told me.

 I approached the body. I lifted the lifeless hand, and removed the huge ring and placed it on my wrist. At long last the Ring of the Ancients was mine.

 Evenstarr returned to the island shortly after and joined our group. We waited through several more pops. Evenstarr went fishing and caught a pair of soggy sandals.  

“Can I have those?” Scalezz asked.

“You are joking,” he said. “To wear?”

“Yes.”

“Good lord!” Sarenia stammered and went to inspect Scalezz. “No shoes or gloves!” 

With plenty of people to hold the camp I returned to my bank where I had ingredients for Gem Inlaid Gauntlets, and using my gate spells quickly completed the quest and gave Scalezz the gloves.

 “The boots you will have soon enough.”

 Again time dragged on. It was 8:30 at night before the AC showed up again. We killed him and Sarenia told Scalezz to loot.

 “But you don’t have yours yet!” the Iksar said in shock.

 “I will be happier if you get a pair,” Sarenia told her. “I would hate to think we dragged you here and tortured you for 10 hours and you had nothing to show for it. It is getting late and we all need to sleep, and I want you to have it.”

 Scalezz thanked Sarenia heartily, and looted the ring.

 “Excuse me,” Evenstarr said. “Would any of you be willing to stay and help me get mine? I can’t solo him.”

 We were all surprised. Evenstarr was a 57^th level ranger. But he was right, we had seen him in battle doing only 11 and 12 damage. Exhausted we nevertheless agreed to stick around for a while hoping he would get help to replace us. We stayed with him until 10:00pm, but now we were totally wiped out and we bid Evenstarr farewell and goodluck.

 (On a side note, the next morning we logged in to find Kiross camping the AC. “what are you doing here?” Sarenia asked. “Did Evenstarr get his ring?”

 “This is Evenstarr,” he replied weakly. “I am using his character to hunt.”

 “What time is it where you are?”

 “4:30am,” Evenstarr replied in a horse voice. “God, this sucks.”)

 It was on Tuesday that Scalezz, Sarenia and I traveled to South Karana to kill the Shadowed Men to obtain the rapier needed to complete the quest. First we stopped at the bank and withdrew 3250 gold. Then heavily encumbered by the coin we waddled to the Shadowed camp and easily obtained two Shadowed Rapiers. We then swam through the lake of Rathe to Rathe Mountains and began the hunt for the source of the Jboots—Hasten Bootstrutter.

 We stumbled upon Mylo (Jarok), in the giant hills who was apparently mining platinum off the local, wealthy giants. He joined our group and used his track skill to survey the area, but there were no fresh signs of the little gnome anywhere.

 “I do believe the ‘a drakes’, are placeholders for Hasten,” Sarenia explained, so off we went killing green drakes. “Also Madaline the Unkept, and Brother Zeptyl are also placeholders. We need to kill them all, except if Zepthyl pops leave him alone. He is a level 60 monk and you would need three groups of 55 plus to take him.”

 In between drake hunts Mylo would pull a hill giant. The loot, as usually, was wonderful, as each giant drops 5 to 45 plat per kill.

 “This place is great!” Scalezz told us.

“Yes, Drasus first showed it to me,” I said, “It is the land of milk and platinum.”

“Hehe,” Mylo chuckled. “Drasus and I were just here recently and we fought on the hill. It was very chaotic!”

 As if he heard his name mentioned Drasus contacted me and wondered if we needed help. At the time Zephyl was up and would take some time to despawn so I ported to the Dreadlands and picked up Drasus. On the way back we crossed paths with a little gold robed NPC gnome in Lake Rathe.

 Drasus paused and nudged me and winked. “Wanna kill the little guy?”

“Humm. Why?” I replied. He seemed harmless enough.

Alas I had forgotten Drasus was an evil follower of Cazic-Thule. “For fun.” He replied.

I conned the little guy blue and seeing no reason not too replied, “Well, ok.”

I began to cast a spell and the next thing I remember was being revived by a beautiful cleric, which Drasus had called. He felt very guilty despite the fact that it wasn’t his fault.

 At the same time things had gone badly in the nearby mountains. Mylo had logged briefly and in that time Scalezz and Sarenia had challenged five hill giants to a fight. Scalezz died in the encounter.

 At last we were all untied in Giant Valley, Scalezz, Sarenia, Mylo, Drasus and myself, and we proceeded to lay waste to the area killing anything that moved.  Mylo continued to kept an eye out for signs of Hasten. It took longer than expected and with each loot, Scalezz and I got heavier. There were some close calls which made it exciting, but soon we were itching to find the elusive gnome.

 “We aren’t getting anywhere with the quest,” Mylo told us, “But I’m having a blast!”

 Mylo spotted tracks made by Madiline the Unkept and off we went as a team running behind Mylo like dogs on a scent. We found and killed her. It was now midnight and still no hasten. It was back to giants killing when suddenly—

 “HASTEN! FOLLOW!” came the two barked shouts from Mylo and off he ran.

 All across the zone came shouts of “Hasten’s up!” as people who knew our quest began to sound off. Being too encumbered to move fast Scalezz and I soon lost Mylo who was intent on finding and hailing Hasten to nail him down. Mylo caught the little bugger and shouted out the location. Scalezz and I waddled slowly wandering around trying to find the rest of our party. At long last we found the group clustered around a little gnome dressed in black. His name was Hasten Bootstrutter.

 I hailed him but he offered no key words, so holding my breath I cleared a space in my inventory, handed him 3250 gold, a Shadowed Rapier, and the Ring of the Ancients, and closing my eyes pressed the trade…

 Tat da da daaa!

 Such a wonderful sound rang in my ears. I looked  down and there they were the Jboots. Scalezz arrived and did the same.

“WE HAVE THE BOOTS!!” I shouted to the zone.

 Slipping them on my weary feet I fired them off. They left a streak of red sparks behind and while running I fired them off a few more times, casting with them is instantaneous.Then Scalezz and I did the Dance of Joy around the others, and thanked everyone involved.

 We punted and ported everyone back to where they needed to go and called it a night. It was 1:00am.

 And so ended the greatest and longest quest-adventure Sarenia and I have ever endeavored to make. And I would now like to extend my deep gratitude to those who assisted us in this trial, and let them know I won’t forget them and that I could never have achieved the boots with out their assistance and aid. So here’s a toast to Sarenia, Scalezz, Drukenpuinch, Masive, Mylo, Drasus and Brumael (who though not a guildy did stay to help despite exhaustion.) Thank you Dragonchow, and from now on—just call me Speedy J.

Summary of Pops (EST):

Saturday    1:45 pm (Goreldar)
Saturday    4:00 pm (Kiross)
Sunday       1:30 am (Brumael)
Sunday     11:00 am (Taladhan)
Sunday       4:00 pm (Eldeberon - DC)
Sunday       8:30 pm (Scalezz - DC)

*Note there was no one camping the AC between Sunday 5:00am and Sunday 10:30 am.  Also as of Monday 7:00 am there head been no more AC POPS