When I registered this domain name a million years ago it was just a place to store some screenshots and experiences in the game I was playing online at the time, Asheron’s Call. Websites were mostly freebies you got at places like Lycos and GeoCities and having a domain name and hosting was an expense that most didn’t take on, and truthfully I couldn’t really afford. I named my first character Mahret, because I’d been reading Anne Rice but didn’t want to match exactly. Naming her after Maharet was an homage to my favorite vampire but dropping the 2nd ‘a’ made her more mine.
Asheron’s Call was years of joy and friendship in a community I never realized existed. I had the pleasure of taking on vassals and teaching them the game and getting a couple of unique achievements/global announcements in game. One of the moments that filled me with the most pride was taking on Lady Aerfalle alone. The quest was designed to be done by a group and I’d run it many times over the years with groups.
The start of the quest involved a series of smaller quests for items used to activate a number of machines within densely populated and dangerous dungeons on the island before fighting your way (more like running and not dying) into a portal that was so thick with monsters you’d have to wait on the other side to dispel the debuffs multiple times to clear them all before you could continue. The dungeon required you to take specific skills to survive the mechanics, a buffed run speed, jump and lockpick skill and also the ability to rebuff yourself because there were so many dispel magic traps you simply could not avoid. All this while being under attack by an army of the undead and on a 90 minute timer.
When the server announcement went out across Dereth at almost 2am it was the end of a gloriously grueling 3 hour challenge and the culmination of everything I had worked toward with Mahret. Thank you for the reminder…
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