I seem to be thinking more and more about the things I don't want to do in Everqyest anymore. This is probably due to the toll that unrestricted EQ can take on a body. Here I am at work on 5 or less hours of sleep (again). And, I didn't even intent on playing that late last night /sigh. So, on with the story.

I signed on about 8:15pm (late for me but I had to Joseph down to bed first and finish up some paperwork before I could get sucked in). The guild was just then mustering in ToV for Aaryonar and friends. Ah, WTF, Bi is at school late, I got nothing better to do and Aary is right at the front of NToV. So I jump in the channel and arrange a ride so I don't have to DB Bianca (Yay!).

Even though I am now max KoS and Camo dropped twice, I make it through CS and WW without incident (I am still going to pay those blue bishes a visit one of these days). I get grouped up and ready to roll in short order. One of the shameful advantages of coming in on the next-to-last lift is that there is a whole lot less waiting for something to happen. Normally, I am one of the first 5 or 10 folks there since I hate being late. There is a big turnout too, lots of GoB folks by the time I checked the raid window, there were 54 peeps in the raid, average level of 60. OK, so I am *still* dragging the average down. But, there is a 46 and a 50 in there. I am sorry, but that is pushing it a little. At least the 50 is a cleric...

Off to work, clearing the gallery and hub is no problem. This group can take three drakes no problem. Then we move down to the room where we can pin Ikatar and take his lunch money, rebuff, pull trash, pull him and kill. We are rocking. But the hub is respawning, time to move on. Kill the respawns, move back upstairs, get invised and move to the next 'safe' spot by groups (read mobs).

Well, as you might expect from such a large rabble, someone's camo drops and they decide they don't want to die like a man and instead train the raid. Not a big deal, we weren't really ready to fight yet, but only 3 or 4 people who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time took a dirtnap. Rez, rebuff and on to killing chickens.

Once the chickens are out of the way, we pull Eashan of Sky. Didn't expect them to be up, but we had to kill her because we use her spawn room as the fight scene for Aaryonar. She went down pretty quick, some punk 250 point AoE, only a couple of regular drakes as gaurds. Not even a challenge for this raid force. Of course the chickens have some kind of insane spawn rate, so it's back to killing.

The 4 lines I see in my spam window is:
An Elder Wyvern begins to RAMPAGE
A Shard Wyvern begins to RAMPAGE
An Ancient Wyvern begins to RAMPAGE
An Elder Shard Wyvern begins to RAMPAGE

Uh oh. Four incoming, minimum and from the back too. One of the monks goes, "DAMMIT" in the raid channel. Me thinks he pulled that accidentally.
Well, this is neither a good time or place to hose the raid and about half the casters die immediately. I jump off to the side and look for a plan to happen. It doesn't, so I figure that if this is a wipe, I may as well bloody my swords. I pick one looking the other way and start whacking away. Well the 'healer' in my group died on the initial charge, so I knew I only had a while before this was going to end and I wasn't disappointed.

Amazingly, the remainder of the raid managed to get things under control and kill off the wyverns. I like to think that the 45 seconds of quality time I spent with one of them had some effect. I know, probably not, but please allow me my illusions :).

After a suitable time spent rezzing and rebuffing, it was back to random spawn and chicken killing. Then setup for Aary. This is a pretty straightforward matter of proper positioning. You have to get the casters shielded from the AoE pronto because the effect is a mana drain and a slow. We nailed it easily last week and with many more people, this should not be a problem.

Weeeeeell, famous last words. A flurry drake came with Aary and proceeded to execute casters and, well everyone. The CH rotation never set in so the MA/SA team died to Aary while the drake did the rest. Then, since Aary was not under control, he started wander around and basically finish the carnage. Fortunately The Voices (Tinv) managed to escape and at least one cleric got camped. OK, well that was bad, but we can do better. Get everyone back up, the raid channel is all about blood now. I should have quit while behind, but I was flushed from actually getting to roll on loot for the first time in NToV (I rolled on gauntlets from Eashan that, amazingly, didn't get claimed) and the fact that we were almost done. Actually, I should have left after Eashan like Hikanur and Giltaav, when it was midnight.

OK, take two, we have this for sure. Clear the chickens: check. Pull Aary, hold the flurry drakes please: check. There goes Aary, like a good dragon to the slaughter. Wait, he didn't actually go... Crap, here comes another wipe.

Something stopped him on the way by and he stayed in the big area and munched on casters. The MA never had a chance to get agro, for all the good it would have done with no healers, or at least none with mana. I just started swinging on the theory that with a dozen down already, we might as well either go out fighting or, perhaps enough melee were left to tank him down. Yeah, well, I get summoned almost immediately. But, he was pinned in the corner and now I am behind a firepot, alive, no mana and no way out. I look up and see dragon belly. Nothing for it but swing away, someone may find my body someday....

Well eventually, Aary gets unpinned and goes off to kill shit (us). Now, I can only listen helplessly to the carnage and catch glimpses past the firepot. I figure I am on his hate list, he will get to me eventually. And he does, at least this summons was OUT of the corner. Right into the center to die like a good Ranger. Aary max hits around 650 BTW. /sigh, /consent Tinv.

Rez the raid and TL us out of dodge, it's 1:30am EST. And no more NToV on a work night.