Call me Jade. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me from before, I thought I would sail about a little and see the newer parts of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking hearthling's heads off - then, I account it high time to get to Brodgar as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the new world. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the new world with me.
With hearts full of hope we joined the Brodgar skype chat, mere hours before the world was to be spawned anew, and with a pleasant surprise we saw a lively number of hearthling's anxious to begin the start of the new world. The plan was for a certain active core member, who shall be named "Vagina" Dole, due to reasons to be discussed later, to go first and then bring about the rest of the village through the process of Wilderness Beacons. For now, all was well.
Suddenly, someone found a mother of pearls. "Oh my" they exclaimed, "This looks quite strong" At that point, the correct leadership call would have been to abandon the staging camp activities, as every single hearthling was wasting their time getting yeomanry and other main crafting skills, and to begin exploring this new world to seek out more of these resources. However, the call from Lord "Rube" Robben was to not worry about the new resources and continue with the current focus. "We can find them another day" he said. "There is no rush."
I, however, had already set up what I thought I needed at this stage and I took my boat and began exploring the world. Eventually I ended up at the center of a mountain and much to my surprise, I found the Ageless Ice. Quickly realizing the power it offered, I returned home with tales of overpowered new resources, and offered to begin claiming them with my new found yeomanry skills. "Nah" replied Lord "Rube" Robben, "we can focus on those another day, they aren't going anywhere" Since me and my duo partner were new to the village, and I was trying to find favor within the Village I agreed to his commands and decided to go with the flow. At one point I remember mentioning tanning tubs, but as I walked around, I noticed no one had actually even built one at this point, as they were rushing to other more "important" things.
Day 2 Act 2 Scene 2
The night is dark and full of terrors.
All of a sudden Lord "Rube" Robben let out a bloodthirsty scream into the night "I got five enemies on me!"
So naturally his response was to run exactly towards the staging base and die right as he got there, unleashing the rage of 5 unknown adversaries right into New Brodgar.
What followed was a Bloodbath. 8-10 good men of Brodgar died this night. RiP in Pepperoni's. Just as quickly as they appeared, the assailants vanished.
At this point, still no one was drying hides and making tanning tubs except I, who was the only archer in the village capable of hunting. I was the only one who had a bow, and I was feeding the entirety of brodgar myself with animal meat bringing in at least 50 animals a day.
A permanent home was selected. Massive Work began on the outline. (Which was actually just digging lines into the sand)
At this point I must take a short break to speak about Bob "The Vagina" Dole. As someone who has followed the exploits of his past on the forums, I was glad to see Vagina Dole was playing this time around, and that we would have another fierce warrior to add to our party, as my duo partner and I were interested in the pvp endgame. All in all I thought the majority of Brodgar seemed to know what they were doing. Boy was I wrong, You couldn't make this shit up if you tried. The things I have seen this past week, the absolute derp of derpness.
Anyways, Vagina Dole's first instinct in Teamspeak was to announce he was running away solo after the attack. Only by constant begging throughout the day did Lord "Rube" Robben manage to placate him into staying. I don't think I have ever heard anyone in my life grow a vagina so quickly as this kid did. Lord Rube succeeded though and Vagina Dole began working on his own plot.
My duo and I went into overdrive. Before most people had even finished leveling their plot, we had designed and were throwing up a stone tower. By the start of Day 3, it was finished.
A little after that, We had finished the first Palisade in New Brodgar
That night, the assailants came through again, killing more "Brodgar Vets" who had mains standing outside afk and other sorts of stupid things, like a pclaim with no stick fence on their plot.
Vagina Dole uprooted himself and disappeared into the night promising us he was still "part" of Brodgar, he just wouldn't "live" with Brodgar. All I ever saw of him from this point on was begging for resources and generally be a self absorbed douchebag. Good Riddance.
Day 3 Act 3 Scene 3
The future looked bleak for Brodgar, the chat channels were a mess, and Lord "Rube" Robben was basically unable to play throughout the entirety of the day due to "netflix and chill" with his girlfriend.
Thankfully, right before he disappeared for the entirety of the day, only promising to be gone a few hours, he finished a Village claim. (This is sarcasm)
A Village claim, by itself, in the center of Brodgar, know what this also needed? A FREAKING WALLED IN PCLAIM ON IT. Hence the title "Downs of Leadership" among other bad choices.
Once again, that night, the assailants swept through the village, yet again managing to murder some brodgar vets in the most stupid of ways, yet this time they found a present waiting for them, yes they did.
The Result
Day 4 Act 4 Scene 4
Brodgar was dying. My plot mate and I saw all our hard work on our claim was going to be for naught. These kids could just not get their shit together. We were the only wall with a palisade and we made a drastic choice. Syrian Refugee camp. I gave every single member I could of Brodgar full access on my claim and our focus was on making rage alts capable of defending ourselves, while also max gathering wax for rams for the Village Claim. We had a group kicking ass on metal so armor and swords were already ready on the assembly lines, We just needed bodies.
Teamwork was at an all time high, we gathered together, hunted together, and the future didn't look so bleak. Things were looking up.
Then Lord "Rube" Robben returned. Although I was basically carrying the entire village on my back, he grabbed the reigns of leadership again and directed the village away from defending ourselves in combat, into moving into Vagina Doles plot and then further running away. Although I was 100% sure this group was not Ainran, that's all Lord Rube would do, is fearmonger ainran.
"That's an Ainran gank, Ainran baits you like this, They are Ainran" etc etc etc
I knew different. I had actually engaged them in combat. This was not Ainran. I had actually been the only one to follow scents to their base. It was a shitty setup designed to rush metal and rage. That's it.
At this point my plot mate and I had strong alt fighters with rage, and whenever we attempted to aggro the raiders, they would flee. It would have been nice if we had more people capable of fighting, but almost everyone who was "old school" New Brodgar who was handed armor/weapons got themselves killed in one way or another. It seemed impossible at this point to get the numbers we needed to fight back. Which is pathetic and sad.
At one point right during the middle of a raid, Nomad just strolls outside on his main and dies horribly at my gates. He knew they were there prior to exiting.
I think this is the first time I actually "felt" the word astonishment.
Flash Forward
Brodgar is a ghost town. Only I remain. Lord "Rube" Robben split the town in half with his newbs choosing him and the useful people out of Brodgar have chosen to relocate with me.
For obvious reasons.
The enemy attempted to use palisade capable characters to wall in their vclaim, I rushed out in a fit of rage and gave them a dirtnap. While I can not move their bodies off the vclaim, they adorn the ground close to my front door. I have not seen them since.
Of course, right after this happened, Jorb and Loftar brought the update to bring Nidbanes back. Which I found quite funny, finally I defend myself, and I get punished for it. No matter, they didn't break me. I survived with minor Nidburns.
And so I persist. I don't sleep, I do not admit defeat, but we will build in another location and return. Stronger then ever, and reclaim the tower in the name of the Ironborn.
What is dead may never die, but rises again, harder and stronger.
