Last week I mentioned that I’d given up on owning a cottage in ArcheAge because of the click-war participation needed to get one at this stage. I used the components I’d assembled to build a ship instead. After all, it’s only alpha and I didn’t see the need to spend more time on the affair.
Not everyone in our very small guild felt the same way. In fact, Belphagore decided not only did he want a bigger house, he wanted to find a spot for the largest house and turn it into a guild hall. Hrm. The only place remotely possible to acquire a lot of that size was going to be in contested territory – PVP enabled land. He’d found a spot that he wanted and had negotiated terms with nearby pirates who run a Home Owner’s Association that patrolled that region. Even so, he would need help securing the spot before other players.
He let us know earlier in the day that he’d need help at roughly 10 PM EST. When the call came out that it was time to go, we teleported to his house and followed him to the location. We arrived 30 minutes or so early to establish our presence. I was level 36 at this point, wearing level 20 gear. More on the gear story later. Suffice it to say, I wasn’t straying too far from our level 50s.
Land ownership is a hard won accomplishment on a mature server. You either fight for it (click war) to have it for 0 gold or you pay through the nose to another player. As the time drew near, others started gathering on the property Belphagore intended to claim. They were from our own faction so communication (chat) was possible. He let them know that he was going to claim this spot and had cleared it with OutCry, the local pirate guild.
If you’re new to AA and not up on all the politics you wouldn’t have any idea what he was talking about. If I’d come across something in this area I wouldn’t know about OC. These people didn’t seem to OR didn’t care. Unfortunately for them, they were in PVP country and up against someone who was determined to have this spot.
After much ranting in guild chat he asked around to see how many infamy points people had to make sure they understood the impact of going Bloodlust to attack players from your own faction. Everyone was well under the threshold that would mark them for a trial. And so it began.
“Aww shit,” I thought to myself. “Here we go.” I applied my buffs and made sure I had health potions on my hotbar. The next thing I knew party members were in combat. The only person with heals, I did that versus engaging level 50s in my woefully inadequate gear.
The first few skirmishes were rather easy as we outnumbered them but they were persistent. They resurrected and came back several times, eventually bringing numbers. That’s when the encounter got buck wild.
By then OutCry was also on the scene, who as pirates, are also “red” to us. We were reminded not to do AOE as we’d also hit OC members and the last thing you wanted to do was kill one of them. I mean, c’mon, that’s a tricky maneuver. When something is draining your health and there are red tags around you adopt the “if it’s red, it’s dead moto” and sort shit out later. We were warned by OC that they’d seen people stealth on the way in and to keep an eye out. Great.
Skirmishes broke out around where we were but not close enough for us to get to people in time. We had some raid members being picked off one at a time. Honestly, I don’t know why anyone who wasn’t 50 was off solo but to each his own. It wasn’t too long before all hell broke out right on the plot.
I don’t know who initiated the first blow but suddenly everyone in our raid was in combat, their portraits rimmed with a red outline. I moved toward the middle of the largest area of fighting so I could land group heals. I placed heal overtime spells on those taking light damage and my only other heal on those being hit pretty hard. That worked fine for a while but I lost lower level players. I’m not spec’d as a healer yet and I’m wearing plate armor which means I don’t have the right stats either. I merely have 3 heals from the heal tree in case of emergency.
Eventually someone wises up and notices that I’m healing. Now I’m in combat. I knock down and stun the MF in my face. I keep healing. When he’s joined by someone doing ranged damage to me, I quickly move to half health. That’s not going to work. I shout out in voice chat that I have people on me and am going down. No idea who handles it but the damage stops and I go back to healing people. A short while later it’s over. *WHEW* I survived. Having given up a combat skill for resurrection early in the day during some other raid shenanigans, I resurrected the only member of our party to die.
It seemed like the coast was clear and we were only minutes away from the property becoming available. Not so fast there partner, an OC member arrives claiming that he’d been waiting for this spot for a month. Aww shit. Belphagore is raging in voice chat, threatening to fight it out with OC which would put ALL of us at war with them, including guild members paying into the OC HOA.
Our guild leader tries to calm things down but he’s adamant and pissed. To a degree, I don’t blame him. He’s already spent the money to be able to place the location and we’ve already chipped in all the components to build it. Walking away from a 1K investment already made bites. Properties of that size aren’t available every day.
Our contact in OC says we could fight it out if we chose without long term repercussions because he’s not convinced of the other person’s claim. However, he can’t speak to what individual OC members will do when the fight breaks out or afterward. Our guild leader is half laughing, half concerned. “Are we really going to do this??” We’ll be slaughtered for sure but I’ll be in it if it jumps off. The two of them hop on OC’s vent to discuss.
Offers and options go back and forth until one is reached. We’ll help them get this one and they’ll help us get a different one of the same size that’s available near an OC member in an hour. Sounded like a good plan so we all agreed.
Before the night was over there were more skirmishes in and around the two properties being claimed. Someone attempted to gank me while I was AFK on a rooftop. A fight had broken out nearby and everyone had left to go join in. Luckily for me, I was at more than half health when I came back. I did a knock back, double jumped off the roof to activate my glider and floated away to safety.
When the time came, we claimed what would become our first guild hall. People were so excited they wanted to complete the construction right away. We'd already assembled the components. They just needed to be brought over on donkeys and assembled.
It was after midnight EST when I logged off. I couldn’t stay awake long enough to see our guild complete it. Having only slept 5 hours the night before, I was fading fast. I said my goodnights and went to bed.
The guild members continued building the townhouse into the night. When I got on the next day it was up and had some decorations on the outside.
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