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The Lay of Tarii and Hewlit
Twas the year 3195;
Early in the month, twas the morn.
Of late I'd roamed afar,
And much I missed my home:
Fair Qeynos by the sea.
Early twas the morn.
When young I'd often ventured
Into the Black Burrow maze,
Where evil burns and festers
Into a mighty blaze.
For 'tis the home of crafty gnolls,
Who howl, bark, and slash.
I'd dreamt of going back there
Garbed in my monkly sash
To slay them as they gnashed.
When home I came at last,
I joined a band of rovers.
A mighty lot were they:
Tarii, Frosts, and Hewlit
Led by fearless Playt.
The gnolls we came to slay!
'Twould be their dying day!
The battle soon began
Within the Room of Green.
Frosts could taunt and smash
Like none I'd ever seen.
Elite gnolls fell aplenty,
And left a bloody sheen
Upon the Room of Green.
Into the Room of Clover
The battle raged anew.
The Gnoll Commander roared
As tireless we slew.
Backed by crafty Hewlit,
Whose words of nature flew
around the Clover Room.
Yet little did we know
The fate that lurked below
Deep and dark within
The heart of Black Burrow.
We rested for a moment
To heal our paltry wounds.
Tarii started tracking,
Playt was singing tunes
When suddenly we saw
Commanders: not one but two!
Leaping to the fray,
Frosts assault was deadly.
Playt was slashing, singing
A damage-healing medley.
Hewlit's hands a' whistled
Casting with a fury
Tarii's smiting filled the air
With blood amidst a flurry
Of Gnoll Commander's worry
Yes worry, they did worry!
Though one now fallen, in his place
Were two Elites, a Guardsman,
Mightily we fought them all
Though lightness seemed to darken,
And my thoughts did harken
To my days of youth
And other times of darkness
Within Black Burrow's fastness.
Twas then I knew that I
Must shed my weighty club
And let my taped fists fly.
To my premonition
It seems the gnolls did listen.
For 'twas then we saw
Another Commander's maw
The one they call Splitpaw.
The battle became grim.
I watched my comrades fall.
The brave and beautiful Tarii
Vanished from the hall.
Too from that fateful brawl
Wise Hewlit, strong and small.
I watched my comrades fall,
and vowed to slay gnolls all.
Frosts' health began to slowly
Trickle out of him.
Yet Playt's pure song shored us up,
While Frosts healing within
The stalwart Paladin
Was fighting with a grin!
My strength too did ebb away,
And yet the Splitpaw stood.
Guardsmen battered us about,
But luckily I could
Mend my wounds a bit
And land another hit.
Finally the Splitpaw fell
And howled as he went.
Yet we were hurt and saddened
By the loss of friends,
And tired though we were,
The battle wouldn't end.
Elites descended, Guardsmen swarmed,
Even weakly Gnolls,
For every two we battered down,
More would come in droves,
Crazed for we had surely
Chilled them to their bones.
Tarii had returned by now
To find what she had lost.
Hewlit too was close behind,
And welcome though he was,
We found ourselves surrounded
Fighting at all costs.
Finally the stoutest arm
Among us gave the call:
"Too many!" Frosts yelled aloud,
"Too many for us now!"
"Time to run! Follow me!"
So follow him we did.
A secret known to all who fight
For long within those halls.
A twisting run, a sneaky dive
Beside the waterfall
Into the pit below
A'center Black Burrow
Where gnolls will fear to go.
Out out we ran and to the Hills
Of Qeynos far beyond,
To rest and wonder at the evil
Lurking, never gone.
In the twisting turning tunnels
Breeding on and on,
Fell gnolls of darkness,
gnolls of darkness,
gnolls of darkness spawn.
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A few words about the poem from Hawkeye:
The poem is very specifically about the world of EverQuest, so here are
a few details about the game. I'm sure the game has changed a lot since
I played, so don't get all worked up if something here isn't current or
right:
~ The year and time of the poem is accurate in EverQuest time.
~ Qeynos (anagram: Sony EQ) was
the town where my character was "born". That is, where my character
started out, and where I started playing EverQuest. It used to be that
a new character had to spend a lot of time around his/her starting town
until he/she could build the character up enough to venture out into
the more dangerous places in the game. This is what I'm talking about
in the beginning of the poem: my character has been off adventuring,
and I've returned "home"; this was actually true in the game: I hadn't
been back there for a long time, maybe since I'd first left.
~ All groups of players in EQ
have a leader. Groups band and disband all the time, but each group has
a single player that "starts" the group. In this case, that player was
Playt.
~ Each character has a class. I
can't recall my character's name (!), but I was a Monk, and monks are
strongest when they fight bare-handed (my character *did* actually have
taped fists). Monks also have an innate power to heal. Playt was a
Bard, and so she cast magic spells by singing. Tarii was probably a
Ranger, and so she could track specific prey that we wanted to hunt.
Hewlit was a Druid, and also, I'm pretty sure, a halfling (which are
innately high in wisdom). And Frosts was a Paladin, so he had lots of
ability to fight AND heal himself. He was also one of my close friends
in EverQuest, and the two of us did a lot of campaigning together.
Aside from Frosts (whom I knew outside the game), I had no way of
knowing for sure the true age, sex, race, etc. of any of these players.
~ In EverQuest, "dungeon" is a
general term which means any area where there's stuff to fight and loot
to get. The Black Burrow dungeon was a big network of underground
caves, and the home of a tribe of "gnolls", machine opponents (mobs
(mobiles)) which look sort of like wolves, but walk upright on two legs.
~ The poem mentions various types
of gnolls, like "Commander", "Elite", "Guardsman"; these are all
"generic" gnolls with varying strengths, and the names and strengths of
these gnolls would be familiar to most players. But, the Splitpaw Gnoll
was, I think, the strongest single monster in Black Burrow, also known
as a "named mob" (if I remember right). This guy is special, and only
"spawns" now and again based on certain events in the game (like maybe
a strong group of players killing off a bunch of powerful monsters deep
in the dungeon). So, the fact that he showed up and we killed him was a
big deal for us. Also, I'd forgotten, but when Splitpaw died, he gave a
very long and loud howl; the other gnolls don't do this, and presumably
that was the trigger for the following swarm of gnolls.
~ Pretty much all new characters
from Qeynos spent a lot of time getting whacked about in Black Burrow.
It's the first real dungeon that you can get into, it's close to
Qeynos, and it's a great dungeon. Hence, "When young I'd often
ventured/Into the Black Burrow maze".
~ It used to be that when you
died in EQ, you would be "reborn" at your most recent "bind point",
which was hopefully not far from where you died. Then, you'd go on a
"corpse run" to recover all of the gear you had on your corpse. During
the run, you would be essentially "naked", since all your stuff was on
your corpse. So, a corpse run was usually pretty dicey, and could mean
multiple deaths (for each death, you lose experience points (not so
good); I think this has since changed). Anyhow, this explains the
lines, "Tarii had returned by now/To find what she had lost./Hewlit too
was close behind," near the end of the poem. Since Tarii and Hewlit
died, they're coming back to get the gear from their corpses.
~ "Room of Green" and "Room of
Clover" are names of rooms in the dungeon that would be familiar to all
players who had spent any time in that dungeon. They're only named by
players, not the game, and the names pass via word of mouth and 3rd
party docs about the game.
~ a link to an interesting article about the economy of Everquest
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In
the late nineties Hawkeye Parker was addicted to Everquest. He has
since quit, and still keeps the cut up Everquest CD beside his bed as a
reminder. To paraphrase Hawkeye, "It got to the point where I had to
decide which world I wanted to live in: the real world, or the world of
EverQuest. Although that sounds like a rhetorical question, it really
wasn't: when I finally quit, I had to give up some very close friends
that I had made through the game, and I had to give up doing something
that I really, really enjoyed." I asked Hawk if he missed EverQuest,
and he looked surprised that I had asked, "Of course, but I'll never go
back." Hawk then went on to tell me about a particularly memorable
battle.