A Quiet Day Out In A Country?
Feature

Being the edited log of a trip to Dublin's fair city
by Hawumph

THE following events occurred over the period from the 23rd to the 25th of July. Any denials will be taken into consideration, however as the camera rarely lies and all wizards are of course one hundred per cent trustworthy, I wouldn't bother if I were you (Ookri0 and Droo!).

THIS trip had been a long time in the making for all concerned. In hindsight it was reminiscent of the Blair Witch Project - basically a low budget event that escalated into a full featured web site hosted by the kind Grumpy and the final product exceeding all expectations.

Surprise number one was that I was unsure of where the pre-meet meet was being held, so I went out to an internet cafe to log in to Mud and see if anybody knew. No luck but a quick mudmail to Grumpy just in case and back to my room. To find that Grumpy had, from a brief note earlier saying I was staying in a guest house on S. George's Street, managed to track me down and left directions for me. Wow - wiz powers are amazing aren't they?

Surprise number two was the first evening. Although the meet was planned for Saturday the 24th, many people had threatened to be there early, so Grumpy organised a table at a Japanese Restaurant. I couldn't attend, since I was on holiday at the time accompanied by a nonmud-playing wife0 (an awesome opponent with regenerative powers and stats you wouldn't believe.) I DID however get a pass to go say hi, and can therefore give you the following list of attendees.

Grumpy, Tobias, Florence, Mithriel, Potts, Angelmist, Zedd, Homer, Tabitha and Pugsley, and an old time witch some of you may know, Crysania (also know as Mr. Angelmist.)

So I went away, had a few beers, then at 10p.m. was told "Oh for God's sake stop moping, go and play!". Woo Hoo.... Off I went. Just in time for that most sacred of rituals, a couple of beers whilst the meal participants attempt to divide the bill by 11, apparently an AWESOMELY difficult task, despite the fact that Grumpy was being HELP'ed by everybody. And on to O'Neill's, just to confirm the calibre of the beer, and to have a quick night cap.

And so to bed. Well, it WAS after 1 A.M., and the burly bouncers, whilst very polite, had managed to convey that a reset was due within 120 seconds or so in the pub.

DAY TWO - the big event

Well, never one to miss out on an opportunity for a chat, I got to O'Neill's about 1 o'clock, to find it deserted but well organised. Grumpy had managed to hire basically the upper floor next to the upstairs bar - so we were set for a good meet with few interruptions. Mithriel soon turned up, so we decided to break our fast, and the Guinness started to pour.

And the arrivals continued. To simplify things for myself, I got everybody to sign the attached, and so the definitive list of attendees in alphabetical order is:

	Angelmist
	Antman
	Boggy
	Cat
	Crysania
	Droo
	Florence
	Foddy
	Grumpy
	Hawumph
	Homer
	Karya
	Mithriel
	Ookri0
	Pugsley
	Richard
	Tabitha
	Tobias
	Zedd

Richard by the way signed in full, but we couldn't get the document away from the others in time to write an appropriate I.O.U. around the signature. Ah well.

Time for the introductions. You know the sort of thing. You're in a pub, you KNOW most of these people from the game, but the addition of the stunning 3-D graphical representations of the personae is confusing - so lets all say who we are. And round the table it goes... Hawumph, Angelmist, Florence, Tabitha, Tobias, Dr. Richard Bartle, Boggy, Antm....... Woah. I'm sorry? Dr. Richard Bartle? Richard appears to have shed a good few years of age, a good few inches of height, and to have developed an interesting Irish accent. Oh right - Hi Droo - still sober huh?

Quiz time. Hawumph's Nightmare Conundrums. Yes its just what you need after a few beers. In depth questioning of your knowledge of the Land. And knowing that many attendees would be Wizzes, a mere mortal like myself had to work jolly hard to set a decent standard. How had I done? Would they all get 100% correct and then ask where the real quiz was? Would I be fodded for my temerity? The papers are turned over (actually this was not the first occurrence of this, I caught Tobias at it earlier though he SWORE it was just to see how many questions there were!) and quiet descended. And then there was some scribbling. And then some head scratching.  And some crossing out. And some consultation (ah - team spirit). And eventually the comments - music to my ears - Oi Hawumph, these are HARD!

Of course with many players as in the Land things get out of hand - so I get encouragement - I am told to make like a Wiz! Well I couldn't fod them all, resetting the quiz seemed inappropriate, so I demanded we do it in sections to keep the flow going! Ooh - it worked - so that's it - the secret - if you want to be a Wiz, be bossy!

The odd revelation was offered in true Wiz fashion. For example my answer to one of the questions was queried by the winning team of Tabitha and Tobias (I say Florence was on the team too, but apparently Tobias stole her pen which handicapped her slightly!) So how DOES a mouse move when it leaves your location. I stuck to my guns and my answer prevailed, but I am of course now in a position to share this snippet of information and confirm its veracity - and I quote ....

How DOES a mouse move when it leaves your location? Wizzes answer "Any damn way we want it to!"

OK - quiz over, time for the chatting and drinking to get seriously under way. And this is where you find that certain Immortals have long memories. For example I have been reminded several times of an idle comment I made that got picked up immediately. It has been quoted that I called all Wizzes rats! This is untrue. Well no its true but its out of context. I was merely pointing out that there seem often to be NO Wizzes, then a pack of them turn up ... like rats!

Not to be outdone, Ookri0 obliged us all with a rare display of courage. Namely - he directly challenged four Wizzes and then proceeded to sign a document, suitably entitled The Death Warrant!

It has to be said the PS was NOT there when he signed - or was it? Always check the litter for a word first Ookri0!

Things by now were hotting up. Droo had become virtually incoherent, it was a VERY hot day and obviously he was suffering from exhaustion. In fact he was so exhausted Antman and Boggy had to carry him back to his hotel for a nice lie down.

Angelmist presented me with my very own Beanie Baby mascot, appropriately a Dragon called Scorch. Had she known that I was going to use her points to make Wizard would she have been so generous? I hope so (no hard feelings huh Angel?)

Pugsley spent the bulk of the afternoon on the telephone, occasionally calling others over to join in the conversation. Intrigued, I took my turn when called over. Who could it be? Turns out that Shalimar was on the other end of that line, joining the meet by proxy.

At this point I would like to add to all the others my thanks to Grumpy. The organisation was excellent, the hospitality ditto (plates of the most enormous sandwiches appeared during the afternoon for example) and a great time was had by all. Well nearly.

One more noteworthy event occurred you see. Some of us, at a rather late hour, decided to go to the local internet cafe and try our skills. Chortle. So as Ookri0 looks back to pose for a picture, he misses his footing and goes, literally, face first into the pavement. Ouch! He survived, but looked very blurry in the cafe. I may or may not have looked blurry, but the monitor sure did. No major feats of hacking for us two. Just one more pint in the early hours of the 25th and its all over bar the zzz'ing.

And that pretty much was it - a few headaches the next day I am sure, but a thoroughly good day out was had by all.