Lake Superior supplied us with 13 amazing entries that forced are judges to make some hard decisions. After reading all the creative stories we finally decided upon 5 great tales. Hope you enjoy them as much as we did!
Here are the 5 winning entries from Lake Superior:
Sitting in the study of my seaside retreat,I am surrounded by trophies and trinkets won in countless glorious battles. There are priceless treasures and mementos of times long past,pieces of a great town reduced to rubble,exotic weapons and wonderful armor pieces. My gaze falls upon a tattered runebook,the well worn leather cover bears the inscription “A gift from the Wolfpack Guild”. To some it’s just another runebook but to me it’s a symbol of friendship and kindness. You see this simple runebook would forever change my life.

  I was a novice mage wandering aimless and alone through the land when I happened upon a kind stranger,his name was Lord Safeguard.”You look as if you could use some help” he said as he handed me a sack.”Inside you will find a more suitable set of armor,a check and a runebook. Change your armor and use the check to insure it. The book contains a rune to our guild hunt which you are welcome to join if you’d like.”I thanked the gentleman and we parted ways.
  The next few days were devoted to honing my skills so I would prove useful on the battlefield. Finally hunt night had arrived and I waited anxiously to meet the others in the guild. Soon they began to arrive:the strong and knowledgeable leader Lord Fusioncut, sweet and sassy Lady Pandora, kind and gentle Lady Josephine, warmhearted Lady Cassandra, the spirited Lady Tanesis,the fair Lord Mrenzella and the playful Lord Sephiroth. Greetings were exchanged and introductions made then we traveled off to the hunt.
  What an exhilarating evening we had,hunting great beasts and monsters in lands that were foreign to me. The friendly conversation  was filled with laughter and I felt at home with my new found friends. When the evening came to an end and we retired to our meeting place to divide up the treasures and loot from the night Lord Fusioncut extended an invitation for me to join The Wolfpack and I accepted without hesitation.
  Since that most memorable moment I have never been alone. I have built long lasting friendships and I am proud to call each and every one of my guildmates family. Many moons have passed since that night but the tattered pages of this runebook hold the key to my becoming part of something greater than myself.

My name is Chris and I have been playing Ultima Online the last 14 years of my life. I have always played on Lake Superior, as my best friend started there and wanted me to play with him. To me, UO has always been an escape from my reality, as being physically disabled its hard to make friends sometimes. So from middle school till today as I complete my Masters degree, Ultima Online has been a place where I could make friends, share experiences, and be myself without people looking at me differently.      From the time I started in 1998, I’ve always enjoyed running with a nice group of folks, whether it was to do a dungeon crawl, work on helping a friend finish a skill, or participate in the Events that have gone on over the years ranging from Lord Blackthorn’s demise around the time of the Age of Shadows to today, where we are witnessing Lord Blackthorn’s return. My most fun seemed to come from being in a guild and making lasting friendships through the game that have often carried over into my real life as well. That subject is where my most memorable moment comes into play.      I had been playing Ultima Online around 3 months at the time and running with  a guild on Lake Superior that consisted of mostly people 5-10 years older than me. They were always giving me guidance, teaching me how to work certain skills, and helping me any way they could. One such individual played a character named Wind. Wind was a very honest and virtuous human being and wanted to help show a young kid and “the ropes”. From the day I joined up, Wind and myself became instant friends.  Well years go by and our friendship is still fantastic and I was teaching HIM, this time, about all the new happenings coming with Age of Shadows, as I had beta access. We both seemed pretty excited and couldn’t wait to jump right in. The day before the AOS release, we had both decided we were going to go to bed early and wake up as soon as the major publish hit so we could enjoy the adventure together. So we spent quite a bit of time online the night before, did a few dungeon crawls, and said our “goodbyes”  to the old ways. We both had a fantastic last day before AoS was to hit and were excitedly anticipating the next day.     The next day, I wakeup early and Wind was not on. I gave him a call and got the most shocking news. On his way to work, he had been hit by a drunk driver on his bicycle and didn’t make it. I was heartbroken to have lost such a good friend. But if it had not been for Ultima Online and the ability to make such long lasting friendships through the game,  I would have never known such a nice guy and amazing friend. I think that, in my opinion, is what UO does: it creates worlds of fun and adventure to share with others so that each of us can meet people and share in the experience. Ultima Online, has been, and will forever be, my home away from home.

Never forget….
This story took place in Haven in a time before mysterious traders destroyed it with that strange, combustible blackrock substance.  It wasn’t my first day in Britannia.  I had been stumbling around the land for a couple weeks now.  My armor was…. let’s just say newbie.  My sword heavy and slow; or was it I that was slow?  I was worse than your typical new adventurer.  Other players may have previously played a MMORG game; but not I.  Needless to say, I was struggling.
So the night begins like any other.  I went to Haven and wandered from there into the surrounding countryside.  I managed to get into a little bit of trouble.  I was on foot, I have my “wonderful” newbie armor and sword.  I prepared to battle one of Haven’s most foul residents, the slimy, smelly Bogling.  The foul beast saw me, assessed my armor and weapons, and decided that I would be an easy conquest.  He charged.  As the battle progressed, I would swing my sword to no avail.  I was missing the foul creature more times than I managed to injure him.  I was watching my health dwindle, I could barely keep ahead of the damage being inflicted upon me.  And then, disaster.  I ran out of tithing points and could no longer heal.  I broke the first Warrior Commandment:  DON’T PANIC.  I attempted to run into town, in hopes that a brave warrior would rescue me.  I was weak with fatigue and the Bogling was on my heels.   Of course, as luck would have it, a ravenous Horde Minion spotted me weak and bleeding.  He joined the Bogling in hopes of an easy dinner.  I was frantic to reach the safety of Haven.  I started to recognize the surrounding landscape.  The trees were less dense and I saw the tall pillars of Uzeraan’s Mansion.  It provided me courage to continue for I am close to my destination.  Stumbling into Haven, I attempted to yell for assistance “H-H-Hel-…”  The word died in my throat.  I was out of breath and unable to speak.  My only hope was the some kind Samaritan would be observant enough to see the blood seeping through my armor.   Suddenly, a meek looking gentleman riding a large blue beetle approached me and hollared “Guards!”.
Out of nowhere, a faithful Britannia guardsman comes and slaughters my advisories.  The reserved gentleman remarked that I needed better armor and weapons.  While I caught my breath, he took the opportunity to introduce himself as Lord Safeguard.  He proceeded to sew some soft yet resilient leather armor and forge a powerful and sleek katana for me.    He continued to spend many hours with me, teaching simple techniques that eluded a new adventurer like myself.  I will never forget that night and his kindness that I have continued to pass down to other new adventurers in my continued journeys across Britannia.

Long ago, before my family and I moved from Lake Superior to Great Lakes, something very special and forever memorable happened in the mystical world of Sosaria.  One night, in a dungeon called Doom, I was hunting patchwork skeletons to loot their daemon bones.  I was alone in the dungeon and suddenly became overrun by a diverse mob of monsters.  I was almost dead when a mysterious man that I had never seen before slowly walked into the dungeon.  He quickly saw me, healed my wounds, and put his cloak over me to hide me until I was ready to face the mob of monsters again. That was the first night we met.  From that night on, whenever we saw each other we went to Doom.  We hunted together and went on many adventures for about a year… Then one day, this awesome man, Stylez of Great Lakes, asked me to marry him.  He traveled a great distance to get me and then we traveled together through the vast lands to return home.  One year later we had beautiful identical twin sons. Our most memorable moment in Ultima Online will not only be shared by Stylez and I for many, many years, but it will also be shared by our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren for many decades, if not centuries.  We will never forget this magical time and will keep the magic alive by retelling the story on our anniversaries to our families. We will always love Ultima Online.

We don’t stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stopped playing Looking at my paper doll and seeing 181 months and thinking back when I first started, born in Vesper (Felucca) a female character was created by name of “Misty” in Lake Superior. Misty was so scared to venture more than that boat deck, so fishing for days to gather gold and been happy getting $500.00 was beyond her wildest dream.  Vesper was such a big city and so Misty decided to investigate and started walking around, although scared  she started venturing outside of this huge city, only to find creatures that was beyond her belief, mongbats, orges, elementals, and the very worst creatures were called  “PK’s” (that nasty word) Player Killers. Misty was able to run to her newest safest home Jhelom (small) but safe, there she found new friends and later joined a guild called the MONG- (this guild has now wilted away) but as a guild they decided to challenge all PK’s out there ~remembering the only world was Felucca. To kill all those PK’s skills were to be elevated up to GM (100) so doing everything to bring Misty’s skills up to a 100 was a daily task to do and with months of working at it, day in and day out Misty was able to get up to a GM mage which was done with no jewelry, no extra accessory’s to boast up her skills.  Yes, she was created from scratch, and today as the years have gone many changes have been done,  Misty still exists with new items to make her even stronger and better then she was 15 years ago, new creatures to kill, new adventures to follow. Fifteen years has past and Misty has never left UO, not even to take a break, she has been on Lake Superior since the beginning. Although she has met many new friends,  there is only one true friend Misty met from the first day created, a character named Aria both met in Vesper on the fishing dock and till today 15 years later, although never met in real life are still best of UO friends, they still play and share information together. That is something truly remarkable and can never be taken away

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