We received 15 entries from the Lake Austin shard. There were a lot of extremely good memories and a tally of the votes resulted in another tie!
Here are the 6 winning entries from Lake Austin:
My most memorable moment in all of Ultima Online is when I tamed my first ice white cu sidhe.  What makes that moment remarkable is when you take into consideration thatI started my taming at 30 skill points that I bought from a ranger in Skara Brae.  It’s hard to imagine, but I trained taming for over a year to make it to a level where I could even attempt to tame a cu sidhe.
I remember taming cows and sheep in the bullpen of Jhelom, hinds and timber wolves on the road from Britain to Skara Brae.  I spent months taming walrus, polar bears, snow leopards, and white wolves on Dagger Island.  Then spent many more months, seemed like an eternity taming Bulls and Great Harts around Delucia.

Just when I thought I had enough skill, I realized I needed to be an elf if I wanted to even mount a cu sidhe.  So I had to see Darius in the Lycaeum for the Elven Heritage Quest.  Go on to see Arielle near Spirtuality Shrine in Illshenar, Bravehorn near the Spiritwood, Enigma the Sphinx in the deserts of Malas, the Huntsman by Chaos Shrine, Maul the bear, and Strongroot the tree, before returning back to Darius.  This was a rather easy quest, and I was conflicted about whether or not I wanted to be an elf.  However I had my goal in my mind, so nothing was going to stop me now.
Until I learned I needed to complete the Dread Horn quest to get into the Twisted Weld, just another detour along the way, so I had to see Lorekeeper Calendor the Keeper of Tradition in the Heartwood to get this quest.  Foruntately you only need the quest to enter, you don’t actually have to complete it.  Thank goodness.
Now the hard part, actually taming a Cu Sidhe, you have to do your best to survive threats from Satyr’s, Dryads, and Changlings, as if the Cu’s were not tought enough already.  I camped the Twisted Weld for as long as it took to be able to even tame a Cu in the first place, but when the ice white cu spawned, I nearly killed it, but alas I was victorious.  It is a prized pet I will always cherish.  Thank you.

It’s hard to believe that there was once a time when owning a boat in Ultima Online was only for the rich people. Early in my UO days I used to mine day and night to sell the ingots and crafted armor but alas I was never able to afford a boat. This is how I became a pirate. On the way to the mines in Minoc each day I would watch the ‘rich’ getting on and off their boat. I eventually got the idea that instead of trying to purchase one of these boats myself that I would just ‘relieve’ a rich player of theirs. Now day and night was spent sitting hidden next to the plank of a boat in hopes the owner would arrive. At last all the dedication had paid off. The boat’s owner came to his large dragon ship and lowered the plank so he could board, unknowing that he would have a guest on his ship today. I managed to get on the boat before the owner did. I raised the plank and I yelled to the tillerman, “Full speed forward my good tillerman!” As the boat left the shore the owner sent a barrage of arrows at me in a last ditch attempt to save his vessel. Other than a few fleshwounds, I made a clean escape with the boat. After navigating the canals of Minoc and Vesper I was free to roam the open ocean. I only had the boat a few days before it mysteriously disappeared… perhaps the ‘gods’ took it away. Neverless, for a few days, guided by a cloth map of Brittania, I was able to live in freedom and travel the oceans to visit such exotic ports as Nujelm, Jhelom, and Britain. I miss and will never forget those days.

The day was fair and adventure was calling to me like a long lost friend. I told myself that I wouldn’t go far. I was still a stranger in this land and friends had warned me of the dangers. But those friends were not here today and I needed to explore my new homeland.  Deciding that there was probably less danger around the nearby town, I decided to start exploring from there. Using the rune my friend had left me, I found myself standing in the shade of a tree right beside the busy Britain bank.  While some hurried about coming and going in the blink of an eye, others sat admiring each others fine wares. I traveled out of town across the bridge and past the stables. I traveled slow and cautiously at first but with no sign of danger, I soon left caution behind. In the distance I saw the glow of a moongate. I had traveled through one once before and was confident I could decipher it’s magic once again.
  However, upon closer examination, I found myself at a loss. I vaguely remembered my friend giving me advice about the strange gates but I couldn’t seem to remember what it was. I tried so many different options with the gate, that I had forgotten where I started. Ahh, finally a place that looked familiar! I set off to resume my exploration. As I glanced back at the moongate though, I couldn’t help thinking it looked different somehow.
  After awhile I realized the trees looked different too. What dark magic could have done this? Fear was creeping up on me and I was unsure why. I had just decided to turn back towards the moongate and try my luck again when I saw him. An odd fellow who clearly had lost a battle with one of the stronger creatures of the land was running towards me. He was yelling something but I couldn’t understand him. Remembering my bandages I quickly set to work trying to resurrect this poor soul. My bandages seem to be do nothing and he was still speaking that strange language. OooOo Ooo OoO If only I knew what he was saying! “One more try friend” I said as I noticed movement to the right.
  Then I felt it. It came out of nowhere, the burning pain of a sword piercing through me. I stood in shock as the sword found it’s mark again and my life drained away.  I found myself watching in horror as I looked down at my own body. To my side the soul I was trying to help stood watching me. He was still speaking and as the shock was wearing off I realized I could understand him now. “Watch out for that pk” In a heartbeat the advice from my friend came rushing to the front of my mind. With complete certainty I knew where I was… Felucca.

My oldest and most memorable story from Ultima Online involved one of my real life friends. Infact, he was the person who got me started playing the game. We both worked at the same company; I worked for maintenence and he was an operator. He had told me on several occasions that he wanted to be a maintenence person, but he was very colorblind and could not identify colors of wires so he could never be.
With this knowledge and access to his house and all of his belongings, I grabbed my dye tubs and began to have some fun.
During the first few weeks it was funny. It wasn’t uncommon to see him riding up on his horse in the most flamboyant colors you could imagine. His clothes were the most gorgeous shades of mauve, chatreuse, lavendar, and of course lot and lots of pinks. I took the time to always make sure his colors were always changing and he was always stylish.
This went on for a good six months. It became almost natural to see him come to our guild meetings in his favorite pink sash, sky blue cloak, deep purple floppy hat, and glowing green boots. He seemed to wear that outfit the most so I always made sure he had a few sets of them lying around for when he died and lost them. He never questioned why he had so many clothes sitting in the chests at his house.
Eventually, after several months of this, someone at Britain bank finally asked him if he was, “a very colorful person in real life or was just roleplaying one in-game?” He didn’t understand and the coversation lead to his attire and clothing colors.
It didn’t take him very long to figure out whoe the culprit was. He swore that he would get me back somehow. I still look over my shoulders from time to time expecting something but alas it has never come. To this day I still joke with him about his colorful clothing.

Our guild has a little tradition called “Ghost of the Year” where we honor the most spectacular death by a guild member in a calendar year. Over the years, there have been some jawdroppers, but this is the one case where I still cannot stop laughing when I think back on it because of the circumstances in which it happened (names withheld to protect the honoree).

A few years ago, I was going through a rough time and just did not have the desire to really do anything when I was online. My guildmates being the caring folks that they are tried everything to get me hunting to lift my spirits and I decided to go along just to be polite. One of the members wanted to get a crafted version of a hitching post which requires among other things “Animal Pheromones” obtained from “Fire Rabbits” (yes.UO really makes this stuff up – sexy scents from rabbits…). So we were off to Tokuno to hunt. The drops are a bit rare and after close to two hours we had not gotten one. Being already depressed, I wanted to quit the hunt. After debating what to do, one of our female tamers hopped off her Cu’Sidhe saying that had the answer — she would use her own pheromones to tempt the Rabbits. She then proceeded to remove all her clothing and dance around calling for the rabbits to come out and play. Being a long time tamer myself, I said rather tongue in cheek that her pet might get embarrassed if she didn’t cover up because tamers do have a reputation to keep. Right then a fire rabbit appeared. Before anyone could chase the rabbit, her Cu’Sidhe immediately attacked her instead of the fire rabbit leading to an instant OOoOoooO and a death robe to cover her up. While everyone was stunned at the death, in one of those moments of classic UO irony like cow-tipping a super cow in war mode, someone said that it just goes to show that you just never know what might come to bite you in the naked rear you wiggle when you are playing with your pheromones. I burst out laughing so hard that I couldn’t breathe for about five minutes. To this day, that remains the #1 Ghost of the Year in our guild and one of the things I think about with a smile when UO is making me work for drops. So if you play UO long enough, you truly will see things you never thought possible.

Hail! One of my most memorable days dates back to June of 1998. My best friend told me about this amazing new game with limitless possibilities. I remember my mother driving me to the store to buy this game I could not wait to play. I arrived home, opened the box, and with some help registered my account and named my very first character: a swordsman “Zygo”. I logged in and could not understand how the game worked. I just remember running aimlessly trying to find any city, anybody, or anything. Like a puppy dog I became lost in the forest for hours on end. I ran and ran and ran. When I died, I freaked out; I resurrected with penalties which was an option in those times. I was so entranced albeit frightened by the experience of truly being “lost” that I ignored family company and kept on running! Alas before I would’ve given up on this confusing new game, I came across a green patch in the woods with large brick and L-shaped houses where two characters, “Biffy” and “Buffy” of “The Nameless Ones” (TNO) on Lake Superior would welcome me as their guest. I explained as best I could that I did not know what to do. For the entire night they became my guides. They showed me the principals of the game including how to tailor, how to chop wood, how to fletch and how to use these tools to make gold! I still remember visiting the “bowyer” in Yew for the first time to train my favorite new profession. For many months afterward I knew how to find my way back to their guild town where I would frequent and visit my “old friends”. Fourteen years afterward I can look back and credit these players for showing me the way. UO has been full of highs, lows and many childhood memories that will last me a lifetime

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