I started playing MUME in April 1996, around my 13th birthday. I had read about MUME in an old .EXE magazine, and got interested. p(Aros) helped me getting started, being my guide and fearless leader for several months. My first characters were some hobbitses, who's memory is long lost. I slowly mapped Shire, and moved eastward, towards Bree, where beer is cheap and fight is easy to come. My main way to earn living was smuggling barrels from Shire to Bree/Fornost (did you know that throughout Shire, you can find 12 barrels of beer/wine? :)). Back then, one barrel payd 10 silver, so that was easy money, until they downgraded the cost of barrels, lowering it down to 2 silver 50 copper per barrel. From that moment, I was destinyd for abusing game mechanics, which sooner or later got downgraded.

My first legend (lev 21 was legend back then) was Mungo the Hobbit Thief, he's max level was 24 I think. I made my first PK attempts with him, dieing horribly to *Snuttan the Orc*, and several others (Snuttan was my newbie age nightmare). So, after less than a year of playing, I had myself a legend hobbit, and my thought was that if I legend a char of each class/race, then MUME is over and I can move on. Sadly, it wasnt so. Nevertheless, I quited MUME for RL issues for half of year or so.

My second stage of playing MUME started in spring of 1997, when I met p(Mammoth). We had access to Tartu University main building computers during nighttime, so we spent many hours playing there. One of the phrases that was originated from us (though others claim it not to be) was the greeting "morning!" ("ommik" in .ee), shortened form of "good morning". The trick was that we used it mainly during evening time (bout 6pm, when we woke up). Ever since, several ppl have got used to using this greeting regardless of time of day. Anyway, back to the subject. Elroh was created, and together with Gaze, we killed several orcs and trolls, me gaining my first PK experiences as follower/trapper. Also, a dwarf warrior named Paka (shortened form of Päkapikk (dwarf) in .ee) was created, and I have nightmares of Enso/some shaman fighting Paka/Gaze, with me eating 50 hp crushes through thick metal (HBM wasn't artifact back then, and ornate hadnt been imped yet). Anyway, after a while, we moved to darkie side, scaring whitescum under the names of Mammoth and Guglunk. We even got down the unkillable Holyelf in cellar, with me harming him and Mammoth buffing the rest of 7 pukes :). But as all good things dont last forever, in some time autumn 1997, I quited MUME once again, for RL issues.

Some time in early 1998, I met p(Tapja). He was a system adminstrator in Tartu University Law Studies subsection, so he was running seveal computerclasses. We labbed there, with several other .ee players (Cele, Viirastus, Durcano), bringing destruction and chaos wherever we went. Viirastus was playing his orc scout, which raised interest in me, seeing him killing pukes with one hit only. We made a deal, he'll exp me up a orc scout, I'll exp him up a puke mage. So Madcat was born, Viirastus leveled him to 21, from where I continued. The name was originally the name of one computer in the class, but I saw it fit. Here began my first SOLO pk experiences. I remeber the time I went to greenway solo for the first time. Was such a burst of adrenaline. I was the horror of newbie, same way that Snuttan was back in my newbie days. I mainly lived west, and raids to GH/BM weren't rare. In 1999, I warlorded him, being #2 warlord for quite a long time (month or so I think), but I could never pass Norsu. Once again, as all good things have to end, sneak and track were downgraded, adding extra movecost to both. This was mainly made due to the many raids of Orc scouts to western areas, so as I was one of the most often visitors there, I was one of the reasons of fuckup up thieves. I didn't want to accept I was beaten due to changes, and I went west one last time after the change. I survived, and got my exp/wps, like usual. But I used like 120 draughts for 3 hour raid to west, so it kinda proved useless. Thus I quited Madcat, and I haven't played him activly ever since. I also quited MUME for RL issues, and to make myself easier for quiting, I had Dain manually demote Elroh 17 levels (to 15th level), so I wouldnt come back again. Sadly, it didn't work.

In a while, I returned to mume, this time, on the puke side, and after some research, Engelbert was created, having 20 int 19 per, which gave him 150% track skill. I tested it once with actiontracking (which was illegal ofcourse), and figured it is as fast as one can spam. I read through the rules actions, and found a hole. I made the following script:

#action {leading %1} {#var $dir %1}
#bind {num*} {$dir}

Therefore, the num* button was always the correct direction for tracking, and according to the rules actions back then, it was legal. After all, this script still had chance of failing, and it did. For example, tracks are going west for 4 rooms in row, so I press my track button BEFORE the actual leading west message appears (cause it still has the west value from last room). Now, if the tracks suddenly turned, I stepped west instead of the new direction. Anyway, it was goddamnfast track afterall, and all legal. I usually had 1-2 warriors following me, and any BN was free exp. They ran 10 zones, only having time for bobbing (I was usually 5-6 rooms behind all the time), and eventually died moveless. Also orc scouts tended to die moveless to me. Engelbert warlorded for a while also, tho not very high (think 7th pos was highest). Soon after, the Valar Morgul Valed me, and I had 6 hour discussion with them about the legality of my actions, during what rules actions was changed 5 times. Gothmog wanted to demote me 10 levels for actiontracking, but I talked myself out of it, only getting one level demote. And after all, it was all legal. I had several other chars created also during the same time, Marko, Healer, Hairfoot were created.

In winter 2000/2001, I was working in Tallinn. I found a compter class in Tallinn Art School. I had 15ms link directly to MUME from there, making it the fastest link I'v ever played from. I asked p(Tapja) to lend me his BN (which he had traded for himself looooong ago), namely, Athyr. I wanted to see if I like playing BN. I liked, my main PK guidline was storequaking in Tharbad. I warlorded him easily, highest spot was 5th I think, and also got him several levels. But then I got bored of him, and looked for new challenges. One fine night I noticed a guy next to me playing MUME also. We quickly got to know each other. This guy was Zeroth. I begged him 2 days to buff my bn, and told him it would be worth it. After 2 days, he accepted, and Cigam was created, name created after my swedish friend's bn, Cagim. Though, in a month or so, I renamed him Nazalbeth, cause Cagim had linklesskilled several ppl, and ppl started accusing me instead of Cagim.

At the time of the creation of Nazalbeth, I promised Nazgum, Zeroth, and several other ppl that I legend AND warlord him in 36 hours. That happened. I exped in moria till level 21, being in mostly fullset already then, then PKd till 26, and warlorded at 35th hour play time. We could only play 2 nights per week together, but I was more than enough. We got 800k-1,4mil per 8 hour play time, levelling Zeroth from 45 to 55, and Nazalbeth to 38. Zeroth was the best labmate/follower I'v ever had, he just KNEW which way I went if we got separated, and how my mana was etc. We had lots of fun, like kicking the shit out of 7 21-35 level dwarves near Tharbad (3 died, rest ran), etc etc etc. I wouldn't like to repeat myself AGAIN, but all good things end. I moved back to Tartu, cos I lost my job (and I won't say why :)), and Zeroth moved back to Pärnu, where he lived. I went to army, Nazalbeth stayed on warlords for several weeks after I left.

In winter 2001/2002, I got a new job in Tallinn, this time as database programmer in MS Access/SQL. I didn't have much free time at work, so I took myself free time for playing MUME. Trazsh was created, after the name Brazsh, who was my groupmate/friend then, and leveled to 40. Not hard to understand what happened, so I moved back to Tartu, having gained some cash, and another legend, making it the 10th in my account.