Well, my email is overflowing with requests for this story, so here goes.

If you aren't familiar with the Vex Thal key quest, it's fairly annoying.  You have to go around killing specific mobs in 10 different zones to collect 10 different pieces that combine with some other stuff to make the completed key.  Of all the 10 camps for these pieces, Maiden's Eye is by far the worst one.  For some odd reason, the piece from Maiden's only drops off named Goranga's.  So, instead of it just being an uncommon drop on a common mob (like in the other 9 camps), it's a fairly common drop on rare mobs.  This turns out to make the actual camp annoyingly time consuming.

This map helps things make sense, if you aren't familiar with the layout of Maiden's Eye:

A few weeks ago, I was helping some friends camp Maiden's Eye for the Vex key piece that drops there.  We'd been camping it for several days at that point, without a single drop.  So, after having camped it for a few hours that morning, we were pretty disappointed to see several Casus Belli members run through our camp and set up their camp just over the hill from us (near the Prophet spawn).  There weren't enough named spawn placeholders to even keep our small group busy, much less to share with our competition.  That's life though.  We all pay the same money to play, so we have to share.

Now, if you've ever camped this part of Maiden's Eye before, you probably see the problem with where they choose to camp.  They were right on the path of several roamer paths.  I don't know if they're really that inexperienced in the zone, or were just trying to find a spot to squeeze into since we were already well established in the better spot.  Another important thing about fighting in Maiden's Eye is that there are traps every few feet that spawn mobs.  So, if you try to kite or pull through the wrong path, you get a line of adds a mile long.

Of course, both our groups are in a total feeding frenzy after a few minutes, trying to make sure we're the one that's standing near a named if it finally spawns.  Keep in mind that CB is camped on top of a few roamer paths.  So, their camp is a pretty busy place.  During the first few hours we were there, it was a miracle if we went 15 minutes without hearing random_cb_member01 shout about a train to zone.  They obviously weren't able to handle the camp spot they were at.

Finally, a named spawns.  The Forager (see map for location).  I'm practically standing next to him.  Go me.  I pull him toward our camp right away, due South.  He's a druid, and casts a ton.  So, I'm kiting his buddies in a small zig zag to keep them off me but stay in pursuit range of the Forager while he empties his mana on me.  What do I see next?  Illusior runs up to the Forager and agros him off me.  Being a monk, I don't really have a way to out-agro an enchanter on a pull.

At this point we're pretty frustrated.  I run back to our camp to watch them finish off our mob.  After days of camping, this is what it comes to.  Wonderful. 

What happened next was hard to believe.  I see Illusior run into the CB camp with the Forager in tow.  I guess he hadn't realized how all the trap mobs work though, because in addition to the Forager, he had a long line of mobs that he'd spawned on the way back to camp.  Combine this with all of the adds they already had from sitting on a roamer path, and they had a huge mess in their camp.  They start kiting all of their adds and roamers, trying to focus on the Forager.  Of course, that just started spawning more trap mobs. 

Their trains started picking up trap/roamer mobs like a good looking EQ woman picks up fan boys, and they started dying from the adds.  The Forager lost agro once, when Illusior died, but Arbok ran out of their camp and engaged it before we could do anything.  We stand and watch him killing it while Guimou trains the rest of their million mob train around.  One of the neat things about Druid mobs though, is that they gate.  So, after Arbok got him to about 10%, he gated.  Part of Guimou's train broke off and killed Arbok.  So now, we have a CB paladin running around in circles on his horse with half the zone chasing him and more adding all the time, and the Forager back at spawn non-agro.

I immediately run to the Forager's spawn point...  You know, where I pulled him from to begin with.  He's there, back up to about 75% health.  I jump him right there on his spawn point, alone, and start killing him.  After I have him almost dead, I see Guimou running toward me with his entire train in tow.  I close my eyes, curl my toes, grit my teeth, and prepare to get destroyed by his train.  No way I'm gonna FD at this point though.  Either I kill the Forager or I die.  Since half the mobs in the train are undead, I assume at least those will be all over me when they pass through, but nothing sticks.  Like some kind of EQ miracle karma, the entire train passes right over top of me while I'm still engaged with the Forager.  This repeats probably five times while I'm finishing it off.  I finish killing it. My guildmate runs over and loots the shard.  The good guys win!

Of course, you can't look at CB the wrong way without them petitioning for something or another.  I guess that's what it's like having a GM in your pocket?  Well, after I thought we were done with the mess, this is what ensued:

Apparently, they thought that I trained them.  Who cares that they'd been training all day, due to their poor camp spot and kiting mobs through traps...  No, they had to have some reason, other than the fact that they just couldn't figure out some of the most basic concepts of the game.  Well, after we /reported and /petitioned what they had to say (especially Illusior's "You can blow me" to a female friend of mine that was there), I guess the GM thought they were morons too.  It was especially funny how Brioma's name was tossed around, but she wasn't online and never contacted any of us.  I guess some people just love to hear themselves talk?  I must say, the zone was much nicer after they were gone.  Those big trains of theirs were funny to watch, but really got old.

Someone else there in camp with me said it best: "CB even has to zerg shard camps!"