Well, it certainly looks like the 17th anniversary celebration for Ultima Online was a smashing success. Richard Garriott turned up in the persona of Lord British, marking the first time in many, many years that Lord British has officially been seen in Britannia.

Of course, Exodus appeared partway through the celebrations, turning the celebration in the throne room at Blackthorn’s Castle into something more like a massacre. Things weren’t helped with Minax — decked out in a bikini and pink sunglasses, for some reason — also turned in an appearance. And it would even seem that Lord British’s old nemesis, Rainz, was present for the festivities…although I don’t think Lord British forgot to activate his invulnerability this time (nor, I suspect, did Rainz throw out a fire field).

There’s also a new chapter of the story surrounding Lord British’s return to the game available on the Ultima Online website, for those of you who take an interest in such things. Minax is also mentioned briefly within it; perhaps the tale being woven by EM Drosselmeyer will soon explain just what transpired to result in the massacre aforementioned.

On a more mundane front, Broadsword Online Games have posted a lengthy set of patch notes for Publish 86, detailing all the various changes and updates made thereto in recent days. They also had to pull the Legends shard offline recently for emergency maintenance, although I would assume it is back up by now.