The Rise and Fall of THB (as I know it)
The main Characters
Plumbellina Gm THB(Europa)
Lechuck (guild member)
Wotan (Aka LeChuck)
Leaf boy aka Papa smurf Aka Flynn
I'm devoting a whole page to this because it is a long and messy business
Text of Story as posted to the forums
Ok
The great tower scam
This is how it went,
Step 1
Lechuck ( a THB(Europa) member if you didn't know ) Brought a large tower for 10 mill, he
didn't quite have enough money so I Lent him 670k out of guild funds, because he said that he wanted to move back to Tram and the guild could have the tower for the same price as he paid for it, the Balance was going to be loaned to us by Gul Lumberjack, but I had difficulty calling on Gul, so it went on for about a week.
I offered to pay Lechuck the rest of the money the guild had, which amounted to 1.8 mill making a total of 2.4 mill, but he refused and said he wanted it all at once but that there was no hurry, so the cheque went into a chest in the tower.
He let Plumbellina move in and co owned her, she in turn moved over all the guild maps, Library, Runes, Stone in fact everything that belonged to the guild and everything was fine for a while.
Step 2
I was off line when I got a call from LeChuck asking how long it would be before I could give him the money as he had been offered a 24gm account in exchange for the tower, so I logged in to find out what was happening.
Step 3
Lechuck and a character called Leaf boy (AKA Papa Smurf AKA Flynn, I've found out since), came to the tower and Lechuck explained to me that he had taken the cheque from the chest (I'm not quite sure
why) and the tower was going to be handed over to Leaf boy, who would be the new landlord of THB until we came up with the rest of the money, I said in no uncertain terms that I was not happy with the arrangement, but he insisted, and the deal went ahead. Lechuck left and
I was left with Leaf Boy, who asked me if I was going to be in game for long as he was moving a deal for 6+ mill, I took it he
didn't want me around while he did it so I logged.
Step 4
When I logged in again about 30 mins later, LeChuck and another char called Jeewee were there, and I was no longer co owner, I asked what was going on and was told that Leaf Boy had sold the tower to Jeewee and we no longer owned it and further more he had been ripped
off for the 24xGM account which was worthless.
Step 5
A GM was called and, surprise surprise he said he could do nothing (if UO were real life it would be a confidence trick, get your act together OSI).
The present owner said that he had great sympathy but this was his UO life's work and he could do nothing, he offer to donate a small tower to the guild but his
ICQ turned out to be
false ( either that or I copied it out wrong ).
Conclusion
Lechuck is left with nothing, he is threatening to leave UO for good, the guild has lost out
The tower, the money, the maps ( about 50 all told, some of which were mine ) all decoded fortunately, A shit load of chest loot that I had earmarked for auction for the guild funds and sundry other items.
Appendum
As it turned out the present owner has turned out to be a decent sort of bloke and he has given back most of the stuff, and he has
promised a small tower, which will go someway to compensation, Thanks Jeewee.
This missive will be posted on all BBSs and forums that appertain to UO that I can find.
Text of ICQ conversation with Flynn (Aka Leaf boy Aka Papa Smurf)
--------------------------------------
ICQ History Log For:
64243487 F L Y N N
Started on Sun Jul 01 20:35:04 2001
--------------------------------------
F L Y N N 01/07/20 15:17 Hiya
Plumber 01/07/20 15:20 hi
F L Y N N 01/07/20 15:20 he will have fun with the acc hehe, there is a
log near brit in tram
Plumber 01/07/20 15:24 :)
F L Y N N 01/07/20 15:25 can i e=tell u the info u check it and tell him
to transfer i dont wanna be scammed with acc
Plumber 01/07/20 15:26 yea ok np
F L Y N N 01/07/20 15:26 me neither, cept on mark but he rl m8
Plumber 01/07/20 15:27 its not my money but the guilds and i should hate
to let them down by being scammed you can
understand that
F L Y N N 01/07/20 15:27 hehe i dont scam i have a rep to hold
Plumber 01/07/20 15:28 yes with all due respect i dont know you and
wotan has let me down a couple of times in the
past
F L Y N N 01/07/20 15:31 .... id tell u the info but me scared atm
F L Y N N 01/07/20 15:33 how long before this guy can give u the dosh?
F L Y N N 01/07/20 15:33 can u do me a favour?
F L Y N N 01/07/20 15:33 the mage in this account, has a good pvping
reputation, try not make him lose it ?
Plumber 01/07/20 15:34 ok
Message from Magellan THB(International)
First of all..."guild funds." You're
the only Shard master in two years to take collections from the members...and
you already had a guild house. What were the funds for? Despite what you seem to
think, I like to be kept abreast of what's happening in my guild.
Second...even assuming that taking money from the members was in the spirit of
the guild, why would you then loan that money to someone?
Third, assuming that was ok, why would you then leave checks for huge
amounts of money sitting in the building and not in the bank?
Fourth, what are your plans to repay the guild members that have lost their
money?
Reply from Plumbellina and the subsequent removal
Hi there, I have deleted your post quoted below, as it breaks the RoC in a few areas. Please understand this is not out of personal motivations, I am all for reasonable debate on the boards, but must step in when the RoC is broken. Please refrain from flaming, personal attacks and "trolling" posts. This is not a formal warning, just a reminder.
Thanks
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I am sick to the back teeth of you and your juvenile caustic remarks, if you think you can do any better get over to
Europa and do it because I resign, you sit there as though you bloody own us, Your guild indeed, the guild house is my house which
I worked hard for over a three year period, ah what's the use of talking to a pillock like you, take it as read
(The original, albeit, in a somewhat terser form was posted and deleted from the THB (International site)
this was my next posting
Thank you for your support in this matter, what would we do without you, its a shame you cant moderate all the forums and you could then delete any post that upset you, as you did mine on the THB forum, (shades of censorship, Big brother is watching you) instead of looking for faults in the running of the guild why
don't you show a little sympathy to the poor soul it happened to and condemn the con artist who did it.
As you well know I've resigned my position as Gm of the THB(Europa), mainly due to the way you talk down to the people you are supposed to be supporting, this is the second way you have spoken to me in that tone, the first time I ignored it for the sake of the guild, but you are not going to get away with it again, you act like some
immature child, do what I say or I will take my toys and go home and you wont be able to play with them, You do not own us, we run the guild as we see fit, with the support of our members, our membership has increased (no in fact there was no membership when I took on Gm) from nothing to nearly 40 members on Europa shard, the members have the last word in every thing I do, if they say no then its no.
The house you speak of, is my own house which I have worked for over the past 3 years and
I am not having anyone else telling me what to do or not do with it and as it is a log cabin it has become a little small for the number of people using it not to mention rune libraries gm boxes and god knows what guild gear and the lack of
privacy, so the members were approached with the fund raising idea to buy a tower for the guild and in the main they all supported it, I put in 1.6mill of my own money and if you had bothered to check you would have seen that the donations were by way of a loan which would be
paid back.
If you had bothered to ask any of the members or indeed the clients we have worked for I feel positive that they would have supported me whole heartedly.
Anyway to all those who are asking 'what now for Europa' the answer is nothing will change, the guild will go on as before, same name, same GM, the only thing that will happen is that if you want to join then you will come through me instead of their remote highnesses, and fear not all those who have hired us in the past you have our icqs, we look forward to serving you in the future.
Explanation to Avata (STL posting)
All this
happened in the space of a few hours, and in between everything that was
happening in UO, I'm trying to let guild members know what is happening so
consequently the story got a bit garbled Ill try and shed some light on it
Lechuck could not afford the tower, but the one he had in Fel Brit swamps was
Killing him, literally, so he had an offer for a large tower for 10 mill (lets
face it, it was a good price) but did not have quite enough money, he asked for
a loan but he already knew that he would be moving back to Tram and this was a
stopgap till he could raise enough for a tram tower ( which would be much more
expensive ) and as a guild member and as part of the loan deal, he would let the
guild have it at the original buying price.
The guild had been trying to raise funds for a tower and had amassed 2.4 mill,
with a promise from a Canadian member, to loan the guild the remainder of the
10mill as soon as he got back on line, being a Canadian he plays at strange
times to the rest of us in Europe (no offence), but he hasn't been online for
more than a week, so no more money was forth coming at this time, but it didnt
matter as Lechuck had said there was no hurry.
So the deal was done, he co owned the guild GM and everything was fine, until he
got another offer he could not refuse, (the 24Xgm Tram based account), then it
started going pear shaped for him and indirectly for the Guild.
THB is built largely on trust of your fellow members, lets face it who wants to
hire an untrustworthy T hunter 
, so as far
as the guild was concerned it was a reasonable situation, as for stupidity, its
not for me to say, personally I would not have been caught up in it, but I was
indirectly involved.
The 2.4 mill was offered to him as a down payment until we received the rest
from our Canadian friend, but he wanted it all at once when we received it, so
the cheque was deposited in a chest in the tower because I was logging at the
time and I intended it to go to the bank when I logged back in (within the hour,
it was lunch time) while at lunch the whole mess occurred and bearing in mind I
had already offered the 2.4 mill he used the check as part of the deal.
It was a scam by Leaf boy he had no intention of keeping the tower, he intended
to sell it all the time, he already had a customer for it.
Unfortunately I cant tell you what was happening in LeChuck mind or with his
bank account or indeed what was happening in the background, the story in all
its Garbled ness, is a warning about scamming in general and Leaf boy in
particular as well as a narrative about my own particular misery .
Hope this goes some way to explaining what happened.
This is the text of a conversation I had with Magellan some time ago which goes some way to explain how I feel about about THB(International)
Magellan 05/04/20 23:37 You and I need to talk. I just recieved an email
from someone saying that you turned them away
from the guild because they wouldn't quit their
current guild and join the THB guildstone. Want
me to quote DIRECTLY FROM THE CHARTER?
"The Treasure Hunters of Britannia realizes that
many Treasure Guides are already part of a Guild,
and wish to remain in that Guild while still
being a part of the THB."
Magellan 05/04/20 23:37 I suggest you read the charter. NOW. Like you
should have before you signed up as Shardmaster.
Plumber 06/04/20 04:25 I did read the charter m8 and I dont appreciate
being talked to in that tone of voice, the way I
look at it, I put in a hell of a lot of work for
this guild, not to mention time and the fact that
I have contributed my house as a guild house, set
up and moderate a europa web site and forum and
numerous other things that you as remote as you
are, are not aware of.
Plumber 06/04/20 04:28 so the least I can expect from these people is
that they join the europa branch and contribute
in some way towards the Guild and my efforts.
perhaps the charter is wring on this point, if
you are not happy with the way I run it, you can
have my resignation now, bearing in mind, we have
nearly 20 members now and 9 more waiting to join
Plumber 06/04/20 04:32 I have recieved no help from you or anyone else
in setting up the guild, it has been entirely
left to me so allow me to set the rules on my own
shard, we supply help to anyone who wants it, we
have a full t spot and dungeon chest rune
library, 200+ chests for lockpicking, all set up
at my time and expense.
Plumber 06/04/20 04:35 we have maps to give to young t hunters for
practise, the house is public for any one to use
these facilities, we hire out on a regular basis,
so why should we give free advertising for people
and get nothing in return, bearing in mind these
applications come directly to me and I have to
put in the extra work involved so that they can
take work from my members, yea i should coco
Plumber 06/04/20 04:36 and it may have been more diplomatic of you to
contact me to ask my point of view before talking
to me like that.
Magellan 06/04/20 23:07 Look. That has been in the charter since *day
one*. None of the other Shardmasters have had any
problems with it at all.
When Blackheath and I created the guild, we
created it for *everyone*. Not just everyone who
isn't already in a guild.
*Any* changes that major should be brought to me
first. And you definitely didn't do that, because
I *know* the answer would have been no.
Magellan 26/05/20 22:25 Don't suppose you'd mind explaining "provisional"
and "full" members to me, would you?