Ooh... almost missed the "multiplayer" requirement. THAT would have been embarrasing. Instead, I have one of my favorite stories from my time playing MMOs. Bear with me, this'll be a (really) long one. (STS)
I give you, "The Birth of the 'OLP' (One Last Pull)"
Hmmm... Dialing the WayBack Machine to circa 2001, or so... to EverQuest, and a dedicated 'Lowbie' crew we called "The Monday Knights (who quest on Tuesday)".
The cast -
Myself: Human Monk (of this same name)
my Ma: High Elf Cleric ... Yep, my retired mum logged more hours than I did, not including her regular practice of 2-boxing in the wilds of Velious.
Gerry: Halfling Rogue and my co-conspirator
Delgar: Dwarven Paladin and our Tank
Fryes: Troll Warrior still a few levels shy of the rest of us due to joining the group a bit late
Peggy: Wood Elf Druid who was normally playing an Erudite Enchantress (you'll see this again) and all-around pain in the *ss... (along just to fill the slot)
The setting -
Temple of Cazic Thule (pre-change to being a high-level crawl... in fact, within weeks of the change. We were still camped inside AFTER, and had to do some terrifying suicide runs to get out with all of our gear intact. Well, except for me and Gerry. He snuck out, and I FD-flopped my way to the exit.)
The story -
As the monk, I was the dedicated puller and I'd taken it upon myself to learn the entire length and breadth of "The Maze", a swirl of interwoven tunnels that were patrolled by the lizardmen inhabitants of the Temple zone. A single door lead in from the courtyard where the group had set up camp. I'd run in and play tag with the patrollers and Gerry would remain at the door to click it open as I high-tailed it back. We were consistantly tearing through 2-3 mobs at a time and downtime was at a minimum as I pealed away and went for more before the last of our combatants was to fall.
It was getting late in the night and Peggy had started to complain about calling it a night. While I was in the Maze, I convinced her to let me get one more group before we broke for the night. Her response: "Fine. One last pull... but that's it."
So, I feigned death to lose the interest of my pursuers, and headed deeper into The Maze, and out the other end to the great pyramid in the far depths of the zone. I snuck my way past all of the guards and increasingly tougher warriors and up through the tiers of switchback stairs to the very top of the temple. Thankfully, the rare named spawn was absent, but I gave the avalable priest a hearty smack on the tail and headed back to my group at the far end of the zone. (Rather than keep running back and forth down the spiraling stairs, I hopped atop the outter wall and skip along the wall tops to the ground, leaving the priest to run the long way down.)
Note: With the last decade of MMOs released, many of the 'faults' of old-school EQ have been 'remedied', so some of the quirks of playing back then may need some explaining.
1) There were no "leashes". The only thing that could stop a mob from chasing you further was a zoneline. And even then, they were likely to hang about for a good long while unless left completely alone, and nothing (or no one) else gained their attention.
2) 90% of mobs were "social". If one hated you, any others of their type that they passed would hate you as well.
3) All mobs had "memories". Until one of the following occured, they would remember any players on their hate list: They died, you died, an enchanter 'mem-wiped' them, someone charmed them, or they were tricked into thinking you were dead. (aka: feigning death)
Just then, Peggy asked impatiently, "Did you get lost?"
"No, we just did our job a bit too well, and it's been tough to find anything in here. I've got a few, and headed back now."
Whispered to Gerry, "Um, not just a few. Be quick on that door when I call."
Back into The Maze I ran, and rather than just take the left-right-left-left (not 100% sure, anymore... it has been 10 years, now) it would have taken to go straight to the door, I wound my way through the ENTIRETY of the tunnels... thumping every head I saw as I ran past. To the group I finally let them know I was coming, "Um, got a few more than 'a few'..."
"How many more than 'a few'?" Delgar asked.
"DOOR!"
Gerry swung open the door and I ran out and ran a couple laps around the tree that was used to mark the "safe spot" for groups to hunker down and rest a bit between pulls.
There were only a couple of lizardmen right on my tail and we dispatched them easily. Mom actually went so far as to actually ask, "I thought you said you had some adds," JUST as a stampede of lizardmen burst through the maze door after me. (There were so many crammed together, it looked like a snake made up of lizardman bodies.) They FLOWED out into the courtyard and I took off to string them along while Delgar and Fryes could start getting their attention. The snake followed me like a perverse imitation of one of those Ducks-on-a-string toys. I only did maybe one and a half laps before feigning in a corner and then popping up again to join in the fight.
This had actually worked pretty well... The tanks had done well keeping aggro from mom, gerry and I were assisting off of Delgar's target, and then we see Peggy get stomped into the ground. One second she was there behind my mom's cleric, the next there's a crowd of lizardmen stepping off of her crumpled form and turning on the cleric. See, Peggy may have died faster than Schwarzenegger's social life, but not before mom tossed her a Heal.
Then, the game changed. Gerry and I switched from our dutiful DPS to an all-out aggro-fest. We started tabbing through targets as fast as we could get their attention. Delgar zapped mom with a Lay On Hands while doing everything he could to pull aggro as well. Fryes switched to full-on taunt-mode and we all headed toward the exit out to Feerott. Mom kept spot-healing while she could before sprinting out. Fryes, Delgar, and Gerry made it through the zoneline with a sliver of life to spare, and I was the rear guard, finally able to FD a few yards from the line. I lay there and watched as the horde of lizardmen shuffled about a bit and finally began to wander back to their spawn points and patrols. (I finally remembered my screenshot key, and snapped a few before they completely dispersed. I wish I still had that harddrive.)
Outside, we're bandaging up when we can finally take notice of the tirade from Peggy. "I'm bound in NFP?" "I can't believe you did that." "So, who else did Sang kill?" "D*MN IT, I lost my level." "Why are you guys laughing?" "Oh god, you don't have a 100% Res, yet." "Forget this, I'm going to get a guildie to Res me tomorrow." She didn't even give any of us /consent to drag her corpse to the zoneline for her... just logged out.
As to the "why" of her getting turned to paste, it goes back to that bit about normally being an enchanter. As soon as she saw the line of lizardmen, she started rooting them, one by one. When she realized that she'd be out of mana before she could get to 1/8th of the host, she switched to snaring them... one by one. Finally, the roots wore off, and after she tossed a Thorns on Delgar to help him fight, every one of the snared and previously-rooted mobs turned on her. She only got hit once (maybe twice, as mom did get a heal off on her), but by probably 10+ mobs at the same time.
And so the "OLP", or "One Last Pull" was born...
And not surpassed until the 'Great Trog Uprising' in Netherbian Lair, the 'Geonid Avalanche' in the caves of the Wakening Land, or perhaps the 'Spider Stampede of '03' in Velketor's Labyrinth... But then Velk's was always a hotspot for trainwrecks. 'The Running of Bob' was one of my favorites... I heard that that warrior actually made it back to the zoneline from Lord Doljonijiarnimorinar's castle. (more commonly known as 'Lord Bob')
From that night on, we'd end with 'One Last Pull', to test our wits and our might against whatever I could find to bring back to the group... while they waited next to the zoneline to safety, of course.... just in case.