Visit The DDK Club

It was the summer of 1998 Maria had just graduated Massage School. She found herself home alone on a Friday night without having any homework or studying to do, so she decided to check out the new computer her brother Louis installed for her.

She never used a computer before and didn't even know how to turn it on, so she phoned her brother at work to ask for help. He walked her through turning on the computer step by step and explained how to get on line. He told to go to Yahoo and "Play"

So for hours Maria read the terms of service, the privacy policy and anything else she could to explain how to use Yahoo. She stumbled across Yahoo games, but needed to create a profile to play. After the third try, Maria was now known as Shadow Magic 22.

She played in Yahoo checkers for a few days, trying to learn a little bit here and there. Someone told her about "Yahoo Pager" but she didn't understand how to download it. A few minutes later, she was booted from Yahoo's server and when she reentered Checkers the person she was playing with wasn't in the lounge.

Instead of giving up, she went to the main lounge to ask someone for help. Over 70 people where in that room, but no one seemed willing to help her find her new friend, until Dug answered her distress call.

Dug sent a message to the person Shadow was playing with asking to return to the lounge. Shadow thanked Dug profusely, promising to return and play a few games with him.

The following evening, Shadow found Dug in the same Checkers lounge and thanked him again. They played checkers for a few nights, chatting and getting to know one another.

One evening Dug wasn't on line yet, so Shadow ventured and played a game with someone new, Celticthunder. They played a few games until Celtic said "brb". After over 10 minutes of waiting, Dug came on line, so Shadow gave up waiting for Celtic.

The following evening, Shadow saw Celtic in the lounge again, so she joined his room and made a joke, by asking him if he went to china when he said brb. So the two continued to play checkers and chat all night.

A few more night passed and Shadow had the opportunity to introduce Celtic and Dug to each other. The three instantly became friends. Celtic and Shadow would help Dug with homework, Dug would help Shadow learn the Internet, and they would both tease Celtic, just for the fun of it. One of the jokes they teased Celtic about was calling him a chicken.

Dug was getting a little frustrated with Shadow's Internet lessons, since she still couldn't properly install Yahoo Pager. (Before it was called Messenger) Before long he nicknamed her his Damsel in Distress, while she dubbed him her Knight for all his help.

Finally a light bulb went on, and she was learning how to download and save, and even installed Pager. So to surprise Dug, she changed her name to Damsel in Ddestress (since Damsel in Distress was taken) and sat in the Checkers lounge waiting for him to find her.

Since she now had Pager, she saw when Dug came on line, so she sent him a message telling him she was waiting in Checkers for him. Once he entered the lounge, he sent her a message back saying he couldn't find her. She told him to look carefully and he would.

Dug entered the Checker's room where Damsel was waiting, and thought it was very cute that she changed her name. He immediately left the room with a brb, and returned as Knight in Shining Armor. The two of them laughed and joked all night until Celtic logged in.

Damsel and Knight chatted on pager, while watching to see when Celtic would enter the checkers lounge. It didn't take long for him to send a message asking where they were, because he didn't see them in checkers. Damsel replied to him using her Shadow name, and told him to look carefully and he would find her.

Finally he realized the two had changed their name and he joined them. Now it was up to him to create a new name. At first he came back with court jester, however neither Damsel or Knight liked it. Celtic thought for a little while, then left to create his new name, returning as Chicken Little Dragon. The three of them laughed and laughed, knowing it was fitting.

Each night Damsel would meet the Dragon and Knight in checkers. They were becoming a spectacle in the lounge. People would enter their checkers room just to see what they were doing. Slowly the three took on their new names as characters and would reply to visitors in their room in character…..without any of them ever having role played before.

In October 1998, Damsel logged into Yahoo one night and noticed a banner saying you could create your own club. Since Damsel was still in distress, she asked her Knight to create the club, in fear she would mess it up. The Knight went off to create his Damsel a club, however they needed a name.

Over Pager, they tried to figure out a name for their new hang out. The Knight finished creating the new hang out and told Damsel he named it "The DDK". Confused by the name, she asked him what it meant. He explained it stood for The Damsel, Dragon and Knight. However Damsel decided she wanted to be the middle D so her two guys could always protect her.

So the Dragon, Damsel and Knight moved into their new Yahoo Club and the rest they say is history.