Black Ops 2: Another origin story

I kid, I kid. All four of us got that 40g Staff achievement

And we reached Level 24 again. This time with four players. Kind of...

Coxxorz did not join us until level 12. It took him a couple of levels to catch up with weapons, money and perks.

SeanMCR on the other hand deserted us at Level 18. The string between his two tin cans in Fort McMurray broke. It took him 10 minutes to get back online and join us again. Those knots can be tough.

Still on Level 18 though as we waited for him.

To continue...

The first thing we made Coxxorz do once he joined us was make him build and upgrade the staff of fire. It's a simple process really, here I will detail it for you.

Upgrading the Staff
Once the player has picked up the Staff of Fire, they must return to The Crazy Place, and solve the riddle located on the Fire part of the map, where the gateway back is located. The player simply has to use the staff to kill zombies while they are on the metal grates in order to light up the nearby cauldrons. One will know it is working when zombies explode into a cloud of smoke on death, and the cauldrons with the symbols will all be lit and once all four are done, an audio cue by Samantha will signify that the riddle has been solved.
Origins decoded
Fire staff upgrade decoding.
Once the riddle in The Crazy Place has been completed, the player must return to the original realm and solve the riddle there. On the basement floor of the church, there are several unlit torches with several numbers on them, along with an unlit torch with a bloodstain below it (which represents the number 4). Using patterns found on the main church floor walls, the player must convert those patterns using the ternary numeral system into numbers. Using the symbols that are lit up and having converted them, the player must now use the Staff of Fire to light up the corresponding torches in the basement. The symbols (from left to right) are: 11, 5, 9, 7, 6, 3, and 4.
The player now has to return to the bottom of the Excavation Zone, where there is now a fire orb. Now in the lower section of the Excavation Zone align the rings above the fire orb via the four switches scattered around in this same area so that all the gems are red. The player with the Staff of Fire must shoot the fire orb, which will cause the orb to fly into the air and return to The Crazy Place. Once done, the player must now go back to The Crazy Place, where the staff can be placed onto the Fire pedestal. The player must kill zombies in The Crazy Place, so that the zombie "souls" get attracted to the staff and power it up. After killing a fair amount of zombies, an audio cue by Samantha will indicate to the player that the staff is powered up and upgraded to Kagutsuchi's Blood. The staff can now be picked up by any player. (from Call of Duty Wiki

Simple, no?

Each staff has a similar (but not the same) process of upgrading. We had finished three of them before Coxxorz joined. Then we led him around by the nose until he finished the procedure.

Once all four staffs were upgraded we could trade them amongst ourselves until all four of us held each other's staff.

"Here, you take my staff."

"No, no you take my staff."

"Here, have you held my staff yet?"

Yes. There was no way to keep our conversation clean. No way.

Still, 40 G.

It was also possible that SeanMCR did something boneheaded again. Like trade his Upgraded Light Machine gun for his staff instead of his empty, purchased of the wall, AK74U. Possible. Even likely.

He also may have made the mistake of telling us about it.

Graybush, though, almost topped SeanMCR but stood behind his "it was mostly an accident" argument to give SeanMCR the clear (bonehead) lead.

The Origins zombie map takes place in an Archeological dig site and has this little skull piles all over that you dig up with our shovel.

These piles cough up goodies like staff parts, power ups, weapons, money and less goodies like zombies and live grenades.

While I say weapons I must clearly state that they are weak. starting level weapons: the default pistol, a single shot rifle, a weak sniper rifle and a shotgun. After a certain Level you no longer pick them up unless it is to get an achievement. One we all had already.

Both Coxxorz and Graybush dug up the same pit at the same time. Coxxorz won and dug up the default starting pistol (the Mauser C96).

Graybush lost and grabbed the pistol, replacing his upgraded Staff of Lightning. Whoops.

And then he told us about it.

There were several other achievement earned by individuals across the evening but everbody's favourite was the one that demonstrated how Call of Duty does not know me at all: