Ultima and Tabula Rasa designer, Richard Garriott was apparently cut loose from NCSoft while still in quarantine following his much publicized trip into space. See 'Earth to Richard Garriott' for more on that.

Now, this would usually be enough to annoy a person. In the case of the ex-Lord British, it's urked him to the tune of $27 million. That is, apparently, the sum he's suing NCSoft for in a filing for 'breach of contract, fraud, and/or negligent misrepresentation'.

The full filing can be found here, courtesy of Gamepoltics. The nub of the matter is...

"As Mr. Garriott prepared to leave NCSoft, however, Mr. Garriott learned that NCsoft had internally re-characterized his termination by Mr. Chung as a "voluntary" resignation... This mischaracterization had profound and detrimental effects on Mr. Garriott's stock options: if NCsoft terminated Mr. Garriott's employment (which it did) then the options - worth tens of millions of dollars - would remain in effect until 2011; but if Mr. Garriott resigned voluntarily (which he did not), then NCsoft might have terminated those options... within ninety days of his departure..."

Included in the complaint is: "NCsoft terminated Mr. Garriott's employment while he was still in quarantine from his space flight..."

We're expecting this to be more exciting than Tabula Rasa itself.