November 2013 Highlights

I had a lot of anxiety going into this event. Mainly because work last week had me getting home at the earliest 8PM every night and somehow Jenn and I got the bright idea that cooking and planning feast would be fun. So Anxiety.

Friday Night:
*Tending Bar at Layon was fun. Its always fun to interact with new players, make them cut deals "I'll give you a discount but you have to buy someone a drink later on."
*Pie Feast! Making pies with Sam, Jenn and Crystal was a lot of fun. From Cheater Pies to Pumpkin Pies. The kitchen was SO warm. I didn't notice that it had gotten cold until we left the kitchen at 2 or 3 am.
*Valarian RP with Will and Sam

Ekat: MERIKA!
M: Yeah
E: I have a horrible idea. I need you to bring him back.
M: Ok.

This is what best friends do. They don't ask questions when you ask them to revive someone who's in crit, just walloped on you and your friends and potentially about to kill you. Everyone involved in this scene (Will, Sam, Cameron, NPC who i didn't see the face of) You all did awesome!

Saturday:
Pancakes! Mary I love you!
Feast Cooking! Getting the turkeys in early and just having side dishes to work on. Everything went super smoothly. I was happy with how Juicy the piece of turkey I got was. Feast tasted great. Thank you to everyone who told me they enjoyed it. And Thank you to Everyone that stopped in and helped us out with chopping veggies, washing dishes, lifting heavy things, cutting turkey. And of course Thank you to everyone who helped serve the feast

Challenging the bloke to honor combat post main mod. I'm actually disappointed you didn't do it. But I was just informed people on the steps heard the challenge... I didn't think I was being that loud.

Sunday:
Learning the things!
Sweeping the camp for "stragglers" on the way to Queen Mod
Post Queen Mod RP. Including leaving the Queens Dust on the Valosian Alter in a pot.

Jack_Dimms wrote: Oh god.... I can't remember exactly how it was led into, but Jack announced he could beat any woman in honor combat which got him a beating from Arden. After taking such a beating, Jack found himself infatuated with Arden and proceeded to chase her around whenever he saw her, yelling out his love for her and how he wished her to be his wife. Just oh man, it was so hard to do this, I really almost broke a few times doing this.

I don't even know how to react to this situation anymore, I'm carrying around brawlers all game now because of you.

I think I cried the most this weekend than ever before at KR.

Friday:
-Trying to help Zach's Voice of Selendrias then hearing the awful news about Caelvan's family (which is practically Keavy's as well) and bawling in Annora's lap.
-Feeling empty, realizing that I would have to tell Caelvan at some point. Then standing by as they asked Zach's NPC for details.
-Valerians!
-Being present for the weave mending.

LM Shift at 2!

After getting off shift, seeing Caelvan and wanting to tell him what happened.

Saturday:
Elawyn: If Typhon went and got bagel sandwiches for us, that would guarantee his spot as squire.
Erdrick: He would surely hop on his shield and fly out the door.
DANI: I have to draw this. -proceeds to draw Typhon flying on shield.-

Finally telling Caelvan what happened. Seeing him tough it out was sad and cool at the same time.

Learning Jump and Eagle Eyes from Kleidin

Heroic Druid mod AKA The Malorn Tree mod. I believe at one point I was biting at someone's leg as a last resort.

HEROIC DRUID IS SO COOL

Learning we are going to war, and being assigned Oakroot to be my battle partner. -"I'm watching you" gesture-

Getting a moment with the Voice of Selendrias to hear the details about Caelvan's family (and other clan member's) deaths.

Orias talking about the battle plan. Alex, my heart literally dropped and fluttered when you said "Keavy is my partner." Once I realized it was an example, I regained composure, but damn, haha

More valerians!

Mages send out Arcanite! It uses eat magic! It's Super effective!
Travance sends out Billiam McKreager! Billiam uses Punch-the-crap-out-of-Arcanite! It's super effective!
Arcanite faints!
Repeat steps 1-3.

Feast. Found out abruptly that Keavy wasn't chosen as squire.

Finding out diplomacy worked in Travance?

Emotional conversations with Caelvan and then with Elawyn. This crying bout with Kristen helped me figure out Keavy's character a lot OOG. Then we proceeded to battle the undead haha

Dwarven mine! It was like an Indiana Jones movie, only everything when horribly wrong! But we still had a near death escape!

Sunday:
Valerians! For the last time!! Gannon scared me and made my battle by jumping out the end of a caravan as I came to fight him when I found him through Gift of the Predator. He didn't hesitate at all, and I had tried to grab him last second. It was pretty epic.

Learn ALL THE THINGS.
Crushing Blow from Lathiel
I enjoyed the relaxing wall of thorns lesson from Caelvan under a tree.
and bought myself some more tag skills and Druid points!

Can't wait for the ball! I know exactly what I'm learning. Something I've been wanting to learn for the longest time now >: D
I also can't wait for the next Heroic lists! I'm dying to see the Ranger, Chaos Warrior, and Berserker lists!

I think the Voice might be my favorite NPC role in 6 years.

Conor, Dave, it was a pleasure working with the both of you. By our powers combined...

My #1 highlight was the compliment Katie Moyer gave me on Friday night after my mod.

i had fun. thanks to ben theis for running a solid weekend, and thanks also to doug evans and the rest of the team that dreamed up the valerian plot originally. fighting people is always more fun and dynamic than nameless demons and monsters. i point to the drama and excitement of this event, and the similar emotion surrounding mr devoe's late spring revolution. more of this, please!

some highlights:

keath g and alex t's consistent and satisfying combat roleplay. i was on both ends of their combat performance this weekend, being given a stylistic thrashing at the hands of their dwarves, and later returning the favor by slaughtering alex's psion and duking it out with keath's knight. always a pleasure.

i had several conversations with newer players that i enjoyed immensely. meeting folks first as a character is always a blast. avi the buccaneer, owen the squire, eolian the lady in armor, and the cleric of valos whose name escapes me all provided fresh and enjoyable exchanges.

morwenne. there are few characters that have existed as long as alicia's pc, and virtually none that have remained so faithful to their concept without becoming stale. friday/sunday conversations were awesome!

from the same old school is brian hahn's cinder. i had a blast sparring and learning. we archetypes and old men need to stick together!

watching jed bat cleanup saturday afternoon by the alisandrian camp.

zafron, moirya, and the battle no one realized they won. <3 rogues

louis understanding that calling damage and counting out killing blows can be cumbersome. the wordless gurgles after having his throat cut did wonders for the scene. that poor archer will have nightmares.

jen W. as the baroness. my foremost frenemy, she was awesome as usual. the relationship between our pcs ranks high on the list of reasons i show up to these things.

Wow, that was a great event. I loved the Valerian plot, where morals came into play, and tensions rose as everyone conflicted with the decision to kill or not.
The new people were great. They were able to immerse themselves into the land very well. Can't wait to see more of them!

Highlights:

Friday discussion of theology and religious warfare with Duncan. Nothing starts an event better than finding out about a bunch of religious zealots planning to slaughter us.
Seeing the Valerians, and the talk with Gwynith about what to do.
NPCing for Bill's rogue mod. Being a thief stealing from the same safehouse as the rogues guild was twice as interesting as I thought it was going to be. Props to Nutmeg and her plan to "scarecrow" me.
The first arcanite.
More Valerians!!!
Bandits and the "fun-time baronial resort".
Getting my ear cut off and my insides messed with by a goblin physician. Strangely ticklish
The scene with the templar and Orias Wormwood. Alex, you are giving me nightmares.
The final arcanite. Still not scarier than Orias Wormwood.
NPCing for the adventurer's guild mod as one of the golems.
Sunday's capturing of the queen. I was useful for once!!!
Overall, amazing event. Can't wait for next time!

What an awesome first event!! Thank you Ben for the awesome story. I really enjoyed the mixing of big valerian battles with arcanites (arconites?). Now I understand everything that Jen (Croi) has been talking about and I regret not coming to Travance sooner, but I thank her for finally getting me to come out.

The new player walk around in the dark was exciting. Forgetting my shield back at the barn was not, thank you Croi, again, for getting that.

Big thank you to Lorelai for being an awesome New Player Marshal and pretty much letting me stick to you for the better part of the event. You were great. NPC shift with you and Tris on Sunday was also fun. Being humble mercenaries just looking to be paid, to the fire elemental aka Adorable: The Mod.

Getting to wear plate armor and turning heads. That's what's up.

Billliamm and his lessons, I especially enjoyed the one on all of the different gods. Then guilting me into going and rescuing a kid from lizards. Also getting slaughtered by him during my NPC shift was also, surprisingly, a lot of fun.

Teaming up with Gorvax and Alander and getting sh*t done with the lizard/bounty hunter/ Jeffrey(was that the guys name? I don't remember) Mod. I'm interested to see how that will play out.

Alander RIPPING OFF HIS BEARD at feast, scooping out chili with goblets, and our quest for pies.

Croi's song about butts, and just her being Croi. Thank you Jen for answering all my questions and being amazing the whole weekend.

The last arconite battle was crazy, as well as the velarian undead battle.

Cleaved one of our own during battle and then shared a long drink with Wormwood. Thank you, Alex so much, cause that was the best RP conversation of the whole event.

Getting back into Winterdark late at night to go to sleep and subsequently setting off the traps, losing all my limbs and receiving 200 damage. What a way to end the night.

Thank you, everyone else, cause you were all apart of making this whole event awesome. I will for sure be coming back :)

--Eolian

OOG: Becky


THE BEAR!!! I forgot to mention the bear. Even though that wasn't in game, because it was very much a real bear, it was awesome. And everyone yelling at it and scaring it away was also awesome.

”Reason for edit : BEAR”

might have laughed way too hard over here.

This weekend was a hard one for Almat. I had a blast, but it was not easy for her.

Last event I cried more than I ever have before. This event I've never been as angry in character, as things were escalating badly Friday night. Augustus and my attempt at diplomacy did not go so well that night....most interesting bout of Apathy I've had yet.
Was SO happy when it diplomacy won out in the end!

Keavy Lylas Kennyreplith wrote: Finally telling Caelvan what happened. Seeing him tough it out was sad and cool at the same time.

I think I got the brunt of that Friday night. Going through the story of what happened, and watching a good friend crumble...not so fun.

Worst thing ever for a Chroniclerite scholar, though? Being surrounded with books in a library, and being intangible! Was kinda fun ignoring the guy bleeding out next to me as I tried desperately to get at the books (hey, couldn't help him anyways due to the intangibility).

On the plus side:
All the lores! So many lessons were kinda great. Can't wait to continue that next event.
Chroniclerite college. So fun!
Getting the heroic scholar list was pretty cool too, even if the list isn't very good for me (awesome for most scholars, I'm just more research and lore based on my approach).
Ceremonialist top tier for Chronicler! I want it yesterday!
Finally getting asked to do research again! ....which reminds me, I have to contact a few people since I had to leave a little early.

Hmm. Highlights when I was only onsite for 4 hours feels a bit self-indulgent, but a couple things stand out -

- I think I learned more about how the game/rules function in the 15 minutes I spent with Mike S., Jon, and Doug discussing item rewrites than in hours of reading the rules on my own. Thanks for taking the time to explain some basic concepts, clearly I need to have more OOG rules discussions.

- An abundance of lessons, and all of them delivered in a way that ensures that both Faila and Crystal will remember the important bits.

- Spending time in the Armory with a crew of smiths. The camaraderie was enjoyable and it was nice to not have to worry about being attacked while I was there.

- Realizing, as I watched some newer players (Kanas, for one), how much they have grown even in a few months as characters and players.

- Having a few, brief moments, where Faila said or did something unexpected that Crystal would never say or do. Even if it has taken a little while to figure out the whole RP part of LARP, it is enormously satisfying when it just starts to happen. The flip side of that is the retorts and comments that only come to me minutes (or at times, hours) too late. Sooner or later I hope that time lag will disappear.

- Faila finally feeling comfortable enough in Travance to talk about longer term goals and Gideon's career advice. Justin and Geoff, Augustus's quiet muttered, under the breath curse, and Gideon's solemn, knowing reaction when Faila asked Gideon if what she wanted to do was possible were both spot on.

- Nostarion's fancy new "tiara." Thanks to the Mage's Guild my RL daughter now thinks you go to KR and come home with gems, coin, and jewelry.

A few highlights:
- Feeling useful as an apprentice when the Guildmaster asked Nostarion to use a scholar skill to identify the fake Arconite heart.
- Lessons with Carlotta and interacting with other mages.
- Gideon (offering Faila wand) telling her how she will one day be able combine smithing and magic to make masterful things.
Faila (after examining wand) “Yes, but I will make mine lighter.”

Not getting to come to more of the event was a bummer, but I had a great time while I was there.
Alex

Squire Uidhir said:

I don't even know how to react to this situation anymore, I'm carrying around brawlers all game now because of you.

Oh wait til January.....it's going to be so much worse lol.

This was my first event but there were quite a few highlights for me:

- going on a late Friday night mod that I admittedly had no usable skills with which to justify my presence and yet somehow being the only one to walk out unscathed, all while cracking up the game marshal with my snarky comments and crazy ideas. Definitely a good experience for my first KR mod.
- getting ready for bed very very early Saturday morning and stumbling into a battle to defend the inn with only a dagger and no armor, resulting me desperately outrunning a Valerian in two laps around the the outside of the inn in my socks...
- passively intruding on a number of teaching lessons Saturday afternoon, just to see how RP goes around here and ending up learning some new possible benefits of other professions.
- randomly starting conversations with people only to be informed later that I should be careful of talking to "the wrong people". Ha!
- helping in the kitchen to carve and plate all the turkeys for the feast because that involved taste-testing each turkey to ensure it was of the finest quality :)
- fighting Saturday night back-to-back with some mysterious person out of a mutual desire to not get assassinated.
- impromptu Saturday night NPC shift involving lots of red face paint, some awesome NPC people, and the instructions "first be invisible, then be creepy." If you missed out on that scene, you REALLY missed out. Though we NPCs may have had more fun on our side.
- Sunday morning NPC shift as a mercenary and being named "Q" the Quartermaster because I was the only one wearing a pouch in which to hold money.
- Sunday battle as an NPC: dramatically taking a trip effect by throwing myself through the air, landing an excellent cleave with a polearm, getting KO'd with a face stomp, and rewarding people who search my pockets with shiny buttons.

I had a great time, sorry I can't remember ANYONE'S names, and I'm looking forward to the next event!