October 2015 Highlights?!?!?!?!

This event, as I have said multiple times today, has been the best I've attended so far. I'm dead serious.

I showed up on Saturday afternoon, so let's start there.

Satyrday:

My compatriot and I show up at the Mages Guild tent. Literally thirty seconds after we step out of that tent, the Adventurer's Guild walks straight out.
"Hey, are you guys members of the Guild?"
"Yeaaaaaaaah....."
"You should come with us, we're fighting demons!"
So fought demons we did and did fairly well with it too. I surprised myself that day, I found out that I could fight pretty well without magic. Turns out this would come in handy later.

Then we walked around, ended up at the Inn serving Straughanoff that tasted very damn amazing (with and without mushrooms, because I combined the mushroom-less option with the vegetarian option.)

After that, Main Mod shift was something I can't really describe. We were told to grab armor and grab whatever weapons we pleased. We were then told to go to the Pavilion and stand behind the higher up automatons in a legion-like fashion. We were told to be thorough, but not to be a murderhobo, so that's what we were.

Since I don't quite remember what was going through my head as I portrayed the suits of anger, so I'll describe this how I imagine that the players saw it.

Imagine slowly walking into the Pavilion, where you see five men in grey tabards standing still. As soon as everyone fills out and forms ranks in Travance...they speak. "March."
These five become ten and ten becomes about twenty.
"Okaaaay...." the people of Travance think "That was not a pleasant movement to witness. Alright, let's fight."

So they fight, the people of Travance do and they manage to knock them down. They begin their calls,

"Killing Blow 1, Killing Blow 2, Killing Blow 3, Killing Blow 4, Killing Blow 5...."
But then, something unexpected occurs. An automaton, who had taken to one knee as he fell to the ground, slowly raised his head. It stepped up and slowly walked towards its target.

The others, the other automatons slowly followed suit and returned to the slaughter.

It was undetermined by the army of armor whether the warriors had deactivated them via luck or sheer, swift intellect. They were lifted and dragged into the Pavilion and looted for scrap. Their eyes moved, their processors still functioning as they were dismantled.

Their eyes glowed red....watching.
(Most of that is probably not exactly how it went, but it's how I interpreted
Sunday

Gank Shift.
We went through a series of mods as undead of various strong types...eventually going toe to toe with the very, very powerful people (I only recognized Magnus and Grim.) We fought hard, dropped and watched what happened next.

Pretty much the exact same thing with Galladel mod, only there were two more of us in a larger space. Wield Faith was not helpful.

Alongside some other undead mods, one of my more memorable experiences was with Bardics.

I was Leather (because I wore a straw hat) and I was with Straw (in the leather hat) and we were both wearing the red harlot masks. We ventured between the Tonic and Djinn and Dragon's Claw (neither of which were amused by our efforts.) As for the former, we end up knocked out, thrown out of the door and hexed to be...'attracted' to trees of all things. After going back to the Inn, my friend is blessed by about 5 different druids and I go to find a tree of our very own.

Sunday Morning, we end up looking for Thalia for some reason and as soon as we go back to the Inn, we see a large group
"Hey there, are you members of the Adventurers Guild?"
"Yeeeeaah...."
So we went to an open field after getting mentally manipulated by Chris Zipeto in black and white face paint as the Demon of Pride.

When we reach the field, a brawl between he and the Guild started. What about the minions, you ask?

That's right, no mooks, just Pride. He used a bardic known as "Lyric of Supremacy" which forced the target to do whatever Pride said. Some of the Guild were forced into fighting the others...while the majority were forced to sing to him. He then sang various depressing metal songs in kind and resumed the fight. People began singing voluntarily while they fought for some reason, which really added to the mod, in my opinion. At that moment, Terzak had one revelation. He shouted:
"PRIDE! I CHALLENGE YOU TO A DUET.....TO THE DEATH!"

He walked towards me and for the first time that event....I was afraid.

"I am intrigued by this challenge. Tell me, who shall be your partner?"

Oscar Winstonshire, my brother at arms, stepped between us and said "I volunteer." I hand him a shield from one of the adventurers and give him a medium-paced beat. After a few seconds, I break into a Travancian version of Another Irish Drinking Song in an accent that I think would earn me a mug of Dragon's Breath. When I stop, he lets out a Mind Blast that knocks me to the ground.

I get up, my minuscule amount of body healed to maximum. I ask for another round and ask him to choose any person there as a partner. He glares at me and utters words of pure malice in front of me. I feel my confidence restored by my brother, Oscar and ask again for another round.

He sings again, describing the futility of life and the power of corruption. I hear Matt whisper to someone "You feel an urge to challenge him to a singing contest."

In the middle of that mod, I stop and grab some waters (since it was hot out and I knew firsthand how draining it was to sing for so long.) The demon falls, exorcised from the mortal man, defeated by humility. There was much rejoicing.

Chris, for every RP point I receive for that fight, you deserve 20. More importantly, that performance fully explained to me what a Roleplay Marshal is supposed to be.

Suffice to say, I enjoyed myself this weekend. I hope my shifts and my other ridiculous endeavors where enough to get that response out of you all as well.

When we cross paths next, Travance, I will be stronger.
And I will.
Have.
Pastries.

Quick highlights.

Being the Plague Drinker.

Feast.

Giving advice to Dr. Armitage.

Brief interactions with Bob.

Meeting a God.

Feeling the Phantom Pain of revenge denied, and hearing from a Paladin that maybe I should contemplate that, as grim. It was kind of an amazing moment, and the mod with Galladell immediately after was just perfect.

Gettin my makeup did.

Chillin in Pendarvin is fun, though Grim is amused by the nature of the vassal meeting. Signals towers seem boring but useful, and a silly thing to argue about.

Man, it felt good to be back.

Saturday...
Got to event in the mid afternoon. Sad I missed Friday night & Saturday morning stuff.

Received many hugs and warm welcomes. Man, it felt so nice to be back.

Tried to get a recap of everything I needed to know & had missed... which turned out to be a whole lot of stuff.

Long talks in the Statehouse with Sylus, Emeline, Edmund, & meeting the newer members of Alisandria. Godric, Mordra, Ketryn, Cyndra, Ludwig, & company... wow.

Seeing Emeline promoted to Warlord of the Barony. Yay!

Fighting in Main Mod... oh man, I was slow, rusty, and horrible. Worse than I normally am.

Switching to Stealth Mode and simply spying on everyone was a nice change up. Also surprise sneak attacks!

Post Main Mod noms in the Statehouse. Goose, you will forever be my hero.

Late night talks... I really learned a lot. I need to congratulate and thank the new members of Alisandria for making us realize we need to change our ways a bit.

Sunday... gorgeous weather. Why couldn't we have that on Saturday???

I'm omitting a lot of stuff, mostly due the nature of them & I don't have the right to share them... but the talks, the "encounters" and other stuff really reminded me why I come to events and why I play.

Can't wait for November event!

Kudos to Joe B. for being there for me whenever I put my foot in my mouth and my fist on my head. Thank you to Goose as well.

Gina's reaction during the "Mind Leech" session when she asked what was Nalick's greatest fear.

The ongoing plot regarding the Dark Arani and the puzzling nature of it.

Snacking with the Uidhirs. Bringing a snack to share so that George wouldn't throw me out. When Godric asked me what exactly I had brought, I picked up one of the snack cakes and handed it to him.

Nalick: "Detect delicious intent!"

Hearing cries for help coming from down the road past Pendarvin, Godric and I went to investigate. It felt nice not to be the only one coming to someone's aid in the middle of the night--until we found out that the calls were coming from the Galladel mod and that we couldn't actually hear or see them.

Despite Carlos threatening to cut off anyone's hand who objected to Croi and Gamblor's wedding, Bob objected anyway, to no avail. When he stormed off, I looked down at my plate, sighed, and followed after him. My wild goose chase, however, led me to some poignant roleplay with Ketryn. We even ran into the Count and I finally learned what "Earl of the Marches" meant from the man himself.

Captain Jackdaw and Crew, I hope to have more fun with you all soon.

The Djinn and Tonic. I love the new atmosphere and I'm glad that Ostcliff now has someone with a flair for interior decorating for once. No offense.

NPCing as Birgitta's snarky older brother. It took a couple moments to get into character, but I had quite a few enjoyable moments with townsmembers, including making Cecilia keel over from laughing too hard as well as deep philosophical discussions with Birgitta and her friend regarding undead, sentient bees. Leslie, it was a lot of fun.

Wylla, Tessa, and Thalia comforting Nalick and giving him love advice. Out of two of them, I think I heard "and I'm not even an Andorran" several times.

Banging my head against the door at the smoker's porch in frustration and having both Wylla and Elias Ashby pull me away.

Knock-knock jokes with Clytie and Chenjing. "Come in."

Pre-main-mod shenanigans with Swyft, Yaya, and Imrahil. Renee, I've never heard you laugh so hard.

Giving Swyft a gift that I'm glad she'll be able to use.

I spoke at Mass! I stammered for a while after completely forgetting what I wanted to say, but after some encouraging words from Tobias, I decided to plow through the rest. Afterwards, Lord-Admiral Sylus called on me to perform benediction at Feast, an opportunity that I appreciated and went far more smoothly than I anticipated.

Magnus' Master Warrior lesson, part two.
Holy crap. A few men came up to me over the course of the weekend and we fight briefly before they impart a few words of wisdom. Nothing too bad. Sunday morning rolls around, I don my garb and grab my dagger before heading toward my car to grab a quick breakfast.

I run into a smiling Magnus, who draws his swords. For a while, I fail to land a single blow on him, until I do, but it was my fist that connected and not my dagger.

Someone: "Magnus, are you okay?"
Magnus: "Yeah... I just won't have an heir!"

Then came the parade of Master Warriors with a myriad of weapon styles, each with their own invaluable pieces of advice. Although limping, I'm thankful.

"Perfect Shot Stunning Blow!"

I came away from the lesson more sore than any event I've attended, but the epiphany made it all worth it. After being told repeatedly that I needed to be "more aggressive," I had a realization. More often than not, I shy away from confrontation and criticism. I saw conversation as combat and speaking at the front of a crowded room like a war. That if I didn't say the right things, I would somehow "lose" and it was better to save face and say nothing at all.

I guess there's more to being a masterful warrior than your footwork and how you angle your blade.

Cooo

I was only there on Sunday for Kaladonia mod. Nothing made me happier than seeing people's confused faces when they thought I had been there all weekend and they just somehow missed me.

Thanks to all for the condolences, I passed them on to ree.

Kaladonia mod was incredible. It triggered all ranges of emotions and drove me to its conclusion through curiosity and a driving sense of purpose. All of the npcs, even the random monsters were on point. Leslie and Derek are the only non recurring ones I can remember off hand, but props to all.

Zach, Thank you for putting up with our on the fly ideas. I did not expect to bring an npc through the veils during a combat.

Slay bite rules,bit gets countered with a spine buster.

Tris is now She-Ra Princess of Power

Sam looked amazing and RP'd at an equally awesome level. Bill looked amazingly hideous (on purpose) and RP'd a great villain. Matt Calo continues to play an npc on a level that feels like he's playing a years old Pc.

Excellent mechanic at the end for a true moral call... And thank you for listening to Caldor's logic so I didn't get misunderstood.

Incoherent list of some fun things:

-engaging and executing terrible terrible ideas

-fantastic RP from a number of folks attempting to talk Ketryn out of her really terrible ideas

-So much Ilanna +George drama. Oh my. Ilanna and Ketryn will either be besties or mortal enemies when this is through.

-hilarious retribution shenanigans during adv. guild mod.

-Nalick unwittingly accompanying us on one of those really terrible ideas until he realized what it was and promptly "noping" out.

-Jackdaw crew and Tanwyns, we shall meet again :>

-Congradulating Dame Emmaline on her Warlord promotion and then sulking that she forbade Ketryn from doing really hairbrained things

-actually a surprising amount of RP with Tycho. Cam, you rock!

-regret that I did not get to spend more RP time with Tobias but what time we did spend flat out sprinting around camp trying to pull off said hairbrained things was pretty fantastic

-epically long talk with Billiam about morals

Edit: how could I forget the best thing?! Fallow Alisandria mod was EPIC and major props to Joe & MB for the incredible encounter!