~~~April 2016 Event Highlights~~~

I hadn't been in the proper since November and was a little nervous, to be honest... It was the cold weather that kept me away, but November was not a good event for me and I wasn't sure what to expect coming back. I'm so happy this was the event I came back to.

We opted to stay in the Kaladonia statehouse this time around. It gave me a chance to get to know Amalthea a little better (I think I'd had about ten minutes' worth of interaction with her in all my other events combined) and that was a great start in helping me relax and settle in. Many thanks to the statehouse's usual residents for your hospitality, and of course Lord Gideon and Lady Kleidin.... especially for Saturday night s'mores.

Prior to lay-on, I got to see a piece of a debate about 'uge issues in arquebus control and hear some of the campaign platform of one Jackie Thornders. I hope he wins.

Friday night was mostly spent hiding in the woods from the Null. Asthma made things not so fun for me, but I plugged along. Thanks to Birgitta for keeping me safe. Tharivol thanks you, too

Keavy, your NSFW grumblings (you know the one) on the way out the door to fight the same wandering monsters for the third time were my favorite quote of the weekend.

Saturday was so busy it's a blur. I had paperwork in the late afternoon, but I hear there was a T-Rex-size lightning drake that people could take a chance riding around, and then a grove of animated fell flora. Sounds like I missed a good time.

Sunday Kaladonia mod, going after Cormac I felt like a piece of paper trying to stop a bomb... I tried to keep my nose clean with that one. But then I was part of the ritual that was meant to save him (whether he liked it or not), and it looks like I'm on the path to Druidics now.... really looking forward to learning Decay!

Thanks to Hazel and Nalick just for being who you are. It's always good to see both of you.

Apparently I am just not allowed to attend mods involving Fallow, as I will seriously injure myself.
Fallow is trying to kill my characters by killing me IRL.
What a dick.

All of Gina's work behind the scenes. I'd heard varying estimates for how many people pre-registered, but standing in the Inn for announcements and looking around, I think they were way too low.

Pre-game silliness with new players in the barn, making cheesy jokes (and friends!). "Jankies" and jazz hands.

Matt D.'s "PowerThirst" parody.

ANDORRA!

Thank you very much to Chris Z. for the encounter, PROPS to Maria for your performance, and thank you, Taylor, for white-headbanding and telling me, "Yep, it's her," when I called Lore: Divinity on my goddess. So much fun. Christine, you gave me chills. It's rare that I see someone be that raw when roleplaying, but you did it so well.

There were plenty of people and characters who I hadn't seen in a long time and I'm glad you guys came to be nerdy with us!

A chance trip to the bank to withdraw some gold turns into me participating in a Matt Magnus mini-mod with some of our newest players. Chris (I think that was your name; I'm bad at remembering sometimes), who played the addict, you did great and I enjoyed our OOG chats about RP. Go get 'em, man!

Speaking of, Jackdaw and crew, thank you guys for being good sports on that mod! It was a lot of fun, especially the banter. Also, seeing only your silhouettes in the dark was a great touch!

Friday night, I didn't get any sleep. I'd like to toast my late-night pals, Chenjing, Mileof, Aldrich (not the Templar/Brother), among others, and the incredibly silly things we could not stop laughing about.

The 5:30 AM trip to the "MacDonald Butchery" with Ben and making out like a bandit when the bill came (if bandits paid bills). Ben later telling the story in-game as Bob and hamming it up.

Apparently word of my non-sleep spread quickly and I had a dozen people tell me to at least take a nap (and Cappy's reaction). I appreciate the concern, guys! Everything sounded so incredibly funny and the looks on people's faces when I giggled at all the wrong times, was amazing.

I visited Alisandria to make due on a Willpower lesson from Mordra and could not have picked a better time to enter their statehouse. Accidentally leaving the door open led to the whole room exploding in laughter, though sadly I can't take credit for that one. Chris Mack knows what he did. Though we didn't end up going through with the lesson, we did have an entertaining, enlightening discussion on faith, and everything was going great until the sarcasm nation attacked.

I got to tell a bunch of people about St. Astrid and her miracles. Tom, the look on Ridigan's face when I told him about Astrid's journey through the Chaos Wastes. Hilarious.

So, old habits die hard. When I got up to speak at Light Mass, I realized that I didn't have much of a plan aside from reading a passage from the dissertation on Astrid. Except, when I looked at it, I decided it would take a long time to read and tried to plan on the spot, despite 0 hours of sleep. S-M-R-T.

Judge. You had me nervous OOG. I am always impressed and enjoy every opportunity I get to watch you do your stuff.

Caldor's "Supreme Benediction" and the excitement it caused. Jason, that was awesome.
Wrapping up my portion of mass and not feeling like I was a big disappointment.
Wili's hug.
Mother Maralas politely but firmly asking Jed to leave when he started giving a speech

The Church meeting before the mass happened, a good amount of clergy showed up, and we were productive! It was great! Then afterward when everyone parted but Maralas and myself, a quick off-the-cuff Instill Confidence.

Aldric's benediction at Feast. Beautiful, and I lead my table in a hearty toast afterward!

Bumping into Magnus and Annora on Sunday and having this interaction:

Annora: "I am an overthinker."
Nalick: "Not only am I a master warrior, but I am a master overthinker."
Annora: "Well, I'm a heroic overthinker!"

Helping out with the Guard Bachelor Auction was fun! I got people laughing and, when I joked that Erik Huronson was a "real blast," probably facepalming too.

I learned being Nalick sometimes gets in the way of being Nalick. Saturday, I was running around and every other minute or so, someone else needed my help. Late Saturday night, I was a bit miffed that I missed a pun war in the bar room. I knead more puns in my life.

I also missed the scholar meeting but made sure to drop off a package of Meander-safe cookies to Meander herself.

Handing Ergos a loaf of challah on Sunday afternoon, excitedly telling him to "share the bread!" and running off.

Next event, I was looking forward to taking it easy, and then learned who was running the show.

Welp.

This event was great, so awesome to see so many new players and it was great to see how well the game handled an influx of so many players all at once.

In no particular order:

- Friday was a little slow because a lot of mods were occurring that didn't really have much to do with me, but later in the night made up for it.

- Nothing was as intimidating as having Therion, Dmitri, and Sebastian all separately tell me that they needed me for something later in the evening.

- After that thing happened, I had nothing else to do for the night and actually got to bed fairly early.

- Saturday morning breakfast in the AG was wonderful, I'm not sure of the name of the guy who made it but it was great, thanks again.

- Saturday during the morning I chose to actively avoid fighting things until getting enough coffee, as usual.

- Before market fair on Saturday hung out in the Blackbird and was offered 10,000 gold for my pants from Papa Gypsy.... Definitely considering it.

- Crew of the Winged Victory, the "kiss a law abiding citizen" stand was great, but the puppets of Jackdaw, Magnus, and Starling were hysterical. Keep doing what you're doing.

- During market fair walking around doing some things for Jade (also meeting Jade who I don't think I'd met before) was cool.

- NPC shift from 2-6pm was pretty great, got to be a lizardkin for most of it and do some trial-by-combat style fighting with both new and experienced players. Wasn't till a few fights in that Jean informed us we should've only accepted combatants fighting with knives or fists, not shields. Congrats again to the new player who fought so well he got the amulet rewarded to him, never seen someone continue to punch with their 1 good limb.

- Dinner in the AG was excellent as always, so many thanks to Brian for continuing to do that, I know how many headaches it can cause.

- Main mod like I said was awesome, it felt like a real full scale battle with all the people we had, both NPCs and PCs. Got surged by a wild mage but made it out alright.

- Apparently a Null showed up after main mod, but I just hung out in the AG until it went away so hopefully no one died.

- Went on two different late night mods, one with the AG in which we managed to avoid skunks and the other with another group where we realized that the mod was intersected with another mod and would take much longer. Decided to head to bed rather than continue onward and glad I did.

- Nothing crazy happened Sunday besides a small new player mod in which Jackdaw was almost eaten and ANOTHER wild mage surged and successfully downed more players than goblins. Not too many hard feelings I swear.

All in all a great event, can't make it to May but will definitely be happy to be back in June!

It has been a while sincce I have written one of these; but here goes.

First, thank you to all the people who worked so hard to make this event great. All the ST's were awesome and worked really hard to make sure everyone had a good time. Thanks to all the marshals for doing a superb job and working really hard. New Player marshals were awesome and available when they were needed. Super thanks for that! Thanks to everyone who works behind the scenes to get stuff done. All the kitchen staff were awesome as well. Thank you to James for so many things and thank you to all the new players who gave us a chance to show you a good time!

This was a fun event for me. I was busy in spurts. It was great to see everyone!

Friday: Getting to chat with Birgitta . . . I did a lot of listening, too and that is important. So much love for you. Then chatting with Pluvious after and talking philosophy a little. Great RP!
Midnight mass was wonderful. Caldor always makes me happy when he does mass. After sitting with Swyft and trying to console her. Man, I never want that to happen to Maralas! There was some awesome acting going on there!

Saturday: LM shift with Chris Z. super fun. Getting to help people some. I made some mistakes; but everyone was really gracious and forgiving. I am still learning stuff. It was a good thing.
I managed to get dehydrated in spite of drinking a lot of water . . . but I got some lunch and felt a little better. I was nervous about the Clergy meeting; but it went very smoothly. the folks who showed up were really great and it was just wonderful to have us all working together. Love you all so much!
Mass: I was a little nervous when Dark Clergy came in; but I welcomed them and was polite. I think the mass over all went well. Asking Jed to stop talking . . . I feel like I should have been nervous; but I was not. I just politely and firmly asked him to stop. Beautiful role playing happened in those moments!

Being dehydrated made me super tired, so I crafted a little then went to bed early and slept like a rock. It was a rare but good thing.

Sunday mornings I think are sometimes my favorite. The RP is usually very organic and fun. I often get to chat for a few minutes with people that I usually do not get to see. I laughed a lot with the antics of Chris Z and Leslie! Much love to you both.

Over all, I noticed many of the new players who were around. I saw a lot of great RP and interesting characters. That was really cool.

I look forward to seeing you all again, soon.

Haven't done this in a while, but haven't had an event this awesome in a while either.

When an event begins on your knees, waiting for a chance to learn about divinity from none other than Jed, you know it's going to be an intense, religious event - and indeed it was. Judge, I'm so glad I finally got to roleplay with you. That was amazing. Then going to Caldor's mass, which is always wonderful.
Then, running up to Kaladonia from the inn, comes Mileof, yelling "PURPLE NULL!"
"We're going to Winterdark!" I yell to Mileof and the one newcomer that actually DID come with me, and as we round the corner near the Mage's Guild, I spot a spark and a blue light. So we make a right and hide in the woods. So there we were - a one year, a third-eventer, and a brand new player, all kneeling in a group of woods. I explain the null and why they are bad news, and also a brief rundown of the Anastazi. Then we all hear voices. I recognize one particular voice crying out "TWENTY BANE, TWENTY BANE, TWENTY BANE!"
"Well, Magnus is there, so it's at least PARTIALLY handled..." I say, and we start moving slowly towards the inn.

Fast forward to the NPC shift. Echos are SO MUCH FUN. Pissing off Kaladonia as elementals is even more fun. But the most fun of them all? Devour humanoid one, devour humanoid two...

Then the exhaustion hit. We were sitting in the inn, hating life, choosing our SAUCE, BITCH. Then, a drow and Dominic join me on a trip to Quick Chek and we come back with doritos and energy drinks. I catch twenty winks on the side of the wall and then down a Spike Energy before going to Enax mass with Don Clad - who has gained a great appreciation. Then I meet some Enaxians from the New Dawn - I hope to see more of them, because if nothing else they're interesting.
Chenjing was sad that he didn't win Arradir, but the auction as a whole was AMAZING.
Getting a loan to kiss a nyad was wonderful.
Meeting a hobgoblin cleric! Of... VALOS? Then we had a discussion and I understood completely.
Going to hang out with Utgard.
Feast was DELICIOUS.
"oh shit oh shit oh shit where is Kal" Then I find out the OOG reason, and 100% compartmentalize. Was not mad at Jamey. Chenjing was mad at Kal. Glad that she's alright.
Causing a bit of undue panic thanks to mishearing something. Sorry folks.

Then main mod. Oh god. I dropped so many times, got helped every time. The best was when I was down to one body, no legs, one arm. I took the hit for Cripple below the knee, so I was on my knees, swinging my sword with my left hand. I kept that up for a minute and a half before Argyle pulled me to a healer. This is major character development fuel. Keep an eye out.

Then fire.

I thanked Fiona for getting the fire to stop. No joke. I attributed its end to her IG.
Then, the scariest IG moment. I look around the side of the inn and see a spark and a purple glow.
"NULL!"
Also, yelling for Lake until Sir Seifer hit me with Silence. Great roleplay there Gus. That was a wonderful touch, added some levity to a too-heavy moment, even if in-game it was still serious.
Then, hot dogs with the Blood Spirits!
Finally learning wield faith, and helping Dunn extract a wraith's pancreas.