Event Highlights June 2016

One of my favorite things is a short scene that encapsulates who your character is at their core and that happened to Nalick on Saturday night. When the setup for Tobias' ritual was mostly done, there was a scream from halfway across the Camp and I took off running. Like, I've never run so fast before. Then to hear more screams, growing louder. It actually felt scary.

Thankfully I bumped into Ludwig and Edmund on the way, but regardless, coming up on not one but three bodies lying on the ground and not knowing at first whether they were still breathing... that's something. My lungs hated me on the long walk back to Kaladonia, though, but I'd do it all over again.

Friday night, there was."Tom-foolery" in the Dragon's Claw. Chet was in the midst of silly conversation with a small group of newcomers when talk turned to drinks--only there wasn't a bartender!

So Chet hops(!) behind the bar to be a heroic commoner for a little while. It's a thrill playing him, because sometimes I'm not sure what's going to fall out of his mouth (mostly words but also food at times).

Thalia: "I am such a bitch!"
Clytie: "Hi, I'm Clytie."

When Magnus, Bob, and Oren agree on something...

The Hobo Guild demonstrating the power of chanting something passionately in a large group.

My bored yet musically-inclined friends at our feast table.

The look on Steve Oros' face on Friday when he walked over with a white headband and asked to see my card.

The dirty spoon that the Baron handed to Chet wordlessly while Chet was behind the bar.

Kestrel's baptism! Yay!

Gust making and handing out dozens upon dozens of sandwiches on behalf of the Church. That's some tasty RP!

Caldor's ritual. It was neat to hear all of the philosophical views from everyone and I'm happy at how much work got put into it.

Tobias' detailed description of the machinery before the ritual, even if it went way over Nalick's head at times.

Lying in the grass with Lois and stargazing at the last remaining star while we chat about things. It was relaxing and a lot of fun.

In general, feeling like I'm making big steps in thinking on my feet and not having to stammer while coming up with things to say. It's a good feeling.

I have too much to even begin to go into but to briefly touch on a few things:

-Baronial Guard team is best team and continues to fulfill my expectations of being in Hot Fuzz for both good and bad

-Thanks once again to the players, STs and marshals who are willing to humor The Shenanigans and then adjust things on the fly to build on them or send things sideways in ways completely unexpected. When the answer to "can we do this thoroughly stupid and ridiculous thing?" is "yes" I can't even describe the feeling

-a "thank you" to everyone who participated in The Shenanigans

-special callout to the Tobias player. Man, you brought your A-Game

Out of Context, for your enjoyment:
"If I had to put a ballpark figure on it I'd say we deal with roughly 5 cults a month."
"Seems about right but maybe a little low."

"You can't just surprise someone with cosmetic surgery."

"Are you really arresting me for murdering a rat?
Yes. Yes we are. It was a talky rat."

"Don't do the dismemberment IN the inn. People eat in there. Have some manners. At least go to an outside table."

"I'm proud to say that we all performed expertly as a unit in perfect unison. Except for....Seriously?! Is Nalick all the way over there again?!?!"

"Quick! Someone disarm her!"
"No! I meant take her weapons, not her arms! Oh well..."

Hoo Boy, this might take a while.

Lets start with the negative. I had to leave at 4 am, and missed Sunday entirely.
That's the entirety of my negative.

On to the good:

I’ll just start off with the big one. Thank you everyone who was involved in the Null Trap prison ritual. It took a lot of planning, and design. Many months of research and planning. Thanks to Emily for helping me set it up. I would love to list everyone who came out and helped but it was so many of you it was awesome. I will call out those who spoke as part of the ritual: Gene, Bill H., Adam, Jeff B., John T., Onca, Charlie, Lauren, Aaron and Justin (though you only spoke the truth), and of course Cassie, Jason F., Tom and Abby. A special nod to Stacey and Matt who have put so much into this, but sadly couldn’t be there. Everyone else who spoke, supported, burned things or even defended us from the undead hoards, I thank you. I had so much stress about whether it would happen or how it would go, or whether it would be fun for people, and each and every one of you blew my expectations out of the water. Absolutely one of my favorite moments in all of my time at KR.

Strange highlight? Burning the Andorran Scrolls/Shard of Mercy in the bowl designated for an Andorran or Pacifist, and the item cards/scroll papers burned themselves into the shape of a rose. It was so cool. I think someone got a picture.

In a strange way, I’d also like to thank those who came to Caldor with their objections and concerns. I must have spent about ¼ of my event going over it and explaining and discussing. Even if you couldn’t tell, each and every one of you, and your words, have an impact on Caldor, and how he has proceeded with the ritual, and how he will proceed going forward. Its very awkward to have Arabeth and Marik (I know I spell it wrong) devoutly agreeing on something being bad… especially when you are on the receiving end of it. So great to RP with you guys. Liz – Mae is a powerful personality, and it was so much fun playing with you on these matters as well.


Thank you also to Joe for all the pre-event work, and James for running it for us.

I can’t wait until July to put this all into practice.


Ok. Back to everything else. In no particular order.

Food. Food was good.
Diane – that potato soup has to be my favorite thing you’ve made on a Friday night. It was really, really good.

Luis – I know there were some speedbumps, but man, you put out a tasty feast.

Felix – yum. Thanks.

Nutmeg – I wish I had more money for coffee crisps.

Charlie – thank you for a perfect sammich.

Back to feast: Tip of the hat to our service crew. Thank you for once again pulling this off and for all you guys do for us.

To my Clean up crew: You guys were really spot on this month. I don’t remember everyone’s names, but you were an efficient machine. I really, really thank you for your dedication, hard work, and efficiency. Please feel free to come back for post-feast clean up any time.

Main Mod:
While the advance was a bit slow for those of us not in a group, the pay off at each point, and final battle and reveal were all well worth it. I have never felt so effective and useful at a main mod as I did this time. I got to use Revealing Lights, arch caster abilities I don’t rely on normally, my Spell cages, ignore magics and shields of nature to excessive levels. The land/household based fighting style was a lot of fun, as was the ‘do it in order’ element. I got to bump around a bunch to support other teams with spell cage, since mine went first, and it really looked like every group was doing amazing and having fun. Special tip of the hat, of course, to Team Potato.

To the Baron – I can’t tell you how much your simple statement of thanks meant to Caldor. It refueled his passion, and warmed his heart. I was legitimately stunned for a moment, and then had to get back to Caldor’s more huble mindset before continuing.

To the Count – so glad I’m never, ever, ever going one on one in a fight with you. That fight with Barak was AMAZING to watch. I didn’t even hear the skill calls, but you two were so much fun to watch fight from a purely stage combat perspective.

Masses:
Midnight mass had a lower attendance than I’ve had in a long time… but the attendees were all lower seasoned, and I think it went well. I was also very happy to be able to use the sanctuary of the altar space to protect some stonebars who had been attacked by cultists.

Main Mass – Awesome. Ambush mass is the best. Sean you did fantastic. Dave – I think your sermon was wonderful, and timely. I absolute love doing Ordinations with everyone, btw, and I’m so happy to have Matt’s new character in the fold.

Bar Mass – Kitchen kept me from it, but I’ve heard it was wonderful. Seemed pretty packed too.

Gust… you were awesome for handing out sammiches as charity for the church. Truly a nice religious RP that added a world of flavor (pun and not pun) to the game.

Huh, I still have sooo much more. I’m gonna type this in word and then cut and past it here so I don’t break my head if I loose it.

Ancient Dryad – HOLY COOL THAT THING LOOKED AWESOME. Thank you Namit and the Blood Spirits for sending for me when you found him. I would have been kicking myself for months if my Dryad loving flora elder missed this. The challenges of speaking with him, the RP of his portrayal and the message he was delivering were all fantastic. Things got even better when Nesterin, Tris, Kyras and… (can’t remember Liz’s Dryad name) showed up with the others, and we all started talking. I forsee great RP and story for a long time based on this mod. I hope we will get to see the NPC again. My only regret is that he refused RP points when we tried to hand them, because he had nowhere to put them.

I’m a bit sad I missed Eodra piece mod in the swamps, but I was soo busy. Glad it was found. Look forward to the rituals and finding more.

Light/Dark negotiations. I didn’t sit in on them, but I had some wonderful RP based on it. I talked to both Aldric and Cyfihi about them on the side, and was very happy that while their words were different, their summation of the negotiations were the same. I look forward to the RP this opens up for all of us going forward as well.

Miranda – Sara you were brilliant. Everything about your portrayal was great, from your appearance, to your physicality to the method of speaking to the words you chose. Caldor was going to stay away, but then you were standing there by the door with only Karkat and Cyfihi, who were more body guards than companions… I think my favorite spoken moment of this event had to be:
“Hi, I’m Caldor. Welcome to Travance”
“Why are you nice?”

This continued to devolve more into a fun and interesting RP, especially once Grim came along.

Jen C- you are awesome as Tris as always. If the Dryad scenes weren’t enough to tell me how great you are, your moments with Grim and Caldor after they were school boy-ing it up with Miranda were great. Always so awesome to have you there and get to play with you.

I’m this far in, and I still haven’t gotten to Lord of Tears mod, so here we go.

Lord of Tears mod was a thing of beauty. Firstly, Jason F – your props and physical set up put me to shame. The glow sticks, revolving lights, copper wires, etc etc. etc. All amazing. I wish it hadn’t been at the same time as Kyle was busy with Fiona and Miranda, as I would have loved some professional shots of it.
The ritual was amazing. So well thought out. Excellent RP by all involved, especially Michaela and the others who were affected by the nightmares/fears.
Matt/Kate/Ben – great job with the marshaling. Ben – you play that bastard so well.

Another highlight was the nightmare I was given – Grim, riddled with arrows over Aella’s dead body. I used a Mass Courage (even though no skill was called against me), and turned that vision it strength for the ritual…. But I had more fun with it after the fact, when our closest IG friends and family all came to the same realization. “The vision was clearly bullshit – Cookie Tree wouldn’t lose”. Even Grim said it, which was hilarious.

Thanks for post mod cake. I should have had post mod snacks.

I’m sure I’m forgetting things. I will probably have to type up more later, because everything was so good.

My highlight?
Entertaining as many people as possible by helping Tim wrap up that plot line!
Hope you all had fun!

Can't wait until next event

Working with Burk, Edmund and Rudy to smith the box for the dragon eggs out of Wychwood. Everyone's PCs approached it exactly as one would expect for their character. Edmund is screaming at the wood and Rudy and his assistant sound like true barbarians as they wrestle with it (some great and hilarious physical RP). Faila with Quinarian cleverness hit her Wychwood with a stunning blow which kept it calm - don't those male smiths know that yelling at things only tend to aggravate them more.

Enaxian mass. Discipline! What fantastic words! Kept me pumped the whole day!

Caldor spontaneously producing ice wine for our gambling group and mentoring us both in and out of game. You're a big help even in the parking lot at 4am! Thanks Jason.

Orcish gambling games being a big hit!

Skazbag learning how to put the parts back in WITHOUT killing someone. Phew!

While unarmed getting a cultist to back down with only my eyes and voice. Yeah thats right pesky cultist! Go find someone else to ambush.

Trio of NPC goblin traders said so many hilarious things I can't even recount them all.
Highlights:
Goblins being enamored with Orcish Emergency rations AKA the biggest flask anyone has ever seen and actually trading some great stuff for it!
The trade savvy satyr trading pets on her leg fur for sips from said flask. I could not stay in character at all I was giggling so hard. WELL DONE!

On Main Mod

"Red team is best team." "Shhhhh you'll make the other colors jealous."

"This place is very magicy." "How magicy?" "Do you think it'll make my feet stop hurting." "It's not that magicy..." "...Oh"

"Did they just Waaah?" "Yeah." <Quietly whispered>"Awesome."

Out of game everyone being super helpful when our stuff went missing. Quickly getting us the right information and letting us know who to talk to. Sam, Josh, Jared, and others! And of course James organizing all the other marshals who's names I don't know to help us out. Thanks again! Hopefully it all turns up.

Getting ambushed by a horde of undead and somehow waking up in another camp getting saved by Mordra! Thanks!