December 2015 highlights

Friday night: at check-in I rolled the dice and picked up a device of flee. It would come in handy in just a few hours. Around midnight I went to the Blackbird to try to hide from the glowing orbs. Usually the Blackbird is a safe place to hang out, but it wasn’t long before the monsters attacked! Magical defense failed! We were all struck down! All of us, save one, who managed to hide quietly out of sight and was then able to resuscitate the fallen bar patrons. Once we could walk, we moved down to the back room and waited for the monsters to leave.

Later that night, I asked Rane for an escort back to the Pendarvin “library” (my shack). Not long after we got there, we were attacked by Null! Luckily, I had the flee device right in my hand, so I fled. The Null attacked and dropped Rane. I hid out in the statehouse for four minutes, and then went back to the library. Rane was lying on the floor bleeding out. I used Lay Hands (minor) to stop the bleeding and soon she was much better. The blood-stained floor will be a reminder to always be on guard.

Saturday: I cleaned up the library in preparation for the dedication. It was scheduled for 2 bells, but everyone was busy dealing with the Null and associated monsters. Nalick brought a nice bottle of bubbly, and we’ll save it for another day. Editor-in-Chief Lorelai stopped by briefly, and we talked about the Chronicle and Editor-ing.

In the afternoon all the scholars were gathered and led to the deepest, most private library of Winterdark. There, with the help of powerful Orange Magic, we spent 24 hours looking through all the books in search of any information about the Null. Thanks to the time-magic, we were able to complete the 24-hour searching in just 15 minutes. Sadly, despite our best efforts, we found NOTHING about the Null.

The feast was very delicious! We should have Lamb more often. Kudos to the cook!

During the chaos of the Null attack on the Inn, I became separated from my group. I spent the next two hours wandering around in the woods in the dark. At first I was on my own, but then I came across Brother Aldric. We managed to stay alive, despite the glowing white tunic Brother Aldric was wearing. Lots of hiding and running, and after an especially vigorous run-in with the shamblers, I found myself all alone again.

But as luck would have it, I ran into Quan Lu. His knowledge of the woods, and his excellent night vision, enabled us to evade and avoid the wandering bands of monsters. We would see a glowing orb in the distance, and we’d dive (quietly) into a ditch and wait for the danger to pass. Crazy as it would sound to a non-LARPer, the terror of running from deadly danger, and lying in the dirt, trying not to make a sound, was the highlight of my weekend. I salute the Story Tellers and James for cooking up such a powerful event.

Sunday was my NPC shift, and it started out with four of us NPCs bringing emergency supplies to the Travancian refugees. The second half of my shift was fun playing an undead and attacking the PCs.

The combination of running in terror, hiding in the dirt, researching important topics and wonderful roleplay is what makes Knight Realms such an amazing game. Thank you again for all the fun. Can’t hardly wait for the next event!

Friday night: popped around as Ketryn grumbling loudly to anyone who would listen "Are the nobles really sending us to our deaths against this dragon?! Are you really going to stand for this?! Why aren't you questioning them?!" and I knew they meant business when it was all 'we don't have time for your blatant treason, Ketryn, sorry.'

Somehow escaping that terrible bloodbath in the Mage's Guild and shepherding both the Seneschal and Tari back to the Inn with the help of Lorelai only to later die and make good on Ketryn's word of "If they come for us I'll do my best to distract them. You, RUN!" ugh, the power of friendship and caring = death. ;P

Showing up Nalick at talking farmers out of doing horrible things. Why is an ex serial killer better at this than a priest of Andorra? Fail. Fail. Fail. We all had a good laugh.

Encountering both Lord Tartaros and the Count as husks alone in the woods as just Ketryn and being imprisoned mid-bat-out-of-hell-sprint-away. "That's 15 minutes of standing still, Kat!" "Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" Cue rescue via Magnus. THANK YOU!

Ketryn agreeing with Jed about something. Oh noooooo!

Somehow managing to smuggle a bunch of refugees out of Travance for a ton of coin.

The druid grand melee and everything about it. Suddenly realizing that I could make it more exciting for myself by taking bets on the outcome and having a blast with how game everyone was to participate in the bids. "You should start a bookie business, Ketryn." That was both hilarious and fun.

What we've learned here is that the "end of the world" is dangerous but it presents wonderful opportunities for terrible people.

Gettin mad at Ketryn's treason but not having time for it.

Finding out post-game people thought that the Baron and the Warlord were using grim as a sacrifical lamb (Not so, but amusing to think people gave that much of a crap about him.)

Grim's crisis when he realized that with Wormwood there he was no longer the weapon that Travance needed.

Grim recognizing the nulls, based on the little bits of information he'd gleaned beforehand. And knowing exactly how hosed they were.

So much running. So much hiding. So much use of heroic and master list skills not to kick butt, but to stay alive!

Pluvious and Grim working as a team.

The tension with Wormwood.

The moment of pleasure Grim had when the Warlord and Hurgar called him out as one of the Elite warriors of travance, during the extermination of Telligrim's warriors.

Running headlong into a negative energy barrier repeatedly while berserk and snarling. I guess I'm really not very realistic about these things

Amalthea treating grim like a well-liked but misbehaving dog after he ran into the barrier repeatedly.

Grim's pain after the Paladin secret came out.

Setting up torches and making some new friends with NPC players and stuff was great.

Feast was excellent, but Ree was cooking so I repeat myself really

Nalick, Grim, and that new healer efl in "hug Squad 2, the running away-ening"

Being personally saved by the baron.

Saving Haroldson and being blow'd up for my trouble.

Ketryn Shiverthorn wrote: ugh, the power of friendship and caring = death. ;P

You stop that right now!

Showing up Nalick at talking farmers out of doing horrible things. Why is an ex serial killer better at this than a priest of Andorra?

It's about the (wo)man, not the title.

How could I forget. The face off with Wormwood. Wormwood provokes such a nasty response from Caldor that it is almost refreshing as a player. Only he could make Caldor not want to reanimated someone he had already been working on bringing back. Caldor isn't the brightest, and his inability to keep his voice down in the argument and his insistence that Wormwood "wasn't making anyone safer by guarding them" are proof.

But man... Can Wormwood RP and raise your RP to match him.

[continued from my earlier post in this thread]

Saturday was different. Talking to Dunn about things. Helping Sir Pluvious and Grim with that weird "arrest."
Then came the husk fights.
James, those vortexes made me so frustrated. Ugh.
The despair in Chenjing really started to rise drastically when I saw Vyth Nar's husk. That put him in a bad place.
Turning, seeing Wormwood brutalizing Rose, and freezing in terror and confusion. Which conveniently gave him time to Eviscerate me. I had like five seconds left before I got Heal Life'd. That Heal Life made things really really dramatic later.
Talking about Enax and then feeling a hand on my shoulder, turning and BOOM, IT'S UTGARD! HE'S FINALLY BACK! That was such a wonderful moment. Like, I was really missing Aaron and Utgard alike, and him showing was INCREDIBLE.
Helping to guard Feast was great. And the trial was great, too. Then, "uuuuAAAAAUUUUUAAAAAAUUUUUAAAAAAAAGHHHH... I... AM... VIM..."
It was after THAT that I actually got to eat, and eat I did. Oh man, everything was incredible. Like, seriously. I was bummed that Pluvious called me away before I got to start on my pie though!

NPCing was mostly Austin, Alex, and I waiting for folks to come. But when they came, it was great. My garb was... maybe not the best choice, since everyone thought I was Chenjing. My second favorite part was husking up to a group and Utgard being like "Am I glad to see you," to which I replied "Roundhouse Incapacitate, superior on Utgard."
The best was when a group came up the hill, with Karkat at the front, and seeing his eyes get big as dinner plates as Austin and I husked up at him.

When we came back IG to Valdalis it was BAD. Chenjing's reaction to finding out that the dragons were just playthings of the Hyrulean Anastazi was bad. Finding out the world was an experiment was bad. I blew all three of my crits that period on myself. Utgard tried to console me, but it was no use.
Corvus and I walked back to the Estate, and I sat outside of the room as he went in. Then, quietly Killing Blowed myself. 30 seconds later, Corvus finds me on the floor. He tries to get people to help. Pluvious tries Heal Life and says the most heartbreaking thing the entire event.
"...I can't save him." At this point, Birgitta and Duncan are PISSED at me, and Duncan goes and gets a scroll of Gaia's Embrace. And with two minutes left of crit, Duncan saves me. And immediately puts my forehead to his.
"WHO GAVE YOU THE AUTHORITY, ENAXIAN?! WHO GAVE YOU THE AUTHORITY!?"
Then Birgitta does Strength +4, picks me up, and shoves me against a wall.
"SPIRIT OF THE DRAGON!" cue angry mom mode.
Pluvious, on the edge of tears, plays good cop.
Argyle takes me outside for a smoke, and basically says "The fuck, dude?" before talking about what he did.
Then I sit and talk to Tessa. And cry. After our watch shift (which was more a "be quiet please" shift) we both go to sleep.
I wake up in my floor spot to Birgitta telling me to use her bed. If I were more cogent, I would have been more sheepish, but Derek was like "Oh god yes please thank you bed."

Come morning, Pluvious doesn't have pants on, and we all have a desperately needed laugh. The room gets crowded as hell, and I ask Clytie to step outside, and we have a heart-to-heart.
Then we all go to the inn. I talk to Seamus for a bit, and ask if he can teach me to be a cleric. In the middle of a lecture, "THERE ARE UNDEAD OUTSIDE."
Great Cleric lesson. Definitely.
Having discussions about war with Dunn before going to the smoker's porch and talking to Magnus. Magnus and I being determined to get him a poison writ, but Mags not wanting to help him get the other one.
Then I begin learning about witch hunting from Lorelai. Let me tell ya, that is some RP I am excited for.

This event was incredible. Kudos to EVERYONE - story teller team especially. I had zero times when things weren't fun, save for that medical hold zone we had to set up in the Manor Friday.