Event Highlights June 2016

So yeah, highlights….

An OOC one for me to start out with. Yes, I know I used a Cuss Word in the Safety Brief… it was out of my mouth before I realized it and well…. Sometimes you have to just keep the flow to get a point across. I want to say that, to my knowledge, everyone stayed safe, hydrated and there was NO calls for additional Medical Assistance.

As busy as the weekend was, I know it was very possible for someone to forget to drink and fall out. Nobody fell out- and for that, thank you and give yourselves a round of applause.

Now for IC related stuff.
- Friday night stuff that happened and didn’t happen.
- Getting to actually have a say on the ideas for both the Pentir Key and for dealing with the Pentir Knights. A single idea for the former refined later… and two ideas for the latter, of which a variant of the second idea was used. I know I wasn’t the only person to think of it but nice to see it being used.
- Trying to explain to Atrus how we Spirits tend to get involved in things… It went something like this:
“If we are not taken into something as help when offered, I know I tend to simply be around and available.”
“That’s boring.”
“True but I usually find something to get busy on. Or really, it often finds me…”
“That’s crazy”
“True but it is how it happens…”

- The mad assembly of a Mithral Net. How do you boil down six hours of work into ten minutes? An assistant, some crack alchemy and a blessing of Brazen, that’s how. Chris Lotano, I thought Patterson was gonna fall off his bench, he was cackling so hard…
- Quiet discussion with Barak Tellinghast… two soldiers wondering how the Pentir Knights were going to be dealt with and how important any diplomacy needed to have a cool head. Or a bunch of soldiers who get it…
- The return of Rudy’s abilities…. And their peculiar flavor.

- Chats around the camp fire in the night Friday. Enlightening

- Saturday Morning visit from the Claw’s Innkeep at the encampment. Coffee and oatmeal. Simple fare for mercs is apparently something Jonas appreciates too.

- The Ritual for the Prism Prison. A+ RP on all sides. If I had more RP cards, I’d have handed more out. Brendan, thanks for the reverse Pick Pocket on the one recipient. Appreciated.

- Bear?
Bear?
Where’s the Bear?
Oh jeez, its twenty feet away.
Don’t run, Bill.
I’m not- I know better.
Good. We will Just walk and talk.
Right.
Walk and talk Loudly….
Riiiiiight…..

Thankyou Norm and Leslie for sprinting down to check on us after the ursine moved on.

- Ancient Dryad…. When I looked up and saw him on the back trail staring at me, I was like ohshit. When I Lore’d and identified him, the puckerfactor went through the roof. Yay Diplomacy and having dealt with the Amathyr nature heralds.
- Not being able to commune with him but knowing who could… Way to run, Caldor. And, um… welcome to the Encampment finally?

- The Encounter with Mirrormere. That entire scene with the Count and his Dragon “companion” was way hype and intense. And no few secrets were quickly learned about (redacted). Trying to ensure Barak wasn’t toast at the same time was actually the Challenge and a big concern for Birgitta and I to which the Count agreed- there was no need for him to lose his life while the Dragon dealt with her child.

- The subsequent scene outside the Inn. Trust from a former detractor and folks listening to the Spirits when we said stay out of it. Other Spirits coming up and immediately joining the wall between the fight and the town with minimal question. Proud of you guys.

- Thanking Karkat. Now there is something that never happens from anyone and I think it caught him off guard because it did happen.

- Barak telling the Warlord that the Blood Spirits were with him for the Battle. Some of the looks on others, so I am told, were priceless…

- “Merikh, I am actually very happy to see you here…”

- Team Yellow got a plan…. And to start that plan, the very first use of my Holy Word was done on our group. Being able to give prowess to sixteen PC’s for minimal faith? Duuuuuuude…..

- CALL OF THE BLOOD SPIRITS!!! The Call came and one very whompedon Arcane Construct/Golem resulted from it. Certain folks now know a big secret about us…

- Seeing the hangers on all over Miranda and being like “HMph. Just like her sister with the groupies. Ain’t got time for that…” And making my merry way to the encampment for Food. Sometimes being neutral can be fun for mental RP at least.

- Food. Glorious Post Main Food. Considering I did not eat feast due to investigating thefts, the chow was greatly appreciated and tasty. I did get food from Kaladonia before feast which is what kept me on my feet. Thankyou Kaladonia!!

- Sunday Morning Breakfast chat with The Count over coffee

- Sunday (I think it was sunday...) morning conversation with Trisana. Someone I very rarely talk to… and it was both wonderful and enlightening chat too. I truly hope something comes of our talk, Jen. Only time will tell if what we want to see happen does.

- All Hands packout from the encampment. Truly, many hands make light work… and the Spirits are a team as well as a family.

- Special Shout Out to Jeff McLean, Chase Kosberg, and Gina Carosella for things you were, did and did…. In that order.

JTinney wrote: - Ancient Dryad…. When I looked up and saw him on the back trail staring at me, I was like ohshit. When I Lore’d and identified him, the puckerfactor went through the roof. Yay Diplomacy and having dealt with the Amathyr nature heralds.
- Not being able to commune with him but knowing who could… Way to run, Caldor. And, um… welcome to the Encampment finally?

Shhh... now the secret is out. If people want me to go somewhere, all you have to do is get an Ancient Dryad to show up.

So, Event Highlights! This was no doubt the KR Event where I feared for my life the most, as it was the first even where the crew stayed in the tents rather than a well defended structure, and boy does Travance like it’s random encounters. All told I think we had nine to eleven different things come down to pick a fight over the course of the weekend. Thank you so much to the retainers who hung down there with us and made sure we survived, thank you to Billiam, Nalick, Seiko, Lorelei, and anyone else who came down to rescue the crew. We went on a lot fewer mods this time on account of trying to figure out the appropriate amount of time we wanna spend hanging around camp vs going up to the Inn, so thank you to all of our friends who made sure we didn’t miss out on our share of fighting. That’s right, don’t think I didn’t notice that like 7 our of the 9 random encounters were people I’ve hung out with.

I also got to fear for my life OOG as I came face to face with the bear in the parking lot, and had to get past it while it ransacked the dumpster. So big thanks to everyone who had to put up with me going “I JUST RAN INTO THE BEAR! OH MY GOD! I ALMOST JUST DIED!” and proceeded to jump at every noise in the woods.

Outside of that, I was super excited to participate in the ritual to make an alternate prison for the Nulls. Based on the comments up above, I gather I missed out on some of the meatier RP since I just showed up and did what I was told, but it was still fun to interact with such a large group. Thalia, Caldor, and Tobias really blew me away with the “getting wrecked by manipulating such powerful energies.” RP, I love it when I see KR people doing stuff that could come off as silly and has no mechanical benefit but they go for it anyways, everyone else who explained their parts of the ritual was a lot of fun and set the bar really high. Also don’t think I didn’t notice what got worked into a reading on Ennax!

The mock trial was a rousing success I thought, we wanted to do something zany that was all in the name of good fun and we certainly got it. Probably my favorite part is how many people showed up that the crew hasn’t really interacted with, it was a great chance to spread out the RP, and James you will be happy to know Puppet Count did declare for execution more often than not.

The new player mod on Saturday against the Mortal Hunter was a lot of fun, and may have shaped how I build my list going forward, as I spent it trying to get downed players up, and harass enemies going after people in the midst of healing. Again I wanna think all my friends who clearly had the look in their eye of “Oh it’s Jackdaw! We’re friends! I’m gonna go see if I can kill him!”

Even though I ended up being involved in very little during Main Mod, I’m not gonna lie, I actually enjoyed it. I’m not saying every main mod should be down that way, but I liked the long march through the woods, with moments to hang out in character, the atmosphere was wonderful, and lead to a battle that was far less “hold the line” than normal. I dug running with the Winged Victory, Drega’mire and Bloodspirits combo made a really effective team.

Sunday was ratpeople wake up, and then lessons. I asked Orin to teach me a new list, partially because I had seen reactions to him around the game and was curious, I wanted to see what kind of person Magnus would choose to succeed him, and in the end I don’t think I could have asked for a more applicable lesson, so it was awesome, and thanks for that.

And finally big thanks to the crew for continuing to have my back, and slap crazy Winged Victory tattoos on themselves. It can only get better from here folks!

Lol, I had no idea that Demeanor got hit with a blood hex! That explains a lot!
Jack was basically thinking "Man... D is a lot nicer outside of meetings." ;P

Glad to hear it was nothing personal; I like D! (Also wow, someone is ballsy to hit D with a blood curse right in the Blackbird!)

That whole meeting was definitely one of the highlights of the event for me! Looking forward to doing more with everyone there.

Edwin - you wanna whack Miranda? I think we can do it,

Providing 10 psalms for Caldor's ritual, only to see them used in a manner I never expected.

The ritual as a whole provided some excellent RP and insights into how others think.

Providing some trinkets to some Blood Spirits, not knowing exactly how key they would be.

I hate riddles, but Riddle Mod, had some interesting points, like me versus 4 tricked out Death Assassins. I was hard put to hold the balance, particularly as our only healer and physician were poisoned and in crit. Let's hear it for Battle Casting and tall grass, which made noise as they moved in shadows. If only I could have finessed it to have the Seneschal croak without seeming to let her. Alas, there were too many witnesses and it is not in Edwin's nature.

Chess with a new (2nd event) NPC. He is new to the game but has raw talent. I look forward to future games. Actually, I enjoyed all the chess lessons I provided.

Being falsely accused by a noble - what else is new?

Minting gold bars on commission. It suits Edwin.

Recalling the old days with Lord Montgomery, Corven Rallenfolly, and Pirate Dave. "Can we still order a whole pie in advance?

Deciding commodities are mispriced and doing something about it.

For what it is worth, I was really ticked off to discover someone had stolen 18 croissants, which made that many breakfasts short on the bread. Thank you John Jones for giving me a loaf of multigrain, which allowed 6 to be replaced.

Immense after-action report.

Working those three days as if they were normal was hard. RPing as though life is normal even when you know you've got something big happening at the end is really difficult, but really really cathartic to pull off in the end. Sorry to do it in front of you Diane, but yeah, an excuse for an oog situation.

For Brunner to work out some hate against his former master, priceless....

Finally, camping at the witch hunter encampment, a breath of fresh air. Really has inspired me to keep doing that, and might actually start doing a little more to push for authenticity.