October "The Halloween Episode" 2016 Event Highlights!

As a first time player, highlights:

all the racism. and the counterRacism. (Thank you everyone! It was amazing!)

"Are all Drow this sassy!? I need to know more of you guys!"

people freaking out about the fact it looked like they made the drow sit outside for the feast

NPC shift - all of it! from Zombie-ing with Karden, to the guy who said that 'you are having too much fun', to the players freaking out and jumping at shadows, to coming up to a group and having Heimdal turn around and shout "TOO MANY DRUGS" before going into a frenzy and taking the full group on at once.

All the people insisting they aren't racist "I have a Drow friend!" "I'm cool with Drow, I promise!"

Extra shoutouts to:
- those of you who came up once we were out of character and made sure that we were ok with your racism (IT WAS AWESOME RACISM!!!!)
- Jeremy: Kanas' pint-size fury and constant twitchiness when we were around was wonderful. As was his inability to make us go away.
- Wulfgar's response on the first night, from being forced to talk with the Drow to being brought in legless and laid next to the corpse of Kanas. And then being given back his legs by the Drow healer. The RP there was really great!

Remembered a few more:
Heimdell on all the drugs. Everyone else was either hiding in that alchemical circle or dead, and he just puts his dukes up.
90'S HOUR WITH THE SKULL SPEAKER!
Reactions to Julius were...glorious.
The PCs at main mod slowly grouping together for safety...
Seeing certain people over the course of the day and saying 'Oh, this is your shift. This is gonna be fun....'
OOG conversations with Kate I. about larping, KR and characters. I might just need to do some more psych research the next time I open the character builder.
Logistics on Sunday: "Gnawing off your leg (Quiet, Quiet). Limping to the cottage (Quiet, Quiet.)"
Actually knowing the answers to some rules questions so I didn't have to ask them!
New Players, as always, blew my mind with their skills and general roleplay.

"I became a bandit so I could find my son."
"What happened to your son?"
"He came to Travance as an adventurer!"

Well hell…

I admittedly had misgivings going into this event and it was not due to the expected monster. Thankfully, those misgivings were groundless though I was surprised by a thing. A couple things actually…

Camp setup went swimmingly well- thank you Josh Labar for the help with tent assembly in the damp camp… and the Road Into The Woods made what gear we had to bring in easier.

Highlights Friday-
- Dueling Ben’s monster. I encountered it at Kaladonia after their statehouse got trashed. And wound up face to face with him. School of nope kept me sound and I managed to engage it in a question and answer session…. Only to see that get canned by impatience on Travance. Learning it was sentient and intelligent…. I should have paid more attention to this and perhaps more strident in insisting this in various places… and I will explain later.
- Keavy and the Combat Phokus walk. Some excellent roleplay happened here and a heartwrenching return to life. “Brazen says you will have your vengeance, one way or another, Keavy…”
- Late night discussions around the fitful campfire and Baptisms to Brazen. War is a Craft and an Art….
Saturday Highlights-
- Fire-roasted Italian Sausage and coffee…. Mmmmmmm.
- Brazen Mass. Almost always a highlight. Even when I think I was off… Having Judge tell me it was solid helps my own confidence….
- The first proper Druid Conclave Meeting I’ve been to… hell must be freezing over as I actually made one of these.
- Feast. Tasty. Fruit Salad… even tastier!!
- The Great Monster Hunt part one: The pools… Interesting concept. And hunting partys being a smart idea- all groups being capable and with multiple groups, help is never far away…. Of course this idea gets chuffed in favor of-
- The Great Monster Hunt part two: The Lure. Well, this does have promise but its in a bad location for luring him in. Where it was moved to was not ideal among for a few reasons, imo, but who knows… Maybe I’m wrong about it being smart enough not to take the bait. We will see.

Now here is where my thinking it was intelligent gets proven right. Goddamn if Ben didn’t LOWCRAWL up behind my distracted by medical message-checking self. This is where the damp helped him immensely and I kick myself for not thinking like a smart cunning monster. Mad Salutations to you Ben- and thanks for the scare on maybe losing my second tag… What you did is something I’d have done to get up on people were I the monster and that is the best compliment I can give you…


… and it was 100% a reminder to get back on my game about checking EVERYTHING and assuming nothing. Thank you Ben for that reminder/lesson…. Well learned lesson too.

So yeah…. Fighting happened, I get dropped along with my fellow blood spirit while trying to escape… then getting dragged/carried off.

- The Greart Monster Hunt part three: The rescue. Talk about smart thinking on Travance’s part with a cut-off group and a pursuit group. Give yo’ selves a high five…. I had just over two minutes of death count remaining when found. My fellow spirit, not so lucky- which lead to a wicked emotional scene with his Walk.
- Fighting at the Barracks/Focus. Can I say I hate oozes?
- Fighting at the Barracks part 2. To quote Lost Boys- “Damn vampires…” Being a Templar was very handy…
- Post main-mod talks…. And the responsibility/role play of being Chaplain took precedent over gong on Druid Mod. One day, I will manage to get on one of these. One day…. Chaplain role play was excellent and I want to give all who were at the fire in the encampment (both Blood Spirit and non-spirit) kudos for their RP in this. I owe all of you a RP point…

Sunday highlight!!
- Donuts, Danish and Coffee- breakfast of Larpers .. with more excellent RP and after-action discussion
- A chance to chat with Lord Gideon about just…. Stuff. Damn rare as that man usually has NO time.
- Hearing that Julius was back in the Proper. I so want that…. (insert many choice words of invective here) man’s head on a pike.
- Clean up and pack out. Despite being damp as hell, clean up and such went quick and gear was put away as dry as possible. No mean feat, I assure you.

All in all, this was a very good event with enough IC worry and concern along with some excellent RP. Can’t wait for the Retreat Week and the event afterward.

See y’all when I see you!!

Oh I totally forgot the encounter that was even scarier than Ben and that was when I was getting into bed on Saturday night. I was facing the door to the adventurer's guild, turned around to grab something, turned back and Julius was sitting at the end of the table. Morwenne came out and saw him and tried to expel him from lair which did not work (this is when I knew just how bad this could be) and as he talked to her he proceeded to move and come sit next to me on my bed.

It's safe to say I was beginning to consider how best to spend the build I'd get from a second death...

My Goodness, where to begin?

Friday night, all of it! The horror movie atmosphere was amazing. The nonsense with the oozes added an extra layer of suspense to the whole thing. Good on Steve and the monster marshals!

Brazen mass: Duncan's interactions with Jed were hilarious. The baptism the night before was amazing as well. It was simple, direct and yet filled with hidden depth and meaning just like everything Duncan does.

Npc Shift: Asking the new players if they had run into Damian:
Me: so how many of you have been killed by Damian yet?
Npcs: *Blank looks*
Me: ALMIGHTY GALMACHIS HEAR MY PRAYER! EXILIS, INCEPTUM, MORTEM, MORS AD GRANT DEATH TWOHUNDREDDIVINEBODY
Npcs: *all raise hands*

Playing the obese albino rat
Albino rat: grrrrrrrrr squeeek
Dr Heimdall : *jumps out of nowhere like the crazy awesome Jeckel and Hyde warrior monk that he is* Tencoppertencoppertencoppertencoppertencoppertencoppertencoppertencoppertencoppertencoppertencoppertencoppertencoppertencoppertencoppertencoppertencopper
Rat: HOLD *rips off mask* matt what in the hell are you calling
Matt Magnus: *smiles evilly* ten copper
Me: ooooooookayyyyy, threetwoonelayon *gets murdered*

Gargoyle mod where I charged towards a huge group of pcs and then saw a certain hooded individual out of the corner of my eye.
Me: fifteenfirefifteenfirefifteenfire wait is that Jed? well there goes this mod
Jed: Slay!
PC who just got got: Clarify?
Me: You're dead dude, you are very very dead
*everyone else gets killed*

And then there was Saturday night. Thank you monster marshals for the awesome stuff. I'm proud of Darius but he needs to calm the fuck down. Fighting six nonferatu single handedly sans left arm trying to save his dying sister with three people trying to drag his dumb ass behind a sanctuary was very much a thing. Also Dr Heimdall's crazy back alley bare handed time warp surgery to save Reyna's life left an impression. Darius is going to have some shit to sort out in his headspace after seeing his baby sister in about fifty pieces. Thank you Matt, John and Andrew for some awesome roleplay during that whole scene!

In short: I had an amazing time. Thank you Steve and all the staff for a great weekend.

And Matt, you are a seriously twisted individual, it is awesome! Much love brother.

Darius wrote: And then there was Saturday night. Thank you monster marshals for the awesome stuff. I'm proud of Darius but he needs to calm the fuck down. Fighting six nonferatu single handedly sans left arm trying to save his dying sister with three people trying to drag his dumb ass behind a sanctuary was very much a thing.

Duuuuuuude.... I was about to SMITE you to get you to get back into the damn building. Which of course would have meant the Vamps *might* have gotten me....