December Highlights!

Ilana Darkwood wrote: Pssst, New Players
If you're interested in random 'field trip' mods with the reward I gave you, fill out your event recaps and let staff know/let me know. Ilana is an explorer, I am more than fine taking people to places we should probably not be going (aka vote for Ilana/Mars to be Ms. Frizzle. You'll make my new year. It'll be fiiiiine.)

I don't think I was on this mod BUT I want to go on field trips!

Magnus wrote: My plan - Play heimdell and run a new player mod

What actually happened - run 3 new player mods, mm boss for gene, marshal hours of research, team up with Ben Herman to entertain players till 6 in the morning... Spend 75% of my game in various headbands running mods...

In essence "everything went better then expected "

The new player mods were so excellent and we appreciate you!

GJSchaller wrote: Warlock Uncorked mod. Clytie coming down the path. "Are you here to fix the (broken NPC)?" "No, I was told there would be pie...?"

Hey, in her defense, she fixed the warlock anyway. She earned her pie.

Party in the Blackbird! Lois may or may not have started a tab in Coran Tanwyn's name. Sorry not sorry

Wandering the ENTIRE CAMP with Van looking for fun because everyone else ABANDONED US, YOU JERKS, and realizing somewhere around Alisandria that everyone pretty much let the Seneschal wander off into the woods alone at night with a known bad influence AND LOOK WHAT HAPPENED! She had fun and was happy, the HORROR

The Stonefall Players present a Dramatic Interlude!

The Writ of Weirdness.

The scene with Pluvious, Argyle, and Tari, and the subsequent talk with Argyle, though I am sad I wasn't able to attend George's birthday party. Why does all the good stuff happen at the same time?!

Attended my yearly Mage's Guild meeting And what a meeting to attend! Welcome wild mages!

Brain surgery. I admit having so many people was... challenging... and I promise that all the non-invitations were not an attempt to keep people out of plot - all of you would have been told the information afterwards - but rather because of how Lois feels about people poking around inside her head and watching her be so incredibly vulnerable. Despite the sudden influx of people I did get at least one of the narrative moments I was looking for, so overall I'm satisfied. And much love to Matt for taking time out of his game to marshal that, and Feldman for putting it all together, and sorry my brain-hand tried to break Bob's thumb, Ben

Post-main-mod discussion. "Neener neener neener" , and Seth being super on-point with his questions.

"I think it's the Great Story." I'm looking forward to Belegchand and Lois's next interaction

I greatly enjoyed my climbing lesson with Rook! I would have kept trying but I, uh, actually hurt a muscle in my arm by trying to pull myself up (contrary to lesson instructions) and was trying not to show it because I'm a stubborn idiot Lesson learned, pain is a good teacher, praise Aguara Still, it was a fun time, and you better believe I'm going to be trying to climb random things for realz with my newfound knowledge

Bribe-not-bribe. Seriously, Alisia & Drew, that was so sweet of you guys, I'm really touched

See y'all at the banquet!

Trying to shoo people out of the Blackbird for the private wine-tasting. Getting ready to lock up when the door eerily creaks open, and nothing comes in... turns out it was a not ghost unconfirmed demon trying to give me presents in exchange for a drink. He was quite polite. Missed the meeting because you can't exactly leave an invisible demon to roam around your bar and expect things to be ok. Sold the thing to Calvin Tanwyn for 150g. Hehehhee.

Stonefall private party! I'm sad I couldn't attend as Octavia, but y'all were quite entertaining and paid very well. Come back AAAAANNY time you'd like.

My new team. Y'all are great, let's do more stuff!

Visits to Alisandria. You guys amuse me.

Deciding to go to the Abyss because I've never been to the Abyss and it sounds cool. Go to the Abyss. Try to jump on flying demon's back. Immediately get fire bombed by other demon. Decide that's enough of that. Go out side of the portal and sneak up behind demon hoard. Knock out demons, drag them off into the woods for dissection. Anyone need some essences?

This was my second event playing Alexei for real, and I was happy (and a bit surprised) that so many people remembered me. That was a really cool feeling. I had a lot of fun roleplaying with you all. Here are my highlights:

• Getting a tarot reading from Carlos.


• Meeting Bear and hanging out with Caldor more.


• New player mod part one. I already posted about this in the New Player forum — Matt made it a lot of fun. Some rules got bent, some characters fell out of the sky. And I got to meet Moostrav and Rastiria (who I kept calling Wisteria. Sorry!).


• Hanging out with Elric and some of the Winged Victory crew in the inn after the mod. Finally figured out that there are two Kestrels.


• Wound up going on a decidedly not new player mod with Ilana to rescue Drega'Mire Manor from demons. Blew most of my healing points, but I got to use my first Heal Life. I would love more field trip mods with Miss Ilana.


• Helping with feast prep was a blast. Jason, Sharon, and everyone who helped, you all really rose to the occasion despite the kitchen fighting us.


• Main mod. Got to hang out with Midori, Rastiria, and Willow while we waited around at the triage area outside the gate. The lines must have held really well, because we didn't get many customers at all!


• Meeting poor Ean in the inn. Josephine and I could barely contain ourselves. Amazing roleplaying by the Creepy Bard.


• Sunday morning there were Yule presents appearing out of thin air! (Two players were walking around in costumes and red headbands handing them out.) I got a rubber duck with antlers.


• Pre-Pre! I hope we get to see her again.


• And of course, healing lessons were just as brutal as last month. Thanks Nalick and Kyras, and thanks Starling for being an awesome teacher.

Starling wrote: - Saturday Brunch, healers and physicians meeting, everyone there was stellar. .

I'm sorry that I missed that meeting. I was getting my butt kicked over at Drega'Mire.

Jeff Balla jinxed this event for everyone by saying his goal was character development.

He never specified which characters.

So thanks Chris Z. Thanks a lot. Ya jerk.

Oh and how could I have forgotten!

7 years ago, Lois sat down for her first tarot reading with Carlos. She dissected it logically and basically dismissed the whole thing as hogwash - clever hogwash, that takes a keen understanding of the mind, but hogwash nonetheless This event, she read for Carlos. How far she has come

Alexei Jengiefsky wrote:

Starling wrote: - Saturday Brunch, healers and physicians meeting, everyone there was stellar. .

I'm sorry that I missed that meeting. I was getting my butt kicked over at Drega'Mire.

There was a physcian/healer meeting?

I am so bad at attending those

Ven wrote: Jeff Balla jinxed this event for everyone by saying his goal was character development.

He never specified which characters.

So thanks Chris Z. Thanks a lot. Ya jerk.

I know this feeling deep in my soul and totally agree

Oh, and of course Jeff Balla cracking up at Alexei's new coat before lay on was even called. I'm glad Nalick was able to keep a straight face.

On Saturday morning, Gigi making lots of deals and kicking a goblin out of the Inn for repeatedly offering her a fur with fleas (Gigi really can't imagine much worse than that)! Great job by the goblins - you were all hilarious and Gigi was really tempted to purchase the Jonas Kane privy cover.

IG argument with Burk and trying really hard to not crack up. Failing. Josh, you just make me laugh, I can't help it. Other IG arguments that are RP highlights and having to stomp off at a loss for words this time.

Abby, your Thalia RP continues to amaze me. Making promises about the dark druidess.

A brief discussion about redemption with Bob.

Morwenne’s steely eyed gaze and her ability to make Faila feel like a three year old while only saying about two sentences.

Tsoli’s lessons.

A long discussion with Aleister and others about the nature of the weave, demons, etc. Questions Faila has had for over three years answered.

Thanks to everyone for such a great event.

Oh, most important highlight.

George's horns. Just saying, those were some great looking horns!

Fantastic event, as always. The weather was great (for me, anyway), the RP was better than usual somehow, and Ergos felt super duper useful, albeit kinda bad about being a jerk.

-Did not use a single skill with Haz this weekend, was all RP with him, and damn good RP at that. Thanks to everyone involved, you know who you are.

-Saturday morning, being a tired Ergos made his mean (if you can call it mean) side come out a bit, but once things started rolling he woke up.

-Healer meeting! Ergos didn't have much to say, but he's glad that things are getting started.

-New player goblin mods. Ergos doesn't like goblins and was very very vocal about it. He felt a bit useless since he didn't get to heal things but he got paid so he was fine with it.

-Hearing from Lorelai that people needed help at Ostcliff. Sprinting to Ostcliff and healing a lot of limbs and whatnot.

-New player demon mod with Matt and being one of very few healers out there. Great time out there, thanks to all the NPCs who gave the new players just enough of a hard time to make it super fun and challenging but not impossible.

-Archcaster lessons with Tartaros. Lord Tartaros. Weird time, but a good time. Definitely helped Ergos out way more than just in terms of archcasting.

-FEAST. Thank you so much to everyone involved with the feast, especially with all of the stress about getting everything done on time. Quite honestly the best feast I've had, as anyone who was sitting near me could understand while I gushed on about how delicious it was with a mouthful of food.

-NPC for mainmod was pretty good. Imps are fun. So are mana seekers.

-Coming off of mainmod to play Ergos again. Hanging out, awaiting what was to come. Some good RP. Then an Ostvolk burst through the door.

-Going to Shrike mod as Ergos. Being the only healer on Shrike mod. Without Peaches, there woulda been a lot of limbless people, and maybe some corpses. Craziest fight of Ergos' life so far, definitely glad that I could be there.

-Homunculanius. Thanks Matt.

-Talks with Starling about healer things and exhaustion and stupidity.

-Waking up the next morning and doing not a whole bunch with Haz. Talks with Pluvious and Master Ginyu and some Ostvolk, but thats about it as far as highlights go.

Thanks again to everyone who made this event and this year so great, can't wait til 1217!

Friday night was absolutely enjoyable. Edgefest 1216 ftw!

An interesting exchange between Jed and Caldor on the subject of praying to God for his Sanctuary lesson. Also nice to meet Bear, Caldor's sister.

Stonefall Meet n' Greet! Thanks to Octavia for being a lovely host!
I enjoyed the idea of nyad's blood in the blue cupcakes causing some unrest with an unlikely party. (Don't worry, your secret is safe with me!)

Argyle, you are a shady queen. I was ready to square up with you, twice!

Deep religious conversations with Bob, Kroh and Zelretch. Truly admirable how quickly Bob can wordsmith perfectly a ticklish situation...

Dramatic narratives by the most dramatic tree (per the Seneschal) with Bob, Lois, Kroh, Zelretch and Karkat were unforgettable and filled with mirth, even if it was a terribly serious subject we were trying to discuss. Nothing like putting a little comedy into tragedy to ease the sting of it, right?

"He has until midnight Saturday and then I'm beating him to death."

Ain't no party like a Karkat wraith Vile Will party 'cuz a Karkat wraith Vile Will party don't stop...

Fighting a 45 minute rush of undead in half clothes because of all the screaming when I was trying to go to bed at 5am! Curse your black heart, Tim!!!
Went to bed hurting from laughing so much, though. Sign of a good time!

A sluggish Saturday morning get-ready after that. Happy to meet Trent on the way to see Jed for his ideation, which went beautifully by the way. Judge really becomes the voice of the serpent and captivates his audience with his passion and perceptions. Some good speeches followed him, Duncan, who is always on his A game with his religion and a surprising newcomer, Dr. Kroh, who did remarkably well.
And you, too, Argyle.

A random gathering afterward with Jade, Indigo, Trexler, Octavia and Jed. Discussions of TINY SOCKS! And breaking the scariest man in Travance for a few minutes. (SORRY!)

Actual popcorn break with Amalthea, just as she'd promised! Paladin best friend is best. Next we'll have to do our nails together and talk about boys.

On a serious note, when another Harbinger was discovered (this time of Suffering, so you know, Swyft was like, FREAKING OUT) it was Amalthea who really took the time to calm her and what an emotional exchange it was. I think that was the deepest conversation we have had since the beginning of Swyft's downward spiral. Those tears were real, lady! Love you!

Another unexpected but important conversation with Grimkjell, after Swyft was sure he'd written her off.

New method of Sustaining Lives... folks seem to enjoy it. Almost killed Nalick with it, lol. Love ya', Jeff!

Who's the clown who told Papa Gypsy that Swyft is a dark paladin?! And that the rainbow sword is a specialized dark paladin sword?! Very funny, like I don't have enough trouble as it is! Papa Gypsy on the warpath is scary. Can we not make stuff up like that?!

Drega'Mire land meeting! Fun times, knocking cups over and also being serious. Well, trying to... because... Carlos' hat.

NPC shift with the amazing Ben as a lanius -- pretty neat role. Most hilarious when both Matt (as a homunculus) and I subdued each other at exactly the same time:
"What's your strength?"
"Ten."
"Me too."
"Hmm..."

Cue uncontrollable laughter as we grappled each other and then fell down on the floor in hysterics at the silliness of it all. (Sorry for the immersion break, but I don't think we could help it!)

Sunday morning it was nice to spend quality time with Charlie making breakfast, again. It had been quite some time!

Spending some quality time with Imrahil on Sunday and then learning Strength of the Samurai with the infamous BBTak. Therion and Swyft don't get a lot of time to RP together, and after that lesson, I'm going to make it a point to spend more time with him!

Deviling Annora by sending the (hilarious) Demon Slayer Hell Bent (see what I did there?) on going to the Abyss to fight the demonds to Aleister and telling him Annora sent him.
"Why would she condone sending someone to the Abyss? Why would she think I'd do that?"
"I don't know. She totally did though."
Later, running into her and Belegchand with (an only slightly) miffed Aleister while he lightly scolded her, pointing at her the whole time. When she finally said she didn't do it, I ran away, cackling "evilly" (Because you know, that's what people think now, may as well play the part) while she screamed "SWYYYYYYFT" in her best "KAAAAAAAHN!" impression.
So evil, I am.

A most EXCELLENT conversation with Zelretch and "Charles Livingston."
Curse his impish sudden but inevitable betrayal!
Playing 5 card draw with him and Hasim was kind of the best thing ever, what with this legendary gambler stuff. And you know, both of them having royal flush of diamonds...
Yeeeahhh...


Overall a very pleasant event with very pleasant weather for December! I hope people enjoyed my upped katta game. Amazing what a little weight loss and weather under 90 degrees does for my energy!

A special shout-out to Steve Oros for being a freaking awesome dude to RP with and I finally had the fortune to get to spend a fair amount of time with him. Never a dull moment, my friend. I hope there are more to come! (... I mean, considering our conversation Friday night, I assume there are more shenanigans on the way...)
I'm sure I'm forgetting awesome interactions. I apologize if so, but I love you all, still! I just have a lousy memory!
Until next time!

OH almost forgot!

Meeting Sir Wellington wellington wellington wellington wellington the 89820981095th. "I've heard of you before! You have a cat!"

"YOU HAVE NEWS OF MY CAT?!?!? Wellington wellingtonwellingtonwellington the 15th was stolen by the Rouge club!" (pronounced roooooge like the blush)

".... um...uh... I think T'soli found him foraging in the dumpsters. Nice collar, had his name and everything. You should talk to him about it!"

AHH! My first full event (I may have the strangest track record having come to 2016 awards, and then the 2016 Ball before hitting a full weekend... )!!

Overall note: I really had NO idea what to expect and I had an amazing time. Thank you to EVERYONE who contributed, even if I miss mentioning you here. Everything is kind of a blur!

First, crashing an almost finished New Player meeting b/c Jason and I had the times wrong. SORRY!

Heading off to Jed's to watch her brother Caldor wax philosophical with another preacher-type was incredibly interesting. PLUS she got to meet Swyft!

The New Player mod was incredibly challenging and terrifying -- never having swung a weapon before and jumping right into somehow being one of the stronger fighters in our small group was a bit of a shock. SUPER fun though, once I realized I needed to ditch the cloak (sorry Bill, it took a little rest on the floor!). Some rules were bent, as Alexi said, but we had all the fun learning.

Rasteria, Chimera and Bear getting together after the new player mod to plan for the next day was amazing too. I'm looking forward to LOTS of antics with our little group.

Friday night was filled with Bear meeting Thalia and helping her around in the kitchen til 4 bells. FOUR BELLS.

Bear also met Nalick.... Caldor gave him the eyes and the warnings. Grim gave him the eyes. If only Aella had been there...

(Dara had coffee with hot cocoa. Dara NEVER drinks coffee. This may have contributed to the 4 am existence.)

Saturday morning Bear got to appreciate the marketfair and breakfast, and made lots of plans with other New Players to reconvene with a larger group to take on the Demon at 4 bells. She talked to TONS of people, and hoped that they would all come back to help later that day.

The night before, Thalia had invited Bear to the Healer and Physician meeting at 11, so she arrived in a timely manner for that meeting. She mostly listened, and then shared some strategic ideas from her homeland towards the end of the meeting. These resulted in her being asked to stay on with the group as a Tactical Consultant. She accepted humbly, and promised to help "Do Good" in Travance.

At some point there was an awesome interaction with Chimera and another player who specifically sought her out to meet. That was a super cool thing to witness for both characters and their development.

After that, Chi and Bear took a walk around the grounds to get their bearings, as they had only just arrived to Travance.

Bear also had a TON of fun finding her brothers, Beligor and Grim, and getting their help preparing for the Demon fight in the afternoon. She asked Beligor if he had a chain that he could lend her, and if he had a way to "I don't know, make it Divine or something. I have to tie down a Demon!" Beligor grabbed Grim, who lent Bear a grappling hook, and Beligor ran off with it to "find a friend who could help." He came back minutes before Bear had to leave for the Demon fight, with a Divine Grappling Hook for her to take along... Brothers

Part 2 of the Demon vs New Player mod was EPIC. We had a triple sized party, and we also encountered a much larger enemy when we arrived on-site. The Demon had powered up, and there were a bunch of baby demons too.... At the risk of a really long, rambly reiteration, we fought for a bit, then our party's wild mage went BOOM and had a wave of 3 magical hits that dealt 100 damage each to anyone within earshot. If you didn't take the damage, you took a Stun and a Trip. I popped what I thought were all my defenses (I forgot about Barbarian's racial "Ignore Magic. UGH!"), and stayed up with about 3 of my other party members. Luckily a healer made it through... Thanks Caldor! The baby demons also went down, and so it was the boss Demon and a few of us. He took the damage so we were chasing after him after our stun/trips wore off... The fighters were working hard, the healer (I think Alexi it was you who stayed up? Maybe?) was bringing everyone else back into play, and then... the wild mage boomed again a few minutes later. THIS TIME he turned into a pillar of fire, and the Demon grabbed him and was about to consume him (because Fire Demon)... so Bear decided it was time to try her emergency grappling hook. After a quick clarify, she threw the hook, grabbed her friend, and with the joint strength of a few other fighters, was able to release him from the Demon's grasp. After that though, the Demon was NOT HAPPY and began to swing a bit harder at us... so Bear decided to attempt to grapple the Sword (aka the Artifact they were trying to retrieve, the whole reason they were there) out of the Demon's hands. (After obtaining a spacket from someone else, THANK YOU WHOEVER I FRANTICALLY GRABBED THAT FROM!) Bear hooked the Sword, and with the combined strength of basically EVERYONE STILL STANDING (fighters, healers, bystanders), we were able to yank the Sword out of the Demon's hands, even while sustaining toooons of damage trying to do so. Chimera grabbed it and levitated away, while the rest of us beat up on the now disarmed Demon and his babydemon allies. PHEW. At the close of the mod, Bear advocated for the Rasteria to take the Sword, as she would use it for the defense of everyone. We all also got some awesome loot, thank you to the Marshals for picking cool stuff for us!

Feast with the Heargens was AMAZING. So glad Beligor, Grim and Bear got to eat together.

NPC shift after that was a little stressful, but definitely an important experience. Remind me never to get my hair caught in a bramble bush again, and I'm sorry to whomever got their night vision slashed by us having to take out a light to set me free. >.<

Caldor and Bear were chatting in the Inn later, Caldor mostly introducing Bear all around and letting her get to know his connections. Eventually Caldor was tired so he laid down on Bear's leg... and Jason apparently was tired too, since he straight up took a little nap waiting for his group to get back for some kind of outing.

Late Saturday night was spent with Bear consoling Caldor after he received some tragic news about his close friends.

Late-late Saturday night was spent with Bear keeping Nalick company for the same reasons. PLUS he read her a book. Drunkenly or not, Bear dropped her sarcasm about reading and enjoyed the story about summoning Unicorns. Which she later learned was a real thing that happened in Travance. After seeing Nalick off to bed, Bear slept as well.

Sunday was lots of hugging by Bear and lots of lessons! So much lessoning! Thank you to everyone who taught her things. She's looking forward to broadening her horizons in Travance.

AND THE FASHION PLANS! I can't recall if this was Saturday or Sunday, but I think Sunday... There are so many plans. Thank you to Starling and Peacock and everyone else who is in on this wondrous plan. Bear cannot WAIT to get involved in the Travance economy.

SERIOUSLY THOUGH

Thank you everyone for making this event such a blast. I haven't been a PC in like... a decade. And I've never created my own character and had to develop her. It's thrilling and daunting and a million other things... but I'm so excited to experience it with such an amazing group of people.

I went into this event getting over a nasty virus that made it so the more active I was, the worse I felt meant I had to green headband, and everyone kept yelling at me to take it easy. As a result I feel like I didn't get to do much.

Friday night I NPC'ed first shift, started as cultist posing as a mage trying to buy essences, apparently Zelretch caught on to me right away, and sent Seth to keep an eye on me, eventually figure the cultist out and drag me up to be tortured by Sylas Crone, which was also a really interesting RP experience. I was sent out with the "if you get caught here's what you can reveal," so it was neat setting up a lot of plot stuff, and not having to wing it, but wow guys, you figured me out right away.

Going back out as Jamison Woolworth, the man who makes elementals in boxes that either heat or cool the various statehouses was awkward when everyone assumed I was again some kind of suspicious merchant, but I was entirely on the up and up, and I love it when monster marshals run mods that take an explanation for OOG stuff and flesh it out to make it feel like it's actually a part of the world. Thanks to Shane for coming up with that, and for Bill being my bumbling assistant who drew a bunch of fire elementals into our world by accident. (Also shout out to Bill for Grim constantly trying to delve into Jackdaw's mental state while he dodged and avoided his problems like a pro rogue.)

Also props to all of the people who insisted Jackdaw try and get a reading from Carlos, I don't know why everyone walking away shaken to their core about how scary accurate those readings are would make him want to, though "Find out the future so you can defy it." was a pretty solid argument.

My Saturday was light, I really enjoyed spending more time with Crane and Magpie than I usually do, and stoking the flames of the quiet strife that's running through Winged Victory. It's been a lot of great character RP. Probably the best thing about Winged Victory is how diverse you guys are as a group. We are always a team, we have each others back through everything we go through, but it doesn't mean that each character doesn't have their own unique feelings on morality, loyalty and politics that makes all of them feel like individuals. It makes every character so fascinating and I love it.

Drega'mire meeting was super interesting, seeing how the land actually interacted was neat Jackdaw continues to question authority figures, and I love that it continues to be "Don't be a pirate, be a privateer, work with us so we can help you!" and he continues to refuse. It ties into character stuff so much better than I could hope, and I really should play with it more.

Lead up to main mod had a lot of cool build up, watching the group going into the abyss talk about how they weren't coming back gave me chills, and the "I'm going but I need my loved ones to not go" could have been so cheesy, but was extremely heartfelt. The biggest moment for Jackdaw were with Jun, and I wanna give some mad props to Dustin for the quiet moment sitting in the corner of the inn hashing out the mentor and student relationship.

Jackdaw put his weapons on, and planned to power through any sickness, but he refused to sit aside while his friends and family were going to be on the front line. Then I got given a job that kept me out of the abyss. There ended up being a lot of cool little character moments for me, which was surprising but really nice. Of course our commanders outside were on point, Travance used actual tactics and thus there wasn't a lot for people to do.

Saturday night I chatted with a few, but mostly I crashed early due to sickness.

Sunday was a lot of fun, I got to sit with Alestair and Starling helping her figure some scholar stuff out. It was a great convo, and had a surprising number of secret Jackdaw moments, and said moments kinda lead really interestingly into a shocking confrontation on Saturday morning. I'm sorry to Matt Calo for the lesson going strangely off the rails, and Jackdaw is shocked at the number of people standing up for him (especially when he knew he wasn't in danger) he's actually a bit shaken by it. It was a really interesting IG scene, (I hope it was all IG, but then making me question if it was means it was some pretty impressive role play as everyone really hit those emotional buttons and for once Jackdaw was stunned into silence)

I did a lot. Things happened. Stuff happened after that. The end.

Just Kidding.

So, first. Holy crap my squad. Seth and Maer ran EVERYWHERE for me and did ALL OF THE THINGS. It was amazing and I super appreciated it. I felt bad I kept carefully backing out of so many situations but God, I needed to.

Shrike. Telling everyone. Explaining everything. Hitting a mental block sometime Friday night/Sat morning where I just started skipping details because my mind was so tired- it was a LONG explanation for some.

Explaining "other."

All of the things on Sat morning! Omg. "Other" indeed.

Getting to lay down for a few hours while Oren apparently decided to plan for a suicide mission. He also apparently told everyone to NOT tell me. Cue Dirge waking me up coming up the stairs mentioning it to people. Cue Allyce being....very....very....upset.

Main mod! All of the fire! All of the fighting! All of the RP!

Shrike mod. That was a whole bunch of frantic fighting, keeping track of people, and finally just the whole pure stubbornness that Allyce has shown as both a character flaw and strength in the last year. She wasn't letting it go. Until..... distraction! (And it was a damn good one!)

After Shrike-Shrike mod. Stubbornness is catching. Oren, Zelretch, and I walk into the woods....

Humunculanius.

Sunday- GETTING A LESSON! (Several actually)

The pure sense of relief that Allyce felt upon telling people she was leaving for a month. Where shes going isn't really that much easier but its still a thing.

Making Cassie want to cry with all of our horrible ideas. We didn't want the lanius but now that we have them.....why not use them? I still don't think any of those ideas were that horrible. Well. They were. But realistically- its easier then war?

Getting a present!!!!!!!!!!

I will be at the banquet but will NOT be at Jan. Have fun with the ice and the snow and the wen-di-go.....

JTinney wrote: (This is a tale in two parts for me due to time today....)

Part two...

Other Saturday things nearly forgotten.

Counselling an Upset Thalia on homages to Family and giving her hope. Something the clergy of her faith is supposed to be doing but she came to me for reasons. And I am honored...

Discussions with Felix Stonebar and his First Master Warrior Lesson. There are Fighters and there are Warriors. The difference between the two is how much the grey matter between your ears is used, for starters- and he got the questions asked without much prodding.

Lesson Two will prove enlightening, I am sure.

Leading Orphan Guild Organizers to the right people to help them. Little did I suspect where that encounter with NPCs was going to end up- and I am damn glad I was able to find the right persons for them to speak with.

Blood Spirit things...
Clan MacKenzie things...

Then the late Saturday night news. Wow. I might not have liked Arabeth Chance very much- for some VERY VALID IC reasons... but how she was murdered (yo- that was an out and out murder. No other way to define that...) is a way no one should ever go. That I cannot be on the party hunting down her murderer... maddening for some very excellent RP reasons. Where the rest of that story goes will be interesting...

Sunday Morning- Breakfast with the Spirits, training and shenanigans before volunteer NPC shift for Rogue Mod.

"Jake.... Jake from Pendarvin"

Back IC for a quiet discussion with someone I never expected to ever talk business with. But developments sometimes cause these things to happen. Where *this* goes... may prove both character building and epic.

Some more scenes, some learning and then time to packup cleanup.

For those going to the Banquet, see y'all there....

-John

This event was a whirlwind for me. There were a ton of highlights, but the following stood out above and beyond:

Let's get the big one out of the way. Amalthea passed her final Paladin test. Thanks to Matt M. and company for putting it together, to Oren and Annora for tagging along, and thanks to Utgard for being an amazing part of this experience. Especially where I stabbed you. Love you, babe. And F--- Malyc!

Interacting with so many healers. From Midori's lesson, hanging with Alexi again, sharing popcorn and genuine feels with Swyft (not giving up on you, kitten!!!), and borrowing Pluvious to help Thalia, to the post-Main Mod chat with Willow.... I love you guys so much.

Shenanigans with the Winged Victory crew. Thanks to Starling for the tabard, and I'm super excited to see where Carlos' reading takes Blue Kes.

Leading a team for Main Mod. I don't think my little elf has been more nervous for anything in her life, including the test Friday, and everyone on our side did marvelously. Sorry to hear about Carl, but not surprised.

To the folks who made feast possible, thanks from the bottom of my stomach. You are miracle workers.

I can't wait to find out what happens next month! See you all at the Banquet!

I had missed the last 3 events due to work things. But man, what an event to come back to.

Starting right out the gate on Friday, seeing people and having important talks with the Kin. This is something Sergei has been working towards for a while now, and the pieces are starting to come together. As Steward of Inovar, Sergei feels a great weight of responsibility for the Kin and is determined to see it is done properly.

Dammit, Tari, why do you always have to be dragging Sergei off to nearly certain death?

To the people who rolled with me late Friday night, thank you. We finally finished a thing that has been in the works for 3 years. And did it with grace, style, and a wilder success than I thought would ever happen.

George's "present." Still waiting til Yule to unwrap him, I see.


Saturday:

A nice relaxing morning sitting and sassing with Maeve.

Corndogs (YES), challenging Creepy Bard with Bardic hot sauce nonsense and him coming through spectacularly, and well shit, now I HAVE to step up and help Aliester. Spell Cleave all my magic, will you? Thank goodness for alchemy.

MM shift!

All the crazy shenanigans. The Orphan's Guild and the surprising/not-so-surprising reactions to it. This is what you get for having 98% tragic backstories, Travance! You can't ALL be batman.

For those of you who encountered the very special encounter Zach was kind enough to help marshal for me, sorry, not sorry. Ask me your lore questions! Do it! Let's get WEIRD.


Main Mod. Almost enough fire. Almost. I wish I could have fought you guys for longer. I was still feeling spry! I've been jonesing for combat for 3 months, and man, y'all didn't disappoint.

Post main mod.

It happened. To everyone who was there, A++ roleplaying. I am completely shocked by what has become of this, the intensity of peoples' reactions, and how much/many it has affected. After 3 months away, THIS encounter helped remind me why I keep wanting to come back to this game. Absolutely incredible on everyone's part.


See you all in January! Dress warm, change your socks, stay hydrated, and maybe consider a nice marinade. No reason...

Bran MacInnes wrote: See you all in January! Dress warm, change your socks, stay hydrated, and maybe consider a nice marinade. No reason...

...don't forget the Kleenex.

There were a few things that I absolutely loved during this event.

The first was during NPC shift. The performances of everyone involved in the "Humans possessed by demons" mod, including the fools we tricked into telling us about artifacts of power, the puny mortals we destroyed on the road, the party that caught and freed us, and then the ape demon that ripped me in two as i tried to help travance escape it.

Faila's impassioned and embittered confrontation of Burkhart about leaving Pendarvin unaided, all while Crystal was unable to keep a straight face, culminating in the line "Ah, the sun... right in my eye... Faila, can you take a step to the left and grow about 3 feet?"

The Tanwyns appear to be really good at taking my money, or valuables at least, as just as soon as I got myself out of their debt, they tempted me with another item of power and once again, I owe them gold.

The mod against the plants in human clothing was intense. Props to Ben Herman for running that. Was also so much fun to be able to openly sling spells around, including yelling to Rudy to watch his right, just as i throw an incinerate over his right shoulder to peg a monster he was fighting.

But the best, and funniest, moment was with Dorwick on the way to main mod, in which we have named the Ostcliff Battle Group.
"The Beast" Wulfgar Silverfang
"Shameless" Seamus Aeislin
"Hungry Hungry" Dorwick
"Born Again" Bjorn MacInnes
"Shamanic" Burkhart Jarlson "The Disgraced"
And damn, if we weren't effective as hell.

I love you guys, all of ya, and can't wait till next game.

NaNaNaNa NaNaNaNa
NaNaNaNa NaNaNaNa

CAT-DAD!

didn't get interrogated

Swyft wrote: Argyle, you are a shady queen. I was ready to square up with you, twice!

You know... I could sell some serious tickets to this fight. I wanna see this one.