... And I Feel Fine (June Game 2018 Event Memories)

[Bikbun Ironbones]

Event Memories Go!

[Marr]

We lived... Hooray... time to prepare for the next thing to kill us.

Friday before game-
-Realizing it was game day and was thinking "Yup, going to die today"
-At Camp, oh god all the jokes, had to stop setting up to laugh many times

Friday game
-Returning to knights from travel finding out Dagren build as requested my wall, I was quite happy to finally be able to use it and for once feel safe even though the world was ending.
-Debated heavily on gathering during the night to get a few before morning instead updated journal
-Seen the shriek then had to end up chasing it through the woods. congrats to torvallis dragging that thing out in a trance
-Shriek finally dead, it getting mauled in the inn by everyone wanting a piece of it.
-Night time finding out rock was under tent and it was 3am.

Saturday
-alarm goes off 6am, pops outside with carrying case intending to go gather cold air hits and went back to bed

-group wanted to see how quickly could kill a spider together.... took much longer then expected chasing through woods and webs
-hearing parrot spider copy pierre "I'm A Idiot" almost did not want to kill it at that point
-arcane dis. Parrot spider, basically not a real Arachnid neat more things to study later

-Finding 5 Oog Otters just chilling on the bank near the water circle, ~4mins
-Winnie taming a monkey with a banana then oog laugh as it tried to give mana to 3 people who are unaware including myself and it just fizzing out
-cutting monkey out of barb trap and handing him dead to Winnie

Lizard folk
-It was a nice battle, got distracted by Datura WANTING TO LOOT a dead lizard folk while other lizard folk were right around deflecting 1 arrow into him and then taking another 1 to shin dropping me (nice shot)

End of the world fight
-Everything hitting for sunder.... getting dragged back with 1hp to only charge and repeat, armor repaired to only tank a few shots then down again.
-Heard of the earth circle falling while currently at air circle threw myself at Sharon which was all to happy to be killing us btw. I ended up getting knocked out and bleeding on top of the air circle shield and body covering it, some people say I saved it which I find to be a fluke .

And thank you Bikbun the amount of times I went down for repairs and finding me 3mins into bleed propped up against wood horse you really kept me in the fight.

Sunday??
Hardly remember just relaxed glad everything still fine.

[Malva]

Honestly I have so many memories, I'm just going to write what I can before I fall asleep.


Friday, Taka:
-It started as literally the calmest evening ever, but we were all so paranoid that we kept investigating sounds I didn't even hear. We spent like 10 minutes telling a tree to come out of the forest.
-Getting to use Project Emotion a grand total of twice before I lost it Saturday
-Getting grappled by the Shrike and calling Sudden Clarity, but then panicking and dropping my shuriken anyways.
-Everybody yelling "where's the Shrike?" when I'm there pointing at it and saying so. You know I can't impart psychic onto everyone, right?
-Ayy we killed it

Saturday, Malva:
-Getting less than two hours of sleep
-Many gathers
-"The air is ... breathing, 10 minutes."
-Thanks Ardin
-Brew all the things!
-Getting up from brewing with Sharon, could have kept going with my confirmed recipes, but I decided to go gathering and stretch my legs. Turns out I chose a very good time to do that . (Rob if you're reading this: Yes.)
-I had planned to dish out stuff, get Malva out of town, do the lizardfolk mod, then be Taka for the rest of the evening. BOY is it hard to leave town when you're OOG in a rush and IG not particularly.


Lizardfolk intermission:
-Heading into the bunkhouse in green and getting asked if it was my new character
-The struggle to let Hilary's lizard know they'd dropped an arrow
-Everyone eating Zero until she was just a torso
-Green Arrow trying to carry my unconscious body... while I was conscious.

Saturday, Taka:
-So uh, miracle spice is good. Thanks Hugo.
-Having made so many plans for how I would affix the miracle spice container to my person, and then abandoning those and just carrying it in my hand.
-Blessing my Weaponmaster 20-40 times every ten minutes for a couple hours
-You get a sudden clarity! And you get a sudden clarity! And you get a sudden clarity! Everybody gets a sudden clarity!
-Panicking at math and undercalling a grapple resulting in a loss of 5xp :')
-Accidentally swiping a tentacle off Sharon's monster and she just rolled with it
-Impressing Sharon with my grapple 38
-Lord Air's makeover
-Elemental Lords show up: Neat
Seeing Sharon heading to come into town with a silver staff on her back: Oh shit
-Crying fest (Nice RP guys)
-Hey we didn't die
-Leaving for the Land of the Dead!!


Sunday, Taka:
-Land of the Dead!
-Learned some stuff 
-Learned some stuff 
-Fwshoof
-We literally just saved the world and Michael's favorite player memory was me screwing up a sentence.

[Winnie]

God....the most emotional weekend ever.

Friday OOG
-Car ride with Mitchell, psychic talks and Russian music.
-At the knights camp, "I'd spit on it first."

IG
-Amalthea scaring the shit out of me Friday night. So quiet.
-Shouting at the tree cause of paranoia.
-Being captured by Jenny's minions and being dragged into the ocean and eaten. Thank the Lord Arden was in the area to regrow all my limbs.

Saturday
-Krond trying to tame a falcon and the falcon eating Tarvallis' pet rat.
-A monkey shows up around the knights camp and I decide to give it a banana cause why the hell not. Made a friend. Turns out it's a mana monkey and it gave me a fire mana. Winnie is unaware so it's lost. The monkey goes to Marr. Marr is unaware. Another mana lost. Krond names the monkey George after getting so much mana.
-The following emotions because of said Monkey. I told people to not say a word but Mel told everyone! Tony will never let me live this down.
-Timmean's reaction to finding out that there was a human essence mage in town with the resurrect spell and that she used that spell on a monkey.
-Probing tiers of awareness. " Awareness Monkey."
-Meditating for the first time. Holy crap that is tedious.
-At the meeting accidentally dropping my staff and hitting Volk.
-IG putting George in my tent so he stays safe, unknown if he survived or not.
-Those AoE heals from the Elemental Lords.
-Mel scaring the shit out of me at the Earth Circle so much that I actually said "Jesus Christ."


After battle.
-Finding out that the magic doesn't really work and accidentally farting really loud outside the inn. OGG declaring that air magic is back.

Sunday
-Cold. So so cold.
-Talking about the NOS pope coming for a visit and how to handle it.
-Big Krond and Little Krond.

After game.
Me Jake and Tony doing Krond voices.
Jake "I am Krond."
Tony "But I am Krond."
Me " No, I'm Krond
Jake "But if im krond, and you're Krond, and you're Krond, then who's flying the plane?"

-The car ride home and Mitchell telling me about the lizardfolk mod. Also finding out that he set the trap that killed the monkey. You monster ♡♡

[Vadim Ironstones]

May as well keep it simple. I'll add more as I recall it later.

Friday Night:

- Coming in as Hunter, and sneaking around for well over half an hour before anyone noticed I was there. Speaking of which..

- Playing a mute again! I'm not crazy I swear.

- Hitting the Phase beast mid-stride with a bone arrow, and seeing it flinch away. Conveying my thoughts about it was fun

Saturday morning (As Vadim):

- Wake up. It's 5:30am. Think to myself: "Well, if I'm gonna beat Malva to the gathers..."
- Beating Malva to the gathers.
- Using my gathers to manufacture a metric shitload of Opium (and some sleep potions but we don't care about those)
- "HEY KIDS WANNA BUY SOME DRUGS?"
- Vadim being the drug dealer he was always meant to be, selling Opium left, right, and center

Saturday afternoon: The Lizardfolk raid

- Overall: Seeing 8 months of constant planning come to fruition in the most intense and bloody Lizardfolk raid yet was pretty satisfying, to be quite honest

- Coming in early with a fellow lizardfolk to lay traps and steal stuff. Ended up ganking Michael and eating both his legs. There's a reason the path behind the bunkhouse is called Gank Alley

- Seeing all eight of us come into game together and slither down the hill like a giant, spiky wave

- The Ensuing violence, Kidnapping Krond, Keket, and Gurok, hitting Marr in the shin with a bypass arrow while he had his car door of a shield up, the razor wire trap killing the monkey, the list goes on.

- The end of Green arrow at the hands of a very, very, angry Auron. RIP

Saturday night: Back as Hunter:

- Night Archery: It's fun

- Absolutely peppering everything that came to the circles with arrow after arrow. Even if it wasn't doing much, It was certainly good math practice trying to keep track of how much damage I was doing.

- The lunacy of Focus Power + Assassinate + Fire Enchants + Elemental Lord's Blessing + Bless. ALL the damage buffs

- Having the circles fall one by one, wondering if we would even have magic by the time they were done with us.

- Bailing the fuck out of town, and weeping when it was torn asunder by the Elemental Lords. Not because Hunter had any stakes in the town, but because Vadim was asleep in the bunkhouse at the time. Presuming Vadim's fate, I tagged his physreps as a dead body and went to bed thinking I'd lost all but one of my four recurring characters in the span of one event

Sunday:

- Sharon: "Hey Mitchell, come to cast cabin"

- Rolling the dice for Vadim's life, and Living! See kids, that's why you wear your eye protection! Saves you from elemental hellstorms!

- As an aside: Vadim not learning that the apocalypse was happening until after it was over

AAAAAAAHHHH WHICH GREAT BIG SEA SONG WILL WE HAVE TO DEAL WITH NEXT GAME!?

[Auron Warfield]

Event Memories – June 2018

Friday night:

-Having all my senses dialed to 11 so I could notice the Shrike amidst everything else going on.

-Hearing weird noises coming from everywhere – people must have thought I was paranoid.

-Finally hearing the Shrike inside the Citadel! We organized a little tactical assault only to remember none of us could see the damn thing if it dematerialized. Which it did. Immediately.

-Spending what felt like forever tracking the Shrike through the woods with Volk, Pierre and Degren, using whistle calls and lures. Finally managed to get it out of the forest where everyone was waiting to trap it for good!

-Hearing Lord Air tell me “the end is coming. Prepare for battle” was pretty unnerving.

-The look on everyone’s face (Timmean especially) when I mentioned that Lord Air told me to tell everyone to prepare to fight alonside the Lords. I had to do a double-take to make sure I heard it right!

Saturday morning:

-Falcons. Falcons everywhere.

-Spending a fair amount of time searching for Jenny’s Heart, but no luck yet.

-Reflecting on our lives – made me all nostalgic in preparation for the end.

-Pierre the two-handed sword!

-More falcons.

Saturday Afternoon:

-Got to meet a lovely little monkey named George! He’s great, and we’re going to make him armor!

- ... at least we were going to. George fell prey to a Lizardfolk trap and died.  On our way back to deliver the sad news, we discover like 6
-Lizardfolk trying to break into the Citadel – an amazing battle ensues.

-Seriously, Lizardfolk battle. Arrows flying everywhere, Sunder damage everywhere, spells going everywhere – it was so much fun.

-Marr bringing up his shield and deflecting an arrow, only to have that arrow hit Datura. Poor bugger.

That’s all I’ve got time for right now – I’ll do Saturday night later!

[Degren Brightforge]

-I repaired a metric buttload of armour.
- Raging at the ever increasing mound of armour, and people showing back up with broken armor I had repaired literally 2 minutes ago.
- being suspicious of the sudden lack of broken armor.
- being an archer!
- hunting the shrike, so much fun.
- times that rob made my heart stop: 1) lurking in the citadel, and seeing the horrible silhouette behind the walls. 2) hunting the shrike in the forest for 2 hours. Hearing a noise and being unable to find him. He was everywhere and nowhere. 3) looking through the woods and turning my light to find him standing there, blending. 4) seeing rob in a skin tight spandex suit. Noice. 5) turning around to see rob in a Axis outfit OOG 3 inches from my face. I hope no-one heard my girly scream of shame. 6) "Oh hello Mr bird!" * 67 mauling bypass. "HOKAY!" 7) watching the pure wave of emotion conquer the mighty beast upon receiving his much deserved birthday gift. May the desire sensor never curse you, my friend.

[Malva]

Debated heavily on gathering during the night to get a few before morning

Do you want to get attacked by werewolves? Because that's how you get attacked by werewolves.

[Marr]

The risk you have to take if you want to beat a certain faun to the gathers and decent night sleep.
normally 6:01am "oh the forest is bare" sees a faun prance out

[Asher Fairchild]

Guys. Wow. That game was INCREDIBLE!

I'm so proud of each and every one of us for coming together and dealing with those rifty bastards! It may not have been perfect, and we may have lost some circles, but we put everything aside and saved our precious little outpost! Games like these make me reflect on how lucky I am to have a LARP group filled with so many great friends and lovely people <3

Anyways, heres some memories!

Krond: JAYSUS!
Degren: What was it?
Krond:...its a turtle!
*cut to Aaron and I screaming laughing at the exchange. We impersonated it all weekend*

Laying the ground work for Sylvies tea house (will be up and running in July I HOPE)

Lady Val taking a void hit for me in the field.

Jaya and Torvallis with the buffs!

Taka with the buffs!

Elemental lords WITH THE BUFFS

Rangers working together! Yeah!

Auron and I finally using our wedding rings to block the rift creatures! It was exhausting but so epic!

Just the whole battle. THE DRAMA

Seeing Sharon come in as a character I've never met, and getting butterflies when Auron informs Asher it is Sophie.

Wondering if Pierre would yet again take one for the team and sacrifice himself. MY HEART.

I CRIED! MY CIRCLE. MY FAMILY. MY FRIENDS. MY TOWN.

The quietest Sunday we've had in years.

Over all it was a really great game. The month between May and June game was a very tough one for me, and it was nice to finally relieve some stress in a healthy, epic way. I look forward to seeing what bullshit happens to us next! Until next game!

[Krond Thuliaga]

By the Gods, thats what I call an ending. Lets recap shall we?

Friday: OOG

-So the day starts off pretty ok, I manage to get to Sharon's place and we start loading up the car. Half-way through my trunk decides to be a little bitch and not shut. I guess theres a spring broke somewhere. So we get Mel to take half the stuff and Rob while Sharon and I huff it with the trunk tied down.
-Gets to site super late, and then I set up my tent and help set up the citadel.
-Is cold, must add more layers.
-Krond's new face tattoo design. I like this one better.

Friday: IG

-Game starts late and the only thing I remember is the constant paranoia. Every snap of a twig or brussle of leaves causes all of us to snap our gaze in the direction of the sound. On edge much?
-After a while I find out the shrike is in town. And that Degren, Auron, Pierre, and Volk are up in the woods chasing it. I proceed to make my up to offer assistance.
-Iris hit the shrike with a slow spell, fucking good job!
-We all gang up on the shrike and begin to pummel it, only for Degren to destroy it via bone sword Reveal Oil. Shrike is finally dead.
-We take the shrike to the inn and cut out its heart, killing it permanently.
- . . . . It was at that moment I realized that I'm not getting Fanghir back :T
-Auron tells me he heard Lord Air's voice in his head. We go out to the air circle to see what thats about.
-Lord Air tells Auron that the fight is coming very soon, and that we should be prepared to fight alongside her.
-Things start wrapping up and I'm about to go to bed. So I go back to the Knight's camp. Its pitch black over there and what should I see but this tiny little figure waddling its way towards me low to the ground. It scares the shit outta me and I yell "JAYSUS!" only to realize its a fucking mana turtle.

Saturday

-The morning was a bit cold, but thats nothing a couple layers of clothing cant fix.
-Falcons, falcons everywhere.
-Old man Ross(?) comes into town and teaches Torvallis! and I Falconry. We spend the next half hour/45 mins taming this one Falcon.
-Degren complains the Falcon tried to bum rush him . . . so we named the Falcon Rush
-Rush takes off into the wild, hoping he'll be back.
-After 5 mins, Falcon comes outta no where. I'm like, "Hey Rush! Come here!"
*Bird gets closer*
Rob: 8 Mauling, 8 Mauling!
Me: OMGERD! ITS NOT RUSH! ITS NOT RUSH! *runs off the balcony*
-I try to tame the new Falcon.
-Torvallis! brings out his rats.
-The cutest little rat walks off the balcony and over to my boot. Everyone surrounding the rat goes "awwwwwww so cute", and then the Falcon comes outta nowhere, swoops down, and takes the tiny rodent away to eat. Everyone was stunned and appalled.
-Parrot spider comes in calling "hey get that spider". Pierre looks in the direction of the woods and yells "I'm an idiot".
Parrot Spider:  . . . . I'm an idiot.
-Not much I remember about most of the afternoon other than Lessa's ritual.
-Lizardman come into town, knock me out with sleep gas, and then uses Knockout on me just to be double sure I don't wake up.
-They take myself, keket, and Gurok up to there grove where spend the next half hour getting our limbs eaten. What fun.
-Sylvie's baked goods.
-Spending easily an hour tracking Jenny's footprints trough the woods, thinking for sure we found a way to her heart. Only to realize we were going in circles. We learned a couple things about her though.
-Jake and I forging the brand new Gram, and me marveling at how beautiful it looks after Jake's paint job.
-After SEVERAL castings of the tremor spell, and no small amount of RP, we finish the new Gram. Behold as the very earth quakes with it's strike.

The Epic Climax

-We all gather in the inn for a strategy meeting to prepare for the big fight thats gonna happen. Once the teams are decided, we go to our posts.
-Literally right after the meeting is called the axis show up and begin to RECK us. They're calling for Sunder damage with no countdown OMG!
-I hurriedly grab my armor and begin putting it on as fast as I can while I listen to the screaming and chaos that ensues. For a split moment, terror runs through my spine.
-I'm suited up, I'm good to go, time to FUCK UP SOME MONSTERS!
-There wasn't a moment during the fighting that I wasn't in Fury mode.
-HOLY FUCK THEY DRAIN EXP!
-For hours, these things keep coming in wave after wave and making a B-line for the elemental circles. Faerie circle gets hit bad at the beginning, followed by earth and water circles.
-The Elemental Lords joined us in the fight against the axis. So cool. They cast a spell to "suppress" the axis, during which we can actually damage them.
-Jaya busting the necklace and fucking shit up with fire spells.
-We figured out that Sunder damage and by-pass damage are the only things that can damage them without the need of the Elemental Lord's suppress spell. Jaya then proceeds to enchant the shit out of my sword. She, Torvallis!, and Lord Fire gave me over 20 enchantments of +30 damage.
-After which, Hassan spends the next while following me around with healing magic and getting me up every time I fall.
-Lord Air's dress change.
-Sophie arrives in town and explains that once the big fight draws to a close we hafta get the fuck outta dodge.
-Everyone is grouped up on the dark, MUDDY trail and hurriedly runs out of town.
-The cataclysmic finish to the fight. We somehow managed to survive.
-Everyone's battle cry of victory.
-Food and Sleep.

Sunday: IG
-I sleep in WAY too late.
-Can't actually leave my tent cause my shoes are crazy muddy and wet.
-I put garbage bags in my shoes.
-Some light sparring in the field.
-Lady Val uses Gram against Auron.
-Degren and I fight. I sunder his back.
-Game is called.

Sunday: OOG

-Lots of clean-up.
-The look of sheer joy on Rob's face when we give him his birthday present, even though he tried to hide it
-Finally get to Robyn's Much food to be had.

This game was easily one of the best, if not the best, game I've had. I had so much fun. See y'all in July!

[Verbena Domitia]

Oh my... So many firsts for me. First spell, first time attacking someone, first time being attacked, first battle... But to be more specific:
-Staggering into town and making a scene at the inn.
-Being crowned by a very gracious Father Francis, only to cut him off mid-dubbing.
-Verbena and Gurok, best friends 5ever.
-Nearly coming to blows with Torvallis on the question of faith.
-Conversations on the elf code, and whether consent negated the question of harm in the case of selling blood, tattoo removal, or kinkiness.
-Chewing out Volk for denying the whole kidnapping thing.
-Settling into a delusional groove to the dismay of Lady Keket, among others. I must admit that claiming to be the destined Queen of everything, exempt from laws, authorities, and deities, was a lot of fun.
-Getting violent with Herr in the Inn over the other whole kidnapping thing.
-The drug dealer saga.
-The grifters rolling into town on Saturday of all days.
-Two hikers wandering onto site, god love them.
-Suddenly, imps.
-Having a whole group of us vigorously attempting to discern the significance of the shells found in the woods, then never actually resolving it.
-A weepy conversation at the Faerie Circle with Gurok.
-Timmean Tuesdays and Datura Wednesdays.
-The looks everyone gave me as I confidently maintained that victory was guaranteed.
-Meeting Robin Goodfellow and managing to work in a Midsummer Night's Dream quote.
-That BATTLE. It was my first and it was wild.
-Thick silence punctuated by bursts of sound, the shouts for reinforcements, the shrieks of the whistle, the paralysing screams of the creatures; it was such an intense soundscape.
-The fog clinging to site the entire day and thickening as the evening drew in. It really set the scene for the battle.
-Degren generously giving me comically oversized leather armour..
-The vigil at the Earth Circle was beautifully grim, Winnie, Ardin, Volk, and Verbena waiting for the final assault. The quiet resignation to defeat and martyrdom, the last minute reapportioning of mana to give the Champion the best chance to make an impact, Ardin's furious prayers and blood rituals, Volk's steadfastness even in despair, his request for weaker combatants to act as human shields for the true fighters in order to keep the Circle from falling for as long as possible. It was intense.
-Getting saved by healing from an Elemental Lord with only 30 seconds of bleed time remaining.
-Timmean's courageous charge at the Water Circle
-Volk's powerful battle leadership.
-Jaya's endless fire strikes.
-Ardin's passionate defence of the Earth Circle.
-Krond's endless sunders.
-Lady Val with that incredible sword.
-Pierre's heroic Hail Mary with the snake skin ball.
-Cast's superhuman work with the waves of monsters and the inspirational appearances of the Elemental Lords.
-Celebrating at the Inn with music and stories and drinks.
-A few characters actually came to like Verbena, or at least come to a neutral acceptance of her presence. Shout out to Bikbun for being particularly gracious.
-Needling Volk at the celebration, just for the look on his face.
-Strategizing for the Primus's arrival. Poor Father Francis.
-Vadim lives!
-Setting off to Soul's Landing with Gurok, Verbena's first real friend. After all, there's a wedding to plan and Verbena is going to take her maid-of-honour duties very seriously.

For real everyone, this was an amazing weekend. If this turns out to be my last game, it was a hell of a sendoff. But I should be able to make part of July, and I sure hope so! Nothing would make me happier than doing it all over again with all of you.

[Hunter ツ]

Also:

"Hold on, hold on, Hunter has something to say"

The note reads: *How do I get to Applevale from here?*

[Winnie]

Oh! And Vadim calling Father Francis "Daddy Franky"

[Timmean]

Having been to nearly every event, I think I can safely say this was the best game Epoch on the Rock has ever had. Individuals may have other favourites (there’s one or two others that stick out for me due to personal plot), but as a whole, I think this event was the best yet. A huge congratulations to cast for all their amazing and frantic work, and also to all the players who contributed along the way to make this fantastic game come to pass.

Now, specific events!


Friday night OOG:
- The drive out to site with Jean, talking about motorcycles and cars, of all things
- Get to site and frantically get kitchen set up while Lynsey takes care of our tent accommodations
- Burgers! Burgers for everyone! (We’re hoping to continue providing a small meal Friday night, as long as it works well)
- Taking absolutely no chances at log. “And I need to roll this d20?” “If you want to.” “…Um… no.”

Friday IG:
- The problem with burgers OOG is you still have to do dishes once game starts. But that’s cool! Lots of chatter in the inn
- Verbina showing up and acting all the crazy. Discussing what happened with Volk and being strangely happy about her incarceration
- Multiple people approaching Timmean about Verbina’s state. “Can you do anything about that? There's clearly something wrong.” “Well, possibly; I can try an untaint, but depending on what’s affecting, it might not work. Here’s the bigger question; with our world-ending battle coming up, is this really the best use of mana?” “…Okay, fair. Maybe later.”
- The messenger searching for people, in particular the mysterious “O”. Still have no idea who that letter was meant for, but the contents were very weird
- Asher asking Timmean about Lord Water’s mental message to “organize the water mages,” and if that was normal of if she was going crazy
- Auron getting a similar message, but this one told us to "prepare to fight alongside me" (Lord Air). One of many times when Timmean was very alarmed by the scope of the coming battle
- Yet another message, this one to… Iris? The air mage who’s only been in town for a month? I guess Lord Air is very keen to get their message out
- Accompanying various people around the field. Since when is Timmean considered a competent bodyguard?
- Going after the Shrike, and hearing that Iris managed to slow it earlier, only to have it phase out
- In the field in the dark, I see Rob running OOP away from everyone, and just ask “Can I see that?” “Yes.” “IT’S HERE! EVERYONE IT’S HERE! IT’S HEADING FOR THE WOODS!”
- Subsequently chasing the shrike into the woods, and Torvallis managing to entrance it back into the field. There was a bit of phase nonsense, but eventually one more slow spell, a LOT of swords, and some bone weapons (and arrows?) took it down
- Meeting Hunter. At one point I was heading back towards the inn when I heard a clicking sound coming from the main path to the forge. Was so prepared for a fight, only to have it be Hunter smacking his arrows and bow together to get our attention.
- In the inn, moments later – MY NAME IS HUNTER
- Figuring out how to dispose of the Shrike. “NO! Don’t throw it on the fire, things have a tendency to explode!”
- People dissecting the Shrike for parts. There was some suggestion of chopping it up and dispersing the parts to the various elemental planes to keep it from resurrecting itself
- Things seem to be quieting down, so I go to bed, hoping to have enough energy for the next night


Saturday Morning:
- Getting up and starting in on breakfast, with the IG knowledge that the big fight will likely be that night
- More Verbina craziness. Is she wearing a tiara? When did she get a tiara???
- Asking Malva about scroll ink, and buying some paper off the messenger
- Learning that Volk and Jaya also got mental messages from their respective Lords
- Vadim running around selling opium
- The Nordin soul ritual. Thinking back on all Timmean’s teachers was such a crazy kaleidoscope: Chloe, Phineas, The Wiz, Lord Water, Marwel, Sugar, Faerie (sorta), Val… and later added Sybilessa and the mana merchant to that list
- Verbina recognizing Herr's voice and cracking a little. Later, Verbina yelling at Herr about kidnapping her and proceeding to punch him while I'm calmly washing dishes
- Training Datura in water magic, and trying to find a way to mimic Timmean’s teaching by Lord Water on the water plane. Ended up doing a kind of mental mana wrestling match thing. It was strange but very interesting
- Raj the falcon tamer. “HE!!!” (Proceeds to grab junk)
- Trying to procure a falcon feather to make a pen for my scroll-making. Sees Krond outside trying to tame a falcon and goes out to search for falcon feathers, or hoping that the falcon might possibly be tamed enough to permit one feather to be removed. Instead, I witness the rat/mouse getting snatched up and carried away. So much for that idea
- Later learn from Grayfeard that another falcon had been killed earlier that morning. Going out to try to find it and searching the body for a feather that could serve as an appropriate scroll pen, and do manage to find one thanks to Arcane Disection 1 and Rob’s generosity
- Sitting at the table and writing up item descriptions that I forgot to do ahead of time. One description takes up about 20% of the envelope I was using, the other description uses up everything else
- Verbena calmly declaring that she hopes Volk will burn in some terrible layer of hell "at his earliest convenience"
- Getting some scroll ink from Malva, then setting out to find Arden (he had been asking to watch the scribing process). I go out searching for him, hear that he’s up in the woods, and go to investigate, only to find…
- …The Gloin. Oh, and apparently Pierre is a sword now
- Fight with Gloin ensues. Timmean gets entranced, but someone (Mar, I think?) blocks the line of sight with his shield. More fighting ensues, I get entranced again, this time Degren blocks the line of sight. I start to retreat…
- …when I hear a Gloin shout “Timmean!” I freeze and get a quick rules check. As I thought, turns out if the Gloin know you well enough, all they need is a name to entrance you  
- As the Gloin are leading me away, Degren hits me with a knockout and drags me into the bushes. That was close.
- Someone wakes up Timmean, and by now the Gloin have started their ritual and seem immune to everything. Timmean rushes off to the inn, trying to get help. At that point, I go OOG, because I’ve got some casting to do.
- Trying to prepare for Yssildan while so many people are coming and going from cast cabin. Was hiding on the top bunk for a while  
- Yssildan walking into town, noticing several previous customers, and being immediately diverted into the citadel
- Showing off my wares to appropriately pleased customers. The satisfaction of describing an item I had been mentally refining for a while, and then getting to announce the price.
- Having Torvallis inquire about an item, suggest a price, and Yssildan’s subsequent disgust
- Discussion / negotiations with the knights over future enchantments. There’s some discussion about duplicating an enchantment sold previously. When asked about the effects, the owner (not Yssildan) replies “It makes me permanently harder”. I had to OOG-hand my doubled-over laughter
- Overhearing all the stuff going on with George the monkey, and April later resurrecting him
- Attempts to barter which initially made everyone sound crazy. Further explanation helped… a little
- Giving Degren a boon which technically cost me nothing, but I got paid for  
- Dematerializing to make my exit with April, as we could hear the lizardfolk battle outside


Saturday Evening:
- Returning as Timmean and learning we have two new imps in town
- Talking to Sybilessa and getting more advanced scroll training! Also being told that a bird quill (like the one I searched for earlier that day) doesn’t work very well for more advanced scrolls -_-
- ARDIN! Finally, there you are! I sit down and scribe out a basic healing scroll. Not sure what to do with it, I hand it off to Gurok
- I hear about a crazy guy at the Faerie circle who can teach you anything, if you’re Fae… I go to investigate, but turns out my human/elf/human history is too messed up, even for this guy. Oh well, worth a try!
- By the time I return to the inn, the mana merchant is already sold out, but… turns out he also knows how to make scrolls! I get even more training from him, finally putting me at the level I want    If I ever see that guy again, I’ll have to give him something nice
- Also, Gurok paying off the mana merchant with a jar of blood
- Lynsey tracked me down to tell me OOG about some very special training
- The meeting, with ALL THE STRATEGY. I really was too nervous to sit down
- Talk of the Primus, and another reflection ritual
- The knights announcing how Sybilessa had given Pierre a magical snake-rope that would contain the rift monsters at the end of the battle
- Arden asking “What if they target the circles?” as we’re all completely forgetting that possibility. So glad that was brought up
- Giving Verbina a good luck and a handshake as the two of us are deployed as field medics for the earth/water side
- Giving Lynsey (Iris) an OOG hug as we depart for our separate teams. Felt like we were going off to die
- Seeing the two rift monsters come slithering out of the forest. The fight is on. I’m so pumped and nervous at the same time
- They go for the water circle almost immediately. The calls for 20 sunder, with those long tentacle arms, quickly make it clear that this will be a dangerous fight. I attack them anyway, and quickly get caught by a grapple. Then…
- Do you know how to absolutely terrify an RPG gamer? “Draining your XP 1… Draining your XP 2…” THAT’S HOW. I think I took 4 XP in damage, and was even more convinced that this fight would be insane
- I spent the next while (and most of the fight, really) using medic 2 to get people conscious just long enough to get them into the citadel, then dumping them on the ground and running out for the next one. Once the medics started getting overwhelmed, I decided to use my spells on the biggest fighters, and keep dragging everyone else in for the medics
- Tried hitting the monsters with water strikes, but it didn’t seem to do much. Decided to save my mana in case a poisonous rift monster or something showed up. Spoiler alert, it never did
- When the Faerie circle was targeted. That was such a surprise, and led to us being spread even more thin
- SHOUTING. SO MUCH SHOUTING. My voice was bad for at least four days after all the yelling about where the monsters had shown up next
- Going into a kind of rage as one of the creatures attacked the water circle again. Wasn’t very successful And thus the medic needed to be medic’d
- Discarding my staff in the field after realizing that attacking the creatures was doing more harm than good as it just used up valuable healing resources
- Herr standing guard at the Faerie circle, and Timmean checking in several times to confirm all was still good
- Emotional responses to the damage at the various circles. I had to fight back tears a few times, and I know others were in the same boat
- Found a piece of paper crumpled up on the ground. Turns out it was the scroll I scribed earlier, now dead. I stuffed it in my pocket anyway
- Lord Air healing XP, and doing sound of my voice heals, then going and checking the circles and being alarmed by the damage done. Also, giving Timmean a mini-lecture on why defending the Faerie circle was important
- All the appearances by the various Lords. So epic, so crazy, so many buffs
- The absolutely huge damage calls, especially with Jaya’s point-casting via the fire champion necklace. I do admit, I wish I’d still been a champion for this fight
- Eventually wound up waiting at the Faerie circle in case something attacked it. Which eventually it did. I was taken out by a void point-cast, but not before I could shout for help.
- When I wake up, the Faerie ring is… gone. Completely gone. Rather distraught, but try to console Val anyway, then get back to the battle. The earth and water circles were taken out not long afterwards
- The call when all earth and water mana were dead. NOOOO!!! I was trying to spare my earth mana along for when it was most needed, only to have a dozen mana die in my pocket
- Hearing from Lord Air that the worst monsters are yet to come. Because things haven’t gotten bad enough yet. Running around to try and warn people
- Noticing Lord Air suddenly sounded very different
- As I pass the air circle, I notice that Sophie has shown up. So confused. We haven’t seen her since… oh, right, since she helped us create the circles, under the command of the Lords
- Sophie and one of the Lords directing us to fall back to the earth circle location, where we’ll all evacuate. I try to spread the word
- Asher herding everyone out of the field and down the trail. Val was determined to go back for the Faerie wand; I considered going, on account of a magic item I’ve got. Decided against it, and used a void mana to cast a command spell for Val to “comply” as Asher continued to order everyone out
- I presume at this time Pierre was doing his run around the field. Didn’t see it, but it must’ve happened
- All of us rushing up Tiberius’s path, with so much mud and water and everything. It was crazy. Climbing until I told people to OOG stop because we could see the lights of the neighbour's house
- That moment during the hold, as we all stood and watched the devastation the Elemental Lords were creating behind us. I think that was, at least for me, the most suspenseful and epic moment in Epoch history. Everyone in town, standing in the mud, wondering what had happened and what was next for the townsfolk
- BRIEF SIDE NOTE: A few years ago, Sharon had told me that if we ever out-grew MacShack, that she had a plot in mind to explain it. As we all evacuated, and Holdfast seemed to be destroyed, I was seriously wondering if our time at site was over.
- As we all slowly trek back into town, we find that somehow, everything had survived. Timmean was still rather somber because of the lost circles, but all in all, it was a momentous victory, and so emotional
- Sitting around the inn, talking in the aftermath. Morpha and Timmean talk a little about how he’ll get home, and Timmean offers some theories that water magic shouldn’t be gone forever (after all, we had water mana before we had the circles). Still, it was a heavy discussion
- Cautioning people not to try to revive the circles too quickly, and that we should try to do it in a balanced way, because we had to keep it balanced when we first made them.
- Getting word that the rift monsters were destroyed or pushed out from every realm even remotely close to this one
- Vanishing with Sophie, Val, Bikbun, and Taka to the Land of the Dead.
- BED TIME!


Sunday:
- Getting up OOG and checking on the kitchen, realizing there’s not a single clean cup left. “We’ve survived the EPOCHalypse, only to find ourselves in a dish-topian future…”
- Everyone (including me) believing that Vadim is dead. “Congratulations! (Except Vadim) You lived! (Except Vadim) Don’t be like Vadim. A message from MADD (Mother’s Against Dumb Dying)”
- Myself and Hillary checking with Sharon as to when we’ll do the Land of the Dead RP. “Wait, are you telling me the only thing stopping me from coming into game is Jake being asleep? Because I will wake him up RIGHT NOW.”
- Timmean, Val, Bikbun, Taka, and Sophie exploring the Land of the Dead library. Getting a lot of answers, plus a little RP between characters
- Myself and Taka asking for a lot at the information desk.
- Fshwoof
- Finding a book with info on Nullasia, and realizing it’s even more dangerous than we thought. Then going and asking at the info desk if anyone named Hugo had come through… and getting a positive response  
- Lots of other into on rifts and The Isle of the Dead. Also, an overview of earlier rift activity. Thankfully, everything suggests that there’s nothing dangerous about re-opening the elemental circles in Holdfast... though it will be tough
- Returning to Holdfast with the others. Passing on the info that I learned and hearing about a few things I’d missed. Then promptly going to bed because Timmean was up all night
- Event was almost over at that point, so I stayed OOG and started in on cleanup
- Giving Rob his birthday present. Jake, your timing and presentation were PERFECT


WHAT AN EVENT! Thank you again to everyone who participated. Thank you to cast for being so CRAZY AWESOME! I don’t know what more to say. It was nuts. It was awesome. It was epic. But that’s Epoch.

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