October 2019: The Harrowing

[Malva]

Post your event memories here!

[Hunter ツ]

Off the top of my head:

While Playing Haunter on Friday night: Hanging out and 'talking' with my fellow Mute, Cat.

The Golem, both in first impressions (seeing Theo take it on) and in combat.

I'm sure there'll be more to recall later, but that's what I got for now.

[Malva]

Excuse me while I post this novel:

Friday:
Taka:
• Spooky ladies squad
• Shhh don't look at us skellies
• How do we make them stay dead???
• Had a bat burrow into my stomach, someone stabilizes me. Get hit by a skellie, start bleeding again. Francis comes by and makes me medic 2 conscious and stable. I tell him it's "I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna *trance*"
• There's a small crowd around just saying how, eh, she was just bleeding heavily from her stomach but she's in a trance so it's fine. Big shout out to Krond for not having any of it and hauling me into the inn.

Saturday:
Malva:
• Bought a recipe book from Vadim B)
• Need blood/bone sacrifices for the golem. Puppydog later shows up. Brian's goblin gives him a grandiose speech and sends him off to find some. "Onwards great hunter!"
• Doin' private stuff with Val. People keep coming and asking for stuff. I keep telling Val that they can handle it on their own; they can get by without her and they can handle the golem vines sprouting without me. She says "you say that, but next thing you know we'll leave here and the town will be on fire." A few minutes pass and we just hear "The vines are sprouting! The vines are sprouting! Get Malva! Oh no Enyamia's on fire!"
• Me: "They'll just have to learn to be independent, and by that I mean dependant on literally anyone but you."
Sharon: "Uh-"
• Having to deal with that redcap. Luckily Mirisi's solution ended up working out
• Apparently the golem can light its vines on fire?

uhh:

• Marigold was cute "I haven't eaten in years... or days... months.. or months.. or hours.. I don't know."
• Some fauns: Sex

Marigold:

Taka:
• Planning to have a nice chill costume change. Some people seem to be getting instructions for the upcoming game. Well I guess I'd better hurry along and go join in.
• Sharon comes in, explains the game, then tells me and Hilary we have 5mins to be kitted up
• aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
• Get compelled to pull out all the stops. Welp, goodbye singular emergency dose of miracle spice. You will be used on a game of capture the flag.
• And we begin
• At first I start scouting around, astral, looking for pumpkins. Didn't see anything by water. Ardin was also wreaking havoc, I decided to move along.
• Showed up at the fire circle, and found their pumpkin really fast. I was astral though and literally the whole team was there. Theo grabbed the pumpkin and didn't seem inclined to put it down until I left, so I did.
• Everyone really likes declaring whether or not they can see me out loud. I'm not sure telling me precisely who I needed to attack from behind was the best idea, but I mostly already knew anyways.
• At some point I figured out the find-people-alone-pop-out-of-the-astral-plane-and-one-shot-them strategy, which worked quite well
• Some time passes and the game mode switches to grab the pumpkin from Sharon and bring it to Nero mode
• Sharon makes the first "I have a pumpkin call" and a squabble for it starts drifting towards fire circle path. I follow along astral, waiting for a victor to gank. Last I saw Cosidious had it and then it disappeared. I start looking around and then I see Jaya with it. She starts sneaking down a sidepath and I follow along. When I'm sure we're under cover I drop out of the astral plane and hit her for 138metal. She goes down, but there's still people around. I lay low until they leave and start sneaking towards the inn, where I thought Nero was. I get to the end of the tree cover and realize that there's no means of telling whether the coast is clear while remaining in cover. I hid the pumpkin and went astral to check. No one to be seen, not even Nero in the inn. Well crap. I decide to go see if I can find a teammate who knows his location. At this point Jaya respawns and starts telling everyone I have the pumpkin. I wave my empty astral hands at her and Krond, but they couldn't see me at all. I make my way back towards my circle and spot Zero by the citadel. She tells me Nero is inside. Well crap, now I need to sneak the pumpkin really far. I go back and start to make my move. I opted to go by the air circle, then people arrived. I start ducking behind tents, over and under guide wires, until I get behind Val's tent where I spot Laura's character with the glowstick bracelet. Her teammates come back to check on her and I was stuck waiting for them to leave. Eventually they abandoned her and I crossed by confident enough that she wouldn't go for a 1v1. I start trying to find a path through the brush behind the woodshed and right when I was about to make it out, the game was over.
• Things return to normal and we start checking out the golem. We decide to take it to the farm. Zero repeatedly tells everyone to take the pumpkin and plant the seeds, but no one listened.
• We get to the farm and the golem makes all the crops grow. At this point I'm making them plant the pumpkin. Some others get excited too. I tear off with no patience for answering what I was doing. Went something along the lines of "need pumpkin for golem, golemgrowscropsgood, needmypumpkin, golem, pumpkin, golem grow pumpkin, pumpkin." until I eventually landed on "Infinite pumpkin! Infinite pumpkin!"
• Ceridwyn excitedly takes a full pumpkin's worth of seeds, then plants them. Rob stops and clarifies "did you just plant them all in the one spot?"
• It was at that moment he knew he had fucked up
• 20 or more pumpkins simultaneously grow at once creating a cannon of pumpkin which shoots up into the air and rains down on our heads.
• Tried to get it to grow the seed to world peace. Sorry Francis, didn't work.
• The "MVPs" were all getting sick, soon enough we see the return of Actual Cannibal Degren the Knight
• Everyone starts going down in the field, Keket goes down, Torvallis! goes down.... well now we're out of healers, huh
• Yeah these are zombies, huh
• Still got spice on the go, eventually all my allies disappeared or got killed and I was just holding out by myself. I jest that I had it easy cause I had spice, but in hindsight if anyone had just gotten a couple hits in faster than I could clarity or dematerialize I'd have been toast.
• I think I was holding off like three zombies when I ran into Pierre and Krond. I don't know if I really believed that everyone else was dead, but boy was I surprised to see survivors. We continue holding out we're were to before Pierre says we should go to the citadel to repair armor.
• We cross the field, at the end of it we saw Robin. We almost attacked him, but we managed to convince eachother none of us had turned.
• We go to the citadel and start repairing armor. Pretty soon there's a knock on the door and Niko manages to convince us he's alive and we let him in.
• It was just the five of us for a long time. At this point I've imparted everyone with astral form dematerialize.
• The zombies start coming for the citadel. I start panicking cause I realize Degren might have the key. Pierre confirms that he'd given it to him earlier that day. PHEW.
• Degren starts taunting Pierre to come out, the rest of us stay silent to hide our numbers. We're just stuck listening to the growing zombie horde outside.
• Winnie zombie 10/10. "Knaaghck knaghck" "Medic zombie: Are you zombie?"
• At this point we've had a fair few whisperings about our plan. We could wait and hope they're gone at sunrise, we could hope a cure just magically appears, we could try and get Marwell, or we could flee town. No point to fighting when they just get back up.
• Eventually the zombies say that Marwell isn't home, well there goes our most promising plan.
• Eventually we hear probably-Marr's-voice do several "contact gel: deserved rest" outside
• Turns out the dude was just sneaking around and killing them all
• Nero's voice comes in and tells us that Marr and Lexicus are still alive and that most of the danger has passed
• Robin blends and confirms, so we all head to the inn
• We get to the deck and Marr gets us the magic zombie-killing pie
• We get to the inn and confirm 9 total survivors

Sunday:
Taka:
• Whole Nero thing. I show up kinda late. Krond kneels and that.
• Nero offers Taka something later under the assumption that she'd heard stuff during the initial talk which she had not. Implies that the offer has about 20 times more weight than it really does. Go around making big decision and decide against it. Only found out after game that it would have been a very easy decision otherwise.
Malva:
• Excuse me while I brew 60 poultices, one moment

[Winnie]

Friday
Betrayal from my father.
Kinda grump. Like what asshole schedules an exam for a saturday...uhg. the mac and cheese I made for me and talia was pretty awesome tho.
Good news! I'm immune to bats!
Bad news..I cant reach the bats. Stalemate.

Saturday
Was grumpy all morning and had to do exam so missed most of the day. Got back just as capture the pumpkin started. Not my favourite type of game but played anyway and glad I did cause there were a few fun moments during. Mostly solid snake and seeing taka wreck everyone from the astral plane.

Zombies made my entire weekend. It's kinda nice that it didnt qualify as a real death but it was so fun that if it did it would've been worth it.

Sunday.
Pain and agony all day mostly. ♡♡♡♡♡♡ lindsey for taking care of the gross. Also Marr for waking up and checking on me cause of the constant "ow ow ow ow ow ow*

[Sylvie]

Friday
-Shooting one of the hellions *through* the stairs. A trick shot it was not, but it seemed like it kinda surprised him so that was coooool
-Seeing Auron off to the air circle. He hands me off all his belongings to give to Degren and I'm SO suspicious. Like, wtf are you planning bro?

Saturday
-Coffee deliveries with Callie! Its so much more fun with a helper. Also side note, I tried some new techniques and I think I finally nailed french press coffee this game, so if you had a cup, lemme know what you thought!
-Buying a slave from Vadim. Yes, yes, it was illegal, but I just hate to see people on a leash!
-Marigold. You guys. You were all so nice to her. When you told me you were throwing her a birthday party, I OOG almost cried. Cerridwyn, Iris, Lilium, Alexi, Dimitri, Mirisi, and Krond are officially her best friends, and yall better get ready for what that *means* for you, because its gonna be A LOT.
-The look on Dimitri's face when I described my missing kitties.
- you were being LEEWWDDD!!!!
-Garrett threw an Earth Binds at Marigold and like, I JUST dodged it, and managed to land one hit. That was nice. Lewd boys are bad.
-Grappling people just to hold their hands. EXP well spent.
-Watching Lady Val do a ritual at the Faerie circle. She seemed to be pointing to and talking to one particular tree, and of course, Marigold now thinks it must be a magic special tree that grants wishes.
-Lilium gave me a muffin and it was such a delicious offering of friendship. Thank you Lydia they were excellent!
-Just overall, if I had an interaction with you as Marigold, I severely enjoyed it. She will return!
-Spent the rest of the afternoon grabbing a bite and doing council-y stuff. Had a rest, then it was PUMPKIN TIIIMMME
-Nero in my head
"I have a very special place and time for *insert thing we were talking about*"
"is it when you grow hair on your testicles?"
"...........................no."
-First of all, air team was SOLID. We were a group of competitive go-getters. Any attempts we made to get a pumpkin pretty much failed, but we were staying positive and having fun nonetheless!
-I shot Degren in the butthole. The butthole yall. I've never heard our assigned cast member laugh so hard at someones lamenting
-I actually got hit with an arrow, I think from Alonso. It was interesting to be on the receiving end of such a thing for once. Nice shot, my friend!
-"I'm just gonna stick with Jaya..."
-Not an arrow left in my quiver, and no sword. *roll for intimidate* "Kez, back up." "oh, okay yeah sure!" ...did that just work??
-Sneaking through the woods with Krond and Jaya, and we hear someone ahead of us, but we cannot see them. We stop and wait, and I see the faintest shadow move. I took a shot and nailed his shield. Like a bat out of hell, he escaped from the woods through the faerie circle exit. I've never seen anyone move SO FAST. Turned out it was Dimitri. You got my fighting spirit award for that one! Definitely my favorite moment of pumpkin brawl.
-Fire circle was SO well defended. I couldn't even get close to it. I got slightly close once, took a shot at Friend Theo and missed by a long shot. I tried to hoof it out of there but hes fast! Caught up with me and took me out. Yall were solid!
-Waiting in the tree line for the third pumpkin to respawn, and getting to it first! I RAN with that fucker. I managed to make it to the citadel but getting through the door I was dealt probably close to 100 damage. I was just so proud I made it there!
-Unfortunately, I had no business pushing myself that hard this weekend and, made myself feel very faint. So I had to take myself out of game. I was so mad at myself!
-TAKA SCARED ME IN THE BUSHES SHE IS THE NIGHT.

-Sunday I just chilled. I exhausted myself.
- I know you're not supposed to watch things while you're oog, but I couldn't help but watch a little of Edwin. Still one of my top fave NPCs.
-Giving you all your notes, hearing that you appreciated them, and getting some hugs.

This game means the world to me. Every single one of you is important to this continued story we share, and it just wouldn't be the same without you. Thank you for playing with my characters this season. Thank you for challenging me. Thank you for the good and the bad times. And thank you for your amazing characters!

[Malva]

Right, just remembered:

In the inn Sunday morning, OOG with Mitchell, looking out the window:
Me: ♪ Do you see what I see? ♪
Mitchell: No?
Me: ♪ You don't see a pair of tiddies on that stool? ♪
Mitchell: *Dies laughing*

[Mo'chi]

When there were more OOG than IG players Sunday morning.

[Timmean]

You ever have that thing happen where you write up something in great detail, check and edit it, then completely forget to do what you were supposed to do with it? No?

...

Friday Night:
-Skeletons, now equipped with pumpkins! People tried all kinds of different stuff to keep them down; some worked, some did not.
-Niko did a very extensive arcane dissection to get a few of the skeleton bones
-I accidentally had one skeleton reanimate an extra time, because the person trying to killing blow me didn’t actually touch me with the phys-rep, and they stood so far away I thought they were using it against someone else
-When concluding my skeleton time, I hand off my pumpkin hat to Alex because the light on his had broken. “Oh good! I get to be a target again!”
-Bats AT NIGHT! It’s a shame walking around makes so much noise, those little beasties could be so much sneakier if we didn’t need puppeteers
-Managed to get into a few people and even got away twice; that panicked surgery whenever one manages to burrow is a great bit of medic RP
-Just to up the challenge level, one of my bats made a successful attack against Keket; I hope you have another skilled medic on hand! (You did, so good job there)

Saturday Morning:
-As we’re prepping for breakfast, there’s a bit where Dimitri is the only IG character in the room. He looks at me and out of the blue makes the OOG comment “You know, Alex has a fantastic villain voice.” I don’t know what was said the previous night to bring up that thought, but I knew what was coming and boy was it fitting
-We have the return of Baron Lizel Von Slug, sent with the special-ops Keket rescue team! Others on the team are convinced the dwarves are responsible, or the fish, or… something else I don’t remember… but anyway, we all know the TRUTH: the culprit was obviously the cheese
EDIT: The something else was the rat king.
-In searching for Keket and that dastardly cheese, we search everywhere, except the citadel is locked up. And so – because we must be thorough – I dug a goblin tunnel through the wall. All I found inside was Garet, so I promptly dug back out. Fortunately those things don’t stick around
-As is necessary for Lizel, I checked the food in the inn and made sure it was all perfectly seasoned (i.e. ridiculously salty – IG, of course)
-The team has successfully rescued Keket! Now, as a birthday present, we have a golem ritual. Good luck!
-Needing to hunt down beasties, and repeatedly suggesting we should use the mana sheep, a.k.a. the walking cheese. Also got to ask a few different people if they were dangerous, and then suggest they would make good fertilizer
-In an enthusiastic attempt to find more beasties for the golem, Lizel heads off into the woods… only to get stuck in a spiderweb. As a wolf spider suddenly comes racing towards me, I just excitedly yell “I found a beastie!!!”
-Two minutes later, Lizel is fully cocooned and lying on the big rock in the cross-woods path. I dozed there for about an hour before Pierre finally found me
-Healing was had, but I still acted woozy and messed up for a while. After all, he was bitten badly enough to knock him unconscious, THEN had his blood drained, and was kept in stasis for about an hour. That’ll mess you up
-After some more healing and chat, we decide some of us will head back to the moon. A few minutes later I’m in cast cabin with a few of the others, when Rob comes in backwards with Jean behind/in front of him. He turns around, looks at everyone in cast cabin, and just says “whoops.”
-We’ve got a little time before the next big mod, so Pepper and I draft up some redcap mages. And now, it’s time to play the “how long will it take before they slaughter you?” lottery! We also brought in a pet rat, because why not?
-We actually lasted a pretty long time compared to what we expected. We saw a bunch of people and were definitely considered weird, but no one outright attacked us for a long time. We got to mess around with everyone who “couldn’t speak” (because we randomly can’t hear common), reform an air enchantment, and “follow” it to the important spot – which was just a random patch in the field
-Being a water mage does come in handy; I gave Dimitri a convenient extra memory that “You recall a very important request that if you see any redcaps, you’re supposed to show them the pumpkin golem immediately.”
-When we reached the golem site, there were a bunch of people there working on it. A few attempts were made to screw with things, but I was promptly knocked out and dispatched. Pepper, on the other hand, was taken captive.
-I headed back to cast cabin and checked on kitchen; I had been there a while when we heard a very high scream come from somewhere outside. I would later learn this was the redcap in terror
-After a fairly long time with no return of Pepper, I decide to bring in another redcap, on “a rescue mission.” I thus got to walk around demanding of people “WHERE ARE THE TWEELDES???”
-I was eventually directed to a location about 6 minutes out of town; apparently I came in JUST as Pepper had finished up. I go to confer with Pepper, and learn I had been given incorrect directions, so my redcap wouldn’t find anything at all…
-“They aren’t there, you liars!” A crazed redcap fire mage is a dangerous thing, but apparently just to cloaks and backpacks. I would’ve burned a whole lot of other items, but Pierre was sitting on the deck and point-destroyed all the mana I had out. I am not dealing with THAT! I proceed to run out of town, heating the weapon of my one pursuer (Robin, I think?) once out of sight of Pierre, ensuring no one can hurt me as I escape.
-I have a little more down-time, so I try to find a spot out of the way to watch the reactions as the elemental circles disappear.
-Jaya decides to do a ritual to determine where the circles have gone and how to bring them back; I go to confer with cast, and when I get back she has pulled some tarot cards to see what she should do. “Pain, betrayal, failure, loss… okay, maybe this ritual is a bad idea.”

Saturday Evening:
-The time has come for Nero’s game. With the sun setting, we gather at our various circles and begin to prep. Wanting to be sure we don’t miss the start of the game, I head up to the edge of the field to keep tabs on things.
-Alex comes by with the guild’s horn. “I think it’ll be fun if we use their own horn to start things off.” “Okay, cool; would you like me to blow it?” “Oh, I know how to use it. Unless, do you think you could make it louder than me?” “Well… I’m a trombone player.” The horn is promptly handed to me and Alex resumes checking on the teams
-Once the game begins, I dance around the campfire area to try to stay out of any combat. My brain starts spinning out ideas and strategies, but I have to keep quiet because I’m not actually a player.
-A group from our team makes it to either the air or water circle locations, and come back reporting that the opposing pumpkin is missing. “Did they just hide it?” “I dunno, are we allowed to do that?” Theo promptly hides our pumpkin and keeps the location secret
-A few different people show up through the night in various forms of hiding; astral plane, blended, etc, but most leave without trying anything. Though Ardin did show up and completely wiped us out.
-Half way through the game, I remember I was supposed to come up with a minion character for that night. Uhhh… better late than never! Time to start brainstorming.
-After the game, some more time goes by while the MVP’s are getting sick and cast is getting ready for the next bit. I didn’t witness it, but I hear some fun stuff happened with the pumpkin golem. Mist trees! Also, pumpkin explosion?
-Boris, Anastasia, and Sinnu appear from the direction of the ruins. We meet no resistance walking through the field, though a few people do ask who we are and what our purpose is. We bring word from Marwel, of course!
-Mar drags us through the Barrier of Life to stop us from destroying the inn door. Turns out there are a bunch of sick people inside, and no one is looking appetizing. We decide we should head home and report.
-After a brief OOG chat, we return to announce that Marwel won’t be coming after all, but we’re sticking around to make sure you clean up your mess. A few people ask what I do, and I mention that I’m a healer, so they ask if I can treat the sickness. And I can! But not the way you want me to.
-Ceridwyn (sp?) is annoyed with Mar, and the two start arguing over something minor. “Can you get rid of him?!?” After a bit of banter, I teleport Mar out to the ruins. Anastasia: “Why did you do that?” Me: “Because it was funny!”
-The sick people are dead! And… now they’re undead! The zombies wake up and start attacking people, mostly making their way outside. A few hang around inside the inn and start taking out the healers, so after some consultations with Anastasia, I teleport them out to the water circle
-Looking around the inn, things are not looking good for the cattle. A few healers are doing work but things are clearly going south fast. After a few minutes some of the zombies head back inside, and boy, there are a LOT of them now. I walk out towards the front door and see Theo unconscious next to the sink. A zombie starts eating him, so after a few moments of contemplation, I decide on the most compassionate action at my disposal: I teleport him to Marwel! Good luck!
-The zombie horde didn’t like that, and several of them start advancing on me. Looks like it’s time to break out my other trick: EXPLOSIVES! Though Sinnu never detonates more than one finger at a time, just to be cautious.
-Anastasia and Sinnu have a look around to see who’s left. We find… nobody. Silvertongue is around blended, and no one else seems to be active except the zombies.
-We head back to the inn, where (after I blow up the door) we discover Lexicus has returned to town and is in hiding. Mar and Silvertongue also make it in, just in time for the “pie” that was in the oven. As I understand it, zombie Willow baked it, not knowing how dangerous it was to her (or why Squash wanted his head baked)
-From there, the three survivors spread out and start taking out zombies. Initially I understood that they had to be bitten for the Deserved Rest to take effect, so I eventually find all three unconscious in the field. More free trips to Marwel!
-I’m not entirely sure what happened after that, but I know the cure spread out and dealt with the remaining zombies. I think some other survivors had been hiding in the citadel and got word that a cure had been found, and lent their aid to the task
-I walk into the inn a little later and find the nine survivors discussing the situation, and 15-20 other people OOG and eating.
-After a bit all the IG characters leave and there’s a little more discussion amongst all the OOG players. Lydia had asked what happened to Squash, and I relayed the info that he had been cooked to make the pumpkin pie that destroyed the zombies. She basically facepalmed and said something along the lines of: “Of course! All the things we put in to make it; Tombstone, Bane of the Dead…”

Sunday Morning:
-Turns out I forgot to bring the costume for my Sunday morning character. Thankfully it wasn’t overly important, so I mostly handled dishes Sunday morning. I did get to see & overhear a lot as the multitude of former zombies returned to life.
-Ellie and her new frying pan. I need to do some work on it during the off season to make it a bit more sturdy, but I’m very glad that thing is now in the game.

I am now both very happy to get a break, and very eager to get back to game next season. We’ll see you all then! (And also, y’know, at crafternoons and M&G and whatever else we do during the off season!)

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