September 2021 - May the Odds be Ever in Your Favour

[Malva]

Post your event memories here!

[Z]

Friday Night
-New friends! A faun named Bones is in town, and a human named Rowan!
-Marwhel. Marwhel showed up that night. Me, Dimitri, and Pierre had some "quality time" with her before she drained us and dragged off Dimitri, there were a lot of screams.
-Then there were hellions! This night couldn't get much more exciting, I put my newfound psychic power to mesmerize one in the inn so everyone could wail on it, worked pretty well!
-After we had hunted them down in the woods, and Marwhel had left, it was fairly quiet, a few rats and spiders after, but nothing we couldn't handle.
-Last thing before going to bed was seeing a rat with a missing eye in the inn and people talking about how they wanted to help it, so I go over and mesmerize it, and they talk and debate helping it for a good while, my leg is falling asleep, they start working on it, stop, debate more, start, stop, and so on. My leg is pretty achey by now so I drop the mesmerize, the rat mauls Rosco a bit before we put it down, it was just a matter of time anyway, all is well!

Saturday Morning
-Ah! Up bright and early because I couldn't sleep, not sure why but it is what it is, Dimitri is up soon and we venture into the woods to go gathering.
-The woods are still... messy, at best. There's some fucky psychic energy in there that really hurts my brain, a handful of tracks, I think Dimitri may have found some plants, but the forest still feels pretty empty, we're walking the silk road as usual, go down to the boneyard, head back up, and we're almost at the top when it happens.

The Bear
-Ah! A spring bear! My first time seeing one, Dimitri says they are pretty territorial but if we leave it hopefully will leave us alone, so we start to go back down the trail.
-It Pursues Us.
-Oh fuck, run, Run! Goddamn it Rob is fast, alright we make it to the cut in the trail where we can head back up to the main woods and towards the inn, fuck it's right behind me, that's a damage call but doesn't connect, fuck I gotta do something...
-I turn around and grab it as it mauls me, I pull a state and call mesmerize, it mauls me again, I state the call again to a "No Effect" Fuck.
-It mauls me some more before I can do anything, I go down, Dimitri pivots, sword at the ready and begins striking the bear, calls for salvation but it's so early that almost no one is up, but he's fighting for me...
-The bear forces him to back off and call for more help, it's too strong, it drags me back down to the silk road while he goes for help, it brings me a little way down the road and throws me into the woods, surely help will come right?
-I hear frantic fighting, more salvation calls, time is running out, there's a spider, another bear, more people are arriving, they're driving what seems to be the last of the creatures away but have wounded of their own, Dimitri might be the only one who knows I'm out here bleeding to death somewhere, and I think he is hurt pretty bad too.
-I Die. Bled to death in the woods, with voices maybe 15-20ft away, it's another 20 or 30 minutes before they find me, and carry me back to the inn where they lay my body outside.
-Welp, guess I'm a ghost now, Auron makes me a ouija board so I can talk a bit, and generally I just hang out and about with folks just a little less there than I am normally.
-Just before lunch I get to the land of the dead, I've been there before on a field trip with Hugo so this won't be too bad I think.
-It was incredibly fucked up, good thing I don't remember any of it!

Saturday Afternoon
-I'm alive! Wait, I'm alive? what the hell happened?
-Figure out what happened, damn, guess I gotta go meditate and get some states back then.
-Meditate for a bit, hang out with inn people, find out Gull has written a lament for me, that's the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me
-A travelling circus sorta group shows up! They have a variety of games to play, and they are a good bit of fun! They say they'll come back tomorrow with prizes!

Saturday Night
-I'm heading out of the woods back to the inn, and there's 2 people out on the deck, Taka and, who is that? I'm about to oog compliment them on their sick robes when they start to draw and bow and aim it right at Taka's back and loose, damn what the fuck is this.
-A fight breaks out pretty quick, there's ghosts abound asking for teaching, this weird automaton thing with the bow that keeps going astral and incorporeal at times, it's pretty intense, then we've the local spiders and rats as well, it's a rough night.
-In the end we prevail, but it is a long and strenuous evening.

Sunday
-Sunday morning there isn't much on the go, especially after last night, it's nice to be calm and quiet, with just a few rats and spiders here and there.
-I see Dimitri walking off into the woods alone, better follow him to make sure he doesn't get killed or something.
-Pretty curious what he is up to though, maybe I'll just sneak about a little and see what he's up to
-We talk afterwards, it is a fun situation.
-The circus folk show back up! And with some pretty powerful magic items for prizes, very fun!
-The rest of the day is pretty calm, nothing too strenuous or exciting, a calm Sunday.

Overall, a great game as always, dying was some very fun rp, and Marwhel is always exciting.

[Malva]

I think Jenn put it best when she said that this was a game of moments, and I hope I can remember them all!

Before Game:
-Grant was so excited when I gave him a letter for Dog  

Friday Night:
-Marwell showed up! Luckily Dimitri wasn't going to die from it
-People were climbing out the window. Normally this is kinda one of the more awkward mechanics because you have to run around to the other side. But this time when Verbena jumped out the window, I went to the window and looked down and saw Z and someone else getting up as if they had just landed. Obviously the actual *people* were different, but it still lined up like it was a cohesive action and I thought it was pretty cool.
-Hunting hellions! Was so convinced we were just going to get picked off in the woods. But we did it! Also convinced me to go get grapple training.
-Got blessed by a magic mirror man for telling him a story!

Early Saturday:
-Ah yes, the day of Rapid Costume Change Afternoon
-Started out as Malva and just kinda hung out really, didn't actually do anything.
-Bones thinks Rosco stole his bones. Rosco says that when he did surgery, all of Bones' bones were there. I told Bones that that's exactly what someone who stole his bones would say. Rosco was not happy with me.
-Auron woke up Taka to come participate in the grapple training with Kez! We had a fun time wrassling in the grass.
-Break for lunch, and it's time for some toughness training with Bikbun! I hear people really enjoyed watching us fight!
-Finishing that, I quickly go change back into Malva.
-Arcadia shows up and beckons us all inside, and we're all super sketched out. Literally, I just casually prepared a gas cloud burnout "just in case" while they explained the rules.
-I go rapidly change back into Taka since it sounded more geared towards her

Arcadia:
-First game is archery! Or "Invading Space" Got to cheekily pretend I don't know how to do archery. "Wow! I'm a natural!"
-Then went to jousting and I lost but did a cool combat roll after being accidentally tripped (I don't normally do that kind of thing)
-Next was Rager!! We quickly figured out how to be very mean to eachother.
-"That was very fun. I'm not doing it again, but that was very fun."
-Then we did Pack-man, and I think I was best in my group
-Then we went on to Frogger and that was fun! This is when I discovered power ups      
-Omg, my big frogger close call... I made it to the end without getting the bonus spider, and was told I could go back for it. Unconsidered by me, the two end frog-hunters had inadvertently synced up and created a wall coming towards me I ended up splitting between two lily pads and squatting below their reach - I literally felt the woosh of air go past my face!!
-Tried out playing a baddie on Kong but at that point I had no energy to try player 1
-At this point my group had mostly dissolved, so I piggybacked off another group to play some more Invading Space!
-And then I lost
-Went back for a redemption round and got 16 coins!! "You can't just throw the arrow!!" "THAT COUNTED LAST TIME" "Okay fine"
-Went to go check out the guild group play Pack Man and caught Dimitri 100%-ing the game- good job bro!
-Things seemed to be clueing up, so I went back for a final round of Frogger to blow the last of my powerups
-EVERYONE started dumping their power ups on me for the final round lol
-Literally like 6+ double or nothings and 4 extra hits
-Frogger is the only game no one lost, but even with 4 extra hits I was still super nervous from the pressure to not be the only loss LOL
-But I succeeded and got the high score prize in the end

Saturday Night: Or as I like to call it TAKATAKATAKATKKAKTKAKAKAKTKTKAKTKKTKK
-The awareness training, LOL
-Bones' face when I told him that elves can't teach magic (Not that there weren't other people teaching him, he probably just didn't need to get beaten up by Val)

-Seemed like it was a pretty quiet night. At around 9:00~9:30 I was just chilling on the deck. I turn around and there's someone behind me holding a bow. I don't think much of it, I assumed they were one of us and didn't bother making them identify themself.
-So anyways, I got shot.
-So yeah we've got this astral-voiping 20 sunder archer on our hands here
-We actually figure out pretty quickly that this thing is only vulnerable from the astral plane.
-Me, Pierre, and Auron trio it, figure out that hitting it from astral makes it temporarily vulnerable material.
-I'm material for a bit and this ghost walks up to me with a hammer and says "Teach me?" And I just casually stop fighting the archer I'm MVP-ing to teach this ghost how to use a hammer and then hop back in. (I got my weaponmaster blessed for it!)
-Cool combat drill we should practice: Charging archers. God, there was a moment where I was only a couple meters out, was shot at, was completely about to go down, and the arrow whiffed between my arm and body, at which point my internal narrative was simply " " and I charged.
-Anyways yeah that took a lot of states. After draining Auron and Pierre, I joined a huddle at the steps to grab more, at which point the background music of "TAKA TAKA TAKA" picks up and then my sword is gone :' )
-Borrowed Lady Val's and defeated the golem!!
-Did not do a good job of getting my sword back from the ghosts.
-It didn't help that people kept yelling at me over my lessons
-"Taka your sword is back!" "Good, where is it?" "A ghost has it!" "THAT'S NOT WHAT BACK MEANS"
-I know some people like to roleplay mental exhaustion when they're low on states... "roleplay" was not necessary here.

-Yeah so anyways one telephone call later, Auron is attacking people in the inn over bouncy balls.
-Lexicus attacks him and the ball lust is transferred to himself
-I think it would be a great idea to knock him out, thinking it wouldn't count.
-(It did count)
-I missed the initial call, so I asked Sharon in disbelief "So I can just go to the cauldron and grab them?"
-So I went to the cauldron and started grabbing them.
-People clearly did not like this.
-"Taka stop it!" they cried "Why tho?" I retorted, to no argument
-Someone tried to grapple me for grapple 4, to which I replied in polite glee, "Grapple 7 : )"
"Grapple 4!" "Grapple 1!" "Grapple 7 : )"
"Grapple 2!" "Grapple 4!" "Grapple 7 : )"
"Grapple 1!" "Grapple 2!" "Grapple 7 : )"
-Eventually they figured out that grapple 4 plus grapple 4 would make a number over 7.
-I might've gotten away with it too if I started shoving them down my shirt sooner : P

-We had an IG campfire and stayed in character the whole time
-Everyone literally ran away when I asked someone else to fire marshal so I could go warm up and go to bed :' )
(Except Lexicus he's ok)

Sunday Morning:
-Brew brew brew!
-Many orc blood
-Oh hey, Taka won something
-A letter from Bishop Francis! Glad to hear from him and Timmean
-Sorry Lady Val, not Elf-ocracy this time

[Kez Shiras]

Friday Night
Honestly? Friday was kinda surprising for me. Way busier than I thought it was gonna be, but had a great time nonetheless.
- Loved meeting Rowan and Bones. They both did such a wicked job this weekend, it was great.
- Coming into game was fun, because genuinely I had not much of an idea of what happened over the last few months. Which made sense, because Kez wouldn't have heard much of what happened.
- Immediate Marwhel showing up (and having called that felt GREAT) but trying to trick my way out of the inn with Boris guarding the door was plenty fun.
- Not realizing I could Strong Will the freezebreath sucked. 20 minutes less shenanigans. But it made for a bit of fun when people came to figure out what happened and then also got frozen.
- Reginald and Kez trained a bit of grappling, this honestly surprised me, and in the same vein, I was kinda shitting myself the whole time. It felt cool to be the only person who was like, "allowed" out of the inn though.
- Jumping out the window! I ended up laying down on the asphalt just to get some quiet fresh air, and I was REALLY hoping someone would find me, but that didn't happen. So I hung my tail between my legs and went back to the inn door, saying "Hii... I couldn't climb back in the window... I just wanted fresh air, please let me back in."
- Marwhel really likes fauns. Neck is sore. Forehead has an M basically branded in it. Ow.
- Hellions showed up? I wished so bad I could fight them, and I JUST missed the fight. Damn.
- Turns out Dimitri is cured? Faerie something? Damb.
- Suddenly it's 2:30 in the morning. When tf did that happen? Time for bed.

Saturday
- Waking up to a very loud salvation call sucks so bad. Because you Know you really should help. Also its like a panic-alarm clock. Anyways, after a tricky fight with a springbear, we find Z dead. It was a 50/50 shot, we chose the wrong way, shit sucks.
- Kallith gives Kez psychic (which was very kind) so he can interact with Z for a little bit.
- Troupe Arcadia shows up! Everyone is SO suspicious of them. LMAO. Literally looked at Dog and said "We're like, fucked, right?" and he basically said "Yeah." but things turned out alright! More on that later.
- The games were a lot of fun, and it took me a second to actually clue in what was going on in term of the funny part of it. This is partially because we started on Jousting, and jousting feels like a typical thing to do as a fun little carnival game.
- It was excellent to see that we all came to the general consensus that Gull was going to be receiving all of our coins.
- They left to come back after supper, and then didn't! Uh oh! (OOG, we were all SO tired, there was basically no way we could do any more crazy shit.)
- People leave town for Knight's Rest. Don't know much about that.
- I got a very, very, really cool scroll. And I forgot a special aspect of the scroll. so.... shit.
- I got taught how to see mana! Plus a bit of fire magic. Ryan made this very, very special, and I will always remember this tbh. Basically a huge group of people just threw fire mana at me until I could "feel it", and pair that with Val not only throwing me around, but beating the ever loving shit out of me, and I can basically guarantee that by the end of it, Kez could see mana. After that, Kez and Niko went to the side, and worked on some focus based exercises to try and not only hold the mana, but to channel it into a working spell. Honestly, this was one of my favourite parts of game. Thanks for making it special, Ryan
- Always love when we have to teach the ghosts stuff. Will never get tired of "Teach Me", but Kez WILL get tired of all his shit disappearing. Adam doesn't mind.
- I heard there was a ghost that was trying to learn farming? That baffled me a little.
- What DID baffle me was trying to teach Brian's ghost how to read. That made me laugh a little, and incurred a few jokes that I had Literacy 2 for an hour.
- Also, Jess's ghost trying to get me to teach her shortsword was probably the best experience I've had with a ghost. She was holding a shield, and everyone tried smithing, woodworking, shield, etc. and it just didn't work. So Jess walks up to me, and asks me to teach her. So... I try teaching her how to use her shield, just in case. It doesn't work. I am deeply confused. Jess watches me go through the 5 stages of grief. I try teaching her shortsword, apprehensively. She picks up quick, and quickly vanishes, leaving the shield behind. We both quickly go OOG to say "literally I'm so sorry" "no I'm sorry omg that must've been so frustrating" etc. But honestly? I had a great time.
- I didn't Really know what was going on with the homunculus, but I heard that it was from the Gauntlet, and That Scares Me.
- God bless Ian, bringing in giant snakes for me and working so hard. Kez wanted to fight them snakes. It's just a real shame I didn't communicate my needs as much as I should have with the town, because both snakes died in the wrong way for what I needed. Womp womp. Hopefully next year.
- I literally walked past one with Auron and Pierre (TO LOOK FOR IT), and came back to it dead. RIP.
- I walk into the inn. I'm hearing something about bouncy balls? And a cauldron? People are scavenging the floor to put them back in, and someone is trying to take them. Lexicus knocks them out, and suddenly he wants the balls. We uh... we can't have that. So I pin him down. Easy. Some kerfuffle happens where Taka knocks him out, and she wants it, so I try the same tactic.
K: "Grapple 4."
T: "Grapple 7" uh... fuck.
K: "GRAPPLE 4. SOMEONE HELP."
Someone: "Grapple 1." facepalm. 4+1 does not equal 7.
T: "Grapple 7."
This continues to go on until Rosco blesses his grapple and we do it together.
- Teek and Pierre are pinning Auron, and Teek seems pretty upset about it, so I volunteer to take the heat of the ball addiction. We each agree, and I start beating the shit out of Auron. When he goes unconscious, I am suddenly contesting a Grapple with Pierre, where we're equally matched. AND HERE COMES MERRIC OUTTA NOWHERE WITH THE GRAPPLE 1 OH MY GOD!!!
- Anyways, I get pinned down, and start screaming bloody murder for people to let me free. I try convincing them to let me have 1 ball, I try to convince them that the people Grappling me are hurting me and need to be stopped, I even scream at Rowan (who has a sword to my throat) that he's a terrible bard and that he should try and kill me if I'm getting on his nerves. Auron air seals my mouth, lmao.
- Honestly I forget a lot of proper Saturday Night, but I know I went to bed semi-early because I was passing tf out.

Sunday Morning!
- Crow cawing right next to my tent wakes me up. As soon as I wake up, it stops. FML.
- Everyone is REALLY tired and sore.
- Found out Pierre was leaving. Man that sucks. Niko also leaving soon ish?
- We all talked and joked about the Ascended, that was nice and fun! I learned more about Baraloff. Interesting dude.
- Lady Nimean showed up, people talked to her, idk man I wasn't really there.
- The Empress came back! Classic Matilda. She hands out some WICKED magic items, and gives us all a coin to remember them by.
- Gull brings Kez down to Lysander's Grove, and we sit and he says a quick prayer before burying the seed down there. This was an amazing moment, and I feel really lucky that Adrian asked me to head down there with him. Thanks buddy!
- About halfway through that, people called my name, and a couple minutes later, Krond walked through the grove. A quick little "Don't worry. I'm not here to retrieve you.... I'm here to KILL YOU" made me laugh a lot.
- Anyways, I find out that Cricket showed up while I was down there, so once we were done, I ran up to see him.
- Did a bit of quick Grapple training with Cricket, and like, genuinely had SO much fun tussling a little bit with Rob. Another one of those moments that was just so good, I'll likely never forget it. Dude is STRONG.

Ultimately, this game really drove home for me that the world doesn't need to be ending for everything to be genuinely so much fun. No crazy hard fights, no life or death for me (poor Z), just solid fun. I wish I could write more, but placements of where they occurred and just general energy for writing is a bit hard to maintain. Thanks for the wicked game guys.

[Rudi]

Friday
- New friends in Bones and Rowan!
- Dear god Marwhel. Immediately jumped out a window because I thought my boi was outside (he wasn't, i'm just blind) and had to listen to Dog getting his eye ripped out. 0/10, would not recommend.
- Hellions! Wanted to go into the woods, but I was told not to. Sad. One day i'll be able to fight, one day.

Saturday Morning
- Chilling with Lexicus when we hear yelling from the woods. Think it's a salvation call, so we rush our way towards it. We were, sadly, too late for Z.
- Gull's lament for Z was a thing of beauty, and Z trying to read it as a ghost WHILE he was writing it was funny as heck.
- Ghost Z in general, a classic.

Saturday Afternoon/Evening
- When there's a shockwave! Go to check it out, and there's bats Everywhere and a diggerjack. Get batted, but otherwise we're fine and we get a Big Rock. Interesting to know the bats live underground.
- I brought Mo'chi back after lunch! (Rudi gave the Bat PSA then went to bed). I was excited to sneak him in, dragged my kit into the woods, and kitted up there. The rest of it... less exciting, but it WAS nice to be confirm that I don't like playing him . But hey! Saw old faces again. Got to see some of Niko's smith training!
- Coming back in as Rudi to the games! Gosh, those were fun.
- Running on asphalt barefoot was not, however, my finest moment.
- All of us deciding, independantly, to give our tokens to Gull. He deserves them.
- After the games having a pretty emotional talk with Gull and Lexicus while eating chili.
- Saturday night was sheer insanity. First the archer, then the cauldron exploding and everyone going apeshit. There was ALSO spiders poisoning people, and me and Rosco were the only top tier medics around. I just want to heal, guys. Just let me heal. Please. Just one time.
- A good conversation with Dog that send Rudi into Overprotective mode but it's fine.
- Blowing up at Val a little after everything calmed down. Ended up having a chat with her because she got wounded by a spider, and was required to stay with me for like 12 minutes.

Sunday
- Bringing Sean in and not getting much of anything. But I can bullshit something, it's all good.
- Vibing, medittating for liek 20 minutes and when I come out of it Lady Nimean is here. Don't feel much like being in a big group, so I follow Kez into the woods. We find Auron guarding Talia and Krond. I tell Auron and Kez things. Was good.
- Come back up when mine and Kez's names are yelled very loud because Empress Matilda is here!
- Giving Gull physical comfort while he gets his prize. Poor boi was shaky.
- Come into Gull midway through planting the seed in Lysander's Grove. I cried, just a lil, when he sung to it.

Overall, 10/10 game, would do again.

[Timmean]

Before game:
-Writes up two notes in gold ink on fancy paper. I quickly notice it’s very hard to read, but it’ll be fine, right?

Friday night:
-Entering town as Kallith for the first time this season. “Um, where am I?” “Holdfast! But it’s a different Holdfast.” Because Elemental Lords and magic shenanigans.
-I talk to a few people, some new faces for Kallith, others are well known. When I get in the inn I notice the letter from Baralaf is being shown to a bunch of different people. Excellent. There’s also a notice on the board about hellions.
-I haven’t been in the inn for long before Marwel shows up and strides directly up to Dimitri. Since Kallith had an encounter with Marwel last year, I try to go unnoticed as Dimitri is dragged out of the building. Good luck?
-I hover around the inn, bouncing between a few different conversations as I try to get a little more info on what’s been happening in town since my last visit. Also bouncing around because I’m trying to avoid any attention from the Marwel crew, especially Anastasia.
-As I kinda just wander around the inn I take occasional glances at the door, wondering if there’s much going on outside, and how much longer Marwel’s minions will be guarding the door. Suddenly I hear a freakish screech come from the hallway and I turn to see two hellions are inside the inn!
-I honestly don’t remember who took out the hellions, but they were slain pretty quickly, and soon afterwards I headed out to help search for the rest. There’s nothing like going monster hunting when you have 5 HP and zero armor!
-Since I was basically acting as a very fragile ambulance, I tried to move slowly and keep quiet until I heard fighting or a call for help. At one point I came across a fight that had just ended, Auron was strong will’ing a paralysis effect, but with the fight over he sat down and froze in place. There was much discussion on if he was still alive. Some expressed remorse at his death. It was a weird few minutes.
-At one point I remember being in the field while Dimitri is dragging his armour out of the woods after Marwel abandoned it there. “If Marwel doesn’t want you to have your armor, why are you putting it on while she’s still here?!?”
-Once the rest of the hellions are taken care of, we head back to the inn. Kallith decides to go back to tending the kitchen, so he heads downstairs to check on what stock we have. That’s when he discovers the rotten body of the Messenger.
-I have a discussion with Lord Robyn about backstory, plans, and the like.

Saturday morning:
-I got up around my usual time and checked on breakfast, I was having a quick glance around the inn when someone came running out from the woods calling for salvation. We’re told that Z is missing in the woods and Dimitri is badly injured. There’s some talk between a few people, but all the fighters are too injured to help at the moment (or still asleep) and most of the others are helping out in the inn. Not wanting to risk a death, I head out on my own.
-I’ve only been searching for a few minutes when Pierre shows up, a very welcome sight indeed. A few others come out as well, I don’t recall who as we searched kind of parallel to each other. As we’re going, Pierre finds some kind of scorched tracks, while I hit a noxious patch of forest that leaves Kallith feeling sick  
-We’re walking down the silk road when Dimitri notices something. We rush down and find Z, now long dead. Disappointed, Pierre carries the body back while the rest of us keep an eye out for any monsters.
-Once back at the inn, Z’s ghost shows up and hangs around for a while. After some discussion, I impart Kez with base psychic so they can at least interact.
-Things seemed to be pretty calm when we suddenly feel a huge tremor and see smoke rising from the woods. We quickly get together a search party and go investigate; I stick to the back. On our way down, we feel several more large tremors that seem to be coming from under us. All the way down at the boneyard, people tell me there are bats and a diggerjack.
-Being useless in combat, I rush back to report to everyone in the inn what we’ve found so far. Pierre has just finished his work on the watchtower and heads down. When we arrive, there’s just one bat still around, and there’s some large rock deposit sticking out of the ground.
-Lexicus goes to get a pickaxe, and after a little while I go to check on him. As we’re getting close to the boneyard we hear shouts that the rock thing is sinking; someone gave me a diggerjack claw, so I rush forward and jam it into the ground. Using the claw, plus a few swords and shields, we manage to do enough damage to crack off the rock protrusion, but all our gear is wrecked.
-We sit there for a while as Roscoe takes the pickaxe and digs out a bunch of material. Worth it, I think? Though we have lots of questions as to what caused the rock to appear in the first place.
-My thanks to Niko for fixing all the gear we smashed to get that rock.
-Don’t hurt the spider with bandages. “Okay, but does that mean we shouldn’t hurt a spider that’s wearing bandages, or that we shouldn’t use bandages as a weapon against spiders?”
-I get a little help and we drag the putrefied messenger out of the basement. A while later, Val attempts to resurrect her, but with no success. I think we burned what was left of the body.
-Backstory talk with Gull while working on lunch.
-After lunch, I start to do some training with Lexicus for Focus Mind. We’re a little more than half done when we hear a bit of a commotion and Troupe Arcadia arrives in town.
-Feeling very suspicious, we all head into the inn as requested. We hear the rules and I’m feeling even more nervous; it’s a ritual, and we’re being split up, this feels very bad. Then I hear that we’re starting at a game called “Kong” and suddenly I’m far less worried.
-While playing one of the Kong bad guys, I had Krond slam into me at a full run. OOOF
-When it was my turn, I’m pretty sure I had one of those pumpkins graze the side of my head. Also, congratulations to Auron for setting the first record, and to Lexicus for breaking it later that day.
-To everyone who was guarding their face or crotch during Invaders of Space, welcome to how cast feels  
-Joust, Rager, and Frog Hunters were all lots of fun as well. Rager was exhausting. Based on the “mana” trajectory, some of my teammates were technically thrown into the roof at one point.
-By the time we got to The Man who Packs, I was thoroughly beat out. Still I had a pretty good time, and was very pleased to get a new high score, even if it was beaten later on.
-The only “problem” with the whole arcade thing is how easily we lost track of time! When I finally got to the kitchen, we were fighting with the chili to get everything heated for a decent supper time. I’ve never used a bread knife to cut apart frozen chili before.
-Sometime around supper I talk to Kazuo about his plans and backstory. We’ll see where that goes!

Saturday evening:
-The moment I’ve been waiting for all game! A small crew has departed to talk to Baralaf. I get into kit and head outside the gate to wait.
-I don’t want to give too much detail on that conversation, but it was quite a lot of fun. I’m told that where I was sitting, I was backlit by the streetlamp, making my face pretty indistinguishable. Not at all planned, but a cool effect.
-At one point Darriel offers to give me a Solomon potion (that’s the truth serum stuff) if it would help prove my claims are true. I laugh and imply pretty heavily that would be a waste of a potion, and Zero just stares straight at me and says “No, that’s fine, I believe you’re telling the truth.” The tension in that moment was palpable.
-Once that intense bit of RP is done, I get back into Kallith’s costume and head out onto the porch. It’s pretty quiet, so I decide to just sit on a bench in the dark and keep a watch for anything that looks problematic. I hadn’t been there for too long when I see something OOP aiming a bow at Taka who’s out by the stairs. When the thing drops her with one shot, I quickly scramble. I get a quick confirmation that the thing is in the astral plane and then try to get the attention of as many people as possible.
-Things rapidly escalate as ghosts start appearing as well. One of them is stealing items, that seems bad. A shield goes missing, a spear, a… forge??? Okay ghosts, now you’re getting ridiculous  
-Turns out one of the elves (don’t recall her name) can somehow repel undead by screaming. That’s a new one, but hey, we’ll take whatever advantage we can get!
-A few moments later I’m back out in the field near the gazeebo, trying to stay away from the archer thing and see what ideas people have on stopping it. Then one of the ghosts approaches me, carrying a shield and just saying “Teach me?” That’s… weird, but I decide to roll with it. Getting a little help from someone (Kez, I think?), we demonstrate the basics and give a little instruction. The ghost responds by blessing my shield skill, leaving behind the shield it was carrying, and vanishing into nothingness. Huh… that was surprisingly helpful.
-I head back inside to try to convince people that perhaps the ghosts aren’t as big of a problem as we thought. I impart base psychic to someone so they can help keep an eye on things indoors, then start looking for ghosts and people who could teach what they wanted. That’s Kallith, providing the weirdest matchmaking service ever. I remember giving Niko my shield so he could teach a ghost how to use it, since the ghost was carrying HIS shield and he wanted it back.
-At one point I’m trying to get one of the injured out of the field and the archer starts targeting us. Everyone was yelling for me to get out of there, I think the injured guy I was dragging got shot but I didn’t so we managed to get out okay!
-I have to mention the moment when, at the height of the insanity, Theo just appears from the woods like some foretold saviour.
-Eventually the archer has stopped and most of the ghosts have finished up as well; I hear Taka was critical in that fight. It seems the archer thing is some kind of psychic construct and Bikbun is starting to study it; I go to join him because the idea of a psychic golem is absolutely fascinating to Kallith. Also, I hear one ghost wanted to learn farming, and another one wanted to know how to bake cornbread? Holdfast is really weird.
-Bikbun and I spend a LOT of time trying to figure this thing out, it seems to have some kind of psychic link to… something… but we can’t interact with it. Something reminds us of the Send Dream ability, so we try knocking out Bikbun to see if he can intercept the message that way. No luck. We’re also very low on states, and I don’t think there’s anyone in town who even knows Send Dream.
-Taka tries to use Knowledge Conduit on the archer. It does not go well.
-Finally we wake up Teek, who hits the thing with send dream and… it works! The thing starts talking, apparently it’s a Homunculus that was piloted by someone named Vanilla, and he’s with The Gauntlet. He says their location is “Up.” Also, they make a lot of things “up here.” Also also, they’re going to be visiting next month. That’s about all I can remember.
-With all the chaos seeming to be over, I head back into the inn, just in time to see Lexicus or Auron getting beaten to unconsciousness by allies while scooping rubber balls out of a cauldron. Once again, Holdfast is weird.
-A moment later, the ball thief has been knocked out, and now Taka is the new thief, and she starts shoveling balls into her shirt and fleeing. She, too, was knocked out a few moments later.
-We slowly gather up the remaining balls and put them back in the cauldron. Auron nods approvingly then picks up the cauldron and starts to walk out. It takes a minute before anyone realizes he’s not taking them somewhere safe, he’s just being crafty with his thievery.
-By the time I get outside, the cauldron is on the ground and Kez has been pinned and is screaming about how everyone has gone crazy and attacked him. Turns out he took the ball curse intentionally, since people would be able to pin him down while we figure out what’s going on. Cue searching the field with a candle to try and find the last two tiny rubber balls  
-With all 65 balls back in the cauldron, Teek does… something, and ends the whole ordeal. She seems very stressed and upset. A bunch of us just kinda lay out in the field for a bit to recuperate. Eventually we take the cauldron inside, and a few people from The Guild talk Teek through things. She’s very, very out of it, wanting to get back to the woods and find her grandma or something. It’s a concerning talk, but The Guild seems to have it under control, so eventually I leave them to it and go to bed. What a day.

Sunday morning:
-It’s a fairly quiet morning, I overhear a discussion about Baralaf and join in to see if there’s any new information. There was a lot of good discussion, ideas, and theories about him. My thanks to Talia, Dimitri, and Professor Michael for that whole bit of RP.
-In the whole discussion, we come up with a very ridiculous plan. DO NOT DO THE CRAZY PLAN. It requires a tier-10 void mage, a tier-10 essence mage, and a semi-suicidal psychic.
-Listening to Theo tell Sean his lizardfolk story. Afterwards, “I can confirm that when I got down to the boneyard, there were no lizardmen.” Theo, “Yes, that’s because I killed them all!”
-We’re finally finishing Lexicus’ training when Lady Nimean arrives. There’s discussion on where the people of Holdfast will finally settle, if it’ll be possible to visit old Holdfast, how to heal the surrounding forest, and how to get all the magic stuff out of Teek.
-Turns out Cricket is our new messenger! And it sounds like the old messenger was not happy with us  
-There’s a letter from Francis, and it gives an update on Timmean! That was cool, even though Kallith has no idea who this Timmean guy is.
-Lady Val asks about becoming mayor and gets a rather indifferent response.
-After Lady Nimean leaves, there’s some more talk about Baralaf with a lot more people in attendance. I particularly enjoyed Auron’s line “Yes, I’m sure he would be very happy with a Baralaf-sized doggie door.”  
-Also, from Theo, “Can you imagine just showing up one day and finding your whole life’s work gone, with just a note that says Screw you, Holdfast!”
-Empress Matilda from Troupe Arcadia is back, with PRIZES! I was very glad to see a lot of newer players won stuff!
-I hear that Pierre is leaving! That will be a big change.
-With everything winding down, Val asks Kallith why he’s in town, and we get to have a bit of RP there. I might have a change to his character arc as a result, we’ll have to see how things play out. I have ideas/plans  
-Sitting in the gazeebo when we hear the end of game call, then watching everyone immediately break out into a giant battle royale. Like, what the heck?  

Holy moly! I knew it was a busy weekend, but that was a lot. Fantastic game, unfortunately I’ll only get to a little of the next one, but I look forward to it nonetheless!

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