August 2023 - The Month of the Ape

[Zero.]

Y’all know the drill. Post some memories from game!

[Pavel Vesely]

Pre-game:
-Heard people getting panicky about the dice I planted about.
Friday night:
Spooked Kino right out of the gates, passing out from exhaustion just as I reached town.
- Broke doc's orders, started pyramid head strutting into the woods.
-Nearly dropped a brick when that first Brute Hellion brushed shoulders with me. Quickly turned around to shiv it, inadvertently saving Amber.
-Cooperatively gaslit the Guild alongside Garrett into thinking I was in their hunting party the whole time. Audio tracking OP.
Saturday:
– Too tired to gather.
— I shouldn't have turned my back! Where in blazes did Yanna go? Avalon...
— I just wanna stab this sunovabitch, but how will we find her then? Keep cool, Luis.
– Watched the boss' ritual. Whaddya mean I can't go, Val?
-Yanna turned up dead... A...Va...LOOOOOOOOONNNNNN! I'll kill you soon as I'm done moping.
-Too busy stewing to waterfight.
– Guild's planning a revenge mission. This is my chance! MEMEMEMEMEME! PICK ME! I owe this bastard for Yanna.
– More Hellions... How did I become the sane one in the Silver Corps all of a sudden? I refuse to let anything happen to her again, so I'm staying back.
–After much hounding, they gave me a chance to go after Avalon.
– "VORATHYR, TAKE ME NOW!" Mr. Brightforge, you've found a God I can get behind.
Sunday:
– A sudden change of plans? What will befall me? Find out next time on Epoch!
— First time casting. Lonny's Looters are go! This is such a breath of fresh air after nearly a day of pure angst.
- Does this Apple filly ever quit yammin'?
-Panicked a little, thought the boss was gonna give us away.
-Guys, quit yer bickerin'!
-What the hell is this massive Hellion? These guys are crazy, boss! HUURGHK!
-Bonny an' Conny been hoverin' around that frog for a hot minute, maybe I should check on'em. Wait, no. Leave it be. Rat, stop... What the f--BOOM!
– Not-so-local gang recruits Kez.

[Dimitri]

Friday Night


Time to be a black Hellion. It was my first time and I put on the hellion mask. got 1 really good throat rip on Ryn (it was not Ryn)
First bit was all chaos and combat, then came the 2nd thrash. there was a little confusion and we spent a fair amount of time chilling in the woods before I went up and told the players they had 11 Hellion black hellion bodies. I ran back into the woods and the players realizing there was a 2nd thrash started up the hunt again. I got a good jump on Degren, but he petrified himself. in the end 1 hellion got away.

Saturday
Everyone seemed to sleep in a little so I played a little Popcorn then got into Avalon Kit.
*Spawns in, finds 2 people alone in the woods right away* OK ask them some questions, cast some spells, give some gifts. Figure out that my next target is Pierre or Ivy. Find Pierre first, I once again cast some spells, give some gifts and ask some questions.

I go back into town this time with new targets, Grab Rosco and Yanna. I don't cast spells, give gifts or ask questions. I just explain they are bargaining chips and they will die unless I get what I want.

I come back into town and have to escape several times. the best was "I need you to know that you only have 1 hour left until" *Auron unblends and drops my awareness to 0* I proceed to retreat, tussle with Z and then knock him out. He's still in the Astral so I leave him be to buy me time to escape.

While 1 party is hunting me outside of holdfast I decide to come back in. Tell them I have 2 hostages and I want Dimitri. The town doesn't like this trade, so I purpose a better deal. if 2 hostages aren't enough lets try for more. *1 hostage, 2 Hostage* 3..."destroy void mana".... hmmm that's not how this story is suppose to go. well time for another escape the others should be showing back up to town any min now anyways.

Come back to town, walk in the back door, look around, I don't see any magical weapons or armor. there is a lockbox so I grab that. then I go to the back say how about 4 hostages for Dimitri. Town disagrees I take like 2 obsidian daggers to the back and decide to leave.

I speak with my new forced friends. "So I promised town I'd kill someone if they didn't co-operate and I really hate to lie, but there is an alternative. 3 died that afternoon. Each received a final message and was granted a clean death.

I needed some good vibes so I came out with a mana sheep, saw Gull and immediately decided ruined my own good vibes lol. mine and Sam's sheep then got in a fight against Krond's magical necklace.

Water fight was so fun, and the imporer/ imperator was hilarious, B&H are awesome <3

Night fight was Awesome. multi caster puppets are difficult to use but are very impactful.

Sunday
I was exhausted and I think I did 2 rats.

[Rosco Agassi]

oh boy oh boy what a weekend indeed.

friday night
-rosco comes back into town after spending between games at his grandma's house. immediately someone collapses in front of him. he contemplates going home again before walking into the inn.
-rook tries to enchant my mark as im eating a (really good) hamburger. he apparently "cant take me seriously" and keeps laughing. smh. i put my hamburger down so he can do his job.
-little did i know that was the last of that hamburger for the next hour! misty shows up and she's got eggs inside her.
-rosco the new beastie boy knows what these are from; hummerocs. fuck.
-very fun rp (with lots of props and fake blood) as the eggs are removed. misty is being badass as ever, i make her laugh a few times to ease the tension because she won't take pain meds.
-the eggs are out, my best beast friend ceridwynn and i very excitedly poke around at them. they're just waterballoons on tape but getting them off the tape in one piece is a challenge. i lose only two of six though, so that's a win!
-carving hellions until 4am. could do it in my sleep now.
-honk shoo time.

saturday
-do my circle rounds for prayers. am interrupted by an NPC named rocky at the faerie ring. find some....moon cheese? im not eating that.
-pen merchant shows up. why have we beat him up? turns out he's working for avalon which sucks. not my monkeys though (this is foreshadowing!)
-find out avalon took pierre. go back to the inn and avalon struts in like nothing is happening. tell yanna to stall as i try to get out the door, can feel him on my heels but i keep going.
-see degren across the field, i need to get his attention "HEY DEGREN I HAVE A QUESTION—" i am kidnapped and teleported away with yanna.
-avalon ties us to a tree, takes most of my states, all my mana, curses my escapology, knocks me down to 12 hp and then slow poisons me so i will die in two hours. he does the same to yanna.
-i try to healing trance my way out of it but that's a no can do from him. he takes the rest of my states.
-rosco exists in eternal hell for about an hour and a bit while he waits to be found. i dont know if the caster realizes the trauma being tied up and watching your apprentice slowly die with you can cause. it was fun!
-as a player i hang out and watch oog as the town tries and fails to put a ritual together in time
-avalon tells us it's time to die (or sign a contract that will eventually kill us). rosco asks to have the last little bit of his poison kill him and gets declined. probably wouldn't have been found in that period of time but it was worth a shot.
-killed fairly humanely. last wishes were listened to and i die next to yanna.
-takes town another 45 mins to find us. shoutout to cast for bringing me bug spray.
-resurrect terrified and confused. "you didn't find us". try to piece together the circumstances of my death because of no memory of the deal.
-catch up with friends, watch the waterfight. apparently KEZ KILLED GULL WHILE I WAS KIDNAPPED? but no one told me that for a few hours.
-giant hellion (brutus) in the woods. i dont get to see it in action but i get there in time to help move and dissect it. insane puppet. insane plot. im thriving.
-ritual time! one of the best rituals ive ever been a part of. a group of people are teleported off to find avalon and im left to sit in the thoughts of what exactly we're getting vengance for. also to think about how much i love town and town loves us.

sunday
-HUMMEROCS!!!! excitedly watch them in astral for awhile. someone eventually kills them.
-am carving them and taking notes when there's talk of "armed people" coming into town. im just about to move into the inn when i find out it's just apple.
-"oh, it's just apple" to "HOLY SHIT ITS APPLE THE COOLEST BEASTIER I KNOW YOU NEED TO SEE THIS"
-we spend a long time looking at the hummerocs, then we go talk about brutus for a bit. make a new halfling friend. game is called.

overall one of my favourite games of the season! though i think i say that every time. thanks for all the fun!!!

[Drixar]

Friday
- start game reading on the deck, honestly pretty peaceful
- head inside to start doing dishes as promised
- hey Morrigan what’s up….. what do you mean there’s hellions. -sighs in stops dishes to go get staff-
- Jesus fuck there’s SO MANY HELLIONS. WHY IS THERE A THRASH AND BRUTES
- got my arm broken by a hellion, was terrifying in the moment but hilarious to have one jump out of the bush and tackle me to the ground
- *forgot this one oops* got hauled to the medics, no hesitation rosco goes “is that a hellion coming in the inn” I turn and he sets my arm back, 11/10 moment
- popped OoG once the first wave was over because I was getting overwhelmed, spent the time finishing up the dishes
- popped back in near the end and got to witness the cool ass provoking song(?) the guild was using
- sat and studied the claws of 21 hellions. So. Many. Claws. Got a mystery potion tho!!
- nearly 4 am. Bed time. I wanna be semi functional to gather

Saturday
- woke up a little past 7, it’s weird seeing the inn so empty
- decided fuck gathering, help meal plan with breakfast instead
- -sees cast walk outside with a turtle prop- …. I’m OOG that looks like a not me problem
- eventually goes IG, sit with others to eat my breakfast
- forget the in between, but eventually set up to make big kaboom in the field
- I see luis moving in the corner of my eye, confused I look up and see a spider scuttling full speed towards my ass
- called salvation before I dropped but don’t think I was loud enough
- got to have a nice little bush nap, found by Sam/shade and kept fucking up her cutting count by accident (whoops lol)
- got dragged inside and after TWO BOMBS went off in the inn/very close by decided that’s enough explosives for one game
- Avalon started taking people, I saw Avalon and Pierre when hunting for em but they were OOG so I technically didn’t see shit
- auron slashes at the pen merchant. Apparently he works with Avalon but can’t tell us his source????? Yanna and rosco trust him tho so I do too  
- joined the guild to track the mf avalon, very glad that they let me tag along
- came back and more people were taken, witnessed a brief standoff between town and Avalon
- find yanna and rosco dead on the trail to the water circle. Their bodies were placed in a peaceful but morbidity fucked up way
- time is weird soup forget the rest
- oh I do remember showing Peter and father Francis around, my small group swears we kept hearing things in there with us
- nighttime comes, I swear I hear something. A bit later Z hears it too, we both scout ahead
- my night vision is just good enough to see Z signalling to me, thank fuck. I get lost in the day half the time
- how bad could this be? “Impart stat astral form, impart state dematerialize” OH THAT BAD
- seconds later I heard Zelda calling salvation, oh boy
- climb out of a bush to see A BIG ASS HELLION. I SWEAR YALL BETTER GET DOWN HERE.
- like to say I held my own pretty well, got OOG scared half to death when lexicus popped out of blend cuz I didn’t know he was there
- got hauled out of the woods by emelia mere moments before it died. Thank fuck
- waited inside for several hours before calling it a night in case Avalon showed up. Made the others promise to come back at least in one piece before their ritual to track him

Sunday
- slept in a bit, but whatev
- got my shit rocked by hummerocs, didn’t drop my weapons fast enough
- saw a very happy rosco dissecting them, we Stan medic enrichment time
- heard about a “group of armed people” entering, hastily snagged the first person I saw (who happened to be Kez) and ran off
- it was apple! And a group of…. Bounty hunters? Lonnie’s looters or something like that
- they did not appreciate apples beastie facts, rood
- I was so sleepy I remember nothing else

Overall amazing game as always, it’s always an amazing day in holdfast

[Malva]

Sharon: "I'm gonna be available now for a bit for recipe approval, and this is just gonna be the time we have this weekend due to cast limitations"
Me: "okok" *starts brewing*
Sharon: *disappears*
Literally everything: *Starts exploding*
Me: Sharon are you sure this is a good time to brew
Sharon: I did not expect this

[Malva]

-The specific seething look on Dog's face; so contained, but so terrifying
-Dropping everything for the water fight
-Got 5 brew attempts in on the new potions! Not there yet though (time to go badger Sharon with the most contrived train of logic she's ever seen) (I think I'll get it though)
-Mana sheep mistook me for their mother, cuddled cutely with sleeping Amber
-Brew time is set, but when I saw those ten bounty hunters come in with Apple, I'll be damned if I didn't try to brew faster

[Kez Shiras]

Trying to make it short and sweet from now on!!

Danica’s Gas Cloud Burnout for 5000 foot radius call
Shackles for 6h
Foraging with Gull
Foraging with Gull
So many fucking hellions.
- almost soloed a white hellion!! Wowie.
“Let’s stay back and let some other people fight!” “There’s AOE Poison” “Oops. Nevermind!”
Brutus was beeeeeg
Rip to those people that just left saturday night and then. Just. Never came back. Sure hope they don’t die and that theyre back for september!
Checking to make sure Lonnie’s Looters were both cool and nice before entry to holdfast
Encouraging them to go for Volk’s Huge Bounty (lol suckers)

[Ivy]

Lets see what I can remember at this point:

Hellion in da woods night!
- Going in with a very ramshackle team to try to find Ari and Lighting the FUCK out of our way (I have been told to get a weaker light for next game, understandable)
- Multiple occasions of 'there's a squad of hellions right there, gettem!'
- Galloping past a white hellion to rescue Ari. As confusing as that all was in the end I'm glad it ended well!
- Glad I didn't have to solo any of the white hellions, was certainly able to hold my own against the dogs tho.

the next day..

- Prank Scavenger hunt: Why was everyone's idea of a prank for prank week plot red herrings??
- Going with Kez and Dog to rescue Luis from a spider. W E B S.
- Didn't lay eyes on Avalon once but apparently he's kidnapping people?
- Ah I see I'm being roped into a ritual
- Ah I see this ritual has gone poorly and everyone is now dead.
...
- Water balloon fight!!

- Passing out after the lunch-dinner grind with a ton of walking around in between, wake up at quarter to midnight to see Brutus getting carved up.
- Didn't have much better to do, turned Kez into a worm as a bit

[Gull]

Francis and Peter are home!!!

Lexicus: "Hey Gull, there's someone in the field I think you'd like to see."
Me: "Oh?"
Lilly: "It's Francis."
Lexicus (half-heard as I booked it): "You ruined it..."

Zero caught me 'miring. I denied it, unsuccessfully.

Francis clocked Kez's shackles instantly and was not deterred by any deflections lol.

Me: "I know you already forgave me for how I left, but I want you to know I intend to make it up to you."
Peter: "Oh Gull, you don't have to do that."
Me: "I owe you everything."
Francis: "You may owe us everything, but you don't owe us anything. Do you understand?"
Me: "...Yes. Yes, I do."

Me (to a handful of Holdfasters): "I want tonight to be happy and to be about him, so please don't mention to Francis that I died this morning."
Peter, standing behind me: "...WHAT happened??"

Telling stories, singing songs, teasing each other.

Peter is an instant hit, everyone loves this sweet lil cinnamon roll. Yanna, Gull, and Peter were sitting together and he was so concerned for Gull's health. Peter kept a hand on Gull's arm the entire time, gave him his shawl, and adjusted it anytime it slipped off his shoulders.

Obsessed with them. My good bois. My blorbos.

[Gull]

Also I died and so did my friends or smth idk

[Malva]

- Water balloon fight!!

Ian at the hose: "I'm done, but I'm filling up me water gun again for intimidation in case anyone tries anything."
Less than 5 minutes later: cut to Mitchell tearing across the field being chased by Ian with the water gun

[Emellia]

This Game's Quotes (or at least the ones I managed to write down):
"The hellions are caked."
"I wasn't under the impression you devour merciful healers on the regular."

Friday:
- Started game looking at the stars, what a pleasant start to another larp adventure
- Misty was found to have hammeroc eggs in her, poor dear
- Ari ran into the woods, so naturally Condor, Amber, and I ran in after her to make sure she was okay
- Hhhmm, what's that over there oH CHEESE AND CRACKERS IS THAT WHAT HELLIONS LOOK LIKE??
- The woods night fight with the multiple white and black hellions coming at us from the shadows was really fun and scary! A white hellion breathed down my neck which sent chills down my spine. Nobody died, so I call that a success!
- Lost my sword in the forest kafuffle, let's just hope I don't need it before I find it in the morning
- Talked with Morrigan for a bit while the hellions were being carved up
- Had a really nice conversation with Luis, Yanna, and Morrigan on the concrete slab before going to bed

Saturday
- Woke up to damage calls in a panic, but thankfully it was only turtles (I think?)
- Joined the hellion hunt in the woods, but it turned into being surrounded by a rat, a spider, and a snake really fast! I got downed by the rat and cocooned by the spider before being hauled up by Condor and running into a spring bear that quickly downed Lexicus and Dog. My goodness, that was an adrenaline-infused salvation call!!
- Got my lunch after helping with meal plan and sat down only to learn that Yanna and Rosco got kidnapped by Avalon as leverage to try to get Dimitri
- Avalon showed up and asked me to tell people we only have an hour before our friends die only for other people to immediately meet him on the porch
- "If 3 people won't do it, how bout 3" GOODNESS that was an intense moment
- Ari pushed me into the inn after Avalon started taking Ceri and Ryn so fast that I had to take a moment to process what was happening
- Took part in a ritual for the first time, that was cool
- THERE WERE MANA SHEEPIES!!!!
- Uh oh, there were mana sheepies
- Tried my best to help Gull get their hand unstuck from a sheepy
- I was trying to get Zero to the medic table when the goblins came with water guns
- WATEERRR FIIIGGHHHTTTTT!!!! (What a good way to cool off! Straight-up water was dumped on my head at least 3 separate times, I was soaked lol XD)
- Phil had a really nice store set up and was selling really delicious cookies, 5 star service
- Ate some good, comfy-tasting meatballs for supper
- Had a really nice rp moment with Ryn before she went on the vengeance mission, I hope she doesn't die
- From what I could hear from the citadel, the music being played before the big fight was fantastic
- Omg, that night fight hellion was MASSIVE!!! Props to the people who made that big hellion, those big red LED eyes looked so cool!!!
- I felt bad hauling people away from the fight because of their injuries, but I tried my best

Sunday
- Phineas made an appearance, so I managed to deliver the bracelet I made for him
- The truth-telling skull came back!!! And this time, he sang songs with Kez
- Finally met Father Francais and his good friend Peter!!!!
- A bunch of bounty hunters came into town with Apple
- Alchemically spicy hammerocs, was nice to see medic friend Rosco excited to dissect them
- I had to leave early, but I still had lots of fun

I think that's all? Thanks for the good game y'all!

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