Empire 12 (4) the best bits

General
#1

Good bits:

Being in a group with the woman I love and rocking it!
Reckoning Guild fun times, especially the new recruits.
League being an awesome nation.
Being a player ref, it’s really fun helping out the field team. Small belt tag things were discussed so that we are easier to spot.
Food choices have really come along this year and at this event the choice and quality was spot on.

Special good bit:

I was battle refereeing/marshalling on the Sunday battle and took a very nasty shot to the eye which dropped me (knocked me for six and I had a big black spit in my vision which was like being blind for a short time). From what I can tell and from what other people said the players around me called the “Man down” and got other Ref attention really quickly. I was very out of it and unable to radio for myself so thank you to everyone nearby who got me sorted out, eye seems okay and just a horrid looking bruise.

How was your event?

#2

[ul]
] Being in the Tangled Thorns remains awesome, and has amazing folk. Thank you for encouraging me to come back to fest LRP, I am loving it a year on./:m]
] The dragon. So awesome there aren’t words for it. The bar for set pieces just keeps getting higher./:m]
] Varushka, for always being amazing. So many fantastic people to interact with./:m]
] Talking regio. Whoever was voicing it, you were excellent./:m]
] Tangled Thorns relationship advice. Everyone went along with it so well./:m]
] Going for Archmage of Spring. Although I didn’t do very well, it’s the first time I’ve tried for something like that (outside of games where I know everyone OoC) and so afterwards I was really pleased that I actually went for it./:m]
] Nicasea’s face during our ritual. /:m]
] Our rituals in general. Excellent fun. Beetroot and water everywhere./:m]
] Being rescued on the battlefield by Evidia. Felt like a cool cumulation of a year’s worth of plot and roleplay./:m]
] Our battlefield ritual. Starting, noticing the hands-in-the-air monsters assembling, realising we were inadvertantly terribly close to the respawn point, but nothing to do but keep going now! People waving to our fearless guards to join up with the main group, then realising they were going to have to come back for us. The real feeling of fear and urgency from us and everyone around was simply amazing./:m]
] I was allowed to be the one to knock down the fort. Just wow. Squeeeeeee./:m][/ul]

#3

Awesome event that just continue to build the momentum from the last one.

[ul]
]Firstly my chapter being awesome as ever, love you guys :slight_smile:./:m]
]Setting up Yael’s presentation of her True Liao Vision and getting to see everyone’s face as she told the story was everything I hoped for. Stagecraft, bitches :slight_smile:. Extra points to Tullius for his siezing the opportunity with his Exemplar judgement./:m]
]Hanging out with Clarice, Livia and Agnieska listening to them singing filthy songs in the Mandowla’s was awesome./:m]
]Isabella and Hywel appearing as if by magic and pulling my arse out of the fire. /:m]
]Giving Rose her hood made by the very prosperous Eleri and seeing her face light up like the first day of Spring./:m]
]The ongoing fun with the Eater of Hope, sending Team Courage and friends off with a packed lunch and hearing about their victory then hearing the ongoing story as more of that plot unfolded./:m]
]Highguard politics of all kinds, we are truely cooking with gas now./:m]
]Inquistioning Lizbeta for the Assembly of Nine was fun./:m]
]Judging the War Memorial competition with our committee and being intensely impressed with what everyone had put together, the winning entry is going to look amazing./:m]
]Having a reasonably decent Courage meeting, over in an hour and hopefully interesting to people. Pointing people at game. Getting stuff done. /:m]
]Battlefield command again, not quite as tight as last time but I’m glad I got Battlegroup Watches (Felix and Ravens) out from the line to harry the archers and managed to keep people from getting too strung out./:m]
]Getting dropped twice was a little embarassing but half way through my deathcount having a conversation with a Druj about a “potion” he wanted to give me, hearing “Get away from my brother you son of a bitch!” made it all worth it :slight_smile:. Jethro also gets the award for most arrows “caught” that battle :slight_smile:./:m]
]Being trolled by the Tangled Thorns as we guarded their ritual. Much side eye was thrown./:m]
]Coming back through the gate, making sure all mine had come home then stumbling off to get my traumatic wounds seen to and almost bursting into tears while being treated it being the first opportunity Asher had had to lay down the weight he’d been carrying all weekend, it all went a bit Nordic and emotional there for a few hours after. Not in a bad way, just quietly intense./:m]
]Playing hooky in LOCATION REDACTED with Agnetha and doing some proper guide work. /:m]
]DO NOT MISTAKE DOING FOR NOT DOING/:m]
]Being all cued up to rain down hell towards a group of senators, then hearing the other side of the story and going “oh right then, carry on” :slight_smile:./:m][/ul]

#4
  • Seeing some top plot and some great monsters working together on the field and in tents with players from all over the place

… that’ll do actually

#5

Having not written a froth post lately, as I worry about forgetting amazing people, please be assured that if I met you this event, it was probably great, as I don’t recall any bad IC encounters (well, except where it was my own fault and thought afterwards that I could have bounced off better with some of the amazing people I met. Most notably Rhi’s character in the Grimani, who was all bolshy in a really cool way and I was too off-guard to have a good response).

So, through the haze of joy and anguish that was E12, my froth:

  • Elections for General of the Wolves of War. Not getting the appointment initially because of beautiful league politics and the senators being so perfectly on brief for our culture, rather than my actual performance of the job. It is like the best of all worlds, as long as in the best worlds what you want is vicious politics and scheming by people who will stop at nothing. Gerard, Will, Gordon and Bex- great game.

  • Elections part 2. Loads of people in the nation and outside getting involved and influencing the plot, so it was not just a handful of people in one room. Whichever candidate they wanted to campaign for, there was superb play all over the place.

  • New twist to the military game for this event, with the generals in Reikos making decisions every few hours that would influence the sunday battle. Brilliant touch. Slightly sad that I did not get to be involved in it sooner, but it always feels daft to complain that I did not get to have the fun because I was having different fun at the time.

  • Lacking a general, so organising meetings anyway and Gabriel being really touched that the other captains would support him, both there and on the field. The League bravos and captains were all on great form this event, both on the field and in the pvp arena, which was great to watch and be part of.

  • A wonderful moment of Leonora/Miranda talking about the art entries for the Pride of Holberg competition. Afterwards mentally re-writing one of the quotes on the League wiki for her as ‘I am a general and the canvas is my battlefield.’

  • Watching the other generals assign the League to what I thought they were making a suicide mission with their troop allocations, but being able to say nothing to stop them (great moments of having to bite my tongue in the stands. Very good character development scene there. You utter monsters :slight_smile: ). Counter to this, my incredible pride at how the nation fought on the field against nearly two to one odds (later finding out that the troops we were facing had a nearly identical statline to my pure combat, three year-old PC), getting off the field intact after a bruising battle.

  • Reesha/Virtue kinda deserves her own dedicated froth post for her multitude of scenes of creating complex emotions, varied ways of supporting Gabriel and a playing a character with such nuance.

  • …but I will mention her twice, in context of the amazing musical production ‘The Captain of Goldberg’ (extreme resemblance to characters living or dead…). Superb performance by everyone involved.

  • Meeting the rest of Logistics Team- Vanhe and Tancred- on saturday night for a meeting in which we take ourselves very seriously. Then hearing the high-pitched strains from next door of ‘we will put a RAINBOW in your HEART Simargl’. Thanks Becka and Steve.

  • Hearing about the ‘new’ Dean of the Lyceum and his plans for the future. Enjoying the attached cautionary tale.

  • The full-on rage in the final MC meeting where tempers were lost on so many sides. I did enjoy getting to be the calm one for a change. Such a contrast to Claire/Nicassia’s perfectly graceful exit a few minutes later (Ambition note: one day I want to play an Urizen at least half as well as she does).

  • Late night chatting with Gabriel’s best mate about her love life. Feeling her partner is not good enough for her, but plotting to make him be better.

  • Monstering the Reikos battle. Very conscious that we didn’t have the numbers to stop the players, but we could make it a good ruck. Had some excellent fights in the moments where individual or small groups of players were skirmishing.

  • Enjoying some family moments with the camorra at last, with some quality niece-time.

  • Finally making time to gird Ellie/Clarice before battle.

  • Looking forward to next event and the Towerjack elections, to see which of our good candidates might get the job (or maybe one of our bad ones :slight_smile: ).

#6

As I know he reads these,

A big thanks to Andy Raff for ensuring the Ennurlund plot got plaid out.

Cheers
Martin (Ozren)

#7

  1. Going toe-to-toe with an orc not once this weekend but twice, using the most flowery of wands. I had them on the run… Imagine if I had a sword!

  2. Using my final use of Irra-Harrah’s Blessing on the Tangled Thorns to get them back up on Sunday. So glad I had that plot thrown at me in E1 or I wouldn’t have been able to help them.

  3. Speaking of plot… SO MUCH PLOT. Also having my small smug moment about being right about a certain piece of plot when others had been trying to disprove me for several seasons (and still are…)

  4. Continuing that plot and now forming some good IC and OC friendships due to those.

  5. Tangled Thorns in general. Anytime you feel low, you can drop by their camp for a good cheering up :slight_smile:

I can’t believe it’s 8 months until the next event! I will be stewing in elaborate magical plans in the meantime.

#8

I attempted to write up my event last night so that I might remember what happened when it comes to E1 next year. At 2k words I gave up and went to bed. So many little moments that I want to remember, so much information in my head that I don’t want to forget.

Overall, this event has left me feeling overall happier and more content than at any other, even though it didn’t have some of the massive IC highs and lows that some of the others did. I started to make some headway in a personal mission that I’ve been trying to do for a while and it feels SO GOOD that there is movement on that. A lot of stress has dropped off that I don’t think I realised I was carrying.

So, here we go, random thoughts and musings:

My Nation

I got to be in you! For more than two minutes! I got to help ward camp! And dance like an idiot at the Winter Market! Many thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make the Market a success. I’ve come to terms with the fact that Agnieszka is never really going to be spending a lot of time in her home nation but it’s still wonderful to be able to dip in and out.

On that note, I actually managed to have almost an entire pint with my IC/OC husband while he told his fantastic ‘Warden and the Mora’ story. And, double whammy, I got to re-tell it later to people who seemed to like it.

I also loved the way that when I asked for help going into an unknown place, to do something unknown, against forces unknown I had my family (I love you all) and that of the Oxen Head at my back (thank you Sasha, I couldn’t have done it without you).
Thank you to everyone in the Eater of Hope skirmish, with especial thanks to the three(?) people who were turned away at the gate due to numbers – it always sucks to be the ones left behind. I felt for you.

Varushka National Assembly. We actually got together. And we are going to do stuff. Being interrupted by an urgent call for exorcists did rather break it but we have a Patriarch and the will to Do Stuff. It will be done.

Fighting with my nation. First off, I am really sorry I didn’t make monster slot on Saturday morning. I had convinced myself that I wasn’t going to take to the field this event, so I didn’t go… but on Sunday morning there was simply no way that Aga would let her family walk into Reikos without her. Lesson learned, do your slot regardless. You are impulsive and don’t like missing out on a good fight.

Nobody stopped Agnieszka saying yes to assuming command of the Family. Never give the priest under a Courage anointing the choice! Thank you OC to you all for letting me do it – clearly most of you would be better at the job than I am for hard skillz reasons but I loved it, even if the learning curve looks rather vertical at the moment. Totally something I would love to learn more about. My favourite moment was giving up waiting for you guys to finish your entirely safe and sensible backwards retreat, shouting for you to just RUN!, and us legging it into the fort to help out Highguard. We rocked.

Thank you to the lady that lent me a handful of liao to go to Reikos with – I owe you them back.

And finally for a wonderful moment with Rooslan where we see a concerning looking scuffle at the Regio. I run over, divest myself of all my clobber and stand, ready to grapple if needed… and he arrives a few moments later with shield and sword. Courage gets there first, but Wisdom is more likely to get out alive, da?

My Gatekeepers

Phew, that was a tough event… but you have no idea how much weight has been lifted from Agnieszka’s (and my) shoulders this event that things are changing. Yes, we were all there at the Meeting of Doom and it was pretty awful BUT I’m sure that all of us will do what we can to never be that Doom-y again. Things will get better, and I’m sure all of us have at least one idea of things that can be done differently in the future. I already have about six, so if you’re short one give me a shout. :wink:

My Gatekeeper Assistant volunteers – thank you so much for stepping forward. Just the act of knowing I’m not alone made me feel so much better. We will be in touch.

My Synod

Oh Courage, how I love you. Best meetings on the field, wonderful people to work with, support, be supported by. Plans for combating threats to the Empire, plans for more experimental theology, exciting revelations, passing judgements, people volunteering to help, getting a real feel that there are things going on and that all are welcome to be a part of it. Thank you for voting in favour of recognising Marad for his Courage; it means a lot to Aga that his sacrifice won’t be forgotten, whatever may happen in the future.

Oh, and Loyalty Assembly… I’m watching you. :wink:

My… uh… People?

I can’t remember all the interactions I’ve had, some of them with complete strangers, that have made this event great. Counselling people down out of rage and away from Vengence, giving confidence for others to face their fears, giving a safe space to be heard and recognised, I sodding love being a priest. And the simpler interactions: singing together, failing to have tea together, sharing moments of joy and relief with each other, just walking in the same direction together.

Thank you, everyone.