Malakden Bar Night

[janestarz]

As is usual for Malakden, this was more a mini-larp than a bar night. I drove up on Saturday afternoon, thankfully it was cool enough in the car because it was the one day this week that it cooled down. As there were more people than last time, several tents were built outside. I would be alone in my 5m Sahara tent but then another player needed a spot to crash.

The game was entertaining enough. With Taigh retiring his character and the next highest noble not attending this event, I had to start over building relationships with players though. Taigh had promised me a job and then left, so I talked to people, somewhat hindered by my inability to speak the common tongue.
It really sucks to have two characters who cannot participate in conversations. Although Zafira can now speak, not being able to participate is always a trigger for me. It hit me hard, despite other player's efforts to translate for me. I got the gist of most conversations, but not all the details. Like how one conversation was summarised as "The warriors of this town need to work together better, we should all make an effort." but they left out "Let's meet tomorrow for a practice session so we can figure out how to hold the line together". It worked out in the end, though, so it's okay.

Luckily, they messed up somewhat on my XP. To balance out old and new characters the newer characters got a bit of bonus XP. I put it into Bow Proficiency 3, but during the game I found out you can only purchase that skill if you've spent a minimum of 35 points on your character. So even though the guy doing the incheck said it was okay, I can't have the skill. That means I'll have to spend points on other stuff just to make it to that 35, and buying myself the common tongue as a second language sounds like a perfect plan.

I met a few new Stravani, including a weird druid type mage who walked around with his biceps muscles out intimidating the shit out of everybody. His hood was low over his face and there was blood dripping from his hands. When he heard I am a hunter, he asked me if I also hunt bears sometimes. I told him I wasn't suicidal, hunting bears by myself. Later on he mentioned if I was ever going to hunt a bear, I should try and find him first. I think he's a shape shifter, but I'm not sure such things exist. It would make for a great vodka-fueled story, so I'm running with it. :-)

There was a "wanted" poster in the bar, the Stravani told me. I went to look if there was one for me as well. The face on the poster was of a bearded man, and there was no other. I folded it carefully and put it in my pocket, not wanting to miss out on the 10 crowns that were promised. I couldn't find the bearded man in the picture though. However, the guy that was most likely the person they wanted vehemently denied it was him, so it probably was. I couldn't figure out what to do with him, because all I was told was to toss him over the table, and nobody has ever paid me 10 crowns for doing that. I promptly forgot all about it.

Wazbär also found some more friends. One of them is a Stravani, who was happy to translate. They told me his name was Honeybadger, but it was soon shortened to Badger. I was welcomed into their group pretty easily, and so I hope to become friends with them.
It's hard being away from home, knowing you can't go back. Maybe I can find a place with them.

Saturday night it cooled down even further and I grabbed a cloak to wrap around me. The talk outside was all "no shit, there I was..." larp adventure reminiscence. Lots of Booyah stories, too. But when it boils down to it, if you ask one of the people telling the best stories if you should go play there, all of them say "....no. Probably not."
What was really weird and a little unsettling as well, was that Malgor (Honeybadger), Eleven, Chris the SL I only just met, and the guy who played Taigh all complimented me on what a beautiful and caring person I am.

As I am currently in not such a good mood most of the time, this was pretty uncomfortable. Uh, thanks, I guess? I certainly don't feel pretty... I feel old and out of shape and tired most of the time.
Eleven even said that if he had been single and I had been single, he probably would have liked to have a go at an 'us'. He was pretty drunk, but he's really a sweet guy, one of the 'good ones'. Also, I totally had my "Were I unwed" moment from Firefly. So that's a thing.
He advised me to stick all the compliments in my back pocket and look at them when I really need to. So I guess that's taken care of now, they are here where I can read them later.

As I hadn't brought a sleeping bag, I was shivering in the tent. I went too bed far too late to begin with, had 90 minutes of light sleep, went to pee, another 90 minutes and it was 7 am. Then I moved inside with my cloak and slept on the couch until my alarm went off. As the event was too full, I had promised to help with breakfast. And I would do it in character, so I haggled until the barman would pay me 10 florins to do it, which is the time-in equivalent of 200 euro, or so I'm told.
As I was cleaning up the old cups and straightening the chairs, I found a gold necklace, so after breakfast was done I spent some time with a translator trying to find the owner. But as none was forthcoming, I gave it to Badger, who promptly went to Pok the troll smith to have it made into an enchanted necklace.
I also gave Pok a piece of Obsidian. Buying my friends in good Stravani tradition.

We also trained for the line-up should Vaete Mystra be attacked. There was a decent club of fighters present, and I saw several people with shields as well. They also trained to see if we could shoot over them if they duck on command, and it looks like Wazbär will be a competent leader. He made a little speech and threw some kind of banner he wore on his belt on the ground, but I'm not sure what that was a statement of.

It was too hot to practice actual archery, although I did feel better after drinking a liter of water. And despite the short night and lack of sleep, I managed to drive myself safely home.
The next event is in October, I am really looking forward to it already!

Comments

[anemoona.livejournal.com]

I am with Eleven.