Maerquin 24uurs: Lyxandria Special
Jan. 15th, 2008 09:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzLast weekend was the Maerquin 24hours Lyxandria Special. Fifteen players versus 13 monsters, though one of each had a severe case of the flu. Also, one of the organizers (counted as a monster above) decided to not come.
Characteristic of a 24-hours adventure is that the players need to bring their own food, blankets etc. If they don't bring it, they don't have it.
Saturday
I had managed to procure a car as my mother would not need it that weekend and NoKey and I arrived at the location a little over nine-thirty am. There was a lot that needed arranging. NoKey jumped into creating a curtain rod downstairs and I pumped our airbed and made it so we could crash into bed whenever we needed to. Then there were curtains and cloth to be hung, a torture-attic to be arranged, NPC-clothing needed to be hung and many other things too.
I don't recall what time we actually went time-in, but it was later than expected. Of course. The players were briefed outside, the NPC's were briefed inside and because we were two NPC's short we would change the plot. Instead of splitting up the two groups, they would meet shortly after time-in. We grabbed the clothing we would need outside - we would only return around nightfall and have little chance to return to the house - and went on to the sandy dunes of Uden.
The first encounter for the group would be with a bunch of hungry goblins, lead by NoKey as shaman. But the players had different idea's. As a lord of Molenbrug, Dierke had organized a picnic for his fiancé Corrie and they were happily picnicing and not moving towards their goal at all. So the goblins went over to them to pester them. This involved tracking around in a wide circle to avoid being seen. I heard NoKey did an Entangle or a Bind Feet on a player that was separated from the group, took off his backpack, and stole all the food he was carrying. *grin*
I played a worker from the copper mine of Armand Zuijdenwijn first, enlightening the players of the nature of Armand. He is such a generous man! Please, have some wine too, he gave me these two flasks. *belch*
After that, the players got lost between encounters, and when they finally found their way back, I played a little girl who ran towards the players because she had lost her mommie! I fell down on my knees in front of the first female of the party, who turned out to be Irina Petrenko, played by Inge. They were very nice to Greetje, who happily went along to build sand castles with Hugo Sanson of the Inquisition and Theo Twijgsnijder, priest of the God of the Dead.
NoKey as a goblin sampling the vintage of the rose...
There was a last encounter planned before they would reach the mansion but we rescheduled it to right after dinner. The players did encounter goblins making hot cocoa (a merchant had thrown the cocoa at the goblins to keep them at bay) and they stole the cocoa from the goblins. Then they arrived at the mansion of Zuijdenwijn.
I had changed into servant's garb and answered the door, asking for invitations and demanding everyone change into ball-clothes and their masks for the masked ball. Then I helped Willeke make cheese-soup. We had two pans but neither was big enough to make the 8 liters we would need. We finally scooped loads of soup over into the other pan, added more ingredients and repeated the process. The soup turned out to be absolutely delicious! But that's pretty much a given if you use 500 grammes of butter, 5 liters of broth and 1,5 kilos of cheese!
Right after dinner I changed back into my green Xantara dress to play Greetje the five-year-old again. My mother had been captured by the inquisition and would be burned at the stake. Cue D-R-A-M-A! The players were still at the table, enjoying the glow of dinner when we came in. I had a crying fit and we were dragged outside, where mommy-dearest was tortured to make her tell the truth: whether she was a witch or not.
Finally, after a lot of drama, Greetje was taken into the house to sleep while mother would be questioned by the inquisition. Some of the players came inquiring after her when the racket began, and whether I was still alive and sleeping peacefully.
During the evening, the atmosphere got more and more creepy. A lot of Time-freezes were used to position things. Red roses turned black. White candles turned black. Fruit became rotten. And they saw things. There were two fun encounters.
In the first, the servants of the household (all NPC's) would assist the DMs. A time-freeze was called and Ragar got into position behind Theo Twijgsnijder. We blew out all the candles, and time-in was called. René had a stroboscope lamp and Ragar attacked Theo. Another time-freeze was called and we restored the room to its original state. Theo was unhurt, but spooked. The servants had seen nothing.
The second encounter had to do with the brothers Van Helfing, half-elf hunters. Jacob who plays Markus had practically fallen asleep on the couch, and he woke with a start right after the time-freeze when there were three half-elves approaching him with chains, ready to take him back into captivity. He was dragged from the couch and he was screaming like a little girl. "No, no don't take me again!"
Poor Jacob. That's a nasty way to wake up.
The last time-freeze changed a portrait from Lyxandria pre-vampire (which the players didn't know) to Lyxandria as a vampire. By this time, the most wild theories had been spawned already, and the players were really scared.
And they finally went up the stairs to Armand's sleeping quarters.
I was hung suspended from the ceiling in chains, splattered with fake blood. A cd in the background played the sound of flies buzzing around. There was a prisoner in the far corner and a dead body suspended from the wall.
There was also a wraith guarding the room. Hugo had a spell called wraith form too, and he cast it, coming at me like a ghost. I had taken a sip of fake (non-toxic) blood beforehand, and played a heavily traumatized, heavily tortured victim. So I sprayed blood all over him...
Finally they vanquished the wraith (glow in the dark paint on a sword and on Ragar's face in combination with a blacklight looks really scary!) and they ventured inside. They rescued the poor girl in the corner and cut me loose too, carried me downstairs.
Hugo kept asking what my name was, and I muttered "blue moon". The priestesses of the Blue Moon are healers of Shelindra, goddess of all that is fair and beautiful. They called in the priests of Sheldindra, who tried to heal me (a cure light wounds scroll was wasted - I was far too far gone for that) and shove a mirror in my hand. "Behold the beauty of Sheldindra!"
I was as limp as a dishrag and if they had let go of the mirror, I would have dropped it on the tile floor. Luckily they didn't. My head was rolling too, and I softly moaned at times. Theo said "I still have a pulse! She's still alive!" (yeah, we are not that die-hard!) and then I died.
I was taken outside and a prayer was said for my soul to go to Anmarack, god of the Dead. Yay!
I quickly took off the sodden tunic and shirt beneath it, and put on a filthy rag fit for an undead, ready to play the flute in the undead orchestra behind the curtain (it was an illusion of a wall). The dance Macabre played, and Lyxandria herself appeared playing the violin. All the players were compulsed into dancing, and at some point Lyxandria took a hold of Dierke to dance with him while her violin kept on playing.
After the dance, Lyxandria announced that she was looking for people to serve her in her court, and that anyone who would remain until the next day would be considered in her service.
The lovely Lyxandria, as deadly as she is beautiful. (played by Gwen)
The orchestra, like the one on board the Titanic, continued playing. Lucas van Helfing finally killed us off, lobbing off the fingers that continued playing their instruments.
There was a lot of noise after that. Theories spawned, Lyxandria was attacked, goblins attacked players outside, Corrie was abducted, etc. I lost track as I was lying on my bed but then changed into Greetje to come downstairs. "What is all the noise?" I asked, and the players were both glad Greetje was still alive and unhurt, but also disturbed that they now had a five year old child to take care of.
Sunday
The next morning I awoke with something of a headache, but helped Ragar and the other DMs out by playing a goblin archer. We were still hungry and had decided to raid the mansion. First we tried it around back, but that was difficult. Then we took the front door. Leopold and his enourmous shield were in the doorway. I aimed my arrow at his face, and he shifted his shield up. Then I shot his foot. *grin*
They threw bread and apples out at us, and I sat at the side of the road, munching an apple in a disgusting manner. Finally, Losoor the goblin was killed.
I changed into Greetje one last time, getting out of bed just as the players were trying one last time to kill Lyxandria. Engelbert lend me his cloak, and we departed as the smouldering remains of the once-proud vampire ignited the house of the late Armand Zuijdenwijn.
Greetje lives!
Cleaning up all the mess was a big job and at some point as NoKey was shifting the dirt in the downstairs room I needed to get out so we left. It was two o'clock and most of the work was done, but not all. We drove to Bladel, near freaking Belgium, to pick up NoKey's new longbow, and then home. Home!
We went to bed at nine o'clock, exhausted but satisfied!
Characteristic of a 24-hours adventure is that the players need to bring their own food, blankets etc. If they don't bring it, they don't have it.
SaturdayI had managed to procure a car as my mother would not need it that weekend and NoKey and I arrived at the location a little over nine-thirty am. There was a lot that needed arranging. NoKey jumped into creating a curtain rod downstairs and I pumped our airbed and made it so we could crash into bed whenever we needed to. Then there were curtains and cloth to be hung, a torture-attic to be arranged, NPC-clothing needed to be hung and many other things too.
I don't recall what time we actually went time-in, but it was later than expected. Of course. The players were briefed outside, the NPC's were briefed inside and because we were two NPC's short we would change the plot. Instead of splitting up the two groups, they would meet shortly after time-in. We grabbed the clothing we would need outside - we would only return around nightfall and have little chance to return to the house - and went on to the sandy dunes of Uden.
The first encounter for the group would be with a bunch of hungry goblins, lead by NoKey as shaman. But the players had different idea's. As a lord of Molenbrug, Dierke had organized a picnic for his fiancé Corrie and they were happily picnicing and not moving towards their goal at all. So the goblins went over to them to pester them. This involved tracking around in a wide circle to avoid being seen. I heard NoKey did an Entangle or a Bind Feet on a player that was separated from the group, took off his backpack, and stole all the food he was carrying. *grin*
I played a worker from the copper mine of Armand Zuijdenwijn first, enlightening the players of the nature of Armand. He is such a generous man! Please, have some wine too, he gave me these two flasks. *belch*
After that, the players got lost between encounters, and when they finally found their way back, I played a little girl who ran towards the players because she had lost her mommie! I fell down on my knees in front of the first female of the party, who turned out to be Irina Petrenko, played by Inge. They were very nice to Greetje, who happily went along to build sand castles with Hugo Sanson of the Inquisition and Theo Twijgsnijder, priest of the God of the Dead.
NoKey as a goblin sampling the vintage of the rose...
There was a last encounter planned before they would reach the mansion but we rescheduled it to right after dinner. The players did encounter goblins making hot cocoa (a merchant had thrown the cocoa at the goblins to keep them at bay) and they stole the cocoa from the goblins. Then they arrived at the mansion of Zuijdenwijn.
I had changed into servant's garb and answered the door, asking for invitations and demanding everyone change into ball-clothes and their masks for the masked ball. Then I helped Willeke make cheese-soup. We had two pans but neither was big enough to make the 8 liters we would need. We finally scooped loads of soup over into the other pan, added more ingredients and repeated the process. The soup turned out to be absolutely delicious! But that's pretty much a given if you use 500 grammes of butter, 5 liters of broth and 1,5 kilos of cheese!
Right after dinner I changed back into my green Xantara dress to play Greetje the five-year-old again. My mother had been captured by the inquisition and would be burned at the stake. Cue D-R-A-M-A! The players were still at the table, enjoying the glow of dinner when we came in. I had a crying fit and we were dragged outside, where mommy-dearest was tortured to make her tell the truth: whether she was a witch or not.
Finally, after a lot of drama, Greetje was taken into the house to sleep while mother would be questioned by the inquisition. Some of the players came inquiring after her when the racket began, and whether I was still alive and sleeping peacefully.
During the evening, the atmosphere got more and more creepy. A lot of Time-freezes were used to position things. Red roses turned black. White candles turned black. Fruit became rotten. And they saw things. There were two fun encounters.
In the first, the servants of the household (all NPC's) would assist the DMs. A time-freeze was called and Ragar got into position behind Theo Twijgsnijder. We blew out all the candles, and time-in was called. René had a stroboscope lamp and Ragar attacked Theo. Another time-freeze was called and we restored the room to its original state. Theo was unhurt, but spooked. The servants had seen nothing.
The second encounter had to do with the brothers Van Helfing, half-elf hunters. Jacob who plays Markus had practically fallen asleep on the couch, and he woke with a start right after the time-freeze when there were three half-elves approaching him with chains, ready to take him back into captivity. He was dragged from the couch and he was screaming like a little girl. "No, no don't take me again!"
Poor Jacob. That's a nasty way to wake up.
The last time-freeze changed a portrait from Lyxandria pre-vampire (which the players didn't know) to Lyxandria as a vampire. By this time, the most wild theories had been spawned already, and the players were really scared.
And they finally went up the stairs to Armand's sleeping quarters.
I was hung suspended from the ceiling in chains, splattered with fake blood. A cd in the background played the sound of flies buzzing around. There was a prisoner in the far corner and a dead body suspended from the wall. There was also a wraith guarding the room. Hugo had a spell called wraith form too, and he cast it, coming at me like a ghost. I had taken a sip of fake (non-toxic) blood beforehand, and played a heavily traumatized, heavily tortured victim. So I sprayed blood all over him...
Finally they vanquished the wraith (glow in the dark paint on a sword and on Ragar's face in combination with a blacklight looks really scary!) and they ventured inside. They rescued the poor girl in the corner and cut me loose too, carried me downstairs.
Hugo kept asking what my name was, and I muttered "blue moon". The priestesses of the Blue Moon are healers of Shelindra, goddess of all that is fair and beautiful. They called in the priests of Sheldindra, who tried to heal me (a cure light wounds scroll was wasted - I was far too far gone for that) and shove a mirror in my hand. "Behold the beauty of Sheldindra!"
I was as limp as a dishrag and if they had let go of the mirror, I would have dropped it on the tile floor. Luckily they didn't. My head was rolling too, and I softly moaned at times. Theo said "I still have a pulse! She's still alive!" (yeah, we are not that die-hard!) and then I died.
I was taken outside and a prayer was said for my soul to go to Anmarack, god of the Dead. Yay!
I quickly took off the sodden tunic and shirt beneath it, and put on a filthy rag fit for an undead, ready to play the flute in the undead orchestra behind the curtain (it was an illusion of a wall). The dance Macabre played, and Lyxandria herself appeared playing the violin. All the players were compulsed into dancing, and at some point Lyxandria took a hold of Dierke to dance with him while her violin kept on playing.
After the dance, Lyxandria announced that she was looking for people to serve her in her court, and that anyone who would remain until the next day would be considered in her service.
The lovely Lyxandria, as deadly as she is beautiful. (played by Gwen)
The orchestra, like the one on board the Titanic, continued playing. Lucas van Helfing finally killed us off, lobbing off the fingers that continued playing their instruments.
There was a lot of noise after that. Theories spawned, Lyxandria was attacked, goblins attacked players outside, Corrie was abducted, etc. I lost track as I was lying on my bed but then changed into Greetje to come downstairs. "What is all the noise?" I asked, and the players were both glad Greetje was still alive and unhurt, but also disturbed that they now had a five year old child to take care of.
Sunday
The next morning I awoke with something of a headache, but helped Ragar and the other DMs out by playing a goblin archer. We were still hungry and had decided to raid the mansion. First we tried it around back, but that was difficult. Then we took the front door. Leopold and his enourmous shield were in the doorway. I aimed my arrow at his face, and he shifted his shield up. Then I shot his foot. *grin*
They threw bread and apples out at us, and I sat at the side of the road, munching an apple in a disgusting manner. Finally, Losoor the goblin was killed.
I changed into Greetje one last time, getting out of bed just as the players were trying one last time to kill Lyxandria. Engelbert lend me his cloak, and we departed as the smouldering remains of the once-proud vampire ignited the house of the late Armand Zuijdenwijn.
Greetje lives!
Cleaning up all the mess was a big job and at some point as NoKey was shifting the dirt in the downstairs room I needed to get out so we left. It was two o'clock and most of the work was done, but not all. We drove to Bladel, near freaking Belgium, to pick up NoKey's new longbow, and then home. Home!
We went to bed at nine o'clock, exhausted but satisfied!
