Moots 2, 2009 - Baelzebunnies
Oct. 19th, 2009 10:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzWe took the train to Nijmegen as ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
twilightbanana had taken our junk along in his bus. We arrived fairly on time, and checked in, which wasn't too much of a drama. Anton was having trouble setting up his tent on the hillside with the wind blasting full into it, but said he could cope. We found Gargoyle, our faction, which shared its grounds with Leviathan. There were a lot of tents coming in, and there was some discussion as to where to put them all. In the end we figured out a way it would work out, and we only had to wait for tents to arrive.
drahkan arrived with his stuff and we pitched his tent and then he and I went to get the groceries for dinner. anna_xanaphia didn't join us, sadly, so we would be four in all.
There was some discussion about how many epic lollipops we'd need, and then we went searching for a shop were we could buy a sturdy tile so we could make our own fire, but there was nothing to be found. In the end we returned to camp, wherenokey had pitched the tent and Asterion had arrived.
Dramatis Personae
Rakoth Blacktree - a Pathfinder, played bydrahkan;
Choris Elies - a Pathfinder, played bynokey;
Mortimer - a Pathfinder, played by Asterion;
Frankie Tippet - a Pathfinder, played by me;
Arthur Dreven Goldwing - Winged Order leader, played by Anton;
Segred - Winged Order-person, played by Bob;
Tiara - of the Wolf clan, Master of Luna;
Kalor - a battlemage;
Siggie - a mattlemage played by Askie;
Aphazel - faction leader of Gargoyle;
Friday
It was rather quiet on the Vortex. We'd been searching for that blasted egg for months, unable to return to Nogardion and still not a single step closer to finding it. This night there was a commotion around the pentagon. Loud crashes and bangs were heard, and when we approached the pentagon, one by one the stones toppled over, leaving but one stone standing. A throne had appeared and on it was a man. From the crowds I heard he was called Baelzamon, god of whatnot.
Fine. Baelzamon. Whatever. He was a stately man, dressed in military parade uniform. His beard showed some grey and his black hair was combed down with grease. And the first thing he did was make some lady Seraph Queen of the Vortex.
During the night, it was obvious that many people didn't think it was a good thing Baelzamon was on the Vortex, and that it was disastrous that the stones had fallen. Those stones were the only things that kept the Vortex safe, in existance, and they had fallen over.
Saturday
During the morning muster of the faction, I heard what the problem was. There was a covenant that Gods weren't allowed to walk on the Vortex. Baelzamon had been captured in a cage at some point, but because there were followers who cracked open this prison, he could escape it. But his powers were still locked inside the cage, and the souls of the followers of Baelzamon were twisted when they were drawn into death, mangled against the cage, and returned to walk the Vortex and pester us. It was imperative that we did not allow Baelzamon to reach his powers, or open the crack any further.
Baelzamon started making proclamations, and his followers -- all dressed in impractical militairy dress uniforms and called Baelzabunnies before long -- rounded up all the people from the Vortex to hear them. One particularly interesting proclamation stated that there were words that should not be spoken or written. Words like 'rebellion', 'uprising', 'women's rights', all the names of the other gods, and much, much more. Everyone who did would be punished by a public beating or by removal of the tongue. Another proclamation stated that for each of Baelzamon's followers that was killed, three Vortexians would be killed.
Not long after, the first people were tortured in a special tent, while others like Belakiel, faction leader of Metal, were awarded.
The plot was, from the players' perspective, rather hopeless. There is this god, and we can't do anything to stop it. Jeez, what fun! There were hardly any battles, and though we outnumbered the Baelzabunnies, most of them could only be harmed by special weapons, so they were nearly invulnerable. There was no hope to conquer Baelzamon himself yet, and nothing stopped him from gathering more Baelzabunnies.
Drahkan in particular was very dismayed by the 'railroad'-plot. On a train, hurtling to the end of the line, nothing to be done about it. There was a puzzle, and Gargoylians were working on it - and the Masters of the faiths should all commit suicide and get it over with, in order to vanquish Baelzamon.
Since there was little to do, we started scouting out the woods for some good fall-back locations, places were we could hide ourselves and other people, and ambush locations. There was a pretty-ish sort of wilderness on the terrain, and this was an enjoyable thirty minutes.
And wouldn't you know it, just as I was preparing dinner, there was this mass battle. Mortimer, Choris and Rakoth jumped into the fray, while I was suffering from low bloodsugar and a lack of motivation to get myself whacked by monsters I couldn't kill anyway, so I continued making dinner. By the time the battle was over, I was rather chagrined (low bloodsugar levels gets me UBERCRANKY!) and dinner was ready to be wokked. NoKey stepped in to do the wokking, and Asterion gave me a good shoulder massage, working out the kinks in my right shoulderblade muscle which had been the source of my rib-aches. It hadn't bothered me for most of the day, but it was good to have the muscles massaged in a none-too-subtle way.
After dinner we walked the field. I had overheard someone who looked like a person from the winged order say he was from Nogardion and we had finally made first contact. Rakoth had beaten up Umoja, the old gatekeeper from Safehaven, who seemed to be suffering from memory loss and apologised for any problems he might have caused. I ran back and forth between Winged Order, Rakoth and Aphazel, but nothing worked out since the Goldwing was to be interrogated by Baelzabunnies. A heroic rescue followed: while others attacked the baelzebunnies who were guarding the torture tent, we pulled our people out from the side of the entrance, getting away with it without them even noticing.
The people from the Winged Order were from different times. Umoja and Arthur Dreven Goldwing were from our time (800s), but Segred seemed to be from the time when the first Goldwing, Pellegrino Goldwing, led the armies against Chaos in the 400s, while Mortimer claimed to be from the 1200s. It was rather confusing, but Segred was a cheerful chap who took it in good stride that everyone he knew was probably dead already. Seeing as how the last thing he could remember before coming to the Vortex was that his head was on the chopping block, I could understand the sentiment. He said he was in that predicament because he had a rather rigid sense of justice. He's a guy with enough common sense to back down when I pick a knife-fight but not enough common sense to not trust me with his sword. "Here, hold this." and giving me your sword means I'll probably run off with it.
Later, Mortimer and I walked the field there and were attacked by some sort of metallic monster, and our weapons hardly had any effect at all. Mort was hurt, but insisted I would fetch a healer and he'd drag the wounded guy over and follow me, but we got separated. When I finally found him again, I apologised for leaving him and we did the manly hug thing and were fine.
It was blistering cold outside and while the Winged Order insisted on playing friendly with Aqua'el, navigator for Leviathan and apparantly also from Nogardion, Rakoth went off to pick a fight and we withdrew into the tent with whisky and several lanterns to keep us slightly above freezing temperatures. The bench had a layer of ice on it though, so it was a really cold, moonless night.
Sunday
I sought out Aphazel, remembering the incident with the monsters I couldn't do any damage on, and explained the situation. I'm a good scout and a good archer and a fair close-combat fighter, but if my weapons don't damage my subject... so I needed help. And he said perhaps the mages could teach me.
Remembering my parent's wishes, I sighed. They'd always wanted me to become a learned person, and though it wasn't being a historian, they'd approve of me being a mage. But then, do the job, do the thing... if being a mage is what it took, I'll do it.
The mages' guild was welcoming and I was introduced to Kalor, a battlemage, who sent me to Siggie who explained the basics of magic to me. It seems that everything around us holds an energy, and that the different elements all have different energies. Grass has energy, but by taking a handful of grass and throwing that at your enemy, you can't do much damage. If you take the energy that is within the grass with your mind, you can do more with it. It was rather confusing and I pondered the concepts while I played with my knife.
He told me to ask around and wonder what my element would be, and we left it at that.
Tiara had taken Rakoth on as her student a few months ago, and now she came to him, filled with remorse. The only thing that could defeat Baelzamon would be if the Masters all sacrificed their lives, and she could not do that. The wolfclan laws forbade it, because clan comes before anything else, and she would not ask Rakoth to take her place as Master.
In the end, Rakoth did end up in the circle, along with other Masters, and they all sacrificed their lives to defeat Baelzamon. The Baelzebunnnies started attacking us, and in the end Baelzamon disappeared. The lifeless form of Rakoth stirred, and I stepped back, remembering what effect the voice of Amraphen has on him. But he had calmed down and all was well.
In the aftermath of battle I spoke to Aphazel and one of the mages of Gargoyle, trying to find out my element. This mage told me of a man from Gargoyle who was sworn in on the element (Earth) on the faction staff, just like me, but he had predominantly used fire magic. The elemental prince had taken steps so that he wouldn't do that again. Or breathe, for that matter.
-----
Epic plotness ahoy, and because of the restriction for groups of more than six people to be together, play was not only difficult but actually inhibited by the plot. The whole Baelzebunny plot was rather too epic for our tastes, and with three mass battles in the entire weekend, it's not completely sure what to expect from VA anymore. There's too little roleplay going on for me to have fun in that way, and if there's no fighting what is left for people like me?
Luckily, I wasn't let down because I have such low expectations, but I could see it affected Drahkan pretty badly.
I'm glad I got to go in-depth with Frankie a bit, the battle-mage approach will be a necessity for further play, but there's no guarantuee that the next Moots will be on a convenient date. We'll see.
twilightbanana had taken our junk along in his bus. We arrived fairly on time, and checked in, which wasn't too much of a drama. Anton was having trouble setting up his tent on the hillside with the wind blasting full into it, but said he could cope. We found Gargoyle, our faction, which shared its grounds with Leviathan. There were a lot of tents coming in, and there was some discussion as to where to put them all. In the end we figured out a way it would work out, and we only had to wait for tents to arrive.drahkan arrived with his stuff and we pitched his tent and then he and I went to get the groceries for dinner. anna_xanaphia didn't join us, sadly, so we would be four in all. There was some discussion about how many epic lollipops we'd need, and then we went searching for a shop were we could buy a sturdy tile so we could make our own fire, but there was nothing to be found. In the end we returned to camp, where
nokey had pitched the tent and Asterion had arrived. Dramatis Personae
Rakoth Blacktree - a Pathfinder, played by
drahkan;Choris Elies - a Pathfinder, played by
nokey;Mortimer - a Pathfinder, played by Asterion;
Frankie Tippet - a Pathfinder, played by me;
Arthur Dreven Goldwing - Winged Order leader, played by Anton;
Segred - Winged Order-person, played by Bob;
Tiara - of the Wolf clan, Master of Luna;
Kalor - a battlemage;
Siggie - a mattlemage played by Askie;
Aphazel - faction leader of Gargoyle;
Friday
It was rather quiet on the Vortex. We'd been searching for that blasted egg for months, unable to return to Nogardion and still not a single step closer to finding it. This night there was a commotion around the pentagon. Loud crashes and bangs were heard, and when we approached the pentagon, one by one the stones toppled over, leaving but one stone standing. A throne had appeared and on it was a man. From the crowds I heard he was called Baelzamon, god of whatnot.
Fine. Baelzamon. Whatever. He was a stately man, dressed in military parade uniform. His beard showed some grey and his black hair was combed down with grease. And the first thing he did was make some lady Seraph Queen of the Vortex.
During the night, it was obvious that many people didn't think it was a good thing Baelzamon was on the Vortex, and that it was disastrous that the stones had fallen. Those stones were the only things that kept the Vortex safe, in existance, and they had fallen over.
Saturday
During the morning muster of the faction, I heard what the problem was. There was a covenant that Gods weren't allowed to walk on the Vortex. Baelzamon had been captured in a cage at some point, but because there were followers who cracked open this prison, he could escape it. But his powers were still locked inside the cage, and the souls of the followers of Baelzamon were twisted when they were drawn into death, mangled against the cage, and returned to walk the Vortex and pester us. It was imperative that we did not allow Baelzamon to reach his powers, or open the crack any further.
Baelzamon started making proclamations, and his followers -- all dressed in impractical militairy dress uniforms and called Baelzabunnies before long -- rounded up all the people from the Vortex to hear them. One particularly interesting proclamation stated that there were words that should not be spoken or written. Words like 'rebellion', 'uprising', 'women's rights', all the names of the other gods, and much, much more. Everyone who did would be punished by a public beating or by removal of the tongue. Another proclamation stated that for each of Baelzamon's followers that was killed, three Vortexians would be killed.
Not long after, the first people were tortured in a special tent, while others like Belakiel, faction leader of Metal, were awarded.
The plot was, from the players' perspective, rather hopeless. There is this god, and we can't do anything to stop it. Jeez, what fun! There were hardly any battles, and though we outnumbered the Baelzabunnies, most of them could only be harmed by special weapons, so they were nearly invulnerable. There was no hope to conquer Baelzamon himself yet, and nothing stopped him from gathering more Baelzabunnies.
Drahkan in particular was very dismayed by the 'railroad'-plot. On a train, hurtling to the end of the line, nothing to be done about it. There was a puzzle, and Gargoylians were working on it - and the Masters of the faiths should all commit suicide and get it over with, in order to vanquish Baelzamon.
Since there was little to do, we started scouting out the woods for some good fall-back locations, places were we could hide ourselves and other people, and ambush locations. There was a pretty-ish sort of wilderness on the terrain, and this was an enjoyable thirty minutes.
And wouldn't you know it, just as I was preparing dinner, there was this mass battle. Mortimer, Choris and Rakoth jumped into the fray, while I was suffering from low bloodsugar and a lack of motivation to get myself whacked by monsters I couldn't kill anyway, so I continued making dinner. By the time the battle was over, I was rather chagrined (low bloodsugar levels gets me UBERCRANKY!) and dinner was ready to be wokked. NoKey stepped in to do the wokking, and Asterion gave me a good shoulder massage, working out the kinks in my right shoulderblade muscle which had been the source of my rib-aches. It hadn't bothered me for most of the day, but it was good to have the muscles massaged in a none-too-subtle way.
After dinner we walked the field. I had overheard someone who looked like a person from the winged order say he was from Nogardion and we had finally made first contact. Rakoth had beaten up Umoja, the old gatekeeper from Safehaven, who seemed to be suffering from memory loss and apologised for any problems he might have caused. I ran back and forth between Winged Order, Rakoth and Aphazel, but nothing worked out since the Goldwing was to be interrogated by Baelzabunnies. A heroic rescue followed: while others attacked the baelzebunnies who were guarding the torture tent, we pulled our people out from the side of the entrance, getting away with it without them even noticing.
The people from the Winged Order were from different times. Umoja and Arthur Dreven Goldwing were from our time (800s), but Segred seemed to be from the time when the first Goldwing, Pellegrino Goldwing, led the armies against Chaos in the 400s, while Mortimer claimed to be from the 1200s. It was rather confusing, but Segred was a cheerful chap who took it in good stride that everyone he knew was probably dead already. Seeing as how the last thing he could remember before coming to the Vortex was that his head was on the chopping block, I could understand the sentiment. He said he was in that predicament because he had a rather rigid sense of justice. He's a guy with enough common sense to back down when I pick a knife-fight but not enough common sense to not trust me with his sword. "Here, hold this." and giving me your sword means I'll probably run off with it.
Later, Mortimer and I walked the field there and were attacked by some sort of metallic monster, and our weapons hardly had any effect at all. Mort was hurt, but insisted I would fetch a healer and he'd drag the wounded guy over and follow me, but we got separated. When I finally found him again, I apologised for leaving him and we did the manly hug thing and were fine.
It was blistering cold outside and while the Winged Order insisted on playing friendly with Aqua'el, navigator for Leviathan and apparantly also from Nogardion, Rakoth went off to pick a fight and we withdrew into the tent with whisky and several lanterns to keep us slightly above freezing temperatures. The bench had a layer of ice on it though, so it was a really cold, moonless night.
Sunday
I sought out Aphazel, remembering the incident with the monsters I couldn't do any damage on, and explained the situation. I'm a good scout and a good archer and a fair close-combat fighter, but if my weapons don't damage my subject... so I needed help. And he said perhaps the mages could teach me.
Remembering my parent's wishes, I sighed. They'd always wanted me to become a learned person, and though it wasn't being a historian, they'd approve of me being a mage. But then, do the job, do the thing... if being a mage is what it took, I'll do it.
The mages' guild was welcoming and I was introduced to Kalor, a battlemage, who sent me to Siggie who explained the basics of magic to me. It seems that everything around us holds an energy, and that the different elements all have different energies. Grass has energy, but by taking a handful of grass and throwing that at your enemy, you can't do much damage. If you take the energy that is within the grass with your mind, you can do more with it. It was rather confusing and I pondered the concepts while I played with my knife.
He told me to ask around and wonder what my element would be, and we left it at that.
Tiara had taken Rakoth on as her student a few months ago, and now she came to him, filled with remorse. The only thing that could defeat Baelzamon would be if the Masters all sacrificed their lives, and she could not do that. The wolfclan laws forbade it, because clan comes before anything else, and she would not ask Rakoth to take her place as Master.
In the end, Rakoth did end up in the circle, along with other Masters, and they all sacrificed their lives to defeat Baelzamon. The Baelzebunnnies started attacking us, and in the end Baelzamon disappeared. The lifeless form of Rakoth stirred, and I stepped back, remembering what effect the voice of Amraphen has on him. But he had calmed down and all was well.
In the aftermath of battle I spoke to Aphazel and one of the mages of Gargoyle, trying to find out my element. This mage told me of a man from Gargoyle who was sworn in on the element (Earth) on the faction staff, just like me, but he had predominantly used fire magic. The elemental prince had taken steps so that he wouldn't do that again. Or breathe, for that matter.
-----
Epic plotness ahoy, and because of the restriction for groups of more than six people to be together, play was not only difficult but actually inhibited by the plot. The whole Baelzebunny plot was rather too epic for our tastes, and with three mass battles in the entire weekend, it's not completely sure what to expect from VA anymore. There's too little roleplay going on for me to have fun in that way, and if there's no fighting what is left for people like me?
Luckily, I wasn't let down because I have such low expectations, but I could see it affected Drahkan pretty badly.
I'm glad I got to go in-depth with Frankie a bit, the battle-mage approach will be a necessity for further play, but there's no guarantuee that the next Moots will be on a convenient date. We'll see.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 11:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 12:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 01:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 01:56 pm (UTC)Now I feel old as well.. damn..
but on a different note : can it be to epic (episch vind ik altijd leuker om te zeggen eigenlijk) for VA ?
no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 12:07 pm (UTC)Vortex is like banks, to big to fall, so they screw up.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 02:54 pm (UTC)LRP is een spelletje waar iedereen andere dingen uithaalt.
Ik vond dit persoonlijk een van de gaafste plots die ik ooit heb gespeeld. Het schurkte aan tegen theater, tegen sociaal experiment omdat je ineens merkt hoe het moet zijn om zo te leven en hoe bepaalde dingen onvermijdelijk zijn.
Ik snap dat er mensen zijn die het niet leuk vonden, maar je kan nooit een plot maken dat iedereen bevalt. Om dan meteen te stellen dat het niet deugt vind ik niet kloppen.
Ik heb zelf genoten, juist van dingen uit handen geven, niet altijd alles kunnen doen wat je wilt maar dingen moeten zoeken om daar omheen te roleplayen. Ik houd wel van bang gemaakt worden door plot. En zelfs mijn sussende huisvrouw is betrokken geraakt in allerlei verzet en heeft alle regels overtreden. Het feit dat er ineens regels zijn wil niet noodzakelijk zeggen dat dit het spel blokkeert.
VA dacht dus inderdaad dat ze het goed deden, en dat is ook omdat een heel groot deel van de spelers het wel dergelijk te gek vonden.
Ik heb heel wat dingen die ik niet goed vind aan VA (te episch voor mijn zin, ik kan heel slecht met epiek omgaan), maar dit plot is er niet een van.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 04:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 05:34 pm (UTC)Daarmee komt ook nog eens dat als je al weinig aansluiting hebt, en mensen over het algemeen bang zijn om in grote groepen te staan, ze voor jou als nieuw koppie niet de uitzondering gaan maken of de kans gaan nemen als het niet hoeft. In dat opzicht is het, misschien niet geheel te wijten aan spelleiding maar meer aan spelers, toch zeker wel spelbelemmerend.
Ik vind het altijd echt heel moeilijk om mijn draai te vinden op Vortex. En dat komt mede door het soort plot wat er is (veel grootser en epischer dan ik zelf leuk vind, gericht op andere dingen dan ik leuk vind), de spelers die er zijn en hoe ze zich gedragen, en misschien ook door het feit dat ik bij voorbaat al met enige apprehensie daar rondloop. Ik weet het niet.
Het zal mijn mening zeker wel kleuren, maar ik blijf erbij dat ik ondanks het plot en alle tegenslagen nog best lol gehad heb. Eindelijk aansluiting bij de factie! Eindelijk spel met personen buiten de Pathfinders! Het begin is gemaakt. Ik sluit ook af met die positieve noot in mijn post.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 04:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-20 10:44 am (UTC)Wat mij betreft was het gaaf.
Ook mijn personage is niet zo van 'hey, laat ik even gaan lullen met die mensen daarginds' en ook ik vind het moeilijk om aansluiting te vinden bij anderen dan mijn eigen groep (en soms zelfs binnen mijn groep is het lastig..) maar dat ligt dus aan mij en niet aan dit plot.
Ik heb er trouwens niet heel veel van gemerkt dat men zich hield aan die maximaal-6-personen-regel. En daar geldt dus ook echt: DURF! Want als je dan gesnapt wordt, dan is dat spel en stoer. Ook al kan het een beetje eng zijn.
Ik vond het leuk. En het zag er stoer uit. Ook vanuit OC oogpunt vond ik het mooi gedaan.
~Brenda~