janestarz | Aon Picknick, Omen special

Our trip was long, picking up Palanthe, Hellcat (

diverteddreamer) and Krughal in turn before driving to Uden. We arrived nearly on time, second only to Luthine and her partner Ahroun. After the others had arrived, we drove to the Slabroek terrain, where I'd previously had a picknick with Yoshida as well, and we set up two party tents to stay dry should the weather turn.
At some point the beech tree seeds flew by horizontally, light as they were and whipped into a storm by the winds. One of the tents started flying, and after tearing it down again we moved the second one between the trees.

The Aon picknick was nice, though mostly Aon centered. I really don't quite know why Henriëtte would join the picknick, but for keeping an eye on Tijl and Odelia, or maybe to keep an eye on the Aon priests. Krughal and Hellcat sat under the trees near the cars, not a part of the picknick but keeping themselves busy with preparations for the Omen special that night. I checked on them when it had rained and asked them if they wouldn't sit with us, but they said they were fine, though Hellcat picked up some food later on.

I stretched with some pilates and yoga exercises, along with Palanthe and

omdathetkan who played Brother Eamon. Luckily, the exercises left Eamon feeling "like he was centimeters taller". They mostly just give me muscle-aches today!

We cleared away the remains (overabundance) of food, packed the tents and drove to Luthine and Ahroun's place, where we picked up some fries and had a toilet break and petted their adorable kitty Fae, before the Omen special -- which was at the exact same terrain.

It was fun to be on the monster's side for a change, though my first encounter as Stoppeldorper had me killed within minutes. The paladins, on a quest for ...err... something, talked to the Stoppeldorp refugees for a while, trying to convince them to stay calm and not try and fight. I heard Melanie rant off against my character, "that elf in armour", who killed a six-year-old girl last event^*. I sure hope that thát will have some repercussions next event!

After my dead bowman role, I changed into a "Zonnewijze" - a wise woman from Adare, land of the Sun. Talking to spirits...
The GMs talked with us, tugged the player's clothes and gestured and mimed what they wanted to say. GM Tim was very nasty by pointing out Krughal's belly, large mace and then miming something really small, which I eloquently translated to "good tools are stored under a roof"...

The story was that there had been an ancient battle, where H'arika Koofi, a general, had fought the barbarians from the south: Clan of the Marten. The spirits were protected there, and the Zonnewijzen would try and guide the spirits to the Sun, but so far they'd been unsuccessful.

After a while, the players arrived in the field where the battle had been, and they found a sword on a table. Spirits were aplenty, but they couldn't see us. However, dressed as spirits, we were still hungry for battle and I tried to mimic fighters in their kung fu stances (and am paying the price in more muscle aches today!), creating a very scary atmosphere.
Finally, one of the players picked up the sword and we rushed to his side, calling him to battle. Aalten rushed forward, but was finally beat unconscious by Reinard's shield and he fell. When Krughal (of the Clan of the Bear) bent towards the sword, one of the spirits (me) rushed forward and attacked him, but my weapon didn't hurt him and only passed through him. He could see me for a moment, which must have been startling.

The players then left, having had a feeling of where to go, leaving the weapon behind. After half an hour or an hour, they returned to the field, finding the spirits and the weapon where they'd left it, and again one of the players picked up the sword. This time it was Fithe, and she fought the overwhelming urge to fight alongside the spirits by dispelling the magic that was on the sword.
We followed her into battle, for the spirits followed the sword, but had to leave her after a while. While the players went to kill the Zonnewijzen leader (and taking a long time), we stayed behind.

In the end there was only the final battle with H'arika Koofi left. The players found him, flanked by two loyal spirits, on the path. He begged for an honourable death, and Reinard accepted this task. They walked back to the field where some moonlight allowed them to fight, and the two armoured men beat the crap out of eachother, armour rattling. I was surprised to see it wasn't bent at the end.
When the fight was over, Koofi disappeared along with Reinard, the two spirits who had sworn their fate was with Koofi's bowed and faded as well, and Fithe - with a heart wrenching cry - threw herself onto the grass, crying for Reinard.

Reinard changed into his new armour and was briefed about the GMs, and returned to the meadow, and then the special was over.

I quickly gathered my things and my passengers and we drove home at half an hour past midnight. Luckily, we found an open gas station because I was running out of fuel (thank goodness for 24h gas stations!) which illuminated me to the necessity of fuel planning.
I dropped my passengers off at their various addresses, and showered before falling into bed at 2.45 am!

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*) The satyrs said I should, so I did. It's a little more complicated, but not as much as you'd expect.