Charm XIX: The Crown, the Dragon, and the Seelie

[janestarz]

Friday
By the skies, the Mira Ceti terrain is beautiful. If I could play there every larp, I think I'd be rather happy. Water, blue skies, forests and fields. A huge oak tree in the middle of the field and loads of picturesque places.
But now I am of course prejudiced, as my role on this Charm was twofold: NPC and photographer!




nathreee as Amelie.

On Fridaynight I had the pleasure of hugging lots of people and then making a few pictures of Amelie and the terrain before time-in. As I'd read the plot I'd been briefed about what would happen to the TimeSavers. This group wanted to stop playing their current characters and had agreed to go out with a bang. When I'd first read the plot, I was rather upset with this massacre, an unadulterated slaughter by an NPC of five players. Then I found out it was their wish to go out with a bang...
It's still rather uncharacteristic for Charm to have players die like this, but it was the perfect opportunity for the GMs to show that some deeds do have consequences.

This was also a perfect opportunity for me to get the hang of night photography...
To tell you the truth: I did practice beforehand but it was rather hard. Well, sometimes you just have to dive in and swim. Thanks to a very patient Shurf and Anastaszia I could practice in the low light of the tavern and got some pretty good shots to start with.
The ritual itself was rather harder.


erwinl and anastaszia being absolutely adorable!

I followed someone down to the Slave Market, scene one (outdoors). Someone had drawn a ritual circle there, and the TimeSavers group felt rather attracted by it. Inside the circle, eating and drinking felt nearly orgasmic to them, so they weren't tempted to leave. But they weren't the only ones: The Magic Seven (five of whom were present) were attracted too, but they could not physically enter the circle.
After a while, the players still circulating, suddenly a greenskin, a saurian!, appeared in the circle, and he started the slaughter in the name of Helos, god of the dead. One by one he inflicted pain and torture on the TimeSavers. One by one, they died...





At the end of the ritual, Xiel'Pletl turned to the Magic Seven with a warning. "Ring-slaves of Diana. It's a good thing you stand under her protection. The day you take off those rings, is the day I come for justice for my people!"

After the slaughter - which took a while - I put away my camera. It was hard enough to shoot the ritual, but inside there was more dust but more light and I was tired of fiddling with the settings. So I changed into my Maria costume, picked up the mail, and returned to the group.
After delivering my mail, I was quickly found by Bram and Diego, who were surprised to see me. Bram still wanted to learn Heart Magic from me, but I told him I wanted to resolve the Mirak situation first. They had still not lifted a finger towards Mirak, and whether they were just afraid or lazy, I'll probably never know.
There was also the case of delivering a certain package. I sent Diego towards Nicolai of the Black Panthers, who would close the deal.

Bram was flirting heavily with Maria, knowing her weak spot was her emotions, as it is with most heart mages, and Maria snuggled up to Bram and Nicolai in turn. Nicolai, a very handsome snow lynx, had a warm fur. *grin*
After Nicolai went to his basket, Maria, Diego, Alcaniel and Bram were the last ones awake. Alcaniel roamed around the room, while I lay back against Bram and enjoyed a beer. It was an hour before dawn, the sky already turning dark blue, when I went to bed...

Saturday
...and it was nine-thirty when I woke up again. Still, I didn't miss breakfast and the other perk was that I got up in time to catch some players in my lens before time-in! aroka also picked up his camera and we abused open-shade, early-morning players, and the awesome light of pre-ten-am.



Addenda being gorgeous and radiant in the morning sunshine.


aroka, Jo, and the Invisible Camera.


A lovely shot of sneeuw_chan...but be sure to check out the 'making of' picture here!

We did motion, we did portraits, we did weird light, we fought eachother for the best position and we took some horrible poses. There's more where this came from...so be sure to check out the entire set on Flickr. I don't want to post all of my pictures here!

Ahum. So after our morning shoot, Erik came to get me for my first role of the day: Diana. I'd played her before, and that had been fun. A few Charms ago, I'd had blisters on my feet and Wendy had nudged me for a role in which all I had to do was "laugh at Joske". Well, I could do that!
This time, Diana returned.

The Magic Seven had had a hand in destroying a powerful magical artifact, and though Diana didn't know this, she soon found out what the consequences were. For one, teleportation didn't work as advertised. So the Magic Seven would need to rectify the situation and Diana would tell them exactly that.
Except that her teleportation didn't work... and she had to walk the rest of the way from wherever she 'landed'.

As I rounded the corner of the stone building, some people greeted me politely, but I ignored them. As I stormed inside, I barked orders. "Fergus! Where is Alyssis? Go get her, and Rosalie, and the others too. Eros, get me a coffee."
Eros, played by Jos, hesitated for a moment. "Do I recognise you?" he whispered, out-game. When I smiled and said he did, his only reply was "O shit."
Eros jumped and went to grab me some coffee, while I waited, not-so-patiently. After a while, I called out to him where my coffee was, and he said they had to make it especially. At last, when he offered me a cup of coffee, I only glanced at it and said; "Milk."
Eros went to get some milk for my coffee and Fergus returned to say the others were coming.

Diana, played by me.

Eros and Fergus sat on a bench before me, while I stood towering over them as a stern schoolmistress. I ranted about my journey. Unaccustomed to travelling by foot or horse, I was forced to kill three horses on my way to them as my teleportation had dumped me in the middle of a swamp. The last bit, I had to walk and I was spitting hellfire because of it.
When Alyssis and Sera and Fabius joined us, Fergus had had enough of Locus behind him, grinning a "It's good to see they can be polite after all." and suggested we sit somewhere more privately. I nodded graciously, asked Locus to please excuse us (see, I can be amiable...) and we walked to the giant oak tree on the field. Some of the five sat on the ground, others on the small bench, but I chose to remain standing in front of them, looking down sternly.

I explained that there was something wrong with using magic, and I asked them if they also had headaches. I told them teleportation didn't work as advertised, and I expected them to fix it.
They looked abashed, but I continued. "Where are Rosalie and Sand? Are they not with you?"
"Rosalie traveled back to Thuringen. She had a fashion show. And Sand is on the dwarf isles, building a magic ship of some kind."
I sneered. "Sandd's purpuse I can understand, at least he's doing something marginally useful with his magic. But a fashion show? Inexcusable. I trust you've been spending your time better than she has!"
Murmers. One of them asked bluntly why I was there.
"As for why I am here: at the time of the eclipse, I was doing a very complicated ritual to understand more of the phenomenon and the nature of magic. It was rather rudely interrupted. It was like someone took a breadknife, and sliced the world open with a jagged edge. And then...it stopped. Something happened that upset the balance, that twisted the world.
"Well," said Fergus, "there was a ritual to destroy a magic artefact. The dragon's mask. Could that have caused this?"
"By Radon, destroy a magical artefact?! Who would do such a tremendously stupendous thing?" I replied coldly.
The Magic Five looked abashed, and one of them admitted they were involved. Diana fumed and raved at them for a while.
"I'm sorry, but who are you?" Fabius asked out of the blue.
"I am Diana." I smiled faintly, expecting him to know the name. Fabius merely nodded, and turned the knowledge over in his head.

To be sure, the Magic Five disliked me, and for good reason, but they needed another lesson. I reached for Fabius' axe, but he stepped back quickly. "Oh please." I sneered. "If I wanted to hurt you, I wouldn't use that. Now give me something sharp."
Fabius looked troubled, and blinked, looking at his friends for support. In the end, he held out his dagger. My hand closed around the sharp end, and I squeezed. All of them hissed in pain. I held up the palm of my hand, showing them the wound they now had on their hands as well. "Those rings protect you, and they bind you to me. I will protect you, but I also expect you to work hard."
The discussion with the Magic Five continued, but I excused myself from it as soon as they started spewing ideas. "If there are priests of Radon present, or maybe someone who can tell you more about Chronos and Kaylea (Gods of Space and Time), it will be a good idea to ask them for help. I fear something went wrong there, and he might be able to help figure out how to fix it."

I returned to my faithful camera and went on to shoot how they were troubled by my orders. And I shot lotsa other people. At some point, I even had to switch cards and I made a second back-up of my pictures on the laptop. I paused for a while, having had little time to eat or drink and though the coffee had helped, I was feeling thirst. I rummaged around for our faithful Thermos'o'tea and drank the whole of it -- it was at perfect drinking temperature, and I'd made the tea before I left the day before.

After a while, GMs came to find me again. Apparantly the Magic Five were careening off into the sunset, galloping ahead with one mad idea that had nothing to do with the plot. I pulled on my corset again and asked another of the helpful NPCs to do my hair again. I returned to the game and demanded an update on their progress.
"Alright." Eros said, getting ready for lecture-mode. "If what you say is true, and something shifted when the dragon mask was destroyed, then maybe we should create another artefact to return things to normal. What if;" he said, gesturing with both hands; "we made a magical bowl to capture the magic in. And what if we made holes into that bowl, to sieve the five kinds of magic through. We could even make one hole larger than the other, to control how much magic would go through."
He waited for my reaction, but if anything, Diana had learned to adopt a poker face. After a moment, I replied. "Go and get an egg from the kitchen."
When Eros returned with the egg, I took it from him. I dropped it into the grass, but it didn't break. So I stepped on it, hard. It was a perfect metaphor. Nothing but brute force would make the magic shift like it did. "Now. If you were to glue the bits of shell together, would the egg be whole again?"
"No." they replied sullenly.
"But we could make a magic artefact..." Eros began.
"It's not about creating a new artefact, Eros." Diana replied. "It won't put the egg back inside the shell if we do. Something's changed, and something's shifted. What stopped it from shifting further? Look at it this way. If you have a dam, that's holding back the water, and the dam breaks, everyone will have to swim. That's what we do now. But the entire land is not flooded, because something is still keeping things from flowing out of control. How can we fix it, so that the water will be caught behind a dam again? You can't force the egg back in its shell, so making a magic artefact is not going to work."
I put my two hands on eachother, palms down. "If the world was the bottom hand, and the magic the top, than nothing would be the problem. But when you;" I emphasised the word; "destroyed the mask, so much energy came free, that they started to shift." I twisted the palms so they were at an angle from eachother, but still touching. "Something must have stopped them from shifting further. Who would be so powerful?"
"The Gods?" someone said.
"I doubt the Gods would stoop to help us. They would rather smite you for creating this problem then help us fix it. Who of us mortals would have that power?"
"You?" Fabius said. I smiled crookedly.
"The grey elves?" Fergus said.

I left them to their thoughts, urging them again to seek more wisdom with Locus and the Radon priestesses. The Magic Seven are always so sure they have all the answers, but they fly off the handle with whatever takes their fancy leaving all reason behind. It's what is at the core of their problems.
Fabius had separated himself from the group. Despite playing a cold-hearted bitch, I felt for him. Diana would not let him get off easily, so I did my best to get him to thinking.
"Why did you give me this?" He held up his hand. His ring was on a finger that had grown black and dead.
"Why do you think I did?" I asked him.
"I don't know." he replied. "My people don't want anything to do with magic. I've been cast out of my tribe because of this. Should I be grateful?"
"You don't want it?" I asked. I held out my hand. "Then take it off and return it to me."
Fabius tried, he tried really hard, but the ring became warm and then hot to the touch. "I can't." he sighed defeatedly.
"I gave you that for a reason. And you would give it up so quickly?" I replied. "But if you really want be rid of it, I can take it off for you."
The smile on my face must have given him pause, but Fabius was intrigued by my earlier answer. "So why did you give it to me?"
"You hold on to the past, you cling to it." I said. "Alyssis! Where were you before you had that ring?"
Alyssis turned around. "I was in the mud, in a ssswamp sssomewhere."
"And after you got the ring?"
"I became a great mage." She hissed. I knew I asked the right person, and Fabius mulled it over. "But I can't do any magic."
"Perhaps not." I smiled secretly. "But perhaps you can do other things. Work really hard, Fabius, and do not fail. You may not feel it now, but you have as much right to that ring and my protection as all the others."

And then it was time for more pictures.


Surewen & Anárion, both Sun Elves. (left); sna as the handsome feline bard (right)


Nicolai Snowstorm (right) picking a fight with one of the lions. "Give me one good reason..."

At dinner, I changed back in Maria so I could eat in-game. Dinner was uneventful. I lounged on the grass, enjoying the peace and the beautiful sky while people around me dropped in and out of their roles. But right after dinner, I was needed again. Diego and Bram approached me, and soon after we had an agreement.
It was Merel who took care of Eros. She led him into one of the quiet chambers in the back of the mansion, and after a moment she emerged alone. Dusk was falling, and Diego and Bram stood by the doorway, guarding my back. I went inside, smiling as I saw Eros on one of the beds. He was knocked unconscious.
I grabbed something from the pouch at my belt, and smeared the tincture on his lips. "This will take care of the marking." I whispered out-game. It must have confused Jos, because he opened his eye a bit to see who was doing it to him. "I am really picking on you today, aren't I?" I smiled, and dashed back outside into the game. Nobody had bothered me, or paid any notice, and soon enough I saw Eros step outside unharmed.

Erik came to get me for another round of Diana because the Magic Seven had figured out what exactly was wrong with the magic, but they really wanted to kill me, so they chose to do that instead. However, once I was strapped into my corset and my hair was done, they went on a quest that would take a few hours, and the plan was postponed for Sunday morning.
Instead, I put on a simple black dress I'd brought while Remco changed into bedoein gear. I would be a wind elf, sold as being a 'blood elf' because they are so rare, and the bedoeins didn't know what blood elves looked like, they had painted red dots on my arms.
The slavers dragged me into the inn, and Remco pulled me down by my bonds, forced my head back by pulling on my hair. They survived for mere seconds after that. I collapsed into a crying heap, sobbing slightly and shaking from the experience. Caelin appeared and softly untied me, his warrior hands being surprisingly gentle. Lunyra wrapped an arm around me and took me outside. "How did you get here?" she asked in elvish. "You're so far from home."
"I was travelling to my mother, milady. She moved to Thuringen some time ago. I decided to go and visit her, but these slavers captured me and beat me. Oh, they beat me so hard! And they said they'd beat me more if I didn't do as they said, and they painted spots on me and said I should pretend I was a blood elf, but there's no such thing as blood-elves, milady."
"I am a blood-elf." Lunyra simply said.

It was a very short role, but very satisfying to play the underdog for a while. But meanwhile I'd gotten really cold, so I went to my tent and grabbed a cloak and some munchies that had been utterly neglected. Gijs came over to add his cloak to my pile as well, but he asked me to come and take pictures of omdathetkan in the Dream World. Of course! (I mean, c'mon, his actual words involved "sexy" and "half-naked" so that buys & wraps me up, pretty much).

It's probably one of the best pictures of the weekend, because I'm just so darn proud I caught this utterly sexy-dangerous Seelie on camera with just a blue light string and a shutter speed that baffles most humans.


Suta, the Seelie

So, by the time I got back from that I needed wrappings and I sat in a good chair, draped in cloaks for a while. But then John, evil feline he is, came with the promise of play I could not neglect. "Someone's tried to murder Nicolai! And though it wasn't by the book, Bas ruled that it worked, and they whispered "Maria says hi" and you need to come back in the game nao!"
How can I deny that? I mean, the boy pretty much was doing the kitten eyes on me!

I geared up as Maria again, shaking out the curls and wrapping a scarf around my head to keep my hair back. By the time I came into the main building, I saw Angus sitting over a groaning Nicolai, who had a second murder attempt not minutes ago. Lucky for him, Angus was nearby and he started to bind the wound.
By the time Nicolai came around, Maria was worried sick. She too knew the signs of a murder attempt, and she only knew four people who had the skill -- herself and Nicolai included. But before she could dwell on that, Nicolai groaned.
"Don't get up." she cautioned him. "You've been wounded critically, it's best if you lie still."
"Maria?" Nicolai groaned. It was very nearly a growl.
"Yes?"
"We have to talk." Nicolai growled.
Nicolai explained what had happened and what he heard before he'd lost consciousness, and I frowned. I told him about whom I knew had the ability to so critically injure a person, and it wasn't a long list. "Trust me, Nicolai, when I say I mean you no harm. It would be very bad for the connections between our two companies, and I know better than to start a war." I said. "And by doing this, they might have betrayed theirs. I've been less than pleased with their progress in the Mirak situation, and this is the last drop. I can understand Bram is jealous of such a handsome cat as yourself, but I thought his interest in me was merely so I would teach him heart magic. Perhaps I was mistaken."
Nicolai growled, and sat with his back to a wall, taking several daggers out of hidden sheaths in his fur so he could access them more easily. "So what to do?"
A GM had made an excellent suggestion, actually, and there's no rule against two NPC's banding together to take their vengeance out on players, especially if they have it coming.
"What if we were to take care of Mirak ourselves, and then leave one of their playing cards?" I asked. "It would frame them for the mutilation or murder -- I'm not opposed to giving him the knife, actually, he's made a nuisance of himself as well -- of someone who carries our mark."
Nicolai's toothy grin was especially fierce. Perhaps it was the incisors.

Sunday
In the morning, Nicolai showed me the good news: he'd found an ace of diamonds somewhere, which is nearly a perfect card for our purpose. I hid it deep in my cleavage. In the next hour we tried to get Mirak alone, but by the time the only opportunity presented itself, Nicolai was otherwise occupied. The countesses' guests were opposing him because of the situation with a certain skaven. The Black Panthers wanted to execute Snarf, but the players were against it. Mirak stood by, watching me, while I tried not to show I was on the Panther's side. I could have gone off in the woods with him, alone, and charmed him to an end of his wits before I'd kill him, but a dozen people would remember me going off alone with him -- and Maria was not yet suicidal. Strange affliction for an NPC, but there you have it.
But then Erik came to pull me out of the play, because the Magic Seven were about to do something epically stupid. I walked up to Nicolai, put a hand on his chest. "I have to go. Take care of it for me." I said, pressing the card (none-too-subtly) under his belt of pouches that crossed his chest. You have to give the players a chance, after all.

Just as I had undressed from Maria, Bas said the Magic Seven were cutting off their rings and their fingers. If I could scream for a bit?
Sure I could. It was epic. Haven't screamed like that since the Dragon's rift tournament when I was a banshee and people came to see if someone was being murdered. It was rather loud and stuff.

I dressed for Diana hurriedly. It was hard to focus, and it was even harder to remember my spells. I pretty much had a carte blanche within setting limits (all five domains of magic, but only to advanced level, 20 mana points and 3 hp per location). I dislike powerplaying, and sitting with the booklet of spells in my lap, trying to cram spells into my head was hard enough. I still had to get the incantations right (casting an ice floor by the powers of fire is really stupid, and I hate it when my NPCs don't get that stuff right or skip the incantation altogether), and figure out in what order to cast my spells.
Someone came to get me, it was showtime. He took me by the hand and tried to make me run, but halfway down the field I stopped him. "I can't run in this corset. Besides, I need to have some breath left for my incantations."
I figured I'd start with a Ring of Fire, to blind them, and follow up by more specific things. I'd break Eros' heart, for one, and use Fire Magic on the water-loving Alyssis. Maybe even cast a Terrible Weather spell to keep people at a distance. It's hard for me to power-play, alright?

I never got the chance. Right when I appeared in the circle, the five of them jumped on top of me, slashing, grabbing biting. I had time to maybe finish my spell, but by the time it was cast I was already down on the floor. Alyssis used one of her knives to open my chest cavity and take out my heart, feebly beating as it was. Fergus took care of my throat...and then it all went dark.

Exit Diana in a bloody mess.
Trouble was, now that they had cut off their rings and I was dead, there was nothing to stop Xiel'Pletl from taking revenge for what they had done to his people. Better yet, because there was already a circle in place, all he had to do was take over the ritual -- which he did.
One by one, the Magic Five followed Diana to the grave. Fabius lay at my feet, Fergus, Sera, Alyssis and Eros were not far off. The other players cried for mercy, pleaded with Xiel that this was not Helos, that Helos was a merciful God as caretaker of the souls of the dead.
In the end, Xiel relented, and the circle opened, but it was too late for the Magic Five, and far, far too late for Diana. Two people said prayers for our souls, but whether or not they included the slave-driver in them, I will never know.


The very short recap: Charm was awesome! I love the people who play there, I love the NPCs and the organisation, and how bad plans always happen, and how they always find time to lounge in the sun even though there might be oodles of plot lying around. It's such a picturesque setting too!
I can't wait for the next one.

~ Ork's photos ~ Jane's photos ~

Comments

[anastaszia.livejournal.com]

No, according to our information Diana was a necromancer, so she got no sending off from Molly. She did get the special chop-chop treatment, though.

[watzalikzeggen.livejournal.com]

Ik heb niet het hele verhaal gelezen, want ik ken de setting verder helemaal niet, maar je foto's worden echt steeds mooier! (ik wil er iedere keer iets over schrijven en dan vergeet ik het weer ;)) En die laatste foto van Mark is echt awesome!

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

Dankjewel! Ik vind de foto van Mark ook echt de beste van de set. Misschien niet heel veel contrast, maar de blik & het licht zijn wel zo'n beetje perfect. Er is nul-komma-nul aan nabewerking overheen gegaan, dus dat is sowieso een pluim voor mijn ego.