(Don't) Let Them Eat Cake
Jul. 27th, 2008 01:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thessalianThere must and shall be drabble today. However, there must and shall also be grocery shopping so that there's something in the house so I can feed ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dodgyhoodoo when he comes home, but first and foremost there shall be telling tales of Brighton Below. Because damn, that was fun.
Being early is seriously worth it. After a trawl for decent foot-saving socks (which weren't quite as foot-saving as I'd hoped, but maybe with another pair...), I eventually turned up at game at about half-three, got changed and had plenty of time to read the Undersider and my little gossip slips. I like the gossip slips - you can't necessarily believe a word of it, but you never really know. Interesting bits and bobs about Clayton Square (oh dear oh dear, Drinn) and so forth. The really unfortunate bit was that I seem to have left the camera switched on when I unplugged it from Eshu after loading my photos from last game, so of course the battery was dead. Which is a damn shame, because Patch Ann was there and everything and her character is so. Damn. Cool. Next time, though, definitely.
The carriage coat went over really well, and Saint loaned me a hat that really just completed the outfit, on the whole. Everyone oooohed and aaaaahed over my Gladstone bag, too, so yay! However, there's a minor issue with LARPing indoors in this heat - the costumes are not generally designed for comfort in hot weather.yshala was bundled up in a coat, hat and shawl. Daz was in three jackets and he wasn't the only one. Drinn and one of his friends were in shirt, waistcoat and jacket. Alex (Patch Ann) was wearing this cropped fun-fur coat. Three of the girls were in heavy velvet dresses. I had the carriage coat and the bulky socks. Some poor guy was wearing chain mail. Various nobles were in various period pieces involving jackets and capes and in one case, a ratty powdered wig. And then there was Law, all done up in what I think is Regency-era riding gear, all ruff and collar and ... ye flippin' gads he looked uncomfortable. It'll be better come November, when it's cooler and being in all that gear isn't going to make people step outside the Market truce just for a bit of fresh air...
We broke the plot. The organisers told us at the end of the session that we had comprehensively broken the plot. But then, as has been repeatedly pointed out, plot doesn't survive contact with the players anyway. It was also apparently the single most combat-heavy Market they'd ever had. And this, I suppose, is about the point at which I'd have to explain the "got near-killed over cake" thing.
There's this bunch of drifters (NPC types) known as the Vultures. They feed off people's life force but that apparently doesn't preclude the need to eat normal food, and no one will trade with them because of the whole life-energy-sucking thing. Which I assume is what prompted them to steal from the Market, and thus got themselves barred from the Market permanently. Now, recently someone from the Foundry traded proper food to the Vultures for a ritual - not knowing what it was or why, just that it might be a worthwhile trade later down the line - and my girl was there, serving as backup and holding doors for him and so forth because he had his hands full. So she got a bit of a feel for the Vultures, and they didn't seem overly threatening, so ... eh.
Anyhow, the plot thickened when one of the noble ladies got abducted by person or persons unknown, and was spirited away by the one survivor after Law, Patch Ann and a few others went after the kidnappers. In the end, the surviving kidnapper turned up in the middle of Market and said, more or less, "Lift the curse on the Vultures and you can have your lady back". Which suited Travesty well enough because she's supposed to be curing what's wrong with Brighton Below, and people being cursed willy-nilly seems a good place to start. However, Lord Preston (the leader of the house my girl swore fealty to) basically forbade anyone from trading with the Vultures, and despite the fact that they were on Kemp property for Market this time, my girl's still allied with Preston, so she was held to that. Travesty basically said, "Fuck a bunch of that; not only will this help get Lady Petunia back and solve some of the crap that I'm supposed to be here to deal with, but they're starving. I told the Prestons when I started that there would be times when my duty to Brighton Below superseded my duty to my house, and now's one of them" and did it anyway. And this is where the plot thickened to cake-like proportions.
See, they needed more information about the curse to get it lifted, and the only people they knew to speak to was the Vultures. And the one they really needed to speak to was fairly happy to talk to Travesty, who was one of the first to ever show the Vultures kindness since they got cursed to be these life-energy-sucking monster-things in the first place, but they wanted food. So Travesty did a trade-by-proxy for a tub of Undersider Upside-Down Cake to offer to the Vultures. However, this got garbled in translation briefly and resulted in the woman who owned said cake going up to Tisbury Preston (Lord Preston's daughter) and saying, "...Someone took me cake..." This got sorted out eventually but it got the anthropomorphic personification of law (known only as Law) involved in the proceedings. So out came Law, going, "You're being detained, your Lord decreed that you aren't to trade with the Vultures, hand over the cake and come peacefully or be taken by force". Grederick Kemp did try to help her talk her way out of it, but Law wasn't having the spirit of the law bent that way (I swear I'm going to Source a book of Upworld law for next session and present it to Law saying, "I think you will find, sir, that finding loopholes is the spirit of the law") and insisted that she hand over the cake. Now, Travesty wasn't going empty-handed and wanted to try the cake properly anyway (she'd traded for it fair and square, after all) so she handed most of it over but took two pieces - one for her and one as a just-in-case. Law wasn't having that either, and it was, "I will count to three. Hand over all the cake or be taken by force." My girl's a goddess - bereft of most of her powers and stuck in a mortal shell, but the arrogance and so forth is still there - so she wasn't backing down, and next thing you know, she's on the floor, nearly dead, over two pieces of cake. One of the Vultures came out at all the commotion and what they saw was the woman who was going to provide them food laid low and dragged off battered and bleeding because she wouldn't renege on her promise. I think this was a good picture to leave them with.
Back under the auspices of the Market truce, there was a fair bit of panic when I got dragged back in. Saint, who's my goddess' one and currently only worshipper (he built a shrine and everything - it's so cute) freaked right the hell out and Tisbury Preston also freaked out (though to her credit, she didn't faint) and had a go at Law because, "I said she was not to be harmed! What did you do?" Most of the Market thought that the Vultures had hurt Travesty, and the explanation of, "No, Law struck me down over two pieces of cake" got some confused blinks. I was actually a little bit surprised at how many people were worried when Travesty came in so close to death - it had only been a session and a half at that point, but the Foundry as a unit were rather concerned and Saint, of course, was flipping out and even that bloody priest that Travesty can't stand got in on the healing. It was amusing and kind of gratifying. And of course the Vultures called her back, being understanding about the lack of cake in the circumstances, but Travesty still didn't want to renege on her promise so offered them some of her life-energy instead. And thus information was exchanged and plot moved on apace, with Travesty working out that the ritual that Mister traded for last time would get them the answers they needed. Saint agreed to perform the ritual and Travesty would take the resulting answer back to the Vultures, and all would, it seemed, be well.
At least until the bloody nobles turned around and decided to mount an armed offensive against the kidnappers, stating that "we do not negotiate with terrorists". Oh yeah, because any action based on those words always works well. That got three of the PCs held hostage and turned some nobles very sheepish, so next session, we do rituals and stuff. And, of course, there's the downtime trek to what Travesty calls 'Londinium' to see if they can track down the Dials. It's all go, really, and a terrible lot of fun.
All to say that we had a remarkably good time. The trip back wasn't any fun, though - train and buses were all full of drunken yahoos. I have issues with drunken yahoos - they are loud and obnoxious. And most of my food intake yesterday involved standing at a counter ordering something unhealthy smashed into a bun. Oh, and the curry, which gave us the best bit of bullshit in-game, in my opinion. See, Travesty's not really ... au fait with anything Upworlder, so a lot of stuff confuses her. So when a predominantly vegetable curry turned up with ridge-cut carrots and soya meat of some description, there was a comment about how time-consuming it must have been to cut all those roots into these wavy shapes. Saint, recipient of said comment, replied with, "No, see, it's an Indian dish, and these were cut with what's called a kris, an Indian knife that's rather wavy, so the waves are all built-in. No extra effort involved." After which we had to go out of character to laugh our fool heads off.
But all told, I got home safe, I don't hurt so much anymore, and I'm already looking forward to the next one. I just need to figure out the new downtime system. Now I should go and do something productive, I suppose. I don't know what I'm going to do about dinner but I'll figure something out.
dodgyhoodoo when he comes home, but first and foremost there shall be telling tales of Brighton Below. Because damn, that was fun.Being early is seriously worth it. After a trawl for decent foot-saving socks (which weren't quite as foot-saving as I'd hoped, but maybe with another pair...), I eventually turned up at game at about half-three, got changed and had plenty of time to read the Undersider and my little gossip slips. I like the gossip slips - you can't necessarily believe a word of it, but you never really know. Interesting bits and bobs about Clayton Square (oh dear oh dear, Drinn) and so forth. The really unfortunate bit was that I seem to have left the camera switched on when I unplugged it from Eshu after loading my photos from last game, so of course the battery was dead. Which is a damn shame, because Patch Ann was there and everything and her character is so. Damn. Cool. Next time, though, definitely.
The carriage coat went over really well, and Saint loaned me a hat that really just completed the outfit, on the whole. Everyone oooohed and aaaaahed over my Gladstone bag, too, so yay! However, there's a minor issue with LARPing indoors in this heat - the costumes are not generally designed for comfort in hot weather.
yshala was bundled up in a coat, hat and shawl. Daz was in three jackets and he wasn't the only one. Drinn and one of his friends were in shirt, waistcoat and jacket. Alex (Patch Ann) was wearing this cropped fun-fur coat. Three of the girls were in heavy velvet dresses. I had the carriage coat and the bulky socks. Some poor guy was wearing chain mail. Various nobles were in various period pieces involving jackets and capes and in one case, a ratty powdered wig. And then there was Law, all done up in what I think is Regency-era riding gear, all ruff and collar and ... ye flippin' gads he looked uncomfortable. It'll be better come November, when it's cooler and being in all that gear isn't going to make people step outside the Market truce just for a bit of fresh air...We broke the plot. The organisers told us at the end of the session that we had comprehensively broken the plot. But then, as has been repeatedly pointed out, plot doesn't survive contact with the players anyway. It was also apparently the single most combat-heavy Market they'd ever had. And this, I suppose, is about the point at which I'd have to explain the "got near-killed over cake" thing.
There's this bunch of drifters (NPC types) known as the Vultures. They feed off people's life force but that apparently doesn't preclude the need to eat normal food, and no one will trade with them because of the whole life-energy-sucking thing. Which I assume is what prompted them to steal from the Market, and thus got themselves barred from the Market permanently. Now, recently someone from the Foundry traded proper food to the Vultures for a ritual - not knowing what it was or why, just that it might be a worthwhile trade later down the line - and my girl was there, serving as backup and holding doors for him and so forth because he had his hands full. So she got a bit of a feel for the Vultures, and they didn't seem overly threatening, so ... eh.
Anyhow, the plot thickened when one of the noble ladies got abducted by person or persons unknown, and was spirited away by the one survivor after Law, Patch Ann and a few others went after the kidnappers. In the end, the surviving kidnapper turned up in the middle of Market and said, more or less, "Lift the curse on the Vultures and you can have your lady back". Which suited Travesty well enough because she's supposed to be curing what's wrong with Brighton Below, and people being cursed willy-nilly seems a good place to start. However, Lord Preston (the leader of the house my girl swore fealty to) basically forbade anyone from trading with the Vultures, and despite the fact that they were on Kemp property for Market this time, my girl's still allied with Preston, so she was held to that. Travesty basically said, "Fuck a bunch of that; not only will this help get Lady Petunia back and solve some of the crap that I'm supposed to be here to deal with, but they're starving. I told the Prestons when I started that there would be times when my duty to Brighton Below superseded my duty to my house, and now's one of them" and did it anyway. And this is where the plot thickened to cake-like proportions.
See, they needed more information about the curse to get it lifted, and the only people they knew to speak to was the Vultures. And the one they really needed to speak to was fairly happy to talk to Travesty, who was one of the first to ever show the Vultures kindness since they got cursed to be these life-energy-sucking monster-things in the first place, but they wanted food. So Travesty did a trade-by-proxy for a tub of Undersider Upside-Down Cake to offer to the Vultures. However, this got garbled in translation briefly and resulted in the woman who owned said cake going up to Tisbury Preston (Lord Preston's daughter) and saying, "...Someone took me cake..." This got sorted out eventually but it got the anthropomorphic personification of law (known only as Law) involved in the proceedings. So out came Law, going, "You're being detained, your Lord decreed that you aren't to trade with the Vultures, hand over the cake and come peacefully or be taken by force". Grederick Kemp did try to help her talk her way out of it, but Law wasn't having the spirit of the law bent that way (I swear I'm going to Source a book of Upworld law for next session and present it to Law saying, "I think you will find, sir, that finding loopholes is the spirit of the law") and insisted that she hand over the cake. Now, Travesty wasn't going empty-handed and wanted to try the cake properly anyway (she'd traded for it fair and square, after all) so she handed most of it over but took two pieces - one for her and one as a just-in-case. Law wasn't having that either, and it was, "I will count to three. Hand over all the cake or be taken by force." My girl's a goddess - bereft of most of her powers and stuck in a mortal shell, but the arrogance and so forth is still there - so she wasn't backing down, and next thing you know, she's on the floor, nearly dead, over two pieces of cake. One of the Vultures came out at all the commotion and what they saw was the woman who was going to provide them food laid low and dragged off battered and bleeding because she wouldn't renege on her promise. I think this was a good picture to leave them with.
Back under the auspices of the Market truce, there was a fair bit of panic when I got dragged back in. Saint, who's my goddess' one and currently only worshipper (he built a shrine and everything - it's so cute) freaked right the hell out and Tisbury Preston also freaked out (though to her credit, she didn't faint) and had a go at Law because, "I said she was not to be harmed! What did you do?" Most of the Market thought that the Vultures had hurt Travesty, and the explanation of, "No, Law struck me down over two pieces of cake" got some confused blinks. I was actually a little bit surprised at how many people were worried when Travesty came in so close to death - it had only been a session and a half at that point, but the Foundry as a unit were rather concerned and Saint, of course, was flipping out and even that bloody priest that Travesty can't stand got in on the healing. It was amusing and kind of gratifying. And of course the Vultures called her back, being understanding about the lack of cake in the circumstances, but Travesty still didn't want to renege on her promise so offered them some of her life-energy instead. And thus information was exchanged and plot moved on apace, with Travesty working out that the ritual that Mister traded for last time would get them the answers they needed. Saint agreed to perform the ritual and Travesty would take the resulting answer back to the Vultures, and all would, it seemed, be well.
At least until the bloody nobles turned around and decided to mount an armed offensive against the kidnappers, stating that "we do not negotiate with terrorists". Oh yeah, because any action based on those words always works well. That got three of the PCs held hostage and turned some nobles very sheepish, so next session, we do rituals and stuff. And, of course, there's the downtime trek to what Travesty calls 'Londinium' to see if they can track down the Dials. It's all go, really, and a terrible lot of fun.
All to say that we had a remarkably good time. The trip back wasn't any fun, though - train and buses were all full of drunken yahoos. I have issues with drunken yahoos - they are loud and obnoxious. And most of my food intake yesterday involved standing at a counter ordering something unhealthy smashed into a bun. Oh, and the curry, which gave us the best bit of bullshit in-game, in my opinion. See, Travesty's not really ... au fait with anything Upworlder, so a lot of stuff confuses her. So when a predominantly vegetable curry turned up with ridge-cut carrots and soya meat of some description, there was a comment about how time-consuming it must have been to cut all those roots into these wavy shapes. Saint, recipient of said comment, replied with, "No, see, it's an Indian dish, and these were cut with what's called a kris, an Indian knife that's rather wavy, so the waves are all built-in. No extra effort involved." After which we had to go out of character to laugh our fool heads off.
But all told, I got home safe, I don't hurt so much anymore, and I'm already looking forward to the next one. I just need to figure out the new downtime system. Now I should go and do something productive, I suppose. I don't know what I'm going to do about dinner but I'll figure something out.