Saturday Changeling LARP Report: Rufus' War Journal Part 4

This one is just text. A TON happened at this month's game and the thought of doing it comic style frightens me. Plus I have too many other projects and things I am working on right now. Painting, getting more content for the Adamythryl Engine, just fun stuff.. maybe even the HORROR of getting a life. Oh wait. That one never works. :(

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War Journal Update 10 Jan 09

Eric.
On the 10th of January, I sent a comrade to what may be his doom. I know you want to be kept informed of what goes on at the Freehold, but this was a hard situation to update you on. But I will tell you what happened, and hopefully you can see the kinds of challenges I face in trying to build a brotherhood here in Connecticut.

Since December, David had discovered Maude's location within the Hedge. Her exact location, this time for sure as opposed to a wild guess. We also had to bring Darryl (the English fellow who was willing to sacrifice himself during the Sid incident over the Summer where I became Summer King) into his position as the Winter King, made more difficult as he and the quiet tall woman Mia are the only two Winter Court members nearby.

(Mia being mostly insular and quiet and not believing in herself. I have been trying to get her to open up, rarely with any luck.)

We had guests from New York, their Summer King, a Naga like man known as Nemo, and his Marshal, a Dragon like formed fellow by the name of.. ahh.. damn. Forgot his name. I REALLY need to do better at remembering names. :( We were joined by a new local, a hulking ogre by the name of Dion.

The Baba Yaga like hut David had found was in fact Maude's residence in the Hedge, so we began planning our assault, with our incredibly powerful New York guests in tow. We left a message for any other Lost who would arrive at the freehold later on, and headed to her old cabin in the woods to enter through a portal. Our angry booze selling Summer I mentioned? You know, Erin? She would be one of the few to receive our message and join us. And with the usual amount of grousing.

(I swear she and David are in competition for being the crankiest!)

Given our typical luck, David forgot how to actually open the portal, but with a little energon and a LOT of luck, we discover how to open it, which lead inside her hut. We find a fire elemental trapped inside her fireplace, writhing in pain. Removing him lead us to discover he was a Lost, burning in agony. We put the fire out, and anonymously got him to a hospital.

(With the amount of us who end up there on a regular basis we should probably be getting frequent patient miles. Or some really good insurance.)

We take what few books are found to be worthwhile, and the crew that went into the hut itself found a birdlike man's set of bones, charred and staked to a post. There was a sigil clawed into the wood. The crew that went in decided to burn it down, and eventually they all met back up. (Yes, someone got separated. Quite foolish. Always stick with your squadmates!) Of course, now our secure portal to the hedge no longer exists.

I can only do so much. I also find out that the captive soldier we grabbed a few months back, Doug, was no longer staying with my dad who apparently missed him leaving one day. I really need to get pops off the bottle. I am getting him to move and get a new trailer somewhere else. Hopefully it will keep him out of danger. And we REALLY need a better place to hold captives.

(That reminds me. Have you found out where Mr. Stewart went yet? I found my dad, you should be able to get back yours, even if he is a private detective and well capable of knowing how to avoid being found. You came back from being missing so there is no reason for him to be searching for you, right?)

We discuss what to do next. There is an enemy camp in the Hedge with over 200 soldiers there. We finally notice Mia has arrived, hiding herself in plain sight as usual. Our plan turns into a recon mission. One team will form a distraction while the other is a secondary. This gives time for the Dragon Marshal to fly over the camp and see what he can see, given a boost into the air thanks to Dion and his Ogre-ness.

While planning continues, we attempt to get Mia to acknowledge Darryl as the Winter King so he can take his place in running things. We show her the symbol from the post, and we begin to have an idea that the previous Winter King, Dave, may have been the poor soul tied to it. With some coaxing from both of us, we lead Mia to Maude's cabin so she can see some of these things for herself. Again, the Hedge hut being burned down meant we couldn't show her the body itself. We did however show her the altar in the woods David has been putzing about with. Darryl not being the most evasive of people answered David's cell phone call with what we were doing in a level that angered him enough to show up there, even as I tried to mitigate the damage. David didn't want anyone going near the altar, but Mia wanted to see it for herself and I saw no reason for her not to. David may be one of us, but anything someone wants nobody else to go near is something that needs a second pair of eyes to check up on. And my deal is fighting for my brothers and sisters, my claws slashing the darkness. This magical stuff is not my strong suit!

He showed up and groused some, but we were able to calm his grouchiness down enough. Darryl then officially became Winter King, and that was that! On to the recon mission!

It goes off well to start. We fire a couple sniper rounds into some of the guards (dressed like Revolutionary War troops! Greatcoats and everything!), and then the other team gets into action when they are distracted, causing more havoc, and the Dragon gets airborne. But they see him and launch a flaming person at him from a catapult! We take some shots at our scout's new passenger, but it fails to dislodge him. He ends up crashing to remove the poor fellow, and the rest of us scatter and head back to the Freehold.

Our plan there now becomes one of disruption. We decide to take out their ammunition tents as that will not only slow them down, but demoralize them and give us and other Lost a better chance against them. We set up an ambush against their patrols, with David taking advantage of the propaganda against us that claims we current Summer and Autumn Kings are Loyalists. He tries to convince them he needs some of their ammunition to deal with rogue elements. (Which are really US mind you!) But its so badly done they refuse and PLAN B happens where those of us hiding move out to kill and capture the patrol. This works, with lots of painful hits taken (man these loyalists WILL NOT let go of their weapons regardless of how hard they get hit!), except everyone is so worked up, the entire patrol gets killed.

And with that failure David decides there is no other option but for him to attempt to morph his looks into one of the Loyalists we have fought, and to quietly sneak into the camp, find out the information we need, and sneak back out. His odds are not very good.

Eric, we may have lost one of our brothers to this plan. I could not stop him from trying such a risky and foolish stunt. I have yet to hear back from him, and his sacrifice may have even been in vain.

But for now, I watch, I wait, and I hope.

Your friend,
Rufus Landale

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Yeah, a lot happened this session, and with time tight, and my projects many, this month its just a prose format. I have plans for another way to do pure text reports, but this month I didn't feel like going too crazy and inventive, and my idea had the chance to be more important than the information being relayed. Which in such an eventful month is not such a good idea. I will save it for when its needed. Plus it will be a good introduction for my other Changeling character, and his Hunter sister.

Eventually this blog will introduce you readers to most of the characters that ramble about in my head, though in many cases they will be tweaked to fit whichever game system and universe I am bringing them in to. If comics legend Osamu Tekuza could have a "studio system" where his characters were used in various stories and genres, why can't I?

Ok, BESIDES the lack of skill and talent. I already know that part...