La la la la, la la la la, Origins post! (Number 1)
((This is the first installation of my origins posts. More to follow.))
I just got back from the Origins Gaming Convention in Columbus Ohio. I had a great time. I played games, found old friends, made new ones, and just had a blast in general. For more detail, read below!
On Thursday, a day I had no games scheduled for, I was socializing with Akira! and company (also known as the people who asked Chris to run games for them), when they mentioned a One World By Night Werewolf LARP taking place over Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM each day. The bunch of us became really excited and put a pack together for the event. Since I was dressed as Kairos (my character from the Bloomington werewolf game) for the day, complete with her character sheet, I planned to play her, even if it meant toning her down for the event. However, the Storytellers didn’t even give her stats a double-take. Kairos, exactly how she is, was allowed to play a One World By Night game!
Day 1- Thursday
First we were okayed by the STs. Then, our characters were introduced to the Sept of the Melting Pot, and also to the Elder Silver Fang Theurge Tarl (a player character!), who has a reputation for torturing kittens and just being a bad-ass in general. We were told that we had been called by the spirits to help open a new Caern and handed gnosis bags to fill. Taking a pack of Cliaths (rank 1) with us, we began to hunt for spirits to donate gnosis to the cause, whether willingly or forcefully. The young ones had been given the remnants of another pack’s task for the spirits, planting acorns across Ohio. Unfortunately the pack hadn’t inherited all of the particulars of the task, so we wisely asked a local Oak spirit his opinion on the matter in order to complete the mission to the best of our ability. Then, the spirits of Power and Wealth approached us an offered to act as our totems, but we humbly declined. We continued the hunt and thought ourselves to be in luck when we came across a Stag spirit. But the Stag wasn’t interested in being hunted- instead, he took us as his own, as his contribution to the birth of a new Caern. Shortly after, our two packs found a wyrm-tainted steam engine spirit bearing the banners of Patriot Gas. We decimated the spirit and filled one of our gnosis bags, performing a rite of cleansing to purify the contents.
Day 2- Friday
The pack investigated a company responsible for creating a particle accelerator, only to discover a huge wyrm/bane spirit egg just waiting to hatch. The pack began to destroy the monstrosity, but soon found that it was a little bit much to handle. Elder Tarl appeared and helped to finish off the battle. Later, our Glasswalker Ahroun cliath had a visit with the company’s head executive, who deceived our pack-mate into eating human flesh. Appalled and repentant, he confessed what had happened to the elder. Tarl deemed that it was breaking the Litany, and so ripped out the stomach of the Glasswalker. The good news is that werewolves are quite hardy, and the Glasswalker was not killed. Just injured. Being spared by Elder Tarl is no small thing. Over the course of the event, it became clear that Elder Tarl did not hate our pack. In case you didn’t know- it’s kind of a big deal.
Day 3- Saturday
The day of the Caern building. Oh, yes. Our pack first dug trenches to defend the river island, complete with labor songs. “Day number fifty, elder got us working, one day elder set us free.” Fabulous. Then the battle royale began. The first “wave” (it was broken down into waves to help the STs) included multiple four-armed men toting shotguns and frog-creatures with bits of glass attached to their lashing tongues. Our pack and other Garou made short work of these creatures. The best was our pack stradegy. The Ahroun Glasswalker “painted” a mark by shooting him, and I and Mountain’s Roots the Fostern Philodox Get of Fenris would then split him. Mountain would leap from the skies with his fetish ice blade and I would slide under to split the baddie from groin to navel. Mountain and I also finished off the poor souls who’d fallen into our trenches.
During wave two, I was called into the umbra to help fight some nasty beings- one that set everything on fire, another four-armed shotgun man, and something that we couldn’t identify but looked something like Venom. One of our kinfolk was severely injured and I scooped her up and rushed her to the Amish kinfolk who were acting as medics. Unfortunately, they seemed distracted and were wandering around murmuring something about Toll House cookies. Distressed for the injured kin, I roared at the others and finally won their attention for her. Then I rushed back into battle, where an unnamed Fianna Galliard cub was on fire (7 agg!) and still fighting. He dropped the fire man right as I arrived and then turned to the gunner. Venom was nowhere to be seen. So, we all turned our attention to the gunner and made quick work of him.
The third wave was in the material world- and consisted of several vampires, two of whom would turn out to be “blood brothers.” I jumped into the middle of the combat to assist some of the lower ranking Garou and also to bleed those leeches dry. The blood brothers disappeared into the ground, then rose up in a disgusting flesh column, with gaping maws all over, arms that stretched and flexed, and gave a bellowing roar. Many of my companions turned and fled in terror. I gave a mighty call to arms, calling my allies to the fray and dove in headfirst, slashing fiercely with the klaive Heart’s Song. Many of my companions heard my call and soon returned to the fight, including the young cub who I’d seen before. In fact, the cub and his packmate heroically jumped onto the morphing flesh beast and began to rip into it with tooth and claw. Just then, a mouth opened up beneath him and swallowed him to his middle. He wisely shifted to the Umbra to escape it’s grasp before returning and continuing the battle. Another garou attacked with a giant axe. Our Ahroun Glasswalker shot from afar (and also answered a cell phone “Hello? I’m busy!” *blam* “Sell it all!” *blamblam* “Sell! Sell! Sell!”) It was a long and ardous battle, but at last the wyrm beast fell and we howled in exhilaration. Strangely, in all this, Kairos had not taken one wound. Her first wound came as the caern opened at last, a sacrifice of the flesh from all (1 agg) to power the holy site.
After the ceremony, a ship flying a white flag appeared on the river. Several wyrm-tainted garou were aboard. With a megaphone, they demanded we leave their land. Tired though we were, none stirred. We stood our ground. Then the last fight began. Scattered Hart, of which I was a member, descended upon the Metis [male] Black Fury, who had cloaked himself in porcupine’s quills, and armored himself with the power of the wyrm and the light of the moon. A fellow Fury, he attacked Kairos first, using a special power to knock her to the ground, then turned his eyes to the most threatening-looking Garou (which happened to be a cub.) My fellows leaped upon him, suffering wounds even as they began to shred his flesh. Our Glasswalker Ahroun, in turn, used the same ability against the Metis and knocked him to the ground. We annihilated the tainted Garou, each leaping in and out, a whirling mass of teeth, claws, and klaive.
After the battles were truly over, our deeds were remembered and we were awarded with the acknowledgement of all that we had done (2 permanent glory, 1 permanent Honor, 1 permanent Wisdom in all), with a slash of razor claws at the hands of Elder Tarl.
Kairos and her allies successfully helped create and defend the Caern of Osprey, and earned herself the honorific “Unquenchable Rage.” She also named a certain cub, giving him the title, “Survives it all.” Overall, a great time. I only hope some or all of it is allowed to have happened in the Bloomington continuity.
I just got back from the Origins Gaming Convention in Columbus Ohio. I had a great time. I played games, found old friends, made new ones, and just had a blast in general. For more detail, read below!
On Thursday, a day I had no games scheduled for, I was socializing with Akira! and company (also known as the people who asked Chris to run games for them), when they mentioned a One World By Night Werewolf LARP taking place over Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM each day. The bunch of us became really excited and put a pack together for the event. Since I was dressed as Kairos (my character from the Bloomington werewolf game) for the day, complete with her character sheet, I planned to play her, even if it meant toning her down for the event. However, the Storytellers didn’t even give her stats a double-take. Kairos, exactly how she is, was allowed to play a One World By Night game!
Day 1- Thursday
First we were okayed by the STs. Then, our characters were introduced to the Sept of the Melting Pot, and also to the Elder Silver Fang Theurge Tarl (a player character!), who has a reputation for torturing kittens and just being a bad-ass in general. We were told that we had been called by the spirits to help open a new Caern and handed gnosis bags to fill. Taking a pack of Cliaths (rank 1) with us, we began to hunt for spirits to donate gnosis to the cause, whether willingly or forcefully. The young ones had been given the remnants of another pack’s task for the spirits, planting acorns across Ohio. Unfortunately the pack hadn’t inherited all of the particulars of the task, so we wisely asked a local Oak spirit his opinion on the matter in order to complete the mission to the best of our ability. Then, the spirits of Power and Wealth approached us an offered to act as our totems, but we humbly declined. We continued the hunt and thought ourselves to be in luck when we came across a Stag spirit. But the Stag wasn’t interested in being hunted- instead, he took us as his own, as his contribution to the birth of a new Caern. Shortly after, our two packs found a wyrm-tainted steam engine spirit bearing the banners of Patriot Gas. We decimated the spirit and filled one of our gnosis bags, performing a rite of cleansing to purify the contents.
Day 2- Friday
The pack investigated a company responsible for creating a particle accelerator, only to discover a huge wyrm/bane spirit egg just waiting to hatch. The pack began to destroy the monstrosity, but soon found that it was a little bit much to handle. Elder Tarl appeared and helped to finish off the battle. Later, our Glasswalker Ahroun cliath had a visit with the company’s head executive, who deceived our pack-mate into eating human flesh. Appalled and repentant, he confessed what had happened to the elder. Tarl deemed that it was breaking the Litany, and so ripped out the stomach of the Glasswalker. The good news is that werewolves are quite hardy, and the Glasswalker was not killed. Just injured. Being spared by Elder Tarl is no small thing. Over the course of the event, it became clear that Elder Tarl did not hate our pack. In case you didn’t know- it’s kind of a big deal.
Day 3- Saturday
The day of the Caern building. Oh, yes. Our pack first dug trenches to defend the river island, complete with labor songs. “Day number fifty, elder got us working, one day elder set us free.” Fabulous. Then the battle royale began. The first “wave” (it was broken down into waves to help the STs) included multiple four-armed men toting shotguns and frog-creatures with bits of glass attached to their lashing tongues. Our pack and other Garou made short work of these creatures. The best was our pack stradegy. The Ahroun Glasswalker “painted” a mark by shooting him, and I and Mountain’s Roots the Fostern Philodox Get of Fenris would then split him. Mountain would leap from the skies with his fetish ice blade and I would slide under to split the baddie from groin to navel. Mountain and I also finished off the poor souls who’d fallen into our trenches.
During wave two, I was called into the umbra to help fight some nasty beings- one that set everything on fire, another four-armed shotgun man, and something that we couldn’t identify but looked something like Venom. One of our kinfolk was severely injured and I scooped her up and rushed her to the Amish kinfolk who were acting as medics. Unfortunately, they seemed distracted and were wandering around murmuring something about Toll House cookies. Distressed for the injured kin, I roared at the others and finally won their attention for her. Then I rushed back into battle, where an unnamed Fianna Galliard cub was on fire (7 agg!) and still fighting. He dropped the fire man right as I arrived and then turned to the gunner. Venom was nowhere to be seen. So, we all turned our attention to the gunner and made quick work of him.
The third wave was in the material world- and consisted of several vampires, two of whom would turn out to be “blood brothers.” I jumped into the middle of the combat to assist some of the lower ranking Garou and also to bleed those leeches dry. The blood brothers disappeared into the ground, then rose up in a disgusting flesh column, with gaping maws all over, arms that stretched and flexed, and gave a bellowing roar. Many of my companions turned and fled in terror. I gave a mighty call to arms, calling my allies to the fray and dove in headfirst, slashing fiercely with the klaive Heart’s Song. Many of my companions heard my call and soon returned to the fight, including the young cub who I’d seen before. In fact, the cub and his packmate heroically jumped onto the morphing flesh beast and began to rip into it with tooth and claw. Just then, a mouth opened up beneath him and swallowed him to his middle. He wisely shifted to the Umbra to escape it’s grasp before returning and continuing the battle. Another garou attacked with a giant axe. Our Ahroun Glasswalker shot from afar (and also answered a cell phone “Hello? I’m busy!” *blam* “Sell it all!” *blamblam* “Sell! Sell! Sell!”) It was a long and ardous battle, but at last the wyrm beast fell and we howled in exhilaration. Strangely, in all this, Kairos had not taken one wound. Her first wound came as the caern opened at last, a sacrifice of the flesh from all (1 agg) to power the holy site.
After the ceremony, a ship flying a white flag appeared on the river. Several wyrm-tainted garou were aboard. With a megaphone, they demanded we leave their land. Tired though we were, none stirred. We stood our ground. Then the last fight began. Scattered Hart, of which I was a member, descended upon the Metis [male] Black Fury, who had cloaked himself in porcupine’s quills, and armored himself with the power of the wyrm and the light of the moon. A fellow Fury, he attacked Kairos first, using a special power to knock her to the ground, then turned his eyes to the most threatening-looking Garou (which happened to be a cub.) My fellows leaped upon him, suffering wounds even as they began to shred his flesh. Our Glasswalker Ahroun, in turn, used the same ability against the Metis and knocked him to the ground. We annihilated the tainted Garou, each leaping in and out, a whirling mass of teeth, claws, and klaive.
After the battles were truly over, our deeds were remembered and we were awarded with the acknowledgement of all that we had done (2 permanent glory, 1 permanent Honor, 1 permanent Wisdom in all), with a slash of razor claws at the hands of Elder Tarl.
Kairos and her allies successfully helped create and defend the Caern of Osprey, and earned herself the honorific “Unquenchable Rage.” She also named a certain cub, giving him the title, “Survives it all.” Overall, a great time. I only hope some or all of it is allowed to have happened in the Bloomington continuity.