By Raindrop Storm Arkaea (Sky Rubenstein)
Heroes of the Realms, I write to you today to share the events and stories of Sunday the 23rd of the month of August of the year 1026. The day began with two quests across each other simultaneously. Makhta and Ace led an expedition to fight back the Abyss, a force from beyond creation that seeks its end, and the end of all realities, everywhere. At stake was an arc, one of nine items within our group of realms that allows connection to one of nine primordial deities that stand against the abyss. One has already fallen into the hands of the enemy, and that deity has been corrupted, into the being that we know as the Erl King. The majority of the Heroes present fought against the abyss, eventually running into an ancient arc bearer by the name of Kaelin, a member of the Order of Ardor, ancient warriors dedicated to fighting against a being that consumes love. Kaelin had been drawn into the role in order to oppose the being that we call Anti-Creation, one of the twelve adversaries of Sanctuary. When Kaelin was done, he was returned along with the arc to our realm to continue standing against the Abyss here. Tired and weary, he passed along his arc, and his responsibility, to the newest arc-bearer, Omri.
The other quest… Four months ago When I was a young adventurer I wish to was of a more personal nature. When I was a young fae, new to the realm of Faerie, still within my first cycle, I lived in a village known as Storm Village. That village has been destroyed for a long time now, since the Second Age of Faerie, for reasons I do not know. The False King took personal umbrage to the Village. The Village fled, and was consumed by the Mysts. Recently, at the opening of the new Fae Library, we learned more about the village… about the one I loved, known as Siward. And about a connection between Siward and Harkel. And then, at Margaret and Tir’s wedding, I performed a seance, learning that she was still alive, trapped within the Mysts, where she had been since the Second Age. A group of eleven of us, adventurers close to Harkel, or to me, quested into the Mysts to find her. When we did… unfortunately… there was not enough left of her to come out of the Mysts. I used what magic I could muster, and sent her to rest within the stars, with the part of me that exists there. And then, with her power and the power of that part of me suffusing my being, tore a hole from the Mysts so we could regroup with our friends, and help them drive back the Abyss and destroy the being known as Badoros.
With Kaelin’s spirit laid to rest within the Eternal Life Force, he drew us along the threads of fate to an old Temple to the Order of Ardor, in the city-planet Deenila, where we found ourselves needing to awaken the spirits of the various rooms within the Temple by sharing stories. To help, each of us received aid from spirit guides, beings connected to the Order who wanted to help. For me, this was a young apprentice named Kayla, dedicated to preserving the stories of the Order. We woke up the Temple, and found our way to the Forest of All Knowledge, there rescuing two children, Patroclus and Morgana, who were looking for information about the destruction of the world Galandrome. We also found the Spirit Rune for the Order of Ardor, a symbol that captured the Order’s story, and the Soulstone of the order. Several of us, including Adoros, Omri, Ryu, Pawldo, and I bolstered and protected the soulstone, and the Forest, before we had to leave.
After this, we worked to perform a ritual to cure Traveller of a disease called the Blooming. The Blooming is a terrible biological weapon, created by The Villain of the plane that they are from. It is a Plant which consumes magic, a Disease that spreads, and a Curse that controls and reanimates, making it very difficult to cure. Margaret had been given a ritual to cure it, but as we did the ritual something went wrong, cutting too deep into Traveller, and severing them into many pieces. At the same time, a group of Kings Guard from a Fae King in the Laurlins attacked, trying to get to Aris, who had changed in some way earlier in the day. After a villainous version of Traveller dragged them into the Mysts. They had spells, which from my understanding was impossible. We were forced to flee, as Aris used Second Chance and vanished, perhaps with some additional magic as well. We ended up locked in a story, fighting a villainous version of Traveller and nightmares from the past. Eventually we forged a blade known as “Good’s Triumph Villain’s Fall” to cut ourselves out of the story, and perform the ritual a second time on Kovaks, who had gotten the Blooming after curing a young girl who had an advanced case earlier this year, successfully curing them.
I apologize if this is… rambling, or difficult to follow. The day was… a lot. I spent most of it with Siward’s spirit within my own, giving us a chance to say goodbye. I am always happy to answer follow up questions, or shed some more light, as much of what happened is of a personal nature to many of us.
Sincerely,
Raindrop Storm Arkaea
OOC:
One of the things I have come to love about the Anthologies event series, having now been to both events, is it is an opportunity for lots of stories to come together. I have so much appreciation for the staff of this event, Becky, Matthew, Alex, Eric, and Ash, who all did such a good job weaving stories together and rolling with the punches. The stories were excellent, and there were many innovative mechanics and interesting things done with the event.
The other thing that I loved was the fact that it was just… at a park. This made it both very cheap, and very accessible for people to do. The event stood on its own, no big, fancy props (aside from Badoros, shout out to great monster design), just good storytelling, and a bunch of people telling stories together. This is, in my opinion, at the heart of LARP, and of Realms.
I also very much appreciate the staff rolling with the fact that I realized this was the day before my birthday, and taking the opportunity to absolutely torment my character. I highly recommend anyone who wants to tell a story with their character to ask, you might just find someone who wants to tell that story with you.
With love, and thank you for bearing with this article’s rambling,
Sky
