Saturday Morning, even before the first battle, Captain Sir Orion sends his page looking for me. So I go and Sir Orion says "Ser Kovaks, I need your expertise as a stonemason". That was when I knew the morning was starting off weird. So we were negotiating with this stone salesman, offering us rock and stone for our fortifications. It came down to payment and we needed more Blackwood currency, so Sir Tao was brought out to help. In the blink of an eye, the stone merchant had grabbed Sir Tao's magic sword, killed him with it, and ran off into the woods. I grab the weapons I was holding at the time, which interestingly enough were a Sword of Light (Seraphina's Hope) and a magic mace that Warlord Sir Saka had asked me to keep an eye on, and I give chase. I catch up, maim the merchant with a sword of light, whose true identity as an Aspis had been revealed, and we drag it back for interrogation.
- Kovaks
SO!! There I was, a zombie behind me, a horde of aspis in front of me. These zombies appeared to only be felled by a call of “mace” to the head. I did not have a mace, but instead had a 6’6 and accidentally said “BONK” while swinging at the zombie’s head…. And it worked!!!! I felled a zombie with a call of “bonk”
- Ryu
Yeah so this guy (don't remember his name) had a curse where he had to do 400 soul damaging blows to people or else he would be dead and soulless at the end of the event and the curse would get bumped to 600 blows at the next event. By Sunday I still had raises, so we take Anton out back, kill him, and this dude gives him 150 blows before I get him back up for 150 more and after doing that 3 times, I had to raise the guy with the curse. Apparently, King Cecil was nearby because he comes out and says "what's going on out here?" with a "I haven't even had my morning coffee yet" attitude.
The king explains that he heard someone die and then he heard tapping on the ground and was like "aw man this is my land now and I have to do something about it" and he was really more annoyed than anything else. We explained the situation and he was really relieved that he didn't have to actually do anything about it lol.
It was really funny. We joked that he was about to ask us to do it 100 feet up North so we wouldn't be in Chimeron anymore or something.
- Jogaiła
Laika: Oh how I almost forgot about the legendary rafter snake.
Ryu: The what!?
Laika: you didn't see the rafter snake?
Tirvanel: When we were in the [temple] getting the first Rexan artifact, [an Aspis] was up in the rafters and when the aspis poured in, he started attacking down with a 5'.
Tulli: Yeah. I had to do a LOT of mental math and timing to try and hit them "safely" with my [lightning bolt]... never mind to not have it land on our line... It's OK. Laika was the only one really at risk...
Jogaiła: I think they got me, I felt something on my head and [died] from it and it took me a few minutes to figure out [afterwards] that it was the rafter snake. I thought someone behind me just bumped into me with a shield or something.
J'ortsa: I was no where near him. But I saw him. And I was like "theres no way hes gonna jump right???" Luckily there was no falling snakes.
So, my breaking restriction story, because I feel like it's a pretty good one after 11 years consistently doing the same noncom support caster shtick. Some of you will have already seen this on Facebook
So no shit there we were:
Sometimes the sun is getting real low and we have to finish things by sundown or All Is Lost.
And sometimes, because your enbyfriend has done some Wild Hunt bullshit, every fae has on site can have their first swing at any Aspis be armor-piercing, for the rest of the night.
And you look at your puny little 3-foot sword.
And you look at the fight that we're not going to win fast enough.
And you look at the 10' 6" magic pike that can only be wielded by members of your nation.
And then you look at the sun going down.
And you choose violence.
... did I break restriction on a year when I'm going to be in surgery recovery and not able to really fight for at least 6 months? Yes. I might end up staying fighter a little bit longer to compensate for that
Because I have tasted the glory that is reach weapons and I am not ready to go back yet.
- Ezmerelda
Alright. So there I was. Rexan's Champion had already taken down several people way more powerful than me. Someone threw 5 boulders at it and it took em like it was nothing. At this point the whole circle is just kind of starring at his champion, and then at eachother waiting for someone to step forward. I'm not the best fighter. My balanced sword which I felt confident wielding had already broken in half earlier in the day. I had a mace and a shield, and honestly figured throwing a newbie at it would guilt someone better at fighting than me to go in and kill it. If nothing else, I figured it would inspire hope, and therefore was my duty as an Auroran to do it.
I stepped up, and prayed to Aurora for protection. I then just kind of started swinging at it. My helmet actually rode up and got stuck over my eyes, so I couldn't see what was going on for a solid 2-3 seconds, so I was just frantically swinging and blocking. I genuinely had no idea if I even could kill it, but I was hoping I could weaken it enough to make a difference. My armour kept going, and I was frantically trying to keep track of armour and call my shots correctly, since i wanted to do it right. I died, and then heard the words "rise and fight". Had no idea where it came from, I only learned after the fact it was a blessing from Aurora, but I just knew rise and fight meant something and that I had another chance to take it down. I kept fighting, though my armour was already weakened at this point. I died again, and heard once more "rise and fight". So I kept going. Tbh at this point it's a bit of a blur. Just frantically trying to hit whatever I could without getting killed due to the lack of armour. Dead once more, and one last time "rise and fight". I had no idea how many times I'd be granted this, but I wanted to take advantage of the chance I had. So I kept swinging, on basically nothing but adrenaline at this point. Got a head shot in and heard "dead". Next thing I knew I was surrounded by people and being lifted up and honored as a hero.
- Margaret
When Cecil said "I'm going in ten minutes and I'm leaving with or without you all" I knew that the time to cast my last spell was near. I grabbed my gear and marched up to the field. This was the battle in the serpentine caverns. I called for our circles to be cast and set our battle lines at the entrance to each of the many paths. When our healers and blacksmiths were set (eternal blessings to all of you incredible people who served in our back line) I stepped up to the front and called the charge. With material components in hand I cast that One Last Spell.
At the same time, I heard/felt everyone behind me go "ohhh, when Orion said go, he meant go" and suddenly the fighting on our side got a lot more focused and intense. The aspis in those caves never stood a chance.
- Orion
One of the most adrenaline-intense moments of last weekend was during the bridge and tunnel battles when I was on the front lines next to Grarr Seawoods cowering behind our shields getting absolutely pounded as we inched forwards while y'all with the long weapons reached over us and did serious damage. Stormwarden earned its name for sure.
- Anthony Warder
I stayed up late Friday night/Saturday morning helping with a few last bits of the warcamp. I realized we had a fair amount of "physical effort" left over, and had built literally every building available. So as I went to sleep, I was trying to think about what to do with the remainders. It did not seem like there would be another use of the physical effort for the rest of the event (maybe rebuilding, if we got sacked?). I wondered if I could arrange for a shipment of books from Highbridge or Ivory as a temporary library, but, as much as the Order of the Lantern might have appreciated that, I did not really see a way to make that work. Just before I fell alseep, it hit me: a windmill could turn physical effort into Resources, I was sure of it.
In the morning, I was going to try to make it myself, but had to help consecrate the "temple" to Cuchullain and Nimbus. I found DelHemar, who was up for the challenge. He build a fantastic windmill. Then I brought it up to the warcamp to find a place for it. There was a nice hill near the temples to Aurora and Gaia where it fit in, and while it was certainly a surprise to some people in the war camp (OOC: Alex's face when I revealed what we were doing was priceless, and then she fully rallied and supported what we were doing, coming up with a mechanic on the fly which I am very thankful for), we used it to get several more resources over the day!
- Rosetta
Being asked to learn intervention, and being invited to participate in the ritual to empower the banner of the realms. It was a heady experience to walk amongst those readying themselves for war, connecting each of them to the banner through me and the spirits of the land around us.
- Mayumi
Friday night forge quest, I just started straight up snarling at the aspis. No real in game effect other than making me feel good, and seeing the two [snakes] who stepped back a half step the first time I did it to them certainly didn't hurt. Any tips from local friendly werewolves? lol
- Fern
Ok so you all remember the zombies, right? Well, those of us watching your backs while you figured out the getting the bodies and souls thing together were having a great time with the one with named Greg. We kept turning him around and having him fight the Aspis on our behalf. At least three times we put him in our line while he was stunned, pointed at the enemy, and when he got up again he would go right back to fighting the Aspis. It was fantastic.
- Fern
Friday night forge quest I was charged with rear guard with Axel Nosetti, Tuilli, Kyram, and Liana and those were some of the most intense fights I had all weekend because if we broke then aspis would crash into everyone with their backs turned. All my right side and head armor was long gone by the time we actually reached the forge but I had some amazing people keeping my limbs and head attached.
It was the exact same feeling as being in the bridge battle and I now live for that feeling.
- Grarr Seawoods
Oh another fun story from the weekend. I played rock paper scissors with an Aspis for Sir Chan's corpse during the flag battle and won. Dragged them around the backline of Aspis and to the healers.
The Aspis tried to break the deal but I informed them that I am a Fae and you will not break a bargain with me.
- Lt. Bogen
Fighting Rexan, at the front lines. I was just far enough back that the head couldn't quite hit me, and whacking it with my mace when I had the opportunity
When all of a sudden, the head lunges forward towards me and I hear a call of "God Strike." I instinctively take a half step back, and the head stops about two feet in front of me
I did the logical thing and whack it with my mace a couple more times
Then I feel a hand on my shoulder as I'm pulled back from the front lines and Sir Orion says "I appreciate the effort, but that is not for you."
So there I was, minding my own business, when Orion excitedly walks out of the tavern and asks “Griffin, how would you like to be overpowered as hell?”
Anyways, that’s how I ended up being a frontline 1-path with 2 points (and eventually 3 points) of self-enchanted armor, a door shield and an armor piercing mace on the bridge battle. Combined with Purity to Poison and Hardened Veteran, I didn’t die a whole lot.