>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:27 No.13752931

Terrible people are exactly that. They irritate you, they frustrate you, and they might even anger you. And sometimes, they bring you to a point where you discover something about yourself that you didn't want to know. Thanks to a group of people that can only be described as absolute villains, I realized that I could actually hate someone. A pure, absolute hate that would shame anyone that harbors it.

And I still carry this shameful hate, with my memories of that weekend keeping it alight.

It came as a surprise, though I should have been expecting things to not go the way I wanted them to. All I was hoping for was a fun weekend with my friends, running through the woods pretending to be in a fantasy world. Of course, I erred terribly thinking that would be the way things went, and I have no excuse because it wasn't my first time at this particular LARP.

The first time I had gone was a bit of an adventure, and while things worked out in the end, I think I managed to make more enemies than friends. I don't really regret anything I did, and am even proud of some of it, but I wasn't in a rush to repeat it.

I'm not a fan of LARPing. It's probably because I'm never on the same page as everyone else. Actually, I think it's because no one is ever on the same page as everyone else. Everyone has their own ideas on how things should be, and when all these little individual universes collide, it's inevitable that conflicts occur. At best, it's just people getting into small arguments out of confusion. At worst, we get huge battles filled with anger and malice that leave everyone scarred in one way or another.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:28 No.13752937

While I'm not a fan of LARPing, I have some friends who are. One goes running through the woods nearly every month playing a mage named Hardule Nightwater, and he's the one who managed to convince me to go once to a new LARP with him. While I'm sure I could find plenty to complain about him, we've been friends for too long for me to even bother pointing out his faults, and I guess the reason we've been friends this long is because he has a way of exceeding my expectations every so often in spectacular ways.

I also went with one other friend, who played a warrior named Lith Cloud. While neither of us are going to be trying out for the Olympic team, we're still both fairly athletic, and we usually end up competing against each other a fair bit. My first time at the new LARP was his first time as well, but he went a few more times afterwards with Hardule. Dedicating a whole weekend for something like LARPing isn't as easy as it was in the past, and I usually had more than one excuse to not go with them.

I'll admit I do somewhat regret not going with them during those times, for a wide variety of reasons. One of them being not being able to see the friends I made at the Larp the one time I went. I met up with two of them a few times after that event, since one invited Hardule, Lith, and I to play some Dungeons and Dragons with him. He had helped me out a fair bit at the event, and while he spends most of his time playing as a monster NPC, he sometimes plays a mage named Vlaine.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:29 No.13752947

Vlaine also invited one other person from the LARP, a guy some 5 years older than the rest of us and one of the most skilled warriors I'd fought at the LARP. He always just played as monsters, though he admitted that he did start a character named Rhend that he had played once. Often, before we'd start playing D&D, he'd challenge me to a little foam weapon sparring outside, and everyone would end up joining in for a few rounds.

I'll admit that I really like the fighting aspect of LARPs. There's something about fighting with foam weapons that's a little bit different from a sport like fencing or an attempt at recreating historical techniques. There's this level of childish innocence to it, something that makes adults fighting each other seem ridiculous. While we all end up taking it more seriously than we should, our little battles would end with all of us in pretty good moods.

Vlaine is not a bad fighter, a little better than Hardule, but both of them are better casters than warriors. Lith managed to learn quite a bit at the events I missed, mostly on how to use his shield better, but that just meant I quickly learned new ways of getting past his shield. In the end, I think it's fair to say in a straight one-on-one fight, I can defeat him four times out of five, but he works better as part of a team with someone. Rhend is definitely the most skilled out of all of us, but that doesn't mean I don't beat him on occasion. He seems to really enjoy fighting with me, and has often said that I'm an entertaining fighter.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:29 No.13752950

Sometimes, during our D&D games, the topic of the LARP would spring up, and while I felt a little out of the loop, I didn't really feel any urge to go. I still kept it pretty low on my priorities, which meant that I usually had an excuse not to go when they tried to convince me. While hanging out with my friends was great, work and school would often cut into one of the three days of the monthly events, and that would be enough to discourage me from going at all.

Finally, Hardule told me something that made LARPing rocket upwards on my list of priorities. It was after an event that Lith had not gone with him, and he came back both angry and depressed.

He and Lith had started a noble house, which had grown fairly large, with nine people within it. With only something over a hundred people at each event, this made House Cerberus pretty influential, especially since Hardule's character was one of the strongest mages in the game.

House Cerberus made it a point to reach out to new and younger players, and Hardule would often negotiate with the LARP directors, the "Plot Masters," to send out monsters with stats that these players could handle. Vlaine was the one who suggested he do this, and by this method the house had grown rather quickly, though its members weren't particularly strong.

At the last event, House Cerberus had been destroyed.

By Archduke Ulcik.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:30 No.13752952

It shows how weak my control of my emotions is, in that I'm angry just remembering this man. Perhaps it's not a matter of weakness in control, but just how much hatred I have towards that foul bastard.

He was a partial owner of the LARP, and one of its plot masters. He had played an extremely powerful mage named Ulcik, who had decided to fix mistakes he made by trying to have my character executed. Through the combined efforts of a group of people, his character was permanently killed, along with almost the entirety of his noble house. In fact, the only survivor was Hardule, who also happened to be the one to deliver the final blow that killed Ulcik.

I didn't think Ulcik would take things gracefully, but Hardule had reported for the last few months that Ulcik had kept quiet, only performing plot master duties and not much else. Not caring too much about the Larp to have paid attention to Ulcik's inactivity, I realize now that I should have known he was scheming something.

Hardule told his story bitterly. Through some bullshit ritual, the Archduke Ulcik was resurrected as a Lich, and he and a group of LARPers sought revenge against House Cerberus. They simply kept killing the weaker members over and over again, until they were either permanently dead or had professed that they no longer were in the House.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:31 No.13752956

Hardule was the only one who had remained alive and in the house, having stayed in the woods running for the majority of the event. Lith, having not been there, was the only other remaining member of the house, and it didn't seem like the two of them would be able to restore their house while the Lich Ulcik wanted to kill them.

I knew Ulcik was a petty person, but I didn't think he would take his character's death so poorly. He had probably waited until House Cerberus was nice and big before he decided to crush it. Hardule kept padding his story by telling me just how impressively he hid in the woods, but I pressed him for details on Ulcik and his followers. Hardule only knew vague rumors, and himself had not even seen the Lich, having run into the woods the second he had heard that a group was hunting House Cerberus members.

Lith was furious. He really only cared about one thing at the LARP, the Noble house he had started. He swore with every second breath, and he started planning his own revenge. While he and Hardule both had stronger characters than when I had been with them, remembering that it took almost an entire army to weaken Ulcik the first time he died made most of Lith's plans seem foolish.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:31 No.13752962

Ulcik as a Lich was something I didn't want to deal with, but something about that didn't seem right. If I knew the man as well as I thought I did, he wouldn't be content with being an undead monster. He was definitely either planning something further, or there was something that Hardule didn't know.

Lith's final plan ended up being not much of one. With a month before the next event, we would train and then we'd go and restore the house. This was probably my last chance to avoid everything, to just tell him his plan was stupid and to just go and cut his losses, but the thought that I'd be the one to finalize Ulcik's revenge was just too strong. I knew it was just a silly LARP that didn't mean anything, but that man deserved no victories.

Lith's idea of "training" was badgering me to fight with him whenever we had a free moment. While he was enthusiastic during the first week, he lost all motivation during the second and third, only regaining it during the last week before the event. Hardule likewise participated in the training, though he definitely spent more time just feeling hopeless and depressed.

I knew that expecting the three of us to defeat Ulcik and his crew just by training for a month was ridiculous, but I also knew that Ulcik wasn't a very clever man, and that there had to be some way to foil his plans. There had to be something I could do to make him regret ruining my friends' goals.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:32 No.13752971

Vlaine was a great help. He filled me in on details Hardule had not heard, and information that gave me a starting point for my own plans. With his promise to help us out from the monster side, I felt a little more confident, though I still had no real plan.

The month passed, and Hardule was wondering if they should abandon House Cerberus. Lith steadfastly refused, offering no reasoning behind his conviction. I don't think I simply wasted the month, but I didn't feel like any of us were prepared for what we were going to have to do.

In part, my major plan was to first find out what was going on, and the best way to do that was to start off as monsters. Every player had to do a scheduled shift as a monster for a day of the event, and our plan was to be monsters on Friday, learn as much as we could, and then do what needed to be done on Saturday and Sunday.

It was a start, but it meant that If we didn't come up with a decent plan by Saturday, we'd probably all be permanently killed before we had a chance to do anything. I had considered staying as a monster for the entire event, but what I needed was complete freedom, something only players had, which included being able to kill whoever I wanted.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:33 No.13752974

Hardule, Lith, and I packed our gear into the car and drove towards the camp grounds where the Larp would be held. There was a little bit of nervous tension, none of us certain what would happen. While the last time I had packed with the idea that we'd be doing some light camping, this time I was prepared for war. Earth toned clothing, energy bars, canteen, triple layered military sleeping bag, trail running shoes, and more, just so I could get even the slightest advantage. When Hardule had seen what I packed, he slipped in a ninja halloween costume into his bag, which I could only hope he'd never have to use.

When we arrived at the grounds, they were just like I had remembered them, though it was a fair bit colder. Some distance from anything else, the campground was fairly large and secluded, with cabins spread out throughout the grounds. The largest parking lot was not far from the largest cabin, which was used as an Inn during play and was the major center for player activity. We had arrived a little early, just so we could make sure we'd be able to sign up for the Friday monster assignments before they got filled up.

Unsurprisingly, Ulcik was already there, a broad grin on his face. Seeing him again was exactly what I needed. There's nothing like a poorly aging, overweight man with ridiculous braids in his beard and hair walking towards you with a shit-eating grin on his face to provide you with motivation. Any doubt I had before was wiped away, and after he greeted us, he seemed very happy to see that I had returned to this LARP.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:34 No.13752980

There was a brief moment where we both wondered whether or not we'd express hostilities right then and there. We both wondered whether it would be better to pretend being friendly towards each other, whether there was any advantage in that.

That matter was settled quickly. We both knew that we had in turn earned each other's hate, and that there was no need for pretenses. He asked if we still planned on continuing with House Cerberus, and I asked if he planned on having his character live through the weekend. He snorted, before ambling off towards another group that had arrived.

We registered ourselves, receiving our character sheets in the process. Nephem Festiva, my character, remained unchanged from the last time I had played him, with even his inventory just as I had left it. Hardule explained that as it was my second event, I wouldn't be leveling up, which seemed to catch the man in charge of registration's interest. He said that I might be affected by changes in the rules that were going to announced once the event started, though he wasn't entirely certain.

The three of us waited inside the Inn, occasionally exchanging words between us while people passed us. We received a fair amount of scowls and most people didn't bother greeting us, something I hadn't been expecting. Had Hardule and Lith done something to make House Cerberus so hated? I considered this for a moment, then realized that our low popularity was likely a part of Ulcik's schemes. There were still a few people that cheerfully said hello to us, though I had no certainty of their sincerity.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:35 No.13752982

When most of the people had gathered in the inn, I remembered most of them, or at least remembered the archetype they belonged to. This wasn't a particularly combat-oriented LARP, with most of the players either significantly overweight or underweight, and we had a good variety of the classic types of geeks and outcasts. With most in their thirties and looking a little too excited for their age, there was a general feeling that this LARP was their attempt at clinging to their youth, even if it was an imaginary one.

There were a few more teenagers than there were last time, among them a cluster of girls dressed entirely in black who seemed like they were all friends. Some of the older men kept walking over to talk to them, but they seemed content keeping to themselves.

Finally, at 5 o'clock, the three Plot Masters took their places at one end of the large hall. Ulcik stood in the center, smiling so much that it should have been outlawed, flanked by two much older men. One I recognized as the man in charge of the monsters, who despite his age (probably his early sixties) was in great shape. The other man seemed even older, short and wide with a white beard that reminded me of a garden gnome. The two of them stood silently as Ulcik spoke, greeting everyone and announcing the start of the event.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:35 No.13752986

His foremost announcement was that big changes were being made to the rules, to help make things more fun and exciting for new players. To start, every player who had been to less than three events would immediately receive bonus skill points, and new low level skills would be available.

This announcement was met with hoots and shouts that came from the back of the room. Everyone turned to look, though before I turned around I had a good idea of who it could be.

There were seven men, still obnoxiously cheering while all of us looked at them. They were all probably within one or two years of my age, and all were wearing different suits of armor. Compared to the rest of the people in the Inn, they were far more imposing, each of them looking at the crowd like wolves surveying sheep. Ulcik grinned at their interruption, letting them cheer for a moment longer, before delivering the rest of the announcements.

Vlaine had told me about these seven, and I ignored the rest of what Ulcik had to say just so I could observe them better. They were from a medieval combat recreation society, and had been invited by Ulcik himself to join this LARP. Under his banner, they had been the ones who had chiefly dismantled House Cerberus, and it seemed like Ulcik was allowing them to pull favors. One of them noticed me, but he simply kept grinning even as I realized I had started to scowl at the group.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:36 No.13752987

Thankfully, it wasn't just them who would be receiving bonus skill points, since I and a fair amount of the teenagers had only been here for one or two previous events. If Ulcik was letting us all get this bonus, it probably meant he wanted an excuse to boost up his new little squad and ensure their favor, as well as the favor of all the new players. He had probably not considered that I would be returning this event, and I was going to make sure the bonus skills I received went towards making him regret his oversight.

After the announcements, I went with my friends over to the registration counter, and was impressed to see what kind of new abilities were available, and which I could get with the few bonus points I had recieved. They almost all were for warriors, which suited me fine, as Nephem Festiva was a warrior mage. Most of these new abilities were much stronger than other beginner skills, and had odd requirements like needing to use specific weapons or having a certain amount of HP. After finishing, my character was still several shades weaker than Lith, and much, much weaker than Hardule, who was one of the strongest people in the game, but I felt content.

I increased my HP to 18 and had sworn off all other weapons to specialize in two-handed swords. I had two fire spells (one I could use as much as I wanted and dealt 1 damage, and one that dealt 7 damage that I could use once a day), an ice spell(the target had his legs frozen, which meant he couldn't move his feet from where they were), and a weak healing spell (I could heal 4hp three times a day), which I had from the previous event. With my bonus skills, I chose two that seemed ridiculously powerful, at least to me.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:37 No.13752990

The first was the ability to swing my two-handed sword with one hand. Ordinarily, without the ability, I would not be allowed to call out damage unless both of my hands were on the sword. The second ability complimented with the first fairly well. Simply called "Bracers," it allowed me to block weapons with my hands and forearms. I didn't intend to actually actively block with them, but preventing them from being a target was definitely worth the points I put into it.

When I had finished, we made our way towards the Cave, a special cabin where the monsters had their headquarters. Some of the other players were also headed towards it, but they kept their distance from us. When we arrived at the Cave, we were greeted by the old man in charge of the monsters, as well as by Vlaine and Rhend, who had rather anxious looks on their faces.

The rest of the people in the cave were the people who were going to play as monsters the entire event. Compared to the players at the inn, they were all rather athletic and many of them were fairly skilled in foam weapon combat. I recognized a few, and they greeted me rather warmly, as I had managed to impress them a little at the last event I had been to.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:37 No.13752997

I began to discuss things with Vlaine, telling him about the bonus skills and my opinion of Ulcik's little squad, but a large group suddenly entered the cave, which became rather quiet. These were the new players, who would be spending their first day as monsters so that they could learn the rules of combat.

There were several teenagers, including the group of goth girls, but there was also two older players, and one man who looked like he didn't really belong here. He must have been well over seventy, and unlike the Monster leader, age had taken its toll on him fairly harshly. When the Monster Leader told the new players to choose some weapons from the piles that were against the walls, he hobbled rather than walked, and it looked like he had trouble lifting even one of the smaller swords.

After the Monster Leader led the new players out, the rest of the monsters began moving out, wearing a variety of costumes. Eventually, one of the monsters saw our group, and assigned us to head out as bog trolls. Looking at the stat card I was handed, I was glad to see that they were decently strong (35HP and dealt bonus damage), but more importantly that they could use any two-handed weapon.

I scanned the weapon piles, daring to hope. After sifting through some, I found what I was looking for. The two-handed sword I had used last time was still in great condition, almost no different from when I had returned it here. Sadly, it no longer had the ribbons that signified it as being magical, but that was in a way alright, because the magic weapon my character had been carrying had been destroyed last event. Even so, just having the same physical weapon was heartening.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:38 No.13753000

After putting on a large furry vest and draping myself with plastic vines, I went over to where Hardule, Lith, Vlaine, and Rhend were waiting. The others were similarly dressed like trolls, except Vlaine was dressed in odd robes and had a bushy white beard. Vlaine explained he'd be going to the inn as a wizard NPC to get people to go out (and he'd try gathering information there as well). He also said that bog trolls were solitary creatures, but we'd rush over if we heard another bog troll roar. I was then handed a copper piece and we all headed out in different directions.

I was back.

My shoes gripped the ground perfectly, launching me forward into the forest with admittedly un-troll-like speed. I'll admit it now, though I hope you won't go around telling anyone, but after the last event, some of the motivation for me to work out came from the smallest seed of a desire to come back here. While Lith had only really tried to train himself over the last month, I had been improving my condition for the last several. Running just to see how quickly I could charge through the patches of forest and the occasional open field, I was surprised to see just how much of the place I remembered.

I occasionally saw a group of three or four people, but I ignored them, and none seemed intent on trying to fight against a monster who was willing to attract attention to himself. I had two missions right now, though the first was just to see what had changed in the last few months. The second, which I considered much more important, was to find Ulcik's crew and to see just how well they fought.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:39 No.13753004

From Vlaine's accounts, they weren't simply good. Though it had been their first event, they had managed to easily defeat people who had much stronger characters, and had proven to know how use small-scale tactics pretty well. This isn't what made them scary, Vlaine had said, though it definitely made them threatening. What made them scary was that they had managed to hunt down eight members of House Cerberus several times.

In order for a character to be permanently killed, they had to die a certain amount of times which decreased with what level the character was. A 1st level character could die twenty times, a 5th level could only have had 15 deaths, and 20th and higher level characters would die permanently if they died once. House Cerberus had, outside of Hardule, only low level players in it, which meant they were killed time and time again until they abandoned the house or were simply permanently killed.

To catch a person who didn't want to be caught in the huge campgrounds wasn't easy, and the fact that they had done so reliably made me wonder what kind of skills they had outside of being able to fight well. With a good part of the half-formed plan I was creating relying on being able to fight them on our terms instead of theirs, I needed to know what they were capable of.

While running, trapped in my thoughts, I was abruptly sprung from them when I heard a roar from a good distance away. I stopped, listening hard, until I heard it again, though I was still not sure who it was that was roaring. I ran in the direction it came from, leaping over stumps and bushes that might have given trouble to me before.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:39 No.13753006

I reached a small clearing, and was shocked to see Rhend lying on the ground, with two armored men standing over him. One was wearing thick, detailed and shiny plate armor that didn't seem to restrain him at all, and he was carrying a long polearm that ended with a hammer at its tip, a bec de corbin. The other wore black leather scaled cloth, with thick pads on his shoulders, elbows, and knees, and had a simple yet very high quality two-handed foam sword. I recognized these two, and would have been more than eager to fight them if I hadn't seen Rhend on the ground.

I had made too much noise for them to not have noticed me, but they were content to continue talking amongst themselves over Rhend. Cautiously, I stepped into the clearing, and the two of them finished their discussion, with the hammer wielder remaining where he was while the other stepped towards me.

He didn't ask me what I was, and I doubt he would have cared even if I told him I was a five-year old princess. He wanted to fight me just as much as I wanted to fight him, and this was the perfect chance for both of us to see how we measured up to each other.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:40 No.13753014

I swung first, a deliberately short strike just to see how he'd react. He didn't miss the opportunity, flashing out his sword and catching the tip of mine. He took advantage of my surprise, and as I pulled my sword back out of his reach, he stepped forward, cutting in for eight points of damage. Before my mind even registered the number, he hit me twice in rapid succession before I managed to back up out of his way.

He didn't let me. Sticking close to me, matching my movement, he continued to land strikes on me, until I dropped with the 5th hit. As I sank to the ground, he gave me a look of disappointment before turning back to his ally.

Lying on the ground, I tried to figure out what had just happened. At first, I thought about the eight damage he was dealing. Ordinarily, a first level character (like Nephem) only dealt four points of damage with a two-handed sword, or five if he sank most of his skill points into increasing that damage, but for this guy to be dealing eight meant that he was using magic items, and rather powerful ones. After I made this conclusion, I felt a little ashamed, because I knew I was looking for excuses and trying to avoid what had just happened.

He had beaten me before I had even landed a single hit. How much damage he was dealing didn't mean anything if I couldn't even hit him once, and I slowly realized that I hadn't even blocked any of his attacks. He had beaten me completely on near equal terms, and I didn't even know how strong he was compared to the rest of his group.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:40 No.13753016

They left after a minute or so, not even bothering to search us for the copper pieces we had, and Rhend sat up after three minutes of silence. I'm sure there was something he wanted to say to me, but we just got up and headed back to the cave, the scene all too vividly emblazoned on our minds.

Only once I sat down on one of the couches in the cave did all the frustration I was supposed to be feeling hit me. Who the hell were these guys? How were they so good? Up until then, my half formed plan was to kill them, and then I thought the hard part would be taking down Ulcik. Having now fought one of his lackeys, I started to think it might be easier to take down the undead version of the strongest player in the game rather than to face those seven.

Still wallowing in my defeat, I waited in silence until Lith and Hardule returned, each of them looking enraged. They began to curse at Ulcik, for having brought those seven. They had been soundly defeated, just as Rhend and I had been, and it had been barely half an hour since we had gone out.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:41 No.13753019

The two of them kept discussing how they were far too strong for first level characters, while Rhend and I kept silent, thinking about the battle. Was there any chance of getting through this event with Nephem alive? Maybe I just had to spend the rest of the weekend as a monster?

I should have felt ashamed, but my brain was too overloaded to be concerned about that. I had come with the idea that Hardule, Lith, Rhend, Vlaine and I would be more than enough to take down Ulcik and whatever pathetic followers he had grouped together. I had even had visions of pitched battles, pushing me to the limits of my abilities but I would always come out on top. Now, I needed to figure out how to keep House Cerberus from crumbling while I felt like there was nothing I could do.

When Vlaine returned, he didn't return with good news. He had asked people for the full story of Ulcik, and I realized just how unpleasant the weekend was going to be.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:41 No.13753021

Ulcik had returned as a lich, but a "good" Lich. He had been brought back to life by a group of ten people in a ritual, and had saved the entire town in an important battle almost single-handedly. After his resurrection, he sought to destroy the evil house that had assassinated him, while restoring his own house, House Ulcik.

With this as the story, it now didn't seem so odd that most of the other players weren't too happy with us. When I asked who the ten people were, Vlaine said it was the seven new players, along with three old members of House Ulcik. One I didn't know, but the other two I remembered well. One had been an fat woman who had tried to convince everyone that I had killed her because I was late in saving her, while the other was a miserable two-handed sword wielder who I had killed twice, once by killing him in his sleep and a second time on the field of battle. When I told him I was certain that these two had permanently died at the last event, Vlaine explained that they were playing secondary characters, each nearly identical to their old ones.

I let this all sink in. Not only were we fighting against Ulcik, we were fighting against popular opinion. It had been my hope that I could get a fair amount of players to rally behind us to kill the Lich, but him managing to produce some bullshit about being a good Lich who only wanted to help people and to have revenge against his killers was just too much.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:42 No.13753022

Still, something didn't sit right. Why go through the trouble of being a Lich? Why not simply be restored to life as he had been, why bother coming back as an undead? Knowing him, he'd consider being an undead a painful reminder that he had been killed, and he wouldn't have settled for that if he could have helped it.

Slowly, a potential ally started to appear in my mind. Ulcik, while being a Plot Master, was not the only one. The other two Plot Masters must have restricted him from being simply resurrected, and he had to be content with coming back as a Lich. While I'm certain that Ulcik would have had no problem bending the rules about permanent death just to save his character, the other two Plot Masters had at least enough sense to stop him from just revising his own death.

I didn't know how useful this idea might have been, but it at least kept me sane, since I at least knew that Ulcik wasn't in complete control. He was powerful, yes, but not omnipotent, which at least gave us a chance. I didn't share these thoughts with the rest of my crew, because it really did feel like I was grasping at trivial things while we had much larger problems to tackle.

Realizing just how pathetic I was starting to sound, even to myself, I decided that sitting around wasn't going to help us at all. Just as I stood up, the group of new people arrived at the cave, chatting loudly. The old man smiled as he explained to them how to get assignments from the other monsters and that tomorrow they'd be playing as their characters, but his face fell into a grimace when he had finished, obviously upset about something.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:43 No.13753024

The Monster Leader left the Cave, moving like he had some urgent business. Most of the new players seemed angry about something, slumping down onto the couches grumpily, but the group of goth girls were looking around for something. They spotted me standing, and the tallest of them, with long, bleached white hair but a somewhat unflatteringly wide face, asked me to give them an assignment.

I asked Vlaine what to do, and he said to lead them over towards the records room where one of the veteran monsters usually was. After showing them a room with a large desk and a number of cabinets, the guy inside decided to ask me to act as their leader and that we'd be going out as skeleton knights.

Once we got back to the main room, Vlaine explained the costume to me and the five girls, and we quickly dressed in bone patterned robes with black cloth masks and picked up a variety of weapons. Sadly, skeleton knights couldn't use two-handed weapons, so I grabbed two swords instead.

Just before we left, the old yet new player came hobbling over, saying that he had been assigned to go with us. After waiting the five minutes it took for him to get ready, the seven of us set off.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:44 No.13753027

In truth, I had wanted to go out alone and explore more of the campgrounds, but with these people as potential allies, I sought to be as friendly and as helpful as I could be. I might have been a little overly nice at first, and the way the girls returned smiles that were just a little too happy for my taste curbed my enthusiasm rather quickly.

While skeleton knights were usually supposed to be silent, the teenage girls were asking question after question, most of them not at all related to this game. The tall girl in particular had a habit of asking questions that worried me, like my thoughts on the afterlife and whether I believed in "real" magic. Reminding myself that I might need their help later, I answered her questions vaguely, knowing that I didn't want to be wrangled into a conversation about life and death with a teenager who seemed obsessed with the latter.

The old man made our journey last far longer than I would have liked, but I couldn't blame him. When I grew tired of the girls immense interest in an older guy who lacked the proper sense to tell them to be quiet, I would hang back and chat with him. He had come to this LARP because he wanted to spend time with his grandson, but his grandson had his monster shift on Sunday. He was a little depressed that his grandson had not decided to take two monster shifts so that they could stay together, but he hadn't come here so that he would be a nuisance to him.

Eventually, we spotted a group of three players, none of which seemed particularly strong, Skeleton knights also weren't too great in regards to stats, but we outnumbered them by a fair bit. The girls stood still, looking towards me for directions, and I merely nodded before I raced forward.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:44 No.13753031

The three players saw the six of us, and two seemed intent on running away. One however remained, calling back to his allies to stay and fight. This one lunged forward at me, with a sword in one hand and a dagger in the other.

It felt good. I didn't even bother attacking him for a good long time, savoring the feeling of being able to block and react to his strikes with ease. He was a player, one of the unathletic, unskilled, undisciplined combatants that was so bad that he probably thought he had the advantage since I wasn't returning his attacks. After the other two players had moved forward and had begun to fight against the girls, who had moved to surround them, I began a simple pattern of blocking and striking.

I would never have fallen into such an obvious pattern if I was fighting someone I considered a threat, but he was unable to break the rhythm, getting hit each time he tried to attack, and he kept trying to attack. When I finally dropped him, two of the girls were also sitting down on the ground, and I rushed over towards my next opponent.

After dropping him in seconds thanks to the aid of two of the remaining girls, I checked to see if the last of our opponents had enough sense to run. He did, and as he sprinted away at full speed, I motioned for the girls not to follow him.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:45 No.13753033

When we had put some distance between us and the fallen players, I told them it was only courteous to give him a chance to run back to the inn and get some healers to save his friends. The two girls who had been killed seemed a little depressed, but the rest were rather pleased with themselves. Even the old man looked rather happy just to have survived, though he hadn't even gotten close to any of the players.

The girls seemed rather impressed with how I fought, and they even badgered me for lessons for a few minutes. After I gave in and started to explain things to them far more seriously than I should have, they quickly lost interest.

We continued on, following a mental path I made that would give me a good chance to see all of the grounds, and I saw something I knew had not been there the last time I had been here.

I first was simply dumbfounded, because I thought I was staring at a real castle that must have been built in the few months I had been gone. Upon closer inspection, I realized that it was mostly made of painted plywood, and had a very amateurish construction, more of a giant playground fixture than a real building. Even so, I was impressed, and as I was admiring it, a tall man emerged from one of the few entrances.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:45 No.13753036

A fellow monster, he greeted us out of character, and after I explained it was our first time seeing the place, he invited us inside to look around.

The interior was mostly bare, though some of the walls had been roughly painted to look like stone. It was rather dark, with only a few battery-powered lights that dimly lit the passages. I was surprised by the sheer size of the thing, though as we explored further into it we saw that most of the rooms were just walled patches of dirt without roofs or floors. The layout was almost maze-like, and without our guide we could have easily gotten lost inside.

He explained that the core of the castle had been built by a legitimate construction crew, while the extended additions had been made by a group of volunteer players, which included himself. They had only used it once so far, two events ago, but it was still open for any brave adventurers to come in and try to find some of the treasure that was hidden inside. Of course, they'd have to fight him, and if they him he'd let them inside before using his radio to summon up a crew of monsters from the Cave to help him out.

While the girl's enthusiasm in the castle quickly mellowed out, the old man was rather disappointed when I decided it was time to leave. He said he couldn't wait to bring his grandson here, though I warned him against it, considering that our guide had explained it was basically a trap for overconfident players. He said it wouldn't matter, since as long as they got into the castle, his grandson could probably take on anything that was sent their way.

When we finally got back to the cave, it was already dark, and everyone seemed tired. I went into the records room, and asked the guy inside if it would be alright for the old man and the girls to end their monster shift early. He said it wouldn't be a problem, and I stepped back into the main room to tell them.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:46 No.13753040

The old man was pretty grateful, and he went off to find his grandson, who I suggested might be in the inn. The girls also decided they'd rather go and play their characters than be monsters, and they decided to head back to the inn as well. About five minutes after they had gone, one ended up coming back, announcing that she'd rather go out as a monster with me a little while longer.

I hadn't paid much attention to this girl, and in fact had a bit of trouble telling her apart from her friends. She had enough make-up that I couldn't tell if she was pretty or not, and her only really distinct characteristic was the way she shuffled her feet as she walked, with rapid, little steps that I knew she was doing on purpose but I had no idea why. Though I really would have preferred going out by myself, or at least with one of the other guys in my crew, she didn't seem interested when I suggested that she go back to her friends.

We went out again as skeleton knights, though we moved a lot faster and somewhat more quietly then we had in the larger group. We would have moved in complete silence if it weren't for her odd manner of walking, though I'll admit she showed some perseverance by managing to keep up with me as I hustled along the roads, her feet moving at a ridiculously fast pace to make up for her tiny steps. Though it was dark, I could pride myself on my night vision, and I led the young girl expertly through the forest and along the roads, picking paths she could get through relatively unobstructed.

When I offered that we take a rest, she gladly accepted, and I realized that she was far more exhausted than she appeared. As she sat down on the grass, she was breathing somewhat hard, which had been drowned out while she was walking by the sound of her feet. I offered her the cup portion of my canteen as I drank straight from it, and asked why exactly she had decided to come with me.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:47 No.13753045

She drank too quickly, coughing slightly, before answering that she really wanted to fight well, and she thought that she could learn from watching me and that I could teach her. The other girls had planned to spend the rest of the night in the inn roleplaying as fortune tellers and bards, and she herself couldn't really sing too well and she didn't play an instrument. She just wanted be able to protect her friends if she needed to.

I wasn't much in the mood to try and teach anyone anything, but I had no problem with her tagging behind me if that's all she really intended to do. After it seemed like she was well rested, I started off at a brisk pace, with plans to head towards the castle once again.

Before we arrived, there was a brief moment where I felt something. It might sound like I'm speaking purely from hindsight, but there was definitely an odd tension in the air, something that made me alert and anxious. The moment passed as I heard branches snapping as three men stepped out of the woods, each moving towards me with the intent to battle.

The goth girl moved backwards, her shuffling feet announcing that she wanted to run. While I knew that I couldn't take on all three of them at the same time, I still had some distance between us before I had to make my fight or flight decision.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:47 No.13753052

In a deep voice, I announced myself as Tibia, a skeleton knight, and that I challenged them to honorable combat. The sound of feet shuffling behind me stopped, just as the three men likewise halted their approach. They seemed to whisper between themselves, giving me a good chance to see who I was facing.

Two of them were typical players, one clearly a thief while the other a sword and shield fighter. The third was wearing armor beneath a white surcoat that I recognized, him belonging to the gang of warriors Ulcik had procured. He had a small shield and sword, both of them much better quality than the ones his ally carried.

They finished their discussion rather quickly, and the man in the white surcoat stepped forward, announcing in tones I could fairly call haughty, that he accepted my challenge despite me being unworthy of his time.

I was nervous. The last battle I had against one of these guys started to replay in my memory, crushing any good feelings I had been starting to regain from my recent victory against the players I had fought with the group of new people. My opponent seemed confident, his shield prepared in front of him, his eyes focused on me.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:48 No.13753053

I approached cautiously, but he wasn't going to let any more tension build up. He rushed forward, faster than I expected, but I was still able to maintain my distance and flash out with one of my swords. He blocked it easily with his shield, ready to press the attack, but I had learned enough from his friend that I had to keep attacking to teach him to keep his distance. I swung my swords without finesse, simply trying to move them as fast as I could, with most of my strikes being blocked by his shield but enough of them being near misses, forcing him to retreat backwards.

With distance between us again, he called out to me, asking if I played the character named Nephem. I replied without the deep voice, telling him I was. With a grin that bordered on a sneer, he said that he and some of his friends were going to have fun tomorrow hunting me, and that this would be a prelude to what was going to happen.

I didn't bother to reply, my mind too focused on the battle. We had only exchanged a few blows, but I could tell he wasn't as strong as the other member of his gang that I had fought. By my estimate, he wasn't even on Rhend's level, which gave me some hope. While I would have preferred a two-handed sword, I at least felt that I was good enough with two swords to not be able to use them as an excuse if I lost.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:49 No.13753057

He moved forward again, but he moved with less confidence, not rushing to attack as eagerly as he had before. I kept a little distance between us, realizing that his movements were very atypical, not at all like the way other people at the LARP positioned themselves. As I shifted to the side, he was slow in turning, and I saw that his feet were positioned like a fencers, his left behind him and pointing out to the side. An odd stance for use with a shield, since while he was well protected with his shield in his right hand, he couldn't attack very well with his sword behind him in his left.

While this stance may have worked against novices, I wasn't the kind of person who'd get hit by sword work that required him changing his entire stance just to reach me. Moving forward, I lashed out at him, again and again, and without having to worry about counterattacks I was able to land several strikes on him. Just as I started to feel like the battle was won, he punched out with his right arm, his shield crumpling one of my arms before slamming into my chest, tossing me backwards.

While the shield had its edges covered in a thin, dense foam, the face of it was just painted wood, and after playing around with foam weapons all day, it felt like getting hit by a hammer. We both knew it was an illegal strike, something that might be permitted at his historical combat society and that he had instinctively performed. He eyed me for a moment, seeing how I would react, his face expressionless. With the shock and pain of the blow being washed away by a surge of adrenaline, I chose to ignore what must have been a mistake, and moved forward to resume my attack.

After blocking my sword on his shield, he once again punched out with it, catching me by surprise again. This time, he followed with his sword, striking me for 6 points of damage before I had the chance to recover.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:49 No.13753060

This must have been the style he had mastered at his society, and while part of me wanted to call him out as a cheater, another part of me was growing excited at the prospect of fighting a new type of opponent. His two allies had gasped loudly, but neither of them seemed willing to say anything about the illegal attacks, and I wasn't even sure if the goth girl knew that what he was doing would ordinarily be enough to have him kicked out of this LARP.

He advanced towards me again, his shield leading the way. Even though I was expecting it, he simply pressed forward with his shield, impossible for me to block with the flimsy foam and pvc pipe swords I had. It was no wonder he had adopted this style as his own, as it was ridiculously effective, his shield preventing me from coming close and then delivering painful blows that would let his sword sink in.

Before I could figure anything out, I was down to my last 3 hp, and I hadn't landed a single blow since he had adopted his shield bashing strategy. Thinking hard, I realized he was also breaking another rule, though it was one that most people, at least the ones who came here to fight, ignored, myself included. He was "charging," or moving forward after he had come within five feet or so of me. Charging was prohibited as a safety concern, to prevent people from colliding into each other, but it also made most battles a silly display of two people just standing within sword range of each other and just flailing until the damage accumulated enough to drop one of them. Both of us had been charging at each other, but now he was the only one on the offensive.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:50 No.13753063

Moving backwards as quickly as I could, I forced him to run after me, his shield leading the way, trying to get close enough to slam it into me. As he caught up and pulled his shield back in preparation, I stopped suddenly, turning to the side in a low crouch.

The bottom of his shield slammed into my back awkwardly, thrusting upwards into himself as his legs collided with me. He tripped spectacularly, falling over me and landing in a crumpled pile. Cautiously, I asked if he was alright, and he groaned an "I'm okay." Checking to see that all the witnesses had heard and not feeling obligated to be any more courteous, I delivered several strikes to him as he began to stand, after which he simply laid down again.

I turned to the two remaining players, my body aching slightly, hoping and praying that they would just run for help. They seemed confused, and I almost thought that the thief was about to try and reprimand me for what I had just done. The fighter, however, seemed to understand that what he had just seen was not something that was tied to the rules of this LARP. Without a word, he started to head towards the inn, his friend soon following him.

Staring down at my fallen opponent, I wondered for a moment whether it was worth trying to talk to him, to ask what his plans were, what methods they were going to use, and why they were doing everything to begin with. There were so many questions I wanted to ask, that they all just blurred together until a wave of pain hit me. I had taken a lot more damage than I had thought from this single battle, and it might have been that I harbored some resentment towards him, or it might have been that I just didn't feel like putting in the energy to question him. I left, the shuffling girl following behind me.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:51 No.13753066

I headed back towards the Cave, surprised at my fatigue. Thankfully, there were still a few more hours left in the night, a little more time where I could remain as a monster without having to worry about being hunted by Ulcik's gang. The girl seemed likewise tired, and though I'm sure she must have been disappointed that she didn't get a chance to fight once while the two of us had been out, she hid it well.

After I slumped into one of the couches in the cave, she said she was going to head back to the inn to her friends. Once she had left, Hardule and Lith, who had both been lazily reclining inside the cave, started to question me about her while making vague implications. I cut their questioning short by asking them whether they had any plans yet to keep House Cerberus from being completely destroyed, and Hardule muttered that hiding had worked last time for him, so he thought he'd try it again.

I told them of my encounter with the man with the white surcoat, and they wondered if the man I had described had actually been one of the seven we were supposed to look out for, since neither of them remembered any of them that well. Dismissing my story, Lith explained how he and Hardule had asked to be powerful monsters so that they could go out tonight and kill some of them, but they had been flatly refused. They instead went out as murdagrunks, weak little rat people, and had been repeatedly beaten by groups of six or more players.

While Lith told me about his adventures, Vlaine arrived, and I realized just how much I had grown to depend on him. He immediately began telling me information he had gathered, including ideas he wasn't sure about but sounded plausible to me.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:51 No.13753070

To start, he had gathered a lot of information about the seven people Ulcik had brought to this LARP. Though it was mostly rumor, Vlaine said that only four of them were really exceptional fighters, while the other three were just above average, and had already been defeated by some of the people playing monsters (which included the guy I had been so proud to have defeated). However, all of them were part of a patrolling system which covered the entire grounds, and were being assisted by several other players. They were organized, with all information leading back to Ulcik.

Vlaine, and most of the players, had no idea where Ulcik was. He had made a few appearances, but kept disappearing to some place. He said that Rhend was out currently trying to see if he could find Ulcik by chance and follow him to wherever he was hiding, but he hadn't had any luck so far. Since my ultimate goal involved making sure that Ulcik died so hard that he wouldn't even want to come back, I was certain that we'd need to find his hiding spot eventually in order to get through this weekend.

When I asked Vlaine about Ulcik's Lichhood, he had no information at all. My big fear was that he had a phylactery that needed to be destroyed in order to kill him, and I also wanted to know whether he had new abilities that no one knew about. Worried slightly, I pressed on with my questions, asking what the players thought about Ulcik's return.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:52 No.13753073

There were varying shades of opinion. There was a small group that couldn't be happier about his resurrection, though this was definitely a minority composed of sycophants and people Ulcik had bribed with power and favors. Most of the players had characters that acted pleased, and would side with him if there was any conflict, but in reality they had correctly assessed that Ulcik was simply taking his character's death in the worse manner possible. Many of these people had come to terms with the permanent deaths of their own previous characters, and felt somewhat miffed that Ulcik was unwilling to accept his.

Yet, there was a small group, perhaps only sparse individuals, who knew that something was horribly, terribly wrong, and that trusting a lich, even if he was a "good lich," would be disastrous. This sadly was an unpopular opinion that had only been confided privately to Vlaine, but it was still good to hear that there were some players who weren't going to blindly follow the plot that Ulcik had written.

Many of the players felt intimidated by the one's Ulcik had brought, and while Ulcik, even as a lich, was in good standing with the other players, his little squad was openly disliked by everyone except Ulcik's sycophants. They were reputed to be arrogant and to be rather brutal with their fighting (which I felt was a fair assessment), and their gear and stats were definitely unfair.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:52 No.13753079

Vlaine continued to talk while I was deep in thought, trying to piece together something that resembled a strategy. There had to be some opportunity, some overlooked detail, something that could lead to Ulcik's defeat and the return of House Cerberus to greater glory than it had even started with.

Closing my eyes, I began to list what needed to be done. While I tried, I realized that I had never truly determined what was more important to me, killing Ulcik or restoring the house. I had simply lumped them together, though I came to realize that there were important choices that needed to be made. In order to restore House Cerberus, Hardule and Lith needed to remain alive. Could they be asked to fight Ulcik if it meant risking the existence of their noble house? Did we have a chance to defeat him without their help?

The reason I had decided to come to the LARP had almost solely been just to have a chance to truly kill Ulcik, thinking that saving House Cerberus would be a nice added bonus. As my mind poured over the details, I realized there was a good chance that trying to kill him would actually lead to the end of the house. But what other options were there? Leaving him alone, having Hardule hide until Ulcik finally grew tired of trying to kill him, keeping the house alive in name only? Perhaps he and Lith could recruit people secretly, creating a hidden society that would eventually undermine Ulcik?

They could take their time, going to events and only playing as monsters, recruiting people out-of-game and only reemerging once they had enough strength and information to be certain of their victory. Ulcik, though he would be deluded into thinking he had won, would eventually be overthrown.

I stopped myself. I was running away again. If Ulcik forced them into hiding, that would be a victory in itself. As I zoned in and out of listening to Vlaine, I confirmed with myself what was necessary.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:53 No.13753084

Ulcik needed to be defeated. But either Hardule or Lith also needed to survive. These were two goals that had to be maintained.

Ulcik's squad of fighters, along with his other supporters, did not need to be destroyed. If we could avoid them and strike solely at Ulcik, we might stand a chance, except for the problem that it had taken a small army to deplete all of Ulcik's spells the first time we had defeated him, and sneaking a small army past Ulcik's defenders wouldn't be easy, if at all possible.

I knew I was thinking too much. I couldn't help it. My mind was trying its hardest to figure out how we even stood a chance against Ulcik, while I knew I should have been trying to figure out just how to survive the next two days.

After Vlaine finished telling me all he had learned, I decided to head out again as a monster. If luck was with me, I'd be able to figure something out while I was out.

Lith came with me, Hardule and Vlaine being too tired to go out again. We were assigned to be bog trolls again, and I was glad to have the chance to use a two-handed sword again. Lith chose a long spear, since trolls could not use shields, and we went out, without any real direction.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:54 No.13753085

We stayed together, ignoring that bog trolls were supposed to be solitary, and after only about five minutes I heard someone calling me. It was the old man who had traveled with me and the girls, who seemed to have forgotten that as he was a player now and I was still a monster, I was supposed to try and kill him. Lith seemed intent of reminding him, but I greeted the man out of character, and he was soon followed by a man who looked slightly younger than I was. The man greeted us, and introduced himself as the old man's grandson. He thanked me for looking after his grandfather and for getting him out of monster duty early, and I received a rather different impression from him than I had been expecting from a guy who had left his grandfather alone at a LARP. I explained that we needed to get back to being monsters, and Lith and I headed off again.

We encountered a few players, though neither Lith nor I seemed intent on chasing after them. There was a somewhat melancholy feel to the air, and I started to wonder why we had bothered to go out.

There was the crunch of a twig, and the slight jingle of mail armor. Turning around, I saw two people, both that I remembered quite well. It was the hammer-wielding plated warrior, and standing next to him was a shorter, miserable looking man I was very much not pleased to see. It was the man I had killed twice at the last event I had been to, and his face contorted with rage when he realized who I was. The rage passed quickly, and with a smile pointed to the two of us. With the air of someone ordering a dog, he told his ally to kill us.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:54 No.13753088

The plated warrior looked reluctant to follow what sounded like an order, but he didn't seem reluctant to fight us. Lith looked nervous, but I at least knew this would be a two-on-one battle, since the man I had killed before couldn't even be called a distraction.

I moved to flank the warrior with Lith, who didn't look too comfortable without his shield. Before Lith got into position, the man swung his hammer, and I saw that the pole it was attached to was longer than even Lith's spear. He struck Lith hard, calling out ten points of damage, and with a slight flick struck him again for another ten. With Lith under half his health in only the first few seconds, I realized why this man was considered one of the four strong members.

While he tried to strike at the retreating Lith again, I circled towards his back. I slashed with my sword, expecting him to be unable to do anything from his position.

The butt of his polearm struck me hard in the gut. While it was padded, it had hit me with unexpected force, and I nearly crumpled to the ground from it as he called out ten damage. I moved backwards away from him, and was hit in the back by the man I had chosen to ignore, him dealing me another twelve damage just from that single hit.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:55 No.13753091

With only 13 HP left, I didn't even bother to listen to him gloat, moving out of both of their reaches and heading back towards Lith. Lith was having a hard time, not used to wielding a spear while his opponent had not only better reach but more experience. He fell after two more hits, leaving me alone against the two.

Under equal circumstances, I might have had a chance against the plated warrior. He knew what he was doing, but the tip of his weapon was heavy, heavy enough that I had a decisive advantage in speed even though he had longer reach. He actually shortened his grip to try and keep up with me, but it didn't take me long to see that he was just fighting defensively, letting his ally get into position.

Choosing the shame of death instead of running just so that I had chance to land a hit on him, I fell quickly as soon as he caught and pressed my sword with his hammer, allowing the man I killed to freely carve up my back.

Once again I wasn't checked for any coins, our opponent's probably having weapons and gear better than money could purchase. I ignored the man who was gloating and boasting, turning my head to look at the plated warrior. He looked disappointed, but not at me, but his ally.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:56 No.13753098

They left eventually, and me and Lith slowly got up. He began to curse about overpowered characters, but I didn't encourage him to continue, so he eventually became silent. While this defeat was rather humiliating, I was feeling surprisingly optimistic. Though I hadn't landed a hit on my foe, he only landed one himself, and I knew that I could at the very least keep up with him. Though I admit he had defeated not only me but Lith as well, and rather quickly, I didn't feel as crushed as I had before.

I knew I was being stupidly proud, looking for pride within a defeat, but something in me wasn't allowing me to feel depressed. He might have been more skilled than me or even Rhend, but he wasn't as skilled as the one in black scaled armor. I couldn't keep obsessing over my losses, or I'd end up simply giving up hope.

After we returned to the Cave and ended our monster shifts, we were both almost too tired to make it all the way to our assigned cabins, almost nodding off on our way there. Hardule was asleep inside when we arrived, and I restrained Lith from waking him up. After we got ready, Lith fell asleep almost instantly, while I remained awake despite how tired I felt.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:56 No.13753102

These were the last few hours before I would don the costume of Nephem Festiva. Ulcik had a grudge against me as deep as the one I had against him, and I knew he'd do everything to try and kill me. While I had managed to evade a fair amount of players, albeit disorganized ones, during the last event, this time I wasn't the only one who had to avoid being caught. My great fear was that if i went out and hid alone, Hardule and Lith would be caught, ending our plans right there. I had a feeling Hardule had only survived the last event because Ulcik wanted to kill him last, and Hardule only had to be killed once and he would be permanently dead.

Wondering just what exactly I could do to keep my friends alive, when I didn't even know if I could keep myself alive, I drifted into an uneasy sleep, my body aching from the shield bashes I had received earlier. I needed to get rested, as tomorrow was shaping up to be a very exhausting day.

I awoke early, a little after 6, and it took me a moment to remember everything. I was surprised to discover that I was a bit sore from the day before, but there wasn't any serious pain. I woke up Lith, who grudgingly got up and tried to rouse Hardule, who seemed intent on having a lie-in. When I reminded him that all our enemies knew where we were and were probably going to kill us if we stayed any longer, he sleepily started to get dressed.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:57 No.13753109

My costume had improved a bit from the last time I had been here. My clothes were chosen to help me blend in with the trees and ground, with a broken pattern to help break up my form, but it was still medieval enough to pass as a costume here. Slipping on a baldric over my shoulder and hanging my canteen on it, I then slipped my two-handed sword through the loop on the back, which had a snap button for quick removal. I then put on the one magic item I had.

It was a cheap plastic ring painted gold with a plastic blue gem, but it was something exceedingly powerful in this LARP. A ring of minor spell reflection allowed me to block incoming spells with a sword or shield, which usually still counted as targets for spells. I had unwittingly taken it while it was intended for one of Ulcik's lackeys, and I had gotten good use out of it when I fought to kill him.

When I finished grabbing a few energy bars, Vlaine rushed into our cabin, not bothering to knock and catching Hardule in nothing but his boxers. Vlaine ignored his protests, eager to tell me that he had both good news and bad news. The good news was that he knew a way for us to survive the day without encountering any of our enemies. We would go on quests.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:57 No.13753113

It was such a simple yet brilliant solution, and I only excused myself for not coming up with it because I wasn't too familiar with the LARP. Quests here were handled very simply, with players either putting in requests at the Cave and then be lead off on a crafted adventure, or waiting until an NPC arrived at the inn and gave them a quest. The brilliant part was that quests took place in "distant lands," which meant that if you were on a quest, other people were to pretend you didn't exist and try not to get in your way. With the quests tailored to the level of the participants, there was almost no chance that Hardule or Lith would die while we were on a quest. While it wasn't really a solution to our problems, it at least gave us time for an opportunity to appear before we were hunted and killed by Ulcik's gang.

As he promised to meet us in a particular part of the grounds as an NPC to send us on a quest, I was once again glad that Vlaine was our ally. Before he left, I asked him what the bad news was.

Hesitating, he answered that some of the seven, he did not know which, had their monster duties today. While going on a quest meant we wouldn't be hunted by remainder, it also meant that there was a good chance we'd meet some of them as monsters on our quest.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:58 No.13753120

Having to face one of them when they didn't have to care about dying and we did was an excellent example of bad news. He asked me if going on a quest was still a good idea, and I stopped to think a moment. In the end, I decided it would be better for us to try and survive the quests than for the three of us to try and hide for the entire day. If things worked out, we could possibly even get some good treasure, something to help match the ridiculous power we were going to have to face.

When Lith and Hardule were finally ready, we set off for the part of the forest Vlaine had instructed. Having Hardule and Lith survive the day was our most important goal right now, but I couldn't help but wonder if we were heading towards an adventure we weren't going to be able to handle. Pushing aside my worries, I launched into a run, my sword bobbing gently against my back.

End of Part I

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:59 No.13753125

When the three of us arrived, Vlaine was already waiting, wearing a robe and white beard. He looked rather worried, though it might have been him playing the character. He explained in-character that he was a wizard who had heard rumors of a spell-eating monster, and that he wanted some adventurers to see if they were true. If they were, we were supposed to kill it and bring back its head as proof.

Not exactly the most exciting scenario, but I wasn't really in the mood to be picky. At least we weren't fighting some demon king in order to save the town or having to save a princess from a castle. Hardule and Lith seemed only vaguely interested in the plot of this quest, and from what I had heard about the other quests they had been on, the plots never really mattered.

A typical quest involved walking to one spot where a group of monsters was waiting, killing them, and then being told to go to another spot and to fight more monsters. There would occasionally be a special challenge, like fighting the monsters in a limited amount of space or having to solve a riddle found on a piece of parchment, but those were a rarity.

The Plot Masters had written most of the quests some time ago, which meant that they were often reused. I asked if either Hardule and Lith had "searched for a spell-eating monster before," and neither of them seemed to remember going on such an adventure. Considering that this plot wasn't exactly memorable, there was still actually a good chance they had done this adventure already.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)09:59 No.13753128

After Vlaine told us where the rumors were, he handed us orange and green striped pieces of cloth, which we were to tie around our heads or arms to signify that we were on a quest. We then headed off, and for a good long while I started to feel like we were just an ordinary adventuring party without a care in the world.

We took the main roads, and were spotted a few times by people I could only guess were part of Ulcik's network, as they quickly ran off after seeing us. We ignored them, as we were expected to, since we were hundreds of miles away from them as far as the game was concerned.

Before we arrived at where we were supposed to be, a middle-aged woman who was rather tall and was wearing an ordinary shirt and jeans walked up to us, a radio at her hip and a clipboard in her hand. She introduced herself as the Quest Master for this quest, and told us that the monsters weren't ready yet. While we waited, she read the quest notes on the clipboard to herself, occasionally glancing at us while we sheepishly waited.

She had a slight frown which would diminish slightly when she looked up at us, but returned when she looked back at the notes. After about five minutes, her radio gave a short beep and she took it to her ear, then told us we could go now.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)10:00 No.13753135

Ahead of us were three people dressed in black robes, shambling around aimlessly with foam clubs. Whatever they were mustn't have been very important, because Lith and I slew them without much trouble while Hardule stayed towards the back, tossing over a spell every so often. These must have been players on their monster duty shifts, since full time monsters would have given us a bit more trouble. With the monsters slain, we looted them for a few coins, and then the Quest Master told us we found a trail that led further into the woods.

The three monsters got up and went ahead of us, and when we arrived at where the imaginary trail was supposed to end, they were waiting for us, shambling around again.

We killed them more quickly this time, looted them, and then waited as they got up to go further down the imaginary trail, which was back the way we had come. Walking back, we met them, killed them, looted them, and then watched them go to the place we had just been.

I looked towards the Quest Master suspiciously, but neither Hardule nor Lith seemed concerned, and I guessed that this was just the way quests were done. I had expected a little less repetition, but I had probably just been overly optimistic.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)10:00 No.13753139

When we had killed our 30th shambling, club-wielding whatever they were, I started to get worried. The same three monsters were getting more and more tired as we continued to fight them, and each battle got easier and easier for us. Lith had taken a few hits, but neither me nor Hardule had taken any damage. With Lith between the monsters and Hardule, while I would flank the ones who tried to attack him, we worked exceptionally efficiently, with Hardule only having to cast the 10 damage fire spell he could cast at will.

Hardule asked the Quest Master what was going on, since quests rarely lasted longer than an hour or two, and it had already been almost two hours. She replied that she was simply following instructions, and I started to wonder if we weren't doing something that needed to be done. Looking at her clipboard, only three sheets had been turned upwards, leaving still several pages of quest notes.

While fighting the next batch of monsters, I kept an eye on her, trying to see if I could gleam some sort of hint from her expressions. She maintained a slight frown, though she kept glancing at her watch every now and then. When we had started, it had barely been 7, and while this LARP was considered to run continuously throughout the weekend, it was a little too much to expect many people to be awake at this time.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)10:01 No.13753142

I started to suspect that the reason we had been facing the same three people again and again was that there simply had not been that many people awake. However, by 9 o'clock, that was no longer an excuse for us to be continuing this cycle of fight, walk, and fight. We were definitely not advancing the "plot" in anyway, and I could tell I wasn't the only one who was getting bored.

Finally, while we were fighting our 15th batch of the same three monsters, the Quest Master's radio gave a short beep. She had a short conversation I was unable to overhear thanks to everyone calling out their damage, but when we had efficiently finished off the monsters, she walked over to us, saying we had managed to clear the long trail, and found tracks leading to a large cave.

We walked to where she directed, and when I saw what was prepared for us, I simply stared, consumed by confusion. Hardule and Lith likewise seemed dumbstruck, and for a brief moment I wondered if we had won some strange kind of prize or were receiving some kind of punishment.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)10:02 No.13753147

The large cave, which in reality was just a clear field with borders that the Quest Master pointed out, was filled with monsters. Most were wearing black robes, though some were wearing red or brown. The Quest Master explained to us that the thirty people we saw were in fact several hundred monsters, and that we should plan accordingly.

I didn't need to ask my friends to figure out that this wasn't a normal quest. Most quests would just use the same six or seven people as monsters over and over again, and there would never be a huge battle like this one, especially for just three people. While Hardule had one of the strongest characters in the game, Lith wasn't even above average and this was only my second event, which made the thought of us fighting all of these monsters a laughable one.

Trying to remember the plot, to see if there was any other way to accomplish our mission without fighting everyone, I realized that we didn't have any real motivation to even go into this cave. As far as my character was concerned, he didn't care at all about a spell-eating monster, and he certainly hadn't signed up to fight against a small army of monsters.

Though it would be somewhat mean to all these monsters who had assembled just for us, I needed to keep Hardule and Lith alive, and keeping myself alive would be a nice bonus for not going into the cave. My cowardice nicely rationalized, I was just about to explain my safe and cautious plan of running away when Hardule tossed a spell at the closest of the monsters.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)10:02 No.13753149

Forgetting that one of your friends has a habit of making the worst possible decisions at the worst possible times will inevitably be your downfall, you can take my word on that. Hardule was looking at the monsters with the glee of a child watching dominoes topple over each other, enjoying the effect as the other monsters pretended to be alerted to our presence, moving towards us with malicious intent.

The monster Hardule had hit with the beanbag for 10 damage had fallen from just that, which meant that they were at least weaker than the three we had been fighting before. This was good news, because my two-handed sword only dealt 4 damage while Lith's sword dealt 5. Even so, I only had 18 HP and Lith had been reduced down to something in his 20's, and the monster Hardule had killed was already running back to the edge of the clearing in order to respawn, representing one of the many hundred monsters we'd have to kill.

I am a man that likes plans. For this, I had none. Thankfully, the monsters were not following any orders or forming lines. If we could keep them moderately spaced out and not having to face more than two or three at a time, we stood a chance. If we spent too much time fighting one, they would end up being bunched up together, which wasn't something the three of us could handle for long.

My brain burning inside my skull, trying to come up with some sort of strategy, I watched as Lith started to panic. After shouting at Hardule for being who he was, he turned to me, yelling that we should retreat. Hardule, a look of dawning comprehension, as if he had just noticed to small hoard of people intent to kill us, also seemed intent on simply running away from this clearing. Thankful that the two of them had managed to discover possibly the only strategy that would leave us alive, I also motioned for us to run.

But then I saw her.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)10:03 No.13753153

A group of monsters had been encircling her, but as they had moved forward, I could now see what was at the very rear of the cave. Lying on her back on a table covered with a brown cloth was a young woman, dressed in light colored robes and feigning to be asleep. She seemed familiar, but from the distance I couldn't truly say who it was. It would be too much of a coincidence if it was who I thought it was, but something, perhaps hope, kept me thinking it might just be.

I pointed her out to Lith and Hardule, and simultaneously the three of us stopped edging backwards, looks of deep determination grafted to our faces.

Sometimes, people had asked why I counted these two as my friends, and I will admit that I sometimes wondered that too. But the fact that the three of us, without words, knew exactly what needed to be done even if we were not sure that we could do it, and were moving towards it without thinking of the possibility of failure, was possibly the only reason I'd ever need to consider them the best of friends.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)10:04 No.13753155

The monsters stopped their slow advance momentarily, perhaps realizing that we no longer intended to retreat. These were the full-time monsters, the people who came to this LARP for no reason other than to fight. They were made of the same material that I was, prideful, solitary, and obsessed with challenging ourselves, to see what we could do. They knew that a single unified charge would overpower the three of us easily, and they hadn't come all the way out here just for a battle that would last under a minute.

The first one that came near me leapt, his club swinging wildly. I parried the blow, delivering one in turn, and then striking him again with a rapid whip of the tip of my blade. He seemed amused, smiling as he sat down from just two hits, before standing up and moving towards the back. I lost sight of him as another came speeding towards my side, two clubs swinging.

I did not want to get hit. This single thought screamed in my mind, thrashing even the elite group of thoughts known as common sense. I forgot, perhaps conciously, that I would only be hit by pvc pipes wrapped in foam, and rolled to the side, out of my assailant's reach. My move surprised not only him and myself, but the monster who I had just rolled next to. Before he had a chance to react, my sword flashed out, a strike to each knee.

Two, I counted to myself, two out of what was an undefined number that could have been infinite. Lith's shouts suddenly slammed into me, and I saw that he had tried pressing forward, resulting him in being surrounded. The monster's odd sense of chivalry kept only two attacking him at once, but he was still in trouble.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)10:04 No.13753160

Spells from Hardule started to rain down. Unlike me, who only carried two pocketfuls of bean bags, Hardule had three sacks of them, and it looked like he was intending to use all of them. He was casting spells with lightning speed, his mouth twitching rapidly as he muttered the incantations before calling out the damage he was dealing.

While his haste kept his aim from being perfect, the sheer amount of monsters meant that nine out of ten hit their mark. Soon, a wide circle had appeared around Lith, and this circle continued to expand. The monsters had now started to appreciate the power of Hardule, and some of them were no longer simply walking towards the edges of the clearing, but jogging or even running.

Hardule seemed to be focusing on the monsters that were attacking Lith, leaving me to fend for myself. I knew I was making a fool of myself, leaping around and moving without any sense of style or rhythm, but I was starting to feel good. I made sure that every blow that landed counted for two, moving the tip of my sword in a tight circle to get a second hit in. While some tried to block, these monsters were few and far between, most caring little if they died since they would respawn almost immediately.

After it seemed like we had managed to kill each of the monsters at least once, the tone of the battle shifted. The monsters were no longer just playing around, but actually getting serious, realizing that we weren't just three players they could defeat any time they wished.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)10:05 No.13753166

They started to form small groups, taking advantage of openings that appeared as I attack their allies. I received a hit for four points of damage in the back before I managed to cut my way out of being surrounded, and it wasn't until I had managed to put a little distance between myself and them that I realized just how much the battle had shifted.

Lith's character was stronger than mine, and in some ways his sword and shield were better suited for this kind of fight than my two-handed sword, but he had never fought for so long, against so many opponents. He had fallen back towards Hardule, who was digging into his second sack of beanbags already, a look of worry on his face.

I worked my way towards them, cutting down the monsters between us. My memory was working hard in the background of my mind, and it wasn't until I reached Lith that I realized just how much my body was reacting purely based on the memories of the last event.

I had fought most of these people before. Though it had been dark, and they were dressed differently, I was starting to consciously recognize them from how they fought. Many had distinct styles, betraying that they were more comfortable with other types of weapons, unsurprising considering the unwieldiness of their clubs. The clubs didn't seem to move where they wanted to, and my sword must have looked like lightning to them in comparison.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)10:05 No.13753170

Lith almost struck me in surprise when I reached him, but he simply smiled an apology, glad to see me instead of another monster. While it took two blows from either of us to take down a single monster, we were now delivering them in turn, monsters being slain at a pace faster then they could replenish. With Hardule softening each wave before they reached us, only three or four monsters reached us at a time, allowing me and Lith to kill one or two before Hardule finished the rest.

The monsters no longer sat down when slain, simply turning around and running to the edge of the clearing before sprinting back. In truth, this was working against them, as they grew more and more tired. Though the three of us had been fighting the entire morning, only Lith seemed to be slowing down from fatigue, both Hardule and I still attacking as fast as ever. As our opponents slowed down, our attacks often hit them before they even had a chance to swing once at us before being forced to turn around and run back to where they had come from.

There was no way to keep count. We had easily slain over a hundred, with Hardule alone having killed no less than fifty. I didn't have the time to steal a glance at the Quest Master, to see if her expression could betray the purpose and reasoning behind this battle. Having established an equilibrium of killing and respawning, it was starting to look like a question of endurance. The monsters seemed to understand this, and began attacking and taking breaks in shifts, something we didn't have the luxury of doing. Hardule's incantations started to become mumbles, and Lith's shield was starting to sag.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)10:06 No.13753176

While half, or perhaps more of my brain was dedicated to nothing but making sure my sword kept striking monsters, the remainder was trying to make sense of the situation. Perhaps we had to fight against these monsters for a certain length of time, like we had in the endlessly recycling battles we had before? This didn't seem right, as I was almost certain that the earlier battles had just been a large stall for time, so that this large crowd of monsters could be assembled for us. But why had they been gathered just for us?

I ruled out Ulcik's schemes rather quickly. He wouldn't want us to simply die by a herd of monsters when he could have the satisfaction of having his cronies kill us, or to even kill us himself. That left the other two Plot Masters, or perhaps someone I still did not know about who had the power to write quests. One of us, or perhaps all three of us, had done something that made someone want us dead.

As I almost instinctively parried an attack and delivered two of my own in response, I began to wonder if this was a quest designed to kill us. It was challenging, yes, and I doubt anyone in the history of the LARP had ever had to face such skewed odds, but we had not been killed yet. In fact, we had survived for well over an hour, something that no one could have expected.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)10:07 No.13753187

As a group of three monsters attacked me, one managing to lightly hit me in the back of my leg for another points of damage, I realized there was another time a person had fought against even more unreasonable odds. Alone in the woods, I had intercepted an army of monsters intended for the Inn, ambushing them again and again until I had a slain over two hundred in the course of five hours. While the circumstances had been in my favor that time, I wasn't alone in this battle. This battle may have been unreasonable to place against ordinary players, but it almost seemed as if someone was recognizing my previous feat and providing another suitable challenge.

The three monsters defeated before the next small group arrived, I looked towards Lith, who was fairing poorly. He was no longer attacking, allowing his enemies' clubs to slam into his shield while Hardule threw spells at them. I didn't know how much HP he had left, but I knew he wasn't far from dying. Monsters were going around him, striking at Hardule, occasionally landing a hit before a spell finished them. I realized I had moved away from the two of them again, and I moved back to help them, not realizing the mistake until I had. The monsters clumped together more now, a near endless stream of them, and Lith, his heavy shield having drained him of his endurance, was breathing heavily as he willed himself to keep blocking.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)10:08 No.13753192

We would not survive as a group. Though we had slain more monsters then we'd ever know, it would mean nothing if we died here. We had done nothing to advance ourselves, remaining in the tight bottleneck of the entrance to the cave while the monsters maintained their relentless march. We had to do something, something we should have done long ago, but our naive thought that the monsters were not truly endless, our one hope of victory, had kept us pinned. Accepting that the monsters would never stop coming, I looked upon the only clue of what to do next.

Not even bothering to announce what I was going to do to my friends, I bent down low, wondering if my legs still had it in them. Summoning all the energy I had left in me, I sprinted forward, heading towards the woman on the table.

I had run past several of the monsters before they realized my intent, but these were the monsters who weren't taking a break. The rest of the monsters, some of them sitting down on the grass in order to catch their breaths, allowed me to sprint up half the field before they moved to surround me.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)10:08 No.13753196

Ignoring the ones that circled around my back, cutting off any chance of returning to Hardule and Lith, I lashed out at the ones between me and the table, perhaps harder than I should have. Clubs flew out of people's hands, my own ferocity surprising me, and most of the monsters had enough sense to get out of my way. Ducking under a swing aimed at my shoulders, my forward momentum carried me into a roll, allowing me to rush past my assailant before I leapt back to my feet.

I reached the table, not taking the time to look behind me to see how the situation had changed, and was greeted by a most welcome face. She had been watching from her lying position, but returned to pretending to be asleep when I reached her, and it was only then that I realized I had no idea what to do. In fact, I didn't even really know why I had come all this way, other than to see if anything would change.

Looking back at the clearing, nearly everyone had turned to look at me, the Quest Master staring at me particularly intently. Some of the monsters were edging towards me, looking back at the Quest Master as if they were waiting for instructions. Some monsters continued to attack Lith and Hardule, and to my horror I saw Lith drop to the ground, as four monsters swarmed him.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)10:09 No.13753199

Knowing that Hardule would soon follow, I turned back to the woman, asking for her to wake up. She stirred slightly, and I tried calling our her character's name, Selenia. She pretended to wake up slowly, and feigned surprise as she sat up to look at me.

Not in the mood to die for the sake of roleplaying out a dramatic reunion, I simply asked if she was alright. Catching the hint of urgency in my voice, she quickly said that we had to escape this cave, and that she would explain everything outside. As she got off the table, the monsters seemed to take this as some sort of signal, moving towards the two of us.

I looked towards Hardule, who was being spectacularly beaten by a group of monsters with clubs. He killed several before his HP ran out, dropping to the ground with an unnecessary but nevertheless dramatic yell. The monsters, finished with my two friends, now all focused their attention on me.

I knew Selenia could not run as fast as I could, and even I doubted that I could just dodge and weave my way through all the monsters. Realizing that my stupid idea of charging all by myself was going to result in all of us simply dying, I prepared myself for the most glorious death I could muster. As I tried to think of some sort of final words to shout out as I died, I felt a reassuring hand placed upon my shoulder.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)10:09 No.13753201

This wasn't just a gesture to restore my confidence. Selenia's character had originally been created as a pocket mage, a spellcaster that specialized in healing and protective magic that would stay with a warrior, ensuring that the warrior could fight without fear of death. While I disapproved of this kind of team since it was often used by warriors who had no real skill and would just rely on their pseudo-invincibility, I wasn't in the position or mood to deny that it was an extremely effective strategy.

I asked her how many spells she had, and she simply replied that she had enough, smiling.

The first group of monsters didn't know what hit them. I simply rushed forward, swinging my sword like a machete, just trying to clear a path towards Lith. I didn't care about defense, not bothering to block simply so I could hit more often. Each time I would begin to drop to one knee, a hand on my shoulder and a few words brought me back up again to continue the assault.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)10:10 No.13753205

There was an odd look of panic on the monster's faces, and they were running towards me, all of them trying their hardest to kill me. It seemed like they would be humiliated to have so few people manage to succeed against them. A few tried to circle around and strike at Selenia, but the speed at which we were moving and the confusion that the fallen monsters caused as they rushed towards the edge of the clearing in order to revive kept us well protected.

We reached Lith, and with a single word from Selenia he stood up, revitalized in more ways than one. His shield and sword looked light in his hands as he moved to protect Selenia's back, a wide smile on his face. The three of us moved as a perfect unit, with me cutting our way through while Lith guarded us from the monsters who were returning after being respawned. When Selenia restored Hardule, and he began to fling spells from within our formation, a simple truth became known to everyone within the cave.

The four of us could take on an army.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)10:10 No.13753211

We cut through the monsters and out of the clearing, cheering triumphantly at making it out of the cave. We collapsed on the ground, laughing at the absurdity of what we had just gone through. The aches and pains of the battle decided to remind me about themselves, but I ignored them, knowing full well that I had just taken part in another legend.

Selenia who was easily nowhere near as tired as the rest of us, stood up after awhile, retrieving a folded piece of paper from her pocket. She glanced over it, and then explained that she had been looking for a spell-eating monster but had been captured. However, she knew where it was located, and was willing to serve as our guide.

As she finished, the Quest Master ran up to us, asking if Selenia had explained her part. Selenia replied that she just needed to give us our restorative potions, and then we would be ready to go. Lith simply muttered that if they took a fifteen minute break, the spell-eating monster wasn't going to be going anywhere. Hardule and I agreed, and the Quest Master said that we should take a half-hour break so that the monsters could prepare for the next encounter. As she left, We took our restorative potions, simple slips of paper with the name of the potion on them, and ripped the slips in half, restoring ourselves to full HP.

While we waited, I asked Selenia why I hadn't seen her at the opening ceremony. She first said that she was glad that I had been looking for her, and then quickly explained that the reason she had been late was because she had been held up by her ex-boyfriend in the parking lot. He had started an argument with her about how even though they had broken up in reality, they were still supposed to be a couple inside the game.

>> Anonymous 02/02/11(Wed)10:11 No.13753215

I laughed, misreading Selenia's tone, and she exasperatedly said that it wasn't funny at all. She paused for a moment, perhaps realizing that it was actually pretty ridiculous, and I could see that she was fighting a smile.

I changed the subject, asking what she had been doing lying on a table in the middle of a cave filled with monsters. She replied that Vlaine had gone up to her dressed as a wizard while the three of us had been fighting the repeating trio of monsters, and explained that the quest needed someone who could cast healing spells. Selenia had always been an honorary member of House Cerberus, just like myself, and Vlaine had thought she'd be the perfect person for the job.

She then started to explain how it was rather funny, in that the quest was written with the expectatio