Heroes and Heroines Live Action Roleplay (Larp/LRP)

27 Cortria, 8977 Ta

Source: Jaergen Jergensonne

My Lords and Ladies,

May the divine light shine upon you both and upon all your good works.

Your servant wishes to submit this report to provide information that I hope will aid our endeavours to bring succour to those who need our aid in Enchantica in the face of the Malice incursions and the encroaching Fey Wilds, as well as in our holy purpose to destroy the foul taint of necromancy and it’s undead servants from this plane.

A cohort of mini-auxiliaries was tasked to travel to Enchantica where rumours had reached the protectorate of a place of sanctuary where those fleeing the undead menace could be safe and protected. 

I am pleased to say that the mini-auxiliaries acquitted themselves most nobly and were able to ascertain that the sanctuary does indeed exist and appears as best we could tell is a genuine place of safety and refuge for those who can find it.  Indeed through the good works of our protectorate mission we managed to make diplomatic contact, and most importantly scourge the undead threat from the immediate vicinity through the blessings of the Light Bringer, Theia.

We first teleported into the forests as close as we could to the sanctuary with the help from a Sorcerer of the college of air.  Immediately upon our arrival we could sense the effect of the encroaching Fey forest as the very nature of the area cried out against us, mushrooms that would summon magical elementals to attack us.  Having driven these off we proceeded along a nearby path which led us up a steep hill, enroute we encountered a roving band of foul undead.  With the divine light of Theia one of these creatures was banished through my hand, and the remainder fell swiftly to our weapons.  Praise be to Theia and St Dumas that the unholy blight has been reduced.

Pushing further we came to a gate guarded by a Fey named Flutterwing.  Pre-warned as to the fickle nature of the Fey we charmed her with jokes and riddles which appeared to warm her to us and eventually we were allowed to pass.  We were even offered a small sweet treat for our journey, however I did not partake remembering that Fey gifts are not all that they seem to be.  Alas our mini-auxiliaries are not all as restrained and they gobbled them down, reporting to feel fitter and healthier than ever afterwards.

Beyond the gate we met a group claiming to be Fey of the Emerald court, but clearly they were nothing but thugs and bandits let by a particularly short and smelly and ugly and stupid and unpleasant Dwarf.  Despite our best efforts and warnings we were eventually required to force our way through via the use of excessive violence, the mini-auxiliaries proving to be able to hold a most excellent shield wall for almost two minutes before the excitement got too much for them and the fight broke into a series of skirmishes, still that is 1minute and 59 seconds longer than most auxiliaries can hold a shield wall together…

Having brought justice to these miscreants for whatever crimes they may have committed we saw a woman in distress running towards us, pursued by a Fey dressed in red.  The Fey apparently have been taking some villages slaves however this woman escaped with the help from a boy in blue, the Fey before us was trying to take her back.  While we did not wish to antagonise the Fey, law 5 of the Protectorate is “do not practice slavery” and so we were forced, despite our best efforts to negotiate, to defend the woman from this Fey creature who identified himself as coming from the Ruby Court, although we were not helped by all the mini-auxiliaries (and one non-mini) from coming down with poisoning from the Fey food that they ate earlier.

Having defeated the slaver we took the woman into our protection and proceeded (after cleaning up copious amounts of sick mini-auxiliaries) over the hill to find a selection of strange figures, a smaller man who appeared to be blue in colour as well as other figures of different colours.  The woman with us recognised the boy in blue as the one who helped her escape and so we approached carefully but optimistically.  Indeed our optimism was rewarded for this figure identified himself as Gust, son of Zephyr, an automaton of the Puppet Master, and he confirmed we had reached the sanctuary.

In the sanctuary was many automatons of different schools, we saw a darkness automaton, air, water, and a battle automaton.  The last one appeared in great distress due to the loss of the school of battle magic however our brave warrior Tylor agreed to spar with it in an effort to cheer it up, even though he knew not it’s capabilities or power.  Slowly the strange machine-creature jerked its’ sword and soon it was even able to inflict small amounts of damage as its limbs moved ever more fluidly.  Eventually though it fell to Tylor’s blade but we were told it would reform into a new body soon, indeed we did see it later and it even gave off a more cheerful air – if such a thing is possible to feel emotion.

Passing into the sanctuary we marvelled at the wonders there, it was a veritable paradise indeed with cool glades in which to shelter from the heat of the sun, babbling brooks of clear water, and bountiful fields of freshly grown donuts, upon which the mini-auxiliaries fell feasting with great abandon (and quite a number of the larger auxiliaries did too.)

We met the headman of the sanctuary who is a neutral caster named John Farmer.  He told us of the work they are doing there in conjunction with the automatons who are mainly the children of the children of the puppet master.  I have read of this strange creature and his creations who are able to talk and sense each other across great distances, I believe they are discussed at great length in a report labelled “Tea and Sympathy” that can be found in the vaults of the Auxiliary HQ – although I must caution that this was written by Marius the Air Mage who calls himself ‘the magnificent’, and so the information in it must be treated with great caution for it is likely highly exaggerated and possibly outright fabricated - just like the report’s author.  The headman told us that the automatons had started to learn and evolve over time, ever since the Puppet Master had either disappeared or, at least, taken a less active role in his creations lives - Indeed they all seemed to have developed personalities and quirks, what this means I do not know for their sentience.

One thing I must bring to your attention while we were there, my Lords, a strange occurrence took place during a game that we played, following a rope path while under a spell of darkness.  Deprived of our sight, we each heard a voice whisper to us, one of the automatons called Umbra who was trapped somewhere 20 to 30 miles from the sanctuary, near “a pylon of the enemy”, the enemy was “those who are like us but are not, they are trapped but have learnt to move about” and lastly “I have found my brother, Beacon, I sense he is nearby”.  Umbra’s son, Shadow, was keen to rescue his father and Uncle but I counselled against this as we could not travel so far to aid him and there was no guarantee that he would be able to succeed where his more powerful father could not.  I hope that your wise Lordships may think of some aid that we could provide, and also puzzle out the identity of this strange enemy they spoke of.

The headman and Shadow discussed with us the local situation and troubles they were having with some undead and missing people, both human and automaton.  We naturally agreed to help in the hopes of securing good diplomatic relations with the sanctuary so we may together aid the poor wretches of Enchantica.

Setting off we battled waves of undead, our scout Jackalblue being most brave in this matter in ensuring we were not caught by surprise as well as leaping in and out of the fray with a flurry of backstabs.  Finally we met a local necromancer who complained he could not control some local shades.  We ‘sympathised’ with him for a moment before destroying him and his undead filth, although by now our resources were becoming sorely depleted.  We pressed on to a cave in which two putrid undead awaited us, a simple rank 3 shade (which was easily dispatched by myself thanks to the blessing of Theia), and a spirit of fire and fear.  This proved a sterner challenge requiring both power and magic to destroy.  Luckily we had auxiliaries that could deliver both, but it shows the importance of having a wide range of skills on hand for each mission, and I must commend Cobble for his bravery in this fight.

My Lords, a confession.  To destroy the undead I required a weapon of power however having exhausted my own reserves of power to heal and protect the party I was forced to ask the evil sphere power user in our party, Lok Ay, to empower my mace as an unholy weapon.  While the weapon felt disgusting to my grasp, it was the only avenue I could see to scourge the taint of undead from these lands so I believe the action was justified (I have since burnt the mace and will draw a new one from the armoury).  However if your lordships feel I made an error in my own poor judgement then I would be pleased to accept any punishment you feel fit to bestow upon me.

The most important part of our mission completed we still had trials before us.  Firstly we met upon the road a finely dressed lord and his servant who identified himself as a Lord of the 3rd house of the Emerald court of the Fey.  Unlike the earlier Fey from the Ruby court this gent was most polite and generous, offering us information on the politics of the Fey court (the Ruby court are dreadful purists and [in the eyes of the Emerald Court] all…rogues and troublemakers, while the diamond court is responsible for decisions regarding Fey relationships with non-fey powers).  He also gifted our own Fey auxiliary, Thyme, a token of his patronage in return for a promise to talk further, I hope that this doesn’t turn out to be a gift like the one we had earlier.  He also asked us to look for his pet troll, Grungi, who had gone missing (like the farmers and contructs), and he also advised us that the undead we had destroyed at the cave were one of a number of caches that were scattered through the land, although he had not seen such a one as the eye of fire and fear for much time.

The mystery of Grungi did not last long as no sooner had the Fey lord and his servant vanished down the road, we found Grungi.  The poor creature had been driven mad and attacked us screaming “give it back, give it back!”  We had no idea what it wanted back, and we tried offering it everything we had found in our adventures but to no avail and eventually we had to destroy the poor thing before the mission ended with a need for mass resurrections.

At that moment Lok Ay showed us that he hides a noble spirit under all that black clothing, for we heard a cry for help and first to leap to action was Lok Ay and with a great shout of “come on, someone needs our help” he led the charge – although it may be he was hoping to rescue a beautiful lady, if so unfortunately for him the victim in need of our aid was an automaton.  We had found the cause of the disappearing people in the form of an Enchantican practitioner who had found a way to drain the magic from other beings, with which he would distil potions of mana that allowed the drinker to cast spells without using their own magical resources.  As we encountered him he was draining the last magic from the construct who’s cries we had heard and despite our efforts the poor creature was left nothing more than an inanimate pile of string and rags.

As we leapt into the fray the cunning old enchantican was protected by some form of shield of fire that reflected our blows with an equal strength of fire damage.  The harder the blow, the more powerful the reply which drove back our mightiest warriors so I engaged the beastly man in the hopes to take the attention of his spells away from the rest of the group, for he was launching many undodgeable fireballs and other spells with great abandon.

The ploy worked, though each blow hurt me sorely and things would not have gone well had Johan the Strong, a noble user of the Good Sphere, not used a precious item of curing that had been gifted to him by a senior member of the temple, for we had exhausted all our innate healing powers.  His sacrifice of this one-use item allowed me to attack with renewed vigour and then Tina the mage of the fire school had the most excellent idea to try a dispel on the enchantican’s fireshield which allowed us to attack with abandon, although the twisted individual had a trick or two up his sleeve yet, first a banishment and then (I am told second hand, for I was in another plane at the time) he drank several mana potions at one to brew up “his biggest fireball yet”.

It is said in the writings of St Dumas that “Evil contains within itself the means of its’ own destruction” and indeed the writings are true for as the Enchantican took in a huge breath to expel the fireball, he suffered a slight hiccup and promptly exploded.

Having cleaned off cooked Enchantican sorcerer from ourselves (and rematerialized from another plane) we limped back towards the Sanctuary only to find our way blocked by a strange creature flanked by what can only be described as a pair of scarecrows.  She refused to let us pass and suddenly the scarecrows came to life and attacked us.  They would move, strike, and then become inanimate again, and while inanimate our blows had no effect.  As if this wasn’t enough a new threat arrived, a fiery construct named Blaze, who raged at our presence, claiming we were not to be trusted, and he promptly attacked us, swiftly knocking out several of our number.  It is thanks to the one known as Gust, who teleported the fallen away from Blaze’s wrath, that we all made it safely away for we could not stand against such puissance and so, as our mission was to return with information, we chose to flee, although young Horrick bravely kept the enemy engaged until the very end allowing us valuable time for the more vulnerable party members to escape.

It is here our mission came to a close as we met a sorcerer who, very wisely, decided to use an emergency teleport scroll to get us “the heck away from here!” [her words].

Thus ends my report, I hope your Lordships may find the contained information of some small use.

May the light guide us in all we do.

Jærgen Jërgensonne.