Heroes and Heroines Live Action Roleplay (Larp/LRP)

13 Grusaba, 8979 Ta

Source: Marius The Magnificent

 

 

Through Hollow Lands (A Marius the Magnificent Report)

a.k.a. Marius* and the Wendigo**

 

*and company

**Someone doesn’t follow the Chekhov’s gun theory.

 

Dear Reader.

On rare Occasion, Marius the Magnificent must admit he is wrong.  It is clear that such information will be a shock to you, but it does happen.

But this isn’t one of those times so read on and rejoice in Marius’ smug rightness, gasp in horror at the land where food turns to ashes in your mouth, shiver at the land so cold a roaring fire throws out no more heat than a candle, Amaze at Diplomacy being attempted, and celebrate as lives are saved.

 

Dear Lord Protector Foxglove, Hero of The Protectorate, Hierophant of The Circle of the Greatwoods, Sorcerer of The Light College, Elder Sibling of The Brothers of the Herb.

 

Marius sends his greetings and this report into the goings on and brave actions taken in the land of Thornspire to which he was recently dispatched on behalf of the Protectorate.  Sent there (although he does need to mention this involved not only a boat journey (which is bad enough, there are no fresh pastries on boats) but also a long walk of many poronkusema which is most unfair on a poor Air Wizard.)

This injustice aside, That most wonderful Air Purist Marius was in excellent company, for with him were Wizards most renown Mai’Ru and Silmaris of the light college (as well as the legion scout Chiaroscuro who casts from the school of light and so a worthy chap), Faer talen Vydalia who casts from the Dark college,  Twig who did an excellent job of representing the Earth College, Dougie McFife, Rivalyn and Mr Scruffles, Christof, and Ssaprina who don’t cast magic but still contributed in some way, and of course Her.  That beauty, that most talented, that radiant, wonderful, wise, throat slitting, potion making, venom dealing angel of the protectorate, Pipsqueak.

We knew that we were close when the snows lay thickly on the ground, even under the canopy of the trees, and the air felt like knives of ice even through the thickest of cloaks.  Marius was forced to huddle with Pipsqueak very closely to share precious body warmth and the others were left to do the best as they could in the harsh conditions we suddenly found ourselves in.  Worse than the unseasonable and strange cold, even pastries now tasted like ashes in our mouths, and our tongues felt like they were coated in a rancid oil and even when we rested, out very spiritual strength felt sluggish and dulled.   This was clearly the hunting grounds of the Wendigo!

The Wendigo, a foul creature of nightmares and stolen hope.  A creature that loves the icy wastes and feeds on despair.  And we were tasked with finding more about this monstrosity.

Trekking through the forests we were beset upon by a group of what we initially thought were fearsome beasts, but upon closer inspection were people misshapen into horrific bestial forms with huge claws and slavering jaws, who struck with great strength tearing off chunks of flesh with each blow they landed.

Slaying the creatures, we healed out wounds and travelled further, being assailed several more times, these creatures moved so incredibly quickly but we grew wary and soon had their measure.  Stumbling on, hearts racing at every movement in the undergrowth, we finally found a hut in the woods.  Desperate for shelter and warmth we entered to be greeted by a strange pair of people, shabby and unshaven, red eyed, and redolent with some strange herbal fragrance.  They invited us in with their strange accent and offered to share us their small flickering fire.

These strange men were Funkenstein and Camile, locals from the village of Blackwood which is a small cluster of rude huts and one smouldering ruin which has been suffering ever since the last time a group from the protectorate had been through.

Initially they were wary, but after Christof offered to share some food with them they were much more receptive to our presence.  They told us of the insatiable hunger that plagued them (and Marius’ stomach rumbled at sympathy of their plight), and of the despair and of the Wendigo that haunted them, stealing any person who wandered off alone, though these were only ever 2nd hand accounts as no one that saw the Wendigo had lived to tell the tale.  Lastly they told us of the ritual of cold and hunger that the people of Avaloth (a larger nearby town) had performed to create the cold and hunger in Blackwood and thus to keep the Wendigo from their own walls, so sacrificing the few for the good of the many.  These poor folk didn’t blame the people of Avaloth, but bemoaned the Wendigo which, they told us, had come from the hills.

Also eat the green mushrooms.

They then introduced us to their local wise elder, a shrunken wrinkled man of at least 25 years, with wild hair and red blood-shot eyes that darted frantically around as if he suspected the wendigo to leap out at any moment.  His name was Mad Dog.

Mad Dog told us that. as bad as the Wendigo was, the people of the Shadowtooth coven were as much a curse to the people of Blackwood and even a threat to Avaloth.  These people believed that only the strong should live and the weak should be preyed upon.  Revelling in the chaos that the Wendigo has brought, they were further compounding the misery of the poor villagers and so as our first port of call we decided to do something about these scumbags.

We would try to diplome with the Shadowtooth tribe, to gain their measure and to try to persuade them to work with the Blackwoods villagers so me met with a small group of them, but they were clearly just evil scumbags and despite Christof’s eloquence and righteousness, negotiations had their usual result which is that we lived, they died.

Having had enough of the cold we returned to the hut and agreed we should try to perform the ritual to at least warm this place up a bit

 In the morning of course, as first there were soft beds to investigate.

 

In the morning after a miserable nights sleep shivering in the extreme cold we awoke and ate the most foul breakfast imaginable, Dougie’s wild oats porridge.  While normally this has the taste of wallpaper paste (one assumes, not that Marius has actually ever eaten wallpaper paste to do a comparison) but this time it tasted like wall paper paste mixed with oil, ant blood, and papercuts.

While we ate, Mad Dog expounded further on the Wendigo, this creature goes to where the people suffer and feeds on their misery and despair, it is stronger in winter and weaker in summer so Wendigo hunters perform their hunts only at the peak of midsummer but this year there had been no let up in the winter following the last visit of the protectorate and now Blackwood no longer had the people left to support each other and they were now simply awaiting their doom. (Marius is translating, for Mad Dog spoke with the same strange local dialect, filled with words like “dude” and “far out man” and “Bogus”)

It was hear that we heard first mention of what could be the Wendigo’s true home, a land of frozen sands.  Marius instantly thought this could be in Caiso’tan knowing that lands wintery heart, but was there a place there with sand?  We would need to find out.  We were also heartened by the arrival of a stout and brave warrior, Cobble, who’s presence bolstered our martial prowess greatly and we were grateful for this re-enforcement.

Mad Dog had some knowledge of a ritual that would reverse the flow of heat out of the area and overcome the unnatural cold and so we agreed that this would be a good start.  We had to travel to a place where there was a fissure of fire into this world and on the way we were accosted by a band of disgusting peasants who sought to eat us!  They were accompanied by even more of these warped people turned creatures and we were forced to slay them to save our skins (and our nostrils).  Eventually, after great danger, we came to the place where several water and fire elementals roamed, our aim was to perform the ritual and to preserve at least one of the fire elementals while ridding the place of the water ones.

Marius kindly loaned Silmaris his magical spear, while Marius launched volley after volley of bolts and other magics at a particularly lithe and agile water elemental, thankfully his expertise at magical defences kept him safe from the manifestation all the while Mad Dog set out the ritual where he placed some red rocks about him and started to chant.  Pausing his fight, Marius was even enlisted to cast the vital magics to activate the rocks which started to glow red hot and pulse with an inner light.  Marius, Pipsqueak, and other picked up the rocks that scorched our hands as we handled them and formed a wide circle with them, while others of the party held off the last remaining fire elemental, even just using their bodies as shields to allow Mad Dog the time to complete the ritual, which he did with a ringing of his great bell that shook the earth and from it a wave of heat burst forth. 

Ritual complete we fled relocated elsewhere to allow the fire elemental peace to bask in it’s reawakened fire node.  Part 1 of our mission possibly achieved.

On the way back we were passing close to the Shadowtooth village so we decided if we could diplome with them again.  This time Marius strode forward and with great solemnity and gravitas warned the Shadowtooth that working with the people of Blackwood would result in both groups growing stronger, to continue down their wicked path would only lead to their doom.  The wisdom on Marius’ words landed heavily upon their shoulders, but they still chose doom so we obliged in the traditional protectorate way.

But Ah Ha!  More fool them, for although the battle was tough and long and taxed us greatly, the reward was incredible, for we found a piece of paper upon which was detailed a solemn ritual to bring fertility and lfe back to the area, perhaps this could reverse the hunger?  With it was the components needed, a chalice filled with seeds which proved most pussiant when Rivalyn “dropped” one and the earth rose up from where it had fallen to rebuke them, leaving them sorely wounded.  Of course Rivalyn and Mr Scruffled learned from this and it didn’t happen again to them, no, not at all, of course not, at least not more that once more.

The ritual needed to be performed at night, “under the gaze of the waxing moon”, and so with some time to kill we went to find a lunch beast and then rest in the returning warmth until night.

Well, the first part went well, a conveniently passing sushi and wrap beast was located and slain and Marius hunger slightly assuaged (where was the pie and pastry creature when one was needed?) when some peasants were seen running towards us, screaming in terror.  This confused us as we were used to people running away in terror when they see we are from the protectorate, so confused we went to investigate.  They told us, between gasps and sobs of sheer fright, that there had been 6 of them in the woods and they had been attacked “by shadows” and a figure had appeared and saved them.  No sooner mentioned than this figure appeared, many of the party went to greet him and then almost immediately they turned and fled in terror themselves.

Well, Marius wasn’t afraid and after a swift change of trousers he strode forth to greet this personage who he recognised.  This was a friendly rank 10 Fetch who worked for someone he referred to as “the Master”, we could call him the Masters Fetch, of MF for short.

MF informed us that a portal (a conduit?) had opened up and undead were pouring through, and that an aspect of his master was inside.  Undead you say?  Say no more, we knew what must be done.  Unfortunately the rest of the party didn’t agree that hiding under the bed was the right approach and so we set off to close this portal. 

As we closed in on the portal, we stared to encounter more and more bands of undead, leaving none of them unalive to tell the tale we emerged into a field where a whole swarm of undead were in front of a swirling portal.  Without a moments hesitation Christof led the charge and soon the undead were no more, thankfully we had Rivalyn and Dougie there for amongst their number were spirits of wounding which, along side Marius, they were able to deal with most adroitly.

So thus we came to the portal, we debated long and hard over what we should do, investigate the other side or attempt to close it?  While we discussed Cobble cut the gordian knot so to say, and plunged through.  The rest of the party leapt in after him, Marius awaiting for Pipsqueak and, in a moment of great foresight, cast a spitiual protection upon my beauty, and upon the amazing Pipsqueak as well.

Through the portal we fell and emerged into a maelstrom of undead and party fighting with a strange figure shouting “kil them all” while entrapped in the floor and occasionally screaming in pain.  It was very confusing but the best solution seemed to be to kill them all, which we did, the battle tide turning as soon as Marius arrived and could empower our weapons to hurt many of the creatures that otherwise resisted our physical blows.

At last only ourselves and the strange central figure remained.  He spoke to us, this was an aspect or projection of the MF’s master.  A creature with several bodies or conduits to several aspects of himself, Marius has vague recollections of meeting the figure before, possibly at a book signing or something, Marius does meet so many adoring fans after all.  Either way the creature revealed that is was Malice’s former teacher before Malice betrayed it, and not it wanted nothing more than revenge.  Skeptical, but not willing to overlook a useful tool ally we agreed to bring back an offer to meet a suitable enpowered representative of the Protectorate at the said portal location in the Thornspire (locational map in the appendix).  So:

LORD PROTECTOR FOXGLOVE!  A WEIRD PERSON WHO IS VERY NECROMANTIC BUT HATES MALICE WANTS TO AID US IN KILLING HER.  IF YOU WANT SEND SOMEONE BOTH AUTHORISED TO SPEAK ON BEHALF OF THE PROTECTORATE BUT ALSO SLIGHTLY DISPOSABLE TO MEET WITH HIM IN THE THORNSPIRE FOREST!

 

Message delivered, we exited that place post-haste.  Arriving back in the Thornspire several members of our party started to act most strange and in a very paranoid manner, luckily neither Rivalyn nor Mr Scruffles were one of those affected and suspecting undue spiritual influence they started to cast an exorcism, while Marius and Cobble acted with great alacrity and clever thinking to restrain Mai’Ru and Twig.  Rivalyn exorcised Silmaris and Twig, which seemed to work but before they could get to Mai’Ru we were attacked by murder bears.   This interrupted the casting of another exorcism, and led to great excitement as many of the party were off looking for Sassparilla, Faer talen Vydalia, and Chiaroscuro.  Luckily Pipsqueak was there and she (with help from Marius as distraction) killed two of these bears and then with Cobble we killed the rest.  Mai’Ru was strangely wounded as well, and un-exorcised, but Rivalyn was worried about the murderbears finding their family, so raced off to find them, and it all went a bit crazy. 

At last we found our missing companions, holed up in the hut.  Marius and Pipsquak distracted them at one door, while Rivalyn and Twig slipped in through the other, and then we nipped around the back and also found entry.  Marius slept Sassparliina while Rivalyn exorcised Chiaroscuro and Pipsqueak and Twig restrained Faer talen Vydalia until they could get to all 3 of them.

At last Cobble showed up with an unwilling Mai’Ru in tow and one last exorcism from Rivalyn the party was reunited and back to “normal”.

 

That must mean time for dinner.  We were joined by Funkenstein, Camile, Mad Dog, Tim, Tom, Ted, Michael, and Starlight Twinkletoes.

The meal would have tasted amazing, were it not for the oily taste that coated our mouths from the magical effect of the area, and without the Wendigo inspired hunger we would have been most sated by the stew and most excellent desserts.

We debated long and hard about performing the ritual, we could see some possible downsides, but in the end the villagers gave their consent and indeed blessing to us doing the ritual and thus we set off.

Marius set out the ritual at the place described by the instructions and he guided Christof (as the most pious amongst us) in the way of the ritual.  He did a most excellent job channelling healing into the earth and performing the ritual as guided, scattering the earthen seeds and sprinkling the water from the chalice, while summoning visions of people who had performed the ritual previously and also an echo of the Wendigo which we fought while Christof meditated.

Slaying the echo, Christof said that the ritual was successful and we returned to find a delighted Mad Dog and Funkenstein who could taste again.  Hooray, Marius couldn’t wait to try a pie but unfortunately there weren’t any.  Marius hopes that future missions will always be in places with a bakery in future.

 

Exhausted by our encounters, we bedded down for a better nights sleep, warmer and fuller.

 

The next morning we aimed to return with our information, but before we could set off we heard that the remnants of the Shadowtooth clan were trying to reverse the ritual we had done to reverse the ritual they had done reversing the previous fertility ritual.  Not having that we set out to stop them, being assailed several times on the way by spiders, murder bears, and other creatures strange and foul.  It was only thanks to Pipsqueak that we had any minor elixirs left at all (she is so talented),  and these were needed as one of the creatures struck down poor Sassyprilla. 

Revivied we pushed on and found the ritual being performed.  Not wanting to waste time, Marius struck them down with a great thunderbolt, then we proceeded to lay waste to them, unfortunately they also proceeded to lay waste to us, and if Twig hadn’t the presence of mind to weld many of them to the floor, we could have been overwhelmed!  Luckily Marius avoided being struck with the giant walking tree which shattered several bones in others!

At last, with one final mighly lightning bolt, the last of the Shadowtooth tribe and their twisted bestial and forest perverted allies were dead, and the ritual was averted, Christof checking that life was indeed returning and with that we healed our woulds, Marius climbed on Dougies back, and we set off towards where we hoped the boat would be to bring us home, and with us we had one last important piece of information for the protectorate…the name of where the Wendigo came from.  Viresio!

 

And thus ends Marius, Pipsqueak, and the others adventure in The Hollow Lands!

We never did see the actual Wendigo though.

 

A huge thanks to Dave, Matt, and all the monster crew for a terrifying and thoroughly enjoyable adventure, with wonderful moments of pant colouring fear and utter hilarity.  You guys are awesome!