Heroes and Heroines Live Action Roleplay (Larp/LRP)

3 Cortria, 8981 Ta

Source: Marius The Magnificent

Emberthorn Folk Life – A Marius the Magnificent Study

 

No less a great personage (and dragon) as Igneus, the head of the fire college and all round winner of the Universities Greatest Dragon award for as long as anyone dares remember, tasked Marius with a noble and important mission, to investigate rumours of a Dragon in the area near Tempests Watch and report back, for the rumours spoke that the dragon was slowly dying!

As befits such a mission of great standing Marius was also sent with:

Kinook Ontu – Supayin Prismatic caster and [loudly] Self proclaimed Worlds’ Greatest Shaman.

High Priests and Priestesses of the Halls of Power – Lord Farakeen Al-Aqua, Ella, and Drake.

Hierophant Druids Idrissa of the Grove of Ochre, and Weed and Copper both from the Grove of Verdure.

Rek the Reaper from the Sanctum, (plus Rai)

The mistwalkers were represented by the famous Thieftaker Jack Dawkins, and Elder Sibling Piper.

And rounding the party off was our brave Legion representative, Ranger Lieutenant Kyle Dexter.

Many solid and sensible members of the protectorate, so much so they didn’t even feel the need to actually state out loud “Do not start any wars”.

 

We teleported to the Tempests Watch and successfully landed in the precise area that we had aimed for, so already off to an auspicious start.  Of course in the usual bureaucratic mess the room we arrived at was also double booked for some negotiations between the triumvirate and some other loser.   We offered the services of the great negotiator, Lord Farakeen, but they rejected this amazing chance to win at negotiating so we left them to it, although we did get directed to a quiet unassuming person who was busy reading in the corner of the room, apparently as well as negotiations and arrivals, this room was triple booked as a library.

This person introduced himself as Elias Ash and when Marius asked him if he’d heard of a dragon nearby we was delighted for the book he was reading was all about the dragon and it’s history.   Marius flattered him by showing interest and soon Marius had the book tucked under his arm and we left them to peace.

Anyway, we set out to look for the dragon, and now we had a name – Ignathar -  and wandered through a dark and forbidding forest which made our druids happy, but the rest of us less so as we were assaulted by strange creatures that make clicking noises and hit with strength and power. 

Further on, as the full moon watched out over us, we proceeded through a forest path where some figures approached.  Three of them were people of unusual hairiness and two were impossibly handsome.  We (and by that Marius means someone other than him) discerned that these were two Vampires!  They spoke to us and we carefully avoided looking in their eyes.  Eventually one of them asked the other “Shall we let them enjoy the full moon” and the hairy ones attacked, for they were werewolves!   Who could have known?  A proper scrap ensued but in the end the Vampires escaped through some mystical arts of the undead.  A great shame.

Completely unrelated, but can someone please warn Twig that he might want to invest in a vampire proof bedroom, maybe in the middle of the Pyramid, in the sect of the Divine Light perhaps.  Just in case, no specific reason.

 

Having survived the denizens of the forest we came to a village, quiet and peaceful.  As we approached the small collection of rude huts clustered closely to a central building that consisted mostly of a pie oven, Marius was at once overwhelmed with the smell of pies and a great insatiable hunger.

Others, having gone in first, called for Marius, for his expertise in Pies was urgently needed.  The village had been baking and baking, but their pies couldn’t fill their bellies and tasted off.  Marius quickly diagnosed that their cooking techniques, while old fashioned and primitive, were sound and so the fault lay elsewhere.  With his razor sharp intellect and experience in such matters, Marius realised the fault could only be one thing.   A Wendigo!

Flicking through the book that he has been reading, Marius found the relevant passage and read it to the party with a dread prophetic tolling.

“They fear the flame, but they should fear what happens when the flame dies.  The cold comes next.”

And as we all know where the cold goes, the Wendigo may follow.

 

With that cheerful thought, and pies slow cooking in the pie over overnight, Marius went to bed.

 

 

That night Marius had a dream, he was chained in the hold of a ship with someone next to him.  The shadows began to dance and reach out to this man, sucking the vitality from his emaciated frame leaving but a lattice of yellowed skin and bones.

Marius slid the shackles off his wrist and made his way along the companionway to a cabin where the Captain, a corpulent man displaying an obscene opulence that would make even the great Farakeen seem dull beside him.  The captain was eating from a great feast but as Marius snuck forward the feast changed and instead the captain’s feast turned into a putrid mess, foul maggots spilling from the meat, breads mouldy and stale, and the fruits and vegetables putrescing into a black sludge, yet still the captain ate with a glassy eyed hunger that could never be satiated.  And on the back of that came the ice-crack of a chill laughter, swirling over the frozen wastes and ice-bound sea, tasting of old graves and winter stars.

 

 

 

 

The next morning it seemed that Marius was not the only one to have that dream, or at least one similar to it.  Surely this must be the influence of the Wendigo!  We had to find the dragon and re-kindle it’s flame before the ice consumed us all.

 

 

Having spent much of the night studying the book, and much of the morning sampling the overnight pies as well as liberally sprinkling about Static fields on all who wanted them while Kinook ensured that everyone was protected by Mage Armours and the Neutral casters buffed everyone with Spiritual Protections and Enhanced Dexterity, Marius had some important learnings.

The Dragon, Ignathar, slumbered beneath the lands while his chosen folk, the Emberborn, worshipped him through the fire of their forges, every hammer blow a prayer, but the dragon grew angry for the flame hungered to be beyond the confines of the prison of the smithies.  He approached the leader of the Emberborn, Arik, and demanded that the fires be freed to burn freely, however Arik stood up to the dragon and tamed his flame by taking into himself and merging with the beast, shackling him and when the flames died down Arik and Ignathar were gone and behind a shard of Obsidian within it was a flame, the heart of the dragon.

 

Two hundred years passed and each year the people ritually fed the fire while the forests grew in the land of the Emberfolk, but one year the fire failed to respond to the ritual and the people quailed and argued what should be done, while they debated Eleric Thornway, Arik’s last direct descendant, took his hammer and shattered the prison of the flame, freeing the fire in which Ignathar and Arik fought for control, unbridled hunger stiving against the need for a balance.

Alarmed by the fires return, the guardians of the forest known as the Verdant Host sought to strangle the flame while the fire sought to turn the green shoots to ash and smoke.  Green vs Red a war raged and at last Eleric came face to face Thalia Rootspire, the head of the Host.  Together they realised that the fire was needed to cleanse away the deadwood and make space for new growth, but too much fire would leave a waste, and together at last they joined, sealing he dragon away once more beneath a tree of green and flame.

For centuries the Dragon slumbered in his prison as a new forest, the Embergreen, grew.  But the dragon seems to have slept too long, and the fires burned too low, and now the cold was coming.

 

Suitable aware of the seriousness of our mission, we set forwards to find the tree, vast and ancient with a glow from within, beneath which the flame lay, with only the following to guide us:

Let flame remember Root

And Root remember Flame

For only together

Can the world burn bright again.

Leaving the Hut, a beautiful Woman in White appeared, seemingly from nowhere.  Now Marius is married to the most beautiful woman in the world so was unaffected by her charms, but Farakeen and Jack were so enchanted by her looks that they fell to their knees in supplication, I guess since Pip is  spoken for, they have to make do with 2nd best.  She told them that she would send help at our hour of need (wasn’t that nice of her) and then she vanished, shortly after a dangerous looking person appeared just before us, alarmed we set to arms, but this person called out to Drake and Kyle “Don’t you recognise your old friend, Hawk’ay Baren?”

Indeed, the Saint himself sent to us by Theia, interrupted from his game of chess with a Litch no less.  Surely a good sign, or at least a sign, actually probably a bad sign that we needed such divine intervention.  Still, he didn’t seem too grumpy to be here, and it isn’t everyday you get a miraculous resurrection like that.

 

Bolstered, we set out and encountered some elementals who attacked us without warning, Air, Earth, and Water.  We destroyed the poor creatures and carried on, a little further down the rude track we found some wandering druids who’s elementals we had encountered.  Explaining that they had attacked us, the druids were most apologetic.  They turned out to be members of the Brotherhood of the Dark Young who were fleeing from the root sect, we guided them to safer places and they promised to be more careful with their elementals in the future.

We travelled further and encountered more wild elementals, eventually meeting a hugely powerful group that scattered us and grievously pressed us but finally we were triumphant despite our wounds.

Further along we came to a clearing where we stopped for lunch be an abandoned building.  From the woods we perceived some figures watching us.  Alarmed we stood and prepare in case they would seek to do us harm, but they merely watched.

Bored, Rai and An.Other went to talk to them, and shortly they returned dragging two people with them.  Rai told us they had tried to flee but he had drained their power.  He then mentioned that they had been accompanied by a good power user who had tried to powergift his companions so he had ripped off his arm and left him bleeding out in the woods.

Drake and Marius were somewhat concerned that these people, who had not acted against us, had been so sorely injured and left to die, so they found the dying priest with one of his companions and Marius tendered aid which was gratefully received, though not so gratefully that they would answer our questions while their people were our prisoner, so Drake and Marius agreed to release them, afterall these people had not offered any harm however even as we allowed them to walk free Rai chased them and powerdrained one again, talk about sending mixed messages.  Twice-hero Drake was less than amused at Rai over the whole thing.

Finally they were all free, and the melted back into the woods, refusing to answer when Marius asked if they knew of the tree we sought, who knows how they could have guided us.

 

 

After a good meal, but no further along in our goal of finding the tree, Rai, who Marius must say was looking resplendent in his yellow tabard with the stylized cats’ arse on it (is the Sactum going for a new, cheerful, rebranding?) decided to do some communing with his tabard and ask for guidance from Kuranis’ boss.  Doing so he claimed to know where we should go, although he spent a lot of time accusing us of speaking like cats afterwards.

 

Preparing to set out, some people emerged from the trees, in this case literally tree-shifting into our picnic.  They said they were from the Verdant host and threatened us but Drake and Marius negotiated with them and they allowed us passage in the woods, but woe betide us “if we let the embers die”.

No pressure then.

 

Pushing on we met some scrawny looking ragamuffins who recognised Jack, some sort of hero and Jack had a great time telling these people, Orphans from Anglezark it seemed, of his life story and his fall from grace in Anglezark (Did he fall, or was he pushed?).  While Jack was telling this tale, others of the Orphins were harassing Piper, asking her if she knew who ordered a kill on some Duchess, this confused all of us as why would dear sweet Piper know who would order a kill on some random Duchess.

Eventually they grew bored of asking nicely and grabbed Marius, threatening to cut off his fingers if we didn’t tell them what they wanted to know, but thankfully Hawk’ay scared them into submission and then Kinook, that great Prismatic Shaman, took out Marius’ captors with a couple of well placed spells leaving one unconscious and the other melting by the path.

Now with more questions than answers, Marius and co. pushed on to find the Embertree, along the path the way was filled with vines and brambles.  One of these brushed Jack’s arm as he pushed forward scouting ahead and immediately his body was filled with a putrescence that left him unconscious.  Luckily Kyle had an item to help and he was brought back from the brink, but it was a close thing.  To make sure no further risk, Kinook burned a way for us up the path as we continued.

 

Late in the day now we came across a dread spirit that guarded a mighty towering tree, it smote us with mighty blows and pulverised limbs through shields, but we stood firm (Marius standing firm from a little way back) and slew the creature and approached this grand and ancient inhabitant of the forest, a tree with leaves of green with veins of glowing fire.

Under the tree was a hollow made by its roots.  In the centre was a shard of obsidian with a glowing ember inside, at last we could set the Dragon free!  But how?

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is a curious thing about auxiliaries, that they seem to attract influences and Ella, of the Halls of Power, is no exception.  She once embodied the primal elemental of fire and still bears it’s mark.   Having read the book, Marius realised that this mark may give her the power to free the dragon, so (after Weed communed with Nature to ask some questions to pre-warn us) she touched the Ember and chanted a sacred phrase. 

The Prison containing the Ember of Ignathar shattered and the last mote of the dragon fell to the ground where is blazed into an inferno and dozens of fire spirits attacked us!   Fleeing the natural chamber we gathered on the field and, with smoke in our eyes, we fought the blaze though they pressed us sorely and in the swirling madness we were scattered far and wide until as we thought we would need to flee, Elias Ash (he of the book earlier) appeared and, his palm blazing with the mark of the Emberborn, he commanded the fire to retreat and leave us alone.

Alas it was too late for one of our number, for Piper had been dreadfully set upon, and all we could find of her was her horns, twisted and blackened by the blaze.  Luckily Hawk’ay was able to resurrect her so, although her spiritual strength was diminished, she is still with us.

 

Elias invited us to diner and we accepted.  He commanded the fire elementals to smoulder in the base of an iron bowl, and over the top of the slumbering Embers our Drake cooked a marvellous meal, even if it was short of pies, and much joviality was had.

 

Well fed we made the decision to try to find Ignathar and speak to the mighty beast, both because Elias was concerned that by unleashing him the fire would spread uncontrolled and consume everything in the world, but also because Igneus would want us to do it.  We were pointed in the right direction and so set off.

On the pass up the mountain to the Fiery Eyrie where the dragon had fled to gather it’s followers we were assaulted by many fire spirits, but Drake, Idrissa, and Kyle held a mighty shield wall over which Marius could reach with his long spear to strike the enemies until magical blows could no longer hurt them, after which he switched to his staff to finish them off with physical damage (held handily for him by Jack who made a good holder of weapons).

We neared the Dragons lair and we were attacked by one of the Emberfolk, who served the dragon of old and now gathered to serve the mighty creature once more, he bade us leave and attacked us when we refused, through we captured him after Rai power drained him and Piper took his clothes and using her excellent skills, she disguised Marius as one of the Emberborn.

Alone, Marius approached the Dragon’s lair and faced the line of Emberfolk who guarded it, through his silver tongue, knowledge gleaned from the book, and natural charisma Marius persuaded the guard to let the party through and thus it was we found ourselves before a dragon.  And anyone who says it is because the Dragon ordered his minions to let us in is a liar.  Well, Liar-ish.

 

Ignathar.  The mighty Wyrm strode impatiently in his Eiry, lava light playing off his scales that gleamed from dark ruby red to a bright ember orange and his eyes gleamed with an inner fire as he stared hungrily at us while we (or at least most of us) filed into his presence.

As Marius had to shrug off the disguise of a Emberborn follower of the dragon, Drake, Kyle, and Farakeen took the lead an amazingly that by the time Marius joined them, they still hadn’t been eaten.

Through great skill and liberal use of promises to meet Igneus we slowly managed to blunt the rage of the dragon at his imprisonment and betrayal over the past few hundred years, and made him see reason, that his desire to burn the world to a cinder was not, perhaps, the healthiest approach and indeed it would be better to show his legendary restraint, how people would worship him is he showed his mastery of the flame by not burning all the time, but rather by having a time to burn and a time to grow.

Intrigued he agreed that our words had wisdom and he eventually gave way before the impassioned speeches of our party and pledged to restrain his fire and instead to become a responsible citizen of the world.

Bouyed by our success we returned to a local village where we sought shelter for the night, though there was a last twist in the tale, for from the trees stepped members of the Verdant Host, druids who sought to smother the flame of the dragon with poisonous choking vines.

“What have you done!” was their first words to us, not even a ‘hello, how are you?’ or ‘Are you peckish, would a pie help?’.

They explained that the dragon would consume the world and that we had unleashed a horro on all of existence, and no matter how we explained the promise of Ignathar, they refused to listen and threatened us, eventually leaving with the ominous warning “In the morning the Verdant Host will come!”

And on that cheerful news, we retired for the night (after a few glasses of port were shared amongst friends).

 

 

The next morning we rose early (before midday even!) for we know from the book that the host attacked at dawn.   Spells cast, preparations made, invocations beseeched to the spheres, we stood nervously awaiting the hammer to fall.

And fall it did.

She sprang from the tree like natures fury incarnate, every wild animal, every vicious thorn, every mother defending her cub.  She railed against us, yelled and screamed her defiance at our protestations and no matter how we beseeched that she but listen to our words, she thundered like a great storm, building and building until finally crashing upon us in a whirlwind of fury as she and her followers attacked.

Marius was swiftly taken out by a finger of death (clearly their main target, being the most dangerous of our party), Farakeen also was laid low by some dastardly invocation, while Rai saw one of the host severed from his spiritual connection in return, while the Verdant Host herself struck with blows and physical and power of the highest order.  We retaliated of course and soon their numbers were being wittled down, but even so more and more of them poured forth from the trees, thankfully Hawk’ay was able to restore Marius and Farakeen to the fight and we slowly managed to take control of the minions, though the Verdant Host proved to be resistant to what we could bring against her.   She slew first Weed, and then afterwards Rai as well.  One of the neutral priests at last managed to banish her from the field, at lease temporarily, while we cleaned up her followers, every one of us fighting bravely (apart from Rai who was, at that stage, a stinking pile of putrescence on the floor – more stinking than usual I mean.) 

Then, as things were finely balanced, a new player entered the game.  With a roar and a column of flame the mighty serpent, the great Ignathar himself, descended onto the field of battle and with a single breath slew many of the servants of the host.  Stunned they fell back and Ignathar strode forward, bellowing a challenge for all to hear and quail.

 

At that moment the Verdant Host returned from her enforced banishment and Fire and Forest stared at each other, anger and hatred in their eyes.  They railed and stormed at the other, accusations of treachery and destruction flying through the air, violence but a moment away, two mighty waves about to crash into each other and all about would be washed away.

But brave Marius stepped forward between these two titans.  He held the book high and shouted “For four hundred years you have allowed hatred to guide your hearts, a poison that eats away at this Embergreen forest, an ice that quells the flame and threatens to turn it to darkness.  Can either of you be brave enough to take the first step to put aside you anger and hatred, and instead build something greater, a new natural order, a bridge where the forest may grow, and the flame be fed, and the cold that seeks to extinguish you both will be kept at bay for the benefit of both your houses?”

Humbled they saw the wisdom in Marius’ words and in the face of his masterful oratory and majestic presence the shackles of the past began to fall away and eventually they began to talk (with a muttering of “We’ll talk if you make him shut up”), and with encouragement from Marius, Drake, Ella, Kyle, Hawk’ay, and Farakeen, a hard fought compromise was reached.  An agreement to end hundreds of years of violence and war, and the fragile new shoots of peace to grow into the tree of prosperity, an ember of hope that we hope will blossom into the flame of friendship.

Backed up by sending Lord Farakeen off as an emissary to the Verdant Host and Hawk’ay to the same with the dragon, and the dragon and host each sending an emissary to the protectorate in turn while we would act as guarantors of the peace and good faith of both parties.

All in all, a success we would say.  0 wars started, 1 war actively avoided, a proper grown up solution implemented.  Somehow a solution even Foxglove would approve of without rolling their eyes in a sarcastic manner.

 

Yay us.

 

If you enjoyed this adventure, please show your appreciation by donating 10,000 dragons to the “Marius needs money fast” fund.  No reason….

 

 

Thanks to Adam for reffing a brilliant event and his hard working and highly energetic monster crew who kept us on our toes right to the end.  A wonderful story and much fun and laughter shared.   Until Next Time – be magnificent to each other!