Bladelands is a high fantasy, low hit system in a pseudo-medieval fantasy world, the geography of which is based upon a modified version of Europe, with the British Isles forming the Bladelands. The Bladelands are at the very edge of the known world, considered by most people to be at the very ends of the earth. Separated from the mainland by a wide stretch of treacherous and stormy seas they are remote and inhospitable islands, but they are the most magical lands in the known world, and as such they are rich in resources both magical and mundane.

However, they are also savage and inhospitable, and as PCs we are most definitely outsiders/invaders.  This event was the first in the new home of the Fief of the Black Rose, under Lord Montoya, probably the fief best-disposed toward the native Keltoi.

I'll deal with the OOC stuff first.  As ever, most people book onto the £30 play-and-assist ticket, meaning that everyone plays four and crews two of the six "slots" across the weekend (one on Friday night, three on Saturday, and two on Sunday).  This means that, at any time, there are about as many crew as there are players, which makes for some excellent combat encounters and more realistic social encounters with local tribes or whatever.

There was also an IC banquet on the Saturday night (menu here), for which there was a £10 surcharge.  It was excellent, really good quality food and it made for a great atmosphere, too.

You can see some photos of the event here, and more will be added here in time, too.

Friday night firstly saw us attempting to wake up the sleeping spirit of Waylan (whose resting-place was right below our base!), without much success (due mainly to the interference of other PCs!) to help inform our decision about where to site a shrine to the Powers (the name given to the gods worshipped by most mainlanders).  That unaccomplished, we tried to solve the problem that one of our strongest warriors was in possession of an axe empowered by an Outsider (demon) with whom said warrior had made a bargain.  Some of the Outsider's minions tried to stop the ritual to cleanse the warrior, while the axe itself started possessing people and making us kill each other.  In the end, we got our warrior back but the Outsiders got their axe back.

On Saturday, we decided to explore our new home, and headed up a mahoosive hill to investigate a building we wanted to use as a base from which to trade.  Unfortunately, it was already inhabited by foulspawn (orcs, goblins, trolls, etc.) and so we spent a lot of time clearing them out, and then started investigating a severed head which had had a Taboo placed on it.  This Taboo was preventing us from taking over the building, so eventually we left and came back later (after lunch!).

More foulspawn had moved into the area while we'd been away, so we had to clear the place out again, and hold the foulspawn off while our sorcerers eventually managed to remove the Taboo on the severed head (at risk of removing all their own sorcerous powers in the process!) and thus allow us to claim the building.  While this was going on, an orc shaman of considerable power, wielding a knife empowered by Outsiders, was directing his minions against us.  It took quite some doing, but eventually the shaman died and it was only by a miracle (i.e. the intervention of the Powers) that none of us did.

In the evening, we met with our neighbours, the Children of the Dragon.  They're a cult of Keltoi who hate most mainlanders, but we were trying to make peace with them because we don't want to fight a war on two fronts (the other being against Schooltown, a settlement of mainlander religious fanatics with whom we've been butting heads for ages).  A misunderstanding early on in the talks led to the need to fight an honour duel, which resulted in our champion having his spirit/soul blasted out of his body.  Still, once the duel was over we managed to negotiate a peace with the Dragonkin, or so we thought, so we invited them to our banquet...

The banquet was awesome, with much ado about who got to sit at the top table and lots of elaborate toasts from all the various groups present, as well as very good food.  Afterwards, we were planning a spirit quest to recover the spirit of the champion from earlier, with the help of one of the Children of the Dragon.  However, it was all a set-up, meaning that some of our most valuable people ended up in the spirit world without the people there to protect them.  They managed to think quickly and get out of a very sticky situation, though, by dealing with a powerful spirit for their freedom.

On Sunday morning, while we prepared to deal with the Outsider-knife we took from the orc shaman the day before, we learnt that enemy forces from Schooltown had been teleporting into the local area over night (following a conclave of many of the other mainlander fiefs established on the Bladelands) and so we instead moved to secure one of the transportation circles in the local area.  This led to a protracted battle with some very well-prepared troops, which we eventually won, although not without cost.

We then marched to the other place where they were coming into the area, and engaged them there, too.  Eventually, we dealt with most of their troops but Lord Montoya, his 2IC Honour and his personal sorcerer Cornelius were all captured by the enemy.  Montoya and Honour were able to escape, and thus we're not most certainly at war with all our former allies.

Which is a great set-up for the next event!  July 18th-20th at Consall Scout Camp in Staffordshire, or 8th-10th August at Stock Wood in Gloucestershire if you can't make that one...

Hope to see you there!

---
Joe Rooney - Battle Vegan

Insurrection LRP: high fantasy in a dystopian setting. Event Four is October 15th-17th 2010, at Consall Scout Camp Site, Staffs. Book now for a £10 discount!

Bladelands: Raoul Twice-Dead - all-round bad guy
EOS: staff - NPCing and fighting a specialty
Maelstrom: Carlito Rossini, Sol Igneus Co. - Flembic Weaverite explorer/adventurer/bailiff for hire
Odyssey: Mirrikh, Favoured Immortal of Shah Jalila of the Eyes of Darius. Died spilling Greek blood!

Persian email list for Odyssey