This thread will contain brief overviews of all the adventures taking place during Term 1 of LARP 2018-2019. Any posts made in this thread that are not an adventure summary will be removed.

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Week 1 - Business Ventures

A group of adventurers made up by the lawbringer Isaac, cutthroat Garreth, field surgeon Dr. Nightscream, a shieldbearer [sorry but forgot character name, hook me up on Facebook/private messages and I'll put it up here] and stealthy assassin [ditto] took up the call from one of Aestas' most known figures. Morgan Simnel, an increasingly prominent entrepreneur and great grandson of the famous inventor Henri Simnel, tasked them with investigating the attacks on his logging outposts on the outskirts of Arbosa's jungle. His men claim to have been attacked by wild creatures that destroy their equipment and disrupt the logging works. The party set out to a village on the outskirts of the northern desert, where Simnel's guide Strider is to meet and then guide them through the treacherous sands to the jungle within the desert.

Whilst travelling, the party encounter some herbalists and potion brewers resting by a log. The latter reveal that they collect some of the exotic jungle plants to use in their brews but that the wild mages inhabiting the jungle have been become more outwardly aggressive than usual. Despite the herbalists treating the jungle with respect, they are getting treated like hostiles or enemies of nature. The party head on with this warning in their minds.

Soon the adventurers reach the village but find it ruled under the iron fist of a bandit group. Not ones to stand for this injustice, the group fights off the bandits. Thankful for their help, the elder of the liberated village tells them that Strider was kidnapped and taken to an encampment further east. They set out, fighting their way through the bandits' lair until they find the guide in the prison area. After killing the prison guard and freeing Strider, the now 6-man party head out through the desert.

The party arrive at the logging camp but only stay briefly to get some updates on the situation. Strider elects to stay behind as the rest of the group marches further into the jungles to find the nest of the wild beasts that are harassing the loggers. They find that those beasts are actually transformed wild mages, their features indistinguishable from human. One of the mages warns his fellow pack of the words of some Teacher before the party interrupts. Despite the hostility of the jungle inhabitants the adventurers manage to convince them to talk to the loggers and an agreement is reached - the camp will not be attacked further as long as the loggers accept two mages to teach them how to replant the cut down trees and promise to replenish what they take. With this temporary truce handshaked in front of them, the party return to Aestas with Strider and report to Simnel. Satisfied with their work, the businessman rewards them all as promised.

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Week 2 - Meet and Greet

Having been invited somewhat last-minute to a party hosted by the businessman Morgan Simnel, our adventurers took the week off to enjoy themselves and get to know each other. The party went by mostly without a hitch, with some light-hearted discussions taking place whilst Morgan made sure to introduce himself to just about everyone he could.

The party was interrupted towards the end by a Warden soldier who also serves as Morgan's... Information source. The man revealed the Simnel's sister has gone missing in the East along with a detachment of Wardens. Reports say that what looks like Wanderers, undead-esque humanoids who were overexposed to the Void, are behind these disappearances but those are usually confined to the Void itself. With the Warden response looking to be significantly delayed, it may be up to some intrepid adventurers to go out and investigate the matter.

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Week 3 - Of Husks and Men

After gathering some extra funds from an unnamed source, the Wardens gathered a small band of adventurers to investigate the strange humanoids that have been stalking the eastern part of the continent. Psijgn Yvern and two others (PM me character names if you'd like to be mentioned by name!) were sent with the task of gathering information and rescuing a detachment of Wardens as well as a healer named Amelia Simnel.

The party made the trek from Aestas, encountering several hostile creatures but nothing that gave them too much of a trouble. Eventually they trio arrived at one of Aestas' new colonies to the east and have a talk with some of the villagers. They find out that strange humans wander around even further east, completely emotionless and unresponsive unless provoked into self-defense. The party also learn that both the Wardens and Amelia were in the village doing their best to help before splitting up - the Wardens went further east to get to the source of these soulless humans and Amelia headed North to try to get to Arbosa's jungle and find a cure for this condition. The party heads out after Amelia, taking a north-eastern route from the village.

After some more travelling the party find a child with his mother, trying to get her to respond to him. He reveals the two are from Mirrortel, the continent to the east across the sea where logic is diminished and people are driven by emotion. The party leads the boy and his emotionless mother back to the camp set up by Mirrortel inhabitants fleeing from a strange affliction they called "The Hollow". The disease strikes seemingly at random and leaves the victims completely emotionless husks of their former selves. With dwindling food and little shelter, the desperate folk of Mirrortel are advised by the party to seek refuge in Aestas.

Parting ways with the people of Mirrortel, the party head further north in search of Amelia and the rest of the Wardens. They eventually find the girl along with one of the Wardens engaged in a heated argument against a wild mage. Amelia confirms to the party that she's heading to the jungle in the hopes of finding something that will help cure The Hollow and help the husks affected by it. She gives the party a signature as proof that she's fine and, upon learning about the Mirrortel refugees from them, gives them a letter to deliver to her brother Morgan. The party take a roundabout route back to the village, finding the rest of the scattered Wardens (or learning of their untimely deaths) along the way. They learn that the detachment was broken when they got into a large fight with the Hollow people and a couple of them died in battle. With a complete picture of what happened, the party report back to Aestas and collect their reward.

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Week 4 - Draconic Legend

Following up on an offer made during Morgan Simnel's party, the entrepreneur funds an "academic" outing to gather knowledge (but mostly dead pieces) regarding legendary creatures known as dragons. Basil the Pixie Pistolier is sent along with a wandering archer Nathaniel, alchemist Ezekiel and a death mage with a name nearly as impressive as his ability. Since dragons are said to originate from the Mists, the party sets off South to get some more information.

After several encounters the party finds themselves in Vernas, the shadiest city on this side of the mountains. They're approached by They Who Peddle, a trinket seller who asks them to deliver a kitten to his "friends" further South and assures them that they will have dragon scales to trade for. A dragon hunter who happens to be in the area overhears and chimes in on the conversation, advising the party to look for fragments - they are supposedly drawn to dragons and their powerful souls. The party decide to take up They Who Peddle's bargain but be on the lookout for high numbers of fragments.

Making their way to the rendezvous point, the party encounter several migrating Mistrals - fragments of Death who are usually very hostile but did not attack them right now. Noting this curiosity, the group of four deliver the kitten to They Who Peddle's companions only to find the animal is actually highly illegal contraband. Suspecting a trap, Basil aims his weapon at the bandit leader and a firefight ensues. Having dispatched the bandits, the party take the kitten to Nivalas to seek advice. Once there, they find out that the cat is actually specially bred to be able to use mind magic and that the best course of action is to hand it back to the Arbiters. The party also learns from the gift shop owner that there's supposedly a dead dragon in a nearby cave and elect to go there next.

The party spot several more Mistrals headed into the cave they were looking for and carefully enter. Fighting off spiders and fragments alike, they eventually come across the corpse of the dead dragon. With the last bits of its' soul still lingering on the mortal plane, the dragon is surrounded by a flock of Mistrals. After Knight Commander The Dude removes the dragon's feet to take back to Simnel, it finally passes on completely and the gathered fragments suddenly revert to their old behaviors - attacking on sight. Fighting off the fragments, the party get out of the cave and return to Simnel for their well-earned reward.

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Week 5 - Whispers In The Dark

With reports of the previously passive Hollows actively attacking people flooding in, the Wardens hastily put together an adventuring party to defend the eastern colony of Saxony and find out what's causing the Hollows to suddenly go violent. The call to arms was answered by a yet to be named mind mage, cheerful shieldbearer Sir Gawaine, stealthy assassin Nighthawk,the ethically dubious medical practitioner Dr. Nightscream and an enigmatic cultist of the Nameless. The party set out east from Aestas, heading for the village first to assess the situation there.

The journey towards Saxony was fraught with danger and Nighthawk was unfortunately slain during an encounter with shadow fragments. Undeterred, the rest of the party pressed on and eventually managed to reach the village. They found the colonists under siege, barricaded inside Saxony with Hollows beating down at the walls. The adventurers were told these attacks only started happening recently - up until now the Hollows would only fight back when provoked, but now they've started being outright hostile. The colonists asked the party to go further east to investigate this change whilst they held the walls and made sure the Hollows don't overrun the village.

Carrying on east, the party eventually came across two men standing in front of a Hollow chained to a tree. The first introduced himself as Victor whilst the other turned out to be his son Mortimer. Victor started giving the party a talk about how the Hollows' lack of emotions left room for base ones - such as anger, joy, or sadness - to be implanted back in. With Gawaint revealing the party was aiming to put a stop to the violent Hollows, Victor had Mortimer free the Hollow they were experimenting on and left it to fight the party whilst him and his son left.

The party chased after Victor, tracking the man down into the Deeps where they learned he had struck a deal with Quexxlian cultists to provide him Hollows for his experiments. They found the man himself again during a talk with some of said cultists and during the confrontation Victor revealed that he initially implanted positive emotions into the Hollows. However, the single-track mind of the resulting creations and their inability to remember their former selves made people think they're unnatural and denounce the scientist as a madman. Enraged at this treatment, Victor decided to made his genius known by creating an army of unstoppable and relentless fighters. Ordering the Quexxlians to attack the party, Victor fleed once again despite the Nameless cultist's efforts to chase after him.

With Mortimer left behind in the struggle, the Nameless cultist used him to deliver a request for parlay with Victor. Agreeing to the offer, the cultist and the scientist had a private talk during which Victor offered to show the Nameless' entire party his magnum opus. Inviting them all into his lab, Victor revealed a biologically enhanced super monster with crushing strength and relentless fury. However, Victor's creation broke free and turned on him whilst he had his back turned. The party stepped in with Dr. Nightscream keeping the mad scientist alive whilst the rest defended his son and put the beast down through team effort. With Victor effectively neutralized, the party collected their reward with some members claiming special spoils from the adventure.

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Week 6 - NOT THE BEES

A researcher from the Void named Nesterin put up a job offer for adventurers to go into Arbosa's jungle and retrieve an exotic plant that has calming/sleep-inducing effects. The task was taken up by armoured warrior Psijgn Yvern, duelist Vael and berserker Trumnar. The trio were told to meet Nesterin's friend Linus if they needed a guide through the desert passage leading to the jungles, and then go North to get the plant.

The party set off from the mountains dividing the continent, fighting off some forest creatures and bandits until they found the solitary peak where Linus lived. They met up with the Void mage who happily agreed to guide them through the desert and back but wouldn't participate in combat due to his... Specific condition. Making their way further up North with Linus, the party met up and had a char with a band of mercenaries. The latter told the party of the rumours regarding the entrepreneur Morgan Simnel - the man is supposedly going to be hiring a small army of hired arms soon, and paying really well at that. Taking note of this, the trio of adventurers bid good tidings to the mercenaries and pressed on.

Making their way through Finley's Passage, the party arrived at the jungle to a pretty cold reception from the local wild mages. Able to negotiate further passage, the trio stopped by the Aestas logging camp to drop off Linus and went further in to search for the plant. Along the way, the party fended off assaults from various jungle animals - and even made a neat profit off of some of the pelts they crudely carved off and sold off during a chance encounter with a hunter. After a while of wandering around in the jungle and getting into a particularly unfortunate encounter with a swarm of bees, the adventurers came across a lone woman. She told them the story of how the jungle came to be and pointed them towards the "Plains of Peaceful Passing" where they could find the plant they seek.

Fighting their way into the Plains, the party found that a Wilds dragon was roaming around in the are.. Joining up with the hunter they met before, the party decided to try to take it on - but did not expect that the beast would start spewing out swarms of bees in a horrifying breath attack. Remembering his last run-in with bees, Vael swiftly fled the plains and left the other two adventurers to attempt killing the dragon. After a long and exhausting fight (which also involved wild monkeys joining the fray) during which the hunter was slain, Psijgn and Trumnar ran away too. Regrouping right outside the plains and reassuring Vael, the party went back in for another round - but soon changed their minds as the dragon proved to be a more tenacious beast than they had hoped for. Luckily, the plant they were looking for was indeed in the Plains and as soon as they found it the party grabbed it and ran for their lives. Narrowly avoiding death at the hands of the dragon, the trio trekked back towards the mountains with a luckily far smoother journey this time round. They gave Nesterin his plant and collected their reward in the form of assistance with learning new lores.

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**Week 7 - Prejudice and Propaganda

This week our party of investigative Journalists: Issac, Linus Void-touched and the Skoi commander who will be henceforth referred to as XVIII, set off from the offices of the Daily Chainmail to get to the bottom of the a number of topical Modern issues that were affecting the city of Aestas, and how they are clearly all caused by Immigrants.

Setting out they soon encounter some Motion Fragments near the gates of Aestas, which aren’t normally found inside the city walls. The party heads into the refugee camp just in time to save a Miratelian who was shot for being ‘threatening’. While talking to some refugees who are high on slug slime they lose the expense account to a cutpurse.

Before long they have their first hint of what is happening with the fragments when they encounter a mage from Aestas practicing magic in the refugee community with strangely explosive results (and in the process they manage to flood Aestas with Stabilise fragments.) Soon after they encounter a Hellenite and wisely one of the party decides to trail them while the rest investigate a commotion on a Bridge. Simnel had apparently sent some supplies but the Wardens weren’t prepared to release it, Issac tries to take control of the situation and is shot by an absurdly over armed warden (4 firearms are clearly needed for self defence.)

Meanwhile XVIII follows the Hellenite, to witness an ecumenical discussion between a Felken and the Hellenites on the nature of the sun (as well as more accusations that the refugees carry voidic taint.) He follows the Hellenites to the Hospital where Issac is being treated and Linus Voidtouched narrowly escapes after his detaching tendency enrages the Hellenites.

After encountering a Gun merchant where they discover the cutpurse from earlier and reclaim their expense account and XVIII setting up a meeting with a Slug Slime Salesman. The Party head to Simmnels offices where they learn many things, some of which may be true, but probably he isn’t trying to make a Dragon airforce. They encounter more mages exposing dubious magical practices, and creating more fragments, because control is for cowards who cares about anything but power. Before heading to the ‘Prancing Wolf’ an Octagonal pub filled with somewhat criminal enterprises. Unfortunately Issac chooses this point to rejoin the party and seeing an Arbiter in uniform causes everyone to scarper.

The return to the refugee encampment involves the party butchering an angry mob that was getting riled up by a Hellenite firebrand, and then settle down with the refugee community leaders to talk about magic and discover that the magical problems in Aestas probably aren’t the Miratelians.

Linus then proceeds to give all of this, including the opinions of random Aestas Xenophobes to the Daily Chainmail, who certainly will be discerning enough to publish only the truth right?

Week 8 - One Golem For Me, Another For Thee

This week's adventure was an expedition up to the Void. A Skoi researcher who has recently acquired one of the rare and antique golems of Skoi made hundreds of years ago. Unfortunately, the construct ended up disappearing and the researcher suspected it went up one of the mountains up to the Void. Being from the Deeps himself, the researcher was loath to make the trek himself and instead hired the adventurers Vael, Psijgn Yvern and Firdan Stern to return the golem to him.

On their way to the mountain, the party encounter several dangers as well as more friendly wanderers - one of them being a golem researcher and enthusiast. Upon meeting the party and learning of their quest, he warns them that creatures and constructs aligned with either the Deep or the Void suffer when they go to the domain of the other. A Deeps golem up in the Void is therefore bound to start malfunctioning if it's not extracted soon. With that in mind the party redoubled their efforts and hurried towards the mountain.

Scaling up to where the golem supposedly got lost, the party was forced to fight their way through an unusually high number of Wanderers - void creatures that resemble humanoids but do not really stay dead. On their way they encountered a Miratellian attempting to study the Wanderers to see if anything can be gleaned about the Hollowness that is ravaging his people. They also came across a fire mage who gave Firdan Stern a shotgun initiation into the higher tiers of fire magic - the adventurer left the encounter now knowing how to heat up enemy weapons to the point of them being unbearable to touch.

The party finally found a clearing high up in the mountain, but the Deeps golem they were after was not alone - a Void golem was right there with the party's target. Fighting off more Void monsters, the party attempted to take the Deeps golem but it was reluctant to go. After spending more time around it, Firdan figured out that the Deeps golem seemed to replicate Skoi cultist behaviour and promptly asked it to connect with him. The golem enthusiastically did so and started following him, to the great dismay of its' Void golem friend. The latter was left alone and confused, its' best friend walking away under Firdan's lead. Not giving a hoot either way about the Void golem, the adventurers absconded with the Skoi golem and delivered it back to the researcher with time to spare.

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Week 9 - Morgan

With the day of Morgan Simnel's announcement finally here, the group consisting of the Nameless cultist, Arbiter Isaac and two shieldbearers - the cheerful sir Gawaine and another that did not introduce with a name - decided to join the masses of adventurers flocking to Aestas under the promise of riches and adventure. Morgan stood before a large crowd of sellswords and citizens alike, emphatically speaking about the greatness of the city and promising to help it grow to accommodate the native villagers as well as the Myratellian refugees. At the height of his speech Morgan laid out his pans for storming Arbosa's jungle and renewing extensive logging but he was interrupted by a masked individual who shot him dead. Despite Gawaine's and Isaac's efforts the assassin fled the scene but the two were able to recover the weapon of crime whilst a Warden commander entered the scene. Conversing with him, the group offered to try to track down the killer so the Wardens can put all their efforts into locking down the city and preventing the murderer's escape.

Handing in the weapon to the commander, the party started off by trekking through Aestas and questioning the people inside about this incident. Aestas is eventually completed closed off but panic starts settling from the inside, witch hunts and brawls occurring across the entire city whilst the gates are crowded with people trying to leave.The party had little luck locating the killer but they managed to glean some interesting details regarding Morgan's death - namely, that he might not really be dead at all. The party get permission to access the Arbiter investigation facilities in Aestas where the pistol is being examined and find out that the pistol was magically enchanted - the bullet fired from it was infused with large quantities of Voidic magic. Taking a visit to the clinic where Morgan's body was being examined, the party were told that the bullet missed all of his vitals; thus, the adventurers should at least have had a chance to heal him before he dropped dead. Now convinced that Morgan is in fact under a Detach-induced coma of sorts, the adventurers get the Warden commander's permission to take the the young Simnel up to the Void for a possibility of helping him.

Whilst carting Morgan's body out of Aestas the party come across discarded equipment and a mask that looks like the one the assassin wore. As luck would have it, the man appeared to collect his gear whilst the party was investigating it. He attempted to flee again but the party caught up to him this time, knocking the murdered out and handing him over to the authorities on their way out. Leaving Aestas, the adventurers escorted the cart carrying Morgan Simnel all the way to a Nameless cult monastery where the party's own Nameless believed he would be able to reach to the Void and find Simnel's soul. A ritual takes place that lets the Nameless cultist pass into the Void and, indeed, find the business entrepreneur's soul drifting - not quite in the Void but not quite up in the surface either. The cultist freed the soul from limbo and soon after Morgan Simnel suddenly woke up. Writhing, yelling and cussing from the pain caused by his wound, but definitely alive. Convinced that it was the responsibility of the wild mages who wanted to foil his plans, Morgan swore that he would see his plan through to the end no matter what.

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