Intense Gaming Session
Jul. 29th, 2004 12:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
willow_redRoleplaying continued last night, and went fairly late, so I decided to go to sleep and write about it today. Also, it was a very intense session, and I really wasn't up to reliving it just yet. Warning: this is long.
Hufflepuff throws their standard party on Tuesday evening, or at least it starts out that way. With the notice about students unable to leave the castle walls, tensions are running high. This causes many students from the other houses to go to the party, which rapidly turns into a rave. Nicole goes to the party, meets lots of new people, and dances until dawn. As the first rays of light from Wednesday morning enter the windows, Nicole passes out on a couch. She is awakened a couple of hours later by other students and dragged down to breakfast.
The group is eating breakfast quietly in their detention room when Filch shuffles in, and Nicole notices a large hole in his left hand. She later learns that one of the other students, Albert, is responsible for this injury. Alessa Malfoy seems to have a silencing charm on her, as she is communicating via a magical parchment pad that is charmed to have the notes immediately seek out their recipients as soon as they are removed from the pad. Filch slams a note down onto the table in front of the students. It is a pass out of the castle that can only be used with Filch present, and only by all of the students together. Nicole quietly wonders how her name got on the pass, since she wasn't supposed to be in detention like the others.
Since the first class of the day, Care of Magical Creatures, has been cancelled, the group decides to use the pass right after breakfast to go to the forest and continue investigating the centaur murders. At the edge of the forest, the group encounters the centaur Bane. Filch backs away slowly and heads back toward the castle. The children are alone with the centaur. Bane points a finger at Nicole and says that she has not gained permission to enter the forest. Nicole panics. She can't go back without the others, but she can't go into the forest either. She asks Bane what she must do to gain entry. He informs her that she must cast a spell against him, but if she harms him, she will be killed. Nicole trembles a little and wonders which spell to cast. After a moment, she squares her shoulders, steps forward, and casts, "Silencio!" Bane's mouth moves, but no sound issues for a moment. A small shiver runs the length of his body, and he says, "Very well. Follow me," and leads the children into the forest. Everyone breathes a sigh of relief.
Lucretia, a fellow Slytherin, provides a voice for the silent Alessa. As the children walk to the murder scene, Elizabeth pokes Nicole in the arm and indicates that she has been silenced, and asks to have the spell removed. None of the others are willing to do this, since it seems much safer this way. Sometime while they are walking, Alessa regains her voice.
The murder scene is most confusing. The bodies are gone, and there is evidence of a struggle, but the only blood in the small clearing is centaur blood. Alessa examines the tracks and finds a set of large, reptilian tracks in the area, but none leading in or out. It is as if the creature appeared in this spot and disappeared when it was done. Alessa sketches the tracks on her parchment.
Centaur calls are heard in the distance, but the direction is unclear. Suddenly, ghostlike silvery tentacles erupt from the ground right underneath Alessa. Bane sounds his horn, and it is joined by several others from around the forest. Nigel dives at Alessa and knocks her away from the tentacles. Magorian and an old female centaur enter the clearing. She is clearly old, all white with a single black streak down her back. She has only one breast. Where the other should be, only a large, ugly scar remains. She is a shaman of the centaurs, and her magic slams the tentacle back into the ground.
Magorian and the shaman order Bane to look after the "cattle" until they return. Alessa and Lucretia confront Magorian and insist that they can help. Magorian questions if the young wizards and witches are willing to give their lives to help the centaurs. All agree, some more reluctantly than others. A few of the students talk among themselves about what they could possibly do to help in this situation.
At the location of the nearest alarm, the children see seven centaurs fighting five solid tentacle beasts. Six centaurs already lay dead on the ground. Alessa steps forward and petrifies one of the beasts. The shaman then seals all five. They move on to the next site and do the same thing. Then a solid tentacle, nearly a meter in diameter shoots up out of the ground, straight through the body of the old shaman, and keeps going, destroying everything in its path, straight toward the Hogwarts castle. Bane tries to shoot an arrow at the creature, but it bounces off without causing as much as a scratch.
The students are terrified by now, but Elizabeth (who had her silencing charm removed by Bane somehow) comes up with an idea. If they all work together to cast a memory charm on the creature, they might be able to confuse it long enough that it stops what it's doing. The casting is successful and the creature stops moving. Nigel climbs a tree to see what is going on around us. He reports that the tentacles from the five different sites are forming a pentacle that is centered on Hogwarts castle.
Bane warns the children not to leave this place on pain of death, and he and Magorian leave. The children are now alone and desperate to do something to protect Hogwarts, but they are only first years, and their spell knowledge is limited. They try to shrink the creature, but their first attempt is resisted. The creature is too strong. They try again, and it shrinks a little, but not enough to be helpful.
In the trees behind them, the children hear three centaurs guarding them. When the tentacle starts moving again, the centaurs try to get the children away, but they plead to be able to help. The centaurs reluctantly agree, knowing that their lives are on the line. The group tries to cast another memory charm on the creature, but they are overconfident for their lack of skills, and the spell nearly backfires.
Cries of all-out war sound from every side. Voices of centaurs and wizards can both be heard. Nigel reports from his vantage point that there is a massacre in progress. It's hard to tell who is fighting on which side. Humans and centaurs are dying. The students listen to the fighting wizards in the hope of picking up a spell or two they can use. Alessa casts magic missile on the tentacle beast, while Nicole casts, "Protego," a shield charm, to protect her. Two holes appear in the tentacle and start closing again, but only slowly. Alessa tries her spell again, and it backfires, but the shield keeps her from getting too badly hurt.
The students continue to try casting spells against the creature. Most fail, but enough work that repeated magic missiles cut all the way through and across the tentacle, severing it. Cries of a thousand voices shriek in the minds of all who are present. The tentacles shrivel up and the lines disappear. The battle appears to be over...for now. However, the aftermath is horrible. Nigel tells the others that the tentacles broke through the walls of the castle. Bodies are strewn across the grounds between the castle and the train station. Nigel can barely speak at the horror of all he has seen. The children stand around in shock.
Bane returns to the clearing, the head of Draco Malfoy, Alessa's father, hanging from his belt. Alessa promptly faints. Nicole casts, "Ennervate," to awaken her. Bane announces that Death Eaters were attempting to enter the Forbidden Forest, the penalty for which is death. Alessa faces off with Bane and demands to know how the centaurs knew these were Death Eaters. The centaurs do not take kindly to her tone of voice. Bane informs her that they recognized several Death Eaters from previous encounters, and as for Draco Malfoy, well, his family has been full of dark wizards for generations. Alessa, stricken with anger and grief, retorts that Draco had turned to the side of light, and if the centaurs insist on judging humans by their families, he ought to kill her too. Bane draws his bow and aims directly at Alessa. The other children are terrified. Lucretia tries to calm Alessa, but to no avail. The others learn that Alessa had used her magic parchment pad to summon her father, as it was clear that they were all in over their heads. Now, Draco has lost his. Bane and Alessa argue over who is more responsible for the death of Draco Malfoy, and Alessa vows revenge. Bane shoots her in the throat. Elizabeth sends up sparks in the hope of attracting help. Alessa's body vanishes.
Lucretia summons Onyx, the nightmare horse. He is missing 90% of the skin from his body. She asks the horse to take the group back to the hospital wing of the school. He and several other nightmares take the students as far as the front of the castle. The grounds are covered in blood and gore. The horses start sniffing around and Onyx asks permission to partake in the great feast laid out before them. Lucretia, horrified, sends the nightmares away.
A line of people is forming, bringing bodies to the castle and to the forest. Mostly humans are being brought to the castle, and mostly centaurs are being brought to the forest, but there is enough confusion that some go to the other location. Everyone who can still walk is helping. Townspeople are arriving from Hogsmeade to help too. Lucretia and Elizabeth go inside to help there and try to find out what happened to Alessa. Nicole and Nigel help to pick up bodies from the ground. Somehow, Nicole manages to keep herself from vomiting. Albert simply collapses against a wall and cries, making himself sick. When the day is over, none of them are as young as they were this morning.
Meanwhile, Professor Snape was down by the train station, watching two scrying bowls. One showed the students in the forest, and the other showed the group of Death Eaters. Snape got as many students as he could onto the train after the attack started, and planned to escape with them so someone who knew what happened would get out. When the Death Eaters crossed into the forest, the centaurs attacked. One arrow accidentally hit a student, so the teachers retaliated against the centaurs. Chaos ensued. Everyone was fighting each other and the tentacles at the same time. Dumbledore, who had gone senile long ago and was planning to retire at the end of this term, joined the fight and was killed.
Many were killed, and many were badly injured. The hospital wing overflowed for months. On the first day back after Christmas Break, Professor McGonagall addressed the students. She has now taken over the post of Headmistress. Draco Malfoy (who somehow has a head again, even though Bane has one too) is professor of Muggle Studies. The Quidditch Cup and House Cup have been cancelled this year. Instead, the House Cup has gone to the group of students who stopped the tentacle beast and saved Hogwarts. McGonagall raises her goblet to these students and all others follow her lead. Alessa (who has now recovered) declares a party in Slytherin, all houses invited...this time, at least.
It was a fun evening of gaming, but hard and rather frustrating at times. The battle was way over the heads of a group of first years. As it turned out, the GM hadn't planned for this to happen yet, but we kept doing things that accelerated the timeline. We all got four ticks in the taint category for encountering the evil of the tentacle beast. We also got five free ticks for solving the mystery and defeating the beast. I got one tick for my first combat, one for taking notes (apparently that's cool), and one tick for something that everyone found entertaining. When the GM informed us that Draco, despite losing a head, was still alive and hadn't joined the headless hunt, we were all a bit confused. So I compared it to the alien in Men In Black who ran the pawn shop. After K shot off his head, a new one grew back, so I said his line: "Do you have any idea how much that stings?" Everyone laughed for quite a while.
Phew! That was a lot. Our homework before next session (in four weeks because a couple of people will be out of town in two weeks) is to determine what our characters were doing in the intervening months. This continues to be quite interesting.
Hufflepuff throws their standard party on Tuesday evening, or at least it starts out that way. With the notice about students unable to leave the castle walls, tensions are running high. This causes many students from the other houses to go to the party, which rapidly turns into a rave. Nicole goes to the party, meets lots of new people, and dances until dawn. As the first rays of light from Wednesday morning enter the windows, Nicole passes out on a couch. She is awakened a couple of hours later by other students and dragged down to breakfast.
The group is eating breakfast quietly in their detention room when Filch shuffles in, and Nicole notices a large hole in his left hand. She later learns that one of the other students, Albert, is responsible for this injury. Alessa Malfoy seems to have a silencing charm on her, as she is communicating via a magical parchment pad that is charmed to have the notes immediately seek out their recipients as soon as they are removed from the pad. Filch slams a note down onto the table in front of the students. It is a pass out of the castle that can only be used with Filch present, and only by all of the students together. Nicole quietly wonders how her name got on the pass, since she wasn't supposed to be in detention like the others.
Since the first class of the day, Care of Magical Creatures, has been cancelled, the group decides to use the pass right after breakfast to go to the forest and continue investigating the centaur murders. At the edge of the forest, the group encounters the centaur Bane. Filch backs away slowly and heads back toward the castle. The children are alone with the centaur. Bane points a finger at Nicole and says that she has not gained permission to enter the forest. Nicole panics. She can't go back without the others, but she can't go into the forest either. She asks Bane what she must do to gain entry. He informs her that she must cast a spell against him, but if she harms him, she will be killed. Nicole trembles a little and wonders which spell to cast. After a moment, she squares her shoulders, steps forward, and casts, "Silencio!" Bane's mouth moves, but no sound issues for a moment. A small shiver runs the length of his body, and he says, "Very well. Follow me," and leads the children into the forest. Everyone breathes a sigh of relief.
Lucretia, a fellow Slytherin, provides a voice for the silent Alessa. As the children walk to the murder scene, Elizabeth pokes Nicole in the arm and indicates that she has been silenced, and asks to have the spell removed. None of the others are willing to do this, since it seems much safer this way. Sometime while they are walking, Alessa regains her voice.
The murder scene is most confusing. The bodies are gone, and there is evidence of a struggle, but the only blood in the small clearing is centaur blood. Alessa examines the tracks and finds a set of large, reptilian tracks in the area, but none leading in or out. It is as if the creature appeared in this spot and disappeared when it was done. Alessa sketches the tracks on her parchment.
Centaur calls are heard in the distance, but the direction is unclear. Suddenly, ghostlike silvery tentacles erupt from the ground right underneath Alessa. Bane sounds his horn, and it is joined by several others from around the forest. Nigel dives at Alessa and knocks her away from the tentacles. Magorian and an old female centaur enter the clearing. She is clearly old, all white with a single black streak down her back. She has only one breast. Where the other should be, only a large, ugly scar remains. She is a shaman of the centaurs, and her magic slams the tentacle back into the ground.
Magorian and the shaman order Bane to look after the "cattle" until they return. Alessa and Lucretia confront Magorian and insist that they can help. Magorian questions if the young wizards and witches are willing to give their lives to help the centaurs. All agree, some more reluctantly than others. A few of the students talk among themselves about what they could possibly do to help in this situation.
At the location of the nearest alarm, the children see seven centaurs fighting five solid tentacle beasts. Six centaurs already lay dead on the ground. Alessa steps forward and petrifies one of the beasts. The shaman then seals all five. They move on to the next site and do the same thing. Then a solid tentacle, nearly a meter in diameter shoots up out of the ground, straight through the body of the old shaman, and keeps going, destroying everything in its path, straight toward the Hogwarts castle. Bane tries to shoot an arrow at the creature, but it bounces off without causing as much as a scratch.
The students are terrified by now, but Elizabeth (who had her silencing charm removed by Bane somehow) comes up with an idea. If they all work together to cast a memory charm on the creature, they might be able to confuse it long enough that it stops what it's doing. The casting is successful and the creature stops moving. Nigel climbs a tree to see what is going on around us. He reports that the tentacles from the five different sites are forming a pentacle that is centered on Hogwarts castle.
Bane warns the children not to leave this place on pain of death, and he and Magorian leave. The children are now alone and desperate to do something to protect Hogwarts, but they are only first years, and their spell knowledge is limited. They try to shrink the creature, but their first attempt is resisted. The creature is too strong. They try again, and it shrinks a little, but not enough to be helpful.
In the trees behind them, the children hear three centaurs guarding them. When the tentacle starts moving again, the centaurs try to get the children away, but they plead to be able to help. The centaurs reluctantly agree, knowing that their lives are on the line. The group tries to cast another memory charm on the creature, but they are overconfident for their lack of skills, and the spell nearly backfires.
Cries of all-out war sound from every side. Voices of centaurs and wizards can both be heard. Nigel reports from his vantage point that there is a massacre in progress. It's hard to tell who is fighting on which side. Humans and centaurs are dying. The students listen to the fighting wizards in the hope of picking up a spell or two they can use. Alessa casts magic missile on the tentacle beast, while Nicole casts, "Protego," a shield charm, to protect her. Two holes appear in the tentacle and start closing again, but only slowly. Alessa tries her spell again, and it backfires, but the shield keeps her from getting too badly hurt.
The students continue to try casting spells against the creature. Most fail, but enough work that repeated magic missiles cut all the way through and across the tentacle, severing it. Cries of a thousand voices shriek in the minds of all who are present. The tentacles shrivel up and the lines disappear. The battle appears to be over...for now. However, the aftermath is horrible. Nigel tells the others that the tentacles broke through the walls of the castle. Bodies are strewn across the grounds between the castle and the train station. Nigel can barely speak at the horror of all he has seen. The children stand around in shock.
Bane returns to the clearing, the head of Draco Malfoy, Alessa's father, hanging from his belt. Alessa promptly faints. Nicole casts, "Ennervate," to awaken her. Bane announces that Death Eaters were attempting to enter the Forbidden Forest, the penalty for which is death. Alessa faces off with Bane and demands to know how the centaurs knew these were Death Eaters. The centaurs do not take kindly to her tone of voice. Bane informs her that they recognized several Death Eaters from previous encounters, and as for Draco Malfoy, well, his family has been full of dark wizards for generations. Alessa, stricken with anger and grief, retorts that Draco had turned to the side of light, and if the centaurs insist on judging humans by their families, he ought to kill her too. Bane draws his bow and aims directly at Alessa. The other children are terrified. Lucretia tries to calm Alessa, but to no avail. The others learn that Alessa had used her magic parchment pad to summon her father, as it was clear that they were all in over their heads. Now, Draco has lost his. Bane and Alessa argue over who is more responsible for the death of Draco Malfoy, and Alessa vows revenge. Bane shoots her in the throat. Elizabeth sends up sparks in the hope of attracting help. Alessa's body vanishes.
Lucretia summons Onyx, the nightmare horse. He is missing 90% of the skin from his body. She asks the horse to take the group back to the hospital wing of the school. He and several other nightmares take the students as far as the front of the castle. The grounds are covered in blood and gore. The horses start sniffing around and Onyx asks permission to partake in the great feast laid out before them. Lucretia, horrified, sends the nightmares away.
A line of people is forming, bringing bodies to the castle and to the forest. Mostly humans are being brought to the castle, and mostly centaurs are being brought to the forest, but there is enough confusion that some go to the other location. Everyone who can still walk is helping. Townspeople are arriving from Hogsmeade to help too. Lucretia and Elizabeth go inside to help there and try to find out what happened to Alessa. Nicole and Nigel help to pick up bodies from the ground. Somehow, Nicole manages to keep herself from vomiting. Albert simply collapses against a wall and cries, making himself sick. When the day is over, none of them are as young as they were this morning.
Meanwhile, Professor Snape was down by the train station, watching two scrying bowls. One showed the students in the forest, and the other showed the group of Death Eaters. Snape got as many students as he could onto the train after the attack started, and planned to escape with them so someone who knew what happened would get out. When the Death Eaters crossed into the forest, the centaurs attacked. One arrow accidentally hit a student, so the teachers retaliated against the centaurs. Chaos ensued. Everyone was fighting each other and the tentacles at the same time. Dumbledore, who had gone senile long ago and was planning to retire at the end of this term, joined the fight and was killed.
Many were killed, and many were badly injured. The hospital wing overflowed for months. On the first day back after Christmas Break, Professor McGonagall addressed the students. She has now taken over the post of Headmistress. Draco Malfoy (who somehow has a head again, even though Bane has one too) is professor of Muggle Studies. The Quidditch Cup and House Cup have been cancelled this year. Instead, the House Cup has gone to the group of students who stopped the tentacle beast and saved Hogwarts. McGonagall raises her goblet to these students and all others follow her lead. Alessa (who has now recovered) declares a party in Slytherin, all houses invited...this time, at least.
It was a fun evening of gaming, but hard and rather frustrating at times. The battle was way over the heads of a group of first years. As it turned out, the GM hadn't planned for this to happen yet, but we kept doing things that accelerated the timeline. We all got four ticks in the taint category for encountering the evil of the tentacle beast. We also got five free ticks for solving the mystery and defeating the beast. I got one tick for my first combat, one for taking notes (apparently that's cool), and one tick for something that everyone found entertaining. When the GM informed us that Draco, despite losing a head, was still alive and hadn't joined the headless hunt, we were all a bit confused. So I compared it to the alien in Men In Black who ran the pawn shop. After K shot off his head, a new one grew back, so I said his line: "Do you have any idea how much that stings?" Everyone laughed for quite a while.
Phew! That was a lot. Our homework before next session (in four weeks because a couple of people will be out of town in two weeks) is to determine what our characters were doing in the intervening months. This continues to be quite interesting.
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Date: 2004-07-29 02:49 pm (UTC)<ducks> ;;;)
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Date: 2004-07-29 08:45 pm (UTC)