Photos!

The last Sunday of the 'Spring' term saw the usual array of missions. As the Troglodyte army descended upon the forces of Amon Tor, the adventurers moved against the Kharn to take control of the army for themselves. Meanwhile, others set out to destroy Amon Tor's new war machines, rescue some resistance spies holed up in the path of enemy forces, assassinate the Amonian general, and mop up the rest of the besiegers as their leaderless army fell apart. 

All in a days work for the adventurers of the Golden Grain!

Here are some photos of all the excitement, adventure, and deeply erratic weather!

The Story So Far...

Chapter 1: Signs and Solutions

A routine patrol of Fort Petronia's defenses found one of the adventurers dead in a ditch. Search parties revealed more bodies, dead but walking. Hasty investigations led to an unavoidable conclusion; the Adventurers of the Golden Grain had fallen to the Abyss. Petronia had lost its finest protection against the rot in the world.

A state of emergency was declared. A call went out for new recruits to take the adventurers' place.

Heroes from across Kairos rallied to the city's aid. They rose to the challenge of replacing their fallen predecessors, protecting Petronia from the Abyss as the lengthening shadows closed in around it. The fate of the old adventurers was soon revealed, the secret golden city in which they met their fate exposed to the world. The state of peace built over the past decade was upheld as the new adventurers came to the aid of neighboring laisaur and troglodyte alike. This diplomacy gave swift rewards, for at the darkest hour of the winter, allies from across Nova Thule came to save Fort Petronia from the demons of the void.

Chapter 2: Tour of Duty

As the start of spring saw the grain sown, the adventurers planned how to take best advantage of this season of respite. They set off to the south, to aid the people of Arvum in founding a new Colony. The people of Arvum, descendants of Thulian colonists themselves, held little faith in these uninvited imperialists; but the adventurers eventually won their favor by lifting the curse that had for so long dogged their land.

With the colony established, the adventurers turned their eyes still further south. Beyond the mountains, at the heart of the continent, lies the Axial Frontier; a wall of ice patrolled by hostile reptiles. The Narga had brought much death to the troglodytes of the highlands, and the adventurers sought to protect the hill-folk in the most final way possible, by wiping the frost-laisaur from the face of Kairos. 

To this end they conspired with the leader of a growing Ogre war-band. Thorgrahl Khan was gathering all the troglodytes he could find to wage war on the southern Narga. He and the adventurers found themselves with common purpose, and marched across the Great Savannah to swell their ranks. They headed towards the Pillar of Infinity, an ancient tower containing the souls of generations of troglodyte dead. The armies of Amon Tor laid siege to the Pillar, so the ever increasing army marched hard across the plains, to save their kin before they fell.

As the army approached the Pillar, the alliance between the Kharn and the adventurers broke down. Opinions and personalities clashed, with the eventual outcome of the adventurers killing the Kharn and taking control of the army for themselves. They marched upon the Pillar, sent the forces of Amon Tor fleeing back to their empire, and liberated the Pillar of Infinity.

Now, after basking in the adulation of those they had rescued, the adventurers are heading home...

Secrets of Shattered Iron

(Chapter 3: The Legacy of Shadovald Reaches A New Age)

The University of York Science Fiction And Fantasy Society has a long tradition of running high quality LARP. The past nine years have seen countless friends join together to create and play in a multitude of systems; varying from campaigns stretching over several years, to one-off LARPs, and everything else in-between.

Age of Iron is the newest twice-weekly system. It will take place during university term times, on Wednesday evenings and Sunday afternoons. The first session will be held on the Sunday of the Week 2 SF&F convention (that's the 21st of October for everyone using the Gregorian calender). Future posts will give you all the details you need to attend, but seeing as that's almost two weeks away, we have time to wallow in a little nostalgia...

We present here some photos from a few of the weekend events have run over the past few years.

It all started off nine years ago with The Secrets Of Shadovald, which we shortened to simply Shadovald. This was a game where everything was against the players. The world was being overrun by undead, demons were hidden secretly among the gods, and the people of the world had all given up hope. All, that is, accept the heroes of the Dagmari Arms, a pub filled with people who refused to role over and die. Lets take a look at them. 

The adventurers had made themselves a nemesis; a gobby, vindictive creature who wanted vengeance for his death. After a gruelling fight into the dreaded Shadovald, they dealt with the politics of the undead, the politics of the living, aggravating vampires, and the king of the dead city Atharu; all cumulating in a final show down in the city's crumbling Colosseum...

Regional politics had left the city of Gilzenburg ridden with civil war. Planetary seismic activity had left rifts in reality that spewed forth creatures from other worlds. Demons wanted to consume the city, and with their stolen iron-clad ship, they had the fire-power to do so. Into all this came the conscripted adventurers, sent in to do the work that others would charge too much to do...

During the first event, the death or departure of everyone who knew what was happening left a great many loose ends. The undead used this to their advantage, and the King of Atharu began invading their home city, Inselburg. With the help of a manipulative necromancer and a nuclear weapon, the adventurers bought their people enough time to escape the city, selling their lives heroically in the process.

With the destruction of just about everywhere on Shadovald's map, it was time for a new system. It was named Shattered Legacies, though we all shortened this to Shat-Leg. This was the game where the adventurers sold out, abandoning any heroic ideals for their own ends. The tsar of their city, their barman, and various other important people, all ended up possessed by the same demon, and the players were more than happy to go along with it. 

At the start it all seemed so innocent! These are the adventurers of the New Star, setting off to destroy the twisted, false-god of destruction. They journeyed to the ruins of Zenith, destroyed Dragon, took control of the city's golemic protectors, and began rebuilding the city.

The rot has well and truly set in! Civilisations have fallen before their blades, and worse is still to come. The adventurers of the New Star, now known as the Knights of Ambala, return to Zenith. They leave the city a crumbling ruin, discover they have been manipulated by the demon Slayer all along, then happily hand their master the Mantle of Death. How could things get any worse?

The end of the world is upon them! Nemesis, a tentacled beast from beyond the stars, is descending to wreak havoc upon the world as it has so many times before. The Knights of Ambala must destroy the god of fear, journey beyond the ruins of Zenith, and vanquish this threat of the ages. Only then can they begin beating the world into submission, forcing all to kneel before Slayer... 

These are but a few highlights of the past. Shadovald and Shat-Leg have been accompanied by so many other short-term LARPs that I dare not try to list them all, least I do any the injustice of overlooking them. Now, as we enter the tenth year of Secrets of Shattered Iron, they find themselves joined by Age of Iron. We have a lot to live up to, but I believe we are up to the task. 

This blog will act as a celebration of the past and the future. The next few weeks will see the release of more information, and you can contact us by following the links on the right, up towards the top of this page.

Hope to see you soon!