A weekend of Pot Watching

Well, it's September and the month is off to a fine old start, showing all the signs of being as hectic as it always is. Today may only be Tuesday but I'm already embroiled in a few crises in potentia, which seem to be picking up political undertones. I remember the far off days of old when if you saw something was broken, you fixed it and that was that. These days... These days I have to justify every I do and even if a fix is urgently needed or horrible bad things will happen, I face something of an Inquisition.

Still I refuse to have my good mood broken and I'm still basking in the success of the Strangehaven event at the weekend.

Friday I set off for York, braving the M1 to collect Richard by which time it was evident that this particular motorway was not the place to be. After sitting in stop/start traffic all the way from Coventry (J21) to South Normington (J28) and then waiting in a queue to get back onto the motorway after collecting Richard, we made the decision to go cross country, shunning the M1 for A roads. This added probably an hour or so onto our journey time, but since we'd have spent at least that sitting in traffic queues had we stuck with the motorway, I don't think its a bad tradeoff. As it was, we arrived at 7pm and once we'd got settled and briefed the crew, we got stuck in.

The plot this weekend involved the NPC I was playing being kidnapped and brutally beaten before she made good her escape, so it was time to apply the bruise makeup.

I also got to react to my NPC's father dying and even wore some armour although I must hasten to add that the armour was worn by a different NPC to the one who was beaten up.


Me aside, we had set pieces, managed to get some combat in, choosing small skirmishes with lots of sneaking to take the nature of the site into account. The set pieces were fantastic (and boy do I wish I had photo's) and I raided Dave's supply of masks so everyone got to look the part. We managed the tension nicely and the plot happily buzzed along the mood shifting from jovial to sinister and eventually horror as planned. All in all, it worked well and compared with the first game felt a lot easier as it played out. I'm just hoping the players enjoyed themselves as much as they seemed to.

With lots of plot to cram in, we finished a bit later than anticipated on Sunday afternoon but packed in a speedy fashion. By the time we were done though, a cuppa was needed so we stopped for a little while in the cafe before setting off. Thankfully, the roads were much better on the way back and apart from being horrified by the antics of some drivers with fat exhausts, the drive home was uneventful. Even so, by the time I'd dropped Richard off and set off for Coventry, it was gone eight by the time I got home.

As always, click on the pictures to see bigger versions...