Elmerton: The Town of Heroes or Monsters?!

When given this assignment, I was not prepared for the brutal den of sin, thievery, and apathy that I would be walking into, but as a decorated and critically acclaimed reporter, I persevered. While interviewing the Town guard, Linarien, she admitted to not only allowing the slime creatures that have been terrorizing Irvanshire, but being responsible for a confirmed 48 murders perpetrated by these “slime monsters”. I was then told by a man who claimed his name was “Adele” explained that the town itself were in fact “monsters,” explaining to me the horrid activities the town would perform on a regular basis, not the least of which was Murder. There, too, we met a being who claims to be a human-looking shell controlled by 7 foxes. They made a convincing show in my presence of a woman wearing a fox mask, but what is the true mask? Finally, I talked to a proclaimed Immortal called Feshanyog who saw people as “pebbles that were made to crash against each other,” showing total disregard for any form of life. I would have continued my investigation but after I was viciously robbed of my equipment, I knew that I first must retrieve my gear, braving myself to one of these monsters to retrieve my things. I knew then it was time to retreat from this horrid place before I risked mine and my assistant’s life even further. I am glad I survived to report this.

Elmerton, the so called “Town of Heroes” May have at one point earned that name, but the monsters that have taken over this town aren’t those people. It may be that they became what they fought, but regardless I would advise anyone expecting heroes in the town of Elmerton – you should expect Monsters instead.

Miles Dakley 

Magestic Messenger

The Sorrow of the Great Alpha

The following is a tale recounted by Albion of the Great Alpha’s pack to enlighten those without wolf blood, so they, too, can understand the sorrow of the Great Alpha. 

The moon has risen, large and full. Atop a mountain perch, a lone figure appears. The Great Alpha stands on the perch watching the full moon rise, as he has many times before. But this time his heart is heavy. Heavy with the loss of his pack members he has lost to the foul psychic shade that is corrupting his beloved wolves. He leans his head back, and a great mournful howl escapes his lips. It echoes across the land.

It can be heard by many- such a beautiful sound to most. But those with wolf blood in them know the truth within the howl. Pain and sadness is full within this howl. It tells a tale of how ten young wolves have lost their lives to the physic shade. The Great Alpha howls nine more times. Once for each member that was lost. All with wolf blood can see in their mind’s eye, the image of the Great Alpha standing on his perch howling, tears flowing from his eyes. He turns and looks at them all then fades away as if a dream. Because of all that the Great Alpha has done for werewolf kind, all those with wolf blood feel for the Great Alpha, and their hearts break for him and those that were lost. Well, almost all.  

Strange New Violent Creatures Discovered Near Elmerton!

Eugine Ladingail, a traveling merchant was returning home after a month away from home, to a small Hamlet named Ivy. When he returned home he expected to return home to his wife and daughters, but instead he returned to a ghost town. What happened? Where did everyone go? This is the story of Eugine Ladingail.  

“I think the first thing I noticed was the smell,” says Eugine. “The air it smelled strange, like a chemical smell, like acid, but there was something else mixed in as well, I don’t know what it was but it didn’t smell good.” Eugine then described to me how he searched Ivy looking to see where everyone had gone, calling out for his wife and children, but nobody answered him, nobody came. “I searched every building in Ivy, and I found no one, everyone was gone. That’s when I began looking for signs, seeing what could had done this and where could they have gone.” 

Eugine noticed that many of the doors were not bashed open, but burned open melted away with some acidic substance and that none of the valuables were removed from the house. Eugine also noticed that on the dirt pathways outside that he only saw the citizens boot prints and not any tracks made by the attackers. But then upon closer inspection he found strange “footprints”- areas were the soft dirt had flattened perfectly in the shape of a toeless foot. The same footprints were found inside the houses as well, areas where the stain of the floorboards were completely removed from the wood.

“It’s almost like whoever came into Ivy didn’t come here for any valuables, they came there for the people” Euigine said.“It was quiet for a very long time until I entered one house searching it for anyone still left. It was empty, same as the others, but the smell of acid was stronger in here, that when I heard something. I turned and ducked just in time as a large hand soared over my head, if I had not reacted I surely would have been hit. Standing before me was a humanoid creature, standing at around 6ft tall, it’s limbs were unnaturally long, it’s head or what resembled a head was devoid of features, and it’s flesh was made of translucent green slime that smelled strongly of some acidic chemical. And within it’s it’s slimy body I noticed floating within was swirls or crimson and bits partially dissolved bone. In it’s other hand it held a rusted mace, the grip of which was slowly being eaten away by the creatures touch. 

“I unsheathed my sword and took a swing at the creature. It dug deep into the creatures torso and it let out an inhuman scream, like some horrible demonic fetus screaming through sludge. As I drew my blade out of the creature, green thick sludge poured from the wound sloshing onto the floor. I looked at my blade and I noticed small pockmarks all across the part of the sword where it made contact with the creature. It continued with its otherworldly piping as it swung its mace at me, I dodged out of the way and the mace collided with a nearby wall and got lodged in place. While it tried to free the mace from the wall I slashed at it again, it landed in the thing’s shoulder blade, I pulled out the blade and slashed it across the stomach. It cried out again, its… well… what mimicked breathing, grew more raspy, and more and more of its thick sludgy innards lapped onto the floor. 

“It staggered towards me and sung at me with one of its fists. I dodged out of the way but the second fist caught me off guard and grabbed onto my left forearm. It felt like my forearm was being stabbed with a thousand razor blades over and over again. I tried to pull away but its vice-like grip held strong, while its other hand began to reach towards my head, its rasping labored sludge filled breathing echoed in my ears. I pulled and pulled and felt its grip loosening, I pulled one last time, moment of awful pain and I freed myself from its grip. I stepped back and swung my sword, I swung once at the chest making a diagonal cut across the creature’s torso, and again at its neck. With a wet slap and a loud gurgling scream its faceless head toppled to the floor, its neck began to spill more of the foul sludge as its headless body stumbled towards me, hands groping at the air, and with one last gurgling otherworldly cry it fell onto the ground and died.

“Its body immediately began to lose shape and melted into a pile of ooze, I noticed that the pile of ooze that was its right hand was was a deep shade of crimson and looked down at the arm that it had grabbed. Most of the skin on my forearm was gone leaving the severely damaged muscle and in some places, like my fingers, bone was also exposed.”

Eugine told us that he then walked to the next town over to get medical attention and to report the hamlet’s destruction to the town guard. Eugine ended up having to get his left forearm amputated and he has completely recovered from his injuries. 

Eugine’s story is sadly not unique, over the course of the summer, many small communities that were once thriving and full of life are now ghost towns and larger settlements have been reporting disappearances and sightings of these strange long limbed humanoids roaming large packs. However, what is strange is that all the farms, hamlets, and small towns that were attacked were nearby or somewhat nearby to the large town of Elmerton. Even some of the large farms and settlements that have survived attacks from these creatures were seen approaching from and retreating toward the direction of the town of Elmerton. What could this mean? Could Elmerton the town of heroes created the creatures? If so then why? More as the story continues. 

Magestic Messenger Reporter: Miles Dakly

Traders’ Bay attacked and burned down!

In a vicious attack that was done by either pirates or terrorists the world renowned trade port, Traders’ Bay was sacked just a night ago.

As night fell a fleet of ten ships approached the bay. They soon walled off the dock area with their ships and attacked both the Traders’ Bay and the Unity Mining Company in an attack that will cost tradesmen and commoners an untold fortune. Wooden structures where burned to the ground, mines were collapsed and robbed. Men, women, and children who were part of the community, who lived there, lost their lives to these enemies of decency.  Rico Demesmarc, the overseer of the Bay, did his best to mount a counter attack against these villains, but the numbers were just too great. His men were slain, dying bravely in combat in defense of the lands and people. Mr. Demesmarc’s modest home was sacked and set ablaze. His body has yet to be recovered, but there is so much chaos and wreckage left behind it may take some time to fully have a count of those murdered.

The loss of innocent life is tragically high but the real numbers may never be known due to destructive fires and the mine cave-ins. The loss of money is nigh incalculable as the repercussions on, not only the local economy, but the global economy, will be severe. Everyone from the simple farmer to the highest member of royal society will feel this for years to come. We can only hope and pray that something of this terrible magnitude will never occur again and that these pirates will be brought to justice.

Brenard O’Callighan
Royal Scribe of Terl Ayre 

Letter From Sons of Alaric

Subjects Of Irvanshire!

My name is Special Agent Oscar Bellastaros. I am the agent in charge of the general Elmerton area as well as a few surrounding towns and hamlets. In the interests of full disclosure I am writing this to let you all know exactly what is happening regarding the recent undead activity. As some of you may have heard, our central command base was recently attacked. It was an undead horde of roughly one hundred. We managed to beat back the attack with few losses. Evidence now suggests that the attack was done at the behest of a man by the name of Dedrick Decedres the son of Garland Decedres the now long deceased head of Project:Deadman. We are telling you all this not to scare the people but to keep you better informed. There is zero evidence even with Dedrick being around that he has attempted to restart the project. In fact by his own words that we have been able to gather he has no desire to do so. There is no threat of its return. That being noted, however, Dedrick is still our Enemy number one and public safety is always our biggest concern. If you see anything that looks suspicious or if you have a general spike in undead action contact either your town guard captain or local Sons Of Alaric agent. Also, if you meet or hear about a man name Scivano please follow the same protocol.


If you have any questions feel free to contact us and we will answer you as soon as we can.

Special Agent Oscar Bellastaros
Agent in charge of Elmerton.

2019 Winter Party Raffle Prizes!

Magestans! Apologies for the delay in announcing this year’s raffle prizes. Magestry’s annual Winter Party is THIS SATURDAY! And the Raffle Prizes are finally here! But first, a bit about how the raffle works:

Raffle Tickets are $3.00 each or 2 for $5.00, and you will earn one Brownie Point for every dollar you spend whether you win or lose the drawings. You may purchase raffle tickets online or at the party itself. To buy tickets online, go to Magestry.com, press the button labelled “$5 for 2 Tickets,” and select the number of pairs of tickets you would like to purchase.

You can buy tickets online until the party begins (3PM on Saturday, February 16th). After that, you can purchase tickets at the party for the same price by seeing one of the GMs. (We will be able to accept cash, check, or credit.) If you can’t make it to the party but would still like to enter the raffle, you can instruct us as to which lots you would like your tickets to be put into by emailing [email protected]. The drawing will begin around 8:30pm this Saturday, February 16th.

** Multiple Draw Categories**

All of the categories in the raffle will feature multiple drawings! This means that several winners will be drawn from each category. The first winner in each category will get what we have deemed the top prize, and each winner after that will receive prizes in descending order of distinction. For example, the first name drawn in the “Skill Points” category will win 100 skill points(!), while the second name drawn will win 75 skill points; etc. Each person will only be able to win once in each category. We will allow winners to trade their winning prize for a prize of less distinction if they wish. For example, if your name was drawn second in the “See That Glowing?” category, but you would rather have the 4th prize in the category, you may relinquish your 2nd Draw prize and take the 4th draw prize, instead. You may also trade prizes with someone after the party if you and the other person both agree, but you may not trade to end up with 2 prizes from the same category.

We rely on the Raffle to be Magestry’s best fundraiser of the year (The new camp owners more than tripled our event rental fees!), so please dig deep!  Now, without further ado, allow us to introduce this year’s Winter Party Raffle prizes!

**Lot 1: Skill Points!**

  • -1st Draw: 100 Skill Points
  • -2nd Draw: 75 Skill Points
  • -3rd Draw: 50 Skill Points
  • -4th Draw: 45 Skill Points
  • -5th Draw: 40 Skill Points
  • -6th Draw: 35 Skill Points
  • -7th Draw: 30 Skill Points
  • -8th Draw: 25 Skill Points
  • -9th Draw: 25 Skill Points
  • -10th Draw: 25 Skill Points

**Lot 2: See That Glowing?**

  • For all of 2019, you will have up to 6 castings per day of a particular weapon enchantment spell.
  • -1st Draw: Shadow Weapon
  • -2nd Draw: Astral Weapon
  • -3rd Draw: Spiritual Weapon
  • -4th Draw: Psychic Weapon
  • -5th Draw: Essence Weapon
  • -6th Draw: Fire Weapon
  • -7th Draw: Ice Weapon
  • -8th Draw: Lightning Weapon
  • -9th Draw: Acid Weapon

**Lot 3: Gold or Glamour?**

  • -1st Draw: 30 Gold & 5 Brownie Points
  • -2nd Draw: 25 Gold & 25 Brownie Points
  • -3rd Draw: 20 Gold & 50 Brownie Points
  • -4th Draw: 15 Gold & 75 Brownie Points
  • -5th Draw: 10 Gold & 100 Brownie Points
  • -6th Draw: 9 Gold & 150 Brownie Points
  • -7th Draw: 8 Gold & 200 Brownie Points
  • -8th Draw: 7 Gold & 300 Brownie Points
  • -9th Draw: 6 Gold & 400 Brownie Points
  • -10th Draw: 5 Gold & 500 Brownie Points

**Lot 4: Skillfully Done!**

  • -1st Draw: Enjoy a single event with a 4500 Skill Point character build of your choice to replace your normal character skills. (You must notify the GMs at least one week before you use this prize in-game and this prize must be redeemed in 2019.)
  • -2nd Draw: For all of 2019, every Magestream and Shadowstream will grant you Great Health (8 temp Hit Points).
  • -3rd Draw: Enjoy a single event with a 3000 Skill Point character build of your choice to replace your normal character skills. (You must notify the GMs at least one week before you use this prize in-game and this prize must be redeemed in 2019.)
  • -4th Draw: You gain Skill Specialization for all of 2019. You may choose any skill of grade 5 or lower.
  • -5th Draw: You gain Skill Specialization for all of 2019. You may choose any skill of grade 4 or lower.
  • -6th Draw: One gesture-based casting of, “Repel, Essence 5.” (Must be used in 2019. If ineffective, the spell is returned to you, but you may not attempt it on the same target more than once in the same day.)
  • -7th Draw: One gesture-based casting of, “Confuse, Psychic 5.” (Must be used in 2019. If ineffective, the spell is returned to you, but you may not attempt it on the same target more than once in the same day.)
  • -8th Draw: You gain the skill Favored Enemy for all of 2019. You must choose which enemy to favor.
  • -9th Draw: Once during 2019, you may use any one skill from the Magestry Player’s Rulebook or from the Professions & Prestige rule supplement. (Please notify the staff by email after the game that you use it.)
  • -10th Draw: You gain the use of two additional Cantrip options, plus 2 additional Cantrip Slots) for all of 2019.
  • 11th Draw: Same as 9th Draw.

**Lot 5: Haunted by History**

  • -1st Draw: A Mysterious Inheritance: You receive something from someone from your unknown past. It may not be identifiably useful or valuable at first, but if you follow its clues successfully, you will find great reward!
  • -2nd Draw: Righteous Ritual Recipient: Someone(s) from your character’s past had performed a ritual which resulted in the strengthening of the Spirit of one of their descendents. Guess what? That’s you! This prize will remove one Death from your character card and also end any lasting negative effects from previous deaths. Alternately, you may choose to gain a Get Out of Death Free card (even if your character already has one).
  • -3rd Draw: Ancestral Spirit Advisor: You come into contact with a departed ancestor who not only knew a lot in life but also has connections to an “Afterlife Realm” and can deliver reliable knowledge on almost any topic (mostly to be used as a Gather Info contact but may be useful in other ways as well).
  • -4th Draw: Grade School Rival: Someone from your past comes back into your life. Not necessarily a villain… perhaps a jerk from childhood who was always trying to outdo you. Now they have grown up, but they  haven’t changed and are looking to prove they were always better than you.
  • -5th Draw: The Scouring of Your Shire: Something from your character’s background was the catalyst for the formation of some adversarial group that, among other aims, want to make your life “diffacult.” Who they are and what scale of trouble they’ll present is yet to be seen.
  • -6th Draw: Phenomenal Cosmic Sour: An indentured, powerful being, that must serve a mortal as punishment for some misdeed, has been assigned to serve YOU (for a reason related to your character’s history). The only catch is that this being is lazy and disinterested in helping, so you must do something to “win it over” if it is to be of best use to you.
  • -7th Draw: Resistance Ritual Recipient: Someone(s) from your character’s past had performed a ritual which resulted in granting you resistance from one effect of your choosing, as long as that effect is Power Level 5 or lower. (There is no time limit on this prize. Please notify the staff by email after the game that you use it.)

**Lot 6: Boom’s Bags of Bombs and Balms**

  • This year’s potion grab bag also features some explosives that Boom Blackgate constructed and then carelessly left unguarded for your character to happen upon. Before each draw, you will get to choose if you want to draw from the Potion Bag (Alchemy and Toxicology items of Grades 6-10) or the Bomb Bag (Single-Use Area-Effect bombs that have effects ranging from raw damage to healing to… who knows?!). All items pulled from either bag will last 3 years before expiring. (If you are not able to be at the party or will not be present for the drawing, we will have someone draw for you.)
  • -1st Draw: 8 pulls from the Bags + 1 Bomb of Essence Refreshing (restores all skill slots of grade 9 and lower for everyone in area of effect)
  • -2nd Draw: 7 pulls from the Bags
  • -3rd Draw: 6 pulls from the Bags
  • -4th Draw: 5 pulls from the Bags
  • -5th Draw: 4 pulls from the Bags
  • -6th Draw: 3 pulls from the Bags
  • -7th Draw: 3 pulls from the Bags
  • -8th Draw: 3 pulls from the Bags

We are excited for this Saturday’s party and we hope you are, too! See you there!

Magestry’s Best of Reapingdusk, 126

Here are our picks for the “Best of” the October 7th-9th Event

Sandow, since he got to be an incarnation and didn’t let it go to his head.

 

This month’s Best PC is a wonderful guy with a heart of gold and a strong, if sometimes subtle, presence at game. Jesse Lemieux as Sandow has really shown us the depth of his role-playing ability recently and has always worked to be a welcoming and helpful person at game. Additionally, he is always a safe fighter and we are glad to be able to recognize him here! Thanks so much, Jesse!

“Sandow takes it this game for me! He kept very true to himself even put in the crazy position of an incarnation! Anyone who can do that and not break their values with the new power is impressive to say the least.”

“Sandow was adorable in his discomfort with the incarnation of community thing.”

“Sandow. I just think he did a great job not only as the impromptu Incarnation of Community, but he was wonderfully in character throughout the entire event.”

“This one will have to go to Sandow this time, his role-playing while the incarnation of community was fantastic, as well as his reactions from the baking contest!”

Mira and Majento and Simon did a great job hosting and organizing the different events for the harvest festival they put on this game.

 

We would also like to add a huge “Thank You” to Amanda Mooney and Anthony LaRosa as well as the rest of the Aces crew for putting on an amazing Harvest Festival. They wrote and coordinated each of those events and pulled them off with great aplomb and then helped out a ton with making a beautiful and delicious dinner! It was a lot of fun and we are very grateful for all the hard work! Thanks, guys!

 

“The whole Aces crew held a really amazing event for Aces Tradegate.”

“Amanda and Toner as Mira and Majento. They did an amazing job as PCs with an almost decidedly NPC role, hosting multiple events for PCs as well as helping prepare dinner for everyone and hosting it as well, all the while staying in character.”

Nick. He spent a great deal cooking and still made time to go out and be interesting characters

 

 

This month’s Best NPC is not a newcomer to this particular award! Nick Donoghue is a rockstar on staff, always helping and always ready to do what needs to get done. You all know how well he role-plays, and let’s not forget his amazing culinary skills that he lends so graciously to us! We are super lucky to have him on staff. Thank you so much, Nick!

“Nick when he was playing Sir Xanthos. The emotion he put in his role-playing was breath taking, I felt the pain he had.”

“Nick – Dude doesn’t stop, he’s always doing something and it’s almost never the same kind of thing. When he NPCs a monster he adjusts his fighting style to match the flavor of that monster. And his food… is magestic!”

“I loved the Wilhelm moments this game.”

“Xanthos, I never thought that he could get that pissed.”

“Nick as Sir Xanthos for being an important mentor for Linarien, and a believable performance and table flip after finding out some important documents were given to the wrong people. Also Wilhelm, he’s always great to see in town, always helpful.”

Record Slumber Session Ends

A young woman, who wished to withhold her name from the article, has woken up from a three month slumber. Local doctors are stunned by a duration that they believe was unaided by alchemical or magical interference. When questioned about the unusual circumstances, she punched the reporter [me] and claimed that…

“Losing a fight real hard is a chump move… and that chump ain’t allowed to be awake with her posse. I’m not saying I lost a fight or anything but if I did, I might not show my face around for a while. So what if I like sleeping? I was tired. When did that become a crime, nerd?”

She refused further comment.

Her mother spoke to us and reported she is happy and relieved that her daughter is well and seems to be acting like herself again. She was unable to offer an explanation for the unusual circumstances.

We will not be providing any follow up information due to the threatening nature of the young woman.