Fabulae Marrii - Guild Convention II

Guild Convention II (The Netherlands) - By Adam

The Cast

Loek "The Misleader" Yomar - Our glorious misleader from Leiden misleading the misguided.	Philip "Rapid Response" Halbarad - The rapid response damage dealer for the raid on Amsterdam.
Harry "Tall Luri" Hvutt - The tallest Luri I have ever seen.	Nigel "Uncle Cuddle" 2.4 - Uncle (cuddles) Nigel.
Paul "PBAoE" Skinbacus - The PBAoE Warden.	Matt "Neckie Check" Plomien - Neckie check... Oops, I threw it away.
Pete "Plane Traveller" Greldar - I'll travel by plane .. it's quicker .. D'Oh!	James "OOS" Calon - OOS guys!
Adam "AFK" Damoard - AFK while traveling guys!	Jo "Guild Mascot" - Stop hiding in the Firbies cloak.

The Story

Well, the task was put before us... travel through the frontier zones of England, France and Belgium to raid into the frontier of Holland. A hard task by the most means. And as with any frontier raid, there is always one in the group that forgets their necky! With a bit of luck and groveling Plomien managed to persue the Welsh equivalent to Glasny, namely the Passport Office, to port anyhow with only a few horse rides and gold pieces later.

So Plo, Jo, and myself head on our way first off to storm the keep of Lord Nigel on Plo's Galliant steed (well old Nag). We arrive after a little... interesting map directions... at the keep of Lord Nigel, who was mightily surprised that his driveway was actually 3 miles long, not the 20ft that he had always thought (long live GPS!).

We had a pleasant evening fasting in the Lords keep, and visiting a local watering home with the newly met Paul (who Nigel has known for about 16 years!). The next morning we were awoken nicely!?! and early by a quiet and stealthy Firby... Who said that Firbies shouldn't be Nightshades? We then headed off to the ferry port, where we had a fairly uneventful ferry crossing despite Jo's face going through a multitude of colours and expressions along the way. We quickly left France behind and shot through Belgium. We finally arrived at our destination only to find our host had ran away already in fear (or was that he was out fetching beer?). Most of the group had already met at the previous raid on Wales, so our only new face here was Hvutt, who shocked us all at being the tallest b00b around... I was sure that Luri's were the smallest! After greeting and such pleasantries as 'Who invited the Dane?' we headed off for a banquet... The food was unbelievable, and personally I discovered a beer, which looked a little like dirty dishwater, but tasted divine!	Why extend your necky if you can tuck in food instead?
We headed out on our quest for Amsterdam.	We spent the rest of the evening eating and drinking heartilly with a random banter even Bedarra would be proud of. The next morning we (again!) got up bright and early to the hammering of our guild leader (who does not seem to have taken to these new fangled inventions called beds) and shortly after headed out on our quest for Amsterdam, the home of sex, drugs and absolutely insane people on push bikes. Well, I would love to elaborate a bit more on the journey, but most of that would not be true, as I spent most of the time sleeping like a baby, which became a common hobby of mine... I'm sure that there is something in that car that puts you to sleep minutes after you sit down! Upon arrival in Amsterdam we did a quick scouting session, which seemed to involve driving around every road in Amsterdam, and finally settled on a place to leave the beasts to rest (and at that price I would have hoped they were wined and dined!).
We strolled around the sites of Amsterdam for a while, admiring the scenery, dodging bikes, evading trams and listening to the fantastic sounds of ambulances... The musical note of the sirens on a Dutch ambulance is enough to want you to get ran over just to spend some time listening to the melody... In fact I think that if you recorded the sound, then you could surely make a number one hit with the sound (there's a challenge for you Yom!). We were on a deadline to meet Halbarad, so decided that it would be a good idea to go on a canal cruise to see the city without walking. (Jo's face only dropped a little at the prospect of spending more time on the water!), so we headed off in a beeline for the cruises (well the bee must have been very drunk, and had its sense of direction surgically removed at birth!). After a very pleasant cruise we met Halbarad who was already camping the restaurant. We spent our time eating another fantastic meal there before heading out to continue our tour of Amsterdam... Yet more navigation around Amsterdam by Brownian Motion ensued as we bounced from street to street.	Going on a canal cruise to see the city without walking.
After a very pleasant cruise we met Halbarad who was already camping the restaurant.	Halbarad stopped at Dam Square to show Plomien and Skinbacus his new design for a siege engine (see pictures), which a remarkable amount of us decided 'I would have a go, but we have only just eaten'... We are all so hard. After more walking around, followed by more walking around, in between more walking around (I think Yom was trying to get us back for talking him up a hill in Wales) we finally decided to check out the torture museum.... ouch! There are some nasty things in there, by the gleam in his eyes and the evil cackle, I think Hal has found some new methods to punish anyone that turns up late for a raid (my personal favorite was the pyramid you are placed upon with weights upon your feet... oooh! sooo nasty!). We finally headed towards another restaurant (God these Dutch eat well), where after some more navigation by Zen, our glorious leader came out with a fantastic comment: "I'm sure the restaurant is down here somewhere." Promptly followed by Paul commenting: "It's not that one is it?", pointing to the restaurant in question directly besides us. We'd been standing next to it for hours! D'Oh!
The food again was fantastic, although I found it hard to smile while my mouth was on fire, and my eyes watering with the Thai curry... Now if we could just make that into a potion, the Mids would be running scared! We then exited the restaurant in triumph and headed onto the Red Light District (I think we were trying to find Malkavin who we had mislead somewhere). Upon the way myself and a few others got hijacked by Hal and forced onto a huge spinning siege engine to see the sights of Amsterdam from up high (and often upside down)... Wow! What a sight! That must have been one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life! We then wandered around the Red Light District... and oh my, what a lot of people were there! We seemed to be having problems through here with certain players suffering lag...	Yomar crossed 15 lanes of the highway.
The food was unbelievable.	I think they said they kept dropping to windows or something... But we surfaced from there as a whole group. I think it was at this point that the comment came up "What have you done with all the ugly girls" from Paul, the infant of the party (whom Nigel has known for around 16 years!). We finished the night off by drinking a few beers (or coke) in a very nice lounge, where Harry and myself were plotting how to get the huge plasma screens out of the club. The journey home meant a change of steed for Jo and myself as the words "I have the beer in my car" seemed to mezmerize me into Phillips car. This seemed to annoy the others a little as we passed them on the highway holding them up as we sped along. The journey was uneventful apart from a new manoeuvre from Yom, that involved, at the very last minute, crossing 15 lanes of the highway to take an exit whilst forcing the two following cars to do the same... Thank God for the /stick command!
We thought it would be nice to finish off the night with a nice smoke of some local weed... Oh my what a mistake to make, after only a short smoke I found myself sitting head in hand on the sofa for a good while before heading to bed sleeping with my bum in the air, and head glued to the pillow... Ouch! Powerfull stuff! The next morning, a nice lay in rudely interrupted by a new style of alarm clock. It seemed to involve a Firby bouncing on the bed, before finally resorting to dragging me out of the bed, and propping me up on the counter. The only words I could manage were "Coffee, where coffee." I must have sounded like a troll on stupid pills (hang on, that's just me usually!). We headed out to see the sights of Holland where I (to make sure I didn't break the habbit) spent most of my time asleep in the car. After a little more Yommy navigation we finally found somewhere to eat... McDonalds... Paul and myself had only been trying to get a McDonalds since the Friday morning, and we had only passed three on the way.	We said farewell to Hal.
The clogs fitted the Firby like a glove.	We said farewell to Hal who unfortunately couldn't continue further with us and he sped on his way back to Cologne. It was then that Yom had a problem with his GPS (named aptly General Pointy System) which kept deciding that we could not make a route anywhere... It was pointed out that there was this way of navigation, by looking at maps and road signs, but this didn't seem to be an option! We did make it to our destination (which again I was asleep for), we checked out how they made cheese and wandered around looking at some very picturesque windmills and buildings. After which we visited the clog factory where Yom tried on a clog. I think it was a little large for an Elf, but it seemed to fit the Firby like a glove (see pictures). Afterwards we went and had a look inside a windmill where a great discussion went about on the workings of the mill for a good lenght. In fact it seemed that the only thing that stopped this was a release of the rich food from the night before by Paul (whom Nigel has known for about 16 years). This had the side effect of evacuating the windmill, and even closing the whole place down... Harry and myself were left discussing the windmill alone for a while before being advised that we were in danger of our lives (long live resists!)... I'm not sure what Realm Ability Paul has there, but it seems to be a PBAoE effect that can nauseate and stun all in his surroundings, and cause friends as well as enemy to flee the local area... How many points did it cost?
By this time we were getting ever closer to our goal... the keep of our glorious leader (or by now named... our glorious misleader from Leiden) and finally arrived at the wonderful town of Leiden. The place was fantastic, lovely buildings set off by the canals and fantastic weeping willow trees bowing down to the water. Jo and myself have found where we are buying a house... We stormed the keep (Yom actually knew how to find it... funny that) and took no prisoners. Well they didn't want to come! We met Yom's lovely wife, mother and our newest guild member, Noah (who was busy giving presents of sugar lumps to Uncle Nigel), as well as for most of us got to say hello again to Eppo. We savaged the dog and cat (or was that the opposite way round) and raided the Lords computers to check that the guild had not been taken from beneath us! We did leave the Lord unscathed... After all, who else would find the restaurant!) and then headed out for our last meal in Holland... More fantastic food was thrown upon us, and Jo was even brave enough to try some lightly cooked meat... It wasn't till she passed it to me I had to point out that it would help if she had actually cooked it at all!	Hvutt trying to sleep.
We stormed the keep.	But alas it was all over... We headed back, sat and had a chat for a few minutes (errr okay, rather a few hours), Plo excused himself and went to bed, shortly followed by an eruption of sound and the sight of his door bending outwards. "Oops, I thought I had got away with that one" was his words! It must a Warden thing! Eventually we all found our beds (I'm sure it wasn't where I left it) and upon the morning we were alone... All had left, and the dream that was LoC Con II was all but over. We hauled our way back home via some new towns thanks to some great!?! mapreading by Plo (now why did we revoke your driving license again?) and finally sat at home looking into the bottom of an empty bottle of German beer thinking... when is the next one.
A fantastic weekend in all, and I do believe that comes from all that was present. Jo would especially like to extend her thanks to you all for making her first visit overseas so warming and delightful. Thank you all for coming and being such great people! I would like to give a special thanks to Loek for being our host and guide for the weekend. I am certain it was not an easy task to undertake, and your time and effort were greatly appreciated. I hope you found time to enjoy yourself in all the mayhem. Also thanks to Nigel for driving us all the way there and back, for following Loek through thick and thin, and for wearing a bright red coat to follow through the thick of Amsterdam. And thank you Phillip for your guest appearance. It was nice that you could travel all that way for the day, and thank you for bringing the beer.	A fantastic weekend in all.

Being the second meet of this sort emphasises how special we are. As Loek stated in another post, it is an incredible achievement that we can organise something like this, not just once, not just twice, but are in the planning of a third! To develop this sort of thing from a game is a very special thing, and I am very honoured to be a part of it. We are no longer a guild in a game, we outgrew that a long time back... We are friends, and will stay that way whatever may come.

Long live LoC, and even longer live the friendships it has born.