Malor

Aka: "Look, a distraction!"

Basically we had turned it completely around.

After a series of quiet Elysia with several minor bouts of violence we made a battle-Lex. With our own twist, offc.

The story: with trouble brewing in the US, a certain unnamed faction decided they wanted to keep the European Kindred out of the equation. A series of low-input / high-output attacks were launched, and by time-in our Kindred found themselves swiftly picked up from their Haven and thrown into an emergency location where the Prince was already awake, armed with a sword and bowed over a map showing Dorestad in detail. As the night progressed the map was decorated with pins showing the problems and the whiteboard of the location was filled with teams being sent all over the city for information gathering, investigation and righteous ass-kicking. This made it a weekend where information was suddenly flowing comparatively freely, Ghouls ran a lot of the show and everybody more or less interacted on the same level.

As usual I will leave the ingame story of Lex to be told by its participants. One of the biggest compliments were several people who remarked that they were missing the quiet Elysia, leading me to believe that we may have achieved the stable setting that we set out to create.

Just before time-in, however, on the second to last pick-up run from Station Deurne to the location, my car crashed. Matthijs was driving it, with Judith, Wim and John as passengers. They were okay, but I fear Prima is gone: while the dents and the window are fixable, most likely the damage to the engine and undercarriage are not. While I must honestly say I was not a happy camper and I needed a good shove by both Rennie and Cora to get my wheels spinning in the right direction again, in the end it is just a thing. Prima was bought with all the safety measures she had so my friends were safe in here. And they were. I had to swallow deeply when I saw the damage done to her and definatively had to beat a few sinking feelings back in my gut, but Dennis brought Kaylee over on Sunday from Krimpen, and a lot of people offered to get my luggage back to Krimpen as Kaylee does not hold as much as Prima.

Thank you all.

Today, arranging the insurance for the car. Tomorrow, new job. I survived January, and better times lie ahead.

Edit: Car was all-risk ensured. She'll be at the repair company tomorrow and either fully repaired or fully replaced. Until that time I will have replacement transport. Centraal Beheer, thank you.

Or: how the toughest one yet came to be.

Preparations started over eights months ago on the next episode on Lex, tentatively code-named "Mooncalled" (T'would be full moon on the Saturdaynight of the projected date). The locationsearch as usual was difficult, but phalar_reign came with the golden tip: the Nivon huizen spread throughout the country. Capacity looked good on a few of the houses, but in the end only one really stood out with our plan for a Malkavian Elysium in mind: Villa Eikhold in Heerlen, so far away in the Netherlands it is practically Germany. But the location was beautiful, really worked with our primary concept and had a slight overcapacity in beds, which is something we always look for. Better yet, we could rent it exclusively, meaning no other people. It had a large main room on the ground floor, with a smaller room directly adjacent with two of those cool sliding doors so it could be sealed off; also it has two larger rooms upstairs for the in-character staff, a multifuntion room in the basement (gym, mostly) and an underground library (which for some reason the Tremere really liked *grin*). Most of our players could sleep in the newer sleeping areas in the back, leaving the entire monumental section of the house, built in 1919, for in-character purposes. So, on a warm summer's day, before the Have A Go Heroes concert in Tilburg, we went to the location and filmed it. The movie itself was shocky and very "Blair Witch", which prompted us to call it the Blair Eikhold Project when showing it to our fellow EE'ers, but after thinking about it carefully we went for it, and started working to bring to life our original plan: to physrep the mental institution that Clan Malkavian holds sway over, both to study interesting cases, to recieve treatment themselves and to patch possible breaches of the First Tradition. Also, one of the major things was overhauling the rulesbook based on the experiences so far, and to include the site information in that, too; the city especially I wanted to hyperdetail.
The rulebook was started in February and the first draft of the cityfile was built two weeks later. Both were ready for proofreading around June, but it took till after the vacation to really kick it into gear, as the entire crew was dealing with a wave of personal things left, right, front and center, which of course takes priority over everything. Still, in the background we kept gathering information and the weekly Lex meetings began again (easy if you live close enough to each other to use porto's to talk to one another *grin*). Slowly it all got shape, aided by the backgrounds of the Malkavians and Kelly's Ghoul character, and in a fit of irony we called the Clinic Arcadia. Ingame it was named after "Et In Arcadia Ego", a classic painting; outgame it was a tongue-in-cheek reference to Woonzorgcentrum Arcadia, where I worked in various capacities for four years. It is a well-to-do retirement home which also featured a floor for the insane elderly. One of the things that struck me that there was a sign near the safety door of that department which for all the years I worked there simply said "Toets het huidige jaartal in om de afdeling te verlaten" (trans: please type the current year in the keypad to leave the floor). Funny, a bit; sad, yes.

One of the major factors is that we were dealing with a few very mature topics. I mean, insanity is not an easy topic to discuss, much less play... also, more then a few of my friends have had brushes with the darker parts of our psyche. We were going to have to be careful both for pushing the bounderies too much or making insanity a comedy relief thing. Toughest was that I myself am rather uncomfortable with hospitals; Ren and Cora offered to store a few items at their place (bless them), but I decided to mentally block those silly fears and work with them... I like doctors (have plenty in my group of friends), have no problem with shots, bandages or whatnot. But the buildings themselves feel... dreadful. Latex gloves are something that I really dislike and give me the creeps. Nothing that would make me do silly thinks, but enough to put me on edge. Within EE we discussed the insanity issue, and Olga's expertise was consulted often (when you got a person who studied it, eh...). We decided to push a few boundries, though, and possibly accept a few 'safety word' moments. With that discussed, the final plot started taking shape. After a long think and a few sessions of brainstorming, Lextalionis IV was named "Method to the Madness", after the quote from Shakespeare's Hamlet.

A few of our regulars would not be present due to good reasons, and their OC absences became IC, worked into the plot to make sure it went smoothly. Patients were written, in most cases just a few basic skeletons to allow the NPC's to give their own input; staff was somewhat more tightly done as they all were Ghoul Vassals of the Malkavians and had existed ingame since Lex I & II despite not having screentime. Three week before the event during the NPC day we threw a lot of info at them, which only became more as the event neared. Counting everything, over 80 pages of new material was thrown at most NPC's, and they all took it and worked with it. Kudos. Intake-forms, psychological evaluations, treatment methods, dayrhythem, medication, the how-to-and-where-to of the Arcadia Clinic... the fiction slowly came to life. We also gave a lot of plot to the NPC's, more then usual. While the theory that NPC reactions work better if you steer them less and treat them more like player characters worked to a certain point, it made NPC's feel up the kreek without a paddle sometimes, which is bad. Luckily most of which dutifully let us know at the end of the event how it was from their angle, and based on that we tweaked our style. While it was a difficult decision, I believe that it worked to our advantadge in the end.
Robert and Dennis (who also plays Lex), two Alternity buddies, were really helping in the physrep department, arranging patient-registration-tags (for around your wrist in the hospital), and Julian came through with a set as well at my request - which earned the Sint Franciscus Gasthuis & the IJsselland Ziekenhuis a spot on my thank-you-list. An old nurse-uniform was arranged for J4, as she was going to play a long-dead nurse, more staff uniforms and labcoats were arranged from various sources, including Cora's old labcoat. We had X-Ray and MRI scan shots, too, and patient files to spread around as well as books. Things were coming together. An old 20 Mhz Oscilator, in working condition, would serve as the physrep for a plot I'd been dreaming up for a while: an ECT machine. After thinking long and hard about how to work it, Judith S. (not playing Jasmijn Rozendoorn for an evening) was kind enough to play the patient, Nico played the doctor and Judith G. played the Nurse, to freak the Tremere a bit and showing them how deep the rabbit hole really was... The new players really made me pretty happy, both with decent characterconcepts and the fact that a lot of current characters gave them hooks and ways to introduce themselves. It made the job of integrating them into the Kindred Society of Dorestad interesting and easy. Two fresh Ghouls, several fresh Kindred introduced by running characters... yes, the setting was doing its work. In the meantime I got a lot of positive responses to the new Codex Dorestad and a few suggestions for improvement (thanks, proofreaders! You know who you are).

With just a few weeks to go things were looking good, despite the fact that the scope of the event was difficult to grasp. Of course, I got sick in the weekend before Lex... Being sick during the prep really through a monkey wrench in my 'last few things'-list, but I arranged as much as possible. Friends are good in such a period, as they have your back, and Thursday I went back to work. I reasoned if I am okay enough to go to location, I am okay enough to go to work. Heh. Yeah. Right. Bloody work-ethic. Thursdaynight was no fun; a lot of people were late and then arranging the logistics is tough... but we were underway and arrived just after 11 in Heerlen, meeting the huiswachten Peter and Wim for the first time. Matthijs was already there and had arranged much, and within an hour I had hit the bed after celebrating that Cora and Rene had signed the contract which finalized their buying their first house together (gratz!).

The next day the fever had come back, but I toughed it out mostly, as we had one more important thing to do: inform the Police. We were playing in a pretty rich residential area, and the last thing you want is either the neighbourhood watch or the police checking the people with guns out. The Police in Heerlen was pretty kewl, though. We showed them the weapons, explained our situation and they noted our information, my I.D. and my phone number, which was with me 24 hours per day. With that done we started finalizing the preps and the first player soon arrived: Yedda. Last preparations were done quickly and the last NPC's briefed. The traffic and NS conspired so that a lot of people were later then expected, but after the cool Jos and Sylvia had fed them we had an IC briefing and we were ready to go... cept one thing. See, my mother had been involved in this Lex' planning, by making a sjawl and hat with in the FC Dorestad colors, the in-character soccer club, which were handed over to the in-character fan: Vincent. That being done, we gave people half an hour to prepare before time-in. Lex had truly started.

( Lextalionis IV - Method to the Madness - Long with pics )

The aftermath
My own condition has worsened during the night, resulting in a fairly high fever, but I needed to keep on my feet for the last few scenes. They being done I promptly went to bed thinking the wonderful sentence "It is done". I had a rough night with fever dreams, but my girl picked me up from the floor and arranged for me to go home worry-free on Sunday. That, however, is a story for next time... It was over, and I am a happy camper. The NPC's did brilliant in all their parts, averaging on a very good roleplaylevel, with peaks that make my mouth water... the players really got into gear with a few plotbits (in the process ignoring plenty more, but hey, so it goes) and I am happy to be able to facilitate a few of the weirder ideas; they stayed in-character and kept the game turning, and that is what it is all about. That is all that we do, really, once the games rolls on: facilitate. As it should be.

After a relaxing weekend where I became sick (probably due to the fact that Krimpen's water supply is contaminated - I kid you not...) I spent my last few days of Lex Prep mostly trying to finish what I could while getting my fever down. Wednesday I was fever-free again and the last Lex props were in, too, mostly hospital stuff.

I still feel weak, but after a periode like the past year it is quite logical that my reserves are low. Still, this time last year my dad was in the hospital and I was prepping for graduation, so I complain not, mind you...

But I'm feeling like it. Tonight we will depart Krimpen with three cars and hopefully arrive on location before 11. Most of the crew will then be present on location, as well as several NPC's and the cook, and then we're going for it. Much of the logistics has been taken out of my hands, but IC still many tricky things remain. So be it, though, and storytelling wouldn't be much fun if all were smooth sailing.

So, till Friday.

The first bit of the week I liked as I spent it quietly updating the Lex site and sending character profiles to the NPC's, all the while plotting the last few minor bits for the Saturday. This kinda relaxed me as I like that kind of constructive work; it was also a bit of a waypoint in the development of the new rulebook and a project like that is always a good boost when you get to a certain sub-objective. It is that little thrill that fellow nerds know and love.

There was a huge low though on Wednesday as my Mom had called me and wanted to talk to me face-to-face, asap. Generally in that case, things are horribly wrong, and with my experiences in the past week it REALLY screwed over my day. The Lex meet and Harma (for which you both have my sincere apologies) saw me almost panicky. News was good, though, and the meet went on in the end. Still, the third in the row of Weird Wednesdays. Basically I have just decided that Wednesdays are weird, that that is the end of it. Thursday and Friday I mostly stayed in and tweaked the site a bit, also with Lies being ill and all.

Last weekend was good, though. Saturday I went to Ren & Cora to talk over the Codex Dorestad for the last time and finish final tweaks. Also talked through a lot of last details before Willem and Katinka came over for dinner, mosty for the social thing but also because Willem's Lex character had some things to tweak and test. Was a lot of fun. Rennie and Cora ran the scene with Willem (he had the undivided attention of all the Storytellers *grin*) with me assisting in rolls and operating the computer, after which Ren went back to the school reunion of the Krimpenerwaard College, where I spent my formative years as well. I elected not to go to the Reunion, though. I am not the type to bemoan my lost High School years. They really weren't that great. I scraped through on my computer knowledge and the few good things I have left are Rennie and Kaas. THIS is my life, THESE are my friends. I am living my life now. The coffinnail was the decision of not allowing partners, killing half the fun. Still, would've liked to show my partner my old school, teachers and friends. But there will be other times. I spent my last bit of Saturday putting the Codex Dorestad online, the huge city file that details the neighbourhoods and a few interesting locations in Dorestad. That should keep most of our participants loaded to the gills with info for a while to come... heh.
Sunday Cora and Ren came by, too, and we talked more Lex stuff, finalizing much of the planning. A few things will still be a lot of player initiative which needs to be facilitated, but we are getting the idea of scope, now. Though it'll be tough... no doubt. The day was finished chilling with WoW, Settlers and the Avatar series that Jo suggested to Lies.

Monday I had a night off with Lies out of the house to have singing lessons with Jo, and Tuesday's Alternity was cancelled due to both Jules and Dennis being ill; it must be the season. Still, I talked logistics with Jos, who will be cooking @ Lex with Sylvia. Another weird Wednesday without an internetconnection later saw me not doing Crossfire, but luckily a good Lex meet with Olga. Funny moment: Ivo came to pick up the stuff for Legendfalls this weekend which Cora and Rene will be attending, and walked into the room where three Storytellers and the Prince were grinning at him and saying "Ah, Ivo, we were just talking about you..."

So, there is that. Thursday and Friday I will mostly send sending the last few briefings and influences, reading up on the last few backgrounds and setting my props in order, with the weekend being quiet 'cept for the bday of Lies' grandmother. Mondaynight will see Crossfire as usual, Tuesday Alternity, Wednesday Lex-Meet @ Olga's Crib and Thursday the storytellers going on location.

Then Lex.

*Deep Breath before Long Plunge*

So. Here we are.

Nutricia wants to keep me longer, offc, with a WinXP migration and Office Move on the planning, but I just don't see it happening. We are so short of staff that the more complex problems become long running issues, with all consequences thereof. We just can't go for the quality that I am used to, and that saddens, angers and demotivates me. Both projects are planned for the next four months, but where we should get the manpower...
Still, they are making a good attempt at keeping me longer by playing it to OGD. The only way that is going to happen is if I can work less, effective immediatly. I have asked this three quarters of a year ago, and I've had it. The next person who asks me if something is wrong or why his or her laptop is late will surely get it. I will simply walk away and quit if I have to.

What is most taxing though, are the friends in my immediate area. Seperately four people who I count among my best friends in the world are having problems of the life-changing type. What little I have left over a long period of workload abuse is for them, not for work; I have spent my last week trying to make their lives a little easier, but next few months might prove daunting nonetheless. I will leave it up to them to let the world know or not, and I will be there for them.

Still, all this has made my mental state precarious. I sleep bad, which is hardly me. I stress majorly over minor things, and small matters can become big in short order as I either seek to avoid them or tackle them in an overly agressive manner.

The next two weekends I will spend at home, mostly going over Lex stuff and trying to catch some sleep. Lets hope it works.

Thank God for chilling @ Mieke & Andrea's Ball, and thank God that Lex is rolling. The NPC day was really cool, topped off a dinner with 12 peeps in Bunnik and a late-night chill-session with Simone and Kaas as the latter was borrowing Kaylee. We gave more information then usual for the Lex NPC's so that they would have a bit more oversight, both due to feedback on that and the rather tough logistical start for Lex IV. With my NPC crew almost fully filled out with people and parts, that is proceeding apace with over two weeks left. Briefings are being finalized and sent and the project we have been working on for over six months is seeing its first major outing: the massive setting update with both the new rulebook being worked in the site and the downloadable Codex Dorestad. A lot still needs to be done, though, but the end is in sight.

Signing of.