Category: LARP Story Synopsis

Twenty-two adventurers gathered together under the bright sun of spring, preparing for some everyday combat training. Suddenly, a crack of lightning rent the air above them, and to their great surprise, the voice of the Norse God of Thunder boomed down from the clouds passing overhead. The Mighty Thor declared in deep and solemn tones that he sought the bravest of heroes to join him on a noble quest.

Being brave heroes, everyone immediately volunteered without waiting to hear any details.

Thor welcomed them all to his band of warriors, introducing them to Baldr and Týr, Váli and Víðarr, Freyr and Freyja, and, of course, Loki. It was then that Thor revealed to the star-struck heroes that he had lost his hammer … again … and needed their help to find it. Before they could express any disappointment in the nature of this quest, Thor promised that whoever found his hammer would be granted incredible strength — strength enough to lift Mjölnir and return it to Thor. The adventurers cheered at Thor’s largess and swiftly set off to find the missing hammer.

A lone warrior set off down a hill and spotted the hammer just lying there in some bushes, a mere giant’s stride away from where the adventurers had been setting up for their combat training. A quick inspection revealed the hammer to be the mislaid Mjölnir. The warrior felt a rush of supernatural strength, and uttering a swift thanks to Thor, the warrior picked up the hammer with ease. Holding Mjölnir high above his head, he rushed back towards Thor’s camp.

The other adventurers, spotting the hammer in the hand of the warrior, gave chase for they all wished to be the one to secure Thor’s boon. Fortunately, they were not swift enough to intercept the warrior in time, and the warrior returned Mjölnir to Thor, who promptly used it resurrect Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr so that they might be slaughtered again for the night’s feast.

Thor then carelessly set his hammer back down and resumed acting like Thor, which was rather smelly. It was not long before Thor realized that he had once again misplaced Mjölnir, so he once again called down to the heroes for help. The warriors once again set off to find the hammer, each eager to be the one to gain the blessing of the thunder god.

A tall warrior soon found Mjölnir not far from Thor’s camp, laying on the far side of a hedge. Not wanting to be waylaid by his ambitious fellows, the tall warrior made a pact with a stout warrior who, once infused with the strength of the gods, rushed the hammer through their enemy’s ranks while the tall warrior distracted everyone, ensuring that Mjölnir was once again restored to its rightful wielder.

Predictably, it did not take long for Thor to realize that he had lost sight of his hammer again. In this case, it turned out that Thor had left Mjölnir in the care of his brother Baldr, and then completely forgotten about that. During the search, one of our heroes came upon the handsome, gracious, and cheerful Baldr. After basking for a while in the pure warmth and joy of Baldr’s presence, the hero remembered his quest and asked Baldr if he knew where Mjölnir might be. To his surprise, Baldr said that he did indeed and indicated the hammer sitting beside him. The hero thanked the god of summer, called upon the god of thunder, felt a rush of supernatural strength, hefted Mjölnir under the benevolent smile of Baldr, and swiftly returned to Thor’s camp with his prize.

Thankfully Thor then managed to keep a grip on his hammer for the foreseeable future and the adventurers returned to combat training but only for a clock’s turn as they soon had to retire for their evening meal.

Seventeen brave adventurers arrived at the Field of Destiny and rejoiced to be reunited in friendship once again. Looking forward to undertaking an honorable quest together, they became careless of their surroundings, allowing one of Lord Maul’s minions to slip in and divide them asunder with an evil spell of deception.

The adventurers now found themselves on separate sides. Eight of them fled to the Dire Garden, eight fled to the Mystical Isle and one went to get a refreshing beverage from the Faraway Leaf Inn.

The Dire Eight quickly established the Dire Fortress, a strong base to call home, imbued with powerful healing charms by their skilled sorcerer so that merely returning home would heal any injuries they might sustain.

Meanwhile, the Mystical Eight were building the Mystical Fortress and their own skilled healer was enhancing it with its own powerful healing glamours.

Abandoned on the Field of Destiny lay the Fortress of Destiny with its own strong magical healing powers.

The Dire Eight and the Mystical Eight worked feverishly to fortify their home bases against assault (and pepper).

Then, having strengthened their Dire Fortress with dastardly spells, bothersome traps, unassailable walls, and deadly barricades, the Dire Eight set out for the Field of Destiny where, seeing no sign of the Mystical Eight, they quickly occupied the Fortress of  Destiny and began to fortify it as well, casting protective spells and establishing a strong perimeter.

Having now established two strong bases, the Dire Eight now felt emboldened by their success at and skill in fortress fortification, so they set out to find and conquer the stronghold of the Mystical Eight.

Brimming with hubris, they marched upon the Mystical Isle and assailed the Mystical Fortress — and were soundly defeated by the Mystical Eight. Their beloved healer now lay dead upon the ground.

The Dire Eight wisely chose to gather their dead and wounded and make a tactical retreat back to the Fortress of Destiny where they could be healed by its powerful magicks.

The Mystical Eight wisely chose to make a tactical advance and strike at the Dire Eight within the Fortress of Destiny. The Mystical Eight had better generals and a better strategy and thus soundly routed the Dire Eight in a swift battle, driving them from the Fortress of Destiny.

With the Mystical Eight following much too closely on their heals, the Dire Eight fled swiftly home to the Dire Fortress where they had only a short time to nurse their wounds and recover from the last unfortunate battle with the aid of their now-revived skilled healer before they were once again attacked by the Mystical Eight.

Due to their superior leadership and strategizing, the Mystical Eight soundly defeated the Dire Eight in an all-too-short battle, capturing all eight Dire Warriors, securing all three bases, and winning the war.

The Mystical Eight celebrated their great victory and conscripted the Dire Eight into their army as lowly privates.

The adventurers gathered together wearing only light jackets with no hats.

The storyteller spoke and divided the assembled into two factions.

One faction was sent to defend the Maul Corp factory. Other adventurers had managed to sneak inside the factory and place a bomb on the generator. The factory guards assailed the saboteurs multiple times but were unable to defeat them and disarm the bomb in time. The bomb exploded explosively but both guards and saboteurs managed to escape unharmed.

As they surveyed the ruins, the saboteurs realized that there were traitors amongst their ranks! How else could the guards have known of their dastardly plan. The saboteurs quickly identified the traitors and executed them swiftly.

Leaving the dead bodies where they lay, the saboteurs went inside the Faraway Leaf Inn to rejoice in their victory!

On a warm winter day, thirteen adventures gathered on the Mystical Isle to discover that they had been joined by a mysterious giant who came armed for battle. One of the heroes stepped forward to proclaim: “We shall battle for honor, for glory, and for possession of a flag.” The promise of possessing an invaluable strip of colorful cloth overjoyed the fourteen adventurers who soon split into two factions, each with their own priceless pennon. One contingent fled to the Eastern Shore and the other to West Point.

The two outfits fought for quite some time for possession of the tantalizing colored emblems of honor but eventually decided that they were just too evenly matched for either to win. Deciding to simply share the bounty equally, they gleefully returned to the Faraway Leaf Inn for refreshing beverages.

Unfortunately, their camaraderie was soon broken by the revelation that there was a traitor in their midst. Again! It took them quite some time, but they eventually discovered all of the traitors and executed them. A passing mage then revived the traitors as honest souls.

Seventeen adventurers gathered within the Faraway Leaf Inn to sit down and enjoy the good food and hearty drinks of the welcoming innkeeper. But they should have realized that their prime number was a portent of doom. Suddenly, the seventeen heard a terrifying rumbling outside. Being heroes, all seventeen of them grabbed their weapons and rushed outside towards the terrible noise. The seventeen soon discovered that the Basilisk was awake! As all seventeen were heroes and well armed, they were primed for battle and set off to defeat the beast.

The Basilisk is a fearsome redheaded beast that has three life stages and must receive five grievous wounds in each stage to be killed. Even more dangerous: once a life stage is defeated, the next stage is invincible to the weapon that last caused the Basilisk harm.

Undeterred by this zoological knowledge, a brave band of adventures charged in with close range combat weapons. Unfortunately, their long-range support decided to run in the opposite direction. Despite this cowardice, the heroes managed to take down the Basilisk’s first life stage but lost almost their entire number in the gruesome battle. The survivors of this battle eventually tracked down the fleeing ranged support team. Together they tracked down the Basilisk, and with the last remaining close range fighters running around the beast to distract it, the long-range warriors threw some grenades at the Basilisk which grievously wounded it twice. Unfortunately, the Basilisk grievously wounded all of the warriors. Inexplicably one of the warriors suddenly disappeared. Perhaps we will learn that story next time. All the remaining warriors died. The Basilisk then hunted down the one who had got away. They faced off in battle and the Basilisk was finally slain by a combination of multiple weapons from this one warrior, including grenades and bullets.

The reviving adventurers then learned that there was a traitor in their midst. And then another traitor, and another, and another, and another, and another. The uncovering of traitors went on until they were all found out and promptly slain.

After this hard day’s work, the adventurers trudged back to their home to lay down and sleep.

The dastardly Lord Maul struck almost instantly and split the fourteen into four unequal groups and used his evil magic to trick the adventurers into thinking the other squads were their enemies. The groups fled in different directions, and then they began to hunt each other down. A plan was hatched as one gang sought an alliance with another band of rogues. Together they managed to defeat the other two hapless factions but only at a terrible cost that is yet to be known!

Upon revival, the once-dead adventures were relieved of Lord Maul’s curse and decided to go to the Faraway Leaf Inn to huddle around the fire with some much-needed warm beverages.

Boreas attacked even before all the adventurers had arrived and with such brutal force that most everyone was defeated within 15 minutes and the few remaining hearty souls succumbed almost immediately afterward.

Fortunately, all were revived in the warmth of the Faraway Leaf Inn within the first 25 minutes of the LARP.

The Scribe was attacked by a Pesanta who attempted to steal her breath.

Ace dragged the limp body of the scribe to the Seneschal who transported the Scribe in a horseless carriage to a Technomage.

The Technomage used arcane magics to drive off the demon. This restored the Scribe but put Ace, the Scribe, and the Seneschal into a deep sleep from which they did not wake for an entire day.

The ancient Sumerians had seven gods who decree, seven domes of the sky, seven gates to Kur, seven gallu demons dragging unfortunate souls through those gates to their dreary afterlife, and seven days in a week. The LARP had seven adventurers. It seemed fitting and right.

When the adventurers exited the warmth of a local tavern, they found that not only did no one know who was to be their most honored Storyteller, but that Lord Maul had summoned a massive blizzard and set it upon them. Snow swirled around them. A biting wind cut into their bones. The nearby hills were obscured by blowing snow.

Thankfully, one of their number knew of a unicorn who had the power to control the weather and could redirect the blizzard back towards Lord Maul. Bundling themselves warmly against the evil cold of Lord Maul’s storm, the adventurers quickly set off in search of this powerful being.

Unbeknownst to them, Lord Maul had sent his minions to track and kill this unicorn. Knowing the adventurers would also be seeking it, these minions had obscured the path of the unicorn, making it difficult for the adventurers to track the beast. The adventurers followed multiple false trails, and along the way, they also found evidence of a bitter fight between the unicorn and two of Lord Maul’s Angels of Death. Worried about the safety of the beast, they pressed onward despite the biting wind and bone-chilling cold, eventually discovering the unicorn hiding among the White Oaks.

The unicorn, upon hearing that the storm was set upon the world by dark magic, agreed to use her own bright magic to redirect the storm back towards Lord Maul’s domain. Unfortunately, shifting the direction of such a powerful and magical storm would take a bit of time, so the unicorn advised the adventurers to seek shelter in the Faraway Leaf Inn to wait out the worst of the weather battle. There the adventurers stumbled upon a werewolf who slaughtered several villagers. After several battles, the adventurers eventually defeated the beast.

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It should be noted that the Scribe’s attempt to subcontract the writing of the synopsis for Winter LARP #2 was not handled professionally, with the result that the story was eventually lost to posterity. The Scribe regrets the error.

It should also be noted that evil pixies invaded the home of Ace and swiftly rendered him incapable of meeting his fellow adventurers for Winter LARP #3 and then, after a brief respite in which Ace and his fellow adventurers joyfully celebrated the shortest day of the year with wild revelry and downhill sledding, the pixies again set upon both Ace and the Scribe, rendering them too weak to attend to their duties for Winter LARP #4.

The Storyteller speaks

In the Land of the Silver Elves, there are two opposing parties. The larger of these has taken two hostages. The smaller group will set out to rescue the hostages, kill the opposing group’s leader, and then kill as many of the hostages takers as they can.

It is a good day to die … and be revived.

A Group of Ten had taken two hostages. A small 4-person strike force set out to attack with the goal of rescuing the hostages. Unfortunately, the strike force failed in their first attempt because an incredibly powerful weapon killed the entire strike force in a single blow. A great debate ensued. Decisions were made. The strike force retreated to strategize and decided to take out the leaders of the Group of Ten. Unfortunately, they were not swift enough and the Group of Ten vanished, secretly hiding inside the Faraway Leaf Inn. The strike force decided that since they couldn’t find the Group of Ten, they would consign the hostages to their fate and instead have fun playing winter games in the freshly fallen snow.