The Gathering 1098

A strange request

Dionysus took me aside, and asked if I were free for duty that evening back in Londinium. He wanted me to prepare the temple to receive a badly injured person with what must have been expected to be extreme pattern damage, judging by the amount of healing requested. I agreed of course and later confirmed this with George. Leah also required my services later that evening, in my role as a Follower of the Way, to help perform a marriage ceremony. Raithen and Drakken were getting married and wished Leah to perform the ceremony. I agreed to this as well, on the understanding that I would have to leave later in the evening to supervise preparations back in Londinium.

A general announcement was made to the group by Dionysus, to the effect that he would be heading off to Londinium at some point to fetch a sacred item, and that all available Bacchus should be there to escort it up and down. I was to stay behind in Londinium after this, ready to be collected later.

As it happened, the Harts had a ritual planned for around 9 o'clock, to enchant the Queen's throne, and we decided that we could accomplish a dual purpose by escorting the Queen and ritual group to the circle and back, while still having time to collect the item from the Londinium temple. This unfortunate coincidence of times meant that I would have to miss the wedding, originally set for nine as well, and now moved to 9.30 due to the ritual. I asked Dionysus to stand in for me, knowing that he should be able to perform my small part of the service easily.

A ritual and a journey

Eventually , after a pause for a meal and a bit of a rest, the ritual group and its escorts gathered to head off to the ritual circle, bearing the throne with them. The journey to the circle was without incident, but when we arrived we found that a huge "Stompy Worm King"?!?! had somehow managed to arrive via the ritual circle (so much for the sealing of the void gate) and was wandering around looking for its Queen. Its undulations shook the earth to the extent that any near it were knocked to the ground, and we spent a few minutes jogging around the circle area in order to keep a goodly distance from it. Eventually it wandered off somewhere, so the ritualist (Rootvine again) was free to start. As the circle was sealed the Bacchus entered the transport circle and Jal'al transported us to Londinium (George having remained at the camp, to make preparations for the wedding no doubt).

Upon arriving the party jogged quickly to the temple. Most were asked to remain outside the premises as myself and the other priests entered. I remained within as Dionysus emerged from the Sanctum bearing a wooden box carved with symbols of Bacchus and rejoined the party outside. I watched them leave at the run, and then set about organising various of the temple Healers and Incantors to be on standby at the circle in case anyone injured arrived. I then settled down with some wine to wait for someone to come and fetch me.

Four Weddings and a religious trance

These next events are related second hand, so I cannot vouch for their accuracy. The group returned to the camp unmolested, several of the Bacchus warriors staying in a rear guard ready to strike any attackers from behind. On reaching the camp the box was placed in the Bacchus tent and guarded by Triar Fuck, Dermot and the other gentleman of the OSR. Obviously their guardianship was enough to prevent anyone from entering the tent and taking whatever was within the box

Elsewhere in the camp the weddings proceeded ahead, Raithen and Drakken, two members of the Roche Brune, Logain and Xantalia all got married, caught up in the flow of events. Even Nanny Ogg apparently married someone!

The camp was attacked by Fae at least once, and probably by several other things as well (as is usual, we should seal the bloody ritual circle after sundown to stop this sort of nonsense).

Later, after the wedding, George prepared to speak with the Ancestor Tnuc (the spirit of Beer). For this he used one the sacred recipes handed down to each Trivinar. This was within the box born back from the temple. Its use was highly dangerous, but George survived, and told of the answers received back from Tnuc. Apparently Tnuc was missing part of his pattern, and this was the cause of his weakness. On this plane the piece took the form of a recipe for a sacred brew, the Beer of Bacchus. Until this recipe was back in the hands of the Bacchus people the power of Tnuc would be greatly curtailed. This was near enough to what we had surmised in our meeting, but now it was confirmed we made firm plans to seek out the makers of the beer we had bought at the Moot. We had only one clue, the makers' mark on the base of the container: D.uss. None knew what this meant, but many resolved to find out.

After this occurred I was fetched back from the circle, my services, and those of the Healers in Londinium, unneeded. Upon my return to the camp George and Dionysus filled me in on the events that had occurred. The rest of that evening passed with much drinking, celebrating the weddings.

Night visitors

A little later I moved into the command tent, and talked with Hugo, George and various other people about a multitude of subjects. The peace of the evening was disturbed on but three occasions, the first when some bloke from the "Anti-mugging squad" arrived to accuse several members of the Harts of muggings, and informing us that they had been summarily executed. This upset a few people, most of whom were unwilling to accept the word of a unmannered, self important git as to who had committed what crimes, and had furthermore admitted to killing members of our faction. At one point it almost came to blows, but the bloke left before things got out of hand. Apparently he was quite hard. Probably capable of carrying a full grown man several miles on his shoulders to outside the ritual of peace and then killing him.

The next thing that happened was that the camp was attacked by some 'orrible gribberlies. I think they were unliving, but they could have been chaos blokes or Fae for that matter (I was quite blessed due to my time at the temple, and it was dark). A number of us administered a harsh beating, and they went away.

The final thing of import that occurred that evening was a call from the Vipers faction to help defend their gate. A huge stone golem? (possibly) had been wandering around, and it was immune to even enchanted weapons. The Vipers asked us to bring Excalibur so we could kill the bugger for them if it turned up again. Myself, Jac (bearing Excalibur), Dionysus and various others positioned ourselves outside the Lions camp, half way between the Vipers and our own camp. With runners at both the Vipers and our camp gate we expected to be able to react to any attack by the creature of all three camps. As it happened the creature had evidently gone to bed (or been beaten up by the spear of Lugh or the Hammer of Thor). Eventually we wandered back to camp. After a long night partying we all eventually went to bed, anticipating the battle the next day.