Hello Wondrous People,
Welcome to the Eleven day wait for more ROC although in honesty I think it will take over a month to recover from the fort weekend. My shoulder is swollen to the size of much larger shoulder

and my knees are spongy and bruised! I am pretty sure that the rest of the heroes of the Fort are equally as knackered physically and mentally and I am also pretty sure that you get how much I love you for all of your efforts, your care, love and attention.
This was up there with the best Forts balancing the story direction with player action putting a lot more hard skill into the game. Artificing, Tracking and the like all being updated into the new game really made a difference with a host of positive feedback. The autonomy that this brings and the changes that it brings are all tremendous along with the politics, personal plot and other downtime expansion made this, probably, the first of the new forts and system games.
The Forts were a tough challenge given the illness and injury that swept through the volunteers, leaving only a skeleton crew to facilitate to the players. However, with only a few blips, we worked efficiently and diligently and got the job done giving us an excellent experience and achieving much in the overarching plot. This was all executed by the aforementioned volunteers and a plethora of outstanding players who operated as a team throughout.
So my team is where I will start:
Shirley Austin: Thank you for coming into the system and taking up the role of primary caregiver in the system. As a roleplayer and storyteller you have developed tremendously over the last number of years and that, in itself, would be enough to make you an integral part of our Fort set-up. The care, the cooking, the massage table, the listening and the providing of love to all and sundry without rest. It's always a pleasure and a humbling experience to work with you and again, your portrayal of your roles your writing for the dead guilds folk and fort set up were spot on. Much is the love.
Matt Hussey: Few people have as much system knowledge these days as you Mister Matt and experience of the game as you have which brings a great deal of believability to your DPC's as much as your characters. You intuitively follow the aspects of the story and using the medium of the DPC tell your story well, bringing people into contact with it and allowing them to feel like assets to it. Despite everything that is happening around you, you keep on being positive and try to keep everything on track.
Anthony Gunfield: The irrepressible Trews. It has been an absolute pleasure watching you, not only, grow into the game but also into you and the selfless young hero that you are becoming. Your endless work rate and willingness to achieve has always been a strength but that is becoming coupled with more convincing roleplaying and decision making. Your ability to understand the games dynamics and complications are second to none. All your work and diligence to making our lives better from days before the event, packing, to reffing scenes and taking on the DPC's. Well done young man.
James Henry: To watch you, Trews and Matt crewing on Saturday afternoon tells me everything I need to know about your commitment to the game and what you are doing. Crew wrangling, especially under the circumstance is a difficult job but you did it anyway. It was said by many that the crew seemed to be everywhere at once and this was more true of you than anyone I would say. As with most people on this list: Watching your development as a DPC and player along with your growing confidence and expertise has fully justified the faith that I and others have put in you over the years.
Jack Padley: Where to start? You have adapted to larping wonderfully, despite only getting in the larp car a short while ago. You are full of good ideas and questions and are more than capable of following through the roles that you are given. Your willingness to get things done absolutely fits in with the RoC ethic which was epitomised by the fact that you basically floored yourself on Saturday. On top of that you hired us and drove for us a van that let us get all of the kit and stuff too and from the site successfully: Hats off to you Mister Padley.
John Swarz: Came to the Fort without any time for prep and having been unable to attend any of the build up meetings. Coupled with that you had a bad back which kept you out of the majority of the action. Regardless you pitched in and managed to free up a lot of hands by prepping up the paperwork and cards for the artifice and other areas. You made a blinding Sarkith, which drew a lot of plaudits from the players and made your way into the tunnels when you really didn't want to. Well done you.
Simon Myall: Thank you for all the help that you offered to the system; you don't get down to the standard weekend events so I understand that it is difficult to integrate with the game every few months. Regardless you jump in and we give you some challenging roles which you take on board and run with as the game develops. The endless battling of Saturday showed the real conviction that it takes to be an RoC volunteer and you managed that with real aplomb.
Dave Dulieu: Little Dafe. I think that all the hard work that you did was underlined by the fact that you really wanted to go to the wake on Saturday night but you fell asleep at 7 immediately after food and stuff because you had exhausted yourself. You totally throw yourself into your roles and your continual wonder, delight and happiness at the game you are in is a wonder. You may have only crewed three days but it felt like five and thank you for all the roles that you provided and the endless Daemonic Strikes on Saturday!
Elizabeth Kefford: Immediately I know that you are going to read this and think that you let everyone down. Firstly you were ill and still did Weds/Thursday and were there bits of Sat and Sunday to help out. Equally you put a lot of effort into helping with the set up of the Fort, working with me to sort out the artifice plan, helping at the meetings, the packing and so on and so forth. Your roles on the Thursday when we had few crew were aces and we definitely, definitely could not have done it without you.
AC Day: Listening to you and Shirley talking as you packed kit on Saturday drew attention to the fact that whilst I do all the writing of plot and event stuff and the like there is still so much more to do. I used to be a volunteer and then a ref and I forget sometimes how much organising goes into that side of things. Thank you for all that effort and for keeping me informed of what was happening and bringing your cheerful self to otherwise grumpy areas this weekend. You were aces in the roles we gave you and well up for fighting - Glad to have you back along.
Ameh Brutnell: It is always good to have an old hand return to the fold and this time with a more stable foot

You did a day and it felt like more, especially as you massively chipped in with the make-up effects for Saturday which really saved everyone a mask and brought some good presence to the game in general. It was good to have you along and I hope to see you soon and more frequently.
Steph Warren: Again, pretty much brand new and never having done a fort before you jumped in feet first and seemed to fit in pretty damn well! Aside from a few puzzled looks and glances you went through the gears and got involved making yourself a pivotal part of what happened. I can see the full on Larper that is dwelling in the background of your head if you chose to embrace them and I hope that you carry on learning your trade with us here in RoC.
On top of all these heroes, these Days of Legend, I would give special mention in thanks to the following people who really helped out with the running of the weekend: First up to Julian Sehmi who books and organises the Forts. Then Simone Hibbert, Jon Wickenden and Alex Barbor who drove my volunteers and additional kit about the place and also some of whom, helped pack things up and get us all sorted. All the people in the system are special, you all deserve praise for the things that you bring to the game for yourselves and each other.
So that's the people and on, briefly, to the event.
HOTS
*** There was a lot of good in it. A lot. Egarian day on Thursday was very, very good.
*** Being the Wrack Weed addict and just generally roleplaying my way through that.
*** The Very slow brief as Jack Spears in between scenes and depending where players went.
*** The Djinnist I played on Thursday night and the revelations that went on from my side of the fence.
*** Enjoying hearing what had happened not only in the politics meetings but also in the trade and general meetings
*** Being a Pharaohian servant and Seshmet trying not to laugh
*** Eliahra's self sacrificing death and peoples reaction to it.
*** Hach' Sense Dee Mon. Hach' Sense Hach Undead etc
*** The Kaol and people really appreciating the concept of my Targyress really trying to start a fight with the Spire of Fire and then physically dropping a building on them.
*** The Clergy Meeting and "that answer" followed by the Golden Table meeting where, once again, we totally achieved a load of stuff.
*** The Vorokian meeting - I missed the rescue but the meeting was aces. Good theory behind what was happening in the world.
*** Everything about the City of Staves from the artifice to the rituals and the markings and the involvement that the players were clearly getting to the terror that was generated not just by Sarkiths presence but the presence of the Mallisters as well.
*** Finding Mirelles body and getting her to safety and then the death of Aloysius.
*** The wake - As Quinn and Jack mainly but Big Daz and Plaguemantle also felt important. Those candles though.
*** Again - Everything from the last day was good, I am glad that we went with what we did for the end of Sarkith. It felt important, it felt like a win and everyone, everyone, everyone played their part.
*** It was good to feel so appreciated by the majority of folks who stuck around at the end to pass on their love for the crew that volunteers that worked SO very hard for them.
*** The Curry.
NOTS
*** The weather was too hot
*** There being either an illness that hit the crew, a strain of backache or the toothache that seemed to be doing the rounds that was debilitating and reducing crew numbers.
*** The death of many Gazebos.
So that was last week and this week I am off for the weekend, I have no idea what I will get done but there is a lot of kit to clean and get away and this usually takes a few weeks so there may be very little else that happens. However the following weekend the world looks like this:
Sat - Politics in action
https://www.facebook.com/events/1943941832296073/Sun - A System Booked Generic
https://www.facebook.com/events/253716622046721/And whilst we are on a Fort High - Get Booking
https://www.facebook.com/events/1673634306040842/In the mean time - You know where I am if you need me.
Have a Foxes and Crows week people, I look forward to seeing a load of you at the weekend and bumping into even more of you between now and then.
Take Really Good Care of Each Other
S