A Visit to Another World - Larping in the UK

Behind me is unarguably one of the best experiences so far: an intensive weekend full of interesting encounters, fighting with latex weapons, living as someone else, adrenaline, fun and epicness. In short, I was larping, or live action role-playing, in a HeroQuest event. (I could use time and effort to explain about HeroQuest and larping in general, but it would make this post so much longer, and I'd rather focus on my individual experience. Thus, I'm going to direct you at their website instead.)

Monsters ready to take the fight to the enemy

So. I attended the event as a “monster”, a non-player-character whose purpose was to play numerous different characters during the event, and thus allow the party of player characters to experience numerous different encounters. Most of these encounters involved combat, but there were also peaceful ones with talking, role-playing, and living the story. It was great to experience a larp that, with is combat-heavy, dungeon-like system, is noticeably different to what most of the larps in Finland are. Also, I have never had the chance to participate in combat while larping. HeroQuest allowed me to do just that, fight the players with latex weapons of by shouting spells. Although I enjoyed fighting with any weapon or spell, I noticed very quickly that a sword and a shield were what I liked most. Especially when fighting against Roesis, the Aspirant Knight of the party. Very few things feel better than crossing blades with someone who has been doing this longer than I’ve been alive, and realising I can surprisingly skilfully block many of his blows with my shield while landing my own. One especially satisfying moment occurred when I was fighting Roesis and noticed Talen, the party’s Wizard running towards me from behind, ready to hit me with a spell. As I thought that any hit from me would damage him more, I turned to swing my sword and hit him, and continuing the same move, spun around, lifting my shield just in time to block a blow from Roesis. Such a small, fleeting moment, but so successful and satisfying!

Odo, unaware of her approaching fate

In addition to characters that only fought the party, I also played a few characters that allowed me to do more role-playing. The first one was Odo, an evil priest and an apprentice to the mighty Fistan de Lantilus. She acted tough when surrounded by her undead bodyguards, but ran away when confronted directly, and begged for mercy after everyone on her side had died. The character was fun to role-play, and the intensity (try having someone charge at you with a raised sword and a stern look, it really sets the mood) of the situation made acting out the character easy. It also helped to be slightly out of breath from running, and later I was told my pleading and crying was quite convincing. Almost survived as that character, but the members of an organisation called the Cold Dawn arrived on the scene and as they didn’t want to let Odo live, Flint Baleforge, one of the members of the party beat her to death with a war hammer.

Another fun character to play was Nog, one of the lieutenants of the Realm Lord in the Abyss. She was strong, over-confident, noisy and arrogant - completely different from myself, or any character I’ve ever played. I chose to play that character because it gave me a chance to fight one-on-one with a couple of the party members, but at first the character didn’t feel like my own at all. It didn’t help that I felt quite weak and light-headed before the party appeared in front of me, but as they did, I assumed the role of the arrogant lieutenant and acted accordingly. The encounter was fun, but even more fun was to fight with the party, against the Realm Lord and another one of his lieutenants in the boss fight. By then I had accepted the character as my own, I felt strong as that character, and my war cries and taunts came naturally as I fought the Realm Lord and the other lieutenant.

During the weekend I also had time to stare at people with creepy red eyes, trick players into trying Finnish salty liquorice, confuse people by speaking Finnish, and so much more! The event took a lot of my strength, but I also gained so much: new friends, loads of memories (and quite a lot of bruises), all of them full of meaning and value. Leaving the site was sad, but I am grateful of all the wonderful people, and all the wonderful moments I shared with them. I may not be able to attend another event or meet these people any time soon, but I will return. This is not a goodbye, this is an “until next time”.

Enjoying the final night together

P.S. Damned be the squirrels there - those fuckers tore a hole in my bag and stole my Welsh cakes and Jammie Dodgers!

Conquering the Gower

Unlike the previous week that was mostly sunshine and warmth, the past week the weather was more Welsh. And naturally I happened to be camping that week! Though I didn't mind much - my 13 years with Guides have taught me to cope with poor weather...

More of the camping soon, but first I'll take a moment to congratulate Queen Elizabeth II who celebrated her official birthday on Saturday June 11. Congratulations Your Majesty, 90 years is an incredible milestone! To celebrate the Queen's birthday, the church in Swansea organised a royal birthday party. The evening was spent enjoying fine company and tea (with scones, of course).

I encountered royalty mingling with us commoners

Okay, camping. From last Sunday 12th to Friday 17th I spent at the beautiful St Madoc Centre on the Gower Peninsula. A school group of more than 80 children was scheduled to arrive on the campsite on Monday, so help was needed. So, I spent my week helping there, mainly with the survival activity. Although my experience with nature had already given me skills on the tasks the children were supposed to do (like building a shelter), I too learnt something new. Now I can light a fire using a fire steel, and cook stuff on a Kelly Kettle (this time stuff was edible plants from the forest, two of the three species ones that I couldn't identify before)!

All in all I had a great time with all the people there. The staff was really friendly and fun, especially N and R who were with me doing the survival, and who were the ones I spent most time with. Also, one really enjoyable activity for me was to wander around in the surrounding nature. I only had to exit two gates and I was on a hill, facing a breathtaking view of the sea. Unlike in Finland, where the flatness prevents you from seeing far, here I could see much from a single spot. Sea, hills, fields, forests, beach... I could have just sat somewhere for hours and gaze at the landscape. But, willing to see more, I took walks instead, trying to explore as widely as I'd realistically have time in addition to all the other things I was doing.

P.S. British keyboards are confusing. It's not once or twice I've typed # instead of ' -  like in doesn#t or haven#t. Also, @ is at the opposite side of the keyboard.

Photo spam

I couldn't find a nice place in the previous post for all the pictures I wanted to post, so here is a random load of my favourite pictures I've taken so far!

An old church from the outside...

..and from the inside

Kidwelly Castle

The view from the Kidwelly Castle

These people live inside the castle walls. Technically they can say they live in a castle...

Church spire and a flag in a breeze

I said hello, but (s)he didn't care

I'm going on an adventure!

Or rather, I already am on an adventure. My first time travelling abroad alone, without anyone from my family, and being in a completely different environment has been exciting! A week has passed already here in Kidwelly, Wales, where I'm staying with a family that has been friends with my family for many, many years now.

Some scenery not far from where I'm staying

Firstly, in case you don't already know me, allow me to introduce myself: my name is Leenu and I'm a Finnish university student. My major is English and Translation, and that's also the reason I'm in Wales: as a part of my studies, I'm required to spend a 6-week period in an English-speaking country. So this is me, in an English-speaking country, sharing the story of my adventure as it unfolds.

The night before my flight, I got a total of four hours sleep, so the first day I was mostly dozing, first in the plane, then in the car... But eventually I woke up to what, as I later found out, was a great week with lots of activities! I wish I could tell about everything in more detail, but every day has brought something new, and thus this would become so much longer post. Plus, as so many moments have already passed, I cannot describe them as vividly as if they had just happened.

This week has mainly been about living in Kidwelly as a part of the family I'm staying with. I have participated in many of the activities that belong in their lives. For example, on last Sunday I went to a church with them. It was probably one of the most pleasant experiences I've had from a church! Unlike in Lutheran services, which are more formal, the service in that church felt more warm and friendly. It was wonderful to see how people were so present in the moment, with all the music and communication and everything! It felt much more social than any church I have experience from, and that's something I really loved.

I have also been doing volunteer working, as it's one of the best ways to practice my English. I've done several days at EasyBooks (an accountancy business in Llanelli), and one day at Xcel Bowl (a bowling centre in Carmarthen). My free time has been quite busy as well. I have seen some relatives of the family, I've gone swimming, girl guiding, playing games and otherwise spending time with the family.

Next to the EasyBooks office. Not a bad place to eat lunch!

I also noticed that there is an Ingress portal less than 200m from where I'm staying! Owned by the Resistance nonetheless, with several links and fields stretching from it. So of course, as a devoted Enlightened agent, I had to go and capture it! My deed didn't go unnoticed though, and later I exchanged some messages with the Resistance agent whose portal I took down. Nice person, says they're good at throwing rocks at Enlightened agents. But, if I go to Swansea, there are a couple of Enlightened agents who asked me to drop them a message as well!

And of course you can't have an update from Britain without talking about the weather. "It's a lovely weather today, isn't it" or other sentences expressing similar idea have been frequent in daily small talk. And for a reason: we've had warmth and sunshine, and still not too hot usually. It only rained on one day, when we had a thunderstorm!

This has been the first part of the story. More will follow eventually, but first I have to experience it! Tomorrow I'm heading to St Madoc where I'll be camping without any connection to the outside world until next Friday. Expect more news when I return - see you soon!

P.S. I haven't spoken Finnish in days. That has never happened before. So weird!