Musica Universalis Part Two

Part One covered general things we learned about the type of larp into which Musica Universalis falls and the various characters I played, ending in the middle of the mod where a group of players met three archangels played by those of us who'd signed on to play NPCs. In this scene, I was playing Cassiel, the archangel of Sorrow. Cassiel, like the rest of the archangels in play, had a token which they could bestow on someone, and the PCs wanted it for a ritual on Sunday in which they would try to retune the universe.

My job was to make them work to get it. After all, a lot of people would die in the retuning, which would be sad, and Cassiel was an archangel with a history of being unwilling to make hard decisions, having sat out the War in Heaven because they loved all their fellow angels on both sides and felt that both sides had a point but were not completely right. I also made it clear that Cassiel would not decide until after dinner, as I didn't want to make anyone spend more time than they wanted to working towards a goal that wouldn't be fulfilled for a few hours.

That said, there were a surprising number of people willing to do the work by sitting, talking, and emoting with Cassiel, starting with Irene Bellanger, who told Cassiel her story.

Cassiel told Irene the story of the War in Heaven (okay, technically, the second one). Samael, who was Imagination in the same way that Cassiel was Sorrow, had asked their fellow angels and archangels, "What would you do if you had free will and didn't have to do as God decreed?" This resulted in a lot of thinking and quiet talking, at first.

And then Samael asked Camael, the Wrath of God. And Camael thought about this and then turned around and punched their boss, Michael, in the face.

Irene (kind of caught between laughter and tears, as it really is simultaneously sad and hilarious): Are you saying the War in Heaven was a glorified _bar brawl_?

Cassiel: Nothing so dignified.

Irene: Nothing so _dignified_ as a bar brawl?

Well, no. As Cassiel explained when a couple more folks came over, a bar brawl, well, usually afterwards, someone buys someone else a drink, no hard feelings. Usually.

A couple of folks nodded and said that sometimes, it was just a matter of tossing folks into a jail cell to cool down overnight, which often meant folks on opposite sides shared a cell, and that did often help.

Cassiel was telling this story to drive home the point that while they believed all of the archangels were telling the truth as they saw it, and all believed most sincerely in whatever course of action they were advocating, well... they hoped it was clear by now that none of the archangels were infallible or incapable of making a mistake.

One of the folks who'd joined Cassiel was Harold Lewis, who, Cassiel was told, was probably the human who would most understand Cassiel's position. I'm a little vague on Harold's story, but I gather he'd been in a war (probably WWI?) and he certainly seemed to empathize with Cassiel.

There was a fair amount of crying going on, and a surprising amount of understanding for the archangel's position. Cassiel promised to think very carefully and wanted the humans to do the same, making sure they truly wanted Cassiel's token, and reiterated their promise to make a decision after dinner by the flagpole.

And one of the people there, Etta, talked about how important sorrow, and, by extension, Cassiel was, and how without sorrow, one doesn't understand joy. And she thanked Cassiel for, well, existing. And she invited the Archangel of Sorrow to dinner.

My original plan had been to go back to Monster Camp for supper, but... honestly, how could I refuse an invitation like that? And I knew that Gaylord had supplied some of the food that the players would be eating, and that I'd be paying for some of that, so it would be all right on that front.

I did, however, need to attend to certain biological functions first, ones angels and archangels perhaps do not need to. The player of Morgan, the woman who'd introduced Cassiel to Harold, went with me to show me where the nearest bathroom was and to help me get the wings off. They were small, sure, but I wasn't about to try to maneuver in a stall with them.

On the way, she noted, in character, that Cassiel would be giving their token (presuming they chose to give it, of course, but I knew by then that, unless no one showed up at the flagpole, I'd almost certainly be handing it over, and I suspect she did as well) to an individual, and that it should be someone Cassiel trusted to act as they would wish to act. She thought that Harold would be the ideal person to give it to. I had it narrowed down to her, Harold, and Etta, and with her pushing for Harold, that narrowed it down to two, as Cassiel wasn't about to inflict their token on someone who didn't want it.

Out of character, the player complimented me on the sustained roleplaying I'd been doing. I also learned that there were lofts in some of the buildings, and that getting down from those could be a bit too interesting. There are trap doors involved, and the door had come down rather hard on her nose that day. Ouch.

We also talked about faith and belief, and she told Cassiel that she had faith in them. And then, we went to the tavern for dinner.

A general dinner call was announced, and a few minutes later, one of the players handed me a covered plate which I think Gaylord had set aside. I / Cassiel did doublecheck to make sure that the players / humans had enough to eat, but I was assured that they'd all heard the call to dinner, that there was no line, and that there really was enough food to go around.

After I ate, I returned to Monster Camp and the NPC cabin to catch my breath, recharge my electronics, spray myself with more tick repellent, read a bit, and generally chill. A bit after 8, I put on my wings and took a flashlight and some cloth, in case I wanted to sit on the ground, and headed out.

I'd already located the flagpole, and there was no one there yet. This didn't worry me, but I heard the sound of a lot of folks singing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", so I went to the building where the sound was coming from.

I discovered that Cassiel had just walked into the House of the Rising Sun, where Lilith had set up her own market. This was slightly embarrassing, but only because Cassiel hadn't realized. They had nothing against Lilith, and I joined in the song, and then went to the flagpole.

I later learned that Hallelujah was the closing song for the House of the Rising Sun mod, the opening one being, of course, "House of the Rising Sun". Lilith's player assured me that Cassiel dropping in wasn't a problem. Just about every archangel and devil visited at some point during the mod.

I went to the flagpole and shook out the cloth. As I was putting it on the ground, Harold and Morgan joined Cassiel. This pretty much settled the question of who'd be getting the token.

I'm not sure if the staff had a specific timing of the emotional beats in mind, but as far as I was concerned, the only question remaining was whether the humans still wanted Cassiel's token. Folks had listened. Folks had spoken of themselves and their sorrows. Folks had cried, and folks had understood. Folks had _gotten_ where Cassiel was coming from, and said that it was a valid and important part of the fabric of the universe. We had a regular Inside Out moment, and I do wonder whether Cassiel would have been in the game without that movie.

Sure, I didn't have a huge crowd at the flagpole, but Cassiel could only give their token to one person, so that wasn't necessary. And yes, Harold still wanted the token.

That is, he wished he didn't have to ask this of Cassiel, and Cassiel wished they didn't have to give it to him, but yes, he did still want it. Cassiel gave it to him. And there was more crying, as the three of us discussed how being alone wasn't quite so bad when one was with other people, how Harold and Morgan had just gotten married, how sorrow may make for greater appreciation of joy, but losing people really doesn't make one happy, and things of that nature.

And after something they said, Harold asked Cassiel if Cassiel wanted to change their nature.

I gave this some thought and decided that Cassiel probably didn't. They'd just been told by several humans how important and valuable they were--how loved they were for being what they were. If that's not enough to restore an archangel's faith in themselves, I don't know what is.

So, no, Cassiel knew that sorrow was important, and that they were important as they were. But, they said, perhaps it would be no bad thing if there were somewhat less sorrow in the world.

After much hugging, crying, and philosophizing, Cassiel and the other two parted. I returned to Monster Camp with a vague plan of attaching myself to Josh for the two late slots, both because I wanted to know what would happen in the one he was scheduled for and the one he'd planned to attach himself to, and because that way, I'd know where he was when it got late enough I wanted to crash for the night.

But we were still in the 8-10 slot, and that meant that Josh and others were going to go to a combat mod involving La Llorona and a battle with rivers. The encounter at the flagpole hadn't taken long, and the House of the Rising Sun mod needed tear down, and the staffer on duty at Monster Camp said that Lilith's player shouldn't have to do that all on her own.

I went over, and I think Alden was already helping out with tear down, and with two of us there, things went faster. While I was doing that, I discovered that the Angel of Death's player was preparing to appear with the Lost Brigade, which currently consisted of three people. I was invited to be a fourth and accepted. This involved filling a room with fog and then opening the door so that we all stepped out of the fog and marched to the tavern singing a song about the Angel of Death which was in the songbook. And, as the staff had assured us, by now, the players, who'd all received the songbook in advance, were well enough trained to start singing along.

I'm not sure the fog machine added anything, as no one was right outside, and I don't know if the fog was even visible from the tavern. I also learned that the player of the Angel of Death had asthma and would happily have forgone the fog machine. I have put on my list of things I learned from this larp "If you're using a fog machine, find out who has asthma or other breathing issues and keep them as far from the machine as possible--and do you really need that fog machine?"

It's not top of my list, though. No, the top item is "Be ready for players to try to go far more deeply into the world than you've contemplated." In the scenes with Cassiel, I was asked several variants of "Okay, you are the Archangel of Sorrow. What does that mean?" and when I did my best to answer that, "Okay, and what does _that_ mean?" Folks were willing to go as deeply into the metaphysics as I'd take them, and my main limits were a) keep things progressing, not circling and b) don't contradict what the writers have established, which would have been just a little easier if I had remembered all of what they established. Even then, though, making up something risks contradicting stuff that I don't know exists.

In any case, we marched behind Death, sang, and took up positions holding tiny electric candles. Death was scheduled to be out there for up to three hours, but returned to Monster Camp after half an hour, when things seemed to have reached a logical point for that to happen.

Death had been driven insane by Static--the difference between what the divine plan was and what reality was, and the whole reason the universe needed retuning--possibly because of a combination of WWI and the pandemic flu. She cackled and made speeches about how people had to be more careful, but she was their friend, and--I can't reproduce that combination of scary and pitiful that the player achieved.

Someone gave her a five minute cure for the Static, and in those five minutes, the players got her to give someone her token. But, they also brought a skull to her and asked her to let the soul of the dead person whose skull it was find peace.

Death: Do you have this person's soul?

Players: ...er, no...

Death's player was a bit bemused, as the request was way off whatever script the staff had expected, but, as she said back at Monster Camp, she was certainly willing to go out and cackle at the PCs again. Hopefully, they had more than one five minute Static cure.

I'm not really clear on just what plot arc that skull was from. At that point, I was waiting for folks to come back from La Llorona so they could do the Trial of the Rivers.

By now, Gaylord's serial killer plot had run its course. He'd arranged with another NPC player to have her go off with his preacher, and they made sure to pass a lot of players. The preacher returned alone. When the NPC body was found, he said, "Oh, how terrible! If only I hadn't left her alone! Well, you should know that she repented having stolen from you, so I'm sure she's in Heaven now."

The PCs put two and two together, and set a trap for the preacher, someone who wanted to confess to him. When he tried to kill her, about half a dozen PCs ambushed him and captured him. It sounded like this was satisfactory and cathartic all around.

Gaylord was now playing the Mississippi River, aka Old Man River. Following the events of La Llorona, the Rivers were supposed to meet to discuss what to do about one of their number who'd joined La Llorona, and some humans wanted to talk to them, particularly the Mississippi. Gaylord asked who I was going to be if I were coming along.

I said I could be Gwen from the circus, but I'd also thought about being a little brook. Gaylord said they already had one of those -- Wolf Creek, who'd been with the Lost Brigade earlier. Now, the Mississippi was an old, powerful, grumpy river who really didn't care about humans. Gaylord thought it might be a good touch to make this old river react to Wolf Creek like a human grandfather reacts to a toddler.

Mississippi: Well, look at you! Who's a burbling creek? You are!

He checked with the NPC player of Wolf Creek who said a) thanks for the heads up, b) yes, that would be great c) so long as it was ONLY the Mississippi River who did that--if all the rivers did it, she'd be tempted to go homicidal.

So, there was the Mississippi and Wolf Creek. There were the Colorado, Republican, Red, Platt, and Canadian rivers. And there was La Llorona. As I understand it:

Wolf Creek: Had liked the people who lived alongside it, but they either died or left, which made the creek sad. So, when some soldiers came along, it went with them, because it was better to have some people. When someone--Zadkiel, I think?--grabbed the Lost Brigade, Wolf Creek was lost as well. But now, the Creek was back. The idea of the creek as a child was actually relevant to the PCs, as a debate with / about the rivers had included the idea that rivers weren't people because they couldn't have children, and that this somehow meant it was fine to make them do what the humans wanted. Or at least, some humans thought this, though I doubt the ones coming to talk with the rivers were among them.

Colorado: Not present. This river was being turned into a dike by the humans who were creating Hoover Dam. Some of the PCs wanted to free the Colorado River. In fact, when I was being Gwen and wandering, they spoke with another NPC, the Market Broker, aka MB, who was willing to sell them a) passage to Hoover Dam and, for any who survived, passage back and b) information on the three different options they had and what each option would entail and cost. In return, he wanted either a soul or a number of items adding up to at least that in value. Le Raconteur offered to sell a story, something he'd never done before, and have it wiped from his memory. This, MB said, would get them there and back. Sam, who was changing into something inhuman, offered to sell his last remaining human memories, so that he'd remember he'd once been human, but nothing else. This, MB said, would get a bit less than halfway to what was left. That was where I left folks, but I was fairly sure they'd finished finding enough other things to make the deal by now, possibly having checked with Seamus, who played MB. The main problem was that the easiest way to free the Colorado was to blow the dam, but that would kill thousands of people, including the human workers that the PCs wanted to save (as the creation of the dam involved a lot of evil icky blood magic).

Mississippi: Had a token, which the PCs would want. Gaylord thought at first that Mississippi would give it in return for a promise to blow the dam, but later made a decision that worked better.

Red River: A friendly-to-humans river.

Canadian River: Not actually in Canada, I learned. Had recently been under the control of La Llorona.

Republican River: A hostile-to-humans river, let's kill all the humans, come on and join me in killing all the humans! She'd been working willingly with La Llorona and had only recently learned that La Llorona had been using her (willingly) and the Canadian (unwillingly).

Platt River: Sort of a mediator river, I think the Platt was neutral to friendly to humans, at least well behaved ones.

Fosse Grim (played by Josh): A water spirit who had introduced humans to the rivers and who had been captured / controlled by La Llorona, and then freed by human PCs. Josh as Fosse was the hook for most of the mods about the rivers. He noted that he'd slipped up by not saying "We are leaving the safety of the market truce", but that it had been obvious when he told the PCs that they might want to bring a few more friends and a lot of weapons.

La Llorona: The big bad of the 8-10pm mod, played by someone good at thinking on her feet. She'd been trying to tempt a PC into killing someone and saying "This death is for you, La Llorona." The PC decided that while he did want the power that would bring, he couldn't kill someone else, so he sacrificed himself, believing that this would bring him the power he sought, changing him into his final form. This wasn't actually the case, which is why the quick thinking was necessary. La Llorona's player told him that when the two rivers La Llorona had suborned (the Canadian and the Republican) went down, he could rise again, and at that point, he would have the power to kill La Llorona.

This meant that La Llorona was dead--at least this one was, at least temporarily--and would, therefore, not be showing up at the Trial of the Rivers. And anyway, it wasn't exactly a trial. And... where exactly was it? The location changed a couple of times based on who was where before we had that nailed down, but the real question was: Was it within the Market Truce?