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?

Staffer: Yes, it is--this is not a combat mod!

Excellent. That meant deals could be made and shook on and become binding.

Now, I'd come along to watch and to be near Josh, but it turned out that I earned my keep. The building was the same one where House of the Rising Sun had been, and I'd helped with tear down. So, I knew where the chairs were. And, as Gwen from the Circus, I could welcome the PCs in, set up chairs for them, and remind them that the market truce meant they could make deals with the rivers.

Fosse Grim was the hook for this, but the Canadian had been approached by players who wanted to speak with the Mississippi. So, both of them went out to get the players.

Once folks were there, the Mississippi cooed over Wolf Creek, and the Canadian had a joyful reunion with the creek, as the rivers had thought Wolf Creek was essentially dead. The creek told her story.

The Mississippi asked the other rivers if they thought he should talk to these humans, and all of them agreed that he should. The old river sighed. The things one does for family.

The PCs hadn't, I think, thought of making a deal before I brought it up, but they definitely wanted to talk about the Colorado and the Hoover Dam, and they did want the Mississippi's token. Sam said, iirc, that he wanted to blow the dam.

Mississippi: Who will stop this man from doing that?

Given that the Mississippi was all in favor of blowing the dam, I think this was partly the river asking if all humans present were on board with this and partly Gaylord trying to get a feel for the room. I don't think anyone said they'd stop Sam, but I do think folks were hoping to be able to free the miners, both living and dead, and the Colorado river without killing a few thousand people. If they couldn't do the first without doing the second, well... blowing the dam was apparently on the table as an option.

There was some more talk, most of which I forget, and then the Mississippi said that they'd get back to this human business later. First, there was actual important business to attend to, business concerning the Republican River.

I've just looked over the mod details, and wow, a lot of stuff in it either old news or no longer relevant by this point. The "we're going to deal with this river business first" did a few things here.

• It established Old Man River's priorities, i.e., rivers before humans, and was therefore a bit of roleplay.
• It framed one of the few items on the list of stuff to cover in the mod that was still relevant.
• It gave the PCs time to think about what they wanted from the rivers and what they were willing to offer in return, which definitely included just how far they were willing to go to free the Colorado.
• It gave the NPCs time to think about what they wanted from the humans and what they might give in return, and it gave their players time to think about how to make the scene work for everyone. Fr'ex, one thing Gaylord told me afterwards was that he isn't a fan of supplication scenes and wanted to keep this from becoming one.

Now, despite the title, the Republican wasn't actually on trial. This was more of a "what happened and where do we go from here?" The Republican was a bit subdued, having realized how much La Llorona had used her and the Canadian, and told the story, possibly with input from others.

Then, the Mississippi turned back to Other Business, aka these humans here, and invited each river to talk with the humans in turn and make whatever deal they liked, which got a lot of people in on the action. I don't recall all of the deals but I remember:

• The Red River saying that he rather liked humans, and if he were _asked_ if, maybe, he could bend a bit this way or flow more smoothly over there, why, he might well just do that for the humans--if they _asked_ him.
• The Republican saying that, well, she didn't like humans, but maybe not all humans deserved to be killed, maybe not even all humans not in the room. They'd been very understanding when she was under the control of La Llorona, figuring out that if they didn't attack the Republican River, she'd just yell at them, but if they did, she'd do a lot of damage to them. What she wanted was not to be cut up and dammed by the humans.
• Similarly, the Canadian and Platt wanted to be able to flow. Bridges were fine, but dams were a problem.
• Someone--not Sam--made a deal with one of the rivers, promising to do "whatever it takes" to free either the miners, the Colorado, or both (I forget which).
• I think a politician made a deal with the Republican River, a woman from Texas. Certainly, she liked the idea that a friendly river (like the Red River) might flow in such a way as to get her an extra bit of vote in an election.

After all deals were struck, the Mississippi told Sam that he really didn't care about humans. He didn't even care enough about them to hate them. But, was he a treacherous river? No, he was not. He was, however, a river with a long memory and a lot of power, quite capable of being vengeful and deadly.

So, the Mississippi wasn't going to shake hands with anyone or make any official deals. He knew what Sam and the others had said they'd do. And he gave Sam his token.

This meant that no one had promised specifically to blow the Hoover Dam. One person had promised to do "whatever it takes" to free one or more of the prisoners, but the PCs had wiggle room and agency, which was critical. And now, Old Man River wanted to go back to sleep.

And we returned to Monster Camp and changed, except for Josh, who just had to collect his fiddle. He wasn't going to be playing it, but he wanted to remind folks that Fosse Grim played the fiddle and thus might be called on for advice or as a judge.

For it was midnight, and thus, Zadkiel would be at the crossroads, should anyone want to challenge them to a fiddle contest. Zadkiel was also Belial, which is, I think, unfair, as I don't believe they ever lied. Along with Samael/Lucifer and Camael/Azazel, they were from a place we liked to call, ah, Downstairs.

First, Zadkiel's player had to be extracted from a mod that was running late. This was Amod Lele, who used to write for A&E. He'd just been running a trip to Hell mod, along with the player of NPC Gabriel, who apologized profusely for that running late. We assured her that it wasn't a problem or even her doing -- everything had been running a bit late because the House of the Rising Sun had run late, so it was more like this mod was the fifth airplane in line that got nudged off its timing.

In theory, Samael was supposed to be the hook for this, but Alex, who played the NPC Samael, was also the main staffer in charge and was running himself ragged trying to be in several places at once. But, Amod's wife, Caitlin, who'd played Lilith and other roles, had made sure she could be free to watch the fiddle contest, and we all agreed she could be the hook, which meant we didn't need to hunt for Alex.

So, Amod went to the crossroads, and we went to the tavern.

Caitlin as Random Townie: Um... there's this guy with wings down at the crossroads. Could someone make him go away? This is above my pay grade!

Folks got together and headed to the crossroads. Now, in theory, Robert Colvin, whose player, like Amod, plays the fiddle, should have been the one to challenge Zadkiel, but the player had retired for the evening and his hand was hurting. In theory, Nathaniel could do it, as Nathaniel also played the fiddle, but in practice, Franklin, who played guitar, agreed to be the one to challenge the devil at the crossroads.

We learned all of this en route, and I started trying to get ahead of the main group to give Amod a heads up. When I got as far as Caitlin, I explained the situation, and she ran ahead and explained it to Amod. GMs are, in general, a lot better at rolling with unexpected twists if they get even the tiniest bit of a heads up.

The crossroads scene pretty much encapsulates everything that I larp for. Okay, we drove several hours for a top bunk bed in the New Hampshire woods where I need to spray tick repellant and use a flashlight at night, but we walked to a crossroads and the devil was there waiting.

And Zadkiel and Franklin had a quiet conversation. They weren't whispering, of course--everyone needed to hear--but no one was shouting.

Franklin: I want what's mine, what's hers [Leonora's], and your token.

Zadkiel: Yes. (long pause) Yes, you do.

What was Franklin's was his soul, sold to both Zadkiel and Samael. What was Leonora's was a film reel of Camille, which somehow contained the actress's soul. And of course, the token was needed for the retuning ritual.

And Franklin was, or at least seemed, pretty confident.

Franklin: I'm going to win because I'm better than you.

Zadkiel: How many songs shall we play?

Franklin: I only need one.

This exchange was a blast to watch. There was also the question of what Franklin would be staking on his part. Now, traditionally, Franklin should have staked his own soul on the contest, but Zadkiel already had his soul. Franklin tried to argue that he could still totally stake it. Why, just this very day, he'd bought himself a Destiny--he was destined to invent something that would change the world! Surely that would make his soul shinier, something to really boast about having on one's mantel?

Sadly, no. Zadkiel wasn't looking for the prettiest soul. They were looking to collect souls. And Franklin was asking for three things. So, three of his friends would have to stake their souls on this, and no, Franklin and Leonora could not stake their own souls, those being part of what was on the table.

Franklin quickly had two takers, one of whom asked if this meant he'd have to shake the devil's hand. Zadkiel said yes, everyone making this deal with them would have to. So, Franklin just needed one more person.

Nathaniel: Franklin, how sure are you that you're going to win this?

Someone noted that, given that on tomorrow's agenda was the retuning of the entire universe, if Nathaniel didn't have faith in Franklin for this, folks might as well give up now.

Nathaniel: You'd better win this. If you don't, my mother-in-law will haul you out of Hell so she can kill you.

Someone noted that Franklin had improved Nathaniel's relationship with his mother-in-law. This did not sweeten Nathaniel's mood.

Nathaniel: You'd better f*cking win this, Franklin.

Judges would be decided on by mutual consent of the two contestants, and none of the judges could be a directly interested party.

Me / Gwen: Make sure it's an odd number of judges.

Three was the number agreed upon, and Zadkiel suggested Fosse Grim as one, which Josh had been expected. Final decisions would be made back at the tavern. For now, all parties involved shook hands with Zadkiel, some more reluctantly than others.

Now, I had heard Amod play on his fiddle. He's good. I'd heard Derek, aka Franklin's player, play on his guitar. He's good. But, neither of them had heard the other. Heck, Derek didn't even know Amod played.

He was thinking that Franklin had this in the bag. This staffer probably couldn't even play a lick. Why, he didn't even see a violin--the staffer probably didn't even have one.

In Franklin's defense, I note that it was very dark at the crossroads. He didn't see the violin case until Zadkiel bent and picked it up.

None of us saw Franklin sweating or batting an eye, and we certainly didn't see his little thought balloon, which had the equivalent of "big uh-oh" however he chose to gloss it. Yep, the devil could, and would, play the fiddle.

Three judges were chosen:

• Fosse Grim, played by Josh, who would be more naturally inclined to favor the fiddle, but this was all right. He was the only NPC judge and probably the only one naturally inclined to favor the devil, and someone really ought to among the judges.
• Leland Barnes, who had recently lost his memory, and so everything was new to him. (Turns out he wasn't human by now, having been turned into a water spirit, but Josh and I didn't realize that, and I'm not sure whether Amod or Derek did either.)
• Sariel / Larry Reese, a PC fallen angel who played the piano in the tavern.

Zadkiel played the piece that Amod had decided he simply must play | "Devil's Dream" Then, Franklin played and sang "Last Resort". Now, you can hear the original | here (or at least, at one point you could); however, this is NOT what it sounded like when Derek played it on the guitar. Derek played it like a man from decades earlier who was pouring every ounce of soul and passion into a ballad because his soul, his friends' souls, and, oh yes, the fate of the world were all on the line.

The judges conferred, and then Fosse announced that the decision was unanimous, and that, for completely different reasons, each of the judges had decided that Franklin had won the contest. That said, Fosse--and Josh--noted that Franklin's song would have been better on fiddle.

Zadkiel was a good loser and handed everything over. Apparently, it might be difficult to remove the actress's soul from the film reel and put it back into her body, as she'd put a lot of her self into that movie. And Gabriel and Israfil scolded various humans for risking their souls.

I / Gwen asked how Franklin planned to get his soul back from the _other_ devil he'd sold it to and everyone hastily hushed me so Zadkiel wouldn't hear that. Franklin announced he was done with shaking hands and folks would have to settle for high fives.

I asked Josh why the judges had decided the way they did. He explained: First, Fosse had said that folks should look solely at the music, not the words, as Zadkiel was only playing the fiddle, not singing. That said, he'd heard the tune Zadkiel had played a thousand times, sometimes better, sometimes worse. It wasn't new to him. Franklin's was something new and different.

Sariel / Larry said that Franklin's playing was more soulful. As for Leland, he said that he'd essentially heard only two songs in his life, and one of them was the best song he'd ever heard, and the other the worst. We told Amod about this later.

Amod had heard that Derek was good, but he had still been a bit concerned. I mean, we all know who should win this kind of contest, but we all know it should be a legitimate win. Josh and Amod had talked about this before the competition mod, and Josh and I had mentioned Heather Alexander's "Faerie Queen" and Alexander James Adams's "He of the Sidhe", both of which are basically The Faerie Queen Went Down to Georgia.

In each case, the Faerie Queen's tune is technically brilliant, but cold, while the mortal's tune starts slow, but gets better and more passionate over time. Amod later said that this made sense, and it worked with what he could do. He'd stopped playing the violin when he was 13, and had only picked it up again a few months ago, so at his best, he was as good as he was at age 13, and while that was indeed good, he said that 13-year-olds cannot play "with soul". I'd amend that to "most 13-year-olds", but his point stands.

My thinking is that Derek was lucky he hadn't had to play against Josh. Josh notes that Amod is probably a better player than he is, especially when it comes to technique, but there are things Josh can do that will play better to the audience. Josh also has the advantage of having been playing more constantly in the last several years than Amod, and doing a lot of instrument jams. These teach one a great deal about playing to an audience, and the fact that it is an audience of your fellow musicians just makes it better.

That said, Josh was pretty confident that he could have made sure to play well, but not too well for Derek to beat. He had heard Derek playing throughout the day. And, he said, while it's tricky when each person is only playing one song, one is the correct number, and the human gets to go last. After the larp, we discussed strategies for making the test seem more rigged against the human without actually being more rigged--perhaps the devil could choose all the judges or perhaps it had to be a unanimous vote in favor of the human for the human to win.

We all returned to Monster Camp where Alex considered what mod to send out. He decided not to send out a serious mod. Hoover Dam and similar things could wait until Sunday. No, he was going to send out the mod where Cinema attacked Radio, and needed someone with a good voice for radio. One of my fellow Manitou immediately demonstrated he was the person for the job.

Others would be folks from various movies with special attacks. Fr'ex, Top Hat characters could attack with High Fashion. David Copperfield characters could attack with Thinly Veiled Allegory. Cleopatra characters could attack with Historical Liberties!

If we hadn't been exhausted and aching, we'd have been sorely tempted to volunteer, and this despite my wanting no combat. As it was, we got some sleep and returned to Monster Camp for breakfast and to coordinate for the day's activities.

On my agenda was to see if I could bring Oren out again and sing Stan Rogers's "Field Behind the Plow" just because I wanted to, and to make the retuning ritual as Cassiel. Josh wanted to wrap the Assessor's selling a demigodhood to Harvey Ward, the person who wanted to buy it, thread and make the retuning ritual as Fosse Grim.

As we ate breakfast, Israfil's player came in, somewhat distraught, perhaps, out of character, and very distraught in character. The humans had decided to make Israfil, Archangel of Music, into the Rider of Pestilence at the Retuning. Or at least, that was the current plan, which had already changed many times already.

Israfil was devastated that their gift of music would be turned into pestilence.

Israfil: The world will end in SOUND!

Someone: They just... Rickrolled the universe.

And there were jokes about ear worms. But, we knew, this might not be the final configuration, and I was and remain extremely glad that I didn't have to sit through the long discussions about how the universe would be retuned.

Eventually, Josh and I headed out to the tavern as Oren and the Assessor. We walked into a meeting in progress, unsurprisingly. The Junkman, a helpful NPC, was reviewing what would happen at the ritual. When he was done, I got everyone's attention, intending to tell them that the Assessor maybe had something some folks might be interested in, but he interrupted, saying he wanted to deal with that privately.

That was fine, and as long as I had everyone's attention, Oren noted that plenty of folks outside the market (i.e., anyone not part of larp space) had no idea what was going on. Sure, things were bad, and maybe the world was ending, but meanwhile, they had food to put on the table, and Oren wanted to sing a song about that. He told folks that it was just fine if they continued to talk and plan while he sang, which I later realized was utterly appropriate.

As Josh noted, it boiled down to the fact that I wanted to sing a song. And most folks did indeed go about their business. And some folk stomped along to the beat and sang along on the final couplet.

Meanwhile, the Assessor concluded his business and passed on his title and his demigodhood to Harvey Ward. We went back to the NPC cabin and did some packing, and Josh changed costumes from the Assessor to Fosse Grim. We returned to Monster Camp, and I put on Cassiel's wings. Metatron's player brought out an amazing set of chimes and showed us how to ring them if we were called to be part of the retuning ritual, and folks noted that the people in the horsemen spots would get black chimes, not white ones, and were NOT to ring them.

Archangels didn't have free will, so if our name were called, we'd step forward, ring the chime, and wait to see if enough humans took up the sound. "Enough" was a deliberately vague term; basically, if they were louder than the chime, it was a definite yes. I think the four Riders would have free will to sound or not sound the chime, though they weren't supposed to sound it. Once everyone was in position, the white chimes were marked for whether they should be the first group rung, the second, the third, or the fourth.

We made our way first to the tavern where folks were singing the second to last song, "Help Yourself", so we joined in. We later learned that it was a reprise, as they needed to sing something for the pre-ritual ritual, and it really shouldn't be the last song of the game.

Israfil had learned they were no longer to be Pestilence. Whew.

Israfil: I... would have done a good job. I would.

Gabriel and Cassiel assured Israfil that no one doubted this, but now, thankfully, they wouldn't have to.

As we walked over, Gabriel turned to Cassiel.

Gabriel: How are you doing?

Cassiel: Sad.

Gabriel: ... well, yes. But how are you doing?

Cassiel never actually answered that, as someone else had turned in surprise and then said, "Oh, right," as he realized that it was the archangel of sorrow who was sad.

And, the archangel of death shrieked. As I understand it, this was because one of the humans who could do it was administering a short-term cure of the Static so that the archangel could safely complete the retuning ceremony, after which Static would, hopefully, no longer be an issue. It was over by the time Cassiel was there.

Cassiel to the archangel of death: Are you... as well as you can be?

The archangel of death said that they were, and Cassiel let the matter drop.

Folks went inside the building where the ceremony was about to happen. There was a quick review of the details, and then things began.

I forget a lot of details. If I don't attach a photo of the diagram or some version of the spoken words, the key things I recall:

At the center was Gabriel, the nicest / least of a jerk. The Mississippi River was in the octave position above Gabriel.

This meant that the two would be working together. Gaylord told us on the ride home that there was even sort of a job interview to see if the two could work together.

Mississippi: You want me to... work... with... (falls asleep)

Gabriel: I can work with that.

The tritone, appropriately, had one Seelie, one Unseelie, and one Manitou. Josh explained to me that the tritone doesn't actually harmonize per se.

Cassiel wasn't in the ritual, and their token remained unused. I'd known that might happen, and I'd heard the Junkman telling folks earlier (when I was being Oren) that folks whose tokens weren't going to be used in the ritual should talk to someone specific, though I forget whom.

And the chimes sounded, one after another, except for the four Horsemen--Death, Famine, War--and Conquest.

Cassiel to Zadkiel: I don't recall there being a Horseman of Conquest.

Neither did Zadkiel. But, it turns out our NPCs had a faulty memory and we didn't do our research. In some versions, Conquest is a Horseman, and the humans decided to go back to this version.

Someone frightened everyone by sounding a chime. I'm not sure why, as it was clearly a white chime, not for a horseman position. But, Gaylord decided not to sound his own chime lest folks worry.

And the white chimes were all sounded in their groups, one after the other, forming a gorgeous major chord.

Then, we moved into the final song, "This May Be the Last Time". As soon as the final note sounded, Alex called "And Game Over!"

And folks stopped as directed, which has not always happened in my experience. But here, we moved out of character, talking to each other, saying goodbyes, grooving on the high of what we'd just done.

I asked Harold's player what did happen to Cassiel and the others whose tokens weren't used. He assured me that we were all still in the new universe, just not part of the cosmic blueprint the way the others were. And not all the archangels were in it the last time around.

He explained that folks wanted to put Cassiel in one of the four horsemen spots and Harold put his foot down.

Harold: You can _not_ do that to Cassiel! Well, maybe _you_ can, but _I_ can't!

There was no way he was going to lay that burden on the Archangel of Sorrow. In other words, as we confirmed with a couple other players, no one else wanted Cassiel in the inner ring, and Harold wasn't going to put the archangel in the outer. Or, to put it another way, Cassiel had pretty much talked themselves out of a job.

I suspect that Cassiel is a little sad about this, because they would make a reasonable War or Death. But, they're not going to tell Harold this, because what Harold did was sweet. Also, there was no way the old archangel of death wasn't going to get the Death position back, and I think putting Michael in War and the old War in Conquest may have been diplomatically wise.

And, as I told Harold's player, Cassiel really would be okay with NOT have sorrow woven quite so deeply into the blueprint of the universe.

But that's not quite all there is to Cassiel's story. As I had put my wings on that morning, one of them lost a feather. Cassiel decided to give it to Le Raconteur, who, I already knew, would be observing, not participating in, the retuning ritual. Le Raconteur thanked Cassiel, saying he'd given away his old token and would use the archangel's feather as a new one.

And the player mentioned this in post-game fan fiction. Oh yes, I discovered that post-larp fan fiction is a thing that people do. There was a consent list for this, which could include things like "(no sex scenes for my character, please)".

All in all, this was an astonishingly good game, and it may be a while before we try something like this again. The bar's been set rather high and needs to be made of a very particular alloy.