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Corsets are like Chinese finger traps

Here's a collection of quotes from our Victoriana game, played over a few weeks in July and August 2012. It's what's known as a filler post, as we boardgamed last week and the week before that.

Nothing in particular happened in this episode, because basically, we were just generating characters. It means that things are pretty sane, as opposed to what happened when we finally started playing.

The demonologist didn't end up joining the game in the end, but anyhoo.

I've never been so tense to start a boardgame

After finishing Hunter, we've had a couple of sessions of boardgaming. The first one was zombie survival game Dead of Winter, and yesterday, we played the XCOM boardgame - which is a very stressful (yet fun) experience.

We also started putting together characters for the next roleplaying game we've got lined up: Deadlands: Hell on Earth. It's like Deadlands, but in the FUTURE. With MUTANTS. And RAD POISONING.

Are you planning to wrap up the end of the world?

Dungeon crawling continued, although Zolistagol decided to stay back - which, admittedly, was down to the player unexpectedly being absent. We found a tied-up accountant/lawyer who turned out not to be so mundane after all; he was actually a mage. Emphasis on was, because he died suddenly, ahem.

We also encountered a strange spinning room with gargoyles, but luckily only one of them was not a statue but an actual gargoyle. Again, emphasis on was.

Then there was that werewolf again, and Alex bravely sacrificing himself in order to kill it with explosives, so that's another monster dead - or two, seeing as how Alex was apparently a serial killer as a way to unwind. o.O

Then there was a big room with a bonfire that had featured in both Eddie's and Tilly's dreams. There, David Hayes (a.k.a. guy hired to keep Trevor's mad sister safe) was pointing a gun at Agatha (a.k.a. Trevor's sister). Long story short: she started the Burning Days, and since Eddie stood closest to the bonfire, he ended up becoming the Burning Man.

Meanwhile, Trevor was stuck in expanding foam (that he insisted on bringing with us), and Tilly made the mistake of freeing a tied-up Rommel (the person), who promptly knocked her unconscious as she turned her back for a moment. Curse his sudden but inevitable betrayal. Who'd have thought you couldn't trust a Nazi? Basically, he tricked us into starting the Burning Days because he enjoys ethnic cleansing or something ... problem is this time around, it's not Jesus or Richard the Lionheart that's the Burning Man, and there's no new religion or Crusades ... it's a zombie apocalypse. And we, plus what remains of the Nottingham crew, are now Hollow Knights (again in Eddie's and Tilly's case) and saving the world is our job. Insert list of expletives here.

Okay, duct tape bandage it is

This is the episode in which we get tooled up - at B&Q and a local garden centre, of course, we're not savages - and begin a dungeon crawl. The end of the world - and the campaign - draws near.

The cave system somewhere outside Leamington Spa had baddies in it, like a vampire and a werewolf and a Russian bear, and they had also abducted Eddie's brother. Things that generally put us in a bad mood. Armed to the teeth (in Rommel the pseudo-dog's case literally, he was carrying a knife in his mouth) we went after them.

Having found a chamber which split off in three different directions, we split up the group - with all the PCs going down the same route. There, we first found a table with chairs and some very familiar mystic symbols. Trevor, Zolistagol and Alex sat down by their respective symbols, and immediately zoned out. Worried, Eddie and Tilly quickly jammed something between the table and two of their party members' hands (well, there was just the two of them) ... leaving Alex connected to the table and thus able to hear the vision presented to them. A vision from a long, long time ago, and which might possibly be helpful when we find the Burning Man.

The abductees were drained of blood, but we managed to find Eddie's brother and heal him a little before he expired. There was a vampire there. Heroic Molotovs, axes and other weapons came in handy. Then we heard a scream, and discovered one of the other groups in trouble. One of them got stabbed in the back by Eddie's axe (he was aiming for the Russian bear), but on the other hand we also managed to get the Russian bear after a number of Molotovs, shots fired and grenades thrown.

To be honest, it's a surprise we're all still alive. Just-IIIICE!

Is your hoover covered for supernatural ash damage?

The Derby crew had an interesting morning. Tilly woke up with a bed full of cats - and only two out of nine were her own. Instead of being weirded out by this, she thought it was lovely and promptly fell back asleep. Later on, trying to film them, they didn't show up on the recording, and as she mentioned this over the phone to Trevor, the friendly cats turned into a mass of black goo that went all horror film shock moment on her, causing her to pass out.

Worried, Trevor, Eddie and Alex went to her house and confronted the black goo, dragging the unconscious woman outside in her PJs for all to see, and ... when seen through "The Sight", the black goo was a rather pleasant druidic entity who could remove the curse from people. Eddie and Tilly are therefore no longer cursed, and are off the menu when it comes to both being the person who sparks Armageddon and being the person you sacrifice in order to stop it.

Meanwhile, clues pointed to Weymouth, Stonehenge, and Codnor Castle, with Leamington Spa somewhere in the middle-ish of the wonky triangle, so that's where we reconvened with the Nottingham crew. In a Travelodge. Trevor just had to finish being interrogated by the police because his doppelganger had been seen causing all kinds of shenanigans. Good thing Zolistagol spotted this on TV!