It was a three-hour drive, which ended at a castle between snowy wood-covered mountains near the town of Olpe. Very scenic and beautiful! After arriving, the first thing I discovered was that the whole event was much larger than I had anticipated — 120 players and 70 non-player characters, plus a dozen or so "dungeon masters"!

Marja and Elly quickly stuck me in the Caeru costume and put a blond wig on me, and off we went because a TV team arrived to do an interview with Storm Constantine amongst her creatures (i.e. us). It took some time to get into character, but I managed to get some conversation squeezed out, but nothing very natural. Oh well, that's all they could expect in that situation. I also enjoyed teaching a fellow har the card game "marriage," the only card game I currently remember (mental note: [re-]learn more card games!)

After that, we decided to stick me in a different set of clothes and a different wig — Storm ahd joked I looked as if I had been through some kind of hormone therapy! Sandro, who was originally cast to be Caeru but couldn't attend, really has a differently build body and skin type than I do. Luckily Elly (aka Cobweb) gave me a wig with long black hair down to my waist. Then Sven (aka Pellaz, the Tigron of Immanion) dug up a different set of garments in reddish tones that looked much better on me. I'm definitely one of the wicked Wraeththu, especially after he put some makeup on me. Storm even gave me my own character: Rarn, a Kakkahar. I have so far only read the first two books so I havn't encountered this one yet. I wonder if I'm in for a supprise there. But Storm said he was a high-ranking Nahir Nuri, so my ego was satisfied and I guess I'll be just fine. Walking up stairs in a dress without stepping on it really is a challenge. I finally learned how to do it - just hitch it up like the ladies in the movies do. BTW, Sven made the costumes for everyhar, and wonderful the costumes were.

The afternoon after that was spent sitting in the little space the Wraeththu had set up for themselves (like a tent), sipping red wine, looking at other players costumes and speaking to fellow hara and guests. They were plenty of Elves, Knights, Druids, Mages — you name it! Some of the costumes were very fancy. One knight spent the whole two days leading an elf around on a chain attached to a leather neckband! Some of the visitors were quite tiresome: fake mages speaking fake middle age German about fake politics. On the othe hand, others were quite witty and fun!

Around 7 p.m. that night, loud music started to play outside, and a fellow har (who has had a lot of LARP experience) told me that that's the signal something is happening. Time to get up and go outside and that was the first time I noticed the wine in my intestines was doing its job, alas. In the inner ward of the castle red lights were dancing on the walls and the music was blasting. I still was on my way over the bridge to get there when I heard someone yell "TIME FREEZE".

"Stand still and close your eyes!" my companion whispered. So I shut my eyes and froze ... and waited ... and started to get cold ... then I started worrying if I was doing something stupid and peeped — but the whole yard was filled with people standing like statues. After about two minutes the "TIME FREEZE OVER" call was heard and I opened my eyes and continued on my way, but suddenly I  trod on something that felt like glass — it was a round hand mirror that had been placed at my feet. Picking it up, it looked normal, so I gazed at my face in makeup, and then I turned it around.

On the back of the mirror was a message telling me I had to confront the greatest of my sins because I looked into the mirror. For every one of the Seven Deadly Sins it gave an option what to do. So I chose Hochmut (pride). The challenge was: "Hold a speech about your greatest weakness in front of an audience of no less then 10." *Sigh* My companion (Cal) had picked up three of the darn things, so at least I didn't feel all stupid for falling for the trap. Every mirror had different tasks for the sins as far as I could gather. The organisers (Twilight Team) sure had put a lot of time into the event!

After working up some nerves (one more beer) I stood up in the tavern and held my little speech. It was a bit lame, something I made up about betraying and killing my own brother because of my pride (mind you, this is only in character). In concluding my speech, I encouraged the listeners to enjoy life and drink and celebrate — that had nothing to do with what I was saying before, but it got me a full round of applause. After that I slowly wandered back into the Wraeththu "tent" where a group of elves were visiting. They were of the fun type of guests, especially the elf that was cursed to try to be helpful all the time. After they had tried some of our Wraeththu wines they offered some of their elvish brewery from there hip flask. I was too drunk to only try a sip, and since I wanted to demonstrate that Wraeththu aren't afraid of poison (they are immune), I drank the whole cup — a mistake! Wraeththu might have a much stronger constitution then humans and be immune to most toxins, but I forgot I was only a human pretending to be har.

The next couple of hours are a bit jagged in my memory. I think I spent most of the time in the tavern talking to two other Wraeththu, Storm and Wendy (another Wraeththu author). Around 2 a.m. I was so dead tiredI fell into my spinning bed. At 7:30 my alarm went off because I had forgotten to switch it off. I never told my room mates it was mine. At 9 a.m. I went to eat breakfast, showered and shaved and feeling a lot better. Then Elly helped me put my wig on and Marja did my makeup. Well, not much more to say. After a pretty much enjoyable morning I spent the afternoon trying to get my car free because four cars were parked in front of it. I finally got on the road at 9 p.m..

My conclusion: It was fun! I enjoyed getting to know the other Wraeththu players and Storm and Wendy, all very cool people. Marja and Elly are great. Very professional to work with and fun to talk to! I think LARP's aren't my kettle of fish, though. I might give one another try if I have time to stay the whole time and really go into it, but I enjoy spending time just hanging out. So I am looking forward to FeenCon in summer where Marja invited me to play a har again.