Meet At The Dungeon was an online Larp produced by Omen Star, and it was the first time I’d ever attended an online event.
So, the premise: all the players are the creatures inhabiting a dungeon – goblins/fae, undead beings, golems, etc. – and the adventurers are only a few hours out. The aim of the game is preparing for their arrival – though each character has their own agenda too.
Characters were assigned based on players’ preferences. The Omen Star team released a form for everyone to fill out that had a brief summary of the twenty different characters, and you then had to say whether you wanted play them (on a scale of one to three hearts) or not at all.
I immediately latched onto Calvatia the Mushroom Tender. I wanted to do the mushroom aesthetic so much.
Once the form was filled out, it was just a matter of waiting for the announcement of character assignments, which was a few days later.
It was the Monday before the game that we received our assignments (the game was on Saturday), and I remember refreshing my email inbox over and over because I couldn’t stand the anticipation!
But. I got them. I got the Mushroom Tender! (I was literally jumping for joy with my partner, who wasn’t attending the game.)
I’d actually already bought some stuff in the hopes I would get Calvatia as a character – which I’m glad I did, otherwise I may not have received them in time for the game.
I could have easily played the game without buying anything extra, but I was very excited and had some money saved up from not being able to do any other larps, that I figured why not. The clothing for her costume was all spare stuff I had lying around – a too-big off-the-shoulder peasant shirt that I dirtied up a bit; some plain trousers I normally wore for Empire; a “belt” made from a spare bag strap; and a brown shawl I used for Sophia, tied at the shoulder and waist to make the outfit look more thrown together than put together.
I bought some battery operated candles for scene dressing; a green wig; some floristry mushroom decorations; a colour changing lightbulb; and a mushroom themed tapestry for a background.
Like I said, I didn’t need to buy the extra stuff, but I’m glad I did – I think it really added to the theme.
As it turned out, when I received Calvatia’s full character sheet – they weren’t just a caretaker of mushrooms and de-facto chef of the fae group… they were in league with the mushrooms, which were sentient and wanted everyone to turn into mushrooms and join them in their cycle of reincarnation. As such, Calvatia’s personal agenda was to gather the items for – and perform – the Rite of the Mycanoids. I was so excited to play this kind of character, it wasn’t really anything similar to what I’ve done before.
I experimented a couple of times with makeup, but came up with a very simple look with just the stuff I already had (green eyeshadow, green lips, and a toadstool patterned blush across the nose and cheeks), which I thought would have been effective on its own as well.
Game Day
Saturday arrived, and from 6pm (the game started at 7pm), I was getting everything ready. My tech was set up for the discord chat, I’d bought some mushroomy food to have for dinner during the game (including just a bowl of mushrooms), and I’d managed to tie the tapestry up behind me using some safety pins, cord, and the curtain rod.
There was a workshop from 7pm where the organisers took us through the basic workings of the game, and because of there being 20+ people in one discord voice chat, they smartly split us into two groups and continued the workshops separately. From there, we had a few minutes to split into our “cliques” (e.g. all the fae creatures in one voice chat, all the undead in another, etc.) and have a chat before the game started. There were five other fae creatures that run (Scrimshank, Solivagant, Trammel, Hex and Brodequin), and we agreed to all meet up in one of the voice chats at the beginning of the game.
We then had around 10 minutes to chill out or do any quick chores before the game started (I ran to my kitchen to microwave my mushroom rice).
The Game Itself
We started with our little fae meeting, where Trammel – one of the leaders – started assigning tasks for us to do. Now Trammel was rather suspicious of Calvatia, so he kind of glossed over them – other than to tell them off for eating during a meeting – so I decided to go harvest more mushrooms for everyone to eat.
While I was harvesting mushrooms in a different “area”, Scrimshank visited me and we had a cute talk about our friendship. Scrimshank also asked me if I knew anything that could help us in our preparations for the adventurers. I suggested utilising some poisonous mushrooms in her traps, and I pointed out which ones would be best. Our conversation ended with me telling Scrimshank that she was my best friend, and I would always keep her safe.
I spent the first hour of the game chatting and helping people prepare for the adventurers’ arrival. I wanted to lure everyone into a false sense of security before I started my plan.
The first item I needed was a cursed mushroom – which was easy. Hex had a way with curses (often without meaning to), so I knew I didn’t have to worry about that. I slipped the request into a casual conversation, following which Skean (an elemental being of lightning) asked Hex to curse their goggles, I stuck around so I wouldn’t look too suspicious, and the goggles temporarily blinded them. After Skean had sorted their eyes out, we got talking about maps, which Hex was planning to sell to the adventurers at the entrance of the cave system. It seemed odd at first, until he mentioned that he would be mislabelling things to lure them into traps. I suggested giving them directions to the poisonous mushroom area, and labelling it as “Healing Mushrooms” to trick them (Trammel was very pleased that I was making contributions).
I had a conversation with Solivagant, the other leader with the fae, about the mushroom “issue”. I asked if Sol could convince Trammel to not eat slime and make sure he eats my mushrooms, and Sol asked me to not be as pushy about them. I agreed, and I stuck to my word, as Sol was a friend.
Eventually, Trammel found me while I was trying to figure out what I needed next. Trammel said he was concerned about my change in appearance, as I was starting to grow mushrooms from my head. I told him that I had given them permission, and he seemed interested in their sentience. He asked me if they asked me to do anything, but I reassured him that I had the family’s best interests at heart…
The second item I needed was grave dust from a lich – luckily there was a lich around, and I asked if I could have their gravedust. When asked what it was for, I lied and said it was for fertiliser. The lich promised to get me some. I checked in with them later and Trammel happened to be there when they gave it to me. Trammel, suspicious, asked what it was for – but the lich covered for me! And said “what else would it be for? it’s fertiliser for the mushrooms!” which seemed to alleviate his concern somewhat.
The final item I needed was a megitech virus – I originally planned to try and trade it with Quaestor the shopkeep, but it turned out Hex had some spare and immediately gave them to me after Quaestor started asking questions. Hex had been strangely useful!
Once I had everything I needed, I started the Rite of the Mycanoids – which consisted of getting as many people as possible (ideally all of them) to say “Thank you” to the hexed mushroom. I managed to get quite a few of the non-fae to say thank you, as a few of them liked Calvatia; and I managed to get the Dragonkin and the Kobold to say thank you as they were all just very polite. The fae were a mixed bag, as a couple were suspicious, but mostly they did what I asked.
So it was time for the reveal, which was so much fun. I started laughing, and as they were starting to panic about the adventurers arriving soon, I told them that it didn’t matter any more… nothing mattered any more. At which point, I turned my colour changing bulb from the soft green colour I’d had it on all evening, to red. This was only a few minutes before the end of the game, and there was immediate panic, which I revelled in.
It was so much fun having everyone worried about turning into mushrooms, right at the end of the game.
Conclusion
Overall, I had a fun time. However, the main criticism I have about the use of Discord was that the amount of people in each chat room really affected how well the game ran, as it slowed down internet connections. It got to the point where it started crashing for me, as well as a friend of mine. Unfortunately, I’m not well versed enough with video call programmes to know if there’s a better alternative, but I feel that the amount of players using video should be taken into account for future games.
This game did scratch the Larp itch that I’ve been feeling for a while, but at the same time, it’s made it worse! I miss in-person Larp even more, and I can’t wait to get back out there safely.
Thankfully, I’ve had both of my vaccine doses, so hopefully that’ll be sooner rather than later.
In the meantime… Happy (Online) Larping!
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