reynardo | Disappointed, depressed noises

By dint of conniving, organising, swapping shifts, getting in early with other shifts, cashing in a couple of favours and stuff, we organised the big D&D end-of-year Senwith Smausvellor smackdown for the 11th December.

lordstorm has been plotting in the background with his character

tsung and has been hanging out to come play face to face with the rest of the characters again (he played Tobias the Bard in this episode of

shinyshinyelves). We rearranged the game to fit in with Neil's player (who has a 21st to go to that night) so that the daytime of the 11th, from 11am to 4pm, is set aside for the penultimate game of the year.

It's no great surprise that one of the strongest characters is

calair, played by my beloved husband

lederhosen (Geoffrey). Calair has made no secret of her hatred of the undead, of Drow, and of anyone who threatens her position as defacto leader of the party. Did I forget to mention that Tsung is an undead drow monk who cannot speak? I have been looking forward to their meeting for so very very long.

And now...

Geoffrey got an email from his mother yesterday asking about the wedding of an old school friend of his. Apparently the friend sent a paper invitation to Geoffrey's work, but it never made it there. The wedding is in the afternoon and evening of this same 11th December, in Canberra (about 300 km from Sydney).

If we'd known about it 8 weeks ago I would have made the last game on the 18th. It would have worked about as well for

lordstorm, it would have allowed Neil's player to be there for the whole day, and we could have had a 10 hour marathon. We would have gone to the wedding together and enjoyed it. Plane tickets could have been bought accordingly, conniving postponed, things done.

Now, alas, it's too late to change things at this end, so Geoffrey and I have decided that he will fly to Canberra that morning and go to the wedding, while I stay at home and run the game. He'll be back the next day, and we will arrange for Calair and Tsung to meet at some point, but it just won't be the same.

It wouldn't be fair on Geoffrey not to go to the wedding of his good friend. It wouldn't be fair on Lordstorm to have him come all this way and then abandon him and not have the game. It wouldn't be fair on all the other players who have been working up to this point for so long.

Someone mentioned that "It's only a game." Not quite. It's more like an amateur theatrical production, with contributions by all the members. And I dare any one of you to walk into a passionate bunch of amateur theatre members and attempt to stop their play.

Of course there are advantages. This will be the only game Geoffrey has missed, so it will be the first chance for the players to cope without Calair's skills and munchkinly abilities. We will of course be using Calair's parents as a major excuse for her absence, and I will ask all the players to write their own summaries, to be posted en masse on

shinyshinyelves shortly afterwards. The Epic 20 level Munchkin game can still take place afterwards. We'll already be missing Lars (played by Willem who has to return to the Netherlands as his visa has expired).

But part of me is pretty miserable about this right now.