Report: EFF Arcen
The weekend of the 19th and 20th of September, DS once again, invaded the realm of Elfia to find a place among elves, trolls, orcs and the occasional Stormtrooper.
Of course, yours truly was there on the Saturday to defend the honour of the Sidhe against the many evil faces that were walking there. The day started early and with a very long road towards Arcen (near the Dutch/German border.) Once there, the elves and other fantastic creatures were all around us, but we did not fear their swords or bows, because the worst thing that could happen in Elfia is that you get hugged… a lot.
The castle grounds were quite remarkably huge, and it offered some time to take a breath before immersing yourself in true pagan culture. There were loads of things to see besides the beautiful gardens that seemed to be endless in number.
After some time we stumbled upon a cave filled with pirates, unfortunately the booty was beyond our grasp, so we went towards the other end of the castle grounds to go find some mead. On our way we suddenly stumbled upon Darth Vader, who apparently was more forgiving than you might remember from the movies he starred in. He actually urged us to take a seat in some spaceship, but luckily our cameras weren’t able to cope with such high tech scenery, so no photo’s of that.
A couple of moments after Darth Vader threw us in his ship, his entire 501st legion appeared, ready to bring terror to the peaceful residents of Elfia, so we quickly escaped to get a lesson of Japanese taiko drumming, which actually made more noise than you would expect.
Still looking for a flagon of mead, we then passed the manga square, which had been abandoned because there was another big manga/anime event nearby. We soon entered the lost woods, where there were some very green trolls waiting to teach us how to listen to the trees. Unfortunately, the trees weren’t very talkative, or it at least seemed that way to me. The trolls did manage to tell us that the evening would somehow be very explosive.
When we finally found a way out of the lost woods, we came upon a small village with a booming market place where they were selling lots of stuff. Of course, mead is never far away at a fine marketplace, so we drank some dragon’s blood to join in the celebration of Bilbo Baggins’ birthday. Apparently it was his 111th birthday so there was some reason to see some fire in the sky.
A bit further down the road, we came upon a field where two mighty legions were about to clash in an epic battle of good versus evil. Mighty wizards and fierce witches unleashed dozens of undead minions upon the unsuspecting warriors of the light. Even the mightiest of knights eventually fell for the combined strength of the undead horde. They had won the first out of two battles for the fate of Elfia, and would soon have to fight once more, so they retreated to the safety of their encampment not far from the border.
Then, at the end of the night, after many more flagons of Dragon’s blood, a giant female warrior came to entertain the crowd who had stayed after the defeat of their warriors. This warrior eventually exclaimed that the time of reckoning would come, and that the fine people of Elfia would worship her under the name of Tarja Turunen. She showed that she was capable of summoning hellish fire above her, and sing a siren’s song that would drive the army of evil to madness.
Though no other warriors of the Sidhe had risen to the stand to fight for glory, it was decided that this country was, indeed, worth fighting for. And so the might of the great Tyrael would shine the next day, when we were far gone.
The tale will continue…
… when the gates of Elfia are opened once more, in April next year, and elves can once again, roam freely amongst other creatures and defend their land from doom.