Maelstrom Campaign - The Trading Houses: Bakhana

The Gnoll people are not noted for their skills as traders and negotiators so the presence of a trading house within their lands often comes as a surprise to many. However, the Bakhana tendency to become involved in most ongoing conflicts with little apparent concern for any appearance of neutrality may make this less surprising. The fact that many of their members are Gnolls and that they have a huge standing contract with the Supreme Chieftain of the Gnolls explains their unusual choice of location.

Bakhana maintains a vast standing force of mercenary soldiers which they make available to the highest bidder during conflicts. Although there are no substantiated accounts of Bakhana forces turning their coats during a battle it may well have happened at some time. There are even some suggestions that the house might be implicated in helping to start such conflicts, although they have always firmly rebutted such allegations. The house also provide military training and equipment for the standing armies of several nations.

And so it began......

Dawn breaks, war looms, the evil Lord is gathering his armies to wage a campaign of destruction upon the free peoples of the world. It is up to I, Sir Maximilan Pegasus to stop him, with my trusted band of adventurers we must gather the enchanted sword of Tek, the Shield of Way-Lem and the amulet of Subsidence and together we shall slay this abomination! “TIME FREEZE” And bam, the fantasy world fades away, the enchanted sword of Tek in my hand is a rubber sword smothered in coloured ribbons with a laminated card cable tied to the hilt, I look down and I’m wearing plastic armour and unflattering heropants, and the magical world of my imagination washes away to reveal a field in Wigan, but you know what? It’s larp and I’m a larper, it’s what I do.
I started larping when I was 17, I’d never role-played before, I’d never played D&D or Warhammer, never played WoW or any form of online game, I’d never even read Lord of the Rings, I feel somewhat privileged that I hadn’t done any of those things, I think it gave me an untainted attitude towards what larp could be, I had no preconceptions about saving the maiden fair, slaying the dragon or smiting the liche, to me it was just a new thing to try.
It was cold, really cold, 10am on a September morning, the rain was battering down and I’d been given a faux fur tunic, a mouldy old sword and been pointed towards a man and told, “You’re monstering, there’s the ref he’ll tell you what to do.” I obeyed, I played wave after wave of zombies, orcs and various line monsters and to be honest, was cold, bored and hungry. That is, until lunchtime, the teams switched sides, I got into the kit I’d scrounged up, as with most first timers, a black trenchcoat. I took the mouldy old sword, stood with my fellow adventurers and it hit me, I’m a god damn hero!
Pow, there it was, a new larper was born.