So I died, and it isn't that bad actually. I had a feeling it was coming, seeing as I have been dying every October for the past 10 years, but I always have a momentary thought of "what if it doesn't happen this year?" I guess I should explain.
It all started 10 years ago on a dark and stormy night. I was bored and told Abigail to get our traveling attire ready because I wanted to play in the rain. She advised against it saying something about trees and something about enchantments, but of course I ignored her and said we were going out anyway. I was surprised and impressed at the sheer volumes of rain coming out of the sky as we exited the warm confines of my office and walked into the garden towards my personal shuttle. I turned on the automaton pilot, told him to take me on an adventure and we were off. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that The Orgia was flying so close to the enchanted forest known as Witch's Woods, and I reprimanded Abigail for not telling me. The trees reached out and plucked my shuttle out of the air and placed us not so gently on the ground in the middle of a dirt field. I was outraged. How dare these enchanted trees attack me, didn't they know who I was. Opening the door of the shuttle I walked outside to yell at the trees when I was suddenly pushed aside by Abigail rushing past me. I tumbled around for a bit, fell down a small dirt hill, did a few summersaults which were quite fun, and ended right side up with my coat over my face. The sounds of fighting reached my ears and I knew Abigail was off having her own fun, so I proceeded to walk towards a glow I saw in the trees ahead of me. As I got closer I heard chanting that sent a chill through my spine, and I was tempted to go back to Abigail, but something kept me rooted to the spot I was standing.
"Baron Von Lahey," the voice echoed out the glow, "you have entered the sacred forest and now you are stuck for all time."
"I beg your pardon good creepy thing, but you are quite mistaken if you think I am going to be staying in this dank forest for all time. This is far below the comforts I am accustomed. Thank you for the offer though, but I must be leaving." I turned to walk away when a shiny pile of monies appeared.
"This, and more, will be yours. All you have to do is pledge you allegiance to me. I can offer you immortality, wealth, power beyond belief."
"Excuse me, but I pledge allegiance to no one, or no thing, what are you? How do you do that creepy voice thing, it's a very interesting effect. I might have to add that to my introduction. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a sound system set up in an entire floating city. If I could just look over your equipment and ..."
"SILENCE YOU INSIGNIFICANT FOOL! You will bow before me if it's..."
"Oh no! How dare you! Do you have any idea who I am. I AM BARON VON LAHEY. Heir to Von Lahey Fortune, and Proprietor of AirshipEntertainment, you should be bowing to me. Insignificant, my aunt fanny. You what, I will just buy this land, then rip down the trees and all your pretty little facades and then see where that leaves you. What do you think of that?"
"Can you do that?"
"Of course I can. I can do anything I want. I just need to find the lease owner and throw piles of money at him."
"Oh, I didn't know that. I'm sure we can work something out. How about I give you the monies I have, plus immortality, and add a new title to your acclaim."
"I'm listening."
"How about Lord of the Forest. You can reign supreme over all the creatures and enchantments this land holds. I will be able to advise and help you."
"Yes, that sounds wonderfully interesting, but who are you?"
"Oh, I'm Bob. the Dark Imperial Wizard, Lord Bob. I control these woods and work for a race of hell demons bent on destroying this dimension."
"Fascinating, and you'll show me how to that voice thing?"
"Yes, of course!"
"Excellent. Now what?"
"NOW YOU MUST DIE!"
There was a flash of blinding light, a brief but intense burning sensation, and the feeling of my flesh being taken. When the light dimmed and I could fully see again, I was dead. I had oozing bloody holes in my face, my brain had slipped out of my skull and dripped out of the hole in my cheek. I would have been disgusted except it was terribly interesting. I felt more powerful than I had ever before. The creatures in the woods began appearing and bowing down before their new master. Then Lord Bob came walking out the shadows. He was short man, wearing dark blue robes with constellations sewed into them. He had a medallion around his neck in the shape of snowflake, and was carrying a scroll.
"My Lord. I present to you the eternal scroll of The Keepers. This is your right now. Read from the scroll and The Keepers will be freed upon this world to wreak their havoc."
"Yes, yes, good, good, show me how to do that voice thing."
After many hours of practice I finally got it down, and I spent the rest of the evening walking through the woods getting to know all my new minions. I finally ended up back at my shuttle where Abigail was cleaning her weapons next to pile of beheaded zombies.
"Abigail, look, I'm dead!"
She rolled her eyes, said something about something, and I ignored her.
When we returned to The Orgia I put the scroll of The Keepers in my personal library. Ran around scaring my staff which was quite fun, and then went to bed. I awoke and everyone else was dead. Apparently, wherever the scroll is, all the living will become the undead. Losing interest in not being only dead one, I tried to have the scroll destroyed, but it didn't work. Now, every year during the month of October, the staff, passengers, and myself, all die. I have yet to return to the woods to see if I can make it go away, because it is quite fun, and I refuse to bring forth The Keepers because I like the dimension just the way it is.
So about two weeks ago we wrapped up another one of our favorite conventions Another Anime Con in Nashua NH. It was, like all cons, a lot of fun! We met the likes of BrentalFloss, hung out with our good friends the Nerdfit Network and totally last minute guerrillaed up a photo shoot! Not to mention that this was the convention debut of Abigail Mycroft, The Baron's assistant! Next yeart we plan to rebuild the roof we blew off this convention.... SO WE CAN BLOW IT OFF AGAIN!
After narrowly escaping a group of Hytalia Cosplayers and an enraged little person seeking hippopotamus, Lucretia was able to make her way to New York City to watch Ayleen the Peacemaker read from Scott Westerfield's Behemoth. Ayleen read wonderfully! It was a cute event. Very small and intimate but charming. The event was being put on as a part of Tor.com's Steampunk Fortnight. We also ran into our friend Leanna Renee Hieber! She of course read from a few wonderful selections of her Strangle Beautiful series which is currently hard to find... 
