THE story so far: the orcs have stolen the Nightmare Stone from a

small group of mages carrying it to Drakame. Badly wounded, a mage

staggers into the village and calls for help . . .

Cue stirring music and bring on the ScotRail engineer, the satellite

dish shop manager, the computer software engineer, and 20 sundry other

fantasy role-players to save the day.

Deep in the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park in Aberfoyle, the battle raged

for three hours yesterday under a slate black sky as mean as an orc's

heart.

Watched by unsuspecting walkers out for what they thought was a quiet

Sunday ramble along the park's waterfall trail, goblins, orcs, uruks,

warlocks and hobgoblins fought over the destiny of the Nightmare Stone.

At the end of the day it was left to 29-year-old Alun Clarke, the Elf

Guildmaster, to mark the scores and seal the fate of the world.

Elf, or Eskyenor Live-Roleplaying Fellowship, was formed last year in

Aberfoyle. A member of the Spirit of Adventure Network, it is the only

live-role-playing group in central Scotland.

Yesterday's foray into the realms of the imagination was its second

stint in the park, the forces of good and evil having had a warm-up the

day before.

Mr Clarke, 29, who in real life works for ScotRail on signal design,

said: ''We hope to hold the role-playing games every three to six

weeks.''

But, let's be right up front with this, did not he and the other

participants, including the computer engineer, age 35, and shop manager,

age 20, not feel like great pillocks instead of orcs?

Mr Clarke said: ''No. You feel great playing out roles.''

Mr Kevin Rutter, 35, from Wolverhampton, a computer engineer turned

elf for the day, agreed. ''After 12 years playing roles I feel more

comfortable dressed as an elf than I do dressed in civvies.

''At the end of the day role-playing helps you get rid of your stress.

You also get physical exercise and can take out any pent-up anger by

beating the living daylights out of someone with a fake sword.''

To the winners of the day would go the phys reps. The what? ''Physical

representations,'' said Mr Clarke producing what looked like a few

coloured marbles.

Not much of a prize, you might think, for a hard day's night saving

the world. But elves were never ones for material rewards.