By: Kersten "Ypnn" Prince
(*) Pictures taken by the author
(**) Pictures taken by Sarah “Evie” Fournier
To whom it may concern,
Coming out of last weekend, some may say that they don’t know what was going on, but in writing this, I believe this is not because what was going on was hard to follow, but because there was simply so much going on. In turn, this is an effort to compile as much information as I could pull together from the happenings of this weekend as possible, and yet I am still quite sure something is bound to have been missed…
FRIDAY
FESTIVAL HAPPENINGS
As the earliest parts of the festival began, snacks and drinks were made available to us, as well as some light activities. I, for one, enjoyed engaging in the challenge of painting adorable bunnies, and was joined by Cressida, Omri, and Tarnisha in this task, while others enjoyed activities like talking to the bar keep Alder.
Picture of the 4 bunny paintings from Evie (**)
CREATURES OF THE LANDS
Those who were not taking part in the festival preparations instead engaged in earning the respect of the local fauna to gain their blessings for the festival. While I took little part in this myself, I recall seeing near the tavern some fighting with monkeys and a bunny running around (and possibly trying to teach a dance), heard word of something involving a bear and some wind elementals, and briefly joined those working with the spiders to appease their demands, one of such was sated by people removing various body parts to appease its hunger.
SATURDAY
MINES AND FESTIVAL PREP
Upon when I returned on Saturday, daytime activities were already underway. I immediately found myself joining along with a group looking to recover the art supplies that belonged to the festival runner, Luisa, which were needed for the festival’s banner from some rather defensive miners. These miners were refugees from Domai. Peaceful attempts were made and failed to retrieve these supplies, including Ryu attempting to bring the miners some food and getting slain for it, but ultimately it was the kids who came out the most successful! Among this brave group, I recall seeing Spider, Aria and “little Evie,” who worked together to successfully sneak in and dash out with the supplies!
Photo of Winter Domai refugees by me (*)
While some folks lingered here to try to learn blacksmithing magic from these miners (I recall Jean Baptiste looking to learn magic for a ritual, and Taya was trying to learn mystic forge), I returned to the tavern shortly after the kids’ recovery of the supplies, only to quickly get recruited into searching for salmonberries. We… Well, I’d like to say quickly, but actually rather slowly learned that finding these salmonberries were actually quite a challenge, and after we found the first two or three, I had to leave the remainder up to these resolute folks. Photo of kid with salmonberries by me (*)
I hear that after finding the rest, these adventurers then returned to the miners, then to be greeted by kobolds whose leader - claiming to be with some ocean-esque organization based around ensuring safety regulations were met - they would soon learn was being controlled by a mindflayer. Jasper, being among these later groups, came out of it with quite a protective hat… A topic that will be returned to later.
While I took part in some of the other activities available to help prepare the festival - namely painting the banner, enjoying sporadic entertainment such as some jester-styled displays by Pogo, browsing the lovely shops that Potato, Aiden, Shalindra, Kyomi, Karmha, Phee, and Nestra had put out, and the lock-picking challenge hosted by these shops, I hear that there is much I still missed among these festival activities. I hear that there was something regarding Baron Diamond getting keys from Ents at a lumber mill to open the mines in the first place, and some sort of pickle cart owned by a 
communist farmer co-op from New Verai that got raided by “militant vegans” - quite an action-packed and exciting day!
Photo of Pogo doing juggling by me (*)
Photo of people painting the Midnight Festival banner by me (*)
Photo of the Iron Lotus Lock Pick Challenge by me (*)
STORIES OF THE LANDS
Following my return from the salmonberries, I took some time to learn more about the stories of what was going on in these lands from Tempest, who had taken on much of the seer magic up to this point to keep the consequences off of others. I met Agnes and Agatha, two of six sisters who protect three trees in duos, who also contributed to teaching me. These two protected Mova, the tree of known past knowledge, which is alive and where we were actively visiting.
I learned of the lost tree known as Drin, the destroyed tree of past forgotten knowledge, which had been protected by Annis and a sister whose name had started with an M. A vision had taught adventurers that one of these sisters had perished, while the other was either rotting or rotten.
Finally, there was the tree known as Yigg, the tree of knowledge that has yet to be known, protected by two sisters whose names both begin with Z who have been hiding in lockdown for years to protect themselves and the tree. While the top of Yigg’s tree had been turned to ash, the root system remains alive, giving us hope that it can be saved - however, the tree is surrounded by dead bodies, the ground covered in an “oil-slicked inky substance” as Tempest put it, leading us to believe that it is certainly in danger.
DANGERS TO THESE LANDS
Tempest and the sisters also taught me of the dangers that threaten these lands - the Mindflayers and the Shades. It was explained that, while these two factions typically work together, they work with different motives - one desires the land, while the other desires knowledge, where we believe the former is the shades and the latter is the mindflayers.
From what I could gather, the Shades tend to do their work in stages. They begin with mimicry, taking possession of your shadow to take on your appearance, and as they try to integrate themselves, they work to sweep differences under the rug, and keep people from noticing differences in behavior. However, at this stage they do not know what you know, making it possible to catch them through asking questions that only you would know the answer to. As Shades further their work, you will be “juiced” for knowledge, as it was put: the Shades will learn all that you knew at the time you were juiced, from knowledge to backstory and even spells. Thus, they can take on your appearances and answer these questions… Yet this stage can be caught in the uncanny, jerky, and weird movements they may make.
By contrast, the Mindflayers do not care as much about your appearance, just your knowledge - Tempest said that they can at times act as cleanup for the Shades, but are also the ones who had blinded her in learning what knowledge she has in response to her continued use of seer magic against them. Mindflayers tend to be what come into play when mentions to tentacles get involved here, as well as the slugs that we would later learn got planted on people… But more on that later. However, I will mention here that it seems as though these slugs have a unique defense mechanism in their ability to make those around the infected person forget past negative memories of the infected, and as they try to integrate themselves, they work to sweep differences under the rug, and keep people from noticing differences in behavior, something that Omri told me they suspect is to keep others from becoming suspicious of the infected person.
THE ENTS’ MOOT
During this time, while I took little part in it myself, the debates of the Ents’ Moot were taking place!
These Ents seem to work slow and take their time with decisions, as they had apparently been discussing much of this since they awoke 6 years ago (longer than I’ve been adventuring!), and this weekend’s debates were after the initial formalities of the moot had passed… 2 months’ worth of greetings.
However, while not what I expected nor something I could aid in, the debates at least were decided far more decisively, as rather than it being a debate of words, it was a debate of fighting skill. Each side chose a position within the debate that they were in favor of, and then they fought, with the victor’s position in the debate being the final decision. The debates and decisions made were:
Debate #1: March on Drin VS Fortify Erowan - The decision was to March on Drin
Debate #2: Agatha’s expansion VS Grow taller - The decision was to move forward with Agatha’s expansion
Debate #3: Focus Efforts on revitalizing Edaone VS Divide efforts between Edaone or Gaia - The decision was to divide these efforts.
Debate #4: Welcome Domai refugees under denizen treatise VS Expel them from the grove - The decision was to welcome the refugees.
Photo of Agnes and Elder Ent by me (*)
And then, as the results were being announced, Agatha declared divine right in protest of a since changed decision in these debates, and a final debate nearly ensued:
Debate #5: End the Moot VS Continue the Moot
Photo of Agatha’s protest by me (*)
However, while both sides geared up for this final knockout fight, Orion and Omri instead opted for the more typical debate style - taking time to speak directly with Agatha, discuss the benefits and downsides of this fight, and also what this fight stood for within the scope of the grove. Thus, Agatha was moved to call out to her sister across the battlefield instead to make amends, and the two chose instead to stand alongside one another and work in agreement and collaboration over furthering the division among the grove… A truly touching moment to bring the Ents’ Moot to a close.
Photo of the Midnight Festival banner by Evie (**)
THE MIDNIGHT FESTIVAL
Following the evening’s dinner, we all finally could come together to rejoice as the Midnight Festival commenced!
Foods (including many tasty desserts - much thanks again to Evie for bringing the delicious brownies out to the campfire), drinks served diligently by Alder, and the many shops as well as new activities were made available to all who attended. Tickets gathered through the day could be used in a raffle, or to play some of the games hosted to win more tickets, such as a balloon dart board, bottle hoop toss, a duckie grab where the ducks had points, a memory match game, a cornhole bean bag toss, and knock 'em down animals with balls you throw.
After browsing what shop goodies I missed earlier in the day, I lucked in to catching TWO of Aiden’s incredibly skillful fire dancing displays, and was able to warm up by the campfire while enjoying watching the lessons in belly dancing being taught by Mel. While I can tell you many a word of what happened this weekend, with the decorations, the hard work put in by all those helping to run the festival and make it an enjoyable experience to all, and taking time to enjoy these impressive displays of skill and practice, there are no words that can convey what you truly missed in the atmosphere of this lovely Midnight Festival. 
Photo of the festival's bar by Evie (**)
Photo of the tickets for the evening by me (*)
Photo of Aiden doing fire dancing by me (*)
Photo of Mel and Evie belly dancing by me, edited by Evie (*)
SUNDAY
CHURCH OF UNITY
As we and friends we had met, such as the festival runner Luisa, returned on Sunday, it was announced that the Church of Unity’s local building was nearly complete, and all that was left was activating the shrines. The gods involved in this were Marduath, Edaone, Vasdre, Luna, Gaia, Vandor, Garm, and an initially undeclared god, and our aim in our actions on Sunday was to take actions in activating each of their shrines.
MARDUATH AND EDAONE
Given that Marduath is the local god of magic, Agatha had pulled essence from him for “currents” and creating the new Ents, so his demand of us was that we reclaim excess essence from the more volatile and unfriendly new Ents. As we did so, they settled down, becoming more friendly and greeting us happily - we learned that the names of these Ents are Fred, Dorna, Joseph, Zolla, Conay, and Novince (spelling per my understanding of how they pronounced their names).
Once they settled down, a ritual was cast to Edaone to aid them (Vesta/ “The Lady” may have been invoked as well, but I cannot recall exactly). The ritual was successful in aiding these new Ents in finding a new home within Blackwood to settle down, as they were all given a vision of where to go, and set off with a purpose afterward.
VASDRE
The local god of redemption, Vasdre, asked that someone be cleansed of corruption. With some deliberation (and decisive action on Orion and Laika’s part), it was determined that the hat Jasper acquired from the mines would be targeted, despite an identify from Kwido finding it to be fine. However, after a disenchant, a mind-controlling slug fell out from it and Orion suddenly regained all negative memories he previously had of Jasper!
While this satisfied what we needed for Vasdre, it began making me concerned - If Kwido identified it, and claimed it was fine, then was he being controlled as others? With how little clue we had of Jasper being controlled, could they still be affected, or anyone else? I would continue to ponder this as we worked on addressing the next two gods’ requests…
(I would later learn that this is because it identified as a “Mind Protecting Hat”, but rather than protecting the wearer, it was protecting the slug)
LUNA
Luna would then ask us to challenge the king of the beast - the leader of a wolf pack who would often use the Law of the Hunt to its own advantage. This leader demanded that 5 wolf pelts be brought to it, something that the other adventurers would take to addressing quite swiftly, handling Luna’s request without much concern.
GAIA
Gaia was in need of a new champion within these lands. The prior champion held trials that the others in the party attended to, and Duchess Gwendolyn Softshadow was chosen.
I saw very little of this, however, as I decided at the beginning of these trials that I was going to act on the concerns about if any of the party was being controlled. I started with getting the help of Ryu, as a long time friend of mine and someone who I could trust to defend me and trust with my magical vulnerabilities, and setting up my Circle of Protection as I typically do. While I only a Find the Path for my own seer magic, Myradim, a small blue dragon on a skull that I accidentally acquired from Garen, will answer a guidance’s yes or no question once you have guessed what the answer will be, and while the dragon gets frustrated if you are wrong. Myradim proved to be quite useful for running a series of questions to check a variety of people in the party under the assumption that they were not being controlled… Much to the anger of the shades.
After clearing Leo, Jasper, Orion, Toah, and Kwido, and the shades already showing their frustration as I could see my shadow lingering at the edge of the forest line. We looped Orion in on what was going on, the shades continuing to lash out as I pressed forward with the leaves around my circle stirring and the ground lashing out at Ryu and Orion, but I was able to continue to clear Ryu, Griffin, and Tarnisha before finally getting to Laika. Asking if he was being controlled by a Shade came up negative, but asking if he was being controlled by a mindflayer prompted the Shades to disrupt my circle and properly steal my shadow, the answer coming up as hazy as Myradim denied answering any further questions.
With still multiple gods’ requests to handle, we opted to wait to alert the rest of the party until it could be better addressed, though that turned out to not take much time at all.
VANDOR
Vandor declared that we needed to deal with the traitor in the party, and unsurprisingly, my actions causing me to lose my shadow and the inherent risk that angering the shades poses made me the first suspect. However, as it was stated that Vandor may care more about intent, suspicions went elsewhere.
Given that I was a suspect, I was sitting in my circle away from most of the discussion, but I did see Laika start swinging Sword of Light - I believe I heard later that he was swinging at Luisa - before getting killed and also put in a circle. As we would later find out, Luisa was apparently being controlled by a mindflayer and putting slugs on people, including Laika and Jasper.
Photo of the fighting by Evie (**)
And then the shadows showed up. Not just mine, but Laika’s as well, acting similar in manner to how troll twins do. In line with the whisperings when I was asking Myradim questions, it was emphasized by these shadows how I did not know what I was meddling with, how dangerous they are. Attempts were made to find the same magical vulnerabilities that I have on the shadow, but nothing was found, but with the swift action from my fellow adventurers, the shadows ultimately had little direct succession this method, leading mine to instead forcefully pull me away from the others to speak directly.
Photo of myself and my shadow by Evie (**)
It was made clear that the Shades will be hunting me, and that my shadow is a part of me, we cannot forever exist separated. That this was not goodbye, but a “see you again soon” as the shadow grabbed at my heart, and I felt part of my soul ripped away as it dispersed.
GARM
As we returned to the task at hand, Garm declared that there were too many gods weighed in favor of good within this pantheon, and that another god of neutral or evil alignment needed to be added. After some deliberation and a vote, it was decided that Chronos would fill that spot.
CHRONOS
Finally, we had to determine how to empower the shrine to Chronos. After a moment of brief ideas being mentioned, Laika declared (per what I can recall) that he was a follower of Chronos from another timeline, and to send him back to fix the timeline and empower the shrine. This happened successfully, and I hear that Laika was sent a few hundred years into the past as a result.
With these tasks successfully handled, we rejoiced in a job well done, and parted ways. I found the look of my shadow seeming to appear as I distanced myself from these lands… But it does not feel like my own, and appears strange and jagged looking. That, however, is a problem for another day.
Act with wisdom, but act,
Court Mage Ypnn of the Felwood
I would like to give a thank you to the combined efforts of Jasper, Omri, Tempest, Jean Baptiste, Silva, and more for helping me with gathering the information for this recount of Evie’s Tavern!
P.S. Shades… You cannot threaten a Flamekeeper out of shining light on your darkness.
