Organized by: Ben Lacasse
Single Short
1. Shader
2. Radstar
3. Pike
5'
1. Nos
2. Aiden
3. Pike
Sword and Board
1. Shader
2. Nos
3. Cronin
Mixed Florentine
1. Pike
2. Eldritch
3. Aiden
Tug of War
1. Cronin
2. Ruby
Best Overall Performance
1. Shader
Sportsmanship Award/Honor in Combat
1. Radstar
There were once ten Unchanging Places in Fae…
OOC:
It’s so refreshing to write a WIWTG for an event my character is just as excited to attend as I am! It’s not all doom and gloom and duty this time, folks. Fern might perhaps even be more excited than I am.
This event is drawing on Fae Plot (in capital letters) that started two decades ago now, as part homage, part callback. Expect to be playing your character, but kind of your character acting out other roles, as Fern tells us above. As much as I would have fun just wandering around and looking at flowers and sharing stories for six hours, I suspect we’re going to have a few challenges ahead of us. I really am quite excited though. Eric is an engaging storyteller who is (in my experience) happy to roll with improvisation. And I’ve heard through the grapevine that there might be other plots, stories, and marshals mixed in, to keep us on our toes.
If you’re on the fence about going, and you like roleplaying, I’d encourage you to go. And both Fern and I mean it when I say I would be happy to share what more I know, if there’s time!
~ Kelly
1 There are multiple variations recorded of the spelling of the Duke’s name. One alternate spelling I have seen is Holofernes.↩
2 For example, if the memory had failed while people were running away from something, they might find themselves a distance away from the flower. However, if the memory succeeded, they would ‘wake up’ in the same place they had ‘fallen asleep’.↩
3 This is the vertical line writing. If you know it, it would be good to brush up on, or bring a cipher book!↩
4 There are multiple variations recorded of the spelling of the Duke’s name. One alternate spelling I have seen is Holofernes.↩
5 I will note that in 1023, I personally made a terrible mistake by picking one of these flowers. The seeds should still be recoverable, but this is part of why I am so invested in helping the Library bloom.↩
6 These little flowers do not seem to have the same transportative or group capabilities as the mature ones. We were only frozen in place as we viewed the memories, not playing them out ourselves.↩
7 At B&W 1024, some of us used magic to speak to one who would be knowledgeable about the memory flowers. Someone answered, and we suspect it may have been the new, or perhaps cycled, Duke of Knowledge, though we cannot yet be sure. ↩
August seems like a long way off but planning for Queen of Hearts is well underway for our exceptional staff of marshals and contributors. This year Rhiassa has teemed up with the Kingdom of Chimeron, inviting them to put their own unique touches on this historic event series.
One of their suggestions was the importance of publishing all of the crafting and performance rubrics well ahead of the event so that entrants to those tournaments can have a greater understanding of how to best score points. So that's what you'll see below.
First, however, I'd like to announce this year's Ace's Categories.
Ace of Spades - Champion Ace
Ace of Hearts - Mage Ace
Ace of Diamonds - Bard Ace
Ace of Clubs - Ranger Ace
Some reminders of how we structure the Aces Tournament (from last year's Queen of Hearts website)
Aces is a 4-person "Champion" team. The four Aces are each trying to earn their own points while also helping one another earn points through various fights and competitions.
The Aces tournament is in three parts:
War Maneuver Showcases: Most Aces will be able to fight with their teams in most of the war maneuvers most of the time. In some cases, before the war maneuver takes place, all Aces will be called out to the center of the field and compete 4 on 4 (or less if some Aces are called away for something individual). These 4 on 4 fights are meant to be, in a sense, miniature versions of the war maneuver about to be fought. Although all available Aces will be fighting in these fights, there will be a random and rotating system that determines which Ace suit(s) the points will be applied towards.
Ace Individual Challenges: These competitions involve the two aces of the same suit competing against each other in combat and in other challenges that specifically relate to the theme of their Ace suit as listed above.
Ace Group Challenges: Some Ace competitions will involve multiple Aces from your team working together against the Aces from the other team in things such as multi-person combat or other challenges.
Now moving on to the non-com rubrics. The categories for this year were announced several weeks ago, but these rubrics will show you how those categories and overall these fit into the scoring that we will use. First, a review of the categories that we announced at the beginning of March:
Performance Competition:
A partner dance
Crafting Categories:
The theme for this year is “The four seasons”. Each of the four traditional seasons (summer, autumn, winter, spring) must be represented across the four of your team’s crafting entries. How you interpret these themes is up to the crafters on your team.
This custom Wordle-adjacent-puzzle features a 5-letter word that is particularly relevant to the Realms.
If the embedded page isn't working below you can click this link to get to the puzzle.
Like regular Wordle you can copy your result's (but only if you follow the link), so paste them or a screenshot onto social media to let us know how you did. But no spoilers!
by: Dustin Mack
Once again, many of us traveled to the lands of Neden. And once again, they served up a solid day of fun. They held a handful of the standard combat tournaments. I believe I saw single short, sword and shield, and sword and marn, at least. There was also the traditional Neden cornhole. This had a standard tournament and, if I'm not mistaken, an open challenge against Syruss with various partners. New this year was a tug of war. This ran as 1v1 and 3v3 (technically. The children were mysteriously very strong). Some of the past Neden originals weren't held this year, such as Judge Dresden and Tournaments of Sobriety.
We were told early on that there were some small dragons trying to invade the area. Prizes were handed out in return for catching them. I couldn't find any but the children seemed to do a good job at it. Maybe since the dragons were small they were easier for small kids to find. Regardless, Neden should be safe from a dragon invasion for a while.
At some point a demon showed up, and not one of the many that are usually found there. I believe their name was Kissum (pronounced kiss-OOM). They seem to have a business of sorts acquiring things. It sounded to me like a useful service. I have their business card with my gear, I can pass along how to contact Kissum if anyone is interested. I did confirm that this was not the same being that appeared in Blackwood recently.
There was also a mysterious being in black that showed up. I don't believe anyone interacted with them so I have no idea what they were doing. By the time I had considered talking to them it was too late and they were gone.
Oh, I can't forget to talk about the food. Burgers, hot dogs, various pasta salads, and a variety of chips. I liked the burgers, but apparently JB may have done something to the hot dogs. I'm not sure what happened, but it seems eating a hot dog caused Makhta to transform into some kind of bat creature. This was clearly not a happy thing. It did lead to an impromptu Judge Dresden in an attempt to figure out what happened. Unfortunately I did not get to hear the results.
That all brings us to the raffle. As usual, there were many items that have magic abilities within Neden. Honestly this is one of my favorite things about visiting there. I won a magic missile paddle and a magic microphone, among a few other things. Among the prizes were a very creative circle of healing, a glowing mushroom, some gnomes, a large bug, mystery pouches, and of course the coveted ribbon piece. For those that don't know, four of these ribbons can be used to turn a Neden in house magic item into an "actual" magic item.
Even with some traditional parts missing, this was still a good time. I know they had some hiccups throughout the day, but these guys do everything they can to ensure people enjoy themselves while visiting. This is an event I make sure to hit every year. Not just because its close and a single day, but because there's always something fun happening. If you haven't gone to one yet, you're missing out.
On an OOC note, I know Cal has shared this already but it's worth including here too. Our community once again did something great and raised over $1500 to help a kid with leukemia. It's always amazing to see what people in this game can pull off when there's a major cause.
By Crystal “Cressida” Welch
I am excited to venture into the lands of Eagle’s Rook for the new event, Tournament of Chocolate, this coming Saturday. First time Event Holding is special and I’m thrilled to witness and enjoy all that Kieran has envisioned alongside their talented team of collaborators. I personally love dark chocolate and would happily try my hand at some of the non-com tournaments in order to win some delicious chocolate to take home. I look forward to seeing the variety of different competitions they have dreamed up and spending the day among friends as we take to the field and enjoy the beautiful spring weather. It is also rumored the Avendroth Fae will be making an appearance at the tournaments! I hope you will join me this weekend and of course win plenty of chocolate!
