What You Missed, Feast of Highbridge

Written by Britny Fowler

Classes portion

An amazing event is what (you missed). For some reason I ignored realms time and actually showed up a little before the event to register for classes. Tam Lin had everything neatly arranged and organized with different “periods” throughout the day for those of us who forgot to pre-reg our classes to be able to make a cohesive schedule. We had paper printouts with a grid of the schedule to help us keep track and direct us where in the University our classes were.

Let me just speak about the site for a moment, if you’ve never been there it’s amazing. It’s a huge old stone building that the Shakers once lived in turned into a museum with hotel rooms. Two huge great halls, one that we used as the main room and one used first for dance classes and then as the dining hall for the feast.

Throughout the day there was a dayboard of fresh bread, honey butter, chips and a couple of types of cheese for everyone along with water, tea, and coffee. For those of us who had paid for the professor package there was also a never ending cheese cart with at least two dozen different cheeses throughout the day, crackers, various olives, pickles, tea time sandwiches, and granola. Let me tell you, if you are ever looking at this event and debating between the regular package and the professor package, always choose professor package if you can.

There were four different time slots for classes throughout the day, with classes ranging from Magic Missile Theory to Economics, the full list at the end of this article. In addition to these classes there was also a challenge set up by the Knights of the Realms. You had the option to sign up individually for a 20 minute time slot with the knights for this challenge, and again, if you are stuck debating, just do it. It is well worth it.

I myself had the opportunity to take, Auroran Sign Language with Sir Iawen Penn, Intermediate Dance with Dame Cimone, Introduction to Etiquette and Refinement, taught by Dame Freesia, and Questing Skills, taught by Kovaks. In between ASL and Dance I met with the KoR for my challenge and can tell you it was great, and it’s different for everyone.

In between classes I kept making raids on the cheese cart and wandered around the university. Some people came and went throughout the day that just happened to be passing through but couldn’t come to classes or the feast. After classes were done I had some free time to explore before the feast while the Magi Roundtable met in the main hall. That almost turned into a mess… something about King Cecil being late because he was off scalped somewhere? I was told not to worry; it was normal. Also of note that throughout the day a Time Snarl kept appearing throughout the university. Someone tried putting a CoP around it but that didn’t last long as someone got curious. I DO NOT want to know what weird time things were done and which angry Drow gods are involved this time.



Feast of Highbridge: Class list

KOR: Knights of the Realms Challenge
BARD 102: Musical Practices of the Ancient Bard - Swoop
CRAFTING 108: Teng Huanese Cord Wrapping - Sir Lysis
DEMONOLOGY 100: Basics of Demonology - Sir Rhaeden
ECONOMICS 104: Coinage and Its Usage - Sir Shean
ECONOMICS 203: Running a Successful Business In the Realms - Kyomi
ETIQUETTE 102: Etiquette and Refinement - Sir Freesia
ETIQUETTE 202: Feast Attending and Eating - Magus Faelinn
GAME THEORY 101: Statistical Analysis as Defined by Probability - Sir Tao
HERBOLOGY 167: An Introduction to Tea - Sonya
HERBOLOGY 267: Intermediate Topics in Tea - Eve
PHYSICAL EDUCATION 111: Self Defense - Sir Lysis
PHYSICAL EDUCATION 114: Introduction to Dance - Dame Cimone
PHYSICAL EDUCATION 384: Dance Independent Study - Dame Cimone
RECENT RUNES 103: Introduction to Beast Runes - Magus Rel
RECENT RUNES 105: Introduction to Fae Runes - Sir Rosetta
SORCERY 105: Introduction to Magic Missile - Magus Rel
WISDOM 105: Questing Skills - Beyond Spells and Swords - Sir Kovaks
WISDOM 223: Puzzle Solving - Magus Janus
WISDOM 251: Auroran Sign Language - Sir Iawen

What you missed Feast of Highbridge, the actual feast.

Finally it was time for the actual feast. We all go downstairs to see the huge U-shaped table set up with full silverware sets and goblets of water. As we all find our seats those of us who got the professor package were called up for rootbeer floats, which turned out to be BOTTOMLESS rootbeer floats. Then the servants brought out the salad course, instantly our minds went to Tam Lin’s announcement about how there would be little food because this was low tea, as we saw the plates with an artful arrangement with three baby spinach leaves, a single goat cheese stuffed raspberry, and a couple drops of chocolate sauce. Suddenly Tam Lin shouts for the cook, angrily berating her for this insult to the university and the servants come out with our actual “salad” bangers and mash. After this course was a hearty potato leek soup, followed by the serving of alcohol and chicken curry over rice. After that was a light palate cleanser of sorbet along with the reopening of the cheese cart for those of us with the professor package. Did I mention that you should REALLY get the professor package!? This time the cheese cart also had little mini cream puffs and was even more amazing!!!

After the sorbet was the main course of either beef or poultry, with puff pastry and a vegetable, followed by a huge trifecta of dessert in the form of a tart, a cake covered in gooey caramel, and a cupcake thing with toffee and banana in it that I don’t remember what it was called but it was amazing.

We all spent the evening, eating, drinking and being merry. Talk of the current war in Fairie and the invasion of the Realms by the Risen Kingdom was had, and also talk of classes from the day. I know at least one person who signed up for the university as a regular student. There was also discussion of elven heritage, along with the theory that elves are created at 200 years old and never have childhoods. Some talk of planer theory and inter-planer travel.

Of course while this was all going on there was a group gambling and playing other games of chance on one side of the room. Loud raucous tales were told, and a grand old time was had by all.

This year the Kitchen at Highbridge was run by Melissa/Aymise for the first time ever and she did a phenomenal job with her staff of roughly a dozen people cooking and serving over the course of the event. The food was impressive, the sheer quantity astounding, and also whatever you do, DO NOT take Sir Tao’s bet of trying to eat every bite of each course in front of you. If you need more reason behind this… ask Swoop.