Battle Cry

Unto the Realms, 

Years ago, the Knights of the Eternal Flames wrote articles for the View from Valehaven called “Unsung Heroes”. In these articles, an individual Knight would choose to recognize someone within our community that inspired them or somehow stood out for something they may have done or continue to do. We as Knights have decided that we are once again going to return to the tradition of writing these articles. The first article in this series will be written by Sir Tao, James Murphy. 

- Matt Butler 

Sir Mathies Knight Commander, Knights of Eternal Flame

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Sawyer "Jericho" Judkins

A while back I saw a group of new people sitting at a feast. I sat down, talked to them for a while, learned they were from Vermont. I had to ask how they ended up here and it was because of one person. He had attended some practices in MA, but when he went to Vermont for college he started a group.

At the last Green and Gold, a group drove down from Vermont that filled out the green side nicely. I was definitely on the gold side while my daughter was on the Green side so I was keeping a close eye on what they were doing. But this story has more to do with early Sunday morning. We were there early, because well, gold side don’t sleep late, and ran into this group from Vermont, doing a bear pit. It was pretty obvious who the leader was, and who the best fighter was. What I really noticed was that he was talking to everyone after he beat them.

So I went into recruiting mode, talking to him and his group about joining Blackwood. But he made one of his few bad decisions and went another direction (which I totally do not think was a bad decision).

And he kept showing up, bringing a few different people, some of the same people.

But the thing that I heard about, and directly benefited from, was: he went to gaming convention, had a booth/table, and literally handed out “Realms business cards.” At the Feast of Blackwood event two of these people showed up. They never would have if not for Sawyer.

Now Sawyer also got married last year, and still made events.

We have often seen the “newbie curve” - the newbie makes a few events a year; then a lot of events; to one or two events, and done. Sawyer is well past that.

 
When I gave Sawyer a fireball, it was for recognition of what he has accomplished so far and that I like how he plays the game.

Sir Tao Ya Kang
Knight of the Eternal Flame