By: Sean "Eamon" Finn
Many years ago, when I was still a fresh face in the Realms, I attended my first ever Ashenmark event with my friends. That event was Ashen Bounty II and it was full of good food, excellent memories, fighting baddies, guarding people, doing a massive puzzle made of concentric circles, and plenty of other surprises. We even got our first collective piece of armor at the end while waiting to be picked up, a shirt of “Chainmail” that was actually made mostly of can tabs that was tossed to us after Tucker came out of one of the buildings near the parking lot and yelled out, “Hey, do you guys want some armor?” I think we even still have that shirt floating around our loaner gear, in case anyone ever needs something.
Ever since then, I have always enjoyed going to Ashenmark events. While I haven’t been able to make all of them, I make it a point to do my best to make it to the ones I can.
Ashenmark always puts excellent effort into silly gags and serious plots, all at the same time, which makes it a joy to get involved with the stories they try to tell.
In addition, they will oftentimes roll with a lot of the ideas we players have when we approach encounters, sometimes turning what was likely supposed to be straightforward combat into an excellent moment of roleplay and negotiation.
The combination of these things leads to me having more engagement with the combat and plot than I often find at some other events that I don’t throw myself into nearly as much.
In addition to the questing environment that is supported at their events, Ashenmark is also known for providing excellent food at their events.
I bring this up because I noticed that, while this is not actually a feasting event, they have noted that there will be breakfast (I quite enjoy breakfast, if you haven’t seen my discussions about it in Realms community discussions), snacks throughout the day, and a dinner. This is something that I did not expect, but that I am overjoyed to see they are doing.
As for this specific event’s plot, I already feel invested in it after what we experienced this last fall at Ashen Bounty.
First, they wove the initial hook of their new plot into the tail end of their court. Then the next day we dealt with the immediate aftermath of the happenings at said court. There were a series of widespread issues including animals going berserk. We tracked down the cause of these strange happenings around town to the gift of a tree that had been given the night before. Once we found the tree, we fought off a series of enemies until we were eventually able to uproot the tree. Unfortunately this caused Magic to be suppressed across the event site.
I greatly look forward to exploring the nuances and story beats of Ashenmark's new plot unfolding this weekend on the island of Elemirre, as we hunt down the cause of the troubles that their capital of Goldenhall experienced last year. I am sure that it will be just as fun as their past events, if not more so!
