What You Missed - Makhta's Lucid Nightmare ...and the Dream Shards Pt. 3

By: Robert "Gael" Ferullo

Alright folks, strap in because you all know that, just when we Realmsies think we are prepared for what’s coming, we are as wrong as someone saying that fresh bread with honey butter doesn’t absolutely slap. The quest to rescue Makhta from vampirism was a tale of perseverance, sorrowful woe, and a bittersweet yet triumphant victory over evil. 

 Interestingly enough, such a tale may prove essential if we are ever to once again encounter the strange creatures that appeared on Friday night. Some demanded stories. Upon traversing into the Dream plane, our concerningly pessimistic Eeyore-like friends seemed endlessly intrigued by tragedy, not allowing us to proceed until they had been thoroughly entertained by stories. Further along the path, beyond a noble warrior with a lust for honorable combat, we encountered quite the opposite. Passing through the next boundary of this mysterious plane, I was suddenly overcome with great joy. This capricious realm perplexed me, though in this current state, I bore no concern as to what may have caused my abrupt change in mood, nor that of my fellow adventurers. 

 As the moon ascended higher into the night sky, we were tasked with navigating more than just hostile life; stepping stones provided the safest passage available across an unknown corrosive agent, where we solved a riddle to unlock a door on the other side. We were one step closer to finding Gregor and freeing our dear friend.

 The next day, our formidable adversaries showed even greater, unyielding persistence. Many of us were blinded, split up, and left to forage for our own equipment. But this team is no stranger to new challenges. As our good friend Jasper put it, “It’s about friendship. It’s about community. It’s about teamwork,” and that is exactly how we successfully regrouped and navigated a dangerous maze, finally slaying a dragon on the other side. I personally felt a little conflicted about this, roughly 50%, but the dragon was also kinda mean, so it’s okay.

 That same day, a few thousand years ago, and also a thousand or so years in the future, give or take because time travel shenanigans, we returned to the tavern to find Lord Zargothrax, a legendary rock and roll dare I say god fella with a bass and the power to destroy. After chatting with him for a bit, it seemed like he really wasn’t a bad dude, just misunderstood. He agreed to hold off on the whole blowing us up thing, if we could only find someone to carry the flame, proving that he had not created the sound to end all sounds. If you had asked me in the year 1021, “Where do you see yourself in five years,” on no planet would I have come up with “Improvising heavy metal with a Nightmare, and also a couple good friends,” but here we are. I would do it again. Maybe one day I’ll get to go see Lord Zargothrax in concert. Is he local? I forgot to ask him. He left so suddenly.

 The sensation of “Okay this is happening” did not fade so soon, when my attention to puzzles (which I was nowhere close to solving) was taken by a Death Knight who insisted on unarmed combat. Glancing down at my magic alligator, I realized that this proposition sounded a little too familiar. If I had a tick for every time I’ve had to wrassle Kai someone at an event, I’d 

Gael vanishes

Just kidding, I’m still alive, but it’s entertaining to me that it happened three times. “Oh, so you like to pull guard?” he said before teleporting behind me to end the first match. Between all of us, we eventually satisfied the Death Knight enough to receive a dream shard.

 I may have gotten the order of these events wrong, but when time travel is a thing, does anything really happen in order? Anyway, it gets weirder. I was roughly an hour late coming back from dinner break, so you can imagine my surprise when the first thing I saw was a corvid-shaped friend looming over a dead Omri. With only a dagger and my child-like naivety, I thought it best to approach and inquire of the crow, “What happened here? I leave you all alone for one hour and–” The crow could not give me the information I seeked, but normal healing seemed to work. This left me wondering why the crow was there with Omri, who killed Omri, and why no one had tried healing earlier. Of course I asked none of these questions because:

I forgot to

My curiosity was now replaced with concern that Ryu was evil and Companion was in the process of building a vampire dialysis machine.

I believe it was N that I asked, “I know this is not a great time, but…” *intense hand gestures* “What, pray tell, is going on?” I was promptly slain by evil Ryu after honestly answering that I am Auroran, where she and another enemy pondered the different evil things to do if/when I was raised. (Yeah that’s right, I have Death Watch. I SEE EVERYTHING!) Fortunately, we didn’t get that far, as the mighty Alias prevented me from being rendered.

 Oh by the way, the vampire dialysis was a success. Powered by a familiar, Companion performed a ritual to bring the machine to life. At last, Makhta had been cured, and could finally feel at peace. (OOC: Very convincing rp/acting by lots of folks during this part. I felt real-life emotions, and it was incredible!) 

 The final showdown with Gregor was a success, and the Realms could rest knowing that a mighty evil was no longer a threat. It was a relief that on Sunday, the largest of our worries was a pack of rats in the sewers leading to Ashenmark. One of them was even pretty friendly! You cheddar believe it, between all the muensters we battled that weekend, it was more than a gouda event. 

What you Missed - A Weekend in Creathorne

by: Marc "Varyk" Tetreault

I been to Creathorne lands many time. Each time, merriment, good company, competition, story and adventure had by all. It been long time since I step foot in Creathorne. After hiatus, returning to Blackwood before Blackwood Tournament, I was excite to hear about travel here again to assist in goblin problem, show prowess in tournament and great time for company. Several tournament throughout day with a smaller group of competitors but great fierce, fun competition. All brought everything they got, honor to name and show inner fire, even in Long Noodle weapon and Door Shield & Dagger. This bring much laugh that was hard to shake. Non-combat tournament held as well and were just as entertain and fun, from throwing disc far to mold clay into sculpture or model. After tournament, minor break before dinner cookout style.

It was so good to see so many face that I not see in long time, but also new one too. After dinner and dark sky arrive, bardic was shared. After this merriment we went out on quest to help with goblin problem on lands. Found out before leave from Char's vision that we need to break into stronghold where goblin stay, with a cannon we build. We fight along path, gathering material, killing goblins, from the stands, the barrel, and even wheel. After charge with big magic and calling to spirits and gods in big voice, cannon blow down wall. Big creature in stronghold beside goblin only affect by silver and axe/mace. We have no silver on quest and only once dagger mace held by Alister. Creature berate and bully us, killing several time. Alister learning of knowledge to beast, slay with dagger mace valiantly, barely with life as small human on quest go with a few mentor to silver blades with collected silver off dead goblin to forge blade. They come back and slay beast and goblin be no more. We head back to Creathorne village where fire was held, celebration had and merriment shared. Even older stories of older times as many greener leaves listen on. Many new friend made. Much comradery. Much excite.

Next day, left over goblin horde scattered through roads, paths and trails in woods. A magical effect hit lands though that each specie get three life essence. Life essence could be searched off other dead specie, encourage to goblin, but also those of us who travel to land. Most band together and kill many goblin. Some strong goblin there be able swing boulder, some very gift with magic and wyrd throwing piercing blade, lightning and missile of magic, and fought with tactic and formation which surprise and impress. Goblin finally leave and found that Rax assisting Zevi have most essence so won overall competition while still fight off straggling goblin. Magic artifact released and Creathorne appreciate our help, inviting us to come back again in future, hopeful without goblin problem.

Always good time in Creathorne. I fight with friend and other nation members who brought out fight in me, ignite soul. I hope future ability travel here an option. 

As always, may the gods guide you, our ancestors bless you,

Rise and Smite! 

-ᚢᚨᚱᛉᚲ ᚾᛟᚱᛞᛋᚲᛟᚢ 'Varyk Nordskov'

What You Missed - Makhta's Lucid Nightmare ...and the Dream Shards Pt. 2

 Hello friends, foes, and otherwise,

For weeks, months even, adventurers had been coming up to me asking if I was prepared. “This is the quest where Makhta will be cured”, “this is the quest where Makhta dies for all time”, “Jasper please gods whatever you do, do NOT talk to Robin”, the list goes on. From the moment I saw the listings in taverns requesting help in a mission into the Dreaming, a mission to save Makhta from the clutches of a Nightmare, I knew I would be there and I knew it would be done. However, with all the time in the world to prepare, with all of my dearest allies by my side, there was nothing that I could have done to prepare me for the quest into the Dreaming that was ahead.

The sun begins to set on Friday night, and the reality sets in that this is the time where decisive action must be taken. We begin with a ritual led by Raindrop and Omri (I think, Omri might’ve been Robin at this point, or maybe was always Robin, or maybe never, it gets a bit dicey). This ritual involves us all being pulled into a ritual circle, connecting ourselves and being ultimately pulled into the Dreaming. Our objective was to make it to the Dream Forge to get the forge and also to help the former Dream Smith who had been shattered. 

We first end up in sewer tunnels swarming with rats. I was guarding the front of the line, which eventually became the back of the line when it came time to get out of the pool sewer, so I do not entirely know how we got out. What I do know is that there was some sort of acidic gas, causing all of our armor to be constantly broken. This paired with the poison and diseased rats swinging at us, made for a challenging fight. There was also a king rat, or some other corrupt entity, swinging with withering shots which would make it so that whatever was hit could never be healed again, scary stuff.

The rest of the night was spent travelling Dream by Dream, trying to navigate to the Dream Forge. We spent time challenging Death Knights, chasing bunnies, being tempted down a long dark path (my favorite), crossing acid lakes while moving stones, and more. We were also joined by what I have to assume was Robin, or a part of Robin, or something along those lines. For those of you who do not know, Robin is a trickster fae and depending on who you ask is either our knight in shining armor or someone who needs to be put down (I do not recommend asking for general opinions on him in front of two people who hold opposite opinions, that was my bad). So this person who had joined us went by no name until given them (did not have to be your own) and was seemingly dealing out words and concepts as needed. You offer them a concept and they would write it down, they owe you something, they’ll give you a concept. It was very strange, and it was only after they said to me “Ah yes, so you will give me drowning” and wrote that down did I realize that antics they were up to.

Another crucial part of the night was a fight with Gregor the Red. Gregor was the Nightmare who controlled Makhta, a reality bending vampire responsible for the quest we were currently on. He appeared to us in the Dreaming and began to kill, dissent, and otherwise maim our party. Even as we would kill all of his minions, he would summon them back up. Even as we would have to put our friends down, he would raise them once again. It wasn’t until we were all dead that we got the sense some of us had been made into Dream thralls. This will have to be a problem for later.

With all of that, we made it to the Dream Forge and were able to help the Dream Smith. As a reward, we were offered to take the Dream Forge with us on our journey, a tool we would later rely on to finish the final fight.

However, to get to the final fight, there were still many steps that needed to be taken. Saturday starts with us ambiguously between the Realms and the Dreaming. However, this time when we enter the Dreaming, we are met with the fact that anything stealable we had has been taken from us and scattered around. We were firmly in the Plane of Lost things.

The party was split up, locked between doors that required sacrifice to get through them. Specifically it had to be the sacrifice of magic items, or money if none were available. We slowly make our way through, fighting Dream creatures, recollecting our things, sacrificing these innocent squid creatures we found (don’t worry, I saved them best I could). Now, the Plane of Lost things does not only have our recently lost things, it has everything that has ever been lost and not found. This definitely perplexes me as we wandered around and who do I see but Jemorse “Jem” Havarti Sherwood, my infant son who I saved from Hell in January and promptly adopted. My poor child, who I left to be babysat at home as the Dreaming is no place for an infant, somehow ended up in the Dreaming. I, of course, rush over to see my son, hanging all of my weapons away to be more endearing, to which I am immediately attacked by Dream creatures. Eventually I am able to make my way to Jem, who is speaking more words and sentences than I have ever heard. This may have all been a dream hallucination, but it was definitely unsettling. Thankfully, Laika was able to use some divine magics to send my baby back home to where he belonged. However, before he left he found a paper with some words on it, seemingly related to fixing a vampire. I pocket them for later.

We are able to make it out of the Plane of Lost Things, as we built a path out over the void, and on our way out we recover a Dream Shard from a Nightmare (or maybe Dream Demon, though I thought those were all dead and I am not sure where the line is drawn). I later learn that these Dream Shards are what we need to collect to forge a weapon that will be used to slay Gregor the Red, so it is important we get as many as we can.

Our next stop was to pick up a clock. But not just any clock, a clock set to 2:53. Seems oddly specific, sure. However, it was extremely important as my good friend N had a bomb in his bag set to go off at 3:00, and ensuring the clock never passed 2:53 was very important to keep us all alive and unexploded, so back into the Dreaming we went. We were guided to what we were assured was the right location, and began fighting a litany of creatures. Some spore like, some undead, some plants reacting to sound. We were also finding copious amounts of clocks, however none were the right one. After we recovered all of the clocks, and solved the puzzle to leave, we realized we were in the right place, just not the right time. Our guide had missed the mark by a few thousand years, so we had to go back in. This time, the enemies had evolved. Constructs taking over our friends, turrets shooting fireballs at us from what I can only describe as extremely advanced bows, and metal as far as the eye could see. It was not easy, but after fighting wave after wave of creatures, and doing what I assume was a puzzle while getting nearly engulfed in flames, we were able to get the proper clock and prevent N from exploding.

With a wild, but pleasant, change of pace, we were invited to a party by someone named Joy. This party, believe it or not, was a joy! There were delicious snacks, drinks, and ice cream with whatever toppings you could want. However, there is no joyous party without ulterior motives in the Realms, and we realized that Joy had a Dream Shard around her neck. So as good guests, we first enjoyed the festivities, doing what we could to recover ourselves to prepare for the work ahead. Liselle had a great idea, that since Joy was offering us anything we wanted to be happy, that if we all pretended to be distraught over not having the Shard, maybe she would offer it to us. We did our best to put on a sad face, however Joy seems to simply join us in our sorrow. We then attempted to switch gears, providing so much joy. Food was eaten, happy stories were shared, all of the good things and we were given the Dream Shard! However, like I said, no party without ulterior motives. An entity that I believe was unrelated to the party entered the room and killed all of us by their voice. It was very lame and unfortunate of them to ruin the party like that but the show must go on. 

Once back into the Dreaming, there were more Death Knights to challenge. I don’t know if Garm was bored, or his Death Knights just looking for something to do, but I was getting a kick out of beating them honorably. While the night before I had taken a combat approach, today I was feeling more analytical and challenged a knight to a game of chess. While it was hard fought as I relearned any sort of strategy move by move, I was able to take the checkmate and recover a Dream Shard shard (yep, we are getting granular). While we needed four Dream Shards to make the weapon, we now needed four Dream Shard shards to make a Dream Shard to get the fourth of the Dream Shards we needed to forge the weapon (say that 10 times fast). My allies were able to get the other Dream Shard shards from the other Death Knights. In this time, I was fighting some random zombies and undead who were causing problems. One of which, coughed up a Rowan, which I was confused at why one would eat a Rowan to begin with. In the spirit of science, I immediately threw it into my mouth and contracted a disease. Coincidentally, while I was seeing if Rowans were secretly flavored, I was stabbed numerous times and died.

I am told someone gave me a Seed of Life to cure my disease and let me regenerate. However, in my sickened stupor, I had a vision. I was visited by a spirit, but not just by any spirit, by Makhta’s spirit. The same golden spirit which saved my life when I was helping to slay Anti-Time in Sanctuary. Of course, I was trusting as this version of Makhta visited me, asking what steps we were planning to take to rid her of her vampirism. I told her, let her know our current plans, but nothing concrete had been formed. She then provided me with the steps I would need to cleanse her of her vampirism, a ritual for which we were collecting the parts the entire night.

At this point, most of the adventuring party had left to go help.. Slay? Save? Befriend? a dragon. I don’t entirely know what they were off to do, but I stayed back to discuss with Margaret and Lako. We realized that we nearly had all of the components needed for the ritual. Just before the party, there was someone in the tavern playing “metal” music with this strange guitar connected to a loud box. I had no idea what it had to do with metal, but it was very good music. Some people joined in the festivities and played music with him, which resulted in him giving us a time splinter, a wooden stake. This ended up being a crucial part of the ritual. Additionally, we needed the words that Jemorse found in the Plane of Lost Things earlier in the day. Lastly, we needed magical chains bound to the Endless.

A part of this story I frankly left out, was at some point, I fell asleep. I am one that is usually of sound mind and body, and usually quite sure of the actions I take. However, this time, I fell into a deep Nightmare. I woke in a dingy room, walls covered in chains, surrounded by the corpses of my friends. The jailors, who I later learned were Kord and Cordelia, two Nightmares still at large, were berating me, blaming me for the carnage in front of me. Eventually, a gross amalgamation of my familiar Ferg also appeared, scorning me for my actions. It was a lot, all of it, and all of it all at once. I only retell this Nightmare to note the chains, the chains covering the walls. Since I had been to the room, I was unable to go again. Aiden Penclaw was there, and while I will let him tell the story of what happened in the room, he was brave enough to go into the room and recover the chains.

With this, we had all of the things we needed to complete the ritual. Once we returned from our final meal before action, Makhta had joined us. She was within her own control, however we knew that we had to do the ritual soon so we could begin the process of fixing her and killing Gregor.

We lay Makhta down on the ritual table, we bind her with the chains, offer her blood, speak the ritual words, stake her with the wooden splinter, and it seems to be done. But of course, the job is not yet done. Gregor the Red appears, immediately rending all in the sound of his voice. I am not sure what happens next as my hand holds the stake into Makhta’s heart, and my body falls to the floor. But soon I awakened, flashed back moments before the ritual ended, my arm already swinging down to plunge the stake into Makhta for the second time. This time, Gregor appears but does not rend us all, we have a chance to fight.

Fight is exactly what we do. We fight his minions, Evil Ryu shows up, possessed to follow Gregor, and attempts to slay Griffin. Eventually we learn that there are more steps we must take. Before killing Gregor we must restore Makhta, and before restoring Makhta we must collect the relics of her spirit. We are given a list of tasks, each relating to its own relic. Dionin appears, if not just in a dream, and I work to broker deals between churches to get the staff from him we need to get Makhta’s pike. Others start to tackle other aspects of the list, getting the relics that come with them. I stand in the tavern, and with all of the attention I can garner retell the story of my first time meeting Makhta, and the time that she saved my life as I fought to protect those around me, earning the relic of her mug.

With all of the relics collected, a ritual is done to return Makhta to her past state, before she was inflicted with the reality magic turning her into a vampire. But there was still work to be done, Gregor had to be dealt with. I was quickly pulled into another ritual, one to forge the sword we needed to kill Gregor, while others set up the ritual to summon him. Everything after this happened so fast, Gregor appeared, Alias fought him until he fell, Ryu (now probably not evil) showed up and ripped out Gregor’s heart, and it was over. All of the fear, the anxiety, the worry for a friend that needed our help, was gone. The day had been won.

I later learned that the ritual delivered to me was a trick, that someone had taken the appearance of Valkyrie Makhta to deliver these lies to me. But I don’t look at it that way. Sometimes the correct path is difficult to walk, sometimes it is plastered with hardships, but you walk it anyway. I’d like to think that this was just another necessary step to get to the reality where Makhta was saved. I’ll let you make your own decision on that.

Until the sun touches the sea,

Jasper Sherwood

p.s. As a final aside, while Gregor’s heart, a Heart of Nightmare, was ripped out of his chest, it was not destroyed. It exists in this Realm, and currently inflicts whoever has it with the compulsion to hold onto it, making them unable to give it away. Be careful with this artifact. I seek to have it destroyed, but only time will tell how this cursed object will corrupt us.

What You Missed - Makhta's Lucid Nightmare ...and the Dream Shards Pt. 1

 VICTORY! THE HEROES OF THE REALMS SAVED MAKHTA!..... and I totally didn't have surprise children and I am NOT a deadbeat dad.......  Ok ok, I'll talk about what happened.  So night one is a little hazy. You see, we made a point to explain to everyone who showed up to venture out to find the dream forge. Unfortunately I was almost immediately left for dead as my friends ventured forth. It was at this point I remembered why I love the spell Death Watch, thinking how they were going to move the dream forge or do much of anything without the one person that could pick it up as per Morpheus. This amused me.

 **This is where we shift into a semi IC role as staff was kind enough to turn Aiden into a thrall that wouldn't retain any of his memory once fixed and return him to the class at some point down the path as we giggled as the players just kept on going joyously.**  So as my friends found me I wanted to show them the path ahead was clear and somehow I got so far ahead of them they were really slacking. To which about half of them wandered down to where I said I came from, and died. I really don't know how to explain it. People were saying there was a vampire or something and they just couldn't affect it but they had to have been pulling my leg. We found the dream forge and returned to life this smith.  Adventure over night one. 

Day two was a bit of an odd time. I awoke early as I was making stuff at a table. There were a bunch of little squid creatures- some smiling and I did not ask questions. As people woke and joined me I simply repeated- "Welcome to the dreaming we must have screwed up ‘cause things are weird around here..." This answer seemed to more than satisfy most everyone to the delight of everyone. Many took one as a new friend, for science.  So almost immediately I heard my name being called…. A very familiar scolding from my former wife Belle of Blackwood. But it wasn't quite her. It was a full sized raccoon carrying two children. It's important to note Belle was a fae when there was a marriage she had become a raccoon after the divorce and that's a whole other matter.  “TAKE YOUR KIDS YOU BASTARD! YOU RAN OFF AND I NEED A BREAK!” she yelled, shoving two raccoon children into my arms and stormed off. Well damn this is not ok. It was at this moment I realized the year before the fae took notice and I was experiencing my own personal nightmare and everyone was going to learn some things about me today. 

Venturing out, everyone seemed to have woken in a maze. Everything on me that was stealable including both my dream trash pandas (lets see how many funny names I can make up about them). This was bad because I figured I should keep an eye on them. Also being unarmed was not my idea of a chill day and the fae were having a grand old time with me. Apparently this was par for the course for everyone. As we linked up with each other there were some people with all the weapons, some people were running from beings because they were unarmed. It was pretty much bedlam. Vuel and I attempted to work together but I kept seeing bubbles and couldn't focus. Aelias and Liselle were with us and somehow she had been turned into a necromancer. Aelias was really not ok with it and at this point I was doing my best to help but not totally against this cool different version of my friend. Belle also kept popping up to crack comments and be a general distraction while refusing to take our nightmare children back. 

(OOC note: it was at this point the staff where openly joking with me that the PCs were a bigger hazard to me than the staff were and the regular joke was that Aiden is a deadbeat dad that abandons his kids by the PCs at this point) 

Along the path we noticed a demon with a guitar, I questioned a lot at this point. Like why did Lupa have a trombone (OOC: I’m not kidding, it's amazing what people keep in the trunks of their car at events). I’m not sure who was dreaming about ice cream but that happened and I got a solid 20 minutes of ice cream, an interesting being named Joy as well as no baby mama drama. This was not the case for long. 

SO here we are folks and chained to the dungeon walls. Kids on the other side with guards preparing to torture them WHILE I WATCHED! Oh wait, here comes Vuel and Lupa who will totally help me out. Nope…. He emasculated the guards and basically pushed them aside and tortured my kids in front of me. (OOC: At this time I would like to apologize to any player not into curse words but you tell me how to play THAT out)  After Vuel has finished eating the last eyeball we were back outside. My dream bastards were back and Vuel was smiling because now everything had been fixed and the three of us had a fun bonding moment of sorts. 

It was at this point we joined with everyone and apparently they were figuring out why they couldn't find a thrall all day that needed to be fixed for some reason. Now everyone remembers I'm a thrall from the night before and fixes the issue. 

**From here I am explaining in full IC perspective because I rolled with it that I had little to no memory of my time as thrall** 

So why do I have raccoon children now? Vuel only told me he was going to eat them…. And why is Belle here? And a fae again? And why does she think she’s an Idarin and Dark is alive and very much bullshit with me? Also what the name of holy hell has happened to Ryu? Then a name from the past returned. A friend named Shartie with an uncanny ability to pop in at random. We made a deal to end the nightmare I was having and the fog had lifted. Everyone was fighting with Makhta and Dark Ryu.

After a long bitter fight that drained everyone, I was in a room with locks with others attempting to help pick locks. Eventually I was back with everyone and Makhta was saved. Someone had accidentally set off a wayland bomb that had messed up about half of us fairly bad. Omri found me and we forged a weapon with help of those that remained. From here was the end of things for me but on a plus I was informed the weapon was in Makhta’s hands. So pretty good ending overall. 

What You Missed: Blackwood Tournaments XIII [Court Edition]

Transcribed

First matter of business, Laika made Violet his page.

Fern was made a full member of Eagle's Rook after a period of petitioning, and given a personal heraldry belt favor of Adara's.

Captain Sayeh called up the Knights of Blackwood [present: Trent, Nos, Torolf, Matthias, Tao, Saegan, Elizah, Matiya, Bones], and spoke of her work in the East. She spoke of the assistance of Sir Dagger, who helped grow their numbers in East Blackwood. He helped translate german and english documents. And that he wanted to share, though he could not be there in person, how honored he is to be a knight amongst the folks of Blackwood.

The Knights of Blackwood's business continued with these squirings:

• Tao squired Tempest.
• Nos squired Cronin.

Saegan squired Luke John but as a personal squire.

Saegan called up Cheri/ Taya and put a petitioner tabard on her, welcoming her as a potential future member of Blackwood.

As court herald Elizah called up Irri of Blackwood. Irri shared she was handed a scale for "getting shit done", and wished to now hand it off to someone who also embodied that. She called up Bones and handed off the Blackwood North Star.

Tao was called up, and spoke of receiving a similar scale, this one for combat, the Mark of the Harvester. He called up Hedda and Elizah, and gave one to each due to their performances in Pressure Point.

Tao also gave Saegan a scale for running his quest.

Saegan called up Sayeh and explained the scale of "Voice of Night", about the historical relevance of Blackwood. He noted he noticed Sayeh was sharing the history of Blackwood to people the night before, which he appreciates, and her duties in East Blackwood.

Final word goes to Saegan: "Thanks for joining us, enduring the heat. Enjoy the food."

Then we ate.

Editor's note on the scales: "Blackwood has four tokens that are represented by scales, The Blackwood North Star; represents general excellence in leadership, The Mark of the Harvester; represents excellent in combat, The Voice of Night; represents furthering Blackwood's cultural and historical presence, and The Tree of Eroewan; representing cultural furtherment of Backwood. 

They're meant to be passed on from member to member. "

What You Missed - Blackwood Tournaments XIII

by: Tucker "Temorse" Noyes

I’ve been to many Blackwood Tournaments, but this year was a special one.  This year followed the previous years' format, and I was just as much of a fan this year as last year.  The weekend saw a great deal to enjoy: fierce competition, new and innovative tournaments, ridiculous games, delicious food, and very hot weather.  It was a joy to see a broad swath of the community gather and celebrate each others' victories throughout the weekend.

Friday night saw the return of the Fated Arena, although this was my first experience with it.  Around twenty intrepid adventurers, from seasoned veterans to greenhorns seeking to make a name for themselves were dispersed around the area in the dark of night, all seeking to survive the arena’s hazards and their fellow adventurers for as long as possible with a limited number of lives.  A variety of strategies were implemented, from scaling buildings to hiding caches of equipment, from fighting monsters to starting a new career as a weapons merchant.  Eventually there could be only one, with Killian being the only one to survive to the very end, with only a single life remaining.

On Saturday we began with a more traditional set of tournaments with a mix of increasingly interesting ones as the day went on. The field of the competitors was quite a diverse one.  Maybe I’m just getting older, but I felt challenged in every single fight throughout the day, both for the more silly ones and for the more competitive ones.  Watching the fights was almost as much fun as competing in them.  The fish slappery tournament stood out as one of the more fun ones to watch, and I am always partial to a bog-standard sword and shield tournament, despite being eliminated in round one.  We were graced with some delicious and refreshing snacks from the kitchen during this time, which was a welcome boon in the heat of the day.

There were also some things happening throughout the day that I missed.  Some purple dragon folks showed up to cause some trouble.  Makhta engaged in some vampire antics.  The Nemesis Wraiths showed up for some more fighting for those who hadn’t gotten enough yet.  There were also some dungeon-like tournaments: the rogues dungeon, alchemist dungeon, and a scavenger hunt challenge from what I heard.  While I didn’t participate in those, I heard many, many good things.

Following a long hot day of fighting was a short court, dinner, games, and general revelry.  I unexpectedly missed court, but from what I learned various individuals were honored with Blackwood Scales, a warrior from Blackwood East was knighted, squires were taken, and nations were joined.  Shortly after this, a delicious meal was served and a night of games and revelry began.  The revelry started with the premier of the Blackwood Drag Show.  The performers were enthusiastic and entertaining, and the show was a  success.  There was gambling to be had, as well as the social deduction of Dark Deeds and the improved stylings of the Bard Bellows games to enjoy.  There was also a special edition of Nay Poxy Knave, where I graciously allowed the joint forces of the Realms to defeat me, allowing some group catharsis after the devastation that occurred at Pressure Point.  The merriment lasted well into the wee hours of the morning for those who were up for it.

Sunday saw the tournaments continue and wrap up.  The Goblin Hoards tournament was as unexpected as it was enjoyable.  The Epic Swings tournament was its own…unique form of entertainment with an eclectic set of styles from its participants.  Perhaps, as some would argue, the climax of the event was the hot dog eating contest.  Never before have I seen a feasting tournament involve so much cleverness, treachery, and intestinal fortitude as we watched Jasper absolutely devour a quintet of franks.  In the end he both literally and figuratively stood, be-glizziled, head and shoulders above his competition, finishing in less than half the time of his competitors.

At the end of the day the points were totaled and we all gathered to hear the results.  While I’m sure a full list of winners may be published, the three main honorifics were Slayer, Skald, and Archmage.  In the end, Shandar took the title of Slayer, Killian took the title of Archmage and Grindin took the title of Skald. Congratulations to those two, and all those others who showered themselves in glory throughout the weekend.

In full, I look forward to the tournaments next year.  It is always a great pleasure to enjoy the rigorous competition and strengthen the social bonds with my fellow Realmsonian.

Temorse

What You Missed - Pressure Point 4

Organized by: Kyle Yazinka 

By: Nataliya "Shader" Kostenko

My hands still kinda hurt writing this because this past weekend was Pressure Point! It was so much fun to trauma-bond with the squad, and I highly recommend future iterations of this event to anyone and everyone looking to really ignite their Realms spark and get hype about pushing themselves alongside the rest of the community. 

Here’s a summary of what went down from my perspective. First, there was the captain’s competition. We got to eat some really dry “food”--except the blessed irish-jamaican-vanilla-AI-generated-or-whatever-the-fuck sea moss drink. That was 10/10, refreshing. We also jumped around in bags clearly made for children, solved metal puzzles, threw heavy stuff, and memorized colored pieces of paper. Luckily I excel at eating weird shit, naming primary colors, and jumping around as a toddler would, so I prevailed and got the honor of being captain alongside Jack and Hedda.

For my intrepid team–Forbidden Blueberry–I selected Temorse, Ryu, Kara, Companion, Ham, and Saegan Jr., the rock. This was Ham’s first time adventuring in the Realms: the absolute maniac. We were also assigned Mommy Saegen, who went above and beyond as a Team Mom in every capacity! Each of my team members proved invaluable to our squad and pushed themselves to their limits with all their contributions. For a highlight reel, we lugged heavy stuff around and identified ancient pictures of Realmsies past (I still can’t believe that was Trent), crawled through webs rapidly (some of us were dropped, but that’s okay, I forgive), made beautiful matching blueberry belt favors, lost spectacularly at tug of war (but defended Saegan Jr.!), scored some goals, cooked some riceballs, built a giant tower, made our way blindly through a maze, wept over cursed sudoku at 4AM, put on an avant-garde performance, scavenged, climbed, pushed up, sat up, squatted, and everything in between. 

Ryu was our dominating assassin, the fastest fire-starter in the West, and our overall MVP; Kara was our excellent mage and healer, Saegan Jr.’s most caring babysitter, and the most spirited player with the most uplifting attitude; Temorse was the brains and wisdom of our operation who dominated the trivia portion so thoroughly that even the event photos look like he’s a professor delivering a lecture on Realms geography to the rest of our team; Companion was our master engineer and crafter, who’s so good she can build a perfect sword blindfolded and raise a paper tower (angled) to the heavens; and Ham, it turns out, is an absolute fitness beast who did basically half our team’s exercises by himself. 

My personal favorite part was the fight-a-ton at the end! Nothing I love more than limited Realms fighting for hours and hours. Though it did eventually become unlimited, interspersed with sprints and squats, burdened with unnecessarily heavy weapons and shields, and narrated by bad-cop-drill-sergeant Killian and good-cop-Mommy Saegan, it remained fun the whole time! Everybody gave it their all and I don’t think the marshals were expecting all of us to fight on as long as we did. All three teams were locked all the way in.

I want to thank the Red SyRenZ and Swallow Twice for being such excellent competition. Now I’m going to lay around until I recover the ability to move again. 

Hi. I'm Jack of Redwall and I am very very tired.

Pressure point 4, it's a thing I did and I'm going to tell you about it. Not all of it, God I don't have the energy for that.

The event starts.

I'm a pirate, there was an opportunity to be captain. You can see where this is going.

The worst part about being picked for a captain? I don't get the opportunity to have the other captains on my team. I knew this before, but seeing Shader and Hedda compete and lead their teams over the course of this monster event, there is nothing to describe the way I feel other than just immense respect for these two. 

The best part about being captain? getting to work with other crazy talented individuals, rely on their strengths and expertise, and to push myself for their sake.

The exhaustion makes it hard to remember but I believe there were games and fighting. Putting balls in holes, manhandling teammates through a net, and a nice leisurely team stroll across a field. And back.

Then there was cooking. We stunned ourselves with how good it was. Or we were just starving. 

There was some trivia , I really didn't understand most of it. My weakness. However I did pick a team that did. Everyone got a chance to shine, and everyone got a chance to sit in confusion and throw random guesses at the wall and hope something stuck. Fun was had, jokes were made, a good time all around.

And then the sun went down.

Looking at the stars at night is wonderful. However the literal hundreds of reps of exercise does dampen the magic of the moment. You ever do a burpee after midnight and get a little aftertaste of century egg, vegemite, and “cheese?" There is no equivalent. Singularly unique experience. But so is the energy and camaraderie of doing it together. This was nothing like a daytime sporting event. It was brutal, raw, and emotional. Being there to cheer on each other, even the other teams. This was something we all overcame together. We surpassed what we thought were our limits, for each other. No other event I have gone to can compare to that moment at 3 am. Period.

And then the sun came up

And the music started

Like a fight practice that never ended, with no rest. Just fighting. Again the teams fell away and we all were just surviving and overcoming. It was fun. It was practice. 

Until the music stopped.

Pressure point is about endurance. And man was it a blast to do. But by the gods was it better to stop. And to watch everyone who continued after can only be described as inspirational. I saw the top of the mountain and thought “that's where I want to be someday".

Gonna be honest, I like winning. I like the points, the competition, the feeling of overcoming something. But by the end of the event, you felt it. Points be damned. We showed up and we beat this event. And I am so proud of Luke John, of Jericho, of Elizah, of Grazen, of FaiBy, of Theodore Red-eye Rockenstein the 5th.

For you guys, I'd do it all again.

Jack of Redwall

Captain of the Red SyRenZ

Pressure point did not disappoint. I called for arms in the field with me and many of you answered. I was able to toil and become captain. We took the extra food provided to fuel us, even though it was not delicious food. I took the century eggs, natto, and exoskeletons to fuel my fight. I can’t even begin to cover everything that happened. I will try and give you a perspective. Every person that was there gave their all. We fought challenges of body and mind. We had to physically lift each other through mazes, carry bags of sand while testing our knowledge of the realms, and do a fitness challenge of hundreds of workouts. As a captain I witnessed so much, I worked to take on whatever my team couldn’t and did my best to lead them whenever possible. I noticed the teams working to win for themselves but still cheer on others. A few highlights for you; when Shader and LukeJohn were locked in combat for 40 minutes straight with no break to a stalemate, when we all fought our fitness challenge and our team down a person was cheered on and supported by every team till we completed it, when we were locked in trivia and the Forbidden Blueberries Team were a wealth of knowledge, when Grarr fought till he was medically pulled and the Red SyRenZ had Elizah join our team so we were not two people short and could continue the fight. 

The event came to a close where everyone fought till they physically couldn’t anymore, even the battles had to be made more difficult to put us all down, ending the long stalemate I mentioned. Being told our teams only had a two point difference between the placings shows how hard everyone fought. I am thankful to my whole team and our efforts. These memories will live on and I am glad to have been able to lead people as we made them.

-Whan-Hedda con Atlantis 

Captain of team Swallow Twice or Pressure Point 4

What You Missed - Anthologies 1

by: Amber "Tarnisha" Fox & Emma "Companion" Rovira

We started our day with a Blue Ranger(though that is not his Name), looking to guide us to the Laurins village of Spring (the first known point of the blooming) so we could do some detective work. For payment, he asked for the name of the door into the Laurins so he could Find the Path to it in the future...and P.S. his services started in the Laurins.  Getting to and through the door was our problem to solve.

Soon after a shady character in black robes ~~named~~ called Blot (though that is not his Name). Blot left the Laurins a few months back.  His intro usually includes 'yes I'm a villain, but not your villain'. To that I add 'yet'. He was selling some pre-charged, transferable spell sashes that day, not collapsing the whole Narromancy system with massive collateral damage, so no reason to stab this time.

How to find the door? Someone volunteered their Find the Path spell :/ ... to the door we don't know the name of.  Luckily, Four has been several time and could lead from memory.  Per usual, we had to cross through a section of Hell where red and blue devils are squabbling.  Luckily it was a short span so some were able to just run the gap.  Ash of Creathorne started a rumble on one side, drawing lots of attention which helped out the slower folks.

We found the door, it was neither labeled nor talkative about its name.  Also it was closed.  Four had the brilliant idea of writing a statement on the door, paraphrasing the statement of our previous passing.  It didn't work for the first two people, but the third wasn't a scholar or artisan, etc., but had the role of hero. The door opened for our hero and and everyone could tailgate from there.

Margaret guarded by Tir and a few others lingered to do a ritual and got that name.  Ask Margaret or me if you want the door's name.

-----

We were lead to the village of Spring, and what do ya know there were plant monsters swinging seed strike in the area, just like last time. We had known that Spring was early in the transmission line of the Blooming, but not how early. Apparently, this town was where the Blooming Patient Zero was from. That's new-ish info. 

There were 5 very dilapidated, abandoned buildings. The First I looked at was a quarantined house-- all boarded up tight and the door had been locked from the outside (before falling in at some point). One bed was inside, no other furniture. There were scratches and claw marks around those barred openings and tally marks on the walls of the days passing by --who or what ever was in there for a full year at least judging by those tally marks.

I nearly missed it, but on the same wall that the door was on, there was the message "This was all my fault" scrawled on a wall.

I moved on while the other folks were distracting the the nasty and aggressive plant monsters swinging vines to slap seedstrike onto folks. In case y'all are concerned, We were very responsible and (as planned) after we left the Laurlins everyone got a Cure Disease from Violet's CoH, whether they needed it or not. We brought home no new cases of the Blooming.

The hut furthest back was weird. It had been massively overtaken by vines... but they were growing inward, not towards the light. 

The vines were being *told* to keep the hut together. So the vines *can be* controlled. Who or what made that possible was no longer in the hut. 

Next in line was the village Inn, also a bit weird. It looked like folks in the common room didn't just get attacked by vines and claws, but also with swords and all quite suddenly.

Fourth was the Apothecary's hut. A lady named Molly had done a lot of research and we found her spellbook... but she was super frustrated with not being able to develop a cure. Since it didn't look like they knew about the curse part of the Blooming, alchemy alone wasn't gonna get the village to a cure.

Her Ghost was *cheesed* and pretty stabby, but some reassurance that her work was valuable and her spirit was able to move one.

The 5th structure was the Smithy. Four, shapeshifted into Opal's butterfly form, investigated there. Umm, nothing significant was reported when I asked. 

With the ghost gone, we could get some reading in. There was a string of Foretells, some of which had come true and several hadn't been crossed off yet. One foretell mentioned the King's guard confiscating that spellbook of research notes. Oh Hey, 2 fighters soon came on scene saying they were the Guard, "The Queen's Guard?", "No, not the Queensguard". Yeeeeah, they were very likely working for the Laurin's "Fae king" and like the ones mentioned in the foretell. (We know that this monarch was the one who hired The Villain to create the Blooming.) Very prudently those guys never saw or heard about the spellbook and we took it with us when we has beat down the vine monsters fully and the Door appeared again. 

----

Welp, the door dumped us out near a cult dedicated to "the curse Rune" of Miradu. I headed out to the Western flank and missed a lot, so I'll let Companion tell this tale. 

[Companion's section]

Here is a rundown of what we found.

We arrived, and were presented with Midoru cultists, and a barrier made of fire and water behind them. They were looking for and mining silver, though they had a slave to mine for them as if they didn’t they would slowly die. They offered me a position by their side as a smith that has worked with silver before. Of course we started killing them. On them they had concentrated elements. We used concentrated fire arranged in the shape of the rune Iru to turn off the water half of the barrier, and we used concentrated water in the shape of Dana to turn off the water half of the barrier.

Through the barrier there was another one, this time made of wind and earth. So, rinse and repeat. The cultists were getting annoying as we were getting cornered, so I killed them all with a 5pt. And the lieutenant got another one to make him fuck off for a bit. However, once we broke down the final barriers, there he was again.

He had made a Midoru creature, one that only dies when it was stabbed while smiling. Our group went on to kill the lieutenant, and find out information about a ball/dance party the cult is hosting at some point.

---

The Door then opened to have us visit 'T'he 'H'ero (this guy is Entitled and a pinnacle of his role, so said with capitals). He was fighting hard to keep the forces of Hell at bay and prevent all of the Laurins from being overrun. He did have a dashing profile but was all business while frequently slapping fireballs out of the air with his shield.

We didn't have any fighters or any 5 foots for the one paths so Raindrop did a mage rune ritual to invoke as The Defender.  They got mystical armor and better weapons... as long as they didn't stray too far from The Hero, who the magic was channeling through.

The rest of us helped out by collapsing the fissures the devils were entering from.  There were lots of fissures and only the two fighting distractions-- it was tough going but we managed.  After crossing a lava lake on a distressingly narrow bridge, more of the same, but the door was back and it was time to leave.  However, Raindrops still invoked, charged off after a distant cluster of devils.  <Sigh>  They'll be with the hero, we will worry if Magus Raindrop doesn't come home in a few days. [footnote: Happily, Raindrop did make it home and with a little more info about the history of the hero].

------

Next the Door lead us to Qua Taereth Nuuna (Warlord Makhta's lands). However, this was not quite the realms, but some off balanced spirit space.  

To start off we though the original McKrye could help, so we flaunted the booze and bar with no N to dare him to show up and deal with the shadows.

No dice.  We soon encountered a murder owl, many wolves, and hostile ghosts handing out guilt trips. ((My daughter was NPC'ing so I may have murdered the child ghost more often than my character normally would.))

We started collecting any bottles of booze we could find.  We didn't know what we needed them for, but knew they'd come in handy.

A precog went off and gave us direction. We needed the QTN banner, the letters for the barN sign, and lots of booze inside the foundation of the real-realms barN. The wolves were hiding some of the letters, others appeared when a task was finished. 

It was hard getting booze off of the drunks, but by performing some of the QTN regionals, we managed.  One was raising a toast to valor or courage but with a story.

I was walked through doing a four point ritual by a spirit who couldn't speak.  We were calling to the animal guardians spirits of QTN.  North was the stag who invoked strength, East was the hawk who was fierce and had piercing vision(insight), South was the turtle with healing (/health), and West was the bear specializing in protection.  Other folks were drafted into pairs or trios to face the murder owl with valor and to hunt the threat.

With the tasks done, the Spirit space faded away and we were truly in the Realms again, watching the true sun riding low on the horizon. 

What You Missed - The Gilded Lion and Silver Branch Summer Festival V

By: Sawyer "Jericho" Judkins

This past weekend was the second time I had the fortune to attend this Summer Festival, and it was a great time both times.

The day started off simply with greeting friends as they arrived and some light snacks. The weather looked like it promised to hold out and be nice and warm. And warm it was. The first thing that happened was some group tournaments being run! The Grand Melee kicked things off, which was a great time. Following that was time trials against a horde of Kobolds. Unfortunately, I did not get to participate in the other tournaments as I was working on acquiring some spells at that time, but I heard yells of javelins and something about frogs, and it looked like everyone was having a blast. 

Soon after that, food came out from the kitchen, and as always, you can expect a great assortment of food from the Rhiassan kitchen. Lunch was loaded hot dogs and piping hot french fries. The perfect thing for a summer festival. There were also an assortment of special drinks both from Rhiassa and Chrysantha as well. I did not get any myself, but I had a few sips of Toothless’ and they were fantastic.Other great food mentions throughout the day would be the fruit and caprese skewers as well as the pretzels with an assortment of dipping sauces. Plus a machine that regularly made fresh popcorn.

The Gambler’s Guild also put on a poker tournament! I sadly did not have the time (or the coin) to participate and lose in it this time around, but I know those that played had a good time. The casino was also open all day allowing people to spend their time and gold with each other if questing was not on their menu for the day.

Throughout the day, there were also occasional appearances of infernal looking goats or something. They would rush in and seem to target someone. I took out a bunch from behind, but they ended up exploding taking me with them that time. Another time there was a couple wolf looking beings that came in asking for a chicken to be taken care of? This is information I heard second hand, so I do not know the validity of it.

Soon after lunch, questing began in earnest. I found myself on the Western Flank while others fended off the efforts of Reapers within a forbidden city. I heard there were a large number of adventurers that took part in it. Alongside that, I believe there was supposed to be some Dino-Jousting, but I am unsure if that happened. 

There was a short break before we adventurers once more took to questing in a couple different ways. I heard something about Door Magic and science on one. I ended up getting to deal with some pirates on the other quest a little late, but we managed to find some kind of ore we were looking for, and managed to not lose Ace to some pirates.

After that, I once more headed to the Western Flank while adventurers came to the aid of Arken led by the Fox Spirit to remove a threat that had been hidden from The Mirror while it was active this past winter. A personal thank you from me to everyone that came out to help deal with our problem. While that was going on, I hear that some brave young adventurers ventured once again into a hidden library!

Once questing was wrapped up, we took all our tickets from questing and tournaments and put them into Orion’s Bucket so our names could be pulled to spin a now unrigged wheel to earn gold. Big shout out to the Gambler’s Guild for supplying Aeston with a new wheel, much to his chagrin since there was more than one big winner this year! 

Dinner. Dinner was a loaded mashed potato and corn on the cob. You could get it plain, or you could get it loaded with so many tasty bits, like chili, cheese sauce, and broccoli. I am honestly still thinking about that potato almost a week later! It would also be remiss of me not to mention dessert. Fern, as always, supplied an amazing and delicious spread of baked goods. This year there were chocolates, cookies, and meringues. My absolute favorite is still the Earl Gray Cookies.

As the day came to a close, Aeston lost a ton of money to the wheel, and we all packed up and  headed on our way after another amazing Summer Festival. To hear that this was the last one is bittersweet, and I look forward to more exciting things in the future. 

In service to the Realms,

Jericho Axelthorne

Lord of Arken

Watcher of the Skyless Sea

Squire to the Knights of the Sabble Dragon

Knight of Chaos

What You Missed: Toothless Edition

We went back to the library. We had to paint some stuff to make bad guys happy. I got to throw some Magic Missiles. We had to wrap up some mummies in bandages and then put flowers on them. After dessert, we got to help with Spin The Wheel and it was fun. I got to see a big bolt of lightning. POPCORN!

Toothless

What You Missed - Chimeron Questing XXXI: Lights in the Dark

by: Keith "Saegan" Cronin

Out of Character: 

I want to get this part out of the way, because I plan to keep the OOC short. What you missed of this event on an out of character level, was a showcase of what a good questing event can be. The event holders and team, through their passion for the game, were able to show off a wide range of talent in combat, craft, a development of deep lore, and rich story. So basically, you missed a great event. Nice work Chimeron. 

In Character:

We began our adventure being informed by Professor Mia that her scouts had gone missing, and that we should probably go looking for them. We moved along in the direction of where she’d guided us, and honestly it didn’t take us too long to find them. 

Well, I say “them”.  We found people that were being held prisoner, and that were claiming to be the scouts. Pretty early on, I decided that they were not to be trusted. One of them had said that Mia was looking for some animals with crystals growing out of their heads which was, to me at least, suspiciously inaccurate. 

I did seer magic about it. I’ve been into that recently. People say I’m talking to myself a lot more and seeing things, but I promise it’s not a problem. 

So I did seer magic about it, and determined they were in fact part of Harden’s Torch, an organization we believe metaphorically descended from the Wellman. An organization that’s trying to destroy what’s left of the Dragon civilization. I tried to tell the questing party this, but honestly the “scouts” were being so friendly, in typical questing party fashion, we let them follow along with us anyway. 

We marched deeper into tunnels, and eventually passed through a waterway that was both treacherous and filled with terrible monsters. I nearly drowned, don’t tell the Royal Guard. Somehow, all my Blackwood companions could simply breathe. Except for Liana, but she’d rather be dead than wet. 

We made it through the treacherous wet! Omri using seer magic determined that the true scouts were further ahead. And I finally told Temorse what I knew, and between Omri’s information and my earlier information, he determined we could just kill them. What a breath of fresh air. That’s a drowning pun. 

So, they offed the tall not-scout, and the questing party that had become attached to him decided to do seer magic about it, and determined that we were in fact right. We looked for the other scouts, but they’d disappeared. Which, honestly, good on them, probably got to live longer that way. 

We moved ahead, and got ambushed by the rest of Harden’s Torch as we came upon a closed room. We got sandwiched between a rock and the hard place, as the Torch rolled a massive boulder at us. Nos saved my life! It took some fighting, but we eventually dispatched the villains. 

We got into the room and discovered it was some sort of alchemy lab, filled with secret codes and tricks. People were confused and recklessly trying things, and blowing themselves up with fireballs. I nearly died, but I saved myself with my circle of protection. The trials of that room were challenging; there were so many codes, and ciphers, and solving them all within the time before the fireball fluid blew up in total was quite the feat. But we did manage to succeed. 

Escaping the room, we found a winding path that led us to the Foundry.The Foundry, or Foundry 13, was a place where the draconians created gemtech. We found it, and that’s where we decided to rest for the night. 

I started the next day off with a bang, well a ritual. I gathered my people to support me, and seanced Daedalus, the leader and founder of the culture we were investigating. I chose him because I’d been successful in seancing him before. While that was occurring, I called on the powers of my lands and people, as well as the magic of prophecy, to sort of recreate him in my mind. A shared passenger if you will. This felt dangerous, but I had the confidence of a hero, and the backing of a large group of fairly powerful people. And in short, it was successful. Daedalus joined my mind space. 

I spent the rest of the day, and the next talking with him. So pardon me if I get confused about the rest of the happenings, but my memory was a tad occupied by an extra 400 something years. 

While we were talking, he helped me adjust my notes, and explained a great many things about the sciences of his people. The true workings of their gemtech, and on a deeper level, I grew an understanding for his motivation in recreating the heartstones of his people. Powerful stones, part of their culture that connected them, empowered them. I don’t think I could put words to the depth of their meaning, but I could feel the loss. I could feel the rage inside myself toward the humans that destroyed them. 

While I was sorting through my notes and feelings, I tried to follow along with the rest of the questing party as they played goblin games, struggled with crabs, and generally had a hard time. 

They were rebuilding the forge, finding pieces for it that were missing. Or replenishing its resources which had run dry over the years of disuse. We needed hammers, and schematics, and freakin’ lava. And please don’t let me repeat the horrors of the acid, and the reckless endangerment of children as they ran with jelly orbs that could easily end their lives. Or the lives of the people around them. Separately from that I also heard stories of raunchy crab love, which I think I must’ve been distracted by Daedalus for, because I did not witness.  

But anyway, after rerouting lava, avoiding the acid baths, reclaiming golem gem schematics, and making sure we had enough materials, we managed to get the Foundry working again. 

Well almost. We were missing the power source. With guidance, we realized there was a power source over yonder, and just needed the means to get there. After careful investigation, we realized we had to recover 4 topaz key cards to get to the source. We discovered the various keycards in various locations, one under a rock, in a room that appeared destroyed by a malfunctioning golem. One we gained by allowing a golem to complete its scans of certain gem creatures. One was in a room similar to the alchemy lab with ciphers the night before. And one within an area guarded by golem enemies. Once we recovered the cards we were able to open the area we needed to to get to the power source. 

It was being protected by golems of various types, each with unique powers. We pushed them back through tunnels, until breaking into an open space.  But in finality, there were opal golems, to our knowledge the mightiest of the golem kind. They put up a good fight, combining the powers of their brethren with some of their own, but the Realms’ Heroes were successful. 

We brought the power source, a massive ruby, back to the Foundry. It was easy enough to hook up, and its power seemed enough to radiate through the entire place. With the forge going we began to make the items we needed: some swords, some shields, and some wands. Before we could complete them however, we triggered something within the forge, and nearly died as everything seemed to go upside down. We found ourselves in a massive cavern, and face to face with a gem encrusted dragon. 

If you don’t know, that’s bad. 

Many of the other heroes of the Realms fought it. I honestly kind of sat back and asked Daedalus questions. Which might seem out of place, and out of character for me. But knowledge is powerful. And I wanted to know if that dragon was Quig, one of the dragons from the Logs, the partner of Palamos, the dragon we fought the year before.. I didn’t get the answer to that question. 

We were then able to return to the foundry, and pick up where we left off, though with many people tired from the day, we also sought rest. 

Sunday, we fought. My understanding of Sunday was even more bogged down with thought and mystery. I maintained my connection with Daedalus, which was costly, but not terribly so. But honestly, what confused me more was poor Spencer. 

I’m going to sound crazy, if spending my weekend speaking with 400 year old dead dragons isn’t crazy enough, Spencer was talking to mushrooms. The party was fighting. They were fighting a lot. People were dying around us. Spencer had managed to start speaking with intelligent spores that wanted him to convert part of his brain to a crystal form. 

Trent would say I got into something. I’m not sure how I would know that I didn’t get into something by accident. Spencer was calling for me because he assumed I’d answer eventually, and everyone looked like mushrooms. Reading that back, you’re not going to believe me that I was fine. 

The rest of that conversation doesn’t get much safer for me. So I’m going to skip over it. It was wild. 

But as it turned out, the questing party did need to fight some mushroom people. So maybe it was fated. 

We ended on a good note though. I sort of glanced over this, for this moment, but as we were traveling through the various locations, we were finding logs from the dragon civilization. We learned many things, it’s how we knew how to use the Foundry. It explained various technologies, like the goblin throne. We learned things. But the last log was of Phina, Daedalus’ daughter, along with some other scientists. Doing a final experiment to recreate a heartstone. And they were successful. 

Daedalus got to hear that. 

The trials over the weekend were overall successful. My research into the dragons' culture revealed a lot. I learned a lot about the gems. I’m fairly confident I can create my own things with those magics, now. Perhaps with some trial and error. But I have questions. What happened to the scouts? Both the real ones, and the fake ones that escaped? Can we stop Harden’s Torch? Can we cure the crystallization? What the heck happened to Spencer? I can’t wait to return, and find out more! 

-Saegan of Blackwood

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Crystal Golem

Crystal Golem by Kieran/Kyra "Omri" Barry

What You Missed - The Wedding of Tirvanel and Margaret

by:  Ella "Violet" Smith

Hello, wonderful people of the realms, this is what you missed at the wedding of Tirvanel and Margret: 

I arrived late to the wedding because I got tied up at the healing center, so I missed the forming of the first spirit games. But what I could tell was happening was that there were two groups: the Bears and Wolves. They had people go hide in the woods, and the other team's goal was to find these people. Unfortunately, we thought that we had actually lost these people because of how well they hid, so the game came to a close. While we were taking some down time after the first spirit games, more spirits came and visited us: the Otter, Serpent, Salmon, and Boar spirits. People started giving gifts to the spirits, notably a paper frog and a bunch of rocks that were given to the otter spirit. I took this opportunity to have a conversation with the Serpent spirit and made a promise to go to their shrine after the wedding. After a little bit, all of the spirits got back together and introduced us to the new challenge. The challenge was to cross a river. However, we were then hit with a surprise that we needed to cross it back and still could not repeat any methods.

Right as this was happening, Rand, one of the kitchen staff at the temple, started running away. Crane and I followed because we wanted to make sure they were ok. They started talking about the veiled figures. It wasn't until after we returned with Rand after promising them that we would keep them safe that we realized they were Nemesis Wraiths, some time was spent talking to the Wraiths. After the reappearance of the Nemesis Wraiths, a rune ritual was conducted to give the sentinels more power. The ritual allowed Kovaks to speak to the sentinel. I don't know the end results of them getting more power. 

At some point after the rune ritual, we realized that Tirvanel was kidnapped by his all-fae wedding party. We started sending people one by one to go rescue him. We ended up getting Tirvanel back in time for the wedding, and it was an amazing wedding. It was such a sweet Auroran ceremony. The provided food was delicious, including burgers, soba noodles, brownies, and cream puffs. The cream puffs especially prompted a very interesting conversation. Every person in attendance got to hold a candle during the ceremony, and each one of the wedding party stood as one of the aspects of Aurora. You could just tell how much they love each other as they said their vows.

Before court started, Kurn the Demon in Tulkhan sword escaped, and a little bit of time before court started had to be spent trying to fix that. Speaking of court, some really important stuff happened including Margaret getting the staff of hope from Laika. This is the staff that Laika carried with him during this time in Nymphus Yarrow and spent many years praying over. Margaret was told when receiving this staff that she was expected to hand it down some day as he handed it down to her. Also during court, Raindrop was inducted as a new magus of the realms. They notably have always included others in their spell work and their ability to storytell with magic is spectacular. 

After the sun set it was time for the Voraniss court and the Ritual of Renewal. During court, it was announced that Grevin had finished the process of joining Voraniss and was given the title of kin-hearted. With the sun set and the ritual done, we all say goodbye and head our separate ways till we see each other again.