Meme Monday

 by the Meme Team

Realmsle #31

 

                       

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!

What You Missed - Neden BBQ

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.

Why I Want to Go - Tournaments of Chocolate

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! 

What You Missed - Dying Light 1.5

Greetings mortals (and otherwise)! Here is an account of a rather odd nightmare that myself and others found ourselves in.

I don’t sleep the way many do, and as such, when I dream, it is usually with intention. As such, it was quite unusual when I awoke in a prison cell the other day. I was with several others, and we could see other cells across the room as well as demonic guards patrolling and taunting prisoners. Usually this would be where we break out and stab our way free, but our weapons, magic items, and magic powers were all gone. A few of us found magic scrolls (later learned to be a gift from a group of demon hunters) in our possession, though, and Randal the Light was able to send spellbooks to some folks in other cells. Lucky for us, the guards - which had many of our missing items in hand - didn’t seem to be the brightest. One almost traded me a weapon for a skull from the cell before a superior stopped them. Eventually, it was Timm who found a way to get the upper hand. A guard was lamenting being unable to do pushups with a weapon in hand, so Timm suggested they put it down for a moment. As soon as they did, he grabbed the weapon and stabbed them before hiding deeper in the cell.

As more and more guards grew suspicious of the ever-growing pile of dead guards in front of our cell, we slowly armed up with looted gear. Eventually an escaped prisoner from another cell brought us a key and broke us free, and we joined up with a party of roughly thirty Realms adventurers that had been imprisoned, as well as one unfamiliar prisoner who later turned out to be a demon in disguise. We finally could stab our way out, and recovered many lost weapons (though spellbooks were more scarce, and at one point we had only three heal limbs among the party). Unfortunately we were no longer in the Realms, though fortunately we weren’t in hell - we were in some sort of demon-made nightmare skerry in the Dreaming, and we would have to press on to return to the waking world.

Next, we were forced to choose some sort of roles or traits - I fittingly was ‘Dangerous to All’, for example, while Cronin chose ‘Rage’, and Ace was ‘Well-Intentioned’. We encountered a new demon as well, the sword-wielding Malficence (this may be a misspelling of Malfeasance or Malificence, but that was how I saw it spelled) who seemed somewhat friendly for now.

In the next room, we encountered blood-splattered walls and many tortured souls with canvases in front of them. These seemed to be victims of The Painter, a demon killed last year, and it seemed the only way to put them to rest was to paint their desires in blood. At one point I heard that painting for all of them would revive The Painter, but later I heard that this was not the case after doing more research, which I hope is correct. And as Rosetta reasoned, with this being a dream, the blood we painted with was not real, and thus it was not blood magic to paint with it. Either way we had to paint a final canvas to leave, so it was done.

Next, we were in a room with several clockwork marionettes controlled by a person on strings in the center. When these immensely annoying enemies were defeated, the person could be cut down, and the puppet controlling them taken. In this room was also a young gelatinous cube, which was befriended by Violet and named Jelly. In Jelly we put to rest the remains of three skulls (Jimbo, Jeff, and Jeronimo) that we’d found in the cells, as well as someone’s femur.

Next was a room where a woman, her face wrapped in bandages, wept as she looked into a mirror, surrounded by shiny mirror creatures. The mimics became attached to members of our party, copying their actions, and after much fun for some from this we killed them by killing those they were copying. People were also able to talk the woman into giving up the mirror.

Next was an angry mob chasing some guy, but then the mob all turned into werewolves, and we killed them as we retrieved most of the rest of our stolen items aside from The End of All Things. Then was a treacherous obstacle course over a deep pit. In the end, six people were stuck dead on the other side, and Ace saved them by calling on the power of Malficence through his infernal sword - a move criticized by much of the party, who took the blade from him and had a long talk on redemption (Ace’s case was not helped, of course, by Malficence taking his side to defend him).

We were presented with a board on which several words were written: Nightmare, Despair (crossed out), Stealth, Malficence, Delight, Rage (in parenthesis), and a blank spot. These correspond to a group of demons that have been encountered (Nightmare is Yumi, Despair was Rixa who is now imprisoned, etc) over the past year or so. We needed to add one more word to progress - but what could we put that would not be twisted into a horrible foe? Ultimately, with time running out, Laika wrote ‘Hope’. We’ve since received a message from ‘The Hope of Demonkind’, who will surely become a problem later.

One final room remained, where The End of All Things blocked our escape, and an invincible shadow creature was joined by hordes of demons. Around the room were several lights, each with a few of the traits from earlier written beneath. To activate them, the person for each trait had to press that button simultaneously, while we remained under siege by demons. When all lights were lit, the shadow became vulnerable, and after two cycles of this, it was defeated. Cronin retrieved The End of All Things, and the way opened. Yumi, Demon of Nightmares, appeared and thanked us on our way out for joining her little ‘game’ (to which Rosetta rightfully called a lien and obligation). Outside the nightmare, Malficence reappeared and took back Ace’s confiscated demon sword, likely to tempt others with it.

While we escaped unscathed, the experience proved a nightmare to remember, and left many looming threats. What does Malficence hope to gain by helping us? Who was the demon-in-disguise who escaped the cells with us? Is ‘Rage’ on the list of demons because it is the trait of The End of All Things’ wielder? What is the significance of the traits? What new threats will the Hope of Demonkind bring? I’m sure we’ll find out before long. I, for one, am growing tired of the meddling of demons in this world’s affairs.

From now until the end,

N

((OOC:

This event was a ton of fun! I totally called that we’d start the event with all our stuff gone, and it ended up adding a great sense of progression to the quest as we slowly regained our resources. The new site was excellent for a dungeon crawl, with a highlight being the many doors from which NPCs could appear. Maria, Nate, and all the event staff did a fantastic job, and I’m looking forward to the next installment of the series!

Dan H))

Meme Monday

 by the Meme Team

Shield Stories with Justin Balanca-Hawkes

 Organized by James "Tao" Murphy

Please physically describe your shield; style, Heraldry colors etc? 

KFG is a medium sized punch heater shield painted white with a black unicorn chess piece on the front with the letters "KFG" underneath in black and has black taped foam around the edges.,

How long have you had your shield? 

I’ve had KFG for just shy of 2 years now.,

Is this your preferred shield style? 

Heater shields are my preferred style of shield largely because of the amount of time I’ve been using them as well as the simple reason of liking how they look,

Have you ever tried a different style of shield? 

I’ve tried serval styles of shields including rounds, coffins, doors, and bucklers, but none of them felt as nice as a heater shield to me.

Who made it?

KFG was originally started by Dave Hayden and was one of his last projects he had worked on. I was asked to help bring it over the finish line by Stephen Sanford and together we finished the shield as a memorial item to Dave.

Have you ever had to fix/repair/refoam it since it's original creation?

I have made small repairs and standard upkeep to the shield, but am planning on refoaming it and touching up the paint job in the coming months.

What is your favorite move with the shield?

Do you have any interesting stories about the shield?

KFG has some very memorable moments for me so far. The one that stands out to me the most was the first time I used the shield’s power at Ghost of a Chance when we had to go to Hell to forge a hammer that was important for future success at the event. While we were there were being attacked by imps that would throw fireballs upon death and we were taking heavy casualties and bleeding resources as a result. I decided to use KFG’s power the next time I got hit by a fireball and because of KFG I was able to largely pull the attention off the imps to me so the rest of the party could work on forging the hammer. It was a very memorable moment for me and I’m very fond of it.