By Sam "Ezra" Teatum
Story-Tellers is usually a simple Friday night affair. There
are three small quests, each thrown by a
different person. You PC two of the quests and NPC one of them, and go
home satisfied. It’s an opportunity for people to do smaller, more personal
stories, to sow the seeds of a new plot, or just have less experienced EHs try
their hands at throwing a quest. It’s been a staple of the Realms calendar for
10 years.
This years Story-Tellers was a bit different. This year we
had a whole weekend of questing! There were 2 quests on Friday night, 5 on
Saturday, and 3 more on Sunday, with another story running continuously
throughout the weekend, thrown by a variety of different EHs and casts.
Describing them all would take some time, so here’s a quick
synopsis of each quest.
Friday:
·
The famous Randyland Reality Eggs made their
triumphant return! The heroes of the realms hunted all across site for them,
only to find them back where we began.
·
A mysterious set of riddles appeared in the
center of the tavern, with the answers held by various monsters and inhabitants
of Wendmor. Through trickery, negotiation and violence (mostly violence,) we
collected the answers, solved the riddle, and were rewarded with treasure!
Saturday:
·
The Adventurer’s Guild sent us to stop some
bandits attacking a town in Wendmor. What started as a simple job became a
run-in with some trolls, a minotaur, and finally a pair of demons who were
attempting to destroy the world. Just another days work for the Adventurer’s
Guild!
·
Tricky things were afoot in the dreaming! The
adventurers fought zombies, bandits, and dragons as they sought to fix a
mysterious fountain, a “birthplace of life.” After a harsh fight, the heroes
had to ferry “dragon fruit” (water balloons) back to the fountain, as zombies
attempted to burst them. In the end, the fountain was fixed, and in its waters,
a magic sword was forged.
·
The lands of Rua Thar Cinn were plunged into
chaos with an outbreak of paradoxes. The Avatar of Chronos appeared and asked
us to set things right. (He also informed us that Chronos is in the market for
a new champion, if that’s the kind of thing you’d be interested in.) The heroes
dealt with a cleaning up paradoxes and setting time right again. Did they
succeed? I don’t know, because midway through the quest, I made the mistake of
catching a Time Snarl when it was thrown at me, and was removed from the quest.
Which brings us to the next quest…
·
Some idiot fell through a Time Snarl and was held
hostage by a drow goddess! The adventurers who hoped to rescue him found
themselves racing to find the pieces of Ezra’s fractured psyche before an angry
squad of drow caught him, in a high-stakes game of manhunt! Ultimately, they
were successful… more or less. Just don’t ask Ezra why he’s a dark elf now.
·
A strange organization opposing the Risen
Kingdom requested the aid of adventurers to collect chemicals to build a
strange magitek weapon. But complications arose as the heroes encountered
resistance from the Risen Kingdom themselves! The night quickly became an
intense fight for survival, and in the end, the heroes tracked the Risen
Kingdom’s forces back to their portal. The portal was closed, but at great
cost- in the attempt to seal it, the adventurer named Orion jumped in, and it
closed behind him!
·
Oh, and during the day, Rosetta took a Reality
Egg, and with the help of some trusted friends, used it to make a Rune of
Reality.
Sunday: (This is all secondhand, as I was unable to make it
on Sunday)
·
Throughout the weekend, the players had been
interacting with a number of disembodied voices called “Small Gods”, who were
in competition to ascend to godhood. Over the course of the weekend, the
players had the opportunity to help the small gods, giving them strength by
naming them, designing their holy symbols, and beginning to worship them. On
Sunday, the heroes finally had to choose who would be the lucky contestant to
ascend- and instead they made a new option. With the heroes’ help, the Small
Gods ascended to demigodhood as a family.
·
The players went to rescue Orion! I haven’t been
able to find out much about this quest. Geez, I hope it went well.
·
The players were given the chance to go anywhere
(or at least into a simulation thereof) using the Delta of Infinite
Possibilities. They chose to see how the Risen Kingdom rose in the first place,
and learned much.
What I loved about this year’s Story-tellers was the staff’s
dedication to their players. Everyone had the chance to feel involved and
engaged- the staff went out of their way to make sure that everyone got their
own “moment.” Whether it was a player getting his family blade reforged into a
magic blade, getting to make a holy symbol for a god, or getting a whole quest
thrown for their character, the EHs showed a willingness to roll with the
punches and give the players agency on a scope I rarely see in the Realms. The
level of effort put in by the Event Holders, Magic Marshalls, and NPC's was above
and beyond the call of duty throughout the entire weekend, and it’s that that makes next year’s
Story-Tellers a can’t-miss event.
