This year at Feast of the Leviathan XVIII the Heroes of the Western Flank were recognized for their service to the community. When I first envisioned this group, I hoped to both publicly recognize and thank those who serve our community and inspire others who have the potential to become major contributors to the Realms as well. Anyone can become a hero, as long as they are willing to donate their time and effort. The Realms always needs monsters to keep at bay, villagers to save, and goblins to outwit. Players new and old can make a very real contribution to the game by stepping out of their usual character and into the skin of a zombie, kobold, or demon. And if combat NPC'ing does not suit you, event holders also need heroes who can organize costumes, facilitate encounters, or role-play. Although it is clear that NPCs are essential to the success of each and every quest, we as a community often forget to recognize them for their hard work. Anyone who has served on the Western Flank knows that it can be an exhausting day and those individuals that serve us regularly deserve our respect and praise.
Heroes of the Western Flank can be recognized by the black belt that they wear while NPC'ing, and it is a symbol of that person’s commitment to helping the community. In addition, members are awarded pins annually to recognize their continued service to the Realms. This year, belts and pins were awarded to people who NPC’d four or more events during the 2015 calendar year. Heroes can continue to earn pins annually, while new heroes are awarded both a belt and a pin.
In an attempt to further thank our heroes, they are invited to participate in a raffle. Each hero is given a number of tickets equal to the number of events that they NPC'd the previous year.The more the hero NPCs, the more likely they are to win in the raffle. Raffle items include items meant to help the NPC such as black pouches, slip-cover face masks, black shield covers, black-socked weapons, and black NPC tunics. Additionally, some raffle items are magic items that the adventurer could have picked up on their travels while they were away. This year, we raffled off two magic items. Each item in the raffle is a token of our gratitude.
Because pins and belts were awarded to community members who were in attendance at Feast of Leviathan and submitted a form while there, please let us know if you, or someone you know was not awarded a deserved belt or pin this year. Please contact me at lani.gwen@yahoo.com and we can arrange an event to pass along these tokens of our appreciation.
2015 Heroes of the Western Flank:
- Cody Garcia - Kirk
- Michael Durocher - Vuel
- Jacob Ruggiero - Grebinar
- Steven Yazinka - Kaelkatar
- Ethan Goldman - Jean-Baptiste
- Michael Zajac - Swoop
- Brian Rubenstein - Crispin Storm
- Samuel Teatum - Ezra Chandler
- Andrew Whitty - Nymbous
- *Nick Quadrini - Raynor
- *James Murphy - Sir Tao Ya Kang
- *Alysha Metcalf - Kyntela
- *Angie Gray - Phoenix
- *Ben Hamilton - Kyro
- *David Rubenstein - Tirvanel
- *Mike Doherty - Jayne Wrath
- *Josh Learned - Shandar
- *Diana LaPierre - Kiira
- *Callahan Marsden - Syruss
- *Jason Rosa - Aeston
- Jennifer DeNardis-Rosa - Areni
- *Lani Grayson - Gwen
- *Jeremy Grayson - Nighthawk
Thank you to our heroes for your support of our community!
[Editor's Note: A (*) denotes those individuals who also received a belt and pin at last year's Leviathan and received a pin only this year. As mentioned above, this is not an exhaustive list of all those who NPC'd four or more events in 2015, but a list of those who were in attendance at this year's Feast of Leviathan and submitted the Heroes of the Western Flank survey form while there.]