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Friday, February 28, 2020
What you Missed - The Event Holder's Meeting
Welcome back, to another exciting episode of What You Missed, with your returning EHC secretary and Bingo champion, Pi (Kwido) (Alpacasaurus) Fisher. I hope you're ready, because this year's EHC was pretty memorable in terms of how many proposals passed. Out of 38 proposals, a whopping 35 of them passed, with only 2 proposals failing. One proposal was pulled due to a similar proposal passing, causing lots of Bingo players to wish that square had slightly different wording. (Also in Bingo news, nobody was able to mark the box for three proposals failing in a row.) Anyway, time to talk about what's changing in 2020.
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One of the biggest changes to the game will be the standardization of non-com garb. If you're a player who can't be in combat, you should plan to acquire some bright yellow armbands. The more obvious they are, the better. If you're on a quest and see someone wearing yellow armbands or a yellow headband, that person for Out of Characters reasons wants to avoid getting hit, so don't try to hit them. Instead, if you have reason to attack their character, simply point at them and say "die". If you're within 10 feet of them with a melee weapon, or if you have a ranged weapon, that will be enough to kill them. This is to make the game a safer place for those who enjoy the roleplaying but can't risk the combat.
Masterwork Hammer is the spell to receive the biggest up power this year. A previously rare spell, Masterwork Hammer now gets to really compete with Seed of Life. Where Seed of Life can slowly bring people back to life forever, Masterwork Hammer can now slowly repair people's armor forever. You might be asking if it already did that, and you'd be partially right. It used to be able to partially repair any completely broken armor, bringing it back up to 1-point armor. Casters with armor could get their armor completely repaired by this, but fighters were unable to get a full repair from this. With the change, it takes twice as long, but it will completely repair the armor someone is wearing. If
you're a fighter excited to try getting your armor repaired this way, be warned that you won't be able to move very far during the time it takes to fix your armor; as with Heal Limb, the caster is unable to move their feet while doing these repairs. If you're a caster planning to take this spell, there are a couple other changes, but I think it's safe to assume that you didn't already have the spell, so I'll let the new text describe the rest of the spell when the new Omnibus comes out. (If you did already have the spell, feel free to reach out to me, and I'll go over the minor other changes.)
The next change is intended to simplify the rules a bit. A couple years ago, we made it so all regenerations took (usually) 120 seconds, rather than some taking 120 seconds, some taking 60 seconds, and some taking 200 seconds. In line with that, there are some other things that used to take strange amounts of time that now take 120 seconds: fixing a bow, fixing a broken implement, and recovering from being flatted. If you're a fighter, the only times you'll need to count are 15 seconds (if you're using someone's Potion of Repair Armor), 120 second (if you're regenerating or repairing a bow), and 10 minutes (if you're poisoned). Oh, if you're diseased, regenerating will take twice as long, but just think of that as 120 seconds twice.
Uhh...oops? I guess that's not true anymore. Seed of Life has been steadily getting stronger for the past few years, and this year is no exception. While Seed of Life usually takes 120 seconds, the caster has the option to speed it up a little. By focusing on one person at a time, they can cut the regeneration time down to 90 seconds. If you're diseased, it gets cut down to 180 seconds. If they're doing this, they'll let you know, so you might not need to remember how long this one is, if you only want to remember the three durations I claimed.
Since poisons take the most time to recover from, I'd like to remind people what poisons are in the game. Obviously there's the combat call, but this merely kills you, with no time duration. The ones that have a duration are Sleep Poison, Truth Poison, and the new-and-improved Charm Poison. Gone are the days of Love Poison being able to make someone fall in love with you, putting some players in awkward positions they don't like. With Charm Poison, you are charmed into thinking that the first person you see is your Best Friend. Way less awkward for those of us who don't want to roleplay being in love with people we don't know very well. Quick thing while I'm talking about poisons: you don't have to brew poisons, and it's a little unclear if this is a change.
There are three changes to Magic Items this year. For one thing, if you already have Magic Items, you can get rid of the cards that describe how the items work. If you've found the cards useful during registration, you're welcome to keep using them; they're simply no longer required. Along with this, since it's good for players to be able to look up how their items work to refresh their minds, the list of Magic Items will be public on RealmsNet. It'll be published at the same time the new Omnibus is published, so keep an eye out. (The Omnibus will have a link to the list at the end of section 7.2. Once the Omnibus is out, this URL will work to jump to that section:
https://www.realmsnet.net/omnibus?year=2020#magic-item-rules .) The third change to Magic Items will make the items more common: rather than one magic item being released per event, multi-day events with multiple EHs will be able to release a Magic Item for each day. (Technically, one item for each Event Holder, but the number of EHs is based on how many days there are. If two EHs throw a three-day event, they'll only be able to release two Magic Items.)
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In my opinion, those are the big changes that are likely to affect the most people. While some of the proposals that follow are certainly important, I'll be trying to keep my descriptions of them short, so that you can finish reading in one sitting.
The procedures the Arbitration Committee follows are still written and revised by the AC, but now the Omnibus has a link to those procedures. Also, the AC now has to notify the EH list of any issues that are taking an especially long time to resolve.
When you're diseased, it takes twice as much healing to make you better. If you die while you're diseased, you need two raises cast on you to bring you back to life, without any other spells cast on you in between.
This year and going forward, grandfathering will probably be much more limited. If you have spells that no longer exist, or at circles that are no longer legal, remove those from your build, and then you may replace them will spells from your Spell Mastery.
There's a new first-circle spell, Mentor, which lets you teach spells from your Spell Mastery, rather than the normal requirement of having the spell in your build.
If you're able to satisfy the requirements for multiple spells at a time, you may cast multiple spells at once. However, only one of those spells can have a Verbal Component, so you can't have the words you say count as verbals for multiple spells at a time.
Constructing 6'6" weapons with 3' pieces of pipe foam is now a little easier, since the squish tip is now allowed to be longer than the minimum 2". Also, the thickness of bamboo for weapons is now better specified, but it's up to you how to measure the bamboo.
If you have the spell Light, it's now spelled out that you're allowed to use electronic lights, as long as you check them in with a marshal before use.
If you learn Strange Brew, you're now able to learn how to brew Potion of Séance as one of your options.
Ghost Blade now gives two castings instead of one.
Assassin's Blade and Masterwork Hammer now have to be weapons within your restriction, so I'll no longer carry a Masterwork Hammer I can't attack with.
The following rules work as you thought they did: you can't target someone's head or neck with ranged weapons; you can't swing an arrow/javelin as if it were a sword; if you start a spell and then go do something else, you have to restart instead of just continuing where you left off; Enfeeble Being might take away only some abilities of a monster; Repair Item can fix multiple objects if those
objects are all armor being worn by one person; you can't give someone your enchanted armor and have the caster still able to fix it for free; Resist Magic can resist magical effects; crossbow bolts can only be used with crossbows, and those are non-standard weapons needing to be checked in; the Players' Rep gets to introduce themselves at the beginning of the EHC; Armored Cloak (and other
spells that make you say some OOC calls) don't interrupt verbals; and you can enchant a javelin or spear with the weapon call spells.
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The following changes are ones I really expect won't matter to you, but we voted on them, so I'll bring them up.
The section on Currency is being updated. It looked a bit out of date. Also, Part 7: Realms Administration is being split into 3 parts, one of which will have a section on what a proposal needs.
Finally, the most important proposal. I know it's the most important one, because it was the very last proposal we voted on, and more people used their blue cards during this proposal than during any other proposal. There are 419 instances of the word "spellcaster" in the 2019 Omnibus, and there are 9 instances where we got lazy and wrote "caster". These 9 occurrences are in the following locations: one instance in 6.3, Spell Components; one instance in 6.4, Alchemy; two instances in 6.5, Spell Sash Caveat; one instance in 6.8, Create Poison; one instance in 6.8, Enchant Armor; one instance in 6.8, Enchant Weapon; and one instance in 6.8; Implement.
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If you have any more questions about any of these changes, please feel free to reach out to me, either by Facebook or by email, and I'll be happy to walk you through any of the ones you don't understand. I look forward to seeing many of you next year at the Players' Meeting and Event Holders' Council. And remember: a good proposal title tells me what the proposal does.
Yours in Service,
Pi (Alpacasaurus) (Kwido) Fisher
----------
One of the biggest changes to the game will be the standardization of non-com garb. If you're a player who can't be in combat, you should plan to acquire some bright yellow armbands. The more obvious they are, the better. If you're on a quest and see someone wearing yellow armbands or a yellow headband, that person for Out of Characters reasons wants to avoid getting hit, so don't try to hit them. Instead, if you have reason to attack their character, simply point at them and say "die". If you're within 10 feet of them with a melee weapon, or if you have a ranged weapon, that will be enough to kill them. This is to make the game a safer place for those who enjoy the roleplaying but can't risk the combat.
Masterwork Hammer is the spell to receive the biggest up power this year. A previously rare spell, Masterwork Hammer now gets to really compete with Seed of Life. Where Seed of Life can slowly bring people back to life forever, Masterwork Hammer can now slowly repair people's armor forever. You might be asking if it already did that, and you'd be partially right. It used to be able to partially repair any completely broken armor, bringing it back up to 1-point armor. Casters with armor could get their armor completely repaired by this, but fighters were unable to get a full repair from this. With the change, it takes twice as long, but it will completely repair the armor someone is wearing. If
you're a fighter excited to try getting your armor repaired this way, be warned that you won't be able to move very far during the time it takes to fix your armor; as with Heal Limb, the caster is unable to move their feet while doing these repairs. If you're a caster planning to take this spell, there are a couple other changes, but I think it's safe to assume that you didn't already have the spell, so I'll let the new text describe the rest of the spell when the new Omnibus comes out. (If you did already have the spell, feel free to reach out to me, and I'll go over the minor other changes.)
The next change is intended to simplify the rules a bit. A couple years ago, we made it so all regenerations took (usually) 120 seconds, rather than some taking 120 seconds, some taking 60 seconds, and some taking 200 seconds. In line with that, there are some other things that used to take strange amounts of time that now take 120 seconds: fixing a bow, fixing a broken implement, and recovering from being flatted. If you're a fighter, the only times you'll need to count are 15 seconds (if you're using someone's Potion of Repair Armor), 120 second (if you're regenerating or repairing a bow), and 10 minutes (if you're poisoned). Oh, if you're diseased, regenerating will take twice as long, but just think of that as 120 seconds twice.
Uhh...oops? I guess that's not true anymore. Seed of Life has been steadily getting stronger for the past few years, and this year is no exception. While Seed of Life usually takes 120 seconds, the caster has the option to speed it up a little. By focusing on one person at a time, they can cut the regeneration time down to 90 seconds. If you're diseased, it gets cut down to 180 seconds. If they're doing this, they'll let you know, so you might not need to remember how long this one is, if you only want to remember the three durations I claimed.
Since poisons take the most time to recover from, I'd like to remind people what poisons are in the game. Obviously there's the combat call, but this merely kills you, with no time duration. The ones that have a duration are Sleep Poison, Truth Poison, and the new-and-improved Charm Poison. Gone are the days of Love Poison being able to make someone fall in love with you, putting some players in awkward positions they don't like. With Charm Poison, you are charmed into thinking that the first person you see is your Best Friend. Way less awkward for those of us who don't want to roleplay being in love with people we don't know very well. Quick thing while I'm talking about poisons: you don't have to brew poisons, and it's a little unclear if this is a change.
There are three changes to Magic Items this year. For one thing, if you already have Magic Items, you can get rid of the cards that describe how the items work. If you've found the cards useful during registration, you're welcome to keep using them; they're simply no longer required. Along with this, since it's good for players to be able to look up how their items work to refresh their minds, the list of Magic Items will be public on RealmsNet. It'll be published at the same time the new Omnibus is published, so keep an eye out. (The Omnibus will have a link to the list at the end of section 7.2. Once the Omnibus is out, this URL will work to jump to that section:
https://www.realmsnet.net/omnibus?year=2020#magic-item-rules .) The third change to Magic Items will make the items more common: rather than one magic item being released per event, multi-day events with multiple EHs will be able to release a Magic Item for each day. (Technically, one item for each Event Holder, but the number of EHs is based on how many days there are. If two EHs throw a three-day event, they'll only be able to release two Magic Items.)
----------
In my opinion, those are the big changes that are likely to affect the most people. While some of the proposals that follow are certainly important, I'll be trying to keep my descriptions of them short, so that you can finish reading in one sitting.
The procedures the Arbitration Committee follows are still written and revised by the AC, but now the Omnibus has a link to those procedures. Also, the AC now has to notify the EH list of any issues that are taking an especially long time to resolve.
When you're diseased, it takes twice as much healing to make you better. If you die while you're diseased, you need two raises cast on you to bring you back to life, without any other spells cast on you in between.
This year and going forward, grandfathering will probably be much more limited. If you have spells that no longer exist, or at circles that are no longer legal, remove those from your build, and then you may replace them will spells from your Spell Mastery.
There's a new first-circle spell, Mentor, which lets you teach spells from your Spell Mastery, rather than the normal requirement of having the spell in your build.
If you're able to satisfy the requirements for multiple spells at a time, you may cast multiple spells at once. However, only one of those spells can have a Verbal Component, so you can't have the words you say count as verbals for multiple spells at a time.
Constructing 6'6" weapons with 3' pieces of pipe foam is now a little easier, since the squish tip is now allowed to be longer than the minimum 2". Also, the thickness of bamboo for weapons is now better specified, but it's up to you how to measure the bamboo.
If you have the spell Light, it's now spelled out that you're allowed to use electronic lights, as long as you check them in with a marshal before use.
If you learn Strange Brew, you're now able to learn how to brew Potion of Séance as one of your options.
Ghost Blade now gives two castings instead of one.
Assassin's Blade and Masterwork Hammer now have to be weapons within your restriction, so I'll no longer carry a Masterwork Hammer I can't attack with.
The following rules work as you thought they did: you can't target someone's head or neck with ranged weapons; you can't swing an arrow/javelin as if it were a sword; if you start a spell and then go do something else, you have to restart instead of just continuing where you left off; Enfeeble Being might take away only some abilities of a monster; Repair Item can fix multiple objects if those
objects are all armor being worn by one person; you can't give someone your enchanted armor and have the caster still able to fix it for free; Resist Magic can resist magical effects; crossbow bolts can only be used with crossbows, and those are non-standard weapons needing to be checked in; the Players' Rep gets to introduce themselves at the beginning of the EHC; Armored Cloak (and other
spells that make you say some OOC calls) don't interrupt verbals; and you can enchant a javelin or spear with the weapon call spells.
----------
The following changes are ones I really expect won't matter to you, but we voted on them, so I'll bring them up.
The section on Currency is being updated. It looked a bit out of date. Also, Part 7: Realms Administration is being split into 3 parts, one of which will have a section on what a proposal needs.
Finally, the most important proposal. I know it's the most important one, because it was the very last proposal we voted on, and more people used their blue cards during this proposal than during any other proposal. There are 419 instances of the word "spellcaster" in the 2019 Omnibus, and there are 9 instances where we got lazy and wrote "caster". These 9 occurrences are in the following locations: one instance in 6.3, Spell Components; one instance in 6.4, Alchemy; two instances in 6.5, Spell Sash Caveat; one instance in 6.8, Create Poison; one instance in 6.8, Enchant Armor; one instance in 6.8, Enchant Weapon; and one instance in 6.8; Implement.
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If you have any more questions about any of these changes, please feel free to reach out to me, either by Facebook or by email, and I'll be happy to walk you through any of the ones you don't understand. I look forward to seeing many of you next year at the Players' Meeting and Event Holders' Council. And remember: a good proposal title tells me what the proposal does.
Yours in Service,
Pi (Alpacasaurus) (Kwido) Fisher
Thursday, February 27, 2020
Ask Zarine #5
Mad'am Zarine,
I guess I can best sum up my problem by saying, I don't feel good enough. I look around me at a lot of my friends that I've known for years and I see people who are accomplished fighters or questers and friends who are leaders and I've never just really clicked with any aspect of the Realms. I just kind of feel like I'm here and that's the whole story. I do my best to cast spells when questing, I've gone to fight practices but I don't feel like I've actually become great at those things. I worry that people just sort of put up with me. What can I do to stand out or to feel more like I belong?
- Feeling Unvalued in Valehaven
********************
Oh, my poor dear, I know this problem only too well. When I first came to these lands I didn't know my place but plenty of other people seemed to think that they did. Instead of helping me to explore where I fit they tried to put me in a box. The box was determined by ridiculous things like being a girl, being young, who my friends were, what I looked like, and other absurd observations.
For years I tried to fit in that box that everyone else had made for me. Like you, I tried to be a good quester and cast my little stone heart out trying to save the realms from whatever new threat had emerged that weekend to disrupt our ill conceived gathering. I went to fight drills and tried my best, but there wasn't much training being done for my skill set and so I feebly tried to swing a sword that was far too large and heavy for my liking. While that did give me some useful experience in regards to handling parts of my professional life now, I find that even in that arena I would have been far better off practicing with a dagger.
I also felt like people were simply putting up with me. I was just there, like a painting. Sometimes people looked at me and thought I was pretty and I felt so relieved that at least I wasn't useless. At least the box I was in was wrapped in lovely paper and tied with a neat little bow. When life gives you lemons make lemonade, right?
I took somewhat of a hiatus from social gatherings after my divorce and when I came back I found myself in the same damn box. Or perhaps I never quite left it. But either way I still felt like that background character in a play that has two lines that no one remembers, only that they had the most awkward delivery of all time. But time away and new experiences had taught me a lot and I wasn't the same shy and submissive young woman that I used to be. I wasn't alright with 'just making the best of it' anymore.
So why have I turned your question into a tale about myself? Because my earlier days in the Realms are a cautionary tale, dear Unvalued. I allowed other people to mold how I participated in my own life. I allowed other people's opinions to define me. It wasn't until I stopped caring about fitting into their preposterous box that I found out who I was. I was more than a pretty package. I was bigger than that tiny little container that they put me in. I was more than good enough.
So stop letting other people define you. You don't stand out when you try to fit into their box. If you're not good at the things that they are trying to wedge you into, find something else. Stop working so hard to fit into someone else's mold. That mold wasn't meant for you. There are more things to do in these lands than be a 'caster' or a 'fighter'. Think outside the bloody rule book and find your own path. Start working on accepting yourself for who you are and stop worrying about how other people see you. Start embracing what you are good at instead of what other people want you to do. Write your own damn story.
Turns out, when life gives you lemons you can make whatever the bloody hell you want to make with them. And if people don't like what you make, so what? Do you like it? Because that's what matters. So keep trying new recipes until you find the one you like, and don't worry, I promise you won't run out of lemons.
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
You! You! Fight to the Death 2020: Look Before You Leap Year
by Lani "Gwen" Jones
To my readers who have been adventuring under 2 years, I encourage you to attend this event and give it everything you’ve got. This is a low-stress opportunity to engage with your peers and try out the skills you’ve undoubtedly been practicing. Participating in tournaments can help you build your confidence, which is critical to success in the Realms and beyond. In addition to individual weapon style tournaments, you can also participate in team tournaments, which fosters excellent sportsmanship, clear communication, and most importantly, fun!
For you oldbies out there, consider coming out to cheer on our next generation of Realms leaders--they need your support and feedback to truly feel included in this community that we all call home. Be a role model (literally and figuratively)! Use this opportunity to show off your mad role-playing skills, your great attitudes, and provide feedback and guidance to our friends who one day will also tell heroic tales of their early tournaments to future generations at “blue-o-clock”. Hope to see you there!
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
What You Missed: BattlePet Edition!
The following is based on a true story.
You’re asleep, and dreaming. A small gray leopard appears before you; its spots shimmer in bright magical colors. Like a sphinx, its head appears human. In this case, it looks remarkably like DaniDanger of Folkstone. Those untamable hazel curls in her hair are unmistakable. A warm, motherly voice giggles in your ear, then addresses the leopard-child creature.
“Explain in your own words, who you are…”
“My name is Danielle News-Reporter” replies the child.
“You’re a news reporter? And who are you news-reporting for?” the unseen voice asks.
The child pauses for a moment, confused. “I forgot their name…” she admits. The other voice gently provides the answer: “for the View from Valehaven”. The child nods, then continues.
“This is about Battle Pets. Battle Pets battle the bad guys’ bad Battle Pets.” The child points to a diagram, seemingly drawn by her own hand. The fact that this leopard-child has humanoid hands to go with her humanoid head does not surprise you. “They get a lot of hearts," she continues, “You get to name them. And they’ll be with you every time you need them, they’ll always be on your back!” The child smiles a toothy smile, pleased with her News-Reporting so far.
“Ok! Can you show me where your Battle Pet is?” the voice asks.
The child turns and prances off, quickly climbing atop a fluffy pink cloud. Perhaps this is her den? She digs around, muttering commentary to herself while she goes about her task. It appears she might have misplaced it.
“While you look for your Battle Pet, I got a question," prompts the voice, trying to retain some of the child’s attention, “How did you find your Battle Pet?” It is clear to you that the voice is asking about the original “finding”, as opposed to the “re-finding” which is currently in progress.
“It was in an egg.” states the child. Then she rolls over to face you and says “Well, I can’t find my Battle Pet. Well, I technically drawed my Battle Pet.” She holds up the diagram again, and directs your attention to a crudely drawn… something… in the middle of the page. The child is oblivious to the possibility that the elongated forms in the drawing would resemble anything inappropriate. Two small eyes and a whiskered nose give the rendition a cute little face, so you decide to accept the child’s explanation and banish any other meaning from your mind. “So that’s what my Battle Pet looks like, but I’m going to use a demonstrator.” The child presents a small tabby kitten.
The unseen voice is eager to continue. “Can you tell everybody what your Battle Pet’s name is?”
“Terry!”
“Terry, ok. And Terry is a what?”
“A seal!” Ah yes, of course. Now you see it. The drawing is clearly of a seal. Clearly. “She’s a water type!”
“A water type! What different types can you be?”
“Um… water, fire, earth, and air.” Suddenly the child turns to face you again. “Guess what!”
The voice replies with a well-practiced quip, “Chicken butt!”
The child smiles at the traditional phrase and continues with her story unimpeded. “There’s a fire dog in the house!”
“There’s a fire dog in our house?!” the voice knowingly exclaims. “Do you want to come down from your cloud and we’ll explain the next Battle Pet?”
The child agrees and the dream fades to black for a moment. When it returns, you find yourself at eye level with SavageSarah, DaniDanger’s younger sister. Her legs bear a slight resemblance to the leopard-child from before, but above the waist she appears humanoid. Her purple shirt and short blonde hair remind you of Rekees of Chimeron.
The unseen voice also returns. “Hiii SavageSarah” it coos.
SavageSarah responds by sticking her tongue out and waving a small puppy in her hand. “Woof woof!” she says, imitating the familiar. “Woof woof! Woof woof!”
“What’s that Sarah?” the voice asks.
“A dog!” she blurts out. “Woof!”
“What’s the dog’s name?”
“Um, Hattie!” she proclaims with a little bounce.
“Hattie! Can you show us Hattie’s collar?”
SavageSarah flips the dog around wordlessly. You catch a glimpse of the collar and make a mental note regarding the proper spelling of the animal’s name.
“Oooh, that’s very nice!” says the voice. “Is Hattie a Battle Pet?”
The child nods, seeming to use her entire body to perform the action.
“Did you get a Battle Pet at Creathorne?”
SavageSarah shakes her head thrice, then suddenly remembers the correct answer and nods.
“No? Yes? Did you get them from R--”
Dreaming-Leopard-Child-DaniDanger suddenly comes charging up from behind SavageSarah and proclaims “I’m a silly girl!” before running back out of your sight.
The voice chuckles and restarts the question. “Did you get them from Rhiassa Cub Care?”
SavageSarah stares over your shoulder for a moment before nodding so deeply that you can see the back of her head. She stumbles backwards slightly, as if thrown off balance by her own movement.
The voice continues, clearly trying to coax more information out of the child. “Do you remember anything about how you got the Battle Pet? Can you tell me?”
“Yes,” SavageSarah says, nodding less vigorously. She then proceeds to continue nodding for several more seconds, as if meaning to convey the tale through repetitive head motions alone. “Yes,” she says again, seeming to conclude her story.
“Wow, that’s impressive.” The voice laughs, acknowledging the futility of the current line of questioning. It tries a different approach. “Can you show me-- what can Hattie do? Go ahead, show me.”
SavageSarah seems to understand, as she stands up and places Hattie on the ground. A leash connects the dog to the child’s hand. The animal starts to trot around in little circles when DaniDanger comes stomping back. “I wanna take your Hattie! Ahhhh! Hehe!”
“Nooo…” the voice chides with a chuckle. “You’re not going to take Hattie.” You turn to look at DaniDanger as the voice wonders aloud, “You found a wolf, but where’s your seal?” It appears that DaniDanger has also conjured a large ball of magical blue energy in her other hand.
The leopard-girl smiles suspiciously, then runs in place. In lieu of an actual response, she says “Ahhhh! Let’s battle!”
“Are you trying to be the Team Shadow person?” the voice asks. DaniDanger nods knowingly.
The voice takes advantage of the older sister’s more talkative nature and continues to ask questions. “Do you remember battling Team Shadow?”
“Yep” comes DaniDanger's response as she continues to run in place.
“What was it like?”
The leopard-child stops running to think about what she wants to say. “Guess what, the people that were them said no, we saw some people running but we don’t know them.” She bounces the ball of magical energy off the ground. It gets away from her, and she chases after it. With her focus split between speaking and chasing, the logic of her words gets lost and you have trouble understanding her. She is, after all, still a child. “Yeah! That’s their evil twin! But we know who they are! ‘Cause we saw… dub... And some of them had to wear sash-saw-es, so we could recognize them.”
“Oh, ok” says the Voice, apparently understanding what the child had said. “Do you remember who Team Shadow had for pets?”
SavageSarah pipes up helpfully from your feet. “Yes!”
“What did they have?” the voice asks the sisters.
DaniDanger answers again. “They had a lobster, a bull, and a spider.”
“A lobster and a bull and a spider? Wow, very New-England.” the voice comments. ‘What’s an England, and why is it new?’ you wonder. Your query goes unanswered. It doesn’t matter.
DaniDanger tosses the magic energy around again, and the voice continues. “Was it a lobster or a scorpion?”
“Scorpion, I think,” says DaniDanger, chasing the energy ball some more.
“They’re like almost the same, right?” prompts the voice.
The leopard-child takes a moment to collect herself, having caught up to her ball again. She responds with a “Yeah.”
The voice chuckles again at the young girl’s response. You look back down at SavageSarah, who seems to have little understanding of the current conversation.
DaniDanger resumes her impression of a Team Shadow person. “But I wanna take your Battle Pet! A-ha-ha! With battle!”
“Alright, how do we battle, girls?” asks the voice, rolling with the change in subject.
“We use cards!” DaniDanger explains excitedly. “My card goes here. And we get heart! I have one hundred hearts!” She is bouncing up and down with her magic ball and demonstration wolf.
“You have one hundred hearts? How many--” starts the unseen voice.
SavageSarah regains her understanding and jumps back into the discussion by saying “Me too!”
“You too? How many hearts does Hattie have?” the voice prompts.
“One-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight-nine-ten!” the younger child counts in one breath. Then she pauses to refill her lungs. “‘LEVEN!!” she screams.
“Alright, that’s a lot of hearts. Can you hold up Hattie for me one more time?”
SavageSarah bends over to pick up her Battle Pet as DaniDanger shouts what sounds like a battle cry. She charges at her sister with a “Yaaaahhh!” and they both run off around the trunk of a tree. Your vision fades again.
You’re back at eye level with SavageSarah, although this time she appears to be sitting on the lap of Iawen Penn of Eagle’s Rook. DaniDanger is perched nearby. The drow knight has often been seen wrangling these two small children, so you aren’t surprised to see her here now in your dream.
“Ok Sarah,” she says, “What are you trying to show people?”
SavageSarah opens her mouth, and a sound which vaguely resembles a word comes out. She tries to show you something, but she’s holding it just outside of your field of view. This is not a lucid dream, so you don’t have control over where you are looking.
“No, that’s not it, I flipped it for you.” Iawen says to the child. “What are you trying to show people?” she asks again.
SavageSarah moves her arm, and you can see that she is holding something in the shape of a playing card. It has a blue vortex on it. She flips it around in her hand, and the other side is yellow and brown. There appears to be a picture on one half of the card, but you don’t recognize it.
“Yes, is that what you think Battle Pets are like?” prompts the drow. SavageSarah holds the card in front of her face, but says nothing. “Yeah? Does Dani have a lot of these?” The child still does not respond. “Are Battle Pets also like Yo-sai? Or Yo-say?” Iawen turns and seems to address you directly for a moment. “I’m never going to remember how to pronounce that…”
SavageSarah finally responds. “Yeah!” That’s all she has to say.
Iawen turns her attention back to the girl on her lap. “Yes? So can you play with them not only in Rhiassa, you can play with them in Teng Hua?”
“Waaah” SavageSarah says in a way of response.
“Can you say Teng Hua?”
“Teng-waaah”
“Alright! Alright, let’s flip it to Dani” Iawen says as you turn to look at DaniDanger.
“Hello! It’s Dani New-Reporter Dani time to move your booty!” sings the dreaming-leopard-child. She’s holding a new diagram. There are lots of seals on it. Thankfully, this time she did not draw the seals with such long bodies.
“Alright, explain the Battle Pets drawing you made.”
“Um, so this is how, to scale… wait, is this upside-down?” She pulls the diagram back to check its orientation.
“I dunno, you tell me.” Iawen says.
DaniDanger finds that she is holding her drawing correctly. “So this is the scale of how my ratings of my seal, which he made. So you know he didn’t like fire,” she points to one of the seals on her drawing, and then another. “Earth… air… and wind.”
“Mm-hm, but what about the one with the fish?” Iawen interjects, pointing to the last seal on the drawing.
“He loves that.” DaniDanger says. “He’s water, which can always be what’s--” she tosses the drawing aside and changes the subject mid-sentence. “It’s time… it’s time to get real!” she sings.
“Your seal is time to get real?” Iawen asks the child. “How about you find your seal first?”
“Ok!” DaniDanger stands up and dances away, singing a tune.
Your attention turns back to the drow and she looks directly at you again. “So I think--”
SavageSarah lunges towards Iawen. “Hiiii I’m Dini and I’m…” she starts off imitating her older sister, but her words devolve into mouth-sounds again. The younger child hides her face behind the discarded drawing and Iawen laughs. “I think, the overwhelming response here is: What did you miss? You missed Battle Pets! And at least my kids, they had a lot of fun, even if they can’t explain all that they had fun with. Peace!”
The dream begins to fade for the final time, and you hear DaniDanger issue another battle cry from far off. Iawen glances in that direction, then looks back at you with a panicked face as you hear the leopard-child charge. The last thing you see is the drow’s face break into a loving smile as the child tackles her.
You’re asleep, and dreaming. A small gray leopard appears before you; its spots shimmer in bright magical colors. Like a sphinx, its head appears human. In this case, it looks remarkably like DaniDanger of Folkstone. Those untamable hazel curls in her hair are unmistakable. A warm, motherly voice giggles in your ear, then addresses the leopard-child creature.
“Explain in your own words, who you are…”
“My name is Danielle News-Reporter” replies the child.
“You’re a news reporter? And who are you news-reporting for?” the unseen voice asks.
The child pauses for a moment, confused. “I forgot their name…” she admits. The other voice gently provides the answer: “for the View from Valehaven”. The child nods, then continues.
“This is about Battle Pets. Battle Pets battle the bad guys’ bad Battle Pets.” The child points to a diagram, seemingly drawn by her own hand. The fact that this leopard-child has humanoid hands to go with her humanoid head does not surprise you. “They get a lot of hearts," she continues, “You get to name them. And they’ll be with you every time you need them, they’ll always be on your back!” The child smiles a toothy smile, pleased with her News-Reporting so far.
“Ok! Can you show me where your Battle Pet is?” the voice asks.
The child turns and prances off, quickly climbing atop a fluffy pink cloud. Perhaps this is her den? She digs around, muttering commentary to herself while she goes about her task. It appears she might have misplaced it.
“While you look for your Battle Pet, I got a question," prompts the voice, trying to retain some of the child’s attention, “How did you find your Battle Pet?” It is clear to you that the voice is asking about the original “finding”, as opposed to the “re-finding” which is currently in progress.
“It was in an egg.” states the child. Then she rolls over to face you and says “Well, I can’t find my Battle Pet. Well, I technically drawed my Battle Pet.” She holds up the diagram again, and directs your attention to a crudely drawn… something… in the middle of the page. The child is oblivious to the possibility that the elongated forms in the drawing would resemble anything inappropriate. Two small eyes and a whiskered nose give the rendition a cute little face, so you decide to accept the child’s explanation and banish any other meaning from your mind. “So that’s what my Battle Pet looks like, but I’m going to use a demonstrator.” The child presents a small tabby kitten.
The unseen voice is eager to continue. “Can you tell everybody what your Battle Pet’s name is?”
“Terry!”
“Terry, ok. And Terry is a what?”
“A seal!” Ah yes, of course. Now you see it. The drawing is clearly of a seal. Clearly. “She’s a water type!”
“A water type! What different types can you be?”
“Um… water, fire, earth, and air.” Suddenly the child turns to face you again. “Guess what!”
The voice replies with a well-practiced quip, “Chicken butt!”
The child smiles at the traditional phrase and continues with her story unimpeded. “There’s a fire dog in the house!”
“There’s a fire dog in our house?!” the voice knowingly exclaims. “Do you want to come down from your cloud and we’ll explain the next Battle Pet?”
The child agrees and the dream fades to black for a moment. When it returns, you find yourself at eye level with SavageSarah, DaniDanger’s younger sister. Her legs bear a slight resemblance to the leopard-child from before, but above the waist she appears humanoid. Her purple shirt and short blonde hair remind you of Rekees of Chimeron.
The unseen voice also returns. “Hiii SavageSarah” it coos.
SavageSarah responds by sticking her tongue out and waving a small puppy in her hand. “Woof woof!” she says, imitating the familiar. “Woof woof! Woof woof!”
“What’s that Sarah?” the voice asks.
“A dog!” she blurts out. “Woof!”
“What’s the dog’s name?”
“Um, Hattie!” she proclaims with a little bounce.
“Hattie! Can you show us Hattie’s collar?”
SavageSarah flips the dog around wordlessly. You catch a glimpse of the collar and make a mental note regarding the proper spelling of the animal’s name.
“Oooh, that’s very nice!” says the voice. “Is Hattie a Battle Pet?”
The child nods, seeming to use her entire body to perform the action.
“Did you get a Battle Pet at Creathorne?”
SavageSarah shakes her head thrice, then suddenly remembers the correct answer and nods.
“No? Yes? Did you get them from R--”
Dreaming-Leopard-Child-DaniDanger suddenly comes charging up from behind SavageSarah and proclaims “I’m a silly girl!” before running back out of your sight.
The voice chuckles and restarts the question. “Did you get them from Rhiassa Cub Care?”
SavageSarah stares over your shoulder for a moment before nodding so deeply that you can see the back of her head. She stumbles backwards slightly, as if thrown off balance by her own movement.
The voice continues, clearly trying to coax more information out of the child. “Do you remember anything about how you got the Battle Pet? Can you tell me?”
“Yes,” SavageSarah says, nodding less vigorously. She then proceeds to continue nodding for several more seconds, as if meaning to convey the tale through repetitive head motions alone. “Yes,” she says again, seeming to conclude her story.
“Wow, that’s impressive.” The voice laughs, acknowledging the futility of the current line of questioning. It tries a different approach. “Can you show me-- what can Hattie do? Go ahead, show me.”
SavageSarah seems to understand, as she stands up and places Hattie on the ground. A leash connects the dog to the child’s hand. The animal starts to trot around in little circles when DaniDanger comes stomping back. “I wanna take your Hattie! Ahhhh! Hehe!”
“Nooo…” the voice chides with a chuckle. “You’re not going to take Hattie.” You turn to look at DaniDanger as the voice wonders aloud, “You found a wolf, but where’s your seal?” It appears that DaniDanger has also conjured a large ball of magical blue energy in her other hand.
The leopard-girl smiles suspiciously, then runs in place. In lieu of an actual response, she says “Ahhhh! Let’s battle!”
“Are you trying to be the Team Shadow person?” the voice asks. DaniDanger nods knowingly.
The voice takes advantage of the older sister’s more talkative nature and continues to ask questions. “Do you remember battling Team Shadow?”
“Yep” comes DaniDanger's response as she continues to run in place.
“What was it like?”
The leopard-child stops running to think about what she wants to say. “Guess what, the people that were them said no, we saw some people running but we don’t know them.” She bounces the ball of magical energy off the ground. It gets away from her, and she chases after it. With her focus split between speaking and chasing, the logic of her words gets lost and you have trouble understanding her. She is, after all, still a child. “Yeah! That’s their evil twin! But we know who they are! ‘Cause we saw… dub... And some of them had to wear sash-saw-es, so we could recognize them.”
“Oh, ok” says the Voice, apparently understanding what the child had said. “Do you remember who Team Shadow had for pets?”
SavageSarah pipes up helpfully from your feet. “Yes!”
“What did they have?” the voice asks the sisters.
DaniDanger answers again. “They had a lobster, a bull, and a spider.”
“A lobster and a bull and a spider? Wow, very New-England.” the voice comments. ‘What’s an England, and why is it new?’ you wonder. Your query goes unanswered. It doesn’t matter.
DaniDanger tosses the magic energy around again, and the voice continues. “Was it a lobster or a scorpion?”
“Scorpion, I think,” says DaniDanger, chasing the energy ball some more.
“They’re like almost the same, right?” prompts the voice.
The leopard-child takes a moment to collect herself, having caught up to her ball again. She responds with a “Yeah.”
The voice chuckles again at the young girl’s response. You look back down at SavageSarah, who seems to have little understanding of the current conversation.
DaniDanger resumes her impression of a Team Shadow person. “But I wanna take your Battle Pet! A-ha-ha! With battle!”
“Alright, how do we battle, girls?” asks the voice, rolling with the change in subject.
“We use cards!” DaniDanger explains excitedly. “My card goes here. And we get heart! I have one hundred hearts!” She is bouncing up and down with her magic ball and demonstration wolf.
“You have one hundred hearts? How many--” starts the unseen voice.
SavageSarah regains her understanding and jumps back into the discussion by saying “Me too!”
“You too? How many hearts does Hattie have?” the voice prompts.
“One-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight-nine-ten!” the younger child counts in one breath. Then she pauses to refill her lungs. “‘LEVEN!!” she screams.
“Alright, that’s a lot of hearts. Can you hold up Hattie for me one more time?”
SavageSarah bends over to pick up her Battle Pet as DaniDanger shouts what sounds like a battle cry. She charges at her sister with a “Yaaaahhh!” and they both run off around the trunk of a tree. Your vision fades again.
You’re back at eye level with SavageSarah, although this time she appears to be sitting on the lap of Iawen Penn of Eagle’s Rook. DaniDanger is perched nearby. The drow knight has often been seen wrangling these two small children, so you aren’t surprised to see her here now in your dream.
“Ok Sarah,” she says, “What are you trying to show people?”
SavageSarah opens her mouth, and a sound which vaguely resembles a word comes out. She tries to show you something, but she’s holding it just outside of your field of view. This is not a lucid dream, so you don’t have control over where you are looking.
“No, that’s not it, I flipped it for you.” Iawen says to the child. “What are you trying to show people?” she asks again.
SavageSarah moves her arm, and you can see that she is holding something in the shape of a playing card. It has a blue vortex on it. She flips it around in her hand, and the other side is yellow and brown. There appears to be a picture on one half of the card, but you don’t recognize it.
“Yes, is that what you think Battle Pets are like?” prompts the drow. SavageSarah holds the card in front of her face, but says nothing. “Yeah? Does Dani have a lot of these?” The child still does not respond. “Are Battle Pets also like Yo-sai? Or Yo-say?” Iawen turns and seems to address you directly for a moment. “I’m never going to remember how to pronounce that…”
SavageSarah finally responds. “Yeah!” That’s all she has to say.
Iawen turns her attention back to the girl on her lap. “Yes? So can you play with them not only in Rhiassa, you can play with them in Teng Hua?”
“Waaah” SavageSarah says in a way of response.
“Can you say Teng Hua?”
“Teng-waaah”
“Alright! Alright, let’s flip it to Dani” Iawen says as you turn to look at DaniDanger.
“Hello! It’s Dani New-Reporter Dani time to move your booty!” sings the dreaming-leopard-child. She’s holding a new diagram. There are lots of seals on it. Thankfully, this time she did not draw the seals with such long bodies.
“Alright, explain the Battle Pets drawing you made.”
“Um, so this is how, to scale… wait, is this upside-down?” She pulls the diagram back to check its orientation.
“I dunno, you tell me.” Iawen says.
DaniDanger finds that she is holding her drawing correctly. “So this is the scale of how my ratings of my seal, which he made. So you know he didn’t like fire,” she points to one of the seals on her drawing, and then another. “Earth… air… and wind.”
“Mm-hm, but what about the one with the fish?” Iawen interjects, pointing to the last seal on the drawing.
“He loves that.” DaniDanger says. “He’s water, which can always be what’s--” she tosses the drawing aside and changes the subject mid-sentence. “It’s time… it’s time to get real!” she sings.
“Your seal is time to get real?” Iawen asks the child. “How about you find your seal first?”
“Ok!” DaniDanger stands up and dances away, singing a tune.
Your attention turns back to the drow and she looks directly at you again. “So I think--”
SavageSarah lunges towards Iawen. “Hiiii I’m Dini and I’m…” she starts off imitating her older sister, but her words devolve into mouth-sounds again. The younger child hides her face behind the discarded drawing and Iawen laughs. “I think, the overwhelming response here is: What did you miss? You missed Battle Pets! And at least my kids, they had a lot of fun, even if they can’t explain all that they had fun with. Peace!”
The dream begins to fade for the final time, and you hear DaniDanger issue another battle cry from far off. Iawen glances in that direction, then looks back at you with a panicked face as you hear the leopard-child charge. The last thing you see is the drow’s face break into a loving smile as the child tackles her.
Original performance by Janna "Iawen Penn", Danielle "DaniDanger", and Sarah "SavageSarah" Oakfellow-Pushee. Transcription by Ryan "Orion" Welch.
Monday, February 24, 2020
Friday, February 21, 2020
The Arrival of the BattlePets!
by Jennifer "Isla" Gallagher (photos by View Staff)
At Feast of Creathorne 2020 this past weekend, I was delighted to help the young adventurers that come to Rhiassa Cub Care find and train their BattlePets! BattlePets are special creatures that have elemental abilities and will learn from and protect young children that love them.
First, our young adventurers had to hunt down BattlePet eggs and bring them to the special hatching platform. When they performed the special dancing, it slowly caused the eggs to hatch!
Once hatched, each adventurer bonded with a Battlepet. They were delighted with their new friends and set out to name them and give them special name tags!
Once named, the adventurers took to the Battlepet training center to see what element (Earth, Air, Fire, Water) their Battlepet took an interest in. They had to assist their BattlePet navigate a fire maze, teach them to fly, jump across boulders, and navigate a sea challenge avoiding octopuses!
Once they had completed the training, our brave young heroes diligently worked to increase their BattlePet's abilities by earning power gems through completing challenges. Some of the challenges included painting watercolor portraits of their BattlePet, Building their pet a weapon or a fortress, sculpting a statue of their BattlePet, and creating armor and healing potions for their BattlePets. It was great to see that even if the adventurers didn't want to increase their BattlePet's skills or abilities, all of my young friends really took to bonding with them!
After a peaceful time, the nefarious Team Shadow showed up to challenge our adventurers and their BattlePets!! After a quick dance-off, the Battlepets and the Shadowpets fought valiantly against eachother. The battle was tense, but our young heroes were victorious and ran Team Shadow off.... for now.
First, our young adventurers had to hunt down BattlePet eggs and bring them to the special hatching platform. When they performed the special dancing, it slowly caused the eggs to hatch!
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| Putting the BattlePets Eggs on the Hatching Platform |
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| Young Adventurers Naming Their BattlePets |
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| BattlePets Character Sheets with Names |
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| BattlePets Training: Going Through the Fire Maze |
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| BattlePets Training: Earth Rock Hopping |
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| BattlePets Training: Flight Training |
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| BattlePets Training: Water Octopus Tag |
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| BattlePet Challenges: Building a Bath Tub |
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| BattlePet Challenges: Portrait Painting |
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| BattlePet Challenges: Making Armor |
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| Team Shadow Arrives! |
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| Team Shadow and Their BattlePets |
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| The Dance Off! |
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| The BattlePets Face Off Against Each Other |
Thursday, February 20, 2020
What You Missed: Thursday Night Questing 4 & 5
By Kersten “Ypnn” Prince
As we were transported between rooms through the aid of some sort of machine, we learned the following about the various types of mold present in this place: Black mold had a tendency to move slowly but catch easily onto whoever it comes in contact with, resulting in a sticky situation as we had to cut ourselves and our friends free while trying to collect samples. Green mold tends to act in a more active manner, attacking us until we managed to cut it down in a specific but always changing order so that we could collect those samples. White mold tended to be exceptionally quick, flying around the space and harming only those it ran into as it dropped samples throughout the room. And lastly, yellow mold would send spores flying throughout the space, with the only way of keeping the spores in a condition fit for being a sample without being harmed was by catching them on top of shield and pieces of fabric.
While waiting between the transports, we continuously found the mold scientist to be a bit more obsessed with the mold than one would consider normal, and as we later found out this was due to the fact that the scientist was in fact not an actual scientist and got removed from the job. I also had an odd box appear to me from some group called “The Board” that contained a large number of the hope sources that we had found in our previous adventures, which we were able to use to improve OOP’s abilities in casting magic to be able to contain second circle spells. A final bit of information we happened across while speaking to the door scientist again is that the doors, which to my previous understanding had acted as portals between a lot of various places, were actually primarily connected to a place called the “Fortress of Doors”, so I will refer to it as such moving forward.
A few weeks later we were called in again to deal with the mold breaking out of its previous places. With the previous mold scientist having been fired, we met with a new mold scientist who claimed to be working on some fancy education thing called a “Ph.D” for the mold. While also rather obsessed with the mold, this scientist instead focused their fascination into having a machine that would clear a space of the mold. The machine needed time to turn on however, during which the mold would flock to its place to try to stop it, so they needed us to keep the mold away from it. Before turning it on, we had a bit of time to move items around the space to hinder the progress of the mold. During the first of these times, thanks to our previous success with the mold samples, they were able to give us the vaccine thing to keep us from being infested with the mold.
A few highlights from these encounters that are worth noting: First off, the mold had started mutating. Some of the mold types were merging with others, causing some mold to even be incorporeal with most of us (excluding one friend who in these regions picked up a spell to turn incorporeal) unable to affect it. Second off, I learned that the conga line we had previously encountered within the OOP is not solely the OOP but rather a spirit that it is possible to commune with, with which I was able to revive many of my friends before it vanished again. Thirdly, as we had collected more sources of hope throughout these spaces, towards the end we had counted the sources up to supposedly be just short of how much we needed to energize the OOP even more. Through the course of multiple attempts to find if there was a way to gain the last bit that we needed, my attempt to have my familiar Floof find the path to the source instead resulted in us communicating with “The Board” that had previously spoken to me when giving me the previous source. While we are still quite unsure of who they are and what their exact purpose is, they seem to have quite a bit of interest in our group as they know a lot of what is going on with us. We eventually came to the realization that we had a sufficient amount of source due to a miscount, which has now enabled us to have the ability to charge OOP with a third circle spell.
Editor's Note: Thursday Night Questing is a series of mini events for newbies. For more information, please visit https://sites.google.com/view/smas-tnq/home.
More than a Few Troubles with Mold
Since I released my guide to our travels through the doors, the scientists have called upon our adventuring group for a new problem: Mold. The door scientist we usually worked with introduced us to another one of these scientists, one who “specializes” in mold, who needed us to collect samples from the mold to make something called a “vaccine”. We were told that this would allow us to not be affected by the increasing mold once we died, a problem that had the potential to stop us from being able to revive our fallen friends.As we were transported between rooms through the aid of some sort of machine, we learned the following about the various types of mold present in this place: Black mold had a tendency to move slowly but catch easily onto whoever it comes in contact with, resulting in a sticky situation as we had to cut ourselves and our friends free while trying to collect samples. Green mold tends to act in a more active manner, attacking us until we managed to cut it down in a specific but always changing order so that we could collect those samples. White mold tended to be exceptionally quick, flying around the space and harming only those it ran into as it dropped samples throughout the room. And lastly, yellow mold would send spores flying throughout the space, with the only way of keeping the spores in a condition fit for being a sample without being harmed was by catching them on top of shield and pieces of fabric.
While waiting between the transports, we continuously found the mold scientist to be a bit more obsessed with the mold than one would consider normal, and as we later found out this was due to the fact that the scientist was in fact not an actual scientist and got removed from the job. I also had an odd box appear to me from some group called “The Board” that contained a large number of the hope sources that we had found in our previous adventures, which we were able to use to improve OOP’s abilities in casting magic to be able to contain second circle spells. A final bit of information we happened across while speaking to the door scientist again is that the doors, which to my previous understanding had acted as portals between a lot of various places, were actually primarily connected to a place called the “Fortress of Doors”, so I will refer to it as such moving forward.
A few weeks later we were called in again to deal with the mold breaking out of its previous places. With the previous mold scientist having been fired, we met with a new mold scientist who claimed to be working on some fancy education thing called a “Ph.D” for the mold. While also rather obsessed with the mold, this scientist instead focused their fascination into having a machine that would clear a space of the mold. The machine needed time to turn on however, during which the mold would flock to its place to try to stop it, so they needed us to keep the mold away from it. Before turning it on, we had a bit of time to move items around the space to hinder the progress of the mold. During the first of these times, thanks to our previous success with the mold samples, they were able to give us the vaccine thing to keep us from being infested with the mold.
A few highlights from these encounters that are worth noting: First off, the mold had started mutating. Some of the mold types were merging with others, causing some mold to even be incorporeal with most of us (excluding one friend who in these regions picked up a spell to turn incorporeal) unable to affect it. Second off, I learned that the conga line we had previously encountered within the OOP is not solely the OOP but rather a spirit that it is possible to commune with, with which I was able to revive many of my friends before it vanished again. Thirdly, as we had collected more sources of hope throughout these spaces, towards the end we had counted the sources up to supposedly be just short of how much we needed to energize the OOP even more. Through the course of multiple attempts to find if there was a way to gain the last bit that we needed, my attempt to have my familiar Floof find the path to the source instead resulted in us communicating with “The Board” that had previously spoken to me when giving me the previous source. While we are still quite unsure of who they are and what their exact purpose is, they seem to have quite a bit of interest in our group as they know a lot of what is going on with us. We eventually came to the realization that we had a sufficient amount of source due to a miscount, which has now enabled us to have the ability to charge OOP with a third circle spell.
Editor's Note: Thursday Night Questing is a series of mini events for newbies. For more information, please visit https://sites.google.com/view/smas-tnq/home.
Wednesday, February 19, 2020
What You Missed: Feast of Creathorne 2020
by Ryan "Orion" Welch
I enjoyed my time at this year’s Feast of Creathorne. The hall was spacious and comfortably warm. The things which I ate were also delicious, although I was a little disappointed that the dinner's side salad offering was so basic when the rest of the menu was well-crafted. With that said, I was impressed by the various meat dishes, which are clearly the stars of the show here.
The questing was also surprisingly enjoyable considering the outside temperature. The monsters which we encountered put up enough of a fight to keep us active and warm, but rarely overwhelmed us. A bowl full of stew also helped keep me braced against the cold air. I did not rejoin the party after the first foray because the sun, which could be clearly seen all day but only lightly felt, quickly dipped below the horizon.
The Physical Challenge was a neat idea. I was immensely grateful that it was conducted indoors. I also had a pleasant time socializing with my feast-goers, and I even had a winning day at the blackjack table, which I often find to be an elusive achievement. I can easily say that I am looking forward to the offerings of Creathorne’s kitchen again next year.
In service to the Realms
Captain Orion Mars, Squire to His Majesty King Alexander Cecil
I enjoyed my time at this year’s Feast of Creathorne. The hall was spacious and comfortably warm. The things which I ate were also delicious, although I was a little disappointed that the dinner's side salad offering was so basic when the rest of the menu was well-crafted. With that said, I was impressed by the various meat dishes, which are clearly the stars of the show here.
The questing was also surprisingly enjoyable considering the outside temperature. The monsters which we encountered put up enough of a fight to keep us active and warm, but rarely overwhelmed us. A bowl full of stew also helped keep me braced against the cold air. I did not rejoin the party after the first foray because the sun, which could be clearly seen all day but only lightly felt, quickly dipped below the horizon.
The Physical Challenge was a neat idea. I was immensely grateful that it was conducted indoors. I also had a pleasant time socializing with my feast-goers, and I even had a winning day at the blackjack table, which I often find to be an elusive achievement. I can easily say that I am looking forward to the offerings of Creathorne’s kitchen again next year.
In service to the Realms
Captain Orion Mars, Squire to His Majesty King Alexander Cecil
Tuesday, February 18, 2020
What You Missed: Feast of Creathorne 2020 - Photo Edition
Photos by View Staff unless otherwise noted
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| photo by Michelle LaPlant |
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| photo by Michelle LaPlant |
Monday, February 17, 2020
Friday, February 14, 2020
Merchants and Vendors of the Realms
On January 31, Ed "Tuilli" Drummon posed the following question to the Realms Facebook Group:
Hey all! Who here makes stuff for our game? List it here:
List your shop name, your character name, and what you make!
The responses poured in. Here is the compilation of what people are selling in the Realms.
(Compiled by Becky Baron)
Nathan “Avernus” Menard
Wares: Weapons
Daniel “DaniDanger” Oakfellow-Pushee (with help from Janna “Iawen” Oakfellow-Pushee)
Shop Name: DaniDanger’s Apple Treasures
Wares: Apple-based foods, art, found goods
Anthony “Fro” Quintana
Wares: Armor (not chainmail), garb, props, foam weapons
Joshua “Garuda” Barnett
Wares: Bad Decisions
Ethan “Jean Baptise” Goldman
Wares: Jerky
Casey “Karmha Celestine-Cooke” Lemay
Shop Name: Karmha Creations
Wares: Sewn banners, tabards, hoods, cloaks. Leather armor, pouches, masks. 3d printed props. Embroidered things. Pouches, belt accessories, spell props
Becky “Kovaks” Baron
Wares: Leather-bound runebooks, leather-bound omnibuses, weapons, chainmail pouches/coifs, simple leatherwork projects, custom gaming mins
Player Name: Stephen “Laika” Sanford
Wares: Electronics/lighting props, 3d printing, laser cut/etching/CNCing, leatherworking, weapons making, foamsmithing
Player Name: John “Gordon Lightfoot” Rescigno
Shop Name: Lightfoot Leatherworks
Wares: Leather armor and accessories
Kim “Mayumi” and Dennis “Katsuie” Coffey
Wares: Sewn garb, corsets. Props, drinking gourds, implement staves. Weapons. Decorated boxes. Knit and crochet goods.
Jason and Jennifer Rosa
Shop Name: The Gilded Lion
Wares: Custom Realms-themed board games
Player Name: Arthur “Aiden” Granger
Shop Name: Mercenary Market
Wares: Chainmail jewelry, armor, adornments. Weapons, EVA props
Cal “Syruss O'Leary” Marsden
Shop Name: Neden Forge
Wares: Plastidip shields, weapons, and throwing weapons. IC spellbooks. Barrels and decorative hydroflasks.
Maryanne “Shalindra” English-Betie
Shop Name: Oddities and Commodities
Wares: IC spell props (counters, bases for implements, timers, lights, painted boxes), EVA foam hair clips, caster gloves, horns. Character commissions.
Megan “Ayuchi Kyomi” and Steven “Therian” Matulewicz
Shop Name: Realms Outfitters
Wares: Clothes, questing accessories, feast gear, armor, jewelry, leather goods, homemade canned goods.
Andy “Shean O'Quinnlin” Disbrow
Wares: Ceramic stuff, heavy wool cloaks and stuff, wood stuff, beers, wines, and meads, leather stuff, and more.
James “Tao” Murphy
Wares: Dessert bacon, mug rental, tea/cocoa/noodles, casino stuff, OOC magic item cards
Sam “Sivf” Sherman
Wares: Chainmail dice jewelry, leather working, chainmail, soon: IRL metal forging, felt familiars.
Lynna “Nova Starr” Gallo
Shop Name: Starry Knight Brewery
Wares: Mead (Must be 21+)
Eren “Tazzia” Pils-Martin
Shop Name: The Oddities Shop
Wares: Sewing, crocheting, leather work, props. Mostly custom orders.
Jen “Vandoria” Cloutier
Shop Name: Vandoria's Vestments
Wares: Sewn garb including shirts, pants, cloaks, hoods, jerkins, dresses, jackets, tabards, heraldry, etc.
Sara “Zarine” Jessop
Wares: IC Tavern at big weekend events, with boozey and non-boozey drinks, table games, cheese, cigars, and fireside entertainment.
Hey all! Who here makes stuff for our game? List it here:
List your shop name, your character name, and what you make!
The responses poured in. Here is the compilation of what people are selling in the Realms.
(Compiled by Becky Baron)
Nathan “Avernus” Menard
Wares: Weapons
Daniel “DaniDanger” Oakfellow-Pushee (with help from Janna “Iawen” Oakfellow-Pushee)
Shop Name: DaniDanger’s Apple Treasures
Wares: Apple-based foods, art, found goods
Anthony “Fro” Quintana
Wares: Armor (not chainmail), garb, props, foam weapons
Joshua “Garuda” Barnett
Wares: Bad Decisions
Ethan “Jean Baptise” Goldman
Wares: Jerky
Casey “Karmha Celestine-Cooke” Lemay
Shop Name: Karmha Creations
Wares: Sewn banners, tabards, hoods, cloaks. Leather armor, pouches, masks. 3d printed props. Embroidered things. Pouches, belt accessories, spell props
Becky “Kovaks” Baron
Wares: Leather-bound runebooks, leather-bound omnibuses, weapons, chainmail pouches/coifs, simple leatherwork projects, custom gaming mins
Player Name: Stephen “Laika” Sanford
Wares: Electronics/lighting props, 3d printing, laser cut/etching/CNCing, leatherworking, weapons making, foamsmithing
Player Name: John “Gordon Lightfoot” Rescigno
Shop Name: Lightfoot Leatherworks
Wares: Leather armor and accessories
Kim “Mayumi” and Dennis “Katsuie” Coffey
Wares: Sewn garb, corsets. Props, drinking gourds, implement staves. Weapons. Decorated boxes. Knit and crochet goods.
Jason and Jennifer Rosa
Shop Name: The Gilded Lion
Wares: Custom Realms-themed board games
Player Name: Arthur “Aiden” Granger
Shop Name: Mercenary Market
Wares: Chainmail jewelry, armor, adornments. Weapons, EVA props
Cal “Syruss O'Leary” Marsden
Shop Name: Neden Forge
Wares: Plastidip shields, weapons, and throwing weapons. IC spellbooks. Barrels and decorative hydroflasks.
Maryanne “Shalindra” English-Betie
Shop Name: Oddities and Commodities
Wares: IC spell props (counters, bases for implements, timers, lights, painted boxes), EVA foam hair clips, caster gloves, horns. Character commissions.
Megan “Ayuchi Kyomi” and Steven “Therian” Matulewicz
Shop Name: Realms Outfitters
Wares: Clothes, questing accessories, feast gear, armor, jewelry, leather goods, homemade canned goods.
Andy “Shean O'Quinnlin” Disbrow
Wares: Ceramic stuff, heavy wool cloaks and stuff, wood stuff, beers, wines, and meads, leather stuff, and more.
James “Tao” Murphy
Wares: Dessert bacon, mug rental, tea/cocoa/noodles, casino stuff, OOC magic item cards
Sam “Sivf” Sherman
Wares: Chainmail dice jewelry, leather working, chainmail, soon: IRL metal forging, felt familiars.
Lynna “Nova Starr” Gallo
Shop Name: Starry Knight Brewery
Wares: Mead (Must be 21+)
Eren “Tazzia” Pils-Martin
Shop Name: The Oddities Shop
Wares: Sewing, crocheting, leather work, props. Mostly custom orders.
Jen “Vandoria” Cloutier
Shop Name: Vandoria's Vestments
Wares: Sewn garb including shirts, pants, cloaks, hoods, jerkins, dresses, jackets, tabards, heraldry, etc.
Sara “Zarine” Jessop
Wares: IC Tavern at big weekend events, with boozey and non-boozey drinks, table games, cheese, cigars, and fireside entertainment.
Thursday, February 13, 2020
Heroes of the Western Flank 2019 Thank You
Rhiassa's mission in recognizing the Heroes of the Western Flank yearly at Feast of the Leviathan is to call attention to the fact that our community is wholly dependent on acts of service from one another. NPCing is one of the most basic and most important aspects of that service and no questing, a staple of our game, could possibly exist without those who come to events purely so that others can benefit from their time and labor. This is why we ask our patrons to fill out a Western Flank survey each year so that we can, in some small way, thank them for their efforts. We would like to recognize the following individuals for having served on the Western Flank throughout 2019 as indicated on the surveys they completed at Feast of the Leviathan XXII.
Aaron Metzger (Rel)
Adrian Cronin (Cronin Barbaria)
Alyssa Lee (Umbra)
Andy Disbrow (Sir Shean)
Arthur Granger (Aiden Penclaw)
Becky Baron (Kovaks)
Benjamin Lacasse (Pilpus Finnigan)
Brookelyn Gingras (Rowan)
Cal Marsden (Syruss)
Chelsea Paige (Sir Senna Sirrion)
Chris Donnelly (Janus Kiltra)
Danielle Guimont (Elizah)
Dave Hayden (Luc-Dubors)
David Rubenstein (Tirvanel)
Devon Power (Aranel tel'Sgiathatch)
Gregory Falconer (Daekara)
Ian Pushee (Bright)
Jacob Ruggiero (Mogar)
James Murphy (Tao Ya Kang)
Janna Oakfellow-Pushee (Iawen Penn)
Joey Chipman (Ruthade)
John Rescigno (Gordon Lightfoot)
Joseph Sims (Rillan)
Justin Boyce (Bjorn Starseeker)
Justin Mitchell (Artair)
Katrina Hull (Rekees)
Kayla Lovern (Wynn)
Kelsey Miranda (Mel)
Kyle Yazinka (Killian)
Liz Butler (Matiya)
Mackenzie Garbos (Rani Valley)
Megan Matulewicz (Kyomi)
Megan Williamson (Cimone)
Melissa Metzger (Aymise)
Michael Zajac (Swoop)
Nataliya Kostenko (Shader Jarlsberg)
Neil Kusleika (Eldritch)
Nicholas Bold (Arthur of the Wyvern College)
Nick Quadrini (Raynor Skyline)
Paul Tilton (Grindin)
Pi Fisher (Alpacasaurus)
Renee Booke (Kindrianna Athame)
Sarah Fournier (Evie)
Sean Finn (Eamon)
Stephen Sanford (Laika en'Naur)
Tim Suitor (James Swift)
Tom Gallagher (Avendar)
Travis Wilcox (Sir Elwin O'Bearikin)
Wednesday, February 12, 2020
Why I Want to Go-Feast of Creathorne 2020
by Lani "Gwen" Jones
I’ve worked in the Feast of Creathorne Kitchen for almost as long as I can remember, and I wouldn’t miss this event for anything--and I don’t think you should either.
There are countless dishes that you can only get in Creathorne, including great game meat, plus dinner which includes a wide variety of meats and sides to tickle even the most discerning of pallets. Add that to specially made appetizers, desserts, and mini-main courses, and you can’t go wrong!
But we all know feasts aren’t made of food alone, which is why Sir Shean and the team have made sure to provide shops and entertainment galore. Vandoria will have fabulous wares, the Stacked Deck team will be hosting a poker tournament, the Creathorne Casino will be in full effect, and there will be combat tournaments and questing as well. If you’re the barding type, tell a story, sing a song, or be amazed by the talents of your peers.
Rhiassa Cub Care will be unveiling BattlePets, a brand new endeavor to bring in our next generation of adventurers into the fold! So young and old, hungry and fighty, gambly and spendy, come out to this event! I promise you’ll have a great time. If you’re looking for me, I’ll be in the kitchen with my pals, doing what I love most, making sure you have the food to keep you going through all the great stuff that Creathorne has planned for you.
Tuesday, February 11, 2020
Feast of the Leviathan XXII Tournament and Game Show Questions
Games and article by Jason "Aeston" Rosa
One of the new additions in the Feast of the Leviathan entertainment lineup are game show games that allow our patron to win some gold for succeeding at them. Below is one of the games that ran along with their instructions. The answers appear at the very bottom of the article so you can check if you are correct. Also below is this year's riddle contest with the answers. Special thank to Tucker "Temorse" Noyes for directing me to a great source for all these game ideas.
There are five levels of challenge. Succeeding at each level allows you to attempt the level after it. Your prize is determined by how many statements you succeed at.
Riddle Contest Answers
1. ǝlpuɐɔ ∀
2. lɐoƆ
3. ǝɔuǝlᴉS
4. (Λ 'ΛI) slɐɹǝɯnN uɐɯoɹ ǝɹɐ ʎǝɥʇ uǝɥM
5. ʍopɐɥS ∀
6. sdǝʇS
7. llǝq ∀
8. ɹᴉɐH
9. ɹoɹɹᴉW ∀
10. ʍoɹɔǝɹɐɔS ∀
11. ɐǝʇ/ƃɐq ɐǝʇ
12. ʍoɹɹɐqlǝǝɥM ∀
13. ʍoɹɹ∀ u∀
14. ʍɐS ∀
15. ǝɹᴉℲ
One of the new additions in the Feast of the Leviathan entertainment lineup are game show games that allow our patron to win some gold for succeeding at them. Below is one of the games that ran along with their instructions. The answers appear at the very bottom of the article so you can check if you are correct. Also below is this year's riddle contest with the answers. Special thank to Tucker "Temorse" Noyes for directing me to a great source for all these game ideas.
Capital Offense
In the statement below some of the letters are capitalized. Unscramble the capital letters to determine the word that is related to the statement and the noted category within the time period.There are five levels of challenge. Succeeding at each level allows you to attempt the level after it. Your prize is determined by how many statements you succeed at.
Example:
Category: Nobility.
The most annoying pArt of watchiNg court are the long and dramatic speEches sOme people inSist on.
Answer: AESTON
Game 1 Round 1:
Category: Spells
Going on a quest at nIght sounds like a good idea untiL you realize tHat it’s dark out and your usual bedTime is nine ‘o clock.
Game 1 Round 2:
Category: Weapons
I mean, they call somE fighting Styles Defensive but you’re stiLl hitting someone witH a sword, so...
Game 1 Round 3:
Category: Monsters
Doesn’t it seem unusUal that the Ecosystem isn’t more devastateD by Abominations constantly waNdering the woods?
Game 1 Round 4:
Category: Tournaments
PeoplE say relationships are about communicatiOn… Coming Up with a battLe Strategy counts.
Game 1 Round 5:
Category: Geography
If countries wanted to Rely on GOld from tourisM inCome you wouLd think they would put some effort into more Hospitable names.
Game 2 Round 1:
Category: Events
Seeing as the world is constantly in neEd of saving, it’s kind of morally indeFensible to sit Around socializing insTead.
Game 2 Round 2:
Category: Religion
Nothing is more affiRming then a clear Direction from your deity that smAshing eVil in the face is the righteOus path.
Game 2 Round 3:
Category: Spells
Some magiC just assumes the falsehood that the gods kNow anything more thAn wE do about what’s happEning on a quest.
Game 2 Round 4:
Category: Tournaments
An impressiVe aspect of our community is how pretty much anything that can bE Done Can be done competitivELy.
Game 2 Round 5:
Category: Quests
Really what’s more stunning than our abiLity to screw up our owN world is how ofteN we travel to another to mess Up their whOle Deal too.
Riddle Contest
1. My life can be measured in hours, I serve by being devoured. Thin, I am quick. Fat, I am slow. Wind is my foe. What am I?
2. Purchased I am black.
Useful I am red.
Disposed of I am grey.
What am I?
3. What disappears as soon as you say its name?
4. When is five half of four?
5. Only one color, but not one size,
Stuck at the bottom, yet easily flies.
Present in sun, but not in rain,
Doing no harm, and feeling no pain.
What is it?
6. The more of these you take, the more appear behind you.
What am I?
7. My tongue is long, my call is strong,
And yet I breed no strife;
My voice you hear both far and near,
And yet I have no life.
What am I?
8. I move very slowly at an imperceptible rate,
although I take my time, I am never late.
I accompany life, and survive past demise,
I am viewed with esteem in vain people’s eyes.
What am I?
9. If you drop me, I'm sure to crack. Give me a smile, and I'll always smile back.
What am I?
10. I'm like a doll, But I'm not for playing;
I stand up straight, but if windy I may be laying;
I'm well-known and famous for having no brain;
I work outside both day and night in sunshine or in rain.
What am I?
11. Late afternoons I often bathe. I'll soak in water piping hot.
My essence goes through my see through clothes.
Used up am I; I've gone to pot. What am I?
12. I have two arms, but fingers none. I have two feet, but cannot run. I carry well, but I have found I carry best with my feet off the ground.
What am I?
13. I have many feathers to help me fly. I have a body and head, but I'm not alive. It is your strength which determines how far I go. You can hold me in your hand, but I'm never thrown. What am I?
14. My teeth are sharp, my back is straight, to cut things up it is my fate.
What am I?
15. Crimson I am born, yellow I dance, ebony I die. What am I?
Capital Offense Answers
Game 1 Round 1: ʇɥƃᴉ˥
Game 1 Round 2: plǝᴉɥS
Game 1 Round 3: pɐǝpu∩
Game 1 Round 4: sǝldnoƆ
Game 1 Round 5: ɥɔolɯᴉɹפ
Game 2 Round 1: ʇsɐǝℲ
Game 2 Round 2: ɹopuɐΛ
Game 2 Round 3: ǝɔuɐǝS
Game 2 Round 4: pǝʌɐǝlƆ
Game 2 Round 5: punlɹoNRiddle Contest Answers
1. ǝlpuɐɔ ∀
2. lɐoƆ
3. ǝɔuǝlᴉS
4. (Λ 'ΛI) slɐɹǝɯnN uɐɯoɹ ǝɹɐ ʎǝɥʇ uǝɥM
5. ʍopɐɥS ∀
6. sdǝʇS
7. llǝq ∀
8. ɹᴉɐH
9. ɹoɹɹᴉW ∀
10. ʍoɹɔǝɹɐɔS ∀
11. ɐǝʇ/ƃɐq ɐǝʇ
12. ʍoɹɹɐqlǝǝɥM ∀
13. ʍoɹɹ∀ u∀
14. ʍɐS ∀
15. ǝɹᴉℲ
Monday, February 10, 2020
Friday, February 7, 2020
Rumors for February 1020
[Across the Realms]
A strange creature has been spotted trying to purchase heavy armor with colorful gems, rocks and sticks. This same creature has been seen catching sneaky free rides from cargo carts to and from each nation and travellers make talk of it swiping food from camps. Caution is advised.
[Teng Hua]
There seems to be a buzz around the isle of Teng Hua as they make preparations to host the people of the Realms for the Spring Flower Festival. According to imperial officials, the Emperor and the imperial family will be in attendance.
~~~
From many of the outlying villages there have been increased sightings of ghosts at night. For the most part the sources are unreliable. One report says they saw a ghost of a man as large as a bull wearing samurai armor.
~~~
The search continues for the person that desecrated a number of temples back in the early autumn. There have been several people who claim it was an outsider who was slender with a shaved head, and was commiting the acts to gain favor with a god
Thursday, February 6, 2020
Tao's Dealing School
Or how I learned to shove pots and shut up
by James "Tao" Murphy
At the upcoming Feast of Creathorne I will be holding a Poker Dealers class for anyone who wants to learn how to deal poker tournaments. The event starts at 11 AM but most things won’t get going for a while. I am thinking of holding this at 11:30 AM. This will probably be useful to anyone who wants to get better at dealing poker tournaments as well. I will be covering good procedures, how to get more hands out, and most importantly how to get paid for doing it.
It’s not important to be a gambler, but it is important to at least know what hands beat what. So here is the list of hands strongest to weakest.
Royal straight flush: That is the the A, K, Q, J, and 10 of one suit. Zatarra at Feast of Leviathan actually won a pot with this hand! They happen approximately once in 649,739 hands. Nice job!
Straight Flush: that is any five sequential cards of the same suit. Their strength is judged by the highest card. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 of the same suite would be a “eight high Straight flush” which would beat 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 of the same suit.
Four of a kind: four cards that are of the same rank 5, 5, 5, 5, x, the fifth card does not matter. The last stacked deck tournament had several of these which is pretty awesome.
Full House: also sometimes called a fullboat; three of a kind and a separate pair, so 6, 6, 6, 8, 8. They are judged by the three of a kind side so 8, 8, 8, 4, 4 would beat 7, 7, 7, 9, 9. Suites do not matter. One home game I play in if you get three of these in one night you get to wear the captain’s hat!
Flush: five cards all of the same suit, Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs. They are judged by their highest card, if two or more players have flush’s with equal high cards then it goes to the next highest, etc….
Straight: five cards that are sequential 8, 9, 10, J, Q. suits do not matter (unless they are all the same and then it’s a much stronger hand the straight flush). Straights are judged by their highest card. A, 2, 3, 4, 5 is possible as is 10, J, Q, K A, but K, A, 2, 3, 4 is not.
Three of a kind: three cards of the same rank, 5, 5, 5, x, x. the other two cards do not matter to having three of a kind (unless it’s a pair and then it’s a full house)
Two pair: two cards of one rank and two cards of another, 3, 3, 6, 6, x. they are judged by their highest pair so 10, 10, 2, 2, x beat 9, 9, 8, 8 x. it’s possible for two players to both have the same hand, if they do then the 5th card will determine who wins. Suits do not matter.
One pair: two cards of the same rank with the rest of the cards not matching. J, J, 4, 6, 8. They are judged by how high the pair. If two players have the same pair then the highest card from the remaining three are used to judge, etc….
High card: none of your cards are of the same rank, and they are all not the same suit. A, K, 8, 6, 4. If two players both only have high cards then the second card is used, etc….. This was the hand that won the stacked deck tournament. Keep in mind when it comes to poker all hands can win.
Couple of quick notes: with poker games that have community cards (like Hold-em, the primary game we play) its possible for two or more players to have identical hands. In these cases the pot is split as evenly as possible between the winning players with any extra chip going to the position closest to the front of the button.
I look forward to seeing some of you at the feast, and let’s learn to throw some cards around.
Sir Tao Ya Kang
Wednesday, February 5, 2020
The Player’s Rep’s notes. A Very Special What You Missed, by Emily
Preamble/Meme Hell
Let the Ehs decide count: 1
Slippery Slope count:
yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Invictus is color coded
Minority -> Majority
Undoing former proposal (old standard)
EHs present: Maj Negative
OG: Not an accurate rep of player base
Vote: Failed 18/8
Spirit of Rules Comitte
Answer rule questions between EHCs (Death watch fiasco reaction)
Judicial Review, but with no actual power? (MM and EH can override)
No AC safety Net?
Ehs Present: Mostly positive (2 ish holdouts)
“Rule we play by” View Article (Similar, but more weight)
Players: Mostly Positive
Vote: Failed 20/17
AC Info
Changes nothing, adds transparency
Vote: Passes 35/2
Option A:
Option B:
Clean Up rules for throwing weapons:
Consistent wording
[Redacted] shushing [Redacted] makes him better :)
Vote: Passes 36/1
Non-Com
Yellow Arm Band ( A la [Redacted] + [Redacted] )
Recent non-com in support of it even with its flaws
Non-com
Verbiage causing problems
General Maj of room is good for it
Vote: Passed 39/1
Opt-Out Head shots:
Trying to find mid ground between non com and full com
Maj of room is against
Someone proposed mma helmets and all I can think of is [Redacted] sheild fighting with one
Vote: Failed 30/8
Fix Weapons:
Stepping stones to fix a bad system
Confusion of over actually needed
Single short are thicc when they don't need to be
Vote: Passes 39/0
2 Handed Weapons
[Redacted] prop
Bico rules compliance
2 handed weapon p2
Auto pulled
Failed:
Larp Arrows
No discussion
Failed: 29/4
Remove mention of illegal weapons
Why did this have to be proposed??
Uh??
HUh?????
Why is the omnibus like this?/??
Vote: Passes 37/3
Weapons
WHAT??
WHAT DO YOU MEAN??
[Redacted] wants to be legolas
Vote: Passes 38/4
Blow Strength:
Marshal discretion
Vote:Failed
Squishy Tips
More squishy
Easier construction
Vote:Passed 42/1
Currency
COMIC SANS
Literally just flavor text
The birds work for bourgeois =)
Vote: Passed 36/3
Currency Non Stealable:
Split room
Think abt the merchants?
Merchants split
Not dick proof
Imma mug my own dad
Vote: Failed 29/12
Caveat Clean Up:
Literally just streamlines caveats
Vote: Passes
Caveat Clean Up 2: electric boogaloo
Changes AC and light to enchanted item
[Expletive] go off with the disenchant for a light
Vote: Failed
Spell Verbal:
Current verbiage requires completely unique verbals for each proposal
Actually does nothing but increase amount of memory i gotta have while casting
Vote: failed:
Spell Resets:
Reflects how spell resets are played
[Redacted] big mad, [Redacted] block
Vote: Failed
Spell at 1 time
Vote to Clarify:Passed
A-5
B-21
C-16
Potions Caveat
Removes mention of create poison
Poison’s don’t have to follow the brewing process
Vote: Passes
Consistent Grandfathering
Doesn’t take away ability to rhode father or to add onto grandfathering
Currently says to fix your shit
Vote:Passes 41
A:
B:
Disease while undead
- PC is raised as undead
- PC is hit with disease
- PC dies
- PC has a single raise dead cast on them
- PC is reanimated as undead before a second raise dead is cast on them.
Does a raise dead persist in diseased dead body?
Question of how often it happens?
A lot, the answer is a lot
Vote to clarify: 43/1
A-21
B-13
Concentration Spells (wards)
????
Limits one spell at a time
Vote: Failed
Multiple castings at once- Repair Armor
Two focuses? Perhaps
Maybe op
Vote: passes
[Redacted]’s Buy down spectacular
Buy down options hell (n= level of casting, 2 spells: n-1, 3 spells n-2)
Leaves cantrip alone
Suspension Caveat for Animal Comp lifted
Confusion over what familiar has to do with this
Vote:failed
Enchant overall:
Enchanting person vs enchanting the armor itself
Creates a slow crazy way to fix armor
Vote: passes
Masterwork hammer fix
Might displace mystic
Caster that has masterwork, is against, citing opness
May slow down quests even fucking more
Made for newbies
Seed of life for armor
Vote: Passes
Assassin Blade + masterwork
Making it within a casters restriction
Vote: passes
Animate Limb
The flavour vs. the practicality
Vote: failed
Enchant Armor to 5th circle
That’s it
Failed
Clarify when transformation ends
Dead or Alive??
Vote to clarify: Failed
Arcane Archer
Do javelins and arrows count for enchant weapon?
Vote to Clarify: passes
A-
B-
Combine Familiar and Animal Companion
Same general use, combine spells now that there aren’t paths
Vote :Failed
Life Bond
Blood brothers, but with out the call
Removes a necromancy spell (Undead general)
Seasoned disgruntled with removal of necro spell
Spell itself is good, just removal of undeath is iffy
Vote: Failed
Sunder
Disease for armor basically
Compared to boulder and fireball
General vote: Failed
Counting:
We too dumb to count
Vote: Failed
Light LED
Just includes LEDs by name. EH and MM are still on hook to grab too bright LED off of quest
Vote: Passed
Strange brew-potion of seance
PEYOTE VISIONNNNNNN YEEEEEEEEEEE
Split of points value
Vote: Passed
Oat Seed
2 tokens= 60 seconds
Adds more flow to combat and seed has become a staple of it.
Goes against previous change?
Vote: Passed
Enfeeble Being
Vote:Passed
Up Uses for Enfeeble
Vote: Passed
Spell Siphon:
Catch a magic missile, do sawesome shit (nom nom the magic beans)
Cant consume own spell but can catch own prop
Vote: Failed
Lingering Effects
Falls under power potion rules
Basically potions of x spells found in list
Consensus is positive on concept, neg on readiness
Tabled
Wording Fix, repair item
Vote:passes
Fix Heartiness
Vote: failed
Tweak Repair Armor
Vote: Failed
Ac Committee timelines
Semi-Place holder
Trying to make sure Ac can’t sit on proposal
Dad’s speech :)
Generally positive: Like having the deadlines, but would like to see more concise wording
Vote: passes
Magic Item List public
Shopping list: doesn’t list who has it currently
Mystery: ???? you can contact an eh anyway
Can help with the Item Card arguments against
Opinion is positive
Vote: Passes 43/0
Item Card Removal
We tried™
Can be a headache for reg
Punishing those without cards due to lack of eh involvement
Vote: Passes
Reorder and rewrite of proposal system
MINSTER OF MAGIC ITEMS
Literally the only contentious point
Vote: passes
Mikey’s late “other…” proposal
Keep shit consistent
Changing flat and rep bows to 120-Passed
Poison Affects:Pulled
Implement-Passed
Changes it to 120 to fix
Love -> Charm
Poll: 25-1 in favor
Magic Item Rules:
More shiny toys
Old way!!
Vote:passes
Resist magic
Vote: passes
Just the tip ;)
Pop someone’s eye out?
Flat Blades haven’t cause injuries
Vote: Failed
Verbals must explain the spell
Spell name counts!
Vote: Failed
Mentor
Second sentence can be omitted at the EHC
Counts as all signatures, can not be casted with cantrip/animal companion
Cannot make a double teacher (Double jeopardy, but but worse)
Vote:Passed
Feather Step
Double Jump, but under a different name
Drive by piking
[Redacted] is why none of us cannot have nice things
May [Redacted] with event flow
Vote: failed
Spell Components
Spell Fails when the spell is supposed to fail
Vote:passes
Caster to spellcaster
Vote:passes
Ghost Balde Rebal
Vote: passes
Life bond
Vote:passes
Remove Familar, but keep ANIMALS!
Vote: Failed
Players rep opening statements
Codifying what is already done
Vote: Passed
Familiar to Implement
WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAALE
Vote:Failed
Spell Catch
Changed to reset learning 1 or 2
Room still seems lukewarm to concept
Only from projectiles
Vote: failed
Add options for strange brew
Worry abt alchemy being better than spells
Vote:failed
Implement death watch implements
Vote:Fail