The “What You Missed” articles are weird, right, because you’d think that we would just want you to go experience events for yourself, to learn among the people, the events that occurred.
But that’s not the case during these times, the”What You Missed” becomes more important, because we know we have friends at home, that are making choices that help them feel safe in these times.
We know that there are fewer people that are going to come, as an event holder that makes things challenging because we can’t rely on our experience to figure our how many people to plan for, we can only require preregistration, and hope they all show.
So what did you miss? Well for one thing you missed the Leviathan standard, which is just excellence.
Leviathan is well known at this point for consistently keeping people busy between food, activities, and general business. And despite the smaller crowd this still rang true. With games and fabulous prizes. Puzzles. And simple adventures, that were only slightly humiliating, or so rumor had it.
The theme of the food this year felt like it was just “Saegan” and that’s me, so that’s a wonderful feeling let me tell you. I’m pretty sure I enjoyed everything. So many delightful meats. Chartcuterie. Sides of wonder. Honestly there was a few that just really felt like they were meant to honor Dave Hayden, and that stirred my tiny heart to think about. For me, Lani and her kitchen folks outdid themselves. I even enjoyed the quiche, and I don’t like eggs, so that’s just magical.
Since I mentioned honoring Dave, I should note that’s something we did. We had a memorial for him. This was something I helped with. Set up, clean up, and building. It weighed heavily on me for weeks, to be honest. Doing a friend justice in this way is a big deal. I was asked to speak, but I had no words. I was asked to put an item in, but I couldn’t think of anything truly fitting. It had been tearing at me. I’d spent the better part of the week looking through poems and writing my own. Comparing Dave to heroes, and eternal flames. When it came time, I only had the effort I’d put into the build and set up. Which felt like it would have to be enough. I didn’t want to dishonor him with some rant that had no backbone. And I didn’t want to add something, because it seemed the thing to do.
When Kelly began to speak, and James began to try to get the boat to light it seemed the time had eclypsed. But then the ignition didn’t work. James tried again and Kelly continued perhaps without notice. James gave up on the remote ignition and pulled a lighter from his pocket. I could tell by the sound of him lighting it that the lighter too was struggling. For me I looked to the fires set up for the people attending. Alex had gotten them lit and roaring. So I went and stole from there. Fire that had warmed the community. I brought it over to James, who seemed like he was still struggling, though in all honesty, the lighter may have finally worked by the time I got there. But the fire of the community was still going in my hand, and it caught to the memorial pyre nicely.
In my mind, Dave wanted me to add the community’s fire to his memorial. True or fairy story, I’m going to hold that in my heart.
The memorial carried on, with song and words from the crowd. I felt like we did right by Dave. It felt good. As the fires began to cool from the frozen night, people returned to the feast.
With little delay to warm up we went right into court. There was one piece of business, the Knights of the Realms knighted Tucker “Temorse” Noyes into their ranks. I was fortunate enough to speak to his many great qualities, and I can say sincerely that it is well deserved. So please take the opportunity to congratulate him, if you haven’t already.
The night carried on into the main courses, and then finally desert.
After the food and some brief parting words, we cleaned up and slipped off into the night.
Honestly this was a great event, and I hope my telling of it helps you with what you missed, because dear Realms friends, we miss you too.
Hopefully soon,
I’ll see you on the field,
Keith “Saegan” Cronyn
Photos by Steve “Torolf” Nelson