Why I Want To Go: Black & White 2024

Written By: Bri "Margaret" Meisser and Keith "Saegan" Cronyn

The yearly Black and White Masquerade is one of those ‘must hit’ gatherings every year. It is a chance to catch up with friends, catch up with plot, and get the biggest announcements at court. It is also a sampling of all that the realms has to offer.

Many nations partake in cultural festivities throughout the event. Two of particular note for those who are combat inclined are the Champion of Chimeron tournament, and Invictus’s Gladiatorum. I highly suggest people observe these events if they are able and ask those involved about their significance. 

Chimeron also has a strong connection to Fae that will be taken full advantage of during these festivities. From the White Stag Hunt, to lessons on Mage Runes from Rosetta and the Fae section of The Dreaming from Phee. While these are the known hooks, I hear there may be other adventures awaiting. So keep your eyes peeled.

Although my own diet is limited, I have been informed by those with functional taste buds that the food at Black and White is always delicious. And the poison punch will likely make its traditional appearance. Even though I do not partake in the punch, it is always amusing watching those who do. 

Black and White is also unique as one of the only events where we are able to enjoy traditional dancing. Princess Cimone has spent time teaching many of us how to dance over the years and it is an experience I highly recommend everyone try at least once, if not every year. 

Court at Black and White is always important, but this one will be an incredibly memorable one. It is King Cecil’s last time presiding over Court as the Monarch of Chimeron, before passing the torch to Commander Orion. King Cecil is someone who I admire a great deal and has taught me many important lessons. Though he may not be becoming the Oracle of Deep Fae or ascending to fulfill his duties as The Wheel or some other epic retirement, what Cecil is doing is just as noble and important. Taking care of himself and his family. And I am very happy to have Cecil around for some time longer. 

I look forward to seeing everyone on Saturday.

Until then,

Seeker Squire Margaret August, Lightbringer

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I love the Lore of Black and White. 

The Veil is thin, such that death, and the dead walk among us. Hide your face, less Death see you, and make you pay your due. Or Embrace your fate, at the risk of yourselves and others around you. 

For me its a great symbol for the end of things. The end of the event year, the end of a characters time in the realms, or perhaps a brief visit from one of our historic losses. 

But, in the same way the very name of the event expresses a duality, the event itself is often the place where new adventurers get their beginning, where we first meet our quickly rising stars. Many newbies take their first foray into the Realms at Black and White. So just as it’s a place for ends, it’s also a place for new beginnings. 

I look forward to the day time questing, and challenges, whether they come in the form of puzzles, or combat. 

I look forward to seeing old friends, and meeting new ones. 

I look forward to the politics of nations, as many nations come to Black and White to do business, whether internally, or across the board. 

And speaking of politics, of death, and rising stars, of ends and new beginnings, it was announced earlier this week that King Alexander Cecil, would be stepping down from the throne, and that Commander Orion would be stepping up and becoming Prince Regent as this event, which is important news to be sure, and something I definitely don’t want to miss. 

It would probably be criminal of me to forget to mention the luxuries that come from the kitchen, and the dessert contest that occurs  at this event, because over the years there have been some memorable examples. The day board being a proud array of finger foods, of various sorts, to suit anyone’s fancy. 

And lastly, I want to mention that Black and White is probably the only place in the Realms where you can expect to learn various traditional dances, its something I look forward too every year, as a truly immersive cultural piece of our game, that goes beyond story. 

So why do I want to go to Black and White? A lot of reasons, just go. 

I’ll see you in the halls, 

Keith “Saegan” Cronyn

Conspiracy MONTHLY

 By Kieran/Kyra Barry

Laughing God in the eye: Snakes and Daggers

A comic about games between gods.

by Ethan "JB" Goldman

Arius does not like snakes. He is indifferent to ladders.

That isnt a god of butter, thats a table.

Meme Monday

 by the Meme Team

Maker's Space with Maria "Liselle" Carr

 Organized by: Justin "J'ortsa" Thibeault

Makers Space is a View series about interviewing the makers, crafters, and artificers of the Realms and sharing their creations with everyone! I know I take pride in my work so I know you all must as well. That being said, how often do you get to humbly (or not so humbly) brag about your creations, so this is your outlet! Tell me everything!!

1. What is your OOC name?

Maria Carr


2. What is your character's name?

Liselle Silvermaple


3. What crafting mediums do you typically work in?

Fabric (Sewing), Embroidery, Vinyl, Fabric Paint, Yarn

All photos provided by Maria

4. What is your favorite medium to work with? Why is it your favorite?

Fabric by far. I love how there are so many different patterns there are to sew and how fabric can change the look of a pattern. Also, many of my other mediums are just different ways to dress up my fabric.

5. What is the most challenging part of working with this medium for you? How did you overcome it?

The most challenging part is the same reason that I love it, the different kinds of fabric. Some stretch or are smooth and silky, thick or delicate and with that are different methods of how to handle each one from changing tension on my Sewing machine and/or serger and to figuring out which fabrics will work best with iron on vinyl and embroidery. I have overcome this with lots of trial and error and I am still learning new tricks and methods all the time.

6. What is the piece you are most proud of? Why?


The piece I am most proud of is the formal garb I made for Shandar. On the day I received my gold wolf, I presented Shandar with a formal doublet in Invictus colors that had detachable sleeves and a side cape. The unique part about this is that the inside is lined with studded leather. It was an interesting challenge as it was the first time that I had done anything with garment grade leather and studs.

7. What is the piece you have done most recently that you are allowed to share? Tell us about it!


Recently, I was commissioned to make Rhiassa new tabards. Jason wanted a new style of tabard that had a split in both the front and the back as well as ties on the side. The entire tabard is lined in one inch bias tape.

8. What is the earliest piece you made? How long ago did you make it?

It’s hard to recall what I made early on in my garb making career since it spans 27 years. Also, back in the day I took pictures with a camera and 35mm film, so I don’t have many digital pictures of my early works. The earliest piece I can remember making is a dark blue doublet with silver trim that I made for Nate/Aelias in early 2000’s, so roughly 20ish years ago. It’s still around and my brother, Antonio/Mistral, wore it to Black and White last year.

9. What medium do you wish to learn more about or have been interested in?

I am looking into doing more with leather. 

10. What advice do you have for the rest of the community when it comes to crafting and making?

That it takes many years, hours, failed projects and lots of practice to get good at a craft. I once made a dress that I was so excited about, and it didn’t work out as it ended up being too big. I was very frustrated because of this and didn’t sew for about 6 months. What did I learn, and my best advice for anyone who is learning how to sew…make a mockup first so you make sure it fits and then adjust from there.

11. What inspires you to do what you do?

When people see the garb they have requested and put it on, they become so excited and that makes me feel so good. It’s also inspiring to see items I have made, still being worn.




12. Is there anything else you really wanna share with us? Any upcoming projects, etc.?

My goal is to help create a more immersive experience one piece at a time whether it’s a by making a banner, favor or garb for myself or for others.

Many of the things I have made for the game over the years have been tabards and banners, embroidered sashes and favors. I made tabards for Mythguard, back in the day, worked with Diana/Kiira to make the new Invictus tabards and most recently for Rhiassa.

Right now, I am working on a big project that I can’t talk about just yet, but it will be seen at an upcoming event before the end of the season.

Cross The Realms Once More

A reprise of an old favorite, it's time for Cross The Realms!

 If this is not displaying properly in-browser or your mobile browser is having an issue, click here!

Hello everyone! Below is a classic crossword puzzle where all answers are spells or caveats in our spell system. They are all spells or caveats that are a single word. Each clue is the name of that spell that has been scrambled.

See how many you can answer before you have to start looking things up... or using an automatic descrambler tool found on Google.

Tell us how you did on social media!

What You Missed - Hartlepool's Sunken Picnic

By: Owen "Kalashai" Lacey

On Saturday we were all invited to Hedda’s home in Blackwood: the underwater swamps of Hartlepool. Upon arriving we were enchanted to be able to breathe underwater (which, at least in my case, resulted in manifesting a pair of gills for the day), and told to watch out for the muddy swamp nearby that seemed to be spitting out undead. She also mentioned that she had lost a few small boxes in the swamp that we should look for throughout the day. Throughout the day Blackwood was distributing food made in the Hartlepool kitchen. While there wasn’t a massive amount of it, what we did get was very good. The butternut squash soup in particular provided a much needed boost during the tournaments, and the chocolate and oat snacks were a nice sugary treat during the day.

Shortly after we arrived, some Kenku birds showed up, asking for help with a map to their missing eggs. Their vocabulary was limited to “Help, map” and “Eggs” (though some people taught them other words, including swears), which led us to hunt for map pieces in the swamp. It turned out the undead had pieces of the map stuck in the muck on them, which the small early group slowly collected. After we had all the pieces of the map, which was a cube made up entirely of L shaped pieces, we retreated out of the swamp to figure out the map and participate in some light tournaments. As it turned out, the tournament prize was a second piece of the map, but it had been broken, so we each got a piece for participating in the early tournaments. We had little luck figuring out either map piece, but more people were arriving, and Ypnn, Cimone, and Rekees managed to solve both puzzles rather quickly once they sat down to work on them.

At that point, we needed to wait for the Kenku birds to finish deciphering the map, so Blackwood set up some more tournaments for us to participate in. Throughout the day we fought in limited-style tournaments with single short, hand-and-a-half, magic missile, “Mumblypeg” (an archery tournament where you scored points by shooting through an opponent's legs), and more. These tournaments were incredibly fun—not too competitive, but also not too silly to take seriously and get some good fighting in.

As the sun was starting to go behind the underwater trees, the Kenku birds returned, indicating that they had deciphered the map and could lead us to their missing eggs. With a full party, entering the swamp and fighting through the muddy undead proved much easier than before. We quickly found our way to a blocked door, with a friendly water snake named Linguine swimming around nearby. A team of puzzle solvers up front worked on the door, while myself, Makhta, Orion, and Ypnn held the back line against the swamp’s undead infestation.

Once through the door we encountered incredibly angry cats lunging at us with claws, teeth, and a massive hammer that broke through armor and bones much quicker than a standard weapon. We chased them back to a lair where they had stashed the stolen eggs, and fought them down until the King Cat stopped regenerating. However, we still couldn’t return the eggs to the Kenku. They seemed to be magically bound to the King Cat’s corpse, and neither disenchant nor resist magic allowed us to take the eggs very far. Even destroying the cat’s body down to bones and goop didn’t help, and left us with cat goop sloshing towards the eggs constantly. It turned out that the eggs had been corrupted with cat magic. Eventually Swift and Ypnn worked together to do a ritual to Aurora to call the cat souls out of the eggs and return them to their natural state, finally boiling away the cat goop we had been carrying around.

Why I Want To Go: KOSD Questing II: Slumbertimeland

 By Kieran/Kyra "Omri" Barry

Once upon a time, in a land far far away... Well, not so long and not so far, our tale begins in the land of Blackavar. Knights of the Sable Dragon's order began amidst war. A dragon tyrant driving the others to greater heights of conflict with other denizens in Blackavar, not merely with words but implied with mind control. While a few may have used this as an excuse to terrorize, the other dragons once freed agreed to the truce set by the original five of the Knights of the Sable Dragon, Bardus, Carnac, Taunton, Wilmont, and Gautier. They will slumber and their eggs will remain undisturbed.

The years have passed. Blackavar became a part of the Realms unreachable to the whole. A Divine War was fought in the interim. Garm deemed that a god should fall, and Rexan was chosen. Rexan passed now two and some years ago, his body consumed. That caused its own now resolved issues. His soul? If it can be called such, was thought destroyed, gone, never to be a bother. If poison and deceit were to become the domains of godhood again it would not be Rexan's.

Once upon a time there was an adventurer named Chan. Flawed, as all adventurers are. Their story is one that ended before mine in the Realms began. I knew them as an angelic spector of Justari, and that a few of my new friends owed their lives to Chan's actions in defeating Rexan, taking on enough soul points that them being an angelic spector was a blessing given the destructive force they faced. And yet. They are now called Amawar. Their history is anew. Chan's sacrifices in some part undone.

Rexan as a sliver is back. Blackavar's Sable Dragon has an egg that is being kept by the Auroran church. If hatches they could be a cause of resurgence of conflict in the Realms. But they are an innocent, potentially. Danny, a child taken care of by the Storyteller, is missing in Blackavar. One of Baron Guatier’s (as it seems families of significance within Blackavar share names to the founders of the Knights of the Sable Dragon) guard was found murdered, her death tied to a storytale figure as told by a talking mouse.

Coincidences are hell of a thing in the Realms. I've learned not to trust them.

As Flamekeeper of the Order of the Lantern I make it a point to inform others of what is necessary to know. Some have come to associate me with a magnifying glass that's now turned to fairy dust. There's trouble afoot and it's centered around Blackavar and these common threads. How they weave together, I do not yet know. There may be more I do not see.

Given that a child's life may be at stake, potentially taken by the shadow of Rexan's former self, I would not say I am excited about it. I am eager to investigate more into the going ons, and am not opposed to using the Blackavar Harvest Festival as a light prelude into the work that follows. And it’ll be an opportunity to get to know the denizens of Blackavar better, strengthen relations between them and the Realms. Please take care not to harm the talking animals.

OOC:

Last KOSD questing in September 2024 resulted in us uncovering a conspiracy from mind flayers to hatch the egg of the Broodmother of the Sable Dragons. We fought a dragon. A bridge was made that connected Darkvale and Blackavar. I tend not to be accurate about what any given event would specifically entail, but what’s laid out in the event description looks awesome. I’m particularly looking forward to festivities on Friday, then diving into the plot that John has laid out for us. I especially appreciate the care the event is taking to be inclusive/welcoming to newbies.

The format of a potential open marketplace for us to explore is also a fascinating one that I personally have not experienced/seen before and I'm excited to see each and every glittering facet of this fascinating gem of a story John is planning out.

I’ve been looking forward to this for a while and am grateful my schedule allows me to attend!

Oh, and do keep an eye out for items that look like this. A) is a page from the Storyteller's book we presume, and B) is some sort of key, its numbering unknown in significance. Both items were located within Slumbertimeland in the Three Bears house.

(A woodcut page with a story of the 3 bears as it relates to the child Danny, including an illustration of 3 bears and a 7 pointed star)

(A wooden key with a 7 pointed star head, and the number 1 in the center of the head)

Meme Monday

 by the Meme Team

Morning Coffee Break

Got your morning cup of coffee and a few minutes? Great! We're trying out a new feature at the View - we're going to be asking a series of questions and we want to know your answers! The question is posted below. So while you sip your morning beverage of choice, ruminate on this one:

With Halloween fast approaching, the View wants to know - 

It's the time of year for pie (I mean, the whole year is time for pie but autumn especially). What is the best pie, sweet or savory, you've ever had at a Realms event?

Head on back to Social Media to let us know!  

What You Missed - Voraniss Questing Tree Fiddy

 By Dan "N" Hudon. and Stephen "Laika" Sanford

Saturday:

Greetings mortals (and otherwise)! Here is my account of the events that transpired during our raid of Dame Gloriana's Spelltower.

Upon arriving at the teleport pad and stepping into Dame Gloriana's tower, we entered into a room with a number of animated brooms sweeping the area clean and destroying any dirt they came across, including our dirt from Stonewood that provided our emergency escape route. They had to be disenchanted to retrieve keys from them which could be inserted into a door. (There was also another door that exploded when opened as some sort of security mechanism). Most of the keys when used enacted various curses (releasing imps that mocked us, getting Elwin stuck in a time loop, turning people into animals, making a flesh blanket...) but eventually we found the right one and moved on.

We snuck through a garden courtyard with patrolling sentries that detected movement and vicious dogs sensitive to sound. At the end we killed the guard dog and used its key to enter the next room.

There was a control room of sorts manned by gnomes who had been there since Gloriana's time. They told us that the tower itself is a device for interplanar travel but had fallen into disrepair, and we needed to fix certain mechanisms in connected planes to be able to access the central chamber. The portal would send us to the planes in a random order, with the first being the Elemental Plane of Fire.

In the Fire Plane, the floor was insta-rending lava except for certain stony areas, and a path could be made by killing fire elementals, causing them to cool and turn into stepping stones. It was super slow going, especially for those trying to carry Sir Wilmot's casket, but there were periodically-placed water obelisks that when assembled would turn all the lava to stone for a short period of time, letting everyone move forward quickly before it turned back to lava again. On one of these times, I ran a bit too far before realizing the rest of the party was stuck behind me dealing with some more elementals that had appeared. Realizing that I was in the middle of nowhere with no stepping stones for when the floor heated up again, I found the nearest isolated fire elemental and killed it with a single, quick piercing blow to create a place for me to stand. I was stranded far behind the elementals' back line, but luckily no elementals noticed me. When the next obelisk was activated I started running again, since we were close to the end and someone called out to run as far as we could. But the end was further than we thought and some elementals appeared to stop the main party in their tracks, in an area with no stepping stones and time quickly running out. Apparently at this point the party had resigned themselves to death, with the healers in the back still on stones figuring out how to deal with the mass rending that would soon occur. But as the countdown for the floor becoming lava started - 10, 9, 8... - I, alone on the rapidly heating lava far ahead, suddenly saw another water obelisk near me, and rushed over to try to put it together as my (and the party's, though unbeknownst to me) only chance of survival. Using one hand (since my other hand was unusable due to a magic item power) I frantically assembled the obelisk's pieces - 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, "The floor is-"

Half a second before the word "lava", I put the final piece in place. ((I looked up at an npc nearby, asking if I got it in time. They called out to Renee (who was marshaling the countdown), saying that I had gotten it just *barely* in time, and she announced that the floor was still stone for now.)) The whole party was able to run forward and make it to the end, without any more casualties from the lava!

So, we reached another portal in the fire plane that lead us back to the tower, where there was a room with a furnace. A chimney sweep was trying to clean a poison monster out of the furnace but got eaten. So did J'ortsa, but we got him out. Anyways, eventually we figured out how to get rid of the monster and we started loading in coal that entered the room in the form of coalems (coal golems) when we pushed a button. Luckily there were pickaxes to deal with those.

With the furnace active, we went through another portal to the Fae Wilds. We had to deal with a bunch of goblins, a scarecrow, mushrooms, and a snake (which Bubbles bargained with for a cool hammer) to gather ingredients for hags who looked like gnomes due to a glamor spell. They led us to an alchemy workstation and taught people how to do some alchemy for the next part of repairing the tower. While that was happening (which went well), some of us talked about the memories we'd been seeing.

So, throughout the day there were these floating crystals that when touched would show people memories of things that happened in the tower. I didn't see all of them but heard about the ones I didn't see. They showed Gloriana's sister, Priscilla, getting killed by a mind flayer Aberration, and Gloriana burying herself in her research on teleportation to the point where gnomes had trouble getting her to eat (though James Swift was able to use divine aids to somehow make her eat the food, or at least make it so we could see the part where she does). The memory in the Fae Wilds was of Gloriana being asked to squire to the Knights of the Aberrant Gate by Sir Wilmot, with her agreeing when he said she could make sure what happened to Priscilla wouldn't happen to others.

After Fae, we went to the Abyss to get some abyssal rocks. The Abyss is a truly awful place where there's tons of demons with armor piercing pikes and such who only take damage from magic weapons. Not a fan of those! There were also some rending pits, and some entities that people made ill-advised deals with for cool daggers. Anyways, we got pretty much wiped and people had to make deals (including with an entity who was *totally* just a messenger and not Asmodeus himself, yup definitely) to get the demons to stop attacking and let us through. The portal out had a sensor that would only let humans through (the first of the "Speciesist Doors") but Rosetta was able to disable it temporarily with a Force of Will. Hopefully not too many demons got out.

We were then in a room with Abyssal rocks to mine while some more demons attacked (guess they didn't get the memo). Luckily, I had lugged the pickaxes from the furnace room all day and we had those to mine them quicker. Less luckily, the stones put a random curse on you when you broke them, but we were able to get the pieces of Abyssal Rock (and candy) inside.

As night fell, rhe next plane on the list was the Negative Energy Plane, where healing magic was useless but any dead were revived after a minute. There were all sorts of creatures of darkness attacking while we made our way through, and interestingly, there were some sort of memory apparitions of Gloriana and Priscilla lost in the darkness, who couldn't see or hear us but reacted to and followed our lights. We got them out and they disappeared, letting us get into a room with a compass we needed to fix.

In this room, when someone touched a memory crystal, this time it played for everyone present. We witnessed Gloriana's knighting by Sir Wilmot, with several of the other Knights (Dame Claudia and Sir Roman) present. Gloriana had just finished the teleportation research and would be heading to Lostpeak to join the other knights.

In this room, we had to act out true stories of the Realms in four categories - romance, tragedy, history, and adventure - in order to fill magic books that go on each point of the compass. With the joyous atmosphere and tales of the good old days, it almost felt more like a campfire than a room in an old wizard tower. I could take the time to recount the stories once more, but it would be better to hear them some time in a similar atmosphere of merriment.

Next was another Speciesist Door, except this one didn't just prevent non-humans from entering, but segregated us and teleported us into a cage! It was quite offensive. We were trapped while the humans (and a few others, like Laika and Rosetta - the sensor must have made a mistake) looted the central sanctum of the tower. While trapped, we noticed that behind another layer of magical barrier behind us were all sorts of terrible creatures! Suddenly the barrier in front of us broke down, letting us free along with a gnome and a mushroom. But then, the next layers of the barrier started going down, letting more and more creatures free and sealing the room until we dealt with them all.

There was a chimera, a mind flayer, a bat creature, a giant cyclops skeleton (like Hugo from the siege of Blackwood), a beholder, and a dracolich, and we had to fight them all at once! It was hard, but we succeeded! ((And yes, the big ones were all full giant monster rigs, and they were *amazing*!))

We finally killed them all and were able to leave the tower, our mission complete. People are hard at work transcribing the results of our raid, which will hopefully give us a leg up in our fight against Sir Edwyn Rainecourt.

-N

WYM: VQ Tree Fiddy Sunday

Divine Intervention

After a long day of exploring Gloriana’s tower we rested and were ready to go to Rathkele to fight Edwin’s forces. What we didn’t expect was we were teleported in our sleep and woke up in hell. Fortunately for my own wellbeing I woke up as a fighter as I was a 3 path the day previously with all the extra energy to pick up a 6’6” and fend off the demons we are now surrounded with. 

Inside hell we were presented with various wards in the form of Demons who were of various aspects where people needed to make a promise or do an action opposite of the aspect the Demon represented. 

These were the following trials:

Apologize to a friend for doing something against them

Swear to commit a crime within a year

Confess an atrocity that you have done and be judged by the crowd around you.

Do something evil to you. In Rosetta’s words– Do something that makes you icky. 

During the final room no magic worked with the exception of intervention and certain powers. We found a frail old man who claimed to have been asleep for a long time. Rosetta cast Identify and he got the answer “God”. This old man claimed to have a piece missing from himself and awoke in hell a year ago. I do have my suspicions on who this man is, I have no concrete evidence and for the sake of preventing misinformation I suspect they are a god that was locked away to prevent the end times.

The old man offered absolution to a demon and removed it of all sin, past and future. Several adventurers also took on the absolution, once the fifth adventurer took the absolution we were sent out of Hell. The old man has now escaped and we learned the absolution is a curse which will spread.  

Those that took his absolution are the following:

Tara, Jasper, Vesper, Jortsa, Wisteria, and a Demon 

Overall It was a great Sunday quest that was just long enough to give us a good work out and with enough suspense and mystery to keep us questioning. 

Thank you Tom, Matt and the VQ Team

-Stephen "Laika" Sanford

Why I Want To Go: Hartlepool's Sunken Picnic

Written by: Tim "James Swift" Suitor 

James Swift, in conversation:

“It has been a busy summer, and there is still much to do in the fall. While I’ve never been a paragon of self care, I think slotting in some time between meetings to enjoy a picnic would be fine. Plus, I haven't been to Hartlepool, it will be enjoyable to see a new place, the sights, the threats, the food, all of it. 

I enjoyed myself over the summer at some Blackwood’s Tournaments, so I may try my hands at them here, and if not, there will be a casino and plenty of other games and ways to spend my time and coin.

All and all, it seems like a lovely way to spend a Saturday. I’m just going to be picky about my boots and cloak, dress warm if you're going into a swamp.”

OOC:

Coming off of an active Summer and Fall I really think a 1 day picnic and tournament and lighter hearted event will be a great chance to breathe, unwind, maybe get in a couple of those conversations you’ve wanted to but monsters keep interrupting. 

For those who want it, in addition to the Casino, there is the Stacked Deck Poker Tournaments, and I think it will be one of the last scoring opportunities for that this year.

I think it’s going to be a lot of fun with tournaments, games, the Regionals look neat, and a kitchen working hard to provide snacks throughout the day!

There are still a few more events in the year, but this is a nice way to start easing off the ride that has been this year.

Guess That Realmsie!

Another in our continuing series! In the below picture there is a Realmsie-shaped black hole. Can you figure out who it is based only on the profile? Tell us on social media if you think you know who it is! The answer will be revealed later in the day.  

Meme Monday

 by the Meme Team

Rumors for October 1024

 

[Across the Realms]

Rumbles heard through messengers forewarn the more sword happy folk of the Realms to not be alarmed. A dragon, in a historically rare show of generosity, is opening their hoard to the Realms. Any who write and deposit a letter at Black and White will receive a response and mayhaps a gift. Letters are to contain what is asked for so that the dragon may choose gifts as appropriate. Gifts will then be dispersed by an ambassador at a later point. All exchanges are peace bound and in good faith.

[Ashenmark]

Temporary guard houses have been constructed on roads leading to Goldenhall, stopping any travelers from entering the city.  Alchemists around the nation have been conscripted into service to the throne in order to produce potions for an expedition back into the city to recover important items and retrieve any dead that remain after the city’s evacuation.

[Arken]

Scouts have returned from midrealm with reports of empty villages, a massing horde of wildfolk, and dark magics spilling out from a dark mirror like rock formation.

[Blackavar]

Blackavar Proper is abuzz with activity in anticipation of the fast-approaching festivities on the weekend of the 25th.

~~~

Local farmers are complaining about hoodlums moving their scarecrows in the night and ignoring the curfew, leaving patches of field open to pests.

~~~

One such local hoodlum when arrested was quoted saying "We didn't move any scarecrows! We were looking for Danny. He was crying and needed our help."

[Blackwood]

As the temperatures start to drop for the year, the murky fog has begun to settle. With more clarity, there have been reports of Grimalkin plunging down towards Hartlepool. ~~~

A peasant family reports that a friendly gnome who had been helping with their garden was fiercely slain by a dark-draped woman with a blackbird headdress.  The gnome begged to be spared but there was no mercy.

[Chimeron]

A traveler reports meeting a strangely-dressed scribe who wanted help writing a letter. As the traveler began to discuss this, a dark bird approached the scribe, who cowered and begged to be spared. The bird touched the frightened scribe, and immediately the scribe dissipated, moaning in despair.

~~~

In Chimeron City, several tavern rooms have been rented all at once by travelers claiming to be geologists, presumably for some sort of geology convention. Local geologists are upset that they weren't invited.

[Rhiassa]

A group of hunters say they were fighting off a very tall and very sharp-toothed mugwump when a dark bird, maybe a crow, landed on its shoulder and it suddenly faded away before their very eyes.

What You Missed - Tournaments of the Blue Rose 1024

Written by: Arthur "Aiden" Granger

After a short but familiar trip, I found myself back in the Shadowlands. Missing the activities of Friday, my arrival on Saturday was with the intention of making up for lost time. After setting up at the tourney field, I began poking around for what I could find. 

Word had traveled that in the surrounding wilds, various animal bones had been discovered and I had wished to see for myself. Any excuse for a morning walk, really.  Reports of mushrooms had been made as well but I chose to avoid those as several adventurers had been showing interest in those already. 

Meanwhile, announcements had begun for the Blademaster tournament. Myself, alongside many in Invictus, had been working hard to hone their skills for this, so no one was taking things lightly in the slightest. I personally took part in several tournament activities while also performing my normal activities and hearing words from everyone present about the activities that took place the night prior. After what seemed like a normal day of tournaments had begun, things picked up with activity pretty quickly. 

Tours had been announced to the Church of Shadow. Several relics I had remembered from my earlier days in the realm were curated for the viewing of the newer generations to learn about.  I did not manage the tour myself but had heard of the contents due to an earlier visit while looking around for bone pieces. Queen Kharma understood my earlier error but in this situation it seems another party had other ideas. Some form of guardian attacked everyone at the tourney field looking for stolen goods, particularly keys. As this attracted more attention, other parties took up the search. In the meantime, a questionable gentleman starts moving about offering information about the location of a lockbox nearby for a price. One loan from Anton and I was on my way to this box with the accompaniment of Kiddo and Omri. After a surprise attack, I had to run back for weapons and aid as the others held off attacks to allow the escape to happen. 

At this point, things had settled into a more relaxed point in the day. Those not interested in tournaments were dispatched on a mining expedition. Meanwhile, I stayed close to the tournament field. When not fighting in tournaments, several of us worked on picking the lockbox, and I had amassed ample “rose gold" from participating in the pickpocketing tournament. With a lot of guidance and assistance from Liselle, we had amassed several mystery boxes that yielded impressive finds. Leather goods, bags of gold -some of which being very rare gold- bones pieces and more. Most of the previously listed items were divided up so as many people as possible shared the spoils. After some time, tournaments would wind down and we would turn to the feasthall for food and court. 

What's to say? It's always a good time sitting down to good food and to hear the announcements of the day. Blackwood won some stuff, Invictus won some stuff, and in a surprise twist I was presented with a magic wishbone. Now this may seem an odd detail to mention but anyone that has spent more than five minutes with me knows I haven't shut up most of the year about making one thing: a magic anvil. At this point I was off to the races again smithing all the things. Fun fact- in my younger years I always saw the other adventures with their crazy weapons of power but I was never that guy, so having the means to make my own swords of Light for the night quest was fairly exciting. 

Don't ask me what happened in the night quest. There was a candle, people did some stuff, and I was occupied with several others contending with a damn cat. It paid off in the end but if you're looking for detailed accounts of facts… well, the cat dropped a ton of gold. Returning back and dividing the bag from the cat between us, there were copious amounts of gold, and a key which was returned to the Church of Shadow. In return, Ryu was bestowed a magic dagger and it was finally time to wind down. Tulli and I from here took to the fire pit, telling stories and singing songs for those still left awake until late hours. 

Now we are going into Sunday and it was about as abnormal as you could ask for. Usually everyone is headed for the caravans to head out by morning but this time was much different. Another round of unarmored tournaments took place but I was far too distracted to participate as much as the day before. It was time to see what work I could really do and with some aid calling to Shadow, Vesper and I discovered I could utilize the anvil to turn normal gold into the special rose gold we needed. I am going to own the fact that this got about as out of hand as you would expect. In our defense… I have no defense. We wanted to help Hedda complete a collection of mini figurines which were stuck in mystery boxes and were pretty set on opening boxes till we found them all. Anyone that knows Vesper and myself should expect no less, given the situation. Overall I would call this excursion to the Shadowlands a success for many. Until we meet again!

Editor's note: Casey Lemay has been working towards throwing this event for literal years. As a crafting friend, I have cheered her on as she made so freaking much stuff for this weekend. I cannot understate the time and planning that went into this event. At times I had to end phone calls and conversations in order to avoid hearing anything to do with the event details, wanting to experience it from the player's end of things. Thank you again to the entire staff. 

Why I Want to Go - Voraniss Questing Tree Fiddy

Written by Zack "Anthony Warder" Emmert

Voraniss Questing has always been one of my favorite questing series in the game. The series has always has a skilled and dedicated team of event staff. The lore and the worldbuilding is truly above and beyond, and it's been brought to life by an incredibly talented cast of NPCs and top-notch prop construction.

Because of the lore-heavy nature of this plot, I'd also like to take a moment to give prospective players a run-down of where the plot currently stands, and what all has happened so far (there's a lot):

Hundreds of years in the past and far to the west, the Knights of the Aberrant Gate defended the Realms from the Aberrant Gate and the beings on the other side, who were attempting to invade and destroy the Realms. During the Battle of Lostpeak, all the knights save for Knight Commander Sir Willmot D'Aubert and Sir Edwyn Rainecourt abandoned the fight and fled. Sir Willmot and Sir Edwyn were able to destroy the gate, but Sir Willmot was killed and many of the aberrations escaped, some of which killed Sir Edwyn's entire family. This was the event that turned Sir Edwyn evil.

Later, Sir Edwyn hosted Sir Willmot's wake, with the rest of the knightly order: Sir Roman De'Maris, Dame Claudia LeRoux, Sir Wolfram Elliston, Dame Gloriana Stanwode, Sir Athalos Fairclough, Sir Lorin Stirling, Sir Selwyn Fowler, and Dame Mirield Castillon. He then proceeded to poison the other knights of the order, and reanimate them as his undead generals. He placed a piece of his soul into each of them, becoming a lich and making each of his generals into one of his soul containers. Our seers have determined that in order to kill Sir Edwyn, each of his generals must first be killed in the correct order, and while we have not yet determined the order, we know that our first target is Dame Gloriana Stanwode, the order's wizard and scribe.

Following the turning of the knights, a war broke out between Sir Edwyn's corrupted court, and four of the order's own squires: Squires Lawrence, Willoughby, Elmwatcher, and McHale. The squires succeeded in trapping and incapacitating Sir Edwyn in a crypt in what is now the town of Caelkirk, by channeling the power of five different gods: Aurora, Solarus, Gaia, Rexan, and Dionin.

Fast forward to present day-ish.

As a result of Rexan's death during the war in Darkvale, the magic imprisoning him weakened enough that undead began leaking out of the crypt, and adventurers came to investigate. We entered the crypt, and in doing so broke the magic entirely and freed Sir Edwyn and one of his general, Sir Roman De'Maris. We were narrowly able to defend the town from Sir Edwyn's forces.

The following spring, we came to Voraniss to seek out the favor of Gaia, who has protected Voraniss from undead incursions since long before the country's founding. We were able to earn this favor and were given her staff, an item of extremely potent healing magic. We then discovered that Blackwood was under attack, and traveled through the Voranian spirit world to successfully defend them from Sir Edwyn's forces. During this time, we discovered that Sir Edwyn had made contact with and reanimated Dame Claudia LeRoux, once the order's healer and now a dangerous blood mage going by the moniker Dame Carrion.

Our next encounter with Sir Edwyn's corrupted court was during the Seige of Necron. Both Sir Edwyn's forces and our own were racing through the city-state kingdom, seeking artifacts that would be very powerful in Sir Edwyn's hands. Our goal was to destroy them, his was to claim them for his own use. By and large, we did not succeed in our goal, although several artifacts were successfully destroyed. Around this time is when we believe Sir Edwyn reactivated Dame Gloriana Stanwode.

The forces of the Realms most recently encountered Sir Edwyn when we ventured to the site of the Battle of Lostpeak, in search of weapons we could use to defeat the corrupted court. The weapons we sought out were the blades wielded by the four squires who originally defeated Sir Edwyn, as well as the blade of Knight Commander Sir Willmot D'Aubert. To earn the squire's blades, we had to pass trials set by the spirits of the squires themselves. Those chosen became responsible for rebuilding the Knights of the Aberrant Gate and reaffirming their tenets. Myself, Fern Eberhardt, Ser Gordon Lightfoot, and Ser Vesper were chosen to be the squires to the new order. We voted Fern into the position of Knight Commander, and Sir Pilpus Jainrose took up their squirely blade. It is at approximately this time that we believe Sir Edwyn located and reactivated Sir Wolfram Elliston.

This weekend, we'll be visiting a wizard tower that was once the property of Dame Gloriana Stanwode, accessed by a teleportation pad located on an island north of Voraniss Proper. We are hoping to find more information about the members of the corrupted court, and continue to build the arsenal with which we will defeat them.

I hope to see you all there!

Straight Outta Context

Here's our next installment of “Straight Outta Context” where we post a photo with absolutely no context and see what you think is happening! To kick off each post, we'll ask someone random in the community to take a stab at what's happening!

Jason "Aeston” Rosa guesses:

"Posing at a “rock” concert"

Share your guesses via discord or in the Facebook comments! Want to take a stab at what's happening in our next picture? Reach out to Dani Lacasse via discord or facebook messenger to signup!

Meme Monday

 by The Meme Team

What You Missed - Ashen Bounty XI

 Written by: Kelly “Charis” Perfetto 

Raynor of Ashenmark started many of his announcements this past weekend with a greeting that I greatly enjoyed and would like to replicate. 

Hello good people of the Realms and anyone else who happens to be here! I spent all of this past weekend in Ashenmark, trying to learn about becoming an adventurer, and I have been asked to document my experiences. 

The atmosphere Friday night was largely one of conviviality and recreation. I met many new people, including a small group called ‘Misery’ who say they are newly formed around these parts. The baby with the group was running around waving some sort of ‘soul reaper’ blade at peoples’ ankles. As some people dodged the hazards, others played a variety of gambling games. Most notable to an outside viewer were the dinosaur races, which came accompanied by choruses of cheers and groans of defeats as the raptors vied to place. Eventually a fire was lit outside. When I went to investigate, I and others met Amanita, the new small god of mushrooms and decay. It was certainly an unexpected experience, and we all partook in eating food-grade mushrooms in their honor. 

Two more things from that evening stood out to me. One was the Brie and cranberry tarts. What wonderful little creations. I believe we have Umbra of Ashenmark to thank for those. The second thing of note is that adventurers seem very eager to turn their blades on each other, everyone from close friends to strangers they have just met. It is certainly a practice that I hope not to have to become accustomed to. 

Saturday brought many friendly competitions during the day. I admit in between learning about others’ cultures, navigating the labyrinth with new friends, and sitting in on impromptu lectures I was not able to observe many of the tournaments. It seems that the fights were fair and entertaining, and those who participated received vouchers for the impending auctions. Meanwhile, teams of six worked to complete the labyrinth. I had heard that adventurers have a strong competitive spirit, and so when I heard that all of the teams were collaborating outside of the maze to share information I was quite impressed. I was on team Cerulean Company and Friends, ledleadled in all but name by Griffin. With his guidance from studying what others before us had done and one previous trial as a group, we were the first to complete the labyrinth. 

As the sun began to set, we were called indoors for food and the auctions. There were many wonderful dishes and tea time available before and during the two auctions, only one of which was turned into a vocal bidding war. Court, though, was truly what turned into the spectacle of the night, ranked just higher than a tense rescue of some of the Chimeron Militia members. 

The high table received gifts from many of the cities and provinces of the nation. As that was settling, Sir Killian dragged in a prisoner, the Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing, Wolf Swiftarrow. This ‘Wolf’ was clearly unstable and up for a fight, wrestling with Killian even while bound, and at least once lunging for my belongings. The prisoner was accused of a series of horrible crimes, and now that he was finally caught, Highlord Temorse ruled that he was to be executed at dawn. 

Many people seemed to think that something was amiss. Under the guidance of Sir Laika and Dame Phee, I cast a vision and asked for help to find out what would happen with this prisoner. Squire Margaret confirmed that the Wolf had indeed committed these crimes, and for heinous reasons at that. When I looked to the next dawn, I had a vision of an axe falling, a chorus of agonized howls, and an overwhelming feeling that what was dead would remain dead and the whole city would feel the consequences. Squire Margaret also looked toward the future and saw that an unknown potion maker would be very helpful to us. We tried to find Highlord Temorse that night to warn him, but he had disappeared. 

Dawn broke on Sunday. At least four hours later the adventurers began gathering in earnest. I am told this is common. 

We were told the execution was supposed to have happened, but Ashenmark did not not have the resources to spend to confirm. The city of Goldenhall where we had been guests for the last few days was suddenly overrun with enraged wildlife, and the sworn members were out and about trying to remedy the situation. Onyx did a quick divination and confirmed that the prisoner still lived. With both problems at large, the adventuring party set off. First we encountered the blacksmith Yon, who needed help recovering their apprentice and raw silver. The group fought their way through awakened trees, popping disgusting sap sacs, and eventually recovered the apprentice and enough silver for some axes. Making our way closer to the prison we came across Melf the alchemist, whose shop had been overrun by hounds. These same hounds had been previously released from the kennels, had killed their master, and had rampaged throughout town. Now they were trapped in the back room of the potion shop, eating strange and powerful ingredients. 

As the party was dealing with the dogs, Magus Kwido offered that I and others could investigate the nearby prison. Here we found a dead stone golem and a dead man, covered in an apparent calling card - flowers just like ones from the tree we had seen gifted to Highlord Temorse by Master Emmerik of Elimlemirre Isle the night prior. After a quick investigation, I revived Wayne the prison guard who gave us some information and went on his way. We met with the rest of the group at a strangely empty tavern. 

Our rest did not last long, as just outside Ser Vesper and others had found a visceral trail of blood, still fresh. At the other end was Elsie, one of the tavern keepers, who had been viciously mauled by wild animals. After further recovery, and with some reminding from Magus Kwido, we recalled that Temorse had intended to plant the strange tree gift in Gaia’s grove. We set off. 

The tree had grown to enormous proportions over night, and more awakened trees guarded the grove. Expedient seer magic revealed that Gaia did not wish the tree to remain, and so the group began chopping at the trunk with silver axes. With each strike, null magic rippled out from the tree like the peals of a horrible bell. On the final strike, the magic was gone completely, the corrupting tree fell, and the guardians of the grove retreated. 

There were still problems about town as the sworn members of Ashenmark urged us to evacuate the city. Yon’s legs had been crushed, the beekeeper was dying of enraged bee stings, and Melf was dipping in to his emergency potions which still worked under the null magic effect. Still, it seems we were able to bring all the townsfolk we had encountered with us, relieving them of some of their ailments as well. We found resistance from yet more awakened trees and animals along the way, and it was a tense fight seeing as even the most basic spells would not work. Eventually we made it outside of the city and back to an area where magic worked. 

It seems as though there is a small conspiracy brewing against the lords of Ashenmark, spurred on by this Emmerik of Elemirre Isle and Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing. For now the null magic remains in place. With a soon-to-be-booming alchemy business and such warm hospitality and delicious food, I would still gladly return to Ashenmark and hope to one day work to help resolve resolve their magic problem. 

Looking Gods in the Eye: Shadow

 

“I am afraid that our eyes are bigger than our stomachs, and that we have more curiosity than understanding. We grasp at everything, but catch nothing except wind.”

― Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays

“So the unwanting soul

sees what's hidden,

and the ever-wanting soul

sees only what it wants.”

― Lao Tzu

Gods are tricky complicated creatures. Some dispute what even MAKES one a god, can one be a god genetically? Can a god die by being forgotten, and if that were true, why are not the half remembered not waging reckless wars to be sustained by ire alone? Is THAT why the evil gods sit in the shadows? Questions my viewer, questions. It is difficult for a concept to be personified, yet there they are.

Perhaps then, it is easier for a person to become a concept? I certainly have seen it tried. And once or twice, some of them have succeeded.

Shadow, Lord of Thieves.

The difference from Shadow and many gods is he was born mortal. The greater difference is that he was born mortal RECENTLY, his behavior is as documented as it is doctrinal, and some can certainly argue that Shadow has not yet behaved in a manner that is quite cognizant of his freshly gained eternity.

Part of that youth is a lack of perhaps the most common emotion of all the gods, jealousy. We live in a polytheistic union of monotheistic faiths. We know that gods fight, some of the gods even love each other, yet we rarely love two gods. However Shadow encourages such plurality, indeed Shadow himself once worshiped five gods. Among them was Mystra, the goddess of Magic (Whose creations he coveted above all things), The Cat Lord, god of stealth, survival, instinct, and thieves (virtues he has carried far), Selph, the god of greed of whom he was Champion (No comment), and then Chandros the Reaper of death, who once upon a time sat upon the Wheel of Chaos.. Then there was It. Most quarrelsome of his faiths was the Great Grandfather, the All, the Dark One, Entropy Itself. You see the Dark One IS a jealous god, more then any other, and thus when Shadow prayed to another, Shadow found himself hunted long and far throughout the Realms. Perhaps hiding from these hunting parties allowed Shadow to hone his skills high enough to do the deeds he did in the future. Or perhaps it was merely the foolishness of youth. 

However even through this ire, there was one he hated more, Lolth, the god who demanded he was champion. This was a obligation brought about only by his possession of the Amulet of Night, the signet of her Champion, and one of the few shackles that Shadow found himself unable to escape. At least for a time.

As mentioned Shadow worshipped Mystra through her creations, magic items, which he coveted above all treasure, a trait shared by many in the realms. Thus was his bounty, and such was his obsession with it, that he would become allergic to nonmagical things, the very presence of nonstealable items being toxic to his touch, demanding he wear gloves to manipulate the mundane world, thus gloves are one of the few articles of faith taken seriously in the church.

Such is his love of his trove that his bag of tricks, his sack of magical items, is oft the answer of their followers prayers, and the powers of his bounty are bestowed to the faithful, temporarily, in shadowy spirit. Most notable is Yashin and Schizo, his katana and dagger, the dagger of which is still in possession of the church. Also among his relics in the church’s possession is an Elven bow, the Void (which I am naturally jealous of), the Crown of Science, and the unsearchable tin. However the bag once, and as a god still does, hold many more items, the Amulet of Night that gave him such trouble, the horn of a unicorn, the Staff of Law and the magical bookmark that can rewrite laws, the Ka-bar, the sphere of setty, a righting blade, and even a magical kirin named Celeste. Wonders many would kill for, formeost among those murderers being Shadow himself.

While Shadow is a Neden god, and one of its small pantheon, he was not always in Neden, indeed he predates it by far. His first mentor was Prince Iron Hand of the borderlands, where he rose to high priest of Chandros making him among the first followers of chaos. After Iron Hands left Shadow joined Creathorn as a regulator for a brief time until joining Cadre. It was with Cadre Shadow first cheated death and he escaped their doom. 

It is here, heels freshly singed from the fires of Cadre, that he met a young Tallon Purplewood, and thus Shadow and Neden first crossed paths. Shadow was a mentor to the future mischief maker and helped him establish their nation before he joined Folkestone, confident that he will never have any conflict of interest between his loyalty to his king and loyalty to his protegee. It was here he learned of the void’s embrace and entered the service of the Dark One, and it is under the influence of the Arch-ender that he saw Neden get sent into the All by his own nation. Helpless to help those he helped shepard, and unwilling to play the role of their killer, Shadow faded into his own name, hiding until Tallon himself stopped and emerged back into the world.

With his old protegee returned, Shadow joined Neden again during the Protectorate era of Neden, until the time of Jonas Cooke the King of the Shadowlands.

Jonas Cooke is a story seldom told, and one that belonged more to his queen then his ursurper, however his powers were bound to him not by blood, but by power not of his own. And like all gifts, it could be lost, and like all lost things, it could be stolen.

And thus it was, in a expedition lead by Shadow himself, and Nos, Blackwood god of Shenanigans. The two braved many dangers only to be faced with a mantel only bearably by one. Nos had skill and ambition, but Shadow had his own skill, and it was his nameright. Thus the two dueled over the treasure and thus did Shadow’s blade prove swifter, and Nos was first to accept Shadow’s new divinity.

And thus, in triumph rather then shame, did the god fade into his name, and the tyrant Cooke fell.

Admittedly this is no doctrine, it is merely history. But history is analogy, and its own doctrine. They say those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it, but that is a misdirection.

Those who do not learn history will find themselves easily swayed by those who would see it repeated. Those who do not learn of Cooke will be fooled by Shadows.

Mantra 4: A picture is worth a thousand words. A deed is worth a thousand pictures. Sometimes a thousand whys can be answered by a single How. Not every tale has to harken to the next ancient doom that the world will face or hint to some magic item. Its only when a story is pointless when it can actually have a point.