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.