Written By: Stephen "Laika" Sanford & Bri "Margaret" Meisser
Previously on KOSD Questing… AHEM. In order to keep this article at a decent pace without recapping too much please check out this slideshow these points of power my Squire Margaret August has made: CLICK HERE
One year after the reclamation of Blackavar the nation and its people welcome us within their lands. The Mindflayers seemingly gone, the Brood Matron sleeps once more but now there are two new problems. Rexan has returned and seeks a host and a young boy named Danny has gone missing and Blackavar city has had strange sightings in the night.
Friday
We arrived to merriment and politics. Several of the noble house members have shown up, the main three being Adam Carnac who values wealth and runs most of the economy of Blackavar, Baron Kurt Gautier who resides within the castle he seems to value protecting the land and its citizens and runs the guards and military of Blackavar, Finally Lady Isabelle Taunton who seems to value being a debutante and seems to be in charge of the festivities and entertainment.
There was so much to do, Carnival Games, Campfire stories, an open bar, a Poker Tournament and gambling, Fortune Telling, a Silent Auction for a mysterious possibly cursed magic item, a potluck dinner (I provided the smoked pulled pork) a spooky pumpkin walk with ghosts and scarecrows!
I missed out on the pumpkin walk, apparently the ghosts were people dressed up in sheets and some scarecrows attacked some of the event-goers. When everyone returned, Gautier and Taunton had a very vocal argument over the safety of Blackavar and how Lady Taunton lifting the curfew was a bad idea and would lead to others getting kidnapped or killed.
Afterwards we saw a glowing light down by the water and went to explore. It was Danny who was very confused about where he was. He kept claiming he was looking for Danny and said he misplaced his wand by putting it down somewhere. When mentioning about his mom he got really sad and wanted to leave. Margaret Seanced him back and after some coaxing and a divine aid he stayed to talk for a bit more, we learned that his parents had told him to stay put in their house seemingly before being attacked. Danny left us but that was not the only time we saw him this weekend.
Saturday
We wake up to a full festival and an open world to explore, there was many shops and wares to buy, a scroll shop with many magical implement and familiars, a blacksmith to purchase newly crafted weapons, a chainmail shop, a casino, a job board, and many other sights within the town. This was the first event debuting a new token known as the dragonmark which is worth 5 gold and double that in blackavar but could only be spent for players 2 years or younger.
Because of Open world questing everyone's experiences may be different and I encourage people to reach out to other players about what they saw and enjoyed because there was several mods and encounters throughout the site running at the same time.
Outside of the town there were many animals and bandits roaming around attacking people, you could find fae homes at the foot of some trees. I first explored the fae homes and found a boy named Jimmy who wanted to meet the fae. We brought him to the first home and he talked with inhabitants and was given a hallowed mark, which was the “good” aligned consumable which can be used in a number of ways. Hallowed Marks are a wooden token with a 7 pointed star in it. Harrowed is the “darker” side of this which is a similar token but with a symbol of fire, harrowed means “distressed”.
After Jimmy left we went to explore more fae huts finding out they had more information on the whereabouts of Danny. James swift encountered the hut and was told to “come back with a warrant” he talked to Baron Gautier’s Son to escort him and provide a warrant. After a hilarious interrogation scene the fae provided a letter giving us more information that several children had been missing in the woods being led by a strange light, which we knew was a connection to Danny.
We returned to the town to find some of the shopkeepers complaining about items being missing and a strange cat. We talked to the cat who was very proud of what was in his sack but would not give it up even when coaxed with coins or other offers. Eventually James tries to take the sack and the cat begins swinging boulders and kills several of us before going down and regenerates. The Guards of the town try to get the cat to leave but do not want more combat in town in fear of breaking things or with more casualties. I decide if this cat wants a bigger sack, what's better than a large trash bin, I haul it over and begin shaking it. The cat takes the bait and I lure it out of town where we kill it again and take items from its sack. It regenerates again and James swift kills it once more and 3 racoons pop out leaving a trench coat. Looking back at it, the trash makes a lot of sense for why it worked.
After this there was a town hall which I missed to help out staff and I was also injured during the night quest so I will turn you over to my trusty squire to fill you in with the details here.
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Hi. Margaret here :)
The nobles invited us to a town hall where we could learn about their visions for the future of the nation and exert our influence upon the proceedings such as by offering military, economic, or political favor to the various parties. Lady Taunton seemed concerned with integrating various factions into Blackavar such as the Orcs and the Woodland Alliance. Baron Gautier was very concerned about Blackavars military and protecting against the threats at night. Adam Carnac wanted to ensure Blackavars capital interests were taken care of. And Wilma Wilmont had eyes on the future with long term planning initiatives and a desire to build a school. Fess also asked for influence for the Woodland alliance which he managed to get in spades. It will be interesting to see how the influence gathered by the different parties affects Blackavar going into the winter months.
After a nice dinner break, we came back with many children having gone out into the woods chasing after Danny in some form of trance. The children were able to be recovered, but Lady Taunton asked us to find Danny in hopes of bringing him back and stopping this trance. We encountered a Fae dragon named Fredrick who Danny created, and who has tried to steal Laika before. This obviously made me very wary. We eventually found Danny on a swing which he had dubbed the safe zone, so he could not be hurt. His safe spot was surrounded by Harrowed creatures who come out of the portal from Slumbertimeland in the night. I convinced Danny that we needed his help to defeat the big bad evil snake that has been Harrowing all his friends, and so we ventured into Slumbertimeland in order to fight off the bad guys and save the day, moving the story along. Little did we know that this was only the foreword.
But first we had to fight our way through the portals. We fought through Harrowed beings as well as scarecrows. With Danny hiding under his blankie whenever the fighting got too close and he got scared. At one point, someone thought the hidden Danny was a scarecrow and began to burn away his blanket which distressed the boy, but Johan was able to fix it. Throughout this, Danny was asking people about becoming his best friend forever. Those who accepted would become Hallowed. Those who accepted a similar offer from Frederick the Fae dragon became Harrowed. These will be important. We also saved Danny’s owl friend Varrus from being roasted alive, as well as saved Danny from being scared for life by this fact.
Eventually we made our way into the portal after a friendship ritual led by Tefara helped to activate the portal long enough for us to enter. After talking with Danny, we realized that despite his powers, he was not the one writing this story. He cannot create things without his magic wand which he put down. Some seer magic, a nightmare, and a Harrowed individual later, we learned that it was the remnants of Rexan, under the new moniker The Author, who was writing the story we were in. This could not possibly cause any issues ever.
After being warned of trials ahead, the heroes approached a river. Only those who were Harrowed could pass freely. The rest of us were told to put our fatal flaws into The Author’s book. Some did so, some did magic shenanigans in order to get around this requirement, and some got Harrowed in their attempt to cross. There was a lion, as well as two other animals. I believe a leopard and a bear? I was unable to tell in the dark. All I know is we sang the lion to sleep and the others were dealt with so we were on our way.
We eventually made our way onto the field where we found Sleeping Beauty's castle entrapped in vines. As well as some lightning clouds and some fairies. There was a cool light puzzle for determining how to kill the enemies and get back through the portal to Slumbertimeland that people better at puzzles and fighting than me figured out. We eventually made our way through, unlocking the Table of Contents. Danny stayed behind to clean up the castle, and a very tired adventuring party made our way to bed. Back to Laika.
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Sunday
After a long rest we woke up to a wonderful silly and over the top Funday Sunday as all good weekends should be. In this case it was the orcs of the woods inviting us to BLOOD GAMES. When we approached the group of orcs they played a song on drums, it was a delightful ORChestra. The adventurers followed up with their own rendition of “We will rock you”. The first tournament was grand melee which went longer than it should as people kept getting raised. During the day anyone could break weapon restriction and be a fighter and even do combos not allowed by the omnibus. Afterwards there were many lighthearted and overly dramatic games such as: 5’ Florentine, Voranian Dagger Fighting, Voranian Great Sword, Voranian Double Sword, Three- Armed, Rock Throw, Rock tournament. Each tournament was in good spirits and gave even the youngest of adventurers a good shot at winning and having fun beating up our veteran adventurers.
The final tournament was poisonball, my least favorite tournament. It was regular rules but armor did not come back, giving advantage initially to fighters but as armor went away 1 paths could be more successful. I did almost win within a few minutes knocking out everyone but rosetta, burning through my armor I took a killing blow making the game go on. Knowing that a win from here on out would be extremely unlikely I spent the rest of poisonball helping train the younger adventurers on how to fight against a great weapon.
The tournaments were done for the day, the site wrapped up but the festivities weren’t quite over. One thing I neglected to point out was throughout the day the BLOOD GAMES was a tournament to spill blood so the crops could grow in the spring, these orcs had been using blood magic throughout the day. A certain member of Stonewood, Magus James Swift, had been understandably upset at the practice. James had to be talked down from burning everything to cleanse it. Due to the orcs worshiping Gaia, he gave them a religious exemption. James Swift stormed off and claimed to not return until Blackavar contacts him in the future.
Overall I and many adventurers had a great time, this was the perfect event for so many first event newbies. It always feels great seeing so many smiles as people come together to support others in this game. As always thank you KOSD Staff and NPCs for a memorable weekend and here's to seeing KOSD Questing III.
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