Looking for some help

Cross-posted, per request, from Facebook via John Wrisley

Looking for some help. On June 19th, 2025, the home of Dave and Carrie Dolph was destroyed by fire. 

While there were no injuries to them or their pets, the house has been deemed unsafe for occupancy.

The good news is, they own the land, and don’t have an overhanging mortgage.

The bad news is, they lived in a very old mobile home, and the insurance company is unlikely to provide enough money for the loss to get the old home removed, put in a new septic and slab, and replace the home. There may not even be enough money from the insurance to do any one of those things, let alone all of them.

Some of you may know Dave and Carrie from the Realms (Sir Callin of Folkestone, and Sir Tetch), some from online gaming (Rael and Bael Krieg (of New World), Spiritrend and Shadowrend (of Everquest) or Skyhoof and Spirithoof (of World of Warcraft)), Queens Gambit Game store, or any number of other geeky related pursuits. Dave may also be known to you through his prolific writing of RPG material for both 5E and ToRG. Or you may know them as family or relatives, or from their working professional lives.

Friends and family have urged them to start a GoFundMe to help get them into a home. Others suggested a charity drive of sorts, tapping into Carrie’s current profession. They are going to do both.

For the charity drive, the goal is to hold an online auction through Replay Sales and Service/Auction Ninja where the profits go to help the rebuild. We’re looking for any kind of small, shippable items (preferably smaller than a breadbox or under 30 pounds) and of a geeky nature (such as, but not limited to: comics, board games, collectors figurines, cups, decor, CCG stuff, books, small electronics, funky art, LARP clothing or props, etc) though really, any item may be suitable. Generally, the item would need to be worth at least $10 to make it a good candidate for auction. There are going to be at least 3 donation collection areas, one at the Replay Sales barn (Newmarket NH), one at Camelot (Berlin MA) (sponsored/overseen by Clockwork), and at Realms events or practices, sponsored/overseen by James Murphy (TAO)). The goal would be to gather up all the donations by July 19th, get them to the Replay barn and post them for the Auction (probably launching in mid August and ending a week or so later). 

Dave and Carrie hope to launch both the auction and the GoFundMe at roughly the same time. The littlest they can come up with for an amount needed is $100,000 if they get another mobile home (not preferred), closer to $200,000 if they get a modular or similar home (better for the ecology, and also better for a host of other reasons). They are likely to need to take out a mortgage using the land as collateral.

How can you help?

*Spread the word. Cut and paste this notice, or a variation of it to your own contacts. The more people that know, the better the chances of reaching a goal or getting auction items. This can be spread through word of mouth, fliers, emails or social media. However you like, all of it is helpful.

*If you have collectibles or auction-potential items that you are willing to donate to the cause, please reach out to John Wrisley (email: johnwrisley@yahoo.com), James Murphy (email: Letheris@aol.com) or Clockwork to get directions and find a good time to drop them off.

James will be at “Divine Intervention 3”, the weekend of the 11-13 of July. as well as most upcoming events. He also usually attends Wednesday practice in Nashua NH, but for enough stuff (gas has to be worth it) He will hit any other practice to pick stuff up. Please reach out to him to arrange something. 

*If you have money but not time or collectibles, keep an eye out for the upcoming GoFundMe.

Please share this to Realms folk from back in the day.  You can call or text me at 603 553 1495,  contact me through facebook or email Johnwrisley@yahoo.com

Realmsle #25

                       

This custom Wordle-adjacent-puzzle features a 5-letter word that is particularly relevant to the Realms.

If the embedded page isn't working below you can click this link to get to the puzzle.

Like regular Wordle you can copy your result's (but only if you follow the link), so paste them or a screenshot onto social media to let us know how you did. But no spoilers!

Meme Monday

 by the Meme Team

Happy 4th of July

The staff of The View from Valehaven would like to extend to all of you our wishes for a very happy 4th of July holiday! See you Monday with our regularly scheduled content.

Queen of Hearts XXX Programming Notes

Hello everyone, I’d like to make a couple programming announcements regarding the upcoming 30th installment of The Queen of Hearts Tournaments and War Maneuvers. First an announcement about Saturday night then one about Sunday morning.

—

I want to explain our plan for celebrating this notable three decade milestone. 

Normally after dinner break you are all accustomed to gathering around the stage for the crafting and presentation tournaments. This year we’ll be structuring our evening a little bit differently. 

We’ll be having a party!

We’ll be setting up tables and chairs near the site’s extra-large fire pit and celebrating thirty years of Queen of Hearts with a bonfire, elevated apps brought around by our staff, and a mocktail bar with refreshments for the summer heat! 

We’d also like to have a small opening ceremony at the beginning of the party so we’re asking all Queens and True supporters to have a prompt return from dinner break.

What about the non-coms you ask? Well, we’ll still be doing those presentations and performances, they’ll just be happening at the outset of the party as the beginning of the evening’s entertainment! After they are done we’ll also be inviting people up to tell stories they have of past Queen of Hearts, and we know there are a lot of great stories out there so get them ready to share!

And as the evening draws on we hope everyone will take the time to relax around the fire, enjoy the camaraderie of the evening, and help us reflect on the joy we all feel. Not only in having an event reach this milestone, but that we have a community that has endured so long and has so much history for us to be a part of.

—

On Sunday morning, we will be having a Breakfast fundraiser.

A great many of you know the Dolph family, Dave and Carrie, and you may have seen through social media that they tragically lost their home in a fire. Dave and Carrie both spent decades being invaluable contributors and paragons of service to the Realms community. I do not think its an exaggeration to say that they were instrumental to building this game into what we have today. We’d like to take this opportunity to try and help them out in their time of need.

This fundraiser is being organized by Angie and Jason Grey, and more information will be forthcoming as we put the details together.

So as you crawl out of your tents in the morning or you make your way back to site, skip the Dunkin’ line on Sunday and have breakfast with us to help our longtime friends.

—

Thank you everyone for your attention to these announcements. We look forward to seeing you this August at Queen of Hearts XXX.

In service,

Jason and the Queen of Hearts Staff

Monthly Toahscope - July 1025

 Hey everyone, it's that time again, your monthly Toahscope is here. I hear last month's predictions brought about some interesting results. Lets see if this month can compare.

Air
Strange creatures will have an effect on you this month

Fall will deal with demons
Spring will want to look for genies
Summer should watch out for vampires
Winter will find a humanoid animal

Day will find the creature antagonistic. Night will also be antagonistic, but they'll try to hide it

Earth
Regionals will behave unusual around you

Fall will see this with healing spells
Spring will have protective magics
Summer will find Seer magic to be impacted
Winter could see a change in any regional magic

Day will see the spells work better than normal, Night will find they are lacking

Fire
Elements will play a role in your future. This could take the form of actual elements, elementals, or even someone that falls into that element in their Domai runes.

Fall should be aware of water
Spring will see earth become important
Summer will find air very relevant
Winter should watch for fire

Day may find a new ally, while Night could find treasure

Metal
You may earn yourself a new nickname

Fall will be based on a physical characteristic
Spring will come from a talent
Summer may earn theirs from a combat skill
Winter will get theirs based on knowledge

Day will get a name based on a negative aspect. Night will earn a positive name.

Water
Weapons will have an important impact in your near future

Fall should keep an eye out for bows
Spring will want to find a dagger
Summer should look for pikes
Winter will see an axe become important

Day will be wielding the weapon when the time comes, Night will see someone else with it
 

Rumors around the Realms July 1025

 

Rumors around the Realms July1025

Shadowlands

A new species/creature has been found within the Shadowlands.  With the building of the sacred candle for the Church of Shadow, which some have seen at the Blue Rose Tournaments, the creatures seem to be coming from the wax dripping off it.  Queen Karmha has dubbed them Waxtons, being made of wax and all.  They are not hostile, in fact they tend to help out those who belong to the Church of Shadow.   They are tiny so perfect to get by things without being noticed and stand no more then 4’’ tall and look like tiny candles.  At Evie’s Midnight Festival that just past some of them may have been seen at Karmha Creations shop.  They helped Karmha set up and break down first thing in the morning so that the Queen could get back to the Shadowlands to work on her many orders that are coming in.  And as we all know Queen Karmha will never turn down good help.  More is being looked into on the origins and the motive of these new creatures.  As for now Karmha is using them as scouts to investigate the strange door that appeared at the Neden BBQ.  Archie has divined that the key found that day leads to people’s memories and that we are currently seeking to explore JB’s, as he was attacked by cultist at the bbq and they appear to have used the key on him for unknown reasons.  More information is coming back from the Waxton scouts as time goes by and honestly it is making no sense to anyone.  The only thing that we can think of is the cultist that have been seen within the lands did something to block certain information that JB might have obtained.  Queen Karmha and Jayce did send JB on an investigation on these cultists and have yet to hear that he has found anything.  Maybe that’s why they kidnapped him for the brief amount of time before the hero’s of the realms went and saved him?  What are they hiding?  Who are they?  

Realms

Desperate messengers from a small forest hamlet have been appearing at surrounding villages, begging for help or for a place to relocate.  Their own village can no longer keep livestock, as every animal is stolen, and the game in their forest has dwindled to near nothing.

East of Chimeron

Foresters claim that fall has come early to a long swath of the woods, where leaves have browned and fallen already.

Across the Realms

You lay down to sleep.  Your dreams are nice and pleasant and as your dream continues it gradually gets darker.  The moon which was full in the sky becomes covered by some clouds.  As you wait for the moon to reappear, it never d

oes.  You then notice that the stars have also disappeared.  The clouds are no longer visible as the entire sky is dark creating a shadow over everything.  You run and hide, knowing that the dawn will come, but as you wait it never does.

Unknown

Reports have come in from across the realms of corpses found exsanguinated.  Next to some of the bodies have been a jar of blood with a paintbrush.

Unknown

In the mountains of Blackavar, a resounding CRACK could be heard on a lovely Summer's day that was otherwise uneventful. It seems that both House Carnac and the Orc Tribe near Archendell have dispatched explorers to investigate. Preliminary reports seem to reflect that it originated from near the Ferret's Den, a naturally guarded area of the mountains near the River Archendale.