By: Nataliya "Sahder" Kostenko
This past weekend I shuffled on over to the Clontarf Shuffle V (featuring the stacked deck final) hoping to do some gambling. Thus, I brought with me gold, not armor. This will become important later. I was kinda late, so immediately upon opening the door, I could smell the very yummy food Lady Kyomi was serving up. Some excellent soup and the lamb were my particular favs.
Also immediately upon opening the door, I heard some of the most anno–uh, interesting voices I ever heard. They belonged to Grandma Ethel and…I wanna say Alphie(?), her beloved grandchild, both part of a tiny race of people whose home was under threat from another, larger race of orc people. In my travels, I’ve seen those same dudes plague Blackwood before; they draw power from weird skulls totem pillar-thingys that they set up in “storied” places–or near “storied” groups of people, like these pixies. Gambling had to wait for now. But not for long, because a crack team featuring me, Killian, Veit, and a daring and aggressive group of younger adventurers got the pixies their home back in no time. Okay well, actually some time, because I really struggled without that armor. But eventually, Grandma Ethel (may she rest in peace) made a noble sacrifice, allowing King Orion (who had come to aid our group in our hour of need) to liberate her ancestral home, which was on the back of a large tortoise.
Meanwhile, back inside, The Stacked Deck’s final match of the season raged on–Avendar took the grand prize in that game, with Nova finishing second. They also started up the first game of the next season.
Throughout the day, people won some marvelous prizes at the auction. I didn’t clock exactly who got what, except that Kwido took home a rather large haul of diverse items. There were quite a few tables packed into the hall, so everyone had plenty of options to fill up on cards, dice, roulette, and if they got lucky, gold. A great time all around! [The event also raised quite a lot of real, non-Realms dollars to support a charity to feed kids, and James/Tao matched that contribution with one of his own, as is his tradition.]
