By: Sawyer "Jericho" Judkins
This past weekend was the second time I had the fortune to attend this Summer Festival, and it was a great time both times.
The day started off simply with greeting friends as they arrived and some light snacks. The weather looked like it promised to hold out and be nice and warm. And warm it was. The first thing that happened was some group tournaments being run! The Grand Melee kicked things off, which was a great time. Following that was time trials against a horde of Kobolds. Unfortunately, I did not get to participate in the other tournaments as I was working on acquiring some spells at that time, but I heard yells of javelins and something about frogs, and it looked like everyone was having a blast.
Soon after that, food came out from the kitchen, and as always, you can expect a great assortment of food from the Rhiassan kitchen. Lunch was loaded hot dogs and piping hot french fries. The perfect thing for a summer festival. There were also an assortment of special drinks both from Rhiassa and Chrysantha as well. I did not get any myself, but I had a few sips of Toothless’ and they were fantastic.Other great food mentions throughout the day would be the fruit and caprese skewers as well as the pretzels with an assortment of dipping sauces. Plus a machine that regularly made fresh popcorn.
The Gambler’s Guild also put on a poker tournament! I sadly did not have the time (or the coin) to participate and lose in it this time around, but I know those that played had a good time. The casino was also open all day allowing people to spend their time and gold with each other if questing was not on their menu for the day.
Throughout the day, there were also occasional appearances of infernal looking goats or something. They would rush in and seem to target someone. I took out a bunch from behind, but they ended up exploding taking me with them that time. Another time there was a couple wolf looking beings that came in asking for a chicken to be taken care of? This is information I heard second hand, so I do not know the validity of it.
Soon after lunch, questing began in earnest. I found myself on the Western Flank while others fended off the efforts of Reapers within a forbidden city. I heard there were a large number of adventurers that took part in it. Alongside that, I believe there was supposed to be some Dino-Jousting, but I am unsure if that happened.
There was a short break before we adventurers once more took to questing in a couple different ways. I heard something about Door Magic and science on one. I ended up getting to deal with some pirates on the other quest a little late, but we managed to find some kind of ore we were looking for, and managed to not lose Ace to some pirates.
After that, I once more headed to the Western Flank while adventurers came to the aid of Arken led by the Fox Spirit to remove a threat that had been hidden from The Mirror while it was active this past winter. A personal thank you from me to everyone that came out to help deal with our problem. While that was going on, I hear that some brave young adventurers ventured once again into a hidden library!
Once questing was wrapped up, we took all our tickets from questing and tournaments and put them into Orion’s Bucket so our names could be pulled to spin a now unrigged wheel to earn gold. Big shout out to the Gambler’s Guild for supplying Aeston with a new wheel, much to his chagrin since there was more than one big winner this year!
Dinner. Dinner was a loaded mashed potato and corn on the cob. You could get it plain, or you could get it loaded with so many tasty bits, like chili, cheese sauce, and broccoli. I am honestly still thinking about that potato almost a week later! It would also be remiss of me not to mention dessert. Fern, as always, supplied an amazing and delicious spread of baked goods. This year there were chocolates, cookies, and meringues. My absolute favorite is still the Earl Gray Cookies.
As the day came to a close, Aeston lost a ton of money to the wheel, and we all packed up and headed on our way after another amazing Summer Festival. To hear that this was the last one is bittersweet, and I look forward to more exciting things in the future.
In service to the Realms,
Jericho Axelthorne
Lord of Arken
Watcher of the Skyless Sea
Squire to the Knights of the Sabble Dragon
Knight of Chaos
What You Missed: Toothless Edition
We went back to the library. We had to paint some stuff to make bad guys happy. I got to throw some Magic Missiles. We had to wrap up some mummies in bandages and then put flowers on them. After dessert, we got to help with Spin The Wheel and it was fun. I got to see a big bolt of lightning. POPCORN!
Toothless
