Why You Should Go!

Why You Should Go, Demonic Invasion

by William "RuBarb" Moore

Demonic Invasion is a series of day tournaments with plot night quests.  It has a lot to offer for all types of players to be a part of.  Fight with your team chosen Friday night to prove that you have what it take to be Legion worthy.  At night suit up for the fight of your life as you take on unique battle tactic encounters against the Legion’s strong hold in the Forest of Kelvar.  There is NO guarantee of success here folks; the Legion will be out for blood.  Bring your best of the best because this Legion has an objective of their own to accomplish.

Discover the hidden truth of RuBarb’s 5-year disappearance, the ‘Blades of Discord’, ‘The Artifact’, the Forest of Kelvar, and so much more!  Demonic Invasion 3 picks up where the story left off nearly 5 years ago.  The Demonic Legion made their first attack on the Forest of Kelvar 7 years ago and has grown quiet.  Those that remember have epic stories to tell—ask around!  Little to the Realms knowledge, the Forest of Kelvar has been since taken by the Legion.  Now it’s time to take it back inch by inch if we must.  Each victory or failure will have reprocesses ripping through the Demonic Invasion plot and who will have final control of the Forest of Kelvar.

Prop heavy event!!!  If you haven’t seen some of the amazing work we’ve been building you’ve been missing out.  You should get to friending RuBarb Kaladune on Facebook to see all that has gone into this event.  Oh, but don’t you worry we have saved the best for last, what you see there is nothing compared to what you’ll see on the field.  Step up and you can get to take one of these props home with you as a badge of honor, or as a curse (I always get those things mixed up).

Demonic Invasion mixes in the role-playing game we all love, Dungeons and Dragons, giving a fresh burst of life to the magic system and battle tactics.  PC’s are highly encouraged to roleplay and think more immersively.  The more you, as a PC, get involved the more you’ll get out.  There is not a thing in this event series that the single newbie cannot do.  It all requires a little out of the box thinking and teamwork.   EVERYTHING you do affects this plot, and everyone has a chance to be the hero.

Challenge yourself to push beyond the limits of what you know you can do, and do the impossible.

Arc Sphere Distortions

Arc Sphere Distortions

by Steven "Therian" Matulewicz

Spotlight on: Cleaved Tournament from QoH XXIV

[Editor's Note: Scroll down for photos from each entry and commentary by some of the tournament participants. All photos by View Staff]

Tournament summary: two entrants from each team (chef and sous chef) receive a "mystery basket" full of ingredients; they are then given one hour to put together two servings of the same dish for judging. Entrants may only use the ingredients in their baskets, though they are not required to use everything in the basket. All cooking tools are provided by the competitors, including any equipment to cook on. All food preparation is done in a designated area in front of the judges. The entries are judged on taste, presentation, and creativity.

2017 Cleaved Basket Ingredients
 
Proteins:
Pink salmon in a pouch, ground pork sausage, rib-eye steak

Carbohydrates:
Biscuit mix, instant grits, instant Ramen with beef flavoring

Fruits and Vegetables:
Chopped olives, Lima beans, tomato paste, mandarin orange fruit cup, craisins, whole avocado, canned mixed vegetables

Other:
Salted peanuts, cheddar-flavored snack cheese, mayonnaise, canola oil, evaporated milk, Coca-Cola, apple & white grape juice, shaved coconut

Spices:
Salt, pepper, basil, oregano, red pepper, onion powder, cumin, and garlic & pepper seasoning



Team Piper
- Raynor (Nick Quadrini) and Katya (Rachel DeRosa)

Chef Raynor hard at work

Sous Chef

The finished dish

My dish : Coconut peanut steak with cheddar biscuits and a sausage vegetable mash. 

This was my first year competing in Cleaved, and it was awesome. I'm a big fan of the inspiration Chopped, and came into the challenge confident in my improv abilities. But the moment that basket opened up, my mind went blank. It's one thing to come up with creative food, another to do it with limited time & ingredients and knowing you're about to be judged against three other very capable competitors. 

 During the cooking, we made a few 'test' foods to see how the flavors came out, and get a better grasp of using our cooking setup. This helped us to drop some less than stellar ideas and made sure we didn't serve burnt biscuits. After some time spent cooking practice foods the ideas started to come together and an actual meal was planned, and executed. Nothing turns out exactly as you hoped of course, but I'm proud of what we put together and we had a great time. 

When we finished plating the time ended, right on the dot. I hadn't looked up from my station before that, and when I brought my food to the judges and got to see the other teams' dishes I was blown away. Everyone had come up with a good looking, smelling, and completely different dish. I don't envy the judges for having to pick a winner, but I do envy them getting to eat all of that good-looking food. 

A special thanks to my sous chef Rachel who stepped in last minute and was a huge help. I had a great time competing in Cleaved this year, you can bet I'll be back. And congratulations to Queen Jack who took it all home this weekend, your food looked spectacular and I bet it tasted great too.   - Nick Quadrini

Team Iste
- Rillan (Joe Sims) and his Sous Chef

Examining the basket ingredients

 

Things begin to come together

Dish #1: savory breakfast plate

Dish #2: dinner plate

The Queen of Hearts Cleaved tournament was one of the most challenging and at the same time rewarding tournaments I was a part of this weekend. The concept of taking unknown and mysterious ingredients and attempting to make something not only edible and presentable, but good enough to win is a lot harder than you think. You must be good with adapting and quick thinking, as well as knowing your flavor profiles and how to cook and work with what you are given. 

My sous chef and I created a variety of samplings for the judges. We went for a savory breakfast plate of flaky basil biscuits covered in sweet sausage gravy with a side of creamy cheese grits. We also decided to do a dinner plate that consisted of mandarin orange beef stir-fry, with a side of roasted vegetables topped with garlic and herb salmon and fresh avocado. Not winning the competition was a little disappointing but still rewarding and grateful for the experience. Congratulations to the winners on team Jack, and all the competitors in this competition. I’m sure if all of us were to ever combine efforts to arrange a feast the results would be phenomenal!  - Rillan/ Joe

Team Saegan
- Jinx and K (Jana and Ben Greene)

Coming up with a plan

Working together to execute the dish

The finished product

 

Team Jack **WINNER**
 - Jack (John Berrini) and Nhadala (Hannah Blood)

The finished dish

The Cleaved Tourney at QOH is trying to put together your best dish based on a mystery bag of ingredients. When Nhadala (Hannah Blood) and I opened our picnic basket, we went to work quick with ideas and imagination that would morph a few times before it was ready to serve and take the gold an hour later. 

With only an hour to cook, my instinct told me to put flame to meat first. The steak portion didn’t seem large enough for the two required servings so we finely shredded and stretched it with sausage meat, flavored with salt, pepper, and red pepper to taste, a bit of tomato paste for a red color palate and to smooth the texture.  The spicy meat sauce was served over ramen noodles that were first boiled, and then fried. 

Our side was a Salmon Avocado salad served over sliced avocado.

Our Mandarin cobber dessert was prepared and served in a repurposed olive can. It included biscuit starch and shredded coconut to taste, finished off with a cinnamon apple caramel drizzle prepared from reduced juice. Without an oven to work with we put the can directly in a two quart pot of boiling juice, effectively making a double boiler into an oven letting the juice steam absorb into the bread while it reduced and reaching close enough to the 400 degrees needed for the bread to cook

The competition was fierce and challenging. I would have eaten anything prepared by our completion.

2017 Winner: Jack and Nhadala from Team Jack!

Spotlight on: Garb Tournament from QoH XXIV

[Editor's Note: all photos by View Staff]

 

Team Iste
 - Jen Cloutier (Vandoria)

Overview from top

Lacing and trim detail

Trim and panel detail

Side lacing on sleeves and bodice

Runes made of small beads

Team Jack
- Zack Reynolds (Dygen)

A note from Dygen: I found this cloak while explotring ancient ruins in previously inaccessible lands within Grimloch territory. The cloak belonged to a long-forgotten warrior Gulric, the Earl of Ravenmire (currently known as Blood Loch). In Gulric's tomb we found this cloak, which he had previously adorned in battle. Magic once flowed through the cloak, but centuries have left it nearly powerless. However, the cloak does still contain enough magic to serve as a proper amored cloak, so that is what we have decided to use it for. In the tomb, we found runes, which we later deciphered and would use on our current tabards. The same runes can be found on the cloak.

OOC: this cloak is made of linen and is hand-dyed. The cloak was weathered using dye, fire, mud, and shredding. [Editor's note: this write-up was submitted with the cloak for judging]

Runes adorne the coak

Ragged edge detail

Darker coloring on the edges

Team Saegan 
** WINNER**
 - Eren Pils-Martin (Tazzia)

I started off thinking about the kind of coverage I wanted from the armored cloak, as well as the elements I wanted to incorporate into it. I knew early on in the process that I wanted to include the hidden pockets, and to have it be reversible, because it's fun, so why not? I decided that a modified version of my split front tabard design would work well, and provide the coverage I wanted. 

I decided to have the hood detach so that you didn't have the bulk there when you didn't feel like wearing it. The side panels were a later addition to increase side coverage, and were originally going to lace on, but at the last minute I decided I liked the idea of snaps better. In creating the piece, I got elements from all over. The green fabric actually started life as a curtain I got at goodwill. I loved how it looked and felt, and it was the perfect color! The blue was discount fabric from Walmart. The trim was some fabulous ribbon I picked up in bulk years ago that has been waiting for the perfect project! The pocket trim was ribbon and edging scraps that I had. 

I'm pretty excited about how amazingly it came together from a very conservative budget, and it shows you don't need huge amounts of cash to put together some really neat garb! Thank you again for all the positive feedback from the committee. I really enjoyed this experience! - Erin Pils-Martin

Trim detail

The complete piece including shoulder bag

Rube ribbon and detachable side snap panels

Cloak is reversible with a blue underside

Hood zippers on and off

Bardis Circle: Cronin's Winning Bardic from QoH XXIV

The Ballad of Boneless

by Adrian "Cronin" Cronin 

 

Our hero, Boneless (View Staff)

We walked to the field of battle, 

but we found only balls. 

One by one, we were stricken down. 

Until the thunder finally stalled. 

And then from the cloudbreak, 

a hero showed his face. 

With courage and heavy heart,

he fought with speed and grace. 

 No bones, no bones. 

He saved our souls and he's also good at dodgeball. 

And when we asked his name, 

he whispered through the air. 

My name is Boneless, 

and y'all better beware! 

No bones, no bones. 

He saved our souls and he's also good at dodgeball. 

Ball after ball. 

And shot after shot. 

And hopping on one leg, 

a lesson here was taught. 

 It doesn't matter if you're big or small, 

or if you act your age, 

for Boneless is a hero,

 as he stands here on this stage!!!!

Carried off the field in victory (View Staff)

Spotlight on: Artist Tourney from QoH XXIV

[Editor's Note: All photos by View Staff]

2017 Category: Fearsome Enemies

Team Iste
- Joey Chipman (Ruthade)

Colored pencil and ink

Overview

Wasp close-up

Team Saegan
- Keith Cronyn (Saegan)

Fearsome enemies: classic dragon, chartreuse, and cancer (denoted by the crab). Done on leather with pastels, acrylic paint, and India Ink. Fun fact: a raisin was used as a paintbrush.

Overview of piece

Dragon and the crab; paint detail close-up

More detail close-up

Team Jack -- WINNER
- Kite

This entry for the QOH artist tourney was painted digitally using a Wacom Bamboo tablet, in a freeware raster drawing program called FireAlpaca. Conception of the design was done using thumbnails, voted upon by the team, and finalized appropriately. The physical print is 18x22”, and was done professionally on semi-gloss paper. In approaching the prompt of “Fearsome Enemy”, I wanted to create a strong design that could tell a visual story. I decided upon a giant-like enemy with an enormous sword bisecting its chest and shoulders, indicating that it had taken massive damage from a formidable foe, but had survived and continued to fight. The red sky and enormity of the sword, which seems un-wieldable by any normal being, lends a sense of hopelessness to the tiny knight that is now facing the creature down. - Kite

Overview

The creature bisected by the massive sword

Knight detail

Why I Want to Go - Conditions of War

by Lani "Gwen" Grayson

You should make it a point to come out to Conditions of War this weekend. This war tournament event is unique and creative in many ways. If you are interested in running one of the teams or taking a leadership role on a team, you should plan to show up on Friday night, because that’s when generals and supporters will be chosen. Those roles will be important because strategizing with your team is critical to the team’s success. However, if that’s not for you, then one thing that’s great about this event is that you can show up and play on Saturday morning without having to worry about pre-forming a team. Do not let not having a pre-formed team stop you from coming to this event. The event holding team has planned a lot of content and surprises to keep you engaged throughout the entire weekend, and you do not want to miss out on it.

Conditions of War is taking advantage of the variety of spaces on Abe’s Land in Willington to run a site-wide live event. There will be battles going on, but there will also be plenty of things to figure out (like runes and riddles), wandering monsters to fight or negotiate with, and supplies that must be used to fortify your camp’s defenses. There will also be a dungeon on site that can be entered into to gain more special powers for your team. The EH team has really tried to put the decision making power of this event in the hands of the players. Teams will have to decide where to send people, and when. War maneuvers will be going on, but without gathering supplies or gaining boosts in power, that may not be enough to win the day this weekend. Team strategy will be an important piece of the puzzle. Sunday will be the culmination of the event, each team seeking to ruthlessly push back the other team into their camp using the resources and powers gathered the rest of the weekend. This should be one epic siege scenario that highlights the successes of the team on the previous day.

This event is for everyone. Although there is going to be combat going on just about all the time, there is something for everyone to do at this event, even those people who prefer to avoid combat for whatever reason. That’s so cool, because that means that this war tournament event is going to have content to engage everyone, even those people who don’t enjoy the combat aspect of our game as much. So if you’ve been eyeing your calendar this weekend wondering what to do, I really think you should make an effort to come out and play at Conditions of War. They have been working tirelessly to ensure that every player can come out and have a great time working together with a team this weekend.