What You Missed - Tales of Teng Hua 2.1

by Stephen “Laika” Sanford

On Saturday, March 21 our community was treated to a unique event that was quite different from what the Realms is used to. Due to the physical distancing needed to prevent possible transmission of the COVID-19 disease, this event was not held in the material world as we are used to; it was held fully online through a Discord server in a new take on the Realms' rich history of “e-questing”. While this was not a legal event (by the current Realms rules) it was well-attended and a very enjoyable experience.

The event was held from 12pm-4pm and had scheduled classes and seminars throughout the day. The schedule was as follows:

12:00pm: Event start, text and voice channels open to everyone to explore 

1:00pm: Storytelling for Yosei 

1:30pm: Flower Game vs others 

2:00pm: Storytelling with Trade Guild 

2:30pm: Shiho vs others 

3:15pm: Storytelling with Wujen

Outside of these scheduled offerings, there were various activities one could peruse at will in several  separate locations:

Downtown Job Board - A location where a virtual scavenger hunt was prepared. People could post photos of their creations and experiences with Teng Hua culture.

The Jade Teapot - A tea house where attendees could learn how to perform tea ceremonies, and had the opportunity to chat with locals over a hot drink.

The Gardens - Many Yosei could be befriended here, and visitors could speak with the Yosei Professor.

The Temple of Seven - A temple where one could sit in the tranquil darkness and meditate to hear the voices of the seven elements and learn how to begin trials in order to form a bond with the elements.

An Herbalists Needs - The local flower shop which hosted the Spring Flower Festival’s flower arrangement workshop.

The Market Square - Activities here focused on trade and plans for the Spring Flower Festival.

Akemi’s Library - A place to share stories and study things involving the Wujen.

Takara’s Tavern - The local tavern where folks could enjoy freeform games of Shiho and where a tournament was held.

The Golden Crane - The Golden Crane Dojo is a place where students study in order to become Samurai.

The Wishing Well - A place where magic, faith, and poetry come together in order to communicate information or to offer prayers.

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While it was possible for one person to experience much of this festival, I did not see everything and there are many people who will have stories to tell from their varied perspectives.

The day began with the Emperor himself greeting his guests with his daughter, Princess Kuko. He welcomed everyone to the Flower Festival and described all the activities being held throughout the day.

I decided to check out the Job Board and found the scavenger hunt to be quite enjoyable, though some of the activities were very time consuming. Many creative contributions were documented. I would recommend checking out the Discord channel if you have the time (or some other repository, if the staff ends up compiling the photos into a gallery).

The scavenger hunt objectives were as follows:

 ‐ Take a Selfie in your garb
 ‐ Make something out of origami
 ‐ Make a Zentangle on a 6" x6" piece of paper
 ‐ Take a picture of you having a Tea Ceremony
 ‐ Make a Bonsai tree out of anything you have handy
 ‐ Show us a picture of a magical creature from your lands
 ‐ Make a Teng Huanese dragon out of a flour playdough
 ‐ Make a Teng Huanese style meal and show us

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I regrettably did not participate in the discussion on Yosei as I spent most of the first hour working on the scavenger hunt.I spent the second hour communing with the seven elements.

While my trials are personal I do want to share a bit of information for those who wish to walk the path of the Ryokusha (the ones who are beginning the trials of the seven elements and have not yet achieved the title of Kiero-rei). To begin, one must be of a sound mind and must meditate in order to hear the elements' voices. This can be done at The Temple of Seven or other elementally-attuned locations.

The current sect of elements are the Choro-tachi which means "Eldest group." There are seven elements, each represented by a spirit with their own personality. They and their respective domains are as follows:

Mizu - Water: Leadership, coordination.

Chikyuu - Earth: Nurturing and caring for others

Kooki- Wind: Truth seeking, Knowledge, Observation

Kesaia - Fire: Passion, Conviction, Fervor

Muko - Void: Opportunity, Creativity

Kinzoku - Metal: Craftsmanship, Hard work

Mokusai - Wood: Community, Growth

Mizu, as far as I can tell, is the leader of this sect and will likely be the one you speak with. For those who wish to start trials, know that they are meant to help you  understand who you are as a person and suggest steps to take in order to develop certain aspects of yourself. Each element will give you a trial befitting of its nature and personality. If you wish to start the trials, feel free to reach out to me and I will assist to the best of my ability.

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After I communed with the spirits, I ventured to An Herbalists Needs and witnessed the tail end of the flower game, which looked like a neat strategy game of creating flower arrangements. Afterward, I went to the tea house where I brewed and enjoyed a delicious raspberry tea while I hung the Banner of Wind behind me.

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To close out my day in Teng Hua, I listened to stories of the Regalia from the Wujen.

For this seminar we were graced by the presence of the Emperor himself, though Taki Hzu spoke for most of the class. We learned that Regalia were seven items to be gathered in order to participate in the tournament to be Emperor of Teng Hua. These items were the ones collected by Lysis and may not be the same ones gathered by the previous Emperor (Akita Kai). While there are 8 listed, only 7 are the real Regalia. It seems no one knows which one is the fake.

These items are as follows:

Bushido: A katana that is so razor sharp that if one were to draw it, they could cleave through anything in a single slice.

Kedemono: The unbreakable Nodachi, said to be forged by a material never to be found ever again. When the tournament was over all of the items were to be given out to the various clans but this was the item Lysis chose to keep for himself.

The Warbanner: The banner worn by the first Samurai, legend has it whoever wears this banner can empower a whole army to stave off many wounds. In order to enter the tournament for the position of Emperor, Lysis had this item in order to prove his claim upon the throne.

Remei: A Bow/Daikyuu, when an arrow is shot from this bow it rumbles like thunder. It can be used to stun groups of enemies.

Tomo no Kuku: The coin of wealth. Believed to possibly be the false item of Regalia.

Kura to Tatsu: Armor forged of elder dragon scales, its powers are unknown but is believed to be unbreakable as a boulder hit the wearer, and though they died the armor was unscathed.

Himitsu: A tanto which is longer than a normal tanto, no information on its powers. (Himitsu means "secret" so this is very appropriate.)

Motomeru: A Wakizashi that when meditated with, gives the wielder insight on whatever they are seeking.

---

After the tales of Regalia a robed figure entered the library claiming to be Shino-Kagei. He claimed that the current Emperor, Lysis, had betrayed Akita Kai, who was the former Emperor. In order to exact his revenge he took it out on Lysis’ daughter, Kuko. Princess Kuko immediately fell ill and Shino-Kagei left. With the bad news of Princess Kuko, the joy of the festival left as well. Many of us adventurers spent the rest of the day writing poetry to the Wishing Well in an attempt to bring back Kuko’s good health.

---

Overall, the event was a big success and was very enjoyable. The staff did a great job giving players flexible and varied ways to explore their plot throughout the day. While this event might have been even better if done physically it was a great experience and the gold standard of what I think e-questing should be.

Boff Brawl - Round 6

The winner of Boff Brawl Round 5 was: Kovaks with She-ra!

Winners so far:
Round 1: Avendar with Lion-o
Round 2: Freija with Aang
Round 3: Raynor with Finn
Round 4: Kindrianna with Leonardo
Round 5: Kovaks with She-ra

Now for Round 6!

Player 1 - Tao. Character, Samurai Jack.
Strategy: Ducking and dodging, spinning and slashing, winding a ribbon of destruction through the enemy. Favoring the style of many small cuts with little risk.

Player 2 - Shader. Character, He-man.
Strategy: I would choose He-man and always ask "Hey baby, wanna see my Sword of Power?" Before every fight. Then attack while they laugh or cringe.

Player 3 - Eldritch. Character, Aang.
Strategy: Since I have to choose an "avatar" I will of course choose Aang who will use the power of the air and other elements to freeze and shrink He-man’s sword of power.

Player 4 - Mogar. Character, Goliath.
Strategy: Probably something defensive.

Meme Mondays

by the Meme Team

Home Questing: Second Task

by Christopher "Janus" Donnelly

So, here is little bit of extra information:

Here is where you submit the verbal:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfEsiOEM1HEl0cOzxdEFlZWfgZhjao5rHwn5dbkOtZ2pVCiOw/viewform?usp=sf_link

This week, you can submit text or a video (or I suppose an image if you really want to.)  If you are submitting a video or photo, please send me a link to it (either already on youtube or other similar publicly viewable way), as I realized I might start running into storage issues if I get too many.  As always, you can also choose to email me a submission at techiemikey@gmail.com.  I look forward to what you all come up with.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Transcript:

Hey everyone, Janus here.  I would just like to say everyone did a great job with their entries this week.  I was very impressed with all of them.

Let’s get into this week’s challenge, shall we?  This week, I am challenging you all to write the best spell verbal you would never use.  Your deadline is Monday at midnight, and your time starts now.

Home Questing First Task - Results

by Christopher "Janus" Donnelly 

Hello, and welcome to the judging of the first task, which as a reminder was to make a stack of objects, and the most impressive stack would win.  We got a total of nine entries (plus my own entry which was to be used in case we had less than 5 to help keep someone from getting a ton of easy points with no competition.)  In addition to the entries, I have Faelinn here as this week’s secret guest judge. So, let’s take a look at these in the order that they came in.

First on the list is Vanduke's entry:


This was actually cut down from a large series of videos that he sent in, which was a scathing commentary on hoarding goods in this day and age.  Unfortunately, I had to cut the footage down to only one of the many stacks of hoarded goods being ferreted out, which resulted in that video.  All in all, a nice stack.


The next entry is Kwido’s Entry:

According to his notes, each of these cards measure an impressive 92cm x 68cm x 5mm, and they would be hard to gather together.  In addition, there is a fantastic pun of Magic Cards and “The Stack” that could potentially be used here.  Unfortunately, while the materials of the stack are quite impressive, the stack itself isn’t as impressive.


Following this is Tarun Ul-Sikar’s entry:

Oh my Goya’d, that is one large stack.  It seems to be up to my nose.  For height itself, it is rather impressive, as is how straight the stack is.


Next up is King Alexander Cecil’s entry:

It does seem to have a lot of time and care put into it, and appears really large and impressive at first, but if you take a closer look at it, you will discover that it’s actually just really really close.  While it is a well executed stack, I am not sure “Impressive” is the right word for it.


Now, for Thoril’s entry, I will let him speak for himself:

“This stack, purely constructed of acorns,  shall be known as the great acorn reserve of the realms. No longer will Spellcasters need fear the Tyranny of the dreaded spell quest of Sir Sean of Creathorne of searching for 100 acorns EVEN though it is never acorn season when tasks it!
Stand with me my fellow spellcasters let us stand together and vote for the acorn reserve stack and never fear the acorns again!”

That sure is functional Thoril.


After Thoril’s entry comes DelHemar.

His entry I find quite impressive myself.  While I am not sure where it is in terms of height compared to the stack of Goya, the lack of a uniform item really boosts it’s impressiveness to me.


Now comes Cressida, our second video entry:

Both Faelinn and I have said we have all been there.


Coming from Aeston, Areni, and Gwen is our last video entry of the week which they call the “Tower of Babble”


I feel this is the only stack that literally speaks on it’s own.


Now for the final entry, we have Saka:

After seeing this, I contacted Saka to see if there was a trick involved, and this was done as-is.  No trick to it.


And of course, my submission, which will subsequently be ignored because we had 5 or more entries:

So, let’s look at the judge’s Top 5 most impressive stacks:

Janus’s Top 5
5. Aeston, Areni, and Gwen (1 point) It’s so blinky...I can’t leave it off my top 5
4.  Tarun Ul-Sikar (2 points).  This was a really straight, decently tall stack.  I was kinda impressed.
3. Vanduke (3 points). I didn’t notice it at first, but that stack was higher than I expected.
2. DelHemar (4 points).  This is both really high, and more impressive because the smallest spice container was in the middle.
1. Saka (5 points)  I am very impressed.  I’m not sure if I could do this one myself.

Faelinn’s Top 5:
5. King Alexander Cecil (1 point)- It’s the most literal “stack” and a hipster photo.
4. Tarun (2 points) - This was impressive, but was narrowly beaten out by...
3. DelHamar (3 points) ...because the bases of this one are smaller.  Also, it is a spicy stack.
2. Saka (4 points) - This one was the most physics defying stack.
1. Cressida (5 points) -  This was the most “stacktastic” with stacks of boxes everywhere.


Now on to some bonus points we decided to hand out:

Cecil gets an extra half of a point for the most likely picture to be on Instagram.
Aeston, Areni, and Gwen get an extra half of a point for being the most likely to give Faelinn PTSD
Kwido earns the ”Most likely to clean out the basement because of comparable stuff” award for a half of a point.
And finally Thoril earns the award for making a stack out of the least stackable objects for a half of a point.

So with those points, and the 1 automatic point everyone earned for a submission, here are the scores after the first task:

1) Saka - 10 points
2) DelHamar - 8 points
3) Cressida - 6 points
4) Tarun Ul-Sikar - 5 points
5) Vanduke - 4 points
6) King Alexander Cecil - 2.5 points
6) Aeston, Areni, and Gwen - 2.5 points
8) Thoril - 1.5 points
8) Kwido - 1.5 points

Stay tuned later today when we find out the second task!

Boff Brawl - Round 5

The winner of Boff Brawl Round 4 was: Kindrianna with Leonardo!

Winners so far:
Round 1: Avendar with Lion-o
Round 2: Freija with Aang
Round 3: Raynor with Finn
Round 4: Kindrianna with Leonardo

Now for Round 5!

Player 1 - Iawen. Character, Garnet.
Strategy: I'd tell her to do her best, and realize that with the exception of Steven Universe all of her other opponents are not above being devious/clever in a pinch, so to keep her wits about her. Also, should she break into Ruby and Sapphire, to just focus on the dance and love (get back together when ready).

Player 2 - Kovaks. Character, She-ra.
Strategy: I'd tell her to act very defensively, dodging, using protective abilities, and staying out of range until at least one other player is eliminated. She'd use that time to try to learn her opponents’ strategy to best be able to defeat them in the end-game.

Player 3 - Jericho. Character, Zuko.
Strategy: I would pick Zuko. I would advise Zuko to use his flames to keep the other enemies closer together so they would be more likely to fight each other first. I would also advise him to use his head and make rational judgments about when he should press the fight or temporarily retreat. I would also remind him to keep an eye on the sky as many of the potential opponents have the chance to attack from above.

Player 4 - Charwindle. Character, Leonardo.
Strategy: Is “all out attack” an option? I do that.

Ask Zarine #6

by Sara "Zarine" Jessop

Dear Madam Zarine,

There's someone I care about a lot that is in my group and I think it's probably mutual, but I'm worried that if I act on it anyway, if it works out or not, it will make things strange for our other friends. They dated someone who is also in the group, though that person rarely plays and shows up now they're still friends with everyone. I'm sure there's no perfect answer to all of this but what's the best way to minimize the damage that might be caused?

- Realms Romeo

*************************

It's not often that people realize that their association with each other also affects folks outside of that relationship. All of our interactions have consequences on those close to us. Our communities are closely intertwined and can easily be disrupted by the relations of others. That being said, sometimes you need to do what is right for yourself. We have no way of knowing the future, other than through seer spells which tend to be vague and only understood after the events have come to pass, which quite frankly makes them rather useless in my opinion. All that we can do is ponder the effect that our choices might have in the here and now and hope that the future works out in the best interest of everyone.

Let me tell you about two wonderfully lovely people that I know... well, one of them is lovely, the other is a bit of a disgruntled old curmudgeon. Anyways, these two were going through life as very close friends. They used to jest about how they would make great second spouses to each other someday, as they knew their relationships with their current companions were doomed to failure. They knew their current relationships were tolerable if not great, their relationship with each other was good the way it was, and their friends all around them were happy with the way things were. Why shake up the status quo when it was working for so many other people? But eventually love finds a way, or so I am told by people with more of a romantic outlook on life than myself, and at long last they found themselves in a relationship with each other and you know what they discovered? That their friends and family were not only happy for them but that they had been waiting for them to come to their senses and get together for years.

The people around you are not blind. Oftentimes they can see what's right for us even before we see it for ourselves. All of their friends could see that they were meant for each other and most were willing to sail through some rougher waters for a few months while everything settled into place so that two people that they cared about could find happiness in another port. And the ones who weren't, well some were people who needed to be cut loose anyways, and others maybe just needed some time to come to their senses. But eventually the dust settled and everyone found comfort in the new status quo.

So what happens when those two inevitably break up? I have no idea. The two twits are still together somehow, defying everything I know about love and it's inescapable suffocation that slowly kills everyone involved until someone finally gasps for air and destroys the illusion. But I can tell you from the experience of watching it happen to many others that communication seems to work best. Your friends will take their queues on how to handle the situation from the two of you. It might be awkward for a bit on either end, but the more open and honest you are the more your friends will be put at ease about it and become more accepting. The same goes if you decide to end the relationship. Let them know how you plan to handle it and what you expect of them as your friends. If it's an amicable break up it will be much easier of course. If the two of you create a war zone, well don't be surprised when your friends take up arms and join the fray.

So, the real question is, how much do you love this person? Because there is a possibility that this will negatively impact others. And of course there is the possibility that it could ruin your friendship. Some say it's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all, but I find that to be utter rubbish. It isn't always better. Every possible couple combination in the world has a different answer to the question 'is it worth it', and only you can decide that.

Of course, we still don't know if this mysterious other person even reciprocates your feelings, so step one would be figuring that out. If they don't, well then none of this even matters and you are worrying over nothing. If you wait too long they may assume you aren't interested and find someone else. Life is shorter than you think, so don't waste it worrying about 'what ifs'. We regret the things we didn't do far more than the things we did.

And when this all crashes down and you find yourself miserable and alone, come have a cup of tea with someone who knows all too well the cost of misplaced love. You can tell me about how terrible it all was while I wallow in the depths of someone else's misery for a while and reaffirm my own status quo.