Our wandering merchant was probably one of the most “hated” characters of the day.  His job was to sell some items needed for the quest, and a whole bunch of items that were merely decorative, or completely worthless.   His real job was to fleece the groups for everything they had, something for which our merchant seemed to have a real knack, and to always be as far away from the group that needed him most at any given moment.  He would go on and on about the origins of the items, their magical properties, how difficult it was being a merchant….     Several times during the day you could hear the familiar refrain echoing through the woods, “I’M GOING TO KILL THAT MERCHANT!”   Yeah, they really loved the Count.

“Do you have any idea how hard it is to enchant semi-precious stones and then arrange them in decorative patterns?  Why the costs of the materials alone are worth twice what you are offering me!  I have a family to feed!  You can’t really be serious!”

The Dragon....or...what passed for one.

Somehow one of the dragon’s two ears got bent back and flopped around during the day.  The kids spent more time trying to figure out why the dragon was “missing” an ear than they did trying to figure out how to kill it.  It was invulnerable to all attacks, and impervious to most magic.  There was however a magic spear (fairly obvious if you took the time to look for it) standing in the ground behind the dragon.  All they had to do was stealth past the Dragon, or distract it, and get the spear…then hit the dragon before he hit them.  Easy!

Oops…didn’t hit the publish button…so now you get the pic today!

Today was our son’s sixteenth birthday party (not his actual birthday, just the party). He wanted a medieval/fantasy party and we obliged. Fifteen roleplayers lived out a living moving quest for nearly three hours while fourteen teenagers fought, puzzled, quested and worked their way through The fairy Queen Rivien, her alchemist Seraphina, the Fairy Princesses Willow and Luna, an Ogre named Grog, Raurik the Demented Knight, a Dragon, a Leprechaun named Paddy O’Furniture, Porthos the Cavalier, a Sorceress, a Prophetess, a Healer, a Sage, and a wandering merchant named Count Alistair DeMonet (or as he is known in the hood, Count All de Money). I am too exhausted to describe the details of the entire day yet, or to even post pictures of it all, but I cannot go to sleep without saying THANK YOU to all the people who sweated and toiled in and out of armor and costumes today. You are all awesome.

I’ll try this week to tell you a bit about the 30+ quest lines that the kids were following and put up some pics, especially a picture of the MOST AMAZING CAKE my wife made, from scratch. Those who were there will testify…it was an awesome day!!

Cake Pic:

Have you ever seen a home made cake as fearsome?!