The Sorceress

The Sorceress possessed spells desired by the groups and wore the fabled Diamond of Glimmermere that Raurik the Demented so desperately desired. The diamond, it was rumored, would keep one’s armor from rusting indefinitely. I’m not sure if our Sorceress named her familiar, but I called him Spike! She valiantly sat wearing black, in the hot sun and humid air, for nearly four hours. What patience and dedication!

The Wise Sage

The Sage challenged the group to select the wisest among them to play a game with him. Upon a very large grid were arrayed before them any number of fantastic creatures on both sides. The Sage would advance a piece and make some comment explaining the move like; “I advance my Hobgoblin within sight of your Red Dragon.”

The kids would invariably say, “What are the rules?”

“If you are wise,” the Sage would reply, “you surely know the answer to that.”

Then they would advance something and the Sage would nod approvingly, “Ahhh, you have brought forward your blue ice devil. A good move, but not the best you could have made,” or words to that effect.

This would go on for some time until the group finally figured out that there were no rules. The rules were whatever they made them out to be. One ingenious group demanded, after several rounds of play, that the Sage switch seats with them, since he clearly knew more then they did. Then used the rules he had already elucidated for his own pieces to remove the other side from the field. Fun for all. For their troubles, they earned a map of all the other characters in the land.

More to follow tomorrow…

I thought I would add a few more pics from the birthday party.  Please let me know if you like them. 

The Mysterious Prophetess

The prophetess would look into the future for the group and provide them with one or more prophecies.  Most were linked directly to clues in the game, though some were just downright distractions.  Who can tell when a prophecy is good or bad.  The knight in the forest, Raurik the Demented, could only be killed by cutting off his arms and legs, even though the kids kept trying to hit his head and/or body.  ONe of the prophecies said “some knights would give an arm and a leg for a noble death.”  Unfortunately, no one drew that clue from the Chest at the Prophetess side.  She also had one of the three main items in the overall quest, a huge amethyst, which she happened to be wearing on her finger…though the groups didn’t catch on at first.

Raurik the Demented

Raurik blocked the path leading farther into the forest towards the Ogre and the Dragon.  He was a stalwart opponent to any that came upon him.  Immune to most spells, he certainly occupied a lot of the group’s time as they tried to figure out how to beat him.

The Healer

If the kids thought the healer was going to be a kind old man who would heal their boo-boos, they were sadly mistaken.  Ours was grumpy, crotchety, and difficult.  We laid out a bed and a whole table full of saws and hammers and implements of cutting.  Once they talked around his bad mood however, they might learn that they could regain a life by paying a Florin, or gain something more valuable by helping the healer with his lame leg.

The Innkeeper

One of the Innkeeper’s jobs was to talk very slowly and deliberately and keep the group engaged.  Ours did a marvelous job.  At one point one groups’ eyes were literally glazing over.  The innkeeper had gargoyles on his inn that he would sell, was seeking the return of his missing bottles of wine, happened to have eye of newt on stack and wanted to get some fairy cinammon sticks and cardamon seed to mull it with.  He would also pay Florins for any group that entertained his patrons.  One group of teens performed “I’m a Little Teapot,” with all the hand gestures, for which they earned multiple Florins.  Okay, I guess no one at our house was quite “normal” that day.

More tomorrow if there is still interest.

Sometime during preparation for our son’s birthday party, I figured out that we just aren’t normal. My wife and I were traveling to a Military Ball dressed like this:

These people look normal right?

As we drove the hour to our destination, my wife was balancing a notebook on her lap, checking and crosschecking the characters for our son’s medieval/fantasy birthday party, and ensuring that we weren’t missing any props or costumes or cross references. “So the Ogre has the crystalized Ogre sweat?” she asked, adjusting the strap on her sequined gown.

“Yes, which he’ll give up for a love letter from Seraphina,” I said, checking with one hand to ascertain if my bow tie was straight.

“How will they know to get a love letter from her?”

“He has written one to his Someone Speshul, which they should figure out is her after all her sighing and mooning about.”

“And the gargoyles?” she asked.

“He trades the fairy princess he kidnapped for the gargolye,” I said.

“Right. So who is the guest speaker at the ball tonight?”

We drove on like this intermingling occasional cell phone calls to reality with jotting down prop and costume notes.

At one point as we were going through this and I thought about all the preparation people were doing at home to get ready, I said “We have awesome friends, I mean, what normal people have friends who will dress up in costumes and spend the day pretending to be mythical creatures or people?”

There was a pause, then I realized, “We’re not normal.” I guess I’ve known it most of my life, but I’ve done a pretty good job of pretending. Apparently, all of our friends fit into a category that one of my colleagues affectionately calls “misfits.” (He counts himself in that group, as do I). Herewith are a few sample pictures of the type of friends we have:

Queen Rivien, The Fairy Queen and Questgiver

All of the pictures of Rivien turned out with this halo of mist around them. We think maybe the lens had moisture on it from the humidity that dried out before we took pictures of anyone else. Either that, or it’s real fairy dust.

Seraphina, the Fairy Queen's Alchemist

Seraphina was connected to several quest lines, but my favorite was apparent in this picture. She was pining for a true love to come and take her away. It turned out to be the Ogre Grog…that took the kids some figuring out, though there were any number of clues…

The Cavalier/Pirate Porthos

“You stole that wine from the innkeeper!” “I did not! This wine was a gift to me from the Queen of America…” Awesome roleplaying and incredible but safe fencing in a controlled environment…

Grog the Ogre and his Friend

It was an hour and a half before anyone got back to Grog deep in the woods. He had taken to singing Ogre songs to himself and talking to his friend. If you asked his friend’s name, he’d say “Grog not sure, Ogre names are what sound you like to make. My friend’s name is either AAAAAAAH! or OW MY LEG! or NOOOOOO! or AN OGRE!!, but I don’t think it’s Ogre cause that’s copyrighted.”

So that is the first little batch. If you like them, I will post more. The role-playing was phenomenal. Our friends are AWESOME. Oh, and in answer to the question: “Who has friends like this?” Apparently all of my friends have friends like this. That makes us misfits I assume…