September 22, 2013

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On this first day of Fall, the citizens of the Valley of Smoke found themselves quite busy with a variety of activities.

As the day began on our field, an astonishing 8 new people ventured forth to join our ranks. As many of these players have not yet chosen their warrior names, it becomes difficult to identify them at the moment. Some of them had experience with fighting before, while others had none. Of course, the lack of experience matters not to us, we teach our newcomers how to fight and play just the same!

The day's point was to get our candidates for the upcoming reign qualified for their attempts at running for office. Three brave souls stepped forward to answer the call. 

 

 

Office                 Player

Sheriff                Riken Eclipse

Regent               Grainmag

Champion         Seran A'Imith

As such proceedings are often considered boring, however, they will be discussed at length at the end of this blog post.

 The clouds provided a decent amount of shade, and the cooperative weather kept everyone on their feet until late in the evening this week. The newest players were introduced to basic game skills and rules while the candidates and a few other volunteers took on the challenge of the crown qualifications tournament. 

Once all of the tournament stuff was out of the way, everyone joined in together a class battle game and had no small amount of fun in picking each other off. The new players needed a little encouragement at this point, but were soon in the spirit of the game and slaying their comrades with all the gusto of seasoned warriors.

After this, a points style game was introduced. Each team had a special dagger. They were tasked with using that special dagger in order to slay the captain of the other team. For 15 minutes, the game raged. The score was tied at 2-2 with a minute remaining, when one team pulled out a last second score to win.

<-- In a variation on a class annihilation game, players were split into two very uneven teams: on one side, our resident bard Zamorak Darkfighter, our fighter Henry Greatwing, and one of our barbarians Grainmag, formed a team by themselves. On the other end of the field: everyone else, including all 7 of our 8 new players. In a lesson on teamwork, the three man team won the battle with only three lives remaining.

The day ended with a few rounds of class battles with the minion game twist. As darkness began to overtake the lands, the brave warriors retired for the week, with plans to meet again next week. 

Below are the results for the crown qualifications for those running for office:

As each player is running unopposed, all they needed to do was qualify for their offices. This meant that the day was full of required activities to get them qualified. The day began with the crown tournament - an opportunity for players to pit their skills against each other and possibly win some awards for doing a good job. Three categories saw much challenging combat. Winners for each category are listed below.

Single Short Sword - Grainmag

Florentine - Seran A'Imith

Open - Grainmag

Overall Tournament Winner - Grainmag

Qualification also means an arts and sciences display from the candidates. At least, from the hopeful sheriff and regent. Scores and entries are as follows, on a scale of 0.0-5.0:

Riken 

Green Chemise = 4.0

Hand Woven Apron = 5.0

Neckline Installation Instructions = 5.0

Spoken Performance = 5.0

Grainmag 

Pencil Drawing = 3.0

Arrow Head = 3.0

<-- And, finally, the three candidates sat down to take the required reeves exams. Every holder of office must pass at least one version of these exams once a year, to prove that they understand the rules. 

The candidates have multiple chances to pass these exams before the election comes.

 

Sept 13-15, 2013

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Feast Of The Dead 2013

 
Every so often, the different groups of Amtgard get together for a weekend-long extravaganza of fighting, role-play, camping, and hanging out. Feast of the Dead is one such weekend.

Held every year in the fall in the Hagerstown, MD area, the Feast of the Dead (commonly called simply by FoD) is the chance for all of the Amtgard parks that make up the Kingdom of Crystal Groves to get together and play until we can't stand up to swing a sword any longer.

So, those who were well enough to travel did so. Riken, Grainmag, Hagari, Orpheus, Zamorak, Seran, Henry, and Tungdil (who is still part of our group despite being away at college), descended on the kingdom scene.

All told, 137 players showed up to a small campground in Maryland, where windy conditions kept the masses huddled together near their camp fires when they weren't playing. This year's theme was "The Brothers Grimm", focusing on fairy tales

Friday

A day of arrival saw players coming in at various times. The Valley of Smoke crew's arrival was stretched out, depending on when they could leave home. Riken and Grainmag arrived on scene around noon, and were quick to help out with what setting up they could.

Riken decided to operate a roleplay tavern during this event. She put out a roped off area and made 28 punched tin lanterns to provide some decoration.

Throughout Friday afternoon and evening, Valley of Smoke residents trickled in with others who came from the various Crystal Groves parks. There were even several visitors from outside of the kingdom to this event!

Friday around Sunset saw the first part of the three part quest: Little Red Riding Hood requiring help to get medicine to cure her grandmother. After the questers found all the medicine ingredients, they broke up until the following day.

Elven Court met and had no small amount of drama, as is customary for the elves. Night ditching was held on a side field, thanks to the lights on someone's Jeep. And the roleplay tavern had many visitors.

Saturday

Saturday started bright and early with chocolate chip pancakes! As people climbed out of their tents to face the sunlight, ditching and games began. The second part of the quest began at 10 AM sharp, with questors being sent out to locate the huntsman's axe, as well as several goblins and even a wererat standing in the way!

The Arts & Science competition, a Dragonmaster tournament (meaning the best of the best!) called for entries at 11 AM. Our group's Prada Forel placed 8th with his write up about playing Amtgard as a school club. Riken came in 9th with her hand-woven apron. Her write up about installing a neckline in a tunic came in 12th. Out of 19 entries, these are all impressive scores!

After a lunch of ramen noodles and chicken, many art classes were held. These included candle making and even Riken's weaving class! A silent auction raised $160 for the Amtgard Food Fight. Class games and roleplay rounded out the afternoon's activities.

The final part of the three part quest took place around 2 PM, with questors having to defeat many monsters deep in the forest in order to get the medicine to Grandma's house and save the day!

As the sun set, everyone began patiently waiting for feast. Unfortunately, thanks to a fire that went out, the feast was delayed by almost two hours! When everyone was finally able to eat, there was salad, potato salad, brautwurst, steak soup, and bread for all.

The Valley of Smoke won a cheesecake at the silent auction. After the group was finished with feast, and after court and awards were completed, Valley of Smoke retired to the roleplay tavern to split the cheesecake among themselves. And it was delicious.

The evening ended with Riken's roleplay tavern being the stage for the annual Bardic Gathering. Dozens of players crowded around to listen to those who were brave enough sing, recite poetry, and tell stories for the amusement of all. Here's just a taste of the bardic performance, sung by Shyft Sylentfall from Crystal Groves Duchy.

Sunday

Since we were permitted to stay on site longer than usual, the kingdom Arts & Science competition for crown qualifications, as well as the kingdom tournament, were held on Sunday afternoon. Many of the Valley of Smoke players had to leave early in the interest of making the five hour trek home before it got dark.

Next week, we'll be back at our own park, and it will be great to be home!

September 8, 2013

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A Royal Visit!

A grand total of 11 hit the field today, with two very special visitors, King Marcus and his consort, Katae. The day began with a two team class annihilation game with a twist; two ancient, sky-high walls situated in a T-shape in the middle of our field! How these towers appeared in our practice grounds, we aren't quite certain, but play around them we must!

The battle raged on with the barriers in place. In the interest of the game, all players pretended that these walls, marked by rope on the grass, existed, which led to much laughter as we ducked and dodged around their corners. The heat of the day drove everyone to their water jugs as soon as the battle was over, and then we geared up for another game that utilized our walls.

This game consisted of three teams competing to collect the most chips that were stored in the container in the middle of the field, equally spaced from each of the teams. The goal was to run to the bucket in the middle, grab a single chip, and make it back to your team's respective bucket alive so you could deposit said chip and then go pillage another from the center. The walls guarded the chips as best they could, but the three teams of three were ultimately victorious in robbing the center bucket of its 40 chips. Again, we all tried to beat the heat with plenty of water, laughs, and oo's and ahh's over King Marcus's hammer he brought.

As our mighty druid Hagari was called away on mundane matters, battle continued without him. We fought another class game in the heat, with the walls changing shape somewhat to add a fresh twist. We followed this up with a game of minion, wherein players killed others seemingly at random, only to turn the dead into zombie armies that followed them around the field. After this, the heat of the day won us over, and we retreated to our respective village

Thank you all for coming out and making this another fantastic day in the Valley of Smoke, and a special thank you to our visitors for coming down to fight with us. King Marcus presented Henry Greatwing with a long overdue gift of a new tunic. Prada was elevated to Lord for his service to the local group as well.

We also collected 79 cans for the Amtgard Food Fight, which puts us quite a bit closer to our 250 can goal! Again, thank you all for coming out and making it a great time!

September 01, 2013

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The bright Sunday afternoon welcomed 10 to our field, including a welcome addition to our ranks, Madison! Madison has not yet chosen an Amtgard name, but we welcome her to our field nonetheless!

Eight took the field when we began with a simple class annihilation game that pitted an enchantment-giving healer, a lightning bolt slinging wizard, an entangling druid, and a shield-wielding barbarian against a golden-voiced bard, a not so sneaky assassin, a sissy pants monk, and  another fledgling barbarian. The game was a blast as usual, and we all returned to the tent, got some water, and talked about the dreadful humidity of the day.

After that, Prada had a game for us to try. It was a "Kill the King" style of game that took place on the hill located towards the back of our field. Hagari stood as king and Calanon and Zwik as my bodyguards, took refuge at the top of the hill while a mob of angry, bloodthirsty, smelly villagers attempted to kill Hagari. Prada reeved this battle and served as the line judge for our castle wall that stunned anyone going uphill and over it for 10 seconds, as well as kept a timer of how long it took to kill the king.

After 5 minutes, the king was slain. Teams changed around, a new king was chosen, and a new team attempted to slay the new king. As the battle began, Hagari immediately set to turning Henry Greatwing into his Golem-tank, and the king was slain in 2 minutes, a good minute and a half of which was Hagari enchanting Henry in an excellent display of what an overgrown Druid's abilities can lead to.

After a water break, we played a few games of class minion which went surprisingly well with everyone in full class. In this style of game, when someone is killed, they become the zombie servants of their killers. Many laughs were had, and at the end of the battles, the zombified masses were left chanting "Zwik" and "Henry."

After that battle, we returned to get more water, and  this is when we were joined by a reporter from a local newspaper. He asked a few of us to explain what was going on, but it was Riken who stepped up and became our impromptu spokeswoman. The reporter took about 3 pages of notes on everything everyone told him, took some photos, including a nice group photo, and told us to be on the lookout for the story in the newspaper. Hopefully this will spread the word about us, generate some interest, and get more people on the field.

From there, we played yet another class annihilation for the reporter to take some pictures of us in action. The heat of the day began wearing on some, and we returned to the tent, got some water, and then a few of us decided to play an interesting class annihilation game that pitted myself as a level 5 enchant-heavy druid and chainmail clad warrior Zwik against 4 others. It was soon discovered that a warrior bogged down with druid enchants against no magic users with Dispel Magic was a nasty combo indeed.

After that, people started packing up stuff, suffering from the humidity of the day, and we all went home to rest, repair, and await the next Sunday in the Valley!