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!

August 25, 2013

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All told, 11 people braved the heat and the insane humidity to gather under Valley of Smoke's majestic green tent this week. The proud warriors gathered to slug it out in various combat situations, and learn a little while they were at it.

But it was also a week of sadness, as the group gathered to bid farewell to our loyal Lord Tungdil Blackforge. Last weekend, he was presented with his Lord title for serving as group monarch for the past year. He returned home to the Valley of Smoke to bid his dearest companions a fond farewell as he sets out on his adventure for college.

Lord Tungdil has been with Valley of Smoke from the very beginning. As the group started out with just a few foam weapons in the Parkersburg High School gymnasium, he was among the first to pick up his weapon. He was the first to create a shield, and used it to dominate his opponents at the time. As the park grew, and became part of the Amtgard kingdom of Crystal Groves, Lord Tungdil stayed with us throughout it all.

Our day started out by setting up our little camp and getting suited up for our first class battle. It was the standard mutual annihilation class game, with magic users and melee fighters alike taking the field for a 25 life pool game. After much sweating and a lot of fun, we retreated to our tent for a water break.

After serving as our sheriff for the past two terms, Lord Tungdil officially stepped down from his position in order to go off to college. But, before he did, Lord Tungdil handed out some well-earned awards in an impromptu awards ceremony. The awards were as follows:

Riken Eclipse - Second Order of the Smith

Lord Tungdil Blackforge - Second Order of the Warrior

Prada Forell - Second Order of the Rose

Henry Greatwing - Second Order of the Owl

Lord Tungdil's award was a surprise even to him. Henry Greatwing took the honor of handing that particular well-deserved award out.

Once we were finished with awards, we took to the field again to play a game that Henry Greatwing brought back with him from the Black Carnival event a few weekends ago. One large bouncy ball in the center of the field, one scoring goal on each side. The concept of the game was simple: take the ball to the other team's goal. Sounds a lot like soccer, but add swords and magic spells and chaos ensues.

The game consisted of a lot of running and a lot of tired players. After one team reached a score of three, we retreated to the shade tent again.

Riken hosted a class, telling everyone present about the Arts & Sciences competition that would be at the upcoming Feast of Dead 2013 Kingdom event. She explained not only what types of entries are welcome, but also how the judges will react and what they will be looking for in entries.

After the class, everyone took the field for a bear pit! All the players surrounded Lord Tungdil Blackforge, and one by one, attacked him in traditional style. When it was all over, everyone attacked him at once. Much laughter was had.

We then played a game of ring the bell, giving everyone another good workout. We caught this one on video, which Riken was kind enough to merge into a single video for us. 

After the end of the game, we finally gave in to the heat and packed it in.  Those who had been to college provided Lord Tungdil with all of the helpful advice that we could, and we sent him on his way to join Ruby Hills, and continue fighting the good fight.

August 18th, 2013

Credits have been entered on the brand spanking new Online Record Keeper. Getting all that paperwork settled there will be a big job!

 Nine took to the rainy field today to mainly sit under the pop up, talk, joke, discuss our Althing agenda, and spar a little in the cold rain. Hagari, Prada, Grainmag, Zamorak, and Seran braved the cold and the wet to spar in the rain a bit, but eventually found our way back to the pop up tent to have a drink of water and talk about the upcoming Feast of the Dead kingdom event. Eventually the rain managed to get all of us off of the field and we quickly packed up to head home and wring our clothes dry.

We want to take a moment to wish Prada a speedy recovery after his ACL surgery, and express our sincere, wholehearted, and in no way sarcastic sentiments about his madu missing from the battlefield during his time off.

Thank you for all of you who made it out regardless of the rain and all of those who wanted to make it out but couldn't for whatever reason. I hope to see more and more people out there on the field every week, and I can't wait until next week!

Until then, yours truly,
Hagari

August 11, 2013

On midreign, Hagari was voted in as our new Prime Minister!

11 gathered at the Valley today with a total of 9 on the field. We started off with a simple class annihilation with a life pool of 20. Several madu stabs, entangles, and arrows later, we took a water break and gathered around Riken as she recounted to all of us the tale of "The Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces" as an introduction to this years Feast of the Dead theme. 

 Then we went for another class annihilation and another water break before setting the field up for a variant on ring the bell. Two teams were positioned on either side of the bridge that spanned over a fiery chasm with impenetrable flames, with the goal being to ring the bell of the other team that was located on the other side of the bridge. After a best 3 out of 5 match, everyone sat in the shade, discussed different matters, got some water, and decided to wrap things up for the day!

Notes: After a surprise weapon check, two of the park's loaner swords were discovered to be in need of repair, but until then, we still have plenty of other loaners to lend out.

Thank you to everyone who came out and contributed to the mass amount of fun had by all! I hope to see everyone and even more next week!

August 4, 2013 - Midreign!

Thirteen showed up today and many pictures were taken (thanks to the return of our favorite photographer!)

As it was a special day, the middle of our reign, it was a time for celebration and different activities than normal.

We started with a class life pool game, where everyone got a good warm up, and then we jumped into the tournament.

Prada ran the four bracket tournament, with classes in single short sword, Florentine, sword and board, and an open category. Meanwhile, Riken ran a neat archery and spell ball/thrown tournament. She had park trinkets to give as prizes to three winners. The prizes were chosen at random by the winners of each category.

Zwik won the archery tournament and received a Teleportation trinket.
Henry Greatwing won the single short bracket and received a Teleportation trinket.
Tungdil won the spellball/throwie tournament and declined to take the trinket due to it only being of use in our park and he is leaving for Ruby Hills and college. So he chose to give his trinket to one of our newbies, Adahay- who now has a Shadow Step trinket.

After the tournaments we had one more class battle (life pool) and then started on the quest.

Riken opened up a box that contained the deed to the Valley of Smoke... unfortunately a necromancer had stolen it and left a taunting note. Immediately his power possessed two of our park members: Henry and Prada. They fell to the ground screaming or lunged at the sheriff before vanishing.

The heroes found a map leading them up one of the paths, where they encountered Henry and combat ensued - but he was fortified with dark magic (Ancestral Armor of many points). After wounding him, he teleported away and the heroes faced Prada. Eventually he teleported away as well and they found a chest. With it, a map leading them to the second area.

On the way to this second area, they found Henry and Prada seemingly dead on the road. They quickly arose and a fight continued... but

they teleported away again. Next they found them at the entrance to a tower backed up by a possessed Zwik. This wizard put Void Touched on Prada and many people were killed, lives stolen, guts stabbed with a madu. Zwik teleported to the tower and Prada and Henry vanished.

At this point Zwik was forced to face them alone and fought bravely - but fell and vanished. At this point the heroes saw a three headed Hydra rising from their training field at the bottom of the hill. Three heads, long necks, and magic kept the heroes busy but they killed all three heads at the same moment and slew the Hydra.

The pieces of the deed were reunited and all was well with the shire again! The three members of the park who had been mind controlled and had created such a stir awoke from the Hydra's remains, wondering when the quest was going to get underway!

 The day ended with court being held under the shade tent. During this time, the tournament awards were handed out, and the regular awards were issued, some in the form of hand written and drawn scrolls created by Riken.