November Event Announcements & Prelude - READ ME!
NOVEMBER 2023 EVENT
ANNOUNCEMENTS, SCHEDULE & PRELUDE
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS:
IMPORTANT! *EVERYONE* NEEDS TO BE AT OPENING ANNOUNCEMENTS. IT IS VERY, VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU ARE THERE ON TIME, IN KIT, AND READY TO GO INTO GAME. OPENING ANNOUNCEMENTS WILL BE AT 10PM IN THE BIG RED TAVERN.
There will be flashing light effects this event. Check the public/spoiler schedule to know where they will be if you are sensitive to these effects. We will never use them outside of those predetermined, self-contained areas.
FIRE SIDE CHAT! At the end of every year, we do a Fireside Chat to celebrate the year together. This one is extra special... :) At the end of game on Saturday night, we will gather for the Fireside Chat at the High Town Tavern. You can make your way over there (SILENTLY! VERY IMPORTANT!) when you leave character for the last time.
__𝐖𝐀𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒 & 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄𝐒 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐃𝐈𝐆𝐈𝐓𝐀𝐋__
In your Ticket Confirmation email after pass purchase, you received the link to read and sign your waivers & releases. ALL waivers must be digitally signed now - make sure to read the directions and fill out the forms completely.
__𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐃 𝐓𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆__
Reminder about our Covid Testing guidelines, which are on our website. EVERYONE needs to email their test results BEFORE you arrive to site, per the guidelines. Absolutely no on-site tests will be accepted. IF YOU DO NOT SUBMIT YOUR COVID TEST BEFORE ARRIVING, YOU WILL BE EJECTED FROM THE EVENT. NO EXCEPTIONS.
__𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐋 & 𝐆𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐃𝐄__
On-site arrival begins at 5:00pm on Friday. At 4:40pm on Friday, an email containing the Gate Code will be sent to the address you used to purchase your ticket. Close the gate behind you, make sure the lock is locked, and then spin the numbers so it’s not left on the code!
__𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐂𝐊-𝐈𝐍 & 𝐎𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒__
Check-in starts at 8:00pm at the Big Red Tavern and goes until 9:00pm. At Check-in, your digitally signed waivers & release forms will be checked, and can check your NPC shift. Bring all weapons for safety inspection and a filled-out character sheet. Opening announcements are at 10:30pm, with Game-On starting shortly afterward. FULLY READ THROUGH THESE TEXT ANNOUNCEMENTS, AND TRY TO ASK ANY QUESTIONS YOU HAVE NOW ON THE COMMUNITY FACEBOOK POST, SO THAT WE CAN GET THROUGH OPENING ANNOUNCEMENTS AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE.
__𝐍𝐏𝐂 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄__
Sign up for your NPC shift on Friday night during Check-in. For NPC Time, meet at Ops Cabin. Be ON TIME: late arrivals will be asked to do additional time. When using game-provided clothing and props, neatly return them to where they were taken from: try to remember, or ask a staff member. Wet or sweaty clothing should be placed in the wicker hamper labeled "DIRTY." Thanks for helping! It saves HOURS of work on Sunday.
__𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐂𝐄𝐒 & 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐓 𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓__
The Merchant Tent will be open for business again! Visit Dovana the Dwarf, Bippi & Sir Bork for all your crafting needs, as indicated on the schedule. Find them at Hightown Tavern.
__𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋 𝐌𝐄𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐂𝐒 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓__
Much of this event is going to be emergent play. There is so much happening at every moment: you will not be able to do it all. If you ever find yourself not knowing what to do or what’s going on, come to plot and we will point you in a direction!
Orange Wards were introduced earlier this year and are special wards that signify certain out-of-game importance. Out of character, a ward circle of Orange Lights indicates the scene happening inside should NOT be physically interacted with in any way. In-character, a ward circle of Orange Lights indicates a magical barrier, unique from a normal ward. NOTHING can pass through it, including physical objects like weapons, spell packets, arrows, limbs etc. and it cannot be dispelled by a Ritualist until indicated off-game by a Staff member. The use of Orange Wards in-game is very limited and usually reserved for Permanent Death Scenes or unique story or SFX-safety reasons.
There may be Special Monsters/Creatures that require specific mechanics or story effects to be used in order to defeat them. Keep this in mind when engaging: there may be enemies you cannot defeat until you learn how and prepare. An example of this is the Shades: the memory you offer them must be important to your character in some way. When you give them this memory, your character forgets it.
__𝐏𝐔𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐂 𝐒𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐃𝐔𝐋𝐄 / 𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐃𝐔𝐋𝐄__
The Public Schedule is what's going on in game, in-game. The link to the public schedule is below! The Spoiler Schedule is an OUT OF GAME document with some additional items, for player knowledge, which will be posted on paper at the event. The spoiler schedule (and public!) will be posted on the Bulletin Boards in the taverns. This schedule is subject to change, check at the event for the final version. PUBLIC SCHEDULE LINK; SPOILER SCHEDULE LINK
__𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐓-𝐆𝐀𝐌𝐄 𝐂𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐍 𝐔𝐏__
On Sunday morning it is our responsibility to make sure we leave the site as clean as we found it. All players are required to clean their own cabins, kitchen messes & dishes. In cabins: trash bins must be emptied in the large bins behind the taverns, all windows must be CLOSED and floors swept. You can earn Feather Points by helping to clean communal spaces like the bathrooms and taverns! Find the Clean Up Coordinator (Shy Dotson) to see how you can help, and so she can check off that your cabin is clean.
Below is our prelude for the event!
"LEGENDS ARE MADE" - GAME PRELUDE
It is the 11𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡 of the 𝟕𝐭𝐡 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫 After Fire
We did it. After years of torment, death, and oppression, we finally defeated the Drow for good. We triumphed against oppression, control, and rigidity of thought. Relief and revelry were had in turns, and we patched our wounds both physical and emotional.
If only the proud Drow had lived a bit longer, they would have seen their dream come true: a world consumed by darkness.
We didn't understand what was happening at first, or maybe we didn't really think it was important. The days grew shorter, and the sun's rays felt weaker. We thought that with everything going so strange in our world, perhaps it was a small side effect of the Seventh Eldest's coming. The sun rose later each day, and was something we grew accustomed to over the past weeks. But today… The sun never rose.
There is something in the darkness. Something waiting. Watching. Hungry. Something worse than the Drow… We can all feel it.
I've only seen a shark once in my lifetime. They're not really around the Exiled Lands, but they lived in many saltwater fjords on the Homelands. They're beautiful creatures - smooth, sharp-toothed, every fiber of their being made for killing. When I get the feeling that the hunger in the darkness is watching me, it feels the same as a shark gazing at me from the water. Except this time, I'm standing on a block of melting ice, and it's only a matter of time before it claims me in the hungry maw. I haven't really told anyone about these intuitions, but I imagine that we are all feeling the same thing.
When I mentioned that we didn't really concern ourselves with the sun's gradual darkening, well, it might have been because we were a bit more preoccupied with what was right in front of us. We had the rest of the loyal Drow empire to hunt down and snuff out. A kingdom's heavy crown to place on one of our own. We had to go save anyone left on the Homelands and get them here, now that it was safe from the Drow. But the Whirlpools out in the great oceans still remained, and of course the Dragons continued to ravage the Homelands.
But reports from Solomin Krane brought all of that to an abrupt halt.
The Homelands are gone. Not just the people - not just in metaphor - the continent is destroyed. A great and sudden earthquake came forth, and the Homeland was swallowed into the ocean.
You would think an earthquake large enough to destroy a continent would kill at least one dragon. But those eternal, unkillable bastards…. were unphased, and now determined with a new fire burning in their eyes. They broke the barrier over where the Homelands once stood, and they're now on their way here. To our home. The Exiled Lands.
The more I think about all of the moments that led us here, to the Exiled Lands, the more I wonder what my life has amounted to. Was I a good person? Did I deserve to still live, after seeing so many die? And it seems that many walking spirits as of late have posed those same questions … and many spirits there are, considering that that the Thinnest Veil never ended. I've never been sensitive to Noktal's realm, except on the Thinnest Veil. And here it remains… and so do the spirits, constant reminders of the things from our past that continue to haunt us.
On the bright side, we've figured out how to be rid of one of those types of haunting- the purple-shrouded Shades, one at a time. By offering a treasured memory to them after they have been physically weakened, we are able to temporarily restore them to who they once were for a fleeting moment. Releasing each shade from the grasp of Jrex has brought me great joy, but I weep for our dying world.
The sun is gone, the dead have no realm to return to, the Dragons are on their way to finish what they started, and the Seventh is here to consume our world.
What hope do I have left? What hope do we have left?
A wise woman, older than the trees she stood among, offered her advice and wisdom to our Enclave when we first heard about the Dragons appearing seven years ago. We were certain our death was imminent. But in a measured voice, she told us: "If we live only for survival, death has already found us. If we live for the hope of a better tomorrow - for ourselves and others - that is life."
She was killed by Dragon fire not an hour later. But I still think of her words often, and I try my hardest to live my life by them. I survived dragonfire, a plague, the terror of the Drow, the Spawn, a corrupted Fae, and so much more. I will build a better tomorrow for myself, for you, and our loved ones. I have fought and survived too much to be defeated by anything standing between me and that beautiful future.
My prayer is that you carry that same dream, too.
-Anonymous New Havener
