The Midnight Cat: Report

One of the beautiful shadow puppets
from "The Midnight Cat" This one is
by S. Melquist and M. Hoy.

A jewel thief known as the Midnight Cat led our six detective mages on a mouse and cat chase through the streets of London, the aisles of Les Puces de Saint-Ouen flea market in Paris and even back in time to the darkened halls of Le Chat Noir on closing day in 1897. It was a week full of secrets and ciphers--and this determined team tackled every code by hand! A very impressive display of code-breaking!

Favorite challenges of the week included the zany bird lady who imprisoned the zebra-finched Detectives (yes--zebra-finched is now an adjective describing the state of being turned into a zebra finch) in cages. She tried to sell them at Les Puces, but the birds were too clever. They played dead every time an admirer came to see them. Clever little bird claws reached for the keys, and soon the Detectives were ... de-zebra-finched!

The story took some unexpected turns, as our thief led the Detectives back in time to the closing day of Le Chat Noir. The artist Henri Rivière was able to shed some light on the reason our thief had stolen the Golden Cat amulet and the candelabra from the flea market.

Let's just say it wasn't good news. The Detectives entered the Shadow Realms to talk with the inhabitants of the prints made by Henri Rivière. Their beautiful shadow puppets may be seen in an album on the Dragon's Eye Facebook page along with the prints that inspired them. Their books of secrets and photos of the week's adventure are also on the page.



Sunrise in the Shadow Realms
Photo by Ike Voorhees, 2013

The Detectives found their journey leading to an ancient goddess of the sun, demoted to the status of a moon goddess and doomed to live out her life in the underworld. Fortunately for her, the Detectives had other ideas--and the sun rose again in her heart. All mysteries need not end in battle and even a red star can grow a tinge of gold.



Joker's Wild II: New Cards by Ike and the Detectives

Ghost Hunter by Ike Voorhees
Micron pen on Bristol board cards

Joker's Wild is the last mystery of the Summer 2013 season. We have been slowly creating a deck of cards from which the story will be drawn. There are character cards and challenge cards. Our Facebook page has an album called Joker's Wild which has all of the cards created to date. The artwork is by Rebecca McNulty, Ike Voorhees and each of the young Detective Mages who have been to a Dragon's Eye adventure this summer.

The deck will continue to grow each week, even as the Joker's Wild week unfolds. This is an experiment with "off-the-page" story creation.

Temple of the Sun: Report

Detective disguised as an Egyptian guard
by Drew Walden

Eight detectives teamed up in this week's adventure in ancient Thebes. The scarab amulet of Seti I was stolen from his tomb in ancient times, and the Detectives traveled back in time to 1112 BCE to investigate. Our team was off the page more often than on, with a train with a human face, a mummy-disguised detective leaping from a sarcophagus, a stolen starbowl, a shadowmage rescue, and a fire-water sheep spouting water bridges over lakes of fire.

In spite of the train, this was an Egyptian adventure. The city of Thebes will not be the same after all the sneaking and hiding, the guards pouring into the streets searching for the strange visitors from the Pharaoh.

All roads led eventually into the Duat. The underworld may not have been ready for this highly creative crew--certainly the 42 gods and goddesses gathered in the Hall of Judgment were in for a colorful visit.

It was a week full of some very skilled sneaking and great fun! Our most nerve-wracking moment may have been the meeting with Amenhotep, the High Priest of the Temple of Amon-Re. The Detectives discovered just how important a little backstory is--and researching the current Pharaoh you're supposed to be serving is highly advised.

It all turned out well in the end. The errant sun god was sent packing, along with Apep the serpent of chaos. The amulet of Khepri was returned to Seti I and he took his place in the Sun Barge of the Blessed Ones.

What did we learn from the week? One can get very, very far with only minimal magic.

The loveliest moment came at the very end. Each story begins and ends with a dream--and this week, the final dream was one of a winged scarab taking the Detectives for a ride. Just as I finished, one of the detectives looked down and found a tiny black beetle on the ground in front of us. Naturally, it became part of the dream.

For the detectives who were skeptical that the scarab is related to our beetles here in Maine, here is an article from National Geographic. Visit the Dragon's Eye Ventures Facebook page for some wonderful photos of our games, the Detectives' wonderful artwork and scarab amulets.

Welcome back to Ike Voorhees

Detail, Ike Voorheers, 2013
Pen on paper

Ike Voorhees will be joining the Dragon's Eye Ventures staff for the remaining four sessions of the 2013 summer program! Ike is an extraordinary artist -- one of those artists whose drawings have story attached to them, so he's a wonderful addition to the Dragon's Eye team. Ike was with us last summer, and the adventures benefitted from his creative input!

Detail, Ike Voorheers, 2013
Pen on paper

If you'd like to know more about Ike, visit this post from last summer. He graduated this May from Bard College with a BA in art. Ike's focus at Bard was printmaking--and his artwork here demonstrates the kind of detailed focus that is characteristic of his work. He's one young artist with an exciting future.

Detail, Ike Voorheers, 2013
Pen on paper

The images posted here are all details of a drawing that grew out of Ike's hand during several adventures last summer. The figure is based on a famous carving on the tomb of a Mayan king named Pakal, showing the Vision Serpent Kukulkan. The Detectives visited this serpent as part of "Terra Incognita."

Welcome back, Ike! It's an extraordinary gift to the program each time you join us!

The Golden Cage II: Off the Page with a Clever Firebird Rescue

Secret Keeper by Tommy D.
Pipecleaner and felt

The first adventure of the season featured our youngest detectives taking on the challenges of Koschei the Deathless and his Skeleton Knights. Our team used some clever magic to escape the clutches of Grubach the Skeleton Knight--they shrank him to the size of ant. They showed both courage and kindness when they stopped to help an old skeleton woman--and gained her help in the form of dolls. To see the dolls visit the Dragon's Eye Ventures Facebook page.

My favorite off-the-page moments: Drew's fire water sheep that drove away the skeleton knights but forgot to rescue the detectives from their bone cages, the ID's that transformed into IPhones for quick calls to Perun the god of lightning, and Thomas' idea to offer Baba Yaga alternative foods to her daily diet of children. She's eating pizza, brownies and black bean soup these days, thanks to our culinary wizards.

The adventurer's favorite games of the week: The dandelions Baba Yaga sent them to collect (They weren't just flowers ... ) and the flying foam Frisbee games (bone cage spells from the Skeleton Knights). The Vermilion Bird of Life (also known as the Firebird) was saved from the Golden Cage, and Koschei the Deathless has been sent packing. Even the witch Baba Yaga is happy--the Detectives left her with money for pizza, a gift certificate (for more pizza), and the cell phone number for pizza delivery to the Thrice-Ten Lands.