Well of Destiny - Recap

Runes selected and designed by L. Blaiklock

The summer 2016 season ended with "The Well of Destiny," a Norse adventure for Mavens of Mystery ages 12 to 16. The team was called to investigate carvings on the world tree, Yggdrasil. After a visit from a very cranky dwarf, the Detectives headed to Svartalfheim to talk with the dwarves. Their first visit did not go well at all, unless one counts the nice chat with Clark Kent. While no autographs were received, the Detectives managed to escape from a dwarven prison and to free the man of steal from his kryptonite shackles as well.

Their visit to Yggdrasil went a little better, unless one wishes to count the computer password change they made with the whole world listening. They did find out more about the runes. Don't touch them. Good advice for those who wish to remain alive and well. They managed to escape that little episode as well, in spite of the shadow serpents.

After a nice little soccer game with Heimdall on Bifrost, the rainbow bridge, the Detectives made their way to Asgard for a little talk with the big O. His thoughts were all over the place with the quickening of Ragnorak on his mind, but his memory knew just who the Detectives were. He was as eager as they were to slow down the coming of the world's end.

All roads lead to the Well of Urd, home of the Norn ... another visit that may not rank on the Detectives' Ten Favorite Places to Visit list. The three creepy ladies sharing an eyeball might have something to do with it.

Fortunately, our Detectives were as brave as they were diligent in this case. They came away from the Norn with fewer magical amulets and the power to change destiny. The battle of the runes began, with the Detectives teaming up to take on their enemies. The Yellow Pads were out, the pencils scrawling furiously as each team went up against the Power of Max.

It was an epic series of battles, as each team brought their runes into play against the runemaker in the story. The first runes cast helped scry the location of some stolen artifacts and made visible a third party who shall go nameless here. The second set of runes brought the runemaker right into a trap set by our team. They got her, my pretty, and her little dogs, too!

Toy theater by O. and P. Van Soest

Norse gods were summoned. Metal dragons, shadow phoenixes, time trackers, Cernunnos -- oh yes. The moment of the week was definitely the summoning of Cernunnos, Celtic god of the hunt. He's as chaotic as they come. Drop him down a chimney and watch the howling fun -- let's just say the Ironwood Forest will never be the same. "Is that enough chaos for you?"

Apparently not, since there was more adventure, more chaos and more fun to be had! Thanks to Ken Walden and Lou Ensel for playing our shadow serpents, and to our two younger visitors who played the Metal Dragon and the Shadow Phoenix. Shots of the adventure may be seen here and images of each team's toy theater may be seen here.

Did the Detectives save the world? Well, yes they did--and rather well, I must say! No one died. The world won't end. And we have one more Detective in our ranks, plus two very hungry dogs, a shih tzu and a chihuahua. Don't forget to feed them!

Book of Dragons - Recap

The fifth adventure of the summer 2016 season saw eight Detectives ages 12-16 tackle a new mystery called "The Book of Dragons." It's not easy to summarize this one without giving away secrets for the next group who faces the challenge, but I will try ...

The Dragonmages had some concerns about involving the young Detectives in this mystery. Sending children to do adult work is problematic -- and if we look too closely at this, the whole game falls to pieces, so we'll just say that Rebecca had her reservations. Madame Drak, the Soothsayer, weighed in with her opinion, but the whole debate was settled when a couple of demons kidnapped Rebecca and Max. There was no one left but our young Detectives, so they set about solving the mystery.

The first set of clues led to a painting at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (MFA). The Nine Dragon Scroll by Chen Rong was involved in some magical shenanigans that required a closer look by our team. The bad guys weren't the only ones performing shenanigans. Several of our heroes decided that invisibility spells were a wise move while purchasing tickets--and the whole crew landed in trouble with security.

Fortunately, they had a friend on the inside. She showed the Detectives the strange writings that had appeared on the now-moving scroll. I shall not say more on this topic, for fear of giving away major secrets, but the discovery sent our team back to the 13th century of the Southern Song Dynasty to visit Chen Rong, the painter and government official.

Ignore the rumors of a visit to Bob Ross. They are merely rumors planted by a certain cartoonist whose shadow undoubtedly contains a red star or two ...

The stories about a chaos demon and and order demon working together, however, are perfectly true. A very rare pairing that had its explanation in a part of the story which I cannot reveal here. Let's just say that they were not happy to be working together. And let's just say that placing them in the same cage together is not a great idea ... tick, tick, tick, tick, tick...

Somehow, our Detectives managed to survive every disaster headed their way. Well, except for that one little problem where the Empress of Chaos pretended to be Rebecca and they nearly believed here except someone remembered to check her shadow. Yeah. Billions and billions of red stars are not a good sign in a Dragonmage.

Drawing of Empress of Chaos as Shadowmouse
O. Van Soest, 2016

But the Empress of Chaos was just a diversion, drawn into the adventure by the extreme amounts of chaos and laughter experienced by friend and foe alike. Yes, folks, this was a funny one! Chaos and order demons, Cernunnos and the Empress of Chaos -- only the Monkey King was absent. (Or was he?)

Fortunately, all's well that ends well. Unless of course you are the two culprits who nearly pulled all of this off like a couple of pros. They're not so happy, now that they're scrubbing floors and polishing brass fixings. They'll be at it for a while!

Thank you to Lou Ensel and son for a fine appearance! You can see them in action in the photos on our Facebook page and view the beautiful Dragonscrolls created by the Detectives for their entries into "The Book of Dragons."