Session VIII: Joker's Wild -- Recap

The final adventure of the summer was Session VIII: The Joker's Wild. Our story was drawn from playing cards the detectives made during each adventure of the summer. The detectives made cards that brought either help or hindrances to the game, Joker's Wild.

A mysterious box arrived at the Dragon's Eye Detectives' Agency. When opened, a Voice said, "The Game commences. Players take their seats." Resistance was futile, and every detective was drawn tot he table for a game of unknown origin and design.

The game's objective: "Survive." And "impress the GM." The GM was the Game Master, whose identity was hidden for most of the game.

Cards were drawn, introducing characters and events into the game. The Nightmare Box from "The Dreameater" returned with Ballerina Kitty, a deceptively sweet, dancing and twirling kitty who turned into a Yokai, a demon. The Grey Lady from "Rag and Bone Man" arrived, along with her pestilent pennies.

A Gentleman Caller came knocking. He seemed helpful most of the game, sitting on the nightmare box so it wouldn't explode. When he won one of the games, he asked to become a Hero of the Dragon's Eye, so an official ID was procured from Rebecca.

We had a riot with the week's adventuring, as we faced challenges from skeleton knights, a dragon slayer and Rakshasas. Each team constructed a board game which came into play the last few days of the week -- and the winner of each game was able to request a boon from the loser.

This worked well for the detectives when they won. They were able to ask the Gentleman Caller to ask the game to banish some of the worst enemies they were facing. They started with Ballerina Kitty. They also asked the Grey Woman to gather her pennies and leave the game. She did, although a few pennies were left in the Nightmare Box, since removing them involved opening the box.

Some of the helper cards they received were very timely, too. The Jatayu swooped down to rescue people in the sewers of London game. The Treasure Keeper of the gods offered special dice for the games.

The Hindu goddess Sita arrived, recently trained as a Hero of the Dragon's Eye. She had her dice and her jewels, but her Third Eye of Inner Wisdom was missing. The detectives discovered that her help comes like a monsoon in summer -- rushing in great waves of overblown magic and causing as much trouble as help. Fortunately, they eventually drew Sita's Moon Rabbit card, and her Third Eye of Inner Wisdom was restored.

Oliver and I took turns playing the Occulist, one of the most horrible enemies in the game. He eats eyes -- and was very interested in Sita's lost third eye. What a treat that would have been. He pulled out a plate, knife and fork and a napkin, to begin his feasting -- but even he was defeated at last.

I'm happy to report that the detectives learned who the GM was and how he came to learn about the Heroes of the Dragon's Eye. First he was disguised as a cicada the group admired on a tree. He watched the team and decided to stay, turning from one insect or creature into another.

He was a June bug that the girls found in the bathroom. They rescued him by taking him outside where he could fly free. Another week, he was a wasp that found its way into the Dragon's Eye room. The detectives captured the wasp in a cup and sent him out the window to his freedom (and their great relief).

Each week he changed, and each week the detectives showed their kindness and courage. They befriended him as a squirrel, nodded to him as a crow and admired him as a huge, black beetle.

Our friend was a skeptic, so he couldn't believe his eyes and ears. He devised the game to test the reality of this team's honor -- and sure enough, they passed. He may have to amend his ancient report to the gods about the shortcomings of humans.

The best part of the adventure came at the end. The game was done. The party over. Rebecca was left at the Dragon's Eye Detectives' Agency. She went to turn off the lights and realized that someone was still there. Who was it?

The Gentleman Caller.

He's still there, turning the detectives into his own little demons.

A sequel is in the works for next February.

Pictures of the adventure and the board games are on the Facebook page. I've combined the art and adventure into a single album, since they were so integrated this week.

Session VII: Blackheart's Ruby - Recap

Dragon's Eye Adventures moved to the Landing Y in Brunswick, for the seventh adventure, "Blackheart's Ruby." The story dives into a romanticized world of pirates, where liberty and chaos reign supreme.

The detectives receive a visit from a mysterious man seeking their help. The encounter ends badly, when the man is dragged into a void by red webs and tentacles. He throws a pouch to the detectives, with hasty instructions to destroy the Bone Ruby it contains.

The detectives follow the clues to Wales and then back in time to Libertalia, a legendary pirate port on the island of Madagascar. There, they seek information at Rapscallion's Rootbeer Pub. Their plan was to join Blackheart the Pirate Queen on the final voyage of her long life.

The team disguised themselves as pirates, and undertook Scalawag's Trial of Seaworthiness. A rollicking game of "Overboard" ensued, with seafaring instructions like "Batten the hatches," "Hoist the sails," and "Captain's Coming." By the time Blackheart arrived, the detectives were performing like pirates, which is to say, pretty well, with occasional excursions to the brig. Pirates love the brig.

By now, my experienced readers may sense that I'm leaving out a few details -- a few very important details. Like what happened to one certain detective, whose very life and liberty were threatened in a very significant way. Well, I'm just not going to say more that that right now. I may run this case again. (I've already run it twice in Maine, and about five times in the Boston area.)

I can't tell you where the pirates were going, who they met along the way or why they were going to this place. Let's just say, it was dangerous. Very dangerous. Life and liberty hung in the balance, and the detectives had to keep their wits about them.

Blackheart's Ruby had a good time. A very good time.

Thank goodness the detectives had the fey dragon, the black cat and the moon rabbit with them. They were just a few of the random bits of magic that saved the day. 

We had a wonderful time playing pirates and drinking rootbeer. Pictures of the detectives' wonderful pirate maps and bone amulets are on the Facebook page. So are shots of the adventure itself. Maybe those photos will provide a few more clues about the story!

Session VI: Hound and Horn -- Recap

Koschei the Deathless as a baby
with the Spirit Pups and Cernunnos' Horn

Our sixth adventure of the 2018 summer season began a year ago, when a group of detectives turned Koschei the Deathless into a baby. A baby needed someone to care for it, so they gave the infant to the nearest immortal they had summoned for help. That immortal was Cernunnos, the Celtic god of the Wild Hunt.

A Russian necromancer in the hands of a Celtic Winter King ... what could go wrong there? Naturally, the action spawned a sequel, which was "Hound and Horn."

This year's program assistant is Oliver Van Soest -- the owner of the Cernunnos amulet that was used last year. With some help from the Raven King, Oliver assembled a team of detectives to investigate what happened to the baby Koschei.

The team started in Wistman's Wood in Devon, England -- a short, stubby wood known for its ties to the Wild Hunt. The woods were full of pesky brambles and adders, and even a couple of ornery dwarves, but the detectives managed to make their way through the challenges.

An encounter with the Hounds of Annwn (the underworld spirit hounds) soon confirmed that the group was on the right track. Cernunnos requested a demonstration of the group's targeting skills before allowing them into his summer home, deep inside an ancient oak tree.

They soon learned that Cernunnos had sent the child into the care of a nurse. A swift roller coaster ride on the backs of spirit hounds led to her home. A squirrel's offer of jewels was turned down, due to suspicions about its character. This may be the first offer of jewels ever turned down--but several of the detectives in the group have had trouble with chaos jewels given by a "friend," so their caution is understandable.

The team turned themselves into bats with squirrel tails--a perfect disguise for entering the cave where the nurse lived. The sleuths proceeded with great caution -- a few among them were convinced that the nurse would turn out to be the Baba Yaga or some other witch who would try to eat them.

The nurse seemed perfectly lovely, taking care of baby Koschei in a cradle. He was playing with spirit hound puppies and his skeleton knights. He was not happy to see the heroes of the Dragon's Eye and tried to warn the nurse, but she could not understand his baby talk.

The team tried to explain why they needed to take Koschei away, but the nurse was reluctant to part with her little ward. She was trying to fatten the little guy up--a challenge, given that he's basically a skeleton with a few scraps of flesh.

When the detectives resorted to trapping the nurse in a serpent trap, everything went awry. They ended up caught. She turned into a blue-skinned hag named Black Annis. She had iron claws strong enough to dig out her own mountain cave, and long, stringy hair and a hideous face. Sure enough, she planned to feast on their bones, and she started to prepare the broth for soup.

Fortunately, the team had a group of detectives hidden in the tunnels, still disguised as bats. A little troll magic turned the broth Black Annis was stirring into a whirlpool. Another spell trapped the witch into a lightning cage and banished her to the nether realms.

In all of the chaos, Koschei the Deathless escaped. He hooked up his little spirit hounds to his cradle and flew off into the sky. He left behind a drawing of his plans. He was headed to Ceridwen's Cauldron, to dip his Skeleton Knights into the cauldron.

Once the detectives escaped their cages, they dove into the whirlpool.

Whirlpools are time and space portals used by trolls to travel around the world from one whirlpool to the next. When you use such clever troll magic, it is wise to tell the whirlpool where you wish to end your little travel. Our detective forgot to do this, which means we had to toss a coin and roll the dice to find out where the detectives would land. We've visited multiple whirlpools in Dragon's Eye Adventures, and no one wanted to revisit Charybdis and Scylla, or the Naruto Whirlpool in Japan.

We ended up at Old Sow in Downeast, Maine. She's a lovely pig with a golden star, friend of dragons. When she heard the detectives' story, she sent them to the Corryverckan Whirlpool off the coast of western Scotland. Two of the detectives had been here, one for "Midcoast Trolls" and the other for "The Winter Queen."

The Summer Queen (Brigit, Brigit and Brigit -- she's a triple goddess) welcomed the detectives into her golden hall of summer. She revealed the mysteries behind Koschei's plan to visit Ceridwen's Cauldron. He wasn't going to the one in Lake Tegid, which gave poetic inspiration. He was headed for the one in the heavens, that brought spirits back to life again in the cycle of life and death and life again.

Brigit, Brigit, Brigit explained Cernunnos' role as the Winter King, otherwise known as the constellation Orion. The Hunter rises at dawn on Samhain, Nov. 1, to take over the night sky during the winter. The Summer King is the Serpent known as Scorpio, who takes over the ruling of the sky at Beltane (May 1). With Koschei the Deathless in the Celtic Realms, the world would have two Winter Kings vs. 1 Summer King, upsetting the balance and bringing Winter year round.

The Cave Bear

The detectives made a plan to disguise themselves as bone creatures worthy of joining the bony army Koschei was trying to gather on his way to Ceridwen's Cauldron. Their plan was to trick him into taking them with him -- and then stopping his master plan to take over the Wild Hunt.

I'm happy to say that their little ruse succeeded. Koschei was overjoyed to find such ruthless villains to join his army. Pictures of the ruthless villains are on the Facebook page.

The final battle was spectacular, with yarnballs flying, healing spells rolling and Koschei ranting about the ruthless army that never showed. The group finally subdued the little tyke (he was tougher than one might imagine). A little kazoo magic summoned the Summer King serpent for help, and a pair of well-crafted glasses hypnotized Koschei into telling the truth about his diabolical plans.

The detectives devised a plan for returning Koschei to the Russian realms of myth. They sent him back to the Isle of Buyan, where his soul is kept underground. They forced him to become a lime on a tiny tree that would grow all summer, keeping him contained until the proper time arrived. He would be released to play his role as a winter king of sorts, maintaining the balance in the Russian realms, but each summer, he would resume his shape as a lime.

Congratulations to the team for a week of funny antics and escapes, and a most unexpected ending. Lime magic is a rarity among the varieties of earth magics. Almost as rare as kazoo magic, which is almost as rare as a ladybug that swells up and squishes the enemy.

Pictures of the adventure are on the Facebook page.

Summer 2018 Session V: The Serpent Roads -- Recap

The fifth session of the summer focused on Egyptian mythology for a mystery called "The Serpent Roads." Merneith the Time Raveler requested help from the detectives as she investigated a time tangle in the Serpent Roads.

Our team traveled with great care to the source of the problem, uncovering a plot to drain this world into the next. Silvery serpents tried to draw the team into the huge funnel knot, but the detectives drew on some vintage Star Trek magic and Sarubobo the Monkey Baby from Japan to protect themselves.

A bit of trickery landed the detectives in two glowing crystal pyramids. The two groups could not communicate, so they each began working on a solution. With turtle magic, we nearly had two tunnels being dug toward one another at the same time--but one team was slightly faster, so the second spell was saved for later use.

After defeating a giant Sandworm, the detectives made their way to an oasis in the desert. Their luck changed as the Egyptian goddess of luck, Renenutet, showed up with help. The team cast a scrying spell to locate Merneith, and found her in a prison tomb beneath an abandoned temple in Egypt.

One woolyborus ride to Egypt and the detectives arrived as golden scarabs. Two hungry cats were hunting beetles and snakes in the overgrown grass near the temple. After sending the cats scurrying after a red laser beam dot, the detectives found themselves with only a fire jewel. The cats had the jewels and an ID.

The team decided to rescue Merneith before retrieving their items. They faced some challenging serpent powers, who caught them and put them in prison. The very prison where Merneith was held.

Once again, I don't wish to give away secrets of the story, in case their is a future repeat of this mystery. Merneith and the detectives managed to escape the prison with some new knowledge that helped turn the tide of the adventure.

The detectives received Moon Shadow Books that summoned help from an Egyptian god or goddess. They assembled Fixitrons--tiny robots that perform time and space feats of engineering magic. Armed with these two powers, the detectives took on the trouble of the time tangle.

I'm happy to report that all's well with the world. The clog was removed, the Serpent Roads untangled and the responsible parties were hauled off the the Hall of Judgment for a talk with Ma'at, goddess of truth and justice.

And the detectives? They had a party; and what a party it was. Pizza, fireworks, and the summoning of a new immortal, an asteroid god who couldn't resist the lure of a good celebration.

Photos of the adventure are on the Dragon's Eye Adventures Facebook page. Images of the Books of Shadow are also there.

Summer 2018, Session IV: Rag and Bone Man -- Recap

The fourth session featured a mystery called "The Rag and Bone Man." The detectives traveled back to the 19th century in search of the rag and bone man in Victorian London. They chose to begin their search in 1851, when they could blend in with the many foreign visitors attending the Great Exhibition.

The detectives visited Cloth Fair to find the shop of the rag and bone man named John Dunne. Cloth Faire is an old alley behind St. Bartholomew's Church, across from Smithfield. The adventure centered around this area, with multiple trips through time.

The group soon discovered that they were not the only ones seeking John Dunne. A friendly ophthalmologist offered some assistance, while two dapper gentlemen with steampunk wings offered some trouble. The detectives found an old shopkeeper who purchased their rag bundles for a few pennies. She knew of John Dunne's shop, but hadn't seen him in a while.

The team decided to visit the Great Exhibition while they were there. Then they were off in time again, still searching for Mr. Dunne. When they found him, he was very helpful, teaching them to make amulets powered with rag and bone magic.

Rag and bone magic is a deep kind of earth magic, drawn from the broken and discarded debris of human lives. It is mending and healing magic -- and very useful in scrying and spirit magic. The detectives needed a boon for Madame Drak -- and John sent them on a quest for the three items he needed to make it.

The first item took the detectives to the Bartholomew Fair in Elizabethan times. The second item led to St. Bartholomew's Hospital in the 12th century; and the third item led back to around 12,000 BCE. I won't reveal details here, since this mystery will be offered again. (No secrets before their time.)

Let's just say that a lady offered a helping hand, a gentleman kept an eye on things, and our two winged friends offered interference as often as they could. The team managed to make it through even the most dangerous challenges, and Madame Drak received her boon from the Rag and Bone Man.

Photos of the adventure are on the Dragon's Eye Adventures Facebook page. Pictures of the rag and bone amulets are there as well.