Summer 2019, Session VII: Junkyard Invaders -- Recap

The final mystery of the 2019 summer season was held at the Landing YMCA in August. An experienced team of fifteen detectives tackled the mystery with everything they learned from earlier adventures. They were a little suspicious of the raccoon who led them to Jake's Junkyard in Roswell, NM, but this didn't stop them from going.

It's not easy bringing a junkyard to the classroom, but we managed! Old bins full of the most intriguing "junk" kept things fairly contained -- and gave lots of inspiration for the robots we made.

We met some intriguing and pesky aliens. The Skeeters were out in full force this week, both the earthly skeeters and the alien ones. We met another group of aliens as well, the clan of the Tartars, named after a Cream of Tartar can from the junkpile. They were refugees from an alien planet, searching for their mother ship.

I can't say much more about this, since I will definitely repeat this adventure in the future. We went off page partway through the week, bringing Jake's Junkyard Tomte into the story -- but it was so rewarding that I may include that part next time. Thank you, OE -- that was a brilliant addition to the story!

We're going to have to make more junkyard Tomtes, and more junkyard robots, so I'm thinking sequel next February or April. This will give the robots we made this week a real workout, too -- we need to explore what they do!

Kids and staff were busy all week, crafting alien robots from old tin cans, pieces of old folding rulers, silverware handles, and parts from antique oil lanterns. Pipecleaners became the fasteners of choice for arms, and collectively we made about twenty five glass eyes. The results were fabulous--the robots may be viewed on the Dragon's Eye Facebook page by clicking this link.

Photos of the adventure may be viewed here.

Thanks, once again, to Oliver Van Soest for working as my assistant this summer. His robot may be viewed along with the ones I made for the story, by visiting this link on my Ravenscrawl Studio page.

A very special thank you goes to Jeremy Tardif. He cut the old folding rulers into arms, and drilled all of the holes in our tin cans.

Summer 2019, Session VI: The Beekeeper at the Crossroads of Time -- Recap

The sixth session of the summer was our last mystery on the Bowdoin campus. The detectives visited the Pierian Mountains of Greece, to investigate the deaths of the mythical bees there. The mountains are home to one of the springs of the nine muses.

Our team drew on their extensive knowledge of Greek mythology to solve this mystery. We started the week with a "download" of the Greek gods, goddesses, and heroes that the detectives knew--and the list included about 70 names, plus the names of the five rivers in Styx. That was just a start, since many others came up over the course of the week, along with their stories.

This is a particularly tricky adventure to summarize, while maintaining the secrecy needed for the next time I run this mystery. Let's just say these few things:

1)  Our team of detectives was on top of every possible direction the case could go, devising one intricate theory after another for who could be behind the troubles we faced.

2)  There were bees. Lots of bees. The bees we made are adorable, and their flowers are gorgeous. You may view those on the Dragon's Eye Facebook page by clicking this link.

3)  Zeus was ... Zeus. He didn't know much about things as tiny and insignificant as bees, but he sure liked that Pierian honey. We treated him to some aroma therapy.

4)  Why visit one Oracle at Delphi when you can visit four, in four different time periods? So, maybe it wasn't our idea to do that, but it worked out well for us. Four pythias and one omphalos stone helped us understand the crossroads of time more efficiently. Thanks, little bee!

Photos of the adventure are on the Dragon's Eye Facebook page -- here's the link!

Special thanks go to Oliver Van Soest, my assistant for the summer.

Summer 2019, Session V: Goat and Ger Recap

The fifth mystery of the summer involved a trip to Mongolia to investigate the disappearance of a very special goat pulling the Shrine of the First Queen on a cart. Sangarel the Moon Rabbit led the way to the Altai Mountains of western Mongolia, via moon bridge.

The detectives disguised themselves as two shepherds and a herd of goats, to travel into the mountains. Trouble arrived quickly in the form of trolls called Mangathai. The Mangathai were gathering in large numbers for a meeting with their Khan, to celebrate the discovery of a very special treasure.

A gathering that large and that special required the best chefs in the realm, so chefs came from afar to compete for the honor of creating the best stew for the Khan. Goat and human were on the menu, naturally -- surely you saw that coming? It isn't a Dragon's Eye adventure until someone threatens to eat our detectives!

Our wily team outwitted the chefs, leaving them sleeping in the kitchen, while they went in search of the treasure. They found their stolen artifacts. and the Spirit Cat one detective brought revealed more secrets, leading to the Goat, Burke, and the ger.

The poor goat had the bejeebers scared out of him, leading to many jokes about the lost bejeebers. I suspect this will not be the last time that bejeebers are lost, as we started to imagine just what kind of creatures bejeebers might be. I sense an art project coming in the future.

One of the highlights of the week was a showdown between a detective disguised as a troll chef, and a mangathai chef. The competition went well -- our chef was slinging out the disgusting ingredients and frustrating the mangathai chef quite nicely. Until he summoned the Lady of Pestilence to request a poisoned penny. The Lady came and the results were ... disastrous.

Fortunately, the detectives had a back plan called Des Arnaldo. He used his sonic toe crack to stun the trolls, throwing them again the walls. He summoned mutant woodland creatures to nibble on their toes, and took over their limbs and forcing them into a huge food fight. Our team grabbed the treasure and headed out of the trolls' caverns.

They had the goat, the ger (magically transformed into a golem, so the trolls wouldn't know they had the cart and ger), and First Mother ... but the adventure was far from over.

In a grove of trees outside the cavern, the team discovered a black owl with green eyes that had been watching the entrance to the cave. The owl turned out to be one of the nine sons of Erlik Khan, king of the demons. His father had sent him to capture the First Queen, so he was very interested in the goat and ger and the little box the detectives carried.

Our team outwitted this adversary and escaped by using their dragon wings. They turned into full grown adult dragons, thanks to the first detective to ever reach twenty mysteries. They flew deeper into the mountains, until they were safe.

The adventure continued with more blessings and challenges -- a ring summoned the Wind Horse, a Moon Rabbit returned with pocket Tengri for each detective, a Marmot attacked a second time--attempting to shoot the moon with his arrows--and all nine sons of Erlik Khan tried to capture the First Queen with her goat and ger.

I'm happy to report that the detectives defeated every challenge--and yarnball--thrown their way.

Thank you once again to Oliver Van Soest, my assistant, who played many roles this week--Marmot, Mangathai Khan, Son of Spies, Son of Darkness, Son of Evil, Son of Defeat, and Troll Chef.

We had a wonderful week! Photos of the pouches and Tengri we made are on the Facebook page, along with images from the adventure.