Teacup Trolls - Recap April 2024

April vacation brought a week of crazy fun to the Durham Community school. Seven detectives took on the Rat Queen's request to investigate a group of trolls threatening to invade her sanctuary in the sewers of London. Stories of the trolls' immense size and fearsome tusks turned out to be exaggerations. A clever ruse to distract the giant, shadowy trolls allowed an unexpected duo to sneak past the clamoring monsters to reveal what may be the cutest of "enemies" the detectives have ever seen.

Trolls as tiny as teacups, desperately using shadowpuppets to make themselves look big and fierce.

A parlay soon commenced, and the team discovered the trolls were in need of their help. The old ettin, oldest of the old, was in need of a special tea to keep her from falling into an enchanted sleep. Losing the Oldest of the Old would slowly unravel all of the ancient troll magics keeping the land and all of nature safe, so saving Crona became the new quest of the week.

The detectives set out to find the ingredients for this special brew of tea, led by the visions of Mica the Teacup Troll. 

Cloudy with a spot of tea -- an apt description of the rest of the case!

We had a week of hilarious encounters with infamous tea drinkers, plagued by little clouds that seemed to follow the team wherever they went. Flaming arrows surrounded our detectives so many times, they jumped into the round pit on the playground any time we went outside.

The Troll Hunters weren't the only ones using clouds and flaming arrows, though. Susanno-o, the kami of storms, challenged the detectives as they tried to meet his sister, Amaterasu the sun goddess. Dian Mu, the Mother of Lightning challenged them at the garden of Baihu the White Tiger from China. Zephirino the Gentle Wind of the West brought them an unexpected boon from his Grecian home.

Our team bravely tried a variety of (decaffeinated) teas -- a lovely lemon-infused green tea with Bodhidarma Daruma in Japan, a spiced ginger green tea with Baihu, a warm cuppa Chai with the Rat Queen and her Bees. 

At each tea, the team gathered the ingredients they needed to heal Crona: First light of Amaterasu, First Sip of Bodhidarma Daruma's morning tea, Three Twigs of Healing Tea from the White Tiger, Fire Honey from the Rat Queen's Secret Garden, and a Whisp of Wind from Zepherino to cool the tea to the perfect temperature.

They also gathered a twig spoon, a teacup, and eventually a Teacup Troll of their own.

All of this came together at the peak of the highest mountain in Norway. Of course, one last cloud came to bother them first, followed by three smaller and smaller clouds. Our brotherly Troll Hunters brought their mom -- and she wasn't happy that the detectives had defeated her sons. The team had to meet her challenge as well, before they could convince her to reconsider her troll-hunting traditions.

It turns out that cute trumps everything when it comes to hunting trolls. Our team showed Gria that trolls are sentient beings with warm hearts and sweet dispositions. Mica and Flint invited her to tea, and the melting of hearts commenced for three brothers and their mom.

Crona was saved with a timely spot of tea -- and biscuits were enjoyed by all! Along with fireworks. The dragons love fireworks. They came from all corners of Durham, ME, to celebrate our final victory.

Out of game (OOG), each detective crafted the Teacup Troll to match the teacups they brought from home. Pictures of these trolls may be found on the Dragon's Eye Facebook page here.

In game (IG), the tiny trolls were so grateful for the detectives' help saving Crona that they followed them home, teacup and all. They may return for future adventures, providing a spot of troll magic, tea and travel by whirlpool. That spoon they collected creates the perfect whorl for travel.

 

Teacup Trolls Preparations

Preparations for next week's mystery continue, with more trolls. This gentleman has a tree growing out of his head -- a sign that he has recently woken up from a long nap.

I am enjoying the needlefelting. It works well with the felt sewing we already do at Dragon's Eye. I am not sure how kid-friendly the art is, due to the extra-sharp, barbed needles that break. 

My team and I will work on slow, careful work -- hopefully producing both patience jewels and successful trolls! I will have backup patterns, though.

Some of the other characters for the story are also under development this week. The Rat Queen from the sewers of London (from the case called "The Market at Wits' End") will be joining us. She heard there was tea in this adventure and just insisted on joining us.

Two of the Queen's Guards will be joining her entourage. I have a bearskin hat that was given to me by a dear friend, many years ago, so it was useful in gaining the slightly shaggy yet orderly look of the hats. The first layer of the hats were felted, and then the fur was applied, taking my new-found skills to the next level. This is promising for future Dragon's Eye fur-babies.