I had a lot of fun at this event. Certainly a different feel, almost Caducus-like with a safe town. Wonderful change of pace event, and I think a pretty good format for a festival.
Thank you to all the people who made this event such a success. Non-larpers coming in to help out in the kitchen/ feast was both a huge surprise, and really made the feast memorable.
Stream of consciousness as I remember the event. Mixing the good with the bad.
Check-in logistics not super smooth, but fine enough. So many people at this event.
Soft lay-on, nice RP with Panic and the Quarter Master. I liked that the chit store was pretty visible and able to be window shopped throughout the event.
Meeting new people, I liked the mini story-line of Emric being interested in Bindomanacy and working it to get started on the path by the end of the event.
Great to see such fantastic reps being 'sold' for completely IG currency. Nice latex weapons and quality costuming. I also thought it was cool that it was available for non-gold. So absolutely everyone was on the same page from the start of the event. A high level player couldn't just walk up and drop 300 gold to buy out the store.
I liked the riddles from the various Nobles. It kinda gave a reason to talk to everyone. Not that you shouldn't in a larp anyway, but there was a feeling of anticipation to start getting the chits because it was first-come-first-served on the store. So if you wanted a particular thing, you had to start working for it.
I was pleasantly surprised with how affordable everything was. If you really wanted a thing, you could have easily farmed up the chits.
The riddle from Sir Mathis was a highlight of the event for me. It was difficult, without being salt-inducing. I felt like it was something written for the event by Matt personally which was cool. The combo of cypher into riddle, that even had the answer in the de-coded cypher. 10/10. Took me forever to solve it, but very rewarding to do so.
"C'mon C'mon" Not my jam, but I liked that they were there. I really liked that it was easy to be left alone once you were clear about not engaging with them.
Friday Night I missed my ritual circle, but by the end of the event I was super-glad I didn't have it. Every inch of that tavern was used for the feast, and it was spectacular.
Casting some Visions. I'm continually amazed at how seamlessly plot marshal's them while pulling double duty. thank you for letting me play a ritualist, without feeling like I'm bogarting one plot member. Rituals are generally not the best Plot -> PC entertainment ratio so I'm glad you guys are able to do both.
Making some items on Friday night and having completed laminated tags within 30 minutes after finishing them. That process was so fast, I am amazed. thank you so much.
I feel bad we didn't do Iggy's thing, but I was enthralled by Mathis' riddle
Drinking contest. I was not expecting that format. It was awesome. I can't believe I had to sacrifice my body that hard, to merely get third place. But it's tough to compete against giants.

GG guys. For those reading this, the drinking contest was root beer in a period metal pitcher. No IG skills needed, just speed drinking carbonated beverages. Not sure how much was actually in there. Plot? I feel like it was close to 2 liters, but perhaps I'm exaggerating because of how sick I felt instantly afterwards.
Pie eating contest: I liked the format as well. I was wondering how you were going to not ruin everyone's makeup by do it, and I think you picked a good way to rep it.
At this point, people have received many chits, and a mystery bag was purchased. then all the mystery bags were purchased. A tactical error on my part for being so vocal, but man they had some value in them.
Black eyed blade/dust guys whatever they were. I liked them coming in when they did. Just to make everyone a little uncomfortable, drop some plot for later. I specifically remember Chad having a very creepy smile the whole time as his guy, which made me un-easy. Top notch.
Off to bed, still haven't solved Mathis' riddle.
Saturday morning, back to the tavern to work on the riddle. Success! Well worth the effort
Not a fan of the egg bake for breakfast but it's decent, and I understand breakfast for the masses is tough. Could I request some salsa to mix with breakfast eggs?
Golem fight round 2, not for me, but everyone seemed to have fun. Also people are now actively hunting for chits. Which is good to see the engagement.
Celestine elf. I loved the logic puzzle. It felt light on chits from a reward perspective for the amount of work required. Overall reward you would get for various things seemed like a bit of a crap shoot. Then again, it's probably not worth the pre-event effort from plot to balance out everything. there were plenty of chits to be earned if you wanted them.
Scavenger hunt: I've felt so loved. Thanks Tadron. From a plot perspective, that was really cool. It was a big question mark for me pre-event with how this was going to work. In order to do it right you were going to have to actually hide things around the site. Which.. you did. and Much better than I thought of. using multiple teams so it was real race, and burying actual things was really cool. Not like find the 4 red handkerchiefs, but cool maps and a fun race. Puzzles + combat. Good stuff.
I don't think I'm the only one that doesn't/didn't fully understand waymaker stones. re: Radi or no Radi. If your name is not Banradi, one person activates it at a time so you arrive in a staggered manner.
The Scavenger hunt mineral fight thing. Not going to lie the all the reflects were starting to get to me OOG, but then I noticed Tadron checking if they were dumb defenses which they ended up being and I was instantly desalinated. Shame on me for not testing all possibilities before getting salty. Plus our team got first place, which helps.
Holy mother of chits as a reward. Time to buy all the things. I liked that I walked into what appeared to be a rush on the bank "It's a Wonderful Life Style." The town had bought into the event and was working that store. Kudos for having PC nobles able to handle those transactions. Who knew they were sometimes useful
Saturday afternoon lull. I didn't go on the poison mushroom sadness fest.
Not sure which order these others things happened.
Golem battles were fun. I wish we could have gotten some more people involved. I guess PCs were doing other things. PC's wearing prop armor smacking each other around = Good times.
I liked the Life Knight. Awesome armor, and a clear 'presence' short interaction but memorable.
Thaum. Oh Thaum. In general this event highlighted Travis' character RP to me. The rep was obviously fantastic. But the tenor of Travis voice, and his word choice to stay n character and express displeasure was really awesome. Plus a great way to get information out.
At the time I didn't think the tavern needed to be closed off. I was wrong. Totally worth.
Hunting the Air Mephit. Was a pretty cool mod. I got to feel important and DFM the ward. Also, lessons learned from the Scavenger hunt battle, exhaust all options before adding salt. It felt real good to find Inger hiding under a bed.
The Feast:
This get's it's own segment because holy crap wow.
Atmosphere was amazing. All the decorations and servers. Walking appetizers, wine guys, real glasses and silverware. very cool. Those lights in the mason jars on the tables were also very neat added a perfect amount of extra light.
I really enjoyed the tomato+cheese stick thing, and the bruschetta.
The dinner itself was formal enough to make me uncomfortable. So... cheers. It felt very regal. Assigned seating, King being served first etc. While it wasn't my most enjoyable dinner from an OOG perspective, it was certainly one of the best IG dinners from a "This is big Deal dinner" perspective. I loved the story of the feast. The food was amazing. Just the formality of it made me uncomfortable, which was on theme and cool.
Post feast Visioning: Again, I love the double duty marshaling.
Fighting Iz's town:
Not the best town mod. 30+ pcs with varying levels on 4-5 npcs. It's a larping tale as old as time, and doesn't make for a great experience. You either play appropriate cards and just get axed out of existence instantly, or you make the individual cards pretty butch, and takeouts/burst damage become pretty uneconomical to use. You guys went with the second option, but either way it was going to be tough to please everyone.
From an IG story perspective I LOVED that we could spring that on you guys. I'm not sure if that's what you were expecting us to do Saturday night as a big town thing, it felt like it was something we decided. Kudos for rolling with it if it was a surprise, double kudos if it was not a surprise and you know your players that well. IG I really enjoyed that we were able to get a bit chastised by Thaum, then use a resource we just bought from the chit store, to solve a problem that was kinda back burner simmering for months if not years.
So a great IG story win, but a rough OOG mod to try to entertain everyone. It's a great problem to have a growing chapter.
Thanks for a unique and memorable event.
-Joe