Hey, I Just Met You, And This Is Crazy, But EXPELLIARMUS! Treasure Hunt, Maybe?

Yesterday, Saturday July 28th, the Dark Lord tried to rise. Fortunately, a plucky band of clever wizards set out to stop him by following a trail of clues to collect the four legendary amulets of prophecy — or did they?

You see, some of those wizards were secretly on the side of the Dark Lord, hoping to steal the one most valuable amulet to help their evil master succeed and reap their own personal reward. Only the organizer of the treasure hunt knew who had signed up with which allegiance — and even she (well, I) didn’t know what was really going on in people’s heads.

Every wizard, good or evil, could fight duels of a rock-paper-scissors nature, with the winners able to demand from the losers either an amulet or key, or the true answer to one question.

And this terrifying ultimate showdown between the powers of shadow and those of the light took place — as perhaps we should all be glad they seldom do — on the beach. Aw yeah!

Well, the players did J. K. Rowling proud. Despite the sneaky efforts of the evil players, a Chosen One reluctantly took on the mantle of her destiny…

We had a Dark Lady and a sneaking villain (one of whom does not listen when told to make an “evil face”…)

… a mysterious ice wizard whose allegiance remained enigmatic until the end…

… and of course the Chosen One’s team of friends and allies who solved ciphers…

… dug up magical artifacts on ancient shores…

… identified scents and plant parts….

… managed information between allies and kept tabs on suspected evildoers…

and ate hot dogs. (FOOD OF THE CHOSEN ONE!)

Everyone also posed a lot with wands (thank you, Dark Lady Natalie for making all those wands! THEY. LOOKED.SO. AWESOME.)

There were also some awesome team handmade team costumes from Lady Beestinger, KC, and Zinnastina Pegason:

When all was said and done, Good had a power Evil knew not (and, I later found out, Evil did not fancy spending the last hour of the game hiding in the woods somewhere by himself/herself and so made a decision that might have changed the outcome of the game). The Chosen One ended the game in possession of all four amulets,

and we learned the mystical wizard saying is totally true: Ice cream vincit omnes.

Bonus: top three moments of my day:
1. (a text out of nowhere late in the game from the evil player who’d formed a team with K, a good player) “Tell K I’m sorry :)”
[later we found out that the evil player ran away with the clues while K was in the bathroom]
2. “But JB said Bonnie was evil!”
“No, we only thought that because she was dressed like the Devil.”
3. watching TotallyNotEvil, Madame Alyisstra, Natalie, and others chase each other around the soccer net at the far end of the field for the final ten minutes of the game

Thanks to all who participated in the hunt and in its conception and execution: Debra, Kevin, Natalie, Astaroth, Lady Beestinger, delineate, Kathryn, Nicholas, TotallyNotEvil, Madame Alyisstra, Zinnastina Pegason, and Rob and Grace. Stay tuned next year for Murder Mystery Weekend!