The modern definition of festival has four parts: 1. a day or time of religious or other celebration, marked by feasting, ceremonies, or other observances: the festival of Christmas; a Roman festival. 2. a periodic commemoration, anniversary, or celebration: an annual strawberry festival. 3. a period or program of festive activities, cultural events, or entertainment: a music festival. 4. gaiety; revelry; merrymaking. In the later eras of the European Rennaissance (early modern) there was an additional meaning; 5. The marking of important events in the life of a princely dynasty, such as marriage, the birth or christening of an heir, a coronation or a funeral, or the traveling to a new country/ state/ city.

Nestled between a plateu and a river that soon leads to the sea, is the Elventi city of Anshenestardaywadaden or more literally Place Between Sunset and Falls. This city has no purpose other than being beautiful. Anshenestardaywadaden is a riot of color, between Elventi magics and the near tropical climate, there are hundreds of beautiful flowers here. It is best known as a place of waiting for another perfect sunset.

"It is amazing to me how this one little stretch of water has changed the course of history," History of The New Country by Collen D'Madden Blue Diamond Press

Everytime you look at something in The City, there is something going on behind it. It is a moment caught in the tangles of time of some other persons life. It is those little moments that make The City seem so alive.

Something occured and those in the grand city went mad. Was it a curse, a prophecy, a spell gone wrong, or a magik item opened? Nobody allegedly knows. The city guard on the city walls, saw the madness and were apparently not touched. They tried to keep the crazy ones inside, by blocking the gates and sealing the entrances to the large city wall. The region's leader, eventually sent the Army there to reinforce the city guards, to hold the mad ones in. Since the mad men are incredibly strong and immune to pain, if they escape it would be a plague upon the land. There is still hope that someday they could be restored (perhaps a royal heir or a royal household was in the city). Perhaps they are nearly immortal. The city guards who occasionally decend into the city to drop supplies and stop fires believe that to be true.

Now it is a small town, with its own walls, that rings the old grand city. Over the years, the army and guards, have created a town that supports them. They think themselves immune to the madness, yet their proximity to them, means they are only slightly odd... perhaps becoming mad. The crazed watch over the mad. A running joke is that someday, someone will man their walls to hold them in.

When looking for an Orc substitute in a campaign, one should think about just a violent ethnic group of people. Huns, Goths, Visigoths, Franks, and Mongols, have all the same campaign effect of Orcs and other “monster races” that fight in large groups/ hordes. And it has the added bonus of people not being able take the moral high ground when they kill an intelligent being… because it is a people… not just a worthless Orc.

Despite the name, no metal working is currently done here. It is a restaurant of some repute.

The Wastes can be beautiful. Here the land is toxic: slowly corrosive to the touch, causing illness and death with prolonged contact. The bubbling sulfur and ectomass pools (HellPits too) are especially lovely, if you have the right aesthetic. The soil is soft and any heavy object slowly sinks. If it was not for the special resources here (dyes, alchemical elements, resins, Grimrock, Verner glands, etc), it would be a place that no one would come.

Literally, Campaigns are like plants. They can only grow if the conditions are right. The GM must plant them in the correct place and right environmental conditions (i.e. the players must like the ideas behind the games and be willing to play in them). Just like the gardener must prepare the soil and growing environment, the GM must create the basics of the campaign before play.

Falconry or Hawking is the sport of hunting with a trained bird of prey, usually a hawk or falcon. It has been practiced by a number of cultures through out the centuries.

From the outlook of my new and inexpensive flat, I could see her. She was kneeling in the graveyard across the cobblestoned way in front of a fresh grave. She was in dark mourning gear, complete with those large black hats that were the fashion. A lost lamb I supposed, recently wed, recently widowed, crying for the loss of a loved one. She had been there two days that I noticed, as well as their nights. She never seemed to move, so locked she was in her grief. As I drank a lonely nightcap, I caught the glimpse that changed me. In the pale moon light, I saw the grave buckle. In a foul corruption of Athenean birth, some spawn sprang forth. Not taking my eyes off the horrid scene, I reached over to the weapon I had been cleaning. Before I could grasp it fully, the petite young widow of my imagination cleared a saber concealed under her over cape and removed its loathsome head. After checking her kill, she looked up at me; backlit I assumed by the lamp in the room. She was not just a simple widow, she was Mourner. I held up my glass in a true salute from one professional to another. At that point I knew two new things: That the Unnatural truly had become more active as I had been hearing in the back alleys and I needed to move far from that graveyard.

In the words of the Great Bard Taslinus Excellencus . . . yet on entering The Embassy one is conscious of calm and complete beauty echoing the mood of majesty and peace that is the essential quality of The Valley and Greater Elven Kingdom. . . . against a background of forest and precipice the architect has nestled the great structure of granite, scaling his design with sky and space and stone. To the interior all ornamentation has been confined, and therein lies a miracle of color and design. The Ancient Elven motifs, primitive yet timeless, are supreme . . . . The designs are stylized with tasteful sophistication; decidedly Ancient Elven, yet decidedly more than Elf, they epitomize the involved and intricate symbolism of Man . . .

To wield such a weapon is to ensure long life and enough luck to have it.

This is a great article posted on another site (who reposted it from another site, who took it from another), but I thought many would enjoy it here. It is The Lazy Man's Guide for Constructing a Call of the Cthulhu Adventure, written by Sandy Petersen, original author of the Call of Cthulhu.

While magic if full of odd associations, some are quite "pun-ish". By accident or on purpose, slips of the tongue are there.

In Antioch, since the invention of the impressor (the printing press), books have been the 'in thing'. Here are some of the most common ones.

The Celestrial Dance, The Weave of the Spirit, The Dance of Time, The Song of Reality, and The Flow of the Seasons, are aspects of the Eternal Pattern. The Gods are the walkers, dancer, weaver, paths, and guidepoints of the reoccuring pattern. They are the manifest primal forces that make up the pattern of the universe - The Eternal Pattern

They stood on the crest of the rise, three men deep. Their banners, Golden Lions Rampant on a split field of red and blue, fluttering on long poles in the wind. They were silent. By some signal, they all began to rush forward screaming their battle roar. Halberd and blade coming open on the move. The enemy line broke under the power of the Lion's signature charge.
Major Advarete, Memoirs of the Twin Rose Wars 1320 Greenfield Presses

I know. I know. It sounds crazy. But look at it! Look at what it is doing. The lightning strikes! Three times right on top of us. The hail. It just struck our car. The Wind hitting the house so hard. It is after us. It wants something. And, if we can figure out what it wants, I say we give it to ... it.

ACL INC -Arthur & Clark Labs (NasdaqNM ACLU) is an electronics and computer technology developer that specializes in cutting edge hardware and specialty appliations. There are fifteen ACL sites around the country. The local one is in the architectually notable Water Column Building.