Days Of Knights Part 2

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Initially, Corradin, an alum of the University of Delaware, had difficulty finding people who shared his passion for D&D. He met fellow gamer Dan Farrow and found a new group of players. However, their resources were limited.

“I met a few people who were playing,” Corradin said. “But the problem was, they didn’t know where to buy from.”

Eventually, they discovered Punching Judy, a store that mostly sold puppets on Main Street. The retailer carried dice and a couple games, but it was not enough to satisfy the gamers.

“The demand for the stuff was outgrowing their willingness to bring in more stuff,” Corradin said.

This lack of supplies helped give birth to The Days of Knights, which first opened almost 30 years ago in the mini-mall where the Delaware Book Exchange is now. His friend Lee McCormick, who was unemployed and raising a family, called Corradin and expressed an interest in opening a business. McCormick picked the name of the store and Corradin decided to invest in the store while continuing to be a teacher.

The Days of Knights, currently located on 173 E. Main St. in Newark, is unlike the bars and clothing retailers on Main Street. After passing through its brick, fortress-like exterior, visitors enter a different world where mystical beings exist and they can take on multiple fantasy personas. The store hosts numerous game tournaments, whether for D&D or Magic: The Gathering, a role-playing card game. The merchandise is not for the faint of heart — a level of seriousness is required for the games and a sign even reads, “Shoplifters will be executed” in big, bold red letters.

The Days of Knights is truly a gamer’s paradise with its abundance of figurines, games and collectables. Custom chess sets, fragile “The Lord of the Rings” figurines and several posters of dragons give the store its imaginative appeal. A room tucked away in back of the store sells used board games that resurrect childhood memories.

The Days of Knights, however, did not always have such a superfluous amount of merchandise and strong customer base.

“There weren’t enough customers,” Corradin said. “I had some long talks with Lee and it turned out the real problem was we just didn’t have enough merchandise.”

Due to its rocky start, Corradin decided to take a leave of absence from his occupation and focus on the store.

“I didn’t want to kiss it goodbye without a fighting effort,” he said.


In addition to Selling games Days of Knights provides a location to play and enjoy their products


Corradin was able to make a deal with a distributor, Alliance, so he could get a line of credit and offer a steady supply of games. He still does business with Alliance because it contributed to The Days of Knight’s success.

Corradin said the store gets its merchandise from multiple distributors both near and far within the adventure gaming industry. He also welcomes locals who wish to sell their items.

“I have dice towers that some guy in Newark built for me and sold them to me and now I sell them here,” Corradin said. “I try to support anybody who makes anything that’s cool and fits my store.”

He said that a new aspect of the industry is an intermediary, or fulfillment house, between the producers of a product and the distributors. This eliminates distributors’ stress of having many companies with which to interact.

Corradin is content with his decision to open The Days of Knights in Newark. He said that his customer base consists of both the local and campus community, which gives him a great cultural spectrum. Corradin is also involved with the town and he said he was named "Volunteer of the Year" at one time. He said the store's success is reliant on several factors, one of them being the attention it gives to its female clientele.

"One of the founding philosophies of the store and one of the reasons I attribute to why we're still here after all these years is that a lot of other gaming stores you go in, the mom, girlfriend or significant other can't wait to get out," Corradin said.



The Days of Knights carries crafts, jewelry and other products that he said interests women. Despite the constant flow of crazes within the industry, he said the store's role-playing-related sales have never waivered. And although The Days of Knights is different from other retailers in the area, its main competitors are online companies.

"But the difference I try to tell people about is that when you buy something online, there's different problems in terms of mailing and not getting it right away," Corradin said. "But also you don't know much about it."

He said that his experienced employees can give advice about the products that online retailers can not offer.

Corradin said what lies ahead for The Days of Knights are computer-based games, since that is the direction that the industry is heading. He remains hopeful about the company and its ability to satisfy gamers' needs.

"We're continuing to move into the future," Corradin said. "So there's no reason we can't be here for 25 more years."

Hazy Shades of Winter (Courts 4 of 5)

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The Court of Winter is a society of Philosopher Warriors, Scholars and Scientist soldiers. They believe in the triumph of Reason over madness, of Order over chaos, and Temperance over passion
1. Destroy all manifest creatures of the Never Never in the true world
2. Understand the ways of your enemies. Teach others to defend themselves.
3. Do not succumb to overwhelming passion or frenzy
4. Suffer not the Life of those who would Challenge the Supremacy of the True World and call the Fey to Earth
5. Protect the dreams of mortals from the Morphean Bile (Dream Venom)
6. Increase the knowledge of the court, study the world both magical and mundane.
7. Maintain Clarity of Thought, do not allow your senses to deteriorate.

Spring Court 3 of 5

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The Court of Spring is an order mendicant, healers, scholars, counselors and social workers. They believe in Caring, Love and above all, Compassion
1. Heal all those in Need
2. Your Blade is a Scalpel not a Sword, Cut the cancer not the patient.
3. Never take a mortal Life
4. Protect the dreams of the innocent
5. Stop Those Who Would Ravage, Do not become A Ravager yourself.
6. Remove The Withering (Dream Venom) Wherever You Find It
7. Do not allow the Ephemeral to Usurp the mortal Clay

Summer Court part 2 of 5

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The Court of Summer is a Military order Devoted to slaying monsters and fighting against impossible odds. They believe in honesty loyalty and above all Valor. Their seven Tenets are as follows
1. Never Refuse an Honorable Challenge
2. Always Speak the Truth
3. Always Keep Thine Oath
4. Always Respect and Protect your Lessers in the Court
5. Always Respect and Obey your Betters in the Court
6. Do Not Show Fear Before a Foe
7. Allow an Honorable Surrender

Courts (wall of text) part 1 of 5

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The Courts.
The four changeling courts give protection and power to changelings. The true Fey understand the world in a very specific way. In the primal chaos, things are either always the same and immune to the change of their environment or once they change they are changed. A dog may turn into a lamppost and that lamppost into a lemur but it will likely never turn into a dog again, there are so many other shapes it could be. The idea of Cyclical change is as bizarre and alien to the Fey as time travel paradox is to humans, Some of they Fey may talk about it but they don't get it and definitely wouldn't know how to go about making one. The courts may not like each other and may fight over succession or the order of passage of power but all of them know deeply that whatever power they have they must regularly pass to their rivals in the other courts lest they all fall. The Wheel of the seasons may turn forward or backward or out of order but it must turn.
Each court has a virtue associated with it. Winter is Temperance, Summer exemplifies Valor, Spring drinks deeply of Compassion and Fall draws their strength from their Conviction. In order learn the Fleeting contracts of a court you must be a member of a court of have a court's favor of 4 or higher. Every rank can bestow a number of points of favor equal to their rank. To become a member of a court one must have 5 points of favor from that court. To rise in rank in a court one is either promoted by someone of Rank 4 or higher or earns their place by making pacts with the spirits of the seasons themselves. This is a difficult and dangerous process.
Ephemeral court members have no rank in the court, not even a rank of 0, they can be ephemeral members of several courts and their ephemeral contracts will continue to function for as long as they have a single point of court favor in the appropriate court. Ephemeral powers return when favor returns.
Eternal court members have access to all ephemeral contracts and access to eternal contracts equal to their level of rank. To be ennobled of a rank the character must have that court's governing virtue equal to the rank they are gaining. not all of those with virtues at such levels gain rank, and once a character gains a rank their virtues might fall due to trauma they will not lose rank for this drop in virtue although they are encouraged to maintain a virtue equal to their rank.
In Delaware in specific, the Court of Diamond has decreed that those that Host a Freehold are a rank higher while they host. Meaning whomever leads a Corroborative has their rank increased by one until the next Corroborre. This increase of rank can only take place if the changeling to be increased has an appropriate virtue at the appropriate level.
All courts must obey the right of rescue, No matter what court another belongs to, they are bound by oath to rescue a member of a court from kidnapping from anything be if Fey, mortal Police, or whatever else may kidnap a changeling >cough< Lasombra >cough<. There are seven other laws, unique to each court that all members must swear to. Their oaths are not binding with glamour but they may as they see fit take each court's code as a Code of Honour as per the Vampire Codes of Honor with the virtue protection and willpower that comes with said codes.
Each rank has its own titles for each court as follows:
summer winter spring fall
0 - citizen, apprentice, lantern, Acolyte
1 - knight, journeyman, Midwife, deacon
2 - baron, Master, Nurse, brother
3 - count, Doctor, Doctor, father
4 - Duke, Enlightened, Cadecus, Grandfather
5 - Prince, Sophont, Angel, Patriarch

As a note - if one takes these as codes of honor, their eight rules are the rule of rescue and these other seven codes. With a code of honor, the changeling gets 2 willpower per night to spend in the defense of their code. violating their code provokes a challenge vs the virtue of their court or else lose a point of clarity.

Wyld Mutations 4 of 4

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(Doctor) Blights

Blights

lvl 1
Diminish - lose one physical trait
Moon mood - lose one social traits while the moon is in the sky.
Broken horn, Long nails - as per talons tusks and horns but no effect, the bone is still brittle fingernail and is entirely unhelpful.

lvl 2
Wither - lose 2 physical traits
Moon mercurial - lose 2 social traits while the moon is in the sky
Cat tail- user gets +1 to balance but loses 3 traits on any subterfuge or etiquette. tail is not useful for anything and is in no way under the user's control.

lvl 3
Short - as per short flaw in lotn
Moon babble - lose 3 social traits while the moon is in the sky
Ugly - lose 2 social traits on any non intimidate social challenge
Hungry maw - lose 1 mental trait as an extra mouth whispers foul blasphemies to the character at random intervals from some point on their body,
Extra eyes - character loses 2 social traits from having extra eyes at various points on their body, these eyes are non functional
Infertile - exactly what it sounds like

lvl 4
Dulled Lustre - cannot raise social traits above 10
Fish Gills - cannot breathe on land, lungs atrophy, must breathe water
Envenomed - character's body at various intervals becomes toxic and rots off, acting as a permanent aggravated wound. if it is healed it will come back in 24 hours
Bizarre diet - character must eat some rare, hard to get, or disgusting material to survive. silver, jade, the flesh of the innocent.
Night blindness - character cannot see at all in darkness, is considered blind (2 traits down and a retest against them). also in actual pitch darkness they are 3 traits down instead of 2.
Allergy - character takes an extra health level of damage from some substance

lvl 5
Glass hide - character suffers a 2 step penalty and -2 on all physicals as their skin has turned to glass.
Vestigial Wings - character has hollow bones removing their bruised health level they also are down 2 physicals as they have useless wings sprouting from their back, these wings are purely vestigial and cannot even assist a character in gliding.
Pierced - the character's body is run through with thorny vines, jagged glass or bits of nails, any attempt to move faster than 2 steps per action will cause them a level of lethal damage. also any bashing damage done to them is instantly converted to lethal.
Katamari - things randomly stick to character. they stay stuck for 1 to 3 hours. if the thing is heavier than the character can lift they are stuck. when a character comes into contact with an object or surface, there is a test, win or tie they do not stick. keep in mind a character suffers trait penalties when burdened.
Decomposing - character loses 1 physical trait per day spent outside of the never never
Extra head - no particular game effect it's just another head growing out of somewhere. If one of the heads is cut off you still die.

Wyld Mutations 3 of 4

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(marky) Marks:

lvl 1 -
Skin and hair changed color - no game effect, just bring some manic panic to next larp
Fur and feathers - very obvious. lose one social trait gain 1 physical trait even if this takes one above maximum.
Tail - purely cosmetic, just a tail
Talons, Tusks, Horns - Attacks do lethal damage, these natural weapons cannot be retracted.

lvl 2 -
frog tongue - creature grows a tongue or if it has a tongue it grows to be a 2 trait reach weapon that does 1 bashing and can be used to grapple. they however take a 1 trait social penalty as their speech is slurred.
Amphibian Gills - can breathe comfortably underwater and on land, suffers a -2 physical trait penalty on all challenges to resist toxin
Third eye - character loses a social trait but gains a mental trait on perception from an extra functional eye on some point on their body.

lvl 3
Possum tail - grappling weapon that does 1 bashing, does not take up a hand. using it gives a 2 trait penalty to actions performed with Tail.
Extra mouth - provides a creature or object with the ability to speak if it does not already have it.
Rock eater - character eats something that isn't standard food, wood, small rocks, blood, fire etc. they cannot digest regular food. their requirement must be capable of fitting in the character's mouth and not be immediately fatal to humans.

lvl 4
Toxin - can make a toxin coat their claws or teeth that converts one level of their damage to ag. toxin affects the creator so must be spat out or used within 1 round of secretion or the creator takes an ag
Extra legs - character is up 4 traits against being moved against their will and has an additional step per round.
Lemur Eyes - character's eyes grow to the size of saucers, they can see in complete darkness as the eyes softly glow. they however are 1 trait down on resisting supernatural powers that require eye contact.
Gender change - character changes gender to male, female, both or neuter from whatever they are now.

lvl 5
Rhino hide - skin acts as lvl 2 hard armor, with all associated penalties
Glide - does not have a bruised health level as they have hollow bones but may also glide from high places or from a jump , gliding 1 step per action and taking no damage from falling.
Barbs - character has spines barbs or quills growing out of their skin, their unarmed damage is lethal, anyone hugging, contacting or grappling them takes a level of lethal damage.
Gecko feet - character can climb walls and ceilings if on all fours and without gloves or footwear. they must have at least 3 limbs touching the surface at all times or they will plummet. can move at 1 step per action. -2 traits to manipulate fine objects like keyboards, pencils, etc

Wyld Mutations 2 of 4

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Boons:

lvl 1
claws/fangs - your attacks do lethal damage, the claws and fangs are retractable
enhanced sense - +1 mental to perception challenges, also non obvious
working tail - +1 to athletics

lvl 2
chameleon - +2 trait on all stealth challenges
Mer-gills - can breathe comfortably on land or water as one sees fit, no visible mutation except when underwater.
Prehensile tail - gains a 2 trait, grappling weapon that does 1 bashing, does not take up a hand.

lvl 3
true omnivore - character can get nourishment out of any digestible material, it need not have nutritive value but it cannot be toxic.
enhanced cognition - gain 1 mental trait

lvl 4
Gigantic - as per huge size merit
Poison - character can at will secrete a poison that coats their hands or mouth that they themselves are immune to. the poison converts 1 level of damage to ag
wall climbing - character can cling to walls like spiderman for no discernible reason. moves at 1/2 speed rounded down
Blind sense - allows character to see in complete darkness but not fog or smoke or other obscuring conditions
quick step - has additional step per round
Aura of inspiration - character has an additional social trait.

lvl 5
Armored hide - skin acts as lvl 1 soft armor.
Wings- flies at 1 step per action
Spiked - retractable quills can exit the character's skin causing their unarmed damage to be lethal and any who grapple them or attack them bare handed to take a level of lethal damage
Wellspring - character regenerates 1 lethal health level per day
Redundant organs - character has an extra health level
Enhanced fecundity- if the creature has a gestation cycle it is reduced to 1/4 time. if it does not, it gets one with a rate of 1 child per year.

Wyld Mutations 1 of 4

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Wyld Mutation
Layer of reality/ interval/ difficulty/ levels of mutation
Earth / 0 / 0 / 0
Dreamtime / 0 / 0 / 0
Hedge or Bordermarch / 2 weeks / 2 / 1
The Ever After / 3 days / 4 / 3
The Outer Edge / hourly / 6 / 5
Primal Chaos / Per minute / 8 / 10

The difficulty listed is the difficulty of a conviction test made by the subject to not mutate. Any Person place or thing made of or containing matter from the physical world (Earth) can mutate.
A person can attempt to shape the mutation of an object or person with an Extended Craft :Wyld challenge difficulty of twice the difficulty of the conviction challenge. Boons fade away after a month unless purchased with experience for 2xlevel, marks after 2 months, blights stay forever unless bought off with experience at 3x per level.
once a mutation has occurred there is a test, win they get a boon, tie they get a mark, lose they get a blight.
almost all mutations can happen multiple times. the names are mostly guidelines, for example claws/fangs could instead be retractable shark teeth or something.
When a character would normally be subject to 7 points of boons they may instead spend their experience points to buy a level of Wyrd When a person has successfully resisted 10 levels of mutations they may buy down their Wyrd with experience points.

Bye Bye Borders

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/24/espresso-book-machine-launches

I wonder how much one of these machines would cost. if its even within 10 times as much as a kindle I'd rather buy this

Smunderlings

Retainers, Ensorceled, The Dreamwoven and other Smunderlings,
All changelings have 3 kinds of creatures working for them. mortals, other changelings, and dream creatures. One cannot have more retainers than their level of the leadership skill unless one of their retainers is a majordomo to keep an eye on the other retainers, each majordomo increases a character's retainers limit by 2. e.g if I have leadership 4 and one of my retainers is a majordomo I count him as one of my four retainers but I do not count the 2 retainers he oversees allowing me to have 5 retainers besides the 'domo.
Retainers can come in 4 varieties. Majordomo, Influence, Guardian, and Gatherer. The Majordomo requires no additional glamour unless some is invested in them through ensorcelment, but any retainers they have that require glamour must be paid by the character. The influence Retainer looks after a realm of mortal influence for the changeling allowing them to take the influence above 1. The retainer's maximum in a given influence is 5 + the number of influence retainers attached to the influence in question. Influence retainers also require no additional glamour beyond that dictated by their species. Guardian retainers are bodyguards, combatants or people who guard a changelings things. They require no additional glamour beyond that dictated by species. and gatherers are retainers that either have a bounteous supply of personal glamour beyond their will or engage in glamour gathering for the changeling in question. They GIVE their master 1 glamour per night.

All three can be Dreamwoven, that is, invested with a piece of the changeling's power, see [[dream Weaving]] and [[Dream Binding]]. A creature that is Dream Woven may or may not have the ability to see into the Dreamtime or to perceive the changeling and the Wyld as they truly are. the weaving itself provides no understanding. the Woven however do remember the changeling them self and are not affected by the mists with regards to that particular changeling. They are still affected by the mask unless some glamour is spent near them though. A dreamwoven requires 1 more glamour per night than they would otherwise cost

The ensorceled Have their own glamour pools but no way of refilling them except rest. they regain 1 glamour whenever they would normally gain a temporary willpower but are already full on willpower. As a rule they require about a glamour a week to keep them 'topped off' The ensorceled can however if taught the skill, dreamcraft and gather their own, this means they can be set to gather but this takes them away from their other duties, whatever they might be.

Creatures of the Never Never can be oathbound to follow changelings with the [[Oath of Service]]. If they are to operate in the Dreamtime or the physical world they require 1 or 2 glamour per night respectively, if they are also Dreamwoven this cost can get prohibitive quickly. In the Looking Glass, Hedge, or deeper however they require no glamour. They cannot be set to gather or feed themselves unless their creature type allows it.

More News, Really I'm as surprised as you

Here's an article.
I just thought exploding squirrels were a neat idea.

picture provided by The Beaver County Militia, protecting us from Amish Terrorists since 2001

Because I am journalist, here's news

someone is going to get it for that masquerade breach

Kiths 6 of 6

Wizened:rumplestiltskin, shoe gnomes, servant beings and crafters. Blessing: can spend glamour on mentals as vampires do on physicals. gets a merit retest to crafts and etiquette (can call etiquette as many times as they like) . Curse -3 socials on any non-etiquette social challenges. Their contract is artifice.
Artist: makes art objects. Blessing: discipline retest on expression challenges
Brewer: Makes drinks and drugs. Blessing: Cannot become poisoned or intoxicated
Chatelain: Butlers, servants. Blessing: discipline retest on empathy and politics.
Chairurgeon: doctors. Blessing: discipline retest on all medicine challenges, all patients heal as though they had the benefits of the best equipment during convalescence
Oracle: seers, astrologers, Blessing: Discipline retest on all perception based challenges
Smith: smiths Blessing: all crafts challenges are one category lower in difficulty.
Soldier: soldiers Blessing: Character is considered to have a specialty in any weapon they are wielding including improvised ones.
Woodwalker: wardens, rangers, Blessing:Discipline retest on all survival or animal ken challenges

image is from http://www.globalpov.com/archives/2006/08/post_17.php

Ogres kiths 5 of 6

Ogres: about what they sound like, trolls too so they could be short. Blessing:Can spend glamor for physicals as per vampire. gets a merit retest on intimidate challenges and challenges to resist intimidate. Curse -2 penalty to all temperance challenges and -1 to all compassion challenges. Contract is contracts of stone.
Cyclopean: mutated big guy, missing a foot or an eye or has an extra eye or something
Blessing: Discipline retest on all survival or investigate challenges
Farwalker: yeti, sasquatch etc
Blessing: Discipline retest on all stealth and subterfuge, also character cannot be photographed without spending a willpower as per vampires.
Gargantuan: giants, big guys+gals, paul freaking bunyan
Blessing: 2 extra health levels
Gristlegrinder: redcaps, rakshasa, jason
Blessing: Bite does aggravated damage
Stonebones: Stone type trolls, rock trolls
Blessing: defensive only discipline retest as per earth elemental
Water dweller: Bog critters, swamp hags, bridge trolls
Blessing: can breathe underwater and move at full speed as per other water kiths

Politics

the best explanation of Somalia ever

Kiths 4 of 6

The Fairest Of Them All


Fairest: they're pretty and artsy. lute elves, Tolkien elves. Blessing can spend glamour on socials as per blood, Merit retest on all expression and leadership. Curse:-2 to all challenges on a virtue chosen at creation. Their contract is Vainglory.
Fairest kiths
Bright Ones - made of light, sparkly pixies, lantern archons glowy people
Blessing:they glow giving a 1 trait equipment penalty on socials, they can spend a glamour to on a successful mental vs physical challenge blind a person for a round
Dancer - music box people, jugglers or courtesans
Blessing: Defense only discipline physical retest as per earth kith and skitterskulk
Draconic - exactly what they sound like
Blessing: offense only discipline physical retest as per fire kith
Flowering - flower faeries, pixies, sexy dryads
Blessing: offense only social discipline retest as per awe
Muse - exactly what they sound like
Blessing: Can grant a mortal, must be mortal and no way supernatural, a discipline retest on any extended static craft or expression challenge.

picture provided from
http://boyofbow.com/2009/04/02/katrina-pallon/ it has some nice pictures

Kiths 3 of 6

Elementals: people who are part element Blessing:can spend glamour on physicals as per vampire. adds their Wyrd rating to their health levels. Curse -3 to all non intimidate social challenges. their contract is the contract of elements.
Elemental Kiths
Air: Blessing: +3 steps at no penalty
Earth: Blessing: Discipline retest on defense as per skitterskulk
Fire: Blessing: Discipline retest on offense as per might but works on firearms and not on any defense.
Metal: Blessing: can learn contracts of artifice at ((3xdesired)-1) an additional crafts skill retest even if this takes the character above 5
Storm: Blessing: discipline retest on all leadership and intimidation tests.
Water: Blessing: can breathe underwater and swim at running rates as per swimmerskins
Wood: Blessing: Discipline retest on all survival or animal ken

Storytime

Engineering Fairytale

Slagsmålsklubben - Sponsored by destiny from Tomas Nilsson on Vimeo.

Kiths 2 of 6

Darklings: insubstantial wispy creatures of smoke shadow and darkness. Blessing A merit retest to any stealth or subterfuge challenge. can spend glamour on mentals as per vampires spending for physicals. Curse: 3 trait penalty to all actions performed in daylight. -2 penalty to all actions performed during the day. Their contract is Darkness.
Darkling Kiths:
Antiquerian: scholars and historians
Blessing: Discipline retest on all academics or investigation challenges
Gravewight: goths, necromancers
Blessing: for 1 glamour, shroudsight as per necromancy for one hour
Leechfinger: horrible swamp things like leeches
Blessing: on a successful unarmed attack, drain a point of blood from creature touched, Leechfinger turns an ag to a lethal or a lethal to a bashing or heals a bashing from himself.
Mirrorskin: creepy putty people, Dopplegangers
Blessing: Discipline retest to any disguise attempt as their body and face shift to look different.
Tunnelgrub: gooey worm people
Blessing: spend a point of glamour and become a liquid for a round, still susceptible to damage but can slip through cracks or around things.