History of Sidleterra
The Story: History of Sidleterra
The story below was written by Adventurer Marin Gardner, age 14, based on her experiences at the Wizards & Warriors Residential Summer Camp in 2008. Visit our Photo Gallery to get an idea of the experiences written about here.
Journey to Sidleterra – Week 1
By: Marin Gardner
We all started out as somewhat innocent campers making character sheets for our second persona for the week. But we had no idea that we would be learning real sword fighting techniques, the code of a Hero, and parts of the Latin language all in one week. We were excited for the terrifying monsters and creatures that awaited us. But we didn’t anticipate the amount of leadership skills and teamwork needed to defeat them. I think everyone was surprised at how much fun the Wizards & Warriors summer residential camp really was, and amazed at how much they learned from it while having such a good time.
It started on Sunday, when we had all finished listing our character’s attributes, abilities, and history, and we were ready to merge completely into our character and start the wonderful, magical adventure. So, we gathered together outside the tavern, and stepped through the Gate of Destiny, which turned us into our characters for the week. Then, we went back into the tavern to start learning about the dangerous and mysterious land of Sidleterra.
We all listened intently as Lore told us about the legend of the Zombie King, and how the brave Heroes who came 25 years ago had to seal the evil being into the ominous mausoleum up on the hill. He also mentioned the strange disappearances that had been going on more recently, but denied that they had any relevance whatsoever to the Zombie King, as the undead king was just a legend now, nothing more. He then changed his mind when a zombie came crashing through the tavern doors, swinging its foam double short-swords, but was swiftly taken down by the Swordmaster and his assistant. We spent the rest of the day learning about the different guilds (fighter, mage, and healer), and learning knew abilities and spells.
Then came Monday, and Abigail, a farmer, complained that her father’s bones had been stolen, so we told her that we’d find them for her. After that, we journeyed into the dark, dangerous caverns to look for the missing bones, and found many angry Snake Manitou. But we ended up defeating them, finding the bones, and a couple gold pieces. After we came back out of the caverns, we looked up at the mausoleum, and found that the seal to keep the Zombie King inside was gone! We suspected that Abigail knew something she wasn’t telling us, so we bribed her with two gold to tell us about the missing seal. We managed to get her to tell us about a fey who took the gold piece and wouldn’t give it back unless Abigail could answer her riddle:
The beginning of eternity. The end of all time. The start of every end. The end of every place
We figured out that the answer to the riddle was the letter “e”, so we headed out to find the fey. We went into the forest, and started to build fey houses to make the fey come to us. We finished making the tiny houses, then, suddenly, we were attacked by a horde of zombies! It took a while, and at first we were losing, but we defeated them in the end.
On Tuesday, we meet none other than the fey that we were trying to find the day before. She was standing behind the tavern, along with two buckets of water, one bigger than the other. When we asked her about it, all she told us was that the smaller bucket was “three”, and the bigger one was “five”. We were supposed to come up with “four”. If we did that, then she would lead us to the shard of the seal. First, we started by emptying five, then pouring the water that was in three into five. Then, we figured if we refill three, then pour three into five until five is full, we would have one in bucket three. Next, we emptied bucket five, and poured the one into it. Finally, after we filled three again and poured three into bucket five, which already had one, we had four. The fey rewarded our success with pointing us towards the mausoleum to look for the shard, but warned us of a zombie werewolf.
We headed on over to the mausoleum, and opened the huge, menacing door. A giant cloud of mist came billowing out as we bravely stepped through the doorway. It seemed like there was danger lurking around every corner, but we made it through and found the shard, along with a bone, and a skull. Then, after an incident with robbers, a woman came staggering into the tavern, and she was visibly sick. Our healers gave her extra strength, but she felt weak when she was out in the sun. We tried to find out what sickness she had, but we couldn’t come up with anything.
Wednesday was a very exciting and busy day. It started out with a surprise guest at the mage’s guild. Death herself came inside with a Death Knight, and told us about the amethyst crystal. She said that, if made properly, it can be used in a spell that sends a being straight to Death, no matter how many stamina they have left. She also told us that she had the last shard of the seal, and she was willing to give it to us if we went into the maze to find a black box that she had lost, and give her the crown of the Zombie King.
We were all discussing what to do, and what to tell the other guilds when a fighter burst in, breathless, and told us that Death came to them and told them exactly what she told us, minus the amethyst. So, we talked to the guild leaders about it, and they said that time travels faster in the maze than it does everywhere else, and that we can decide to go at the daylight hours, the evening hours, or the midnight hours. I chose the midnight shift – which was the scariest. We found a couple skill points and pieces of gold, and the black box. We then had all of the shards of the seal, and we were ready to put them back together. So, we called on a fire spirit to meld them together and keep it safe for us. We all watched as she went through a fire ritual and melted the seal so that it disappeared into the fire.
Thursday had to by my favorite day out of all of the first week of camp. The first thing we found out is that the seal had been returned and made with a new date on it. Then, after breakfast, Swordmaster Alex sent out Egan and House Two to go on a scouting mission, but only gave Egan a buckler. We waited for him, but he never came back, so we started on military training and got ready for the great battle in which our goal was to seal the Zombie King back up. So, after we were ready for the battle, all of the zombies start pouring out - with Egan, who had been turned into a Zombie, leading them! We ended up winning the battle, and sealing the Zombie King back up in the mausoleum, but not before we snatched his crown and gave it to Death. We then had a huge feast and watched a fire show to celebrate the victory.
Friday was a very sad day indeed. After we had spent so much time together, fighting monsters together, and working together on riddles, we had to regretfully say goodbye to all of the interesting and wonderful people we met during camp that week. We packed all of our bags, said our farewells, and checked out and went home. I don’t think any of us Heroes will ever forget that very first week of the Guard Up Wizards & Warriors residential camp. We learned so many new things, and we had so much fun. I have no doubt that everyone wants to come back the second week after they had so much fun at the first one.
Week 2
After a weeklong break, some of us came back to the second week of the camp, plus some brand new people. Yes, even after we defeated and sealed up the Zombie King, there was still trouble in Sidleterra that us Heroes had to come and fix. But, this time, instead of the Zombie King, it was the Zombie King’s creator…
It started on Sunday, when we stepped through the Gate of Destiny again, and reclaimed our status and abilities as our camp characters. Lore went over all of the safety rules and regulations, but his words were cut off as a monster crashed into the tavern. Father Jeremiah, who was visiting for a little while, yelled that it looked like one of his missing pumpkins. It did look like a pumpkin, with its orange, lumpy head, and eyes that looked like they were cut out of it. After a while, we fought off the monster, then realized that the creature might have been a pumpkin at one time. It could have been turned into a monster, or “pumpkin construct” by the Zombie King’s scepter. But, the only problem was that the scepter was stolen by the Arch Mage Mobius at the end of the first week. Alas, this was only a hunch and we needed more information.
The first thing that we did was listen to the Guild Masters explain the different Guilds and rules for the them. After we were all in our choice of Guilds, we gathered outside, because there were strange creatures outside the tavern with one eye and had long, flowing black cloaks. We thought they looked like they were looking for something, but we couldn’t figure out what. We also realized that the Snake Manitou didn’t like these creatures at all. They kept saying things like “Evil”, and “Enemy”. We decided to keep an eye on these things.
The next thing we did was go exploring in the woods. Little did we know that we would be attacked by a terrifying, blood-thirsty vampire! Along with the vampire were two pumpkin constructs, a mage, and something that looked kind of like a Manticore. We fought our hardest, but, in the end, even Death had to tell us to flee. But we did notice that the one-eyed people were present during the fight, and the “Cyclops” had actually approached some of heroes who were waiting for the healers. Some of those heroes could have sworn that the creatures were looking for some sort of diamond.
When we returned from the battle, and all of our dying companions had been revived, Lore told us about the Arch Mage Mobius, and how the heroes from 25 years ago had encountered Mobius, and fought him off with the help of at least five of the magical Diamonds of Purity. Unfortunately, they had to hide the diamonds after they used them so that no one but the next generation of heroes would be able to find them.
He told us about the houses, and how the heroes from long ago had separated themselves into them. There were The First Swords, The Silver Citadel, The Defenders, The Servants of the Woodland Realm, and The House of Stephan the Black. He explained how each house was unique in its own way, how they originated, then let us choose our own house. After that, he told us some more information: each house has their own standard, which represents them and their courage, compassion, and honor. The only bad news was that the standards were hidden in the mausoleum, and we would have to fight the dreaded, huge, and very poisonous Mourning Spider to retrieve them.
There would be three groups that would go in and try to retrieve the standards. The first group would have traps and no monsters, the second group would have more traps, and maybe some monsters, and the third group would have both monsters and traps…. And not to mention the Mourning Spider herself. It was planned that each group would find at least one standard, then get out. All three of the adventures were successful, except for one thing- Egan was cursed with Ancient Poison.
As it turns out, Ancient Poison was a type of poison that would send the victim to their Final Death if they died before sunset. The only thing that could save him was the Silver Dollar Flower, a very rare plant. So, the mages went to look for the flower, and were successful. They came across the rare flora, then ran back to the Tavern to give Egan the cure. The standards had been found, and each of them had a clue about where a Diamond of Purity was!
After Egan was cured, and everything settled down a bit more, a Death Knight came to the Tavern with news about the vampire- Death wanted us to destroy it, and the Death Knight knew how. He gave us two keys that were linked together, somehow… almost as if by magic. He said that, in order to kill the vampire, Kreigor, we had to find a way to separate the keys. Then, at three in the afternoon, find Kreigor, who would be at the castle in the woods. We then had to hold one key on both sides of him, exactly opposite, and chant, “Adverto Kreigor, Adverto Kreigor,” over and over. This would hold him in a sort of suspended animation, and we would have to bring him to Death.
The next morning, the fey came again… with her heart as a puzzle. It was two hearts chained together, and we were supposed to unconnect them without breaking the chain, so she would be able to handle metal weapons. Unfortunately, we never could break her heart, and she ended up having to burn her hands in order to pick up metal to defend herself with against the evil monsters that have been roaming around.
The next day, we all chose our houses. After everyone was settled, the houses took turns going on treasure hunts and different adventures, like rescuing a unicorn. Actually, the house that rescued the unicorn received the first Diamond of Purity!
It was then time to bring Kreigor to Death. He was accompanied by the manticore again, along with some vampire spawn. But, by using the new technique the Death Knight taught us, we were able to defeat the vampire and even receive some Amethyst crystal that had spilled from the vampire’s jacket. The mages from the first week remembered Death’s suggestion about the Amethyst Crystal and what it does, and they eagerly took some for the Master Mage.
Then, it was time to follow the clues on the standards that lead to more clues and puzzles that eventually lead to a Diamond of Purity. The Silver Citadel had to play a giant chess game, The Defenders had to fight an angry fey, and the other houses had to do their missions. We ended up with a Diamond for each house.
After all of the treasure hunting, Lore had some news: Death’s staff had been broken when she had destroyed Kreigor the vampire, and she would not be bringing anyone back from the dead until she acquired a new one. We kept this in mind during the next few battles.
We decided that the Sake Manitou would make good allies, so we decided to make a treaty. The Snake Manitou accepted the treaty, but for a heavy price. We decided it was worth it to actually have allies in the woods. Right as the heroes were coming back from allying with the Snake Manitou, two pumpkin constructs and two or three Cyclops attacked! We were fighting them off pretty well, but then the healers ran out of retrieves. Fortunately, when Lore touched the Philosopher’s Stone, he was granted the ability of unlimited retrieves. Unfortunately, the Stone put him under a spell that made him retrieve everybody- even the enemy. Luckily, we were able to lift the spell by touching the Stone to him again after we had defeated all of the enemies.
Then came the great battle. We fought tons of zombies, pumpkin constructs, and Cyclops. Finally, we were able to get to Mobius, who was hiding in the caverns. We had already found out that Mobius was the creator of all of the monsters that had been popping up all over town, and we chased him and used the Diamonds of Purity to drive him off. After Mobius was defeated and Sidleterra was safe, each house took a Diamond and hid it in their own place within Sidleterra with their own riddle, so that, if any future heroes might need it, only they could find it.
Then, last, but not least of the adventures of the second week of camp, the feast. The food was delicious, the celebrations were entertaining, and the announcements at the end were exciting. It was my favorite day of the whole week.
On Friday we had to, once again, part company with all of the campers we had made friends with over the week (or two weeks), knowing it may be a while before we see them again. We all got our picture taken with the guild leaders, and some of the monsters, then gathered up all of our belongings and went home, begging our parents for the entire car ride to let us come to the camp next year as well.
~ Marin Gardner