A Letter and a Party

I recieved an interesting letter in the mail today.

It was a letter from Reias, informing me that she thought I might be interested in a party that was to be held in celebration of Hallow's End. And, as seemed to be the custom, If I attended, I was to dress up in costume.

This didn't give me too much time to put something together, but after a combination of stopping at my vault in Stormwind and a flower shop in the same city, I had a rudimentary costume — I was a florist who'd gone evil, luring customers into my shop and chopping them up. Since the party wouldn't be for another few hours, though, I took a gryphon up to Ironforge to take care of some business before I was contacted with instructions on how to reach the party.

My insane florist costume.

As it turned out, I was actually contacted almost as soon as I arrived in Ironforge. An unfamiliar voice came across my buzzbox, asking for me; I inquired who it was, and she identified herself as Weaponsmaster Kerias Tunas Sayanas of the Order of the Rose. I seemed to vaguely remember Reias mentioning something about being interested in membership in that organization, and my suspicions were confirmed when Kerias informed me that Reias had requested my attendance at a party. We discussed my costume for a short while over the buzzbox, and I managed to inform her that I was in Ironforge before I was interrupted by a face that seemed familiar.

Approaching was an elf who obviously recognized me. As she abruptly began to address me, I remembered who she was — it was Fiera, the elf I met in the Exodar, who had tried to teach me how to pretend to be dead.

She didn't seem to be in the best of moods; when I told her that I had been practicing, she only begrudgingly allowed me to demonstrate my attempt to feign death. Apparently, though, it was satisfactory — she seemed rather surprised, but managed to tell me that it "wasn't bad."

Hearing a compliment from someone I considered to be more skilled than me made me feel proud of myself, but she still seemed a bit argumentative; she suggested I fight with her to attempt to prove that I could convince her I was dead. I apparently said what she wanted to hear, though, when I pointed out that even if I feigned death perfectly, she would know that I was faking it; at least, she grinned at this. So, having decided that I was competent at feigning death, she decided to suggest improvements for something else — my attire.

Well, that was an unfortunate coincidence; I was well aware that my costume outfit was no more than simple cloth and didn't offer much in the way of protection, but I was in a capital city and not exactly expecting a fight. My attempts to explain this to her seemed futile; she seemed simultaneously convinced that I should always be fully armed, and that since I was not, I must be trying to attract a partner. That was not the case, of course, but she seemed almost hostile toward me about it; this confused me a bit because she had been good enough in the past to give me some combat tips, and I couldn't think of anything I'd done to slight her.

Just as I was trying to figure out how to react to her, I heard my name being called by a voice I'd heard not an hour prior.

"Miss Kriysia!"

The voice belonged to the individual who had been addressing me on the buzzbox; I realized that she must be Kerias. She must have recognized my voice or my costume, or perhaps Reias had given her a description of me, but here she was. Kerias was elven too, although Fiera immediately seemed standoffish toward her; Fiera said something about me dressing up for Kerias that I obviously did not grasp the full meaning of, Kerias retreated into a building, and I was left staring at Fiera, wondering what had happened, as Fiera went right back to complaining about the flimsiness of my current wardrobe.

Kerias came back out a moment later, much more armored than she was when she went in; despite this, she seemed much more determined to take my side than Fiera's, informing the other elf that I would have no need to be fully armed at the party we were going to. The two of them had a bit of a heated conversation that I mostly stayed out of, which ultimately ended with Fiera giving up and walking away, for which I must admit I was a little thankful. I just wanted to go to this party; I did not wish to get into arguments!

Me watching Fiera (on the left) and Kerias (on the right) have a bit of a discussion.

Kerias informed me that she must get changed back into her costume; when she came back out, she was wearing the attire that she'd originally addressed me in. I was not certain what she was pretending to be, and told her that I did not recognize it.

"Well, it's not supposed to be clear," she told me. "I'm supposed to be a mysterious contender who reveals her identity slowly!"

Well, if she was trying to be mysterious, she was doing a good job as far as I was concerned. She told me that I should be actually acting as my character too, not just dressing as her; after a few minutes of practice with Kerias, I'd managed to find a way to look evil and insane to her. Once I figured out how to do it, it wasn't hard — as weird as it may sound, I discovered that I simply had to regard her in the same way I regarded a slain beast that I was about to skin, thinking about the best way to approach it, and smiling while I did so. I'll admit, thinking about skinning a live being felt a little creepy to me, but it had the desired effect, and in a morbid way, it was kind of fun to act.

By that time, it was time to go. Kerias spoke with some individuals on her buzzbox, arranging for the two of us to get summoned, and not long after, I found myself on an island that I was informed was called Caer Darrow.

Because I was summoned, I honestly have no idea where we actually were in relation to the rest of Azeroth (or if we were even in Azeroth, for that matter), but the place looked rather... well, the best way to describe it is that it looked like anything living was dying and anything nonliving was decaying. The island we were on appeared to be the ruins of a keep and a small town, surrounded by a wall; an unsettling setting, to be sure, but from what I'd come to understand about the Hallow's End festivities, it seemed appropriate.

About a dozen people, including myself and Kerias, were in attendance; I was informed that most of them were, as Kerias was, affiliated with the Order of the Rose. But they still seemed to welcome my presence, and I quickly felt at home with the group as we all showed off our costumes, and voted on whose was the best. There were a number of costumes of individuals whose names I did not recognize; still, it was obvious that they were well done. My favorite was a gnome woman who was pretending to be the first gnomish druid; her costume was complete with plants, and she had a staff that continued to grab my attention all night — the top had four tendrils that were constantly moving about, as if they were alive.

We took turns showing off our costumes.

After the contest's winners were announced, we came upon what I understood to be the main event for the evening — it was called something like a "murder mystery." We were to each act as our character, and mill about at the party, getting to know each other. I went around giving everyone creepy looks, putting on the "I'm thinking about how to skin you" face, and sizing up people's pets in the same manner. I also tried to play the part of the salesman, pushing everyone who seemed interested into coming by my shop later to purchase my flowers, while trying to give the impression that I didn't expect that they'd be leaving my shop if they came in. I hope I pulled it off well — it was a bit difficult, as I was on edge trying to translate so many simultaneous conversations in my head, and I'll admit I was a bit flustered after a while. Still, even not fully understanding what was going on, I was having fun.

But then, after we'd spent a bit of time getting to know each other, the elf pretending to be the hostess of the party, and the human pretending to be an assassin got into a mock argument, which ended with the hostess betting a large sum of gold that the assassin could not spend five minutes in the basement of the tower. The assassin accepted the dare and headed into the tower... and five minutes later, she hadn't returned. We sent someone in after her, and they came back out carrying her — she was obviously pretending to be dead.

From there out, it was the goal of everyone to try to figure out who the killer had been. We'd all been given a motive for wanting her dead (although I embarrassed myself by not remembering mine exactly), and we got to discuss among ourselves and with an "inspector" each other's motives and possible means of killing the assassin.

The inspector stood in front of the "corpse" on the stairs, interviewing us all, in an attempt to solve the mystery.

We spent a few hours doing this, and at the end of the evening, the inspector revealed who the killer really was, and those who'd guessed correctly were given rewards! My guess was incorrect, but still, it was very enjoyable.

The event ended after that, and people began to filter away; not knowing where I was, I had no choice but to use my hearthstone to return.

I don't think I've ever had as much fun with a group of people I'd never met before; these people were good people, and I'd be honored to attend an event with them again, if they're willing to invite me back. I'll have to find Kerias again to thank her for escorting me up here, and Reias for the original invitation!