Old News

From Changeling Venue

April 2008
You can tell when the Spring King or Queen is being decided again because there is normally a bloody fantastic party. This year was no exception. Like always it comes down to who's got the most friends and Delun Chun got to be this years host. He put on a marvellous show with music, good food and drink; although there was a noticable absence of alcohol much to some peoples displeasure.

Word had spread far and wide of such an extravaganza as a number of newcomers to the freehold showed up to enjoy the merriment. There was singing! There was a treasure hunt! There were fantastical paintings! There was some other stuff that no-one really paid attention to after someone piped up with some interesting information. It must be something about parties in York as something always happens to spoil them. In this case it was finding out that someone had been stapled to a wall in the Hedge.

So like heroes from some sort of trashy novella a batch of the Lost set off to brave the wonders and dangers of the Hedge. Which they did. Yay. More surprisingly they returned, almost all of them in one piece after tussling with mighty minions of minotaural magnitude. Yay. They even remembered to rescue who they had gone to rescue!

By the end of the night the treasure had been found, the dying weren't leaking anymore, there was food left over, and there was much rejoicing. Also the Court Kings and Queens seemed to get thier knickers in a twist about some things but never mind.

The Queen is dead, Long live the Queen! No, wait, thats not till next month and I'm sure there is something wrong with that phrase...

March 2008
The writer was on strike...

February 2008
As Winter draws to a close the last gathering with Ebenezzar Grimwood as the Lord Seasonale was held. The gathering itself was a sedate affair at the Odeon with another sombre black and white film acting as a backdrop to the meeting of the Lost. Tales were told of the recent successful actions driving back some of the intruding 'War Boars' within the Hedge and concerns raised about thier, and other things continued presence on the pathways. The Lord Seasonale seemed to be busy for most of the evening, disappearing and returning over the course of the evening, perhaps he had a lot to do with his reign coming to an end?

The gathering ended with a firework display to celebrate the new Year of the Rat at the racecourse, arranged and hosted by the Freeholds very own Satrap of the Pearls; Delun Chun. Unfortunately some of the exploded fireworks took on a life of thier own, the cascading embers turning into images of 'the bowels of a god' as they descended to the ground. The manifestations assaulted those in attendance and the night turned from one of joy and contemplation to anger and pain.

January 2008
The start of a new year saw the hotly anticipated return of the Winter Masquerade Ball to the Freehold of the Last Night but this time hosted by Ebenezzar Grimwood, the new Lord Seasonale of Winter. The old Liege of the Silent Arrow is rumoured to be still missing. It was an affair the likes of which have never been seen before and are likely to never be seen again. Most of the attendees did in fact turn up in masks although a few notable exceptions occured and it seemed that the event drew even more people to visit or join the freehold. The food and wine were marvellous and the genteel dance floor was only briefly interupted by a surprise vision and later by a bout of Boogie Woogie and some frantic dancing and acrobatics. There was also some talk about some hedge beasties making a nuisance of themselves and going and 'getting some boar meat to sell at the market'.

December 2007
The last gathering of 2007 went without a hitch. Well, almost. The choice of film playing in the background was a bit grim and then 'Frosty', who currently held the position of Winter King, didn't actually bother to make an appearance to take his place as Lord Seasonale of the Freehold. Luckily though Ebenezzar Grimwood of the Court of Sorrow stepped up and assumed the Crown. Oh, and there were some people who turned up and swore the Freehold pledge.