Genn Wintord

UP: PACIFIC

    Summer is upon us. The constant spring showers have slowly slunk back beyond the horizon, letting the warmth of the sun onto the land, and bringing blossoms to all the trees of the kingdom.

    And outside the kingdom, in the city-state of NuJel’m, an All Hallows Eve of a different form will take place.

    The Festival of Masks, which will be celebrated on Thursday, starting at 9:00pm CST, and into the evening hours, is a holiday that is both mysterious and exciting. Several vendors stand upon the main street, and sell frightful masks to anyone who wishes to participate. Many collectors come to NuJel’m just to get their hands on these rare hand-decorated masks. Anyone who wears a mask is considered a participant in “the Game”.

    The Game’s rules are simple, when wearing a mask, the participant must pretend not to know anyone else in a mask. Aside from feasting, dancing, and general revelry… there among the crowds shall walk a masked man who carries “the Prize”. Inside a box, which has been locked and trapped by the finest locksmith and tinker that could be found, is a very rare and valuable ruby, the Eye of Dahsk. The object of the game is to find this box on one of the participants, steal it successfully, pick the locks, and evade the traps, and turn the Eye over to the Festival’s Master of the Ceremonies, Aleyh Jaskinor. The prize is kept a secret each year, but it is guaranteed to far exceed the value of the Eye itself. After the prize is claimed festivities tend to wind down, the next morning the streets are swept, and it’s business as usual.

    All native NuJel’mites know that one does not carry valuables while at the festival, but it would be good for anyone from outside NuJel’m to know this, so that unfortunate incidents do not occur.

From the Town Cryer - The Journal of Ultima Online, Wednesday, June 17th 1998