Creative Competition: Winner Announcement and Showcase

[Jubal]

AURORA - COMPETITION SHOWCASE

Our Aurora competition is over! We had a range of exciting entries, some judged and some submitted by our admins for fun, and we're really pleased and excited to be able to share them with you at last! Thanks especially go to Marie-Therese Sauer and Samuel Cook for being our two excellent and very able judges, and to Tusky Games and Bigosaur for providing prizes.

And speaking of prizes, THE WINNER IS...

Phoenixguard09 with his piece 'Our Light'!

With a combined score of 32/40 from the judges it scored well both on execution and closeness to the prompt, making it a well deserved winner as you'll be able to see by reading it below. Phoenixguard now gets the grand prize including copies of Tourney and Son of a Witch and a custom-written song of his choice - and, of course, our warm congratulations. We hugely value all the pieces we get in for our competitions, though, and as such here's the showcase, with poetry, art, gaming and hopefully inspiration for your own future projects. Do leave a comment and let us know what you think!


Entry Showcase

WINNER: OUR LIGHT - Phoenixguard09

My eyes open.

The night sky wheels by overhead, the softly glittering stars like a scattering of diamonds strewn haphazardly across a stretched bolt of midnight black cloth. I lie, face up on the cold ground. I can feel the chill which has begun to set deep within my mortal shell. I struggle to shift.

I cannot.

My eyes close.

I remember.

Before our arrival, there was little of note on this world. Ferocious storms wracked the land, leaving nothing but jutting outcrops of bare rock, torn forth from the treacherous dark oceans. Great winged beasts ruled the sky, warring amongst themselves and preying upon the weak, lesser creatures which could only manage to eke out a pitiful existence in this inhospitable landscape. Beneath them dwelled the many, varied denizens of the roiling seas, which, dangerous though they were, bore a far greater variety of life, including some, though not many, who could challenge the primacy of the Sky-Lords.

It was not naturally a world upon which to properly nurture life, the true calling of my kind.

We came here in scattered groups, driven across the breadth of creation, seeking a haven after our home was destroyed by the Terrors in the Void. Finding this rocky, storm-lashed world, my people settled upon it, using the faintest touches of our power to calm the fierce gales, to shape this new world to our liking. Needs must we were careful and selective in the way we unleashed the words of creation. Finally, we hid in the secluded reaches of this newly becalmed world and granted enlightenment to but a few of the endemic species.

For countless rotations of the stars, our creation existed in peace, as we slowly but surely guided it into prosperity.

Our downfall was swift, sudden and entirely predictable.

As the millennia rolled on and on, the gathered magics we had worked swelled ever greater.

The Terrors came once more, and this time there would be no escape.

My eyes open again.

The night sky still wheels by overhead, the softly glittering stars like miniscule needlepoints piercing a stretched bolt of midnight black cloth. I lie, face up on the cold ground. I can feel the chill which has set deep within my ragged mortal shell. Lifeblood, brilliantly shimmering in the pale starlight seeps into the alabaster snow beneath my form. I struggle to shift.

I cannot.

My eyes close once more.

I cannot remember.

I hear a sound, a deep reverberating growl which causes the very ground beneath me to shake and quiver. Something approaches.

One of them, swollen with the sheer power it has absorbed from my brethren, the ones it has already hunted, brought down and consumed. The ground trembles. The air shivers. Reality bends around it as all the works of my people react to the presence of this thing which is anathema to us.

I won't let this thing take my power for itself, for I have seen the things these creatures do with their prey, the torturous agonies they inflict.

My eyes open, one final time.

The night sky wheels by overhead, the softly glittering stars like a host of fell eyes glinting in the darkness. I lie, face up on the cold ground. I can feel the chill which has finally set deep within what shreds remain of my mortal shell. The fire of my life seems all but stolen away.

I intone, the words of creation spilling forth from the spirit within my ruined form. The predator growls once more, and attempts to move closer, but it cannot, buffeted now by waves of force which surround my failing shell.

My eyes fix upon a distant star, high above in the night sky. Home, perhaps? It pleases me to think so. A place of love, light and laughter, an unreckonable span of time ago.

I will give this world our light.

The words pour out in an ever greater torrent of creation as all I am, all my being, is projected up into the cold northern sky. There is a blinding flash, and years of the world roll by in an instant. The world-shaping energy crackles and tears at the very air around and above me as the words rip into the sky. The predator shies back, waiting for me to expend the last of my strength. It wants to feast.

I will not let it.

With one final invocation, silence falls, like the pale grey ash which drifts down and settles on the snow.

My mortal shell is gone, only a shimmering pool of lifeblood left behind to mark its presence.

I am free.

From above, the tattered remnants of my spirit beholds the predator below, sees the ephemeral fangs it bears, dripping with gore and power. Its eyes blaze with a dark hunger, but it cannot understand me now. I can see in its eyes how it perceives me now, a glimmering ribbon of pale light, wavering and flickering in the night sky. Eventually, it turns away in defeat, its great shaggy head dropping as the excitement of the hunt leaves it. It pads away, long, sinuous, bladed tail flicking despondently as it goes.

I am free.

I am light.

My people may be gone, destroyed by the Terrors from the Void, but I remain. I alone of my kind, endure. My consciousness exists now in the so-called northern lights. I have seen many an age of this world come and go, but I will always be there, in the night, watching.

Giving you the aurora.

Giving you our light.

ON A BRIGHT AND TWISTED NIGHT - Agaming

You shoot awake, the cold sweat dripping down your neck, your heartbeat echoing in your mind. You feel the urge to look out of your tent or building and, as you do, you see a bright flash of light emanating from the north of the island. Emerging from this light is a ship plummeting towards the ground, wisps of flame and smoke trailing from it. You watch it as it falls, almost in slow motion, until with a large, fiery explosion, it makes impact with the ground. Whether or not your better judgment agrees, you feel that you should investigate it...

On A Bright and Twisted Night is a D&D scenario by Agaming with chases, unexpected interlopers from the stars, and a dash of insanity besides. Split into two parts - The Broken Sky, and The Twisted Wreck - it sees the players venture north through increasingly unsettling adventures to investigate a mysterious eldritch vessel that has fallen from the very stars, and then reckon with the strange terrors they find within. Complete with map and puzzle sections, there's plenty here for you game masters out there to use!

Read the Scenario (PDF Download)

BOREALISES - Jubal

The serpent breathes
Out into infinities
Its bloodless sangunity
That winds between pines and the moon in the sky

The dancer shines
On upward and heaven-bound
Her shimmering world abounds
Nothing but dancing: no smile, tear, or sigh

The trapped god strains
On mocking bright prison bars
Caught between salt and stars
Wrapped in auroras that ravel and tie

The ink it flows
White-greens and icy blues,
Teals, pinks, a thousand hues,
Writing its truth, obfuscation, and lie

The Northern Lights are,
A consequence, nothing more,
Of gas, sun, an earthly core,
And still! They are myriads
And still delight I.

AURORA - Tusky




And that's all folks! We hope you enjoyed all these great pieces - and we hope to be back with more fun community projects for you to join in on as we carry on through 2021.

[Phoenixguard09]

I'm honoured. Well done to everyone who entered this year, there's some fantastic pieces of work up there.

Probably going to pinch Agaming's On a Bright and Twisted Night and tweak it to run for my Norbayne group in the near future. A very cool premise.

[Tusky]

Congrats pg!

Great entries from everyone.

[Gmd]

Great stuff all round everyone! Personal favourite is Agaming's dnd senario right up my alley, might get my party to play it sometime.