It was not my first event with Redwood Tribe, that was a Tribe meeting, where the Warbrave said hello, and Lohkawas said hello, and I do not remember much else. I went from an initiate to youngling in the Tribe (rank up to partake in rites of passage/level up in guild rank). I think I learned about /e (emotes) that night and really struggled with walking, because I had key bound the / key on the number pad to something else and didn’t remember where I put “walk/run”. That Tribe meeting was a mess for me. Still not sure why I made initiate that night.
I believe Tall Tales was the next event that I went to just two nights later. I sat there ready to enjoy some stories and quietly sit around.
Maholta stood in front of me and said “Tell tale” or at least that is how I remember it. I had no tale. He may have said it twice even. And Mokalyn was there, and of course sitting nearby OOC and said yes, tell a tale. Tell a tale of how we met.
And that is when things went awry. For Mokalyn (and she knew her RP story) Lohkawas was never going to be her mate IC. I didn’t know who Lohkawas Wildmane was, either, except he was from Highmountain. And I had only written one story in about ten years…. And NEVER one so spontaneous.
We quickly threw out a couple of sentences verbally, and the story just happened… I do NOT have a copy of it. But it concerned Lohkawas leaving his village and learning to be a monk at Thunder Totem and rolling off the edge of Thunder Totem into the water below, where Mokalyn pulled him out of the water.
When I finished telling the tale, I think it was Denek, someone suggested I show them how a Highmountain monk rolls, (especially with the antlers). I went with it but messed it up initially due to RP walk on (had gotten that fixed), and then I un-walked and rolled again and ended up right into the water trough.
And clumsy innocent Lohkawas now had some history and some characteristics.
But that wasn’t all…
I started to write more, even in between Tall Tales, I wrote more stories of Lohkawas meeting Mokalyn and winning her over, and then as BFA started, Lohkawas began to investigate Silithus and coming into his own, and then a story about his brother and sometimes those would branch into other stories.
Most importantly, I was writing again and enjoying it.
By the next Tall Tales, I wanted to write something just to tell there, though I was more nervous than the first time, way more nervous. And Maholta called on me again… and my wife joined in, and I know she was probably whispering him that I had a story written behind my proverbial back. And Lohkawas told another story. And I wrote more and every Tall Tales I told a new story. Only one tale has ever been repeated, the story of the Highmountain Rogue, and even those repetitions were not at Tall Tales.
Tall Tales brought Lohkawas Wildmane to life and allowed me to create again. It is a place we support one another and encourage each other. From that spark grew an online newspaper; totally Lohk waking me up one morning with the idea. Tall Tales is finding family and friends, and sometimes finding ourselves, and wanting to share and bring joy to those same people.
I appreciate everyone that comes to enjoy Tall Tales, to share at Tall Tales, and to support one another at the event, and I encourage those that want to experience a gathering of this nature to please join us sometime on the first Thursday of the Month.