Bday Metagame 23

In the hustle and bustle of setting up, someone from your team stumbles across a mysterious stone tablet. It is old and apparently from another century. Like a phantom from a forgotten time, it whispers a message into the hearts of all who behold it...

And so began the great scavenger hunt on my birthday. The rules were simple:

• There are two competing teams: team red and team blue from my birthday's team battle
• The teams must find four Secret Stones 💎 to find the Ultra Stone 🔮, the ancient relic of the invented founder of this place for this game
• Each of the Secret Stones can be obtained by passing a Trail (see below). At each location there is one stone for Team Red and one stone for Team Blue, which may only be taken by the respective teams
• As soon as all four Secret Stones have been found, they can be inserted into the sockets of the stone tablet using the witch. The clue to the Ultra Stone is then revealed
• The teams' task is to decipher the trails, find all Secret Stones and finally find the Ultra Stone. The metagame ends when a team has found the Ultra Stone
• The Ultra Stone is worth 50 tokens 💰 for the team battle

So now on with the story, what was written on the stone tablet described above:

... "Hail to you, intrepid finder of this tablet! With fine chisel strokes I have carved these words into the stone, to lead bold souls on a quest for the Ultra Stone, a mighty artifact of my time. Its untamed power has brought this place, the HaDiKo, forth from nothingness and kept it alive. Before my passing, I hid the stone, to be revealed only to the cleverest and most determined adventurers, those who are prepared to carry on my legacy. But the task is daunting, you must pass the four trials of my loyal, long-dead followers to obtain their Secret Stones. Each of these stones has its place in this tablet. When you have gathered all four, it will give you the final clue to the Ultra Stone. You will be assisted by an immortal witch with flaming red hair, who once promised, to help future adventurers in their quest. Now read about the trials of my companions:

Trail of Knowledge:

The Secret Stone of Wisdom, guarded by Saphira the Wise:

In the Hall of Stories, a page awaits you that is not there. Only through the Net of Wisdom can you fill the gap and find the Stone of Wisdom.

Trail of Strength:

The Secret Stone of Strength, is guarded by Thoric, the Unshakable:

Where the land touches the sky and balance is important, the Trail of Strength awaits you. Only those who walk the Path of the Floating can seize the Stone of Strength.

Trail of Creativity:

The Secret Stone of Inspiration, is guarded by Caelum, the Dreaming One:

In the place where colors have yet to be born, the Trail of creativity awaits you. Complete the unfinished and the Stone of Inspiration will be revealed to you.

Trail of Guidance:

The Secret Stone of Guidance, is guarded by Oriana, the Tactical:

At the place where most paths cross and the wrong step leads to misdirection, the Trail of orientation awaits you. Only those who do not take the right path after the chunk without a number, will find themselves in a white bowl!

I wish all seekers courage and understanding on their journey!"

Suddenly you realize the true meaning of the words: The Ultra Stone must be worth an immeasurable amount of tokens. 50 tokens 💰, maybe even more! A fire ignites inside you. You are determined to gather your team and get to the bottom of these clues!

Now the players of both teams were allowed to set off to find the four Secret Stones! The trials were supposed to challenge the players in different ways, so they had to complement and help each other. Unfortunately, I only succeeded in doing this to the extent that the players from the different teams joined forces at some point to solve the trails together. But that wasn't a bad thing, because in the end they were able to find the Ultra Stone after about 4 hours and win together with more fun. So that readers can also enjoy the trials, here is a description of the trials and how they were solved.

Secret Stone of Knowledge

The focus of this task was to read something aka acquire and interpret knowledge. A lot of knowledge can be found in a library (aka Hall of Stories) and the internet (aka Net of Wisdom). A small bookshelf was open at my birthday party. Among the books was a printed copy of "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. But one page was missing. Page 24 to be precise. Here is a small from german translated excerpt from the missing page:

"I love sunsets very much. Come, let's watch a sunset ..." "You still have to wait ..." "Wait for what?" "Wait until the sun goes down." At first you made a very astonished face and then laughed at yourself. And you said to me: "I always imagine I'm at home!" Indeed. When it's noon in the United States, the sun sets in France, as everyone knows.

Sunsets are famously beautiful, but not to be seen if you are in a room with windows facing east. The only place where my birthday premises offered a view to the west was the roof terrace. And indeed, the Secret Stone of Knowledge was located there to the west under a stone with a French flag.

Secret Stone of Strength

The focus of this task was to be physically active and find something in the process. On my birthday, there was a tree that touched the ground with its branches and the sky with its leaves. On this tree was the Path of the Floating in the form of a slackline. If you bobbed high up here, you could find the Secret Stone of Strength in the treetop.

Secret Stone of Creativity

The aim of this task was to do something creative. The following picture was given, which had to be completed: Once completed, you could see the back of a Nintendo Switch docking station. The Secret Stone of Creativity was located there.

Secret Stone of Orientation

The aim of this task was to find a location using obscure clues. The starting point was the path with most intersections, from there to the so-called doctoral student building, then left to the open toilet, where the Secret Stone of Orientation was to be found.

Ultra Stone

Once you had found all four Secret Stones, you could insert them into the stone tablet with the help of the witch (red-haired friend of my birthday) and magically received the following clue:

The Ultra Stone hides where your journey began, and personal stories emerged. The beginning is often small and inconspicuous, but it holds the end. Remember what you held in your hand for the first time, that's where you'll find it!

So the players had to return to the place where they had their first experience of the birthday. This was the registration desk, where they had received their first materials and introductions. There was a foil pen there was unlike to any other. It was much thicker, chunkier and visually more broken. It looked extra shabby so that no one would accidentally write with it. But hidden in the cap of the pen was the Ultra Stone.

That was my metagame for my 23rd birthday. About 10 people took part and most of them had a lot of fun. I hope that I was able to give you some inspiration for a metagame with this article. If you are interested in other metagames, have a look at my other metagames.