Ravenscrawl: The Rookery

April Vacation 2026, Session B:  The Raven King’s Court This week’s theme draws on Celtic and English myths and lore about the fey folk who inhabit the burial mounds of the British Isles. The rich traditions combine ideas about the Underworld with those of the fey creatures we call fairies, elves, and gnomes.  We'll look at the story of Bran, the Welsh king who died protecting his sister's honor. We'll learn about his ties to the Tower of London, and the prophesies that came from consultations with his head. The 19th century brought a flourishing of these old stories, combined with the mythic imaginings by poets and writers -- and this in turn feeds our modern-day fantasy tales about the Raven king.  We will craft our own Raven kings, queens, courtiers, or other fey creatures who might inhabit the haunted groves of Dunraven Fair – a fictional night fair full of goblins, fairies, and spooky merchants. Gamers will work on a game based on the fairgrounds and all the things t...

Summer 2026, Session 1: Gardeners of the Sea Sea slugs and other intertidal zone creatures will be the focus of this week’s  creations. We'll share our collective knowledge the creatures who inhabit this zone: sea urchins, sea stars, sand dollars, sea slugs and so many more creatures and plants that make a life in this delicate in-between space. I am working on a how-to book about making sea slugs, so participants are welcome to test out the patterns that I have so far. If you made sea slugs or other sea creatures from Dragon' Eye Adventures, please bring them! We’ll look at sea slugs in modern Japanese animé including Pokémon, so this would be a great week for Pokémon players to bring their cards and games. Writers and artists may bring their inspirations from the world of animé and manga from Japan, Korea, or other cultures with bountiful animations about the sea. July 6 – 10, 2026  Theme: Gardeners of the Sea – Seaslugs and Friends in Animé 9 AM to 4 PM, Monday thru Friday ...

 Summer 2026, Session 2:  The Dreaming This week, we’ll explore Greek ideas about dreams. We'll visit the Cave of Sleep and speak with Morpheus and his brothers, Thanatos and Hypnos. We'll check in at the Palace of Dreams where Oneiros sends his Dream birds through the Gates of Ivory and Horn. We'll touch on other cultures' ideas of the Dreaming as well, with nods to the Baku from Japan and Vishnu, the ultimate dreamer from Hinduism. We'll create Dream Boxes -- sendings from Morpheus and Oneiros to speak to our waking selves. Just imagine what might go in your Dream Box?  We'll try a Dragon's Eye game from an adventure about Morpheus -- it turns shadowpuppetry into a team challenge, competing with the Greek god of dreams for a mortal's glimpse of Dream's mythic imagination. Gamers may want to make their own dream-based games. Just imagine the game pieces for a survival venture through the Dreaming? Take a step and see what the mythic imagination dev...

Summer 2026, Session Three: Eyes of the Beholder This week’s inspiration rises from a Dragon’s Eye Adventures discussion about floating eyeballs, which were common guards and lookouts in adventures. The detectives wanted to know why I included them so frequently in our stories. This week's theme is kind of an answer to that question. We'll look at how eyes are used in various myths and legends from around the world. We'll look at stories of the cyclops from ancient Greece, discover seraphim and beholders from Hebrew and Islamic mythology. We'll visit the use of eyes on the hands and bodies of Hindu gods and goddesses, and discover a Japanese yokai with many bulging eyes.  One might say the eyes have the upper hand in this week's explorations -- so yes, we'll look at the hamsa, the eye in the palm that has come down to us through palmistry and other sources. We’ll build game pieces and sculptures for a board game -- and experience some sneaking games in the hallw...

Summer 2026, Session Four:  Serpent Roads  The Milky Way was often seen as a river, a road, or a serpent – and souls traveled to and from the three realms (Celestial realms, Mortal World, and Underworld) by traveling along this Serpent Road.  This idea made its way into the most ancient games of Egypt: Mehen, named after the serpent who protects Ra on his daily journey. We'll learn why this board game is laid out in a spiral, with the head of a duck and the head of a serpent. We'll look at why the game pieces were tiny lions, and see how the game was changed to form Senet. We'll discover how these old games evolved through time and travel, from Egypt into the Middle East and India, and then back to Italy and other parts of Europe, forming the basis of games we know today. We'll reinvent our own Serpent Road games, and construct tiny game pieces so we can test the games. We’ll craft our own stories of the Serpent Roads and imagine where we might travel, if we were t...

Summer 2026, Session 5: Book of Secrets The word mage has roots that travel back in time through England and France to Rome and Greece, and finally to the ancient Persians with their deeper roots in India. The Greek term referred to the fire priests of the Zarathustrian religion, who were astronomers and scholars known for their learned studies of sky and earth. We will learn about Zarathustrian beliefs and mythology, and look at the way this old idea of a scholar priest has morphed into our forms of wizards in D&D and fantasy. We'll look at the ancient Persian tradition of sharing knowledge and see how great kings like Darius I brought different ideas together to form libraries and centers of knowledge. We will make our own Books of Secrets – and fill them with matters that matter from our own life stories. We'll consider what type of mage we might be at heart, and how that affects our choices within the ordinary world. Are we elemental mages like the druids or do we work...