Here Be Dragons (Caravan Rally) - Oct 2018

I do not often welcome otherworldly visitors into my realm, but there was something… different about this group of wanderers. Perhaps it was their bravery, their curiosity, or even their foolhardiness that stoked my curiosity. Whatever it was, I found I couldn’t help but grant them the passage they so earnestly sought out. And so, let it never be written that I, Lorenei of the great dragons, stood in the way of discovery and adventure. Let it be known that I not only allowed them access to these worlds we hold so dear, but I did my best to impart upon them the importance of carrying stories with them wherever they may go. After all, it is in this grand storytelling tradition that wanderers, brave and true, become something even more: explorers.

What follows is an account of their trials and tribulations, straight from their own mouths, as it was told to me at the culmination of their journey. I transcribed their words as they were told to me so that it may be shared to an even wider audience, in the hopes that you — yes, you, dear reader — may find yourself with a seed of this story nestled somewhere deep in your own heart.

The Adventure Begins

On Friday the 26th, a group of 32 explorers met up in Oakland. Information was scant, but our invitation included a packing list and a starting location. It vaguely referred to the unknown monsters that used to dot maps in the spaces beyond known geography. As an explorer, this was the most intriguing part of the invitation, but it also held a warning: the danger these creatures represented was still out there and we’d need to be on guard.

We met at the Children’s Fairyland parking lot in Oakland. Here, an Explorers Guild support team introduced themselves to us and checked us in, making sure we had everything on our packing list. Excitement mounted as we met the other teams and checked our walkie talkies. As the last team checked in, we were told that someone was waiting to meet us before we hit the road.

We ambled down the path toward the gazebo and discovered Jasper, a kind Jackalope with a red bandana and a sly sense of humor. She greeted us warmly and promptly gave us some tools for our upcoming adventure, directing parcels to rocketeers, stellar cartographers, navigators, radio operators, and a map folio for each team. With our new tools in hand, Jasper said that at each destination in our path ahead, we were to look for a map card designating our next mission. With that, we were given our Explorers Guild field guides and instructed to go to the line in the sand. We read the words aloud, recognizing we were about to enter a different world, then broke the seal and stepped forward. Each of the ten teams in the caravan lined up their cars and left Fairyland.

Our first destination in the field guide was a Unicorn Safari Park in Tiburon, and from there it went north and west to the coast. On this night we were destined to meet sea fairies, ents, sasquatches, and more. The stops were ambitiously laid out before us and our whole team speculated as to the adventure ahead. We tuned in to the Caravan Radio station and introduced ourselves to the other teams.

Before very long, we made it to the Unicorn Safari Park, a small roadside attraction in Tiburon. A ranger and gift shop attendant welcomed us and made sure we knew to stay in our cars, so as to not spook the unicorns. Car by car, the caravan met all the different unicorns, who each greeted us in their own distinct way. One came rummaging through all our food looking for treats, while others played ring toss with their horns. My favorite was the smallest unicorn, who received plenty of gushing comments from the caravan. As we took our final selfies, we passed through the gift shop one last time, bartering for postcards, unicorn horns and treats.

Our next destination was a small pioneer cemetery in Novato, where we looked for an Oracle to grant us protection for our road ahead. We ascended the hill to the graves, made a circle, and read the words of the summoning ritual from our field guides. Soon a creature emerged behind us, at first just two glowing eyes, but their great size became clear as they surrounded the party. With luminous eyes, a firefly-filled belly, and an alluring voice, they had us transfixed. It was the not the Oracle, but the Lorenei Dragon.

As they sized up our caravan, they offered us an opportunity: to go into the unknown, to leave behind our field guides and instead take up a true adventure. They asked only that we would seal away our phones, which connected us to this world. Once we agreed, the dragon had us elect one of our own to act as our envoy and be responsible for us in this new quest. We chose Kip, whose earlier introduction gave us faith in their ability to lead us. With that, the dragon’s path had opened. In place of our field guides, the dragon gave us a bestiary of creatures and legendary characters we hoped to meet on our travels, pouches to seal away our phones, and new map cards. They slinked away into the darkness of the cemetery and left us to contemplate our new task: a call for help from the Minutian city.

The Dragon’s Realm

As we lined our cars up into the caravan, we realized that without our phones, we would have to rely on radio communication to navigate and contact one another. At first, negotiating this limitation felt clunky as we tuned into the support car’s radio broadcast and studied the directions on our maps, but eventually, we got the hang of it. We traveled north and fueled up in Healdsburg before cutting west towards Lake Sonoma. Winding through darkened vineyards, we almost all drove right by our stop, but luckily Car 8 spotted it. We entered the Minutian metropolis.

We followed the lights to a large bush, that, to our surprise, hid an entire miniature city. We examined the buildings in amazement and someone noticed a billboard advertising a radio station. We turned to the Radio Operator, huddled close to their radio to listen to the broadcast. The Minutians were in trouble and they needed to escape Earth as soon as possible. We only had fifteen minutes to collect them all and prep the launch pad for an evacuation.

We jumped into action and led a frenzied group to find all the Minutian buildings and the launch pad. After the launch pad was ready, we found that the rocket itself was missing a nose cone and an engine.

We turned to our Rocketeers and sure enough, Jasper had supplied them with a nose cone and engines. While the 

rocketeers built the rocket, we found the final buildings brought them in safely. Those still listening to the transmission were relieved that we were on time. With the final preparations made, the Minutians boarded their rocket, and the countdown began. As the caravan all looked on and listened in, we counted down from ten. Right on cue, the rocket took off into the sky without incident. We watched in amazement and were delighted by our success. We were granted a map card and said our final goodbyes to the Minutians, finally on their way home.
 

Our next destination was a roadside rest area. It seemed like we were supposed to find something, but Lorenei had not said what. After finding the bathrooms and parking lot empty, Sindra spotted a crate in the woods past the picnic tables. As she approached, it reacted to her presence, and the crate jostled inches from her hands. The whole rest area could hear her cry, “Jesus Christ!” More explorers joined the scene and together everyone approached it, moving it as a caravan. The instructions on the box were clear: This Side Up; Limit Exposure; Authorized Persons Only... and whatever it was, it moved. Some of the caravan were worried the creature inside was in pain or that it should be immediately freed. Eventually the caravan agreed that they needed to return this creature back to its home. Each car would take turns handling it, and every so often we’d hear a little clunk as it tried to get out of the box.

On the next leg of our journey, we soon came upon the Avenue of the Giants. Though the sun had set hours ago, the forest brought a new level of all-encompassing darkness. We arrived at the next station, and the caravan support car even mentioned that something wasn’t quite right. We approached the path with apprehension and found a sign: we were entering the land of the Darroguan Phantoms and they had stolen three precious golden eggs. We were tasked with retrieving them.

We checked the bestiary to learn what we could about the encounter. If we were to survive this, it would be imperative that the Darrogs not make eye contact with us, or we would become their victims. We assembled three pairs of volunteers and equipped them with blindfolds and walkie-talkies. Six of us would walk forward blindfolded, using black lights to highlight what’s ahead of them while the rest of the caravan would observe them at a safe distance with binoculars and walkie-talkies. It wasn’t long before the Darrogs took notice. These apparitions were dreadful, with a blank unnerving countenance. The caravan kept their nerves steady and guided the pairs, one by one, to the golden eggs. Luckily, the strategy had worked, and we escaped with our entire caravan and the eggs.

We proceeded through the Avenue of the Giants. Grandiose trees were swallowed by the darkness beyond our taillights and the road before us felt never-ending. We noticed fatigue setting in as some teams were questioning if they could continue on, but we stayed the course. The caravan followed a set of lights leading them deep into the forest, to a Feathered Gnome. If the bestiary was to be believed, they were perhaps one of a small few remaining. They sat on a large fallen redwood tree and greeted us with a quiet voice as we came in. They told a story of the dying forest and how the world has transformed, how legendary creatures depend on their stories being told.

With that, they told us the story of the Sous Sprites, friends of theirs and the cinnamon-scented heroes of the forest. The storyteller told the tale of how the Sous Sprites vanquished a demon from the land when no other creature could stop it. As the Gnome finished their telling and gave us our next task, the light faded from their eyes, their last breath put to purpose. We gathered our map cards and headed back to the cars. The lights leading us through the forest were snuffed out one by one, and we left the Avenue of the Giants.

Day broke during the next leg of our journey. Bleary eyed, we approached the next destination on the coast. We were promised a continental breakfast, but first, a tour from an ornithologist who’d been studying the rare Prandium Bird. As we made our way to her, we crossed a small wooden bridge (making sure we all maintained the Explorers Guild tradition of using an “s” word). She explained that the Prandium Bird mother was searching for her missing eggs, and though it made for a dangerous situation, it was also a rare opportunity to see the remaining hatchlings. Realizing that we had the chance to return the eggs to their rightful place, we formulated a plan to distract the birds by dancing with them, while a few runners snuck the golden eggs back to the nest. A beat rose from the bushes and and group mimicked the birds’ dancing while three brave explorers dashed to the nest and returned unharmed. With the good deed done, the envoy received a letter signed by “The Witches Three”, showing thanks for returning the eggs, and the caravan made their way back to their breakfast.

Exhausted, we pressed on, returning to the redwoods to find the Aromate Forest. Here, the landscape felt alive. Banana slugs were out and about and the morning dew was creating a subtle dripping beat. As we exited our cars, we could smell cinnamon in the air. Feeling optimistic, we journeyed into the forest, and a delightful surprise greeted us: we found the Sous Sprites that the feathered gnome had told us about. They weren’t all gone! We each found the ones that called to us and ate them, as they asked. Each person in the caravan tasted something different, reflecting their spirit. (Mine was a bit spicy.) As we lingered, we heard a voice. The ghost of the Feathered Gnome was there, thanking us for saving their friends, and granting us new map cards.

We continued on our path, and this time, it led us to a grove of treehouses and a luscious garden. There we discovered the Snilbogs, who were in search of three missing seed pods. We all wanted to help them, so we scoured the location. We quickly found two and what looked like a marker for the third, but it had a strange code that required use of a phone. The Snilbogs encouraged us that it would be alright to use our phones just this once, and that this was the best way to help them. We fired up a phone and watched a video about the missing seed pod and its current location in the Zymoglyphic Museum in Portland. Happy with that answer, the Snilbogs gave us a map card for somewhere much closer. We took one last glance through the magical treehouses of the Snilbogs and went along our way, feeling great about helping them.

Soon we came to the home of the Buried Giant. It was hot in the midday sun, where a boardwalk traversed an open field of deadly pitcher plants. At the end of the boardwalk, we found a placard that detailed the Giant below the field and its relationship with the plants above. While we took in this scene, the silence was broken by the appearance of Lorenei, furiously stomping down the boardwalk toward us. The dragon caught us in a dead end and insisted that we must be punished for breaking our promise to seal away our phones. They demanded a sacrifice. We would have to abandon our envoy. It was a terrible decision to accept, but we headed back to our cars, without Kip. Lorenei told us to go see the Sasquatch, as the dragon would not be guiding us through their realm anymore. As we headed to the next destination, it felt like we had lost.

Banished

We had been banished from the dragon’s realm. We set aside our now useless bestiaries, and returned to our Explorers Guild field guides. The Sasquatch was ready to greet us at the Valley of the Rogue, though it was difficult to match his excitement. He provided us with lunch and some advice: First, we needed to rescue our envoy. As explorers, we haven’t lost a member yet. Second, we still had a responsibility to the creature in the crate. It was a part of the dragon’s realm and needed to be returned immediately. He split our caravan into teams with two separate destinations. Fed and rested, and with a new sense of purpose, we headed out again.

The group that went to the deliver the crate were met by an extremely grateful pair of cryptozoologists. After the caravan’s arrival, they quickly took the crate to a release point and had us all stand back. As they opened it up, a creature went skittering off into the woods. They assured us it should be okay now, and were rather apologetic about their actions. Hearing about our run-in with a dragon, they offered a special scroll. This legendary artifact helped shed light on what we needed to do as a caravan to appease Lorenei.

Meanwhile, a group left to find the envoy, to find themselves in an arcade. At the Family Fun Center, they learned that three witches had rescued the envoy from the Buried Giant, paying back the favor of returning the Prandium Bird eggs. The envoy was there, tasked with earning enough tickets to reclaim a memory locket sealed behind the prize counter. The caravan dispersed among the machines to help, playing skeeball, fishing games, and claw machines, and reconvened with enough tickets for the locket. Once the Witches got their locket back, they remembered what they had for the caravan: a sword.

With the sword in hand, the caravan was now ready to face the dragon in the heart of Lithia Park. Here, both parties came together and reunited with their lost envoy. According to the scroll, we needed to call the dragon, at which point we would have to offer them a story. The best story for us was that of the caravan adventure we’d just undertaken. As a last test, we then needed to perform their call and response, the lines of which were written in a cipher on the sword. Deciphered and set in our path, we were ready for Lorenei.

We circled around a fire pit and called out for her. As they came storming along the path, we offered them a story, at which their eyes lit up and their interest swelled. They listened in delight as members of our caravan took turns regaling the dragon with the grand adventure we had just completed. As we neared the end, we could see Lorenei getting anxious. They accepted our story, but presented the last challenge:

“You’ve spun your tale, but do you believe?

Do you now see these threads we weave?”

Without hesitation, Miss Mariposa stepped forward, sword in hand, and recited the response:

“At the end of all, belief is gold.

New life is found in stories told.”

Lorenei looked upon us kindly and thanked us all. We had accomplished the quest they left for us. As they thanked us again, they had one last request and asked the envoy to step forward. They coiled around Kip to apologize and ask a final favor of the envoy. Would they please, as a celebration, dance with them? Lorenei unfurled their body and Kip cried out, “Hit it!” The beat picked up and the entire caravan joined in a conga line with their new friends.

At the end of a long, thrilling adventure, we would find rest, food, and a celebration… but not before a final cry of “Semper Explorandum!”

Captain’s Closing

That night, surrounded by all the people who made this event special, I found myself grateful. Each person played an important part in our story, with 32 participants and 15 designers putting their hearts and souls into this beautiful adventure. With toast after toast and story after story I wondered how any one of us could forget this night.

As mentioned, the events depicted in this report are all true, though there isn’t enough room in the world to touch on all the amazing and unbelievable things that happened during our expedition. These unwritten stories will have to live on within all of us. Our biggest take away was the importance of these stories; that it is imperative for us to share them with curious minds. This is how we keep the creatures we met alive. All of us who journeyed through Here Be Dragons have moments that stood out to us, including moments that felt ridiculous or improbable. If you find yourself curious to learn about these moments, we hope you ask us, as we do hope to share them.

Semper Explorandum, Explorers.

There are many acknowledgements to make for this project.

Thanks to: Belle Cunningham, Beryl Y. Zantium, Binary, C. Lightchaser, Celcius, Dave Sharps, Denorae, Endel Bork, eXmarksthe, Hannah Jackson, Happenstance, Jeslach, K-Dawg, Kit Foxo, Lark, Lex, Panopticon, Turtle-ish, Tybeck, Wisp, Zepheer who all assisted in making the event possible.

Also thanks to Tybeck, Sebastian and Skyraker for the photos used in the report.