The Grand Order of the Lost Mathom celebrates its fifth anniversary Saturday October 13th, with a grand party at Songburrow Hall! As part of the anniversary, we will host a number of competitions, suitable for cooks and entertainers! 

For signing up, see the contact information below. 

There are three competitions, and the rules are as follows.

1 The Grand Anniversary Menu Competition

Every hobbit party needs a splendid festive meal, and we plan on serving a lovely three-course dinner to our guests. However, we would love your help in composing it! So please send us your suggestions!

Rules:

• Write down a 3-course meal suitable for our party. The menu needs to follow this format: Starter, main course and pudding. Also suggest drinks to go with each course.
• Please try to keep the menu somewhat hobbity, and avoid modern-day food or ingredients that hobbits would likely not have access to.
• Please try to keep your meal descriptions short, but tempting.
• Send your meal suggestion to us no later than Thursday October 11th, 11:59PM BST/UK time (6:59PM servertime). See contact information below.

A jury will chose their favourite meal, which will be presented and served at the party. The winning cook also receives a grand prize!

2 The Grand Cake-baking Competition

Every anniversary party needs a festive anniversary cake! And this year, we ask Shire cooks to bake one for us and bring it to the party to be judged!

Rules:

• There will be a limited number of spots in the competition. To enter, please sign up in advance by contacting us, see information below.
• The competition will be run sometime during the party on October 13th.
• When the competition starts, the cooks will be called up to provide information about the following:

1. The name of the cake
2. What the ingredients are
3. What it tastes like

• Please try to keep the menu somewhat hobbity, and avoid modern-day food or ingredients that hobbits would likely not have access to.
• Please try to keep your cake descriptions short, but tempting.

A jury will choose their favourite cake, which will be served along with the tea. The winning cook also receives a grand prize!

3 The Grand Talent Competition

Every grand party needs entertainment, and here's your chance to help us out! Sign up for our Grand Talent Competition! Poetry? Songs? Jokes? Short stories? Juggling? A magic show? You decide!

Rules:

• There will be a limited number of spots in the competition. To enter, please sign up in advance by contacting us, see information below.
• Since we may select entries to provide a variety of talents displayed, please say what kind of act you would like to perform when you sign up.
• The competition will be run sometime during the party on October 13th.
• When the competition starts, the contestants will be called up to perform their act. Each performance can last a maximum of five minutes (including preparations and setting up), so be prepared
• Both solo and group performances are allowed
• Please try to keep your entry somewhat in the spirit of a hobbity party

A jury will choose their favourite entry, and the winner(s) receive a grand prize!

Contact information

To sign up for the contests and/or enter your menu suggestions, please contact Lina by in-game letters or by the ways described here.

Order members are allowed to enter, but we will keep some spots in the cake and talent competition open for non-member hobbits or dwarves.

For the menu competition, there is no limit on the number of participants.

During this Spring festival I offer a discounts to all my meat pies. I guarantee a daily supply of fresh ingredients directly from the Festival Garden of Duillond. You never tasted such fine and tenderized meat pie in your life !

I believe that within every hobbit there is a poet waiting to get out. So, in order for your inner poet to be unlocked I intend to hold a series of poetry classes to teach aspiring wordsmiths the secrets of the art of poetry.
 
The poetry lesson with be split into three parts, each teaching a separate aspect of poetry. Each part will be held each week, on a Friday, about 1 hour before the usual start of Green Dragon Friday. And for those who can't make that time, I intend to repeat the class after the end of the Green Dragon too.
 
Class 1
Title: Get into the Rhythm!
Date: Friday 12th August
 
Class 2
Title: It's Time to Rhyme!
Date: Friday 19th August
 
Class 3
Title: Form your Poem
Date: Friday 26th August
 
All classes to be held at the following time and place:
 
Time: 7pm BST/2pm Server Time
Repeated at: 10pm BST/5pm Server Time
Location: The Ivy Bush Inn, Hobbiton
 
And if you can't make any of those classes, full details of the lessons will be subsequently be published in the Bramblebury Gazette. I am also preparted to provide individual tuition, in return for a reasonably amount of pie!
 
I hope to see many of you hobbits there!

Do you want to help out during the GDF anniversary concert? Does the prospect of wearing a colourful uniform appeal to you? Wouldn’t it be grand to get a huge stash of pies and ales in your hands? Of course! That’s why you should send a letter by the quick post to Lina and offer your services!

On Friday May 20th, there will be a grand anniversary concert for Green Dragon Friday, held at the Methel Stage outside of Bywater. Since there is little in the way of food and drink there, it would be grand to have some hobbits help with distributing pies and ale to the audience.

Those wanting to help out will do the following:

• Wear similar clothes of the colourful kind, provided by the organizers
• Show up ca 30 minutes before the concert start ((the start is set at 19:00 /servertime), to be given items and last-minute instructions.
  
• For the first 10 minutes of the event, be stationed near the Green Dragon Inn in Bywater to show any late-comers the way to the Methel Stage (don't worry, the music will likely not start before that)
  
• Carry much in the way of food and drink, to distribute to the audience. Food and drink will be provided by the organizers.
• Be pointed out as the hobbits to contact for food and drink during the event, and be especially active in distributing food/drink in the breaks between bands

The work will be hard and unpaid, but you will have the eternal gratitude of the organizers if you would like to help out! Oh, and feel free to help yourself to some of the pies and ales during the night!

Send a letter to Lina as soon as hobbitly possible. The first ones to volunteer will get the jobs!

Best regards,
Lina

Are you a skilled cook? Do your pies find praise from young and old alike? Do you just know that your pies are the best in the Shire?

Answer yes or no to any of these questions, and you will be qualified to enter the Green Dragon Pie Baking Competition!

Yes, as part of the coming anniversary party on Friday May 13th, we are proud to hold the Green Dragon pie baking competition! Competitors will be judged by a jury of professional pie eaters, and could well run away with a grand prize as well as the title of Green Dragon Pie Baking Champion!

What are you waiting for? If you want to participate, send a letter by the quick post to Lina today and say so! Hope to hear from you!

Best regards,
Lina Willowwood

OOC Rules for pie baking competition

The aim of the competition is to find out who bakes the best pies, as well as have some fun on the way!

Obviously, there’s no way to have a jury eat your pie to check the quality of it in-game. That’s why we will ask the participants to describe the basics of their pie, and a jury will choose the pie they think sounds the best. It will be subjective, but then again, most matters of taste are.

To enter the pie baking competition, please do the following

1. Send an in-game letter to Lina, saying that you’d like to enter the competition with a pie. We might allow players to enter on the night itself too, but if interest is high, we will have to cut off the participant list. So to be sure to participate, send in your pie letter as soon as possible
2. Come to the Green Dragon on Friday May 13th, 19:00 /servertime, 20:00 BST. The competition will likely kick off near 30 minutes after the event starts. Failure to show leads to instant disqualification.
   
3. Be prepared to do the following when called up by the jury

·         Describe how your pie looks, by a single emote text (for instance, a rather sad pie could simply be described as “ /e shows a truly bland pie, devoid of any redeeming qualities “).

·         When prompted by the jury, answer the following two questions:

o   What are the main ingredients in your pie? (give a short description of that in /say, for instance "Well, I used those moldy strawberries I found lyin' by the dogs in me Gaffer's backyard")

o   How would you serve this pie, so that we best would enjoy it? (give a short description of that in /say, for instance "Truth to be told, I wouldn't serve this pie at all, it's just not right edible, you know")

Try to keep your answers fitting to your character, yet most of all short and simple in case there are many participants! Also, be wary of power-emoting (for instance, variations of "this is clearly the best, juiciest and most fabulous pie you have ever laid your eyes on" won't do at all, since there's no wriggle room for the judges). Try to tempt the judges and be creative, but don't go overboard either!

After all pies have been presented, the jury will deliberate a bit and vote on which pie they thought sounded best. Should votes be tied, a hidden /roll will break the tie. The three top pie bakers will get to choose among some fine prizes, as well as be awarded a title and likely get honorable mentions in the Bramblebury Gazette.

The judges are currently kept as a secret, to avoid the danger of bribes!