The Sari Diaries- Monday 7/31/23

Dear Family,

Today was the BEST day of camp! It was Realm and I love it so much. This is the seventh season of Realm and it is called The Swarm. Last night during selections I found out I was going to be in the Bee Keeping house. I wasn’t totally sure what that meant but I learned in Realm School on Saturday that I would find out exactly what I was supposed to do from the counselors (called House Neutrals) once I got to my house. The other thing I didn’t know was where my house would be located but they told me I would find out at the Castle Meeting after the Cornucopia. Besides for those two question marks, I was sooooo excited to wake up this morning and start my very first Realm.

At breakfast everybody was wearing their Tan & White shirts except the Hunters. Those are the girls going into 6th and 7th grade. They are Hive Hunters and Spies, so they were wearing all black. They looked really cool! After breakfast was over, the whole camp met at the waterfront for the Cornucopia. That’s where the sachems of each team have a chance to collect supplies for the team. When we got down to the beach, the volleyball net was down and there were two tall poles with a blue ball on top of each. Those are blue cannons also known as Annihilation Cannons, which are new this year. If someone uses one, they can never play Realm again. But if they use it on a Castle, they will pretty much take out the entire Castle, so maybe it’s worth it?! Sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself…back to the Cornucopia.

First the Brave sachems went and they both ran to the middle of the sand volleyball court to collect cannons (dodgeballs), bows, arrows and envelopes. I wasn’t sure what was in the envelopes but somebody on my team told me there were Twills (Realm money) and other fun surprises like a free treat from Jen’s Beckery. There were five rounds and it was awesome to see the leaders of the teams so excitedly and intensely getting into their part of the Cornucopia.

Once the Cornucopia finished, everybody went to their castles for team meetings. The Tan Castle is in the North Field and the White Castle is near archery all the way on the south end of camp. The Round Table, which consists of the Grand Sachem (Queen), Chief Sachem, Advisor (Warden), Treasurer, Grand’s Night, Chancellor, Sheriff and Hive Mind talked to us about our strategy, where we needed to go and what we needed to do. When the meeting was over, I went to my house, which is at the HNS where we normally have outdoor cooking. The House Neutrals were so nice and helped all of us in the house, and Mia R (our House Leader) got us really hyped for the day ahead.

By now you are probably wondering what the heck Realm even is. I’m going to try to explain it, so hopefully you will understand. Each team has five houses that each have their own industry. All the braves (going into 3rd through 5th grades) are in a house. The houses are The Fish Hatchery, The Poultry House, The Lumber House, The Apothecary and The Bee Keeping House. The houses are spread around camp and in addition to the walls, there is one target standing on either side of the house. In each house there are levels for doing various things. For example, in my house, we raised bees in order to develop honey and sting venom. There are different steps to do this and we had so much fun collecting weeds and pine needles to create a hive. We can sell the honey to get Twills for us and our team and our house. And we also get points for completing each step.

The Warriors (going into 8th grade) and Chiefs (going into 9th through 11th grades) are a part of armies if they aren’t a part of the Round Table. There are six armies on each team- the Yellow, Teal, Tie Dye, Grey, Red and Chief armies. The armies can defend and attack houses when it is their turn. On a team’s turn, the Round Table can send armies either to defend a house of their own or attack a house from the other team. Attacks are so much fun- basically it is a combination of dodgeball and archery (with Nerf bows & arrows). We call the dodgeballs cannons and if you get hit, you either have to go to the hospital or jail. At jail, you can try to break-out by doing a really challenging obstacle course. Most of the time you just have to wait at the hospital for a certain amount of time depending on what color cannon you get hit with. It is possible that your team will have the antidote to whatever you are at the hospital for, and if so, they can give it to you so that you can leave sooner. It’s really cool because The Apothecary House is responsible for making those antidotes. Anyways, that’s the dodgeball part but there’s also the archery part. People who are a part of an army can become Long Bowers and Long Bowers bring bows and arrows to the house attacks so that they can try to hit the targets that are standing beside the houses. If they hit both targets before the attack is over, their team gets to take over the house. It gets pretty crazy! Oh one more thing about the armies…in order to get sent to defend or attack, the Round Table has to use Energy Stones. Those are little ping pong balls that we get through a mini capture the flag type of game that is ongoing through the whole game.

Then there are the Hunters (going into 6th and 7th grades). The Hunters have two main jobs- some of them are Spies and others are Hive Hunters. The Spies look in the woods for clues and supplies. They can also spy on the other team to help their Round Table with strategy. The Hive Hunters had a major scavenger hunt that they had to work through in order for their team to get the chess pieces. I’ll explain the chess pieces soon but they are a really important addition to Season Seven: Swarm.

And finally we have the Round Table. In addition to the major strategery they are responsible for, they each have an important job. The Queen and Warden are mainly holding down the castle and overseeing all game play. The Chief Sachem is a part of the Chief Army, which is super cool because she is the only player who gets to be a part of the Round Table AND in an army. Then there’s the Grand’s Knight. She needs to protect the Queen because if the Queen gets out AKA if all four of her flags get pulled, the game is over. The Treasurer holds all of the team’s money (called Twills) and keeps it safe. The Chancellor knows every single rule and can help with the strategy. The Chancellors of both teams read and memorized the entire 95-page guidebook- it’s a lot of information but it’s really important that they understand the whole game. The Sheriff collects all tax and rent from houses, and also helps to pay all of her teammates. And finally, the Hive Mind is responsible for representing the team in the chess match.

So that’s what everybody does but there’s so much more. One really fun and important part is Chippendel. That’s the mini town on Main Street Chippewa. There’s Jen’s Beckery where we can buy baked goods with our Twills. There’s the Chip Chop Shop where we sell our lumber after we collect it from around camp. And there’s Cannons R Us where we can buy new cannons. And the Gross-ery Store where Lisa and Lizzy sell snacks and candy. We’ve also got Dragon’s Nook, which sells and fixes bows. Chippin’ Jail next to the Gross-ery and Chippindel Memorial Hospital is across the way right near the Chippindel Pharmacy. There are times when you have to go to Chippindel- to buy or sell things, or for jail & the hospital. But sometimes we just go to Chippindel for fun…to see what’s going on or to buy sometime delicious. It’s kind of like the strip in Minocqua only better because it’s Realm.

Now getting back to the events of the day. In the morning both the Tans and Whites had a turn and the Whites took hold of the Tan Fish Hatchery. There was other excitement like Lucy B stealing the blue dragon, which is a really big deal because the blue dragon is equivalent of being able to take over a house…it freezes all of the defenders and house inhabitants when it is brought on an attack. For lunch we got to eat with our houses at picnic, which was really fun. I feel like I am getting to bond with some new campers who I didn’t really know before today.

After lunch we continued the game and there was lots of back and forth. One of my cabinmates, Logan R, was the only person “working” the Bee Keeping house after it got taken over by the Tan Team. When it went under attack, a counselor from the tri-cabin (who is a CIT), Annie M, was the Long Bower for the attacking army. Apparently after Logan got hit by a cannon, she was cheering Annie on until she hit the target. Throughout the afternoon, there were other house attacks and the Hunters were very busy spying and hive hunting. I heard the poultry houses were killing it in raising chickens today!

Before dinner, the coolest part of the day happened. Everybody was called to their castles and when we met there, we had a horse waiting for us. Each of our Grand Sachems rode on horseback to the waterfront while the entire team followed them. When we got there, a chess board was waiting and the Hive Minds began playing. The camp was silent as we looked on. The way it works is that the chess pieces represent different members of the Round Table and if a piece gets knocked out, the corresponding Round Table member is out for 30 minutes. After eight minutes of play, the White Team Sheriff, Jillian W was officially out for the next two rounds. The Castle told us there is a lot of strategy, and that they may have sacrificed Jillian because of where things were at in the game. Every two hours, they resume the game of chess- those Hive Minds have a big job!

We then had dinner before getting back to the evening portion of Realm. It was even cooler as the night got dark. The game continued and Chippindel was hopping. The night concluded with a final round of chess before the game ended…for tonight, don’t worry, we get to continue things tomorrow!

I’m not sure if this all makes sense to you…it might be one of those “you have to be there” situations. Once you start playing, it all becomes clear but it is really hard to explain. The main thing you need to know is I LOVE REALM! It is so cool how all of the campers and even the staff are so into it. Literally everybody matters! I am so tired, so I think I’m going to go to sleep- I hope I have lots of Realm dreams. Maybe some will be about Realm Season VII: Swarm. But I’m guessing I will also have some dreams about my future in Realm- as a spy, army soldier, and one day a member of the Round Table! I better get a good night’s sleep because I need to be ready to go tomorrow morning…I heard it’s going to be amazing. I’m hoping to be a part of a Castle Attack, the other girls in my house who were here last year said it is so cool.

I love and miss you guys!

-Your Happy Camper