Murder in the Maze Part V: The Legend of The Maze Part I

I'm going to ask for a final indulgence from you for this last of bit of maze history.  I thought initially that the following would be one post,  but I forgot that the Legend was so long...four parts in fact.  What follows is a good bit of text and I apologize for it's quality, but I intentionally did not edit it as I wanted it to appear as it did on the maze website.  Please forgive my poor writing, but I do hope you enjoy the story.

At the time I wrote this it seemed like Christmas got a new story attached to it every year, but Halloween was greatly neglected.  I was always fond of the legend of Sleepy Hollow growing up and I will be the first to admit the many elements stolen from that classic tale.  Our goal for throwing all of the Halloween parties in the first place and building the maze was to celebrate the holiday we'd loved so dearly as children, that night of magic and pageantry, the wall thinned world of spirits and legends: All Hallow's Eve.  I wanted the legend to have strange rural legend quality and that creepy edge of dark magic.  Of course it is set on Halloween, of course there is a murder, it is after all...

THE LEGEND OF THE MAZE

PART ONE: THE FESTIVAL AND THE STRANGER

Many Seasons past...

 

In a distant valley, there was a quiet village known as Valleydown.

Each year the townsfolk held a Harvest celebration.

Rivaled by none, all of the people from the neighboring towns attended.

The bonfire they raised each night could be seen from miles away,

and their revelry could be heard echoing off the mountainsides

late into the night.

 

One year, a stranger came to Valleydown.

He observed the festivities tentatively,

But refrained from participating in the merrymaking.

His furtive glances and moody air inspired suspicion in the Townsfolk,

but as the day progressed, a young maiden, Jessica, took a fancy to the stranger.

She decided then that he would be her partner in the evenings dance,

And set about a plan to coax him into obliging.

 

She came to him with a sparkling ale and offered to sit with him...

He was reluctant at first, but her insistent entreaties

and her fiery hair soon got the better of him.

"My name is Jack," he said shyly.

"This is your first time at the festival?" she smiled and sat closer to him.

"Yes, Its all very...Lively."

He took a drink of the Ale and looked away nervously.

"It's almost sunset.  There'll be a dance at the bonfire soon.

That's where I'm going, would you like to join me?"

The drink was very heady and made his face feel warm.

"Perhaps."  He turned towards her,

caught suddenly by the green of her large eyes.

"I hope I can find a partner for the revels.

Perhaps some handsome gentleman will ask me to dance..."

She smiled and looked away coyly.

"Perhaps..." He smiled, and took another drink.

By the time his glass was finished,

he was following her to the Bonfire.

 

Jessica, however, was not without a suitor.

Thom, the stout young farmer to whom she was betrothed,

did not take kindly to Jack's unknowing intrusion.

To Be Continued...

The two pieces of art presented here are some more headers from the previously mentioned Maze website: nexuscentral.net.

{created in Photoshop}

More Maze History and Art:

Murder in the Maze Part III: The Second Murderer

During third and fourth years of the Maze parties, so many people were playing the Murder in the Maze game that we developed an alternate set of rules for a second murderer within the game.  This was to help the game last a little longer with a large crowd so that everyone would have the opportunity to be "killed".  Also, sometimes the games would run long and people would have to head home to bed and had not had a chance yet to be the murderer.  So we inserted a second murderer to up the ante across the board!  There were several variations on how the second murderer was activated and came into play.  I don't remember them all, but following is the rule we used most often.

During the game, if the first murderer tapped the second murderer on the shoulder, then the second murderer was activated and tapped the first on the shoulder letting him know that he had become a murder victim and was dead.

Once this unknown murder had occurred, it would throw off any theory anyone had developed so far on the identity of the murderer and turn the game intrigue up to 11!  There was always lots of chatting after we were finished playing about who was where when and who secretly or not so secretly was watching or overheard when the murders were committed.  Lots of fun moments in the dark scaring the crap out of each other!  Good Times!  :-P

The first piece of art here is the flyer for the 2000 Maze party.  The flyer was printed on neon green and neon orange paper.  I apologize for my crappy scythe.  The image of Jack here has a MUCH better scythe!  :-)  Over time, Jack kind of became the official mascot for the maze parties.

{Pen & Ink, Text created in Photoshop}

The second piece of art here is the box I created for the deck of cards I created in Photoshop for the game.  During that time I had backed up many of my art files to zip disks and did not realize my error until too late.  I don't remember the exact year it occurred, but rapidly over several months time, all of my zip disks began to scramble and become unreadable.  I found out far too late that this is something that happens with zip disks over time.  I lost two years of artwork due to the scrambling.  The Murder in the Maze deck artwork was on those disks.  I've looked through all my old files to see if I had a hidden copy, but have not found any trace of the cards.

The person on the front of the box is my friend Don.  He let me xerox his face and use it as the cover.  The image from the back of the box is a skull painted by my dearly departed friend Ratboy aka Mike.  It was attached and used as the keystone in a fearsome archway we built for the entrance to the maze.  I'll see if I can find a picture of the archway and post it at some point.  The background is from several photos Don took of the black plastic that we used to construct the maze.  Those photos were used in the website we created to celebrate and advertise the Maze.  The website only ran for a couple of years but is no longer present on the web.  In my next post I will post some of the work I did for the site and give some more background info on it.

{Digital images manipulated in Photoshop}

More Maze History and Art:

Jack and His Scythe

Here's an older piece, before I discovered the wonders of Photoshop color. It's still a bit of imagery I am very fond of.

{Pencilled, Inked, Prismacolored, Scanned, then manipulated in Photoshop}