Pirates Cove Drossbox - Yaaaaaar!

Frigid winds whipped off the Puget Sound and around the Pike Place (Goblin) Market.  By lunchtime, Princess Lolly's fingers were more like frozen finger-pops attached to her hands than working appendages.  Playing the tutti-flutti outside this early in the morning demanded hot tea to go with it in the future.


Just as she was packing up her silver flute to investigate that tea option, who should appear at the Brass Pig but lo!  Her friend, Hawk - and he was looking as mischievous as a lost boy ever does.


"Was that you I heard fluting away down there miss Lolly?" The Lost Boy grinned at the pink-haired Princess.


"It most certainly was," she nodded, returning his smile. "It is so cold down there that even my gum froze! I was going to get some hot earl grey and warm up. What are you doing down here anyway?"


"Hiding treasure..." 


Now, anyone who is an expert on Pirates, Lost Boys, Pixies and Fair Folk of all kinds knows that if there is one thing they all have in common, it is a love of shiny things and treasure.  Hawk chuckled, his blue eyes shifting up the stairs toward Post Alley and back again.  "You should stick your frozen gum on the Gum Wall and then help me hide this treasure!"  


Lolly was smirking now too. "That is a spectacular idea." she pronounced.  And that's exactly what she did!  "Now...where to hide that treasure?"


The two friends pondered this as they strolled toward the waterfront.  Lolly twirled her hair around her forefinger in thought; Hawk stroked his hairs on his chin in contemplation.  Standing at the cross-walk, the duo looked across the street and there before them was the perfect place.


"Pirates Plunder!" they exclaimed in unison.  Rushing forward they looked all around until finally, seeking a good place to hide the drossbox, they decided to ask the Wooden Fisherman.


With a strange ancient, sea-salty voice, he told them this mariner's rhyme: 

The Fisherman tries to net some fish

He sometimes gets more than his wish

For with his catch is worth beyond measure

A plunder box filled with Faerie Treasure!

Hawk took the clue and hid the treasure, and the two friends laughed, running up the harbor steps and leaving the surprise behind for anyone to find!


When Princess Lolly returned to the Castle, she raced into the Treasury.  Carefully she  marked the map for Pirates Cove with the location of a new hidden drossbox.

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Seen in this article:

Lolly's Pink Flower Ring by BluPixie

Lolly's Brass Hair Wrap by Redwolf Hammer

Stone Garden Drossbox

Across the river gorge and over yellow grass-lands, in the belly of the Red Lion lies the Stone Garden.  It is a small destination, land-scaped with grey rocks and shrubberies that resemble a giant Fizgig.  Nevertheless, only the most dedicated Radcon folk know of this garden, in the center of their midst!


That was how Princess Lolly discovered the obscure little garden.  Every year during the month of the Candlelight Moon (that is, February), she traverses the Kingdom into the Land of Radcon to merrily meet with friends from afar.  They always throw quite the smashing party!


As every magical creature knows, it is polite to bring a gift when you go to visit friends, and Princesses especially are no exception to this rule.  Lolly carefully packed her treasure-filled Drossbox but, being a Faerie, she of course had to make a fun game out leaving her gift so she asked her fairy-friend Victoria for advice.


"Do you have an ideas, Miss Victoria, where we should hide this Drossbox?  It can't be too hard or too easy."


"Hrm," pondered Victoria, tapping her lips thoughtfully.  "I know!  Let's put it in the Stone Gardens!"


"Perfect!" said Lolly.  "You'll have to show me where it is at though."  


With that, the two ladies set off down the path into the very middle of the Red Lion.  They followed the sidewalk toward the tall stones and climbed up a low rock-wall.  There, Victoria searched through all the long-haired bushes, "I think under this grassy stuff should be fine."

Together, they lifted the long grass and hid the red, weather-proof box underneath.  It was a great hiding place! Right in plain sight, just like magic: easy enough to find if you know how to look :)


Once hidden, the girls locked their fingers in a fairy pinky-swear only to tell people with a dancing star in their hearts and who would promise to follow the rules - like you!


Princess Lolly waived goodbye to her friends in the Land of Radcon promising that she would see them all soon in the Faerie Glen at Ye Merrie Greenwood Faire!

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Now let's see if YOU can find this Drossbox!  

Every Faerie treasure hidden in the magical realm has a corresponding location in the human world.  Drossboxing is a magical cross between Letterboxes and Geocaching (if you're familiar).


Each box is weather-proof and contains its own instructions.  To find the boxes, you must read the clues about where they are hidden (Geocaching uses GPS coordinates instead).  Sometimes the clues are a rhyme or riddle or adventure story.


You should be prepared for your adventure with the following:
--A small magical treasure of your own like a special stone, gold coin, sea glass, bubbles, finger puppets, super-balls, temporary tattoos, or whatever can go in something about the size of a school box
--Your favorite rubber stamp
--Your own stamp pad in your favorite color!
--A log book so you can track where you've been (I mark all mine on this Drossbox Map in my Castle :)


For those that may be giving this their first try, I'll tell you the human location, but you'll have to pick out the clues and use the pictures to find it on your own!


Human Location: The Red Lion, Pasco, Washington
Faerie: In the belly (center) of Radcon, under a bush in the "Stone Garden"


If you happen to find yourself at Radcon 2012, ask around - someone there is sure to know where the Stone Gardens are!  If you're just visiting any other time of year, happy hunting!

Faerie Magazine Winner & Orycon Drossbox!

Faerie Magazine

If you loved faeries, you might have wonderful dreams at night.  For example, you might dream about winning a prize like Cathy Lallemand.  She won the beautiful, full color Faerie Magazine for a whole year!  Or perhaps you would dream about finding hidden treasure around town, stashed in secret faerie caches.

Probably what WOTAN dreams about.

You might however be the rather savage and uncivilized sort such as a Redcap.  Perhaps a Boggart instead or even...a filthy, dirty, nasty, rotten Barbarian named WOTAN.

And if you were WOTAN, you'd probably be happy as a hedgehog to dream about plucking pixie wings or making kabob spears out of spritelings.  No doubt, skewering faeries on a giant needle would be one of your favorite nightly visions - if you were a Barbarian.

WOTAN in the Mandalorian jail.

That's probably what WOTAN was dreaming about the very day that Amethina was zipping along the silvery freeway path on her way to Orycon 32.  Fortunately for all the little fae, WOTAN was just dreaming.  And snoring, very loudly.

In fact, his foghorn snore is probably what accounted for the whirlwind of autumnal leaves that piled along curbs and eddied them into the air.  Amethina knew that this year at Orycon, she had better watch out for WOTAN - he was bound to get some revenge for being thrown in galactic jail the year before.

Tumwater Bridge Path

Just in case, she decided to hide her Drossbox along the way at Tumwater Falls Park.  It was a blustery day to be hiding anything outside, but Amethina thought up this rhyme for a clue as she navigated her way past the playground.

Through a park of autumn leaves
A path lies to the right
Under the bridge, near the fence's end
Hides a Drossbox out of sight.

Venturing down beneath the concrete structure she searched around until she found a suitable hiding place for the treasure and tucked it safely away.  After WOTAN tried to steal the Faerie Treasure from the pirates at the WA Midsummer Renaissance Faire, Amethina was very careful about keeping them out of his reach.  He's a Barbarian though, so it is highly unlikely that he will be able to solve any riddles that might give away the location of the treasure!

Definitely what Amethina dreams about!

As it turns out, that was a smart move because WOTAN was on a pranking rampage that weekend!  He even left a gruesome rat and disgusting cockroaches all over Amethina's magical booth.

That's alright though, in the end, Amethina and her court of faeries and spritelings conquered that great, hulking barbarian in the end.

Or maybe that was just a dream....