The latest update posted to the Shroud of the Avatar website contains a ton of material, not all of which I have time to delve into today. However, I did want to highlight a couple of related pieces of news that came out of it.

As you may all recall, the highest-tier ($10,000 during the Kickstarter campaign, $11,000 at present) backers of Shroud of the Avatar are dubbed “Lords of the Manor”, a reference to Richard Garriott’s Britannia Manor series of homes (the second of which is for sale, the third of which is under construction, and the fourth of which is his New York City home). One of the rewards associated with pledges at this level is:

Join Richard “Lord British” Garriott in a personal tour of the actual Britannia Manor and its collections (choose 1 of 4 offered dates; travel expense not covered).

This event also includes a catered dinner. And who do we know, Dragons and Dragonettes, that has both a passionate love of all things Ultima and a passionate love of cooking?

Well, Rustic Dragon doesn’t call his website the Hearth of Britannia for nothing, you know.

So, earlier this month, the first Lord of the Manor event happened:

We had our first such Lord of the Manor event at Britannia Manor in New York City on October 5, 2013…Three Lord of the Manors, and their guests, were able to join us for this event.

And with it, this happened:

As a special, unplanned treat, Joseph Toschlog (Rustic Dragon of Hearth of Britannia) volunteered to cater the event with his original recipes, some of which are adapted from Richard’s past Ultima games.

Rustic Dragon and his girlfriend, Aleksandra Phillips, were flown out to New York by Richard Garriott, and prepared all manner of dishes for the enjoyment of the guests of the event.

And as you can see below, they were there as more than just food preparation and service staff: they were invited to partake in all the various segments of the Lord of the Manor tour:

This being a Lord British event, of course, some role play was expected:

Things got a little wild toward the end of the meal. First, Laetitia convinced Joseph to accidentally cut off Lord British’s rat-tail braid while serving a special King’s bread, then Lord British appeared to be poisoned after eating the King’s bread. Fortunately, Matthew located a coffin nearby, so we had a place to store the body, all of which got a double thumbs-up from the teenager in the group.

Fortunately, Lord British has an amazing ability to reincarnate no matter how many times he is killed, and managed to finish off the evening with a grand tour of Britannia Manor, and a final nightcap of 1955 Port.

You can hear Rustic Dragon talk a bit more — a lot more, really — about the whole experience of catering the Lord of the Manor event, and about meeting his childhood idol in the process, here, in the footage from the penultimate Hearth of Britannia Dragonsmeet:

And because it’s funny, here’s a meme-ready blank of the image of Rustic Dragon attacking Richard Garriott, along with a couple memes I’ve made from it:

I think congratulations are in order for Rustic Dragon here, belated as I am in offering them here on the site. As Rustic himself noted in the hangout, he has to find a new dream now; this event marks the realization of his dreams to date.

Well done, Rustic!