As we sat in the foyer of the Austin Amerisuites awaiting the busses that would take us to Richard Garriott's home for the Tabula Rasa Logos Academy event, a scraggly looking man snuck up to the couch I sat upon and handed me what you see above. The scrawled notes were a key to unlocking the graphical code, and I quickly translated the notes. "Meet near entrance before 5:30, not after. You will journey in vehicle. You will eat. You will think. You will return after midnight." Not exactly a big secret, but other than that the assembled crowd from various segments of the gaming industry had no idea what to expect as we boarded the busses. What we got was a tour of Lord British's amazing home, food, drink, and a spectacle that had to be experienced to be believed.

On the way to the event in our two busses, we suddenly got a pretty good idea as of what to expect as both of our busses were pulled over to the side of the road by the police. As the cops questioned our drivers, a guy dressed in a Men In Black outfit entered our bus and slowly walked the aisle. In his hand was a photo of the man who handed me the note at the hotel. I caught a shot of him as he was leaving, empty-handed. Ah, so it was going to be *that* sort of event. I think we were LARPing!

After a bit of a scare as one of the busses couldn't make it up a steep hill near the Garriott Estate (in the other bus we were cheering them on) we arrived at stately Britainnia Manor, where Lord British himself was waiting to greet us.

The group was led to a large tent set up behind the house, where drinks and some pretty amazing barbeque were waiting for us. The barbeque was so great in fact that no less than three spiders skittered across the table for a bite at mine, causing me to bravely jump like a little girl, knocking my chair over and nearly upending a table. This all happened with Richard Garriott sitting with us, who found the whole ordeal highly amusing. So I hate spiders. They are tiny, and I have a lot of surface area.

Soon a presentation started, and Garriott took the stage to get the event started. He explained that Tabula Rasa wasn't entirely based on fiction. While excavating the site of his new house he uncovered certain artifacts covered with strange, alien symbols that would be familiar to anyone who has been following the progress of the game. He introduced a UFO-obsessed professor to the audience, who further added to the story, introducing three key characters we would meet later. After the presentation we were divided into three groups and sent off on a tour of Britainnia Manor. Make sure you look through all the galleries, as four camera batteries gave their life to take those pictures.

Our first stop was Garriott's two-level study, filled with artifacts of days gone by. Weapons, old books, astronomy and medical equipment filled the walls. Garriott's collections include pre-published versions of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, a piece of the Great Wall of China, and a nasty looking Victoria bleeding device, with spring loaded blades and a suction pump for removing bad spirits from the blood. Ouch. To get to the first floor we had to use a magnetic device to unlock a secret door, which led to a spiral staircase leading to the first floor of the study and beyond.

On the other side of the staircase we encountered Garriott's famed dungeon, which our tour guide called "Richard's Room of Dead Things". At the center of the room was a casket with a human skeleton affectionately named Pedro. The walls were lined with bones, skulls, shrunken heads, and even a preserved human fetus. It was a very unnerving feeling, being that close to so much death. I needed a moment to calm down. Luckily that was just around the corner.

After dancing with death, we were led into a small tent where a man dressed as a swami taught us the magic of bodily control. The core of his act involved stopping his own pulse. The whole affair had a campy vibe, but it did introduce the theme of the evening: Unlocking human potential. Tabula Rasa is the story of extraordinary humans finding power within themselves to go on after the Earth is invaded and nearly destroyed, so we were being tested to see if we were worthy.

After a short break and a demo of the game, which I had seen before, our group was led up a spiral staircase to Garriott's Automaton room. This was by far my favorite room in the house, filled with old wooden, wire and mechanical toys that our guide told us were the original video games. Even more impressive than the collection was the fact that we were encouraged to play with them. For a good ten minutes the entire group was transformed into a bunch of giggling children, but there was more testing to be done.

The next performer was testing the powers of divination, using diving rods to answer questions, culminating in an elaborate card trick that involved one person from the audience using the rods to guess a card that another audience member had chosen.

Our next stop was the actual grounds, which were lush and green thanks to the unnaturally large amount of rain Austin has gotten this summer. There was a dog obstacle course that were sadly not able to run through, a butterfly garden in the middle of a pond complete with a statue that shot water at you when you stood on the dock, but by far the most impressive fixture was the carousel. Carousel horses are scary, and standing in the dark of night on the Garriott Estate somehow made them creepier. Soon we were ushered inside the house once again, but not before I caught a snap of the pirate flag flying high atop the manor. Damn pirates.

I feel bad for any criminal caught breaking into Richard Garriott's house. As we were led upstairs to the second floor I counted no less than 20 readily available medieval weapons ready to defend the house from intruders, along with several full suits of armor. If a knight were somehow magically transported from the olden days to this house he'd positively pee himself with happiness. As it stands I myself felt a little trickle coming on. We stopped by the kitchen for a glass of wine and some peanuts, where I snapped the picture of the evening. Browse the gallery for an exclusive close-up of Lord British's sink. Breathtaking. Also on the second floor was a dining room complete with a giant mechanical pepper mill and a small, magic-themed den, where our last performer was waiting for us.

I've seen spoon bending on countless television shows over the years, but it was pretty nifty to finally see it done in person. Completely fake, of course, and during the act I noticed a woman in the audience who hadn't been with our group for the two previous acts. A plant? At one point in the act the spoon bender had her check his hands extensively, so I would definitely say it was a plant. An impressive display nonetheless!

Finally our tour was over, and we all piled back into the busses for our final stop of the evening, ground zero. We were heading for the construction site of Richard Garriott's Britannia Manor MK III, where the alien artifacts had been excavated. We were all issued hard hats and waited patiently while our bus went back to fetch the other group, whose bus had broken down. As you can see in the gallery, I doubt we've ever looked quite as dorky as we did that night.

We were escorted through the construction site by Garriott himself, as confused construction workers (actors probably) wondered what was going on. We passed the deep pit that had been drilled to create a tunnel to the nearby river, wound through an unfinished building with dinosaur bones and a model of what the manor would look like when finished. The smell of spent explosives was heavy in the air. We were in for something large, and loud. We past a mysterious alien tower before arriving at a covered alcove facing the main building, which housed a floating metallic sphere, apparently a relic of an alien culture.

The professor from earlier in the evening took the stage next to the strange object and announced that five of the people attending the event were singled out as having high power potentials. Those five were challenged to climb on stage and touch the floating sphere. One tried, only to be knocked back by a large spark. The remaining four banded together and with some struggle, and finally touched the object. The alien tower lit up, and then all hell broke loose.

Electronics around the alien tower exploded into showers of sparks as the tower - a control point straight from the Tabula Rasa game - went live, and the lights dimmed. The face of an alien creature appeared projected on a black curtain in front of us. We had drawn their attention by activating the orb, and now we would be destroyed. The strange girl from the bending spoons presentation was called to the stage by the alien, reporting that the Logos instructors had been taken care of, holding aloft the severed head of the swami as proof. Suddenly the roof was ripped off of our tent and a circular lighting structure meant to simulate an alien walker loomed over us. In the distance another similar light blinked on. Then came sirens and explosions as the aliens began their attack. Luckily for us, it was then that the cavalry arrived.

What happened next was a pitched battle between unseen alien forces and a human strike force. Gunfire rang in our ears and heat from large explosions washed over us as we looked on in awe. A helicopter did a fly by, and we learned later that it was piloted by none other than Richard's brother and President of NCsoft, Robert Garriott. It was a fantastic spectacle filled with smoke and lights that seemed to go on forever. Finally one of the soldiers shouted an all clear and the crowd burst out into cheers.

As the smoke cleared, Lord British thanked us all for coming, urging us to either buy or sell Tabula Rasa once the game hit stores, announcing a release date of October 19th, which I mentioned previously. While the Logos Academy event might not have changed my opinion about the game, it certainly got me thinking about it in a different way.

As I piled into the first bus to leave, fireworks exploded, filling the night sky with color and light, and I realized I had just spent the night LARPing. Dammit.