[Mithadan]

The lights in the Hall dimmed three times and a bell rang. Mithadan excused himself from the guests he was speaking to and activated his microphone.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Elves, Hobbits and Dwarves, " he said. A voice came from the back of the room. "And Hippos!" "And Hippo," agreed Mithadan. "That is the signal for the start of the Downies Awards Show. If you will all proceed to the auditorium and find your seats, please. Thank you all for coming and we hope that you have enjoyed the pre-Awards party!"

People thronged towards the doors to the auditorium, wondering who the winners would be....

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OOC: Given the comments regarding the chaos, I think you all now undertsand why we closed our Freestyle RPG Forum and replaced it with the current system. I hope you have all enjoyed yourselves thus far. We now move on to the Awards portion of our Birthday Party. For those who volunteered to present Awards, please check your PMs today and during the next few days.

Awards Instructions: "To present an award, you must prepare a presentation speech (humorous), announce the name of the award and the winner, and provide the winner's "theme music". For example, Alanis Morisette's "Ironic" might be appropriate for an award which is the polar opposite of the personality of the winner. The presenter should, without revealing the nature of the award, PM or e-mail the winner in advance and try to arrange for the award to be given when he or she is on-line and can give an acceptance speech. Acceptance speeches are not required."

Only awards approved by Mods/Admins may be presented. If you want to volunteer to be a presenter, please use the Discussion Thread, do not PM me or anyone else.

Please try to exercise some decorum in the Awards Show. So the presentations and acceptance speeches don't get lost in the shuffle, let's not continue the chaos of the party in the Awards Thread, which will be opened shortly. Converstation is OK, but the party portion is now over.

Thanks.