March 30, 2002. South Range, MI
AS 36, Mistig Waetru, Northshield
The Kingslayer
Lucius (back to us) fighting King Ragnvalder. Lucius was authorized that day, and killed the king twice and won the tourney.
Purple tries to Kill me.
I teach my page important things: don't forget weapons when going into
battle
New silk banners for Mistig Waetru
Some ladies doing handwork
The Event Report
Pre-event, we *had* to go to the Keweenaw Co-op. We picked up Birch beer (yummy drink), Winter Brew (yummy drink), tea (yummy drink), and yeast (to make yummy drink). It amused me, I had to share. Our crash space people were arriving "anywhere from 8pm to 2am." There was a knock at the door at 11 (but in a college town on Friday night, it could be any random drunk, and has been), and there were two ladies holding stuffed animals. Had to be them. It was late, they had just driven far, we giggled at each other for almost an hour before shutting up enough to sleep.
As of Thursday, the head troll didn't know when site opened, so we went over at 9, to discover that rapier stuff had started at 8am (Eastern, when lots of folks there are on central)! Oh well. We started saying hello to people. As usual, those who have left the shire return to events with shimmering halos. Although the "instant expert in any field" was dimmed by the presance of *gasp* people who really knew what they are doing. Whew. I checked up on my sucessor and reclaimed my stick of rattan that had been put in the "shire gear" rather than "my gear" pile when we moved. Signy set up some tablet weaving on the stage, which we had been told was the solarium for people to do their handwork on. There was an interesting few minutes of negotiation when many ladies and a class was set up where some people had assummed the thrones were going to be, so the royals moved to a better lit area and the handworkers stayed on the dim stage.
The site was beautiful. It's an old town hall. It has high vaulted ceilings and dark woodwork and hardwood floors. The lower half of the walls is acustic tile, but it doesn't look icky. The top parts of the wall are covered in dark blue filmy fabric with stars on it. Big windows light it during the day, and icecle christmas lights add glitter after dark. It was big enough that they could have had another fighting list in it.
The rapier tourney was kinda counfusing for me as an observer, but I'll do my best. At one end of the list were three doors. Behind the doors was a spinner, with different ways the fencers who spun it had to fight (two dagger, rigid parry, unarmed, etc). Three fencers spun and went behind the doors. The fencer being scored picked the doors in whatever order they wanted (or could pick two and get double points for each one killed). The three door fencers rotated through everyone, and everyone got one chance at the doors. The "unarmed" spinner option was.. poorly thought out I think, as it was scored: an inexperienced fighter gets one point for killing them; the experienced fighter gets one point for the kill, and minus three points for killing an unarmed opponent. To me it seems less than ideal to set people up facing an unarmed opponent when they're in a tourney. Even though it looked like there was 30 second of actual fighting to every three minutes of schtick, they seemed to have fun, and that's what really matters.
Lunch was exceptionally good. Anything cooked by Lady Conandil Glass, eat if you can. Yum!
Then fighting started. I started inspecing armor so that people wouldn't have to stand around armored up. When the MiC came by, I told him what I was doing (the official MiC, not the local MiT who was actually running things). He was going to send me on a different mission, then decided that I should watch the MiT inspect people. We sucessfully failed two bits of armor that came back fixed. I couldn't marshal the authorizations, because I knew everyone authorizing. The tournt was "Wack a Wabbit," an Easter named bearpit. I was concerned about having three knights and a bunch of new fighters in a bearpit, as the last time I'd seen that done, no one had fun, not the newbie being one-shotted or the good fighters shooting fish in a barrel. You got one point for losing, two for winning, three for an unbelt killing a knight. Partway through, the king announced that he was going to go through the line, not scoring, but how many points did the audiance think he was worth to those who killed him? He almost convinced them to 5, but Vlad (Northshield EM) said that he thought 10 would be more fair.
I went though the line, killed and died. There were two Acts of God, when the knight died instead of me. The first time I came up against the king, he said "So, I guess you're the one to watch out for!" I know better than that, but he didn't belive that I was cute and fluffy and as unthreatening as a bunny rabbit. I forgot the tourney was "whack a rabbit," I should have used "seal." He one shotted me (my only one-shot of the day though, I don't feel bad losing to the king). I killed Purple pole on pole from my knees. At least three more times I fought the king. I lost once on my knees with my good arm gone. Another time, he took me legs, I charged him on my knees, had almost forced my point to his face, when my helm rings. I sag down, look at his grin, turn my head and see his backup weapon. I said a bad word, I had forgotten about that. The final time I fought him, I was, again, on my knees, at close range. I had no clue what to do next, but it became theoretical, as I felt a thurst to my gut. I sighed, but he was grinning again. I looked at exactly where the thrust had come from, and his sword was sticking out from his knees. I said, "Well, if you have to use dirty tricks..." ...I must be doing something right. The audience laughed. My favorite fight the whole day was against Lord Ottar, the seneschal of a group forming in Marquette, MI (www.skerrstrand.org). He has a "glory axe," that looks just like a normal woodaxe with a slightly long handle. He brought it out against my pole. I like fighting at spear range. Ottar likes fighting in your pockets. There was nowhere to run. So I charged him. We... fought just barely within the rules for grappling and wrestling. We were face to face the entire time, shoving and twisting. I did elbow him in the face once, but I apoligized and we continued. We fought for ever, blows glancing, or not enough room to get force, or the body sliding out of the way at the last instant. It was so much fun. I don't even know who won that particular bout, though we were even wins pole on pole. We both walked off grinning like idiots. It was the most fun, most intense fight I've ever had. The entire day, is the best I've ever fought. I only got one shotted once, the good fighters had to work to kill me (yeah, I have to protect my legs better, pole fighting on my knees sucks), I had so much fun, and I even won some fights. The best part though, was Luscious's performance. He started fighting in September, took a Roman persona "to annoy you," and learned from everyone. He authorized that morning. He killed the king twice (the only unbelt to kill him at all, I believe). He won the tourney.
Court was blessedly short. The prizes for the Rabbit tourney were chocolate bunnies! The Proto-Incipiant Shire of Skerrstrand presented cast brooches to Their Majesties. The caster, Lord Ottar, was given his Willow later in court, for metal casting and costuming (he's teaching a class on Norse clothing at the Known World Costume Symposium this fall). Mistig Waetru was given a Purple Fretty, and the people at thr front of the crowd asked for all the former members to stand up as well, and just less than half the group stood up, and I felt like the least among them. It was... neat.
At the beginning of the day, I was given a page, and her mother diferentiated "page" from "slave" by saying that one has no obligation to teach a slave. So I did my best, but if anyone has suggestions on how to educate and not bore a 14 year old, let me know, because I suspect I will get her and her brother at any event they're at. She was very good at holding my polearm and helmet though...
We didn't sit feast, but I hear it was wonderful. I got a pear, it was excellent. The queen went on at length to the head cooks. I've eaten the feastocrat's other period food, so I suspect everyone in the hall was in heaven. We came back for dancing, but fell asleep instead and decided to return to our beds to better drive home Sunday morning. After a half hour round of goodbye hugs, we escaped (skipping people that looked buisy. It was good to be home for a while). We heard in the morning that only three dances had happened before site closed, so we didn't feel so bad about skipping out.
Sunday morning, our crash space guests gave us chocolate Easter bunnies as host gifts. Bigger than the tourney prizes, so I don't feel bad about not winning (because we all know that winning is the most important, the fun is just a side effect) ;-) There were two dark and two white chocolate bunnies. Oh, two blind, white bunnies looking for good homes, up for adoption at the next meeting.
I was looking out the window at the sun on the snow, when movement caught my eye. "Signy, come here!" I called. I pointed to the top of a snowbank. Sitting there in the sun was the Easter Bunny! She then ran off with another bunny, in the way bunnies are wont to do ("She" because male rabbits don't say eggs).
Summary: good things to drink; interesting format for rapier tourney; best fighting I've ever done in heavy tourney; King killed by just authed fighter, twice; yummy lunch; yummier feast; short, interesting court; Queen has cool clothes; beautiful hall; Easter Bunny.