Warriors and Warlords

Warriors and Warlords was held in Black River Falls, WI, put on by the Baronies of Jarravellier and Nordskogen in Northshield.

Gwyn, Dietrich, Jens, Signy and I arrived on Thursday before the gate was officially open. However, they were checking people in, already, so we didn't have to wait. We had pre-registered this year, and, unlike the last time we pre-registered, we got through very quickly.

The theme this year was "War of the Roses," and there were war points for heavy weapons, rapier, archery, shopping, class attendance, and volunteering, to name a few, and everyone had to chose whether they competed for red or white (some English houses who apparently had a big hoo-ha over something unimportant- late period stuff). I ended up picking red, as 1) my helmet already had red tape on it, and 2) when I was younger, an English gentleman had presented me with a red rose pin
and told me a bit about the War of the Roses (none of which I remembered at all).

Dietrich drove the trailer out to our usual camping spot, while the rest of us walked instead of getting back in the SUV. About half way there, Jens realized that the road was just a giant sand-box, and there was screaming involved in getting back on our way.

AElf and Mira had staked out space for us. Gwyn and Dietrich started setting up where their tent fits nicely, while Signy and I decided where our tent might fit best. Then we trampled down waist-high grass in order to set the ground cloth on the ground. Jens was helpful with that. Our tent went up better than last time, even with Jens helping.

I asked Jens to fetch me my hammer, as I knew he could see it and knows what "hammer" is. He ran away and started dragging back Dietrich's small sledge. He was quite insistent on it. But in climbing over our poles, he forgot what he was doing other than climbing over. But it was quite the climb! He also thought that standing on our canvas or running through the half-up tent was great fun.

The day hadn't seemed that hot until we were setting up in the sun. By the time all was arranged, we were both dripping sweat and badly in need of a beverage and snack. That done, we got dressed, and helped (or got in the way) Gwyn and Dietrich finish putting their camp together.

A shopping list was made. Signy, AElf and Dietrich boldly went forth to slay food. Gwyn stayed in camp to try and get Jens to sleep. I tried to take a nap. Jens was all about exploring his new home. And "his" home included my tent. So I never quite got to sleep. Eventually, he laid down with me, and didn't deny being sleepy. So when he next sat up, I told him "lay down, Jens, and shut your eyes." And he did! Repeat. For a while. Every time he laid down, he stayed down longer. Napping was immanent when the food crew arrived, and he was Up and Awake again. Which was fine, as that meant I could nap.

I napped the entire day. I made my annual visit to the flushies before remembering why I prefer the port-a-privies at this site. I discovered a deer tick embedded in my skin where I couldn't get to it easily, and Dietrich kindly took it out with his knife (no rash, whew!). Dinner and eating must have happened. I realized that across the road from us was our old shire, and the two new groups that sprung up nearby since we'd left.

Cerian set up his tent nearby, and spent way too much time wandering around without a shirt on. John, Maire, Mykalynn and Duncan arrived after I was in bed for the night, making sharp shadows on the wall. I called the driver of the car bad names, until I heard John's voice, when I rescinded them.

I woke up Friday feeling able to leave camp. I had my traditional camping breakfast of Pop-Tarts and cold water. Much schmoozing happened. Eventually I wandered up to the field to check in. Manning the table was my old friend Hamish. Every event we see each other, he asks if I have a new red belt. It's the same belt I've had the entire time he'd known me. But this time, *he* had a new red belt! So I teased him a bit, and asked if he was being beaten on enough. I also thumbed m nose at him because he couldn't make me marshal, since I was from a different kingdom.

I wandered back to camp, on the way reading the "Privy Press," which is a one-page news sheet posted on the doors to all the privies.

I slowly stretched and donned my armor. I took myself and my 9' spear and my new 7.5' pole to inspection. No problems. Petro found me, and we talked about many and varied things, with a lot of people I didn't know passing through the conversation.  When fighting finally started, I ended up with him and the other Nordskogen fighters.

We did a lot of field battles. I used my 7.5' pole, which I had only used once at practice before, and learned a few things. Like, my thrusting tip was way too squishy to expect anyone to take my thrusts. And I was fighting it like a spear, without the range, which ended up with me dead a lot (like when I spear dueled... short 1.5' of range... oops). And I'm just not calibrated to the weapon, and erred on the side of "too light" rather than "too hard." All in all, I was not horribly effective.

When I needed a break, I walked off the field near where Alexander de Seton was sitting with King Tarrach. Tarrach wanted to know if I had received the award he had given me, and I asked him if that was allowed, and we got to talking, and they demanded I sit under the shade. So I spent a while sitting on a king's feet.

Then bridge battles! I happily picked up my spear and was rather more effective than I had been on the field battles. I think after the first one, maybe the second, I realized I had had enough sun to get a migraine, so I quit the field to treat it, fully intending on coming back to fight. Ha!

On my way back to camp, I ran into Lucius Marius Lupus, an old 'student' of mine. And I had to talk. (Do we see a problem here?) He is now the knights marshal of my old group, and he introduced me to his first student, telling him that I had trained him! Now, Lucius learned to fight by watching everyone and soaking it all up like a sponge, I merely guided him as to who he should spend more time watching. He won his first tournament by taking out then-King Ragnvaldr. Twice. So I was rather pleased that he thought my contributions worth claiming as his initial training. We chatted for quite a while, until a rapier marshal came over (we were drinking blue water in the water-bearers tent) and said she needed jugs filled. I left them to it and continued towards camp.

Having forgotten my primary migraine treatment at home (the pills my doc prescribed), I dug up the secondary treatment (four ibuprofen and a Coke) and sat in the shade while I gulped it down.

As I hurried back to the field, I again ran into Lucius, and again stopped to talk. Eventually, I told him I wanted to fight, and explained where our camp was and to look us up. I grabbed my helmet just as fighting finished for the day. Of course. I was bummed.

Then it was announced that Sir Jurgen was going to hold a spear class!!! Joy! I bounced on over (caffeine!) and waited impatiently. He started with only me in the class, but it quickly grew to 5-6 plus Sir Raito. It was mostly stuff I'd been told before, but presented all together. Some good drills. I was glad I went.

I dragged myself back to camp and peeled out of my armor. There were a couple people in line at the showers, but I got in quickly and had a very nice, cool shower. I love those showers. Very well designed. This year the hot water was a bit more sporadic than it has been, but I was warm enough that it was very, very nice.

I got back in good time to get in the way of Gwyn making dinner (my super-hero power is being in the way). I took Jens on a walk through the sandbox, I mean down the road, and picked raspberries. After dinner, I stayed up for a while being social, but went to bed early.

Friday morning I had just found Signy (A larger tent makes for getting farther apart during the night) and settled in for a long lay-about in bed, when I suddenly took note of the outside noise; "Jens, no, don't go in-" *toddler tackle* "Hi!" Oh, I see it is time to be up, or at least awake enough to play with the child.

I added some Real Food (TM) to my breakfast today, and ate over a few leisurely hours. Gwyn and Signy went to the glass bead making class. I armored up around noonish, and still got there before the melees started. There were some field battles. I added some tape to my pole's tip, stiffening it up a bit, and had much better luck getting my blows taken. My personal strategy was to find a good pole or spear and stick to their side like glue. Worked well.

My boots, which had been dying a long and lingering death for months now, finally gave up the ghost. I fell down a couples times, once was told, "You're not dead, get up." "Yes, I know, but I wanted to wait until I wouldn't get kicked in the head." Another time, my unit was bowled over, and I was not killed. "I'm not dead, would you guys mind if I got up and ran like hell?" They were fine with that. I ran and ran, tried to find someone from my team, but every time I found one, they got killed. Finally I realized that I was the only person alive on my side. Oops. Should have let those men who gave me time to run kill me instead.

And then I was backing too quickly, and hit a body,  clipped my heels out from under myself, fell like a log. Whipped my head into the ground. Oww... They're going to take away my stick-jock card for this, because I walked off the field and took my helmet off. In fact, I was so not-stupid that I found a marshal, "Do you know where I can get some ice without making a big deal of it?" "What?" I explained that I bumped my head and didn't want any chirurgeions involved, as they tend to get overly excited about this kind of thing. He had me sit down and fetched me some ice. I sat tight for a long time, eventually put my helmet back on, shook my head around, smacked my faceplate. No discomfort. Gleefully, I joined the next battle.

And fell twice. No hitting my head, but it was really annoying. I remembered that Alexander de Seton had offered to lend me his boots, as he was fighting rapier that day. So I marched off to the rapier list. I don't recognize him in his armor, so I was asking around. The rapier people don't know me, so there were some miscommunications about just what I was after. Finally, I saw him on the field, not actively fighting. "Alexander!" He turns, finally sees me waving from the edge. "What do you want?" "Your shoes!" "Fine, they're in my tent." I turned and ran. And realized I had only the vaguest idea of where his tent was. Luckily, I ran into Master John on the road. The lady with him forced water on me before I could even ask my question, but he said he would take me to Alexander's tent. A few minutes later, we discovered that he was taking this lady to a different Alexander's vigil tent. I was pointed to the tent. I reached tithe door and saw... about 5 people's worth of stuff. Uh oh... "Can I help you?" "Yes, I'm here for Alexander's shoes." He must have lived in the tent, too. "Here you go. Wait, does he know you're doing this?" "Yes." And off I went back to the field. I didn't fall the rest of the day.

Because of the heat, we stopped early, and had a really long break (part of that break was waiting on Their Majesties Northshield), during which the field was set up for the Mother of all Battles). Lucius asked me if I wanted to fight with Mistig Waetru, he had about 7 fighters, and they were short on long weapons. I said maybe. Just before 3, we were all herded into the big Northshield Pavallion. The King and Queen and entourage (with banners and all!) marched onto the field before us. "Make yourselves comfortable! Well, as comfortable as you can!" said Tarrach. I don't know if anyone else had gotten up, but I sure hadn't. Oops. They gave out some fighting awards, and put Hagan on vigil for the chivalry. Ha, no wonder I was having so much trouble killing him on Friday! I've been gone long enough I honestly don't know who the hot sticks are anymore.

Then the MoaB was explained to us. 2 teams. The attackers start at one end of the field, by their only resurrection point. This flag is a few yards from the Mountain Pass- think >< attacking from bottom to top. Maybe 20 feet long total? Then a bit of open field. Then a Town with three huts. Each hut has 1 flag. The defenders can ressurect at any flag, but they must enter the huts through a door. Once the flags are taken by the attackers, they are no longer ressurect ion points. Then, after another short open stretch, is a Castle, with the last flag/res. point. The defenders may ressurect here until the last town flag falls, at which point they have one ressurect ion left. The obstacles must be defeated in order, and the attackers have won once the flag in the Castle is taken. The defending team may start as many as one third of their force at their side of the Mountain Pass, as many as a third in the village, and the remainder in the castle. The team who defends
the longest, wins.

I found Lucius as his unit, and declined to play with them, as I had no black armor and wouldn't fit in the group. Or maybe because I like playing free-spear in ressurect ion battles. Whatever.

(My play-by-play is highly biased, since I was in the thick of things, and may have mis-interpreted what I saw. I'll do my best) My team attacked first. The defenders rushed all their men to defend the mountain pass. We blew through pretty quickly, and they formed a line before the village. We skirmished there. I was starting to get the vague feeling that, hey, we've lost sight of our goal, when suddenly we were fighting in the village. Having a spear, I didn't try to get into the huts, but I kept the defenders off them. A few times when I died, I had to stay down for a while before there   was a
good chance to roll out and ressurect.

During one hold, I glanced around to see how many friends and how many opponents were near me. One friend, and many opponents. "Two..." I muttered. Oops, not supposed to talk tactics during a hold, I hope he didn't hear that. "Hey, Virithos. You cant to rush them, join up with those guys over there, or stand and fight? Whatever you want, I'll cover you." Oh, this guy should know better... I tried to ignore him, held off the other guys almost until some other guys from my team arrived. Laid dead for a while waiting for a safe time to roll out and ressurect.

My hair was escaping from my coif, so I retreated past the 'safe' line marked for combat archery and took my helm off to fix it. And managed to set myself right behind the ballista. Eventually I figured out they were telling me to move left or right, as they apparently can't fire with anyone directly behind. I got my helm back on just in time to see my team overrun the Castle, at the far end of the field from me.

We had taken ten minutes something to take the Castle. In the heat and sun, that was a really long time. We got a longish break before re-setting with my team as defenders.

We set up a third or so at the mountain pass, a third in the village, and a third in the castle. But we didn't try to defend the mountain pass. We all rushed to the village. King Tarrach was in the rightmost hut holding a banner. They told us the general strategy, and "Don't let the King's banner fall!" We also knew how long we had to hold out. Two mental points in our favor all ready.

I started in the castle, and ran to the alley between the central and rightmost huts. The enemy came. I poked them. They tried to kill me. I got a couple shieldmen right where I wanted them to protect me. Eventually, I died. I turned around to find a flag. "Virithos! Virithos, right here!" Tarrach had his flag in his hand, and leaned it out to me. (I later learned that the men defending him had the door pretty well blocked off, and were arranged such that they were all touching the flag. Nobody in that group could die until Tarrach fell.)

I spent a long time killing, dying, taking a step back and stepping up to fight again. It was exhausting. It was great. I tried to  get the newer spears in to get myself breaks, but eventually most were as tired as I was, Rosien being the notable exception, so I stopped trying to get breaks.

Then I was smacked in the back of the head. Being fully occupied with the people trying to kill me from the front, I ignored it, though I was a little miffed a blow had come in, rather than a tap to get my attention. (This is about 'engagement,' which can get really fuzzy really fast. If you want more details, write me privately.) Then I got hit a couple more times, harder. At this point I lost my temper, swore loudly at all the guys from the other team who were fighting behind my line, and walked off the field. I left my helm and spear out of the way, grabbed a jug of water, and took a walk. As I calmed down, I thought of a lot of utterly reasonable explanations for me getting hit from behind like that. I saw the King's hut fall, apparently to a rule technicality? But we held off the attackers longer.

That was a really really cool scenario. I would love to do it again.

I wandered back to camp and hung out, sweaty and gross, for a while. Signy and Gwyn had had a wonderful time at the bead-making class, and I ooh-ed and ah-ed over their creations. And was dumbstruck when they each gave me one or two.

I heard that the showers were cold and there was not a line. By the time I grabbed my towel etc., there was a line. The line was long enough that Signy came and pulled me out of line because dinner was ready. After dinner, there really was no line, and the water was still cool. The couple in the next stall were not misbehaving, but I didn't really want to hear those particular people showering together at all.

I stayed up really late just hanging out. On one walk about, a lady I'd met once recognized me in the dark, after she'd just emerged from some bright lights. I was impressed. We looked at the stars. Wow. They were all bright enough it was hard to pick out the familiar ones amid the celestial glare. I went to bed way too late.

Sunday morning we had a leisurely breakfast (ah, a benefit to having canvas tent- wait for it to dry before packing!), and started packing up. Jens still thought it was great fun to run through the half-down tent, including when we were actively lowering it. That was a bit scary. I sorted our stuff into "can stay in the trailer until Pennsic" and "must go home." I hit that point where I'm almost packed up and I get really stupid. I was given cold pop, and then I helped Gwyn take down their tent, which required no thinking on my part. We still haven't figured out the best way to take ours down, much less gotten
it to a brain-free-process. It's also just a lot bigger and heavier than the 2-man dome tent.

John, Maire, and kids were almost all packed up when someone noticed that they had a flat tire. I don't know that I would have even tried to jack it on that sand, but Dietrich eventually found a jack he trusted enough, figured out how to get to spare to eject, and was highly helpful. I think in the unpacking and re-packing of the van, they found a better way to put it all in, too.

We were on the road just in time to get lunch, which was as planned and expected. Unfortunately, Jens was asleep before we were out of the camp, and was not pleased about having to wake up *and* being expected to eat. The trip was otherwise pretty uneventful (at least for me, snoozing in the back seat). We got home in enough time to unpack what absolutely needed to be unpacked that night and fall into bed.

A very good event. Much fun. I'm glad I could make it this year.

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