Crown Tournament event report
May. 9th, 2010 10:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eveglassThe short version: I was expecting the weather to be horrible and was pleasantly surprised to find it only bad. And I enjoyed seeing all my friends.
I hit the road with Olivier, my passenger, around 8:30 a.m. and arrived on site around 10:45. The drive was mostly pleasant, but apparently we brought the rain with us. As soon as we showed up, the dry skies turned wet and stayed that way until evening.
As I was checking in at Gate, I heard Tigger (a.k.a. Lady Tigera, who was running Gate) frantically trying to find someone to replace her, because she had to be in the procession of Crown fighters and consorts. So, having worked at Gate a number of times before, I said I'd be happy to fill in for a while. She was very grateful, and thus proceeded a rushed ten minutes where I found my cabin, parked the car, unloaded my stuff, changed, and high-tailed it back to Gate. I was going so fast that I didn't even have time to put on my jewellery, and what good is a Viking without her jewellery?
Anyway, I arrived back at Gate and proceeded to spend the next hour and a half non-stop checking people in. Every time I thought I had a spare thirty seconds to put on my necklaces and bracelets, someone else walked through the door. But that's okay. Gate's supposed to be busy. I was directing people to spots on-site I hadn't seen yet, given that the entirety of my experience at that point was my cabin and the Gate building. At least it was dry.
At about noon-thirty, everything got very quiet. I put on my jewellery, ate one of the lovely savoury tarts that Master John McGuire brought by, ate the truly awesome Mudslide cookie that Aoife (my house guest) had bought for me, and listened to my fellow Gate volunteer trade Pokemon on her DS with one of the kids who'd decided to hang out in the Gate building. Sigh.
Around 1:30, I finally convinced Tigger to get a replacement for me and headed out of the Gate building into the pouring rain, in search of Master Ernst. He recently had surgery on both feet and was getting around in a scooter... in the mud. But for a guy of reduced mobility, he was doing a masterful job of evading me. I went to the battlefield and they told me he was in the feast hall. I went to the feast hall, and they said he'd been by recently but had gone to the rec hall. In the rec hall, they said he was back in the feast hall. Ernst, buddy... how do you do that?
I eventually found Ernst in his pop-up shade pavilion next to the battlefield. It was dry. This was very important and truly wonderful. I said hi and gave hugs to him, Marion (sorry, make that Mistress Marion), and Mistress Kaitlin (sp?). I also acted as a good little minion, getting up every few minutes to ask spectators, "Excuse me, m'lord/m'lady, my Pelican can't move very well. Could you please take two steps to the side?" When doing this, it helps to be short and cute. The things I've learned...
Queen's Tea was happening around this time, and since Ernst couldn't introduce me to Her Majesty, I decided to introduce myself. Actually, Freya was there and she introduced me. (Note: I'd call Freya by her title, Mistress Freya, but I think she'd hit me with her spoon.) I bowed, kissed Her Majesty's hand, and introduced myself as "one of Ernst's." I figured with that kind of introduction, I would either be received very well or very poorly. She was gracious about it and only gave me a half-hearted ribbing before I moved aside to let someone else take centre stage.
I don't fully remember what I did at this point, but I think it involved a lot of walking back and forth between the various buildings on site and Ernst's shade pavilion. Repeat after me: I love my garb. I love my garb. I love my garb. Despite the rain, I managed to stay dry and (mostly) warm. The Viking shoes I picked up at Pennsic last year even kept my feet dry! Yay! (They were still cold, but this has nothing to do with the shoes and everything to do with the fact that my feet are always cold.)
I watched the quarter-finals and half of the semi-finals before deciding that I didn't actually care about watching people I didn't know fight the final bouts, and left for the feast hall. I was there, chatting with friends, when the announcement came that the new heirs are Griffyth and Aikaterine. I've never met them, but I'm sure they'll make great monarchs. They've done it before, y'know.
I went back down to the battlefield to see if Ernst needed any help getting ready for court, but he'd already gone. I went to the rec hall, where court was being set up. It was cold. There were no chairs. Many people were grumbling about this, because the feast hall was 1) already set up, 2) heated, and 3) more atmospheric for court.
A few minutes later, the word came that Their Majesties had decided court would be moved to the feast hall after all. Huzzah! I helped carried a throne and didn't get wet or fall down in the process. (Repeat after me: I love my garb.) I saved a table for Ernst et al, not knowing that he'd already claimed a table way up at the front of the feast hall. Silly me.
It was around this time that the rain stopped. I theorize that the rain decided to stay just long enough to make everyone miserable, and by the time we were all in the nice, semi-heated building, it decided its work was done. Stupid rain.
Court was longish and mostly full of AoAs. You could tell that Royalty doesn't get up here very often. Lord Xavier the Sinister (a.k.a. the Moose Slayer) got his Silver Rapier, Lady Alix de Minerve got inducted into the Order of Dragon Dormant, and there were a few backlogged scrolls given out. The final piece of business was great, and I'd learned about it earlier in the day. A few years ago, Freya's van was broken into and the thieves stole a lot of her stuff, including all her order medallions. Lady Svanna, Freya's protégé, took it upon herself to have all the medallions remade. She went into court and presented a case to Their Majesties that the thieves (as yet unknown) be punished if their identities ever come to light, and that justice be done to Freya by returning her regalia. She called up witnesses and everything: Master Conrad (I believe) to assure the court that Freya had received her Queen's Order of Courtesy, Master Tibor to speak to her Order of the Silver Crescent, and Master Ernst to her Order of the Pelican. Great speakers all, though perhaps a little long-winded. Freya was caught completely off-guard and kept giving everyone dirty looks. The Queen, when fastening the Pelican medallion around Freya's neck, said, "These were already yours. They just needed to find their way home." I love my queen.
As soon as court ended, I did a LOT of running around. I was supposed to be organizing performances during feast, and we had a lot of last-minute changes. (What else is new?) There weren't any performances between first and second remove, because we were trying to get the toasts squared away. Baron Pellandres was supposed to give the first toast, but he was nowhere to be found. We were just on the verge of doing them without him when he walked in the door. And then, of course, he needed to get settled in, get his daughter settled in... you know the drill. By the time the toasts were finally done, the cooks were serving second remove.
Between second and third remove, I performed the Boreal Army Muster, written by Chiara. Despite giving out song sheets, very few people sang along and most people kept talking while I was singing. I completely blew out my voice with one song, trying to sing over 150-odd people talking. The queen gave me a lovely, delicate ring for rousing the troops, though. Yay for more jewellery.
The other performances were Lord Connogan from Boise Ardent with a few songs on the lyre (done very softly), Lord Dannicus with a bawdy song about mermaids, and two jesters (Lord Connogan and Lord Ursion from Boise Ardent) with a jester routine that relied heavily on the not-quite-similarites between French and English. Note to self: make sure you vet the performances next time. Even though I suspected what Dannicus was going to perform, it wasn't really appropriate for a feast with royalty. Ah, well. Lesson learned. I'll know better for next time.
The food at feast was wonderful as always. Show-stealers included the glazed carrots (yes, really), venison stew, roast beef shaped like gargoyles, and cakey snickerdoodle-type cookies.
A great moment during feast was a follow-up from something that had happened a few weeks ago in the Midrealm. Apparently, Their Majesties of the Middle had been presented with a blue tiger pelt. (The blue tiger is the symbol of my native Eastrealm.) They proceeded to have everyone at the event walk over it. Boo! Hiss! This calls for blood! So remember those roast beefs shaped like gargoyles at our feast? The one presented to high table was shaped in the form of a dragon. (i.e. The symbol of the Midrealm.) So Their Majesties East mightily and boldly slew the dragon. Huzzah! Yay! Vivant!
You know what this means: War is coming! (Yes, yes, Katherine. It's coming in three months. We know you're excited for Pennsic.)
Anyway. After feast was over, Ernst, Marion, and Freya headed back to their hotel and I cleaned off tables from feast. I chickened out of actually washing dishes in my new shiny garb and instead went over and chatted with Valeria for a while, until 11:30 or so. I felt bad about not helping any more with clean-up, but it seemed like it all got done.
At 11:30, I headed out of the hall to find it completely dark. My flashlight was in my pouch, which was in my cabin. My matches would not light, due to the dampness. I swear, I spent about ten minutes staring into pitch blackness, trying to find the road to my cabin. It wasn't that far! You could literally see the thing from the exit of the feast hall when it was light out! But after a few false starts, I chickened out. I went back inside to ask for a light for my lantern, only to be told, "Just walk out the back door of the bath house. Your cabin is right there." Gee, thanks. I wish you'd told me that before!
I found my cabin. I took off my jewellery. I'm going to need to restring my necklaces, because taking those suckers off in the cold and dark was Not Fun. It took me a while to get to sleep, but at least my sleeping bag was warm. Yay sleeping bag. I think my cabin-mates got "home" sometime past three in the morning.
I woke up at 7:00 and fell back asleep until around 9:00 or so. I thought it was nice out because the sky was light, but alas I was mistaken. Wet snow was falling thickly on the ground. I decided to wear my chemise, my wool apron-dress, and my cloak, because they're warmer than any of the mundane clothing I brought. Repeat after me: I love my garb. There were a lot of people wearing mundane clothing with cloaks on top. Clearly, we've gotta get cloaks to come back in style.
After some breakfast and playing with a baby, it was time to hit the road. We packed everything up, I managed to successfully not wake my cabin-mates while ferrying everything out to the car, and away we went. The drive back was mostly uneventful, except that the Quebec government, in its wisdom, had closed Highway 15 at the Turcot Interchange, resulting in a half-hour in bumper-to-bumper traffic. I eventually got home, completely failed to unpack anything but the cakey snickerdoodle-type cookies (which I promptly ate), and fell asleep for a two-hour nap.
And that was Crown. I'm glad I went because I got to see Ernst, Freya, John McGuire, and others that I haven't seen in a while, but I really wish the weather had co-operated. Hopefully this is not a sign of things to come for this camping season.
Now I'm tired and going to bed. Hope everyone got home safe and sound. G'night all.
I hit the road with Olivier, my passenger, around 8:30 a.m. and arrived on site around 10:45. The drive was mostly pleasant, but apparently we brought the rain with us. As soon as we showed up, the dry skies turned wet and stayed that way until evening.
As I was checking in at Gate, I heard Tigger (a.k.a. Lady Tigera, who was running Gate) frantically trying to find someone to replace her, because she had to be in the procession of Crown fighters and consorts. So, having worked at Gate a number of times before, I said I'd be happy to fill in for a while. She was very grateful, and thus proceeded a rushed ten minutes where I found my cabin, parked the car, unloaded my stuff, changed, and high-tailed it back to Gate. I was going so fast that I didn't even have time to put on my jewellery, and what good is a Viking without her jewellery?
Anyway, I arrived back at Gate and proceeded to spend the next hour and a half non-stop checking people in. Every time I thought I had a spare thirty seconds to put on my necklaces and bracelets, someone else walked through the door. But that's okay. Gate's supposed to be busy. I was directing people to spots on-site I hadn't seen yet, given that the entirety of my experience at that point was my cabin and the Gate building. At least it was dry.
At about noon-thirty, everything got very quiet. I put on my jewellery, ate one of the lovely savoury tarts that Master John McGuire brought by, ate the truly awesome Mudslide cookie that Aoife (my house guest) had bought for me, and listened to my fellow Gate volunteer trade Pokemon on her DS with one of the kids who'd decided to hang out in the Gate building. Sigh.
Around 1:30, I finally convinced Tigger to get a replacement for me and headed out of the Gate building into the pouring rain, in search of Master Ernst. He recently had surgery on both feet and was getting around in a scooter... in the mud. But for a guy of reduced mobility, he was doing a masterful job of evading me. I went to the battlefield and they told me he was in the feast hall. I went to the feast hall, and they said he'd been by recently but had gone to the rec hall. In the rec hall, they said he was back in the feast hall. Ernst, buddy... how do you do that?
I eventually found Ernst in his pop-up shade pavilion next to the battlefield. It was dry. This was very important and truly wonderful. I said hi and gave hugs to him, Marion (sorry, make that Mistress Marion), and Mistress Kaitlin (sp?). I also acted as a good little minion, getting up every few minutes to ask spectators, "Excuse me, m'lord/m'lady, my Pelican can't move very well. Could you please take two steps to the side?" When doing this, it helps to be short and cute. The things I've learned...
Queen's Tea was happening around this time, and since Ernst couldn't introduce me to Her Majesty, I decided to introduce myself. Actually, Freya was there and she introduced me. (Note: I'd call Freya by her title, Mistress Freya, but I think she'd hit me with her spoon.) I bowed, kissed Her Majesty's hand, and introduced myself as "one of Ernst's." I figured with that kind of introduction, I would either be received very well or very poorly. She was gracious about it and only gave me a half-hearted ribbing before I moved aside to let someone else take centre stage.
I don't fully remember what I did at this point, but I think it involved a lot of walking back and forth between the various buildings on site and Ernst's shade pavilion. Repeat after me: I love my garb. I love my garb. I love my garb. Despite the rain, I managed to stay dry and (mostly) warm. The Viking shoes I picked up at Pennsic last year even kept my feet dry! Yay! (They were still cold, but this has nothing to do with the shoes and everything to do with the fact that my feet are always cold.)
I watched the quarter-finals and half of the semi-finals before deciding that I didn't actually care about watching people I didn't know fight the final bouts, and left for the feast hall. I was there, chatting with friends, when the announcement came that the new heirs are Griffyth and Aikaterine. I've never met them, but I'm sure they'll make great monarchs. They've done it before, y'know.
I went back down to the battlefield to see if Ernst needed any help getting ready for court, but he'd already gone. I went to the rec hall, where court was being set up. It was cold. There were no chairs. Many people were grumbling about this, because the feast hall was 1) already set up, 2) heated, and 3) more atmospheric for court.
A few minutes later, the word came that Their Majesties had decided court would be moved to the feast hall after all. Huzzah! I helped carried a throne and didn't get wet or fall down in the process. (Repeat after me: I love my garb.) I saved a table for Ernst et al, not knowing that he'd already claimed a table way up at the front of the feast hall. Silly me.
It was around this time that the rain stopped. I theorize that the rain decided to stay just long enough to make everyone miserable, and by the time we were all in the nice, semi-heated building, it decided its work was done. Stupid rain.
Court was longish and mostly full of AoAs. You could tell that Royalty doesn't get up here very often. Lord Xavier the Sinister (a.k.a. the Moose Slayer) got his Silver Rapier, Lady Alix de Minerve got inducted into the Order of Dragon Dormant, and there were a few backlogged scrolls given out. The final piece of business was great, and I'd learned about it earlier in the day. A few years ago, Freya's van was broken into and the thieves stole a lot of her stuff, including all her order medallions. Lady Svanna, Freya's protégé, took it upon herself to have all the medallions remade. She went into court and presented a case to Their Majesties that the thieves (as yet unknown) be punished if their identities ever come to light, and that justice be done to Freya by returning her regalia. She called up witnesses and everything: Master Conrad (I believe) to assure the court that Freya had received her Queen's Order of Courtesy, Master Tibor to speak to her Order of the Silver Crescent, and Master Ernst to her Order of the Pelican. Great speakers all, though perhaps a little long-winded. Freya was caught completely off-guard and kept giving everyone dirty looks. The Queen, when fastening the Pelican medallion around Freya's neck, said, "These were already yours. They just needed to find their way home." I love my queen.
As soon as court ended, I did a LOT of running around. I was supposed to be organizing performances during feast, and we had a lot of last-minute changes. (What else is new?) There weren't any performances between first and second remove, because we were trying to get the toasts squared away. Baron Pellandres was supposed to give the first toast, but he was nowhere to be found. We were just on the verge of doing them without him when he walked in the door. And then, of course, he needed to get settled in, get his daughter settled in... you know the drill. By the time the toasts were finally done, the cooks were serving second remove.
Between second and third remove, I performed the Boreal Army Muster, written by Chiara. Despite giving out song sheets, very few people sang along and most people kept talking while I was singing. I completely blew out my voice with one song, trying to sing over 150-odd people talking. The queen gave me a lovely, delicate ring for rousing the troops, though. Yay for more jewellery.
The other performances were Lord Connogan from Boise Ardent with a few songs on the lyre (done very softly), Lord Dannicus with a bawdy song about mermaids, and two jesters (Lord Connogan and Lord Ursion from Boise Ardent) with a jester routine that relied heavily on the not-quite-similarites between French and English. Note to self: make sure you vet the performances next time. Even though I suspected what Dannicus was going to perform, it wasn't really appropriate for a feast with royalty. Ah, well. Lesson learned. I'll know better for next time.
The food at feast was wonderful as always. Show-stealers included the glazed carrots (yes, really), venison stew, roast beef shaped like gargoyles, and cakey snickerdoodle-type cookies.
A great moment during feast was a follow-up from something that had happened a few weeks ago in the Midrealm. Apparently, Their Majesties of the Middle had been presented with a blue tiger pelt. (The blue tiger is the symbol of my native Eastrealm.) They proceeded to have everyone at the event walk over it. Boo! Hiss! This calls for blood! So remember those roast beefs shaped like gargoyles at our feast? The one presented to high table was shaped in the form of a dragon. (i.e. The symbol of the Midrealm.) So Their Majesties East mightily and boldly slew the dragon. Huzzah! Yay! Vivant!
You know what this means: War is coming! (Yes, yes, Katherine. It's coming in three months. We know you're excited for Pennsic.)
Anyway. After feast was over, Ernst, Marion, and Freya headed back to their hotel and I cleaned off tables from feast. I chickened out of actually washing dishes in my new shiny garb and instead went over and chatted with Valeria for a while, until 11:30 or so. I felt bad about not helping any more with clean-up, but it seemed like it all got done.
At 11:30, I headed out of the hall to find it completely dark. My flashlight was in my pouch, which was in my cabin. My matches would not light, due to the dampness. I swear, I spent about ten minutes staring into pitch blackness, trying to find the road to my cabin. It wasn't that far! You could literally see the thing from the exit of the feast hall when it was light out! But after a few false starts, I chickened out. I went back inside to ask for a light for my lantern, only to be told, "Just walk out the back door of the bath house. Your cabin is right there." Gee, thanks. I wish you'd told me that before!
I found my cabin. I took off my jewellery. I'm going to need to restring my necklaces, because taking those suckers off in the cold and dark was Not Fun. It took me a while to get to sleep, but at least my sleeping bag was warm. Yay sleeping bag. I think my cabin-mates got "home" sometime past three in the morning.
I woke up at 7:00 and fell back asleep until around 9:00 or so. I thought it was nice out because the sky was light, but alas I was mistaken. Wet snow was falling thickly on the ground. I decided to wear my chemise, my wool apron-dress, and my cloak, because they're warmer than any of the mundane clothing I brought. Repeat after me: I love my garb. There were a lot of people wearing mundane clothing with cloaks on top. Clearly, we've gotta get cloaks to come back in style.
After some breakfast and playing with a baby, it was time to hit the road. We packed everything up, I managed to successfully not wake my cabin-mates while ferrying everything out to the car, and away we went. The drive back was mostly uneventful, except that the Quebec government, in its wisdom, had closed Highway 15 at the Turcot Interchange, resulting in a half-hour in bumper-to-bumper traffic. I eventually got home, completely failed to unpack anything but the cakey snickerdoodle-type cookies (which I promptly ate), and fell asleep for a two-hour nap.
And that was Crown. I'm glad I went because I got to see Ernst, Freya, John McGuire, and others that I haven't seen in a while, but I really wish the weather had co-operated. Hopefully this is not a sign of things to come for this camping season.
Now I'm tired and going to bed. Hope everyone got home safe and sound. G'night all.
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no subject
Date: 2010-05-10 04:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-10 04:46 am (UTC)IT SNOWED TODAY.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-10 02:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-10 12:48 pm (UTC)I am SO glad I got to spend time with you. I'm still hug deprived. We need to work on that.
{{{{{HUGS}}}}}
no subject
Date: 2010-05-10 02:12 pm (UTC)Incidentally, I finally heard from Joanna and it looks like I'll be able to arrive on-site at Pennsic pretty much any time. I think I'm going to aim for first Sunday. Drop me an email and we can discuss what you need from me at EK Royal.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-10 09:16 pm (UTC)