Quad War '09 - The Road to Alfheimsland

We (that is conejita_diabla and I) managed to leave Cowtown by 10 am, which was my originally projected time. Being a Thursday morning I opted to take Highway 2 north, which is generally the fastest route, but also the busiest. We met up with thekillerb69 and naughty_nat just outside of town and proceeded to carpool up to the site, stopping briefly for lunch in Wetaskiwin and to get ice and gas in Wainwright.

Our route.

Despite what Google Maps says, it's about a six hour drive to get to Alfheimsland. As we had virtually no delays and only the normal background radiation of asshole drivers, we arrived on site at 4:30 pm.

( Just hiding a picture of the Quad War Site... )

We discovered that Montengarde's usual area (The middle of Montengarde Lane) was already occupied by the Huscarles. This raised some eyebrows until our Baron Beothuk explained that he let them camp there after discovering that they'd tried to set up camp in five different areas and had been kicked out each time. They were quite willing to do so again but 'Thuk told them to stay put. The majority of Montengarde ended up camping along the north ridge of the trees to the west of Montengarde Lane. We're dubbing that area "Seawolf Bay" as the Seawolfs were there first and made up the core of the camping area. This ended up being the site's largest encampment. We had something in the neighborhood of 15 period and period-ish tents and twice that many modern tents. I'm guessing we had about 20% of the population there.

Given a fairly large household had to scramble around that much to find room on what is actually a fairly large area, it might be time to assign a campsite coordinator.

The map above is somewhat inaccurate as several venues had been changed.

• The quiet camping area on the eastern end of the site was actually where the two Baronial pavilions were set up, this made it the area where court and the armoured combat tournaments were held.
  
• Archery was not in it's usual spot, it was held where the Tournament Erics are marked on the map.
  
• There was no equestrian area. This was more due to a lack of horses then a rearrangement of venues though.

Anyway, we spent some time putting up our camps and then spent a lot of time setting up other camps. There was a windstorm that blew through the camp in the early evening which knocked a few tents down. One of which was Tygar's pavilion - he had the misfortune of having the wind storm come through when the pavilion was at it's most parachute-like. We re-cut some ropes, bent a few bent pins back and had everything back up quick. Many hands makes light work.

The rest of the night was spent exploring and socializing with those people who could make it to the site early.

Quad War '09 - Friday Preliminaries

Friday morning I got up bright and early for an archery class I promised I help out with. Lots of newbie archers were going to learn how to shoot and archery is something that benefits from a very low pupil/teacher ratio. One-on-one is ideal, though we didn't quite have that. I met a number of gentles who I hope stick with archery.

I followed this up with a little targeted shopping. The weather at night is just chill enough that it makes sense to have a cloak or bog coat. I already have my +3 Cloak of Awesomeness, but it was decidedly inconvenient on Friday when trying to yield tools and wrestle pavilions around - something with arms was required and that means bog coat.

Now I had been quasi-promised a bog coat by mommaquilter months before but I hadn't really expected it to ever happen and she's aware that I'm not holding her to it. It does however give me a wonderful excuse to tease her. Regardless of her good intentions, I did need a coat for the next few evenings and she certainly wasn't going to pull one out of thin air. I managed to find a good one that mostly fit me (assorted crafters I know insist that the sleeves are too short, but I can't see it personally) and had a colour scheme that allegedly looks good on me. I had Galena (the merchant) set it aside and add a clasp too it. The clasp was because bog coats have an unfortunate design where the front flaps don't overlap when you close them, thus eliminating a big part of their insulation value.

My ultimate goal is to replace the clasps entirely with two sets of clasps. One in the normal position on the edges of the front flaps and another parallel to that two inches out from the original set. When I'm done I'll have the only double-breasted bog coat in the Known World!

Next up was an archery competition put on by RM - the Milk Carton duel. garething came up with this last year and the equipment was still on site so RM decided to repeat it.

Basically two cardboard milk containers are hung by strings and pulleys. The object is to shoot holes in your milk carton causing it to become lighter, and thus sending your opponent's carton to fall to the ground. It's sort of an intelligent speed round. You need to be fast, but you also need to be accurate, because blowing out the bottom of the carton helps you, but missing (or hitting the carton above the water line) doesn't.

I won the first heat against a worthy opponent. The second was a draw against the person who ultimately went on to win overall (sadly, I don't recall the gentle's name). I was beaten in the third round - - in a photo-finish - by Alickina.

I did have a funny/flattering moment during the second round. My name was announced as was my opponents. He looks up, sees who he's against and blurts out "Oh crap!" Clearly my reputation is far in excess of my current level of talent.

TM and I then went into Marsden for booze and cash. Sadly the Marsden liquor store is not well stocked (or possibly they were simply unprepared for the sudden influx of 400+ heavy drinkers). I opted not to get any beer when I discovered that all they had was Pilsner and MGD. Of course, that means I ended up drinking Beothuk's Breuhaus, so I'm not sure if I came out better or worse.

Returning to the site I had numerous bags of ice, some liquor others wanted and a mitt full of cash for my bog coat. I proceeded to get the coat and also a bunch of "period" tent spike (i.e. metal ones that were blacksmith-ed rather then stamped in the modern fashion) and a pair of portable holes.

I helped out a few more folks to put up there camps (not really necessary, I just made things slightly quicker) and returned to camp for more socializing. Later I watched the dancers and drummers at Dante's Inferno (the principle tavern on site).

Quad War '09 - Saturday Hotness and Coolness

Saturday was hot. Damn hot. Naturally multiple groups held athletic contests in the blazing sun. I can't bitch too much though, people actually died due to in-climate weather in Camrose.

There was another beginner archery class Saturday morning, and I slept right through it. I did get onto the range though - I shot a truly pathetic end in the populous shoot (0 points out of a possible 24. Ugh) and followed that up with a decent showing in the invitational Iron Arrow challenge.

The Iron Arrow challenge shoot was brutal. It was an endurance shoot where we had to hit a 2.5" target (basically placing an arrow through the reflector ring of a highway reflector) at 20 yards. If you managed to do this, you got to do the same thing at 30 yards. Then 40 yards. If there were still people left, they started reducing arrows. We later learned from one of the chirugeons that the archery range was (subjectively, to the chiurgeon) the hottest spot on the site.

Nobody made the shot on the first round so it was relaxed somewhat to a wand shoot - if you hit the stick that held the ring, you could move on.

Round one: Six for the Prince, six for the Tanist.
Round two: Five for the Prince, three for the Tanist.
Round three: Three for the Prince, one for the Tanist. This was my final round.
Round four: Three for the Prince, one for the Tanist. Thorgeir actually makes the shot in the ring - the only person to do so for the entire competition. Now I know why he never practices - he doesn't have to!
Round five: The Prince's team wins.

I didn't do nearly as well as I'd hoped, because wand shoots are the thing I'm worst at right now due to my injury. But still, I did advance to the third round.

Court was held after supper and lots of deserving folks got awards. Then I got called up, much to my surprise. First, the Princess complimented me on being able to sit in full view of the assembled royals while simultaneously not exposing myself while wearing my kilt. It's the little talents that are noticed the most.

Then I was awarded the Gilded Griffin (The principality service award, a step below the grant level service award, the Goutte de Sang, that I already have).

( Rosie, please don't read this part because I'm too young to die... )

othelianna made the scroll and it is beautiful (I'll post a picture later when I have a chance to scan it in). The best part of the scroll? Rosie put a little picture of herself (green garb, arrows in one hand, scribal pen in the other) in the lower corner! I love it!

After court I moved the scroll to my car for safekeeping and changed into my nice doublet.

I headed down to see Wench Wars, Kashi Machiavelli's wonderful competition to promote the fine arts of debauchery, flirting and double-entendres in a medieval context. Sadly, I missed Pirate Palooza, which sounded like a hoot and a half. That's because I went to the Grotto Party.

Quad War '09 - The Grotto Party

( Read more... )

Quad War '09 - Sunday Recoveries

Man was I hung over. I took two random unmarked pills from my collection and prayed that they were painkillers. I'm guessing they were low-dose aspirin (hence two of them), but honestly I might get an additional 2-6 inches instead of the advertised 1-3 inches.

I rushed down to get some breakfast and dragged along my archery gear. This was because of the early morning castle shoot. The goal was to shoot three speed rounds at several targets from the towers of the castle.

( A photo of the castle, for reference... )

Despite the picture, we weren't in armor, nor were we shooting at live armoured opponents. The targets were pictures of assorted bad guys who wanted to pillage our land. The shoot was quick and fun despite my wanting to shoot straight into the air and then catch the descending arrow with my open mouth. Wouldn't have worked anyway because I'd have to look at the sun. This was the first archery competition that I was proud of how well I did. I was tied with Aethelred (19 points each). Somerled won (with 32!) and Baeldric came in second (with 23).

I decided to go have a shower and there I encountered two disturbing things. A Viscountess (former Princess) and her SO entered the shower together. Now that's not remarkable, a lot of couples shower together at Quad War. What was disturbing was the sounds of sex that ensued. This was in a public shower stall that has no roof, in the middle of the afternoon. More disturbing was the fact that it lasted only a minute an a half.

I related this to thekillerb69 after I returned to camp.

Argent: "What was the temperature of the water?"
Me: "Somewhere between scrotum-shriveling and testicle-shattering."
Argent: "They weren't having sex, they were gasping for breath because the water was so cold."
Me: *blink blink*
Me: "I like your theory. It fits the evidence better and means I won't lose sanity to the horrible mental images."

Two-o'clock there was another court, shorter then the day before, but entertaining still. Afterward, the former Baron of Myrgan Wood came up to our camp with a large, hand-made chest that he wanted to present to Their Excellencies. They weren't around (because the assorted royals were all back at the pavilion gossiping) so I told him to stash the chest in my tent and I'd come fetch him when I could get them together in the same place at the same time. They're social butterflies, our Baron and Baroness.

After supper I bullied Wilma back to camp, where I thought Beothuk was. I fetched Dietrich and returned to discover that Beothuk wasn't where I thought he was. It was also starting to rain.

I quickly tracked down Beothuk and as we returned to camp the rain really started to come down hard. Or so I thought. It kept getting worse and worse. Within two minutes of return to camp, everyone was huddled under a shelter, unwilling to move to nearby tents because you'd be soaked to the skin instantly. I know because I grabbed a sword that was five feet away (so I could push the tarp and keep the water from accumulating) and I was soaked to the skin.

It got worse. It started coming down in sheets. The wind blew the water sideways. We basically sheltered the kids with our bodies.

And we all laughed about it because we could see the trailing edge of the storm coming. When I started doing an impromptu version of "Singing in the Rain", it stopped.

And everyone had a "where were you when the storm hit" story to tell. Afterward, the kids decided to play slip-and-slide in the mud, no doubt to the chagrin of their parents.

I apologized to Dietrich for dragging him from his much more substantial shelter and getting him soaked. He presented the chest to Their Excellencies and their was much joy and thanks.

Fires were started, I changed my garb and people went back to normal. Adella later told me that she saw the storm bearing down on the site and she and conejita_diabla rushed around battening down tents and pavilions. Adella zipped up my tent, saving me from having my garb, my bedding and my archery gear from being soaked or destroyed.

The storm did take the wind out of a lot of people and we saw a mass exodus of the site soon afterward. A quirk of geography made it so that a lot of Montengarde (and Wyndwyrm) stuck around. It was too late and too far to get back home before midnight, so we all stuck around.

We had an epic gathering around the fire. You couldn't have planned it, it grew to encompass about 60 people at it's largest. Damn near everyone still on site visited at one point or another throughout the night. And it was fun, and inclusive and mostly family friendly (a lot of the kids got a reprieve from their parents and were allowed to stay up past midnight). I can't point to any one thing that made it special, but everyone could sense that it was. I'm glad I was a part of it. It's these rare moments that make me glad to be a part of the SCA. Rare as they are, they still happen here more often then anywhere else I've found.

Quad War '09 - Gilded Griffin

After my near faux pas with my award, I riffed on the idea of retarded abuse of scrolls, coming up with a story I'd tell othelianna before revealing that the scroll was perfectly fine. It got quite elaborate.

"Thanks for the scroll Marie. We had to fold it into four so that it would fit into my glove compartment. I think that's when the wax seal fell off. The ink ran a bit because of the rain. I confess I have no idea how the coffee cup ring got on there - I don't even drink coffee. Anyway, I thumb-tacked it to the wall so that people could see it."

We even toyed with the idea of making a full sized ink jet copy of the scroll that we could abuse and show off while she was around.

The fact that I'm confessing all this without implementing any of it tells you that I thought better of it. The prank would have crossed from funny to cruel. I don't want to be cruel to my friends. Telling everyone my plan OTOH is funny.

Instead, I very carefully scanned the thing in. It was several times larger then my scanner though, so I had to piece it together from multiple scans. That's why it looks like it's been folded into four - it's a scanning artifact rather then my being a jerk.

( Without further ado, my Gilded Griffin... )

Quad War '09 - Trashing the Camp

Monday was largely spent breaking down camp, helping others breaking down camp, and long goodbyes. A few items of note:

• I know lots of cool people. I'm glad they let me hang around with them.
  
• The showers were actually approaching warmish when I used them.
  
• If you can manage it, take long car trips with someone who enjoys singing.
  
• I think I only creeped out one person. Yay me.

Quad War was a success. 474 people agree.