Thorfinna gra’feldr
I awoke the morning of Spring Tune Up very
groggy, and very tired. I had no energy to jump up and get ready. Needless to
say, we did not get away on time. This however was not a bad thing, as not too
much was happening when we did arrive. The site was great, there was a ton of
room inside for merchants and classes and tables to game at and drink at, and a
huge field outside for the equestrian stuff, and another for fighting. What
wasn’t so great was that the site fee, advertised as $1 off with membership, was
not being honored. I don’t care about paying the extra buck, what bothered me
was that it was advertised on the website but they knew nothing about it at
Troll.
Anyway, no one from the Games
Guild was there yet, and though we’d promised to do the early shift at the
table, Colyne and I had spent the week desperately getting our wardoors ready
so we could get some instruction time in with them. So we asked Eirik to sit in
at the Games Guild table for a while so that we could suit up.
Things
didn’t go that great after that. First off, it was freezing! The wind! The
wind! That damnable wind! Secondly, the only thing our wardoors were used for
were windbreaks!! We stood around in armour forever before any of the classes
got going, and the only two that really did seem to start were Master Worgen’s
alternative weapons class, and some spear training. No one wanted to teach us
wardoors. Those that were asked, laughed. So that was disappointing. Then,
Colyne had to go inside because the cold was doing terrible things to his
tendonitis. He couldn’t even hold his sword. So the day of fighting was shot
for him.
Kenric introduced me to his
squire brother Benedict and we had a short bout which I enjoyed a lot, however,
my leg armour was acting up again, and I got some serious armour bites from
them, so that was a downer.
After
that, I decided to go in and do my time at the Games Guild table. Except when I
got in, no one was playing games and none of us really seemed eager to push
them on the crowd. A few games were played eventually, mostly among the
‘Creaggers present, but when we finally got a good game of Glic going, we had
to move so they could set up feast! Oh well.
Most disappointing was that
Master Hector was teaching two classes that I would have loved to have taken,
but I missed them while I was standing around hoping to fight and freezing my
patootie off. Not only that, I missed the whole Iron Chef competition!
Apparently the secret ingredient was Waterloo Dark!! How SCA. Alyce beat out
Naga by a mere three points. All in all, they said it went well, and we can
look forward to other challenges in the future.
I
did see a friend from Skeldergate, Len, authorize but didn’t get a chance to
actually congratulate him. And our own Wulfgang made his first authorization
attempt after sparring with His Highness, who told him he was ready. He was
good, his only problem was the low knee shots he gave, common enough with new
fighters. (Like I’m a big bad fighter who knows what I’m talking about or
something, sheesh.) Anyway, Wulfie knows exactly what to work on and I’m sure
he’ll breeze through next time! Way to go Wulfgang!
There was a ton of money
raised for the Commissariat, about $1000, which is pretty amazing. They had an
auction pretty much like our penny raffle at Snowed Inn, and lots of donation
jars all over for classes and such. And the Iron Chef competition alone raised
over $400! Truly outstanding.
Feast wasn’t bad. There was
duck and cheesy bread and venison and sherbet. I was definitely full
afterwards. My main complaint about the whole experience is that people started
smoking in the room, which was pretty small and enclosed, and it was murder on
my allergies. I was already sniffly from our recent heat wave (everything
bloomed at once!) and the smoke just about did me in. Four days later and I’m
still recovering.
All in all, it was a pretty laid back event,
from my perspective. There were lots of things going on, most of which I missed
out on. Next year, hopefully I’ll get a chance to have more fighting lessons,
and take some classes too. And lets remember to sacrifice a goat or something
to the Weather Gnome so its not so bleepin’ cold!!
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