Drachenfest 2004

[janestarz]

Wednesday
So up up we went to the beautiful city of Nijmegen on Wednesday. The train trip was flawless, and we arrived at the suburbian house of Mike (Sensei Yoshida Shiro) and Yvonne (Sonoda Mineko, our geisha) at half past eleven or so. [Please note that all times are estimated since I didn't wear a watch and Live Roleplay really fubars your sense of time]
After the rest had arrived we packed our bags into Erik's car (Chinmoku Toushi, our ronin) and all of us set off. We could keep up with the cars until before the border, but the Opel Corsa we sat in couldn't drive faster than 120, so we soon lost them. No worries there though, we had the description of how to get there and thanks to the navigation of NoKey (Yoshida Yasuo, one of two hatamoto) we drove there in one perfect go. We even arrived before the rest, because they had taken a wrong turn somewhere. Ignis (Yoshida Inazuma), Willem (Miyamoto Usagi, the other hatamoto), Theo (Yoshida Dodokai), and Vincent (Kosami Omi) were there already and had prepared the House Yoshida pavillion. On entering the house, to the left were giant wok's (the kitchen) and to the right the bathhouse, flowerpetals in the water. Straight ahead the shrine and next to that the pantry. Just before the shrine to the left we had the common lounge, with a great cushion for our Daimyo (played by Pluis) and twenty smaller cushions for the rest of us. Small tables in the center of the room provided space for our porcelain, and we hung the nobori I made in obvious places (next to the entrance, behind the Daimyo, etc.).

We discovered that our tent, our sleepingbags and NoKey's airbed were probably still in Holland! After some grumbling at Pluis we managed to get a sleepingspot (with Geert and Judith in their large tent), another airbed for NoKey, a sleepingbag and some blankets. We ate some very good food, but since we did so every night of the fest, I can't quite remember what it was. It was mihoen with some sauces with meat, I believe, and there was vegetarian grub for the vegetarians. In porcelain bowls, with hashi (chopsticks), sitting on the floor of the tent on a cushion. That was fun.
That night at midnight the Drachenfest was opened by summoning all the avatars at a large ritual but we didn't attend and crashed into bed instead.

Thursday
The morning started good. There was somebody sleeping on our cushions. Somebody with a green face. We heard her story and woke up Dodokai. The matter was resolved peacefully and Oni Freya was released. It must have been very scary to wake up and have 15 samurai surrounding you.

After breakfast we stepped outside the gate of the green camp and occupied the small field of grass to do our kata. With the sensei in front of us, we all practised the moves we had learned in the weeks and months before Drachenfest. The silver camp was practising maneuvering with their tin men, and tried to march over us since we stole their audience, but we didn't move away from them.
I made a three very small movies of the kata, before participating myself. They can be found (for the time being) at my temporary picture folder of Drachenfest (Is .mov format, quicktime will work).

After the kata, we returned to the camp and met the avatar. We immediately sank to our knees and pressed our foreheads to the ground to greet our Kami (god). He gave us a mission. He said that there was someone in the camp that disturbed the natural circle of nature, and that we had to find this person. He was a necromancer, ofcourse, but we had no idea of what this is. All we know are mahotsukai, magicians. Everything non-human are ofcourse oni (demons).
I set out with a few samurai to bring the daimyo's greetings to the Silver camp. There I got a grand tour from one of the Kargath people and met some dwarves (oni). Later on, it turned out the people from Kargath would provide splendid roleplay.
We had some visitors over for tea, including a wolfman named Tarek. Being away for four days plays tricks on your memories.

The King Of Kargath
Things are really blurring up now, so I guess it's better to just convey some great events. Our quest for the necromancer continued and we had a suspect, an elf who kept mentioning "the black camp" when he referred to the green camp. He said he had no trouble whatsoever to participate in a truth spell, so the Daimyo decided he was innocent and had shown his valor. So we sent a delegation to the people from Kargath, and met the King of Kargath. He gave us full support since they're very shiny white goody-two-shoes who despise everything dark. Their ritualist helped out by doing a ritual for us, which failed into showing the person but did point to a tent the person we're looking for was staying in. There had also been a ritual to unite the three pieces of dragonbreath that had been divided last Drachenfest. Alas, a fourth part was missing.
In the next day, some eggs appeared. They were very heavy and couldn't be lifted but in and out of a chest. They could not be transported except in the chest. And the chest could only be moved by four bearers of the same camp as the chest was from. So the people next door, in jedi-outfits, asked us to escort them to the Silver camp to check on the eggs, we were glad to send some samurai. As I was standing in the throneroom of the King of Kargath the ritualist came over to us, said "here, this is for you" and pressed the fourth part of the flame into my hands. A small blue lantern. We never asked for it, but we seemed to be worthy of it. Or some such.

Fun was too (okay, I really really loved the King), when we would escort the King of Kargath to our camp for tea. I had invited them, and they asked whether we could send an escort. So the entire group went. We stood in front of the gates of the Silver camp, and they asked who we were. "Open the Gates for Yoshida Daimyo!". They told us only two of us could enter. That, ofcourse, was not acceptable. So in the end we could all enter. Perseverence, I believe, is a virtue. We walked uphill to the King, who was honored to see the Daimyo himself in the escort. We escorted him to our House, and sat him down at the table (because of the rain the cushions were impossible to use). Our Geisha poured tea in little bowls from an enourmous teapot (seriously the thing was at least 70 cm high and 50 cm in diameter). The King spoke to the Daimyo and sensei.

----

When we approached the ritual circle on Saturday to perform a ritual the Northmen and the Kargathians were guarding it from those who would want to raise an undead dragon. The King of Kargath spoke to the leader of the Northmen and we gained access to the circle. We performed a great ritual, very serene and quiet. Uphill, those who did want to summon the undead dragon attacked the men from Silver, but our ritual was not disturbed. Some didn't even notice the fighting. The ritual itself was to gain the rank 'fearlessness'. The hatamoto and sensei unarmed combat Yasuo-san (NoKey) would stand in the circle, in front of the samurai, and strike at their necks. NoKey did great, shouting a loud KIYAIIIII! and really striking really hard, never hitting one of us. All of us underwent this, and we heard whispered in our ear "Blessed be by the spirits that are" afterwards. We all received ranking cards afterwards.

Ranking Cards
Ranking cards is the way to go at Drachenfest. Without armour, you only have 2 hitpoints overall, so you need these cards to survive. We received 19 ranking cards for Theo cooking for the SL. Then we received a further 9 because Geert helped with building the Schatzkammer tent. NoKey and I received two because we helped guard the egg in the arena (though the chest was intercepted by the 400 orcs that went to attack camp green), and after the ritual we got 17 more. At the end of the Drachenfest, everyone had at least 3 ranking cards, Pluis had five, and 5 people had four. In total I think we had almost 80 ranking cards with our group of 19 people!!!!

Group actions
The kata was a wonderful example of group action, as was the ritual. In a tight formation, we marched to the last battle (so eloquently called the "endslacht"). There were many examples of this tight group behaviour. Whenever we got near the Kami we would kneel or at least bow really deep. Everybody showed us respect, except those orcs who wanted to buy our women and called us sissies. They soon had a wakizashi on their throats. They wouldn't have provoked us if they were allowed to fight, but now that the entire terrein was one mudpool they did. The sensei scared the shit out of them allright.

Another cool action was when we ran into more ronin. They joined us in the green camp to be tested, and they were bludgeoned and shot at. They had to defend me against two samurai and then against three, and they did really well. They disappeared back to the mercenary camp before the final battle but when we marched to the battlefield we came across the mercenaries at a fork in the road. With the entire clan, we halted, turned 90 degrees, bowed, turned back, and resumed our march. And when the ronin then joined in with us, I had goosebumps on my arms and legs.

Another great moment (all we have are great moments!) was when we were transporting a chest. Actually, four people of the black camp were carrying it, and we were the escort. A Yoshida at every corner. The two at the left side of the chest, where I was walking, looked remarkably much like shinobi. So I nudged Inazuma. "I think they're shinobi." The guy next to her said cheerfully "Yes, I'm a shinobi, ain't it cool!?". At which all of us drew our weapons and lay them on various necks. The guy next to me, with mask, had the sensei's wakizashi on his jugular, but didn't notice it at first; that must have been quite a shock when he found out. "Man, halt doch 'mal die Klappe!" (Man, you should shut it!) he said at his comrade.
The 'jedi' who had asked for our help, was practically tearing out his hair. The bearers had put down the chest, and any time now we could be attacked by orcs! "Please;" he pleaded; "please, let them go. Just let us get to the camp first!" We did escort them to the camp...but they were under close guard. I don't really know what happened to them later.

Miscellaneous
Other cool moments were
- The guard duty on the top of the green gate, where Geert and I were joking about shooting the daimyo (OC I assure you), got to shoot the damned green bastards and getting very cold fingers from holding our bows.
- Sitting around the campfire with Josianne and Ylva and handing out marshmellows to roast.
- All the people who invited us over for celebration because we were such a cool group.
- The portrait pictures before the final battle, that started out with just the ronin taking our picture and then about twenty other photographers joining in. Who're the japanese now eh?
- testing all the people we met within the clan to see if they had honor. We even started distrusting the Kami at some point. Only the King of Kargath was honorable enough.
- The three oni that were in front of the gate one night and serving them tea!

I did not enjoy the final battle at all, but that was mostly because I saw an orc shieldwall and I only had two little daggers while they used pikes and clubs. I wouldn't have stood a chance. I hate large crowds, especially if I've nowhere to run to, and the final battle got me a blasting headache.
All in all, I only shot 4 arrows (intime), and wasn't hit a single time.


Did I mention I have approx. 50 pictures and 3 movies on my temporary folder?

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Mightily impressed here by the wonderfull pictures and the kick-ass group play. Need to get me to drachenfest pronto :)

Glimworm

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

As was I. I will certainly recommend you to the group because I know you're a good roleplayer. We had a select group of good roleplayers with us this year and there has been talk of inviting more people (like Malor and 'Tine and Voltar).

I think you'd be a great Mahotsukai (mage) but that's type-casting. I don't know anything about your fighting skills.

But thanks!!! *cutes*

[coen.livejournal.com]

Impressive pictures.