Drachenfest 2011
Aug. 5th, 2011 07:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzFor weeks I'd been preparing for this event, and finally the time was there. We had packed up Iota to the brim, taking care to even bring along a guitar. Despite us having to take only costumes along, the car was pretty full with all the odds, ends, bobbles and bits.
Monday
I filled up the gas tank at what I thought was the last stop in NL, because this is the last place the multitank card works at. And then we were in Germany. I drove safely, happy to see the car was purring along as fine at 150 as it was at 120, and we took a few breaks along the way as well.
When we finally arrived at the terrain we queued up with all the other people trying to get in, and hugged![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
armhart who was two cars faster than we were.
I remembered the drive up to the terrain well enough and sms'd Tim we'd be there soonish. Finally, when we drove up to the Green camp, we hugged everyone that was already there and exclaimed over the number of tents already set up! The car was emptied quickly enough and we set to making the beds, setting up a tarp, a table, etc.
Not long after our arrival, Finn sauntered over. Tim and I had been e-mailing with him, and he had a moment to sit with us to discuss a bit of plot I'd wanted his help with. We hit it off right away. Finn of the Calennar (played by Andy, nickname to be used is Finn) is a very earthy and cheerful guy who carries a great comforting energy for all around him. Needless to say, I felt safe around him. Later, he confessed he was very nervous about meeting us in person, but we soon took those worries away.
The others practiced their archery in an empty plot and tried to shoot the volleyball I had brought along as it was tossed in the air.
The kitchen storage space and OT "dipruimte", when it was just set up
I contacted Twilightbanana, who'd be bringing the kitchen and be cooking for the group, but he had had a busy morning and wouldn't be around for a few more hours. Jeroen then made a list of things people wanted to eat and I sent a delegation with Nathreee to pick up some fries for dinner to make sure everybody had something to eat and - more importantly - drink.
By the time Twi arrived, everyone was settled in to an extent that it was easy enough to charter people to empty the van, set up the kitchen and get him settled in before we all went down to the parkinglot to drop off the cars.
Tuesday
I didn't sleep all too well on this terrain and tried to shield the tent from outside harm, so I was up bright and early and helped set up breakfast. We transferred the peanutbutter and hazelnut paste into the IT-suited jars I'd bought, and the living room tent was all dressed up. Outside, the people gathered for crafts under the tarp, using the folding table NoKey once made for Voltar.
The living room and meeting area with the Captain's Chair.
After noon, the final two people arrived. Most of the group (26 of us) had arrived on Monday but even this peer pressure could not persuade Rob and Wendy to join us, they had too much to do at home. When they arrived, they were greeted warmly, their sleeping tent had already been set up, there were ten people ready to drag everything from their car, and I finally could say that my group was complete -- up until that point there was a nagging feeling that something was missing.
Dunkelgrün, the group of Finn, wanted to train with us, and so we grabbed our weapons in the afternoon and met them on the hill outside the green camp. None of us were wearing costumes yet, and we were all eager to get training. I discussed with Simon (Parthalan in the game) what he wanted to do, and we decided to just do some Anarquendor vs. Dunkelgrün.
I briefed my men (still men, not elves, at this point) and told them that we would surprise Dunkelgrün. I had taken care to look at the Fighter's Guild training on the Vortex the weekend before Drachenfest and suggested a manouver where we split into two groups and outflanked the Dunkelgrün fighters.
Dunkelgrün was definitely not counting on this manouver and huddled together while the two flanks pressed their advantage and arrows flew and found many targets. At some point, Simon blew his whistle and we stopped to discuss what happened. Simon admitted he had not expected this, and that they weren't ready. We decided to redo the exercise. We returned to our groups and I briefed the Anarquendor.
"We'll do the same thing as just now, but we're going for a diversion. Lyavanna, take the left flank in force. Tegingûr, you take three men and take the right flank. The rest is with me down the center. They're expecting another manouver as we just did but we're going to distract them. Tegingûr's flank is just a diversion."
Everyone nodded and we waited until Dunkelgrün was ready, but it took to long. So we started counting down from ten. Simon turned around and made a helpless shrug, but when we reached one he and his troup were ready for us. We clashed again, and had great fun.
In the end we returned to the camp. Simon asked whether this training was useful for us in any way. I think maybe he was impressed with our manouvering skills and tactical thinking. I told him it was.
"The group as it is now, is larger than we've had before. The Condhagors are new, so they need to learn how to command their troups. And the troups in turn need to learn how to listen to them, instead of doing their own thing. It's definitely a good exercise!"
Practice bout -- Image by LadyNieske
Basically, since the entire camp was done and we were all there, there was little else to do than prepare. Some people still needed to do some leatherwork (I believe no less than four costumes were finished on the Drachenfest itself), we practiced archery and I had a sparring match with Arto. He's pretty damned fast and I was impressed enough that I could hold my ground. When we switch to boken, he's very careful though, because he doesn't want to break a finger. With boken, I'm better off against NoKey since I know his style and he knows mine by heart.
Hair was braided, chins were shaved, backgrounds read, names learned, wood was gathered and chopped for the campfire.
When darkness had fallen and Wouter had made a fire in the fire dish we'd borrowed from our new friends from Dunkelgrün, and dinner had been served and eaten, everyone relaxed. And we got some visitors.
Simon, Finn and two others came to say hello and talk to us about swinging a vote. "We want to have Bibi, our Kendar, elected for the Aussenrat. This would make him the official diplomat for the Green Camp." Simon said. "If that doesn't work out, we would like to present Imalayan for the Kriegsrat, so he's the military commander for the Green."
We discussed how the voting would go. It was a bit strange, to talk about these things, half IT and half OT, still dressed in our mundanewear but sitting in the livingroom. In the end, Tim and I convinced our new friends that perhaps they should just try to shoot for both positions.
After they had left, we had more visitors, but these were completely IT. I hope Alandir and Mahtan were not dismayed by my warm, OT bright red fleece coat, but then who starts playing before the game has even started? It still strikes me as odd that we're playing political games before Time-In, never mind trying to incorporate new people into your unit.
This was exactly what they wanted to do, and we told them off. No, the Anarquendor will not join the Fänge or the Schwinge, we are our own military unit and we will not break the chain of command.
It didn't help matters that we were still refusing to speak German at this point, especially to official visitors (costumes or no), and Alandir's English was even worse than Mahtan's. Mahtan also mistook me for Lyssa, and was confused when I told him so, but in the end they left us well alone -- and without threats this time.
They were not the only ones trying to incorporate us into their group; Joona himself had tried as well, and after a short and sour discussion via e-mail told us that we'd be crushed in the Endslacht if we didn't stand with him...
Wednesday
Finally! The thing would get started! With a day and a half already on the terrain, people were getting used to running things. The dixies were grudgingly accepted as a necessary Evil Hellspawn, Twi had his kitchen running smoothly and served pancakes and beans for breakfast, and the costumes were mostly finished.
I did the morning briefing, and noticed the Fänge and Schwinge training on the hill. The archers (Fänge) were positioned downhill and the Schwinge waltzed over them time and again. Worse, Alandir would wait with the command to loose arrows until the line was some 5 meters away and the archers would only have time for one shot before being beaten to a bloody pulp.
Of course, the bows and arrows they had might not have been any better than that, but it was a sad sight.
To make a point, we'd stand to one side, arms crossed, looking at the training. Though Joona invited most of the others over to join them, he never even made eye contact with us and tried his best to ignore us.
Morning training
We had our own training that morning too, starting with a warming up and then continuing with some Tai Chi exercises that had us earthed quite thoroughly. Looking back on the pictures, it looks as impressive as it felt, and it was a very good way to start the day (but not as good as Twi's pancakes).
After the training, there was still the matter of checking in (Martin came over to our camp to do that with us) and the vote. Everyone gathered in the square behind the Green gate, there was a long talk with many questions about the Drachenfest in German, and then finally we got to the good part.
Bibi was chosen. They had to count us to make sure, but it wasn't even close. For the Innenrat (internal affairs) we were not necessary to swing the vote either way, but we voted along with Dunkelgrün anyway.
Imalayan was chosen as well.
Joona was definitely not happy with this. As main OT organiser of the Green camp, I'm sure he would have liked to have all his buddies in the important positions, but when he saw the group with Imalayan and the group standing with Kronon, his face was just thunder.
Incheck in the Anarquendor tent
By the time it was lunchtime, I was quite ready to just let the wild dogs out to play and I could finally give people the go-ahead to do their own thing. Standing around, voting, the training, everything had been done in the group and it had taken far too long to my liking.
In the evening, there was a big fight to determine who would become the Champion for the Green camp. I've said it before and I'll say it again: all the important things are decided on the very first day, leaving you no time for IT making friends and plying politics to gain a position so you are forced to do it OT or not at all. The Champions fight was not much different -- but at least everyone could join in. I grabbed my camera because Sigil (Arto) wanted to try his hand. He was bouncing on his toes for a good fight, so we set him loose on the Green.
Wolfgar vs. Yakk
After the intial bout of Every Man For Himself, Sigil was set up against a steel-armoured man who was much slower than the scarcely-armoured elf. Sigil was fast, much faster than the human, and switched weapons several times. From spear to sword to sticks to even bare hands for a fist fight (open hands fight).
Brandar (red cap) vs. Haddingur (helmet) from Dunkelgrün.
Though the Avatar had clearly said that this was a fight that could be won by someone fighting very nicely and not necessarily had to be the last man standing, they went into it pretty hard. The Spaniards certainly didn't play fair, and I have a few pictures in which I can just read their opponent's eyes. One guy not even participating jumped in to pull them off his friend, and he is just looking daggers at the guy.
I was even more dismayed after Wolfgar got a foot to the family jewels and Sigil said he wasn't wearing a toque. (He wore one on our training day, even!)
Luckily, Sigil no longer had any reason to take it slow on these bastards...
Haddingur had to change weapons with his opponent, and was quite good with sword and shield as well...
In the end, it was Sigil vs. Wolfgar, and the barbarian won, right and fair. He was a very good fighter, lugging an enormous and heavy armour around, and he made a good show of it. Sigil was limping off the field but managed to bow to his opponent, a gesture cheered on by all.
Vinya, Nessa and Sigil later presented the Champion with a gift from all the Anarquendor, including healing potions, a bunch of flowers, etc.
We also trained with the Hairulf on this day -- a bunch of vikings, all carrying large shields, who wanted to see how good we really were. We set them up on a hill and told them to huddle, trying to shoot their legs out from underneath them. It worked well enough, but one loudmouth needed an extra lesson. So we set his shield on the hill, and told him we wanted to see how many arrows it took for him to reach it.
After ten seconds and some five arrows that hit, we was crawling, still trying to get to his shield...
Finally, we trained with them. If I gave the command, they would have to duck and we'd shoot over them. A few of my arrows whizzed quite close by the ears of the Viking in front of me, and if he'd been any slower he'd have been hit in the head, but no accidents happened. And the boy we paid a copper to stand target with his shield was quite impressed when he saw the pile of arrows at his feet, all neatly arranged right in front of him, and hardly any missed...
Thursday
After the opening ritual, the game was on. Though we had expected an attack on our camp late on Wednesday evening, it was Thursday morning that the first attack came. Red battered down our gate and stole our flag. In this fight it was quite clear that the Red camp was much more powerful, and I stood opposite a shieldwall of Dwarves and caught a throwing hammer to the forehead. *grin*
Not only that, but it was quite clear that shooting in such a fray was insanity. At some point Alandir ordered us to shoot over the shields into a mass of pressing bodies. I nearly scolded him for being such an idiot. Any arrow shot at such a shieldwall would bounce from the recipient into the friendly shieldwall -- wrong end first. Though the arrows are safe to use because the foam head is soft and large enough, the rear end is just a piece of wood with a nock and therefor Definitely Not Fun to get into the eye.
Flatly refusing to shoot, I told my elves to lay down their bows and we switched to melee weapons, but to no avail. Soon enough the Red had penetrated far enough into the camp to conquer our banner and off they marched, carrying our banner in victory.
The game had been explained to me, and it was all about banners and dragon eggs. No banner on Saturday meant that we would not be able to participate in the Endslacht, and having your banner in the camp each morning would give us a Dragon Egg. The camp with the most Dragon Eggs would win the Drachenfest and it's Dragon would rule the World of the Dragons for a year.
It's a bloody stupid game if you ask me, but then, who am I to argue with a bunch of Dragons?
Next to the game the dragons play, I had prepared some plot for the Anarquendor as well, hoping to keep everyone entertained. I had started Wednesday morning by placing a piece of plot parchment in the cupboard of the kitchen, in the hope that Sulein (Twi) would find it while he was cooking. By the evening, I had moved it, hoping that this time it would stand out. Still it was not found -- NoKey blindly set the table that morning, setting the parchment on the side while taking the jars out of the cupboard.
*sigh*
Tegingûr did the SL thing: make it undeniably Plot. He tossed the parchment into a frying pan as Twi was turning a pancake. As soon as he read it, he ran into Vinya (Wendy) who remembered a tale about a recipe, and they already found the second piece of the puzzle in the book of tales.
When Sulein came to me, I told him to continue his search. He did so with alacrity, going over to our friends of Dunkelgrün to ask if they knew a Raven Shaman who was mentioned in a part of the recipe that was on the parchment.
Well, what do you know, the Raven Shaman was a part of Dunkelgrün! This was exactly our intention, and the reason I'd spoken with Finn on Monday. Sulein returned soon enough, victorious and with the egg required for his recipe.
The raven Shaman & Sulein
Sairahiniel came up with the last piece and one of the ingredients as she returned from the Silver camp from meeting with the Yoshida. We read the story as we were lying in the shade, and Sulein showed us how many of the ingredients he already had. We decided to go to the Grey camp right away. We'd already met Mammoth* of the Arabian nights, and Sulein knew they had camels -- camel dung was one of the needed parts for the fire.
The elves were being sent out on missions, gathering information and mostly not staying in the camp, so they were also returning with reports, questions, the need for something to drink and something else to do. By the time we had dinner and the evening briefing behind us, I was quite ready to fall over. Sairahiniel arranged for a family night, where we sat around the fire and read stories.
At some point, the family night transformed into a plan to steal back the banner from the Red camp. Red turned out to be really powerful, the largest camp on the Drachenfest and mostly heavily armoured men with shields. A group of skirmishes couldn't do much against them, right?
Wrong.
With the help of Sigil, and Tegingûr (as Lyavanna had already dropped into bed) we planned a nightly guerilla mission.
"The gate to the red is quite close to the edge of the forest and you can easily come from the forest and sneak up to the red gate. If we send two to infiltrate and get the gate open, the rest can rush the gate when it's opened and steal the banner back;" Sigil said. "Usually, if you tell them it's important enough they'll open the gate for you, regardless of the threat you might pose."
Night fell and preparations continued. Ivrellith and Rhunhir prepared smoke pellets so they could draw the Reds in pursuit and throw them off the banner's trail. We briefed the SL and went looking for the banner belt that was needed to be able to carry the banner. This was the point it could all still go wrong on.
But the belt was in the Kraftplatz, and Alaron put it on.
The ones going on the mission -- 13 in total -- gathered around and I told Sigil, whose idea it was, to do the briefing. He ran them through the mission... and questions were asked.
When he was done, I told him to do it again. There were no further questions.
Isilanno and myself would knock on the gate and try to get in. Isilanno prepared a water bottle, to cast a friendship spell on. I took a piece of parchment as a "very important letter" and tucked it into the leather kidney belt I borrowed from Tegingûr.
We went out the gate of the green. The guard at the gate started to ask questions, but we walked past him, not answering, already hyped up on adrenalin. Tegingûr would take care of the guard when we returned, awaiting us in one hour's time.
If we returned.
We went past the Gold camp and entered the forest, walking on the road in pitch blackness, everyone as quiet as a mouse and only the crunching of the gravel under our feet. We passed several camps, Grey, Silver, and people visiting the dixie toilets.
We paused for a moment, checking to see if we were already there, and finally found the gate of the Red. We paused for a moment, and I made a last-minute check of my facts, still out of sight from the gate.
And then we walked to the gate.
"Da kommen zwei Leute." the guard on the gate called.
Two people outside the Red gate walked towards us and told us to halt. "Was für Waffen haben sie?"
"English please." I replied.
"What weapons do you have?" it was clearly routine.
"I have a sword and a dagger." I said. Isilanno replied as well, showing them his hands, a bottle of water in one hand and a dagger in the other.
The guard checked us. It looked like I was telling the truth, and reported this to the gate.
I started walking towards the gate again, stepping up to the other guard. My story was a bit garbled, but I tried to make it clear to him it was urgent. "I have a letter to the Kriegsrat of the Red camp."
"Who are you?"
"I'm Mariel." I said, knowing Keffie would laugh his ass off if I ever told him this. "I'm from the Black. I carry an urgent letter for the Kriegsrat."
"They're already asleep." the guard said.
"Oh." I deflated a bit. "But it's really very important."
"Can't it wait until morning?" the Red guard asked.
"No, it can't! It's really important."
"Can't you give it to someone else?" the guard asked. "I'm not going to wake him up."
"To whom?" I asked.
The guard knocked on the gate, and it opened a crack. I saw four faces peering out. There was quite a lot of light, enough to see their faces clearly. "Can you give it to him?" the guard asked.
"Well, I suppose." I said. I turned to Isilanno, who had been quiet up till then.
"Do you have the letter?" I asked.
"You had the letter!" he said. "I don't have the letter!"
"I do?" I asked. "Where did I put it?"
Would anybody truly fall for this? This stupid, slapstick-like farce of an excuse? Apparantly so.
I started patting my leather armour, trying to locate the letter. I fiddled with my kidney belt, trying to see if there was a letter in there, sliding my hand beneath it in front and back, not finding the letter yet. "Did I put it in here? Help me look for it?!"
The gate was still open. Isilanno was still holding his dagger and the bottle. He tried to help me in searching for the letter, but his hands were full.
He turned to the man who seemed to be in charge behind the gate. "Here, could you hold this?"
And handed him the bottle.
As soon as the guard took the bottle, Isilanno called the effect "Freundschaft 6" (Friendship level 6, causing him to be our friend for six minutes).
In the confusion this caused, I drew my dagger. Behind me, the Anarquendor that had sauntered over the field, started to run.
I attacked the man with the bottle, stepped to the guard next to him, attacked, and then the man behind him, and managed to give each two cuts before I was cut down myself.
In the confusion that followed I rolled over, bleeding heavily. Someone pressed a bottle with a healing potion between my lips. I stumbled to my feet.
The battle was ongoing, and I drew my sword, putting my dagger back into the scabbard. The guards all had polearms, and they were slowly pressing us back, trying to push us out of the gate. We had gotten in, and Alaron was fidgeting with the banner, but it took to long. I defended, trying to keep the long polearms away from my body. But we were being pushed back slowly. The guards were shouting, and other Reds came running.
Arevalo put his hands on my back and murmered a spell. His healing closed my wounds, nearly all the way, and I saw how we were losing. And the banner was still not coming down.
I made a decision.
If I wanted to hurt them, push the Reds back, I would have to get past their polearms. I could step in, maybe take a hit, but their their polearms would be useless. But my sword would be useless as well.
So I threw it to the side, and pulled my dagger. I dodged under a polearm and stepped in close, charging through their ranks and cutting the guards.
Pain flared.
In the confusion that followed, I lost track of what happened. Blood seeped under my armour, staining the straw in which I lay. I was ignored by the Reds for a while and the sounds of fighting drew away. One Red bent over me, a dagger at my throat. He shouted a question, and I turned my head.
The pain was numbing.
I heard the Reds questioning someone. A male voice answering, that he was from the Black, that he was sent to the Seventh Legion, because they needed a leatherworker.
I turned my head. White dreads, dark warpaint. Sigil.
And a form, an elf, close by.
I turned, pain tearing through my abdomen, trying to reach Alfirin, who was next to me. I put my hand on his arm, to let him know I was still alive.
But fading fast.
A healer bent over me, another guard lifted me up, and the healer bound my wounds somewhat. A chirurgeon followed later, and he sewed parts closed. It wasn't clear through the pain whether he was sewing my flesh or just trying to close my armour so my bowels wouldn't spill in the straw if they dragged me to my feet.
And then, a Red started to question me.
He kicked me in the kidneys, his kicks softened by the thick leather but pain flaring nonetheless.
"Du schöne Elfenprinzessin." he whispered, taking my hair and forcing me to face him. "Which camp are you from then?"
"Die Schwarze." I spat. "Black."
"How many eggs does the Black have?" he asked.
"Five." I spat. I tried to see what had happened to Sigil.
The Red dragged me to my feet and tried to shackle me, but I kicked at him. He threw me down and kicked me again. Then he tried again. I let him, and he dragged me by the shackles to the wall, where he secured me to the wood.
Two other Reds sauntered over. One of them explained to the other how easy it was to make me scream. He pressed a hand to my kidneybelt, and grabbed my shoulder. His fist followed soon, again finding my kidneys.
I fell to my knees, a jolt through my arms, but I struggled to get to my knees. The woman who was with him giggled, and asked if she could try. She hit me in the same spot, but they soon tired and left me.
Sigil was sitting close by, his arms through a piece of wood that was shackled around his neck....
We were told that we could go back to our tents to get some sleep, OT, as long as we returned between nine and ten and the shackles were opened.
Of course, in the scene I just described there was time for discussion. OT-safety, the fact that I could do showfighting etc.
We were all unshackled and walked back to the Green, where the time was just right to greet the sun that was just peeping over the hills (OMG hills) and grab a towel to go and have a shower. It was quiet there now, after all.
There was a lot of straw stuck in my dreads, but I ignored it for now. After the shower I got maybe an hour or two of sleep, only to be scared to miss the deadline.
We put on some make-up to mimic the wounds (gotta love that stick on the forehead...) we had endured and then made our way back to the Red.
For some ten minutes I hung there, chained to the wood of the gate, Sigil close by. I had also found Alfirin, who was stuck in a whipping post. Too bad they didn't take his armour off before whipping him.
A healer came to water us, and finally a guard came. "Here." he unshackled me. "Go on with you. We've got more important things to do than babysit you."
There was talk about attacking copper, I could make it out as he escorted me to the gate. I was thrown out, and the gate closed behind me.
Still bruised, with tentative steps, I started walking. Soon enough, Sigil was thrown out as well, and Alfirin as well. Sigil picked up a brick, as a makeshift weapon, and we walked back to Green all the way on the other side of the field.
Friday
"Open the gate!" the Green guards called out.
Slowly the gates swung open. I saw Arandur, the third of my bodyguards, turn his head to see me. Sigil saw Arandur as well, and sighed. His task was done, I was safe. Slowly, he toppled forward, succumbing to his wounds.
Pandemonium.
I managed to stay upright, even with the minor attention from healers I had received. I tried to give orders that Sigil had to be taken care of. Hands caught me, the Blut helping me to their Healer's tents.
I was placed onto a bale of straw, my sister pawing me to check me for injuries. I was to weak to slap her hands away.
"Jah, I see. Your leg has regenerated but it wasn't set." the healer said (Regeneration? What regeneration!?)
"I will have to break it again, and set it before we can start the healing."
Great.
"Something to bite on." I said, willing enough to let the man have his play over my battered body.
He handed me a piece of wood, and I set my teeth into it, nodding.
*Snap*
Back in the Anarquendor camp, I took off the leather armour and gave it to Saeldur to repair. It was still quite early, and the Avatar would speak to us. We gathered in the square behind the gate. I had already noted the banner was still with the Red camp, but not for lack of trying. The other Anarquendor (everyone but my bodyguards and me had made it back safely) had indeed conquered and returned the green banner, but the Dragons ruled that we had cheated by taking it through the forest. Instead we should have gone over the open field, where Rhunhir and Ivrellith had made a smokescreen and run as a diversion to make the Reds chase them instead of finding the banner.
However, the Avatar was very grateful for our action, and she handed Sigil a Dragon's Egg.
I think that's when the Green looked on us with different eyes.
Imalayan told us there would be another mission to return the banner from the red, this time coordinated with Blue. The green forces would go through the city and we'd start out from Blue (next to the Red camp, all the way on the other side of the field). By the time the Anarquendor got there, still nothing was decided and the Blue was holding out.
However, Red marched off, legion after legion, to conquer another flag. I pressed Imalayan. "If we want to do this, we have to go now."
Saeldur was watching the gates of the Red camp. "The Seventh and Fifth are marching out as well." he reported.
It took another five minutes, but a runner came bounding off the hill. "We have a go. The Blue will aid us and they will claim another banner. We can take the Green back with us. Get everyone ready."
As such things go, it took longer still to get everyone ready, but Imalayan lead the assault. I didn't have a doubt that Red could easily conquer any banner back from Blue if they wanted to, but Parthalan assured me the big blue cannon could hold the Red out long enough. The cannon was called Big Bertha.
Tegingûr charged with Alaron the bannerbearer at his side, and Lyavanna lead the assault on the archers of the Red that were shooting down from the gates. Aicanassa had a perfect shot, and one of the archers of the Red fell down with an arrow between his ribs.
The gate fell, but it would be longer to conquer the banner. I told Lyavanna to arrange an escort and sent a runner to Tegingûr to press his advantage. Already, Saeldur was reporting Red was returning home, though the camp they were attacking was still holding, and a spy that was in the Blue camp had reported the troubles near the gate.
Living on adrenaline and water, I told Finn to keep an eye on the Reds and find the caravan a route down to our camp, trying to avoid the Reds and instead circling behind the Copper army that had responded, trying to keep this force in between us and the Reds. Imalayan was not to be found, so I took over the command and sent runners every which way. And runners came to me, telling me Finn had found us a safe route, telling me to keep an eye on the Landsknechte, and updating me on the situation.
Finally, I saw Alaron take down the Green banner, and soon enough he was in the middle of the escort Lyavanna had set up. Slowly, ever so slowly, the column creeped down the mountain. I had asked Alandir to form a ring with his Fänge around us, and also sent a runner to Joona who was much less forthcoming. It seems like Joona can't keep IT and OT separate...
Finally, we came home to the Green camp, and instead of letting his people water themselves, Joona pressed for everyone to return to honour our promise to blue, effectively letting the Greens walk over the field in a ragtag band, without a drink to strengthen them.
The Anarquendor returned to camp, where I tried to get some shut-eye after taking off my armour.
Sigil, sleeping like a baby.
When I was awake again, I fled the camp. Everything was running smoothly, and most of the archers of the Green were trying out for the archery contest. I had trouble wrestling myself towards consciousness and visited our friends of Dunkelgrün, where I sat with Hadingur and a lovely woman whose name I'm afraid to admit I've forgotten but who makes a hell of a cup of coffee.
Hadingur, Haddy for friends, told me how he had trouble with his polearm. It seemed to love the ground and didn't want to be picked up. I mulled over his problem for a moment, and told him perhaps he didn't respect the spirit of the staff enough, and instead he was trying to force it to do his bidding. I suggested he speak to Arevalo, and later suggested to Arevalo to speak with Hadingur, to figure things out.
In the evening, we still had a nice surprise. During an attack on Gold or Silver, Red had gotten close to our gate. We captured three of the Reds, Romans all, and took them into our camp, causing a political and diplomatic incident in the bargain.
They were fed and watered and even allowed to go to the dixie toilets (which is a crime in its own right) but I had plans with them.
During a talk where the Innenrat Robert asked me what my plans were, I promised that "I would treat them in a manner befitting the Green" and that "I would set them free later tonight"; showing exactly how good I can twist my words. Slightly delayed by an attack of the Orks, we finally got around to this part of my plan when darkness had finally fully fallen.
I had written a letter to the Kriegsrat of the Red, telling them that how they treat their prisoners is scandalous (beating up a prisoner of war while she's tied up? How very honourable!) and that I hoped their avatar was more wise and honourable as they were. The Anarquendor started gearing up, painting their faces and trying to not give away to much to our guests.
I had briefed everyone, and Finn even asked if he could join us, to which I replied he was very welcome to. I was sad that I couldn't go, but my feet were already killing me and I still had the Endslacht to survive.
We let the Romans dress in their (repaired) armours again, and escorted them to the gate. There, we stood to one side and gave them back their weapons. Alaron held a nice speech, and one of the Romans translated to Italian, though he falthered on translating the following words:
"...and in a manner befitting the Green, you will be our Prey in the coming hunt."
Oh shit.
They were nearly pissing their lorica's but we are kind and gave them a head start.
"Run!"
"What now?"
"Yes! RUN! Go! Go!"
They ran. I've never seen anyone in plate mail run this fast. And when they had a bit of a head start, I set the Anarquendor loose on them. Whooping and baying and jumping like puppies off to play, they set out to hunt their prey.
Two fell.
One found shelter in the Silver. It was the one with my letter, which he would deliver to the Kriegsrat later.
I waited inside the Green, telling the Avatar who approved of our hunt and gave us her blessing, until they returned the blood to me. It stained my face and I sighed at a job well-done.
Saturday
Before the Endslacht, there was one other thing to do. I asked Finn to join us in our camp and held a short speech. He had been a good friend and he had helped us on numerous occassions. I named him Mellon en Anarquendor and Aicanassa gave him the necklace she had made for him.
He would be welcome in our camp to share our food and our stories.
We nearly made him cry.
The stupid game of the Dragons was no longer interesting and we had chosen to pick our roleplaying moments in stead of fighting for the banners, but we would fight for the Green. There just was no longer any chance of winning.
Luckily, we had chosen a good diplomat. The Avatar spoke to us before we marche out to battle, telling us, with tears in her eyes, that she was proud of each and every one of us. We would join forces with the Grey and the Blue, trying to make the next year, the year of Freedom (Blue).
The Dragon's Eggs we had were transported to Blue, and so did Grey donate their eggs to Blue as well. And when we stood on the field of battle, we marched in a long line to join our allies on the other end and fight Gold and Red to end their oppression.
Green marches to aid Blue
The Anarquendor march to war.
We had put warpaint on and our heavy weapons. Some of us chose to carry bow and arrow, despite the large number of lost and broken arrows. But the Endslacht was difficult. We tried to stay with Dunkelgrün and aid them where we could, but the fights were too close, too cramped to shoot. We manouvered and manouvered, trying to find a spot where we could stand and fight.
During a man-down situation, a well-painted orc lady gave us water, and then when we could stand and continue again we manouvered some more. To no avail.
I even made a deal with Red. They called us oathbreakers (I swore no oaths to protect the healers!) and some were spitting angry. However, we had bigger fish to fry, and shook hands with a Red that we would not attack them in the back. When orders finally came through to attack Red, Gold and Black, I found a runner from Dunkelgrün to warn the Red of this fact, so that I would keep my word and show the Red that the Anarquendor are perfectly capable of playing by the rules.
The Green Avatar rides Rauron into battle.
The battle seemed to consist of endless manouvering and we had lost track of Dunkelgrün in the fray. In the end, we were cornered by Reds, who were spitting angry and really wanted to kill us -- and we weren't sure it was all IT.
At this point I looked at Tegingûr and we made the smart decision: to walk off the battlefield and not go for the confrontation.
Eferillion had a honourable duel with one of the Romans from the previous night and stayed behind -- and Keffie was hit in the stomach so hard that he had to be taken to the hospital.
Tegingûr worried over Keffie, sent someone to camp for his things, and the Maltezers were soon there to call an ambulance. Meanwhile, I took care of the other Anarquendor, placing a very upset Sairahiniel in a safe circle with her husband and checking to see if the others were doing okay. When finally the ambulance had gone to the hospital, we returned to camp and I put my phone in my pocket just in case someone would call.
When word came he was fine and that they needed a ride, Lyavanna went to get him and we set up a field bed near the fire so he could talk with us.
Dunkelgrün joined us at the campfire and we reminisced about the good moments. Saeldur had prepared something special to burn: the shafts of the arrows that had been broken. Each of us took a shaft, to burn for something we held dear. One for the Avatar. One for Sendbotin. One for Dunkelgrün.
I tossed the last shaft in the fire, saying "This one...can I say it out loud?...is for Drachenfest 2012."
Cheers.
And drinks.
And lots of new friends
Sunday
No more morning briefings, just the mad rush to clear everything away. We said goodbye to our new friends from Switzerland, the people from Dunkelgrün, we said goodbye to the SLs, and we said goodbye to eachother.
And then it was definitely time to get driving.
Despite lending my car for the grocery shopping, I made it -- on the last fumes of the tank -- to the border, where I filled Iota up on the tankpas again, quietly thanking the gods of unleaded gasoline fumes. I had a rough time staying awake, except for the moment when NoKey was sleeping.
The last 30 kilometers were the hardest.
And I think back on a much better than expected, wonderful Drachenfest, and our dear new friends from Switzerland, and the promises made to return next year. It's been a strange week, back in the real world, where Amy Winehouse died and we didn't even notice it because we were away on the Second World of the Dragons, hunting and being tortured, and generally having a wonderful time all around.
The End.
See all of my pictures here - Thanks to Peter and Axel as well, for handling my camera.
-----
*) 'Mammoth': "Mahmud" was pronounced more like "Mammoet" which translates to "Mammoth". Also: mummies are mammies or mommies. Gotta love that German accent!
Monday
I filled up the gas tank at what I thought was the last stop in NL, because this is the last place the multitank card works at. And then we were in Germany. I drove safely, happy to see the car was purring along as fine at 150 as it was at 120, and we took a few breaks along the way as well.
When we finally arrived at the terrain we queued up with all the other people trying to get in, and hugged
armhart who was two cars faster than we were. I remembered the drive up to the terrain well enough and sms'd Tim we'd be there soonish. Finally, when we drove up to the Green camp, we hugged everyone that was already there and exclaimed over the number of tents already set up! The car was emptied quickly enough and we set to making the beds, setting up a tarp, a table, etc.
Not long after our arrival, Finn sauntered over. Tim and I had been e-mailing with him, and he had a moment to sit with us to discuss a bit of plot I'd wanted his help with. We hit it off right away. Finn of the Calennar (played by Andy, nickname to be used is Finn) is a very earthy and cheerful guy who carries a great comforting energy for all around him. Needless to say, I felt safe around him. Later, he confessed he was very nervous about meeting us in person, but we soon took those worries away.
The others practiced their archery in an empty plot and tried to shoot the volleyball I had brought along as it was tossed in the air.
The kitchen storage space and OT "dipruimte", when it was just set up
I contacted Twilightbanana, who'd be bringing the kitchen and be cooking for the group, but he had had a busy morning and wouldn't be around for a few more hours. Jeroen then made a list of things people wanted to eat and I sent a delegation with Nathreee to pick up some fries for dinner to make sure everybody had something to eat and - more importantly - drink.
By the time Twi arrived, everyone was settled in to an extent that it was easy enough to charter people to empty the van, set up the kitchen and get him settled in before we all went down to the parkinglot to drop off the cars.
Tuesday
I didn't sleep all too well on this terrain and tried to shield the tent from outside harm, so I was up bright and early and helped set up breakfast. We transferred the peanutbutter and hazelnut paste into the IT-suited jars I'd bought, and the living room tent was all dressed up. Outside, the people gathered for crafts under the tarp, using the folding table NoKey once made for Voltar.
The living room and meeting area with the Captain's Chair.
After noon, the final two people arrived. Most of the group (26 of us) had arrived on Monday but even this peer pressure could not persuade Rob and Wendy to join us, they had too much to do at home. When they arrived, they were greeted warmly, their sleeping tent had already been set up, there were ten people ready to drag everything from their car, and I finally could say that my group was complete -- up until that point there was a nagging feeling that something was missing.
Dunkelgrün, the group of Finn, wanted to train with us, and so we grabbed our weapons in the afternoon and met them on the hill outside the green camp. None of us were wearing costumes yet, and we were all eager to get training. I discussed with Simon (Parthalan in the game) what he wanted to do, and we decided to just do some Anarquendor vs. Dunkelgrün.
I briefed my men (still men, not elves, at this point) and told them that we would surprise Dunkelgrün. I had taken care to look at the Fighter's Guild training on the Vortex the weekend before Drachenfest and suggested a manouver where we split into two groups and outflanked the Dunkelgrün fighters.
Dunkelgrün was definitely not counting on this manouver and huddled together while the two flanks pressed their advantage and arrows flew and found many targets. At some point, Simon blew his whistle and we stopped to discuss what happened. Simon admitted he had not expected this, and that they weren't ready. We decided to redo the exercise. We returned to our groups and I briefed the Anarquendor.
"We'll do the same thing as just now, but we're going for a diversion. Lyavanna, take the left flank in force. Tegingûr, you take three men and take the right flank. The rest is with me down the center. They're expecting another manouver as we just did but we're going to distract them. Tegingûr's flank is just a diversion."
Everyone nodded and we waited until Dunkelgrün was ready, but it took to long. So we started counting down from ten. Simon turned around and made a helpless shrug, but when we reached one he and his troup were ready for us. We clashed again, and had great fun.
In the end we returned to the camp. Simon asked whether this training was useful for us in any way. I think maybe he was impressed with our manouvering skills and tactical thinking. I told him it was.
"The group as it is now, is larger than we've had before. The Condhagors are new, so they need to learn how to command their troups. And the troups in turn need to learn how to listen to them, instead of doing their own thing. It's definitely a good exercise!"
Practice bout -- Image by LadyNieske
Basically, since the entire camp was done and we were all there, there was little else to do than prepare. Some people still needed to do some leatherwork (I believe no less than four costumes were finished on the Drachenfest itself), we practiced archery and I had a sparring match with Arto. He's pretty damned fast and I was impressed enough that I could hold my ground. When we switch to boken, he's very careful though, because he doesn't want to break a finger. With boken, I'm better off against NoKey since I know his style and he knows mine by heart.
Hair was braided, chins were shaved, backgrounds read, names learned, wood was gathered and chopped for the campfire.
When darkness had fallen and Wouter had made a fire in the fire dish we'd borrowed from our new friends from Dunkelgrün, and dinner had been served and eaten, everyone relaxed. And we got some visitors.
Simon, Finn and two others came to say hello and talk to us about swinging a vote. "We want to have Bibi, our Kendar, elected for the Aussenrat. This would make him the official diplomat for the Green Camp." Simon said. "If that doesn't work out, we would like to present Imalayan for the Kriegsrat, so he's the military commander for the Green."
We discussed how the voting would go. It was a bit strange, to talk about these things, half IT and half OT, still dressed in our mundanewear but sitting in the livingroom. In the end, Tim and I convinced our new friends that perhaps they should just try to shoot for both positions.
After they had left, we had more visitors, but these were completely IT. I hope Alandir and Mahtan were not dismayed by my warm, OT bright red fleece coat, but then who starts playing before the game has even started? It still strikes me as odd that we're playing political games before Time-In, never mind trying to incorporate new people into your unit.
This was exactly what they wanted to do, and we told them off. No, the Anarquendor will not join the Fänge or the Schwinge, we are our own military unit and we will not break the chain of command.
It didn't help matters that we were still refusing to speak German at this point, especially to official visitors (costumes or no), and Alandir's English was even worse than Mahtan's. Mahtan also mistook me for Lyssa, and was confused when I told him so, but in the end they left us well alone -- and without threats this time.
They were not the only ones trying to incorporate us into their group; Joona himself had tried as well, and after a short and sour discussion via e-mail told us that we'd be crushed in the Endslacht if we didn't stand with him...
Wednesday
Finally! The thing would get started! With a day and a half already on the terrain, people were getting used to running things. The dixies were grudgingly accepted as a necessary Evil Hellspawn, Twi had his kitchen running smoothly and served pancakes and beans for breakfast, and the costumes were mostly finished.
I did the morning briefing, and noticed the Fänge and Schwinge training on the hill. The archers (Fänge) were positioned downhill and the Schwinge waltzed over them time and again. Worse, Alandir would wait with the command to loose arrows until the line was some 5 meters away and the archers would only have time for one shot before being beaten to a bloody pulp.
Of course, the bows and arrows they had might not have been any better than that, but it was a sad sight.
To make a point, we'd stand to one side, arms crossed, looking at the training. Though Joona invited most of the others over to join them, he never even made eye contact with us and tried his best to ignore us.
Morning training
We had our own training that morning too, starting with a warming up and then continuing with some Tai Chi exercises that had us earthed quite thoroughly. Looking back on the pictures, it looks as impressive as it felt, and it was a very good way to start the day (but not as good as Twi's pancakes).
After the training, there was still the matter of checking in (Martin came over to our camp to do that with us) and the vote. Everyone gathered in the square behind the Green gate, there was a long talk with many questions about the Drachenfest in German, and then finally we got to the good part.
Bibi was chosen. They had to count us to make sure, but it wasn't even close. For the Innenrat (internal affairs) we were not necessary to swing the vote either way, but we voted along with Dunkelgrün anyway.
Imalayan was chosen as well.
Joona was definitely not happy with this. As main OT organiser of the Green camp, I'm sure he would have liked to have all his buddies in the important positions, but when he saw the group with Imalayan and the group standing with Kronon, his face was just thunder.
Incheck in the Anarquendor tent
By the time it was lunchtime, I was quite ready to just let the wild dogs out to play and I could finally give people the go-ahead to do their own thing. Standing around, voting, the training, everything had been done in the group and it had taken far too long to my liking.
In the evening, there was a big fight to determine who would become the Champion for the Green camp. I've said it before and I'll say it again: all the important things are decided on the very first day, leaving you no time for IT making friends and plying politics to gain a position so you are forced to do it OT or not at all. The Champions fight was not much different -- but at least everyone could join in. I grabbed my camera because Sigil (Arto) wanted to try his hand. He was bouncing on his toes for a good fight, so we set him loose on the Green.
Wolfgar vs. Yakk
After the intial bout of Every Man For Himself, Sigil was set up against a steel-armoured man who was much slower than the scarcely-armoured elf. Sigil was fast, much faster than the human, and switched weapons several times. From spear to sword to sticks to even bare hands for a fist fight (open hands fight).
Brandar (red cap) vs. Haddingur (helmet) from Dunkelgrün.
Though the Avatar had clearly said that this was a fight that could be won by someone fighting very nicely and not necessarily had to be the last man standing, they went into it pretty hard. The Spaniards certainly didn't play fair, and I have a few pictures in which I can just read their opponent's eyes. One guy not even participating jumped in to pull them off his friend, and he is just looking daggers at the guy.
I was even more dismayed after Wolfgar got a foot to the family jewels and Sigil said he wasn't wearing a toque. (He wore one on our training day, even!)
Luckily, Sigil no longer had any reason to take it slow on these bastards...
Haddingur had to change weapons with his opponent, and was quite good with sword and shield as well...
In the end, it was Sigil vs. Wolfgar, and the barbarian won, right and fair. He was a very good fighter, lugging an enormous and heavy armour around, and he made a good show of it. Sigil was limping off the field but managed to bow to his opponent, a gesture cheered on by all.
Vinya, Nessa and Sigil later presented the Champion with a gift from all the Anarquendor, including healing potions, a bunch of flowers, etc.
We also trained with the Hairulf on this day -- a bunch of vikings, all carrying large shields, who wanted to see how good we really were. We set them up on a hill and told them to huddle, trying to shoot their legs out from underneath them. It worked well enough, but one loudmouth needed an extra lesson. So we set his shield on the hill, and told him we wanted to see how many arrows it took for him to reach it.
After ten seconds and some five arrows that hit, we was crawling, still trying to get to his shield...
Finally, we trained with them. If I gave the command, they would have to duck and we'd shoot over them. A few of my arrows whizzed quite close by the ears of the Viking in front of me, and if he'd been any slower he'd have been hit in the head, but no accidents happened. And the boy we paid a copper to stand target with his shield was quite impressed when he saw the pile of arrows at his feet, all neatly arranged right in front of him, and hardly any missed...
Thursday
After the opening ritual, the game was on. Though we had expected an attack on our camp late on Wednesday evening, it was Thursday morning that the first attack came. Red battered down our gate and stole our flag. In this fight it was quite clear that the Red camp was much more powerful, and I stood opposite a shieldwall of Dwarves and caught a throwing hammer to the forehead. *grin*
Not only that, but it was quite clear that shooting in such a fray was insanity. At some point Alandir ordered us to shoot over the shields into a mass of pressing bodies. I nearly scolded him for being such an idiot. Any arrow shot at such a shieldwall would bounce from the recipient into the friendly shieldwall -- wrong end first. Though the arrows are safe to use because the foam head is soft and large enough, the rear end is just a piece of wood with a nock and therefor Definitely Not Fun to get into the eye.
Flatly refusing to shoot, I told my elves to lay down their bows and we switched to melee weapons, but to no avail. Soon enough the Red had penetrated far enough into the camp to conquer our banner and off they marched, carrying our banner in victory.
The game had been explained to me, and it was all about banners and dragon eggs. No banner on Saturday meant that we would not be able to participate in the Endslacht, and having your banner in the camp each morning would give us a Dragon Egg. The camp with the most Dragon Eggs would win the Drachenfest and it's Dragon would rule the World of the Dragons for a year.
It's a bloody stupid game if you ask me, but then, who am I to argue with a bunch of Dragons?
Next to the game the dragons play, I had prepared some plot for the Anarquendor as well, hoping to keep everyone entertained. I had started Wednesday morning by placing a piece of plot parchment in the cupboard of the kitchen, in the hope that Sulein (Twi) would find it while he was cooking. By the evening, I had moved it, hoping that this time it would stand out. Still it was not found -- NoKey blindly set the table that morning, setting the parchment on the side while taking the jars out of the cupboard.
*sigh*
Tegingûr did the SL thing: make it undeniably Plot. He tossed the parchment into a frying pan as Twi was turning a pancake. As soon as he read it, he ran into Vinya (Wendy) who remembered a tale about a recipe, and they already found the second piece of the puzzle in the book of tales.
When Sulein came to me, I told him to continue his search. He did so with alacrity, going over to our friends of Dunkelgrün to ask if they knew a Raven Shaman who was mentioned in a part of the recipe that was on the parchment.
Well, what do you know, the Raven Shaman was a part of Dunkelgrün! This was exactly our intention, and the reason I'd spoken with Finn on Monday. Sulein returned soon enough, victorious and with the egg required for his recipe.
The raven Shaman & Sulein
Sairahiniel came up with the last piece and one of the ingredients as she returned from the Silver camp from meeting with the Yoshida. We read the story as we were lying in the shade, and Sulein showed us how many of the ingredients he already had. We decided to go to the Grey camp right away. We'd already met Mammoth* of the Arabian nights, and Sulein knew they had camels -- camel dung was one of the needed parts for the fire.
The elves were being sent out on missions, gathering information and mostly not staying in the camp, so they were also returning with reports, questions, the need for something to drink and something else to do. By the time we had dinner and the evening briefing behind us, I was quite ready to fall over. Sairahiniel arranged for a family night, where we sat around the fire and read stories.
At some point, the family night transformed into a plan to steal back the banner from the Red camp. Red turned out to be really powerful, the largest camp on the Drachenfest and mostly heavily armoured men with shields. A group of skirmishes couldn't do much against them, right?
Wrong.
With the help of Sigil, and Tegingûr (as Lyavanna had already dropped into bed) we planned a nightly guerilla mission.
"The gate to the red is quite close to the edge of the forest and you can easily come from the forest and sneak up to the red gate. If we send two to infiltrate and get the gate open, the rest can rush the gate when it's opened and steal the banner back;" Sigil said. "Usually, if you tell them it's important enough they'll open the gate for you, regardless of the threat you might pose."
Night fell and preparations continued. Ivrellith and Rhunhir prepared smoke pellets so they could draw the Reds in pursuit and throw them off the banner's trail. We briefed the SL and went looking for the banner belt that was needed to be able to carry the banner. This was the point it could all still go wrong on.
But the belt was in the Kraftplatz, and Alaron put it on.
The ones going on the mission -- 13 in total -- gathered around and I told Sigil, whose idea it was, to do the briefing. He ran them through the mission... and questions were asked.
When he was done, I told him to do it again. There were no further questions.
Isilanno and myself would knock on the gate and try to get in. Isilanno prepared a water bottle, to cast a friendship spell on. I took a piece of parchment as a "very important letter" and tucked it into the leather kidney belt I borrowed from Tegingûr.
We went out the gate of the green. The guard at the gate started to ask questions, but we walked past him, not answering, already hyped up on adrenalin. Tegingûr would take care of the guard when we returned, awaiting us in one hour's time.
If we returned.
We went past the Gold camp and entered the forest, walking on the road in pitch blackness, everyone as quiet as a mouse and only the crunching of the gravel under our feet. We passed several camps, Grey, Silver, and people visiting the dixie toilets.
We paused for a moment, checking to see if we were already there, and finally found the gate of the Red. We paused for a moment, and I made a last-minute check of my facts, still out of sight from the gate.
And then we walked to the gate.
"Da kommen zwei Leute." the guard on the gate called.
Two people outside the Red gate walked towards us and told us to halt. "Was für Waffen haben sie?"
"English please." I replied.
"What weapons do you have?" it was clearly routine.
"I have a sword and a dagger." I said. Isilanno replied as well, showing them his hands, a bottle of water in one hand and a dagger in the other.
The guard checked us. It looked like I was telling the truth, and reported this to the gate.
I started walking towards the gate again, stepping up to the other guard. My story was a bit garbled, but I tried to make it clear to him it was urgent. "I have a letter to the Kriegsrat of the Red camp."
"Who are you?"
"I'm Mariel." I said, knowing Keffie would laugh his ass off if I ever told him this. "I'm from the Black. I carry an urgent letter for the Kriegsrat."
"They're already asleep." the guard said.
"Oh." I deflated a bit. "But it's really very important."
"Can't it wait until morning?" the Red guard asked.
"No, it can't! It's really important."
"Can't you give it to someone else?" the guard asked. "I'm not going to wake him up."
"To whom?" I asked.
The guard knocked on the gate, and it opened a crack. I saw four faces peering out. There was quite a lot of light, enough to see their faces clearly. "Can you give it to him?" the guard asked.
"Well, I suppose." I said. I turned to Isilanno, who had been quiet up till then.
"Do you have the letter?" I asked.
"You had the letter!" he said. "I don't have the letter!"
"I do?" I asked. "Where did I put it?"
Would anybody truly fall for this? This stupid, slapstick-like farce of an excuse? Apparantly so.
I started patting my leather armour, trying to locate the letter. I fiddled with my kidney belt, trying to see if there was a letter in there, sliding my hand beneath it in front and back, not finding the letter yet. "Did I put it in here? Help me look for it?!"
The gate was still open. Isilanno was still holding his dagger and the bottle. He tried to help me in searching for the letter, but his hands were full.
He turned to the man who seemed to be in charge behind the gate. "Here, could you hold this?"
And handed him the bottle.
As soon as the guard took the bottle, Isilanno called the effect "Freundschaft 6" (Friendship level 6, causing him to be our friend for six minutes).
In the confusion this caused, I drew my dagger. Behind me, the Anarquendor that had sauntered over the field, started to run.
I attacked the man with the bottle, stepped to the guard next to him, attacked, and then the man behind him, and managed to give each two cuts before I was cut down myself.
In the confusion that followed I rolled over, bleeding heavily. Someone pressed a bottle with a healing potion between my lips. I stumbled to my feet.
The battle was ongoing, and I drew my sword, putting my dagger back into the scabbard. The guards all had polearms, and they were slowly pressing us back, trying to push us out of the gate. We had gotten in, and Alaron was fidgeting with the banner, but it took to long. I defended, trying to keep the long polearms away from my body. But we were being pushed back slowly. The guards were shouting, and other Reds came running.
Arevalo put his hands on my back and murmered a spell. His healing closed my wounds, nearly all the way, and I saw how we were losing. And the banner was still not coming down.
I made a decision.
If I wanted to hurt them, push the Reds back, I would have to get past their polearms. I could step in, maybe take a hit, but their their polearms would be useless. But my sword would be useless as well.
So I threw it to the side, and pulled my dagger. I dodged under a polearm and stepped in close, charging through their ranks and cutting the guards.
Pain flared.
In the confusion that followed, I lost track of what happened. Blood seeped under my armour, staining the straw in which I lay. I was ignored by the Reds for a while and the sounds of fighting drew away. One Red bent over me, a dagger at my throat. He shouted a question, and I turned my head.
The pain was numbing.
I heard the Reds questioning someone. A male voice answering, that he was from the Black, that he was sent to the Seventh Legion, because they needed a leatherworker.
I turned my head. White dreads, dark warpaint. Sigil.
And a form, an elf, close by.
I turned, pain tearing through my abdomen, trying to reach Alfirin, who was next to me. I put my hand on his arm, to let him know I was still alive.
But fading fast.
A healer bent over me, another guard lifted me up, and the healer bound my wounds somewhat. A chirurgeon followed later, and he sewed parts closed. It wasn't clear through the pain whether he was sewing my flesh or just trying to close my armour so my bowels wouldn't spill in the straw if they dragged me to my feet.
And then, a Red started to question me.
He kicked me in the kidneys, his kicks softened by the thick leather but pain flaring nonetheless.
"Du schöne Elfenprinzessin." he whispered, taking my hair and forcing me to face him. "Which camp are you from then?"
"Die Schwarze." I spat. "Black."
"How many eggs does the Black have?" he asked.
"Five." I spat. I tried to see what had happened to Sigil.
The Red dragged me to my feet and tried to shackle me, but I kicked at him. He threw me down and kicked me again. Then he tried again. I let him, and he dragged me by the shackles to the wall, where he secured me to the wood.
Two other Reds sauntered over. One of them explained to the other how easy it was to make me scream. He pressed a hand to my kidneybelt, and grabbed my shoulder. His fist followed soon, again finding my kidneys.
I fell to my knees, a jolt through my arms, but I struggled to get to my knees. The woman who was with him giggled, and asked if she could try. She hit me in the same spot, but they soon tired and left me.
Sigil was sitting close by, his arms through a piece of wood that was shackled around his neck....
We were told that we could go back to our tents to get some sleep, OT, as long as we returned between nine and ten and the shackles were opened.
Of course, in the scene I just described there was time for discussion. OT-safety, the fact that I could do showfighting etc.
We were all unshackled and walked back to the Green, where the time was just right to greet the sun that was just peeping over the hills (OMG hills) and grab a towel to go and have a shower. It was quiet there now, after all.
There was a lot of straw stuck in my dreads, but I ignored it for now. After the shower I got maybe an hour or two of sleep, only to be scared to miss the deadline.
We put on some make-up to mimic the wounds (gotta love that stick on the forehead...) we had endured and then made our way back to the Red.
For some ten minutes I hung there, chained to the wood of the gate, Sigil close by. I had also found Alfirin, who was stuck in a whipping post. Too bad they didn't take his armour off before whipping him.
A healer came to water us, and finally a guard came. "Here." he unshackled me. "Go on with you. We've got more important things to do than babysit you."
There was talk about attacking copper, I could make it out as he escorted me to the gate. I was thrown out, and the gate closed behind me.
Still bruised, with tentative steps, I started walking. Soon enough, Sigil was thrown out as well, and Alfirin as well. Sigil picked up a brick, as a makeshift weapon, and we walked back to Green all the way on the other side of the field.
Friday
"Open the gate!" the Green guards called out.
Slowly the gates swung open. I saw Arandur, the third of my bodyguards, turn his head to see me. Sigil saw Arandur as well, and sighed. His task was done, I was safe. Slowly, he toppled forward, succumbing to his wounds.
Pandemonium.
I managed to stay upright, even with the minor attention from healers I had received. I tried to give orders that Sigil had to be taken care of. Hands caught me, the Blut helping me to their Healer's tents.
I was placed onto a bale of straw, my sister pawing me to check me for injuries. I was to weak to slap her hands away.
"Jah, I see. Your leg has regenerated but it wasn't set." the healer said (Regeneration? What regeneration!?)
"I will have to break it again, and set it before we can start the healing."
Great.
"Something to bite on." I said, willing enough to let the man have his play over my battered body.
He handed me a piece of wood, and I set my teeth into it, nodding.
*Snap*
Back in the Anarquendor camp, I took off the leather armour and gave it to Saeldur to repair. It was still quite early, and the Avatar would speak to us. We gathered in the square behind the gate. I had already noted the banner was still with the Red camp, but not for lack of trying. The other Anarquendor (everyone but my bodyguards and me had made it back safely) had indeed conquered and returned the green banner, but the Dragons ruled that we had cheated by taking it through the forest. Instead we should have gone over the open field, where Rhunhir and Ivrellith had made a smokescreen and run as a diversion to make the Reds chase them instead of finding the banner.
However, the Avatar was very grateful for our action, and she handed Sigil a Dragon's Egg.
I think that's when the Green looked on us with different eyes.
Imalayan told us there would be another mission to return the banner from the red, this time coordinated with Blue. The green forces would go through the city and we'd start out from Blue (next to the Red camp, all the way on the other side of the field). By the time the Anarquendor got there, still nothing was decided and the Blue was holding out.
However, Red marched off, legion after legion, to conquer another flag. I pressed Imalayan. "If we want to do this, we have to go now."
Saeldur was watching the gates of the Red camp. "The Seventh and Fifth are marching out as well." he reported.
It took another five minutes, but a runner came bounding off the hill. "We have a go. The Blue will aid us and they will claim another banner. We can take the Green back with us. Get everyone ready."
As such things go, it took longer still to get everyone ready, but Imalayan lead the assault. I didn't have a doubt that Red could easily conquer any banner back from Blue if they wanted to, but Parthalan assured me the big blue cannon could hold the Red out long enough. The cannon was called Big Bertha.
Tegingûr charged with Alaron the bannerbearer at his side, and Lyavanna lead the assault on the archers of the Red that were shooting down from the gates. Aicanassa had a perfect shot, and one of the archers of the Red fell down with an arrow between his ribs.
The gate fell, but it would be longer to conquer the banner. I told Lyavanna to arrange an escort and sent a runner to Tegingûr to press his advantage. Already, Saeldur was reporting Red was returning home, though the camp they were attacking was still holding, and a spy that was in the Blue camp had reported the troubles near the gate.
Living on adrenaline and water, I told Finn to keep an eye on the Reds and find the caravan a route down to our camp, trying to avoid the Reds and instead circling behind the Copper army that had responded, trying to keep this force in between us and the Reds. Imalayan was not to be found, so I took over the command and sent runners every which way. And runners came to me, telling me Finn had found us a safe route, telling me to keep an eye on the Landsknechte, and updating me on the situation.
Finally, I saw Alaron take down the Green banner, and soon enough he was in the middle of the escort Lyavanna had set up. Slowly, ever so slowly, the column creeped down the mountain. I had asked Alandir to form a ring with his Fänge around us, and also sent a runner to Joona who was much less forthcoming. It seems like Joona can't keep IT and OT separate...
Finally, we came home to the Green camp, and instead of letting his people water themselves, Joona pressed for everyone to return to honour our promise to blue, effectively letting the Greens walk over the field in a ragtag band, without a drink to strengthen them.
The Anarquendor returned to camp, where I tried to get some shut-eye after taking off my armour.
Sigil, sleeping like a baby.
When I was awake again, I fled the camp. Everything was running smoothly, and most of the archers of the Green were trying out for the archery contest. I had trouble wrestling myself towards consciousness and visited our friends of Dunkelgrün, where I sat with Hadingur and a lovely woman whose name I'm afraid to admit I've forgotten but who makes a hell of a cup of coffee.
Hadingur, Haddy for friends, told me how he had trouble with his polearm. It seemed to love the ground and didn't want to be picked up. I mulled over his problem for a moment, and told him perhaps he didn't respect the spirit of the staff enough, and instead he was trying to force it to do his bidding. I suggested he speak to Arevalo, and later suggested to Arevalo to speak with Hadingur, to figure things out.
In the evening, we still had a nice surprise. During an attack on Gold or Silver, Red had gotten close to our gate. We captured three of the Reds, Romans all, and took them into our camp, causing a political and diplomatic incident in the bargain.
They were fed and watered and even allowed to go to the dixie toilets (which is a crime in its own right) but I had plans with them.
During a talk where the Innenrat Robert asked me what my plans were, I promised that "I would treat them in a manner befitting the Green" and that "I would set them free later tonight"; showing exactly how good I can twist my words. Slightly delayed by an attack of the Orks, we finally got around to this part of my plan when darkness had finally fully fallen.
I had written a letter to the Kriegsrat of the Red, telling them that how they treat their prisoners is scandalous (beating up a prisoner of war while she's tied up? How very honourable!) and that I hoped their avatar was more wise and honourable as they were. The Anarquendor started gearing up, painting their faces and trying to not give away to much to our guests.
I had briefed everyone, and Finn even asked if he could join us, to which I replied he was very welcome to. I was sad that I couldn't go, but my feet were already killing me and I still had the Endslacht to survive.
We let the Romans dress in their (repaired) armours again, and escorted them to the gate. There, we stood to one side and gave them back their weapons. Alaron held a nice speech, and one of the Romans translated to Italian, though he falthered on translating the following words:
"...and in a manner befitting the Green, you will be our Prey in the coming hunt."
Oh shit.
They were nearly pissing their lorica's but we are kind and gave them a head start.
"Run!"
"What now?"
"Yes! RUN! Go! Go!"
They ran. I've never seen anyone in plate mail run this fast. And when they had a bit of a head start, I set the Anarquendor loose on them. Whooping and baying and jumping like puppies off to play, they set out to hunt their prey.
Two fell.
One found shelter in the Silver. It was the one with my letter, which he would deliver to the Kriegsrat later.
I waited inside the Green, telling the Avatar who approved of our hunt and gave us her blessing, until they returned the blood to me. It stained my face and I sighed at a job well-done.
Saturday
Before the Endslacht, there was one other thing to do. I asked Finn to join us in our camp and held a short speech. He had been a good friend and he had helped us on numerous occassions. I named him Mellon en Anarquendor and Aicanassa gave him the necklace she had made for him.
He would be welcome in our camp to share our food and our stories.
We nearly made him cry.
The stupid game of the Dragons was no longer interesting and we had chosen to pick our roleplaying moments in stead of fighting for the banners, but we would fight for the Green. There just was no longer any chance of winning.
Luckily, we had chosen a good diplomat. The Avatar spoke to us before we marche out to battle, telling us, with tears in her eyes, that she was proud of each and every one of us. We would join forces with the Grey and the Blue, trying to make the next year, the year of Freedom (Blue).
The Dragon's Eggs we had were transported to Blue, and so did Grey donate their eggs to Blue as well. And when we stood on the field of battle, we marched in a long line to join our allies on the other end and fight Gold and Red to end their oppression.
Green marches to aid Blue
The Anarquendor march to war.
We had put warpaint on and our heavy weapons. Some of us chose to carry bow and arrow, despite the large number of lost and broken arrows. But the Endslacht was difficult. We tried to stay with Dunkelgrün and aid them where we could, but the fights were too close, too cramped to shoot. We manouvered and manouvered, trying to find a spot where we could stand and fight.
During a man-down situation, a well-painted orc lady gave us water, and then when we could stand and continue again we manouvered some more. To no avail.
I even made a deal with Red. They called us oathbreakers (I swore no oaths to protect the healers!) and some were spitting angry. However, we had bigger fish to fry, and shook hands with a Red that we would not attack them in the back. When orders finally came through to attack Red, Gold and Black, I found a runner from Dunkelgrün to warn the Red of this fact, so that I would keep my word and show the Red that the Anarquendor are perfectly capable of playing by the rules.
The Green Avatar rides Rauron into battle.
The battle seemed to consist of endless manouvering and we had lost track of Dunkelgrün in the fray. In the end, we were cornered by Reds, who were spitting angry and really wanted to kill us -- and we weren't sure it was all IT.
At this point I looked at Tegingûr and we made the smart decision: to walk off the battlefield and not go for the confrontation.
Eferillion had a honourable duel with one of the Romans from the previous night and stayed behind -- and Keffie was hit in the stomach so hard that he had to be taken to the hospital.
Tegingûr worried over Keffie, sent someone to camp for his things, and the Maltezers were soon there to call an ambulance. Meanwhile, I took care of the other Anarquendor, placing a very upset Sairahiniel in a safe circle with her husband and checking to see if the others were doing okay. When finally the ambulance had gone to the hospital, we returned to camp and I put my phone in my pocket just in case someone would call.
When word came he was fine and that they needed a ride, Lyavanna went to get him and we set up a field bed near the fire so he could talk with us.
Dunkelgrün joined us at the campfire and we reminisced about the good moments. Saeldur had prepared something special to burn: the shafts of the arrows that had been broken. Each of us took a shaft, to burn for something we held dear. One for the Avatar. One for Sendbotin. One for Dunkelgrün.
I tossed the last shaft in the fire, saying "This one...can I say it out loud?...is for Drachenfest 2012."
Cheers.
And drinks.
And lots of new friends
Sunday
No more morning briefings, just the mad rush to clear everything away. We said goodbye to our new friends from Switzerland, the people from Dunkelgrün, we said goodbye to the SLs, and we said goodbye to eachother.
And then it was definitely time to get driving.
Despite lending my car for the grocery shopping, I made it -- on the last fumes of the tank -- to the border, where I filled Iota up on the tankpas again, quietly thanking the gods of unleaded gasoline fumes. I had a rough time staying awake, except for the moment when NoKey was sleeping.
The last 30 kilometers were the hardest.
And I think back on a much better than expected, wonderful Drachenfest, and our dear new friends from Switzerland, and the promises made to return next year. It's been a strange week, back in the real world, where Amy Winehouse died and we didn't even notice it because we were away on the Second World of the Dragons, hunting and being tortured, and generally having a wonderful time all around.
The End.
See all of my pictures here - Thanks to Peter and Axel as well, for handling my camera.
-----
*) 'Mammoth': "Mahmud" was pronounced more like "Mammoet" which translates to "Mammoth". Also: mummies are mammies or mommies. Gotta love that German accent!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-08-05 05:59 pm (UTC)and once again, thanks a lot for leading us during this wonderful week!
~Himdir
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Date: 2011-08-05 09:35 pm (UTC)Next year at Drachenfest?
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Date: 2011-08-06 01:48 am (UTC)I now just wonder whether I know some of the Swiss :-)
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Date: 2011-08-07 09:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-07 09:46 am (UTC)Next year we're making her something new again, so we have 12 months to make something epic!
no subject
Date: 2011-08-08 07:55 am (UTC)And I actually found some people I know on your pictures! :)
no subject
Date: 2011-08-08 09:06 am (UTC)Maybe next year we will meet at DF?