Melon Wars

There were several choices for their Majesties to attend this past weekend, and they chose Melon Wars. This event was near Burlington, Iowa and it was in the Shire of Flynthyll, at least it was by the end of the day. The Shire was incipient until court, when their Majesties made it official.

But we’re getting ahead of the story. It was held at a really cool site for a small event. Nice grass to fight on, a small kitchen, permanent restroom, cabin, and shower facilities. Wouldn’t work for 150-200 people, but very nice up to 100, which was about what we had.

Went up Friday night and got there in time to do a little drinking and having fun by the fire, but not much. Got up around 8 the next morning, primarily because I couldn’t sleep very well. Their Majesties and retinue were given the upstairs of the cabin, which was comfortable but we all snore.

This next paragraph, by the way, goes to Medb, Liam, Nazrynn and all the other people from the north.

It was a beautiful day, a few clouds to keep the sun from being too harsh, a nice breeze to get under the helm, and it was about 75 degrees. It was wonderful. How’s the weather up there, anyway? 🙂

I fought really well for some reason. Maybe the weather, I don’t know, but I did better in the 6ft spear tourney than I have ever done in any tourney before. I did well in the 9ft tourney as well. In the Warlord tourney I drew a bye in the first round, which really sucks. A Warlord tourney is one where the winner of the first round is captain of a team including the person he beat in the first round. The winner of the second round has a team that has four people (in a full tourney) and so on. Ultimately, there are two captains, each with half of the people on his team. If you get a bye, you don’t have the person you might have beat in the first round so I had to fight 1 on 2 in the second round. I was on fire enough to actually win that fight. The list was structured so pretty much everyone was even with 3 man teams in the second round, and my team won, no thanks to me in the second round.

In the last bout of the 6ft spear tourney I stretched my knee a little more than I should have and it was sore going into the Warlord tourney. In that second round fight I was legged and went down awkwardly, twisting my knee further in the process. I probably could have continued fighting, but I was smart enough to want a shower, ibuprofen, ice, and beer. It made the rest of the day go pretty well. The knee is still sore, but I’ll be able to fight at fighter practice and maybe fight this weekend. I’ve been fighting at every event and at least one and sometimes two fighter practices a week and my knees and ankles are getting irritable. I may take this week off though I won’t get fighter practice next week because I’ll be on the road to a special semi-secret place. We’ll see.

Anyway, court was fun. As mentioned, the Shire was made official. There were a lot of Shire members and His Majesty was impressed. Her Majesty’s shire was made official at Coronation with 46 members. Tristram asked how many were in Flynthyll and was told 53. He looked at Katrine with a smug look so I stepped forward with the axe and told Her Majesty that I would be happy to remove 7 of them :). She thought about that for a moment, but sadly would not allow me my fun. The Champion’s Axe, by the way, screams to be used for chopping off people’s heads. It’s in the way it is balanced. Really.

So several members of the new shire were given awards. The most humorous went to Odysseus Titanius Maximus. Max is the one person in that shire who travels a lot, so everyone knows him. The first award of the day went to someone else, and Max shouted out “Busted” when he was called up. Their Majesties and retinue took great pleasure in reminding Max of that when he got called up himself.

After court was a very nice feast, except for the one fishy bit. Ick :). Then there was a torchlight greatsword tourney which was combined with a best bodice competition. Just to remind you, this was Melon Wars. The bodice competition had to do with the best display of melons. So one kid, Olai, taped cantaloupes to his armor so that he could participate in both the great sword tourney and the bodice competition. Surprisingly enough, though everyone he faced in the great sword tourney aimed for them, his melons survived. They were in fact real melons, as Her Majesty asked me to confirm.

All in all, a fun, somewhat silly little event. Good weather, good friends, good fighting, good food, good beer, and a good time.

2 thoughts on “Melon Wars”

  1. Well, it’s a lovely but slightly chill morning up here on Long Island. Sun’s out, no rain (which is good), and no other precipitation. Hopefully the weekend weather will be about the same or slightly warmer, but plans include being a scribe for part of the day on Sat, to work on some pet project or another… EK Crown Tourney is 2 weeks away, and hopefully the weather will be much better by then, too. 🙂

  2. The weather up here is sunny and temps in the 50s, with high 60s by the weekend. Pretty much perfect weather for April. Been to any Cards games yet? Eric and I have seen two Jays games so far, the home opener and the last of the Boston series.

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