From: vnend@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (D. W. James)
Subject: Pennsic XXI summary (long!!!)
Originator: news@nimaster
Organization: Princeton University
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 21:49:45 GMT


Unto the good people of the Rialto and other such places, greetings
from Lord Kwellend-Njal Kollskeggsson.  Here follow my impressions and
memories of lately past Pennsic, being the XXI meeting in that name.

First of all, since there seems to be some interest, the results:

The East Kingdom and its allies won seven of the points that counted
toward victory.  The Middle and its allies won two.  The breakdown is
as follows, in order of occurrence:

Archery Champions               East and allies 
Unbelted Champions              East and allies 
Belted Champions 		East and allies 
Field Battle                    East and allies 
Woods Battle                    East and allies 
Town Battle                     Middle and allies 
Bridge Battle                   Middle and allies 
(reported last, but taking place over several days:) 
Advancing Target Archery        East and allies 
Clout Archery                   East and allies

The final number posted at the gate was 8292, but with lost medalions and
other mishaps the 8276 figure sounds reasonable.

A quick comment before I begin the tale in earnest, but I am again
amazed at the light turnout for the East in the Town and Bridge
battles.  Some people have tried to justify this with the late position
of those battles (frequently when the conflict is already decided,
though I know of exceptions), but I suspect it is that the fighters of
the East just don't like (or at least *think* they don't like) that
kind of battle.  I would love to see what the turn out and results
would be if we had the Bridge battle *first*.

After ill winds delayed our departure, my lady and I arrived at the
fields of Pennsic only one day late, on Sunday in the late afternoon.
I could tell that we were at Pennsic, rather than some lesser
gathering, because before I got through the gate I encountered someone
I hadn't seen in two years (indeed, neither my lady nor myself could
walk far at all without meeting someone we knew all through war.)  We
found that we had missed the traditional Pennsic Deluge by arriving
late, and indeed some of the cart tracks we saw were rutted and
impassable except on very muddy feet.  We set up our tents, visited
around Herald's Point (our campsite this year) and then went to bed.
(Really to bed this year too.  We found ourselves with an extra
mattress and brought it to sleep on this year.  It was a vast
improvement over the air mattress.)

Monday I attended most of Eastern Curia, where not a lot was done other
than officer reports.  After curia I gave my report of my activities in
Ansteorra to the Crown, and that ended my royal interaction for the
week.  (Well, almost.  In the field battle my unit met the King of
Atenveldt, and during a hold I asked if Ioseph was at Pennsic.  I don't
know if that counts though.) After curia a wandered back over to the
consulting tent, but thought that since the chairs were full they
didn't need any more help, so I decided to do some shopping.

My shopping expedition turned into a long visit with Master Alron of
Carillion, better known by the trademark on his knives "Shadowmaker"
than by his name, and his lady.  We spent several hours talking about
news, where the SCA is going, what the SCA is doing and other such
things, with frequent interruptions by customers both potential and
real, as well as friends.  And doing a lot of people watching from the
shade.  All in all an enjoyable way to spend a hot day, which Monday
was, with only occasional clouds during the day.

Monday evening my lady prepared us dinner, and we talked about what to do
that evening.  As it happened we started getting reports of incoming
bad weather, so I elected to say behind and raise the tarp over our
tent, while my lady took her harp and set off for the Enchanted Ground,
where she had a wonderful time, though she didn't get to play or sing.
I got the cover up before the weather arrived, and then sat or stood
outside and watched the storms miss us while presenting wonderful
displays of lightning.  Finally I got tired and went to bed, to be
joined by my lady after a short time.

Tuesday was the first day that I did any work in the consulting tent,
as I had heard the night before that the people I saw working so hard
were mostly new heralds, with just a few senior staff among them.
Instead of just sitting down and working with one person, I roamed
around behind the table, picking out when someone was at a loss or just
uncertain what to do next and fetching them the book they didn't know
they needed or helping with the research.  This seemed to work rather
well, and I spent a fair amount of time there.  That evening we walked
over to the Rialto party, which started off, for me, on a wonderful
musical note as my lady, Bertram, Dorothea and Yaakov, along with
others, started trading songs.  Eventually things got a little quieter
and people talked around the fire and visited.  I ended up talking to
Esmeralda for a while, and then my back started complaining and I
headed off to bed.  That was the first night of several that I saw
several shooting stars of unusual brightness.

Wednesday was opening ceremonies, and I was asked to assist in getting
groups to fall into line in the procession in order.  Once that was
done I was free watch the ceremony.  This ran pretty much as usual
("What are you doing here?" "What do you mean, what am we doing here,
this place belongs to us!" etc, etc...) with one early indication that
things were going odd (the Middle said that it did not have the War
Horn, the 'trophy' the winning side ceremonially takes possession of at
the end of Pennsic.)  Then the war arrow was produced that the king of
the Middle could break it to start the war.  He tried, but could not
break it.  He then passed it to the King of the East, who bent it
nearly double, but could not break it either.  They decided that this
must be an omen that they were not to fight a war, but with their
allies at their backs they had to do something.  So a grand Pennsic
Tourney was announced, and the various allies were questioned as to where
they would stand.  After that both sides retired from the field.

After the two sides retired I went looking for some new armor.  In
particular, I was lacking a right vambrace, and the makeshift one I had
used occasionally in the East had been rejected in Ansteorra back in
May.  After talking to some friends, I was referred to The Highland
Forge, where Sir Sutan was doing custom cutting and punching of simple
leather vambraces.  I ordered a set with integral elbow cops, chatted
for a while (it turns out he had been squired to someone I started out
fighting), bought some raffle tickets for a chance at a lovely copper
helm, and then headed back to camp.

That evening was Eastern Court, where I got to see, for the first time,
what a wonderfully silly man we have on the throne.  Yes, a lot of it
was hardly regal, and certainly some of the schtick was blatantly
modern, but I was laughing along with most of the rest of the crowd.
Among the business that took place that night was:

Presentation of tribute to the Crown by the Viceroy and Vicerine of
Ostgardr of a rare Trimarian War Poodle named Fifi (Fifi was a 6 foot
long inflatable aligator.)  At this point His Majesty removed his crown
and other odds and ends and wrestled the beast into submission, finally
placing it into the care of one of his guards.

Creation of the first members of the East Kingdom High Order of Merit
for Fence, including its Principle, Duke Morgunn Sheridan, and 15
others.  (The Brigantia Stunt Double herald, Thomas de Castellon, read
all 15 of these at a good volume in a reasonably short period of time,
and was later awarded arms for his heraldic service at the war.)

The induction of Thora Sharptooth into the order of the Laurel, in a
ceremony modeled on an Icelandic court case.

"House Runnymede", the landed barons of the East, bringing a bear(on)
into court.  His majesty proceeded to wrestle with it.  (I don't know
who won.  The person in the bear suit did a remarkably good job of
acting bearlike.)

The king apparently conversing with the Tuchux in their own tongue (and
wrestling with them too.)

Many confections distributed ballistically by HRH Lucan (tasty things
too, though they where a bit heavy for that.  One person sitting behind
me caught one with an eye and was in considerable pain for a few
minutes.  And with the foil wrappers that could be dangerous.)

All in all a very fun and funny court, in a way that isn't at all
authentic but is very much SCA.  After court we hit one of the inns, I
visited a friend I hadn't seen in a while as she was working troll, and
then we went to bed.

Thursday I got up at a reasonable hour, donned my armor and walked over
to get inspected before the field battle.  The person doing the
inspection recognized the name on my authorization card from here
(hello out there, whomever you were) and that was that.  Inspection
took all of about 5 minutes.

I wondered out onto the battle field to see if a group I knew had
gathered so I could leave my helm and weapons out there while I walked
back to camp for a little breakfast.  I didn't see groups, though I
bumped into a few individuals and finally I noticed someone with arms
reminiscent of my lady's.  I spoke to the woman, found out that she was
married to someone whose arms I had helped design, and we talked for a
while.  We finally ended up leaving our excess armor in a heap and
walking back to camp, talking most of the way.

After a short visit back to camp I walked back out to the battlefield,
collected my arms and helm and started the long hike over to the side
the East traditionally musters on.  (Why the East musters on the west
side of the battlefield I'll never know...)  As I hadn't practiced with
anyone this summer, I looked around for someone to play with.  After
looking for the baronies I've played with in the past and not finding
them, I spotted a couple of friends who were fighting with Ostgardr and
asked if I could join up with them.  They liked the idea, and we lined
up behind Thescorre and waited.  And waited and waited...

Finally the battle started.  Thescorre moved directly across the
battlefield and engaged Calontir head on (I later heard that Thescorre
was told that they were to be an 'anvil'.)  We piled up behind them,
then slid off to the right and engaged the Calontir flank as other
Eastern units moved to do so as well.

(Mixed in with all of this was a gentle in full armor whose helm did
not bear blue or red tape, but instead had a white card taped too it
that said "PRESS".  I resisted the temptation to do so, but I did
marvel a bit at the foolishness of taking a camcorder into the middle
of battle (and this gentle was indeed in the thick of things.)  The
tapes should be *very* interesting...)

I don't know what happened there.  The numbers didn't seem *that*
uneven, but in very little time it became apparent that the army of
Calontir was dieing at a remarkable rate.  After several holds they
were down to perhaps 12 fighters (hard to be certain.)  During that
hold someone on the Calontir side shouted "Fighter's of the East!  Now
it is up to you what songs we sing of this battle." (Or something to
that effect.)  King Ruslan stood up and ordered that the units engaging
them from the "rear"  (The remaining Calontiri were in a vaguely lens
shaped group at most 3 people thick and rather tight) were to hold off
and let them defend against just one side.

After that hold, and since I was on the side that was told to stand
off, I looked around.  There wasn't a lot of red tape left at that
point, but about 20 yards away I spotted someone who had been legged
and left.  He was starting to struggle to one leg and was about to
start hopping toward the action as I moved in his direction and asked
if he'd like single combat.  He accepted, and I dropped my spear and
drew my sword, and as neither of us had shields and our swords were of
the proper size we used them two-handed.  After a short exchange he
went back down to his knees and shortly after that acknowledged one of
my blows.  I checked to see if he was ok, and he thanked me for not
using my spear on him.  What would have been the fun of that?

As I walked back to pick up my spear another hold was called.  This one
really didn't seem to end as much as disintegrate.  I asked the nearest
marshal if we were still under hold, and he admitted that he didn't
know, but as a lot of people were walking away we decided that the
battle must have been over.  I picked up my spear and spotted Master
Kobayashi, also armed with spear and sword, walking off the field.  As
I still had a lot of energy left, I asked if we could cross swords, and
he agreed.  We sparred for a while, and then removed our helms and
started talking.

I should mention at this point that Kobayashi had a rather singular
spear at the war this year.  At the end, over the required thrusting
tip, was affixed a 3-4 inch diameter black suction cup.  When it struck
nice, shiny plate or a shield it stuck rather firmly, much to the
delight and amazement of people so struck.  It rather excellently
simulated getting ones spear trapped in your victim's armor, and was
extremely entertaining as well.

After that we parted ways, and I made my way back to camp for a small
lunch.  That afternoon was the Friendship battle, which placed the
allied armies of the East and the Middle against all others.  Why this
wasn't held immediately after the field battle, I don't know, but I
think I would have liked it better.  In any event, I looked around and
spotted a unit that I used to fight with in the Midrealm when I lived
there (mostly because they were the only other folks using big
shields.)  Since that time what had been a group of people fighting
together had become the household of Duke Comar, and we marched into
battle together one more time.  This time in the confusion I got rather
badly separated from the unit, and soon found myself surrounded by
yellow tape (Blue tape marked the East, Red was the Middle, and allies
either had yellow tape in addition to one of the earlier colors or
simply removed their tape and were tapeless for the Friendship Battle)
and killed, but not before I had managed to embarrass myself by
missremembering a rule (I got it in my head that you couldn't grab
someone's polearm, I suspect in confusion with the rule that you can't
grapple someone's shield.)  After I had removed myself from the field I
checked, confirmed that I was wrong, and when the battle was over I located
the people who had killed me and apologized for my mistake.  We ended
up talking about rule variance, changes over the years and such, and
parted on good terms.

That evening my lady went off to play her harp at some parties (and
corrupting innocents with that same instrument), while I visited with
an old acquaintance (a chirurgen from the Middle) and walked over the
view the deadly mushrooms on display at Chirurgen's Point.

The warning had gone out that day that this years site for the woods
battle contained some rather toxic fungus.  Contact of the plant or of
skin or clothing that had been in contact with it with mucus membranes
would cause permanent liver damage.  The risk was not a great one
though, if one was forewarned.  As I walked into the point to view them
I recognized the Steward sitting a watch.  I viewed the plant, said
hello, and went back to bed, intending to fight the next morning (the
woods is probably the most fun of all the battles at Pennsic.)

At least that was the plan.  What happened was that I woke up early,
decided that a few more minutes couldn't hurt, and woke up again after
11am.  I probably still could have made it to the battle, but at that
point I decided that it wasn't worth the time (armor up, catch the
ferry to the site, find out where I am in the woods, fight, die, fight,
catch the ferry home...)  So I worked in the consulting tent again,
this time working on armory and actually sitting down and doing some
one on one consulting after a short time of helping someone.  I think
that both of the arms that I helped people design that day were pretty
good.  After the consulting tent closed I grabbed my bow and headed off
to (finally) do some shooting.  Fortunately, they had a practice range
set up, and I was able to get a little practice to warm up before I
shot.  This paid off in the advancing fighter shoot, as I finally, for
the first time in 4 years of shooting at Pennsic, scored a point.  (I
still wasn't up to the kingdom average though, as this year the East
and allies managed to average over one point per archer.)  If I hadn't
bobbled my draw on the 30 I might have gotten two, but I took so long
at 30 that I was unable to get an arrow off at the 20 yard target.

Sadly, I did very poorly in the clout, as I didn't get any practice in
and 3 of my arrows ended up in the front wall and all but one of the
others was short.

As I prepared to leave I noticed a high proportion of Carillion archers
in the (small) crowd and stopped to say hello and ask what was going
on.  It turned out that Carillion and Black Rose were to shoot a
challenge that evening, so I stuck around to participate.  It was
decided that we would do the challenge in two parts, first a round on
the advancing range, with an untimed shoot at each of the 6 targets,
and the same scoring rules as the war point as far as scoring was
concerned.  Here I managed to drag the average down (we ran the
challenge on averages, since Carillion had about twice as many people
there as Black Rose.)  In the clout shoot I managed to make up a bit
though, as my war point shoot had given me a clue as to the elevation I
needed.  In the end Carillion won, with an average of 4.1 points over
the two parts to Black Rose's 3.6.  Still, a fairly close match, and
fun for both sides.

After that I walked back and we ate dinner.  We also visited a few 
bardic circles, shivered a bit, and went to sleep.

The next day were the town and bridge battles, with the town battle in
the morning and the bridge battle in the afternoon.  As I mustered for
the town battle I noticed that strange things were a foot, as lining up
with the East and wearing blue tape was Comar's household (at least
some of them, as I spotted at least one of their shields in use by
someone in red tape during the battle), and others have reported that
some eastern units fought with the Middle as well.  This time I managed
to hook up with the unit from Barony Carillion, and lined up with them
for the battle.

Expecting a more open field, I had brought what I though would be
appropriate weapons, an axe and a sword, both with thrusting tips.
Looking at the field though, I realized that it was going to be less
mobile than I had thought, and I wasn't going to be doing a lot.

At the start we ran out near to where the units were engaging and
entered into one of the building.  And waited.  It was a long wait with
an incredible view of the fighting, as the "walls" were marked with one hay
bale, but could not be struck over.  So during holds we would chat with
the Midrealm fighters, teasing them because we were in the 'tavern' and
they were outside getting hot and sweaty.  This must have riled them a
bit, as they eventually beat back the Eastern forces to the point that
they could assault the door.

In retrospect we probably goofed in putting our shields in a position
to prevent entry.  We should have pulled back and set up a killing zone
inside the door, and forced them to come to us where we could have
gotten the maximum number of people on them without exposing ourselves
to their spears.  As it was I wasn't totally useless, as I grabbed a
spear and managed to nail someone in rusty plate (after talking to him
during the hold too), but he managed to fall on the spear and I
couldn't haul it back.  At that point, armed with two short weapons I
just fell back into the building; two weapons don't work very well in
confined spaces against large numbers of spears.  After a brief
standoff, some of their legged fighters tried to, ahem, 'rush' us, but
we killed them.  Finally it was down to just two or three of us, and
about five or six spearmen who were about to start coming through the
door.  There seemed to be only one thing to do, so I did it.  I
screamed bloody murder and charged.  I got past the speartips somehow,
and may have even thrown a blow or two, but someone out there had
something other than a spear.  I felt a good solid blow and fell down.
Someone said "Good charge!" and then I was gaffed and sent out of the
field.

The battle didn't last long after that, though I did see one impressive
single combat, as Andre der Isfalk, squire to Sir Wulfstan Thorhallsson
(I think), fought and defeated 6 or 7 or more Midrealm fighters,
including a couple of knights and either the Prince or someone in his
guard.  Probably the most impressive string of single combats I've seen
in a while.  (Andre's prowess has not gone unnoticed, as he was made a
member of the Order of the Tiger's Combatant this last Feast of St.
Pyr.)

At that point we all wandered off, I back to my camp and tent for a nap
that lasted through the start of the bridge battle, so I missed it.  I
did get a less than frigid shower out of the deal though, so all was
not lost.  After that I carried my chairs and sheepskins up to the barn
for war court for my lady and I.  (A sheepskin or two makes a canvas
directors chair a lot more comfortable, not to mention less mundane in
appearance.)  Great Court was long and complicated, with several peers
made, several kingdoms conducting business in another kingdom's court,
and, oddly enough, the far (left) side of the dais was nearly empty by
the end of court, as some of the Kings chose to depart the event that
evening.  I did get to see Jade, whom I've exchanged mail with, though
I missed getting to say hello to return the favor.  There were far more
Laurels made than either of the other two peerages, perhaps a list of
them will be posted later.

After that it was dinner, and then back to Herald's point where a
bardic was supposed to take place, but instead there were two groups
talking, the one away from the fire doing more singing.  Finally the
two musicians with instruments headed off to the consulting tent to
play in there and exchange music in the light.  After listening to much
silliness, I turned in.

Sunday had its ups and downs.  I got up early to walk out to the
Highland Anvil to see if I had won the helm, as the holder of the ticket
drawn on Friday had not claimed it (if you held ticket 297, you blew
it) and at 9am they proceeded to pull one ticket a minute until someone
present claimed it.  It took three tries, but finally someone else got
it.

That done I walked on out to the archery field and discovered that the
arrow that I had lost in the clout shoot had been found.  On the way
back in I stopped to talk to the person guarding access to the carts,
and we talked about various things.  He really didn't know much about
what we do (other than dress funny), but he noted that we seemed to
have a larger number of minorities this year than he had seen in the
past.  We seemed to have a difference of opinion on the merits of this
change, and I was reminded that we *were* in the countryside of the
mideastern US.  I walked back the length of Battle Road, buying a
shield blank here, and penannulars there as merchants marked things
down to sell before people were gone.  I then blew the last of my
spendable money at Master Alron's booth, picking up a pair of feast
knives made in his singular style.

Closing court was pleasant.  The scroll awarded to Thomas de Castellon
was excellent proof why one should not allow a court herald to write a
scroll (written and read by Master Arval, it was *very* funny) or take
one on a picnic.  The results of the archery points were announced, and
the East had some 1100 archers shooting for it, and the Middle slightly
less than 600.  I don't recall the scores, but the averages were fairly
close (if I can get the numbers I'll post them.)

After that we visited around a little, and then decided to break camp
and head home with that evenings tide, rather than waiting for the next
mornings.  We had a swift and pleasant voyage home (even the fish was
tasty.)

Did calling the event a tournament rather than a war make a
difference?  I believe that it did.  Certainly it was a friendlier
Pennsic than others I've attended, and I have not, as of yet, heard the
usual stories of needless brutality and mayhem that greeted me after
the last couple.  Part of it may have been the weather, which was
exceptionally mild (I blame the Mists for that too, Dorothea) and
pleasant, if a little damp.

For me it was a very strange Pennsic.  It was first one that I spent
the entire time I was there on site.  At the same time, I didn't get
nearly as much done as I wanted.  For example, I never even *saw* the
grounds south of heralds point, not even the lake, let alone the
swimming hole.  I didn't make it to friends camps, though I bumped into
several of them around camp.  I liked the amount I worked this time,
putting in an hour or two a day when I wasn't fighting was nice.
Having enough garb was nice (though I'll have more for next year!)  It
was not my favorite Pennsic, nor the most memorable, but it was better
than I suspected it would be on Monday, when I might well have left if
my lady had not been there.

Doubtless a lot of this was the work of the week before we departed, as
we moved our household from the lowlands of Carillion to a hilltop farm
in Settmour Swamp (a change of about 9 miles), which took a lot out of
both of us.  I know my back was still sore as late as the Rialto party
on Tuesday.

All in all it was a good Pennsic.  We broke 8000, though we didn't come
near the 10,000 some were expecting (thank goodness!)  Next year I'll
bring the drums again and hopefully *then* I'll get to a class.

As always, I've left out a lot, including a lot of names.  Fridrikr and
Orianna helped make the camp at Heralds point a pleasant place to
stay.  We got to return past favors of others and fed some folks, as
well as being fed ourselves (there was some good cooking going on in
the Point!)  The announcement that Drakenwald had petitioned to become
a kingdom.  The announcement that Lillies next year, on the third
weekend in June in the Barony of Forgotten Seas (Kansas City?) in
Calontir, would be the Eastern kingdoms of the SCA vs. the Western
Kingdoms (*I* intend to be there, if the ships hold up!)  Putting faces
to some of the names here.  Arval's wonderful Pelican medallion, which 
Master Marten had described to me but that I had not seen.


Only 51 more weeks to Pennsic XXII.

Kwellend-Njal Kollskeggsson

-- 
Vnend, Lottery winner #316                 Ignorance is the mother of adventure.  
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