Rapier Championship and Congregatus

During February I had the great pleasure to attend Innilgards Baronial Rapier Championship – usually an excellent fencing event and this year was no exception.

Carrying on a piece of theater from Fields of Gold, where I was presented the Lochac Seals of State by King Steffan and Queen Branwen to transport them to Innilgard to put into the hands of the new Provost of Scribes, I delivered them to Baroness Aeschine and Baron Cullan, as the local representatives of the Crown, to present them to Baroness Fionn.

Having completed that, I spent the day successfully field marshaling the event, getting a front row to some excellent fights. I’m lucky to be part of a Barony full of many strong fighters who are generally fun to be around to boot.

There were some excellent fights during that tournament and the finals were some very impressive fencing.

More recently over Easter I traveled across to Krae Glas for their Easter-not-Festival event Congregatus Australis. I got to spend a lot of the event playing in a commercial kitchen with skilled cooks and chefs which made the process very easy. I find working in the kitchen to be a good escape. Some nights with over 100 people in the feast hall, it gets intense, being able to work somewhere semi-quieter with less people is almost relaxing.

The food overall was incredibly impressive, and the kitchen worked to a very high standard.

I taught two classes, a stripped down version of my introduction to rapier class and my Krapfen doughnut class.

I didn’t have the energy to engage in much fencing this weekend, but I did have great fun marshaling the Princess Bride tournament, with many stupid deaths and not quite deaths. A fun format that I think would be worth trying here locally.

Sadly my Krapfen didn’t turn out to my standards. I suspect juggling some prep in the kitchen while managing a class that was much larger in attendance than I expected lead to mistakes. That said, the small children enjoyed the deep fried spiced fruit sugar things which at the end of the day is the real goal. On the topic of sugar I got to take Mistress Bethonys sugar class and picked up a few tricks on boiling different types of sugar to make them workable. I suspect some taffy will be in the future.

I assisted in some authorizations in my capacity as an authorizing marshal in an attempt to bolster numbers of the marshallette in Krae Glas/Stormhold. Hopefully this will see a knock on result of more capable fighters taking to the field in coming years giving us bigger and better fields to play with.

I had a whirlwind of a time, met new people, caught up with old friends, got to know some people better. I got stupidly drunk one night but didn’t end up slapped in the face or banished as a result, so I’ll take that as a win. I had a great time just being social with good people, singing, drinking and being merry.

I also managed to conduct vital experiments into portable rapier marshal technology….

Apparently my rapier gear bag is large enough to move a body. Who knew….

I had the great pleasure of being presented a very swish tea towel as a gift by Baroness Krae Glas as a thank you for my work in the kitchen – originally I was unsure if it was an actual gift or just a ‘use it now’ gift – I had planned to swipe it anyway and dare Krae Glas fighters to come take it from me, but apparently she later confirmed in court it was a gift to keep. Very much appreciated.

Which is why I was blown away when I was presented with the Order of the Delphinus Dionysi at the closing court (the “you’re a foreign devil who does good stuff” award for Krae Glas). Unexpected but appreciated and I’ll have to use it as motivation and excuse to visit more often.. another meerkat invasion anyone, or maybe a surprise Amos ambush feast..

And as I’m writing this I still haven’t unpacked the car, or started washing.. but in 9 days I leave again to drive to setup site for Festival and do it all over again. Looking forward to it, but I strongly suspect this month will fully exhaust me.