On Saturday I made an appearance at the Kingdom Level Event at Mystic Seas (Troutdale, OR). I only say an appearance because I showed up rather late and left early. I was mostly in the Portland Area to spend time with friends this weekend. I spent both Friday and Saturday night there. Since I was in the area I figured I should stop by the KLE.
They were hosting a bake sale to raise funds. It was fairly successful, raising $176.50. I bought four little sandwiches made and donated by Minerava. They were made with Hawaiian rolls, meats and some cheese, they were sweet and savory. It was a nice treat to fight back the mid-afternoon hunger.
Considering this was Mid-Reign, there was court, but only a few awards went out. I assume most of the the higher level awards and titles, if there are any, will go out at Winterbash, which is in January. One notable award was Big Mac’s 8th Fighter. This puts him on the Circle of Knights’ Watch List. It’s something of a milestone in a person’s path to knighthood.
After court I spent a good amount of time talking with Kormac about several things. One thing was about The Harbingers, the fighting company we belong to. It’s no secret to say we are in a huge slump. He is taking it upon himself to try and revitalize the company. I admire him for that but it will certainly be an uphill battle. For myself, I will support him but I’m not overly enthusiastic about the endeavor. It’s a symptom of a larger issue when it comes to my enthusiasm for Amtgard as whole. Other topics we talked were battle games; battle game balance and battle game theory in particular. We also discussed what he’d like to run at the next Pacific War.
At this point it was getting dark. I said my goodbyes and head back to my friend’s apartment.
Sunday saw me driving down from Portland to Dusk Hollow (Dallas, OR). I might have skipped this practice if the new players I introduced to the game a few weeks ago hadn’t said they were going to be going. I wanted to make sure I was there to help them if they needed. I’m sure people would have otherwise helped them but I feel a bit responsible for them, plus I’m somewhat living vicariously through them.
It turned out I had a pretty good time. I spent a half an hour or so short sword fighting Ceian and Hyde. I did well. Ceian did better than he did the other weekend, but I think I still pulled out ahead. I made a point to move more. I did a fairly good job moving in and pulling off combos. Fighting Hyde I did fairly well too. I’d say we were more even but I know I surprised him quite a lot.
I am certainly out of shape and it didn’t take long for me to start sweating and having my heart raised. I pushed through being tired and waited till they both wanted a break. It was a nice bit of excersize. My hips hurt the next day..
After fighting we three talked a little bit and I got something of an ego boost. Hyde hadn’t really seen me fight at that level before and Ceian said he didn’t really understand why I was so quick with follow up combos while doing short sword but so slow when doing sword and board. He said that at first it really throws people off. It was very nice to be acknowledge as good in a fighting area. it’s been a while since I’ve had any sort of positive reinforcement in regards to my fighting.
Ozzward ran a few class battle royal games while Darb and Cid set up for a small quest. I sat down and urged Sundown, the new person I invited, to try playing in the quest. She was a bit hesitant but she relented and decided to try her hand at druid. I got her a spell cheat sheet and we made a first level spell list. I let her use my entangle balls and a spell strip.
I ended up reeving the quest. It was fairly simple. There were two phases. The first phase they killed monsters and looted them to finding items to help them overcome an icy curse which was affecting the lands of Dusk Hollow. They then took the items back to Old Man Lee to get identified. The second phase they had to kill the big bad guy and his minions to remove the curse.
They split up the the players into two groups and ran them through it separately. It worked out all right but it left half the park sitting in the under covered area, doing nothing. I helped out Sundown a bit, giving her some advice while she was playing and I think she enjoyed it. She looked a little over whelmed at times though.
We pretty much stayed there till the sun was setting. Most of us ended up going to a local Chinese restaurant for afters, which was fun. I didn’t talk to much but I did ask Darb if anyone was thinking of running for Kingdom Regent next term, I was considering running. The only person he had heard say they were going to run was Bean. I haven’t decided if I am going to run or not, there are a lot of personal factors I have to consider before I can dedicate myself. I plan on decided in January, after Winterbash.
After eating more food than I should have I went home. Next week is Silvermoon’s (Aumsville, OR) coronation, which I plan on attending. I won’t be attending Dusk Hollow next weekend because I’ll be running a Dungeon and Dragon’s game at Gustav’s.