2001-06-20 - 9:22 a.m.

Well, I've had my first experience fighting in a castle, and it's pretty amazing. You have to be careful on the cobblestones, wet stones, moss, etc. but otherwise it is incredibly cool.

Some of the travel was a little entertaining though. We met up at TRH's place Thursday night, and acquired our other two folks early Friday morning and set off around nine. Our guess was an 8 - 10 hour drive and it actually took us more like 13 or so but part of that was an unintentional driving tour of the Peak District and upper Midlands. Pretty, but not where we were headed.

Got up to Edzell mid-late evening (thank goodness for the whole staying-light-late thing!) - it's terrific. You leave the motorway, go along a long tree-arched road, through an arch and you're in a quaint little village (maybe a mile from end to end). Out the other side there's a windy road (which is really interesting when being driven by a crazed Scot...) and down a lane with the castle ruins looming ahead of you. We get to camp on the grass in front of the castle and fight in the castle itself.

Setting up wasn't bad, although we were all pretty tired and stiff at this point, and a couple of the gals wandered off while we put up the tents, unloaded, etc. I got peeved by this (as I unloaded some significant portion of the van by myself), and got more peeved over the weekend as it continued to happen. Spoiled brats. More on that later.

By the time we got everything up, everyone else on site had gone to sleep so we crashed ourselves (Val, Steve, Fi, Leda & me in a tent, HerRH, Dan & Pol in town). Very very cold. Brrrrr. Scotland. Damp. Cold. Had to go to the loo and didn't want to get up and walk. Brrrr. Plus people next to me smooching while I lay alone in my cold little bed. Grrr + Brrr.

Saturday dawned grey and damp, and I was up early and ready to fight. We did so, starting around 10, with a break for lunch and then continuing til about 5. I fought in three melees in the courtyard (in one of which I did glorious deeds), then defended the Castle of Love (with Her Highness and Her guards....) We broke for a strange sort of picnic lunch (the 'whatever is in the food bin and cooler' lunch - a pepperoni, some poppadums, fruit, Fruesli bars, Doritos, etc.) and did the Warbands scenario.

In the Warbands scenario, there are teams of 3-5 fighters who are trying to get into the castle (through a low arched tunnel) and then steal bags of "gold" (small bags of sand, about the size of a good sized Christmas stocking) and get them out of the castle and around to the check-in point.

Her Highness and retinue were acting as part of the defensive team. At one point, I was the only defender alive, fighting spear, holding the entire courtyard by myself while my teammates watched from the resurrection point....

After the Warbands, we did a very silly scenario involving "boats" (three fighters roped together) and then the rest of the fighters did a dungeon scenario (in the castle dungeon) while I packed up my stuff so that we could head over to court immediately.

After court (which was mercifully short), we all went and got cleaned up (I'd arranged to share a hotel room that night, after the misery of the night before, and this meant I got a hot shower of my very own!) and came back for the feast. Her Highness had invited me to sit with her (along with her guard, Meesh) so we had a blast at high table. I was sitting next to the King (always entertaining) and we had a splendid time playing with the foodapult, throwing candy from the pinata (don't ask), putting candy into the bodices of the extremely well-endowed and lovely serving women (Rhi and Fi), drinking various interesting drinks and eating a pretty good feast. Oh, and smelling Val (he got summoned to High Table so we could smell his cologne....) There was even really good entertainment during the feast, and paced so it didn't interfere with talking, eating, carousing, etc. I even finally got a chance to swear fealty.

After the feast (and a couple or eight cloven fruit began to circulate), we all hurried back up the hill to get ready for the pas d'armes. They fight it by torchlight, in one of the rooms in the remaining tower of the castle, and everyone watches from the level above (where there's a wooden platform in place of the long-missing floor). It was pretty glorious. Val, one of "our boys" was chosen to be a defender, along with the two remaining local defenders (Mike being out with an injury), and Dan (another of "our boys") was fighting for the first time in a pas. So it was very splendid if cold (and running until, oh, 2:30 or so....)

Finally, we all tumbled into our beds late that morning, and I got a decent (if short) night's sleep in a nice warm bed.

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