"When last we left our Heros ... They were You!"
This is one of the ways that this event was advertised, both in "Privy Press" announcements (fliers posted in the privies at March Crown, etc.); and on SCA-West, a list server used for communication between members of the Kingdom of the West's populace; and in The Page. The event centered around a Quest ...
The story behind this quest is based on a tale from The Maginogian, a collection of Welsh Arthurian legends. Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn spent some time back in January preparing an outline, which the quest team then took and simplified in some places, went sideways with in others, and generally tried to create a good quest scenario from. The process of creating the quest took most of the five+ months before the event, with monthly meetings, and email sessions to make sure everything was done.
The Cast Members were:
The event "officially" started on Friday when the site opened, but as we expected, very few folk camped, mostly those who worked on the Quest (for convenience).
Saturday morning started up a bit chilly, as would be expected at Fort Ord (right near the ocean), and warmed up with some good cool breezes the rest of the day. In the morning before the event really got going, those who were part of the crew who created the Quest and/or were working the Quest got into costume, and prepared, making sure all of the properties and the specific sites were setup for the Quest.
We had planned for the possibility of up to 12 teams (of up to 6 people each), but really expected only 4 or 5, so when we had six teams in the morning, we were quite happy. (Another team showed up after lunch for a total of seven!)
There was a lunch break from 1:30 to 2:30, giving folk a chance to sit down and relax, eat, etc.
Some of the teams were created on the site, many of them were arranged before the event, we even made it possible for folk to "pre-register".
In addition to the Quest riddles, puzzles and so on, there was a "Find the Most Anachronisms" contest, which was won handily by the team that Kellyn Firesinger was on. Their list was really huge. There were only a couple of entries, though, mostly because we kept everyone so busy that they forgot about finding anachronisms in the Quest. The prize for that was a six-pack of cold Henry's Root Beer.
After the Quest was over, Prince Parlan and Princess Arianwen thanked everyone in an informal gathering, and presented me (as the coordinator) with a nice token (a pendant of a fleur-de-lys that I will keep with the "Special Tokens" I've received over the years). I accepted the token on behalf of the whole team (which was pretty large). It meant a lot to us all that Their Highesses attended the event, had the largest team (they had six members), and had a good time, and thanked everyone.
Somewhere in there after some of the teams were done, Branwen Cryccthegn Deorcwuda put together a maze as a birthday present for John Theophilus. This was originally planned for Sunday, but John wasn't going to be there, so she did it after his team was done with the Quest ...
Dinner that evening was a lamb stew and whatever food people provided. Not everyone who attended the event stayed for dinner. Then after a quick communal dish-washing, we had a bardic (a small amount of singing/poetry, and a lot of weird story telling and such) with those who stayed behind.
Sunday morning was just a hang out for awhile, then clean up (get the red herrings out of the tree, etc.) and pack up and go ... I think we were all off the site before noon, weary but happy ...
Memorable Bits
A few things were said or done that really stuck out and stayed in our fuzzy heads.
The following are items that various folk from the Quest remember:
While Frederick of Holland was attacking the Black Knight, Eilis O'Boirne was overheard to say: "That damned fish ate all our herring!"
When Ivone Ponsleyer was turned into a pig by the witch, the Boar (Geoffrey Scott) was seen to start coming over and making advances ... which made Ivone (the pig) run away in "terror".
The Wise Animal's speeches all started out with things like "When I first came to this forest ..." and such. At one point Eilis was overheard to say "When I first came to this event, I had feet. Then I walked up and down that hill and all I have left are bloody stumps."
A variety of unmentionable statements were made about the bricks the teams were made to carry around the site (which had no purpose at all for the quest).
When Frederick was turned into the magic hound (which was useless for the scenario with the Wild Boar, because you needed the magic hound and the heavy fighter, and Frederick was the heavy fighter for his team), he did a few ... um ... interesting things, like lifting his leg on the Wise Stag, marking the Black Knight's helm, and chasing someone out of Valhalla's Gate ... bad dog!
The Enchanter had a moment when he handed his riddle to the Prince and Princess' team, and after realizing they weren't going to figure it out, they went off to find a Wise Animal. When they came back the Princess STORMED up to his table with the paper in her hand and said "Fire! FIRE!" in a perturbed voice. He was amused by that ...
"An onion? I don't get it."
Margrethe Astrid Ravn, who portrayed the Witch says "Well, the only one that really stands out in my mind is the several people who came up with great trepedation to my stand, and called me anything from gentle lady to grandmother (Ellis called me that one)."
The comments from people about seeing a party come past a station, and then come back the other way with a frog in the party, and their only thought was "Ah, they've met the witch."
"... and when Storm was invested with a pink "Eternal Stench" baldric by the Alchemist, he promptly hugged the Alchemist long and lovingly ..."
The Quest Script
If you would like to read the whole quest script with details as to who is who,
what they can do to a team, and so on, click on the link below, and you can download/read
an Adobe Acrobat document (if you are using Netscape and have the free Adobe
Acrobat reader, just clicking on the file should give you the option to
read it or download it; if you are using Explorer you may have to right click on
the document to download it -- any other browsers I have no idea).
All of the above, by the hand of Hirsch von Henford, coordinator and "Game Master" (as it were) for the Quest ... with the caveat that my part was small compared to what a lot of others did ...
Poem About the Quest
Owen ap Morgan wrote a poem during the day and into the evening about the Quest that
he read during the bardic ... the link here is to that poem:
The Quest
Description of this event (if any), taken from The Page, or from memory of at least one person who attended the event.
The West Kingdom History Website was created by and is maintained by Hirsch von Henford (mka Ken Mayer).