ANST - Re: The Lion stands (pennsic battle)

[Therion]

Lady Octavia, thank you for sharing with us your view of the day that
"Consteorra Challenged and Whuped The Entire Midrealm Army!" T'was a
glorious day for Ansteorra and her allies, and I was then and still am
damned proud to be part of both organizations. 

A couple of clarifications and anecdotes of my own:

>      There were 11 of us in the first battle, We lost 3 before the start of
> the last battle.  HL Johnthon injured his ankle during the first battle so was
> unable to fight anymore,much to his chagrin, I haven't a clue were the other 2
> fighters went.

When the call for "How many Ansteorran warriors be here?" went up, I waved
and was accounted in the tally, so I'm mystery Ansteorran number 7. I'm
not sure who number 8 was, but more glory to him or her, and may they
speak up and be recorded in the annals of history.

> We opted to make our stand on the top of a small hill.  We were meet
> by the Conferedration, about 15 or so of them. 

Twenty-four Confed warriors by our count, and if you find out who the
other Ansteorran was, please let me know so that all who stood in glorious
defiance may have their names enshrined in the monument that a
stone-cutter artisan is planning to place on the battlefield. 

> Thier comander stated that HRM
> Barn had asked him to "take care of his boys". Now, I have to say that I
> raised my eyebrows over that statement...Since when did warriors of Ansteorra
> need to be taken care of? Much less a Knight of our Kingdom? hmmm.  That
> statement hit me wrong, I guess. I'm sure it was ment with good intentions.

There was certainly no offense meant on either side, but yes, that's
exactly what His Majesty Barn requested of the Confederation Feldwebel,
Thorvaaldr. I was there, I heard Barn's words, but it was said in the
spirit of "take care that everbody has fun and gets to whup ass". 
(Thorvaaldr is *really* good at knowing exactly when and where to call the
charge and regroup). Again, there was no slight or slur to any Ansteorran
or their combat abilities, just acknowledgement that Confed was the
larger unit and had the field commander with the biggest mouth :). His
Majesty also granted a unit Sable Falcon to the Confederation, which
proudly flew from our war banner throughout both battles of the day.

> I'll never forget the sight of them striding across the
> battle ground to make our challenge.  That is one feeling I can't really put
> down on paper.,, the pride, yes,lots of pride, in my husband, in our kingdom.
> and some fear.:)  I don't really know exactly what was said.  I do know that
> it was stated that Ansteorra and the Confederation would hold the field for
> the East kingdom, and that we wanted to fight.

"We are the combined forces of the Kingdom of Ansteorra and the Mountain
Confederation.  We came here to fight a battle, and a battle we shall
have.  We will leave this field only in Victory or in Death.  Gentlemen,
assemble your army!" 

> But I know for a fact that the 25 or so of the
> orginal "Army" WAS ready to take them all on.  We had thought that they
> would send out small units to give us a fighting chance.

Heck, I didn't even think that the Midrealm would send small units after
us. I was too busy envisioning a glorious charge straight into the center
of their line, and slaughtering them by the hundreds! 

> The mountain conferderation had brought a small tenis ball shooting cannon.
> Well, It didn't work as the had hoped, it only shot about 20ft.

Yup, our test firings stressed out the surgical tubing, so range was
limited. However, in true medieval gunnery fashion, once the cannon crew
finally got off their lone 3-tennis-ball-grapeshot charge, the shot did
no damage to the Midrealm army. We accidentally scragged an allied
Calontirean crossbow-person who didn't get out of the way in time ...

> As for the rest of Ansteorra,
> you'd have to ask them how they fared.  It was indeed a good day to fight.
> and a better day to be an Ansteorran!

A glorious day indeed, and my heart still swells with pride to have been
there standing side by side with the warriors of my household and the
warriors of my adopted homeland, defying the Known World!

Thank you again for sharing your tale, gracious but dangerous Lady, and
please thank again your knightly husband for sharing the honor and glory
with *all* of the members of Confed and Ansteorra, fighter and non-fighter
alike - for we knew the entire kingdom's strength and spirit was with us
upon that hill. 

						Therion

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