[Ravensfort] Event Report...Sundered Shield

[L T]

A Trip to CrossRoads Keep

Sometimes because of my position in the SCA as a Peer, lady of a Knight and having a large number
of friends…  I get to know things in advance so that I can position myself to watch something
wonderful or fun or get to participate in things that mean a great deal to me. Such was the case
this weekend at the Sundered Shield.

I waited with much anticipation for this trip. A friend of mine was to be knighted and it was to
be a surprise to him and I was going to get to speak for him as a Pelican! His wife, daughter,
Kief and I had been making plans and conspiring the whole week…and it was so hard to keep such
joyous news quiet…

Kief arrived early Saturday morning and we rushed to pack my things in the van and begin our 5
plus hour trip to the site on the other side of San Angelo. We spent most of the trip happily
chatting about the impending knighting. Along about Lampasas I fell asleep,while Kief drove us
through a frightening storm.
When we got there around 8am the storm had just gone through the site. Everyone was drenched! They
were milling around putting tents and banners back into array.

The site was in a nice little park with 20 or so RV spots and lots of camping space, it was
situated near a river.  The only problem with the park was that they can't rent the whole park and
so a family reunion/chili cookoff was there at the same time…and while it made for interesting
noises occasionally (with very loud rock music and country music) on the whole it worked out and
we had a large number of the mundances come visit and watch.

Kief was planning on sleeping for a while (since he had been up for over 24 hours) but before we
even hit the gatekeeper's tent, he was already besieged by people needing allsorts of things…and
by the time we finished sign in he had committed to marshalling the heavy tourney, conducting a
reaffirming of vows (which led to his participation in a number of personna play scenarios through
out the day), and to issuing authorizations for several people.

Her Majesty arrived on site with her children and crewe. She was radiant as ever, the children
boisterous, and her entourage incredible.  She came over and greeted us…and informed us that his
Majesty would be along in a hour or so (we found out that he was busy capturing their pet bull
snake, which had gotten loose in the house and he ended up being later than intended because the
storm delayed his travel.)

Soon after her Majesty's arrival Lady Brigitte (Sir Gideon's lady) arrive with her horse, which
she had offered to Mistress Honor for her husband to ride in his knighting.  Everything was
starting to come together!

Court began and we all gathered around to listen to HRM.  The events of the day were listed and
herself informed us that this would be their last in Kingdom event before Coronation. I spent most
of court explaining things to the mundanes….and right at the end of court Mistress Honor and
Centurian John, their daughter Leslie and their son Lord Robin pulled up.  John had no clue…and
all of us who knew were trying to contain our excitement! I, Sir Guy and  "the boys in the Hood"
(aka Ld Liam, and John Thorn) bullied John into fighting the tournament. (He was mixed about
fighting because he was tired of fighting with his broken arm, but he did wonderful anyway and won
the tourney)

As John got ready to fight, the rest of us set up the pavilion and the tent.  As we were unpacking
the van, we found that the stakes and some of the ropes did not make it…luckily the event steward
had the extra 8 ropes and 26 stakes we needed…Honor, Leslie, Lord Robin and I ended up getting
lots of help from "the boys in the Hood,"  Sir Guy, Sir Kief and a myriad of others…I'll tell you,
if you ever get a chance to obtain a Pakistani Standard Issue Army Tent…do it… It is rectangular,
separate top and bottom, white canvas on the outside, a print fabric on the inside…it has a
sectioned bamboo center pole and poles sewn into the sides. It was beyond kewl. Once everything
was up I wondered off to visit.

I went over to where Crane household was set up,  Master Rosario (Kief's Laurel and his Squire,)
his lady HL Isobel, Mistress Ulrica, her husband Joe (whose SCA name I can never remember), her
son,  HL Selwyn and his lady wife, as well as,  Lady George (one of my favorite drummers,) HL
Toshiro and a few others were there. They plied me with beer and we reminisced about the night we
all took over the hotel bar and teased and chided each other in good natured play…they spoke of
the plans for Saturday evening's festivities at Gothic War…sound's like it's going to much fun!!!
I got up an started to wander over to get food. (Instead of a feast, they had a lunch buffet of
brisket and fixings.

On the way Her Majesty stopped me to tell me that they had decided to knight John during his
tournament fight with His Majesty and that if it was okay, could he ride into court that night on
the horse…and be set off to vigil then…I spoke to Honor and she agreed it was a good plan and
relayed the information back to Her Majesty.

I stopped by the A&S tent where the Arts and Sciences Minister had set up 4 or 5 different looms
to try out that she had made.  She had even found a kind of "knitting machine"  that was from the
Elizabethan era that is incredible. She had brought a lot of her textile books, so I sat down with
her and the other denizens of the tent and wrote down the name and ISBN numbers of books on
general weaving, the history of textiles, inkle weaving, card weaving, patchwork quilts and other
textile arts…(if anyone wants the list they can e-mail me at ldeerslayer at yahoo.com and I'll send
it to them…)  Their A&S Guild is the "A&S Berries) and they each have one of those small
strawberry pincusshion's attached to their belts…it was kewl. We had a nice discussion then I
wandered down to the A&S competition, for such a small event  in a very small shire they had some
very quality work.

I wandered again, and got stopped by Lord Gavin (their Majesties' head of entourage)… he told me
that His Majesty's fight  was to be at the end of the round, so that I could inform the
participants…I went back to the Restormal Pavilion and sat and waited with the rest of the
crewe…the fight started and we all watched attentively as John beat HRM gracefully…

…as the fight ended the Herald (HL Timothy of Glastonbury) opened the court and we all swarmed the
list field. John sank to his knees…a large altitude drop for such a tall man…and had a very
quizzical expression on his face…and then the Chivalry was called and John's face went white with
disbelief. (This was the third kingdom he had come to in his time in the SCA and in the last 2
because of his military career he had been transferred before they were able to knight him.)
Countess Valarian spoke as his Rose, I got to speak as his Pelican, Master Cadwalder spoke and
read a letter from one of John and Honor's friends from Drachenwald for the Laurel, and Kief spoke
as the Lion…and out did all of us! He got 3 chains, one from Gideon, one from Wiglaf, and I can't
remember who the last was from, Kief gave him a belt, and Sir Guy gave him his spurs. The king
finally gave him his last unanswered blow…and we all congratulated him!

The tourney went on…and John won. We sat around most of the rest of the day under the Restormal
Pavilion.  About 30  minutes before court we started getting the spread ready for the vigil. Honor
and Leslie had spent the week making and hiding food for it.  They made enough for an army. The
salmon and the berry tarts were to die for!  Court arrived and we all went over…except for John
and Brigitte…the A&S minister got a thistle in costuming, the steward got a thistle in weaving,
and several AoA's were given out.
Finally John was called to court…Brigitte had made barding for her horse with his arms on them…and
it looked fantastic.  TRM set him off on vigil  and he rode over to the Restormal pavillion.  HL
Safiya, the steward for Gothic War spoke to advertise the event and to inform all that the
principals for the war would be Their Majesties…that the War would be contest between them…and the
might of the armies they each could amass…there was much schtick and frivolity…sounds like a good
time…

After court Kief officiated at the restating of vows for the Steward and her husband of 30
years…they had on beautiful brocade and silk Italian Rennisiance Clothes…and she was led in by His
Majesty while Her Majesty watched from the thrones…

Then I attended the Amazon meeting….Mistress Martha presided as head and we decided that we needed
to start making Gulf War favours early this year…and make more of them.  As we were speaking of
what we wanted to do for TRM for their stepping down…they came over…we quickly covered our
conversation with something about Gothic…but since they are both household…we couldn't run them
off…Britta spoke about her intentions of getting together a group to make queen's favours like the
ones from this year for next years Gulf War…and the rest of us said we would get with her to help.
We agreed to have another meeting at Gothic.

Milling around after the meeting, we heard a scream…it seems as though a tarantula had entered the
list environs and Safiya has a phobia about spiders…her husband Gavin tried to get it…and it
crawled up his pants into his tunic and came out by his neck…he then quickly transported it to
near the river where it would be safe…it caused quite a rukus…

The evening went along well. I got to talk to lots of people I don't often get to, like Martha and
Cad…and Agnar…and lots of the western folks…the vigil went well…if sparsely attended…when I asked
the next day the people of the area thought it was for Peers only….which is not the case…in our
Kingdome anyway…(misconception number 422)…but as it wound down John Peregrine, Leslie, Kief, John
Thorn, Moira, Liam and I all wondered over to bardic. Moira, John, and Kief competed…all did well.
 Sir Mahadi also competed and each of their Majesties told a story. The lady who won the
competition was a local lady…and I do not remember her name…I should, she's one of my Amazon
sisters…but I don't know all the west ones well…the vigil crewe along with the  people left at
bardic went back to the Restormal pavilion to discourse and drink…at 2am I went to bed leaving
Kief, Korwin and John talking about "knight stuff" and the rest of the crewe partying…Kief came to
bed at 3…and soon after the storm front blew through. The pavilion blew down…so all of us
dismantled the vigil setup and set things to move to the tent.
Just as we finished picking up the rest of the trunks...we saw one a "garage" pavilion flip over
and twist…
we all ran to help dismantle it before it flew into other tents…it almost hit one with two adults
and a baby in it…the 2 Johns, Kief and I helped cover and batten down the tents…turn over the
tables, and drop pavilions…thank the gods no one was hurt…the next morning it was a mess but not
too much of one…
Kief and I then went back to bed so that we would be rested for the long trip home…

That was my event…hope you all were amused…

Piroska you have my permission to print it in the quoth if you wish…I'll fill a form out when you
wish!


Lorraine DeerSlayer



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