Empire Autumn Equinox 382YE

By the virtues that was even better than the last one.  I've already done my hots and nots on the Dawn facebook group, but fuck it I'm doing them here again with more detail. I'm also going to show off my loot and talk about improvements to my character, kit and house.

Before I continue I'm going to add in my recruitment code.  If you use it to buy your first ticket you get £15 off, it also helps me out.  9066.16781

To start here's a picture of me absorbing the atmosphere.

Now the E3 loots.

Here are my swords.  I bought a two hander at the last event as a placeholder weapon. I wanted a spear, but there's no way I was fitting one in my Clio with all our kit in it.  This time we borrowed Sarah's dad's truck, and that has plenty of room for a spear, so hopefully we can borrow it gain in future.  The other sword is my fallback blade.  It's a bit off brief for Dawn, traditionally the Dawnish use arming swords, whereas I've opted for a falchion.  That's because my character is more used to fighting four legged opponents rather than the more usual humanoid ones, so he's more used to brutally hacking at things rather than fancier swordplay.  The big sword is from Light Armouries and the little one is from Eldritch.

This is my circlet.  I got it from Wanderlust Couture.  I bought it to keep my hair out of my face.  Its so annoying when your talking to someone and the wind launches your hair down your throat.  I've actually started wearing it round the house instead of tying my hair back.  It also blings up my head.


So what about E4?

Let's start with the good bits


1. Sleeping in character.  After our tent was murdered by the weather at E3 we were in the market for a new tent.  I asked my mum for a bell tent as an early Christmas present, and she got us one (best mother ever).  Back to the point sleeping in character it is big and clever.  Now having done both ic and ooc camping, I prefer ic camping.  Camping in character means you get the full experience, you really absorb the atmosphere.  You also get to know people a bit better, you see them before you go to bed and you see them when you get up, you see them ic and you see them ooc, you fight with them and you die with them.  It's really hard to describe the feeling of being a part of your camp, having a little bit of it that's yours, you are part of your nation not just visiting it.  There's also that little sad feeling being there when the camp starts to get demolished.

A picture of the House de Loup tent taken on Thursday night (time in doesn't start until 6pm Friday for those who don't know).  The Dawnish camp is dark at night, as can be seen here

That's the same shot without the flash.
We were situated next to the big House Orzel tent (used for the Earl's council) right on the glory square.  Basically the one of the best spots in the entire camp.  I can say one thing those Orzels know how to party.

2. The House de Soleil setting of the sun festival.  They put on a puppet show (complete with hurdy gurdy), there was a Chinese dragon for the kids, and then there was the remembrance ceremony once the sun went down (complete with sparklers and a brazier of multi coloured fire).  The ceremony was to remember those who had died in the past year, with tales of glory and fond memories for the fallen.  The puppet show was hilarious.  

3. Embarrassing a Varuskan (at least I'm think he said he was Varushkan) so hard he fell out of character.  He came over to our fire and started talking some shit about a light ball.  He spotted my walking cane resting against my chair and mistook me for a mage, to which I retorted "I'm not a wizard I'm a cripple!"  He laughed so hard he nearly fell over, he also told me that I'd  just made his weekend.  It kind of made mine too.

4. Fetching some water for Lady Sophia Orzel while everyone was away drujing it up on the Saturday. My good deed for the day, which she paid back later that evening with a slice of cake left over from the House Orzel wedding earlier in the day. Delicious delicious cake. Mmmmm 

5.  The food. From Conspiracy Catering to House de Gauvain breakfast leftovers (that was some amazing black pudding thank you) we ate well all weekend.  The food available at Empire is amazing, not just the flavour but the sheer variety.

6. The House Vandale kids. They are adorable. The grin on the wee girl's face when we gave her a toasted marshmallow would melt a frozen heart and I couldn't help but giggle when one of them told Lady Danica to cause less mischief.  On the subject of House Vandale there was a Freeborn in the queue at Conspiracy Catering who decided to not insult the Dawnish in front of Lady Danica, his face was an absolute picture when he realised that the rest of the queue were Dawnish nobles.

7. The Earls' Council. I love these meetings. Eventually I hope to be brave enough to speak at them.  Personal highlight was when the Queen of Bones admitted she was leaving Dawn for Highguard and every Earl and Enchanter stood up and toasted her, fucking epic moment.

8. Everything is starting to make sense.  It's all starting to click in my head.  My roleplaying is getting better too.  Roleplaying is a hard skill, it needs practice to flourish.  One of the Orzels has started to do public speaking classes before time in of the Friday's of the event, I missed this one, but I will be attending at my next event.

9. And last but not least Ser Bors convincing Tyrion of house Tallstag to put a dress on the House de Loup pet bear. Not that he took much convincing. I'm really looking forward to my downtime now.  Honestly there's a few in jokes cropping up about this already.  Who says that roleplay needs to be serious?

now the not so good bits

1. My knee giving out halfway through Saturday. My knee has been giving me trouble all week so luckily I anticipated that that might happen and I remembered my walking cane.  I think it's arthritis. I'm now wearing a knee brace and have started doing knee strengthening exercises.  I will fight again.

2. Going non-com. Not that I mean anything against non-combatants, I just like hitting stuff. My armour needs a fair bit of work before I feel comfortable fighting in it again, which is the main reason I wasn't fighting. I brought my weapons to try and get some sparing in. But then my sodding knee gave way. Now I'm feeling a bit angsty.  I wanna hit something.

3. The drive to the site. Thanks to a crash on the m6 a 5 hour drive took 9. That sucked big time.  

4. Nervousness and anxiety. These are still hampering me in game. Mainly when it comes to starting conversations with people. I was more confident this time than last, but I'm not at a stage where I'd like to be. It's something that I'm going to have practice.

And now my E4 loot

I got a new bag from Darkblade.  One of my buckles went on my old one so I treated myself to a new one.  This one is more supple, which makes it easier to get into.  The old bag took fucking ages to get into, this one takes seconds.  It's about A5 in size and is really light.  I love it.

I got some padding for my lower legs.  This should prevent the bruised legs.

I also got some padding for my forearms.  This is more to stop my vambraces moving when I fight.

We also bought a shit load of reading material, including the last ever issue of the Pledge.  Most of these are books we bought from the library.  The most useful resource there is The Wanderer's Guide to Anvil.  It's a fantastic guide to the game, and I'd recommend picking one up.

This is what was waiting for me in my character pack.  Who wound have thought massacring  Druj farmers was so proffitable?  I still had my 18 rings from E3 so I went on a bit of a spending spree.  I kept hold of the crowns though.

And here's a better look of our banner.  It's about 8 feet tall.  We managed to fit it into the truck with about half an inch to spare.  I've been told that this banner is so big that you could see it from the Marcher camp.

Improvements to be made.

1. fix my leg plate.  My armour hasn't moved from my car since E3.  I need to get on that.

2. I might take a line of links out the front of my chainmail, up to the groin.  At E3 when I ran my maile kept getting caught under my cuisses.  I'm hoping that a split in the middle will allow me to run without getting tangled in myself, or at the very least allow me to untangle myself easier.

3.  Acquire a 7 foot spear.  I'm looking at Saxon Violence for this.

4.  Get some yeolfolk, especially a seneschal .  We don't have any.  Need to work on this.

5. Add some loyalty trappings to my soft kit.  House de Loup is a loyalty house (we're wolves after all).  I'm looking to add some light chain to my kit.

6. Tart up the banner a wee bit.  I need to whittle a finer point on the pole which should make it easier to plant the thing in the ground.  We also need to add a tab to the bottom of the flag to stop it dancing in the wind.

Empire has quickly become my favorite hobby.  I'm finding it difficult to think about anything else.  I'm totally buzzing for next year.