There was another SCA event... gods, whoever reads these must think that all I ever do is go to SCA events. Well, if that were true, I would be truly happy. My mundane life is nothing to write home about, and 3/4 of the interesting things that happen to me, happen in these Current Middle Ages... so, yeah. I write about SCA events... or SCA related things.

Anyway... Beltain was on May 10th.

I'll try to keep this short... but no guarantees.

Beltain was in Calgary. I drove down the night before after work, acting as chauffeur for Justina. We were supposed to convoy with Genic and Naomi, but they didn't make it out of the city until nearly 8:00, we left at about 6:30, almost 7:00. Naomi must drive very quickly, because they made it to Genic's sister's place (where we were all crashing) about 20 minutes after we did. It was 10:30 or so, full dark, when we all arrived and were set up at Genic's sister's place... from now on, perhaps I'll call her Jessica. It is her name, after all.

Archery the next morning was at 9:30. We were supposed to arrive there half an hour early to set up and get ready. And supposedly it takes half an hour to get from Jessica's place to the Archery range. So, we left at 8:30 to get there. We grabbed some breakfast from Wal-Mart on the way, and got very lost when we got closer to the range. I will never understand it, I've been to the Calgary Archery Center at least a dozen times, and I get lost nearly every time. And all except this latest time, I wasn't the one driving! That place is so hard to find!

We were shooting on the range upstairs, which is 20 yards. They have a 40 yard range downstairs... believe me, this place is massive! It's an amazing range. Anyway, we were upstairs, which is good, cus I can shoot 20 yards very well. If I do say so myself...

The first target were ships. There were three pictures of ships, two Vikings and one tall ship, like the Santa Maria or whatever. Each category, Novice, Intermediate and Master, got their own picture, which was slightly different than the others, depending on skill level. There were sails, ropes, and people we were supposed to shoot at, but we weren't supposed to hit the shields or the hull of the ship. Or the mast, or the peoples' weapons. And the fun thing is, depending on the skill level, we got different numbers of specialized arrows. I was intermediate, so I got one Fire Arrow (denoted with a piece of red tape around the shaft), two Rope-cutting Arrows (white tape), and three normal arrows (no tape). The Fire arrows were only allowed to hit the bottom half of the sail for 3 points (which was marked off, so there was no ambiguity about where the target part of the sail was), the Rope-cutting arrows were only allowed to hit ropes for 10 points, which were highlighted in yellow, and the normal arrows could only hit people for 3 points. We had two rounds of this target, so in essence I had two Fire Arrows, four Rope-cutting arrows, and 6 Normal Arrows. Out of my two rounds, both Fire Arrows hit the bottom half of the sail, and one of my normal arrows hit a guy right in the heart. Two of my other normal arrows came within millimeters of hitting the same guy, but I didn't get those points. However, I got 9 points on that target alone. Apparently I had also tied for first place on that target. I think one of the Masters was the other, but I don't know who.

The second target was the speed round, but it was different. The taget itself was a guy in a red shirt, playing a bugle. The target points on him were his throat, his eyes, or his heart. But, his heart was only penciled in, so we couldn't really see it from the line (which is period, cus come on, people don't have targets on their chests...) The fun thing about this target was that we were sitting on chairs while we shot. The Novices got to sit sideways on the line, like they would stand normally while shooting, just sitting. We intermediates had to sit at a 45 degree angle with our backs towards the target, and the Masters got to sit fully backwards to the target, so they had to twist around to shoot. We also got less time than normal. The Novices would start their 30 seconds, then 5 seconds in Tim would call for the Intermediates to start shooting, and then 5 seconds after that, the Masters would start shooting. When Tim called Hold, we all had to stop. I never got more than three arrows off, and we did it three times. Although, my aim got better. The first round my arrows were below the edge of the paper, the second time they were around his belly button, just above the edge of the paper, and the third time they were only a few inches from his heart. So, I got no points.

The third target were willow branches, long, leafless sticks. They were different thicknesses for different skill levels, very thin for masters, not so thin for Novices. The point was to pierce the branch, but there were points for notching the wood as well. We had two rounds at this target. I hit the branch on my last shot, though I didn't pierce it. I only notched it, which got me 3 points.

So, I got 12 points on that tournament.

There was a fun little optional target afterwards, which concisted of one of those Japanese paper fans. The point was to shoot the pictures of fish on the fan. Following the tale of an old Japanese story, whoever missed the fish had to commit seppuku, or ritual suicide. Those who hit the fish got to keep their honor, and their life. A bunch of people stepped up to shoot the fish, including Genic. All missed except for one. Later on, during the feast, they all got to commit seppuku on the stage at the hall. Of course they got to use a trick retractable knife, but it looked real... minus the blood and guts of course. I didn't shoot at that fan, I shot at the Intermediate one, which was two arrows, and just shoot the paper. I hit the paper on my first shot, and missed on my second. So, I could have committed half a seppuku, but I don't know how that would have worked.

I did a royal round downstairs at the 40yard range, using Litton's bow. I got 42 points, which I figure is a good thing, considering what that means to followers of Douglas Adams' books. But according to the archery rules, I'm still just an Archer... darnit. I have to get 80 points to be a Master, to put it in context.

Calgary is very annoying to drive through. There are exits that don't go anywhere, roads that don't exist, construction on every bridge, horrible traffic, horrible drivers... stop lights that don't give any warning, they just turn red... I hates it. *sigh* But eventually we found our way to the hall... which was on the opposite side of the city from the archery range. Go figure.

For the rest of the day I mostly hung out, watched the rapier and a little heavy, wandered aimlessly around, freaked out the mundanes a little, ate way too much food, and I bought a Cavalier hat. And a beetle made out of beads to go on it. I will have to decide if I want to get a feather or two for it... I don't know yet.

The feast was awesome. Mashed wasabi potatoes, maple carrots, stuffed zucchini, sauteed onions, bread, brushetta, and huge slabs of roast beef... mmm... Dessert was baked apples with ice cream. None of it was period, but it was good.

Oh, and oh yeah... I won the intermediate archery tournament. I got a silly looking knife with a plastic handle and pathetically soft metal for the blade, but it's kind of pretty. And I got to go up in court, which is always good, except that Tim didn't pronounce my name right. How is Grioffa that hard to pronounce? I think he said it with a soft 'g' instead of a hard 'g'. If he hadn't said Stoneheart, I don't think I would have known who he was talking about.

And after court, Gareth Stringbreaker came to me and officially told me that I'm a Master now, because I've won three Intermediate category tournaments in a row. I can go on to the big leagues now!!

And that was Beltain.