[MR] Gulf Wars

[Arthur Donadio]

Greetings Atlantia from a tired (and soon to be retired) King Cuan:

What can I say about Gulf Wars? Her Majesty and I arrived late on Tuesday
night at the New Orleans airport only to discover that Southwest Airlines
thought our bags should go to Phoenix, Arizona!  I have never even been to
Phoenix, and neither of the planes we were on was bound for Phoenix, but
that is where the bags went.  So Rags and I waited for news of the bags,
while Kyneburh and Padraigin went with Robert to a Wal Mart for underwear,
toothbrushes and such.  Robert had come with Mary Grace's car to take us to
site.  Now, remember, I had worked for almost forty hours straight prior to
getting on a plane in Raleigh, so I was too tired to sleep and getting kind
of manic.  Still, I managed to be very nice to the lost baggage lady once I
got a pretty perturbed Padraigin out of the airport.  After locating the
bags and receiving a promise of delivery by the following night, we all
piled in the car and headed out.

It was almost 11pm when we approached the exit for the French Quarter and I
was sort of humming with exhausted energy (do you ever get that?).  So I
hijacked Robert and the vehicle and we headed in to the Quarter for a drink.
  Did we call Meng? No.  Were we marked for death? Yes.  So we wandered the
French Quarter drinking and listening to blues music amid the post Mardi
Gras smells of way too many drunk people in a town with too few bathrooms
and then headed back to site, where I sat down to a heaping helping of crow
with a side of humble pie.  After apologizing to Mary Grace (that earthly
incarnation of Aphrodite and Athena with just enough Pamela Anderson thrown
in to be exciting), we took a look around.

Mary Grace really outdid herself this year.  All the beds were labelled in
the cabin so folks could find their spots; and just outside, the Atlantian
camp was ringed by its beautiful sheet wall with a gate constructed courtesy
of Havordh and Mary Grace.  They had also divided their tent to provide a
gathering area, and set a pavillion up on the field for us.  Hidden Mountain
had its own ghetto, and honored me upon my visit by naming me "Grand Master
C" and Padraigin "Grand Mistress P".
The other end of camp was inhabited by folks like Syr Axel, Sir Jason, and
the Hell Hounds - the kind of folks who like their meat raw and their beer
warm.  Between these two groups were Sir Fabius, who we used to know as
Tash, and Sirs Vladimir and Aengus.  Now Tash, I mean Fabius, did very well
in the Trimarian Bearpit - except that they kept calling him Sir Fabian,
which I thought was kind of funny and will probably use on him in the
future.

On Wednesday, we processed on horseback.  I would like to thank Rainald and
Q and the equestrian community for providing us mounts for the procession.
Rainald also won the equestrian double elim tourney- but was not there when
we called him into Great Court (bet he feels bad now!).  From the
procession, in which Atlantia cut a striking figure, we moved on to the town
battle.  How should I describe the town battle?  Let's see . . . how about
"the worst scenario design ever".  And I should know, because I have thought
up some pretty stupid scenarios (like Island hopping at Crusades).  Picture
a fort where the enemy is waiting on you.  You may only enter the fort
through one 10 foot wide gate.  And the enemy is also entrenched in two
buildings which flank you as you enter their lair.  When you kill the enemy
in these buildings, they immediately ressurect and return to the building
from which you have just removed them.  Sysiphus' efforts were not as futile
as our attempt to clear that town.  All we could do was try to be more
dominant when it was our turn to hold the town.  And we were.  We rushed up
to the gate as the enemy came in, killed the first wave, and then formed a
killing cup around the gate.  Not one enemy had a foot on our territory . .
. when the lightning started.  So the rest of the day was rained out.
Still, I consider it a victory.  So then we sat around the camp and the
cabin, talking and watching peoples stuff float away in the rapidly forming
streams of runoff.  A very pleasant way to spend the afternoon.

Later in the evening, I started feeling a little ill.  By Thursday morning,
I knew it was strep.  But what's a little strep when there is a ravine
battle to fight!  Atlantia held the right wing of the Ravine with some help
from a dozen Aethelmarcers and Eldormeareans for the entire battle.
Padraigin and Kyneburh sent dozens back to resurrection with a deadly stream
of crossbow bolts.  Lord Lukas stood on my left as I laid about me with a
polearm.  I was shot by arrows a dozen times.  The Hell Hounds were there
charging the enemy spearmen.  Sir Jason commanded the wall.  Ragnar and
Henry plugged the gaps, dealing lefty death to the heathen foe.  Sir
Vladimir, the Queens Champion, was there to confound the enemy shields, with
Sir Fabius and Sir Aengus beside him.  Master Roland too appeared at my
right, just in time to check the enemy as he was going to charge a widening
gap in our line.  Prince Logan and the Ebonwoulves kept the foe from
overrunning our right flank and charged into the backfield when the
opportunity presented.  Then, at the end, the Trimarian left wing collapsed,
the Merideans fell back in the middle, and we were still holding our
position with the Ansteorrans in front of us and the rest of the enemy
closing on our left flank.  Small groups of Atlantians broke out, trying to
sell our lives at a high price.  Susanna Grey died giving me the chance to
make a run at the leftmost banner.  Around the field I ran, spotting Dagonet
and Brian of Sacred Stone still alive near my target.  Surrounded, I ran to
the banner, leaped and grabbed the pole, was hit by seven people and went to
the ground breaking the banner pole in half as I went.  The marshals freaked
out, thinking I had impaled myself on the jagged stump of the banner.  I
told them to leave me alone and that I had the banner in a "deathgrip".  I
then lay there and watched Dagonet and Brian dispatch foe after foe in
single combat until, finally, they were defeated.  Atlantia showed well in
that battle!

After the battle, I gave a feverish and somewhat less than inspired address
to the troops and was taken back to the cabin where I promptly passed out.
Eight or nine sweaty hours later, I was awakened by a man with a very large
needle who said he wanted to see my backside.  Confused, but never shy about
displaying my backside, I complied.  The bad man proceeded to unload about
two gallons of antibiotics into my left cheek.  Me and my contagion were
then banished from Gulf Wars to the Days Inn for 24 hours.  I was sad to
miss court, where some very deserving people were recognized, but I do not
think I would have added much to the proceedings in my condition.

Friday, I lay in bed thinking about how I might sneak back on site for the
field battles without being recognized.  Unable to come up with anything, I
settled for praying for the troops while taking a hot bath, eating oatmeal
cookies and easy mac, and watching basketball on TV.  Friday night I made my
triumphant but shaky return to site.  Atlantia had helped win the field
battles in my absence, and I was very proud of everyone.  That night, I hung
out in the crib of their Excellencies Hidden Mountain.  I will not go into
details, but would like to send a shout out to all my homeys in the
Mountain. Yo, peace, dog!

Saturday it did not rain.  We assembled for the Fort Battle, knighted
Dagonet, and then assumed our attack position across from the sally port.
Obedient to a plan not of our making, we attacked on cue (even though our
allies did not) and eventually all died like dogs.  Still, the enemy knew
they had been in a fight!  I did not fight when it was our turn to defend,
but our folks came out of the castle and wiped out the badguys faster than
they had wiped out us.  To me, that's a victory- but the Kings of Trimaris
and Ansteorra called it a tie.  After the battle, everybody started getting
packed up.  P and I went to do great Court, where we gave Meng the Fountain,
and then we went to New Orleans.
Padraigin is still there on business, I flew home yesterday.

I want to thank a lot of people for helping out with Gulf Wars.  Ordinarily,
Padraigin is a lot better at this than I am.  But Padraigin is doing a trade
show and her company email access is down, so I guess that leaves me.  We
wanted to give gifts to the other Monarchs appropriate to the fourteenth
century.  So Kyneburh came up with the idea of hoods and garters in kingdom
colors with badges on them.  All the Crowns thought these were lovely, and
they came in bags, not hard to transport baskets.  These were executed by a
lot of people, not all of whose names have been provided us yet.  Kyneburh
and Ragnar cast all the buckles and ends for the garters.  Caroline and the
ladies of Seareach took care of weaving the garters in Kingdom colors and
making the bags.  Brigit coordinated the making of the hoods.  Karen
Larsdottir coordinated the embroidery of the Kingdom badges.  As I said, we
still do not have all the names, but we thank everyone involved in this
effort.  Rags and Kyneburh were also instrumental in the production of the
hundreds of arrows that flew from Atlantia's bows at Gulf Wars.  Lukas and
Mary drove our truck down to the war with most of our stuff in it, and
attended us faithfully throughout the week.  I also need to thank Kyneburh
for her hazmat efforts to protect others in the cabin from catching my
strep.  James of Middle Aston represented our Kingdom and his peer well as
KMOAS, as a marshal, as a fighter and as a general problem solver
extraordinaire.  Thanks also to Maestra Francesca and the Atlantian Laurels
for rescuing the A & S judging at Gulf Wars.  Countess Bera's woven belt was
a big hit in the A & S competition.  To those who assisted with field
command: Roland, Logan, Havordh, Jason, Axel, Vlad, Mark, Dagonet and
others, you guys are the strength of the army on the armored and rapier
fields.  To those who aided Trimaris on the rainy rapier field and ravine,
Michael, Alan, Christian, Gunther, Roland, and others- I am sorry that I did
not get to see you represent the kingdom between storms and sickness, I know
you did us proud.  I want to thank David and Susanna for the quiet constancy
of their assistance during the week.  Master Alan was also there for the
Queen all week in his quietly confident way, despite his duties as Earl
Marshall and on the rapier field.  Brian of Sacred Stone, Kieran, and the
other Queen's Guard balanced their time between fighting and serving the
Queen, and for that I thank them.  And I know that I am forgetting many,
many people, but I plead illness that cost me two days of the war.

Lastly, I want to thank Ragnar and Kyneburh.  You two shared this vision
with us from Crown Tourney on.  Sometimes, when we thank others, we take you
who are closest to us for granted.  It is not intentional, but knowing you
will be there for us makes us lazy.  We never mean to take you for granted.
So thank you; when we drop the ball, you are there to keep it from hitting
the ground.

Thanks Atlantia for the tremendous Gulf Wars effort!

Cuan










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