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Tournaments of Creathorne 26
I know that I am late with this recounting of the events in the lands of Creathorne. I mean, a whole extra weekend has gone by and I am just now getting around to regaling you all with my stunning observations. In my defense, I just didn't really feel like doing it. But, I know how disappointing it would be to not get to hear my completely irrelevant opinions, so I've motivated myself to appease your appetites for my snarkitude. (That's it definitely a word by the way, it's right here in this book titled 'words that are words now because I said so'. )
This was the first time in my twenty years in these lands that I was able to attend this annual event on Friday night. I was finally able to trust some competent employees at the bathhouse to run the place without me for an entire weekend and I found myself as one of the lucky folks too tired to do anything on Saturday. Seriously, I used to find myself quite annoyed when I would arrive and everyone was so lacking in energy. Like, what is wrong with you people, let's party! Yeah, I get it now, you can carry on with your Saturday hangovers without complaint from me.
Friday night was truly a great time. I participated in the Stacked Deck Tournament and got second place. Apparently those poker nights I host at my place are starting to pay off, literally. Runaris made me a steak, which I got to eat in front of other people who weren't eating steak. Then I wandered around looking quite fashionable and making clever quips at other people's expense. Or at least I think I did, I don't really remember much. I do remember that there were shots in the tavern, someone let me throw sharp objects at the tavern wall, and I'm told Nos was the one who let me waste his money while King K told me to hit or stay at the Blackjack table.
Saturday was a lost cause. Which is really too bad because I had a whole new outfit that I carefully cultivated and looked incredible. Unfortunately all that incredibleness was curled up and sleeping on the side of the tourney field next to the large basket of cheese, wine, and fancy olives that I couldn't bring myself to consume. Eventually I was convinced to go back to my temporary housing so sleep, which was probably for the best. I was a bit worried that all the glorious food I brought might go to waste. Fortunately for everyone, Trent isn't shy about going into my box when I'm not looking, and I'm told every one enjoyed the spread that I had every intentions of getting to enjoy myself and could not.
After sleeping all day and being unable to eat much, I was quite excited for dinner Saturday night as I found myself starving. Unfortunately I also found myself disappointed. Now, I don't expect everyone to serve Blackwood Meatloaf, that's just absurd, but I do expect hot foods to be hot and hot dogs to actually be cooked. Lack of condiment choices compounded my disappointment, but I muddled through because I really needed to eat something. Perhaps next year I will bring my own servants to cook for me. I'm sure Sven would love it.
Saturday evening was the usual mess of 'too many things to do at the same time'. Do you want to eat, play poker, and watch or perform a bardic? Well, too bad! You'll need to manage your time as best you can because other people are bad at managing theirs and all those things overlap. Really, there is not so much happening all weekend that we can't give things their very own time slot I would think. We managed to have a good time despite all of that, mostly by sticking to our campfire and eating some weird mushrooms that Clove brought us. I didn't eat any, but watching other people eat them was highly entertaining.
Sunday was the usual Sunday, and I was able to enjoy it as I was feeling a bit better. The War Tourney was fought with the usual vigor, though the formatting was different than in the past and overall I think that the new bracket system will be good with a bit of fine tuning. Invictus won, we all patted ourselves on the back, then followed the rest of the day's tournaments that were, as always, a joy to watch from the comfort of my gossip corner while eating cheese and grapes.
Sunday night was quiet. We had to leave for a bit to find dinner, as we aren't fed on Sunday and we're quite hungry after a full day of tournaments. That took longer than expected as the local tavern we visited provided us with quite terrible service. By the time we returned most folks were off saving some dirt farmers from oppression, or so I am told. I'm also told they proclaimed Toah as their King, so, maybe they should keep farming dirt. Many of the fine folks from Blackwood were hanging about the tavern however so we kept company with them and a few others until it wasn't too embarrassingly early to retire to my bed. I learned while there that Feast of Blackwood would feature a royal wedding, which excited me, but there would be no Blackwood Meatloaf, which greatly saddens me and now I'm quite torn about how to feel about attending this year.
Overall it was a pleasant weekend as always. It's hard to screw up a gathering where people are too intoxicated to remember much by night, and too hungover to care by day. The folks fighting on the field were generally good natured and honorable and it felt good to get back out there and participate in some war maneuvers, even if I was accused of 'not being as fancy'. You try fighting in military maneuvers in high fashion, and then come talk to me. I was plenty fancy for the occasion. Even I know that sometimes practicality wins out, and the battlefield is one of those times.
So there you have it. An accurate accounting of everything I remember from this year's Tournaments of Creathorne. If I did anything else that I don't remember, please don't tell me about it, it's probably for the best that I've forgotten.
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