Falcon's Quest

Order of the Argent Bear
Falcon's Quest

The Falcon's Quest

17 Aug 96, Barony of Eskalya

Organized by:

Lord Alfonso d'Strada

Description:

The tournament was held at the summer Newcomers' Event. It was an ornate story-line Pas inspired by several late-period Pas' described in Barker's Tournaments and based on a story in Capellanus' The Art of Courtly Love. There were three fighting stages, each with some dialog. There were also two non fighting stages and a fair number of props.

It may be best to let the extensive event copy and notes speak for themselves. The first page is the copy published in the local newsletter, The Chronicle. The next two pages were handouts used on the day of the tourney. They are followed by The Rules of Love. And finally, the actual directions for the Pas, originally about 11 printed pages.

How it Went:

Considering the long lessons learned, apparently it went very well. At least everyone says they had a good time. As mentioned later, the organizer was a bit too harried to notice. About 10 people ran the course.

	Sir Joseph held the first fighting station - the Bridge Keeper. No one actually achieved the Falcon, if for no other reason than because Sir Joseph did not lose a single fight that day. He is good, but one might reasonably expect that he might lose one or two!
	Viscount Sir Kylson held the second station - the Guard. He did an excellent job playing up his part and very nearly trapped a couple of entrants into taking the glove from his hand.
	Sir Richenza, held the third station - Arthur's Knight. With less story line to work with, she defended the last stage very well.
	Lady Viresse had collected the greatest number of ribbons and was presented with a good sized amethyst heart.
	Mistress Anne of Bradford was the Lady of the Court and she presented the prize.

Lessons Learned:

Whew boy! On the day of the tourney Lord Alfonso ended up as the only person who knew the story line ahead of time. Even with a lot of help from others to marshal and excellent acting from the fighters, there was way too much running around to do, and way too many last minute questions, for him to be able to help build the atmosphere of the event. The real bottom line lesson here is that something this fancy needs a serious support staff. Besides the 'acting' fighters at each stage, either a herald or a marshal should be assigned to the stage as well. Several meetings with all involved before hand would be in order.

Scoring with ribbons seemed to work out much as it should, with the people who outright fought the best receiving the most red ribbons and it seemed perfectly fitting that Lady Viresse, who fought well and with style collected the most. Still, there was some evidence of non-combatants gathering ribbons from others to bestow on one person. It may be worth keeping that possibility in mind when setting up the event, particularly if an especially tempting prize is being offered.

There was also some trouble with people being able to see all or most of the fighting. We set the three fighting stages up in a line, so people had to either watch only one stage or wander up and down the line. This worked well enough, but I suspect a semi-circular arrangement, with ropes and room for the gallery in the middle would work very nicely.

	The Event Copy
	The Event Handout
	Directions and Script for this Pas d'Armes
	The Rules of Love as handed out at the Pas

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