Here is an account of what happend at Night of Fools in Maryland. I wrote this so that I wouldn't have to explain it to people over Instant Messenger.
Night of fools is a rapier only SCA event held in Annapolis Maryland each year. It's focus is on the more foolish or playful aspects of the SCA. There was a single elim "Fools Tourney" to start with. This tourney gave prizes for best fools parrying device, best fools death and the winner of the actual tourney.(For the non SCA people, this is a fencing tournament where you fake your death when you are hit and you can have an object to parry the other persons sword with in addition to your own blade). I drew Kenji in the first round, I was surprised that this guy fought so much like me. He got he killed me using one of my own tricks while I was thinking of this very fact. It was a good fight though and I had a cool looking death, but nobody was watching.
After the tourney came the melee's, which are my favorite situation in fencing. It wasn't very cool though because the opposite team was stacked. We did have the King and the Duke on our side which was awesome considering that in the past rapier fighters had been looked down on by the crown. There were three scenario's that we ran. The first was a fort type battle, the second was a battle in a ravine, and the third was a battle over a bridge sort of like in Robin Hood. My team basically got spanked in the ravine and fort battles but the bridge battle was a different story. The way it was set up was that each team would send a fighter on to the bridge one at a time. If you got too close to the edge you were called dead. If you won the fight you stayed on the bridge if you lost you got off. I was second to the last person on my team to go. And the fighter I faced was non-other than Kenji. Before I went out on the bridge I calmed myself down and tried to get focused. At this point EVERYONE was watching because there wasn't anything else going on. I don't remember many of the details of the fight unfortunately. I typically fight pretty fast and use reactions and instincts more than I should. I do remember that I pushed Kenji back and took his arm on our first pass. On the second he couldn't keep up because I had a parrying device and he didn't, so I got him to take a step backwards and killed him. The next guy to come out was a yellow scarf(there are three levels blue, yellow, and white scarfs. I'm a blue scaf, all you have to do to get a blue scarf is authorize to fight. Very few people get promoted from blue scarf). We went a few passes and ended up double killing. It was fun, and I found out something I need to work on. The rest of the day was just pickups until court.
For those of you who don't know me as well, I have never won an SCA award or been called into court. Not even local baronial court. This court was pretty cool, I like this king, Cuan is a really nice guy. Alexander/Alice was recognized for getting her yellow scarf. I enjoyed that, she really deserves it. Troy won the best death prize, and Duke Ragnarr won the overall tourney. Marcellus got a sharks tooth for fighting at the fort battle. While he was getting it Kate asked me what it was. A sharks tooth is an award given by the King or Queen for tenacity and valor on the field of battle. It is mostly given by the King to heavy fighters. It's fairly rare for a fencer to get it, and usually to a White Scarf or a respected Yellow Scarf. Troy has two, Freddy has one(his is actually for heavy though), and Gunny has three. So as I was telling Kate, it's really the only award I've ever wanted in the SCA. I didn't think I would ever get one, at least not for a long time. Right as I finished telling her this the herald called my name to come into court. After saying a very quiet "oh shit" I went up and kneeled in front of the thrones. I had no idea what was coming.....I was nervous as hell. The King looked at me and asked me how old I was and said I was the same age as when he got knighted. He looked around and named a few names of experienced and respected fighters and said "I expect speed, valor and excellence on the fencing field from these people, and today I saw it in you. I am going to give you my sharks tooth in appreciation of things you did today and in anticipation of things you will do in the future." At this point you probably could have knocked me over with a feather. But I was already sitting down. The King put the sharks tooth around my neck and signald to me to stand up so he could shake my hand. I didn't have my Award of Arms though so I couldn't stand up. He asked me if I had an AoA and I said no. So he looked at the Queen, the Duke and the Herald to ask if they had any objections. They shook their heads no, then he looked at me and said "It is my pleasure to raise you to the ranks of our Nobility and give you and Award of Arms." When he said this everyone started cheering as I stood up and shook his hand. They gave me vivats as I bowed and left the throne area, but I barely heard them. As soon as court was over I was mobbed by Brianna, Jen, Kate, Dante, Connor, and Ishan. I was totally blown away. Not only was I just the second Blue Scarf ever to get a Sharks Tooth, but it was Cuan's tooth that he had earned on the heavy field. On top of that I was spontaneusly granted a Lordship by their Majesties. The feeling was like hitting a game winning home run in a baseball game. I think I'm still in shock and I know I will never forget that moment as long as I live.
