07.09: For the Honor of Ht'Gon

[Joshua]

"Good afternoon sports-fans! This is Biltix, gnome commentator, along with my goblin companion, Grimiz. It's a cold winter afternoon here at the orc training grounds which have been repurposed to hold this tournament. We have a full round of events today, starting off with the basic exhibition of Orc warriors verses Dwarven shields. This exhibition-style game involves dwarves in a standard wall formation with orcs throwing themselves at the shields trying to break through."

"Greetings! As Blitz said, I'm Grim! I don't like this sport cause there's no blood, but you do get a lot of hard hits. It's flesh against metal. no weapons other than tower-shields allowed. I guess it will do."

"Coming up, we have two jousts, split into living and non-living mounts; the javelin toss, both distance and accuracy rounds; the freestyle toss, throw anything over twenty pounds; the Trial of Arms, an obstacle course relying on accuracy, endurance, and the quality of one's weapons; the freestyle fighting tournament; and finally, a football game between the dwarves and orcs."

"And we're going to be here for every bloody moment! With these new sound thingies*, for the first time, our voices will carry more than twenty feet, so, join us here."
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*: Megaphones, if you're curious. The clockwork version did explode during initial testing, so they're using basic rolled paper.
OOC: So, this will keep track of where people are. This is a tournament, with stands, and seats that overlook the field. Several events run in parallel. Enrollment is open for most events, and anyone who has been in Amber for longer than a few days can assume they have made appropriate preparations.

[Joshua]

So, most of the NPCs are avoiding the sports commentators. (Clearly, they're before their time.) Ironically, they do seem to have a small crowd of devoted fans that is about 50/50 orcs and dwarves; almost the only place where the two sides are anywhere near each other.

The 'sport' if you call it that, is simple: Dwarves set up a shield wall formation. An orc (or small group of orcs) rush the wall in an attempt to break through. It is basically an excuse to smash into each other. Failure to stop the orcs from breaking through, or failure to break the wall, grants permission to 'up the ante'. Hijinks ensue*.

• Morgana has a private booth in the cliff that overlooks the field. She is not using it, instead choosing to settle publicly in the stands. Most children who are attending the event are nearby, and there's a bit of a playground setup for them**.
• Grind, Bonebreaker of the Grendel Tribe, is hopelessly outmatched by a small horde of children offering advice on how to spend time with Morgana. He is also with Father Bonebreaker, the priest and children's teacher.
• the Shadow Striders mercenary company is the primary security for the event.
• Morek Silverbar and associates have a private booth as well, although Morek hasn't shown up yet.
• Narkt, Kothir and most other orcs are on the team. Kothir currently has the most 'breakthroughs' racked up.
• Daq Nott is listed on the orc team as a 'special reserve'.
• Others are likely sprinkled here or there or are surprise members of the exhibition game. The Shield Wall seems to be a "get to know everyone" with lots of cameo appearances.

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*: Those with high warfare or psyche will notice the hijinks are only about 50% scripted.
**: They are having a junior tournament.

[Wyvern]

Alys arrives, with Aibne, Asai, and the Raven in tow. She's still wearing* a set of red sashes, apparently entirely unconcerned about the ambient temperature.

She looks around, taking careful note of who has (and hasn't) arrived, before making her way over towards Morgana and Grind and Father Bonebreaker.

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* First described here.

[misfit]

Harrune will arrive accompanied by Fillane (his wife) and her brother Alaror. Alaror is armed and fully armored. Harrune on the other hand has a broadsword but no armor. From the body languages involved, Alaror is clearly taking Harrune to task for something...and no doubt has been for quite some time. For his part Harrune is accepting it fairly patiently.

When they get close enough to be overheard Harrune will finally speak up. "Peace Alaror. You have made your point. You are here with me, are you not? I have a bodyguard. Can we let it rest for now and try to enjoy the festivities?"

"As long as we don't have a repeat of last night. Don't tell me that you're going to be walking this Pattern too."

"Not today, no. Tonight I plan to walk Amber's. Ht'Gon's will wait two days. And yes, you can be there to watch. I'll make the arrangements for it. If you had allowed me to speak one word before now this morning I would have told you about it. There is some other news as well, but for now I need to find Asai..."

[Veyska]

((Oops.))

It is at about this time* that Asai saunters up, bipedal this time in order to more readily munch upon the large drumstick** she is holding in one hand. She's carrying three in her other hand, and offers them to the Cani. Swallowing the bite she'd been chewing, she comments offhandedly, "Pointed the vendor at a new (to him, at least) recipe for smoking and he's finally showing it off today***." Once the drumsticks are passed out, Asai speaks up again, "Alys would probably say I should tell only the precise amount of the right sort of people who should know, but seeing as how I am not privy to that enlightened knowledge I shall settle for telling you, Harrune.****" With that, she will proceed to quietly fill him in on recent events, though the details from what happened before Asai arrived are a bit sketchier.

(*No more than a few moments after Harrune mentions her name and certainly before he's had a chance to wander (if indeed he was intending to wander at all) away from his companions.)
(**Turkey, probably, but given Amber...)
(***Bit of subtle spicy zing to the meat without making it taste like anything other than smoked "turkey"; it doesn't taste like peppered "turkey" or "turkey" with hot sauce, just spicy "turkey".)
(****She knows that even if the other Cani step away they can likely still hear her, but she'll at least settle for the implicit secrecy of "family" and "pretending they didn't hear that.)

((Woo, four footnotes. I have too much fun with them, methinks.))

[misfit]

(OOC: It has been requested that this conversation move to a sub-thread, so let's go over here.)

[Joshua]

(OOC: for the record the shieldwall is an exhibition game / warmup. The tournament proper doesn't start for another hour or so.)

[Rasanam]

A bit later, Lyra and Rasanam arrive, trumped in by Harrune.

((Just leaving a notice of arrival in this thread, since that seems to be part of what it's for.))

[khadjair]

Cameron will come by to take a seat quietly with Osmund, dressed in well-kept leather done to seem both semi-formal and functional at once. He'll carry the Star as always, but is otherwise not carrying his usual kit - apparently he doesn't plan on needing to leave on a moment's notice for once.

As he walks through the crowd to finding seats, he's muttering with Osmund, something about politics and minotaurs.

[Joshua]

So, looks like everyone is here.

The stress of the shield wall escalates. Daq (the redcap) finally shows up, uses his strangle-cord to rip a dwarf off his feet, then refuses to continue because he (Daq) can't tell if the dwarf is male or female... and doesn't like female beards anyway.

Since it's an exhibition, the winner doesn't get anything, but at the moment, the orc faction has more surprise guests, so did come out a little ahead.

The non-living joust is currently being set-up. This is much smaller with only 16 contestants signed up. Since technology doesn't work in Amber, you have a bit of clockwork motorcycles and flying carpets held together with conjuration. Most of these will likely explode if used for more than an hour, but, the gnomes and dwarves are proud of this. There's a few bicycle, tricycle and unicycles that are entered made by teh gnomes and dwarves, as well as a few slightly stranger contraptions. (One dwarf is on a rock sled that gets shoved at about 40 MPH by an inverted trebuchet.)

Dworkin will arrive around then, in his personal booth set into the cliff face.