The tournament began during a sunny afternoon, with the sound of a cheering crowd supporting the various participants. Preliminary games had left only nobles from the kingdom and a few hedgeknights in position to participate. The first competition was archery, done early so that neither the sun nor shadows would bother the competitors. The wind was up and extremely irregular that day, making the competition particularly challenging and - some would say - mainly based on luck. Everyone had a small target with a simple scale - green, blue, red, each gradually smaller.
Richard and Cyril, reputedly the kingdom's finest archers, were the first to shoot. Sadly, during both of their shots the wind changed direction quickly, and they only scored blue near the red. It was not that day that they would find out who was the best at long range shooting. Henry and Theor followed, and were lucky in that there was no wind; they both scored a perfect red. Those in the crowd near them whispered that they seemed surprised by this outstanding performance. This was too hard to beat for the following participants, apparently; although the wind settled down, all the others scored blue near the green, except for the champion of Drachengrab, who did not manage to hit the target.
Henry and Theor shot once again to determine who would win the first competion; and that time their luck ran out and revealed their real skills, as they both hit the green at the target's limit. They shot a third time; Theor's arrow did not hit the target, while Henry's touched the green near the blue. Henry won and earned himself fifty crowns, but some in the crowd whispered that they had only been lucky to get through the first round, and that their betters had deserved to win.
Archery was followed by jousting. It was decided that the jousting would begin early in the afternoon, but that the finals would be at dusk, to add suspense.
The first round pitted Richard against Theor. They met for the first time in a great crash, and both of them broke their lances, to the delight of the crowd. They charged once again at another, and in a very narrow duel Theor knocked the Prince off his horse, barely staying horsed himself. Edgar and Osir followed, and the Duc of Arborvent did a splendid performance, beating Osir with ease while saluting the crowd. Harald and Renart went next, and they charged three times before Renart finally fell and Harald was declared the winner. A knight named Rusty faced the champion of Drachengrab, and the former beat the latter with ease. While knocking the champion down, Rusty's lance splintered and a part of it got through the knight's mail and into his shoulder. He was later examined and the bit was removed, and he seemed to be well, for a while.
The semi-finals went quickly; Edgar crushed Theor in his first ride, while Rusty defeated Harald just as quickly. The duc and the hedgeknight eyed each other, but they would have to wait till afternoon to settle things.
The following competition was the melee. This one was relatively simple: the participants were placed in a large arena with a sandy floor, and the last man standing won. An unusual participant joined; a woman, from the ampyrian lands. Since she had qualified and women had a good standing in adranic society, she was allowed to participate, but there were a lot of sneers and taunts. There was also a surprising participant: the Blauritter himself, who had come back from his domain to give a good beating to the other nobles and knights.
The battle began with two surprises: Edgar, who was reputed to be quite the swordsman, got knocked out by a powerful blow to the head from Richard, who was not a swordsman but an archer, while the Blauritter himself was taken down by the ampyrian woman. For a moment the crowd forgot to encourage the fighters in a shocked silence, but she was quickly beaten by Renart, and all agreed later on that she had beaten the Blue Knight only with pure luck. The hedge knight named Rusty, who had been engaged since the beginning with Osir, finally fell to a series of blows to the stomach and the legs, and Renart literally fell on him quickly after, having been taken down by the champion of Drachengrab. As the fighting started to die down, Henry got rid of Richard, who had been doing fairly well (having eliminated Harald by hitting his head with a shield), by bullrushing him and crushing him against the wall of the arena. Both of them heard a sickening noise as one of Richard's ribs broke, but the Prince assured Henry that he was fine - before falling to the ground. Meanwhile, Drachengrab's champion was literally throwing Theor into the air, sending him flying with a monstrous blow. That left two men in the arena; the champion of Drachengrab and Henry. They turned around each other for a while, and the champion finally charged; he dealt a series of massive blows to Henry, deforming his opponent's shield with his fury, before finally breaking Henry's shoulder by going through his defense. The champion won and his leader was awarded fifty crowns, but when he left the arena the knight was holding his shoulder in pain.
He died of infection a few days later. It was the only death in the tournament; an extraordinarily low number of dead, considering.
As dusk fell upon the city, the finalists of the jousting competition met on the field. Edgar and Rusty charged three times; on the third time, Rusty nearly fell, and he twisted his ankle in his stirrups. He would probably limp for the next few weeks, but he decided to keep on going. He made a good choice, for he defeated Edgar in the fourth and final ride, unhorsing him with a square hit on the cuirass. The tournament was over, with three injuries and one dead.
((Everything was done with public rolls, including injuries))
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Topic: You are King III: Spring 938 AAL (Read 133946 times)