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Ok, I would suggest that harassing passing travellers is a perk of the job. Anything he can
get is a extra. I quite rightly expect to have to pay him to get in.

From another Forum, but just in case anyone wondered where Stik was:

Stik wrote: September 11-12 and 18-19 is my annual medieval fair. I won't be posting on those days.
And I just received word this morning that I will be playing the evil prince this year. This means I will be doing a lot less fighting than other years, and instead doing a lot more bad acting.

It's an interesting scenario this year. The king has died on crusade. The queen is holding the throne for her son, who is also away on crusade. The queen's younger brother (me) wants to depose his sister and take the throne.

He'll be back soon....

Okay, big news from this weekend's medieval fair:

Today I was elevated to knighthood in the Kingdom of Acre.
I now Sir Niccolo.

This represents the culmination of years of work, and tells the world that I am who I have always striven to be.

As soon as I am able, I will post the video of the ceremony and put a link here. Needless to say, I am very happy.

------------------------------

On Saturday night, I was called into court by King Andreas and Queen Adriana, and offered the accolade of knighthood.
Called to court

I was then taken from the court by the Knights of the Order of St. Adrian and escorted to my vigil.
Escorted to vigil

The vigil tent was lit by candles and contained my armor, my shield and helm, and my weapons.
Vigil Tent 1
Vigil Tent 2
Vigil Tent 3
Vigil Tent 4

In the vigil tent, the candidate is given time alone to contemplate the rank being offered. After a time, the candidate is visited by each of the knights present. The knights give advice and counsel, and discuss the meaning of knighthood. The length of the vigil depends on the number of knights present and what they have to say to the candidate. My vigil lasted about four hours.

The following day, I was called into court for my knighting. First, my red squire's belt was removed by my knight, Sir Pedro de Villarquemada.
Squire's Belt

Then, my gold knight's belt was put me on by three of my close friends, Lady Laurel Torfinsdottir, Countess Maddalena (who was Queen when I was King) and Lady Ariana de Gallo.
Knight's belt

Then the Queen placed my knight's chain around my neck. This is a heavy bronze chain holding a medallion and is symbolic of service to the crown and kingdom.
Knight's chain

Then Sir Pedro put on my spurs on me. The spurs are symbolic of a knight's equestrian heritage. The spurs I received were originally worn by Count Sir Angus O'Corra, to whom my knight had been squired.
Spurs

The ceremony concludes with me being thrice dubbed with a sword, and being told: "Let this be the last blow you receive unanswered," at which point I was struck in the face by the queen (she's an armor smith in her spare time. The blow was solid, and rocked me).
Slap

Frivolous wrote:Is giving a bribe to a gate guard normal in the Empire or is it more a sign of its increasing degeneration?

I ask so that we know if this is a common occurrence.

It's not uncommon for a gate guard or other individual in a similar role to look for a little graft if he can get it, especially when unusual circumstances arise.

Congrats!

Congratulations, Stik.

Sorry for the delay, folks. Just resolving something with Ish/Bastian.

NP, I guess we wait till you post again!

Ismaels-Legacy wrote:"Hrumph" Bastian mutters to himself, "That didn't work out as well as I expected. No matter!" He immediately perks up and leans down from his Mule. "Sir, where might one be able to find a nice stiff drink in this well protected town?"

Sorry, Ish. The Enthrall spell is good for some things, but what you were trying to do isn't one of them.

Good news is that the local guardsmen now thing you are a staunch advocate of theirs, so you've got that going for you.

I'm performing at the medieval fair again this weekend, so no posts tomorrow or Sunday. See you all on Monday.

Does second edition have some sort of saving throw against spells such as enthrall? (It's been over eight years since I've played, and I only played second maybe three or four times.)

If it does, I assume we all failed our rolls?

Think it does... plus there is the matter of your 90% resistance,
and my 30%...

Man we were really unlucky! Oh well, doesn't matter it all came good in the end.
Good idea Ish, shame...

Yes, the spell does have a save.
But Hiric and Fraso failed, so the wagon wasn't going anywhere, anyway.
I took the liberty of assuming the other PCs would remain guarding their employer and would not interrupt the sermon, considering they were not briefed ahead of time as to what to do if Bastian began preaching.

When you put it like that, Angel wouldn't have gone anywhere!

Thanks for explaining it, I can only speak for her of course!!

(Wasn't questioning your judgement, I'm sure you understand...?)

Apologies, all, for my absence. I have had a busy two days.

Running Wilde is a new sitcom on Fox. The premiere was on Tuesday night. They film at Sands Point Preserve, where I do my medieval fair. The producers have made lemons into lemonade and worked a medieval fair theme into one of the upcoming episodes (which will air in November), and they asked the members of our group if we would work as extras in the show.

So, I've spent the past two days at Sands Point, working with our jousting team on Tuesday and working on camera as a costumed extra for the show all day yesterday. It was my first brush with show business (apart from doing the fair all these years) and I have to say that apart from having to be there before dawn (I had a 6:30 call time) and all the waiting around while they moved cameras and such, it was an enjoyable experience. I got to meet pretty much the whole cast of the show, other than the male lead, and also spent time with the guys from Medieval Times, who were hired to do stunts.

The episode airs in November, and if you watch, look in the background for a tall, dark-haired guy in a burgundy houpeland with big sleeves. That'll be me.

Oh, one more thing:
Jim Robertson is a photographer who comes out to our medieval fair every year. He likes to shoot portraits of the participants and post them on his gallery site.
There are about twenty pics from this year's fair posted so far (plus a lot more on his other pages). Check them out:

Jim Robertson's Sands Point Fair 2010 gallery

Jim Robertson's Medieval Fairs galleries

(I'm "Sir Nico," the dark-haired guy wearing red and black. Dig the fancy trim on that tunic. Pretty cool, huh?
And that redhead in the orange blouse - that's a wig she's wearing. Under the wig is a neon green mohawk!)