Landgrab Day Part I

So where did we leave off? Ah yes.. arriving at Pennsic.

While waiting at Troll to sign in and pay, I saw a very familiar person walkign down the road.. my friend Andrea, who I had been friends with all through high school. She had gone off to Virginia for college and joined the SCA from there, though I had been telling her about it for years ahead of that time. I called to her, and she came over. We hugged, caught up on life a little, and then went our seperate ways. I saw her briefly twice after that.

First, I drove Ari to her camp to unload her things. There wasn’t much in my car that was hers, but oh well. From there, I drove my car into the parking lot on Dragon Hill and left it for a bit, mostly because I had already decided I didn’t feel like setting up my tent that evening, it already being 7pm or so. I was confident in my ability to find a place to sleep for the evening elsewhere. This was further solidified when Ari offered me a spot in her tent if I failed to find another bed for the night.

I grabbed my Pennsic map and my nicely typed list of where August Sun members were camped and decided to wander swampside to try and find them. Of course, walking out of Ari’s camp, I very nearly walked into a sheet wall with a dragon painted on it. A quick question to a man in the camp confirmed that I had found Fortune’s camp… right next to Ari’s. But Fortune wasn’t due in until the following Friday, so onward I travelled.

The problem with the Pennsic map and whatnot was that it didn’t state EXACTLY where camps were… only in what blocks. So I was wandering along the road next to the block that I knew Petreko and Vicol were in. No gates had been set up yet, so no camps had nice little labels to go by. I stopped where three men were busy filling tiki torches and asked if they knew where I would find Clan Stravnos. They said “They camp with us. We’re Clan of the Artic Winds”. That excited me a bit, but then they told me that both Petreko and Vicol were out and about visiting people… just like I was attempting to do.

Okay.. no problem. Keep travelling onward.

I tried finding Michael the Lost next, to no avail.. I found Vlad’s Pleasure Pavilion… THAT was clearly marked. I gave up on Bard’s Haven for awhile and decided to try and find Scarab.. I mean, Kisan. Same person. So I followed the map some more.. around the lake, turn here. I looked warily at a bridge across a river, but did not cross it, as I actually believed it was an entrance to someone’s camp. Damn Pennsic maps, being all vague and whatnot and leaving out roads. Yeah.. gave up on the whole meeting of Scarab/Kisan that evening.

Next on the list.. hmm.. oh! “Let’s go see Valle’e!” I told myself. More walking. Up a hill… Ack! I asked one camp if they were House Maxwell, and they pointed me to the next camp over. I walk up to that camp and ask for Valle’e (hoping I hadn’t mangled the pronounciation of his name, mind you) and I was sent to a huge yurt to see if he was within. Valle’e wasn’t there, but a few other very amiable people were, and they offered me a taste of what proved to be a very tasty wine they concocted known as “Dragon’s Blood”. Yum.. I made a note to myself to return later for more.

At that point, it was beginning to get to be sunset. Time for dinner at Maggie’s scheduled for o’dark thirty. I was afraid of not finding her camp in the dark, so I followed Heart Attack Hill up topside. I wandered down the road, checking for any signs that could show me Barony of Rivenstar. At the end of the road, right in front of the camp my sister would later be staying at, I heard a voice right beside me “Do you know where we are?”