March 30, 2014

A total of 18 people hit the field on this first somewhat warm day for the spring. It started off a little chilly, but was a balmy 55 degrees by the time we packed up and went home.

And what a day it was! We had a new sinkhole in our field, but we just wandered away from it so that it wasn't in our way and kept right on fighting.

Sixteen people took to the field, while two watched.

We started off with two different class games. With eight on each side of the field, the first game went rather quickly. The uphill team was simply slaughtered, but that is mostly because Prada decided to play a fairy.

Yes, there are monsters in Amtgard. And Prada decided to play the first one on our field: the fairy.

The fairy, denoted by the orangish wings that Prada is wearing in the picture, is meant to be nothing more than an annoyance: something that dies quickly and has a lot of escape mechanisms to its name. And it was fun.

In the second mutual annihilation game, Prada returned as his normal healer self, and the game was a little more balanced. That game lasted for a good, long while with a healer on each side throwing resurrect spells around like they were made of candy.

After that second game, we paused for a water break. Then, we came back with a vengeance and rolled into one of our favorite game types: the minion game.

Fully clad in our class garb, we chased each other down through three rounds of minion, until everyone belonged to the same team. We took another water break after those three rounds, then switched out into an old favorite of everyones: the gun game.

Once the gun game ended, we set up a ditch line and wore ourselves out in battle after battle for a good 45 minutes.

Finally, exhausted, the brave warriors headed home until the following week.

Want to join us? Click the joining Amtgard link above.

What's coming up for us?
April 5 - travel to Charleston to welcome a new park!
April 13 - our crown qualifications for the summer term.
April 25-27 - Feast of Fools, the spring event in Maryland with hundreds of people in attendance

March 23, 2014

Although it was a little chilly outside today, 22 people signed in at the Valley of Smoke!

Our field has finally dried out from the soggy soup it has been all winter, and we celebrated by running and laughing all day long!

We started the day off with two class games. The first one went rather quickly, but the second one lasted for some time.

We had five new players today! Combined with our other new-ish players, we have had a wonderful increase in new members lately. Which is always helpful - new blood keeps the game really fresh!

During the second class game, both teams pushed hard and played for all they were worth. At one point in time, Adahay, who has a habit of going all-out in any game he's in, ended up taking a dive. Literally. He died a terrible death a few seconds after this shot, but he really enjoyed doing so.


After a water break, we decided to play a game of capture the flag. One team decided that the best way to fend off the other team, which was notedly larger, by running at them in an all-out attack that ripped through their ranks... for a minute. When they recovered, all hell broke loose on the field.

When capture the flag was over, we took another break. Running around the field chasing a flag is a lot of cardio!

Then, we circled up for several rounds of a minion game. The starting circle was so large that some players started in the middle, back-to-back with each other, so that everyone could be close enough to get the fight going quickly.

The day ended with the formation of a ditch line on the side of the field.  Once again, Adahay defied gravity in a picture (he's really good at doing that) as he took on one of our new players, Eniau. 

Eventually, the ditch line needed a little shaking up. As Riken stood on the sidelines and yelled "Everyone on your knees!" ...everyone listened. (I'm still not sure why). But when lay-on was called, there were many giggles and plenty of laughing as the game went on.

If you would like to join us at Valley of Smoke, come on out! We meet on Sundays at 1 p.m. Click the "Join us" link above to find out how you can come, and what you can do at Amtgard.

March 9, 2014

Today, we at the Valley of Smoke welcomed our Lord Prada Forell back to the world of the fight-able with a grand 21 people on the field.

We had visitors from all over today, with the knight Tosc coming up from Charleston to play with us. Members of Black Widow Lake came up to play with us today as well, including Zedd, Valinessa, and a new member named Skylarr. Finally, our Lord Tungdil came home from college to visit us as well, bringing his bow.

We started the day with a simple ditch line. Two sides, each going against the other in all-out combat. We held this for a dozen rounds or more, with much laughter and literal mud slinging.

The field is a little muddy after a hard winter. Anyone thinking of joining us in the next few weeks should bring water-proof shoes!

We've played throughout the winter whenever weather permitted. But now that the weather is breaking, it was great to see so many out on our field today.

When the ditching was over, we split up into two teams of ten and played two class battles while our feet churned up the mud on the field. Riken launched an amazing shot with one of her throwing discs that sailed over two people's heads and casually floated in to kill the archer in the back of the pack. It was quite funny.

Amazing archery skills ruled the field today. Both sides rallied into all-out attacks, leaving dozens of three-inch-deep gaps in the mud on the field.

After two mutual annihilation class games, we took a break and held our monthly Althing meeting. There were several topics that were discussed, but only one vote held.

Afterwards, we held a few rounds of minion game, with class abilities being allowed. After several rounds of this, we took another short break.

Tosc introduced a game called kill your killer, wherein players who die remain dead until their killer is in turn killed. We played this game until people started getting tired, then most of us packed up and headed home.

Several of us stayed late to spar a little bit in the parking lot. After we all got tired, we broke up and went home for the week to scrape the mud off of our clothes.