West An Tir War 2010

I wasn't going to come to West/An Tir this year, but my dad died right after I got home from my car trip and I went back to Cali (I've now been here for a couple of weeks). As I was working on the memorial and getting his estate in order I was getting really depressed, so my sister insisted that I get up to the war.

This was the 20th anniversary of my knighting, so it was a big deal. It was also, by coincidence, being held in the town where I was born, Gold Beach, Oregon. As such I issued a challenge on Saturday morning to all comers throughout the day: I would fight twenty one single combats-- twenty for my years as a knight, and one for my dad.

I don't remember all of them specifically. I do know that the only person who totally owned me was the King of CAID, a mutant originally from An Tir who is just awesome on the field.

Graf Barak von Langenthal, who had lost his father a couple of years earlier, asked that he fight the challenge in honor of my dad. He's a really good leftie who's been around sine An Tir was a principality. I took his leg and then hid my sword behind my foot, and killed him with a belly thrust. I was really honored by his gesture.

I killed Geofry Scott with, of all things, a double pump wrap.

I won my first fight by patterning the guy, stepping off line to the right, and hitting him with a straight snap.

I killed several people with a hook/thrust.

I even killed one gut with Radnor's version of the butterfly, and another (who was on his knees) with Fast Eddie's version.

I probably won one or two more than I lost.

I was also fighting really well in the war. I certainly killed more people than I normally do when using sword and shield. I was using my bunny round the whole day, but I was in a lot of presses where my legs weren't really in danger anyway. The best thing was the pulse charge we were doing against the castle gate. I lead a couple of those and got pretty deep before dying, and killed guys too.

I also fought in the challenge the Bellatrixes were holding for Duchess Carol's memorial. Carol was someone I really liked, especially when she was living in Sacramento and I was hanging out with Steve. I fought all four of them and lost to the two dukes. Against steve we just traded shots, moving around, till he beat with a straight snap.

Paul was fighting florentine and I tried the A-Frame defense, even though it's not what I usually use against him and my shield was really too short. Big mistake. After one or two passes he faked with his left hand and threw a rising snap. Yes, that's right, Paul killed me with a rising snap.

Brion I killed on our first pass with a hook/thrust.

Christopher, Stephen's son, I killed with a wavy-rising snap. Paul said he appreciated the irony in that.