My Queen of Hearts weekend started on Friday, when Pat Bobell and I headed to Belchertown where we joined Rhiassa and Nataliya Kostenko for set up. All those bridge, castle, and stage pieces are stored on-site in a shed that the Rosas bought and negotiated having on-site year round. Each year the pieces are pulled out, loaded on a trailer, unloaded, then put together. Multiple items are heavy so it is an extra full day of physical labor for many of those involved.
In addition to our supplies the shed contained an infestation of ants, a couple dead mice, and a live mama mouse that had a nursing baby clinging to her that a brave person on the set up team gently herded into the woods.
As we worked we were taught or reminded about pieces of history, such as the origin of the castle. Rhiassa asked for contributions to make it. The groups who have heraldry on the towers (Chimeron, The Empire, Folkestone, McKryes Rhiassa, and the Realms) each contributed $100 towards construction. Steve Johnson (Sir Duncan of Rhiassa), Jason Rosa (Sir Aeston of Rhiassa), Aaron Metzger (Sir Rel of Rua Thar Cinn), Josh Truskowski (Nagilum of Rhiassa), and Owen (Mohan) built the prototype Rhiassa tower. Each member of the group made one of the red handprints that you can still see on it, some 15 years ago.
By the time the castle, bridge, and stage were done I was getting pretty tired. Luckily Tom Gallagher arrived in time to be an extra set of hands and help with the last of the heavy lifting, moving the tables. In addition to the building, others set up supplies, pennants, fields, and the kitchen. Nataliya, Siona Gouthro, and I set up the Targetball field. I’m sure you noticed how nice and straight the lines were (NOT).
Saturday, we arrived on site excited for the day and ready to go. Team presentation was great with a good mix of newer and familiar faces serving as true supporters and competitors backing the worthy potential queen of their choice. I did note during presentations that both the other people running already were queens, Nhadala the Salt Queen and Arryn the Storm Queen, thus the pressure was on my team to win for me so I didn’t remain the only crownless contender.
They rose to the occasion. With the new format, it’s hard to get a commanding lead though and throughout Saturday and into Sunday we were unsure of what the final outcome would be. I was sure that no matter who won, I was thrilled to be competing and impressed by the attitudes and skill of all involved. It was really clean fighting and I can’t think of a single negative interpersonal interaction I witnessed on the field.
Along with being proud of my team, I was proud of myself as I learned I have long dormant dodgeball skills. I’m not just saying this to brag personally, though as a non-athletic person who waited 48 years to get her glory moment in a childhood game, I am bragging. I’m more saying it because I am the last person who would have thought I’d get 6 people out in one game of dodge ball, so don’t let your self-limiting beliefs define you - play hard!
My pupper dog was on site, and I had to take care of her during live chess so Malaki could assist with strategy there. That meant I didn’t get to see the matches which is something I was a bit sad about as I heard they were great games.
When we weren’t attacking or defending the castle, we did a group teamwork challenge. Many people were blindfolded a few weren’t and we worked together to make a structure of VHU’s (virtual hay bale units otherwise known as boxes). I felt like Avendar, Rubis, Rorin and I worked well together directing construction, and our blindfolded members all filled their roles well too. I and was proud of the team, but it was unique in that we did it alone for time, so we had to wait quite a while to learn how we did.
As I was able to I checked in with my Aces, both curious on this new tournament and interested in how they were doing. I heard it described as a mix of what was formerly Champion and Mages though the pieces I’m aware of all fit more with Champions than Mages. The aces weren’t required to participate in everything, but there was with a tally system which required participation to be spread throughout the aces in a team. Part way through the event they stopped using the tally system though. I’m unsure if it will get used in future years. While each team had four aces, they each were assigned a suit and only competed directly with the aces of their suit. This led to different winners than there would have been if the four aces with the highest scores had won, and adds complexity and the need for strategic decision making.
Weather varied from overcast to heavy rain throughout Saturday ultimately culminating with some field battles being postponed till Sunday and us taking a longer than usual dinner break post watching some great individual and squad battles.
After some research for Janna and some hunks of meat for dinner I headed up for Rhiassa court, open court, and non-coms. At Rhiassian court Freija was made a full member and Bree became a squire to Knights of Rhiassa. During open court, I spoke on behalf of the Magi of the Realms sharing history on the order and expressing our renewed commitment to support the role of casting in the Realms. We then brought Ged into the order. Following this we surprised Rorin (and me) by inducting him as well. I had to leave the meeting early and knew we’d agreed to do so but I didn’t think we were doing so that evening. In my shock I didn’t share close to as much on why and how Rorin is awesome as I wish I had. If you don’t know, ask me. I’ll be happy to tell you wonderful things about him one on one.
Then we move on to the thing dozens of people had put hours and hours of time into preparing for (Hygar’s armor alone was over 200 hours of work) - the non-coms. I am a long term fan of non-coms at Queen of Hearts. It seems to inspire the best of us. I feel like I can’t call out any one entry without being neglecting to mention something else equally amazing. The skills and talent in our community are truly awe inspiring.
My understanding is that a fun night quest was well attended post the non-coms but this future queen was already sleeping. I do know that Janna Pushee had been planning for an outdoor quest was forced to run things inside with super short notice. Props to her and those that assisted her for pulling that off.
I arrived back on site Sunday AM in time to cheer on the runners as they made it in and watch the Athletes drag around a big iron weight. From there we jumped into 10-person squad battles, bridge battles, luck of the draw and the challenge race.
The challenge race deserves a bit more explanation, and was very fun. First we had to use sponges to move water from bucket to bucket. Then we had to spread out in a line and throw a Frisbee from person to person. Once you were positioned you could only take 1 step. From there we played beer pong. Then moved an egg down the line from spoon to spoon. Then ran puzzle pieces one at a time to where other team members put it together. Then had to pass a hoola-hoop down a line of team members without letting go of each other’s hands. Another fun, unique and silly moment. This felt competitive but fun and there was more shared laughter between all the team members than I recall from Queen of hearts past.
Then there was a final team grand melee, followed by Queen’s War (where Sagan beat me down with big weapons). Post that we did some clean up.
The observant among us might have noticed the arrived of Twenaria, Cecil, Shandar, and Kiira who hadn't been with us for the full weekend. They had come for a special reason, Rel (Aaron Metzger) was inducted into the Knights of the Eternal Flame.
The event concluded with awards (where I finally got a crown), thank yous (that will always feel inadequate to express the gratitude I feel), hugs, packing up and heading home, appreciative and tired.
