What You Missed: Grimloch Grill and Games
From the Perspective of Elouan of Rhiassa (Alex Groom)
I arrived Friday night, at a somewhat late hour, with fellow Rhiassans Hildegard and Asharn. After setting up my campsite, I proceeded to relax and hang out with friends. While there weren’t many specific activities to partake in Friday night, the New Eden Casino was open. I am not a gambler myself, but a good number of my friends had fun at the casino both on Friday night and Saturday throughout the day.
Saturday provided a number of interesting activities for us to partake in. There were a variety of both combat and non-combat based tournaments to participate in. We started with a couple of rounds of grand melee to warm up. Everyone in these first fights received a number of raffle tickets, which could be used to get a chance to win a variety of prizes. Throughout the day, these raffle tickets were given away as prizes for winning in other tournaments. For most tournaments, you could either choose to use the skills/magic you naturally had, assume the mantle of a fighter (which gave one armor even if they weren’t wearing it), or assume the mantle of a cleric (giving one access to powerful healing magic, including unlimited combat raises and armor repairs.) For each tournament, teams of 3-7 were randomly assembled for each combat based tournament, with a few exceptions (couples and 2-man both allowing players to assemble their own teams). I enjoyed this approach quite a bit; I got in several good fights, and got to fight on the same side as people I normally fight against. It also kept things low stress, which I highly appreciated.
After these tournaments started winding down, Shader ran a number of tournaments for the Huntress Guild. While the tournaments were exclusive to Huntresses, there were a couple that required teams, and I was asked to participate on Katya’s team. In addition to the standard combat tournaments (individuals and 2 v. 2’s), there was an interesting new tournament I had never seen before. I am not sure what the name of this tournament was, but it consisted of two teams of three fighting each other. At the end of the fight, the Huntress on each team would be called up before a panel of judges (consisting of Aeston, Shader, and Kyntela), and would be asked to explain why their team won or lost. Regardless of who won or lost, whoever was able to offer the more complete, correct, and insightful explanation moved on to the next round. While all of the competitors put up a good fight, Keela won all three of the Huntress Guild Tournaments.
After these tournaments were done, dinner was served. Dinner consisted of hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, and a variety of other delicious foods. I personally found the potato salad to be especially tasty, and went back for both seconds and thirds.
Dinner was followed by a short break, and then a drink mixing competition. A number of competitors entered, with the goal of impressing the judges (Boom, Nhadala, Slade, and Jaha, if memory serves correctly). The drinks would be judged on name, presentation, and taste. In addition, the judges would decide on an overall winner as well. After some deliberation, the judges announced the winners. A drink mixed by Kang (the name of which I do not recall) won for best flavor. Snake Cult KoolAid (Snake Cult’s entry) won for best presentation. Aside: as much as I’d like to think otherwise, I suspect this may have had more to do with the “80 proof antidote” that we offered beforehand and the 23 gold Kwido slipped to the judges than anything else. Finally, the Grimloch Gravedigger (mixed by Thoril) won for best name. The Grimloch Gravedigger was named the overall winner, and Thoril was named the 2017 Grimloch Grill and Games Mixologist.
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| Elouan in action (photo by Casey Lemay) |
After this was much drinking and merriment, including a poker tournament. I spent the rest of my night mixing drinks for Snake Cult (myself included) and relaxing with friends. Of particular fun were the Tarot readings being done by Asharn and a couple of others. Curiously, these readings were being done not with a normal Tarot deck, but rather a Cards Against Humanity deck. The results were...interesting, to say the least. After much imbibing and other such antics, I retreated to my tent and turned in for the night.
The next morning, we were served breakfast by the event staff. Breakfast consisted of pancakes, bacon, and eggs. After breakfast, the raffle commenced. The prizes included decorative pillows, shawl pins, handmade checkers sets, and mystery boxes (most of which ended up containing certificates for weapons from the Bronze Forge). The prize that almost everyone had their eyes on, however, was a Legend of Zelda Monopoly board game set. Naturally, this prize was drawn for last. Ultimately, Grebinar’s name was drawn for this prize, and he went home with the board game.
With the end of the raffle, the event staff thanked us, and the event concluded. I can say that I had an incredibly fun weekend hanging out with friends and participating in a number of tournaments. Finally I must commend the event staff for maintaining a competitive atmosphere while also keeping the event low stress; this is not an easy balance to achieve, and was just the sort of event I was hoping to attend.