Malor

Sna's DF 2007 report
Or: Feeling 'Episch'

Starring:
Roland - Yoshida Kasumi, Daimyo of Clan Yoshida
Suus (ningyomatsuri) - Nanami Koyuki, First Mistress of Yoshida Daimyo & Hime
Mike - Yoshida Shiro, Samurai, Sensei of the Sword & Brother to Yoshida Daimyo
Lenny - Yoshida Jishin, Samurai & Sensei
Nico (nokey) - Yoshida Yasuo, Samurai, Sensei Unarmed Combat & Hatamoto
Erik - Yoshida Toshi, Samurai & Hatamoto
Mark - Yoshida Garou, Samurai
Geert (drahkan) - Yoshida Kaminari, Samurai & Sensei of Kyodo (bow)
Katinka (wannabe_bitch) - Yoshida Yomi, Samurai
Brian - Yoshida Masato, Samurai
Judith (anna_xanaphia) - Yoshida Kodachini, Samurai
Hans - Kitamura Matsuhide, Samurai & Guest of Clan Yoshida
Linda - Sonoda Akemi, Geisha
Annelies (spacegeest) - Yoshida Gina, Maiko Apprentice
Dennis - Yoshida Mogura, Smith & Bannerbearer
Gijs - Sakamoto Kiyoshi, Samurai & Guest of Clan Yoshida
Gert- (dj_fritz) Yoshida Ichero, Samurai
Willem - Sanjuro Yojimbo, Guest of Clan Yoshida
Yvonne (anemoona) - Yoshida Yuri, Miko
Simone (fyrane) - Yoshida Amaya, Miko
Myself - Yoshida Masuo, Samurai & Wannabee Hatamoto
(Kindly forgive me if I mis-spelled stuff or left it incomplete - ping me and I shall correct)




Almost the full Clan Yoshida of Drachenfest 2007 - Closest thing to a good group picture that I have found so far.


( Under the cut: Extended DF report with pics and movies )

And that was it, really. I must say that this was a great vacation, and one that I will cherish for a long time. It was just truly magical... The Yoshida are a good, adult, responsible group that works well, is chill, and gets a lot done both IC and OC. I love it. And to round it all up, there is one of my favorite Haiku's, from the same hand as Mike's faves.


Clouds appear
and bring to men a chance to rest
from looking at the moon.


My dear Yoshida, thank you all for a very special experience.

Ps: does this meet your satisfaction, Mr. nokey-san?

Sna's DF 2006 report
Or: one lousy little bowl of tea, two wind-up goldfish, three knights of Argath, four dancing Geisha, five thousand orks, six smelly dixies, seven dead from Limbus, eight useless gate guards, nine horny Oni, ten shiny rank cards, eleven cups of sake & twelve guests an hour.

Starring:
Roland (aka “Pluis”) – Yoshida Kasumi, Daimyo
Yvonne – Yoshida Mineko, Hime to our Daimyo & Former Geisha
Mike – Yoshida Shiro, Samurai, Sensei of the Sword & Brother to our Daimyo
Inge – Yoshida Inazuma, Chief Diplomat & Sister to our Daimyo
Nico (nokey) – Yoshida Yasuo, Samurai, Sensei Unarmed Combat & Hatamoto
Mark – Yoshida Garou, Samurai & Hatamoto
Katinka – Samurai
Brian – Yoshida Matsuko, Samurai
Lenny – Ogawa Jishin, Samurai
Erik – Yoshida Toshi, Samurai
Judith – Yoshida Kodachini, Samurai, at rest due to pregnancy
Geert (drahkan) – Yoshida Kaminari, Samurai & Sensei of Kyodo (bow)
Linda – Sonoda Akemi, Geisha
Suus (ningyomatsuri) – Nanami Koyuki, Maiko Apprentice
Annelies – Yoshida Gina, Maiko Apprentice
Annet (janestarz) – Yoshida Tsubasa, Senechal (or closest thing to)
Dennis – Yoshida Mogura, Smith & Bannerbearer
Gijs – Sakamoto, Samurai & Guest to our Daimyo
Arno – Honored Guest
Willem – Miyamoto Usagi, former Hatamoto (commited Seppuku), later an Honored Guest as his new character.
Nick – Sakaya, Servant to Clan Yoshida
Myself – Yoshida Masuo, Samurai & Hatamoto


Clan Yoshida

This log starts at Day 2, a recent edit, to be parallel with the LJ's of my fellow Yoshida, as technically their Day 2 was my Day 1. My own Day 1, as you will remember, was spent by me getting a job.

Day 2 - Tentative beginnings
Lies and myself got in the car and we started cruising towards Germany. Lies would drive the first bit, till the German Border, and I would take the last bit via Oberhausen and Dortmund to the eventual DF grounds. The trip was uneventful but longer then expected due to rain and a few kilometres of traffic jams. Kaylee performed well getting on the hill on which the event was held, and we arrived on the grounds around 2, quickly getting in line for character creation, SMS-ing the Yoshida’s that we had arrived. Soon after, though, a full procession of Yoshida arrived on the hill near the Orga-Plex, as Yvonne still had to check her character in. As it turns out, the night before the Yoshida’s had not played much due to the long waiting time before being able to check in. Ours, by comparison, was quite short, and it took about half an hour to sort everything out.
Lies and I went down the hill with our luggage, walking the km-and-a half to the Grunes Lager, the Green Camp that was the base for Clan Yoshida. We set everything up, greeting a few people when they walked onto the OC grounds and for the rest not trying to disturb the game in progress, as everything was just warming up. As more rainstorms were expected, we quickly set up our tent and Annelies started to get everything in our little private corner as I started the trek back up the hill to get my weapons and get the car to the parking lot, back down from the hill.
On the way up I passed Anderwelt, where I had ordered my custom “Daisho”, the traditional set of weapons for a Samurai consisting of a matching Katana / Wakizashi set. I was quite happy with both of them, and I proceeded to have them double-checked by the DM’s just to make sure they were safe. Getting the car to the Parking Lot was an epic journey to itself, driving down the beautiful mountain with great forest terrain. Parking was not so much a question of finding a spot as making a controlled slide down the hill and hoping that I would arrive at a good place to park, as the parking lot was a mudfest. Still, Kaylee and my anti-slip course came through for me and I started the long trek back up the hill. I noticed a few lesser things, like the only bathrooms near our camp being Dixies, and the watertap being on the other side of the battlefield, near the Orc camp, close to a KM from our tent.
About an hour after I had left I got back at our tent, thoroughly winded (I’m not built for hills… really… dikes at most) and got into costume, ready to be introduced. My character had his trial run on the Summer House mini-special, but this would be his first real outing. First thing was that the Daimyo was on the battlefield, so I made myself useful in the camp, and ran into Brian on his way back to the camp. I did not expect to see him, nor he did me, and we had a quick chat before diving back IC and assisting our Daimyo and fellow Samurai kill a few bakamono (ie. Greenskins). After that it was close to dinnertime and I helped chop veggies after I found out that we were out of Orcs to chop. Limbus was very, very crowded.


The Garden

I heard during dinner that the Avatar had been in the camp and that Clan Yoshida had gifted her with a coat. That, and the fact that 'Yoshida House' looked great, with its own miniature garden, temple, bath-house, entryway, kitchen and common room made her exceedingly happy with us, and resulted in a nice stack of gifted rank cards. She came back for tea several times more *grin*. And I had to admit, it looked great. It gave the real impression of a Japanese Summer House, up to and including wind-up goldfish in the little pond in the Garden. The mood in the group was good, too, and the roleplay quickly drew me into the usage of the proper Japanese words and the right mood. IC names where a bit hard, but I got most of them. Before dinner I wandered around a bit, with Brian, our characters basically walking a patrol and reconning the grounds. We assisted several Green Camp players as their characters were healing or being healed, hauling them back to the camp or defending them, scoring us some necessary points with the camp. Also talked to the councillors and learned the names of many of the dignitaries on our camp. All in all a good way to get to know the camp and vice-versa. Dropped by the Dutchees in the Chaos camp a bit, to see hi to the Drow and Mercs, and thank Kaasje for the rescue yesterday. We got back and were treated to an excellent dinner, after which I offered to wash up, but four volunteers were there before I did, and I agreed to wash up tomorrow.
After dinner we had a family meeting, and the Daimyo thanked us all personally for our work in the past. The order in which people were called forward was a bit confusing, and eventually I was called forward next-to-last. I was handed two eating sticks, on a pedestal, and was honoured by being made Hatamoto. That meant that there were now four Hatamoto (Yasuo, Tetsuo, Usagi and myself), for a very brief moment, because after me Usagi (Willem) was called forward, and what followed was a "you had to be there moment". He had failed to protect the Hime-Sama in a critical combat situation, and was removed as Hatamoto by handing him two broken chopsticks. Faced with such dishonour, he merely asked time to prepare and left the common area. Quiet descended as everyone know exactly what was going to happen. He was going to commit ritual suicide to save his honor. The entire family was present, and it was a worthy end of a character.
After that, however, we had two things to attend to. First was an honor duel in Camp Grey, where Brian, Erik and myself were sent to. That duel was cut short due to massive undead assaults, but we also had a visit to the Oni scheduled for tea. The Oni were demons from Japanese Folklore, not necessarily evil, that were happily surprised with a Japanese Clan being present as well. We hit it off splendidly, and I heard that similar happenings had passed at the last DF. The Oni were really cool and tea was readily accepted as a chance to exchange pleasantries. After that, though, the time of the night was quite late, and when we headed back to the camp we had to be on our guard for Undead Assaults. Still, we guided the Daimyo, his Hime, the Geisha's and the Maiko's back without a lot of problems and I asked permission to retreat to bed, which was granted. Sweet Oblivion.

Day 3 - Full Swing
The next morning I thanked the blessings of Annet again as she had a way of waking good, fresh coffee, which instantly regenerated me. Waking up was done before 10, as the Daimyo wished to speak with us concerning many matters and our position in the camp. A few happenings of importance needed to be discussed, and we made plans about our position in the camp and wrote several invitations to tea, to be hand delivered to the people in question. Meanwhile, the useless gateguards had committed a few nasty offences against the Clan, first wanting to 'mark' us (something for criminals and vagrants) to be recognizable to the people at the gate, and then physically touching the Hime-sama. Our reaction was predictable, and in the following muster the Avatarin specifically ordered the gateguards to let us through unmolested, based on our uniforms (Clan Colours). After that, respect from the camp quickly came.
Tardek, a beastman, had a strange combination of Honor and Instinct, and made great strides in honouring the Clan Yoshida and our Daimyo. He even brought his wife and son to our dinner in a show of faith, and was respectful at all times. Also, another Green Camp General, who was a ranger, was respectful and properly deferential to our Daimyo, leading to our little afternoon egghunt, where we aided the Green Camp in retrieving two eggs. More on that, however, later. Throughout the camp word spread on how to properly greet us and how to show respect, and within a day most, if not all, of the Green Camp inhabitants had made an effort to apologize for the cultural mistakes made. In return, we did the same, and it all smoothed out.


Clan Yoshida Shopping Trip

After our lunch we went shopping, in character, an idea born from Lies' and my desire to shop a bit at the extensive larp village on top of the hill. Nearly the entire family went up the hill (see the pic) with umbrella's and colorful kimono's to contrast the austere clan colours of the Samurai, where we visited the herbalist and the alchemist's Guild before dispersing and going our separate ways. I dragged Lies to a store where they sold female leather armor, and made sure that she fitted and ordered a proper suit of leather body armor in her size... no girl of mine will run around in war-bunny outfit, and the armour will fit Karya nicely. With the OC affairs done we strolled over the market In-Character, seeing the Maiko's & Geisho's all paired with one or two Samurai for their protection inspecting the wares. We also found several eating some food or icecream, and indulged ourselves as well. Close to four we strolled down the hill again, just as the Orcs were gearing up for an attack.
Then we were asked by the Ranger General to assist in an egg-retrieval mission. Every Dragon of every camp had laid four eggs, and it was your camp's optional objective to retrieve the four eggs. If that happened then the camp's Champion would be blessed with a special weapon, dramatically increasing the chances of a victory. We had gained one through our Avatar, due to our good Camp Green behaviour while defending the Tree of Life. Two more had been found in the woods and needed to be retrieved, and it was of such importance that the Daimyo himself decided to get involved with most of the Samurai. A massive Orc battle broke out around Camp Silver, our neighbours, and while the main strength of Green was concentrated on aiding our allies a small contingent of Rangers, non-combattants and Clan Yoshida surreptitiously and quickly recovered one egg. That went so well that we immediately retrieved the second, with us running as scouts, interceptors and rearguard all at once. The Ranger-General listened to the advice of our Daimyo, who in turn accepted the judgement of the Ranger, and we had three eggs by the middle of day two, making us the leading camp in that respect, and our assignment for the fourth egg was given, too: protect the Sacred Fire. Twenty men were stationed around it, near our center square almost directly opposite to the Yoshida encampment.
Just before dinner we went into the woods to look for herbs with Sonada Akemi, our Herblore Geisha, protecting her with three Samurai. When we returned to the camp to check up on food we suddenly saw a group of Drow (the DUTCH Drow, I later learned) making a beeline for the Tree of Life. We immediately sent our Geisha back with Katinka's Samurai, requesting reinforcements, and we started to move to enage the Drow... until we saw them being chased by another group, apparently either Green or Red camp. We managed to dissuade both groups from nearing the Tree any closer as its location was secret, and within 5 minutes we had over 20 people as reinforcements, with which we started to comb the forest. We did not find the Drow, but we did found an Uruk hunting party, destroying them to the last filthy Greenskin. Having worked up an appetite, we returned to the camp.
We were surprised to find Akemi-San practising her skills with the bow... on an Orc! Apparently the Dutch Drow were now controlling Limbus (working regular 'shifts' there, for which they killed eachother in order to get to their working place), and we had several people who, to come back from the dead, had to forfill several missions for the Yoshida Clan. The Orc in question had been tasked with serving the Yoshida's for an hour, and an Elf reluctantly accompanied him, having been tasked to sing for us (she had a wonderful singing voice). Two fighters from Green Camp had to dance with our Geisha's, but as that is not allowed, they had to dance as Geisha's, doing their best to mimic Mineko-Hime's Fan Dance. The Orc understood that he had the better end of the deal.
With the Orc's hour almost up we were read for dinner, and being gracious hosts we offered him food, too. Picture an Orc eating with the Samurai. Got that? Okay, now picture him eating with chopsticks. Uhu. Yep. That's right. I've officially seen it all... and Annet took pictures. The Orc Player was a former Viking, and several of those came by our camp to watch their comrade eat and laugh at his predicament; he, to his credit, took it in stride. The General of the Beastmen, Tardek, joined us for dinner with his wife and son, adding to the already mixed group that we had. After dinner we properly thanked the Orc and escorted him out of the Green Camp so that he could return unmolested to the Ork Camp on the hill.
After dinner, a group of thieves from the Black Camp tried to take our Sacred Fire, but were stopped. We managed to get permission to interrogate the prisoner to verify the answers gotten by a Force Truth spell, and by permission of the Daimyo the prisoner was taken by Kaminari, Yasuo, Matsuko to a quiet stretch of woods for pressure point torture under the watchful gaze of a few Elves, as the prisoner was a half-Elf. The SL clearly had fun, giving the guys a few rank cards, and the prisoner in question, after being killed, reluctantly, by the Elves, heartily thanked the Yoshida for a kewl death after a character which had ran 8 (!!!) years. He elected to stay dead as he felt there was no way to top this death. Kewl. By then the darkness was slowly setting in, and black clouds were gathering above us. Shortly after that a messenger from the Steel Camp informed us that the King of Kargath had accepted our invitation for tea and would be on his way in 20 minutes. True to form, within 20 minutes we were good to go, and the King of Kargath with his two bodyguards were given the royal treatment... all the way to the door before a DM caught up with us.

OC...

The DM's pulled us OC at that point, for a huge storm was approaching us, with hail, thunder and massive gusts of wind. As we were on top of a hill we were quite at risk, and all those wearing plate armour were told to take it off asap. Also, all camps were now Out Character and should prepare for the worst... so again the Yoshida's rose to the challenge and we made the tents storm ready in 20 mins, tore down the entranceway as we considered it a risk and made the Common Room comfortable to spend the night in if need be, with food, drinks and blankets. OC tents were checked and found all right, and we were done so swiftly that we had time to spare to help others from Camp Green prepare. That being done we made ourselves comfortable in the common room and waited out the storm, playing mostly IC. The storm itself was nothing spectacular cept for some heavy rains, and within an hour the worst was past... we'd probably only skimped the storm and could consider ourselves lucky. I searched for a DM, who told us to stay OC until the signal was given, so we chilled.

... and back IC


Tea Ceremony in the Common Room

When the IC signal was given we initially got back in fairly slowly, but then a messenger from the Oni arrived to accept our invitation for tea, and we had 20 mins before the Oni came! And for the third time that evening we organized quickly and cleaned with Common Room, made tea and got our camp back as far we could (minus the portal as the partytent remained down because the storm could potentially come back). Once more the respect of the Camp shone through when we waited outside for the Oni, for a they arrived the Green Camp guards held the massive double doors for the camp wide open for us and respectfully bowed to our guests. We stayed outside in formation while the leader of the Oni went on the common room for a formal ceremony, and we served tea to the Oni outside twice. The players of the Oni were incredibly tight and regimented, playing the unemotional supernatural vibe to the hilt. After about half an hour the Oni leader exited in haste as there were weird gatherings at the Ritual Circle, and we escorted our guests outside. Once more we had an unmolested path to the gate, and we safely saw them out.
Later that night we checked out the happenings near the ritual circle, but all the action had already been, and a counter ritual had been successful. We paid our respects to the Avatar, who was leading Green herself in the action, and retired to the camp, chilling a bit more. I once more asked permission to go to bed as it was around 3 in the morning, and crawled in together with Lies. I was asleep before I well and truly hit the pillow.

Day 4 - Big Battles

That morning we started a little later then the day before... I was out around 9, but several people made a later appearance as they had been roleplaying till deep into the night and deserved their rest. I busied myself with getting our gatehouse back up, and with a few people it was done fairly quickly. At around 11 most of us were in garb and slowly going IC over breakfast when we heard that the King of Kargath was on his way! Luckily I had just put on warm water for the washing up and some more coffee, which was hijacked for tea, and the rest of the people busied themselves with getting everything IC ready. Our Daimyo was still getting dressed, but other then that we were good to go for our tea ceremony in record time (we really had the idea at that time that we functioned as diplomatic hub for Green Camp). We were getting quite good at this rush thing. By the time the King and his Bodyguards were at our gate nothing remained of breakfast or any OC things. He apologized for his rather blunt manners as he had not sent a messenger ahead to warn us, but he was treated to a full Tea Ceremony anyway and a pleasant talk with our Daimyo. The Green Camp used that opportunity to also make a few diplomatic overtures and we secured the Steel Camp for our alliance for the endbattle, later that afternoon. Steel's strength of numbers and heavily armoured men-at-arms were a great asset, as we later learned.
We had spent the preceding night talking through a ritual that we wanted to do before the big battle to honour our ancestors. Last year that was rewarded with fearlessness, but this year we wanted to symbolize the special relationship between a Samurai and his weapons. We'd written a simple sequence and reserved the ritual circle close to the endbattle (battlepreps would start at 2, as would our ritual), and we would show a Samurai progressing from hand to hand combat to a full fledged armoured duel. When we were done with the tea ceremony we started preparing, and Geert brought the ritual information to the SL's on top of the mountain, only to hear that our ritual was bumped to the quarter past three timeslot. Geert managed to bluster, threaten and negotiate his way down to quarter to three, but it would leave as no time to get to the site of the End Battle, and we just decided to do it in the camp. Screw the powers, screw the rituals. We got permission from our Avatar, marched out in our camp, made a ritual 'circle' with pillows and did it then and there. It rocked, and it set us right up for the endbattle.
We all armoured up and got loads of water and sugary food to bring to the battlefield. Armies were marching by our gates as one by one the camps went to the battlefield... the Orcs were exempt from this as they had slaughtered themselves some hour earlier after hearing that all the camps were ganging up on them, figuring that killing each other was more fun then being jumped by about 3500 humies ( Movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz_6gpRzqwk ). Can't blame them. We then heard the call to arms, forming up and taking position at the rear of the Green Line. As there were 21 of us, with Judith staying at the camp, we set up in a 3 x 7 block, with the Daimyo, the Hime and one of the Hatamoto up front, the Banner Bearer and the two other Hatamoto behind that, the armoured Samurai on the right flank, the unarmored on the left and the Geisha in the middle. We looked quite nice in this formation and marched out of the gate, to be greated by the nine Oni. The Oni Chieftan had declared the Grey Camp without honor and would fight be our side, aligning themselves with Clan Yoshida and whoever they chose to stand for. And so Nine Oni joined our ranks, giving us a perfect 10 x 3 block to march to the Endbattle. The march was magical, and we really felt good with how we looked... still hoping for pictures and a few movies that were made of us at the DF forum, but nothing yet. Let us hope that with time more will come.


Yoshida Daimyo talking to the Oni Chief, just before the battle.

As we deployed for the endbattle we had the Red Camp and the Norsemen against us, joined by splinter factions... about 1000 - 1200 men strong. We were with the Green, Silver & Grey camps, also with several splinter Factions, about 1200 men all told, though mostly heavily armoured. Chaos and Black camps took position at the left flank of our hill, ready to engage either us or the enemy, and a group of Orcs took position in the middle to take on just about anyone. We drew quite a crowd from nearby villages, and the Oni took position way ahead of our own lines to go for a death-and-glory offensive. The Daimyo and his Hatamoto checked the battlefield and discovered that if we could move our heavy troops fast enough down the hill to a certain point midway that we could trap the enemy in their deployment zone and dictate the battle from there, and we shared this information with our own General, the battle leader of the Silver Camp and the King of Argath, and we ourselves took position as rapid reaction strike force. The battle could be won by taking the enemy banners of killing them all, and there were three pyramids which offered a tactical advantage by being able to resurrect all dead from a certain Faction if conquered.
Then the boom sounded, starting the battle, and the Oni were off to the middle of the field, going for a pyramid. They managed to hold it for about a minute or two, and by that time Silver had reinforced them... the Oni were all gone, but they had accomplished the first objective, and both Silver and Steel moved to close the gap to the enemy with their highly ordered regiments. Green rolled in and Tardek engaged the Norse, fighting several fierce personal battles. We moved in on a hill and started protective bow fire, targeting the enemy line. All this while, though Chaos and Black camp were doing nothing, worrying us and keeping our reserves back in case of a flank attack... Silver and Steel were thrusting deep into the enemy lines, though, especially after they threw their reserves in the battle and started pushing the Norse back. From our vantage point you could see all the troop movements, and it was a thing of beauty. After about 15 minutes the Chaos and Black camps realigned their lines, causing a bit of a worry for us, but they charged the flanks of the Norse, joining with us and nearly forcing a break three times, succeeding the fourth. Then we went in. In keep with our mission we wanted to force break, too, and get a few banners. We were stuck between the men-at-arms, though, so our Daimyo attacked the enemy line and we dutifully followed... after nearly half an hour of line fighting we were declared victorious and prepared to move back up the hill to the Green Group, happily standing with several captured enemy banners. With few losses and no heavy damage we were thanked by the general for our good work and moved back in formation to walk back to the camp.
Then, just as we were forming up, one of our allies was attacked by the black Camp, and our Daimyo drew his blade and started running. As Hatamoto I sighed, drew my Katana and Wakizashi and started charging downhill, hoping that he rest would follow (they did). We entered the battle outnumbered over five to one, but held out and downed multiple opponents in the early phases. Then the crush came down on us, and were swarmed. We fought on as good as we could, but a few of us went down, including Tsubasa, near me. The enemy soldier who had downed her saw me coming, but instead of attacking me he attacked Koyuki, standing there holding our banner, unarmed. Not only did he decline to fight me, but he attacked our unarmed Maiko banner bearer. I went in hard, but he hit me in the head with his first blow, triggering my alerts... then I went ballistic. I waded in, closing to point blank range, screaming the warcries that I had heard Mike and Roland do. Within seconds he'd taken somewhere between 8 and 12 hits and went down. In a display of OC sportsmanship he thanked me for a nice battle, I helped him up and he walked off. Hmm. Then the battle continued and we were slowly overrun, after which it started raining. Two of us were dead-dead, having taking a "Totenschanz" - deathblow or coup-de-grace, but he wounded were helped up as the battlefield swiftly emptied in the rain. After we had gathered the group, mostly OC cause we were sopping wet, I lugged a drum of arrows back up the hill in front of the main group as I wanted to make sure coffee and tea were in the making for the cold and wet Clan Yoshida.
Our Avatar was quite happy with our performance, and our dead respawned in the camp, having won the endbattle. The coffee and tea were well received, and we got into dry garb for dinner as the day was drawing to a close and night set in; chilling in the common room and enjoying a good tea, we were also joined by one of the DM's joining us for food and playing IC with us, for no other reason then to chill a bit. We were not done yet, though, as the King of Kargath had sent his personal bodyguard, Mariel-San, to invite us to come over and enjoy his hospitality. Also, Shiro-Sensei would be able to fight in duel there with the King as he was wont to do to test his skills agains other warriors. She waited patiently while we prepared and with well over three quarters of the family we visited the King. Shiro won the duel, just, and we joined him in his festhall for general merriment and good fun. We had great fun roleplaying with the German Knights, and they spent hours telling us of their lands while we told them of ours. As the Daimyo retired for the night, Shiro-Sensei and Matsuko-San (with a little help from me) stayed a while longer to talk to the thing, and they roleplayed till deep into the night, enjoying a rare fire-show and a tour of the abandoned and conquered Orc camp.

I, however, was fast asleep by then.


A last look at the wonderfully decorated Common Room

Day 5 - Aftermath
I slept till ten, for the first time on DF and a rare time at a larp, but I needed that extra hour to ensure a clear mind for the long drive back home. We started packing around 11, and we got the cars while most of the other Dutchees were heading home. We still had a lot of packing to do, though, and we were visited by a few people from the Green Camp to say goodbye, and we mutually thanked each other for a few great moments. The General Tardek came by, af course, and the Ranger General, too. The Avatarin dropped by, of course, and just while we were making noodles the Oni dropped in. We gave them a standing ovation for their brilliant actions on the battlefield and the great group and they joined us for noodles. It was kewl that there was a lot of mutual respect, and my opinion of German Roleplayers has definitively changed in that department. Several of the DM's we had entertained and fed said goodbye, too, and we were ready to go.
At around 16:30 we left the grounds, fully packed and fully loaded, and accepted the way home. We drove quite swiftly, with Kaylee going first and Annet's Beschuitbus driving behind us for the first leg of the journey. Just after Dortmund the Beschuitbus pulled forward, with NoKey making the universal sight for food and drinks and us giving the thumbs up. We stopped at a Burger King's and for the first time in days we enjoyed such luxuries as flushing toilets and running water. w00t! We ate a few bites and Annet and myself both got a large coffee for the final leg home. We were joined by Mike, Yvonne, Geert and Judith a while later as they were carrying most of the heavy stuff and drove at 100 km/h instead of 130. For the rest of the way home Annet took the lead as it was pretty much just one more freeway change and then straight on till the Netherlands, and she drove us to Mike & Yvonne's house where most of the gang had already arrived. We then unpacked most of the cars and helped everyone get their stuff where it should, while a few others got food (fries!). Mike then downloaded Annet's pics and after enjoying the spoofs that Brian, Willem & Katinka had written we finished off with the music from Last Samurai and the pictures from Annet's cam, which included a few real beauties.
We left quickly thereafter, though, it being 23:10... and got home about an hour later. Lies and I showered and dove into my own bed, clean and knackered. Lies did find no less then two ticks on me, making it three with the one that Roland pulled off @ the grounds. Of the 5 ticks I have had in my larping career, now 4 of them were on DF. Must be those forests, and I will have to keep an eye on it. To conclude it all, Drachenfest was amazing. I never thought I’d be the type for groups or even the type to do well in those groups, but the roleplay and the chilling combined made it such a lasting experience that I felt… like I was doing larp all over again for the very first time. We all remember that feeling in our stomach when we drive onto the grounds, that realm of unknowns and that feeling that whatever happens, it is going to be kewl. And now that it is over, I want to do it all over again, and I am missing the group far more then I care to admit. My anti-dipping tactic is reading through the Wikipedia, Japanese section, and retrogaming my way through “Shogun: Total War”, the Warlord Edition that I still had lying around. Luckily, there are many, many more brilliant pictures, which I hope to post in future updates as they come available... the pictures contained herein are only the tip of the iceberg.

Also, several of my fellow Yoshida have made entries and posted pics; most of the pictures in this report are from Lenny, many thanks go to her. The shopping trip picture is from a nice German lady from the Pirate Camp, hosted on my own server by her kind permission. A few of Annet's 355 pics are on http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/janestarz/ .

The other LJ entries on DF 2006 (at the time of writing)
OC views
Suus: http://ningyomatsuri.livejournal.com/1859.html
Geert: http://drahkan.livejournal.com/23646.html
Annet: http://janestarz.livejournal.com/550575.html
IC views
Suus: http://ningyomatsuri.livejournal.com/2088.html

Lastly, Brian, Willem and Katinka used the time in the car on the way back to compose our themesongs.

Clan Yoshida theme song
to the tune of Y.M.C.A.

Ronin, you are out in the cold, oh no!
Ronin, but you’re brave and you’re bold, so desu,
Ronin, you want honour and gold, there’s a
Place! That! You! Can! Go!

Maiko, you must pick up your fan, oh yes,
Maiko, you must do a nice dance, so desu,
Maiko, when you pa-ss your test, then you,
Will! Be! Come! A! Geisha!

Hai! Hai! Hai! Hai! Hai!

Be a member of Clan Yoshida, be a member of Clan Yoshida,
We will take care of you, our geisha are cute,
And you get to wear lots of blue!

Written by Brian and Willem.

Twelve Days of Drachenfest

On the (number) day of Drachenfest the Daimyo gave to me:

* A lousy little bowl of tea
* Two wind-up goldfish
* Three knights of Kargath
* Four dancing geisha
* Five thousand orks
* Six smelly dixies
* Seven dead from Limbus
* Eight useless gate guards
* Nine horny oni
* Ten shiny rank cards
* Eleven cups of sake
* Twelve guests an hour

(Tribute to Usagi ending)
Three hatamoto,
Two broken hashi,
And a tanto to kill me.

Written by Brian, Willem and Katinka.