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By TERA STARFARE
September 11, 2006
Eight Warlords showed up to via for the two prizes available in this Tournament. First prize of intercession free Challenge to the Overlord and second to the Baron or Baroness of their choice. The officials for this glorious exhibition of swordplay were Chris Graziano and Rena Cronin.
In order of seeding the participants were Skyler Chamberlain, Alais d'Nitesong, Anubis Karos, Tasslehofl Momus, Xenograg kathu-Darelir, Anjolie Quinn, Artemus Kurgen, and Maria Graziano.
There was a large crowd that came to watch including the current Overlord, Senior Baroness, and tons of fans from all over RhyDin and beyond. They were drinking and had banners they were waving as they cheered their favorites on for the entire four and a half hours this spectacular display of skill and stamina went on.
The first round pairs went like this Xeno/Tass, Maria/Skyler, Art/Alais, and Anubis/Anjolie. The second round had the winners bracket pairs Maria/Anubis and Art/Xeno while the losers bracket was Tass/Alais and Skyler/Anjolie.
Anjolie was the first to be eliminated with Tass a close second then it was on to the third round where Art defeated Anubis, Maria sat down Alais, and Skyler sat down Xeno for the night.
The fourth round found us with the first rematch of the night when Anubis faced off against Maria again. She jumped out to a fast 2 - 0 lead before they had four rounds with neither able to score against the other. Then she came up with a couple of rounds of parries which gave her 4 - 0 for a score but the next round they both attacked with thrusts which meant Anubis got sat down but he didn't do it by shut out!
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Skyler then got the pleasure of facing Maria and her baseball bat with his sword named "Wang" in the ring as Chris officiated. Art being the only other Warlord still in the running as he remains up til now undefeated this night and let it be noted Art had just made the rank of Warlord in time for this here tournament no less.
Skyler took the first point by a little defense when he blocked Maria's thrust with a neat little stop hit. His second and third points also came from defense which brought him a score of 3 - 0 in round 5. They then locked up low but Skyler tried to make himself very small and Maria whacked him good to get herself on the board! She then hit him again but all too soon he was hitting her back and kept hitting her for the win.
Now we have Art who has not yet been defeated and we have Skyler who has lost once so far meeting up in a ring to see who gets first and second prize because they were bickering over them both wanting the Overlord prize and neither one would say "You can have it I want the Baron shot" to the other one even though it was very late at night by now and they had been dueling for HOURS!!!
Surprisingly enough, or perhaps not so since this was a Warlord tournament, even the crowd had stayed although I was noticing some yawns here and there around the place everyone wanted to know if Art could keep winning it looked like to me. Well to make a very long story short Art lost twice in a row to Skyler which from what Chris said makes Skyler maybe the first Warlord to win two tournaments in a row!
Skyler had the right to pick which of the two prizes he wanted and just like last time he picked being able to Challenge the Overlord which means Art gets to Challenge the Baron or Baroness of his choice as his second place prize.
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By TERA STARFARE
September 3, 2006
There has been no love lost between Baroness Karen Wilder of the Knights Templar and the Challenger Vanion Knightwood-Shadowcast of the Temple of Myr'Khul for quite some time now but never in all the time that I can remember have I ever seen such a dishonorable thing happen in a Challenge Match as I saw occur in this here one.
It was obvious before the dueling even began that this would be no ordinary Challenge Match as the Challenger dueled without a Second and claimed Baroness Karen Wilder as his Lady of Honor. She in turn immediately declined the honor. The Baroness dueled without second and without Lord or Lady of Honor.
Vanion's colors were red upon black and Karen's red upon white. Both wore full armor and were using war swords. Vanion even had on an iron battle mask while Karen was using the sword of St. Michael, a Holy relic of her Order against him.
When Xenograg, who had the honor and duty of calling this Challenge, asked which format she wanted to follow, Karen stated that a single duel proves nothing so it was a best-two-of-three format for this Challenge. In the first duel Karen took the lead early but Vanion was not to be denied and although they mirrored many times and ended up tied at 4 all, Karen kept her composure to win this one in the 11th round.
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The second duel both began defensively to neither's advantage then the Baroness protected herself from an incoming cut but did not strike a return blow this time. She then went on to score 5 full points in the next 5 rounds to put an end to Vanion's hopes of taking her Barony from her.
The chilling part of this Challenge came to light in the 5th round when the two traded cuts, Karen's high and Vanion's low. The Challenger was using a poisoned dagger, it was later determined. Suspicion began when, before the duel concluded, the Baroness' strength was already failing her.
Before she fell unconscious before my very eyes–and I was shocked, stunned, and dismayed let me tell you by this–she did publicly petition the Overlord for Loyal status – which he did grant her.
Artemus Kurgen rendered aid to the fallen Baroness, and Tasslehofl Momus dealt a blow to Vanion via means I cannot describe. Vanion was indeed injured after the Match had been completed, and it soon came to light that Karen had been poisoned during the dueling.
Xenograg called the Knights Templar to come and carry their gravely-ill member back so that she could be cared for until while the poison was determined.
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By TERA STARFARE
September 7, 2006
This was a wonderful surprise! Xenograg was the official for this Challenge Match which pitted Anubis Karos–who was dueling without a second with Dawn Shadowsbane-Karos as his Lady of Honor in absentia – against Topaz Datrazanov, who was dueling with Lucien Datrazanov as her second and Lord of Honor.
Anubis colors were the Eye of Ra with a black viper threaded through it and Topaz a falcon in black and silver upon a light blue field. Then came the surprise. The Overlord interceded for his loyal Baroness Topaz and stepped into the ring to face Anubis!!!
Everyone that was there to witness this Challenge was abuzz with comments! We were all trying to remember the last time this had happened. Folks, it has been a VERY long time ago since an Overlord interceded for any Baron or Baroness that was being Challenged.
But Anubis did not appear to be fazed one bit by this sudden turn in events he stepped up toe to toe with the Overlord and proceeded to duel as though it were any other duel. The Overlord did try for his Baroness but in the end Anubis defeated him in 8 rounds. Which meant that Topaz stepped into the ring to face her Challenger.
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She in her turn defeated Anubis just as he had the Overlord the duel before by the same score no less of 5 - 1 in 8 rounds which means that she retains her status as Senior Baroness and the Barony of Dragon's Gate.
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By TERA STARFARE
Anjolie Quinn
Preferred Dueling Areas: Swords and Fists
I had the pleasure of sitting down with Ms. Anjolie Quinn who at the time of this interview had mere moments before become the newest Warlady in the Duel of Swords. The pleasure was clear on her face for all to see at having achieved this coveted rank in this time honored sport. Her Beau the current Overlord, Cory Havoick, who was featured this past month in my column was obviously very proud of his lady love and with good reason as she had fought long and hard in the ring prior to my arrival at their table to interview them.
Although this lovely femme does enjoy a good fist fight now and then she says that she prefers to do her fighting in Swords out of all three as: "Somethin' 'bout th' feel of it is jus' so much more enticin' than th' rest."
I did ask her if she was planning to advance her career any further now that she has made Warlady. For those of you that are unfamiliar with Ms. Quinn, back in July of this year she had won the then-Overlord Damien Mortis' Essay contest which granted her the right to Challenge for a Baron's ring. (You can find the details in the July issue of The Oracle.)
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Ms. Quinn is very loyal and supportive of her soon-to-be husband and had this to say on the subject: "Depends... I've still go' my eye on E's park, bu' we'll see who keeps loyal to m'man an' who doesn't."
As Anjolie has been a duelist for quite some time now I asked her if she had any advice for those thinking about taking up any of the sports. She didn't hesitate a moment with her answer which I could tell came directly from her own experience: "Stick wit'cha gut instinct. Even though it comes hard at first, ya instincts won't fail ya an' it nevah hurts ta sit back an' watch every once an' a while. You'd be suprised what'cha might pick up."
I thought you folks might like to know a little bit about how she spends her time when she isn't making her presence felt in the rings so I asked her about her hobbies: "The rings are m'hobby for th' most part. It's more of a calling for th' beau. On the side, I run a ranch and have been workin' very hard to create hybrid plants and flowers for personal use an' even for events such as weddin's or parties."
For those of you who may be wondering her ranch is the Golden Sun Stables and is located not all that far outside of RhyDin. The hybrid plants that she has been working on are truly amazing in their variety and beauty not to mention their numerous functions.
When I asked if she had any final words she wanted to add she was quick to say: "Nah... I'm good, thanks. Oh, 'cept... if ya feelin' down you should go grab an icy, cold Badsider Brew. They always cheer me up."
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