Fox Talks/Talerium Tournament II

http://wiki.battlemaster.org/images/Talerium.jpg Tournament in Ptaphoc Promises A Plenteous Prize!

Greetings! A total of 159 nobles from 12 realms paid their 5 gold entrance fee and stepped into the ring at Ptaphoc in hopes of taking home the generous 1000 gold first place prize (250 gold for second) along with the winner's honours. This is the way! Sir Blackhand of Minas bested Sir Juan of Darka in the sword event, while Sir Gucky of Falasan out-lanced Sir Kenji of Minas two to one. A hearty congrats to both champions!

The Especially Generous

A list of those kind enough to give us an excuse for losing horribly! Night Hawk(4), Havik, Puck, Jander, Smeagenwulf, Val, Malcolm, Micheal, Sinan, Keiichi --- Herotious, Joline, Hadrian, Madum, Zander, Woodford, Spartan, Roxas, Charone, Woodrow, Gabe, Leonora, Muunegan, Hari, Qaratai, Freyr, Fryhton, Jace, Tamaril, Olivier, Kealon, Ice, Dylan, Danny. Finally, a decent list! We were beginning to question the existence of generosity on Atamara (again)...As tradition dictates, those in bold gave out multiple rounds while everyone from the dashes down stopped at one. Either way, you have our thanks! In other news, the famous Icesky Ale of Uperfell is once again available for purchase! Feel free to send your requests to Sir Ice Beam, we're considering it ourselves...

Malcolm and Ain

Fortunately, one of our informants reporters happened to be passing the camp of Sir Malcolm Bedwyr of Carelia as a servant of his scurried off bearing a prettied-up gift of fine wine. Curious, we gave chase and, to our surprise, ended up outside the camp of Lady Ain Kindon of Caergoth. By now we were thoroughly intrigued, as you might imagine, noting Lady Ain's relation to Sir Bedwyr's realm mate, Lady Leta Kindon. Forbidden Romance?! Dark Betrayal?! or in the worst case, Simple Politics?! Regardless, we had to know! So we eavesdropped investigated. As it turned out, Sir Malcolm was simply curious to meet a relation of the more familiar Kindon. The two engaged in some chit-chat, discussing family and far off lands, apples, wine, and the virtues of meat-pie. All in all, it was a friendly meeting. We were a bit dissapointed to hear that we hadn't stumbled into a secret meeting between co-conspirators in some evil plot to take over the whole of Atamara village by village, town by town...!!! But only a bit.

The Winners Circle

From Sir Blackhand West, Champion of the Sword! -Any advice for aspiring sword masters? Sure! Grab a bunch of your friends and go hunt the large even monsters that terrorize the country side! Not only will you be paid for it...in silver from that local lord who may or may not be generous enough to pay for the service of cleansing their lands, you might even find a nice shiny item worth some 20 gold. On the other hand, having your life being in constant danger - that is, the danger of being ripped in half by a monster, will improve your sword fighting, dexterity, and blocking like nothing else will! If you don't improve within 60 days, you're probably dead! But hey, you'd be surprised at how far you can advance. I did this for a couple years and look at me - I can win tournaments I go to (for the free training) somehow! -Any plans for the prize money (if you don't mind our askin')? I'm buying myself a ship of the line and riding all the way to where-ever I'm going. My old employer in Falasan ran low on money, side effect of having his region burned to the ground, and it seems MI is full of fat nobles who are too busy in the whorehouses to have gold to hire me. Thank god I'm leaving. AND TO ANY ONE ELSE READING THIS! I'm the handsomest, finest, stabbing, jumping, running, hair-swishing, swashbuckling, troop leading, Mercenary Captain around. Competent, good with ladies, good with...hm, can direct men in battle, I'm the best mercenary around! Hire me for the low price of something to be negotiated later! Unfortunately, I have no idea where I intend to go, so I intend to capitalize on this interview to reach the broadest audience possible. Pretty smart, eh? Yep, I'm smart too! I guess that also counts as what I might have wanted to say to the public - although I wouldn't go so far to say adoring. Yes, I'm not too good at this - professional soldiers aren't often interviewed. Alright, I'll see you sometime soon, Sir Hyral. Blackhand West (Knight of Lothruin) Such a likeable energetic young man, it's okay that he's using us for advertising. It's even okay that he called the editor Sir! Just, somebody stop him from leaving the Atamara tourney circuit!!! From Sir Gucky Zortal, Champion of the Joust! Greeting Keiichi, The only thing that I have to say to aspiring joust master is to kept working hard. I am a little surprised to have win as I have been away from tournament for a long time. As for the money, I don't know what I will do with it. Will see in due time. Gucky Zotral (Knight of Barad Gardor) Honest, short, to the point. We like that, too...

A Family Reunion

It's always nice to come across a touching scene at a tournament generally dedicated to beating each other senseless, and such a scene we came across at the camp of Sir Locke Odinians. The young knight was giving his daughter sword lessons on the tournament grounds when he was approached by his seemingly estranged brother, Wyscot Odinians of Carelia. There was some talk of apologies, responsibilities, abandonment, unpaid bills, and familial visits, a progressive chat to be sure. And after a moment of acute tension the thing seemed to be solved, whatever the thing was. Warm feelings all around, at least on our end. It was then that Sir Locke introduced his brother to his niece, apparently for the first time. Sir Wyscot was...surprised...we'll say...to learn his brother has fathered a child, but if collapsing to the ground in a heap is a sign of approval we can rate their meeting as a success.

Recruitment and...Anti-Recruitment?

Why not take advantage of a few hundred people gathered into a relatively confined space to do some recruiting for that far off war? Several worldly Atamarans couldn't think of a reason, and neither could we, so here we go! The Dela Cruz family seeks to invite willing warriors to the Beluaterran land of Avalon, promising battle, riches and the possibility of advancement within a year! Sir Malcolm subtly hinted that Carelia has some spaces to fill, while Sir Magersfontein is handing out recommendations for Talerium. The Arnel Family is recruiting for Myern in the newly colonized land of Dwilight, and the von Genf family endorses star-centered Morek. That said, a few nobles sought to un-recommend certain realms. Most notably among these is Sir Sol of Suville, siting what he believed to be an overbearing ruling class.

The One Thousand Gold Question

With prizes reaching 1000 gold for both the sword and jousting events, we at Fox Talks decided to ask around a little to see how participants planned to spend the sum should they win it. Despite the fact that we were nearly drowned out by the free rounds flying left and right during our questionnaire, we did manage to gather a range of responses. Dame Leonora planned to hit the books and brush up on her skills after sending a portion home to her family and treating her men to a night on the town. Sir Night Hawk reasoned using the gold to fund another tournament would lead to a healthy dose of free-ness. Sir Eemoss simply smirked and cackled darkly, leading us to believe perhaps we didn't want to know. Dame Freyja just sort of glared at us, we may have been blocking her view of the door, regardless, "begone" was a common response worth mentioning. As for the newspaper staff, well, we'd start buying lantern oil and stop remaking candles out of wax drippings.