12th Night Activities!

Friday:
The Cock & Bulls Tavern, well known as a refuge from the plague descending upon the land. It is rumored that the combination of strong drink and casual gaming is enough to keep the plague at bay.

Saturday:
Fighting!
    Bushkazee
   Immortals Melee
   Thug o'da Westermark
   Troll Battle
   Baronial Rapier Championship

Carve the Baron's likeness in a root vegetable
Catch me if you can, the Plague game! (rules below)
Saturday Night Potlock

Sunday:
Pie/Pus the Baron (a fund raiser)
Numenorian Brick Toss
Fizzball

Details:

Bushkazee

We love our sheep and defend them against all comers. In this battle, a stuffed sheep is placed on the field. To win, you must obtain the sheep, and run with it around two markers. When you are killed, you must go to resurrections point (wherever the Baroness is) and make sheep noises at her. You may be required to “baa” in a specific manner or imitation. (“Why do I always get the sexy ones?” complained a contestant after being required to baa like an underwear model. An excellent opportunity to embarrass young squires is to make them baa after the manner of their knight.)

The current sheep is one made by Lady Alexia, a former A&S Minister for the barony.

Winning this particular battle designates you as the Westermark Shepherd, and you are given a small stuffed sheep to care for during the year. Many shepherds have dressed their sheep in various costumes. It is very important not to lose the sheep.

Previous Westermark Shepherds include: Viscount Sir Geoffrey Scott, Duchess Juana IMR, Merlin MacIntyre, Master Mikhail Justinian, Duke Frederick of Holland, and Lord Angino di Mercenario de Vincenzo.

Carving the Baron’s Likeness

One of the many contests at Madness is carving the likeness of our beloved Baron using the medium of a root vegetable. The root vegetable part may have started with Nicollo & Madalayne, but the “carving the Baron’s likeness” idea is older than that.

FizzBall!

Fizz ball is playing a game of modified cricket/baseball using leftover cheap beer (diet soda does not work, although diet grapefruit soda comes close). Fizzball may have been started by Baron Corwin, adapted from a Sam and Max Comix (mid-1980’s). It was eventually adopted by several groups, including Westermark.

Grendal Lacktooth

Grendal Lacktooth is a specialized cooking contest of “tasty foods that look disgusting”. This contest pre-dates Andrew. Apparently, Grendal Lacktooth was a character in one of Gerhart’s plays, poking fun at a peculiarly unwashed peer of the realm. This contest fell out of favor for a few years and was revitalized by Krysta of Starfall in the middle of Chad and Athelesias’ reign.

Immortals Melee

How to make Westermark Applesauce: take many apples and a roll of duct tape. Tape one apple to each head (at the very top) of at least three fighters. Back away quickly. Fighters beat on each other until the apple is gone. It has great moments of amusement as some fighters will duck to avoid a head-shot and the apple will fly off, just like in children’s T-ball.

Numenorian Brick throwing

The Kingdom of Númenor is an ancient kingdom referred to in “The Lord of the Rings” (the books the first parties of the group that would become the SCA were based on). The Numenorians did something very, very foolish, and this caused humorous comments about them to be made by various Westermarkers whenever someone did something foolish. There were Numenorian omelets; and eventually Numenorian bricks.

David of Mecca still has the original can of paint. Once upon a time, there was a young Westermarker named Fred of Numenor who made the bricks and threw them. There are currently about 6 bricks, and are often found in the early Sunday morning at Madness in a Stonehenge-like ring on the eric.

Throwing the bricks is an actual competition for which you are judged both on style and distance.

PPFUF

Not sung just at Madness, PPFUF is to the tune of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” (Folio 2). The first new verses must have been written by The Most Excellent Master Gerhardt von Nordflammen, as one verse of it is sung in “A California Vacuum Cleaner Salesman in the BOG Court”.

http://www.thewestermark.org/history/Gerhardt_Folio1.pdf and http://www.thewestermark.org/history/Gerhardt_Folio2.pdf

Pie/Pus da Baron

Originally stared as Pie-The-Baron in the reign of Nicollo, Andrew Blackrose, at one of the early Madnesses we had, had three or five pies, and sold raffle-tickets. The last pie was won by Baroness Madalayne Chevue Rouge, who turned bright red. She bought tickets but hadn’t expected to win. Quick-thinking Sir John Theophilous, stepped in and auctioned the pie. It went for about ten dollars to Madalayne’s new champion.

the next year, we had Whack-a-Baron, and again sold tickets so people could take one swing at a fully armored Baron Nicollo. This was especially amusing because we made a pile of money from people who bought a lot of tickets for the Baron’s enthusiastic daughter Sara. She had a great time. Apparently there was also Shoot-the-Baron with Nicollo. We also had Whack-a-Baron with Baron Chad, but as there were far fewer amateurs buying tickets that year, it was decided that Chad could defend himself with a small shield against those who were regular fighters.

Later, during the reign of Chad Bitor, we had Shoot-the-Baron, where people could buy a chance to shoot the fully armored Baron Chad. The shooting may have started because then-seneschal Ceinwen was an archer. This was about the time Cenwein and Athelsia were doing target archery practice at the Tuesday Mission practice.

We tried to have Shoot-the-Barons (plural) one year, but Andrew was the only ex-baron to show up. Sir Sagan, Baron Martin and Baron Nicollo were invited, but they all had paltry excuses like living in Idaho.

The Markee

The Markee is a dramatic competition held Saturday evening at Madness. The winners are selected by the Baron/ess, influenced by beer and popular acclaim. The award is a wooden drama symbol, which has been marked by each of its successive owners. The Marquee was made by Savaric. It is the job of the Marquee holders to return the Marquee to the next Madness, as they are responsible for running the contest and deciding what the next theme is. It is also traditional for the holder(s) of the Marquee to repeat their performance at the following Madness, before handing it off to a new winner.

Previous Marquee Holders: Mistress Wander, The BeoCat Chick, Sir Aaron of Buckminster, Kellyn Firesinger & Hugh Piper & David the Mad Fiddler, The Art Troll, Master Sir John Theophilous, Juliana, Iduna & Sarah, Angino di Mercenario de Vincenzo, and Jarad.

The Thug o’da Westermark

Once upon a time, someone said, “Our Baron does not need a champion, he needs a thug!” The Thug tourney has been around in various forms since the time of Catalin di Napoli & Ana Moonstar.

What you must do to become the Thug has varied from tourney to tourney. Typically it has involved a mass-weapon fight of some sort; sometimes round robin, and sometimes a double elimination tourney.

??? To become Thug you must: fight, dance (in armor) and game (9 men’s morris?). ????

Geoffrey Mathias says he won something involving art/dance/heraldry/fight/game at Nicollo & Madalayne’s first tourney, but it wasn’t the Thug or the Champion.

It may have been Athelesia Morgan who started the tradition of the Baroness choosing the weapons for the combatants. One memorable Madness, she had all the fighters stand in a circle, facing outwards so they could not see each other (as for a Shaston melee). She handed them weapons. She gave Sir (at the time, now Duke) Uther a small dagger, and he still won.

Da Thug ub da Westermark is awarded the Thug Hat, a small plastic Viking helmet. The Thugs typically sign the hat, and are required to drink anything non-toxic poured into the hat. It is the job of the Thug to return the hat to the next Madness.

Baron Corwin asked his thugs to talk to him like cheap hoods.

Previous Thugs of the Westermark:

Brusi of the Shetlands (check OP), Duke Sir Fabian Arnett von Schwetzingen (Madness 98), Duke Sir Uther, Co-Thugs Krysta and Savaric, The Dancing Thug Baron Sir John Theophilous (Madness 99), Kido (Helmut), Valgard (won for Krysta while she was princess), Roland (Madness 01), The Singing Co-Thugs Duke Flieg and Sir Colin Maclear (Madness ’02) Muirenn (Madness ‘03), Duke Flieg on his own (Madness ‘04), Viscount Sir Geoffrey Scott (Madness ’05), and Sir Geoffrey Matthias.

The Thugette

The Thugette or Thug’s Consort is awarded a belt-favor in the colors of the Westermark. It is just big enough to carry a pack of cigarettes. Where there are co-Thugs, there are corresponding co-Thugettes. The Thugette is a much newer tradition than the Thug, as the Thug goes back to the mists of time and the Thugette was began in the reign of Chad & Athelesia. It is the job of the Thugette to return the favor to the next Madness.

As the Thug chooses the Thugette, and could choose a new Thugette every day if desired, we have no record of Thugettes, except for Morgan (Muirenn), Eilis (Flieg), Viscountess Catherine of Wessex (Geoffrey Scott), and Mistress Crystal of the Westermark (Geoffrey Matthias).

The Troll Battle

The Troll Tourney is done by teaming up two fighters (sometimes intentionally, sometimes at the amusement of the Baroness). They fight holding on to the same double shield, so from the front it appears to be a two-headed, two-armed, four-legged monster.

Former tolls include: Sir Aaron of Buckminster & Samuil, (of the Kates).

There isn’t any award associated with the Troll, although Sir Aaron has a great deal of fun with it for several years running.

There was one memorable troll tourney when Baroness Athelesia Morgan teamed up Uther (very big) and Elizabeth (very small). Elizabeth was eventually killed, but as both heads of the troll must be killed, she held onto the shield and was dragged around as Uther killed nearly everyone else on the field.

Catch me if you can, the Plague game!

Death by Plague

Beware Good Gentles! The Plague has arrived to our fair borders and surrounds you with its deadly loving arms. To indicate your availability and readiness to join in the game, please visit the Plague Mistress Ida Kniepinwirtin to collect your posy game token. Please pin your token in a highly visible location upon your person.

The rules are simple.

The Plague is highly contagious.
You are free from the Plague until a contagious person gives you a Plague token.
Once you receive a Plague token you are contagious.
Your contagious status is to be hidden from all persons. While contagious you may receive more than one Plague contagion token. You are therefore responsible for passing on all tokens received.
You must pass on your Plague at your earliest convenience.
To pass your contagion to another they must physically take the token from you. You MAY NOT throw/toss the token at a person. The Plague is not an airborne contagion. The receiving person does not need to know that they are receiving it. Once they receive it, if they are not aware of the receipt, you must tell them “You now have the Plague”.
Once you have successfully passed your Plague contagion(s) to another, you are now dead. Take the black ribbon you received with your Plague Posy and tie it around the posy to indicate your ‘death’.

There is one point of origin of the Plague who will be infecting multiple persons in the initial stage of infection, but no one knows whom it may be. The Baroness, in her grace and beauty, holds favor in the hand of God. She has the discretion to proclaim one Plague Free location. May her mercy be kind! The game starts right after morning Court ends and is over when evening Court begins.

May the Peace of Death be with you All!

Barony of the Westermark

Westermark Madness!