Duels arising from the Queen's spring flower festival.

[grumbold99]

Ah, we Orlanthi are unquestionably a quarrelsome lot! When we aren't battling to wrest back lands conquered and occupied by the Sartarities using their chaos sorcery, our Humakti worshippers and allies are venturing into the Upland Marsh, to contest against the might of the Delecti the Necromancer and his undead horde, and we contest tribe on tribe among ourselves. For those idling at home between battles, after a few ales a quick brawl among friends is seen as welcome entertainment.

Even so, the slew of challenges arising from the Queen's spring festival of love do seem very counterproductive. I encouraged Warchief Quatlu Carasilson to attend because as my longstanding senior officer it was his incisive command of the Royal Guard that allowed me to win battle honours and favour as his ranking officer. I wished him to be present at my ennoblement and so I could openly pledge my continued support for his future endeavours, especially leading the full brigade into battle next season to wrest more victories from the perfidious fiends of Sartar. It seems inevitable that his own leadership will be recognised by the King very soon.

It would seem a vicious twist of fate should duels arising from that see him struck down not by the blades of our enemies, but at the hands of one of our own. No officer wants his commander to be spending the campaign in his tent tended by acolytes of Chalana Arroy rather than fearlessly leading the battle in person. The pair of us will already be carrying the results of recent contests on our bodies when we venture on campaign. To add more would seem reckless folly.

Consequently, I shall be attending each duel in person to witness how it is conducted. I will procure at my own expense a selection of the finest roses, as equal in length and quality as nature can provide, in token of the nature of the Queen's feast of blossoms at which the 'offense' occurred.

At the formal issuance and acceptance of the challenge, I will offer the duellists the opportunity to exchange their weapons for the rose of their choice with which to conduct the duel. The stems will have sufficient thorns to ensure that blood may be drawn, without fear of debilitating injury to any of our warriors who, like myself, will be marching to battle next month.

I trust that the participants will accept the exchange and that honour may be satisfied in this manner.

[Torben]

My dear BARON (!) Grumbold,

What a splendid idea, I'm game for that proposal and will be the first to take a rose from you, albeit I believe I'm third in the sequence of duels.

I have to say the prospect of now facing good old Quatlu armed simply with a rose, rather than that whopping great axe is most comforting!

Drighten Torben

[Quatlu]

Baron Grumbold and Drighten Torbin,

I have read your suggestions regarding the unusual choice of weapons for the upcoming duels in Late Sea, and I appreciate the efforts to minimize bodily damage to myself and other officers just before campaign season. However, in good conscience I must tell you that I believe using rose stems as weapons in a duel would be taken as though the parties are refusing to duel. This would be an upsetting turn of events for longstanding Sartar traditions, and I do not feel it would be at all well received. Therefore I shall meet each opponent with weapon in hand, and I propose that we determine the winner of each duel as the man who draws first blood. At that point, honor is satisfied and minimal damage will have been inflicted on officers who will be heading to the Front.

[Torben]

What about if we use daggers then, that's surely a good compromise!

A recognised weapon and one that's not likely to seriously injure ( or decapitate!) unlike some weapons that spring to mind ( like great big axes for example!).

Torben

[grumbold99]

If roses are not a fitting weapon (I suspect some here have never done any rose pruning!) but daggers are, then I will revise my offer to have daggers made and engraved with the twin white and red roses of the Queen's Feast to offer to the duellists.

Of course it is also how on wields such weapons that matter. If you prioritise defence and not attack recklessly then the wounds inflicted would be unlikely to be grievous.

[OOC: Setting attack to 3 and defence to the remainder would prevent any hit being more than a 1x damage hit]

[Erik]

I would hope that this set of disputes can be settled without any fatalities amongst the participants. However, I am not aware that either rose stems, nor daggers, are recognised as being suitable weapons for use in an affair of honour. I think that only broadswords, battle axes and spears have been acceptable up to now. Of course, there is always a first time for everything I suppose.

Lord Erik Stargazer

(OOC: The Boldhome rules only list broadswords, battle axes and spears in the duelling tables. Daggers are listed in the original En Garde rules, but that does not appear to have been carried over to Glorantha.)

[Julian]

As a subordinate and loyal soldier of the Great Quatlu, I Julian, will honour him with my sword and my friendship. I will undertake our duel without fear or favour and follow my commanders choices. Thus will he leave the duel with increased honour and wanter the outcome with my respect and support. May the god be praised!