Six sheets to the wind

"Hoist up the thing!" Curator was having a wonderful time. The ship felt alive under her hands as she called instructions to the hardened crew. They continued at their task, allowing the herald to shout nonsense as they sailed along the Bay of Catazar.

"Batten down the whatsit!" Curator shouted out again, exhilarating in the sheer joy of the moment. Moving to sit on the railing at the stern, watching the water pass by below. Now this was boat sailing! She would just have to tell Bellows and Temper once she had finished her task.

Barien exemplifies meeting, setting, and overcoming challenges.

Overview

Each season, the heralds of the Iron Duke come to Anvil to issue new challenges to the mortals of the Empire. The Lord of the Crossroads is eternally eager to test the skills and the wits of those brave enough to step forward, aiming to challenge the Courageous heroes of the Empire.

Every person who has Challenge the Iron Duke cast upon them will be guaranteed entry to a challenge. Depending on the challenge, they may be able to bring a certain number of attendants with them to assist. The exact number will depend on the nature of the challenge and the number of challengers. The civil service will publish exact numbers in the Hub on Saturday morning for all to see.

Challengers will need to choose a reward from one of the items found in the Dragonforge. Challengers who have been victorious in the past year may not take part in another challenge until a year has passed.

Challenging the Duke

Last Season's Covens
Coven of Endless Summer	Dawn
Drake's Fire	Dawn
Phoenix Rising	Dawn
The Cabal of Nevezamzer	Dawn
The Coven of Golden Wings	Dawn
The Eternal Family	Navarr
The Glass Mantle	The Brass Coast
The Golden Grove	Dawn
The Tempest Flame	The Brass Coast
Voices of the Unbound Storm	Wintermark

• To formally enter, a challenger must be the recipient of the Challenge the Iron Duke ritual
• A challenger can only enter a single challenge each summit; if they win, they may not enter again for a year

To formally enter one of the Iron Duke's contests, a citizen must be the target of the Summer ritual Challenge the Iron Duke. The ritual is magnitude 30, and only a handful of covens have it mastered. It is possible to cast the ritual without mastery, but it is harder and more expensive, so anyone who is interested in entering a challenge would be best advised to seek out a coven known to be able to cast the ritual. According to the heralds of the Traveller, nine covens successfully performed the ritual last season. The heralds advise those interested in taking part to seek out these covens first.

Even for those covens who have the ritual mastered, it is expensive. Champions who seek to prove themselves will need to find some way to convince a coven to put them forward. Just being able to pay the ritual's cost might not be enough, though it is likely the minimum price that will be asked.

Challenge of the Domination Sands

• Barien invites warriors of the Empire to a grand melee challenge at the Anvil arena
• Three markers will be placed at the edges of the arena; every ten seconds, the last challenger to touch a marker will get a point
• Challengers will fight individually in a grand melee with the aim of gaining as many points as possible
• The challenge will last five minutes, meaning up to 90 points in total can be earned
• Challengers may not use consumables as usual, but may return to the arena after being healed by their second
• A number of heralds from the Summer realm will also be competing
• At the end of five minutes, the top half of point scorers with at least one point will be considered victorious
• Challengers may have someone introduce them to the crowd before the start of the bout if they wish
• The heralds of Barien will meet challengers at the Anvil arena at 16:00 on the Saturday of the summit

The Summer realm is a fractious place. No matter where you are in that magic realm, from golden fields to the tallest mountains, eternals and their heralds are concocting plans and fighting battles to prove their supremacy over each other somehow. But if there's a foolproof way to bring them together in some sort of peace, at least for a minute, it's a tourney. The pavilion of Barien and his heralds roam from crossroads to crossroads around the vast expanses of that world, putting on games and tourneys for the immense entertainment of everyone involved.

Looking to exploit the still-new Tourneyground of Camock, better known now as the Anvil Arena, Revel and the heralds of Barien have chosen to bring one of these tourney games to the Empire's corner of the mortal realm. Always seeking to one-up each other, the Iron Duke's heralds endeavour to concoct more interesting and spectacular games than the last, to earn the adulation of the crowds and appease the appetite of their eternal lord. One recently popular game is called "Domination". A twist on the traditional grand melee in order to make a delightfully dynamic battle, Domination tests not just the fighting skill of participants, but also their endurance and wits.

The game of Domination is fundamentally a grand melee; fighters will compete individually and will fight against every other competitor, with no prearranged teams. For this round, the fighters will be those who take up the Iron Duke's Challenge for this summit. In addition, several herald fighters from the summer realm will also make the trip to Anvil via the Hall of Worlds, in order to soak up a bit of mortal atmosphere and prove their superiority over... well, everyone present, ideally.

In the game of Domination, three markers are laid near the edges of the arena, at some distance from each other. The aim for competitors is to take one (or more) of these markers and hold it for as long as possible. Every 10 seconds a chime will sound, and the last challenger to have touched a marker will gain a point. The entire bout will last 5 minutes, meaning a total of 90 possible points will be up for grabs as part of the challenge. At the end of 5 minutes, the bout will be stopped, and points tallied up. Those in the top half of the points table will be considered victorious in the challenge (or get certain bragging rights in the case of the heralds), and those in the bottom half will be considered to have lost and get a consolation prize. In the unlikely event that less than half of the competitors score any points at all, only those who have scored at least 1 point will be considered victors.

The heralds of Barien will arrive at the Anvil Arena at 16:00 on the Saturday of the summit. Before the bout begins, the heralds will allow each challenger to briefly introduce themselves to the crowd, or have an announcer do it for them.

Rules of Engagement

The following rules will be in effect for the challenge, as enforced by Barien's heralds.

• It is not possible to move the markers
• Challengers may benefit from enchantments, boons, magical items, and similar prior to the start of the bout
• Challengers may use heroic and magical abilities in the arena
• Use of consumable items, including potions, herbs, and crystal mana are not permitted in the arena itself
• Challengers may receive new or mended weapons from outside of the arena if theirs are shattered
• Other challengers should be driven from markers by combat means; no blocking, grappling or physical contact is permitted
• There are no boundaries to the arena; challengers hit by REPEL may be flung outside of the arena but are free to return
• Challengers may receive healing from anyone, including outside the arena, once a bout begins if they yield; if they do so, they must leave or be removed from the arena by willing helpers, and return through the re-entry point marked by one of Barien's heralds
• Once a challenger yields, they cannot participate in the fight until permitted to return by the herald through the re-entry point
• A downed challenger counts as yielding; their allies may remove them from the arena to heal them
• Challengers continue to earn points after they have yielded if another challenger does not claim their marker
• This is a sporting event; no executions, looting or eating people

As usual, Barien encourages willing healers and physicks to attend the tournament and heal the competitors during the challenge. Healers willing to help out should wait until a challenger clearly yields and leaves the arena. Downed challengers should be removed from the Arena as soon as possible. Allies should hold a hand on their heart to indicate they should not be struck by the combatants and remove the challenger quickly so that they can be healed and return to the fray.

Challenge of the Swift Seas

Click for Swift Seas rules

• Barien invites Imperial citizens to take part in a game of racing boats in a magical Summer chamber
• Challengers will each control a boat and must manoeuvre round a course on a map against their opponents, hitting six checkpoints and avoiding obstacles
• The first half of challengers to cross the finish after hitting all the checkpoints will be considered victorious
• The game will use vector movement rules with players able to pick up magical enchantments and curses on the course
• The heralds of Barien will meet the challengers in the Hall of Worlds at 18:00 on the Saturday of the summit
• Due to limited space in the chamber, challengers cannot bring attendants unless needed for accessibility purposes

Competition in the Summer realm takes many forms. Combats, mind games, tests of crafting, wits and cunning; anything that can be some kind of competitive test will be turned into one. Many of these are inspired by or copied from games mortals have invented, but sometimes a contest appears in the mortal realm, usually when the heralds of the Iron Duke in order to administer challenges to those willing to take up Barien's mantle. But one type of game rarely makes the transition from the pavilions of the realm of Summer to Anvil: racing!

Many heralds enjoy the thrill of long races against each other through the Forest of Arden, racing atop beasts in the Fields of Glory, or speeding boats around the endless archipelagos of the seas. Alas, the physical limitations of chambers and the mortal realm make many of these impossible for mortals to partake in. But Barien offers a cunning alternative: how about a simulation?

The challengers of the Empire, if they wish to take part, are invited to a chamber of the summer realm provided by Rhianos. The herald Windward, premier sailboat racer of the Regent of the Eternal Sea, will oversee this challenge that aims to emulate the spirit of the daring boat races common throughout the world.

Each challenger will be given control of a token boat, placed on a gridded map showing Windward's home archipelago. Racers will take it in turns to move their boats around a course, aiming for a sequence of six checkpoints dotted around the map that must be passed in order. There is no luck to the movement of the boats; however, they retain their inertia after each move, and can only steer, brake and accelerate so much. Going too fast when trying to round an island might result in running aground, which will bring the boat to a dead stop and force the challenger to build speed from scratch.

In order to spice things up a bit, Windward has distributed a number of enchantments and curses around the map for sailors to pick up. These provide all benefits for the challengers to use, usually revolving around "stopping your opponents" and "making your boat go faster", in true Rhianos spirit.

Victory in the challenge will go to the first half of the players to hit the checkpoints in sequence and then cross the finish line. The rest of the field will get a consolation prize. The heralds will meet the challengers in the Hall of Worlds at 18:00 on the Saturday of the summit to take them to the chamber - the challenge will last up to two hours.