Noisy Training

[Rezantis]

Nathan grins.

"I'll try.  I'm sure there'll be something to be done afterwards, but if nobody needs me right now, what harm?  G'luck with your training, Friend Erik."

With a wave, Nathan wanders off to look for where the Hunter Hunted game(s) are taking place.  And asks a quick question of Alec along the way: "So, do you mind tagging along? I don't mind if you've got something useful to do," he snickers, "but I'm sick of plain useful right now.  This'll be useful and might be fun, at the same time."

[Brian]

"I've got no appointments," Alec replies cheerily.  "Where are they starting their games?"

[Rezantis]

"No idea. Let's go find out!" Nathan starts walking off in a random direction to start asking around, "And while we're going . . . can you explain the rules to me?"

[Brian]

Alec snorts, and explains about the roles of 'guards', 'goalies', and 'tacklers'.  Essentially, the flag is a rag -- usually a scarf -- and the goalie carries it, trying to keep it away from the tacklers.  The guards try to block, and the objective is to get the flag across the field, through the opponent's guards, past their tacklers, and then, have your goalie capture the opponent's flag.  There are specific rules for when a goalie can rush, and only the attacking goalie can try to capture (though, he only gets one shot at it, and if he messes up, the round resets).

He goes on to explain a bit more about how kids usually find ways to make things interesting, but the arena, as such, is a large square, evenly divided into each team's field.  Each capture is worth a point, with every game being played to six points.  First team to reach six wins.

It sounds pretty straight-forward ... and just as rowdy.

[Rezantis]

Nathan snickers at this, nodding as Alec explains, and continues looking around to find out just what is happening with (and where) the Hunter Hunted games.

Jeff would be good to find, if possible!

[Brian]

The west side of the keep seems to hold a fair sized gathering as Jeff explains that he's officiating the tournament and that all defenders of the keep are welcome to join.  A fair number of storm-riders and keep-defenders are already signing up.

[Rezantis]

"Well . . ." Nathan queries politely, "I won't be able to play often, and I doubt I'll be able to play again actually, but I don't suppose there's any teams that need another couple of players to start with?  I don't have anything critical that needs my attention, and it may well help kickstart it, so why not?"

[Brian]

Nathan spends the next few hours learning to play Hunter-Hunted, and taking a few good-natured bruises as he learns how the game goes.

[Brian]

After earning a few bruises, Alec begs off of the game, citing a need to catch some sleep.

[Rezantis]

And this is about the time when Nathan, having had his fun, agrees that that's probably not a bad idea and so they head back towards the stormrider camp.

[Brian]

On the way back to the camp, Nathan spots Phil speaking with his command staff.

[Rezantis]

Nathan walks up quietly, politely not interrupting but waiting for someone to acknowledge him.

[Brian]

Nathan now moves to In the Hall of the Mountain King.