Hello everyone this is my report for the pretty much entirely not fun time I had during my second attempt at Drachenfest US. I got a few nice gifts from others which you can see in the fourth block of the picture above but besides that and seeing familiar and new faces it was overall not fun and painful.

The flight to the event and uber there were fine if long. Set up which you can see in the first picture was also fine but if I am in the Bazaar again I will likely still try to stay in a camp so if another bad thing happens again I'll have others around who may be able to help me. Which could have helped to salvage it all. As you can see I was next to the RVs in an open space so mostly alone. But I'm trying to learn from this and not just be upset. Trying. Also did a brief check in with the other Balance Keepers just to know whats going on generally.

The day of game one started normally as well. I headed over to Blue Camp in normal clothing to check in on the meal plan I had signed and paid up for. Ended up cutting chicken for about an hour for others to eat later on then getting pancakes from the meal plan. Decent morning! Then checking in again with the Balance Keepers for rough ideas of what our characters wanted to accomplish during the fest. It was around three at this time and a first timer combat class was happening. Thinking I may be able to help some others during this I put the full armor on and took all my weapons over to the spot and started to help.

And here did everything go downhill very fast.

When I was getting into the line to face off against the other line a Ref walked up to me and asked if my weapons had been checked yet. I said no as a Bazaar player I didn't have a ref table to go up to. She said ok we can do it here but I'm going to DQ those. Without even touching them. I blinked and asked why and was told they did not look professional enough. I wanted to respond to this as I had made them myself but just said ok and then that I would go and get them checked then. The second ref I handed them too said they looked awesome! Before the first ref came over and said that she had already DQ-ed them and then walked off again. Confused now the refs called a little meeting about what to do about these home made things. And as they were heading back to give me the verdict a large rain and wind storm started.

I had left my tent windows open to try and cool down the humid oven inside.

But with the rain started all the refs just told me no the weapons are disqualified and then ran for cover.

Me - now feeling like absolute trash that dozens of hours of work had just been thrown in the trash was slow picking up my stuff and heading to proper cover. Walking through the rain trying to hold it together as my armor and what I was wearing was just soaked through. Eventually the rain stopped and I walked back up the hill to the balance keepers to take off the armor and try to dry it with now damp towels. And stupidly though I was not thinking 100% clearly at the time put the armor back in the red suitcase with those same damp towels. It had started to all rust the next day. Before I went back to my tent to find it collapsed in half and flooded. Not broken at least but all my clothing, costume parts, suitcases, props, everything I had was now soaked or underwater. I tried to empty out the water as best I could but goodness I was feeling defeated at this time. And now all I had was wet socks and shoes to try and walk around in. But I did my best to keep my head up and pack away what I could. Back to the Balance Keepers to try and get a plan together.

During this time all the power on the camp site was also gone and down. And I later found out that the meal plan I had paid/entered into was basically destroyed in the storm. So no more food for awhile. Thankfully I had money but another thing on top of the others.

With the storm the game on opening ceremony was pushed back from 6 till 10:30 at night. Many people had destroyed tents and broken items so entirely left the place. With no vehical I could not and just tried to keep pushing. But started to feel the pain in my feet by the end of the day.

Day two started with the dq-ed weapons pretty much destroyed my the hear and rain getting stuck on the ground and melting/bending. So if they had not been dq-ed before they would have been now. But again with the wet shoes and socks and I started to go to the various camps to let them know who I was and what time would be good for us to check in with them on scores. I went to every camp and did this. And by the end of the day was in a lot of pain from blistered and chafed feet. And then I discovered my armor had started to rust. Another item on the pile of pain.

I kept pushing, foolishly, to get to Shadow to help with a siege on red which went ok but the Red players were just blocking the canon balls I was helping to load and aim so eventually the siege was called off because nothing was happening. Just a load of wasted time. I told my fellow Balance Keepers the pain I was in and that if I felt any worse I may just give up. They were supportive and worried for my health but god I felt so bad thinking I may leave the fest and everyone.

And on day three I did. Holding back emotions and tears that I was failing/giving up/wussing out but I could barely walk. Packing up what I could and ubering to the airport. Thankfully I got a re booking easily enough and got home just feeling like trash.

Since then I've managed to mostly de-rust the armor and recover but gods I feel so bad still about all of it. Love the support from the fellow festers but just...it sucked. I tried to do it alone which was a mistake and suffered for it. Sorry.

So things to bring next time;
flip flops
coins for washer/dryer
more of a desire to ask for help to not try to hold it all up.