Henry at the tournament.

[Rhalius]

((After Frederick, its now Henry's turn to star in a story of his own. This takes place after the previous story, but it can be enjoyed without having seen/read about Frederick and the Dark Knights. Here's a link for those that are curious though. 
http://www.playmofriends.com/forum/index.php?topic=10139.0 ))

Henry at the tournament.

King Miguel of the Falcon kingdom is hosting a knight's tournament today, knights from various kingdoms have arrived to either participate in the tournament or to watch and see how their friends and rivals fight.


The champion of the tournament gains the hand of King Miguel's niece Mary in marriage.
The beautifull Mary seems worth the risk for many knights it seems, since the tournaments of the Falcon kingdom are quite different from a typical jousting tournament.
Each duel starts with a jousting lance, but ends only when either knight surrenders or is unconcious, untill that happens the fight keeps going.
Because of this there is no fence to seperate the opposing knights from each other, to give them room.

Cedric the Swan knight was scheduled to fight in this tournament, but a last minute change has been made. Now His younger brother Henry fights in his place.
Henry has quite a challenge ahead of him, since his older brother is a reknown jousting champion who has won many tournaments. Many people came to see him in the tournament.

Cedric is very encouraging though, he lets Henry borrow his horse for the tournament even.
"Show them what a Swan Knight can do, little brother." Cedric spoke to Henry as he put on his armor.
"Who are the other participants?" Henry asked to Roderick, who was holding the list.

Roderick looked on the list and summed them all up while they looked around the tournament field.
"Let's see.. there is Fernando the Falcon."

"He raided our farmlands a month ago but escaped. Not really an admirable knight.. Look, hes even drinking wine right before the tournament is about to start!"

"It seems that Sir Heinrich Drachenfell and Siegfried Rodich are also participating, but not their cousin Wolfgang."

Frederick added: "They tried to take our castle when you two where away with the king to go after Fernando last month! Watch out Henry, they are dangerous."

Roderick continued: "Look, there is Sir Lancelot. He is quite popular with the people, and has won quite a few jousting tournaments."


"And lastly, a knight I never heard of.. He is listed here as Lord Silvermane."

Cedric glanced over the knight in the silver armor. "He might be someone fighting under a different name, to try and appear mysterious. Come on Henry, get on my horse and present yourself to the king with the other participants."

Henry moved to join the other knights as they formed up in a line before the King's balcony.


The king looked over them with a smile before speaking to them:
"Six of you brave knights stand before me, but only one of you will win the hand of my niece, the lovely lady Mary.
Let's go over the rules one last time: You can only win when your opponent gives up or is unconcious, untill that happens, the fight continues.
In the first match, Sir Heinrich Drachenfell will fight against Sir Lancelot, in the second match Sir Henry will fight Siegfried Rodich. And in the third match, our very own Sir Fernando will fight against Lord Silvermane. Good luck everyone, put on a good show for my people!"

(More will be added in the days to come.  )

[Pynedor]

Great! I'll have to go read the earlier story now, but this seems awesome, Rhalius. I look forward to finding out who will take the tournament.

[Georgeag1972]

Great pictures and wonderful story.
I like very much your king and I saw that you are all there, Roderick too!!!
Excellent work my friend, I will wait to see the tournament.

George.

[cowabounga]

At last another tournament! Can't wait for the fight! Your rules are interesting, though brutal, I like that!
A.

[Rhalius]

Thanks, I'll see about posting the first match tomorrow if I have time for it. 

I'd figure to make the rules a bit different since I have no jousting fence (yet) anyways. And its kind of how the jousting tournaments went during my childhood, when I didnt know the real rules and thought that was how it went. 

[Rhalius]

Roderick and Frederick found a nice place at the side to watch the tournament from, and to cheer for their friend.


From there they could see Wolfgang of Ravenstein found a comforteable spot from where to watch his brothers. They also noticed the famed Lion prince standing on the King's balcony.

They had heard stories of him, but don't even know his name. Only his reputation.
The Lion kingdom was destroyed quite some years ago when his father died, but the Lion prince still wanders around, refusing to give up his title and join another kingdom. He still seems to wear his heraldry proudly and Frederick and Henry can spot several Lion soldiers around the city.

Their attention moved to the tournament when Henry joined them to watch the first match.

They where all rooting for sir Lancelot who they knew as a kind and respecteable knight, a friend of the common people.
Although Henry and Roderick never saw Heinrich Drachenfell before, they heard from Frederick that he is cunning, and a strong warrior who prefers a mace.

The heralds blow their horns to signal the start of the match, and the two knights charge at each other with their lance.
Sir Lancelot seems to deliver a perfect hit, knocking Sir Heinrich off his horse!

He get's up again though, refusing to be defeated yet as he draws his mace from his belt.

Being a knight of honour, Sir Lancelot dismounts and draws his sword, meeting his opponent on equal terms.

Sir Lancelot fights bravely, but Heinrich is a very strong man and keeps battering down on Lancelot's defence untill he lands a good hit on his helmet, knocking Lancelot unconcious.

The first round is won by Sir Heinrich Drachenfell, and Sir Lancelot is eliminated from the competition.

Don't worry though, his helmet protected him from the blow so he only has a little headache as he continues to watch the tournament.


(the story will continue this weekend.)

[cowabounga]

Great! Keep it coming!

[conniefrere]

Yes keep them coming! Great pics.

[Pynedor]

That looks like a painful defeat!

[Rhalius]

Now it's Henry's turn to fight, he will be facing Sir Siegfried Rodich.
After receiving plenty of encouragement from his good friends Frederick and Roderick, he gets on his brother's horse and gets ready.


The heralds blow their horns to signal the start of the second match, Siegfried and Henry charge at each other with their lance!

Henry manages to land a hit against Siegfried's chest, but Siegfried manages to stay on his horse despite the strong impact of the lance. His armor seems to protect him quite well.


As both knights draw their swords for a melee on horseback, Cedric looks proudly at his younger brother from the king's balcony.


During the fierce duel, Henry pretends as if he is going to hit Siegfried's horse with his shield to scare the horse. Seeing the brightly colored shield coming straight at his face, the horse gets scared and rears up on his back legs.

Siegfried gets thrown from his horse and lays unconcious for a moment, Henry wins the match!

As Siegfried regains conciousness, his cousins are yelling at him because he lost the match and should have won.

After they are through yelling, they help him to clear the field for the next match: Lord Silvermane against Sir Fernando the Falcon.

(will be continued tomorrow.)