News - Australian connection: Swordcraft Spring Quest

Quest is actually nothing new to us as players – we’ve attended for many years. However, this was our first time going as merchants, and we found it to be a completely different experience. As a player you are often confined to your own group of friends, whereas as a merchant you get to meet everybody! This was also our first ArmStreet LARP event in Australia, which meant that instead of being ourselves we got to create characters to interact with our customers. We posed as the “Royal Court of Chesterwick”, a 14th century inspired group looking to peddle the wares of our local seamstresses and blacksmiths.

We started each morning the ArmStreet way: with strong Turkish coffee affectionately dubbed “Igor’s Coffee”, affectionately named after the strong, fresh coffee our American representative, Igor, brews each morning and afternoon at our Pennsic events. Our whole adventure was a little bit cold and rainy but we managed to keep relatively warm and dry with the help of a few reliable medieval tents and plenty of hot drinks made on our fire. We even won the Swordcraft cocktail competition with our specialty mulled cider!

Swordcraft has five main faction camps who spend the week long event sieging each other and trying to win flags. Alongside the plentiful battles are many quests, feasts, parties and adventures that players plan and undertake themselves. From hiking to the top of the mountain to exploring the forests, there’s never really a dull moment if you put your mind to it.

We had many customers come to admire our clothing and armour alike, bringing with them lots of great stories and feedback. It was a pleasure to interact with people both in and out of character – it kept us busy all day! We didn’t have any time to participate in any sieges, but at the end of the week we were able to close up shop and fight alongside Red Faction in the final battle. It was one of the best battles Quest has ever seen, with an expansive battlefield and a fierce fight from all sides. Our hard work paid off, and Red Faction ended up being victorious!

It was an excellent event and we can’t wait to be back next time.

Text: Madeleine Judge (ArmStreet Australia)

Photos: The Professional Hobbyst