"Grypons Take Flight" by Wildhammer skjald Thromkaar Stonehammer and it is quite the same greatness one gets to experience when visiting the Aerie Peaks. Especially this weekend.
The Skarrenruf Festival runs from Saturday evening and up to and including Monday night. It offers various types of entertainment and competition, from Drunken Brawls to totem carvings, to storytelling and hammer tossing and so many other things.
The festival started of with a speech by Barkor Thunderfist, who welcomed the visitors.
He then went on to explain what Skarrenruf means and how it is important to the Wildhammer dwarves.
As far as welcoming speeches go then it was just as dwarves are most, short, but packed with substance.
Barkor Thunderfist was also the writer, director and narrator of the play which kicked off the entertainment planned for the festival, and as a lover of plays I was excited to see what a Dwarven playwright could come up with and I was not disappointed.
The play was a celebration of Wildhammer history, but it never took itself to serious. From - clearly - improvised lines to using props making squeaking noises to the fact it managed to pack a punch without ever outlasting its welcome made it one of the better performances I have seen in a while.
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The narration from Barkor Thunderfist helped propel the story along and put context to the happenings on the stage, which was really helpful for those of us who are not intimately familiar with Wildhammer history and culture.
The play told the story of how The Wildhammers, led by Khardros Wildhammer (played by Ýri Wildfeather) had their ancient home of Grim Batol attacked by the Dark Iron Dwarves in the shape of the foul sorceress
"Modgud" (played by Talgren Flameseer), and despite fighting bravely ultimately had to give up the city.
Skipping the whole Ragnaros thing the play went on to explain how they came to the Hinterlands and found the gryphons. The play ends with asking the question if the dwarves tamed the gryphons, or if it was actually the other way around.
As mentioned earlier then the play keeps a lovely jesting tone, we got Bronzebeard dwarves being teased for their - allegedly - poor dancing skills, to fart jokes and hammers making squeaking noises. All in all, it was entertaining as well as educational. I personally hope this is not the last play from Barkor Thunderfist. I should mention that the actors all did an amazing job, even if at times the improvisation caused a few of them to lose their composure briefly.
The Skuf
After the play there was a series of (planned) drunken brawls where the participants had to be drunk to participate. As loyal readers knows then I rarely take an interest in such entertainment, and this was no different. The whole thing seemed to be popular and enjoyable, but personally I spent most of the time sorting out notes and write a draft for this article. I will however mention that the whole thing was won by Nicholas Moregan from Stromgarde.
If you missed the opening day of the Skarrenruf Festival, then you still have time to check it out. Do yourself the favour, if nothing else, then for the free drinks and meaty snacks.
Program:
DAY 2 (7th of May):
Gryphon Race (20:00 ST)
Totem carving (19:00 ST)
DAY 3 (8th of May):
Hatching of the eggs (19:00 ST)
Hatchlings’ first flight (20:00 ST)
Storytelling evening (20:30 ST)
DAY 4 (9th of May):
“Storm”hammer tossing (19:00 ST)
Storm diving (Barrel riding) (20:00 ST)
End of festival ceremony.