Well, with Pennsic 27 safely behind us, we can turn our attention towards upcoming events. For me, it's Sacred Stone's Baronial Birthday. And two days after that, I'm taking my grandmother to Italy for two weeks! The first weekend of October, my sensei, Soshi Seigo Okamoto will be flying in from Japan to hold a three day seminar at the NC Roppokai dojo. The weekend of October 17, I'll be headed down to Florida for Wyvernwood's Baronial Bash. Of course, the following weekend on October 24, Lady Medb Renata is autocratting her own event in California which I'll be attending. And the, tah dah, it's our own Mabinogi event on Halloween weekend at King's Mountain State Park!

All this makes for a pretty full plate over the next few months. Luckily, I am not trying to pull all of this off on my own and, as always, I am very grateful for all of your help and support. An extra special thank you to Lord Robert of Cćrleon for his amazing tolerance (as well as indulgence) while helping me with the weekly Mabinogi mailings which every Atlantian seneschal has been getting over the past two months! He's truly been a Godsend.

By the way, anyone who would like to join me for the Florida road trip, be sure and drop me an e-mail or somesuch and let's see what we can work out. I had planned to fly, but I'm willing to drive if we can leave Thursday afternoon from Atlanta. Just let me know!

What a time some of our household members have had over the past few months! First, Lady Rhiannon Ui Niall sprains her foot. Normally, this would seem bad enough except she turned it again not too long after. All this paled to her horror just prior to leaving for Pennsic.

While sitting on the sofa watching TV over at a friend's house, she was attacked by their dog. Both hands, her elbow, and arm were severely lacerated and, as you know, animal bites are high on pain and slow in healing. Lady Síne ni Dheaghaidh removed her stitches at Pennsic and she even got me to wash her hair! Still and all, it'll be quite a while before the pain quiets completely.

Of course, Lady Rhiannon wasn't alone in her August tribulations. Lord Cassan Segoire had his own stay in the hospital following a car crash on I-77!

While on his way to work last week, Lord Cassan was stopped in morning traffic on his way to Charlotte. One of Charlotte's many heinous drivers thought it more important to be talking on his cellular phone than piloting his two ton death machine on the interstate and plowed into the stopped cars. Poor Matt, in his brand new car was caught in the middle of a five car wreck. It wasn't until later that evening when the adrenaline rush wore off that he realized he couldn't bend his neck backwards! His hospital stay was brief, thank God, and his torn neck muscles will be healing over the next few weeks.

Four more members of House Corvus' Black Bear sept in Minnesota have been discovered! Well, okay, they found us thanks to an e-mail from Lady Medb and a visit to the House Corvus website. Still, it's very exciting!

Please welcome aboard Lord Umberto della Foresta di Massa, his wife Helena, daughter Antonia, and son George! If I'm not mistaken, along with Lord Otto, this should be all of the Black Bear members of House Corvus accounted for.

Lord Umberto is an Archery M.arshal I.n T.raining and also an apprentice Chiurgeon. He also just joined the Knowne Worlde Guild of Arrowsmiths, Bowyers, and Fletchers! Wife Helena recently made over fifty (!) tabards for the Northshield fighters at Pennsic this summer and also makes garb. Too bad they have nothing in common with other House Corvus members... NOT! How exciting to see that the House Corvus spirit of doozers (isn't that what Síne calls it?) is alive and well in Minnesota. No wonder they all live in Excelsior!

If you did not receive this issue of The Raven Roundtable in a yellow, bubble cushioned mailer with a House Corvus medallion inside; that means you should already have received one from me. If you do not have one, please contact me as soon as possible!

Members of House Corvus participated in a joint camp at Pennsic 27 this summer called 'Just our Buds.' An invitation-only camp, it was filled with period pavilions and good cheer! Thanks to the hard work of everyone involved, it was not only the finest Pennsic encampment I've ever been involved with, but one of the most beautiful encampments I've ever seen in all my Pennsics! Of course, our courtyard was to die for and made quite the enjoyable bocce ball pitch!

Lady Una from Aire Faucon drove up with me for Land Grab which I really appreciated. And, to my great joy, Lady Sine and Oshi San came up the very next day! Together, we worked very hard to get the camp set up but the results were obvious! Lady Sine created marvelous House Corvus war banners and pennons for the boundary ropes. She also helped me make heraldic shields for everyone in camp (who had arms) for our gateway (because it lacked color). It was so cool!

I especially want to thank Lady Rhiannon Ui Niall for providing the hot water heater so that the entire camp could have HOT WATER SHOWERS every morning! It made the event perfect since the lack of showers is my one, truly serious problem with camping for two weeks. Thanks again to Oshi for making the whole thing work! We had hot water and pressure! Huzzah!

Other people in camp were: Baron Sir Jason Michael of Andover, Baroness Susan Douglas of Andover, Lord Marcus Brus, Baroness Patrice, Baroness Gwynwilf, Lady Nerise, Baroness Rowan and Baron Guiseppe of Wyvernwood, Lord Leonidas, Lady Una, Lady Alys Montgomerie, and Shannon of Aire Faucon. A more enjoyable assemblage, I'd be hard pressed to imagine!