Recap of Ice and Fire: Day 2 of Ice & Fire Con

Welcome back to my second part of my recap of my time at the Ice & Fire Convention May 16-18. I last left off after going to bed after many epic and hilarious rounds of Cards Against Westeros.

After breakfast, I got dressed in my Lyanna Stark  cosplay and headed for the boardgame tournament. I had no experience with the game at all. It was kind of intense, but the guys I played with were pretty patient and nice and the game ended up going pretty well. I even didn't come in dead last, which was nice as well. After this, was a nice packed lunch provided by the castle and then we all set off for the tournament.

The tournament was pretty cool, since almost everyone was dressed up and there were different competitions (foam melee battle and archery). It was really cool to watch everyone get into character and having a good time as well doing medieval-time things. Speaking of getting into character, there were some outright amazing costumes, from Illyrio Mopatis, to Fat Walda, to Lady Stoneheart and the "besties" Areo Hotah/Arys Oakheart.

Since seeing all of this stuff was inspiring me to start making my own costumes, it was fitting that there was a cosplay discussion right afterwards. There was a ton of insight and funny anecdote's from everyone. It inspired me to start working on a costume for future cons, since I've been wanting to make for for while no. Hopefully I can get started this weekend. Anyway, it was a really productive panel and it was nice to hear about all of the ups and downs, instead of just seeing the end result. Thid ended just before the costume contest and their were some awesome presentations from Khal Drogo and Oberyn Martell.

The we had our delicious feast, which had some great conversations and good food as well. Afterwards, we headed down to the pub for some drinks and to play some awesome trivia. It was incredibly difficult but surprisingly, I still remember some answers *cough Wendel Manderly*. It was really fun, but obviously everyone in the room got smoked by Team Manwoody, which consisted of Tower of the Hand and Podcast peeps.haha. After this came the Season 4 discussion, which was fairly civil, but I feel like we all mostly agreed on how we felt about the show's interpretation.

The final event of the night was the dance party. There were some awesome modern-day GOT characters like Flower-Child Tyrell, Party Rock Cersei and the Cheesemonger. Between these awesome costumes and everyone on Team Stag, there were tons of laughs to be had. the middle was pretty cool (shout out to Dead Ned, Lyanna and everyone else who "died" haha) Plus the awesome Red Wedding skit in Plus the afterparty was pretty cool, but I was exhausted so we ended up going to bed around 1am. Saturday was such a great day overall.

*Next up, Day 3 and final thoughts. Thanks for reading!*

Recap of Ice and Fire: Day 1 of Ice & Fire Con

Since my crazy schedule is finally slowing down, I figured now would be a good time to do my recaps for the convention that I went to last month. It's called the Ice and Fire Con and it is held at Ravenwood Castle in New Plymouth Ohio. I found out about it from listening to Podcast of Ice and Fire, where it was mentioned. It's a super small con (around 80 people) in an area with limited internet/service, so it became an awesome experience.

We had an 8ish hour drive through Maryland and West Virginia to get to Ohio, so we decided to leave Thursday afternoon and stay the night in Morgantown. There was a crazy storm and between that and driving up and through mountains, it was kind of a crazy experience. The next day was much more uneventful and we made it to the castle right as the con started.

We were in the Queen Elizabeth room which was super huge and even had a nice little fireplace and of course had the theme of Queen Elizabeth with a Queen bed of course. I didn't know many people so I headed downstairs to meet some new people and decorate my badge. Once there I set up my bar tab and started talking to some people. Once I saw that others were in costume, I decided to put on my Nettles costume. My character is a little obscure (only in a separate story set in ASOIAF universe) but I think I had enough stuff that people got it. Brian went as my (purported lover, Daemon Targaryen.

Soon after the badge decorating was the beer tasting held in the pub. We got to try different kinds of Ommegang beer, ending with their new Fire & Blood selection. I'm not big on beer but I tried it anyway. We even got a bottle of the new beer with the tasting, which was cool. Many events were held in the pub area which was nice and intimate. Plus the bar could make pina coladas, which is pretty much all I had that weekend. The prices were really reasonable and the service was great.

Next I headed upstairs to the Q&A with the people from Podcast of Ice and Fire and one of the creators of Tower of the Hand. it was really cool to meet everyone in person and talk the podcast and all things ASOIAF related. I even got a cool shirt so I can rep House Manwoody anytime now! haha After the talk was the Snark and Grumpkin Hunt, which consisted on using Nerf-like bow and arrows on various targets. I was terrible but luckily Brian redeemed our team and we got some points.

Once it got super dark, we headed inside to play Cards Against Westeros. Like the original Humanity, it consists of hilarious statements and answer options but all were geared towards Westeros. I think there were like 15 people playing so the games went on for awhile, but that was fine because it was really fun.

Overall, I had a really great first day and was starting to get more comfortable with cosplay and getting into character. I got to meet a bunch of new and interesting people and couldn't wait for the next day.