Just a flesh wound (Sanni)

Dragonbane Diary
Wednesday, August 9th, 2006
Kirkkonummi, Finland

Now that Dragonbane has gone by I find the time to write a summary of what has happened during the past weeks with the dragon.

The summer has been hectic. The dragon camp was working on its full power since the beginning of June. During the first weeks we used to have a day off every two weeks but soon we gave that up. Days were filled with cutting, welding, planning future work, trying to figure out what kind of parts we'll still need and getting those parts from junk yards and special stores. At the same time we tried to get more capable people to help us out - since every single day took us closer to the beginning of the game. We got great support from people that did not expertise on metal working but at the same time we lacked manpower on the specialised areas. In a machine size of a dragon there are definitely spots that can only be welded by professionals to avoid obvious hazards. And as we got getting delays in this special areas we couldn't carry on doing the less special tasks that needed to be done after the base work, we couldn't do more than sadly realise that we won't be able to finish all the functions of the dragon in time. Without further discussions we decided to drop out the wings due to lack of carbon fibre and the rotation of the neck due the huge amount of specialist work needed.

From that point on we just pushed on working as hard as we could. Many of had already trained themselves to weld so we also did night shifts as we only had one MIG welding machine. Neighbours were really generous with us and let us make as much noise as we wanted to as long we did not test the dragon roars and cries during nights anymore. (Good work, Janne!) During the last weeks the dragon got its handmade scales, pneumatic and hydraulic muscles and its tail and neck. A lot of stuff was needed from our partners that helped us as much as they could. Special thanks for Festo for the muscle holders and for Savenmaa for the fuel pipe head thing! At the same time I had exciting time trying to find a special transportation company who would like to take our worm to Sweden following our ever-changing schedule. One of the companies made their decision really quickly and offered really fair conditions and thus we agreed on a departure day with Priuska Transport.

The days before the D Day (25th of July) were full of work. I hardly remember anything from that time except trying to keep awake all night and welding something trough the cold and wet welding mask while sitting on the top of the dragon's tail or neck. In the morning I went to sleep for two or four hours and then carried on making phone calls to media and trying to arrange the last missing piec es to be on place in time. On the last day before the departure the dragon head came from Turku aside with Heiko and the rest of the head team. By that time we had the hydraulics, hoses, pipes and electric cables on place but no skin on the legs and the neck or the tail - or installed programs. We prepared for finishing those in Sweden at the same time as the actor would get to know the machine. But! Because the hydraulic system wasn't ready until now hadn't been able to test driving the machine since it's operated by turnig whole harvester in the middle by two big hydraulic cylinders.

So there we were, standing around Ponsse crossing our hands and having the transportation trailer waiting for us (and by the way almost blocking the small road going by the dragon ranch). Dozens of neighbours had also came to see the event, standing side by side with the alert car drivers which were supposed to escort our dragon on the road. There was nothing more for the builders to do - just for the driver and the hydraulics caretaker - so we went to pack our stuff to be ready to leave to Sweden, which felt quite distant at that point.

While I was inside I heard noises and yelling that said "NO MORE! It breaks" and went outside to see what happened. And it was the neck like many of you might have heard about. The dragon's neck couldn't hold its own weight while it was on the ground and the powerful side cylinders were moving the body. One of the thinnest middle pieces had turned into a saddle shaped sad figure. For a short while there was only a stunned silence but in few minutes we made up a plan how to fix the neck and still make it to the game. We had a half-an-hour party and wished all the watchers and transportation company good night. After that I called media so they won't be in the harbour waiting in vain.

The next day we started working harder than ever. Even though we had slept one proper night everone was so tired that it took a while even to think how to make a simple joint. Any case we started taking down the neck for strengthening and putting the tail pneumatics in operation. At the same time the legs were being covered with scales - plates they already had. During the next day from the breakdown we got a emergency kit of six people from Sweden. It was really good to have David back with us with his girfriend Mauge, who both did great work in finishing and painting the dragon. We also got professional support from Heiko's relatives who helped out with welding the neck support pieces in daytime. During nights we others carried on with the same task.

Our next planned departure time was on sunday night - but only if the transportation company could make it. They told us that they had a minute schedule that day and if anything goes wrong we wouldn't be able to catch the evening ship. I woke up at seven sunday morning to do as much as we can before leaving. We were manicly covering the neck with skin when they called that there was a delay in a previous transportation and I must say that I felt more happy than sad about getting more time. This time we for example took down the spinal scales of the dragon since their height exceeds the free transportation limit in Sweden.

During the night everything seemed to be quite ready even though we still hadn't been able to test the hydraulics. About one o'clock in the night the programmers Pauli and Vesa climbed on the top of Ponsse with their computers and connected all the wires to control the hydraulics. The test driving began carefully and gave nice results - the neck held and the cylinders could lift the head with their computer control! Everything seemed fine and we also got the tail moving - until something happened. We didn't hear anything special but in seconds one of the neck cylinders started to pour out hydraulic oil from both cylinder and table sides. It was a continuous flow and we needed to shut the engine down. In a quick check we saw that one the hoses was broken and needed to be changed.

By the time the hose was repaired the merry men oof Priuska were already present. They took a calm glance over what we were doing and told that they will be sleeping in their trucks when we need them.

We carried on fixing the hydraulics and tried to run them again. What we noticed was they weren't responding. At all. Something had happened to the controller valves even though we had restrictors prohibiting that. This unexpected damage in hydraulics led also to other problems - such as not getting any pressure to the brakes because the compressor gets is power from the same source. Imagine driving a 26 meter violent device on a trailer through night cameras and WITHOUT   ANY BRAKES. Would you volunteer? There was a turning point for many of us. We didn't have spare parts to fix whatever was broken inside the dragon. We did not even know what it was. The window of getting to the game was closing - the evening ship of tuesday was the last possible option. To reach that we would have needed to fix the hydraulics in few ours and get the parts from Turku (assuming they'd had them) in couple of hours since it was morning already. People had been awake for 21-26 hours in row which made them tired. We also had a ordinary ferry trip booked so that people heading for Sweden needed to leave immediately to catch their own boat. Because the situation with the dragon looked so bad I decided to send all Swedish people and other foreigners with the morning boat so they at least would get to their homes. At the same time most people went to sauna and started packing their stuff.

During the early morning we went with Vesa Solonen to sit and talk in the cockpit of Ponsse. We were pondering the situation of the dragon. What would happen if the dragon wouldn't appear in the game at all? It would be terrible - having a game called Dragonbane but no dragon in sight. But what could we do with the resources we had at the moment? And who could drive that thing if everyone is too tired? When Vesa glanced the control devices he started saying "I could drive this. ...If we only had brakes". And then we thought how to arrange brakes. We only needed them on the way to the trailer so we could take the pressure from an extrernal source for a while.

The sun was up again and the night was over. Suddenly we knew what to do and started to arrange everything in a big fuss. When Henkka and Vesa Noroviita heard what was going on they came too and began to do as much as they could. We still needed to separate the obsolete hydraulic table from the circulation so we woke up Epa too. After that everything happened really quickly and when the morning league was heading to their ship, Ponsse was already standing in front of the house having moved about 20 meters, having a long air hose hanging from it. When I saw it was working I called quickly the media again and booked us a place in the evening Finnlink boat (and the Finnlink staff sounded really happy for us when they heard that we're moving at last).

In the morning the dragon cruised slowly through the small sand road that lead to the road where the trailer was waiting. The neighbours started to wake up again and gathered on the road. The trailer wasn't small (it had 32 wheels) but when driving a big machine on it a large amount of care is needed to avoid falling from top of it. When Ponsse was about to step on the trailer's thinnes part I was really, really excited and hoped for the best - after all Vesa hadn't driven this kind of machines before and this isn't one of the easiest ones for sure. I jumped in the machine and waited in the cabin until there was only safe red trailer bars under the middle part of the machine. That was a marvelous moment. I climbed again into the cockpit and hugged Vesa. After that we tied the dragon tightly to the trailer with chains. We were finally ready to go.

At some point the driver of our truck asked me jokingly if I'm going to travel in his truck showing the way (which was a good question since the game site does not have an address) and I took the offer. We lost one seat in the car when we sent only five people to Sweden with the morning ship so I actually missed my ride. That's why I took the chance and rode to Sweden in the truck.

Travelling in a special transport device was an experience. The alert cars and the main truck communicated with radio phones and warned the other big cars saying "Our width is 4,30, please wait there" and "We have space on the left" and "Small one passing by". Sometimes the alert cars blocked traffic so we had space to turn in junctions. Cars, bikers and joggers stopped when we went by and everybody tried to take a picture of us. It was delighting to see people's facial expressions.

When we got to the harbour, the Finnlink staff was there waiting for us. I showed the dragon to them and they took pictures of it. It was really kind from Finnlink to give us a free ride to Sweden, thanks! MTV3 News group and Turun sanomat came quite soon and filmed and photographed us while the dragon was driven to the ferry. Accordin to my experience this Finneagle was one of the nicest ships I've been in. It was quiet, clean, quick (7 hours from Naantali to Kapellskär) and had an excellent sauna and a food service. During the trip I slept for two hours and then it was time to get off. When we reached Kapellskär there was a heavy mist around. In Sweden special transports are not allowed to drive when it's dark or misty so we needed to wait for three hours more to get moving. While waiting we changed Swedish warning signs to the trailer.

When the time was three o'clock in the morning we got our Swedish alert car guide to show us the way and we started driving. Many times the way seemed too narrow for us but because they weren't, our professional drivers guided the dragon safely to Älvdalen. When we were approaching the game site I called the rest of the team so they could prepare to come and put the dragon quickly into game condition.

On the game site the dragon came off the trailer quite nicely until its batteries lost their capacity for unknown reason and the machine stayed in the end of the road that lead to Cinderhill. Luckily we were off the trailer so the transportation company was free to leave. There we were again, in middle of a hectic repairing moment. We tried to get the dragon in the game by six o'clock in the evening but we had to push the limit a little forward because the repair took still more time than calculated. After all we got the integrated compressor work so now we had brakes without needing to have an external compressor hose connected, which was great. This still demanded some sacrifices on the pneumatics side: we couldn't make the legs move more than making them hang in the air when moving. Fixing the hydraulics was still an unrealistic goal while we had this little time left so we just put some cylinders into certain position with a hand pump (and we just had two of them, so one in tail and one in the neck was our choice). While the engine side was being fixed all the others re-painted the spots in the skin that had got hits by wind or tree branches and mounted the spinal scales on top of the dragon. The pyrotechnics team greeted quite happily the amount of wood dust we brought with us and filled their empty firepots with it.

While the repairing was still in action I got new that the sheep have escaped from their fence and might be in the swamp. The communication between in- and offgame area is not that easy so I thought it's good to go and see if there's anything wrong with the animals. After all we are to follow Swedish laws and it's not ok to leave sheep to break their legs in a swamp. So I went to Cinderhill to check on the sheep. Five were missing but none were on the swamp areas so I could leave it for the players to worry.

Soonish we needed radio phones for driving the dragon to the village. Last place it had been seen was the Tamer camp so there I went. I dressed up in a witchy costume and went in, hoping not to be spotted by the players, which turned out to be impossible.

After many exciting hours the engine was standing by to go. It was darkish already so the infra red cameras of the dragon were already on. The voice was calibrated and we started proceeding the two kilometer route towards the village. I lead the dragon by checking where its wheels go and ran backwards in the middle of the road so the driver could see where to aim. That was something to have nightmares about when I'm old - the dragon moved pretty fast since it used its biggest gear and the driver didn't have a speed measure of any kind.

When we reached the port of Cinderhill me and the others in mundane clothes backed up and stayed on the road, listening the noises of dragon heading to Cinderhill. First we heard roaming, crying and dragontalk. Then there was sounds of running, screaming and breaking branches. Very soon Cinderhillians started to dance around the dragon and sing tunes for it. Finally the dragon was in. I was really glad about that and felt like my task has come to an end. At that point we would have wanted to see the flames of the dragon death but were too tired to follow the scene anymore. We drove to Åsen and went to sleep. I wished the moment welcome since I had been awake for more than sixty hours in a row.

I'd have more stories to tell from organising this game but so have all the others. Here are the adventures of our brave dragon and the team who was making it move with their own will. I want to thank you all for the working and talking with me all this summer. Special thanks to Heiko for teaching us all, to Epa and Henkka for putting all their time to this, to David and Mauge for great work on many areas, to my brother and dad for the welding help, to Essi and Fredrik for taking care of the head, to Pauli for being a multitalented programmer, to Timo and Tinsku for making this all possible, to the Priuska transporters and Finnlink staff for their extraordinary patience, to all of our partners that did all they could to help us and especially to both Vesas for not giving up when it seemed to be the most obvious thing to do.

Sanni Turunen