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

I’ve promised to write a Dragonbane diary entry since the day I arrived, that’s 12 days ago. Today I finally got a grip of myself and sat down in front of the computer. As I said I’ve been here for almost two weeks and I have over a week still to go. Time has flown. The first day I arrived at the bootcamp with Erica, we were given ten minutes to change clothes before going to the building site. There we ate and after lunch I was “given“ to two Spaniards. Desperation and homesickness crossed my mind a couple of times, but that evening during dinner I forgot all about home (sorry folks) and actually looked forward to the days to come.

For a person who has never larped (played live roleplaying games) this place is a house of amazement. Every day you encounter new things and learn more about the world of Dragonbane, about the history, the people, the dragon and the cult around it. The amount of things surrounding this project is so massive that I guess three weeks is not enough to learn everything.

The other thing that amazes me every day is not the amount of money, but the amount of volunteer work hours used on this project. People from all around the world are working to make the world of Dragonbane a reality. At home three weeks of work seemed like a noble and priceless donation to the project, but here I soon found out that it’s actually just a grain of sand.

I’ve got to do things I have never done before such as peeling wood, cooking for 30 people, sitting on top of a roof with a nail gun and so on. I feel like I have entered a completely different world where everything is possible. But although I do new things during working hours, the best part of the day is the evening: Everyone is eating together, going to sauna, playing games etc. Sometimes we have something special for the evening, like yesterday Morgan taught us Cinderhillian yoga (it has an actual name which has something to do with the dragon, but I don’t remember it as I have learned about a thousand new words here).

This experience has been excellent so far and can’t see why the last week wouldn’t be as great. It has been and is great to be a part of this project and I really feel like my work here is appreciated, though I’m not the strongest and I know nothing about building. I’m like an apprentice keen to learn and the Spaniards have actually renamed me Anakin. When I leave, I will leave many friends, skills and experiences richer.

Matias Stubbe

Ben

I've been working in the Dragon workshop in Turku for about a week now. I'm part of the three person team building the dragon's head at the moment. It's building up quite nicely, today we tested the glue-like material that will be used for skin by applying it on the inside of the lower jaw. It looked very convincing, and I think it even has a reptilish feel to it. I'm eagerly waiting for the scales from the Dragon chassis team in Loimaa, so that we can put them on the outside. Tomorrow we will do the lips and some surface and hopefully get to play dentist by putting the teeth in place soon. Anybody fancy a genuine dragon tooth made of iron?

On the first day I spent in the workshop it rained, which was a bliss if you compare it to the long days of sun in the oven-like workshop we've had since. It's not always easy in +30 degrees Celsius in the sun in an overall and thick gloves up to your elbows so you won’t burn yourself with the metal you're working on. And with fiery sparks flying around.

Seeing the head today with the horns and the jaw open ready to eat you gave me an odd feeling: "Yay, we're gonna have a dragon!"

This is something you will tell your grandchildren: "Granny once helped make a dragon." And they won't believe you. Even at the moment it's weird when people ask me what I am doing this summer. "Well, I'm building this Dragon ..."

Essi Santala

This is a D Diary of the sad day when team Nordic lost a football match to Team Spain (eg. it's the first real day off we have had in the building camp since God knows when).

First impressions of building camp by a local larper, Elin, who decided to join the building camp just today.

"ok... so it´s my turn to write. Well, today I met the rest of the building campers, like Timo meant before I´m a local here in åsen. It was weird to be in my old school for the first time for many years. I´ve met some of the people here before, so i didn't feel shy or unconfortable with the new ones I met.

Today has been very funny, specially when we jumped into the water and played Ankkapallo (Duckball) and many other water sports.

We played barefoot football match between Spaniards and Team Nordic, a co-operative team of Finnish Swedes, Real Swedes and some Finns.

The soccer game was played with good spirit, despite the obvious differencies in the players skills. There were solitary heroes trying their very best (often too much) and people trying football first tíme in their life.

The evening went longish, but eventually everyone went to bed, as tomorrow will be another day of hard work."

Timo asked me to write some thoughts concerning my time here in Åsen, which I most co-operatively do. I have been here for almost two weeks now, but it seems like a much shorter time. (Which is a positive sign, I think) When I, in company of two friends and a dog, first came to the boot camp I didn’t quite know what to expect. It was in the middle of the night and I was very tired. The next day we started to work immediately. That was rather rough and I thought to myself: “Oh no, what have I got myself in to this time?!” But pretty quickly I found it very fun and interesting.

I won’t lie and tell you that it is easy over here. We work quite long days, about nine to ten hours per day. And it’s hard work, I say. Climbing rooftops, carrying planks, painting long-houses, cutting down big trees, nailing walls, setting housegrounds and so on. After a day, you are very likely to be exhausted. But now you may get the picture that it’s terrible over here, which would be an absolute false statement. I like it here, very much. There is a very nice, funny and overall amazing set of people here. The days are filled with humour, laughs and smiles. We have people from three different countries. At the moment we have sort of a Spanish invasion going on. There are nine people from Spain here, which is more than all the other people together! I have started to learn a bit of Spanish, some phrases that are useful over here. Like “Can you pass me the water?” is “Puedes darme agua?” (I really don’t know about the spelling, though.) Everyone is learning words on every language. When the Spaniards are trying to say “Kan du skicka vatten” (swedish) it sounds very funny. But I guess that I am sounding equally funny when I speak “Spanish”.

So what is a typical day here at the buildingcamp? Well, we wake up sometime around nine o’clock, eat breakfast (usually something like porridge, bread, yoghurt and müsli). Ten o’clock we start to drive up to the game-area. (In a heck of a speed, the first time I held my breath all the way.). The one/those who has/have slept at the building-set often has/have made coffee, so some of us drink a little bit of that, before getting to work. We work hard until the lunch arrives, sometime between 13-15 o’clock. It is very good food, I must say! We have maybe a half an hour lunchbreak, and then back to work again. The next break is a little coffee break, six o’clock. Well, some days the “little” break turns out to be a quite long break. When you are sitting around the fire, eating biscuits and fruits, having a great time, you are not so tempted to get back to work… But sooner or later everyone is working again.

The day usually ends somewhere between eight and nine o’clock. Then everybody (except for the poor guy whose turn it is to guard the game area over the night) heads back to the school to eat yet another very tasty meal (honours to the chef, Antti!) And if we are very lucky, there even is a dessert. Like today, we had 500g of strawberries EACH! Yummy! After eating there are many who goes to the sauna and to the swimming pool, or just takes an ordinary shower. After that you have some activities to choose from: You can either go to sleep early (highly recommended, but very rarely followed) play Gran Turismo at Anttis Playstation 2 (I sucked at it the first week, now I am pretty good). Surf around on the internet for a while, play boardgames with the Spaniards (Felix is really bad at Zombies, or was it just that everyone else gave him a hard time?) play guitar or just sit and chitchat the whole evening/night. Anyhow, (like Esa would have said) sooner or later (sooner) you go to sleep, satisfied with what you have accomplished for the day.

We have a lot of job still to be done, I tell you. The whole temple is still un-built and the ground needs a lot of cleaning. But we are a bunch of time-optimistics, so there is no panic...yet. We really hope that so many of you players would come over here and help us. Every man and woman counts! I have really enjoyed my time here. It’s a beautiful place with amazing people. And oh, I forgot a rather important thing: We do have some days of rest too. Not as many as we’d like to have, but anyway, we have them. Tomorrow is my second day off, and we are going on a trip to Älvdalen City to eat some pizza. After that we come back to the school to play a game of soccer: The Spaniards against everyone else. Let’s see how that turns out. I am looking forward to it very much!

So, in short terms; come to the boot camp and have a really really great time!

Cheers,

Cajsa

Tonight I was pondering if I should read manga or watch anime after another hard day but instead I decided to take out my trusty old computer and tell you about the Swedish medical care system.

Sweden is sometimes known as folkhemmet, people’s home. It has one of the best medical care systems in the world, as I found out. It all started about a month ago (I know, I should have written about it earlier but I have been quite busy here with my Playstation, umm, I mean at my workstation in the kitchen, yes ..)

On the night of the 2nd of June I couldn't get any sleep since I had a bad pain in my hip joint. The pain kept intensifying and at 02:00 am it was so painful that I had to ask for some help. Since no-one here could determine the reason for the pain we decided to call an ambulance.

The ambulance took some time to arrive since our school is quite an isolated place, but it arrived eventually. Out of the two paramedics the second spoke some Finnish so I was able to explain what was wrong with me, and since they couldn't find any injury they just gave me a shot of morphine and loaded me to the back of an ambulance.

The nearest hospital is in Mora and a ride there takes about 45 minutes, or one hour if you happen to run over a deer, what was exactly what we did.

So, after the local police had arrived at the site of the accident and let the poor animal from its suffering we arrived at the hospital where a friendly emergency room doctor poked me around, declared that he couldn't find anything wrong with me and at five o'clock in the morning I was carted to the orthopaedic ward.

Since all the rooms were occupied I had to spend my first hours in the corridor. I had a nice nurse who also spoke Finnish. She had moved to Sweden in the 70’s and she had a strange accent but I hadn't had much sleep that night and there was still some morphine left in my system I was glad that I didn't need to remember how the Swedish language actually works.

Around noon I got a place in a room and I was informed that I could go to X-ray fairly soonish. Well, I got to the X-ray at 17:00, a fairly futuristic looking donut shaped thing that had rotating bits inside.

After this brief interlude I was carted back to my room since the doctor wouldn't be around until the next day.

The only other time I’ve been in a hospital was when I was in the army and had to be three days in the central military hospital for asthma tests and I felt that I would die out of boredom, but that wasn't bad, at least then I could read the books and magazines that were strewn around the hospital, but since my Swedish isn't that good I couldn't even kill time that way.

Eventually the next morning came and the doctor could look at my X-ray pictures. He couldn't find anything strange either and since the pain was mostly gone they let me go. In the end no one could find anything strange in me, it wasn't a stress fracture that I feared it would be, or the bubonic plague that was jokingly suggested by Heiko over the phone. So whole episode stays as a mystery, most probably it was pain in the lower back that just had lost its way and ended up in my hip.

So, how much did this all cost? An ambulance ride to a hospital 60 km away at 03:00 am, 29 hours in hospital, including four meals, X-ray, a lot of painkillers and a taxi ride to the front door of our school? 50 crowns for the taxi, no other expenses, so if you get sick in the building camp, you can be sure that you are in good hands.

Antti Oksanen

By public request I opened my house for players to come from near and afar. We had nine people (three of them children), five sewing machines and one over-locking machine in a small wooden house of some 60 years. So you can imagine the hustle and chaos that created :) Luckily the sun was shining the whole weekend (it was 25-28 degrees
Celsius!) so we could use the yard as an extra working space.

Outi (Dalkia) was our supervisor in the actual sewing work. Thank you Outi! We could not have done it without you. Outi came over with her son Lauri (Merchant) and two machines and a box filled with threads and canvas.

Tonja (Chey-Maro) hand-stitched decorations on the clothes. Wow, she is good at drawing! I hope her decoration patterns will be published soon, they are amazing!

Elias, Arja’s son, now knows how to play the game "Dragon and the lambs" and I am sure he will beat all of you :)

His little sister Pihla, 8 months old, learnt to stand up on her own. She was so motivated to see my two cats she just had to get up.

So, many new discoveries were made. I myself am now as much the wiser what comes to sewing Cinderhillian outfits. So I am very confident that I can manage the next sewing bee on my own. So welcome to my home in July, anyone needing assistance with sewing!

Trina

Antti Oksanen