The Humber
Our Pendragon campaign continues, and in this session we get involved in a big battle. One thing to know about how the system works, is that it’s a d20 system, and you need to roll your skill or less to succeed. If two people are making opposed rolls, then whoever rolls highest and succeeds wins.
If you roll your skill exactly, then it’s a critical.
If you have a skill greater than 20, then every point above 20 gives you a +1, and if you roll 20 or more then you critical. With a sword skill of 21, that means Sir Geoffrey criticals on a roll of 20+. If he succeeds on his hatred of Saxons passion check, he gets a +5, and so criticals on 14+. Since he gets a +6 to his roll, he’s often going to roll higher than his opponent.
A critical success on his passion check gives him +10, and if he’s also got an advantage of +5 from taking part in a sneak attack, that’s +15. So a total skill of 36, so a critical on 4+.
However, if you’re on horseback, your weapon skill is capped to your horsemanship skill. For Sir Geoffrey, this means 16. Whilst on horseback against an opponent on foot, you get +5 and they get -5. Since the passion bonus only applies to a single skill, being on horseback whilst inflamed with passion means most of the bonus is wasted.
This may explain why Sir Geoffrey did so well in this session. He succeeded on passion checks at the right times, and was able to dismount and fight on foot.
We have killed a striga and rescued two maidens from the strange chapel in the corrupted forest. The Striga has strange silver jewellery about her person. It is twisted and knotted, in a way that is uncomfortable to look at. We think that giving it to Merlin might be a good idea.
There is a body on the table next door, which we drag off the blood stained pentagram etched into the top of the table. We cut the head off the striga, just to triple check that she is dead.
Sir Lupinus mentions something about sticking the bread that the priest gave us into a spiky thing upstairs. It’s religious magic apparently.
We take the Striga’s body upstairs, and use the pews in the church to make a bonfire to burn her. She burns with a strange blue light. The victim we bury in the graveyard outside.
As we are leaving the chapel, a man in strange armour and a green cloak greets us. He thanks us for freeing him and his companions from the curse of the Striga. He says that he is a fey, an embodiment of the honour and magic of Albion. Us freeing him is a sign of the King’s right to rule.
He is one of the three silver knights, but does not have a name for himself. He says that he and his brothers will try to return the favour at some point where it would be useful. He heads off into the woods.
As we travel back, the trees are looking a bit less blighted, and the rain is letting up. When we get to the river, it is flowing clean and clear. We take the rescued women back to the village where the thicket it is in is no longer seeping and horrid, and the people seem to be back to normal.
We return to the monk, and return his dog. Then we head back to London, where the army is mustering. We hand the cursed silver to Merlin (who doesn’t seem to like the look of it, and hides it away in a sack), and the church stuff to the bishop.
We are each given very fancy velvet cloaks embroidered with Christian imagery of St Helena. These have been made by the Queen’s ladies, and they are a sign of high status.
The army marches north to Eburacum. The ladies come with us, since the King doesn’t want to leave his wife behind.
North of Lincoln, we meet the Saxons at the Humber estuary. They make a surprise attack on the vanguard of our army before the rest of it has arrived. Though we are outnumbered, the King orders a charge – and so we charge. Right at the start, our little group charges in a group of six hearthguard.
The combat system is complicated to manage. Because combat is done as opposed rolls, and it’s managed internally by the system, it’s not always possible to see what’s happening. Bonuses and penalties don’t always apply when you expect. This is probably a side effect of us not entirely understanding how the Foundry system is implementing things.
I charge at two, killing one instantly, and knocking the second one down. The King fights to clear the way back to the main army, and we join him. The battle is a defeat for Arthur, but we fight our way out to safety.
That night, after Arthur as rallied the troops, we are surprised by a night attack by the Saxons. I’m not fond of the Saxons at the best of times, but being woken by them in the middle of the night fuels my hatred of them. This hatred seems to spread to the rest of our group.
Massed battles work in the game by the Player Characters determining what sort of encounter they will have. There is a Battle check to see whether we get a ‘good’ encounter or a ‘bad’ encounter. In this case we get to fight some Champions in one on one combats.
As the rest of the army falls back, we stand to fight the Saxons to give Arthur time to get his army o safety. Facing off against the Saxons, they offer us a chance of one on one combat with their heroes. We accept their challenge. In order to delay things further, we take turns in orating our genealogy.
Sir Lupinus dismounts and fights his Saxon champion on foot, finally breaking the Saxon’s battle axe and forcing the Aethling to surrender.
Sir Madog also dismounts and has a long fight with his, but finally defeats him.
I dismount to fight my Aethling champion on foot. In our first clash of swords, he suffers a serious wound and falls over. I step back to give him a chance to get up. Once he is back on his feet, I hit him again and again. On the third hit he goes down and doesn’t get back up.
There is grumbling from the Saxons, but a senior Saxon steps forward and orates something at his men. Then he hands each of us a gold armring. Then there is beer.
We get back to the army camp, where we find that Arthur had managed to locate the Saxon commander and slay him.
In the morning, we go with the Cornish King to ambush some more Saxons. By this point my feelings for the Saxons has worsened, and I’m really disliking them. We sneak through the marshes, which pretty much requires that we are on foot.
Whilst approaching their camp, the three of us spot some Saxons with a war banner. Deciding that their flag would look better in Arthur’s camp, we run in to capture it.
I leap at the first Saxon, cutting him down in a single blow. Whilst he is laying on the ground, I step forward and finish him off. This is no honourable fight of champions.
Sir Madog faces down his opponent, wounding him, then recklessly attacking and killing him.
Sir Lupinus has some trouble with this, and his opponent is still standing once Sir Madog and myself have finished with ours. So we come in to help, killing the Saxon and grabbing the banner. We take the flag back to our camp, then sneak back out to see whether we can find more Saxons.
Fortunately, we find one of their war leaders surrounded by bodyguards. Two of them try to stop me from approaching, but I drop one to the ground. Sir Madog is stabbed by the Aethling commander, but manages to remain standing despite the pain. Sir Lupinus is also accosted by two, and almost slays one in a single blow.
I step in to help Sir Madog, though I don’t do much to harm either the bodyguard who is still fighting me, or the Aethling. Sir Madog finally succumbs to his wounds and falls to the ground.
We are all rolling badly for damage at this point. I either critical, and roll really low on the damage anyway, or I fail to critical despite only needing 9+. Against two opponents at once, I’m at -5, otherwise I’d only need 4+.
Myself and Sir Lupinus end up facing the remaining three. Whilst I continue to scratch them with minor wounds, Sir Lupinus is badly wounded. Finally my luck turns, and I fatally wound the hearthguard, leaving just the Aethling and a hearthguard whom Sir Lupinus has knocked to the ground. Sir Lupinus finally dispatches his, but then falls over himself.
Finally, I manage a killing blow on the Aethling, who drops dead to the ground.
Checking on my companions, they are alive but badly wounded. Myself, I am without a scratch from the entire battle. I call over our squires to get everyone to safety. Fortunately Merlin is on hand to provide some healing, and my companions recover as if they were unwounded.
I am given the arms and armour of the Aethling I defeated by the Cornish King, who has grand tales told about my deeds. I am now famous in Cornwall.
