A Quest
It is the year 514 in our new Pendragon campaign. After some time trying to figure out why Google Meet wouldn’t allow our GM to join, we finally got things working. In our previous session we got our characters generated. Now it was time to begin the campaign.
We are all newly knighted knights of the County of Salisbury. Earl Robert is the son of Countess Ellen of Salisbury, who ruled as regent until he was knighted in 509. The boy king, Arthur is marrying Guinevere, daughter of Sir Leodegrance
There is going to be a tourney for the marriage, which will be sponsored by the King and Sir Leodegrance. Lord Robert would like to have people there to represent Salisbury. Tourney’s are relatively new things, and he isn’t entirely sure what is involved. Neither are we.
Lady Ellen thinks that it’s some sort of non-lethal combat. We volunteer to go, and the Earl approves. Apparently us three are the only ones amongst his retinue who aren’t retired old men. Which I guess means that we’re expendable.
Lady Ellen thinks there is a Quest as well. I thought that might be something you put on the top of your helmet, but apparently it’s something else. She says that the Quest has lots of steps, the first of which is to find the Hermit of the Weeping Woods, who holds the register of honour.
We are given directions to the Weeping Woods, which are near Farnham. It’s nice when you play a game which is set just down the road from where we live in real life.
Madog suggests that we take some presents, and Lady Ellen thinks this is a great idea. We are given some scented soap, and a jug of mead.
We own four horses each, which will be difficult to manage. So we are provided with a couple of retainers to help with our horses, and reduce things to a charger (warhorse) and a rouncey (riding horse) each. We also take a couple of sumpters (pack horses).
Lady Ellen provides us a list of people who we can scrounge off/stay with on the way. So we plan to head to Silchester and then down to Farnham.
We head off. It appears that Madog has problems riding his horse, but he does seem capable of finding rabbits. Myself and Lupinus stay on our horses, but don’t find any rabbits. So it’s good that we reach Levcomagus and are allowed to stay there by the local knight Sir Allain.
We are courteous, and he tells us all about Tournies. He says that they are things established by the King to prevent knights from killing each other. Killing Saxons is fine, but the King doesn’t want his knights fighting amongst themselves.
- There are animal fights such as bull and bear baiting. Sometimes peasants versus bears or bulls as well. Which sounds dangerous.
- There is the Bohort, where the peasants fight amongst themselves without weapons.
- Then there is the Melee, where the Knight get to fight each other. There are two teams of knights who fight each other with padded weapons.
The following day we get to Silchester and we stay at an inn. We don’t have money, but that is fine since the innkeeper just makes a note that Lord Robert owes him.
The following day, we approach Farnham and reach the Weeping Woods, where there is a Hermit. We say that we are questing for the register of honour. Hoping to just needing to sign our names (with an X, since none of us can read), we are disappointed when we find out that we have to answer a riddle.
Three things I place upon the scales of the Heart.
The first is a Great Shield, heavy enough to weather a thousand blows, yet it weighs nothing to the man who carries it for another.
The second is a Single Sin, small as a grain of sand, yet it weighs more than a mountain of gold when the sun sets on life.
The third is True Honor.
Tell me, Young Seekers: If the Shield is held high and the Sin is kept secret, why does the scale still tip toward the earth? What is the one thing heavier than a King’s crown, yet lighter than a breath, that must be added to balance the soul before you enter the King’s gates?
Madog and Lupinus suggests Truth, which is the correct one. I seem incapable of rolling less than 16 on my skill checks,
For the next step of the Quest, we must hold vigil at the Perilous Chapel tonight. The Hermit says that if we go to the Chapel and hold Vigil, we will have our weapons blessed. We are each given a small candle. We need to light our candles and keep them alight through the night.
Further down the road there is a perilous looking chapel. Our retainers set up some tents, and we head into the chapel. At midnight, a distant bell tolls and we light our candles.
That night, there is an invisible pressure on my chest, and I feel guilt about peasants under my charge who have been killed by Saxons. I have to make a Valorous check, which should be easy since I have a Valorous score of 15. I roll 17.
Our candles splutter, but we bring our candles together to keep them alight.
Dawn arrives. We notice that there are three ribbons of crimson silk on the altar. A young monk suggests that we head to Reigate to the Nunnery of Saint Anne. Why anyone would want to go to Reigate I have no idea.
We observe a Nun who seems to be having an altercation with a group of men who look like bandits. She claims that they have stolen a palfry.
We get into combat, and I try an Orate check. I roll high, and fail (18 on 15). I ride up close to the nearest, and he stands his ground.
The others shout similar suggestions for them to give up, but the Nun tells us that we cannot spill blood on holy ground. The bandit I have approached tries to stab me with a dagger, I try to parry with my sword (19 on 15) but we both fail. It seems I really want a roll high game system.
I try to smash him with the flat of my blade, and we again both fail.
Next turn, I try again and also fail again (18 on 15). I seem to be incapable of hitting anything despite having a 75% chance of hitting. My companions seem to be doing a bit better, and are managing to beat up their bandits.
During this, we are having problems trying to figure out how opposed rolls work in Foundry. I like the way I think it’s meant to be implemented – make a skill check as an opposed roll, and then it waits for the next person to make a roll to compare against. Except it doesn’t work, and just gives an error that only two checks can be made for a combat roll.
At this point, the other bandits move up, so we’re all fighting two opponents, and making the opposed rolls manually.
I decide to be reckless and ignore one of them, to avoid the -5 to hit which I’d get from fighting two opponents. Now I realise I should also have been getting a +5 because I’m mounted. So this gives me a skill of 20 – and eventually I roll a 5, which is a success, but a bad success. He rolls his skill, and fails so doesn’t parry. So I finally do some damage with the flat of my sword.
Sir Lupinus manages to get a critical hit, taking down the helpless bandit. The other bandit hits him, but doesn’t get through his armour.
I now decide to attack both, and my first attack rolls a 20 and fumbles and I drop my sword. I hate this system. If I’d only fought one, then that would have been a critical. So I try to punch the other one, and manage to hit, doing a little bit of damage.
Down to punching with a dagger now, I attack both, and manage to get a critical, knocking down the exhausted bandit. Then I roll against the Tense Bandit, and he takes some damage.
Finally, we also figure out how to get the opposed rolls working. At least for one attack. For the following attack, it stops working again. Then finally we think we’ve got it sorted. For combat, you have to both make combat attacks rather than mixing skill checks and combat checks. Also if you had a previous opposed check open somewhere in the chat, then things don’t work. When it does work, it works quite nicely. But it was really difficult trying to figure out how it was meant to work.
Eventually the one remaining bandit surrenders, claiming that he is but a humble Saxon. This causes Madog to make a Hate Saxon check, and he kicks him to the ground.
The Nun says we are merciful for not spilling blood, though there are probably some nose bleeds.
I pick up my sword.
She says that the palfrey is of great value and lots of lustful creatures have tried to steal it. She asks whether we are on the Quest of the Silver Spurs? We say we are, and she asks us to take the Palfrey to the wedding to give as a gift to the Queen.
So our first real session of the campaign was successful. I did find it very annoying in that I kept on failing rolls where I needed to just roll 15 or less on a d20. I tend to find percentile systems (and Pendragon I consider a percentile system, it’s just in steps of 5%) harder to cope with than dice + adds systems. If you have a high skill, and roll high in percentile, you’ve just failed. If you roll low and add a high skill, you’ve at least got that high skill to give you a minimum base. The skill feels less useless. At least to me.
We are starting to get used to the Foundry system, though it was a lot of work. Foundry can be a steep learning curve at times, and I guess I’m getting a taste of how new players probably find my Traveller system. It all seems obvious to me, but others may disagree.
It was a fun game, and we’re playing our characters as young, enthusiastic and not too knowledgeable about the world and how things work. Which is pretty much what they are.
