The Silver Hart
It is our Pendragon campaign, and it is time for another large battle against the invading Saxons. From the perspective of the PCs, battles in Pendragon are a series of encounters within the larger battle. After the battle, we encounter something odd. My Knight, Sir Geoffrey, finds everything a bit too odd and decides not to progress so we split the party.
We are heading north towards Eburacum in order to meet the Saxons in battle. As we arrive at Huntingdon, we hear that the Saxons have left Eburacum and have headed down to Lincoln to besiege that city. Lincoln is a lot further south than Eburacum, so it means less travelling for us.
King Arthur is leading our side, and the Saxons are led by Cheldric. He is the Danish leader who came to relieve Eburacum last year and forced Alfred to retreat. So this will be a chance to fight him in battle. Once again, I find it difficult to really get fired up against the Saxons. My colleagues Sir Madog and Sir Lupinus both seem to be really hating the Saxons though.
Since we have more cavalry than the Saxons, the battle opens with a great charge from Arthur’s ranks.
Ahead of us are half a dozen Saxons – we charge in on horseback with our lances. I hit a Saxon ahead of me, though he gets his shield in the way. Sir Lupinus skewers his, killing him instantly. Sir Madog hits his, knocking him to the ground but not slaying him.
We whirl around, and charge back at them. Sir Lupins kills a second, but it takes a third pass for me to finally kill the one I was facing. Sir Madog rides into his, shattering his lance on his opponents’s shield. Fragments of the lance still drive into the Saxon, who swings back with his battle axe, hitting Sir Madog but fails to penetrate his armour.
I charge the final Saxon, knocking him down and out in a single blow.
With our first opponents defeated, and the rest of the battle still raging around us, we spot the enemy baggage train. So we raid it. I find a nice looking sword worth £1.
We spot a knight wearing gleaming white armour, who seems to arrived and is fighting on the side of King Arthur he seems to be doing quite well.
Whilst we are distracted, a group of Picts attacks us. We re-mount and charge the Picts. My target goes down in a single pass. They are unarmoured, carrying axes and small bucklers.
We make short work of them. We note that the Saxons are now fleeing the field. So we raid the baggage train again, and find the armoury. We all obtain very nice suits of ceremonial Saxon armour.
After that, we chase down some fleeing Saxons. I chase one down, and he turns and faces me. My lance shatters on him, splintering into his face. He strikes me, but my armour blocks the blow and I remain seated on my horse. All four Saxon knights are defeated, but still alive, so we take them hostage.
It is a glorious victory for King Arthur. The Saxons flee northward, and we pursue them.
During our journey north, we are amongst the scouting parties. We spot a silver stag, and so we follow it. I am adamant that we don’t kill it. The stag comes to a river, and the stag leaps across. There is a bridge, but it is more like a sword blade.
I crawl across the ‘bridge’, and as I get to the other side it widens, to the extent that everyone else can cross easily.
We are on an island, which is beautiful. There is a great marble tomb in the middle of the island. It is covered in writings and two effigies. We are unable to read the writing, but Sir Madog recognises the heraldic arms on the effigies as those of Sir Balin and Balan, two brothers who were knights of the Round Table. They went missing two years ago.
There is a maiden tending the tomb. She said they were questing and smote each other when they failed to recognise each other due to not wearing their usual armour. One of them had found a cursed sword which would kill the person he loved most, because he wasn’t chivalrous enough to wield it.
She points to the distance, where a red marble stone is floating, and a sword hilt is protruding from it. The maiden says she serves the Princess Alis. She is Princess of a city, and points to a city in the distance. It is La Cite de Verre. A city of glass.
I want to leave, but Sir Lupinus and Sir Madog want to go and investigate. It is all very dodgy. As we approach the city, crowds come out and offer us food and drink. I turn them down since it is all very suspicious.
Amongst the crowd is Princess Alis. She states that she is a friend of King Arthur. She offers to send out her people to search for Saxons, and offers to provide a bed and food to us. I head back to inform King Arthur, whilst my colleagues head into the city.
I find my way back to King Arthur, and inform him of what we found.
King Arthur knows of Princess Alis, and says she is of the Fair Folk. She is a liege of King Pellum, who is friendly towards Arthur and is important to the matter of Britain according to what Merlin had said. Her kinswoman is the Lady of the Lake.
Arthur would seek that King Pellum and his allies would come aid Arthur against the Saxons.
I head back to the forest, and the island, and the city of glass. My companions are wandering in the company of a knight with brown armour. It is Sir Darnates, the Brown Knight of the Wild.
Apparently the Fisher King, aka King Pellum, is in need of aid. His castle is under siege by his evil brother, an usurper. How we are to defeat a whole army I’m not sure, but maybe it is a faerie thing.
