INTRIGUE

Some whisper that they have heard the king moaning for Merlin to help
him, but the queen turns into a viper when she hears that name.

EVENTS

King Canan is the ruler of a powerful confederation of Irish tribes in

southern Gales. He can muster a large army and is secure on his throne:
He conquered all his neighbors, and they have been obedient since being
beaten.

ADVENTURE:

EMBASSY TO ESTREGALES

Source: Erec, roman arthurien en prosepublic d’apres le ms. fr., 112 de la

Bibliothéque Nationale.

Setting: Estregales, in southwest Cambria. Salen-gue castle.

Characters: King Canan; Sir Dirac, his elder son; Squire Lak, his younger
son; Sir Orcas, Canan’s stew-ard; King Branvarn of Cardigan; King
Nanteleod of Escavalon; many hill chieftains.

Problem: Uther needs an ambassador to deliver a letter to King Canan of

Estregales.

Secrets: King Uther wants the alliance of the Cambrians, especially this
powerful king. But King Canan is an experienced diplomat, and will have to
see his advantage to do this.

The Embassy: The ambassadors must ride over-land through Clarence to

the border. Crossing into Gloucester, the party is met by knights of that
dukedom who escort the party to their duke. The old duke inter-views
them, then sends them with his two sons, Twin Bannerets of Glevum, as an
escort to the court of King Nanteleod in Carlion.

The Twin Bannerets are identical in appearance, but quite opposite in

behavior and dress. One wears only red, the other only green, and they
have their entourages the same, so they are called the Red Banneret of
Glevum and the Green Banneret of Glevum. They appear to hate each
other, and are always arguing. They accompany the knights to the border,
then on to Carlion.

Carlion is an old Roman city that has seen better days. (That is, it is typical
for the cities of Britain in this age.) The kingdom stronghold is a converted
Ro-man fort.
At Carlion, the knights encounter Sir Alain de Carlion (Honest 16, Courtesy
16; Lance 16; coat-of-arms similar to that of Escavalon), whom the player
knights will have met earlier, when they were garrison-ing the castles in
Cornwall (in 491). Sir Alain greets the Glevum Bannerets politely and
welcomes the knights warmly, reminding them of their time in Cornwall to-
gether. “Though, of course,” he jests, “I wasn’t ensorpose (they only know
that they are to deliver a letter), and does not push them too far. Over
dinner he talks of Logres, the Countess of Salisbury, the Saxons, and so
on. He wants to know the knights’ personal experiences, not the theory
behind their visit.

Sir Alain leads the messengers westward the fol-lowing day. They cover
the miles quickly and reach Cardiff in one day; on the next night they stay
at New-castle in the Nain Forest; and then in Kynke Kynedon-ne, by the
border.

The next day, they are met by guards from Es-tregales. This group then
takes the messengers and es-corts them to Carmarthen in Loughor, where
they wait for word of the king. Then, they journey three days to Pembroke
Castle, on the Milford Haven.

At the court of Pembroke, King Canan interviews the messengers and

receives the letter. He conducts a polite interview (“How is the king, and
the countess?”)

At dinner that night, they meet Sir Orcas (Intrigue 17, Courtesy 16; Lance
15, Sword 16; coat-of-arms similar to that of Estregales), a polite but
brusque fellow who is King Canan’s steward and the official contact for the
mes-sengers while they are at Pembroke.

The embassy is stalled for several days. (“The king is busy and will send
for the ambassadors when he needs them.”) Sir Orcas offers to take
everyone on a hunt. There, the messengers meet Sir Dirac and Squire Lak,
the two sons of King Canan, who are also along on the hunt. They are
young and naïve, wanting to know more about the world outside
Estregales.

By now, the knights have been here long enough that one night, after
dinner, they are asked to entertain. (At-tempt some unopposed courtly
skill roll.) More days pass.

At some point, a chief from some dirty little hamlet in the mountains
challenges one of the messengers to a horse race. (Stakes = £1 in
treasure.) He uses a hill pony on broken ground; knightly riders suffer a –
10 modifier to Horsemanship in this terrain. Afterward, the knights learn
the chieftain is in fact the king of Ystrad Tyi, the hill savages allied to King
Canan.
Finally, some day after the horse race, everyone in Pembroke seems to be
packing and loading. The king’s household is moving: The king has gone
ahead to Carew, it is said, or maybe Tenby. The messengers must pack up
and go along too, and catch up with Canan at Castle Tenby. There, after
dinner, the king finally an-nounces that he is in fact favorably tended
toward the offer in Uther’s letter, and that he is preparing a reply. Then he
turns to other business.

The messengers experience enough stalling at court that they get a check
on any one court skill roll, plus any one trait the player wishes. Meanwhile,
the court moves again, this time resting at Carmarthen, where Merlin was
born. (The player knights can hire a boy to show them the nearby chapel
where the infant Merlin was baptized. He’ll take them to Merlin’s tree,
where the raven is. He’ll show them the shack where the great magician
grew up, and the fountain where Merlin did his first healings on the poor of
the town.)

At Carmarthen that night, there is yet another dinner, perhaps with more
entertainment possibilities from the player knights.

Awareness. (Success = You see young Sir Dirac hand a goblet to his father,
the king. Canan smiles and takes it, toasts his young heir, then drains the
cup in a single draught. Critical = You noticed Sir Orcas the Steward bring
the cup in and give it to Sir Dirac.)

Moments later, King Canan staggers up from his seat and then falls
backward over it. Everyone sees this — the king grabs his throat; his face
turns blue; blood runs from his mouth, nose, ears, and eyes; and he finally
gurgles out a horrid gasp. He is dead.

“He did it!” shouts someone, and everyone looks to Sir Dirac, still frozen in
horror at his father’s death.

“No!” peeps the young knight, “Not me!” Solutions: Ideally, an honorable
player knight saw Sir Orcas give the cup to Sir Dirac. If a knight makes this
statement, however, Sir Orcas challenges the ob-servation and demands
mortal combat. Sir Orcas may seem slow and dull, but much of that is an
act; use stats for an average knight (see Pendragon, Appendix 2), but with
Lance 15 and Sword 16.

If the player knight wins, he proves his claim and Sir Orcas is
apprehended. If not, then the player knights can flee immediately, and
leave the land behind in chaos. They might choose not to duel, but to fight
Orcas and his henchmen too, in order to put the rightful Sir Dirac on the
throne. This latter choice, however, would be far be-yond their orders from
the king or the earl.
Glory: 25 for exposing Sir Orcas; 100 for saving Dirac’s honor by winning
the combat; 17 for defeating Sir Orcas.

The Return: The knights must return some time (and very likely in haste).
Without a king, the lords of Estregales are going to take advantage of the
opportu-nity to raid each other and rob travelers.

On the way home, the player knights must tell and retell the story of what
happened in Estregales. King Nanteleod entertains them one night, and he
makes each knight tell about what he did there, listening closely and
peering at the speaker intently. The next day he says, “Sir Rhys will
accompany you to the border, and from there I trust you shall accompany
him to your own lord. Is that well?”

Sir Rhys is a Cymric knight from the city of Carlion. He is a household

knight of King Nanteleod, well outfitted with armor, sword, and spears. He
rides a white courser instead of a brown charger like most others.

Afterward: King Canan is dead; although Dirac eventually regains control

of Estregales, the former alli-ance disintegrates. None of the subject lands
sends their nobleman to swear fealty to the young new king, Dirac.

OCTA AND EOSA ATTACK

The Saxons come south. When Lincoln is at-tacked, Duke Lindsey and
every other nobleman shut themselves into their castles and cities while
the Sax-ons ravage the countryside.

CHRISTMAS COURT

Royal Court: Nimue is present to tend to the king. She keeps the knights
from announcing the news about the Saxons to the king.

Salisbury: That northern army will be a great loss, but Logres has fought
without allies before. If Octa and Eosa enter Salisbury, the knights are all
to bring their herds and families to Sarum, or to their local castle.