Christmas Feast

[GM Craig]

This year, the King decrees that court will be at Sarum. The Royal Retinue, his household, Prince Maddoc and his followers all descend on Sarum. many other nobles and their retinues also join the king, and Sarum is filled to bursting. As a Royal Knight, Cedwyn is personally directed to attend the King. There is little to do, but the King is generous to the Royal Knights - several new ones have been added, and the Royal Knights now number a dozen. Cedwyn is required to spend weeks attending the King.

[Cedwyn gains ?1 and 10 Glory]

The northmen, as mercenaries, are not part of this celebration.

[OOC: I need a social roll of your choice (courtesy, flirting, etc), and if you are into that sort of thing, an intrigue roll.]

[Cedwyn]

[Courtesy. Roll of 8 vs. 13. Success. Intrigue: roll of 17 vs 6. Fail.]

[Geoffrey]

OOC: Flirting roll result 12 vs skill 13, success.  Intrigue roll result 16 vs skill 3, failure.

[GM Craig]

[PM's sent.]

[GM Craig]

Other news:

Madoc: ?The admiral is seeking volunteers to raid the Saxons up and down the coasts of the Saxon Shore. The objective is simply to destroy as many ships as possible.?

Ulfius: ?The victorious King Aethelswith, the new Saxon, has started to call himself the King of the East Saxons. No one really cares.?

********************************

Event: The Christmas Feast is one of the three regular Crown Wearings of the year, so everyone comes to court to participate. Sarum castle is mightily crowded with King Uther and his retinue present. Nonetheless, everyone is invited to the annual event. It lasts for a week.

At various times, gifts are given. All goes well, with the servants first getting gifts from the earl, then the knights (so that the player knights who are bachelors get their annual clothing and so on). The earl then gives his household officers presents, and then his own family members get their gifts.

The king next does the same for his household, knights, and officers. Finally, he gives his son a new set of armour and a generous grant of several manors of land on the Thames, and also the holding of Windsor Castle. This is a huge gift, but not unusual for royalty, who have many expenses.

Among the earls, Roderick gives Uther a beautiful cloak trimmed with the fur of white bears, imported from Norway. The dukes all have gifts to better that. Finally, Prince Madoc calls in his men, and ten retainers come forth carrying special stretcher-like frames to bear large treasure. They place them in a semicircle and, on the prince?s signal, open them all at once. All contain booty from the war: A chest of silver coin, another of gold; one of goblets and plates, another of jewelry; one of silver and gold, one of red and purple jewels; another of bolts of silk and samite, others of gold cloth and silver thread. Prince Madoc then unrolls a cloth as if it was a carpet. Everyone sees that it is a battle standard taken from a dead Saxon chief. The king descends, walking upon it, to admire the goods.

He then takes various things and fondly hands them over to his lords, pressing goblets, jewellery, and a bolt of silk upon one; a massive gold necklace and a book upon another; and so on, seeming to know the right gift for each man. Then handfuls of silver for his knights, and a fistful for each visiting knight (?1 to each Salisbury player knight, or perhaps more if their Glory warrants it).

[Cedwyn receives ?5. Rodric receives ?1.]


After a long while, all the gift-giving seems to be over and the great hall is cleared to set up the tables for the feast. Suddenly, at the back of the room the people are all abuzz, a herald rushes in and makes a great shout.

?Presenting the great wizard Merlin, the Guardian of Britain!? he says, just in time as the impatient mage walks into the room. He looks neither right nor left, but strides to the front, where King Uther sits on the earl?s throne.

?Welcome, Merlin, to these halls,? the king says. ?You are always welcome in my court.?

Merlin thanks the king, and speaks in a loud, clear voice. ?Gold and silver, clothing from far distant lands; these are surely gifts worthy of a king. Yet you, Uther, deserve more, for surely no one in the world has ever sat as high as you, not even the emperors of Rome.? Uther is clearly flattered. ?Yet, even you lack one thing.? The king frowns, the room murmurs. ?Such a great man deserves nothing but the best, and he who would bring peace to the whole of our great land deserves all that would help him to obtain it. And so I, your humble servant, am pleased to offer you, from my weak hands, this.? And he pulls from beneath his robes a gleaming sword whose own internal light causes everyone to gasp in delight and wonder.

Cedwyn and Rodric both recognize the sword as the one Merlin pulled from the lake.

Even the king is surprised and stands up. Merlin takes the sword by its point, his hands covered by his robe so as not to tarnish the blade, and extends the pommel to the king. ?For the High King,? says Merlin, and with a loud triumphant statement, ?Excalibur, the Sword of Victory!?

Everyone in the room gasps aloud, and when the king takes the sword they break into applause and cheer. It is clear that the king is highly pleased. ?Surely, now,? he says, ?no one can stand before me.?

?All you need do,? says Merlin, ?is to remain just.?

King Uther holds the gleaming sword and stares at it in wonder. ?Now I?m prepared to visit some friends of mine.? Ulfius, at a table nearby, chuckles. Uther names the nobles who will accompany him to visit Duke Lindsey, and among them is the Earl of Salisbury.

?This is cause to celebrate then,? says Uther. ?Bring forth the tables, and make a place at my right hand for Merlin, whose wisdom and truth guides our good land.?

?Thank you, Lord,? says the magician.

The 'ceremony' breaks up a little, and Merlin steps forward to take the Earl of Salisbury's elbow. Cedwyn and Rodric see them have a quiet conversation, with several glances in their direction. Merlin steps away, but the Earls eyes remain on you for several seconds.

And the feast begins. It lasts for eight solid hours.

As the feast begins to wind down, Earl Roderick bangs his mug on the table for attention. He waves at Cedwyn and Rodric and calls you by name.

"Sir Cedwyn, Sir Rodric - with the kind permission of my lord Merlin, tell us the tale of what happened this past summer! And leave out no details."

You glance at Merlin - you had been sworn to secrecy after all - but he nods his assent.

[Orate rolls if you please. Or something similar if you prefer. I'll modify the result based on the written presentation, so a failed roll is not necessarily a failed result.]

[Geoffrey]

Rodric waited for Cedwyn to begin, but his fellow knight seemed oddly hesitant.  He put his hand on the man's shoulder and looked at him, his eyes and gesture asking if he should speak first.  Having given a nod by his friend he began his account of the events.

?Sir Bar had ordered  Cedwyn and I to investigate an armed party of roughly 150.  When we found the group we first thought they were a Saxon raiding party.  The warriors we could clearly see were outfitted with Saxon equipment but I had noticed an oddity, there were women and children amongst the group.  Cedwyn ordered Haden to attach a flag indicating we wished to parlay to his banner and we approached.

When we closed, those that stepped forward were two children, a boy and a girl, 15, perhaps 16 years of age.  They had been captured in their homeland but managed to overpower the Saxon?s on their ships and fight to earn their freedom. 

A quick plan was made to escort them to a suitable place to camp and then the following day Cedwyn would return to Sir Bar, along with Arne so he could represent his people, and a decision on what should be done could be made.

In order to minimize any surprise or unnecessary hostilities, Cedwyn and I rode ahead along with their two leaders.  While we scouted the road ahead we came upon an old man, who we later learned was Merlin himself, by the side of a river and near a cliff?s edge.  Cedwyn opened a dialog while the rest of us scanned the area for a potential ambush.

We saw nothing other than the large black goat a top the cliff which the old man said had gotten away from him and asked for our help in retrieving.  We agreed and went after the stray animal.  Our efforts were thwarted, I would hope due to the fact that the animal was enchanted,? Rodric looked at Merlin somewhat questioningly, ?and not because our skills in the hunt were lacking.

We had tracked the animal into some nearby woods when we heard the goat cry out and unbelievably heavy footfall.  In moments standing before us was a three eyed giant, the goat clutched by the horns within one of its hands.  It tossed the goat aside and let out a roar.

Arne and Cedwyn charged forth, axe and sword at the ready and Valka close behind with naught but a dagger.   My squire, Suger had trailed after us carrying my shield and a few spears, so I readied my shield and moved quickly to close with Suger right behind me.

Seeing our charge, the giant ripped a tree the size of Valka from the ground and readied itself.  Cedwyn was the first to reach the beast and barely managed to avoid being struck by the tree.  Cedwyn countered  with a slash of his sword to the giant?s leg.  The creature roared in fury, even though it?s thick hide absorbed most of the blow.

Arne was next, his axe hitting the giant?s hide hard, and Valka, who perhaps prudence had caught up with her,  called out to Suger to throw her a spear.  The squire had thrown it with such accuracy Valka caught it in one hand and without losing a step, was able to drive it deep into the beast.

That truly enraged the thing and it took out its fury on Cedwyn.  He received a blow so powerful it sent him hurdling through the air and nearly knocking him out cold.  In response, Arne?s axe bit so deep, that despite the giant?s thick hide it was enough to stagger the creature.  Valka not to be outdone drove her spear into the beast and the giant slumped to the ground.  Approaching it, I could still smell the foul odor from its breath so with a final stab the creature was finished.

It was then that the old man stepped out, congratulating us and in moments, Merlin revealed himself to us.  He knelt down and healed Cedwyn?s wounds, and with naught but a few words, asked the four of us to follow and walked deeper into the woods, a mist beginning to rise up.  Unsure of what lay ahead and not ones to argue with a wizard, we followed quickly only to find ourselves in a place where everything seemed more alive.  We had little time to get our bearings before a warrior on horseback, covered in green slime and with swords in each hand was upon us.

?Protect me? Merlin asked of us as the creature grew two more arms, these new arms breaking off branches to wield as clubs.  The wizard moved behind us as the rider attacked.  The battle was quick but strange none the less.  Where blood would spill from a normal man, this creature bled foul smelling water, and when it was over, no body remained, both man and beast, which we now noticed were one, dissolved into naught be a green slime.

Our assigned task complete, and Merlin?s as well for the wizard had vanished during the fight, but we met up with him again at the edge of a lake and he held a sword in his hand, Excalibur.  He then spirited us back to the forest where he told us to lead the Northerners to the ruins of Broad and we parted ways.

While I remained with the Northerners, Cedwyn and Arne rode to meet with Sir Bar, who instructed us to support the Northerners on our own lands until the Earl could decide what should be done with them.  Originally there was talk of Cedwyn and I each taking a number of them to help ease the burden, but after all they had been through thanks to the Saxon filth, it seemed wrong to force them to divide themselves so I offered to take them as a whole.

And so they have been on my lands ever since.?

[OOC: I think I'm now 0 for 3 on orate rolls, roll result 19 vs skill 10, failure.]

[GM Craig]

Sir Rodric stumbles a little, stutters sometimes, and generally appears uncomfortable with the attention. Still, the story elicits nods of approval, gasps of surprise, and more than a few ladies fluttering kerchiefs at their throats. Several ladies eye Lady Habren with jealousy, and some eye Sir Rodric with gleaming eyes and heaving bosoms. The tale has clearly made an impression.

[Cedwyn, Rodric, Arne and Valka gain 50 Glory.]