499 Session 9 - Group 2

A Chronicle of the Year of False Roads,

Four-hundred and Ninety-Nine

Being a Tale of Pilgrims Rejected and Bandits Answered, of a Talking Bird with Many Grievances, and of a Village Where the Trees Dare Not Grow

Session Summary

• Arianrhod completed a pagan pilgrimage to Stonehenge and received a divine miracle (+1D3 healing rate for a year). Sir Aur of Lambor went on a Christian pilgrimage to St Paul's Cathedral in Londinium, saw the Sword in the Stone, tried to pull it and fumbled his devotion roll — no further pilgrimages for two years.
• Drusilla fumbled her Intrigue roll but delivered false intelligence with great confidence: Ryderchan was supposedly reaching out in peace. The party resolved to ride north to Oxford bearing gifts.
• Entering Ryderchan, no escort came to meet them. Two knights sensed they were being watched. They set a night watch.
• Bandits ambushed the camp at night with arrows. Drusilla was knocked unconscious by two arrows; Arianrhod was also wounded. Sir Euric and Sir Aur charged into the forest; Sir Euric cut down two footmen with his family sword. Arianrhod, mounted, rode down an archer before fumbling and dropping her sword. Lady Emma dragged the unconscious Drusilla behind the wagon and performed a critical first aid save.
• Sir Euric interrogated a prisoner. The bandit revealed they were hired by Basile de Wallingford, who spread slander that Countess Ellen rides to sup with Cerdic. The party was furious.
• The prisoners were tied together and sent stumbling down the road. The party retreated via Kinnerton and Castle Lambore, abandoning the Oxford route.
• In the Forest Sauvage, Drusilla sang the magpie song taught by Merlin's druid. A lone, magnificently vain magpie descended and spoke — a spy for King Sauvage, delighted to have a kind audience. It agreed to guide them.
• The magpie led the knights to the village of Gorboduc: enslaved peasants building a stone tower under armed guards, the forest conspicuously absent from the clearing. The red-haired Gorboduc was spotted walking the perimeter, guards trembling at his approach. Session ended on a cliffhanger as Drusilla readied her lance to charge the field guards. Next session: 24 May.

Dramatis Personae

• Lady Arianrhod, the Sharp-Eyed
• Lady Drusilla of Figsbury, the Devout
• Lady Emma of Caerwent, the Far-Sighted
• Sir Euric of Aquitaine, the Ardent
• Sir Aur of Lambor, the Large

Also named in counsel and rumour: Countess Ellen of Sarum; Basile de Wallingford, lord of Ryderchan and employer of brigands.

And newly met upon the road: the Magpie, spy-in-chief to King Sauvage, name unpronounced by human tongue; Gorboduc, red-haired lord of a clearing where the forest keeps its distance.