A Chronicle of the Year of the Stolen Saint,

Four-hundred and Ninety-Eight

A Tale of a Count Most Beleaguered, a Relic Recovered from Beneath the Earth, and a Bear That Spoke Before It Could Be Met

Session Summary

• The five champions arrive at Lambor to find the Count besieged by refugees and wary of strangers; Arianrhod presents Sarum's letters and Euric charms the Count's niece Lucinda at the feast, while Arianrhod and Drusilla uncover troubling rumours — Tribruit has been entirely swallowed by the forest, and armoured riders circle Lambor's walls each night in silence.
• At the village of Lilleburn, fairy-grown saplings have locked every wagon wheel and resisted all attempts at removal; the champions must pit their deepest virtues against the Fairy King's will.
• Emma and Euric break the enchantment through critical feats of valour and energy, each earning fifty glory; Arianrhod and Drusilla hold firm and earn twenty-five each; Aur, rattled by an ill-timed jest from Euric, falters and the fairy press walks over him.
• Travelling south toward the Abbey of Saint Hippolytus, Emma navigates the party around a dangerous patrol entirely unseen; they note a freshly turned sixth barrow among the ancient burial mounds at Dunstable and file it for later.
• A local priest, Father Bland, cheerfully recommends a forest shortcut; they politely decline and take the long road.
• The Abbot reveals the abbey's reliquary of Saint Hippolytus was stolen a week prior by a visiting priest; Arianrhod asks the right question and the trail leads straight back to Father Bland.
• The squires dig up the false sixth barrow and recover the reliquary intact; Father Bland arrives in tears and confesses before anyone can accuse him, and Drusilla delivers a pointed but compassionate verdict — he vows to crawl the road back on bare knees.
• The Abbot gifts them a secret path into the Enchanted Wood that costs less will to traverse; at the forest's edge, a bear of impossible size addresses them directly.

Dramatis Personae

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

Also named in counsel and rumour: Countess Ellen of Sarum; the Count of Lambor, lord of a forest-eaten realm; King Sauvage, fairy sovereign of the Enchanted Wood.

Newly met upon the road: Lucinda of Lambor, the Count's niece; Father Bland of Dunstable, priest and most abject penitent; the Right Reverend Abbot of Saint Hippolytus; Lucius, squire to Lady Emma; Bakken, squire to Sir Aur; and one Bear, prodigious in stature and unexpectedly articulate.