493

Late winter:

We found that Sir Alain de Corleone had taken over in Castle Tintagel. Luceers wife was concerned with Claudus's wife finding another husband. A squire arrived at Luceer's manor. He is the squire of Sir Lykus, and he bid Luceers to come with him secretly to meet with his master at Castle Ebble. Luceers left a message with his younger brother about where he was headed and headed off.

Giles had spent his time avoiding his wife who had been grieving the death of her son. A young boy named Edwin came to see Giles and told him that his knight, Sir Leo, wants him to come to Castle Ebble in secret. Giles also heads off.

A priest arrived at my manor. He wanted money and I sent him away. Then a squire, Banwin, of Sir Elid arrived and asked me to go to Ebble. I also set out on the road to Ebble..

Luceers got lost and wound up fighting Saxons. He accidentally dropped his sword, and was defeated, despite killing two of the four Saxons.

Giles and I arrived at Ebble and met up with Lykus and Elid. Giles told the story of his ensorcellment by Merlin. We heard news that King Pellinore had abandoned his kingdom to find and kill a mythical creature, and his family is offering a reward for his return.

We waited three days, with still no sign of Luceers. Then Hansel arrived and told us of Luceers' defeat. We suggested we go get him. Elid says it seems like a good initiation test. He told us of the Brotherhood of the Band, an elite group dedicated to helping Salisbury and invites us to join. We left to find Luceers.

Meanwhile, Luceers was visited by the Saxon chieftain, who demanded to know where Giles was. Luceers, weak from hunger and thirst, told the Saxon where Giles has his manor. Half of the Saxon warriors left, heading north to Salisbury. We sent Hansel to warn Roderik, and we charged the remaining warriors. Elid went to rescue Luceers while the rest of us fought the Saxons. We took the village, and headed to the nearest Briton village to have Luceers and Leo checked out by a surgeon. Giles headed home to protect his family from the other Saxons.

He arrived home just in time to prepare for the Saxon assault. But, despite Giles killing the Saxon chief, the Saxons destroyed his manor, although his wife escapes.

We spent a couple of weeks in Carisbrooke and Luceers healed some. Lykus invited Luceers into the Brotherhood. When we headed back,I stopped by and gave Giles his share of the loot from the Saxon village, in part to replace what he lost in the battle.

We learned that there was no muster this year. Roderik invited us to talk with him. He told us that court was troubling because Uther was ill, possibly due to the loss of Madoc and his new child. Uther had told Roderik to head north to meet with the Northern kings. He asked us to choose another knight and head north with him. We chose Callus to go with us. We swung by to pick him up in Chalke. Callus wanted to go fight Saxons in the south as revenge against the Saxons who attacked Giles' manor. But he finally agreed to go with us.

We met Nineve on the road and she told me that we must go left while Roderik goes right. I talked Luceers and Giles into going with me to the left, in part because Nineve said Luceers must go left. When we went left, we saw Sir Edar's horse and a man laying on the ground. Luceers talked to him and found that the man could not move or remember his name. I thought that he might be Sir Edar. Hansel said that Edar's condition was caused by the White Dwarf Giantess. She is married to the Black Dwarf Knight. Giles tracked them to their camp.

We found the dwarf knight, and when he would not answer our questions, he threatened us and Luceers and I attacked. We beat him until he gave up. His wife told us that she cast a spell on Edar's sword and gave it to a knight. And she gave his shield to a giant. And his armor to a wyrm. Without his arms and armor, Edar would not recover his memory. The knight and his wife left.

We headed to find the knight with the sword. He is known as the Knight of the Bright Sword. He has collected a lot of glory taking swords from knights. He offered us drinks from a neverending decanter and told us that he did have Edar's sword. Luceers convinced him to give us the sword since it was stolen from Edar. We gave it to Edar and he remembered that he was on a mission for the Queen under the Waves. We headed on to face the giant. We convinced the Knight of the Bright Blade to help us with the giant and the wyrm.

We found the giant's lair, covered by bones of knights,and when he saw us, he charged us. but we beat him down. We retrieved the shield and took it to Edar. We also found that Merlin was born near here and got his start healing the sick in the area. When we gave Edar his sword, we found that his mission had something to do with Luceers and that he was the paramor of the Queen under the Waves. We left to fight the wyrm. The Knight of the Bright Blade gave us some advice on fighting a wyrm.

When we found the beast, Giles drew the wyrm out of his cave with a boar call. We battled it. Luceers fell off his horse and was severely burnt by the dragon's breath. Between the Knight's great attacks and Hanzel's perfect throw of a torch, we killed the beast.

We gave the armor to Edar, and Luceers had Edar swear an oath (and us) to not raise arms against each other. When he recovered his memory, he told us that he had come to warn Luceers that his queen had sent an assassin to kill him at Christmas.

We headed on to meet Roderik. When we reached the city, the guards turned us away and told us that Roderik was also sent away. We headed back and found Roderik. Callus and I headed to the city and Callus bullied the guard until we were allowed to see King Afion. He sent his wife with us to heal.

Roderik told us that he had no luck getting into the castle. Luceers went to see Lot, and while we went through the city, someone called out to Giles. It was Sir Balwin, who fought with us at the battle of Linsey. He also warned us to turn away. We met with Lot's wife, Queen Elaine, who Luceers had helped to wed Lot. We met with Lot, and he told us that some of the northern kings wished to fight with Uther. And one of the northern kings had brought Aella to the north as a potential ally with the kings against Uther. We told Roderik about the meeting. We prepared to ride out at night. As we headed south, we were trailed by northern knights and Giles led us away from them through the paths. As we got closer to the south, we grew tired, and the pursuers caught our trail again, but we moved into the safety of Uther's kingdom.

After Roderik met Uther, he told us that we will bolster the armies in the north, but not yet attack. Uther would send envoys north to gain support from the Irish king, and he wanted to send Luceers north. Roderik would go to gain support from Brastius. My job would be to take care of Roderik's family while he is gone. Giles would lead a number of families against the Saxons.

During the winter leading into 494, my family was stricken, and I lost my oldest twin son and my illegitimate daughter, and a cousin to the icy grip of winter.