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Aleks

In the winter, we were told that King Nanteleod wanted to hold court at Sarum this year. We thought it was so he was within striking distance of Cornwall.

Merl and Kay approached me with a joke to play on Arthur and my sister. But I suggested that a better way to "toughen up" Arthur might be to have a squire tournament. Kay approached Giles and got him to agree. My squire, Ardwen --my younger brother--was defeated by an unknown squire.

At court, there was not much business. But we did hear that Cerdic had gone to parley with Aelle and they had formed an alliance. Prince Mark arrived as well,but there was great tension between him and his knights and those of Nanteleod. Prince Mark asked Baldulf to renounce Nanteleod and join Cornwall. Otherwise, he feared that Nanteleod would attack Cornwall and leave us all weakened against the Saxons. We had a grand feast, but Morgan appeared disgusted by all of it.

Baldulf talked with Morgan and tried to convince her to not war with Cornwall. She played coy, but said she would consider it.

The elder knights met with Nanteleod and convinced him to war with the Saxons this year.

In the hall, Sir Parrigin said that he would go to ask Baldulf for his daughter's hand in marriage. He asked, offering the sword of a king in the north, and Baldulf told him he must prove himself in battle first.

Nanteleod announced that we would fight Saxons, but first we had to fight Cornwall. We all gasped at the change in plans. Then Nanteleod collapsed and was rushed from the room.

The young knights prepared to go find Merl a wife. We traveled to the Feywild, but Merl remembered that there was a huntsman who sometimes helped knights traverse the forest. We traveled and found Sir Marin, the huntsman (the same knight who had his dogs slain by Baldulf years ago). He offered us his hospitality, even finding that I was the son of Baldulf. But he offered us the damned stew again, and we insulted his wife again, and so he exacted our help in a quest in order to get his service. We went to hunt a horned lion. I was knocked unconscious, but Merl and Marius managed to down the beast.

We returned to Sir Marin's house, and Merl took over the stew duty (which seemed rather un-knightly). Marius and I mocked him. We stayed for three weeks and rested, and finally we were able to head into the Forest Savage. We passed the towers of the knights we found earlier, but their towers were in ruins. We stopped at Southhampton, but found that Leslie was away, and all the men had left to go to war with Oberon's kingdom. We headed on to Magogs castle, but found that the king was off at war, as well. Merl played chess with the dwarf, and Merl lost, but the dwarf told us how to get to the king.

We reached the king, and he told us that he could not release Lady Vythalin, without a replacement, for she guards the magic of the spring. Magog told us that Oberon had a knight who was immortal and could only be wounded by a virgin knight, and Sir Marius announced that he was a virgin. Magog asked what Marius would want in return for his service, and Marius said that he would like Vythalin. Merl expostulated, and wracked his brain for another way to defeat the Knight of the Moon. Titania finally told Merl that the knight was also quite fond of poetry, and Merl set off to meet the knight before Marius. Merl sent a loose fairy woman to Marius, and she seduced him, making him unfit to fight the Knight of the Moon.

Merl rode out to meet the knight. They had a poetry competition, and Merl won. The Knight of the Moon rode away. Titania then told Merl that he owed her a favor for her help. Renee took a rose of hers and she wanted it back. Merl agreed to return it to her. Titania told Marius that if he could get the rose and give it to Vithalin first, she would love him first.

We headed north to the edge of Logres and the manor of Sir Renee. As we arrived we got the sense that something in the forest was following us. We tried to track it, but even with Merl's dogs we had a hard time catching it. We heard a man weeping in the woods, and we approached. We found a man of noble birth, completely naked, bawling for Mona. Merl and he wrestled, and Merl appealed to his pride and finally brought him to his senses. He told us that he was there to get the rose to win his Mona. Merl invited him to come along with us. Sir Vincent, the naked knight, told us that Sir Renee had a guardian who protected the rose.

We rode to the garden, and found a suit of rusty armor, which came to life as Merl entered the garden. It challenged Merl and told him that we could only enter the garden if we swore to not take anything from the garden. I agreed to the oath and was able to see the rose, and all the other flowers that inspired passions, but I took nothing. Merl announced that he would take the rose and the rusty armor attacked. Merl and I fought the armor, and Marius sneaked past us to try to get the rose. We defeated the rusty guardian, and Merl and Marius attempted to get to the rose, fighting snakes and a maze to get through. Marius failed. Merl made it through the maze, but when he got to the flower, the woman convinced him to get a flower to incite his hatred for Saxons instead of the rose. Merl also took a flower for Marius that would invoke his passion against Vithalin.

We returned to get Vithalin,and Merl told her that she had been released. Merl went to find Titania and told her that he failed at his quest. She told him that it was of no concern as the flower was not hers.

When we returned, we heard that Giles and the Duke had taken London. The rest of our knights went with the king and attacked Somerset, taking the city of Dorset. We heard that King Ydris had brought reinforcements for Mark. Raiders from Cerdic disrupted our crop production. In the north, King Lot invaded Malahaut, forcing the Centurion King's army to retreat.

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