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Merl had been living through the winter in a tent outside, where the snow fell heavily. He tried a rhubarb experiment, but seemed thwarted by his curse no matter what he did--within a few hours the food would rot. Giles and I rode to see how far the snow extended, and Giles almost died from exposure. As we rode back, we saw two knights--Sir Gawain and his brother Gareth--who were looking for Merl. Gawain told us that they had spent the entire summer chasing Cerdic's Saxons, who refused to meet them on the field. We returned to the keep and talked to Merl. He decided to head to the woods witch with Gawain, while the rest of us headed to the Saxon village.

The witch told Merl that she thought the ward made by her mother for John may be causing the problems. She offered to help Merl if he swore an oath to never build a Christian church in his lands. Merl swore to not build a church unless directly ordered by Arthur and to give her his son Gryphon.

Merl brought the witch back to the keep. The Saxon villagers said the witch had stolen one of their children. Senorix tried to attack Merl, and I had to restrain him. Tor threatened to leave. Senorix argued that the witch and Chandler were working together to keep lords out of the manor. Merl confronted the two of them, and in a fit, Merl smashed the witch's head and then seemed to realize what he had done and ran out of the room. Gavin chased him down and tried to reason with I'm, and the two wound up getting lost. The rest of us ate and napped. We showed the dead witch to the villagers. Two days later, Merl and Gavin arrived, frost burnt.

Merl asked Chandler to show him where the Wakely's possession were stored. He showed us a pile of letters from William's wife and a chest from John.

Merl buildt a henge and I rebuilt the church. The food finally started to get better. Merl sent for Vythalin and more food. She came in the spring, bringing Gawain with her. We threw a festival, and even Sir Kay came, along with two young knight, Sir Sagamore and Sir Doddinos--also Sir Bedivere. Vythalin had organized a hunt, and the knights grouped up. Sir Gawain, Giles and I stayed behind. I saw Gawain leaving Vythalin's room.

Gawain and Giles found nothing on the hunt.

Merl and Tor found a fallow deer and beat it with clubs. They won the hunt.

Senorix and Kay found a bear and killed it.

Doddinus and Sagamore didn't return.

The party went on, and finally Doddinos and Sagamore arrived, bloodied and injured and escorting two noble women. They said that they had found these women in a coach being attacked. The young knights defended them. We mounted up and went to find the Saxons. Merl led us over the river, cutting them off before they could reach their main group. We fought. We defeated the Saxons and rescued Baron Porten. Merl rescued his daughter. We took a prisoner and he told us that their chieftain Eofan wanted to meet with Merl.

We found Sagamore and Doddinus arguing about who was better. They challenged each other to a duel.

The next day we had a jousting tourney. Giles bested me. Senorix bested Tor. Merl bested Bedivere. Gawain bested Kay. In the second round, Gawain bests Merl. Giles beat Senorix. In the third round, Giles won the Peasant's Tourney.

With the culmination of the tourney, we felt the curse on the manor lift and the ghosts leave.

Sagamore and Doddinus dueled for three hours, but the winner was undecided. They both bet they could kill more Saxons in the coming year.

We went to meet the Saxon thegn, Yeofun. Merl parleyed with Yeofun. Yeofun told us that Aelle and Cerdic would destroy us all. However, he agreed to swear fealty to Arthur

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