Year 482: The Magician King

General Summary

For the prior session, see Year 481: An Unjust Conquest. For the following session, see Year 483: The Things We Do for Love.

"We hereby declare a great victory." - King Uther Pendragon

Early in 482 in Salisbury, construction of a new knight's hall is underway at Idmiston, and Lady Arianwen has started a shelter for the poor in Winterbourne Stoke. Meanwhile in Shrewton, Sir Gwyn is hearing complaints and settling disputes from his villagers. Suddenly, a large Pictish man bursts in and reports the theft of his daughter. He jovially reveals himself to be Sir Murdoch of Horsington, the father of Sir Gwyn's wife Lady Illy, who has come to visit. Sir Amlyn of Winterbourne Stoke, Sir Artaire of Idmiston, Sir Hywel of West Lavington, and Sir Hywel's young daughter Molle arrive at Shrewton and ask Sir Gwyn to accompany them to the Castle of Vigor in Caercolun, where they are to meet with a baron and his sister, who is a potential marriage candidate for Earl Roderick of Salisbury.
At the Castle of Vigor, Baron Ederyn of Warcastle tries too hard to be polite and informative and gets off on the wrong foot with the knights. At their request, he agrees to not accompany them to dinner with his sister Lady Llylla. The knights introduce themselves to Lady Llylla, but the meeting quickly changes tone as Lady Llylla unleashes her temper on a servant who accidentally spilled wine on her dress and storms out. The knights eat in awkward silence and leave, upon which Baron Ederyn tells them he hopes to make a decision at the king's court in spring the following year.
The knights next head to the capital city of Londinium in Thamesmouth, as King Uther Pendragon intends to hold court at the royal castle of the White Tower. They immediately find the busy, dirty city is not to their liking. Sir Artaire hires a poet to write a love poem for Lady Adwen and a lutist to perform it as a song, and Sir Amlyn hires the writer to compose a mocking poem about his brother Sir Ioan. Sir Gwyn considers buying a new warhorse, as his died the previous winter, but is appalled by the inflated prices in Londinium and decides against it.
In the White Tower, Sir Artaire quickly breaks off to look for Lady Adwen and finds her flirting with Sir Jarren of Burcombe. His lutist performs the poem for Lady Adwen anyway, drawing attention to the embarrassed Lady Adwen, as Sir Artaire leaves to confront Sir Jarren. Sir Amlyn runs into his brother Sir Ioan, who has a new bastard daughter Mars, and has the poet recite his poem mocking him. Sir Gwyn is introduced to his brother-in-law Sir Yorath of Hallington and his young twin niece and nephew Arwen and Alwyn, and pays his respects to Sir Yorath over the deceased Lady Violette, who was Sir Gwyn's sister and Sir Yorath's wife. Sir Gwyn learns that his father Sir Rolant the Wyrm Hunter has sired another bastard. As the knights meet with Earl Roderick and tell him of the meeting with Baron Ederyn and Lady Llylla, the new Earl Sulien of Bedegraine attends court, and Duke Gorlois of Cornwall shows up with his wife Duchess Ygraine and his daughters Margawse and Elaine. The knights are immediately smitten with the legendarily beautiful duchess.
King Uther decides to hear petitions and the nobles line up to speak. The Roman Christian Archbishop Dubricus implores the king to choose a new royal confessor to hear his sins, and the king reveals he already chosen new confessors: The Roman Christian priest "The Holy Cross-Cut" Father Lucius and the British Christian monk Teacher Padern "the Knee", two ordained thugs who wrestle for the chance to absolve the king of his sins. Duke Ulfius of the Vale asks the king for Lady Ellen's hand in marriage on behalf of his vassal Sir Blains of Levcomagus, who was unable to attend. King Uther announces that he will make a decision regarding Lady Ellen's marriage the following year at court, as Duke Edaris of the Marche has already indicated that he intends to announce the marriage of his daughter Lady Rosalyn that year.
After gossiping with Lady Harley, Lady Anne and Lady Marigold about the king's reputation for siring bastards, Sir Artaire tracks down Duke Ulfius and asks him where the next conflict is. Duke Ulfius tells them that they intend to reclaim land captured centuries ago by the magical kingdom of Somerset in retaliation, as King Cadwy of Somerset has been hoarding silver from the mines and stopped selling it to Logres. The knights will have no choice to participate, as the army is to muster at their local Sarum Castle.
Months later in Sarum, as the armies are preparing for the journey to Somerset, Sir Artaire goes to visit Lady Adwen in Sarum Castle and notices an embarrassed Sir Elad of Vagon sneaking out of Lady Indeg's room. Sir Artaire again catches Lady Adwen with Sir Jarren, who quickly leaves, and Sir Artaire shares a glass of wine with the lady. He then heads to the chirurgeon to speak with his injured hostages, and learns that the knight he captured during the Conquest of Bedegraine has succumbed to his injuries but the knight who attacked Allington is now able to speak. He interrogates the man and learns that he is a poor knight from the nearby kingdom of Roestoc and was hired by the knight on the black horse, but didn't know anything more and refused to incriminate himself to protect his family from finding out that he was breaking the code of chivalry. Sir Artaire leaves the knight, intending to decide what to do with him with Earl Roderick later.
The king is frustrated that Duke Gorlois has again not shown up to muster for the battle and that Merlin the Magician is missing, but decides to march his army towards Somerset regardless. King Cadwy - an old, blind sorcerer known as "The Magician King" - retreats into his marshes and blocks off access to his mostly abandoned mines. As the army approaches, they discover that Duke Gorlois and his vassals have already started sieging castles, claiming that Somerset knights had blocked the path to Salisbury. As the king prepares to make camp, all the knights and footmen find themselves growing very ill and are soon plagued with awful nightmares.
Startled awake from a bad dream in the middle of the night, Sir Artaire finds Sir Amig of Tilshead in his tent, who tells him that the royal huntsman Ralf spoke of a strange watchtower in the nearby marshes that appeared to have a young woman trapped in it. Fearing it may be his sister Lady Orcade of Lighthorne, who was said to be captured by faeries, he asks Ralf to take him to the tower. Sir Artaire remembers Merlin warning him to stop looking for his sister and is conflicted on what to do, but eventually decides to enter the decrepit tower. Inside, he finds a goblin-like redcap faerie named Eeder-Foalley-Jollyssagh eating a young woman among piles of bones and viscera. Sir Artaire tries to sneak up on the redcap but startles it, and it asks what he wants. He asks for information about his sister and the redcap promises to tell him if he answers his riddles. After humouring the creature, Eeder-Foalley-Jollyssagh reveals that Lady Orcade was sold to the Tydfil the Witch but never arrived, and tells him to seek out Tydfil.
The next morning, the knights in King Uther's army finds themselves quickly deteriorating from their sickness. King Uther decides to parley with King Cadwy, and Sir Artaire, Sir Gwyn and Sir Amlyn volunteer to accompany him as part of his guard. The king and his knights approach the Castle by the Great Bridge and are let through by King Cadwy's army, led by his son Prince Melwas astride a green faerie horse. Inside the castle's great hall, the ancient, blind Magician King sits on his throne unmoving and the knights question whether he is alive at all. However, he dismisses his guard, so King Uther does as well. Some time later, King Uther rejoins with his knights looking pale and quiet and declares the parley a success. The army suddenly recovers from their pestilence.
At the feast following the Invasion of Somerset, the Magician King sits to King Uther's right. King Uther announces that Somerset will be incorporated into Logres as a county with King Cadwy, who was also granted new land, presiding as the earl. King Uther notes, however, that King Cadwy will retain the title of King of Somerset and all the powers that come with it; the trade agreements and land agreements will also remain unchanged, but the invasion was nonetheless a great victory for Logres. Confused by the declaration of victory and suspecting foul play, the knights celebrate the win with great unease.
In the winter of 482, Sir Gwyn learns that his wife Lady Illy is pregnant with twins.

Report Date

31 Aug 2019

Primary Location

White Tower

Secondary Location

Castle by the Great Bridge