The Great Pendragon Campaign: Epic Play-Through Year 497

Summary: Our group is attempting a complete run of the Great Pendragon Campaign  using 5^th edition rules. Players are Matt, Mark, and Lilith. I am the GM.

Year 497

The second year in the Anarchy Period, there is no king in Britain.

Our current roster of characters:

•         Sir Safrax, played by Lilith.
•         Sir Quintus, played by Matt.
•         Sir Aeddan of Pitton, played by Mark.

Invasions press from all sides! King Idres of Brittany and Cornwall is rolling up into Britain, capturing Tintagel this year. The Isle of Wight refused tribute to Cerdic of Wessex, so he invaded and put everyone to the sword, giving the island to his son.  Lords elsewhere in Britain are paying the Saxons, or are out-and-out joining them as vassals.

This year, the player knights decide to consolidate Countess Ellen’s hold on Salisbury. There are a number of recalcitrant bachelor knights who have not sworn loyalty to the new Countess, so the player knights travel around from manor to manor convincing the knights to swear fealty. They are mostly successful, through a combination of persuasiveness, deal-making, and outright bribery. Salisbury stands united.

This is a good thing, as three separate Saxon lords come demanding tribute. The Countess decides to pay this year, but the hostility between the different Saxon legations allows her to play them off one another to Salisbury’s benefit.

Thoughts: The campaign book is super light this year, but the players decided to try to bolster the regime in their home province. This self-directed task was quite successful thanks to many very good rolls on courtly skills. The knights they could not just convince through talking were given concessions or bribes by grace of the Countess, and Salisbury is in a pretty good position pretty quickly. This is super important, as will be seen in future years.