As Salisbury began its muster, some of the knights of Salisbury gathered together. Ever since they had stumbled across the bandits of Blakemoor Wood, they had been gathering information about the widespread problem of banditry. There would always be bandits, especially in times as unsettled as these. But this fact had let the trends of surprisingly well-organised, well-armed bandits slip under the notice of many lords. There was a dark foreboding upon Sir Aeronwy, Sir Albrecht, Sir Arnulf, Sir Cadfael, and Sir Percival. There was a dark motive guiding these woes to some unforeseen end - and if it were not discovered, who knew what evil might befall Logres?
With this in mind, the five knights went to see their Earl Roderick and asked to be excused from the muster. They laid out the evidence that they had gathered to him and revealed how these well-armed bandits were spread across the width and breadth of Britain, and how they seemed to be organised by some secret mastermind. Their words alarmed the Earl, who charged them with the duty of discovering who was responsible, and thwarting their schemes.
The knights held conference about their first step. They had heard about Sir Catrin and her bandit-hunting force sent out from London that they could join forces with, but decided not to for the time being. They also looked at a map and noticed the highest instances of banditry were occurring around the Campecorentin Forest. Sir Percival noticed that the weapons and armour, newly-forged as they were, must surely be sourcing its iron from the iron mines in either the Weald or the Forest of Dean. Failing that, they could seek out a group of bandits and see if they could follow them back to their leader. The knights decided to attack a group of bandits and interrogate them for more information, and after talking to Sir Barr (large of body but small of brain), they headed south to the Modron Forest, where they believed that there was a group of well-armed bandits.
In the Modron Forest, Sir Aeronwy took the lead to discover the bandit gang. Unfortunately, they were not as stealthy as they might have hoped, and the group was ambushed by the bandits! The fighting was fierce, but at the end of it the bandits were slain, fled, or captured. Sir Arnulf interrogated them in a most unusual manner - by seducing one of the bandits, Gabriel. He discovered that the bandits were given their weapons by men disguised as itinerant monks, who would operate from an abandoned chapel. The perfect disguise for these men to move about unseen! Sir Arnulf appointed his new lover as his squire, and the group set off to the abbey at Amesbury to gather more information about the monks.
There had been great changes at Amesbury over the last few years. This was the monastery to which Lady Gwiona retreated after she broke off her engagement to Sir Cadfael. When Sir Cadfael had tried to persuade her to leave, it had only deepened her religious devotion. Her faith was so strong that she was now said to have caused miracles such as healing the sick, and some had began calling her a saint. When the old abbess perished earlier that year, she appointed Saint Gwiona the new leader of Amesbury, and religious women were flocking from around Britain to join her (including Sir Percival's own sister, Sir Esther), for Gwiona had dedicated herself to protecting womankind. Saint Gwiona overlooked her history with Sir Cadfael and told the knights of how a group of strange monks had visited the monastery earlier that year - possibly the men that they were looking for.
Considering their many leads, the knights decided not to follow up the monks any further, feeling that it would be impossible to locate them. Instead they decided to head to the Campecorentin Forest - a move which excited Sir Aeronwy in particular, who had heard rumours of Illwind Castle, a hidden village deep in the forest, ruled over by a coven of witches and guarded by an invincible Black Knight, and was very keen to investigate this! However, the others decided to avoid Illwind Castle and sought information on banditry from the villages on the outskirts of the forest. There, the knights discovered that the villages were being regularly raided in force by bandits. The bandits were, in fact, acting as foraging parties! Signs pointed to a large force of organised bandits, hidden inside the murky depths of the Campecorentin Forest.
The knights decided that this problem was too big for them now. They needed help! The time had come to seek out Sir Catrin and her bandit-hunters from London. Fortunately, Sir Catrin was nearby, in the White Horse Hills in north-western Silchester. Sir Catrin was a strict veteran, who scoffed at the knights' tales of organised banditry. Once she had dealt with the banditry problem here, however, she would head to the Campecorentin Forest to investigate. The five knights of Salisbury agreed, and joined her forces.
Unfortunately, Sir Catrin's definition of 'deal with' proved harsher than they were comfortable with. The force discovered and destroyed a group of bandits - and then had them cruelly crucified to serve as a lesson. Horrified, Sir Aeronwy (who had renounced her own cruel ways after her time in Faerie) secretly killed the bandits upon the crosses, to speed up their agonising deaths. The situation became worse in the next village, however - for Sir Catrin discovered that some bandits were living within the village itself, and so she started crucifying peasants as well! Her methods might be effective, but they were morally wrong, Sir Cadfael decided - and so the next day he called out Sir Catrin before her entire task force, chastising her for her brutal methods and challenging her before God to a duel for leadership of the expedition! Sir Cadfael was a skilled fighter, but it quickly became apparent that Sir Catrin's prowess was far greater than his own. Sir Cadfael was doing all he could to withstand the mighty attacks of Sir Catrin; his shield was splintered and blood ran from his wounds. Suddenly, Sir Cadfael put all of his strength into a single mighty blow and smote Sir Catrin's head clean off her shoulders. God must have been with his cause!
Impressed by the outcome of the duel, the knights of London agreed to serve Sir Cadfael, and the army headed to Campecorentin Forest, to investigate what was going on. The knights sent out scouts, who discovered the location of Illwind Castle (though they refused to investigate further!) and an entire army of bandits, peasants and outlaws within the forest! The two were in quite different places, much to Sir Aeronwy's disappointment, who was hoping that there was some connection between the two. The knights moved against the bandit army, easily destroying a watchpost within the forest without allowing any to raise the alarm, and then dispatched Sir Aeronwy with a small group to scout out the main encampment.
Sir Aeronwy returned swiftly, alone and bearing ill tidings. The scouts had been discovered by this peasant army, which was far larger than expected - and on its way now! Fleeing in disorder would be suicide, so Sir Cadfael ordered his troops into a shield wall and to begin falling back. Outnumbered ten to one or more, the knights fought valiantly against the mob assailing them, but their numbers were too few. The shield wall never broke, however, and after hours of a fighting withdrawal the few survivors were able to escape, bearing the wounded, knowing that they would surely soon be pursued - and that would be if they were lucky. If they were not pursued, then it surely meant that the bandit army was marching, and Logres was undefended - her own army fighting in Soissons, and not expecting this new threat from within its own borders.
During the retreat, two events of note occurred. Sir Arnulf's misplaced trust in his lover Gabriel was repaid during the battle in the Campecorentin Forest when Gabriel stabbed Sir Arnulf and attempted to flee. Sir Aeronwy slew the traitor, and Sir Percival bandaged the wound, which was deep but not life-threatening. The second was that the knights saw the leader of the bandit army exhorting on his followers, and recognised him. Although he had grown leaner and crazier, the bandits were undoubtedly being led by the survivor of the Blakemoor Wood bandits!
(A note: this adventure was designed to have a number of paths the players could follow. I'd thought that the players might try to infiltrate the bandit army, or might interrogate someone, or might get captured by them -which wound up never happening. As a result, the identity of the bandit leader had to be revealed largely out-of-character. In our first session one anonymous bandit hated knights so much that he lost control of himself, started frothing at the mouth, and ran off into the woods. This fellow became an in-joke amongst our group, and I was asked when he would return! So this was it. He'd been driven completely insane by his hatred of knights and believed that he was touched by God to lead a revolution. He was not the cause of the banditry, but he had co-opted a number of bandit groups and discontented peasants, all of whom bought into his insanity, to form his army.)
The very battered few knights who had survived the onslaught knew that they had to find a defensible position to regroup, and quickly, for word had to be spread of what was to come. To Sir Aeronwy's glee and everyone else's horror, there was only one defensible position that anyone knew of nearby: the accursed Castle Illwind. Slim hope seemed better than no hope, however, and so the handful of knights headed towards that blighted place. The group travelled by day and by night to reach it as soon as possible. However, they soon began to see macabre and occult visions warning them to leave on the night as they grew close - a terrible witch appeared in a flash of green fire to tell them to depart; skulls rained from the air upon them the air, and a robed skeleton that appeared to be the Grim Reaper itself attacked Sir Cadfael, before vanishing!
When the knights arrived at the village of Illwind, they found it quiet and afraid. The buildings were decorated with demonic symbols. The peasants hid from them. One woman, Bronwyn, approached them and warned the knights to flee to save their lives and their souls. Sir Arnulf disappeared. And the gates of the castle opened, like the maw of hell itself, and from it came a terrible Black Knight! Sir Albrecht ran and hid underneath a bed, and the knights of London quaked in their armour in terror as the Black Knight set his lance and charged Sir Aeronwy, who readied her spear and...
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| Castle Illwind - by Sir Aeronwy's player |
..."Ow!" the Black Knight exclaimed, as he was easily swept from his saddle. Meanwhile, Sir Arnulf emerged from talking to Bronwyn, to reveal that the entire village was a hoax. The supernatural goings-on were a fraud, designed by the village wisewoman, Odie. The village had always been isolated due to its location deep in the Campecorentin Forest, and at the Battle of Mount Damen a few years earlier, the menfolk had gone to war for Logres and never returned. As a result, the womenfolk had concocted this ruse to protect themselves, and the Black Knight was in fact the young Lady of the castle, Violette. The knights were impressed - particularly Sir Cadfael, who was smitten with the bold Lady Violette - and took an oath never to reveal their secret to anyone.
After a day to recover, the knights of Salisbury headed out to find out why they had not been pursued. They soon found that the Prophet had led his army east through Rydychan, making a line towards London. Sir Percival departed immediately, riding to London as swiftly as he could to warn them to ready their defences. Meanwhile, as the other knights emerged from the forest, they were met by a letter from Amesbury and Gwiona. How could she have known where they were? Perhaps it was a miracle! Saint Gwiona reported that a group of strange pilgrims had stopped off at Amesbury recently and were heading towards Cornwall. She felt certain that these were the men that the knights were hunting. Furthermore, the 'monks' were moving quite slowly along the road, so if the knights hurried, they should be able to catch up to them.
Sir Arnulf, Sir Aeronwy, Sir Cadfael and Sir Albrecht headed south with all haste, and managed to catch up to the fake pilgrims on the road in Devon. The pilgrims, when confronted, revealed themselves to be mercenaries and a deadly battle ensued, but the sellswords were no match for knights, and those who did not perish surrendered. Their wagons contained a hidden shipment of gold for Duke Gorlois of Cornwall! The Duke had been accepting Saxon gold in exchange for not taking part in Uther's wars! More importantly, however, the mercenaries were able to give information. They were hired in London, in Southwark, in a gaol there. When they needed to contact their employee, or their employee wished to contact them, they would be thrown in a special cell, where a message with instructions and the location of payment would be hidden. The perfect place for many mercenaries to enter and exit without any attention being paid to them! But this confirmed that the secret mastermind, who was in league with the Saxons, had to be operating within London!
And so, with an army of peasants and bandits lead by an insane fanatic bearing down on them from without, and a traitor plotting to strike from within, the group reunited in London. Sir Percival had already been in London for over a week when the other knights joined him, and he was able to name the only four individuals with sufficient resources to mastermind this plot - Lady Mayor Rhiann, Sir Ifan, the old captain of the guard; Sir Eleri, the Captain of the Yeomen Warders of the Tower of London; and Archbishop Hywel of Canterbury. With very little time remaining, the group decided to split up, one knight talking to each of the suspects and the fifth investigating the gaol in Southwark.
Unfortunately they learnt very little in their investigations. Sir Cadfael sent his squire into the gaol, but the ruse was discovered and his squire was murdered. Only some limited motives were discovered for the four suspects. Lady Rhiann was known to be unscrupulous in her dealings, and might not hesitate to ally with the Saxons for a profit. Sir Ifan had been appointed to his position by King Vortigern and his Saxon advisors. Sir Eleri had been appointed to her position due to the importance of her family, and was the guardian of two important prisoners - King Octa and his cousin Eosa, captured after the Battle of Mount Damen some four years earlier. The Archbishop was in exile in London after the Saxons had conquered Canterbury, and dreamed of reuniting Britain under one religion.
At this point, the revolting peasants reached the city. Sir Ifan led the defence and, although greatly outnumbered, held the rabble back from the city walls. The knights of Salisbury conferred and decided that they felt that Archbishop Hywel was the traitor, and was likely to betray them by opening the city gates to the attacking force. Indeed, the Archbishop did travel to the gates and order them to be opened - but only so that he could exit and try to reason with the mob. For his troubles, he was martyred by the insane Prophet, strangled with his bare hands.
That night, Sir Ifan charged Sir Albrecht and Sir Cadfael with leaving the city on a possibly suicidal mission. The bandit army was upset after they had been repulsed from the city walls, and now they were very upset due to the murder of the Archbishop. Sir Ifan felt that if the Prophet himself was slain now, the bandits and peasants might abandon the siege and flee. Meanwhile, Sir Aeronwy, Sir Albrecht and Sir Percival continued to watch the city, posting friendly knights who had fought with them in the Campecorentin Forest to watch for signs of treachery.
Sir Albrecht, Sir Cadfael and a few other knights left the city by a river gate and travelled secretly on the Thames to reach the outskirts of the bandit army. However, they were not stealthy enough and were discovered immediately! As thunder rumbled in the sky, Sir Albrecht had a moment of inspiration. "I am the chosen of Wotan!" he bellowed. "Take me to your leader, that I might prove his falseness!" Intimidated, the peasants guarding them agreed and took the knights to the centre of their camp, to a large bonfire where the insane Prophet waited for them.
The Prophet laughed at Sir Albrecht, derided Wotan, and put his hand into the roaring bonfire, letting his flesh wither and melt in the flames, to prove his religious strength (and insanity)! He then challenged Sir Albrecht to demonstrate the strength of Wotan. Reluctantly, Sir Albrecht was forced to accept - and he, and the prophet, both leapt into the bonfire, burning alive! The pain was indescribable, but Sir Albrecht felt the presence of Wotan about him and stared grimly into the eyes of the Prophet as their skin blackened and charred, as their hair became a blazing halo about them. It was the Prophet who yielded first - screaming in agony, he fell down and was consumed. Sir Albrecht, still on fire but barely hurt, stepped forth from the bonfire. "BEHOLD THE CHOSEN OF WOTAN!" he roared - and in the sky, lightning flared and the rain fell, extinguishing the fires. The peasants fled and the siege was ended - but the cult of Wotan had been born.
After this drama, the mystery of the traitor was an anti-climax! A knight watching the Tower of London reported fighting, as Saxon ships from Kent sailed up the Thames and entered the Tower - unchallenged, due to treachery and the distraction of the bandit army. Sir Eleri the Traitor, Captain of the Yeomen Warders, had been swayed by her despair and the honeyed tongue of King Octa (the true mastermind of all that had befallen). Now she and her followers massacred the loyal Yeomen Warders, and Saxons took control of the Tower of London, freeing the prisoners and threatening to capture the entire city from an unconquerable citadel. Sir Percival, Sir Aeronwy and Sir Arnulf fought with traitor Yeomen Warders, but were unable to make any difference to the outcome.
However, soon behind the Saxons came the armies of Logres, led by Prince Madoc, returned from Soissons at the behest of Merlin, who had foreseen this need. The Saxons, seeing that their plan was undone, fled the city, many dying in the process. King Octa and Eosa escaped, as did the traitor Sir Eleri, and there was extensive damage to London in the fighting, but the day was saved.
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