Hi, just bouncing some ideas with the forumites, comments and ideas welcome.

First, the PKs in our campaign have managed to get into a bit of a bind with a very powerful faerie of the unseelie court. She is not EVIL with capital letters, but she is malicious and all that stuff. The knights have promised to fulfill a quest each year for 5 years. The first quest was getting a heart of a unicorn, which they managed (although not exactly the way she intended: a wrong unicorn). The second quest was getting the Circle of Gold from the published adventure; this was not completed during the second year so they are trying it again this year. I do have an idea for a third adventure, but I'd appreciate ideas that you might have.

Secondly, way back when the previous generation of PKs raided and conquered some manors of Levcomagus for Salisbury. A counterpunch followed a few years later, and one knight of Levcomagus (lets call him Publius Senior) managed to get himself killed in a duel against one of the PKs (a crit is not nice). Anyway, Publius Senior had a son (just a kid at the time), who is now a rather famous jouster and a swordsman, better than the current crop of PKs who include the son of the PK killing Publius Senior. Not only that, but Publius Junior has a significant Hate passion towards Salisbury due to the above things, and given how the Orkney clan went hunting for Pellinore over a battlefield kill, I could see Publius Junior wanting blood for blood. Again, in the literature, knights were quite happily smiting one another outside the court, even killing one another (especially during the Grail Quest). My question is, how would this kind of 'My name is Publius Junior, your father killed my father, prepare to die' - kind of challenge would be viewed socially? And would the challenged party be able to back out of the challenge without losing face?

If it's an open challenge leading to a straight up fight, then Publius Jr is fine. Indeed he is demonstrating filial piety and loyalty to his lord in striving to revenge himself upon the Salisbury knights and overturn the depradations of the previous generation. This is absolutely the chivalric way.

If it's an open challenge leading to an 'unfair' fight (extra numbers, catching the PKs at a disadvantage in some fashion), then this is business as usual for the fighting classes. Publius Jr won't be regarded as an epitome of chivalry, but neither will he be ostracised by anyone (other than those he's feuding with). If Arthur is in power, then this might be a black mark whenever he is up for consideration for favour by the court but he won't be subject to official sanction.

If it's ambush or secret murder (like what the Orkney men did to Lamorak) then it is a villainous act. How he gets treated depends upon how 'public' the events become, how much credit he has for his other deeds and how many lances he can mobilise against those who want to sanction him.

Note that the dividing line between an 'unfair fight' and 'secret murder' can be very subjective.

Regards
Luke

Thanks, Luke, for your views on this. Publius Junior is on the short list for a RTK position, so it is the first honorable option he would be aiming at. He is on the safe ground then socially.

My other question regarding this was what options the challenged PK would have? He will be at a disadvantage: Publius Junior has 10 years of more experience to draw on and his reputation is such that he hasn't been idle during that time, although in Glory they are matched about to the same thousand or two. Is there a socially acceptable way for him to wriggle out from accepting the challenge?

If it's an honorable challenge from an honorable person to honorable combat, then there really is no way to back out of it gracefully, in my estimation. Mind you, if the higher-ups at court considered the player-knight clearly outclassed, with a Courtesy roll he might be granted a stay in which to prepare (or at least set his affairs in order). Depends on how public a fight Publius Junior deigned to make it. Challenges to the death are frowned upon in Arthur's day, save for the most grievous offenses. It's a deep insult to "accidentally" kill someone in a duel to first blood, likely would get Publius the Younger banished from court like Balin.

For the further faerie quests, go hog-wild with all the difficult adventures and adventure seeds. Send the player-knights ultimately to fight for the King of Castle Mortal, if they haven't found a way out of this by the time you're ready to run the Adventure Of The Castle Of Joy. Start small. Trick them into doing things which aid the Unseelie Court and foster darkness, decay, destruction. They can be dupes rather than active aids to evil. For example, they might not have needed to kill the unicorn, when just sullying it with a touch would prove enough for its sanctity to be violated by the Unseelie (the film Legend hinged on such an act).

Echoing Trout, would the higher-ups necessarily allow the duel? Just because a feud was a matter of honor, doesn't mean that a lord will tolerate it among his vassals. The kings of France cracked down on private wars amongst his vassals on the occasions that they were powerful enough to do so; later, even personal duels become rarer and rarer, as central authorities could interfere more and more. I think we can kind of see this sort of thing in Mallory, when Balin's story begins with him recently released from prison (?) for killing one of the king's relatives in such a feud. I could very much see the lords of these knights interfering, to avoid the destabilization that chronic vendettas bring, and to assert their authority their vassals.

so if your players are itching to see the thrill of centralized authority putting an end to dramatic swordfights, have I got good news for you

Does the Player Knight have a child? If so allow the fight, if not wait until he does. Then if the PK is killed in the feud, you get to wait a few years and then introduce the child PK to the daughter of the enemy family without telling him who she is, watch them fall in love and run Romeo and Juliet! ;D

As far as fairy adventures with a morally ambiguous twist, I've seen the Adventure of the Dancing Tree recommended (maybe on this forum) previously as a good adventure and it seems to fit the bill.

<Edited to add link> Yes Merlin recommended it in December http://www.rpgarchive.com/index.php?page=adv1&advid=235

HTH

GR

Thanks for the comments and suggestions.

I am going to use the Castle of Joy adventure, although since I am a big softy, I will actually let the players fight on the 'correct side', simply because of the internal politics of the Unseelie.

As for the vendetta thing, the PK in question went and died in the adventure (first blood can be deadly against a skilled swordsman who rolls a crit while you are already wounded), so this is less of an issue now. There are the two younger brothers, but I think I'll have Arthur interceding, as he doesn't want Salisbury and Levcomagus to go at it yet again. All the more so since he is the Regent of Salisbury himself In Our Campaign.

small note about the unicorn and the faerie quests:
Any heart of a unicorn is the right one. Faeries themselfs are notorious for sticking to the LETTER of the contract, and not to the spirit of it.... So if the PK's brought a narwal's heart, then if would be according to the contract, because it is the heart of a unicorn (ie a beast with one horn) if the wording would have just been unicorn. If she stated any other requirements, then all bets are off.
Keep this in mind for future quests.... How does she (ie you) word the quest, and then the PK's can find a way to fulfill this by the letter....(if they think about this)

small note about the unicorn and the faerie quests:
Any heart of a unicorn is the right one. Faeries themselfs are notorious for sticking to the LETTER of the contract, and not to the spirit of it.... So if the PK's brought a narwal's heart, then if would be according to the contract, because it is the heart of a unicorn (ie a beast with one horn) if the wording would have just been unicorn. If she stated any other requirements, then all bets are off.
Keep this in mind for future quests.... How does she (ie you) word the quest, and then the PK's can find a way to fulfill this by the letter....(if they think about this)


When I say the wrong unicorn, I meant that the Unseelie Faerie -intended- the PKs to kill the Greater Unicorn which was the -only- unicorn in the neighborhood. Hence she was less than precise with the label, as she didn't expect the knights to actually try to talk to the Unicorn. As the result of the knights showing requisite values, the Unicorn decided to help them and led them to a place where there were lesser unicorns, and allowed them to kill one to take its heart to the Unseelie Faerie. Thus fulfilling the bargain, but not in the way she originally intended.

Well, that is called a "koekje van eigen deeg" in dutch. Or something like hoisted by your own petard in english I gues. She was not specific enough in her wording, so the PC's did a faerie bargain on her.... Good for the PC's!