Hi guys. I am new here and new in general to the KAP. I have just started GMing GPC to a few friends. Unwittingly and without due access to the BoK&L I have allowed my players to use old 4ed rules to create non-basic knights. Nothing fancy mind you. We still start from Salisbury but we used other Logres locations as a possible point of origin. It was fine and dandy (most of them are Cymric christians with one pagan to add a little bit of colour) but one of players rolled-up an Occitanian gentleman.

It didn't seem as too much of an issue but then I decided to complicate myself life by introducing a subplot how his family was exiled on unjust charges form the continent and how his mother (now a nun) wants to be buried on their family land back in France (where asks the insipid player? In France - answers befuddled GM). Again I thought that I have several years till we come to that particular bridge. And than player rolled on his family event table that mother has died!

I mean it seems as a perfect little scenario BUT where can I find more info on France in that period? How is it different from Uther's Logres? How do they get there (obviously by ship but where should they find one)? From where

Any advice?

A long journey to fulfil a vow, accompanied by a bulky and inconvenient coffin could be very cool indeed. There are precedents for how to handle it in samurai movies, lone wolf and cub etc. Some Jackie Chan movies/particular martial arts styles use the fight while protecting/carrying an inconvenient object trope as well. And if they get shipwrecked the Pks could always use it as a raft! ;D.

More seriously, if you didn't want them to carry a bulky coffin around, in the middle ages plenty of nobles promised that their hearts, or even their eyes etc would be buried at a particular religious institution. So the body could be buried in Britain and the PKs would only have to take a small (jewelled?) casket containing say, her heart, with them to France.

Occitan is southern france, roughly from the pyrenees to the alps. It's that part that historically fostered the Albigensian(Catharite) heresy. I think the most official detail in Pendragon is the People and Lands chapters of the 4th Edition rulebook you already have.
My copy of the Boy King has Arthurs French campaign of AD525 or 6 on p96-99 with a decent map on p96 but it mainly covers northern france as far down as Autun and it's a fairly sketchy overview. Perhaps someone who has the Great Pendragon Campaign will know if there's any more detail in there.

Travelling from Logres to a port will be a choice between the Severn estuary, the south coast ports, or down the Thames to London. Which the PKs choose will likely be down to the year of your campaign. At various times enemy armies cut off the southern ports and London.

Watch out for the Bay of Biscay's notorious storms. Probably they'll make land somewhere on the Atlantic coast of france, possibly in Aquitaine and travel South east to their destination.

The recent Book of Knights and Ladies gives detailed character gen charts for aquitaine which contain details like the nature of the social structure at various dates which might enable you to get an idea of the type of culture your characters are walking into.

Hope this helps a little,

GR

K&L has also has a section on the Occitanians - they are one of the 'continental' cultures in the back half of the book. Culturally they are quite similar to the Aquitanians (they are both a mixture of rustic Visigothic overlords intermarried with the Gallo-Roman aristocrats from the urban centres), although the Occitanians' cultural 'skill' is Oinology rather than the Aquitanian's Venery.

Occitanians are mostly in what is now south eastern France (with the French, that is the Franks, up in the north east of modern France) although their lands do stretch as far south as Barcino (Barcelona). In 486 the various Occitanian territories are all ruled by the newly enthroned Alaric II and, whilst there is a martial class of heavy cavalry drawn from the Visigothic tribal gentry, the formal institutions of knighthood have yet to be adopted.

Practicalities - take ship to Brittany (friendly, albeit somewhat Cornish) or Aquitaine and then travel south east to where-ever it is that the mother wanted to be buried. If you're feeling generous then it's fairly close (Toulouse or nearby) if you want it to be more challenging, then it's all the way over near the Maritime Alps or down in Catalonia.

If the trip is lengthy or the PKs get diverted by a side adventure or something, then I note that per the GPC Prince Madoc of Logres will be fighting the Franks in or near Bayeux in the summer of 488 which might cause them some complications on their return journey...

Regards
Luke

thanks guys. i like the jeweled casket idea too. any idea how long it takes to cross the narrow sea?

If the wind and tides are right? You can do it in a day or two - even quicker if you cross at the narrows near the Pas de Calais, but the coasts there are all held by hostile Saxons and Franks.

If the winds or tides aren't right? You can be waiting for weeks...

In summary the crossing occurs at speed of plot.

Getting down to Aquitaine will take longer of course, but with luck and a fair wind you can do it in about a week. Note that the Bay of Biscay is notorious for being stormwracked and, given the prevailing sou'westerlies in this part of the world, once you round Finisterre you are on a lee shore for the rest of the passage...

Regards
Luke

thanks luke! where they should hitch a ride? london? portchester?

If they're starting from Salisbury then why would they want to go to London in order to run the saxon gauntlet of the estuary and the kentish coast, when there are a selection of havens between Chichester and Plympton that will have ships that can take them to Brittany?

If they want to go to Aquitaine then they might do better at finding a vessel going that far in the larger towns - Dorchester, Exeter or Bristol say.

Regards
Luke

just to report that blessed heart of lady lutetia has been laid to rest on her family plot in the vicinity of toulouse. knights traversed the narrow sea, fought saxon pirates, were blown of course and ended in britanny, fought a giant and witnessed merlin take excalibur (i decided that since it is happening on the other side there is no reason why it could not happen in in brittany), gathered info on frankish hordes (as they promised uther that they will do), were in involved in dispute between two rival visigoth nobles (heavily inspired by some continental adventures of prince valiant) and returned in time for michaelmas in salisbury. they were gifted chargers and one of them that practically won the feud for lord adalrik got a reinforced chain made by nordic dwarfs of the far north. much fun was had by everybody.

thanks folks :D

Just to note. I haven't read the other posts on this thread so apologies if this has been mentioned.

When transporting bodies quite a distance in medieval times it is customary to boil the body so as to just leave the bones. The bones are then transport in barrels or chests.

great! we settled for heart in a box sans rest of the body