Is only three hours away!

We're going to finalise characters, do the family history and then I plan to run through the introductory scenario.

The joust will be replaced with some one-on-one fights with rebated weapons, since there aint no jousting yet.

Of the four PKs, we have two bruisers (one with a glass jaw, who is also the only one to buy up APP), and two more moderate knights, one who is starting off specialising in horsemanship and lance over sword.

One is Energetic, one is Forgiving and one is Generous. The fourth shied away from starting with a famous trait.

Good luck with your game! Hopefully no one crits with a rebated weapon...
Are they all Cymric?

Yeah, all Cymric vassal knights.

It was a resounding success, and exceptionally easy to run. Everyone had a great time, including one player who had reserved judgement, and another who went in with an expectation that it would quite probably not be to his liking.

In addition to the events I mentioned in my first post, we also had time for a small feast and the Battle of Mearcred Creek.

The squires engaged in some training, practising their lance-work against stationary targets and quintains. A horse race was won by Squire Dalan, with Squire Nai not far behind, while Squires Dustin and Berel were laggards.

Sir Elad, Marshal of Salisbury and Castellan of Vagon, then directed the young squires to hunt down a supposedly man-eating bear terrorising the peasants in the vicinity of Imber, to the north. A series of one-on-one melees were held to determine a leader, and Squire Dustin was the victor.

Squire Dalan and Squire Nai slew the bear.

Squire Berel convinced Squire Dustin that it would be a kindness to donate the bear to the local villagers. Squire Nai wasn't impressed, even when the villagers presented them with the claws before they departed the next morning.

Encountering some bandits beating a peasant and attempting to steal the Count's cattle, Squire Nai decapitated a bandit in a single stroke, while Squire Dalan and Squire Berel cut their's down and Squire Dalan ran one down as he tried to flee, demanding (and receiving) his surrender. They were all awed by their own ability to cut down lightly armoured opponent's with ease, and properly fearful of what skilled opponents might do the them.

The group headed for Sarum to report their exploits to the Count and hand the bandits over to his justice.

Squire Nai made a fool of himself dancing with Lady Indeg, but was granted an Amour for the Lady due to the obsessive degree to which he wanted her lands, and redeemed himself later with a dazzling display.

Squire Dustin was less extravagant, both in success and failure, but has managed to attract the attention of the young Lady Elaine, and has decided he will accept no lesser a wife than this beautiful girl.

Meanwhile, Squire Berel was far more interested in indulging in the Count's ales and Squire Dalan spent his time in idle chit-chat or flirting with the serving maids.

With the Saxons pressing and Uther eager to engage them, the squires were knighted in anticipation of a muster, and rode to war soon thereafter.

Sir Berel, Sir Nai and Sir Dustin all distinguished themselves during the Battle of Mearcred Creek although, after their initial success, Sir Dustin was furious with Sir Elad for ordering a withdrawal in anticipation of a second charge, instead of pressing deeper.

Later, when Sir Dustin had an opportunity to capture a Saxon heorthgeneat, Sir Elad agreed it was a prize worth fighting for. However, Sir Dalan, already wounded and with his spear broken in a charge (and having failed one passion check or another virtually every battle round), showed flagrant disregard for his orders and abandoned the eschille, fleeing like a coward. He managed fight off the Saxon axemen that saw an opportunity to ambush a lone British knight and, meanwhile, the rest of the eschille were unable to secure the ground they were holding before the injured and unconscious heorthgeneat was dragged away by his comrades.

Sir Nai was certainly grateful for the hoard of old Roman coin he had inherited, and the reinforced chainmail he wore into battle as a result.

We called it a night before the Winter Phase, so that's where we'll open next session.

Oh, and everyone chose to hold their blows with the rebated weapons, for 1/4 damage, so the few crits that occurred were only doubled to half damage.

I have to say, things are cruising along very nicely.

Last night was AD 486. Everyone was genuinely excited about the opportunity to go cause some carnage amongst the Saxons in Caercolun, which was the talk around Sarum over the Pentecost court.

They were genuinely disappointed, but pragmatic, when they got placed on garrison duty instead.

When Merlin popped up, they were surprised and somewhat awed, and thrilled that he found them worthy of his attention. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they thoroughly enjoyed simply being able to witness him receiving Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake. Similarly, they enjoyed knowing the part they played when Merlin presented Excalibur to Uther, and were quite chuffed when Merlin called them out in front of Roderick.

I haven't had them stand up and talk about their exploits on front of the court yet -- that might happen next year, if they choose to join the Lindsey Embassy.

On top of that, lots of wooing, some interaction with the sons of the Baron of Wereside (who I've modelled after Cornwell's version of Lancelot and Galahad), a challenge against a Silchester knight while visiting the hall of Levcomagus. And still really, really easy to run. A really great atmosphere -- one of my players has pointed out, there's pretty much non-stop punning and smart arse comments, but at the same time we're a lot more focussed and get a lot more actually done every session than in my Hackmaster group that's double the size.