Ok, so my plans for an 'in person' campaign have shriveled up like a heathen at the stake, so I recently started up a roll20 game with a few friends of mine played over teamspeak. I'm utilizing a few of my own houserules, especially in regards to the economy. I've decided I'm not allowing female knights, for one because we haven't got any female players and another because of the complications to marriage and inheritance. We just finished up our first session, here's a short account of the year 485 in our story.

Cast of Characters:

Sir William of Codford
His Cousin the Lady Anji, a Romano-Gaulic healer.
Sir Greil of Steeple-Langford
His traveling companion, the Lady Aethelswith, a saxon shield-maiden.
The almighty lord of everything, myself.


Sarum was bustling with preparations for the marriage of Earl Roderick and Ellen of Silchester. The squires arrived at the castle and where granted an audience in the lords solar. He greeted them as warmly as he could, as he was being measured for a new set of wedding clothes by a pair of tailors at the time, and charged them to hunt the Dread Beast of Imber, a huge bear that had been terrorizing the north western hill villages. They were dispatched with a small troop of footmen and made their way to Imber, with the instructions to seek out and aid Sir Bloigne, the lord of the manor. Now, due to a timing conflict, William actually left considerably earlier than everyone else. Along the way, he came upon a band of ruffians accosting a merchants cart. Though valiantly cutting down the first three, while in pursuit of the final bandit who had run into the brush, the blaggart turned about and struck good Sir William from his saddle, wounding him badly. The brigand had no time to gloat as no sooner had he raised his weapon to finish his work than Bernard, a man o' foot in Williams service, finally caught up and chased the bandit off, before retrieving Williams horse and helping him on his way to Tilshead. There, William was nursed back to health by his cousin Anji, and awaited the rest of the party.

They (Greil and Aethelswith) after picking up William contingent at Tilshead, continued on to Imber. A few miles outside of the village, Aelfswith noticed a large looming figure watching from the hills above, although it may have been a trick of the light, she could have sworn it had glowing red eyes. It soon dissapeared the moment she looked away, so she thought not to mention it to Greil. They arrived at Imber and were directed to the church. There, a melancholy gathering congregated around the altar were an old man lay. The priest stood over him, praying, with his back to the door and the players, blocking the old mans midsection from view. After a few minutes he turned to face them and lamented that Sir Bloigne, the man to whom they were meant to report, was dead. When asked about the manner of the death, he invited them to see for themselves. Stepping aside, it was immediately apparent that the poor man had been bitten in half.

Taking matters into his own hands, Greil took immediate command of the late Bloignes men and set a trap for the beast. Two sheep, several hours, and a few rolls later there didn't seem to be any sign of a beast. It was comlete silence for hours on end, and then the piercing scream of alarm and agony and then a sickening crunch. The party turned about to see that the beast had evaded the ruse and taken it's would be slayers in the rear, dispatching a footsoldier with relative ease. All but two of the remaining footmen fled. A battle ensued. Greil charged on horseback and Aelfwith availed herself well with a battleax, but it was Bernard (yes, he's a recurring NPC now) who struck the beast between the ribs with such force as to knock it off it's feet, and allow Greil to deal the final blow.

The footmen who had fled arrived back on the scene, apparently having roused the villagers. Old Garr, the priest, skinned the monster and bestowed the hide on Greil. The lady of the manor looked on as her small children kicked and tugged at the fallen colossus in vain vengeance of their father, tears in their eyes. Aelfswith instructed them to stop immediately warning against angering the dark spirits that surely inhabited the monster. The Lady asked her what he would know of dark spirits, to which Aelfwith replied that she had conversed with said spirits. There was a muttering near the back of the crowd. Something rhyming with the word 'Ditch'. The party, eager to get the hell out of dodge, gathered up their things and left. The footman who died was unceremoniously thrown into a stream for whatever reason, and to make matters worse none of them failed to notice that they were upstream from the village. So a few weeks later rumors came about alleging that Imbers water supply was poisoned by witchcraft.

Anyway, they arrived back at Sarum, told the court of their deeds yada yada yada. The day before the wedding, the squires (and the shieldmaiden) in recognition of their efforts, are allowed to travel in Lady Ellens escort as the Knights of Salisbury and the Knights of Silchester Rendezvous at Du Plain. Ulfius and his men, along with the bride to be, arrive. Ulfius asks the Salisbury knights to spare a few of their men to wait a while longer, as the Steward of Levcomagus and his brothers will be arriving late. The main body of knights and wedding guests continues on to sarum, while two knights and the players stay behind to await Levcomagus. After several hours of waiting, after growing impatient, are happened upon by a small child riding a mule, holding on to it's neck for dear life. They interrogate the child and he tells them that men had come to their village. His parents are dead and his home is on fire. Forgetting their original objective, the knights and squires rush off under the boys direction, while one of the npc squires takes the child back to du Plain for safety.

They arrive and the village is ablaze. Blood soaks into the dirt paths, some score and a half wild men in furs go door to door killing and/or raping any living soul the come across, stealing what they can and burning the rest. The cavalry arrives, literally, and the PS's are engaged in another battle. The men are poorly trained and scattered about the place, so the fight is won quite handily. In the end, the bandits are either dead or scattered, the ones who aren't are in the party's custody. One of them, upon finding himself on the ground and on the wrong end of an uplifted battleax, yielded to the shieldmaiden and promised her riches if she took him alive. He claimed to be an esquire from a wealthy family who would happily pay his ransom. To prove his noble bearing, he recited a few lines of latin, which none of the party where able to authenticate, but nonetheless sounded legitimate. So, the prisoners were taken back to du Plain, where the esquire was imprisoned awaiting ransom (his ransom note being borne 'by way of Levcomagus', castle specifically not the steward just to be clear) and the others to await a long and public hanging. The players left it in the hands of du Plains castellan, a knight of some renown, to bear the news of he happenings to the earl. Greil took it upon himself to deliver the ransom letter personally. Perhaps he forgot that he was supposed to be in Sarum the next day to be knighted, but regardless he did not make it far anyway. He came across a party of riders, the steward himself it would appear, as was expected, but unfortunately Greil failed to recognize him, urmizing them to be a border patrol. The steward recognized the livery of Greil's horse and asked him what business he had in Silchester. Greil told him, and the steward asked him for the letter, to deliver to Levcomagus himself. Greil was reluctant, but the steward demanded to see the letter, implicitly accusing him of being a spy. He had his men encircle the squire, at which point he acquiesced. He sent the squire on his way, keeping the letter.

That night at Sarum, the squires held vigil, and the following day, Roderick and Ellen were wed. Afterwards, a great banquet was held, in the middle of which William and Greil were knighted before the whole assembly. There was great feasting and dancing, and most of all, courting. A few days later, the wedding guests departed, but the courtship continued. Naturally, the players were only interested in the 'book ladies' that is the four listed in the core rulebook, so Imade sure to give them stiff competition. Well, stiff competition though they may have been, they were pretty rigid when rigor mortis set in. Aelswith challenged each ad every one of them to a challenge of arms and killed them all, not even inentionally (did I mention she's a saxon? berserker rage does that. Even i wasn't expecting that) and thus, four duels later, the field was opened up for the players. It was a second homecoming of odysseus, only one suitor was spared. Sir Greil courted and won the affection of the twice widowed Lady Indeg, and Sir William won the heart of Lady Adwen. One of the suitors who was defeated but not killed was sir Jaradan, the finest swordsman in all of Salisbury (skill 22). He and the families of the three other knights will more than likely pose trouble for the party and in particular Aelfwith in future. But at the time being, having demonstrated her valour and might, and in recognition of her mercy to Sir Jaradan, Earl Roderick appointed her a captain of foot in his retinue (In my head he has a battalion of mercenaries totaling 100 or so, fifty of which are footmen, thirty five are archers, and fifteen are Sargents.) Following the incident, and for generations to come in Salisbury, tales will be told of Aelfwith Knightslayer.

And that was the end of the first session. Tune in next time I bother to write one of these!