Cracking on into the next year of the Tournament Period, then. Of note: listening to the session recording, there were no less than five incidents where Des missed a roll by one. We even joked that the name of this session should be “Missed By One!”

[It’s been a while! If you want to go back and refresh your memory of where we left off, or are new to the saga, all the previous entries in this series can be found here.]

This year marked the beginning of a new period, the Tournament Period. Quoth the Great Pendragon Campaign:

The realm is peaceful, the bandit kings have been suppressed, and the faeries are imposing themselves (but as often for good as for ill). The lords of the realm are content to indulge in sponsoring more tournaments and building larger castles. There seems to be little worry of war.
On the other hand, some gossips talk more than they ought about that which is not their business. Some idealists are happy to find imperfections in the realm, which is not hard to do. Sometimes discontent is widespread, as is mistrust or suspicion…

With squire Graid having distinguished himself at the Rochester Tournament the previous year, we entered this year wondering if he would soon earn his spurs as a knight. Graid did indeed continue to prove that he was his father’s son, not only in mettle but also in his ability to surprise us and take things in unexpected directions.

That’s “buttery” as in “butts of beer,” not “dairy product.”

With the death of Loholt last year, we once again found ourselves back in the company of a lowly squire as primary PC: young Graid, son of Herringdale, squire to the Butler of Sarum Castle.

We left off the previous year with Sir Loholt, in effect, “winning the game” – it doesn’t get much better in Pendragon than making the Round Table and being crowned king of your own kingdom, much less both events taking place in the same year! Loholt’s glory tally for 535 was, I believe, an all-time record for a single year’s award: 2,993 points! (And that’s not counting Loholt’s annual glory. In the final tally, he was only about 300 points shy of racking up a whopping four Bonus Points in a single year.)

Both the achievement of the Round Table and ascension to high nobility have been put forth in the rules as logical end-points for a character’s story. So where to from here? As it turned out, the events of this session would provide all the answer we needed.

Because we started Loholt out as a wet-behind-the-ears squire, I sometimes forget how young he is. I’ve been waiting to see him come into his own; this was the year, as it turned out. And in true Pendragon fashion, it came about in a fashion neither one of us saw coming.

This year’s session was, for the most part, a “solo” Pendragon game in name only, as we were joined by two guest players! D. and S. are from our regular weekly group, and as that week’s regular game was cancelled, we decided to run Pendragon instead. The players both had characters from a campaign Des had run last year that ended, coincidentally enough, right around the same time as the current GPC continuity, so we did our own version of FLAILSNAILS and brought in Sir Blaine and Sir Madog for a guest appearance for the main portion of this year’s events.

A short session this time, but a fun one.

At the great mound of Carn Brea in Cornwall, a giant with cascading waterfalls for eyebrows shook itself from its winter slumber and stood. Stretching, it loosed a great rumbling yawn that sent a flock of nesting sparrows flying from its tangled beard. Absent-mindedly scratching its bottom, it ambled off in search of sustenance. Far to the east, a young knight also rose, looking out on the snow-covered streets of Camelot…

Yes, kids, it’s time again. Time to delve back into the tale of the Broughton clan, in particular of Sir Loholt of Camelot, son of the High King and Romantic Knight par excellance. What strange and glorious adventures lie in wait for our intrepid young knight this year? Read on and find out…