529:

Sir Arddur ap Brandegoris reporting...

Well, Britian is certainly turning into an odd place. Count Edar went North with King Arthur to stop this upstart Galeholt and Recapture Surluse. I was sure that I would be in for more boring garrison duty, but a few days before our count left something strange happened. Two dozen children from all over my Lord's lands disappeared. The Count's grandson and heir was among them. Edar's duty to our King made him and Bledri leave with too few troops, and now he will have to pay scutage to Arthur for having too few. But he needed more knights to search his realm.
Somehow we were told of a cavelike barrow under a hill where witnesses believed a strange presence had been found. They believed the missing childeren were in there and indeed as I listened I think I could hear the pitiful crying of the children under the hill. But I might have just imagined it.
Down we went and walked for a long while. when out we came into a strange place. The trees were straggly, and things seemed somehow ominous underneath, Something unexplainably scary. We soon found our way to A nice hunting lodge and there inside were seven bodyguards and A sick man who claimed to be a King of the Fey. King Tessia. He claimed to be on the way to death and geased us to find his children and gain their blessing and their apple orchard saplings that would make his orchard bloom again one more time. He said that we couldfind our way out if we aided him. We did so and found each of his different childeren and encountered their unique personalities. One was a peasent-like fellow that tilled the earth and found no greater love. One found luxury and material wealth most important, while one of his daughters found lustful pursuits most to her liking( to my great shame). There were some others and at every place we managed to recieve the blessing and a sapling of the particular type of apple tree. It was the last child that gave us most trouble. A sinister looking knight named Sir Blythe. His men attacked us and with some small difficulty were overcome. After destroying them we took their fey chargers. Amadis got a particularly nice charger!
We discovered this Blythe was executing children. Mostly peasents, and we had ado with his men so he let the remaining children go. True to his word( I guess). My companions were content to let things lie and to get the children out ( including our counts grandson). They are older and wiser, I have come to see now, but I.......
I could not let that evil fairy man live. Not after the corruption he showed. My father wouldn't have and neither would I. I challenged him to a fight and he accepted! His sword vs my axe. My axe won out. Much easier than expected even. And so my companions and I delivered the king his peace and were shown out of the land with all the children we had gathered. On our return we soon realized that we had been gone only 10 minutes. Time must work differnent in those fairy lands. I am excited. There is still a good season left for adventuring. I hope more happens than just Guard, patrol, patrol, gurd. We will see.

Sir Bledri's 'thoughts':

My youngest children have dissappeared! And many other children across the county of Leicester! What have we done to deserve such evil? And now I must go to war in the north thanks to that villain Galeholt. At least Edar has left Sir Amadis and Aidan and the young powerhouse Arrdur, son of Brandegoris, to find the children. How strange that my heart is not in the march to battle! Good luck, Amadis!

Sir Aeddan reports
Although I have not wed nor had children, I was as horified as any other when the children vanished. I could not understand how our Count could choose his duty to the king over his duty to his family, but the others did not seem surprised by this decision.

Sir Amadis, Sir Arddur and I all set out to find the children. By god's grace we happened upon the path and it led into a strange cave. The Brave sir Amadis was concerned that it could be an Anis layer, so we left our horses with our squires and entered the cave.

Imagine our surpise when the cave emptied out into a strange land - it was clear that we had entered the faerie lands! We wandered for a while until we came upon a dwelling. We entered it and found a man who claimed to be a king who was dying. The man told us that he had not seen the children, but that the penalty for trespassing in his lands was death. He said we would be spared if we could help him in two ways - he wished to be reconcilled with his children, and he wanted to see his orchard one last time. We found ourselves compelled to aid him, although we did not know where his children were, or how we could help him see an orchard that was torn asunder. I had faith that God would watch out for the children of Leicester, even in this place, and believed that we could not turn our back on a man that wanted nothing more than the forgiveness of his children for his actions in life - even if the man was not truly a man.

We wandered the countryside without thought, although I beleive that God was guiding our feet. We eventually came across each of the Kings children, who agreed to give the King his blessing in return for us proving our worth. Each had a strange task for us to complete, and while most were harmless, I fear that some were more sinister. I know that one of the King's daughters so charmed us that I was overcome by my lusts and woke up in the bed of one of her handmaidens. I must confess that thoughts of her continue to haunt me.

In the end, we found all of the King's heirs, and in doing so located the missing children. It seems one of the monsters was planning on killing them for the sheer joy of it! After we overcame his challenge for the King, Sir Arddur challenged him to a duel and slew him. We three Knights claimed his horses for ourselves, and returned to the king. He accepted our word on the blessings of his children, as well as the tokens of the orchard they provided. He agreed to let us leave the land and provided us each with saplings for the different apple trees of the orchard. Amadis and Arddur spoke of planting them immediately. I will see if my Lord Edar has an interest in them, and if not I shall give them to the Abbey of St. Christopher in Leicester. I have no lands of my own, and it would be a shame to ignore the gift.

We found our way back to the path we had entered these lands from, and when we backtracked through the cave, we discovered that instead of the weeks we thought we had been gone, only days had passed! We led the children back to Leicester and to their overjoyed peasants. As I saw these children reunited with their mothers and fathers, I knew that god had been watching over them.

Sir Amadis Here
Desdemona was ill again this year; I wonder if the dampness of our climate affects her adversely. Or was it the inordinate amount of time I spent in Faerie this year? I don't know. My brother blames me for the poor harvests and her illness, saying that if I would not meddle in their affairs, they would not meddle in ours and turn the milk sour and the corn brown before the harvest. He's my brother, and a hero of Bardon Hill, so I won't gainsay him. He's earned the right.