531 Part One: Saxon Rebellion!

Sir Arddur ap Brandegoris reporting ;


Last year I was charged with helping Sir Lucius and a few other knights guard Edar's realm. Sorry... KING Edar's realm. It was fairly peaceful, but after Sir Amadis recovered from his broken leg, he led us out to beat up some cheap Lambor raiders.It was fun.

What was not fun was me taking care of my manor, Tilton-on-the Hill. Ever since I got it back from Sir Bledri who was keeping it safe for me until I came of age, I have had ill luck. The manor saps far more income than It can generate. I find that I really do not wish to deal with this problem now. I am twenty-seven, and have no wife, only my saxon lover Meg.She is obviously more of my slave , as Saxons can't just run free, but I do treat her as kindly as possible. I wish to go erranting for a year or two and find adventure and hopefully a wife. I have no son of my own, although i have a suspicion that Meg may be with child. there is a difference in her lately that I can not account for. I believe that I will ask my Lord Edar to release me from my holding for a few years and see if he could take over the manor for me. Perhaps he will know how to straighten it out. everyone see's how all of my king's lands prosper, especially Allington. I will have no income these years, but then again I dont have any now either.

This year A new warrior came to court. A stranger from the north African land of Zazamanc. His name was said. He apparently had heard of the fame of my High King Arthur and King Edar. He had come to see the fabled lands of Britian. He seemed unimpressed for the most part. So we took him to Allington to impress him. While there a knight named SIR Henri , who serves Duke Hervis de Revel of Anglia found us on his travels. He was on a mission to recruit willing knights to aid his Lord Hervis in Anglia. It seems that the saxons were once again in rebellion! There was one immediate problem however. The knight Sir Henri had recognized my coat of arms. He the proceeded to make a very rude statement about my father, the great Sir Brandegoris bringing his bravery into question. Proposterous! My father still has songs sung of his greatness. How he killed a Saxon with naught but a hambone. That is one of the greatest, but most importantly he with the son of Count Edar, Sir Seriol, were the heroes of the battle of Bardon, breaking the power of the witches at the cost of their own lives! Coward indeed! So you can see why I was upset. I did know that Duke Hervis and my father had some type of conflict early in their lives, but I couldnt tolerate such insults in my presence. Henri assured me that that was his Lord's point of view and not his own. I decided to go and sign up to kill saxons,. After all, they killed my father and a lot of other good britons. They were spared and so should have learned their lesson.
We traveled to Anglia and on the way near the huge city of Norwich we found a couple of horse traders from a place called Alexandria. They looked quite a bit like our new friend S'aid. He assured me that though they did bear a resemblance they were very far away from his own homeland. They were tough traders but very hospitable. They gave us a drink unlike any other. It was rich and black, and a bit bitter. An aquired taste to be sure, but the effects on the mind and body couldnt be denied. It was called Coffee, and when we were done trading they even let us take a little as a gift. It's most peculiar quality was to give a man much more energy and too focus ones thoughts. A great marvel indeed. During the trade negotiations good Amadis was minded to turn loose of his magnificent Fey charger Lew! I was stunned. But ever since Amadis had seen S'aid's horse, A magnificent arabian courser, he had to have one. They were not as strong in a fight but were beautiful and sleek and by far the fastest horses any of us had ever seen. These traders likewise loved the fey charger. They wished to gift their King with it so they gave up much to Amadis. Two Arabian courser stallions, and 5 breeding mares, as wel as 2 smaller horses. Amadis will soon be able to start breeding stallions.
After the trading we met with Duke Hervis who was mildly Rude. He simply sidestepped his comments about my father when confronted with them. He did say that we could prove him wrong by serving the him and doing well, then it might just change Hervis' feelings about my family line. We were not afraid to fight and so we accepted whatever charge was given to us. We wound up patroling a ten mile area and guarding it from saxons. We patroled for 2 weeks making easy coin, but we kept glimpsing strange things.We kept seeing a huge column of men ( over 100) and they looked like saxons. They were all afoot though they dad have wagons full of loot and many groups of cattle ,sheep, and boar with them. We tried several times tro track them but an unnatural fog and some evil magic was certainly at work. We might never had found it if it were not for the Irish Prince Aedon. King Anguishes of Ireland's son. He pulled off all armor and tracked the column and found that they WERE using magical fog to conceal their castle. He told us of this and we all decided to make ready to follow them when the time was right. In two days time the columns came again and retreated to their castle through this living fog. We dashed in after them on horseback. ( actually, i did first. I just couldnt take another week of boring patrol). Once through we realized that these saxons were mostly ill equipped commoners, and second rate warriors. We scatttered them but could not make the gate at the causeway before it closed. Sir Gherrin captured a peasant and being a peasant himself until recently was able to really communicate with him well. The peasant said that the castle was the castle of a saxon Witch named Cammille. Damn. We all hated sorcery. We decided to stay in place until the gates were opened. If the gates were not opened so much the better. That would mean this small handful of us were sieging the castle well. We slaughtered some livestock to eat, set watches, and waited. We slept on the perfectly manacured launds, and there was a huge topiary flower garden all over the grounds. At first the Garden was comforting but soon made us uneasy. amadis. aedon, and myself talked about it and we all thought in one way or another thge garden must be the key to the witches power. so we attempted to destroy the whole thing. After that was accomplished we felt safer. Unfortunately that very night the living essence of that garden turned very evil and attacked us attempting to smother us and at last we all fell, and now we sit in a small and dank dungeon of this witch. The bright side? As i see it the bright side is ... at least we are somwhere in the castle now......