Chaosium Digest Volume 3, Number 7 Date: Sunday, August 15, 1993 Number: 3 of 3 Contents: The Adventure of the Five Ladies (Heidi Kaye) PENDRAGON -------------------- From: Heidi Kaye [via ] Subject: The Adventure of the Five Ladies System: Pendragon INTRODUCTION This adventure should be set sometime after 515, when the Enchantment of Britain opens the way to quests which test the qualities of knighthood, often in mystical and magical ways. Up to five player knights may take part; if fewer knights are involved, leave out the appropriate number of ladies. The player knights will come upon a fountain in the middle of the woods through which they are travelling. Seated upon the edge of it are five ladies, a child of 8, a maiden of 16, a lady of 32, a crone of 64, and a lady armed as a knight, age 24. Each has a mission for a knight willing to take up her special challenge. Knights will be asked which lady they would like to accompany; players should choose amongst themselves when the ladies announce their quests. All they will initially reveal is the main idea of the quest, given in the first lines they say. The Child: "Mine is a test of piety," chirrups the little girl brightly but distinctly. She has the palest blond hair and lightest blue eyes imaginable, and she wears a fine white linen shift embroidered with roses and lilies. Her glance is childish and playful and yet strangely serious for such a young girl. The Maiden: "I propose a test of love," breathes the maiden in a whispery voice. Her hair is raven black, piled high on her head, a wreath of wildflowers twined into a coronet gracing it. Her gown is pink satin, with pastel ribbons twining down the back, and it makes a gentle swishing sound as it moves in the breeze. She smiles engagingly at the handsomest knight. The Lady: "I seek vengeance for the wrong done to me," says the lady in a sad but dignified voice. She wears a deep blue brocaded gown with a tall yellow wimple. Her green eyes are slightly distant, but her pretty mouth is set firmly. The Crone: "Justice is what I ask, fair young sirs," creaks the crone. Her dress, now shabby, yet shows signs of former glory. It is made of once-delicate fabric with an overlay of silver stiching, which now is torn and faded. The Lady Warrior: "My quest will test a knight's valour," announces the lady warrior with a clear, bold tone. She sits on a fine chestnut destrier which matches the colour of her hair. Dressed in full armour, she carries her helmet, which bears a white plume, and bears a shield with strange arms. (Heraldry: success, her arms are of the kingdom of Lambor; critical, she is of the family of Sir Walter of Mancetter.) This adventure will split the knights up, so each encounter must be fairly short in itself to prevent the other players from becoming bored. The whole adventure should be inserted into the middle of a group adventure, while the knights are on their way somewhere but not in too much of a hurry. It allows for individual roleplaying, demonstration of appropriate traits and heroism. This follows the Arthurian tradition of knights meeting a number of adventure guides and splitting up to take their individual paths, such as the Triple Questers. The lady chosen by the knight will sit sidesaddle in front of him on his horse. THE CHILD'S TEST OF PIETY This tests the religious virtues of knights, not necessarily only Christian ones. Exceptions to the tests for non-Christian knights are noted below. The child brings the knight to a chapel set in a rock. Like a sprite, she is full of energy and whimsy, yet she seems to have an old mind in her young body. She runs in circles around the knight and his horse, skips, giggles, sings and twirls, yet her eyes remain serious and deep. Religion: A vision tests this. The scene which follows is set in a strange light mist, which makes the images shimmer and seem slightly translucent. The knight sees a dragon appear in the clearing before the rock. It is beset by vicious black dogs who tear it apart. The last bit of the dragon to remain is its forked tail, which becomes lodged in a tomb in the clearing. Before the knight's eyes, the forked tail turns into a cross with Christ on it. The knight should roll against Religion; success allows interpretation, failure means the knight is mystified. The interpretation should be that the dragon signifies the High King or Logres, which will be beset with enemies who will seek to destroy it. The kingdom will be broken up but what will remain will be its holy character and foundation, which will ever rise up from destruction to live again. Tick Religion on success. Mercy: Next, a real scene. When the mystical mist disperses, the knight can hear once again the ordinary noises of the woodland creatures (Awareness: success, the knight realises that an unnatural silence had accompanied the preceding scene). A hawk appears overhead, chasing a mouse on the ground. On its first attempt to swoop, the hawk misses the mouse. The child will look frightened on the mouse's behalf and applaud enthusiastically when the hawk misses it. If the knight kills the hawk in order to save the mouse, this is a partial success in this test. If he saves the mouse without killing the hawk, this is a success. (He may pick up the mouse and put it into its hole in a nearby tree, or simply frighten off the hawk.) If the mouse is allowed to die, he fails. If successful, tick Mercy; if partially successful, roll Mercy and tick if successful. Exceptions: Pagan and Wotanic knights should roll Generous rather than Mercy. Piety: The child takes the knight into the chapel, where three caskets lie on a table. The first is made of wood, the second of iron, and the third of gold. They represent, respectively, the True Cross, Soldierly Glory and Material Wealth. The knight may either choose on his own or roll Piety. Success will offer the above explanation of the meanings of the caskets and gain a tick. Choosing the gold casket gains a tick in Worldly, choosing the iron casket gains a tick in Valourous, but either is a failure in this test. Exceptions: for Wotanic knights, the correct choice is the golden one; for Pagan knights, it is the iron one. For Jewish knights, the wooden one represents the lost ark of the covenant, and remains the correct choice. Chastity: The girl turns into a beautiful maiden, with 26 APP. She flirts with the knight, praising him for his successes in the tests, or if he has been failing, for his own good looks, strength, or whatever physical virtues he may have. She is not overly lascivious, just rather gushing. She will say he is the bravest, most noble, most honourable, most pious knight she has ever met. If he flirts back, roll Chaste/Lustful; success in Chaste, he resists and gets a tick. Exception: for Pagan and Wotanic knights, the girl becomes a young hag but behaves similarly. The hag is however, lascivious, promising that despite her looks, she can offer him sensual delights beyond his imagination. The Pagan knight ought to flirt back and succeed in a Lustful roll to win this test and a tick in the trait. Success Conditions: If the knight succeeds in all four tests, 100 Glory. Success in any one is worth 20 Glory. THE MAIDEN'S TEST OF LOVE The maiden is delicate and soft-spoken, with sparkling dark eyes and pouting lips. Her appearance can be taken to be 21. She will hum softly as the knight rides; the tune is strange and haunting. They will arrive at a sunny meadow covered in wildflowers. Brightly coloured butterflies float prettily around and birds sing as they fly overhead. The maiden will lightly dismount and will only sit on the grass if the knight puts down his cloak for her. This test deals with four of the five virtues of love (leaving out Just). Honest: The maiden asks the knight if he has a lady love, and if he does, if he has ever been unfaithful to her or to any of his past loves. If he does not, she will ask him if he would do anything to win a potential lady-love's favour if she asked it of him, even if it required deception. The knight may believe he is being tested as to his devotion, past or prospective, to love and therefore seek to conceal past lapses or pledge future fervour. If he lies about his past behaviour or says that he would do anything to please his love, he gets a tick in Deceitful. If he tells the truth or refuses to be deceptive, he gains a tick in Honest. Trusting: The maiden asks the knight to close his eyes and follow her, holding onto one of her ribbons. As soon as he complies, he will feel a drop in the temperature and a breeze begin to blow up. The ribbons will become hard to hold because of the wind. Whatever happens, the knight must keep his eyes closed. First the knight will hear a loud roar right him, like a fantastical wild beast. The beating of hoofs will approach, and the screaching roar will be repeated, ever nearer. Finally, a hot breath will be felt on his neck and a bloodcurdling cry will come from the unseen beast. The player must decide here how he behaves. Suddenly, the sensation will vanish. Next the knight will feel an increase of heat, as if in a desert. As he walks, he will stumble occasionally on outcroppings of rock. The ground will feel hard beneath his feet, and he will sense that the path is rising (Awareness). After a steeper ascent, the knight will take a step and instantlyl sense that he is falling. The ribbons he is holding become loose in his hands, as if they were at least three times as long, or as if the maiden had vanished, and they do not tighten as he falls. Here, the knight must roll Trusting. Success, he feels the ground reappear beneath his feet without any pain, in fact as if it were suddenly slightly cushiony. On failure, he must roll Suspicious; success means he opens his eyes and lets go the ribbon in order to try to break his fall. If he fails the Suspicious roll, he must make an opposed Prudent/Reckless roll; if Prudent wins, he will try to break his fall, but if Reckless wins, he can choose to keep his eyes closed. The attempt to break his fall will cause the only real fall. The knight will take 1D6 falling damage and find himself once again in the meadow next to the maiden, who will administer First Aid. This part of the test is over. The final part of this test may well be the trickiest, for those who have succeeded so far. Upon recovering his footing, the knight will continue walking on ordinary ground. He will hear hoofbeats coming closer and then voices. They are those of his companions. They will call to him, teasing him that he looks ridiculous if he is a proud knight, or warning him that the maiden he follows has turned into a hag with glaring eyes and yellow, fanglike teeth, and that he is in danger of being tricked. If the knight ignores his fellows' cries, he has succeeded in the test. The lady will tell him to open his eyes. Forgiving: A knight rides into the clearing; he bears a blank shield. He taunts the player knight for dawdling like a milksop with a girl and playing blind man's bluff rather than seeking danger and adventure. The maiden will ask the knight to remain with her and not fight. The challenging knight will call the player knight a coward and a fool for listening to her. Proud knights may need to roll against this trait to control their hostility. The maiden will offer the knight sweetmeats and talk about how love conquers all, and that romance is so much more important than fighting. The challenging knight will ride up and slap the player knight with a leather gauntlet, stinging and reddening his face. If this challenge is still not met, he will slap the maiden as well, then swoop down from his horse and pull her up onto it with him and begin to ride off. It is expected at this point that the knight will rise to the challenge in defense of the maiden. As soon as the player knight calls out to the challenger, he will turn back to fight. The challenger will fight with sword from horseback, with appropriate +5/-5 modifiers to the knights' skills. The player knight may knock the challenger off of his horse as per the usual knockdown rules, at which point the maiden will dismount and move out of the way of the fight; the GM should make a point of saying that she is now safe and seems unharmed. Should the player knight seek to end the fight at this point, or even express this to the GM (as in "well, now that the lady is safe, there does not seem much point in continuing," or "now I'd like to get this over with quickly"), as opposed to bearing a grudge and wishing to get even with or damage the challenger, he will surrender. If the knight continues the fight, let him win eventually. He will have it in his power to kill the challenger; he may decide whether or not to be merciful. The challenger will admit his error in calling the player knight a coward and one to avoid danger; he will praise the knight's prowess and valour. If the knight slays his opponent, he fails this test; if he does not, the challenger will reveal himself to be an old opponent or at least rival. He asks the player knight to forgive him his past wrongs to himself. If the knight agrees, he gains a Forgiving tick. Challenge Knight (or as old enemy or rival) SIZ 12 Damage 4D6 DEX 14 Heal 3 STR 14 Movement 3 CON 13 Hit Points 25 APP 11 Unconscious 6 Sword 16, Lance 15 Generous: The final test is a tricky one. The maiden will congratulate the knight on his successes in the preceding trials and commisserate with him on any failures. She will lead him to the edge of the meadow, where the woods begin again, and take him to a large tree, which is hollow. From within it, she will draw a bright sword, its hilt decorated with rich carving. She will present the sword to the knight, saying, "This sword is a very special one. For you will find that you can not be made to drop it in a fight. For those who are reknowned in TRAIT X, it offers substantial additional skill, for it is attuned to be in harmony with such a knight." TRAIT X stands for any trait (preferably a positive one, but could include Lustful, Proud, Worldly, or Reckless) which the player knight does not possess at any high level but which one of the other player knights does have, preferably at 16 or better. Give the player knight the impression that it would add as much as +5 to the sword skill of a knight with this particular high trait. The knight will then be led back to join his fellows. He has several choices: keep the sword in order to use its powers of not being able to be fumbled, keep the sword and declare an intention to develop the appropriate trait to a level at which to take advantage of the skill bonus, or offer the sword to the player who could make best use of it. Full success in Generous, deserving of a tick, is marked by the third choice. Failure, which includes a tick for Selfish, is indicated by the second choice; ideally the trait of the weapon should be out of character for the player, and so requires special manipulation to take on in such quantity. The first option is comparatively neutral, marking failure of the test of Generosity, but not necessarily selfishness. Have the player make an opposed Generous/Selfish roll to confirm his choice. Only tick either if the success is a critical. In any case, as soon as the knights ride off, whether the player has kept or given the sword, its reputed powers wear off; the delicately carved hilt remains the only sign of its special nature. Success Conditions: If the knight succeeds in all four tests, 100 Glory. Success in any one is worth 20 Glory, with the exception of the test of forgiveness, which is worth the normal cost of the fight. THE LADY'S TEST OF VENGEANCE The lady will lead the knight through the woods toward a manor house. "This was my home. I inherited it in full when my husband died. Last year, a robber baron and his brothers came and stole my lands. He marched in, threatened the peasants in the village, and threw me out of my own home. I want him to pay for the way he treated me and for the cruelty he has inflicted upon the peasants." All that it will take to complete this test is a challenge to the robber Baron, Sir Torrence, and his two brothers, Sir Taurin and Sir Torrel. His sword skill is at 20 and his lance skill at 18. If the knight defeats them, the lady will ask for their deaths: "They killed all my family servants when they took the house." If the knight kills them, he gains a tick in Vengeance and succeeds in the test. If he allows him to live and forces Sir Torrence et al. to promise the lady compensation and or to present themselves as captives to an amor of the knight's or to Queen Guenever, he succeeds in the test but gains no tick. Success is worth an extra 20 glory, on top of the fights (50 each). Sir Torrence SIZ 15 Damage 5D6 DEX 9 Heal 3 STR 15 Movement 2 CON 12 Hit Points 30 APP 9 Unconscious 8 Sword 20, Lance 18 Sir Taurin SIZ 12 Damage 5D6 DEX 9 Heal 3 STR 15 Movement 2 CON 11 Hit Points 27 APP 11 Unconscious 7 Sword 17, Lance 13 Sir Torrel SIZ 10 Damage 4D6 DEX 11 Heal 3 STR 12 Movement 2 CON 18 Hit Points 22 APP 12 Unconscious 6 Sword 14, Lance 12 THE CRONE'S TEST OF JUSTICE "I am a widow. My lord has accused me of killing my husband and has thrown me off my land. This is untrue. I loved my husband. It was one of my husband's enemies who killed him. I need a just knight to prove the truth and champion me in front of my lord." The woman speaks sadly but with a great deal of energy for one so old. She has not let her misfortune dampen her sense of truth and right. She will bring the knight to her former home, a manor house now untenanted but still run by her old servants. If the knight asks why she was suspected of murder, he will learn that Sir Maltor was poisoned. His last meal consisted of roast pheasant, trout pie, boiled potatoes and apple pie. He drank mead with the meal. Dame Edith shared the meal with him, apart from the pie. This last she prepared herself, but she does not like apple pie. The steward will say that he received a present of apples from a neighbour knight that day. The neighbour, Sir Herris, will deny giving Sir Maltor any apples. Inquiry will show that the type of apples sent are not grown on Sir Herris's estate, but can be traced to one of his enemy's farms. Sir Petris is the true killer, having poisoned the apples, knowing of Sir Maltor's love of apple pie. Having discovered the truth of the matter, the knight must convince Dame Edith's lord, Sir Bruce, by making an Orate (unopposed) and a Just roll versus Sir Bruce's arbitrary of 14 to get him to reconsider the case. Then a judicial challenge fight will be set up against Sir Petris. His skills are flail 13, lance 16. To succeed in this test, the knight must make his Just roll and beat Sir Petris in the challenge. If he fails to convince Sir Bruce, he may still challenge Sir Petris by accusing him of the murder. If he wins the fight, this is a partial success, but gets no Just tick. Success is worth an extra 50 Glory, on top of the 50 for the fight. Sir Petris SIZ 19 Damage 5D6 DEX 7 Heal 2 STR 12 Movement 2 CON 12 Hit Points 31 APP 10 Unconscious 8 Flail 13, Lance 16 THE WARRIOR'S TEST OF VALOUR The warrior lady will ride her own horse in front of the knight who has accepted her quest. She will explain that she has taken up arms to defend her family after a wyvern killed her father and two brothers. She must save her mother and their land from further depredations by the monster, who keeps carrying off peasants and farm animals. Her dark green eyes are steady, with only a hint of softness behind them, and the knight may discern with what effort the warrior lady maintains her tough demeanour (Awareness). She will lead the knight through a village which is looking rather forlorn. Thatched roofs have been pulled off cottages, villagers show signs of injuries and many little children seem to wander the streets as urchins. "This was once such a happy place, when I was growing up," explains the warrior. She will tell the knight that she knows where the wyvern's lair is, atop a nearby hill in a cave. Use stats from main rules, p 204. She will help the knight to fight the creature. Her skills are sword 16, lance 14. If the knight is amenable, after the fight she will possibly respond to a flirtation, now that the danger to her people is over, and may be interested in a marriage, but not before. Success is worth the glory for killing the wyvern, 100. Lady Warrior, Delila SIZ 14 Damage 4D6 DEX 14 Heal 2 STR 10 Movement 2 CON 14 Hit Points 28 APP 19 Unconscious 7 Sword 16, Lance 14 CONCLUSION When the knights finish their individual adventures, they will be brought back together at the fountain by the five ladies. They can go on to tell each other of their deeds en route to their next group adventure. ALTERNATIVE APPROACH You may wish to adapt this adventure to have all the knights participate in all the challenges. In this case, they do all the tests together, and each fights a single opponent where appropriate. I don't recommend this; I think it works best if each knight chooses the challenge that suits him best. -------------------- The Chaosium Digest is a Discussion Forum for Chaosium Games which do not have another specific area for discussion. To submit an article, mail to: appel@erzo.berkeley.edu