In reply to Teller of Tales (msg # 55):

"Have your men bury your fallen by your custom," Sir Dalan tells the Gaelic raider. He looks over at Sir Sejanus in surprise but approval for his prayers.

"That seems a good judgement Sir Garym."

"The question is where will they get the boat? The goal should be to intercept the army that captures the Princess. If, we could set a battle line  with both our knights and footmen on the route that they are traveling we could fight a single battle to reclaim the Princess. After the reinforcements arrive; we can take the other group and force them back to the sea."

"Gentlemen, a thought occurs to me.  I don't think that the Irish will be making it to the princess tonight.  Not unless they want to be entirely exhausted as they attempt to escape."  Glancing about, he quickly adds "They've done everything they can to ensure that they don't raise an alarm, so it strikes me that they're probably in disguise.  With that in mind, if we put our minds to the task, we might be able to find them before it's too late."

“My knowledge of the customs of Hibernia are limited. But they have knights, so would it be possible to settle this matter by Champions? If we have one of our knights challenge their champion to single combat, and we win, they must withdraw from these lands.”

Sejanus had been pondering the problem, at hand. They were outnumbered and perhaps outdistanced by the Irish. He decided to float an idea. “I know enough Latin to act as a Deacon or even a Priest. The Irish are Christian for the most part; I might be able to convince them that I saw a much larger force then we are that pursues them. I warn them out of the wish to prevent blood shed. They might be turned from their purpose"

Sejanus half excepted the others look like at him as if he had taken leave of his senses.

"Did someone hit you in the head during the battle, Sir Sejanus?" Sir Gracian looks puzzled and doesnt know if he should be laughing or not "Oh I am all for doing what it takes to win, but I am not going to loose a good knight because he wants to pretend to be a priest. Besides we dont even know where those damn Irish knights are. And we are not going to let it be a fight settled by Champions. They have invaded our soil and threaten to kidnap a Princess of this Realm. We are going to hunt them down and we are going to stop them. They will not succeed and they will learn never to attempt such folly again."

He sighs and orders one of the Irish prisoners over to him. The one that Sir Dalan spoke to earlier that seems to speak the language. "I am Sir Gracian of Dinton and you are my prisoner. I offer you your freedom if you tell us what your plan was. Oh, I know you are going to tell me that you are just a footman and that you dont know the whole plan and I will play along and pretend I believe you ... but the fact is that you must have known where to meet up with your knights and where to embark so you could escape and go back to Hibernia. So do not play me for a fool and tell me all you know. And if you are honest and speak the truth, then you have my word of honor that I will make sure you return home to your family and loved ones before Winter sets in."

The man gives a derisive snort, "ne'er been a footie, 'ave ya MiLord?  Dey don't tell us nutin' more like orders us.  Git off da boat, march, git on da ferry, march down da road.  Dat's all we's knows.  When's da last time ye told your footies what da plan were?"

"I dont know, my good man, because I have never been able to afford footies. I live in a bloody ruin!" Sir Gracian blurts out before regaining his composure.

"Did they tell where they would meet up with you or did they just tell you to singlehandedly invade Logres with a handful of men?" Sir Gracian can feel a headache coming.

"We're in Logres?" he asks, in obvious surprise.  Shaking his head he replies, "dey said march down da road, don't stop until you meet up with us."  He shrugs as if this is about as much as anyone ever tells him.

The knights rest for a couple of hours as they await their own foot soldiers and the squires, who caught up to them on the road.  The prisoners busy themselves making stretchers for their wounded and burying their dead.

After allowing their own footmen to rest and eat, the knights set out once more, happy to be on their riding horses, which are not quite so tired.  The knights are in the lead, followed by their squires and footmen, followed by their prisoners, who are a ways behind with 10 footmen (five guards and five to help haul stretchers).

The trail is easy to follow as there are a great many hoof marks on the trade road.  The road winds through farms, fields, and the occasional bit of forest.  They have been traveling for a few hours when they approach another small section of trees.

It has been a long day and it is difficult to remain on high alert and ever watchful.  Although generally heading south, they are going a little west here as well and the setting sun is ahead of them and a bit to the right.  It is the sun gleaming briefly off of something metallic that draws Sir Gracian's attention to the woods ahead and slightly to the right of the road.

Commenting to the others, all of the knights watch the forest.  Sir Perin sees movement a little to the left of where Sir Gracian saw metal.  It appears to be something large heading rapidly away near the road.  'Horse' is a good guess.  If not for Sir Gracian's comment, Sir Perin doubts he would have noticed the slight movement in the darkened wood.

You had hoped to be to the bridge before dark, so you are probably pretty close.  There is about another hour or so of light before it starts getting hard to see.

Sir Gracian and Sir Perin get checks in Awareness if they don't already have them.

What to do?

Whoever it was, if it was watching the road then it would have seen the dust from your approach for a while but you are now in range to be counted and more clearly identified.  It is fair to say that whoever is ahead is aware of your approach and probably at least your rough numbers.

"They know we are coming. If, that was a scout they are now riding hard to report. The ground is as good as it will get. If, they have pushed to the bridge, and all they would need to do is control the attack corridor. Plus, every hour our men ground tired. Morale is a precarious monster. They know our immediate numbers, but they most likely do not know if we are a single force or a vanguard for a larger force. Their perception could be our advantage." Garym could not help but feel like he was still being watched.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:28, Sat 23 Sept 2017.

Perin couldn't help but chuckle "We are something of a vanguard for a larger force my friend.  And yes, I think that we can expect a force to meet us here on open ground soon enough."  Glancing about he adds "I think we might want to ready ourselves for battle my friends."

Moving the foot soldiers to the front of the line, the group proceeds cautiously into the forest.  The path winds between the trees but there is no sign of the Irish knights besides the hoof prints of their horses.

After about half a mile, the trees thin and they break once more into open country.  The road continues on, sloping slightly downward and curving around a couple of low rises.  The knights stream around the sides of the infantry and press forward with their greater speed and height.

Coming up between the two hills, the knights can see the river coming in from their right and meeting up with the road at a trestle bridge, which spans the river.  The banks of the river are quite steep and drop about 8'-12' to the river, which is about 60' wide.

On the near side of the bridge, which is about a quarter of a mile away, there are about a dozen knights emerging from small copses of trees on either side of the road, all are wearing tabbards with a red shield and three upright swords (which Sir Garym recognizes as the Coat of Arms of Escavalon).  Garym gets a check in Heraldry.

The knights appear to have just gotten up as they are still adjusting equipment.  As the Salisbury knights continue forward, these knights proceed across the bridge.  The last knight across pitches a lit torch into a cart that is on the trestle.  When he reaches the far side, several knights pull a rope, that wedges the cart across the near side of the span.

The dozen knights join approximately a dozen more knights in the same colors who are already on the far side of the river.  The entire group turns and heads father along the road, with the last in line pitching another lit torch into a second wagon that is hanging over the edge of the embankment next to the trestle on the far side of the river.  He then hits a chock under the front wheel with his lance, causing the now-burning wagon to go over the side and under the trestle.  His work complete, this knight follows the others down the road and away from the knights from Salisbury.

Hurrying forward, the knights find that the river is quite impassable other than by using the bridge, which is on fire.  There are two burning wagons, one about a third of the way across the bridge, wedged at an angle to block the span.  The second is under the bridge on the far side and flames from it are coming up around the side of the bridge and will probably soon catch the wood of the bridge itself on fire.

The bridge is slightly wider than a wagon, meaning that roughly three people can walk abreast or two horses.  In order to remove the burning wagon from the bridge, two people need to succeed at a Strength (STR) roll twice.  First success unwedges the wagon, second success pushes it off the trestle (presumably to the left side so it is downstream and does not just get swept, burning, against the supports for the bridge).  Up to three people can attempt to make the STR roll in a given turn and as long as two succeed, that task is done.  During each of the first two turns of attempting to move the wagon, each person attempting to move the cart takes 1d6 damage, ignoring armor.  During each of the next two rounds, each person attempting to push takes 2d6 damage from fire.  The amount of fire damage increases by +2 during every succeeding block of two turns as the fire in the wagon intensifies.  Swapping a player attempting to push loses a turn for that player but does not affect others.

Crossing the bridge on foot (once the initial wagon is moved) requires one turn.  Starting in turn 10, if the fire is still going on the second wagon it will cause 1d6 damage to anyone crossing.  Starting in turn 15, the damage increases to 1d6+2.  Starting in turn 20, 2d6.  Damage increases by +2 every 5 turns after that.  Attempting to cross the bridge on horseback requires 1 turn and a horsemanship roll.  Failure and the horse won't set foot on the bridge.  Fumble and you go over the side.  Leading a horse across takes two turns but gives a +5 on Horsemanship roll.  If a horsemanship roll is failed, you must wait 3 turns of calming your horse before trying again.  When riding a horse, the horse takes the damage, when leading the horse you both take damage.  Ten foot soldiers or 5 knights can cross in a turn.

How you go about dealing with the burning wagon on the far side is up to you.

Think about who should attempt to move the cart and what order people should move across the bridge.  The Irish knights are gone.  Although it occurs to you that attacking you while you are attempting to cross the bridge would be really unpleasant for you, for some reason they decided against this plan of action.  Also think about whether and how you might extinguish the cart on the far side.  You have rope and other basic tools, including some pots and buckets.  We will assume for easy of my life that the squires can get all of the spare equipment and horses across without dying.

p.s.  Sir Perin has the highest STR, followed by Sir Tyreth (who is willing to help), then Sir Gracian, Sir Garym, and Sir Sejanus (all tied), and finally Sir Dalan.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:07, Sat 23 Sept 2017.

"Cowards!" yells Perin, obviously enraged at the "knight's" tactics.  And without hesitation the large man steps towards the burning bridge, intent on removing the cart, no matter the cost.  If they didn't put out the fire immediately, it would be impossible for them to stop the Irish raiders.

 Finally, they had sight of the enemy. But is seemed that the enemy would yet again, slips away by means of a burning bridge. Upon seeing one of his brother’s head onto the bridge, Sejanus dismounted and joined him, in the effort to dislodge the burning cart. He shouted something in Latin that sounded like a prayer, as he moved to join Sir Perin.

Sir Gracian quickly dismounts and run towards the burning carts determined to push them aside. The fire burns hot and he yells out some un-Christianly curses as he - together with the good Sir Sejanus and Sir Perin - start to push the cart off the bridge.

The Irish, if they heard Sir Perin's futile taunts, pay them no heed and are soon out of sight.

As the three knights scramble across the trestle, the heat and flames sear their hands and faces.  As one, the three unwedge the wagon and toss it off the downstream side of the bridge, where it splashes into the water and extinguishes itself.  The wagon is carried down toward the sea, leaving a trail of slightly burned tabbards emblazoned with the crest of Escavalon.

Our heroes have a few turns before the far side of the bridge gets all burny if they want to run across now.  The other knights, still mounted, can ride across this turn if those on the bridge proceed across on foot.

The knights can now see that the still-burning cart is resting with one wheel against the trestle, one in the water, one on the bank, and one up in the air, leaning at a 30°-45° angle.

Sir Gracian takes 7 damage, Sir Perin takes 8 damage, and Sir Sejanus takes 11 damage.

Because it was asked, there was a full moon last night.  However, it is very overcast to the east, and although there are fewer clouds in the west (where the sun is just setting in a blaze of prismatic colors) it does not appear that it will be bright enough to travel reliably and certainly not light enough to track someone tonight.  In fact, you are pretty sure it is going to rain.

Once the first cart is in the river, Sir Perin takes off at a sprint, intent on removing the second cart before it too causes irreparable damage to the bridge.  Despite his bulk, the knight is quite fast and manages to build up quite a bit of speed before he throws himself at the second cart in an attempt to push it into the river as well.

"I could lead a couple horse through before the flame hits its peak. We must act quick though."

Garym caresses the side of his charger's neck. He links his horse with Sir Perin's horse as well if Sir Sejanus if he allows. "Harbinger, fear not. I trained you from birth to do such things. This is just another ride over a country bridge like the one near home"

As Sir Perin rushes across the bridge and slides nimbly down the bank on the far side, Sir Garym rides his horse and a pair of others across the bridge to help.

Sir Perin gets under the wagon and lifts with his legs, turning the wagon on its side.  However, as he tries to push it over completely the burns seem to get the better of him and he loses his footing.  Bracing one leg against the trestle he gives a mighty heave and the wagon flips, dousing the burning tabbards within in the steady stream.

Sir Perin takes 11 points of damage.

The fires extinguished, the remainder of the party files across the bridge.  The sun is now gone and the light is fading rapidly.  With the heavy cloud cover, that seems to be expanding from the south, it appears that not only won't there be enough light to travel safely but it is definitely going to rain.

Using ropes and horses, Sir Perin is pulled back up the steep bank.

It is decided that pushing forward would be futile and the group is better off getting as much sleep as possible.  They can await Earl Robert and start fresh in the morning.  It is unlikely that the Irish will travel far tonight as the danger of getting lost, especially once it starts raining, is too high.

The good news is that the rain will making tracking easier in the morning and the group from Salisbury is probably within an hour of the Irish.  That is not much of a lead if they hope to capture the Princess and get her away from Carlion.

Pitching their tents, the group makes a fire and most go to sleep as there is only 7.5 hours until sunrise and less hours of darkness.

About an hour later, the rain has started when Sir Robert arrives with the remainder of the Salisbury knights.  They look beyond exhausted and are glad for a hot meal and tents setup on still dry ground.  The newcomers are soon asleep except for Earl Robert, who talks briefly with the player knights.

Sir Robert listens to what has happened and praises all of the knights for their bravery and endurance.  "I doubt that they have continued far in this rain," he comments, "not over unfamiliar terrain, even with the road, it is too easy to get lost or injure their horses, which are already tired.  We will wait until the rain stops and then send a large force to Carlion.  We won't need to track them, just to stay on the road.  And we don't need to worry about alerting anyone to our presence by using torches."

Looking around at the camp he finishes, "I will come with you, as the Princess will know me and understand the danger.  The rest of the force will move to Caerwent at first light.  The soldiers can hold the city and transfer the prisoners to the locals, the knights can then search for the Irish knights."

Earl Robert retires to a tent and is soon asleep.

About four hours later the rain stops and the original 17 knights, Sir Robert, and eight others, set out, torches in hand.  They move slower than normal, making sure that they do not overtire their horses or leave the road.  They see no signs of the Irish knights and an hour-and-a-half later arrive at the closed gates of Caerwent.  Earl Robert hails the night watch who informs him that they have not seen anyone passing by.  Earl Robert explains about the Irish knights and that a large force from Salisbury will be coming in the morning with prisoners and to help guard the town on the King's orders.

Although it is still overcast, the sky is brightening by the time the group arrives, exhausted at Carlion.  A guard is sent to find the Princess who is surprised to see Sir Robert here.  After an explanation of the circumstances, the gates to the city are closed.  The castle guard is sent to guard the bridge to the east while the knights rest until noon and then assemble once more.  A messenger from the other group of knights has arrived.

The men-at-arms and other knights left at dawn.  About halfway to Caerwent, they found fresh tracks entering the road from a farm.  Investigating, they discovered signs of a large number of horses and men having camped in the barn.  They continued to Caerwent and the guard there told them that a large group of knights had passed by a couple of hours earlier, a few hours after your group passed by.

Leaving the men-at-arms to protect Caerwent and ensure the prisoners don't escape, the knights are now searching for the Irish knights.

Having dispatched a messenger to the King of Escavalon's army, Sir Robert and eight knights will remain in Carlion while the others help search for the Irish.

Sir Garym and Sir Sejanus notice tracks leaving the trade road and heading south not far from the bridge over the Usk River outside of Carlion, as if they saw the guards at the bridge and decided the gig was up.

They follow the trail for about a quarter of a mile and then suddenly lose it.  An hour's searching results in Sir Gracian eventually turning up traces of the trail once more.  This time, Sir Dalan is able to track the hoofprints for a bit over a mile before losing them again.  Sir Garym, however, has figured out what the Irish are doing when the trail keeps disappearing and he quickly finds the trail once more.

After another twenty minutes, the group comes out on a trail that overlooks the Severn Sea.  They are about 100' above the water and there is a narrow, winding trail going down to the beach.  Below, they can see three landing craft and two dozen knights loading their horses onboard.  The first craft, holding a dozen horses, is just pushing off.

Bringing horses down the trail is going to be tricky.  Riding requires a horsemanship roll, leading requires a horsemanship at +5, and running requires no roll.  A failed horsemanship roll means the horse tumbles off the path and will probably be badly injured at best.  Running takes the least time, riding next least, leading takes the most time.

The knights below are hurrying as they have spotted a group of a dozen or so knights riding up the beach from the east.  However, that group is about a mile away and not likely to arrive in time to stop the knights from escaping.

Sir Dalan gets a check in Hunting, Sir Garym gets a point in Hunting.  Sir Gracian, Sir Garym, and Sir Sejanus get checks in Awareness.  Sir Garym gets a check in Horsemanship.

Sir Gracian isnt happy to see the Irish knights about to get away. Partly he suspect they will prove a nuissance later and partly because he hoped to take prisoners and ransom them for money (he hear weddings can be expensive). But he doubt they will be able to reach the Irish knights before they disembark and he and his fellow knights could easily be injuried on the way to the beach. He sighs and looks around at his fellow knights. "I say we let them go, Brother Knights. They will be back another day and then we can have our revenge."

Sir Perin nodded as Sir Gracian suggested caution.  While he would normally be all for charging the enemy, his wounds were a bit worse than he cared to admit.  Besides, as his friend had said, the battle was over, the Irish were retreating.  Earl Robert might not like that they had let the Irish escape, but they had more than succeeded at their assigned duty, there was little need to take a pointless risk.  "Let the cowards slink away, we've seen to our duty, the princess is safe."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:07, Sun 24 Sept 2017.

Just a note, I was too lazy to roll first aid/healing after the bridge.

Sir Perin healed 3 points
Sir Gracian healed 2 points
Sir Sejanus healed 4 points.

The squires for Sir Gracian and Sir Sejanus get a point in First Aid.  Sir Perin's squire gets a check in First Aid.

Garym did not comment. The chase was over. They forced the Irish Raiders to the see, but somehow the victory seemed hollow. Charging a few footmen did not feel glorious at all. He turned his horse slowly rode away from the coastline. Garym softly whispered to his horse, "Harbinger next time."

The knights watch from the hillside as the Irish knights herd their horses onto the boats and then themselves board and sail off toward their waiting ships.  The last, and largest, of the Irish knights to board seems to study the Salisbury knights for a while before raising his shield so that they can see it, thumping it twice, and then making a rude gesture.

Five minutes later the dozen knights riding along the coast get to the spot where the Irish just embarked and throw some curses of their own toward the retreating Irish.

Returning to Carlion, the knights inform Sir Robert that the Irish have fled.  He congratulates them on their success and each is given their share of the sale of the weapons and shields of the Irish foot soldiers.  (50 * (75d sword + 3d shield) = 3600d = 16.25£, divided by 16 knights present = 1£ each, with the remainder going to Sir Cadlew who was not present but peripherally involved).

The knights are fed and can rest at the castle overnight.  Then they are on their own or can return as a group to Salisbury in the morning.

In addition to 1£, everyone gets 100 glory for defeating the men-at-arms and an extra 75 glory for preventing the Princess's capture.