Chaosium's "Pendragon" Solo Play Pt. 3

Hatred rising, a tournament, family trouble, and an unexpected announcement...

This is the third installment in my ongoing Pendragon solo campaign.

You can see the first one here, and the second one here.

It is currently the Summer of 509, and Aeric has just been badly wounded in a fight with a giant Saxon warrior in the Naddar River ford south of Sarum, where he serves as a household knight.

Narrative of the session is in bold, and switches to italics to explain mechanics and “out of game” information.

Aeric does not awaken until he is back at Sarum, in his bed. The chirurgeon says he will remain bedridden for some weeks until the wound is healed, but Gwyneth, his lady, attends to him carefully and with much devotion.

The news that comes to him in his bed sickens him.

After Madog’s death and his own brutal defeat, his nemesis, Gwyneth’s brother Haldred, answered the challenge, wielding a blade no one had ever seen before, easily defeating the massive Saxon and making him ask for quarter.

The Saxons were true to their word and left the battlefield, and Haldred knelt down, taking Madog’s helm and a piece of his heraldic colors for an armband, as though they were close friends - Aeric knows they never spoke. Madog was his friend, damn it.

But word is all over Sarum of Haldred’s major victory, and he is radiating with glory and adoration.

Much to Aeric’s chagrin, Haldred’s star is rising in Sarum after a major victory over the Saxon giant.

Aeric can hardly believe it - he has fought two duels against Haldred and defeated him soundly both times. He lies in bed wracked by envy and anger, and melancholy over his friend’s death.

At this point, I see fit to give Aeric Hate: Haldred. Now they both have a Passion against each other. Through a series of oracle rolls it had been determined that Haldred and the wizard/herald of the Saxons has chosen Haldred as his own champion. Haldred was raised by this wizard, who is not Saxon himself, until he was a youth, at which time he was fostered by his current family.

Who is this wizard? No idea, yet, but he seems to have chosen Haldred, and then engineered a situation to get him glory and prestige, which began to make sense to me later as Fall and Winter events emerged. I try to just make fast rolls on the yes/no oracle and trust it will piece together later.

All everyone is talking about in Sarum is the upcoming tourney in Londinium - who will go to represent Sarum? So many were injured, wounded or killed during the fight with the disguised men of Silchester, and promising Madog has been slain.

It is decided that a tournament will be fought here to determine the conroi that will journey to Londinium and compete. Aeric spends all his time thinking of it, and willing himself to heal quickly, although the ugly scar on his face through a brow and down his cheek will not let him forget his reckless failure soon.

He heals in time, and attemps to distract himself by spending a great deal of his granted spare time at court. It largely bores him. He stops attending mass.

While rolling solo scenario stuff and winter phase, I lose two points of Devotion through some fumbles - one to religion/deity, the other to Gwyneth - it seems Aeric’s bitterness and melancholy is affecting him in the long term.

The tournament comes, and Aeric handles himself incredibly well, although he never has the opportunity to meet Haldred during, which frustrates him. 8 knights are chosen to ride to Londinium, among them Aeric, Gwion, Tyngyr, and Haldred.

Aeric feels ugly, angry and filled with resentment. He sees no way to expose or kill Haldred without losing his honor and current standing, but decides to bide his time.

Word comes from a family messenger that his mother has died suddenly after a brief illness. His father will not send word directly, but it is conveyed by the messenger that he is expected at the funeral…

Aeric is conflicted, but decides with the upcoming journey to fight at Londinium that this is impossible. He steels himself against emotion and sends no word back with the messenger.

I determine that this earns him a check in Cruel and Selfish and the loss of a point of Love: Family. Aeric is letting his ambition and anger run the show for now.

As he prepares to ride with the conroi to Londinium, snow swirls in the courtyard, and it is bitter cold.

Gwyneth runs out onto the stairs as he is mounting up, and ties her favor on his arm - a piece cut from his favorite dress that she wears, and she whispers in his ear: “Marry me when you return, for I’ve your bastard in my belly, Sir Knight.”

“Marry me when you return…”

Aeric sets his jaw and spurs his horse onto the eastern road, eyes fixed on the red and white shield and rampant griffin on Haldred’s heraldry in front of him, a white and red pennon fluttering in the harsh, biting wind flying from his lance.

His eyes go to his own green flag, snapping with the golden antlers of his father and forefathers.

He decides then and there he will win fame and pride in the tournament and make something of himself in Londinium, or die trying.

He would rather leave his new son a bastard than with the burden of an inglorious father.

I know this “episode” was a lot of rolling on tables and consulting the yes/no oracle and making sense of the fumbles and successes - sorry there wasn’t more “action.”

It was more fun than it sounds, but it’s definitely a process. Pendragon is a game I think I’d have a tough time running for anyone but the most dedicated in person group - you have to really be into this stuff.

However, for the contemplative aspects of solo play it works very well and allows you to connect dots and make sense of things as you go, stringing them together into a kind of emerging tale.

My plan was to run straight from the 6e book, but through a customer service snafu at Chaosium, my leatherette never arrived and now they’re sold out. I made the decision to stick with the basic 1e booklet, and consult the 6e pdf only when necessary (I hate digital aids when playing, it really throws me out of my groove, but it is what it is.)

I also think my natural desire to house rule and hack stuff will lend itself well here, because I could see early on that all the bloat of this system with its many, many modular add-ons and so forth would not be for me. I might flip through them and steal some tables, but that’s about it.

I also made the decision after looking through the Grey Knight and some of the other Pendragon Campaign stuff that I really don’t like the style there - it feels extremely railroaded and I think I’d feel like I was just “going through the motions.”

My solution will be to run a sort of parallel campaign with Aeric, focused less on being directly involved with the “big players” and working around the edges or in other areas at the same time instead. Therefore, in the next session, I will be in Londinium for the tournament, but who knows what will happen next.

We will let “rule of cool” and the dice decide.