Resolution 2020: Tainted Grail The Fall of Avalon play through

Beor returned to Bundorca so that he might finally settle the dispute that they had with Falfuar. He did a little more investigation in each town but quickly concluded that he was going to learn nothing more, so he might as well call a meeting with each town’s representatives and back Bundorca. A part of Beor wished he could understand their arguments better so that he could help them reach a solution that worked for both towns. But it wasn’t to be so he might as well back Bundorca simply because it was the town he visited first.

The residents of Falfuar agreed to abandon their town and leave the Menhir with Bundorca. At Beor’s suggestion they travelled north in search of somewhere new to settle.

With the local crisis resolved Beor travelled northwest to the Fernsea. It proved to be a dangerous labyrinth of suffocating underground tunnels. Like Farpoint, Beor was forced to spend over a fortnight trying to explore it. He would spend a day in the Fernsea, then be forced to return to the Forest of Whispers to hunt for food and recuperate.

In the end Beor found what he sought – the Grail. Climbing out of the tunnels triumphant, Beor was shocked to find himself in the middle of a battle. Confused, he ran for cover. A tall stranger shouted at him to flee but was shot in the back as he did so. Beor ran to their aid to discover it was the Lady of the Lake. Badly wounded she told him that others had learned of the Grails location and had come to seek it out. It was too powerful an artefact and must be returned to Tuathan, the land of the Fore-Dwellers.

The Lady begged Beor to leave, but he refused to do so without first using the Grail to try and heal her. Using the last of his water rations to let her drink from the Grail her strength started to recover, but Beor was beset by a warband for his tardiness in escaping. Beor drove them off, giving the Lady of the Lake time to give him more help in his quest.

Now Beor must find a way in to Tuathan. To do so he has three options – seek out Neante in the Forest of Whispers, find Orrin in the south of the island, or find the Burrial Mask from the Shimmering Flats.

This session took four hours, primarily because I had to go back and forth so much to keep recovering health, sanity, and food. The chapter was still fun though. I would have finished it earlier but I was miss-reading one of the entries in the Fernsea which gave me the Grail. I thought I was not entitled to take the final option so kept wondering in circles.

The Fernsea is a true labyrinth and I’m impressed the game designers were able to implement it using the Exploration Journal. If I ever return here in later chapters I will have to draw a map to help me explore it better.