Resolution 2020: Tainted Grail The Fall of Avalon play through

Beor knew that his only course now was to return to Kamelot and help bring stability to Avalon. He knew very little of the war in the west, and the lat time he had gone to Caumaght they had driven him away because of his infection. This thought made Beor pause – he had not inspected the infection under his bandages is some time. Carefully removing the bandage on his arm Beor saw that the infection had spread badly. Perhaps now as the time to search for a cure.

Beor travelled south to the Drained Lake. Surely the Lady of the Lake would know of a cure for the Read Death. The waters of the lake had drained away, revealing a tower beneath the old water line where the Lady lived. Sure enough the Lady did know of a cure. She had once met a man who had recovered and she now believed he lived in the Fernsea. Beor also learned of how The Lady had taught Arthur how to use the Wyrdness. He had used it first to make himself into a powerful warrior, then he had led his army into the heart of Tuathan to use its magic to make Kamelot. But the spell had goen wrong, and he had been forced to retreat and build Kamelot the old fashioned way on the East coast. The fact Beor had removed Excalibur and caused the Kamelot in Tuathan to dissolve away meant the Fore-Dwellers would be less hostile towards humans. Beor also learned the final piece of the puzzle regarding the first expedition. The Lady had sponsored many champions over the years, giving each a trinket to help them in their journeys. Beor had now collected them all.

Beor travelled north to the Fernsea once more, crossed it with ease, and found the plague survivor living in the tower across the sea. There was indeed a cure – one must bathe in a magical cauldron that can be found in a monastery hidden in the Dark Morass. The cauldron had been filled with holes when the survivor first found it, so he had plugged the holes with gold. The cauldron had to be filled with a special potion made from the magical crystals found in Whitening.

While Beor was in the north of the island once again he decided to explore the few parts of the island that he had so far not visited. Moonring contained a small band of druids, but little else of interest. There were two applicants vieing for a place in the round table, and Beor decided to investigate their past lives in the Brochs and Whiteneing, to determine who was most worthy. In Halfway Beor was disturbed to find that each night the Wyrdness soaked into the great monument and re-wrote the runes carved there. Was it just the rock that was changed, or was the history that the runes recorded also being changed? To the north Beor visited Crows Nest. It was an unwelcoming settlement. Mordred tasked Beor with stealing Morgaine’s spell book from Kamelot, but Beor thought that he was unlikely to do that. Morgaine may have tried to kill him, but her magic helped to keep Kamelot safe.

Beor now had two reasons to visit Whitening and the Brochs were on the way, so he travelled south east. In the Brochs he learned that there was some magical beast contained here that wanted to be released. Also, the applicant for the round table had not spent his time here freeing slaves, but rather he had been a blacksmith who crafted chains for the slave masters.

Beor travelled south west to Whitening and retrieved the crystals that he needed for the cure. He also investigated the second applicant for the round table. He had been so lazy that the settlement had banished him – so both applicants were liars and not fit to sit at the round table. Then Beor travelled east to the Dark Morass. The monastery took some time to find, but Beor did so and within sat the cauldron. The golden plugs had been taken so Beor had to craft more by melting down his own wealth. After his bath his wounds stopped bleeding and they began to heal. Beor was cured. By now his long journey had taken his toll so he stayed with the locals for several days, joining in their feasts as he regained his energy.

Revitalised and heading west once more to collect more crystals from Whitening (Beor needed them to free the magical creature from the Broch) Beor recalled the sleeping Wyrm he had discovered in First Farmhold. Perhaps now Beor was strong enough to defeat it? Returning to the tunnel, intent on sneaking up to the sleeping Wyrm once more, Beor instead found an awake Wyrm that burst from the tunnel and flew off into the sky. Perhaps this was for the best – the Wyrm looked much bigger and fierce when awake.

Beor collected yet more crystals from Whitening and then returned to the Broch and freed the magical creature. It proved to be some terrible beast from Tuathan, imprisoned here by the Fore-Dwellers before humans came to Avalon. In exchange for its release it taught Beor secrets of the Fore-Dwellers, although by now Beor knew most of them.

Finally it was time to travel to Kamelot. As he approached Beor saw many camps outside the city. Some were refugees, but other seemed to be armed groups. Was Kamelot under siege? Beor had to bribe his way into the castle. Inside Lancelot tasked him with bringing brigands based in Caumaght to justice. Beor did not want to cause for trouble for his old hometown, but if they had resorted to banditry then it was his duty to punish them. Beor also sought an audience with Morgaine, hoping to ask her why she had attacked him in Tuathan. Beor instantly regretted the decision though and Morgaine turned up with a retinue of cross bow armed guards who surrounded him. It took all of Beor’s diplomatic skills to talk everyone down, but he managed it. Morgaine offered him a secret in exchange for her life. Beor was in fact the reincarnated soul of one of Arthur’s first companions who had travelled with him into Tuathan. How this was so, no one knew. Beor realised he had been tricked. This secret only brought more questions, but he was honour bound to set Morgaine free now, so he did so.

Tomorrow, Beor would set off for Caumacht once more…

This was another massive four hour gamin session. Mainly because I chose to take an early detour to explore the north of the island, then I had to search for a cure which involved a lot of zig-zagging about the map. I also got distracted exploring the Brochs and wanting to free the magical creature. I was very lucky in that I had put all the experience from today’s session into diplomatic encounter cards. The encounter with Morgaine was a level 4 diplomatic encounter and I only just got through it with a couple of cards left in my deck.