I haven't run the Prince Valiant episode. But based on my experience with the system, I'd expect an hour or so of play - but it could well be more, depending on how the possible conflicts work out.Feels more like these are encounters than adventures? Particularly saving the knight from the dogs. Is that fair?
Would your adventure be just lots of these joined together? What is the structure to join the encounters together?
The TB2e adventure - together with the intro and the outro - was a session's play, as per the actual play report that I linked to.
And the Agon 2e island was a session of play: I can't remember an exact time, but probably 3 hours or so.
For joining together, here are some Prince Valiant actual play posts:
My group played a third session of Prince Valiant today.
The first session saw a group of knights get themselves into trouble in Kent. The second session saw the surviving two knights further north in Britain, and having hooked up with a squire and a travelling performer. At the end of that session they were ready to continue on their travels in search of fame and fortune after enjoying the hospitality of a noble lady whose son they had saved from unfair condemnation for sorcery.
The player of the performer was not at today's session, so we imagined that that character returned to Warwick while the knights set out with their squire. The players made checks to see how their PCs' hunting was going (they don't like spending money on provisions!) - and poor rolls lead to the conclusion that they were rather lean and hungry, all three of them suffering a 1-die penalty to Brawn until they could get a good feed.
I had decided to use The Wedding in Green episode from the Episode Book, and so told them that as they rode through the forest they could catch just the faintest hint of the smell of roasting meat. And then they heard a cry not far ahead, and the whinny of a startled horse. As they crested the rise they were expecting to see poachers vs gamekeepers, but instead saw bandits, led by a woman, trying to pull a cleric from his horse. They recognised the rider as one of the abbots who had participated in the sorcery trial from the last session.
Taking the view that a man of the cloth had to be protected from banditry, the younger knight (Sir Justin) couched his lance and charged down the slope. But the outlaw he was charging at was able to leap into the woods where he couldn't be followed (successful Agility vs Riding check). The leader then challenged him to dismount and fight her on foot, which he did - and he defeated her (choosing to disarm her and force her to her knees, rather than killing her). But then a bandit clocked him with a cudgel from behind and knocked him out. (The scenario gave the bandits two "fiat" effects - Knock An Opponent Senseless in Combat, and Hide. This was me using the first of those.)
In the meantime, the squire also decided to charge a bandit, but his player also failed a riding check sufficiently poorly to be tricked by a bandit into clotheslining himself on a tree branch, being knocked from his horse and also hors-de-combat.
That left the older knight, Sir Gerren (Sir Justin's father), who rode down to defend his son and protect the abbot. He slew two bandits from horseback and the remaining one fled. And he took their leader, Mariel, a prisoner. For this effort I awarded him a "Storyteller Certificate" - the system's version of a fate point.
Once the two unconscious PCs had regained consciousness and were ready to travel on (taking an hour or so in the fiction; automatic at the table), they headed off with the abbot towards his monastery - the house of St Sigobert. But at this point, I used the Hide ability, and the PCs (and abbot) were ambushed by the bandits while fording a stream. This was our first use of the archery rules, and the bandits turned out to roll somewhat poorly and so the PCs' armour protected them from 7 arrows. They then drew swords and engaged: the squire was pulled from his horse by one bandit, and Sir Gerren was facing two and having trouble, but Sir Justin defeated two, and then was able to aid his father, killing a third. The surviving bandits fled.
The players decided that it was better for their PCs to accept the abbot's invitation to accompany him to his monastery, rather than hunt bandits through the woods, and they did so. At the monastery, after some legal disputation which was inconclusive (tied checks of Sir Gerren's Presence vs the Abbot's), it was agreed that the monks would try Mariel for violating cannon law by attacking the abbot (the alternative view being that violence on the road was a logically prior violation of the king's law). She insisted that she was simply seeking a priest to officiate over her brother's wedding, and would have let the abbot go safely on his way afterwards (though was more coy about what she would have done with his money - "Everyone knows that you have to bring a gift to a wedding!"). Mariel was duly found guilty, and excommunicated, and then handed over to the knights as the temporal arm to deliver non-spiritual punishment. But they didn't have the gumption to punish her themselves, and so decided to take her to the nearest lord, whom - the abbot informed them - was Lord Murran of Castle Hill. In the meantime the squire helped with various manual tasks around the monastery, while Sir Justin helped care for some of the ill in the hospice, earning the sobriquet Sir Justin the Gentle.
I chose Catlie Hill as the destination because it would take the action closer to the coast, which fitted another scenario I wanted to use. (We are using the map on the inside back cover of the Pendragon volume that I got as part of the Prince Valiant Kickstarter). But the PCs' trip to Castle Hill gave me the chance to use a different scenario - the Rebellious Peasants in the main rulebook. The PCs were riding through a village surrounded by a low pallisade, having entered from the west, only to find the east gate shut against them and a band of peasants armed with pitchforks and crude spears behind them. Their reputation for favouring wealthy abbots over salt-of-the-earth outlaws had preceded them!
Sir Gerren tried to calm the peasants, but the rolled check failed (his Presence is not that strong and at that point he had not developed any Oratory). So his player decided to cash in his certificate to activate Arouse the Passion of a Crowd: his voice grew stronger and more sure, and he explained to the peasants the importance of mutuality and justice between all the king's subjects, which begins with free travel on the roads. The leader of the peasants acknowledged the truth of what he said, and apologised, explaining that it was their hunger that had driven them to such extremes. The PCs expressed sympathy, supped with them on some gruel, and rode on.
By this point all the PCs had earned enough fame (the system's analogue to XP) to take another skill rank each: the squire boosted his Arms skill, as did Sir Justin; Sir Gerren took a rank in Oratory.
Arriving at Castle Hill, the knights presented their prisoner to Lord Murran to pass judgement as to her punishment. Sir Justin indicated that he wanted to influence the Lord to a degree of leniency, and he succeeded in a Presence check to this effect: so she was sentenced to spend a lengthy period in the stocks.
Lord Murran then confirmed that the PCs were knights errant, and requested them to undertake a task for him - he wanted to learn why the Crowmaster who lives on an island in The Wash (a bay on the east coast) had declined to provide the Lord's Master of Hutches with crows when the Master had last visited him. The PCs (and players) were a bit curious about this, but Lord Murran explained the use of trained crows to carry messages and the like (as per the scenario A Wild Hunt) - "Like pigeons but stealthier!" (my own ad lib).
The PCs travelled to the coast without incident, and went to a village to see what they could learn about the Crowmaster and also to see about the use of a boat to travel to his island. But (again, as per the scenario) the villagers wouldn't open the village to them, fearing them to be brigands - and the Oratory checks made in attempts to explain that they were knights on a quest failed. So they instead found an old couple living in their hut on the coast (the players' idea, which it made sense to say "yes" to) and befriended them with the payment of a shilling. They learned that the Crowmaster has an apprentice, Engres; they were also fed the meat of a roasted bird more stringy than a typical gamebird - and with a successful Presence check the squire noticed some black feathers on the floor of the hut where the bird had been prepared for cooking. Apparently with drought in the area, the locals had resorted to shooting down the Crowmaster's crows for food! (This was the published scenario's framing, although I went with drought rather than the fowl-plague that it mentions.)
The old man took the PCs to the island in his coracle, where they met the Crowmaster. He wanted the villagers to stop shooting down his crows. He also wanted to know what had happened to his apprentice, Engres, whom he had sent to speak with the villagers some weeks ago. The PCs promised to do what they could, as these seemed to be necessary steps to getting crows for Lord Murran. (They also dined with the Crowmaster: at his command four crows - one at each corner - dropped the cloth onto the table, and then they carried over light tankards for the guests to drink from. There was some discussion about whether or not this was sorcery.)
Before nightfall they returned to the mainland, and then at night they returned to the village. The squire took off his armour and scaled the pallisade - and he could see the villagers were having some sort of feast (of crows, of course) in their main square. He had no trouble sneaking in and opening the gate, and the knights rode in. Once again protestations that they were not brigands went unheeded, and the villagers scattered to their homes. But when the knights sat down in the square, and made sure the roasting birds did not burn, the villagers slowly returned and accepted that these were not brigands here to steal their grain and birds, but rather were knights on a quest. Conversation revealed that tomorrow was the day of the village's annual Wild Hunt, to be led by the Huntmistress Tryamon. The PCs also found Engres in the village, apparently rather friendly with Tryamon. Fellowship checks were made to see who was able to stay sober and extract information from Engres, and the squire succeeded - he learned that Engres didn't really want to go back to the island, on account of his desire to stay with Tryamon.
The next day the PCs joined the villagers on their Wild Hunt. Sir Gerren, the squire and Tryamon each succeeded in finding a boar - in statistical terms quite fierce combatants. Sir Gerren successfully killed a boar, and so did Sir Justin (who took the one the squire had found). A commotion around the third boar drew the attention of the squire, who found that the Huntmistress had gone missing, leaving poorly-equipped and unskilled villagers trying to take down a boar on their own. He drew his sword and went in to help them - and though not too strong a combatant on his own (7-odd dice compared to 10+ for the knights), with bonus dice from the villagers he was able to defeat it without a single villager being gored. But that still left the mystery of the missing Huntmistress and, as it turned out, a missing Engres as well.
The PCs returned once again to the Crowmaster's isle, to report that with a stock of boar the villagers would no longer need to poach his crows; and that Engres was alive, and well, but missing since the morning's hunt. Their attempts to calm the Crowmaster at the loss of his apprentice ("He is like a son to me, who will carry on my work!"), and even to offer to find a new apprentice, all failed; but the Crowmaster was able to send his crows to hunt for Engres, and they found him heading southwest with his own flock (and Tryamon). The PCs returned to the mainland and road off in pursuit, but Tryamon was a stronger rider, and a 1 die bonus for her and Engres' passion offset the penalty for having two riders on the horse. (And I also rolled quite well, as well as having the larger pool.) So the PCs couldn't catch them.
They then came up with a new plan. First, they hired a tracker in a local village, who (with a succesful check) was able to lead them to the hamlet where Engres and Tryamon were in hiding. And then the PCs went to make them an offer. Engres sent his murder of crows to scare them off, and the squire's player failed a Presence check, but the two knights were not perturbed. The crows then swarmed around them, and Sir Gerren - not wanting to kill them - was not able to push through; but Sir Justin was (getting a bonus die for his greed, given his plan) and was able to make an offer to Engres: that he should return with the PCs to Castle Hill, where he could marry Tryamon and serve as a Crowmaster for Lord Murran, living in his castle. (The scenario says that "The Adventurers might convince the apprentice to return to the Crowmaster, or convince the parties to accept some other solution (or perhaps they have let the young lovers escape in the confusion)." I thought the idea my players came up with was a pretty good one!)
A rather easy Presence check was successful, and so Engres accepted. So all returned to Castle Hill, where Lord Murran was mightily pleased to be delivered not just trained crows but his own Crowmaster.
And at this point the squire had earned enough further fame to trigger another skill boost, taking Courtesie to facilitate his plan to woo Violette (a matter carrying over from our second session); and I thought they had all earned a Storyteller Certificate.
I was pleased with the amount of content we got through - bandits, a monastery and a trial, two villages with unhappy peasants, plenty of social interaction, and a nice player-driven twist in the resolution; and also that it turned out to have a surprising thematic unity - hungry peasants, weddings, and maintaining a judicious balance between upholding authority and allowing individuals to pursue their desires.
The first of these sessions involved three scenarios (two from the Episode Book - A Wedding in Green (the Abbot) and A Wild Hunt (the Crowmaster) - and one from the rulebook - Rebellious Peasants. The PCs travelling with the Abbot to his monastery, and the trial of the bandit leader, were improvised on the back of the prepared scenario. This provided the opportunity to point the action towards the Crowmaster scenario. The resolution of that (tracking the eloping couple through the woods, and persuading them to come to Castle Hill) was also improvised.My group has played a couple of Prince Valiant sessions since my last actual play report.
The first of these (fourth session in what has turned out to be a campaign) saw the squire PC progress dramatically.
The session started with some recap, a mixture of in-character and out-of-character: our fourth player, who had been absent from the previous session, was there, and so there had to be reintegration of the PC - an itenerant performer - into the group, together with filling in the player on the missed session.
The previous session had finished with the PCs in Castle Hill and in the good graces of its Lord, having provided him with a crowmaster. It made sense that an itinerant performer should have travelled to this major urban centre, and so the three knightly PCs (two knighs and their squire) were able to reconnect with the fourth.
There was talk of a powerful knight who was blocking the road north, not letting anyone pass who was unable to beat him in battle - and so far unbeaten. (This was Sir Lionheart, of the second Challenge from a Knight scenario in the rulebook.) Naturally the PCs headed off to see if they could do better, with a crowd in tow to see the excitement and the performer working the crowd.
The PCs had only light or medium armour (+1 or +2 dice), and ordinary horses - not fully-trained warhorses - and with the best brawn + arms total being 8 dice, for overall dice pools (including 1 for lance) of 11 or 12 at best. Whereas Sir Lionheart, with arms 5 and heavy armour (+3) and a fine warhorse (+1) had 14+ dice. (Technically the system calls for coins, but we use dice counting evens as heads.) Conversation with Sir Lionheart revealed that he had returned from the Crusades, and was a knight without match who was waiting to find a fitting lord to serve. (I took this not from the scenario description, but from the excellent 1981 film Excalibur's treatment of Sir Lancelot.)
The players of the knights were hoping that the performer PC would work up the crowd to support them - like the Geoffrey Chaucer character in the film A Knight's Tale - but the player of the performer worked up the crowd in general, so that both jousting knights got a bonus die.
The first of the PCs to have a go was Sir Gerran. He lost, soundly beaten (but Storyteller Certificate still in the player's hand).
Next up was Justin "the Gentle", Sir Gerren's son . He lost too.
Sir Justin and the squire PC were in competition for the hand of the young and beautiful Lady Violette of Warwick, and hence their players were having a bit of a stand-off over spending their Storyteller Certificates: one use of such a certificate is to "Incite Lust" and another is to "Suppress Lust" - so if one used it to ensure Violette's affections, the other could cancel. But use in the joust with Sir Lionheart would change the balance of power.
Sir Justin's player decided, in the end, to use his certificate, but somehow let the player of the itinerent performer talk him into spending it not on outright victory ("Knock and Opponent Senseless" or "Kill a Foe in Combat") but rather on a "gold star" - a permanent PC buff allowing a bonus die once per session. The bonus die was not enough for him to defeat Sir Lionheart.
Sir Justin's player also wanted to bring his skill of arms 4 (rather than joust 0) to bear, so Sir Justin agreed to joust with real lances rather than blunted ones, and (as per the scenario description) with stakes therefore being not a small token but the loser's arms and steed. So for the second time in the campaign, Sir Justin lost his kit by losing a joust!
The PC asked for a joust, but the proud Sir Lionheart declined to joust with a mere squire. To which the PC responded, "Fine, I'll just continue on my way then!" and tried to pass Sir Lionheart and continue along the road. This called for a Presence vs Presence check, which the PC won - and so Sir Lionheart knighted him so that he could joust and perhaps succeed where the others had failed. I took the words of the knight ceremony from Excalibur - "In the name of God, St Michael and St George I give you the right to bear arms and the power to mete justice".
The player of the (now) Sir Morgath determined that he would use his certificate for an outright victory. He considered knocking Sir Lionheart senseless, but he suspected (correctly, as it turned out, given the scenario description) that if he unhorsed Sir Lionheart but didn't kill him, Sir Lionheart would insist on fighting with swords to the death. So he decided to Kill a Foe in Combat - when the lances of the two knights connected, the one wielded by Sir Morgath splintered, and a shard flew through a gap in Sir Lionheart's visor and entered his brain through his eye, killing him!
Sir Morgath was feted by the crowd. He also was able to upgrade his gear, being the first of the PCs to have heavy armour and a warhorse. He also won Sir Lionheart's superbly jewelled sword, which grants a bonus die for social situations where prestige is in issue.
The other two knight did their best to re-equip themselves using surplus gear the PCs had accumulated (including Sir Morgath's old kit) and then they continued north to see what adventures might be had! On the road, they met a richly-dressed damsel, Lady Elizabeth of York, and her handmaiden, who had barely escaped from bandits while returning home from a pilgrimage to the shrine of St Sigobert. She asked for assistance, and the PCs offered it.
The introduction to the scenario notes that "An amusing use of this Episode is to get one of the Adventurers married off to the main character" and goes on to say that "Once [she] feels safe she will begin to flirt with the Adventurers, prying for information on marriage status, lands held, family, etc. During this scene she picks a candidate for marriage, if possible, from the Adventurers. Depending on the way you wish to run the Episode, the victim may consider himself lucky, or cursed". Sir Morgath, with his knightly armour, his jewelled sword, and his famous victory over Sir Lionheart, was the object of her pursuit.
Flirting and courting was interrupted by an attack by the bandits. The players took advantage of the terrain - rolling downs - to get a bonus die for charging down hill. The itinerant performer - whom the players suspect is a woman disguised as a man - disguised as a woman by donning a spare dress from the pack horse, and when one of the robber knights rode around the charging PCs to assault the women, was able to throw knives with the benefit of surprise. Sir Gerran's player used his certificate - the last in the party - to kill the bandit leader, therefore winning for himself a +1 die warhorse and heavy armour. The PCs were victorious and the bandits routed.
When the group arrived back at the castle of the Duke of York, he was very impressed by the young and obviously valiant Sir Morgath. An attempt by Sir Morgath to persuade the Duke that he might not be the best match for his daughter failed (ie Sir Morgath's player rolled poorly) and so he found himself being wed to Lady Elizabeth rather than the Lady Violette whose handkerchief he had been carrying with him. As per the scenario text, if the Lady and "one of the Adventurers [are] betrothed . . . end the Episode with a grand wedding sequence. [Her] father will give each Adventurer an impressive gift." Sir Gerran was given a trained falcon. And Sir Justin "the Gentle", so named because of his deads at the Abbey of St Sigobert, was gifted a fine silvered dagger that had been blessed at that shrine.
And Sir Morgath and his wife were gifted with a manor. So he started the session a squire, and ended up a famous knight married to the daughter of the Duke of York!
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Our session today took up from this point, with only the players of the three knights. We determined that some time had passed, and that the Lady Elizabeth was now pregnant. But Sir Justin wanted to head off adventuring, to do deeds worthy of the hand of Lady Violette. Tales were coming to York of Saxon raids on the coast, and so the three PCs headed off to do their bit in homeland defence!
I decided to use the scenario The Crimson Bull. The PCs met an old man, the last survivor of an assault, holding a crimson bull by a black cord. He asked for help to take the bull to the Valley of Mudde. Through good fortune rather than good planning on my part, the map (we are using the Map of Britain on the inside cover of the Pendragon book) indicated that this would be at the southern end of a large fen on the mid east coast. The PCs (and players) were curious about this, but being noble knights offered to help. Sir Justin introduced himself as Sir Justin and then made a successful Presence check, with the result that the old man knew of him - "You're Sir Justin the Gentle, of the shrine of St Sigobert" - and I was sufficiently impressed and amused to give him a Storyteller Certificate.
The curiosity of the PCs and their players grew as, first, a tree seemed to fall for no reason and nearly knock the cord out of the old man's hand; then, when Sir Justin inspected the bull more closely and looked it in the eye, he failed his Presence check and was put at a one-die penalty in the perturbing presence of the bull; then, the next day, a pack of wild dogs attacked, and nearly caused the cord to be dropped, but for Sir Justin grabbing it at the old man's urging as the latter swooned from his dog-inflicted wounds; and then, on the third day, a group of wild men from the fens attacked them, once again with an apparent focus on the holder of the cord (still Sir Justin).
Sir Gerran took one of the wild men prisoner and interrogated him. He said that the bull was possessed by an evil spirit, which had called to him and his fellows in the fen - they were going to let the bull loose in the forest. The old man would not tell the PCs much - only that the bull had to be taken to the Valley of Mudde to be killed by a wise woman there. The PCs kept going, but Sir Morgath started to suggest that the wise woman, who sounded to him like a witch, might also need to be killed (on Christian principle).
The wild man's club was broken, and he was sent back into the fen.
The next day - the fourth of this particular quest - the bull whispered to Sir Gerran in the voice of a young boy, protesting its innocence. Sir Gerran was chosen as per the specification in the scenario description - the lowest Presence, and - where this was tied - the lowest fame. Sir Gerren (and his player) weren't sure to what extent this was an attempt at manipulation. The PCs debated, but decided to take the bull into the valley. The bull whispered again - "If I'm evil, then what's to be lost by just killing me here" - but Sir Gerran did not act on this. Efforts were made to learn more from the old man, but the checks were not successful, and so he insisted that he could not tell them anything more due to the agreement made with the wise woman.
Around this time Sir Justin inspected the cord more closely and realised it was woven from human hair.
The next night, while camping in the Vallye of Mudde, sparks from the group's camp fire animated and tried to set alight their tent, the tack on Sir Morgath's horse, and the cord! Sir Morgath rushed to help with the cord, which Sir Justin was able to save by extinguishing the fire with some water. (Successful check against the fire spirits, with a bonus die for using water vs fire.) Sir Gerren tried to save the tent by smothering the flames with his body, but ended up being burned (failed opposed check). Sir Justin treated his burns (successful healing check) but the lack of a tent meant that Brawn checks were needed to avoid penalties from poor rest - Sir Morgath's player failed, and Sir Morgath was weakened from swamp fever on the final day of their quest.
The PCs came to a stone altar in the middle of the valley, and the wise woman appeared. She asked for the bull, but Sir Justin was reluctant to hand it over. She explained that she had bound a demon into the bull, which had been attacking the people and the livestock in the old man's village. Sir Justin asked her point blank whether she would benefit herself from killing the bull, and accepted her answer that she would not, and so handed over the cord. She commanded the bull up onto the altar, at which point it called out in its child's voice so that all could hear it! Sir Gerran started to waver a bit - was the bull innocent after all? The wise woman started to recite a blessing in a strange language (Pictish, in all likelihood) and then drew out her "jagged, stained dagger" (to quote the text of the scenario). At that point Sir Justin changed his mind - it was an unadulterated ritual sacrifice - and he made a successful check to interrupt the ritual by knocking the blade from the old woman's hand. Sir Morgath might have tried to intervene but, with brawn reduced by his swamp fever, felt unable to.
The scenario description had no comments on what would happen in such an eventuality, so I had to extrapolate. It did indicate two relevant things: (1) placing the demon in the bull turned it "from brown to a dark, crimson red"; (2) if the wise woman completes her ritual, "a red smoke rises from the beast and dissipates into the surrounding air." So I described the bull turning from red to a rich brown colour, while - as it called for help - a red mist came out of its mouth and started to drift off into the vale.
Sir Morgath was unimpressed, and Sir Gerren finally accepted fully the proposition that there was something evil in the bull. Sir Justin pulled out his dagger blessed by St Sigobert. He had 10 dice - 4 from brawn, 4 from arms, and 2 from a blessed weapon. (His armour would not help him fight a demonic mist.) I told him that 5 successes were required (this is the Very Difficult obstacle). He considered cashing in his certificate for another gold star to get to 11 dice but was worried about failure, and so cashed it in instead for the killing of a foe in combat - and so with his dagger he destroyed the demon!
He then turned to the wise woman and asked "So what do you think of that!?" The player succeeded at an opposed presence check (with a bonus die on his part, as Sir Justin had just destroyed the demon; and a die forfeited from the wise woman's pool, as she was still in shock at her ritual being interrupted) - and so she answered that St Sigobert was truly great, and asked that she be taken to his shrine to be baptised!
Sir Justin was mightily pleased by this outcome, as he destroyed the demon while saving the bull; and Sir Morgath was also happy, as his two goals of destroying the demon and putting an end to pagan practices had also been realised. (He didn't care what happened to the bull.)
The PCs decided that saving even a single soul is an important thing, and so decided to take the wise woman to the Abbey of St Sigobert before going to fight Saxons. As they were getting close to Warwick, and travelling in the dark still looking for a place sheltered enough to camp without a tent, they came across a weary old man in a blue cloak. (The scenario in the Episode Book is called The Blue Cloak.) A merchant, he had been set upon by bandits who had taken his mule and his goods. He knew the game trail they had travelled down, and asked the PCs to help him. Being noble knights, of course they agreed to do so! As they travelled through the woods and down the trail, he asked about their families - learning that one was the son-in-law of the Duke of York ("What an honour to be aided by such a noble knight"), and that the other was returning to Warwick to woo the Lady Violette - and told them of his own daughter and son-in-law living in Warwick. Then, as they could hear the lusty singing of the bandits at their camp, he asked the PCs to go on without him as he was too weary to continue. The PCs were a little suspicious (as were their players) but opposed checks of his fellowship vs their Presences (even with bonus dice for suspicion) confirmed his sincerity.
The PCs approached the camp, and Sir Gerran drew his sword and called on the bandits to surrender. Their leader - wearing a very similar blue cloak to that of the merchant - was cowed, as was one other, but the third threw a clay bottle at Sir Gerran (to no effect) and then charged him sword drawn (and gaining a bonus die for knowing the lie of the land in the darkness), only to be knocked almost senseless with a single blow, resulting in his surrender also ("When I insulted you, it was the wine talking!").
The wise woman and old man, who had been waiting up the trail with the merchant, then arrived at the camp to say that the merchant had (literally) disappeared! Which caused some confusion, but they decided to sleep on it. The next morning, in the daylight, they could see that the brooch holding the bandit leader's cloak closed was identical to that which the merchant had worn. Sir Justin suggested he no doubt had multiples of his favourite cloak and fitting, but Sir Morgath had a different idea - "When you left the merchant you robbed, was he dead?" His presence roll was a poor one, and the bandits answers that the merchant fell from his mule and hit his head and died, and that they had buried him and had intended to place a cross on his grave first thing in the morning. Sir Morgath doubted this - "You didn't give him a proper burial - his ghost came to us last night!" - and I allowed a second presence check with a bonus but it still failed, and the bandits simply muttered protestatins of innocence under their breaths.
Sir Justin received a vision from St Sigobert, and by plunging his dagger into the ground at the head of the grave was able to sanctify the ground. A cross was then placed there, and the group returned to Warwick with their bandit prisoners and returned the merchant's goods to his daughter. Sir Morgath went to tell Violette that he was now married to someone else. He had a big pool - four dice for presence, two dice for courtesie, and two prestige dice for his fine clothes and sword - but couldn't make the three successes I'd stated were necessary, and so Violette did not take the news well! She asked for the return of her handkerchief, and was not all that pleased to learn that Sir Morgath had given it to Sir Justin.
Sir Justin then met with Violette, but not before wording up the old man to tell her about his glorious deeds, so that she could learn of them without him needing to boast! This plan worked, and he succeeded on his courtesie check - Violette accepted his offer of marriage! And the Abbot of St Sigobert was called for, both to officiate at the wedding and to baptise the wise woman of the fens.
The second session involved two scenarios from the rulebook - A Challenge from a Knight and A Woman in Distress. The linking was pretty straightforward: the PCs travel north following resolution of the first, and I frame them into the second.
The third involved two scenarios from the Episode Book - The Crimson Bull and The Blue Cloak. The linking here was a bit more sophisticated: the first scenario ended with a religious/spiritual victory, and that provided context for the second scenario, as well as the concluding parts of the session which were improvised by me.
My experience is that (i) players want to play the game, and (ii) players want to impact the fiction - or to put it another way, probably a bit loose but hopefully not too unclear, they want to tell a story rather than be told a story. So my approach - I think what I've posted illustrates it - is to present a clear situation for them to engage (bandits attacking an abbot; missing crows; rebellious peasants; a knight who insists on jousting; a lady who needs protection; an old man who needs help with his bull; an old man who needs help with bandits), but to leave it open how they resolve the situation.
That does mean that some improvisation will normally be needed to move from scenario to scenario, because the resolution of the situation isn't something you can prep for.
