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Monday 21 October 2024

Companion Chronicles #2: The Adventure of the Loathsome Wyrm and the Machrel of the Sea

Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition and the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, The Companions of Arthur is a curated platform for user-made content, but for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon. It enables creators to sell their own original content for Pendragon, Sixth Edition. This can original scenarios, background material, alternate Arthurian settings, and more, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Pendragon Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Pendragon campaigns.

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What is the Nature of the Quest?
The Adventure of the Loathsome Wyrm and the Machrel of the Sea is a scenario for use with Pendragon, Sixth Edition which details a request to rid the lands of a knight of a fearsome wyram! However not all is as it seems...

It is a full colour, twenty-five page, 32.72 MB PDF.

The layout is tidy and it is nicely illustrated.

It needs a slight edit.

Where is the Quest Set?
The Adventure of the Loathsome Wyrm and the Machrel of the Sea is set within the lands of a knight whose manor is located on the coast.

Who should go on this Quest?
The Adventure of the Loathsome Wyrm and the Machrel of the Sea requires Player-knights with a good mix of combat and non-combat skills. The Sing skill will be of use in the scenario.

It is best suited for play by a group of Player-knights rather than one or two.

What does the Quest require?
The Adventure of the Loathsome Wyrm and the Machrel of the Sea requires the Pendragon, Sixth Edition rules or the Pendragon Starter Set.

Where will the Quest take the Knights?
The Adventure of the Loathsome Wyrm and the Machrel of the Sea starts with the Player-knights being asked by their liege lord to fulfil a request for help from another knight,
Lord Tywyn. He has of late returned from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to find his lands beset by a dragon, which so far has killed the seven knights sent to deal with it by his wife and defeated himself. No single knight can best it, so he requests that a group try instead.

Both Lord Tywyn and his wife, the Lady Allison, will be keen for the Player-knights to ride out the next day and face the dragon where it lairs near the village of Salthaven. There they will discover that something odd is going on and with some slightly challenging roleplaying discover what has been going on, though there is the likelihood that the players will have realised what this is before their knights! This will lead to quite a nasty confrontation and combat, and following that, a number of interesting moral situations in terms of resolving the scenario. In particular, these are nicely laid out for the benefit of the Game Master and so help in the resolution of the scenario.

In addition, the scenario provides a wide number of NPCs for the Player-knights to interact with, and learn rumours and clues from, both in the manor house of Lord Tywyn and Lady Allison, and in the village of Salthaven. There is also an inventive selection of rewards that the Player-knights can be presented with for dealing with the ‘infestation’ of the dragon. There is also one NPC who could become a most singular wife were a Player-knight so inclined and up to the challenge!

The Adventure of the Loathsome Wyrm and the Machrel of the Sea is inspired by The Laily Worm and the Machrel of the Sea (Spoiler Alert!). This is included in the scenario.

Should the Knights ride out on this Quest?
There is a classic fairy tale feel to The Adventure of the Loathsome Wyrm and the Machrel of the Sea, unsurprising given that its source of inspiration is a folk song. There is the possibility that the players may work out what the plot is before their knights do, but as players they should obviously roleplay what their knights do know. This will enable them to enjoy a nicely engaging adaptation of a folk song into a tale of greed and ambition.

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