The Adventure of the Sword Lake

Life, Achievement/ Win

Sir Bradwen, Sir Gaius, and Sir Monroe help a goatherd get a sword.

At the Easter Feast in 486, Sir Bradwen, Sir Gaius, and Sir Monroe learned that they were to go north to raid with Prince Madoc. However, Sir Huw pulled some favors to make sure they were put on garrison duty instead.   While on patrol, the knights met a goatherd named Kite who begged them to help him get his pet goat who had run away. The knights chased after the goat and eventually found themselves deep inside a forest where they had to leave their horses behind and crawl through a hedge to pursue to goat. On the other side of the hedge, they saw a magnificent stone castle unlike anything they had seen before.   The knights were ushered into the castle by the gatekeeper Hob, who said that the mistress of the castle, the Lady Siefe, would meet with them upon her return. Inside the castle, they saw many men in knightly armor without faces.   Hob showed the knights to their rooms, and told them to wait for the return of Lady Siefe. However, Kite burst into their rooms and told them he'd seen his goat going down a flight of stairs and begged them to help. Sir Bradwen and Sir Gaius agreed and went after the goat. They found themselves in a dungeon, where the goat was being petted by an imprisoned lady who introduced herself as Lady Nineve. Nineve warned the knights that Siefe was a dangerous enchantress who would try and use her powers of seduction to bring them under her enchantment. Nineve asked the knights to go into the labyrinth behind Siefe's castle and retreive a golden apple from the lake at its center. This apple, she told them, would allow her to break Lady Siefe's enchantment.   That evening, the knights were brought to a feast with the Lady Siefe, who asked them about the goings on in Uther's kingdom and, as they had been warned, tried to seduce each of them in turn. They were able to courteously turn her down and even to get permission to go out riding the next day.   Upon leaving her castle, the knights attempted to return the way they had come to speak with Count Roderick about what was occurring, but they were unable to make their way through the hedge, and so they proceeded as requested to the labyrinth.   To enter the labyrinth, they had to fight a knight who was dressed in black, and Sir Bradwen and Sir Gaius barely defeated him. Upon their victory, however, his curse was broken and he revealed himself to be a knight named Sir Cantus whose last memories of Logres were from the reign of the tyrant Vortigern. They learned that Sir Cantus had defied Lady Siefe and so had been cursed.   Inside the labyrinth, the knights traveled for a long time until they came across a sorrowful maiden. She cried terribly because she was compelled to offer them hospitality, but could not because she had no means. The knights provided her the means, and she served them, later getting Sir Gaius to give her a kiss that broke her curse. She told him her name was Lady Arwen and that her father was named Sir Barda. They learned that she had been cursed by Lady Siefe for trying to poison her after Siefe had seduced and enchanted Arwen's lover. Before she departed, Arwen gave the knights a healing tincture.   Further into the labyrinth, the knights met an injured unicorn who would not let them pass. However, because Sir Monroe was actually a lady, Monroe was able to approach the unicorn and offer it the healing tincture Arwen had given them. The unicorn then followed Monroe around closely as they went deeper into the labyrinth.   After some more travel, the knights came across a headsmen and a young boy. The knights witnessed the headsman cut off the boy's head and add it to a pile of heads nearby, only for the boy's head to grow back. They learned that the headsman had been cursed to render justice on the boy and that the boy had been cursed to never die. This curse had fallen on them because the boy had stolen from Lady Siefe's table. Sir Gaius realized that Lady Siefe had no just authority to demand capital punishment since only the King's justice can demand death, and they revealed this to the headsman and the boy, which lifted their curse. Before leaving, Sir Bradwen charged the headsman to take the boy into his home.   Finally, the knights found themselves at another door with a Latin inscription. Sir Gaius was able to read the Latin, which instructed him to put blood in the chalice carved into the door. He did so, and the door swung open, revealing a great lake beyond, in the center of which was an island on which was a tree with a single golden apple. The knights were then attacked by a Nukalavee, but they were able to quickly dispatch it and then go out to the center of the lake and retrieve the apple.   They returned to Lady Siefe's castle and gave the apple to Lady Nineve, who ate of the apple. Having recovered her power, Lady Nineve broke Siefe's enchantment, freeing the lake and ending all of Seife's curses. The castle disappeared and the knights found themselves with Lady Nineve, Kite, and the goat on the edge of the lake. At this time, they learned that Kite had been Merlin the whole time and that he had arranged everything to help get Nineve free.   Nineve, in turn, gave them each a magical reward: a healing tincture for Bradwen, a box enchanted to allow escape from danger to Gaius, and a potion of fertility to Monroe. Finally, at his request she gave to Merlin the sword Excalibur.   The knights were then returned to Salisbury, where they learned that they had been gone for several weeks. Count Roderick was wroth with them until his wife appeared with Lady Nineve, who revealed to Count Roderick what they had done for her. Nivene further revealed that Lady Siefe had been plotting with a Saxon named Saexwulf to have her faceless knights assist the Saxons in their assault on Logres. Because of the knight's intervention, this plan had been ruined.   Merlin also used his magic to transform the unicorn into a faerie horse which he gifted to Monroe, who named the horse Peanut.