Dark Camelot?

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Sydney

long story short, I'm thinking of transporting them to another world, one where Mordred was successful in usurping Arthur's throne, though it's rumored that Arthur is yet alive somewhere...

One good trick on the true king might be to remember that Mordred was a virtuous knight until he was told that he was doomed to kill his father. The same "Holy Man" told Lancelot, at the same time, that his adultery would destroy Camelot. What if the "Holy Man" was in fact an evil wizard? What if Modred is enspelled? Perhaps Mordred is the true heir of Arthur who needs to be freed.

It would be a dark Britain, one where Mordred rules with an iron fist and his mother, Morganna works dark magics to help keep him on the throne,

Mordred's mother was Morgwase. Morgain's children were Uwain and, hold on to your hat, Galahad! Morgain was the Elain of Castle Corbek in many older versions of the story. It is Morgain who carries the Grail in Castle Corbek. Galahad's mother is Elain of Corbek.

That will surprise the PCs. Morgain works for her Gods and perhaps cuts a deal with Mary. Morgain, perhaps with Sir Kay as an ally (it makes sense if you know the Medieval Romances) could test the worthiness of the PCs, then ally with them to free Mordred.

However, I'm drawing short of a decent enough adventure...perhaps the knight who was attacked was transporting something of import and it was stolen, requiring the PCs to bust into the castle of a knight of the Round Table to retrieve said item...But, what to make the maguffin?

Balin's spear caused the disaster that the Holy Grail cured. As finding the Grail broke the Enchantments on Britain and freed the land from the curse of the Wasteland, perhaps those enslaving Mordred to Darkness want the spear of Balin to eternally curse Britain.

[Sydney]

And it's back from the dead...

I ran my "Dark Camelot" adventure this past weekend...it went well.

The PCs found a Sir Callomere who had been attacked near their fortress and promised to return the banner of King Arthur from the knights who stole it. They travelled to a tower that was built on a rocky outcropping in a fen, along the way they were attacked by a group of farmers that had been pressed into "service" by a verbeeg (giant) to slow anyone following the knights who stole Callomere's banner...They made it to a village on the edge of the fen where they met the drunken lord, then they travelled into the fen and fought a couple of trolls (AD&D 2e style as this was a 2e game), some worgs that killed their ponies (the ponies fled the battle with the trolls) and a whole lotta spiders from 1" in diameter to one that was 20' in diameter...When they decided to sleep for the night outside the tower's gates, the knights were sent down to collect them.

The PCs ended up doing battle with the enchantress Dastria, her companion a druid named Kayne Buru, and several of her knights...The battle was going against the PCs, though they weren't totally screwed despite their fighter/tank getting hit with Hold Person by the enchantress. To make matters worse, the druid cast Obscurement, which produces an area fog effect, obscuring vision to 6 feet in this particular battle...

the fighter got two good hits in on Dastria before the Hold Person...So as soon as she could, Dastria fled the battle... The halfling cleric hit the druid with Insect Swarm, causing him to flee the battle as well (or should that be flea? ;) ) So, the PCs were able to prevail, they found that the knights had been charmed by Dastria, who was captured by some soldiers who had followed the PCs to the tower (at a distance) should they need help.

So now, the PCs have at least one, likely two, powerful enemies and they seem inclined to stay where ever it is that they are and are talking about keeping hold of the tower they had just liberated from the villains...Which means I'll be able to bring in more Arthurian stuff...