Cavaliers and Roundheads (was Blew Cotes) Episode 2 "God Save the Queen!" a D&D 5E Historic Campaign report.

October 26th. 1642 late afternoon in Kineton.  Prince Rupert had captured the remains of the Parliamentarian baggage train on the 25th in the village of Kineton.  Charles Osbury and Mable Banks had been ordered to pack up the remainder of the supplies and meet the rest of the Royalist army at Banbury by Captain Owain Hewitt.  The two along with private soldiers Plunket and Towne had decided to take a little known path through a wooded area instead of the main road to avoid looters and Parliamentarian stragglers. 

Mable Banks was scouting ahead of the Royalist party when she saw a very unusual party being led by an old knight in old fashioned armor.  She tried to hide next to a tree beside the road but a priest among the part spotted her.  "Over there Sir Roberte someone is trying to ambush us," the priest called out.  "In the name of the Queen who goes there?" ask the Knight.  Mable stepped out from her hiding place "I'm not trying to ambush you" Mable explained "I'm just trying to hide from bandits".  "Don't trust here sir she may be a Spanish spy and look she has weapons!" the priest pointed a Mable's poorly concealed crossbow.  "A what spy?" Mable asked confused.   

At that point the rest of the Royalist party came around the bend in the road.  "Look Sir more Spaniards!  We are under attack!" shouted the Priest.  "Wait, no, we're English!" Mable tried to interject.  "For the Queen! Have at them!" the knight shouted.   

Weapons were drawn and the two parties engaged.  "God save Queen Elizabeth and England" the knight shouted as he ran down Towne.  "We're English you mad man and we're for the King!" Charles responded but it was too late.
 

Mable retreated into the woods and shot the Priest wounding him.  "Get her!" the priest shouted and the two women in his party began to give chase.

Alarmed by the commotion the mules broke and began running down the road away from the battle.  The knight turned his armored horse and charged Plunket.

The priest ducked into the wood and ran away from Mable who was fighting for her life against two of the knight's followers.  One of the ruffians shot at her but missed.  

"Spanish scum!" the knight shouted as he dropped Plunket with his hammer.  Things were starting to look bad for the Royalists.  

"Stop this madness we're English fighting for King Charles!" Charles shouted waving his arms at the knight.  Confused the knight halted his rampage.  "Will you yield so we can discuss this?" Sir Roberte asked.  "Yes!  That's what we have been trying to tell you." replied Charles.  "Hold, hold!" the knight shouted.

Obediently the Knights followers held their attacks.  "My lord you can't trust them," the priest objected but he was dismissed.

The priest continued to object as the parties gathered to talk things out.  "Hold your're tong and go tend the wounded." the knight ordered.  Without a word the priest turned and began checking on the wounded of both parties.  Miraculously everyone was still alive.  The priest began binding their wounds.

"We are English.  We are fighting for King Charles of the House of Steward against the forces of Parliament" explained Charles.  "But Queen Elizabeth is alive!  I have seen her.  She has been in the land of the young and she returned to save us from the Spanish invasion.  She told me herself," the knight replied.

Seeing that they were outmatched Mable decided to play along "It certainly is wonderful news that her Majesty is alive and well but where is she?"  "The Queen is in hiding from the invaders," the priest interjected.  "But there is no invasion," Charles explained. "We are in a civil war between the Parliament and the King,"  "If you will let us go we will tell the King about this miracle of Queen Elizabeth's return.  Perhaps she can help him bring peace to the country again." Mable pleaded.  "Perhaps you're right.  Anyway you don't seem like Spaniards to me.  In truth we are very hungry and short on provisions.  Can you spare some of your supplies?" The knight asked.  "Certainly," Charles agreed. 

After sharing the provisions the knight helped the Royalists recover their mules and he agreed to escort them through the wood.  "Tell your king the Queen has returned.  We must restore order to the kingdom." the knight said as he bid them farewell.

Once out of earshot Mable turned to Charles "That priest is manipulating that poor old man and those peasants."  "We'll deal with him," Charles replied.

Back and the camp Charles and Mable explained their short supplies by claiming that some of them were bad.  They also explained that they had a run in with Parliamentarian deserters in the wood.  Captain Hewitt seemed to accept this explanation and commended them on getting most of the supplies through.

Note:  This turned out to be kind of a rough session.  Bad rolls led to the Knight's party really dominating the encounter.  I had figured the knight's party would flee after taking minimal casualties and they would show up later in the campaign and the party would learn more about them.  Instead I had to go deeper into the Knight's senile delusion and the manipulations of the "priest" earlier than I expected.  This game has no fantasy elements but in 17th century England belief in fairies and the like was pretty common still among the less educated.  I'm just glad the party realized that the knight was not in his right mind and decided to surrender.  Also as to my miniature choices I'm trying to get some better minis.  I only have a few ECW figures so I'm using the best proxies I can manage out of my collection and it's not easy to order things from overseas right now with companies shut down.  Hopefully this will change soon.