Godwyn's Gambit

Godwyn undertook the boldest subterfuge of his young career in the hope of planting the seed of future greatness.

Date

Autumn 1195 - Winter 1195

Characters

• Godwyn
• Lord of the Wild Hunt

The Story

In the summer of 1195, Godwyn and Hywel Mawr released the Wild Hunt from imprisonment at the behest of the Lady of the Forest. In gratitude, the Lord of the Wild Hunt gave Godwyn a season of training in hunting skills.

It occurred to Godwyn that such a powerful faerie could one day prove a useful ally. If, much later in his career, Godwyn could summon the Lord of the Wild Hunt and treat with him as an equal, he would have achieved a feat of legend rivaling that of the greatest magi in the history of the Order of Hermes. An alliance with the Lord of the Hunt would make him undisputed master of the wildwood. It would win Godwyn everlasting glory, even eclipsing the renown Flumen earned by imprisoning the Hunt decades before.

The season he spent under the tutelage of the Lord of the Hunt offered an unprecedented opportunity: to obtain an Arcane Connection to the Lord of the Wild Hunt. It would not be easy, nor safe. Godwyn had no doubt that if the Lord of the Hunt had an inkling what he planned, his wrath would be swift and fatal. Yet Godwyn could not put the idea out of his head.

Godwyn spent the first month of the season dutifully learning all the hunting lore his tutor could offer and observing his habits. The Lord of the Wild Hunt was too skilled ever to suffer an accident that would shed a drop of blood. Neither did any thorn ever pierce the faerie's skin. He never even snagged his bulky bearskin cloak on a twig or left so much as a footprint on the ground. Simply following alongside the Lord of the Hunt would never make an Arcane Connection fall into Godwyn's lap no matter how carefully he watched. He realized he was going to have to make his own luck.

The best plans, Godwyn knew from his own experience, are simple and flexible. He resolved to try to trick the Lord of the Wild Hunt into removing his antlered helmet and stealthily obtain one of the hairs that would surely be stuck to its lining. One day toward the end of the season, Godwyn started to bring along a wineskin. A few days later, after a particularly thrilling hunt, he offered to share the wineskin with his tutor in celebration. Godwyn sat down on a fallen tree and the faerie lord sat beside him, removing his helmet and carefully setting it on the tree out of Godwyn's reach.

Godwyn made sure to imbibe heavily, and though the faerie lord did share the wine, he drank but little. The two talked and laughed and shared hunting stories. After he had brought his partner's guard down, Godwyn stood up to tell a particularly lively story, punctuated with sweeping gestures. At the climax of his tale he stumbled drunkenly and "accidentally" snagged the antlered helmet on his sleeve, knocking it to the forest floor. The Lord of the Hunt rose up angrily at that and Godwyn quickly picked up the fallen helm and offered it contritely back to its owner -- but fumbled while picking it up, running his left hand around the inside of the rim.

The ruse worked -- Godwyn had managed to loosen and palm one of the Lords of the Hunt's hairs, and the faerie seemed none the wiser.

It was the work of an anxious season to permanently fix this Arcane Connection in the laboratory. Godwyn was ever fearful that the Lord of the Hunt would somehow notice the missing Arcane Connection, for faeries are wise in mystic lore and have senses that mortal men lack. He became tense and secretive, refusing to tell even his trusted servant Thomas the Poacher what he planned. In due time, the work was complete. Godwyn then carefully placed the hair in a glass vial, which he wrapped in linen and placed in a small wooden box. He buried the box at midnight amid the foundations of the new construction at Glastonbury Abbey, in the hope the Dominion aura would hide it from the Lord of the Hunt if ever he should think to look for it.