No more diplomacy, now they all need a good old-fashioned skirmish! At sunrise the pro-French Breton troop walks near the village to take position on the road.
Cosquer’s troop, which was also hidden but on the other side of the aber, comes in view and enters the village.
Quimerc’h joins his men who take position on the other side of the field they were in. Foot soldiers exchange arrows and xbow bolts without much results (the pro-French wall of pavises is too strong, and most of the pro-English have cover).
Marie Keranster wisely orders the villagers and peasants to leave the village without interfering and to hide their belongings in the countryside.
All the newcomers now begin to ask who owns the tower near the village (strangely enough no one asked before)… People say it belongs to an old esquire, hard drinker and without money, who loosely supports the pro-English side. Cosquer borrows a horse in the village and quickly rides to the tower, and tries to convince the old man to take side. The esquire is reluctant to agree, he has one crossbowman in his tower, after some discussion he tells him to shoot at the French, the first bolt misses voluntarily, the next one kills an enemy. Some pro-French soldiers then walk to the tower but one of them is killed by a stone dropped from the top, the others go back.
The mounted knights charge against each other in two different places. Very bad luck for the pro-French knights who are defeated (including by mounted sergeants that’s very bad dice rolls indeed).
Seing their knights defeated, the pro-French slowly recoil out of the place.
Meanwhile, the Navarrese ship has sailed away. The French ship sails later, Quimerc’h then runs to the ship which brought him, now he wants to fight the French on sea. Some of his men brought on sticks two beehives they took in a field.
The pro-English ship and the French ship come close to each other, the first arrows are devastating for the French, then the men of Quimerc’h throw the beehives, one falls into the sea, the other one on the French ship, but it’s almost not necessary the French captain surrenders.
Explanation and results:
— The Navarrese (NPC) had prepared two different ways to block the peace meeting: the reward promised to Quimerc’h, and an assassin they sent from their ship (unknown to Quimerc’h). The NPC assassin was lucky (secret rolls by the GM and perception rolls failed by Troussequin). If he had been captured he only spoke in Basque.
(This scenario was very, very loosely inspired by real events: a project of peace was actually discussed in 1353-54, the king of Navarre was really upset about it, he had the Connetable of France Charles de la Cerda murdered in a brawl in an inn in Normandy in 1354).
— Cosquer and Quimerc’h succeeded in defeating the pro-French troop. Quimerc’h was eager to attack to make clear that the peace discussions had failed. He will be secretly rewarded by the king of Navarre, if only because this skirmish where pro-French knights died makes almost impossible an effective murder enquiry in the village.
— Guy de Troussequin, who stayed on foot because he had no warhorse with him, retreated with the pro-French infantry and is safe. At least he has hope that local merchants will order wine from his domain later.
— Marie Keranster the inkeeper hears that her house is now nicknamed “The Red Inn” (in Breton: An Davarn Ruz) because of this murder …but it could as well attract more visitors. And she now has an address to order wine from Poitou, trade continues even in war time.
Pictures above : Jean-Jacques, Nicolas.
The story and more pictures from the Bastard de Quimerc’h’s (player) point of view (in French):
https://euthanasor-wargamesetmodelisme.blogspot.com/2021/11/pourparlers-pourparlers-pour-faire.html
The story and more pictures from Guy De Troussequin’s (player) point of view (in French):
https://www.anargader.net/t3200-heurs-et-malheurs-du-sieur-troussequin#29852
https://www.facebook.com/groups/JeudHistoire/permalink/2910099005967687/
The story from the GM point of view, in French:
https://www.anargader.net/t3202-an-davarn-ruz-l-auberge-rouge#29870
https://www.argad-bzh.fr/argad/en.html
https://www.anargader.net/