#pendragon

pls can someone take me back to a simpler time when the bts videos of these two goof-balls made me feel safe and warm, like in the end everything was going to be ok?

They’re all so sorry. They’re all forgiven. 

“This is ridiculous.”, Arthur huffed, placing the small creature on Gauis’ table. The frog looked at the prince with huge eyes, as if it was silently judging him. Then, slowly, the little legs shifted from Arthur’s fingers on to the wood of the table. “Here, you deal with this.”

“I already told you, sire. I can’t. This is out of my league.”, Gaius protested, eying the little frog sympathetically.

“Well, it certainly is out of mine now, as well.”, Arthur snarled, as he started to pace the room.

Morgana, sprawled on the stairs to Gaius’ little upstairs library, had her nose deep in a book. “Come now, dear brother. My fingers are already red from flicking through so many pages to find a cure, and you cannot even give a frog a little peck?”

“No, I cannot.”, Arthur snapped at her. He felt the last iron band tighten, and he placed a hand on his chest, wincing uncomfortably.

This whole ordeal had been straight out of a hell tale. First, Merlin had turned into a frog, of all things, and then Arthur had felt like someone had broken into his ribcage, taken hold of his heart and squeezed it relentlessly, as if eager to drain it from every last drop of blood.

“The Frog King Curse”, this god forsaken magical malady was called, and could only be lifted if a particular number of specific things were done, particular services were performed. To turn Merlin back into his wonderfully irritating human self, and Arthur into someone who could breathe freely again without feeling like his heart was shrinking a size per heartbeat.

And Arthur really had tried. He had lifted Merlin on to his table in the evening, and shared his dinner with him. Cut him up small pieces of fruit even, just for Merlin to flirt with a giant, juicy meat fly, before shooting out his horrendously long tongue, and swallowing the insect whole. He did, in the end, eat at least some fruit pieces.

Then, Arthur had permitted frog-Merlin to sleep in his bed. Not only that, on his very pillow. His favourite one, the red one with the fringes. Lifted him up to it with two fingers, and made sure he himself didn’t accidentally lay on the little fellow when he joined him. When morning came and Arthur blinked, two huge black eyes stared back at him. Arthur saw his throat (or was it his chest? His belly?) extend out like a bubble, before a loud “ribbit” rang through the chamber. Arthur guessed that that was Merlin telling him “good morning”. Had he even slept? Did frogs sleep? Were they nocturnal? Arthur had not the foggiest idea. He was the king of a big and growing kingdom, and could never claim to ever have had the idleness of wading knee deep in a lake and observe or catch frogs as a child, like so many others. So for him, having a slimy, green, bug eating thing next to him at every hour of every day was unnerving, to say the least. 

He even bathed with it. Him. Frog-Merlin. He had sat on his knee, throning it like it was its little island in a sea of bathwater, before he bent his little legs and jumped in. Arthur was convinced he had sat on him, and it took him ages to find the little guy and fish him back out. 

And let’s not even talk about frog-Merlin on his shoulder. All day. During council meetings, bestowing knighthoods, delivering speeches.

“What’s that on your shoulder, sire?”, Leon had asked him after their round table meeting, bending down to get a better look at the frog.

All Arthur could do was coughing and mumbling something about an exotic pet gift from a former French royal guest and not wanting to seem ungrateful, before hurrying off, a snoozing Merlin on his shoulder.

He had done it all. Really. And it had worked, partially at least. But what he was supposed to do now, was unacceptable. Impossible. 

“I am the king of Camelot.”, Arthur gnarled, eying the little frog on Gaius’ table, watching him innocently, placing his two little legs together. “I have not time to carry Merlin around and cater to his every whim.”

“Oh, you mean, like Merlin does to you?”, Morgana remarked, unimpressed.

“He is a frog!”, Arthur shouted, as if that explained it all. “I did everything your stupid book said. I shared my food, I shared my bath, my bed, my sanity.”, Arthur enumerated, putting a finger down with every point made.

“And it seemed to work, sire. You reported your heart feels lighter.”, Gaius threw in, nodding towards Arthur’s chest.

“We agreed two of the three iron bands are gone.”, Morgana nodded. “So there is only one left. You know what you have to do.”

“How is kissing a frog any help to anyone?”, Arthur exclaimed, hands rising in desperation. “It makes no sense. You are a high priestess of the old religion, Morgana, do something!”

Morgana slapped her book shut, and looked at her brother reproachfully. “I told you, Arthur Pendragon, there is nothing I can do. The curse was put on Merlin to teach you a lesson. You are the only one who can lift it. All you have to do is treat him nicely.”

“I did!”, Arthur said in a high pitched voice.

“So why give up now?”, Morgana asked impatiently. “Just kiss him, and be done with it.”

Arthur looked like he just smelled something really bad, as his eyes settled on frog-Merlin, still not moving.

“I don’t believe this.”, he said, darting to the frog, picking him up, and dangling him front of his face. “You are supposedly the greatest warlock to ever walk the bloody earth, so turn yourself back!”

Arthur looked at Frog-Merlin. Frog-Merlin looked at Arthur.

“You are mocking me, aren’t you?”, Arthur asked. “Yes, you probably have known how to turn yourself back all this time. Maybe it was even your idea to begin with? To make a fool out of me!”

“I assure you, sire, Merlin did not do this.”, Gaius piped up, but Arthur had already put the frog on the floor, and lifted his boot.

“What are you doing?”, Morgana asked alarmed.

“Forcing him to turn back.”, Arthur said, before his boot came down.

Morgana screamed. Gaius shot forward.

When the physician came around Arthur, he found the frog happily ribbiting, Arthur’s boot inches from its face.

Arthur squinted, as he tilted his boot sideways. When he saw no change, he groaned in frustration.

“Fine.”, he snapped, picking Merlin up again. “Fine!”

One last look of doubt crossed Arthur’s face, as he regarded the little creature on his palm.

“Keep your tongue inside.”, he warned him. Then, he brought his hand close and placed a kiss on the frog’s wide, slimy mouth.

A shudder ran through him, and he opened one eye.

“Nothing happened.”, he complained.

“You didn’t say the words.”, Morgana scolded. “I told you, it says in the book that you have to-“

“Yes, yes.”, Arthur said, trying to shut her up. “I… I appreciate you, Merlin. For all that you do for me. To proof this, I shared my privileges with you these last days, and…”

“… And sealed it with this kiss.”, Morgana whispered.

“… and sealed it with this kiss.”, Arthur repeated, to the frog, feeling like he might have lost his mind now.

There was a loud POOF, and Arthur’s hand broke away as too much weight was suddenly on top of it.

At he same time Arthur saw Merlin stand in front of him, he felt the last iron belt fall. His shaky hand came up to feel his heart, and he drew in a long, deep breath. 

“Took you long enough!”, Merlin complained, shaking out his legs, as if he had been sitting for too long.

“Excuse me for not being keen on putting my lips on a slimy, dirty amphibian.”, Arthur bickered back. 

“Dirty? You know how you look like after an afternoon of training? And let’s not even talk about the smell.”, Merlin shot back, stretching his neck.

Arthur scoffed, feigning annoyance. His eyes, however, regarded Merlin warmly. He was back.

Gaius came up, and hugged his protégé. “We are so glad we have you back, my boy.”

Suddenly, Arthur felt uncomfortable. He cleared his throat, and started to retreat. “Yes. Very well. I expect you in the morning back at work, bright and early.”

As he strode through the castle corridor, he heard footsteps behind him.

“Why are you following me?”, Arthur asked,

“I’m not. I’m going to bed.”, Merlin shrugged.

Arthur smiled mockingly. “Your bed”, he said, as if he was talking to a child, “is in there.”

“Yeah, it used to be.”, Merlin said, a wide grin spreading across his face now. “I much prefer your fancy pillow.”

And before Arthur could react, Merlin had run past him, vanishing around the next corner.

“H-Hey!”, Arthur called after him, sprinting. “Hell freezes over before you touch my pillow! Did you hear me? Merlin!”

As Arthur’s objections rang through the castle, a very pleased Morgana was stretching her arms back in Gaius’ study.

“You better never let him know it was you.”, Gaius said, eying her with a mixture of worry and amusement.

Pendragon is really keyed to campaign play, with most sessions equating to a year of game time. There aren’t a ton of stand-alone adventure, and in the third edition era, most of them were regional and a bit tricky to incorporate into the larger narrative. There’s one scenario that has a rep, though, and of course it’s by the same guy who wrote Masks of Nyarlathotep. This is the new version of The Grey Knight (2024).

In short, a literal specter from the past comes to court to trouble Arthur. Gawain steps up to a challenge of champions to be held in 40ish days’ time, during which the loyal knights of the kingdom must scour the land for the thirteen treasures of Britain, one of which will give Gawain the decisive edge. The players get the inside scoop on which treasure is needed, and travel first to the surreal Wasteland and then to a faerie kingdom to find it and, presumably, save the day.

I like the original quite a lot but had two main reservations. First, it structurally feels too similar to the established tale of Gawain and the Green Knight (by design, actually) and I felt like this would be even more of an issue for the new edition in the wake of the 2021 film. For whatever reason, though, this didn’t bother me this time around. I also don’t love how the players don’t get to square off against the titular villain, but again, whatever revisions were done (I can’t detect specifics), this too was minimized.