Mythic Bastionland Session 1 Recap (and notes on designing a realm map!)
Happy (belated) New Year! The weather is finally warming up here in the UK after a bitter cold snap in the first week of January, and the Meadow of the Witch-Hares is similarly thawing from a deep hibernation.
I'm running a second season of Mythic Bastionland at my local game shop and had the first session take place yesterday on the 12/01/2026, so I'm keeping a write up for my own and my players usage, and hopefully your reading pleasure. Skip to the end for a photo of me at a Birds of Prey experience at Cheshire Falconry, as taken by my lovely girlfriend who bought me the experience as a birthday gift. Much love to you my darling and dashing knight-in-shining-amore!
Designing The Realm Map
This is a new map I made over the course of about 2 and a bit days, based on the same principles from the first map I used in my very first sessions running Mythic Bastionland. The art style is more refined, the hexes are about 50% bigger and most importantly, each hex has a code so it is very simple to consult against my notes where the players are, where the nearest myth/landmark is and so forth. I highly recommend you do this even if you are using an online generated map as it makes playing and re-using the map so much easier. I didn't have access to a printer and didn't want to buy a book of hex paper so I measured out and hand drew hexes onto A5 dotted paper, 6 by 6. I highlighted the hex borders in sharpie, cut them out then repeated the whole process an additional 3 times before gluing them together onto a piece of A3 paper. Once they were all stuck down I filled out the hexes with illustrations. The final touch was layers of clear sticky tape running vertical down the hexes to stick them flat and protect the illustrations, with more tape over the back to get the map to sit flat for gaming purposes. Whilst designing the hex contents I paid closer attention this time to deliberate zones with more obstructions to force the players to navigate around the map in more varied ways and see hexes they otherwise might have ignored; as my earlier map really just had no-go zones full of interesting content that the players found too annoying to travel towards. We will see how well that works...
Session 1 - 12/01/26
Louie is playing the Bloody Knight
Elinor is playing the Hive Knight
(other players and knights will drop in and out as the game runs, with such low prep Mythic Bastionland fits in very well between other games and can fill in gaps where illness and other absences strike)
The Bloody Knight and the Hive Knight were not surprised to see one another when they boarded the boat to this realm. Their seers had told them that their destiny lay in the formation of a new Order in this land to which neither were native nor familiar, and they expected to see other knights with such destinies on their journey. Their squires bonded over shared hardship, but the knights themselves kept aloof and professional as they pulled into the harbour of Beacon. The rain poured hard and often on this grim coast, and they were quickly ferried by a herald of King Abran the False to speak with him upon their arrival. The King's throne sat atop a tall tower that glowed at all hours with an inner fire that had guided sailors safely to these shores for many years.
Louie chose that his knight should be announced only as: 'The Bloody Knight', foregoing his character's name and standing by his title alone. The Bloody Knight approached as instructed, but did not kneel. Elinor chose that her knight should be announced as: 'Other Ruskyn, The Hive Knight', deciding that neither Lord nor Lady suited their knight's temperament. The Hive Knight approached and kneeled, rising only when politeness allowed.
King Abran took a shine to The Bloody Knight for his boldness, but was disappointed when he backpedalled and apologised for daring to stand up to him. The King explained that he had many enemies, and did not resent being known as 'the False' though he would not elaborate on how he earned that title. He did not make any secret that he won this land via conquest, and that others resented his rule and plotted to undermine him. His first request to the knights was to travel north to Sunkenseat where his son ruled and to offer aid, as strange things resembling myths had been encountered there. As the knights were being dismissed they heard the tale of how Abran had come to this land and fought the old Queen: The True Knight, but cheated during the duel and took her head and her kingdom. The Herald that relayed this information also suggested that strange cackling and disappearances had been witnessed by the western boundaries of the great lake to the immediate north of Beacon, and so the players decided to investigate this on the way to Sunkenseat.
On the way to Sunkenseat the players encountered two omens from the Cave Myth, with the Bloody Knight first losing then regaining his axe from its terrible maw. They also encountered the first omen of a myth they could not identify, with the feeling of a great terrible heat moving underneath their feet as they first arrived at the lake. The most significant omens they encountered, however, were from the myth of the Imp, whose sadistic pranks dogged them on four separate occasions on their way north and seemed to be the source of the vile cackling reported in the West, though they could not pin the creature down. The penultimate omen they encountered the night before their arrival in Sunkenseat.
They were camping by the northernmost part of the lake and the Hive Knight took the first watch. They were disturbed by sounds of grumbling and complaining and saw a group of blacksmiths chained to a forge, concealed behind a hill. The Hive Knight revealed themselves and freed the blacksmiths, who told of an order of Scholar Knights, loyal neither to the old Queen and her supporters nor to the usurper King Abran the False, who had abducted them from their homes and set them to work making arms and armour. The Hive Knight left them to travel back to their homes and awoke the Bloody Knight to loot the weapons and gear left behind only to discover the forge abandoned, with hoofprints leading off as if in pursuit of the freed peasants. The two knights galloped along the trail hoping to cut them off, but were waylaid by an omen of the Imp and lost the trail.
They arrived the next morning in Sunkenseat, where they met the ruler: Howell O'th' Guard, son of Abran the False. He thanked the knights for travelling so swiftly and sent scouts to hopefully aid the fleeing peasants before the Order myth caught them. He gave them a day to rest and recuperate, and as the players explored the ruined town they met with a monk named Brother Valerius who invited them to a secret meeting that evening to persuade them to join the rebellion against King Abran the False.
The meeting revealed that Abran the False had his men ambush the True Knight during their duel and overpower her, that the Queen had been betrayed by the ruler of the Court of Spring, a woman named Myghal Wodwale, though as to why they could not be certain, only that Myghal still ruled her holding and will not stand against Abran. They gave the knights amber amulets that mark them as part of the rebellion, which will allow them to enter the Amber Citadel to the north and speak with Branc-in-Amber there to join the coming war against the usurper king. They also learned more of the Order myth, that they aspire to capture a holding of their own, but do not know where the Order are based or what holding they are looking to capture. The meeting was cut short by a guard raid, from which the knights were nearly caught and only escaped by causing a fire inside the city walls that blazed out of control and diverted attention so that everyone could escape.
The knights set out the next morning toward the North-East, finding that the hut where Brother Valerius had met them had been abandoned with none of the other rebels to be found in the holding. The Imp waylaid them with a maze of smoke and fire which succeeded in only angering the knights further. They managed to navigate up into the verdant mountains, where they encountered a farming village under siege by Scholar Knights of the Order. The Bloody Knight took on many injuries but held the line long enough for the villagers to escape, with the final blow being dealt by the Hive Knight dowsing the enemy in alcohol and setting them aflame with a well-placed arrow. The confusion allowed the knights to slip away to safety as well, and so ended the session.
The players finished on Hex E3, around midday in game time. The next scheduled game is in 4 weeks time, but it might happen sooner if we need an emergency game to take place because another game is unable to run in the intervening weeks.
Photo of Me holding a Siberian Eagle Owl
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