March 10, 2012

The Bridal Dance:

Chapter 1:
A series of accidents has ocurred at Castle Redmont, the stage of Horace and Princess Cassandra's wedding. Desmond, the Baron's head steward, believes that they are not accidents, that they are intentional. Will went to the castle to meet with Desmond about the latest accident, while Halt boards the mail cart to protect it from robberies.

Upon meeting with Desmond, Will questions him about any person working in the castle who might have a grudge against you or the castle as a whole. Desmond replied that Robard had been demoted from assistant steward to a dining hall waiter. Will requested that Robard meet with him for... a little chat. Will easily pursuaded Robard to tell the truth, whether it be by yelling at him or lying saying that two people saw him commit the crime, when they had not. After their discussion, Will proposed that they discuss matters further tomorrow, and let Robard sweat on the possible punishments overnight.

Chapter 2:

Early in the morning, a steward from the dining hall sprints from the castle to Will's cabin, and announces, "It's Robard, sir, the former trainee. He's dead!" After arriving at the scene, Will asks questions such as "Was there a note- suicides usually leave notes." and "Was the body moved from its original position?" Desmond replied 'no' to both answers. Will looked around and found two names: Serafino and Mordini, Toscan names, he thought. Will left to ask around the village, starting with his child-hood friend Jenny, a restauranteur, about any information related to their profession. She said no, but they might know at the inn where the two Toscans stayed. After discussing the Toscans with Joel, he revealed that they were wool buyers. Will then asked to see the Toscans' room, since it has not been re-lent to any other costomers. After inspecting the room, will concludes that there was a slightly sweet smell, but he could not place what it was. Then, he talked to the local wool buyer, Barrett, and he said that the Toscans did not even visit his store.

Later that evening, Will was braiding a new bowstring since the present one on his bow had frayed. While rubbing beeswax along the string, he recognized the smell as the same from the Toscan's room. Beeswax was used by archers to strengthen their bowstrings, and by crossbowmen as well. This made Will start to think. The Toscans might not even be Toscans at all, but from a neighboring city-state whose people spoke with similar accents- Genovesans. Genovesans were contract killers and murderers who worked exceptionally well with poison. What if Robard's death had not been suicide, but due to poisoning by the Genovesans? And who are they going to kill?

Chapter 3:

The new foreign arrivals had erased the urgency in his finding of the so-called Genovesans. Maybe he had just over-reacted. The first was Erak, Oberjarl of Skandia, a long-term friend of Cassandra. Next was Selethen, Wakir of the Arridi province, Al Shabah. But, when Will ran into Desmond a day later, that urgency was restored. There was a table plan for the banquet of the wedding with the events listed in order in Robard's room. These events included Entry, Meal service and speeches, Dance, Departure. There was a small mark beside the word Dance. There was another mark right opposite the bridal table. Will went to check out the mark opposite the bridal table. There was a half-built platform with an ideal vantage point if someone wanted to harm the King. Meanwhile, Will needed to get started on his speech, as he was best man. But, the doubt of an assassination was too great to get Will's creative juices flowing, so he went to sleep, postponing his speech even one day closer to the wedding.

Chapter 4:

Two days later, the matter was driven from his mind by the arrival of Wolfwill. Wolfwill had been assigned the longest trip of all, bringing in the guest with the greatest distance to travel. Shigeru, Emperor of Nihon-Ja, had arrived for Horace's wedding. Horace, Cassandra, Will and Halt had helped restored order when an uprising occured in Shigeru's country. When Will brought up his most recent findings to Cassandra and King Duncan, they simply waved off the matter, stating that the most recent false alarm for an assassination had been but only three weeks ago, and they would never postpone the wedding.

Chapter 5:

The day of the wedding had arrived, and Will  had never gotten around to rewriting his speech. It was a beautiful sunny day for a wedding in the courtyard of Castle Redmont. Baron Arald of Redmont performed the ceremony. The King was giving his daughter away. And Shigeru had been granted the position of Patron-Sponsor of the wedding.
After the wedding had progressed and the vows taken, it was time for the banquet- and the speeches.

The first of these was the Patron-Sponsor of the wedding, Shigeru. As created by Lady Pauline during hers and Halt's wedding, the duty of Patron-Sponsor was to convey an expensive present upon the newly-weds. He granted them the castle of Hashan-Ji, with income from its surrounding farmlands and timber forests. It is also quite close to the Emperor's summer palace. Horace respectfully declined the income- but gladly kept the castle- and requested that all future income from the castle be shared among the families of those Kikori who gave their lives in the war against Arisaka, the upriser who tried to kill Shigeru. Will had still never written his speech because it burned in a fire some weeks ago, and it may have turned out to bee a good thing. After reciting an amazing speech, a swallow was released and perched on a massive support beam. His eyes registered something else, a detail that was overlooked, so he went to check it out.

Will ran to the Skandian table and grabbed Nils, extra security in case he had to fight Genovesans. They both ran up the stairs. Will realized why the mark had been placed against the word Dance. King Duncan would be most exposed as he danced with the bride, making him a perfect target. Will heard a burst of applause as Horace finished his speech. Will had only seconds until Duncan would be killed.

As Will crashed through the door, he instantly recognized the two men in their dull purple cloaks as Genovesans. He quickly drew his saxe knife and threw it at the crossbow string of the first Genovesan, severing it in half, and his throwing knife at the second, killing the man. Nils yelled "Get down," as he hurled his weapon at the Genovesan who was, until a few moments before, holding the crossbow. Will rose and sprinted back down the stairs, just making back for his wedding dance with Alyss.

Chapter 6:

A group assembled in Baron Arald's office looked up as Halt entered the room. Halt had been assigned the task of interrogating the surviving assassin. Genovesans usually did not talk or respond to death threats. But, Halt threatened to infect him with one of his own poisoned arrows, and the only man in Araluen that could produce an antidote lived eight days away. The Genovesan also revealed that the target was exposed for a much longer period during hte dance; it was Cassandra. The man who wanted her killed was Iqbal. He is Yusal's brother, and wanted revenge on Cassandra since she reduced his brother to a drooling idiot. The plan was to leave an Arridian crossbow behind, and caused tremendous distrust between both Arridi and Araluen. They were lucky that Will had been extremely alert.