To Return A Blade

Brief Recap: Last turn, Blade and Fyona traveled north to Heklamar with a caravan of goods guarded by Rasheman mercenaries. When they arrive in Heklamar, it is late winter, after New Years.

Home Again, Home Again...

The journey home is relatively uneventful, Blade and Fyona avoiding interaction with the caravan and its guards as much as possible. They are left alone throughout the trip.

Blade and Fyona get a room [two rooms? Do you two get rooms together now?] at one of the inns of Heklamar, near where the fencing academy is to be located. Blade inspects the academy's building, a beautiful two story stone site set at the corner of one of the market streets, about three blocks from city center. It has potential, but will need work. He will hire workers and planners tomorrow after visiting the king. Once he sets them to work, it should be a couple of months before the school is ready to open.

The next morning Blade and Fyona request audience with the King. The King agrees to see them soon, and they are asked to wait in the castle.

After half an hour, the two adventurers are ushered into a large meeting room where the King sits with his retinue of guards and advisors bearing scrolls nearby.

The King carefully surveys Blade and Fyona where they stand before him. "Ah, Blade, and Fyona, friends to the Kingdom. What brings you before me?" Fyona bows but says nothing.

Blade bows before the king and says. "Your majesty we have just returned from a harrowing journy to the South. Without getting into all of the duplicitous details, it was full of treachery, intrigue, and double crosses. The end result I'm afraid is that Bruce Tyrlan is likely to either come himself, or more likely, send agents to assassinate both myself and Fyona. It is all a huge misunderstanding but I fear the damage had been done, Bruce will not by swayed by reason. I inform you of this so that you can prevent such nefariuos activities from occuring in your kingdom. They may tolerate that sort of thing in the South but I know you to be a much more honorable man than the so-called rulers of the South. Law and Order are paramount to a civilized society.

Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the lovely Fyona has received the devasting loss of her arm while in battle. Do you know of any possible way that this can be remedied?

The King ponders, rubbing his bearded chin with one hand while withdrawing a scroll with the other. He looks hard at Blade and Fyona, not opening the scroll. He looks displeased, to say the least.

"I fear you must go into the 'duplicitous details,' as you are not the first to inform me of these events. And the story I have differs from what you have told me. The pigeon travels faster than the caravan, and We have the utmost respect for the Lord of Pastille, Lord Fezzik. They value law and order in the Free Cities as well as the north. And Lord Fezzik has information that it was you who disturbed such order.

"And I see that what I am told by Lord Fezzik is at least partly true. Fyona, what rapier is that you carry? For if it be the blade of Count Vingrot, you shall have much to answer for.

"Now, tell me the truth of these events. Though you are heroes, crimes against the Kingdom will not be tolerated. Speak!"

Fyona pulls back her cloak exposing her missing limb, "It was only after the Count took my arm that I took his life and this sword is a pitiful replacement."

There have been no crimes against the Kingdom. At least not by us. As near as I can tell Count Vingrot was using Thaddius to spy on Bruce. For what I am not exactly certiain, but I beleive Bruce was unaware of this until the last and he thought that Thadius was loyal to him. As did I. Thaddius and Vingrot staged events that made Bruce and I suspicious and even hostile towards each other. When I left here I was on my way to make amends with Bruce, but on my way back I was attacked by mercenaries whom I belived to be sent by Bruce. So I went back to settle the score. It was there during Bruce and I's fight that we learned the real cause of all of this. Count Vingrot attacked us all, with the aide of Thaddius and more of the same mercenanries who had been sent to kill me before. We had no choice but to defend ourselves. Both Thaddius and Vingrot were slain in the battle. We acted in self defense against them. Why Vingrot had it iun for Bruce and I, I can only imagine.,, It seems old feelings die hard, but I thought our serveice to the Kingdom had absolved us of these past indescritions. It seems Vingrot had other ideas and wished to mete out his own justice. Our perhaps he wanted to slowly wipe ou th eCompany of teh thorn one by one, then make his bod for teh throne. He always had his eye on that and it is apparent he wasn't abiding by your order of amnesty for us. There is no way to tell now, unless there are still agents of Vingrot about who could confirm his plans. But in all honesty, his death probbaly saved you a lot of misery down the road. "

"I'll murder you where you stand, scoundrel!" yells a voice from Blade's left. There stands a young man Blade has never before seen, but who nevertheless looks familiar. The aquiline nose and dark features give him away as the new Count Vingrot, son of the man Fyona slew in Pastille and heir to the Vingrot estates. "And I'll take my father's sword back now as well. I can see it did it's work on you, bitch."

Fyona stares at the young man with hatred. She imagines using his fathers sword to remove his tongue.

"SILENCE!" says the king loudly.

Vingrot's son, the new Count, instantly kneels, bowing his head, saying, "Forgive me King Ozrik. But these criminals have slain my father, taken his sword, and now they slander his name and accuse him of treason against the crown. I cannot tolerate it!"

Fyona waits till it seems appropriate to speak again after the kings command. Still staring at the counts son she says "I'm sorry for your lose and the facts that have been revealed to you here. I know what it's like to find that one's parent it not as honorable as thought." Although her statement is sincere there is no sound of compassion in Fyona's voice. "As for this sword, I believe I will be needing it for a while due to my condition. So, I will not give it to you willingly."

Blade surpresses a slight smile at Fyona's last comment. "Your majesty, this man, whom I have never met, has threatened my life, insulted the fair Lady Fyona, and accused us of being criminals. Surely these attacks upon our honor cannot go unanswered. I demand a duel to rightfully settle this matter."

"Control your thirst for blood, man!" says the King sternly. "How would Dezrik's blood on your sword 'rightfully' settle this matter? Do you wish no end to the bloodshed?" The King pauses, clearly troubled by the choice with which he is faced. "Blade and Fyona, you have admitted to the killing of Count Vingrot. That is a grave offense, even if it was in self defense, which I am inclined to believe. Still, you have admitted to slaying a noble of the Kingdom, and you are not among the nobility yourselves. By our oldest laws, your lives are thereby forfeit."

Dezrik Vingrot sneers in satisfaction.

"However, the slaying did not occur in the Kingdom itself. Such a thing has never before occurred, and I choose to make an exception in this case, to spare your lives for past services you have done us."

"Spare?! What madness is this? Our law demands they hang, King Ozrik! No matter where it happened, they slew my father! They are commoners who have slain one of royal blood! You threaten our very laws! Will peasants now be allowed to rise up against their lords?!" says Dezrik, nearly frothing.

"Calm yourself, young lord," the King says. "Though our laws demand justice, I am the final arbiter of the law. These two have before rendered us all a great service, even to you and your family, though you are unaware. In truth, it is for that reason that I spare their lives.

"Blade and Fyona, you are hereby and forever after banished from the Kingdom. All your wealth and holdings within the Kingdom are forfeit. If you are ever again found within our lands, your very lives will be forfeit. You must be clear of the city by the hour. And you must leave even our frontiers as quickly as you can. If you are found in the Kingdom three days hence, your lives are forfeit and the full penalty of the law will be dealt." The King continues in a tone barely above a whisper. "Now get you gone."

"NO!" screams Dezrik Vingrot. "What of my father's honor?! What of my family's sword?!"

The King answers solemnly, "Let them be the price for his disobedience to the crown." He looks at Blade and Fyona for the last time with sympathy, then all kindness leaves his expression. "I will not tell you again. Get you gone."

Guards move to surround Blade and Fyona, separating them from the enraged Vingrot. They begin to usher the two adventurers from the hall.

Fyona again bows, "Good-day my kind King." She has seen this game many time. Royalty run a muck, honor and loyalty overlooked for tradition. But she still believes King Ozrik to be a just man for she knows that if he had not taken any action against them many conflicts would arise throughout the ranks. She touches Blade on the arm and gestures with her eyes that they should go.

The two leave the castle and mount the horses they had bought soon after arriving back in Heklamaer. They both agree that they should try to find Bibi and Mog, in the hopes of possibly healing Fyona's arm or at least gaining more knowledge about a posssible remedy. They stock up on supples for their journey and are on their way out if teh city within the hour. As they ride past the would-be academy, Blade looks at it forlornly. The school would have been nice, but he knew in his heart that he would not have been able to devote the necessary time required to make it a truly excellent school. Perhaps it was just as well.

"It seems my brief brush with respectability has already come and gone. It certainly didn't take long to wear out our welcome here. It could have been much worse though. I'm sure teh King will reconsider his ruling teh next he had need of us. And if Dezrik Vingrot is anything like his father was, I'm sure he will. It will certainly cost far more wealth and finery than what was jsut taken from us before I come rushing to his aide. We save teh Wurld and this is the thanks we get? " he says to Fyona as the ride out of teh city to teh North. "What's imortant now is finding a way to make you whole again. After that, then maybe we can discuss plans for another school."

[Are Bibi and Mog within the Kingdom? I am not sure of teh actual ruling? Are are lives forfeit only within the Kingdom proper or the territories as well? What are the territories? ]

Posting Instructions: Please add as you like, and feel free to revise any actions I have portrayed you as taking.

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