IC Scene - The Castle

With the dawn came the Clarion Call's meeting to fix the problems triggered by Captain Seph. The night had gone fairly smoothly. Most of the horses had been recovered. A few [four, two from each player] Clarion knights had been pulled to use their skills track down the remaining horses. The rest began to help with repairs to the stable or see if any new evidence turned up the culprit.

Sir Natir was escorted into the castle by a pair of guards. He unknowingly passed by Captain Jorm and Lord Wulfred of the Lions on his way up the stairs. Through the doors, he saw the Duchess at the end of the hall; she had been expecting him.

"Speak, but choose your words wisely. Your captain yesterday left me with no favorable impressions and both my time and patience are limited."

Sir Natir walked up, and bowed. "Morning, I would like to apologize on behalf of the Clarion Call for the actions of Captain Seph. He is a driven man, who often is frustrated by formalities and so can be very blunt and rude, but he means well. He merely was eager to get unto the battlefield and help your men in the quenching of this rebellion. His eagerness and impatience led to his actions being rash, but his actions are still unacceptable and the Clarion Call apologizes. Now since your time is limited and my counter part and I are both eager to join your forces in quelling this revolt. I ask on that you grant access to both or just one of us, so that we may join your forces immediately, but we are here to aid you in any way so if you have anything else for us to do we are ready and willing."

The Duchess stayed silent for some time. Her eyes scanned the ranger before her, judgmental and more than little annoyed. The small group of guards, including two Knights of the Lion, stood still and impassive as the silent seconds ticked by.

"It looks like you have some sense, at least compared to your friend," the Duchess finally said. "I don't like your Captain Seph though. He can remain outside of the gates for now. Find a way to make yourself useful and I may let him work with you. The farther away from me, the better, for his sake."

She walked over to the doors, stepped outside and pointed west. "You can start by going down to the church grounds. The other orders are meeting with the rebel's leader. Maybe you can learn something from him."

Natir nodded, showing he accepted her commands.

"I understand your decision, but I hope the Captain will be able to regain some of your trust at a latter date. With your permission I shall take my leave and bring Mesor the news and then I shall be on my way. "

The Duchess gestured dismissively at Natir and walked off. The ranger's escorts nodded to him to depart.

[OOC: Yay, you get to arrive at the meeting a little late!]

Rivatha's plans to inform the castle guard hit a snag immediately. If anything, it seemed security had been tightened in the face of renewed fighting. Lady Greysword was already being escorted inside, high on the steps above alongside Lord Wulfred. Captain Jorm was busy coordinating with his men and several scouts were dispatched as she arrived. She was spotted by a guardsmen who quickly grabbed Jorm's attention.

"Hm...you're of the Ebony Gauntlet detachment that arrived here yesterday, aren't you?" said the captain, eyeing her warily. "On which side do you and your brethren fall here?"

"Of course we support rightfull ruler, Lady Graysword, but as you should know our order supports common people as well, so should Duchess start unneeded massacre, that would certainly hurt her relationship with our order, and she might as well lose our support."

"Regarding that matter, may i speak to duchess?"

Jorm's brow furrowed. "Why would you need to speak to the duchess?" he asked, more than a little puzzled.

One of his brows suddenly shot up. "Wait, my men told me of a woman repeatedly demanding to see the Duchess last night. And I can't imagine anyone from this city demanding that in the current crisis.... What is your business?"

"Appearently Duchess didn't make best impression on the orders during the meeting, i need to clarify some details which could greatly help in restoring peace in Windholm."

Jorm didn't seem particularly impressed. "And you tried to interrupt the Duchess in the middle of the night over...poor impressions? Ma'am, perhaps you should leave. I have a war to fight, preferably uninterrupted by frivolous complaints."

"Has any order agreed to support your side so far? Without them your chances are rather small to win this war. And if i come to agreement with duchess you will have one on your side."

Jorm smiled, a stiff smile devoid of mirth. "Ma'am, I don't have time for this. You want to meet with the Duchess, be my guest. But don't expect her to be thrilled with your presence." He turned and motioned to a pair of guards. "Jan, Kris, escort this woman to the keep."

He leaned in and whispered something to one before walking off.

Rivatha followed guards, trying to notice any important details about castle and prepeared to act should guards for some reason turn on her.

Marched straight up the steps and into the keep, Rivatha was unable to observe anything that wasn't already apparent. A wooden keep on top of a relatively short cliff isolated the structure on all sides except the exterior wall. A low wall surrounded the base of the cliff, preventing easy scaling and adding extra defenses to an already formidable position. There was no easy ingress from what the glove could see.

At the door, one of the guards exchanged a nod with one of her escorts and disappeared inside. Inside, the grand hall where the other orders had presented themselves the day before spread out before her. It had several adjoining halls, the widest leading right. It was out of that hall that a hobbled old man, well known to many others already in the city, emerged.

"A visitor, is it?" Lord Chamberlain Harold asked. "Our Duchess is a very busy woman, as are we all in these troubled times. It may be best if you speak with me before we bother her."

"Lord Chamberlain Harold i presume?"

After Chamberlain nodded, Rivatha continued after slight bow.


"Excellent i have personal matter to discuss with you as well.May we go somewhere more private?"

"Here will do fine," said the Chamberlain.  He was still smiling, but there was something in his voice suggesting he was less than pleased at Rivatha's request.  "The Duchess will emerge in time and this will naturally be the best place to catch her.  What do you have to speak of, young lady?"

"First things first then. What is the Duchess plan to deal with the rebellion? Peacefull solution, or she just plans to destroy rebellion, also probably destroying city in the process?  Mind you, i am asking this question on behalf of whole order of Ebony Gauntlet."

"It depends on the rebels," answered Harold. "If they will not give in, then wiping them out will likely be the only solution. Eliminating them in ways that doesn't kill hundreds would be preferable, of course. It's all common sense. I would expect a member of a knight order to know of basic strategy, of course."

He eyed Rivatha inquisitively. "Trying to pick a side, are we?"

"Obviously. While i personally support the Duchess our order is especially interested in well being of common people, i can't go against my superiors will should duchess chose to ignorantly slaughter thousands. However..

Rivatha took a pause but her expression remained as stone cold as possible

"Of what importance Gudrusson is for you?"

Rivatha stared directly in eys of chamberlain while asking the question, also she lowered her voice a little, at least to such level that guards wouldn't hear anything, while on it Rivatha focused not only eyes of Chamberlain but on his face expressions as a whole, trying to guess his something, Chamberlain may not wanted to tell.

The chamberlain's face betrayed a bit of surprise.  "The Ebony Gauntlet is interested in Gudr, are they?"  He added, more to himself, "I wonder why...."

Before the conversation could continue, they were interrupted by a procession from the room beyond.  At the head, Lord Wulfred and a pair of Lion knights stalked into the entry hall.  Behind, a flustered looking Duchess chased after them, shouting, "Wulfred, come back here at once!  You cannot override your sovereign on a whim!"

Wheeling on his heel, Wulfred regarded the duchess coldly.  "M'lady, your decisions have made this rebellion impossible to counter.  We fall back at every turn and continually leave men isolated day after day!  No more!  This rebellion ends today, one way or the other, even if I have to fight...alongside those wretched Griffons.  Windholm will not fall to your indecision.  Come men!"  Wheeling again, he passed through the doors and down the stairs.

In the sky beyond, small columns of smoke rose over distant, unknown locations in the city.

After awkward pause Rivatha spoke loudly.


"That was complete defiance of Duchess, what are you gonna do about it, M'lady?"

The Duchess glowered at Rivatha before proceeding down the stairs after Wulfred, her personal guards trailing after her.

"You probably shouldn't anger her," said the chamberlain, matter-of-factly. "One Clarion Call was already banished from the city for his...impropriety. She gives Wulfred more room in that regard, as he's her son-in-law and gives her a force of Lion knights to help quell the rebellion." He shrugged. "So, tell me...what interest would an order as small and obscure as yours have in a foreign scholar?"

"Quite simple really, support of foreign scholar, such as Gudr especially, would help to rebuild the name of our order, strengthen the order. What is more importantly however is that he would greatly help our cause, as you probably know we call ourselves the protectors of humankind, and having such scholar at our side would help us tremendously. His wisdom could enlighten the masses, the way we can't.He would be a very valuable advisor as well, we are humans too,we do our mistakes and knowledge of how humans deal with various dangers in foreign lands is invaluable.

I am gonna go as far as saying that Gudrusson siding with Ebony Gauntlet would benefit humankind as a whole."

"Hm..." Harold scratched his chin. "Interesting perspective; you seek to increase you influence once again. Having a learned man support you, of course, would help. Tell me, though, what makes you think that the scholar's objective would, in any way, involve you and your order?"

The old man began walking to the castle entrance, motioning for Rivatha to follow. Not that she had much choice, with the guards watching.

Rivatha followed Horold without hesitation not giving away the she noticed guards watch, she also kept her distance from Harold and spoke in slow pace.

"I am rather sure he would consider my order a honorable ally once we learns slightly more about it. Anyways i don't suppose you are gonna part with Gudr just because our cause is right. What would you want in exchange for an opportunity for me to convince Gudr, that our cause is right?"