496 - The Anarchy Era

Sleepy Will said: Taron, would you make an Awareness check please, and let us know what you tell the others! Sorry, I've not been around to check in - v busy with kids and work! I rolled a 5 against 13 for awareness

No worries, we understand!

Before the meeting concludes, Sir Cubeth takes the opportunity to give her condolences for the deaths of Sir Roderick and Sir Galter, as this is the first time she has seen Lady Ellen since their passing. After the meeting, she will go to the scribe and inform him she has permission from Lady Ellen to ask the following questions about the disappearances. She would like to know what the records claim as to who saw the Lady's last, whether they were seen together or separate, where in the market area it was last documented they were seen, and the account of the eye witness mentioned to Sir Arnold of the child.

After returning from Cornwall - Dylan will seek an audience with Lady Ellen, and request that Sir Owain be summoned.

Your audience request is granted

Owain will attend as requested.

Dylan enters the audience at Sarum wearing the favour of the Ordo given him by Sir Hogarth and bows to Lady Ellen. "My lady, I return with some news from the investigation of the disappearance of Lady Violette. What I have uncovered is shocking, and sensitive in nature, so I will leave it to you as to who should be present, although I request that Sir Owain be summoned." Dylan will wait for Ellen to clear any from court she deems do not need to be there before continuing. "I have journeyed to Cornwall in search of one of your former handmaidens, Lady Morgelyn, now wife of Baron Bryoc pen Godren. It is my understanding that your late husband was informed of what she had seen, and then had arranged for her marriage. Did he share her story with you?"

Lady Ellen takes you to her private chambers, you have as much privacy as is possible, though a knight guards the door and servants continue their duties. Lady Ellen listens intently as you explain where you have been. Will Owain and Dylan make intrigue checks please.

Dylan succeeds (8/12).

Owain fails (14 vs 6)

Am I guarding or not?

Can sir Arnold make a check as well?

Gareth G. said: Am I guarding or not? Yes! Ross M said: Can sir Arnold make a check as well? If Dylan can confirm if you are present at his private audience then yes, you can make an opposed check against Lady Ellen as well, just in case she decides to be deceptive. ----- Cubeth, the scribe tells you that the only records with these details are damaged, it seems someone withdrew them at some point, and returned them wet. They have dried and are unreadable. As the nobleman who withdrew them was of Silchester, his name has been recorded (as has yours) as Baron Lyonesse. ----- Dylan and Owain, Lady Ellen replies "No, no my husband did not say anything to me about Morgelyn. Indeed, she left my service under something of a cloud... she's a liar and cannot be trusted! She bears a deep grudge against me." Dylan, Lady Ellen is definitely not telling you everything she knows. However, there is no dishonestly in what she has told you.

Sir Cubeth tries to recall if she has ever come across Baron Lyonesse before, or if she has heard of him before. (ie. does he have a reputation such as our knights do when we meet strangers? Does she know where his lands roughly are?) Cubeth asks the scribe, "Documents are allowed to be removed from here?  Surely the Baron would have needed someone to read the documents for him?" She then inquires, "Are there any documents of the incident to not be damaged?"

(Dylan did not invite Arnald to the audience, considering the matter too sensitive). "My lady, before I impart what I have learned, please allow me to ask one question of Sir Owain." Dylan will turn to Owain. "Sir Owain, as I was not present when these events transpired, would you please inform me of where you were and what you were doing when the Lady Violette vanished? I am keenly aware that there are times that knights can suffer from 'episodes' and may not have a total recollection of events. Had you suffered anything of the like near this time?"

Cubeth has never heard of a Baron by this name, which is unusual considering she knows all 30 Barons of Silchester's names. "The only undamaged documents are these, the city gate guard confirming that the Ladies did enter Sarum, and a guard on the gate of the Castle confirming that the ladies and the common girl all entered the castle. The case against the husband of the common girl, that's here in full. And this one, what's this... It's not on the ledger, I'll just add it now, obviously an oversight, an incident report, a knight causing a commotion in the marketplace. A lady tried to intervene it seems, ahh, look, it's been put in here because the Lady who intervened was one of the ones who went missing. See look, Lady Morgelyn. The knight she attempted to stop has been left out of the records, or details of the incident itself. That could be for a number of reasons, either the knight had every right to do what she tried to stop him doing... or was prestigeous enough to have their names left out of it... someone like Sir Leddicus, Sir Owain or Sir Hogarth, or higher. The same sort of people who would be allowed to remove documents if they wished to have their own scribe study them. Either way, if the Earl agreed to leave their name off the record, or Lady Ellen, then it's been dealt with. That's it though, everything else has been damaged. Sorry!"

Something does not sit right with her on hearing all this.  She then asks, "Is there a record of who signed out the documents to the Baron?  I would be interested in if they remember when he took them and if they could describe him for me?" Recalling some past instances, she has a crazy thought which passes through her head and hopes it not to be the case...

"It would have been me, but this was years ago, I'm sorry, I don't remember anything."

"I not sure I particularly like the tone in which you ask Sir Dylan, or indeed why you ask if without explaining what has led you to ask the question. I will answer nevertheless. I was at Tisbury, looking to my manor over the winter period, having spent the summer with Earl Roderick in Malahaut and escorting him home again after their perfidity. If you elude to my year's absence, that occurred many years before, and is a matter of common record." "Now why exactly do you question me so and imply that I am not of sound mind in front of Lady Ellen? Are you trying to deliberately insult me by casting doubt on me before the Salisbury's regent, or are you plain tactless?"

Dylan will ignore Owain's tone and proceed. "My intention is not to insult you, but to add context to the situation. If my intention was to insult you, I would have had this discussion in open court."  Walking over to Owain, Dylan produces a gemstone and holds it out. It is a reasonably distinctive Italian Agate, almost identical to that set in Owain's sword. "Do you recognize this?" Dylan observes Owain's reaction and then continues. "This was given to me by Lady Morgelyn who told me it was given to her by Violette. Her story was thus. She was at the market, and Violette was there too. She didn't know her, except by reputation. She saw Sir Owain arrive and there was a commotion, shouting about money problems. She claims he was rough with Violette and though the common folk turned a blind eye, she followed. She said that Owain took her into some house or another, and  hurt her before he stalked away. Aftewards, she tended to Violette which is when she received the gemstone and Violette asked her to leave." Dylan now addresses Lady Ellen directly. "Lady Morgelyn says she took what she knew to the Earl, but that was when she got the impression that she was married off to remove her from the situation as Owain was considered important in a time of war." Dylan pauses to let what he has said sink in.

"Plain thoughtless then; you need to think more carefully if you did not mean to offer a slight. Think on this; Morgelyn claimed not know Violette by sight, yet knew exactly who I was. How so? All my attendance at court I was accompanied by Violette. It is not conceivable that a handmaid at court would know one of us without the other." He turns to address Lady Ellen. "Lady Ellen, who was Lady Morgelyn? You know that the tale that Dylan speaks does not ring true. Never have I struck a woman, let alone my wife who I love dearly. I would like to understand more so I can decipher why Dylan returns with this story. The agate he has suggests that she may indeed have played a part in Violette's disappearance, but not the one she tells."

"Lady Morgelyn was one of my handmaids, daughter of Sir Dowrick who paid for her to be placed into my service, but was.. that is to say we suspected..." Lady Ellen thinks for a moment, before coming to a decision "We suspected her of feeding information about Salisbury to Silchester. Shortly after we began to suspect her, she vanished, around the same time as Lady Violette . Around the same time that we hosted an envoy from Silchester. We think they snuck her away. She returned, and had this excuse and that, not being able to prove anything, we sent her as far away as possible, and it was made clear that she was never to return."

"And did Lady Morgelyn have anything to say about Sir Cubeth's sister who also went missing?" Owain asks Dylan. "May I take the agate please? It maybe overly hopeful, but I would like to show it to someone." "Lady Ellen, may I ask who the envoy from Silchester was?"

Dylan will pass over the agate. "Perhaps we could summon the others who were looking into the disappearance, to see if they have discovered anything additional to add? Sir Cubeth, Sir Arnold, Sir Taron"

The Agate is indeed the one you had set into Violette's sword, the matching one to your own. "No, I'm sorry, I don't really remember. Sir Blaine I think, perhaps. As for Sir Cubeth's sister... no, I cannot say I remember." Dylan, you can read into Lady Ellen's manner that it most certainly was Sir Blaine.

Owain clutches the agate tightly. "Sir Blaine," he mutters. "Why is he ever involved in all that goes ill for my family."

Sleepy Will said: "It would have been me, but this was years ago, I'm sorry, I don't remember anything." "Had anyone else asked to see these records besides the two of us?  Has the Baron requested any other documents in the past?  Who else was listed that day visiting and looking at records?  Are there any other documents which include Lady Morgelyn?"

"Let me see, no-one listed, which means only good men of Salisbury have requested to see them, who wouldn't have needed to be recorded. No-one else that day or any day was recorded, just the Baron. I can certainly set aside some time to search for Baron Lyonesse  or Lady Morgelyn for you, but..." The scribe looks behind him at the many thousands of documents that detail the history of Sarum castle since long before the Old Empire ruled here. "Well, if you could narrow down which documents I should be searching, then I would be able to return an answer much quicker to you."

"I doubt you will find anything in your records regarding the Baron...  But Lady Morgelyn, I would look into records a few years before the incident I am inquiring about and a few years after.  Focusing on matters which are disturbances, personal griefs, or court proceedings.  Things of that nature." She thinks for a moment, “Why would this document not be listed on the ledger with the rest of them?   Whose hand is it in?  Do you recognize it?”

"I don't recognise the handwriting, but this paper is referring to an incident in the marketplace. There is no reason to link it to the disappearance of the Ladies. Someone, at some point felt it was linked... or just put it away in the wrong place, and either forgot they had added it or forgot they should record this - or of course if it was put away in the wrong place, may not have even known they had moved it. I don't recognise it, no and that is odd, I do wonder who wrote it. I try not to read every court transcript I administer, else I would be in the dungeons for sleeping on duty". He smiles a weak smile.

"I imagine it is rather rare for something to get misplaced in your care.  This must be the first time?"

"It certainly doesn't happen often. Far more likely when someone brings their own learned men to read for them."

"If we found a sample of handwriting from another, could you possibly identify it with this document?" After he answers that question, she asks, "The commoner accused of murdering his wife.  Could you give me a name, occupation, and where he lives?" After the above questions are answered, she will Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:8.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:107%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} give a shrug, "I am surprised you do not recall the Baron at all...  If something which was involved with my work or placed in my charge was treated poorly and returned in such a condition, I would remember the person who returned it in such a state rather vividly."

"If we found a sample of handwriting from another, could you possibly identify it with this document?" "I could certainly try" he agrees ----- "The commoner accused of murdering his wife.  Could you give me a name, occupation, and where he lives?" "He was a farmer, I believe, named (( unless contradicted by a name given earlier )) Josep. He currently resides in the ground somewhere around about Execution Hill, but you'll have to ask the headsman. Murderers do not get marked graves." ----- "I am surprised you do not recall the Baron at all...  If something which was involved with my work or placed in my charge was treated poorly and returned in such a condition, I would remember the person who returned it in such a state rather vividly." "I have no doubt, Sir that your noble blood means you could indeed do my job far better than I. However, you clearly misunderstand my role in this castle. I am a scribe, and I was most likely busy reading or writing something very important for Lady Ellen, or running her messages to the Silchester border. You know, helping to keep those scorched bastards well away from our lands. Scribes in Salisbury do not have time to shuffle documents." His tone turns chilly. "I assume there is nothing else you require of me."

Arnold, not invited to the hall, goes off to pray in the cathedral.

(I did just invite everyone else, if Lady Ellen agrees. :) )

she does

Sleepy Will said: "He was a farmer, I believe, named (( unless contradicted by a name given earlier )) Josep. He currently resides in the ground somewhere around about Execution Hill, but you'll have to ask the headsman. Murderers do not get marked graves." (Wow, new information or I really missed something at some point...) His tone turns chilly. "I assume there is nothing else you require of me." She replies in a saccharine manner, "Oh, you have been ever so helpful.  I believe you have answered all the inquiries I have for the moment..." She then takes her leave of the scribe.  After walking a short distance, she is told she has been summoned to the hall.  When she arrives, she looks around the room, trying to gauge the mood, and says, "Hopefully, I have not kept you waiting..."

"Lady Ellen, as reported when we returned from Hantonne, Sir Blaine was also present representing Silchester. He spoke privately to me about how Salisbury and Silchester need to start working more closely together, putting the past behind us in the face of an uncertain and dangerous future. I agree with the sentiment, but I am not certain whether the challenge of our shared animosity might too much to overcome. However, if Silchester could be seen to aid to someone such as I, it may bring round many in Salisbury to the idea of starting to warm up relationships." "You know Sir Blaine better than any here. Do you believe he would provide an honest answer as to what may have happened, in spirit of starting to forge these bonds, or it is likely too sensitive a matter?"

"And I, my lady, would be interested in hearing what the others have learned in their own research - that we may have a more complete picture of what may have gone on."

"I'm sure that Sir Blaine will tell you anything you wish to know, but I can assure you he knows nothing of this matter. He was a guest here in Salisbury and was with myself... and my husband during his entire visit."

(Please assume at the present Cubeth has not shared any information, and she is operating under 'the fog of ignorance' of anything before her entrance until someone says something to the tune of: 'Soandso fills Cubeth in' or 'fills her in expect for this part'.) Feeling slightly awkward walking in on the middle of a conversation, Sir Cubeth clears her throat and pipes up, "I am not really sure why Sir Blaine is involved in this conversation about my sister being missing...  But I do have a question for Lady Ellen as she might be able to enlighten us.  While speaking with the scribe, a name presented itself which I am not familiar with...  A Baron Lyonesse.  Are you familiar with this name at all?"

UllinBethalto said: While speaking with the scribe, a name presented itself which I am not familiar with...  A Baron Lyonesse.  Are you familiar with this name at all?" Lady Ellen, to your eyes Dylan, looks incredibly uncomfortable at the question, "No, Sir Cubeth, I know of no such Baron. Though my late husband was in truth the person who knew of all the nobility of Logres."

"Any relation to Baron Gerens?" Dylan will then fill in Cubeth on the substance of what else has been brought up - his trip to cornwall and the Lady Morgelyn's accusations.

(She will answer Dylan's question/respond to Lady Ellen first.) "That is the problem Sir Dylan, he could never be a relation.  To my knowledge, this knight does not exist.  According to the scribe, ' Baron Lyonesse' hails from Silchester... the land of my employ and the homeland of Lady Ellen.  As part of my duty to the Duke, it is to know who the important knights of the realm are, though I may not have met them yet, and this Lyonesse is not one of them.  Lady Ellen has just now confirmed my suspicion as being at her ancestral home recently, aiding her son there, she surely would know the names of the Barons..." (If it is OK, I imagine this is the point where Sir Dylan catches her up to speed.) After being caught up to speed with the situation, her eyes widen, "Oh, I see...  Well... this is the conversation I had with the scribe, but I would prefer other opinions on what they think it means before I speak my peace on the matter..." She then proceeds to tell them everything she gathered from the scribe, word for word.

"I shall see to it that he is reminded of his place" Lady Ellen is displeased at the report of the scribes parting words.

"Actually Lady Ellen, that reminds me of another issue I wanted to bring up with you.  I was surprised by the lack of security of Salisbury's documents, and I will expand on this more after the others have had a moment to consider what I have said; but, perhaps it may be worth considering appointing someone learned to organize and keep a closer watch on the official records of the court and to be held accountable for their safety.  This person may also be charged with organizing them so inquiries into matters may be found in a faster fashion...  But then again, this might be a fool-hearty notion..."

"Why Sir Cubeth?" Lady Ellen is genuinely puzzled "No commoner has managed to access our archive in living memory, since the first knight took residence in Sarum. Had you tried to access them and been of common birth, you would have certainly noticed our security!"

(I'm going to assume that all the information gathered by both Cubeth and Arnold has been shared - please let me know if that's an incorrect!)

I feel that would be a fair enough assumption!