Session two

Key points:

• The first day of jousting continued with Dame Arcadia winning her match and progressing to the quarter finals
• Mr Lawrence took the Lady's command to heart and started to try to get in with the Decados servants, posing as a shady bookmaker trying the take bets on the competition. He didn't get very far but did make some cash...
• Sir Hemlock befriended a Hazat knight (and competitor) who was sat near their party watching the competition. He proved to be a useful commentator on the sport
• The Trusnikron Baronet who had been so offended by the use of hover bikes refused to use one and rode his Urroc, losing his bout and killing the bird in the process, but badly wounding the Li Halan knight he faced in the process.
• Count Innocence Decados greeted De Havilland and congratulated him on his win, It seems that he bears no grudge...
• During that evening's feast the Baron once again tried to woo Dame Arcadia while De Havilland noticed that she still seemed to be wary and watchful of *something*
• While narrating events to him, De Havilland and Sir Hasimir overhear the Baron arguing with his (distant) cousin Baronet Christopher Windsor Hawkwood. They don't catch the nature of the argument but it seems heated.
• The following day the sport began again, Sir Selwyn lost his match up and then it was Hassimir's turn...
• Sir Hasimir requested Dame Arcadia's help to prepare and took that opportunity to try to convince her to accept the Baron as her betrothed. She argued against but conceded that there was benefits to marrying a Hawkwood
• Sir Hasimir was drawn against the Baron's younger brother, Sir Cuthbert, a young noble only recently come of age. The fight was pretty much a farce. Cuthbert fumbled his landcraft roll to control the hoverbike and it caught fire, Hassimir claimed that this was technically a "dismount" and earned 3 points...The rest of the match was spent with them proceeding to miss each other until the final round when Hasimir connected with and ineffectually hit, ending the Joust at 4-0 and proceeding to the next round
• At lunch Sir Hemlock finds a chance to speak privately with Arcadia and try to find out what is wrong. She tells him he cannot help, but he obviously makes her think and she decides that there may be someone who can assist her. She thanks him and says that she trusts him to help her when the time is right. He assures her that he'd do anything for her.
• After the rest of the bouts (and Mr Lawrence has fleeced more serfs of their coin) the guests assemble for another night of feasting
• Arcadia refuses to sit at the Baron's table and when the announcement of the match ups for the following day's quarter finals is read out and she is paired against Sir Hassimir she stands up and objects. The Baron says that he was going to wait until the final day but he can no longer hold back, this has all been in her honour - will she put aside these petty squabbles and marry him? No, she retorts, because she loves another, she turns, kneels and before the shocked throng, proposes to Sir Hemlock, who accepts! The assembly are stunned and shocked - marry for love? And a lesser noble than the Baron? Some radical or uncouth nobles (e.g. the Trusnikron and Al Malik) cheer and celebrate but amongst most others there is stony silence or open disapproval. The Baron storms off.
• The party begins to wind down, Hemlock believed that the "proposal" was just a cover but discovers that Arcadia is deadly serious: why should House Justinian dilute their bloodline and marry away their heirs? They can be wed, take concubines (to bring in fresh genes) but retain their lineage and assets within the House. Hemlock seems to make a reluctant peace with this, for now.
• Sir Hasimir is still looking for a way to bring the original union with the Baron about so makes a wager with Arcadia. If she beats him in the joust she may marry whomever she likes, but if Hassimir beats her she will marry the man of his choosing. She agrees.
• Hemlock is cautious and takes to patrolling the outside of their tents overnight but spots no nefarious activity.
• The following morning is the quarter finals, opened by the Baron facing the Hazat that Hemlock befriended. The Baron's face is set like flint and he wastes no time in despatching the knight. He strides off to his tent, job done.
• Meanwhile (and unbeknownst to the rest of the players as we'd run this scene separately without them...) Brother Josay is summoned by Arcadia to hear her confession. She swears him to secrecy but confesses to him a sin which has come to burden her heart. She seems to think that she will soon meet the Pancreator and needs to unburden herself. She confides in him that <Details redacted> ;) . She is a firm believer that the traditional stance of the Justinian house is wrong - they must rebuild themselves, not through alliances of convenience or marriage, and that, at the time, <Details redacted> ;) She fled Ravenna, serving as a knight in numerous battles until her recent return. She believed enough time had passed but *something* has made her believe that her sins cannot be so easily escaped or avoided. Josay weighs it up and grants her absolution on the proviso (and penance) that she tells someone within her family what she has done.
• De Havilland prepares to face his opponent, Baronet Christopher Windsor Hawkwood when a commotion breaks out near the competitor tent that the Baron had entered. Servants and Appleby (the Baron's major domo) come running, along with De Havilland (who dismounts), Hassimir and Hemlock (who had noticed Arcadia's absence and was looking for her). They find that the Baron has been murdered!
• Hassimir uses his psychic abilities to probe the thoughts of the serf who discovered the body - he sees that the Baron was killed by some form of blunt force trauma, breaking his neck.
• Dame Arcadia then joins Hemlock from somewhere in the crowd.
• The Trusinkron Baronet comes forward with one of his staff, a small page named Timmy. The boy says he saw the murderer leave the baron's tent when he was on a errand for his master. Brother Josay softly consoles the boy and encourages him to speak up, he tells the assembled throng that he has seen the murderer and he can see her now, it's her! He points straight at Dame Arcadia.....