Alden and Chelsea returned to the Salon down the road where his brother knights were waiting and found well into the second round of drinks and the first round of salon floozies. The knights had told him that after Sir Ben lead Baroness Eldana from the funeral he escorted her safely home and they'd be picking him up at the castle in a short while. Alden stayed behind and had a very watered down wine, as he struggles with the drink. While waiting Chelsea confides in Alden that she's in an arranged marriage with Arnold Hapsburg Van Gelder, a do-nothing Noble for Elibyrge that is affiliated with Alden's Unlce Cleys. Not comfortable with Alden's "Boy's Club", Chelsea made her regrets known and went to stay with her and Alden's cousin Hildi in the city.
Brother Godfrey tended to the body and prepared it for the undertaker. While wrapping the deceased he examined the hankercheif Antonin Gemenev Posjednik left in Itoska's coffin and found it was wrapped around a rifle slug smeared with dry blood. Later Godfrey reported back to a very unwound Father Barthus. The Father was really unconcerned with the body and just wanted to try to get a decent night's sleep before his drive back in the morning. When he found out that Godfrey had been asked to stand in for the catechist for the upcoming wedding of Valasky and Sylvia he had a good laugh. He advised Brother Godfrey that he was a fool for getting tangled in valley politics, that the wedding was a hornet's nest because it represented a political alliance between the Innokenti Decados of Severus and the downtrodden Gagarian Decados of Cadiz, that there was a huge anticipation of a dowry that might not be what is expected, and not all of the local Decados are happy about the union. He advised Godfrey to do everything he could to not entangle himself any further with the mess.
Godfrey caught up with Alden at the Salon and quickly had his first drink of the night while glad-handing with the Knights of the Blue Glove. Marshall Henning let Alden know that Sir Altier would be packing up the autowagon and would be able to give him a lift back to the manor house if he wanted to spend some time with his brother. They headed out into a chilly October evening to find that Propper Tea, the notorious Hawkwood tea shop, had closed. A little disappointed, they got directions back to the Bazaar and returned to the pub where the Godfrey was staying and had a disappointing dinner. Godfrey made a hard sell on finding Alden a decent wife among the eligible ladies he knows in the city, they caught one another up with plans for the next food days and Godfrey dropped the bomb about his Theurgic abilities. Once Godfrey retired for the night Alden discovered that his ride had left after waiting much longer than Alden had expected and he ended up sleeping the night on the couch of a Van Gelder business owner in the Bazaar.
Godfrey went to stay at the cell offered to him at the Cathedral rather than remain in the tiny rented room at the pub. On the way an autowagon slowed and began tracking beside him. As he walked closer to confront them he was greeted by a friendly Freeman cab driver named Jenny Sparks who he chatted up. When he told Jenny he was assisting with the wedding she winced and warned him that the whole thing seemed like a mess to her. She offered Godfrey a ride but as he was barely a block away from the Cathedral she couldn't charge him.
In the morning Godfrey went to make arrangement for the wedding catechism. He spoke again with Father Beneton, the priests who would be performing the wedding rites and was further cautioned that this wedding was politically significant and that the event must run flawlessly, so Godfrey decided that he should review the wedding contract. He was given access to Eric, the Priest's personal Cannon and told that the full resources of his administration were available to facilitate the wedding. He was told that the couple would be arriving at the Cathedral at 11 AM for Catechism. Godfrey arranged for a room and materials and squawked for Jenny Sparks's cab for a ride to speak with the Reeve's, pleasantly discovering that visiting clergy are extended a per diem of up to 20 FB.
Godfrey arrived at the Reeve's Bank, a tiny one-clerk counter with a long line and a heavily armed guard and he was shuffled up to the cramped offices of the advocates upstairs. He met with the Church legate Advocate Martens and found out that the final marriage contract is still being drafted but the Advocate had notes. Reviewing the notes Godfrey came to understand that the wedding was unusually loaded with clauses restricting annulment and unusual stipulations about birthing heirs, a sense that the families of the couple were banking heavily on the union.
Alden woke uncomfortable and went out into the city to meet Chelsea for plans they had made the night before He found his sister casually reading and waiting for him at Hildi's sad little townhouse and they went to the tailor's to get Alden a suitable outfit to escort Chelsea to the wedding in. The siblings bickered about whether Alden would wear something that conformed with Decades Fashion or something that would stand out as decidedly Van Gelder. When it came out that Alden had blown his wages and Chelsea would have to spot him, he ended up being fitted for a nice Decados fashion tight black leather suit with discrete heraldry.
Godfrey met up with Alden in the plaza of The Hub and as Chelsea had some business in the city the brothers decided to get that tea they wanted. The visited Proper Tea in the early afternoon and found it packed save a tiny booth in the back. They found Hawkwood cuisine sickeningly sweet and fattening with all of their fruited curds and sweet-creams. The owner of the tea shop came by to socialize with her patrons and introduced herself as Baroness Adele Mountbatten Hawkwood and already knew Alden's full family name, which she claimed to surmise from his heraldry. Once she moved on to other customers they deduced she must be an Imperial spy.
After tea they met up with Chelsea once more and found out that Hildi was hosting them for dinner. They settled in at her townhouse and as they chatted they found out that Hildi works for the House Weapon factory. Hildi arrived with apologies for keeping them waiting and her maid started dinner. It was clear that Hildi was trying to put on a fair dinner on poor income. Godfrey prodded Hildi about her love life and worked at finding her a good match. Eventually Godfrey made his excuses and returned back to the Cathedral and Alden graciously accepted Hildi's couch to sleep on for the night.
The next morning Brother Godfrey reviewed his ritual notes and sat down in the room reserved for Catechism. Shortly after 11 Canon Eric knocked at the door and told him that Father Beneton wanted to speak with him. He was surprised that Beneton was hopeful that Godfrey had seen the Groom or his men and he found out that the Bride was waiting in the Cathedral and the Groom had not yet arrived. He called the bride in and found her inconsolably worried. She told him that Valasky had returned to his home Fief the morning before and was to return before the wedding, a feat that sounded incredible given the distance. Lady Sylvia was extremely nervous about the wedding and so fearful that she would be embarrassed that she didn't want to travel to the Count's Castle for the wedding. Godfrey performed the Catechism for the bride alone and gave her hopeful assurances that the groom was sure to arrive any second.
Alden arrived at the wedding with his sister, feeling both idiotic in the Decados-styled suit and very vulnerable without his armor or pistol. He was relieved to find that his nemesis Kryden Decados had not shown up. He wished his sister hadn't made him bind his sword but he knew it would be a huge issue to try to enter the Count's Castle with a loosed blade. They mingled in the few social circles they were allowed and he politely weathered the crude Decados men who tried to steal the attention of his unwed land-heired sister. After some time it became clear to Alden that something was not going right with the wedding.
Godfrey gave up waiting on the groom about 5 mintues after the wedding was supposed to start and he drove across town to the castle with Father Beneton and Eric. They went in through the side entrance and when they found the groom hadn't arrived at the Castle either Father Beneton began to drink the very fine wedding wine straight from the bottle. He began to nervously rant that if the groom doesn't roll up shortly that crowd is going to get ugly. Genuinely frightened, Godfrey attempted to search the castle but was rebuffed by a Decados knight that was offended by the insinuation that they were hiding the groom. Out of options Godfrey went to find his brother and sister and share the news.
The brothers decided that with so many politically invested Decados in one room the news that the wedding was a failure could trigger a violent coup. They spoke with the nobles around Baroness Eldana and after some slick savior faire convinced them to leave the wedding. They radioed Jenny Sparks to drive some of them away from the service entrance and Godfrey searched for Canon Eric and the church's autocoach only to find it not waiting for them. So it was decided that the Baroness and Lord Braam's family would ride out while the remaining Van Gelders waited for the cab to return. Two hours of stalling the wedding guests had the brothers jumping any time someone in the great hall raised their voice or dropped a glass. As the Father Beneton attempted to sneak out with the others a Decados knight firmly insisted that the priests was not to leave the castle until after the wedding service under threat of arms, the brothers decided to forfeit that fight and let the priest fend for himself rather than put everyone else at risk. Finally Jenny sped back to the Castle and loaded Alden, Chelsea and Brother Godfrey into her cab along with the lesser lords that refused to walk out of the Castle district.
As they all escaped the castle out of the East Gate they encountered big Autowagon lodged onto the bridge across the gullies that run under The causeway. There were a pair of people looking into the open hood and another autowagon stopped back behind the first, unable to move around them on the narrow bridge. Sensing foul play, or perhaps that the GM had built a bridge for an upcoming scene, the brothers exited the cab, Godfrey used the Rite of Shielding and they walked the 200 yards to the bridge cautiously.
The pair trying to repair their broken Autowagon were hironem who were grateful for the possibility of help with their mechanical troubles. The female spread her colorful crest fin and walked towards the brothers with open hands "Sibhan! You are saviors, are you men skilled at redemption?" her partner stood on the railing of the bridge with his hands in the engine looking displeased. Alden, not really even sure what makes an Autowagon go, offered his help and Brother Godfrey, similarly useless with tech, walked up and peered into the engine compartment. The female jumped into the cab and asked them to tell her when to start the engine as her hands wrapped around a pump shotgun on the seat. Godfrey noticed another Hironem hiding behind the Autowagon and spotted that the Hironem digging in the engine had some sort of weapon in there and Alden spotted a fourth that was hidind up on the base of a Causeway column with a crossbow. Godfrey heard another hironen with a crossbow stirring the grass under the bridge but neither of then saw the other rifleman behind the blocked Autowagon.
Alden took cover and drew his sword and Alden prepared a rite to strike one of the Hironem with awe but it ultimately failed and only drew more attention from the szu-aware hironem. As the remaining hironen came out of cover and drew weapons the female lept from the cab and leveled her gun at Alden telling him to drop his weapon. Alden gave her a good slice but not enough to cripple her arm and he dove over the railing at the Hironem in the climbing out from under the bridge. The hironem who was tinkering with the engine pulled out a dueling pistol and shot Alden in the back painfully. The hironem with the crossbow bounced an armor-piercing bolt off of Godfrey's theurgic shield and the female Hironem blasted his shield twice without penetrating it. Wounded Alden dodged under the bridge to come to his brother's rescue while Godfrey tried to reason with the hironem female and had another blast of buckshot bounced off of his shield before he was tackled deom behind by the hironem that shot Alden. Realizing that the NLO kidnapping plot was falling apart three of the hironem failed leadership checks and just bolted. Wounded Alden, virtually unarmored charged the female with the shotgun and managed a desperate grapple of her weapon arm while Godfrey struggled to get away from the hironem that had tackled him off of the bridge and into the mud. After a brief reversal and poor luck for the female hironem, Alden put her into an arm lock and pummeled her until submission while the last two NLO kidnappers, realizing that the gunshots would have Decados soldiers on the scene in seconds, fled for their lives.
As the brothers took control of the scene they found Baron Valasky Gagarain Decados and his driver tied up behind the Autowagon and the bodies of two Decados soldiers from the brothers' home fief shot dead in the back of the wagon bed. The Count's soldiers rode out to the bridge ready for a fight and took custody of the female NLO leader before they could question her, despite Alden's best efforts to claim her as his prisoner. The brothers got the stolen autowagon off the bridge out of the the way of Valasky's driver so he could arrive over three hours late for his wedding.
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