Alden was waiting outside of Redemption when Brother Godfrey finished his lesson with the Scravers, leaning on his autowagon patiently. They had made plans to have dinner and talk over plans for Sekbridge. Alden drove back to Hildi's townhome to find maid Ava unprepared for Alden or his brother. She hurried to prepare a suitable meal while they pulled on of Hildi's maps down off the wall and measured out the best plan. They contemplated marching in from their step-brothers village in Molovko but the nearest village in Sekbridge was dozens of miles away. They decided that charging in through Stone Harbor would likely just be a firefight but they thought boating into the coastal village below the Sekbridge castle could possibly get them into the heart of the fief unmolested. After some calculating they decided that they'd catch a bridge out of Gold Hills Harbour in Sarsbourg, some 90 miles down the coast. They needed a change of clothes and another fuel cell for the Autowagon.
Alden set out in the night and found that the Scravers were asking more than he had left in his pockets for a fuel cell and the Muster were doing business with nobody until the port lockdown was resolved so he surrendered to waiting until the Reeve's bank opened for the day to begin their glorious quest to free Sekbridge. Brother Godfrey returned to the Cathedral to pack and get some sleep.
Alden woke in the morning and got in some practice with the sword while visualizing taking down some filthy stinking Decados. Then he showered, packed and overnight bag and checked his weapons before going to wait for the Reeve's bank to open. Alden quickly collected his monthly stipend and made arrangements for his rent and rent for his cousin Hildi. He walked to the bazaar to pick up a fuel cell and then drove to the cathedral to pick up his brother. As he pulled up to the side entrance, Brother Godfrey was waiting there packed for the long drive.
The Brothers made excellent time to the Sarsbourg border, crossing through Woodbridge before the sun was full in the sky, but the fief's old gravel roads slowed them down considerably and the winding drive gave them time to talk. Godfrey wanted to know Alden's thoughts on who ultimately is responsible for all of the troubles in the value. Alden apologetically explained that he didn't care. He has a family member in trouble and Decados mischief on the border of his family lands. He doesn't have the liberty of looking any deeper into the cause until he's solved the problem. Just after noontime the pulled over the rise and into view of Sarsbourg Manor. It was decided on the spot that the brothers didn't want to deal with the interference of Lord Braam and they detoured around his home to drive down to Gold Hills Harbour.
The Harbor was bustling with afternoon activity, mostly traders bidding on honey and loading it aboard their boats while fishermen returned from the day's fishing. Brother Godfrey noted the very large number of Muster in the small seaside town, drinking and laughing and talking on squawkers and generally just being brutes among the underfed peasants and freemen. Alden drove up to the headman's home and spoke with his son who was duly impressed by his Order of the Blue Glove arm band. The son agreed with the good sense of having Alden keep his autowagon safe in the headman's garage. Brother Godfrey picked up some food and mead from town peddlers and then they moved to the docks.
Down on the water the scene wasn't more chaotic. A number of steamer ships were loaded down with crates of cargo with more being loaded on and merchants were gossiping about Lord Braam having a distress sale to pay for all of his new mercenaries. As the brothers talked to boat pilots about a trip up the coast there was a commotion of a trio of knights of Lexitus barging down the narrow docks and threatening to shove anyone in their way into the harbor. Brother Godfrey recognized Lady Mirren in the back of the procession cradling her rifle, ready for resistance. He wanted to talk with her about the burning of the temple in Sarsbourg but he was reluctant to interfere in their serious business. The Church knights made their way to one of the larger steamers and exchanged their nondescript wooden chest for another nondescript wooden chest, then the departed, Lady Miren giving Godfrey a friendly smile as she recognized him in the crowd.
As the brothers watched the scene unfold they heard a young man clear his throat and speak from one of the boats behind them "Are you gentlemen looking for passage up to Sekbridge?" The enterprising skinny fisherman standing on a short sailboat introduced himself as Boris and introduced the brothers to his partner Dennis. He made the case that they were capable sailors who could get them where they were going and back for 5 Bird. The brothers talked him down to 3 1/2 FB and he wasn't too keen on the deal but he shook hands on it and within just a few minutes they were motoring out of the port. The trip was long and the little boat was crowded but it gave the brothers a chance to catch some sleep on the gently rocking waves.
Late in the night Alden was gently shook awake by Boris the fisherman, in the moonlight he could see the black and foreboding coastline but had no idea where they were. Boris leaned down and whispered "Just past this point is Sekbridge castle and the port town you wanted. If it looks safe we'll sail in close to the beach and you can disembark. Be quiet the noise carries over the water.." Alden woke his brother and they both watched and listened as they quietly sailed past the lights of the little coastal village. Up above they could see fires on the battlement of a cliffside castle. Alden motioned for the beach and the little boat silently changed heading, shoaling into the shore. Boris helped the brothers into the waves and handed them their belongings "We'll be back here at first light, be careful, we're not going to risk our lives for a handful of birds.." and with that the little boat pushed off and sailed into the dark waves.
Alden and Brother Godfrey armed up on the beach until they heard shouts from the village. Not wanting to be discovered they hurried into the swampy brambles inland and hid in the dark. They saw a trio of men in Decados militia uniforms with torches and clubs talking about how they're sure they saw the boat come into the shore. The militia searched up the beach for a while before returning to the village, leaving the brothers on high alert. Not being skilled scouts the brothers moved slowly and cautiously towards the road up to the cliffside fortress. Aria Turian Decados's manse was a massive stone keep built out of the side of a jagged cliff with a forbidding road cut into the cliff face and huge doors guarding the keep's small bailey. There was no safe approach to the keep much less a way to lay siege to it but Alden was confident his cousin Hildi and any other captives were locked in it's bowels.
The brothers returned downhill to check out the village and found it empty with few lights showing. As they approached they could hear the tolling of the church bell in the Orthodoxy temple at the other end of the village. Brother Godfrey felt his heart sink in the fear that parishioners might be in trouble or worse. In a split second the brothers pushed forward on the road with weapons ready and walked cautiously towards the dark town. Brother Godfrey chanted the Rite of Shielding. Halfway towards the ringing village the bell stopped, it's resonance hanging in the night air. Alden noted a pub and the stone edifice of what must be the head-man's house. He reasoned that if he were going to take control of a village he'd do it from the most fortified building. Remaining focused on the buildings the brothers failed to see enemies creeping up on them in the shadows between.
The first attackers came from behind them, the three armed militia men now dressed in red jackets charging them with clubs and then driving out from between two buildings much closer two others in red, one with a club and one with a flail. Alden caught sight of movement inside the darkened headman's house as a man with a large-bore rifle took aim on them. Brother Godfrey was unsure what to do, he drew his revolver and aimed it at one of the attackers. Alden was the target of the first attacks, shrugging off club blows and the smack of that flail. He felt the sting of a rifle-shot to his back but it did little more than bruise him through his armorplast plate. More cultists emerged from the Orthdox temple ahead as the street became crowded with these thugs. As Godfrey saw their heraldry in the lamplight he recognized the symbol as the Fang of Chord, a mystic symbol associated with Antimony. He started shooting, firing a shot into the chest of a red-jacketted cultist charging him with a sword and staggering the man. Alden put a mean slice into the chest of one of the cultists with clubs but he was quickly overrun and grappled by the mob as he tried to keep them away from his brother. One of the cultists fired wildly at Godfrey but his theurgy caused the bullets to sway away from his legs. From the doors of the temple Godfrey saw a man in red robes with a long black beard. He raised his hands and began to chant and Godfrey felt the arcane energies of the other theurgist. Alden struggled loose and caught the incoming attack of one of the cultists, using his Montok training to throw him into another cultists but he was quickly entangled by the flail of the armored cultists he was fighting and grabbed by another. Godfrey shot at another cultists but missed in the panic of battle, unable to get line-of-sight on the Antimonist theurgist. The cultists closed in Godfrey was beaten by clubs, Alden struggled against numbers of cultists trying to drag him down. Godfrey managed to force the door of the headman's house open and push his way in to escape his attackers only to find himself face-to-face with the rifleman who was expecting him.
The bearded cultist finished his dark rite and a lance of green fire shot across the ground at the brothers exploding under Alden and washing the ground in front of the headman's house in icy green fire. The men struggling to hold Alden panicked but Alden kept his cool. Standing int he flames he drew his pistol and fired from the hip, shooting the cult leader in the heart and dropping him in the street. He began shooting the remaining cultists to keep them from regrouping, leaving half dead or dying on the street and the rest running into the dark. Inside the headman's house the Godfrey pleaded for the rifleman aiming at his heart to be reasonable but the cultist fired with a grin. Godfrey found out that his Rite of Shielding was indeed still active as the bullet swayed away from his chest and blew through the rock wall of the house. Godfrey lifted his revolver and shot the rifleman in the chest three times, killing him, then saying a breif blessing for his soul. Alden pushed into the headman's house and barricaded the door while they both reloaded and peered out the windows at the street.
At Godfrey's urging the two crept out into the street and dragged the bearded cult leader back to the safety of the headman's house. They saw no sign of the fleeing cultists or any innocent villagers but they did pick up some fine Van Gelder arms off of the cultists that were armed with slug guns. Godfrey performed clumsy first aid on the cult leader and even gave him some Elyxir but he didn't wake. As they gathered themselves they could hear a commotion outside of town and glancing out the door they saw mounted men riding from the direction of the keep. Both brothers were wounded and exhausted. They had seen some boats in the swamp below the village so the crept out the back of the headman's house and found a rickety old dock with a rowboat. The carried the cult leader and their looted arms to the boat and got it in the water while riders with torches searched the village. Neither brother had any working knowledge of a rowboat but both were certain it couldn't be hard. With a lot of splashing and shoving the boat up on the muddy shoals they finally escaped the little town and rowed out of the swamps into the coastal waters.
The brothers took turns drawing the oars through the night, putting as much space between them and the corrupted village as they followed the shore back to Sarsbourg, but poorly skilled at boating the quickly exhausted themselves fighting the waves and bobbing off course in the dark. Eventually their boat hit shore and they simply got out. They discovered that the cult leader had died in the boat. They gathered their things and began walking Southward down the beach, reasoning that it couldn't move much slower than in the boat.
In the dark of the night they heard a large vessel passing them and tried to raise it on their squawker but only received a broadcast "This is the DNS Hippopotamus, We are flying war colors, Any vessel attempting to interdict us will be fired on.." the message repeated grimly despite Alden's fevered attempts to warn the ship of Antimonists in Sekbridge.
Morning came and Brother Godfrey was exhausted. Alden wasn't in much better shape. As the sun rose high in the sky they could see the smoke of a coastal village ahead. They had no idea who's lands they were in or even if the cultists were limited to Sekbridge. They the a creek that poured into the beach and approached the quaint thatched roofs of the rural village. As they drew near they heard the roar of an engine and before they could react a big off-road autowagon roared onto the beach and charged at them. The vehicle stopped about a hundred feet away and a muster stood over the cab and leveled a Rocketter at them "Weapons on the sand and take three steps back..." Not having had the best of times with the Muster lately Alden aimed his shotgun away from the autowagon and explained "I am Sir Alden Hendle Va/" the Muster in the back of the Autowagon raised his voice "Weapons on the sand and take three steps back or my next response will have an armor piercing warhead.." Godfrey dropped his pistol in the sand and pleaded with his brother who eventually dropped his many guns onto the beach and they both backed away as the guilders demanded. Two more muster exited the autowagon and approached them fast with weapons ready, putting them on their knees and checking them for weapons and papers. Once the Muster verified who Alden and Brother Godfrey were they apologized for the paranoia, handed them their weapons back and helped them into the autowagon to drive them back to Costner Village.
Within the peaceful little Sheppard village the Muster helped the brothers out of their autowagon and into the headman's house. They discovered they were safely just across Sarsbourg's boarders. Costner's headman was a pleasant old fellow named Brendon and the leader of the Muster was a Sgt named Poler. Alden got the impression that the Muster had been hired by Lord Braam to protect Costner and that would indicate that Braam knew at least something about Sekbridge. One of Poler's privates performed first aid on the brothers while Headman Brendon heated up some soup for the them and let them rest in comfortable chairs while he hammered out how to get them back to Gold Hills and Lord Braam's estates. Within a few hours the Muster sent one of their lower ranking mercenaries to drive Alden and Brother Godfrey back to their autowagon and then they drove up the hill to Lord Braam Lindscroft VanGelder's estate.
Alden and his brother arrived in the late afternoon. Alden made a brief report to the Lord of the manor about the state of Sekbridge. Lord Braam was surprised but not with the panic that was his usual character, he knew much more than he was letting on. Alden was permitted to use Lord Braam's squawker center and with the amplified antenna he barely managed to reach Sir Altier of the Order of the Blue Glove who assured Alden he would try to raise a posse to respond to Sekbridge. Godfrey had laid down on a couch for a moment and fell into an exhausted sleep. Alden soon joined his brother.
The both of them were woken after dark by a servant rousing them to serve them dinner in the den. Alden had asked if there was any response from his order but the kitchen girl shook her head. Alden got on his squawker and tried to raise anyone on his Order's frequency and immediately he was responded to by Sir Ben, Sir Ian the Handsome and Lady Willie. They all seemed shocked to hear about the antimonist activity and all began pestering Alden for details with frustrating urgency and peculiar inquiry until they began to laugh, finally telling Alden that they were standing in Lord Braam's courtyard arming up and letting him sleep in. Alden stepped out into the courtyard and greeted his order brothers. They reviewed the Intel and proposed plains for a raid on Sekrbidge Fortress. It was decided that a raid in autowagons would give them an advantage of mobility. It was also decided that if they were going to siege a fortress they should get the help of a sapper, so they mounted up and drove back to Sokol to try to convince Uzilo to help them.
The posse arrived at Uzilo's shop near dawn and Alden and Brother Godfrey tried to convince him to aid them. Uzilo was at first very reluctant to deal with Antimonists and less so to push his luck with the Inquisition. Uzilo was concerned for his foolish human friends but more interested in convincing them to leave this mess alone. Alden finally won him over by offerring to invest as a full partner in his alchemy shop. Uzilo packed a crate of explosives. Sir Ian put fresh fuel cells in both Autowagons and they took off up the valley highway to Sekbridge.
Several hours later in the early afternoon Altier in the lead autowagon waved the brothers to the side of the road. The gathered up and had a quick tactics meeting less than a mile from Stone Harbor. It was decided that they would siege the guard house and take control of Stone Harbor and Alden's autowagon would lead the charge. They mounted up, sped up, and drove hard into Stone Harbor.
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