Morigan thrust his spear into the ground, and shouted “DAMN!!” Then in a quieter Now I’ve gotta take care of a pile of land, and serfs that go with it. I’m never going to get to go hunting ever again.” Everyone had a good chuckle.

Everyone made their way back to the Inn insisting that Morigan pay for the drinks. I couldn’t really argue.

When we did get to the Inn the bitter lady was there it looked to be another verbal sparring match about to happen when a few men unknown to the rest of the town entered, they had grim faces, armed with arming swords, and wearing tabards featuring the sigil of a fox carrying a rabbit over a set of half plate armor, on a dark red background. The sigil of Duke Richard Northon, one of the five dukedoms that make up the kingdom, a very prominent, and powerful individual, that commoners like myself, and Erick were very unlikely to see up close.

One of the guards pointed at me, and said “come with us” I decided it best not to argue. I was taken to Malory Castle. I was taken to an antechamber off the main courtyard. There was no sign of the baron that ran the castle which intrigued me. Once I entered I found a seat, and waited patiently. A few minutes later a middle aged gentleman with a trimmed salt, and peppered beard with more salt, hair was still an auburn color with tinges of grey on the sideburns, and he wore a tabard with the same fox sigil, he was armed with a mace, and lightly armored. I smiled at him in an instant, and gave him a dancers bow.

He smiled at me, and asked “May I have you name son?”

I was still grinning “I’m Conrade Ramsay, my lord.”

He nodded “You are quite the astute man Mr. Ramsay. Might I ask how quickly you had me pegged for not being a commoner? What gave me away?”

I replied “within about a minute. Your smell mostly gave you away, the fact that your clothes weren’t stained, or tattered, little things that added up.”

He nodded again, and plucked at the hairs of his beard “I see, did you know that you were the only person here that figured me out? That impressed me, it was not a test but it impressed me nonetheless. Furthermore your handling of Lady Rebecca while unfortunate was still skilled; she had one trick, you recognized it quickly, and stepped into it but not before setting up a way to mitigate it by getting her drunk, and being seen by everyone at the Inn. The second time was more straightforward but nevertheless you handled it well, and out maneuvered her into releasing five of her serfs plus a considerable amount of money. You dealt her a financial blow that will take her some time to recover from, effectively rendering her impotent if only temporarily.”