1 A death in the family

It was on a reasonably sunny day for that time of year that I, Amondo Malla once again set my eyes upon my family's domain, or rather what was left of it. We had just broken camp a few minutes earlier that morning and I wished to make Membe and its castle before nightfall. With that in mind, I decided to only take a select few members of my party with me, leaving the rest to escort the wagons that would take much longer to reach it.

I hadn't been back since leaving it all behind shortly after the death of my father Aceman, the baron of Membe and the elevation of my half-brother Leonid over a decade before. We had never gotten on well with each other and I felt that if I had stayed then disinheritance, even disownment or something more permanent would have occurred. My brother had always resented the fact that while he would inherit the Barony one day my mother was from a much more prominent family than his and only a few untimely deaths stood before me and a higher station than he was ever likely to achieve.

Perhaps I would have acted differently if I had known it would have turned out the way it did. But still, he was the head at the family at the time and my honour demanded that I never went against him. Despite the differences between us I always thought he would have made a decent enough baron and perhaps under different circumstance he would have been. Friends from my days as the duke's squire blame his second wife for the disaster that has befallen the Barony, but I reserve my opinion until I have had a chance to meet her.

My only real regret was leaving my sisters and younger brother behind to fend for themselves as best they could. That and never even trying to get in contact with them, just in case my brother would have made them suffer for it. Not that I was ever completely sure he would have but I have found it is always best to err on the side of caution.

I had been knighted the year beforehand after having saved the life of the local duke, a cousin of mine. Squiring for him at the time I had saved him from an assassin during a skirmish with another local noble. I had intended to join my illegitimate half-brother on the Torney circuit.

My first season was a real learning experience, I slowly perfected my jousting and sword fighting skills, even winning the jousting event of a tournament in the middle of the year. It was by default when the other knight in the final was so hurt from the last bout, he wasn't even able to get on his horse. The winnings from that were enough for my brother and me to cover our costs from the rest of the season, with a little leftover.

During the offseason that year we both hired ourselves out as mercenaries for a while and when the next season began, I started entering the melee event as well. If I hadn't won two jousting events that year, then my loses in the melee event might have forced me to give up and go home. I could also have gone into debt to fund us or even found some other way to make a living.

My third season only saw a single victory in a jousting event but my skills in the melee event had greatly increased by then. A bad injury during my fourth season knocked me for six but after a long recovery, I won four jousting events and did well in a few melees during my fifth season. From then on, I never really looked back, not until now that is.

By my tenth season, I even managed to field a banner in the melee event and supported several competitors in the archery and men at arms events, that formed a part of almost every tournament. I was one of, if not the most beloved knight on the tourney circuit and I loved every minute of it.

Then two-thirds of the way through my eleventh season and just before the final of the Sculan Fair Tournaments Jousting event I received news of the death of my elder brother Leonid, The Baron of Membe. He had left behind a widow, a yet unborn child, and a shattered Barony.

In his will, he had named be as regent for the child if it survived and was a son. If this was not the case, then as his closest male relative the Barony would be mine.

I won that final joust and then as soon as I was able to, I set out on my journey home. With me went as many of my Banner, retinue and others as could be persuaded to accompany me. The rest would see out the season and then retire to our off-season quarters or whatever plans they had already made.

That was over a month ago and now the journey is almost over, and my once and future home was almost in sight. We hadn't travelled home directly, the message about my brother which had set me on this journey home was short on facts about what exactly had happened to my brother. With that in mind, we took a short side trip to visit my cousin the Duke, well my second cousin.

From him, I learned that my brother had owed a lot of money to the Baron of Dagleanna. He had been slowly paying it back but then the Baron had died in a riding accident. The Barony had passed into the hands of the Dukes younger brother, via his wife. He too had his debts to pay and had demanded that my brother pay back a large portion of his debt by a certain date or else.

My brother was unwilling or more likely unable to do so when the date came and went well that or else came into effect. The duke's brother, the barony's soldiers, some mercenaries he had hired, and an elemental mage attacked Membe. With the help of a traitorous vassal with a grudge against my brother, they managed to take the two lordships of Antwa and Ruehasen from my brother.

The other two lordships and Membe itself would no doubt have followed but for the death of my brother as he was attempting to take back Antwa and Ruehasen. For those of you unfamiliar with the rules of war as practised in Cundus upon the death of a sitting baron such as my brother all the lands actively under his control at the time revert back to the crown.

That is until his legal heirs swear fealty to the crown and pay the relevant inheritance fee. Continuing to attack Membe under such circumstance is akin to committing treason and no one in his right mind would try and do that, not unless it were part of a greater plot.

Once I swore fealty on behalf of a future nephew or in my own right and paid the fee then he can legally resume his assault on my family's domains legally. Knowing him as I once did he is almost certainly going to do exactly that.

After I visited with the Duke and learnt all I could about the situation I now found myself in, I visited an old acquaintance of mine from my time in service to the Duke, Sir Nigel Calvert. He was able to catch me up on local events from the last decade, what the different players had been up to and who had entered or exited the stage.

The Dukedom and the area surrounding it had been relatively quiet for some time, but Nigel had a feeling that this would not last, that there was an undercurrent of unease and distrust about. He believed that given the slightest provocation some of the many festering old wounds that had gone untreated for years could easily burst open.

This, of course, worried me greatly and together with what the Duke had told be earlier caused me to hire more mercenaries than I had originally intended. I also sent a message to a mercenary company that I helped found and held a small stake in, hopefully, they would be available for hire.

I also took the opportunity to take care of a few other matters such as getting an up to date accounting of my finances and purchasing gifts for the various members of my family and others.

Now after an arduous journey, I was just moments away from crossing the border between the County of Neudon and the Barony of Membe. One way or another I was about to assume the role of its ruler, either for the next 18 years or for the rest of my life, however long that may turn out to be.

I was, of course, looking forward to returning home after being away for so long but at the same time, I was apprehensive about the new responsibilities that had been thrust upon me and my ability to carry them out even under normal circumstances never mind during the crisis that the barony was now facing.

At the same time, I knew that I was my families best, nay perhaps only chance at surviving what was no doubt about to befall it. I hadn't seen my younger half-brother Dako since he was five and with him now being sixteen, he was unlikely to be ready to assume the running of the family. Although a lot can change in a decade, I never thought much of the man my eldest sister Daphene had married.

As for Leonid's second wife Nazma, I'd never meet her but if she was anything like her mother who I had, then I knew we were unlikely to see eye to eye on anything. Now his first wife had been a different kettle of fish, a real classy lady and I had been saddened to eventually hear of her death some years back. To tell the truth the only member of my family I could stand was my illegitimate half-brother, well him and to a certain extent my twin sister Lilou.

I had another older half-sister Rhea who used to drive me nuts, two younger half-sisters plus several nephews and nieces the eldest of whom had already gotten married. I had never married myself, but I supposed it was about time to change that, well enough procrastination time to get a move on.