An Uncommon Wedding

Armed with the salve of the Magister Sylvanus and certain knowledge of where to begin looking for Thalwyn, the party sets out North and East for Bolden. On the way they stop over in Heltorun. The city is all abuzz with news that a local nobleman's son will wed a common serf.



The party lays over for a two days to gain rest from the journey and becomes embroiled in the marriage festivities. While watching the local custom, Father Brendan is approached by the bride-to-be who hastily whispers in his ear.

"Tell me true, can a woman be forced to marry?"

Brendan advises her that the church has forbidden such arrangements for more than a century, but the rest of the wedding party bears her away before more can be learned. Over the next twenty-four hours, the party learns all that they can of the pending nuptials and after sorting fact from fancy determine the story whole.

Not quite six months before their arrival, the noble boy was out hawking and espied the serf girl bathing in the Wuyde River. Beholden to her beauty, he observed from afar until she spotted him. Fleeing in terror, the girl slipped in the stream and hurt herself sufficiently to bleed.

Arriving home, bereft of clothing and bloody, her father and his fellow serfs took off in pursuit of what they assumed was a rapist. Laying hands on the noble son they treated him roughly and extracted a promise that the daughter's honor would not remain sullied.

To everyone's surprise, when the lord father of the boy was informed, he was not at all wroth, but determined that the wedding should happen sooner rather than later. Much to the relief of the girl's father, but great to the disappointment of the girl and her intended groom. The girl, was in love with a peasant boy of the same village. The noble son thought he was destined for greater things. Nevertheless, at the urgings of their fathers' the wedding was set to occur.

More was afoot than it seemed. In years past, the nobleman's sire had become indebted to the serf girl's grandsire. Both elders had gone off to fight in the perennial conflicts between the Saks and Ratheen. It was the young serf who pulled his noble wounded lord from the field of battle and saved his life. In return for which the nobleman granted his man a special form of tenancy on his land which, while less than ownership, permitted the serf to have right of survivorship that passed to his children.

The current lord, wanted the land to revert to his full control. Underneath that small insignificant farming plot it was believed the some great treasure was hid. By marrying his noble son to the girl, he hoped to obtain that which had been concealed from him by his father.

Father Brendan et al negotiated a new deal between the serf tenant and his noble lord, while freeing the noble son and the serf girl from their obligation to marry. Sir Brumbar agreed to take Jym, the girl's beloved farmboy as a page.