Chapter 91: The Second Masquerade
Masquerade Castle opened for its second event one week after Golden Axe reached Kildra for the first time.
The Grand Masquerade had begun long before anyone put on a mask.
Five days before the castle opened, registered parties crowded into the small office Giston had established beside the bridge. Gnome clerks sat behind a row of polished desks and handed each party a sealed contract. The targets changed with every event, as did the owners, the guards, and the stories surrounding them.
The Hearthguard opened their envelope at a table in the Sanctuary tavern.
The party contained three warriors, a healer, and a priest whose talents were far more useful when someone was bleeding rather than when a lock needed to be opened. None of them could move silently. Their leader, Marra, wore enough armor to make sneaking across an empty room impractical.
Their contract named the Banner of the River Court.
The banner would be carried during the formal procession that opened the weekend celebration. Afterward, it would be displayed in the castle’s Hall of Tributaries under the protection of four gnome guards and a warded glass case.
"We should have registered under a different party name." One of the warriors said after reading the last line.
"The contract does not care what we are called." Marra said.
"No, but Hearthguard sounds especially stupid when we need to steal something."
Their healer turned the page over. "It never says we need to sneak."
That observation gave them five days to create a plan.
On the night of the event, Max and Anna arrived shortly before the nine chimes. They had chosen less elaborate clothing than they had worn to the first Masquerade, though Anna still wore the silver-leaf mask Max liked. Gnome waiters in black suits moved through the ballroom, castle guards wore blue formal coats over their armor, and human members of the court mingled beneath the floating candles.
Giston stepped onto his platform and repeated the rules for the benefit of new participants.
Teams could lie, bargain, disguise themselves, misdirect other teams, and interfere with any plan they discovered. They could not attack, restrain, or directly rob another participant. Sanctuary protections made the first two impossible. The enchanted arrest ribbons carried by castle security dealt with anyone caught breaking the castle’s rules.
At midnight, a party succeeded if its assigned target was outside the castle. All five members had to be free and present at an extraction point for a perfect success.
Nine chimes sounded, signaling the time, as well as, the official beginning of the event.
The Grand Masquerade began. The Hearthguard did not enter through the guest doors.
They arrived at the servants’ courtyard in plain blue coats and presented a work order bearing three legitimate signatures. During the week, their priest had visited the Sanctuary chapel and learned the River Court’s ceremonial customs from one of its supposed delegates. Their healer had spent two afternoons helping the castle’s seamstresses repair procession uniforms. Marra had discovered that the original banner bearers were human nobles who considered the work beneath them.
The Hearthguard had not stolen their positions. They had volunteered for them.
A gnome clerk inspected the order, compared it to the procession list, and handed them five silver sashes.
"You will collect the banner from the west preparation room." He said. "You will carry it behind the River Court delegation. You will not drag it, fold it, spill anything on it, or use it to strike another guest."
Marra accepted the sash. "Has that last one happened before?"
"Not yet." The clerk looked disappointed by that fact.
Max noticed the Hearthguard when they entered the ballroom with the procession. Two warriors carried the banner between them. Marra and the third warrior walked beside it as ceremonial escorts. Their healer followed with the River Court’s silver basin, while the priest recited a blessing he had learned well enough to convince the human courtier walking ahead of him.
Anna followed Max’s gaze.
"That is their target?" She said.
"It is." Max answered with a soft smile.
Anna raised an eyebrow. "And the castle just gave it to them?" She asked, a bit stunned about how things turned out.
Max checked the dungeon menu for the who story and then began to fill his wife in on the details.
The procession crossed the ballroom before circling the central fountain. Other teams watched from behind masks and raised glasses. Most had spent the week searching for hidden passages, bribable servants, or ways around the display wards. The Hearthguard had made themselves part of the display.
It was a good plan but that did not mean the other parties would let it remain good.
A woman wearing a blue moth mask approached the River Court’s master of ceremonies. She carried a folded note marked with a wax seal and spoke quietly enough that the Hearthguard could not hear her.
The master of ceremonies frowned, read the note, and raised one hand. The procession stopped.
"There has been a change." He announced. "The banner is to be returned to the west preparation room. The delegation will continue without it."
Marra did not object. Arguing would have made her interest obvious. She looked at the healer instead.
The healer bowed to the master of ceremonies. "Of course. May I see the order? We are responsible for recording every interruption of the River Rite."
The woman in the moth mask answered before he could. "There is no time. The eastern delegation is waiting."
"Then the eastern delegation may wait for proper ceremony." The priest said.
He spoke with the immovable certainty of a man accustomed to telling armed adventurers that they were not healthy enough to leave bed.
The master of ceremonies reluctantly passed over the note.
The seal belonged to the castle’s household steward. The wording was formal, and the signature looked convincing. It ordered the procession to bypass the Hall of Tributaries because of a broken display ward.
It said nothing about returning the banner.
Marra handed it back. "We will bypass the hall."
"The banner cannot remain in the ballroom." The woman in the moth mask insisted.
"That is not written there."
The rival team had found a real instruction and added a false one while delivering it. They might have succeeded if the Hearthguard had tried to look inconspicuous. Instead, three armored warriors and a priest began a loud discussion of River Court tradition in the middle of the ballroom.
Within minutes, two human courtiers, a gnome clerk, and the offended River ambassador had joined them. The woman in the moth mask left before someone asked for her name. The procession continued.
"That was almost disappointing." Max said from the balcony.
"The night is young." Anna said.
She was right.
The altered route ended in an interior courtyard rather than the Hall of Tributaries. The banner remained in the Hearthguard’s hands while the River delegation received guests beside a long reflecting pool. They could not simply walk away with it. Two gnome guards stood at the courtyard doors, and several other parties had begun watching them.
Marra spent the next hour doing exactly what an official escort was expected to do.
Her party stood beside the banner. They answered questions. The priest repeated the same blessing until he hated every word of it. The healer prevented a drunk courtier from falling into the pool. When a gnome waiter dropped a tray, one of the warriors caught it without releasing the banner pole.
Their patience made them look less like thieves than anyone else in the castle.
Shortly before midnight, the River ambassador announced the closing walk through the gardens. The original program ended at the castle steps. The Hearthguard’s priest had spent five days studying the ceremony because he needed it to end somewhere else.
He bowed to the ambassador. "Your Excellency, the moon is reflected perfectly upon the lake tonight. It would honor the old rite if the banner touched that light before it was put away."
The ambassador looked toward the open doors. The Sanctuary’s enchanted sky held a bright moon above the water.
"The old rite has not been performed in generations." She said.
"That makes tonight worthy of it." The adventure continued to try and persuade the ambassador.
Human inhabitants assigned to the Masquerade possessed histories and preferences along with their roles. The River ambassador valued ceremony more than security. She ordered the procession extended to the lakeside arch.
The Hearthguard carried their target out through the front doors in full view of the castle guards.
The party in blue moth masks made one final attempt. They hurried ahead and told the garden staff that the lakeside path had flooded. Marra sent one warrior to inspect it without surrendering the banner. He returned with dry boots and a gnome groundskeeper who resented having his work questioned.
The procession reached the arch with four minutes remaining.
The ambassador recited the final words of the rite. The priest lowered the banner until moonlight crossed its embroidered river. Courtiers applauded.
Midnight sounded while all five members of the Hearthguard stood outside the castle with their hands on the banner or its ceremonial guard ropes.
[Gold contract completed.]
[Target: Banner of the River Court.]
[All five members present.]
[Perfect success.]
The banner vanished from their hands and reappeared in the castle’s inventory. A smaller decorative copy appeared in Marra’s grasp.
The River ambassador stared at the empty poles. Then she began to laugh.
The Hearthguard had not picked a lock, crawled through a passage, or removed a disguise. They had succeeded because they understood their target, accepted a public responsibility, and refused to be hurried away from their plan.
Later, the Hall of Achievements quietly added their portrait beside the banner. Adventurers discovered the new entry as they returned from the event. Word moved from one visitor to the next until a crowd formed around the display.
Mira stood near the back with Garrick, Brakka, Doff, and Pell. She studied the Hearthguard’s record and then looked at their own Silver contract.
"We need a better plan next week." She said.
Garrick glanced down at her. "We succeeded perfectly."
"Grandpa, I want to try a gold contract next week. That means we need to do better."
Max and Anna left the hall before the crowd did. The second Masquerade had confirmed what the first suggested. The castle favored people who observed, prepared, and adapted. It did not care whether they wore cloth, robes, or plate armor while doing it.
Anna took Max’s hand as they followed the path beside the lake.
"You are smiling." She said.
"Three warriors just stole a banner by treating it with more respect than its owners. It made for an entertain show."
"They did not steal it. They performed an ancient rite."
"Of course." Max said, not wanting to contradict his wife over such a small matter.
They continued home beneath the Sanctuary moon while, behind them, hundreds of adventurers began arguing over what they would try at the next Grand Masquerade.