An Artifice of Aristocrats Block Contest (Rules Revised)(closed)

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• TrippleBoggey3

  July 2016

  An Artifice of Aristocrats

  It is year 1582 AUL (After Urza's Legacy). Magic has been unfound in this plane. The inhabitants are all human, with the Great North Continent consisting of the legendary empire Vlassal with its mystical capital city Coldhaven, along with its allied mini-kingdoms Vort, Koslav, and Quain. The South consists of the 13 warring kingdoms in the west, and the 3 Dukedoms in the east. At the very south consists of the City-States of the Harvest. But back to the city Coldhaven, where the emperor, Emperor Eustace the Uniter, of House Tartaurus, who united the 7 kingdoms into one empire. In his city, lords plot for money, officials conspire for power, royalty plan for Usurping and the shattered responses of politics lay yet untouched.
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  A cool breeze blew through the warm air. Lord William (Will) of House Cecil stepped out of his solar. He was enjoying the sunset of Coldhaven, perhaps at the knowledge of the newly used policy of his being effective. He was the youngest of 3 sons, his family once being a ruling family of the 7 Kingdoms, as they once were royalty, even though they only controlled the Northwest, an area unsuited for crops and was the smallest region of the continent. He had been appointed the Minister of the Coin and was sent to Coldhaven to start his job. He had been a knight once, having fought battles but he still found this job more suitable. At age 23, he was the youngest minister of the empire. And yet being the minister of the coin was not his only role; he was also the lord of Stonemoat, a small but very strategically placed. It was the entrance from Vort to Vlassal, and although Vort had sworn peace to Vlassal, they still constantly lusted the land of the east. He was also a knight of the Covenant, which is a list of the top 10 Knights of the kingdom. Although he was narrowly ranked 7th, his prestige still might boost his ranking. Lastly, he is also the betrothed of the daughter of Lord Vero, the great lord of the greenfields, and chief minister of the 7 kingdoms.
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• TrippleBoggey3

  July 2016

  Will hadn't been handling the situations well. The city was corrupt, and although King Eustace was a good king, he had grown weak and feeble minded with his age. Will stepped out. He was going to go to the tourney. The king had announced a tourney because of the peace treaty formed between Vlassal and the northern barbaric tribes. Will had entered his name already. So, he took 3 of his men and set off to the tourney.
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  When Will arrived, the seats were already flooded with people. But as a Lord, he got to go into his own private viewing box. The first few rounds were of others, as he was to fight in the afternoon. The first round was of Ser Other Buck the Giant vs Dragonstar, who was Prince Edward. Prince Edward was unhorsed in the first round. Then came Ser Daniel Wick, who was actually unhorsed by Lady Tandra, the only woman in the Tourney. As the morning went by, others in the first round were unhorsed, beaten, and taken away. At last, when the morning was over, only 4 were left of the first group, one of being Lady Tandra.
  
  During the afternoon, Will got down and face some others. He faced a knight holding a mace which Will was able to knock out, another who he unhorsed in the first clash, and many others too. He was able to get into the top top 4 of his group too, along with his future father-in-law, Lord Vero. After a quick dinner, he prepped up for the evening matches. The day had gone so fast. In the 4 matches, Will narrowly beat a knight by shoving his lance back after a clash. Lord Vero easily beat a knight who must have gotten in just out of luck. Lady Tandra actually shot down a man using her bow, with, of course, a blunted arrow. The forth match was another close one, with the winner being Ser Bryce Hinner, the Captain of the Royal Guards. In the semifinals, Lady Tandra was finally beaten by Lord Vero, after all, her trick with her bow had already been known, and Lord Vero blocked every one of them. Ser Bryce was unhorsed by Will after Will had stolen the man's war lance and whipped it back at his face. Then, it was the finals. Will prepped up for battle against his future father-in-law. But as they rode to meet each other, all of a sudden, Lord Vero fell down, spitting blood. The crowd gasped, and Will hopped off his horse.
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• TrippleBoggey3

  July 2016

  "My lord?"gasped Will.
  "The poison..."Vero barely muttered.
  "What poison?"
  "They must have put it on a lance and it must have scratched me..."
  "Who is they and what poison is it?"
  "The poison is not known, but it is too deep..."said Vero.
  "And the they?"inquired Will.
  "That would be... Be... Council... Conspire... Queen..."answered Vero breathtakingly.
  "What?"
  "An Artifice of Aristocrats..."said Vero in his last words.
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  Will left from the room. He had just been sent with the task of uncovering the ploy behind Lord Vero's death. As an honor to Lord Vero, he was declared the winner, and the date of Will and Vero's daughter's marriage was set to in 3 days, at the time of Lord Vero's funeral. Now, Lord William had almost no evidence or tracking of the presumed assassination. He decided to have a chat with his mini council
  
  He stepped into the meeting room. The day was hot, and so all the windows were open. He stepped in with his guard and they sat down. Around them were different members of the King's Council, mainly made up of others tasked with investigating, and a few who were friends of Lord Vero.
  
  "Alright guys,"he started.
  "Sir..."stated Ser Romeo Anders, the Night of the Morningstar.
  "Yes. Speak please."
  "I appear to have evidence on how he was killed."
  "What? Speak."
  "He was poisoned."
  "Tell me what I don't know..."inquired Will.
  "Well... Um..."
  "He was mysteriously scratched with a poisoned lance during one of the tourneys, yet which one was unclear."blurted Lady Tandra.
  "Yes, I know, but who?"
  "Someone who was bribed of course..."
  "Yeah but who?"Will asked.
  "That does not matter. We need to find out who bribed him."
  "I do remember Lord Vero saying Queen in his last words..."
  "Do not say that. Our lovely Queen is innocent."
  "But who is the one the poisoned him?"
  "The one who was bribed of course."
  "No! I mean who was the poisoner. Tell me a name."
  "Oh that... Well... We... Um... Don't know..."
  "We need to find who the poisoner is and interrogate him."said Will.
  "For all I know, he dueled 16 people, and 4 were mystery knights."said Lord Brent
  "Well, find those people."
  "Wait..."
  Will turned to see who it was. Lady Matilda stood up. "I know something."
  "What?"everyone asked.
  But before she could speak, she spat blood all of a sudden and fell down.
  "Honey!"yelled Lord Brent, who was her husband.
  Everyone went to see what had happened. She was dead already. She had been shot dead by a mysterious poison needle, yet that needle could only come from one of the members of the council.
  "Someone here's in big trouble!"yelled Will.
  "This is one Conspiracitical Investigation"said Lord Brent.
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• TrippleBoggey3

  July 2016

  Will walked back and forth on the courtyard. How could this be, he thought. All evidence was lost, and even logic reasoning couldn't solve this. Why would someone kill Lord Vero? Vero had said stuff in his last words, which meant he was on to somethings. Either they had to gain, to kill Vero, or they had to prevent loss. And there wasn't really anyone who gained from Vero's death, other than the gamblers and himself, because he would be promoted once he solved the case. So, it must have been to prevent loss. Vero knew something. He said the words council, conspire, and Queen. Was the council conspiring against the queen? Was the queen going to conspire and asked Will to warn the Council? Or was the council responsible for his death which was a conspiracy and wanted the queen to help? Or was Vero's death because the Council and the Queen were conspiring against him. There were so many possibilities. And yet the words "An Artifice of Aristocrats still struck him. What did they mean, he thought.
  
  Will gathered all the council together for the second time to discuss more things.
  
  "Okay, what do we have now?"he asked
  "Well, all I know is that his grace sent Ser Wilston to aid you"said Lord Watermoor of the Riverlands.
  "Who's with him?"
  "Lord Brent."
  "So, does Ser Wilston have any information?"
  "No, he's here to guard you in case of another assassination."
  "Not gonna help, the assassin is someone in the council."
  "No, it could be someone outside the window..."said Lady Tandra
  "No, I saw the direction the needle was pointed at."
  "Whatever you say..."
  "Someone here is the assassin! Be careful who you sit next to!" Yelled Will.
  Immediately, everyone around Lord Hart stepped away.
  "Okay, what's with you? Are you the assassin?"
  "No. I'm the master of spies in Coldhaven. They feel I'm suspicious."
  "You are suspicious."
  "I'm not a bad person."
  "Well, what importance in this case do you have to join this case?"
  "I know what Lord Vero was doing before he died."
  "Well, the tourney."
  "No before that."
  "And what was he doing?"
  "He was debating with the Queen."
  "Huh?"
  "He was in an argument with the queen.
  "Why?"
  "I'm not that smart."
  "This doesn't prove anything..."
  "Didn't his last words include queen..."
  "Well... Are you saying the queen is a murderer?"
  "OUR BELOVED QUEEN IS THE BEST IN THE WORLD!"yelled Landy Tandra
  "Of course, why would she do such a thing?"
  "SIR SIR SIR SIR SIR SIR SIR M'LORD, HELP!"came a shout.
  Everyone turned and looked. It was a soldier, panting, and had sweat all over.
  "THEY KILLED HIM! WE JUST FOUND LORD BRENT AND SER WILSTON DEAD!"
  "How?"demanded Will."Both are Knights of the Covenant."
  "Shot... Dead. By. A. Cross. Bow."
  The soldier was way to tired.
  
  Will saw the scene. It was way to complicated. Ser Wilston must have known something. As a captain of the king's royal guard, he must have a connection with the queen. No doubt he had information. Was this more evidence that the queen was a conspirer? This was too hard.
  
  "Will!"said Lord Bryce of House Sun, who was the general of the king's army.
  "Why Bryce! Yes, what is up?"asked Will
  "We found the man who killed Wilston and Brent."
  "How?"
  "Not all sellswords are that clever. He must have hidden inside a top floor of a tavern room and shot them. However, since he had to pay for the room, he paid it with gold."
  "So..."
  "Normal people don't have gold. Although he had looked like a knight, even knights carry around spare change. The only money he must have had was the money he was bribed with."
  "Where is he now?"
  "Oh yeah, we put him through interrogation and he was guilty."
  "Yeah, where is he?"
  "Oh, he died. Someone else assassinated him."
  "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME EARLIER?"
  All of a sudden, another soldier walked out.
  "Sir, His Grace requests your audience."
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