Frederick and the Dark Knights.

[Rhalius]

Trouble is brewing in the kingdom. Lord Fernando the Falcon and his troops have been spotted on the borders, raiding farmhouses.
King Philip has prepared chests filled with seeds from his reserves to give to the farmers together with Baron Blacktower, while Cedric the Swan knight will lead the troops to fight off the invaders.

Most troops are taken from the castle to ensure the King's safety. The queen and little prince phillip stay at the castle under the protection of Frederick and a handfull of soldiers. A big responsibility for Frederick and to prove what he can do, although he would have prefered to do it together with his good friends Henry and Roderick.
Alas they need to come with the king, so they wish their good friend good luck while they mount their horses, while the king ensures Frederick that he has absolute faith in him.

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While Frederick and Queen Dominique watch the troops leave the castle they hope that all their friends and loved ones will return back safely.
The weight of responsibility seems quite heavy for Frederick who is usually rather care free and likes a good joke, but the Queen reassures him that he will do fine, and that she trusts him.

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Queen Dominique rallies the servants and soldiers left behind to inform them of the situation, while the country is small and the king might be back in the evening, she ensures the people that everything will continue as usual and that they need to listen well to Frederick.
Although Frederick thinks of various silly things he could order the people to do, he remains quiet and plans to take his duties seriously.

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After the Queen's short speech, life around the castle continues as usual. The ladies and Pierre discuss new decorations for the castle, prince Phillip and Gilbert Blacktower play with the castle dog, the soldiers patroll the castle walls while Frederick jokes to one of the guards about having seen little yellow men around the castle walls. The guard of course dismisses this as a fable since such creatures can't possibly exist, and they both have a good laugh over it.
With the maid having less to do now that so few people are present at the castle, the men left behind can't help but try and get a kiss from the friendly blonde.

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As the day continues, one of the heralds comes to Frederick to inform him of two members of the village militia wanting to speak with him.

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Frederick opens the gate for them and speaks with the men, they saw the king leave and volunteer to help defend the castle.
Being happy that that local villagers offer their help freely, Frederick welcomes their help and promises each of them a gold piece at the end of the day.

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With the extra soldiers, the work is lighter around the castle as the day continues. Prince Philip takes a walk around the courtyard with one of the servants, he admires the weaponry of the knights and dreams of one day being a king in a shiny armor, riding a beautifull white horse.
One of the militia however calls for Frederick and informs him that three dark riders stand before the gates, with a small group of soldiers.

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Frederick tells the man to call for the other soldiers, he leaves immediatly to get them ready while Frederick glances over the walls, looking down at the three knights before the gates.
The three Gothic knights appear to be none other than the notorious cousins Sir Heinrich Drachenfell, Sir Wolfgang of Ravenstein and Sir Siegfried Rodich.
Sir Drachenfell informs Frederick that he should open the gates and hand over the castle, because he knows there are not much troops there.
Frederick does not take them seriously since they did not even take ladders, catapults or other siege equipment with them so he feels perfectly safe behind the strong stone walls. He jokingly informs them that he didnt order any milk for today and tells them that they should come back next friday.

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As Frederick still chuckles about his own joke, he hears cries for help behind him in the courtyard. As he turns around he sees he has been deceived! while he exchanged barbs with the knights at his gates, the so called militia overwhelm the guard nearest to the prince by surprise and take the young prince hostage! The castle servants flee for their lives in panic.
The guard next to Frederick draws his sword, ready to attack these foul traitors that would wish to harm Prince Philip, but Frederick tells him to sheathe his sword, there is nothing they can do now. The prince must be kept safe.

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(to be continued)

[Rhalius]

Reluctantly, Frederick opens the gates for the dark knights. He is left no choice but to surrender the castle he was sworn to protect to save the life of the young prince.
He feels ashamed of having trusted those strangers merely because they seemed friendly and offered to help.

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As Sir Heinrich, Wolfgang and Siegfried enter the castle with their troops, they quickly rally everyone together at spearpoint and disarm the guards.
Frederick is kept seperate from the others.
Sir Siegfried Rodich chuckles and tells Frederick that he indeed will receive a glass of milk from them on friday which is two days from now, and that he will receive no food or anything to drink untill then.
Heinrich of Drachenfell takes note that the queen is not there, and tells his soldiers to search for her. All the servants and soldiers claim she left with the king, but Heinrich does not believe it.

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Queen Dominique was indeed still at the castle, she was inside when it all happened and saw everything through the window.
She did not blame Frederick for this, she always appreciated his faith in the people. These dark knights where to blame, and she wanted to do something about it but knows she cannot do it alone. 

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Leaving her crown behind, Queen Dominique escapes through the window to try and avoid the intruders looking for her.

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From the highest tower of the castle, the Queen sees how everyone exept for Frederick is locked into the barracks. Frederick is put in the prison, it seems the dark knights wish to seperate the soldiers from their leader. The maid is not locked up, she is forced to continue her work around the castle.

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Although scared of heights, Dominique quietly lowers the bucket from the tower and climbs down the rope while the three dark knights boast to each other about their victory.

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When she finally reaches the ground, Dominique sighs in relief and leaves into the forest, hoping to find help from loyal subjects.

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After walking around for an hour she is suddenly ambushed by bandits!
Queen Dominique squeaks in terror at the sight of these violent men and calls for help while these dangerous men threaten her with knives.

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But look! some luck at last for the queen. A brave templar knight arrives with sword in hand and drives off these vagabonds who flee for their lives from this formidable knight.

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After the bandits are gone the templar knight removes his helmet and takes a deep bow for the queen, introducing himself as Sir Charles. Queen Dominique is very happy to see him and tells him all about what happened, and if he could help her.
Charles agrees to help her and told her he just returned from the crusades only to have found his home burned down. Queen Dominique felt sorry to hear this, and offered Charles a place at her court if he can help her retake the castle, and so the two of them deviced a plan. Charles has an old uncle who could help them out with this..

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(to be continued)

[Rhalius]

An hour later, an old merchant arrives at the castle gates.
Wolfgang stands watch and tells him to go away.
The merchant asks him to open the gate so he can make his weekly beer delivery.
Enjoying a good drink, Wolfgang is suddenly eager to open the gates since they found nothing but water, milk and fancy wine in the castle. While his cousins like the wine, Wolfgang cares not for it and prefers beer, and lots of it.

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Once inside, Wolfgang orders the maid to help the merchant unload the beer kegs.


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Suddenly, Charles jumps up from under the kegs and other supplies, wearing an old cloak to help conceal himself!
The maid is startled as she suddenly sees the unknown man jump up and moves away, Charles his uncle whispers his nephew good luck before he makes his way towards the closing drawbridge to get out of the castle.
Wolfgang seems completely surprised and grabs for his sword.

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Taking advantage of the confusion, Charles jumps out of the cart on top of Wolfgang, who stumbles and tumbles over in his heavy armor while calling the soldiers to come to his aid. The queen told him where Frederick is held and Charles wastes no time, rushing to the door and opening the lock. He pulls the door open while the soldiers storm at him.

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While surprised to see the templar before him, he does not question his help when Charles turns around to fend off the soldiers. Frederick quickly takes Wolfgang's sword before he can get up and together they fight against the soldiers that come at them.

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While they fight bravely, the odds are against them. There are just too many of them, and the three dark knights are too strong.

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Pushing one of the soldiers down, Frederick tells Charles to follow him to the tower. That would surely be a safe place to fight against many.

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Alas, as they reach the tower Charles is knocked down by Heinrich and lays unconcious!
Frederick does his best to fend off the three knights at once but how long could he last on his own, keeping himself and the unconcious charles alive?

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The attention of both Frederick and the dark knights is soon drawn to the noise coming from the courtyard however.
It seems that the maid took advantage of the distracted guards and opened the barracks, letting everyone out!
The young prince Phillip ordered everyone to pick up arms and with such overwhelming odds they forced the remaining soldiers to surrender.

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Without their soldiers, and seeing the royal army returning on the horizon, the cousins take no chances and jump over the walls, fleeing into the forests as they leave everything behind to avoid capture.

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Soon the gate is lowered and the queen returns to the castle. While everything returns to normal, the queen and Frederick ensure that Charles gets the best treatment for his wounds.

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With the king and everyone returned to the castle, the next day when Charles feels much better he is officially welcomed into the royal court.
King Phillip praises both Frederick and Charles highly for defending all he holds dear from such evil men.
While king Phillip managed to help the farmers, Fernando the Falcon managed to escape.
Perhaps Fernando and the dark knights might return another day, but that would be a story for another time..
Today is a time of celibration at the castle, with wine, beer, water and yes even milk available to everyone.
They would need to find the maid to serve the drinks though.. where did she go?
 
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The end. (of this story.)

[conniefrere]

 

Lovely pics. Gonna read the stories when the holiday festivities are over.

[Tiermann]

Wonderful classic story. You've done a wonderful job. The missing maid at the end is very funny too. Thanks for posting such a great story.

[Rhalius]

Thanks. 

Some pictures arent as sharp as I liked, and a few early ones have a bit too much light. Still working a bit on getting to know my camera.
I did my best to keep it appropriate for children, making the text not too complicated and keeping the violence down.

[Giorginetto]

Great story and pictures !!! Great to see the very best of playmobil steck and medieval together . glad really the latest sets werent there i think they would spoil such a well put together set up !!! look forward for more !!! 

[PlaymoMan]

This is really a fabulous story, Rhalius! Suspenseful and action-packed. I'll take a closer look once things calm down here.

[Rhalius]

Thanks, this one was for Frederick, I plan to give both Henry and Roderick a story of their own too at times.

[Wolf Knight]

A very nice ''knight tale''!! Thanks for this story! Looking forward to more!!