Lord Robert Adlebourne III (Keith Bialo)
The Actor
Keith Bialo is a U.S. Air Force veteran who performed duties as a military policeman. His assignments have taken him to numerous countries including: Egypt, German, Portugal, Saudi Arabia,
Keith is also an accomplished haunt actor, who has scared millions over more two decades. When he is not at a Renaissance Festival, you can find him in the halls of haunted houses in Castle Rock and surrounding areas.
You can also find Keith as Rufus the Bone Fairy at the Santa Fe Renaissance Festival.
The Character
Lord Robert Adlebourne III was the youngest of two children. He grew up in the northernmost reaches of England known as Umbricinia. His father, Robert Adlebourne, was the Baron of these lands and had the finest fighting force in the Country.
Whenever the King needed men, he need not look any further than Umbricinian forces. The Baron demanded his men be free of fear and remorse and show no mercy on the field. When the Umbricinian forces marched into battle the ground would shake with their ferocity.
The eldest son was next in line for the Barony when their father would either step down or pass away. The younger son had no desire to sit a throne, as he preferred to lead his men into the glory of battle. Unfortunately, fate is a cruel mistress, and the elder Lord Adlebourne and his first son would fall in a battle fending of French invaders.
It was also by fate that while visiting The King's festival in Larkspurshire, Lord Robert Adlebourne III would meet mysterious visitor from the East that somehow had ties to his Father.
But that's a story for another time.
The Plot Thickens
As morning dawned, Lord Robert Adlebourne III was awakened by a knock at his door. Who could be waking him at this hour? He crawled from his bed to answer the door. "Who is it?" he asked in a low growl.
"Message for you, m'Lord," replied a man with a noticeable tremble in his voice. Lord Robert opened the door to see a man standing there, looking as though he would rather be anywhere else in the world than in front of the Baron. The man stretched out his hand and produced a small piece of parchment, which he handed to Lord Robert. As the Baron took the message, the man quickly spun around and left.
Lord Robert, admittedly somewhat puzzled, closed the door and took a seat at the small table in the corner of his room. He unfolded the tattered parchment to reveal a hastily written message that read:
"We have the pirate. Come alone. Stables."
Lord Robert was shocked by what he read. His mind raced with the implications of the message, and he quickly concluded that Captain Yan Shang, his ally and a member of his group, had been taken. Who would dare do this? How many people would be waiting at the stables? Was an attack on Larkspurshire being planned? As he pondered the many possible scenarios and how it all might play out, a wry smile formed on his face. There was something that Lord Robert knew that this band of brigands apparently did not: Captain Yan Shang had likely been captured intentionally to alert him. The pirate might be small of stature, but from the stories his father had told him, the Captain was a formidable fighter. The Baron collected himself and his things, then proceeded out into the streets.
The village was not too busy at this hour, but some merchants were already making repairs to their booths and restocking their wares from the previous weekend's events. As he walked, nothing and no one seemed out of the ordinary. A few villagers acknowledged the Baron as he made his way to the stables, while others were still leery of his presence in town. As he arrived at the stables, the Baron steadied himself for what awaited him on the other side. He stretched out his hand, pushed the door open, and walked inside.
As the Baron entered, he heard a voice coming from inside the stable. "That'll be far enough." The Baron stopped to ascertain the position of the man who dared bark orders at him.
"Are you unarmed?" asked the voice again.
The Baron responded with a low but steady tone, "Luckily for you, I am."
Three men emerged from the shadows. Two men stood at the front, while the third was standing behind the captive with a blade to Captain Shang's neck. As the Baron and the pirate locked eyes, they each realized that this was the plan all along: Captain Yan wanted to alert the Baron to these men's presence, so he allowed himself to be captured. The pirate gave a small nod to the Baron.
"What do you expect to gain from this folly?" the Baron asked.
"Well, it's three against one as we see it. You're outnumbered and have no weapons. I think the odds are in our favor," the lead man stated bravely.
The Baron's eyes tightened a bit before he spoke. "Is that what you think? You obviously aren't very good at this game."
As the Baron finished his sentence, a thudding sound was heard. The lead brigand turned to see the body of his cohort lying on the ground. A shadowy figure emerged: the mercenary Giovanni Salzano. His blade was still wet with the blood of the fallen conspirator. "And then there were two," the mercenary said, almost sarcastically. "Seeing you out this early without weapons seemed odd, so I decided to follow you," he said, catching a glance from the Baron.
"Good to see you're finally on time for once, Venetian," the Baron said.
Before the lead brigand could respond to what just happened, the body of his second cohort hit the ground with a small blade impaled in his neck. The Baron, unsurprisingly, never went anywhere unarmed. He always kept a small throwing blade tucked into his bracers for situations such as this.
The pirate Captain stepped forward and looked at the lone brigand. "Nǐ yǐwéi wǒ huì nàme róngyì bèi zhuā zǒu ma?"
The Baron, almost amused at the situation, grabbed the Captain by the shoulder and said, "English, Shang, please."
The Captain, looking around at the confused faces, realized he had slipped into his native tongue.
"Did you think that I'd be captured so easily?" Shang said, looking to the Baron to see if the translation was accurate and understood.
Lord Robert nodded and smiled in approval.
The three warriors asked the lone brigand what he was doing and why he had taken the pirate hostage. After some prodding, the brigand explained that the plan was to eliminate the three warriors to increase the chances of a successful attack on Larkspurshire.
This information was unsettling to the Baron, but at least they knew that something nefarious might still be on the horizon. After the brigand finished speaking, the Baron turned to the pirate Captain and said, "He's yours. Do what you see fit."
The Baron and the mercenary turned to leave the stables, as the brigand begged for his life, but he knew it would not be of much use.
The Baron found the Stable Master and gave the man some coin to dispose of the bodies, instructing him to place the heads on pikes outside the village gate to warn the other members of the brigand's group of what had happened to their cohorts.
The Baron, as well as the rest of the group, knew that this might be far from over and that they had to remain vigilant against further attacks. What would the next weekend of the faire bring?