Protecting Your Family

Now, it is our duty to protect our family members. There are several ways this can be done. First, you must spread them out. Never keep all your family members all in the same fief. Second, unless you have a very high keep (over 20) keep them in inactive fiefs. Check the court first to make sure it has not been seeded with spies from another noble. If you keep a family member inside one of your own fiefs, lock the keep to ALL nobles, including French. If anyone needs to get inside they can contact you for permission prior. (Locking the keep cuts assassination and kidnap chances by half). You can also SEIZE one of your family members and put them in "protective custody" in a dungeon. In this way they cannot be attacked by dirty deeds at all, but will be turned over to an attacker who sieges and wins the fiefs if he storms it. If he only negotiates the surrender then you still keep possession of the captive. You can also have a friend seize a family member and keep them safe in a high keep. Persons who need to exercise this admittedly drastic option should contact our King to arrange for a safe holding spot.

Another strategy is to put family members in out of the way places that speak different languages. It is very difficult to find good kidnappers and assassins in all the different languages of Europe. Consider inactive fiefs that speak German, Hispanic, Basque, Celtic, or Dutch. (I do not recommend Italian fiefs)

Finally, for personal safety ALWAYS log off in an inactive fief, outside the keep. I recommend that you move at least once a night so that even if you are located that the would-be assassins might have trouble getting to you by the time the information reaches them. It also messes up their search patterns. Also, if everyone locks their keeps to ALL nobles, we can make things a little more difficult for the henchmen.