Set Up
The archbishop of Köln (Cologne) was murdered by a vassal relative. His successor and the Burggraf of Drachenfels besiege his castles. The Covenant is called in to help. The core of the set up is more what to do in a siege rather than "break the door with incantation of lightning".
I made a big summary to clarify things at the end, if this is confusing.
Who is who:
The Emperor Frederick II stands above all, the archbishop Engelbert II of Cologne is his vassal, as are the bishops of Diedrich Munster and Engelbert of Osnabruck.
The count Frederick of Isenberg and the Burggraf Heinrich of Drachenfels (as was his late father Gottfried) are vassals of the Archbishop Engelbert II of Cologne.
Note: these events pretty much all happened and are recoded by the chronicler Ceasarius von Heisterbach. The archbishop Engelbert II, the count Frederick of Isenberg and his two brothers, the bishops Diedrich and Engelbert are all members of the broader Berg family (though Frederick and the two Bishops are from the Altena branch).
Background
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The year 1225 was a disastrous one for agriculture: the harvest was spoiled, it rained too much, famine and disease wracked the land that year.
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Count Frederick of Isenburg (a cousin of the Archbishop of Koln and brother to the bishop Diedrich of Munster and bishop Engelbert of Osnabruck), who was in charge of it, extorted and embezzled the monastery of Essen. Out of consideration for the family, the archbishop initially did not respond to this request. Therefore, the abbess turned to the emperor and then to the pope on this matter. Since the Pope had received further complaints from other monasteries and monasteries about their bailiffs, he ordered on March 1, 1221 that Engelbert had to ensure that the church bailiffs of the Cologne church province were making sure that their administration was better run and the benefits of provost and vogt positions are not abused by secular authorities.
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Count Friedrich von Isenberg was closely tied to the church: he was a canon in Cologne, until the death of several relatives on the Cathar crusade. He was freed from his obligations to the church, thanks to his powerful cousins and instated as count. He and other nobles, feared for their independence, came together for a conspiratorial meetings. The nobles feared they would lose the income they had become accustomed to (namely by embezzling the religious establishement over which they help provost rights). The archbishop threatened them to revoke their inherited bailiwick/provost rights, which represented in some cases substantial estates. Most of Friedrich's possessions were based on such rights. 36 hamlets with about 1000 farms belonged to his inherited bailiwick. His other private property only comprised of only 19 more villages. (note: we know this exact tally, it was recorded when he was stripped of them).
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The archbishop Engelbert II has done great things for the duchy/Archbishopric of Cologne, but at the expense of many nearby nobles. His expansion North Esat has brought him into conflict with many local nobles, as have his attempts at centralising authority.
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To clarify, Archbishop Engelbert II of Cologne called a state parliament for all Hallow’s Eve in Soest. All nobles of the Archbishopric were invited. The mood was heated, as Engelbert had almost the entire nobility against him through his practice of conquering land and restricting the powers of non-church land holders. At the joint discussion in this state parliament, the archbishop threatened to apply clauses of the Worms Concordats of 1122 and 1213, which included that the secular counts and nobles could be disempowered by church ministers in cases of conflicts. This warning aroused great resentment among various counts and nobles. Friedrich tried in vain to reach a peaceful agreement with his uncle the Archbishop Engelbert regarding the bailiwick of the imperial abbey of Essen. The Abbey had repeatedly complaint of financial misdeeds by Friedrich. The meeting in Soest finally had to be broken off without any results.
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Count Friedrich of Isenberg risked losing much of his wealth, as did others. As a result, Friedrich took the lead in the resistance against his cousin the Archbishop of Cologne.
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7th Nov: murder of Archbishop of Koln Engelbert II and the Burggraf Drachenfels by angry vassals at Gevelsberg near Schwelm. Archbishop Engelbert II 's body was taken to Cologne on a dung-cart, and when examined, found to have forty-seven wounds. Count Frederick of Isenberg probably tried to capture his cousin in Gevelsberg to force concessions out of him, and the abduction went very wrong…
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The Drachenfels heir will call on the mages to come take vengeance against a familicide and to avenge their loss!
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The news of the murder of Archbishop Engelbert II spread like wildfire. One one hand there were uprisings against the archbishopric by the towns and parishes that had lost out due to his centralisation efforts, because some citizens of the cities and the parishes were not satisfied with the tough regime of the archbishop. An uprising raged across the country as these clashed against those standing against the nobles’ power grab and outraged at the kinslaying.
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Heinrich von Molenark used the imperial Diet court meeting in Nuremberg on the 1st December 1225 to declare all of Frederick’s land forfeit, his three castles (Isenberg Castle near Hattingen, Nienbrügge Castle north of the Lippe river and Reisigen south of the Lippe) to be razed and condemn him to death, with a bounty of 2000 silver marks on his head.
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The bishops of Diedrich Munster and Engelbert of Osnabruck are suspended from their titles until their involvement with their brother can be elucidated.
Involving the party:
Having run the Drachenfels dungeon, a rapport had been established between the Covenant and the old Burggraf (Gottfried the old). The party can be called by sending them a letter informing them of the terrible injustice, the odiousness of the kinslaying, that they owed the old Burggraf, or failing that simply offered a cash reward. The party can meet the Drachenfels host late November near Bonn, early December near Cologne or later at the siege location directly.