Unfortunately I could not buckle my swash.

Dreamed a very strange dream last night were I was a swashbuckling swordsman, part of an adventuring party.  In fact, I actually played this guy at one point in a D & D game, though the game was neither as sinister nor as comical as the dream.

After capturing a dangerous pirate and bringing her before the corrupt magistrates of a kingdom whose mage-adviser worked sinister magic to puppet events to his liking, we discovered that one of our party members was a long-lost princess.  Since she was going to be taken away from us,w e decided it was a must to get into royal favor.  We hired our pirate captive a very clever attorney who plead to let his client become a privateer, and recover treasure she had stolen for the crown.  The judge agreed, if she was sent with a competent and trustworthy escort -- us.
The rest of the dream consisted of me/my character bodyguarduiing the princess while my party members assembled the necessaries for travel.  I suspect she was safer without me, as in the process I challenged or provoked four duels, all delayed because I could not legally duel while on a royal assignment.

Then the dream ended, which is a mercy.

I have never seen a dream employ slapstick comedy as effectively as this one -- and it was also alarming how well it converyed that something was subtly wrong; something rotten in the state.