Folks, I apologize. I only just realized something that had been nagging at me for a while but I couldn't quite put my finger on it...I'd forgotten to properly portray the Jarls' rustic Keolish speech patterns. That practice is to shower strangers and guests with hyperbolic honorifics so extravagant that they verge on being sarcastic. This is either not sarcasm or it is sarcasm but it is so widespread and universal for rural people living for generations in Keoland (and now, since the Grand Duke took over the region, including Geoff) that everybody in the land is sarcastic...and that's not likely, is it? It just seems that way to outsiders.
I've amended the last few posts to add in the outrageous honorifics; you do not need to adjust your previous responses, as your PCs all have been exposed to enough of this behavior that it hardly registers for them anymore (or it does but it's not worth making a fuss over, as that doesn't turn out well).