[Jack Simth]

It's not necessarily an attack out of desparation - she saw a reasonable reason to get the baron and army away from the manor (chasing our party) and then sent mere bandits (not a regular army) to loot/capture the place. A manor falling to a better-equipped, more expensive army is one thing, and doesn't say too terribly much about the competence of it's leader. However, if a manor falls to ill-equipped bandits while the baron is out, then the baron "obviously" can't make reasonable decisions, and thus is a bad candidate for managing the recourses present in the barony. Under such circumstances, those above the baron could reasonably see fit to hand the barony over to a candidate that is qualified (with qualifications including descent from whoever the barony was awarded to): the psi. The only real kink in her plans came when we disabled her and went back to the manor to defend it.