Time: 12/17/22 - 12/17/22 active 1/17/23?
PCs: Gwendolyn, Redcorn, Grim, Oggie
Surviving Hench: Cemil, Amadayo, Mahin, Paulus, Iylul, Pablo
You’ll recall Team A’s activity from a few sessions back ended with the destruction of a settlement that was vassal to Teutch the Alchemist (Patron Mage). The Team fled the area and attempted to lay low while certain that they would learn of their PCs deaths during the down time between sessions.
Teutch, while powerful, is not omniscient. He’s got to gather and act on intel just like anyone else, which is exactly what he did. He personally rode out with some retainers and troops to investigate the scene of what has since been dubbed “Wounded Ear”. He and his retainers have quite a bit of tracking ranks between them so they snooped around and found some evidence that corroborated Fernblithe’s claims. While investigating the inside of the huge petrified tree that acted as the fortification of the place, Lockleaf (Teutch hench elf ranger ??) stumbled on a Glyph of Warding trap that exploded in his face, causing a lot of damage and slowing the search.
Despite the setbacks, Teutch and his team were able to track the perpetrators back to their campsite, where they discovered evidence of the animals that Redcorn is known to run with including a griffon. They followed the party’s trail through the hills but lost it as it approached the area around the Zarate Vault new and improved Vault of Nekane the Great (Patron Vaultguard, welcome!). Considering Teutch’s history with the ornery lil fella, he and the boys pulled off and considered the options.
Teutch, rather than make assumptions of Team A’s guilt and launch into a vigilante campaign of magical counter-murder, chose instead to fly off and visit Lord Issac (Patron Paladin) and appeal to Issac’s well-known sense of honor by describing the unprovoked attack against his elven vassal and the evidence that he had discovered thus far. He requested the ability to speak with Team A to get to the bottom of the events and gain justice if necessary. Issac agreed to oversee this and sent out notices to many local settlements that if the party of Team A were seen then they were to be detained for questioning.
Meanwhile after a few days' rest to heal up, Lockleaf was on the party’s trail from Rushford, gathering rumors to be able to track them through the cities of Rushford, Deinwick, and Talston. He may have caught up to them on his own but the Law found them first in Talston, where they were trying to lay low and get to Redcorn’s farmstead that he rents from Issac in Riverstride. Gwendolyn had dyed her hair and changed her scarf, but the rest of the party was still pretty conspicuous, particularly considering the animals that they had in tow. A local platoon sergeant named Gregor located them at their inn and asked them politely to not leave the city at the request of Lord Issac.
Up to this point, no one except Teutch really suspected them of any wrong-doing and due to the relatively advanced levels of some of the PCs they were being afforded the benefit of the doubt. No dragging them to jail or posting watchers on their inn.
The party agreed to wait for Issac and carried out some basic downtime stuff. All except Gwendolyn who was feeling pretty guilty about the whole thing. She chose to found the Elven Abuse Rehabilitation Society, or EARS, by purchasing a local building and filling it with elf-friendly amenities and caretakers to see to the battered or abused elves of Talston. Reminded me of the Mitch Hedberg joke about frogs in jars. She also had fliers printed and passed around town. She hoped that this would be seen as a genuine attempt at showing remorse if it came to it. Which it did.
The next day Gregor showed up to escort them to the Castle where they found a few companies of Issac’s cavalry and some magical goats with butterfly wings parked outside. They knew the goats belonged to Teutch or his henchmen and they exchanged some nervous looks. They were taken to the throne room where they had an audience with the Lord Talston, a very elderly noble who was Issac’s direct superior, Lord Issac, and Teutch the Alchemist. The rest of the Lord’s court looked on in curiosity, but the Lord Talston himself looked a little bored and ready to get this off of his plate.
Despite being the ranking official present, Lord Talston had very little to say, letting Issac run the show. Issac asked simply, “What happened?” Redcorn replied with a detailed report of every single thing as truthfully as he could remember, including identifying Grim and Oggie for the bloody scene at Wounded Ear. He also vocally and publicly renounced Teutch as deceitful and treacherous, citing again the murder of Daniel the Storm Giant. Teutch kept his big white hat pulled low over his eyes and remained silent and expressionless during the tirade and the court in attendance gasped at the dramatic scene.
Issac had the party taken to a conference room of sorts for holding. He then interviewed them individually, having them escorted one by one to an office where he, Teutch, and a couple guards waited in comfort. What follows is a summary of each individual deposition.
Oggie the Dwarf was brought in and had the shortest deposition by simply denying he was even there. He claimed the party picked him up in Deinwick on the way to Talston and he had no knowledge of anything about any elves. Name rank serial number, wasn’t me. Teutch whispered something to Issac during this (Fernblithe had identified the dwarf as being present with Team A), which the party made a big deal about witnessing Teutch speak for the first time since he only communicates in neon text that he flicks out with his fingers like a text message. During Issac and Teutch’s first meeting, Issac had forbidden the practice as “tiring and disrespectful”. “If the man came here to do parlor tricks, direct him to the inn to entertain there. If he intends to talk to me as a man should, by all means show him in.” Pretty sure I lol’d at that and it still makes me grin.
Oggie was brought in a second time and stuck to his guns. Name rank serial number, nope wasn't me.
Grim the Assassin was next and he took a whole different approach. He admitted his full involvement and showed absolutely no remorse or concern for the deaths of the elves, who had been described as alien and otherworldly in the ACKS vein rather than the D&D vein of them being hippy humans with pointy ears. He said he was hired by Nekane to do a job and he did it. It’s not like he killed actual people. He also claimed that Redcorn was actually the one to burn the houses down. I mean, he had fire magic right? Had to be him. Issac commented, “Your lack of contrition is troubling” as Grim was dismissed back to the waiting area.
Gwendolyn the Bard is described as a disney princess with a big blonde braid and a scarf that she wears all the time. She had apparently changed her look for winter, dyeing her hair and changing scarf colors. For her deposition she handed out fliers for EARS and explained her involvement in the events, being very careful not to implicate anyone else in any other activities. “I looked away, I didn’t see anything but I can still hear their screams. That’s why I founded EARS as a way to give back to the elven community.”
Redcorn reiterated his original testimony, being as honest and detailed as he could be. He insisted on submitting himself to magical compulsion to prove his honesty but a cursory glance at easily accessible spells made it clear he had too many HD to be affected. Issac would just have to trust him or not. He offered his share of Nekane’s hefty payout to Issac as restitution. He also refuted Teutch again for good measure. Teutch ignored it.
They were all brought back to the throne room where Issac had a guard collect the rest of Nekane’s payout. Oggie still insisted he wasn’t there and guards had to physically search him for the diamonds. The dwarf maintained that he was paid the diamonds to join the party in Deinwick.
The party was informed that they would be held for UP TO a month in the dungeon at Talston while Issac deliberated and gathered more information as he felt necessary on the issue. Those with hirelings and charitable foundations would be allowed to conduct business with a court scribe that would be overseen by Issac’s people to reduce the chance of shenanigans. There was some grumbling about due process and what charges and whatever, where I reminded them that this was not Law and Order. While being dragged away Oggie called the proceedings unlawful and false and refuted Issac’s jurisdiction to sit in judgment on them. He again stated that he wasn’t even there.
Musings:
The move to appeal to Issac for justice was interesting, arguably more so than Teutch handling it himself. The players played the thing in character and wait now for Issac to decide their fates. More will follow on the decision and what led to it when we have a verdict.
I’m regularly surprised by what the players and patrons will say and do and am much more pleased with the outcomes of these sessions as a result of their play rather than having to determine it all as DM. Patron play is a must for organic world-building. Glad we’re adding more. The perpetual thorn in Teutch’s side just became a Patron himself in the form of Nekane the Great! I’m looking forward to their interactions in the weeks to come.
The actual session play of this session broke into two, as Team A got detained fairly early. The party, not wanting to waste session time, rolled up a Team C (!) and got underway, earning a bit of treasure and nearly dying as 1st level adventurers are known to do. We’ll summarize for brevity:
Thief, Elven Enchanter, Elven Ranger, and Fighter randomly determine starting location by rolling 1d6 for the 6 border forts along the river. They came up in Riverstride, which fit the Fighter’s backstory of witnessing Issac’s single combat and inspiring him to be a paladin, but he didn’t have whatever it is that it takes to be a paladin so he’s a fighter instead.
They inspected the old kobold mine that Team A’s first few sessions were in but it was still tightly sealed so they went wandering for lairs at 1st level. They got a mission from Hakim the merchant to investigate something that was killing their deer, a much needed food source for the isolated merchant compound. The party’s ranger tracked to a spider lair in a wooded copse. They set fire to it and flushed out the spiders, who were panicked and downed the Fighter and Thief before fleeing from the flames. Fate points ruled the day there and they were able to loot the lair after the fire burned out, coming up with a decent haul. They limped back to Hakim, got paid, and traveled to Issac’s new holding Northbridge where they ended the session.
Musings: There was some grumbling about rolling up 3rd characters, but 1:1 time doesn’t care about your grumbling. Once they got rolling they had some fun, but I could tell the fate of Team A was distracting. We’ll see what kind of impact Team C may make on the future of Oberholt in sessions to come.
Team C: Xavier (fighter), Cracaryn (elf ranger), Ellin (thief), Reese (elven enchanter)
Xp from Kills: 0
Xp from Loot: 2585
Total XP: 2585
Cuts: 4
PC: 0% 1,293 5% 1,357 10% 1,422
Hench: 0% 646 5% 679 10% 711
The Verdicts:
These are the Verdicts that were handed down later in downtime by Lord Issac (Patron):
Opening Statement: For record I am Lord Issac de Molay, Lord of Rivestride and Newbridge. The charges being brought before me are varied and damning and I will rule on each charge individually. It must be noted that the impetus for this trial is a complaint by Teutch the Alchemist who at this date has no standing before this or any tribunal within the Realm. Therefore any awards of damages based upon Professor Teutch’s complaint will not be considered until or unless he becomes subject to and receives the protection of our laws. Provisions have been made to allow this and if Professor Teutch eventually becomes a subject he would be entitled to make a civil claim for damages and the transcript of this trial made available for any future hearings. A letter from Baron Heinrik states this and will be included in the transcript as Exhibit A.
Now to the matters before us. When I say your name please rise to hear the charges against you and my verdict. Please know that outbursts against the court could produce further charges.
Mr. Redcorn you are charged with capital murder, mayhem, vandalism, malicious trap setting, arson, conspiracy, and being an accessory after the fact. These are my verdicts
Capital murder - Not Guilty
Mayhem - Not Guilty
Vandalism - Guilty
Malicious Trap Setting - Guilty
Conspiracy - Guilty
Accessory After the Fact - Guilty
Lady Gwendolyn you are charged with capital murder, mayhem, arson, conspiracy, and being an accessory after the fact. These are my verdicts.
Capital Murder - Not Guilty
Mayhem - Not Guilty
Arson - Not Guilty
Conspiracy - Guilty
Accessory After the Fact - Guilty
Mr. Oggie you are charged with capital murder, mayhem, arson, conspiracy, perjury, contempt of court. These are my verdicts.
Capital Murder - Guilty
Mayhem - Guilty
Arson - Guilty
Conspiracy - Guilty
Perjury - Guilty
Contempt of Court - Guilty
Mr Grim you are charged with capital murder, mayhem, arson, conspiracy, perjury, contempt of court. These are my verdicts.
Capital Murder - Guilty
Mayhem - Guilty
Arson - Guilty
Conspiracy - Guilty
Perjury - Not Guilty
Contempt of Court - Not Guilty
Closing instructions: Insomuch as each of you has been found guilty of at least one crime which could result in imprisonment you will leave this place and be remanded over to Lord Talston’s gaoler. He will continue your incarceration until your sentencing is decided at which time you will be returned to hear your sentence.
I certify that this is a true and verbatim transcript of the hearing as noted on 12/22/22.
Ishley Bishley
Chief Scribe of Lord Tolston
No comments:
Post a Comment