SessionSeven

September 27, 2008 The Trial of the Century. Not!

Continuing one of the lamest setups local yokels have ever perpetrated, Alecsa and Cinoi are being arrested at the inn when Elder Potrass and the entire village (out to rubberneck the crime of the century) descend on said inn like a gaggle of old biddies looking for new topics for their future quilting bees.

The trial of Alecsa and Cinoi began with an argument between Elder Potrass and Sir Garnhelm as to who had the authority to pass judgment upon the "thieves"; Sir Garnhelm felt it was a matter for him because his militia was involved, while Potrass insisted that the village Elders held the right. After everyone and their dog had arrived at the inn, a priest of Klay, Vicarus Sesba, showed up to throw his weight around. The priest of Klay eventually encouraged Garnhelm and Potrass to listen together, allowing him to form a third to keep things "balanced." They even looked at the evidence at hand and at the body of the woman who had been slain while escaping the defendants' room.

Called to testify, Sodrass began by making a statement about what he and his men had witnessed. He stretched the truth to make it seem as if his men had actually seen Cinoi assault the (now dead) female (thief). When called to corroborate his story, his guards were not quite so positive, merely stating that they felt the evidence was clear that Cinoi had used his spell to slay her. Cinoi does not disagree.

Relim testifies that he saw the stolen goods in Cinoi's room. He also admits that there had been previous thefts from the room and that Cinoi was obviously wounded; there was blood in the room. And Cinoi is still bleeding, having not bothered to bind his wounds in case someone cared to take a look at them for evidence.

Cinoi is then asked to state what he knows. He relates how he and Alecsa found their money missing when they awoke the next morning and discovered the marks where someone had broken in through the window. After meeting up with Sithond and others outside, where they learned of other thefts, they saw this unknown woman sneaking off toward the inn, they decided to catch her in the act. The door was locked when Cinoi arrived, and he unlocked it with the key. When discovered, the woman fought him (a fight she started) and died as a result, having jumped out of the window, where Alecsa had been waiting. He bade Alecsa to stay with the body and went to fetch Relim as a witness. Then, he said, that as he and Relim were returning to the room, they saw people going around to the back of the inn, which was well after the battle, the woman having been dead for some minutes. So, there is really no way Sodrass or his men could have seen what they claimed. Relim did tell him that the inn had been robbed in the past.

Silthond states how he was also robbed (and Dannic, as well). Chaedi describes how she tracked the prints from Silthond's tent almost directly to Sodrass' house. Silthond uses his tracking skills to demonstrate that the woman's boots match the footprints around his tent.

Sir Garnhelm and Potrass demand to know if anyone knew the woman. Sodrass blusters that he saw her enter town but assumed she left again three days ago. Other villagers say they saw her a day or two ago. No one saw her with anyone from the village. Sodrass' relatives all say that they never saw her near him or his house. +liars!+ [That goes without saying...]

Elder Potrass now announces that he has evidence that Sodrass was involved in the thefts; he has Silthond's bow brought forward. Silthond gets very solemn and identifies it. Sodrass demands to know who found it in his house; he is considerably chagrined when Potrass announces that he himself found it! No mention of Osrik's involvement is made.

Sir Garnhelm is also considerably taken aback by this development and seems inclined to believe that Sodrass is not quite innocent. At this point, Sodrass announces that this court has no authority to judge him; only a proper court convened by the Duke's rightful representative can try him. He demands that he be sent before such a court. No one buys his argument, especially Cinoi, who accuses Sodrass of trying to control the court by only allowing witnesses of his own choosing to testify.

Sir Garnhelm responds with a demand that Sodrass and Cinoi should be made to partake in a trial by combat to settle their guilt or innocence.

Cinoi is incensed. He tells the court that he had been being civil and had not yet consented to the proceedings in the first place, and was certainly not going to dirty his hands fighting Sodrass. There had been no attempt to look at the evidence as far as to determine a verdict. He pointed out the fact that Sodrass had known he and Alecsa had shared a room before being told, had known there was thief was in their room before there had been a chance to even hear about the fight, and Silthond's bow had been found in his house! He also rebuked the priest for wanting bloodshed instead of justice. [Go, Starboy!]

Sodrass plainly begins to panic. He first tries to refuse, then asks Sir Garnhelm to be his champion, then looks to one of his bully guards. Both decline to aid him. Garnhelm says it would be unfit for a judge to serve as a champion. Osrik announces he will fight for Cinoi, if Cinoi is willing.

Cinoi tells him the championing is not the question. Also, the question of whether a priest of Klay would let a guilty Sodrass win a fight was not the point, but whether or not mortal judges would dare to make a fair judgment without bringing the gods into it. He also makes it clear that he is less than impressed with their capabilities to bring about justice.

There is never any judgment passed as to whether Cinoi and Alecsa are guilty or innocent, a sore spot with both of them. In fact, Alecsa is never allowed to say anything in her own or Cinoi's defense. [That was soooo just.]

Alecsa and Cinoi are to be kept prisoner under house arrest in their inn room. Gasp! A rather horrible fate for them both. [The only bonus for this entire fiasco? Getting to nap while in ‘jail.'] Sodrass is being held under house arrest, too, but in his own house, a brilliant move on the part of the all the "smart" people running this kangaroo court. The trial by combat is set to take place in the evening. There's not a reason given for this...+it is a holy time of day for Klay; remember the worship in Tisloch at sunset?+ [No. I have enough trouble keeping up with the sunrising Lyr.]

While "incarcerated," Cinoi decided he hates small towns now and rather wished he'd agreed to visit the druid circle instead. He's also decided Silthond is definitely useless. Throughout the day (when not sleeping or napping), he entertains himself by pelting any posted guards with fruit and any other small, throwable, irritating, non-lethal (and not his or Alecsa's) objects he can get his bored little hands on, including their pillows. He also finally gets around to looking after his wound.

Alecsa watches his pelting antics and rates the hits, and sits on his back as he does pushups. [It's to make him stronger. Really. She's not BORED or anything!] She manages to save the occasional piece of fruit to eat instead of it ending up as part of the latest salvo.

Osrik sleeps and generally rests up for his big championship fight, slated for sundown. [Why is it that the duel needs to be fought at night? Isn't that dangerous? Well, more dangerous.] +because sunset is a holy time for Klay!+ [This is getting a bit redundant...] Anyway, Osrik is just rarin' to go! He asks Potrass about Sodrass' skill, to which the elder replies that the jerk isn't any better than any other ‘whipper-snapper' around there. [Thanks for being vague.]

Chaedi and Osrik, as well as a number of guards, watch Sodrass' house. [I'm not sure how watching a house is resting up, though...] An hour or so before dusk, Sodrass' relative asks to take a plate of food in to him. (And Cheadi wants to have him poisoned)

Chaedi become suspicious and walks, cautious-casually, to a bedroom window. Osrik sees Skinny and Big leave to man the gate with other guards. He glares at them. [But lacking a +9...] She and the guard make a discovery; Sodrass is missing!

A guard goes in and determines Sodrass and the woman are gone. +The woman was not gone! She came running out!+. [I don't remember that. Oh, well. She's small fry.] Chaedi tries to push past the guard into the house, but she is not allowed access. Garnhelm arrives with two other guards, who go inside. She tells him to get Potrass or Silthond to go in as witnesses. He looks at her as if she's a loon. He returns after a few minutes, ordering ten men to be called to duty. The blackguard had betrayed them by escaping through a tunnel under the house. At the guard house, soldiers prepare for battle and mount horses.

Chaedi runs and gets Silthond. They go to the inn, where Chaedi pretends she is taking food to the prisoners and takes a tray of fruit up to the room. Cinoi takes some of the fruit to pet the latest guards as Chaedi tells them the fight is off because Sodrass ran away. They are not really surprised by this information.

Alecsa and Cinoi are released from confinement, gathering their belongings from the first floor of the inn. [The dead woman's money is extra!] Dannic also demands his wand back, prompting Alecsa to poke Cinoi before he gets them into more trouble before they are even out the door.

They meet up with Osrik, who tells them the lackeys have disappeared as well. Silthond come into the common room to round up everyone. Cinoi is less than pleased to see Silthond but agrees to help track down Sodrass.

They all attempt to find the guards' trail, and Alecsa finds their tracks, which make a straight line for a copse of trees not far from town. [The ranger was rather useless as a tracker.] In the surrounding fields, the party notes the presence of Garnhelm's mounted soldiers sweeping the area.

Continuing to the trees, Silthond points out a third set of tracks. Chaedi and Alecsa alos see these tracks, and determing they also head into the copse. Chaedi thinks they look like guards' boots and might be Sodrass.

The party spreads out a bit, with Cinoi coming up the rear (pretending to be brave.) Watching the trees, Osrik spots goblin eyes. The party is pretty sure it's an ambush! They circle around the trees, hunting for evidence that Sodrass and his men had emerged; finding nothing, they call Sir Garnhelm's troop of soldiers to the scene. Let them hunt for the goblins and thieving militiamen...

The party, not wanting to fight goblins even if it means Sodrass escaping, decide to head to Vim. That, and Cinoi didn't think there'd be anything interesting in the trees, like ruins or things of that nature. Oh, and Osrik and his hero were outvoted on the fighting the goblins in the dark thing.

Sir Garnhelm shows up with his men and actually voices a (slightly reluctant but honest) [It was half-assed at best] apology for having doubted the trustworthiness of Cinoi and Osrik (and Alecsa). [Yeah, just tack her on. She's not a real person or anything!]

So, having at least started the hunt for Sodrass, and having decided that goblins at night make bad foes, the party heads back to the village for the night. They hear "deranged wolves" (the DM's hinky description) howling, and the mounted guards look all nervous. Cinoi says it best when he states he's not impressed with them; the party is the ones who are on foot!

Back at the inn, Relim buys the party drinks. Cinoi, too suspicious or keyed up or both to sleep, stays up all night mumbling crazy things to himself about small town justice and blood thirsty priests, and sharpening his dagger. And all of Alecsa's arsenal, since she has far more bladed weapons than he does. She actually sleeps, by the way.

Next morning, the caravan leaves, heading for Vim. They plan to stop at Castle Halys on the way. Dannic is peevish and grouches about how much money the delay in reaching Vim is costing him. When Cinoi asks him if he'd lost his wand again, Dannic glares at him.

Shortly after crossing the river for the first time, Cinoi decides duck-hunting might be a good pastime for a boring morning. He goes down to the river and starts looking for ducks. Amazingly, one is floating placidly in the river. Cinoi tries to lure it near with crumbs from his trail rations. It nearly works. Chaedi decides to interfere and catches the duck with her Mage Hand. As Cinoi starts to lift it from the water, a huge turtle's head pops up out of the water and snatches the duck. Cinoi lets go of it, and the duck disappears below the water, a few feathers floating on the surface. Alecsa laughs at their antics. However, the duck would have been a nice meal.

Sir Dannic grouches at them about falling behind schedule, and Cinoi suggests he polish his wand. Chaedi opines that they wouldn't have shared the duck with a "silly old man." She knows how to endear herself to people.

They come to a part of a river they have to ford. They manage to cross the river without being attacked by a giant turtle. Cinoi hangs around the in the middle of the wagons just to be safe.

Nearing the castle, the party can see chunks that have fallen from it and see that there is some repair work being undertaken. An additional palisade surrounds the village. Armed guards are at the gate.

Silthond talks to a guard then tells them the wagons will be taken in for the night because wolfriders have been seen in the region recently. Something has stirred them up. Osrik then just has to bring up his brave goblin exploits, to which Cinoi adds that Osrik likes to guard things.

The party is invited to dine in the main hall, where Dannic, Silthond, and Gloriana are asked to eat at the main table. [Hate to be in that dinner party] Cinoi sits near the door and watches Dannic annoy the host, Sir Galyhuld, who is not impressed, which raises Cinoi's opinion of the lord of the manor. Alecsa eavesdrops on the conversation and learns that Dannic is trying to argue protocol with the host, but she can't figure out about what.

After dinner, Cinoi suggests he, Alecsa, and Chaedi go streetcraft the town for an hour to see if there is anything interesting about the castle they aren't supposed to see. Alecsa wonders where he came up with the word ‘streetcraft.' Osrik goes to check out the masonry in the repair area but is disappointed to see that it's all human and wanders off.

Chaedi doesn't make it far. She starts up a flirtation with Sir Galyhuld.

Alecsa wanders around town and comes across Dannic pestering Sir Galyhuld, saying it's not right for a man of his station to have to sleep with the masses. [Wasted a really great role for that crap] There's also some familial dispute about Galyhuld's sister not liking Dannic. Can you blame her?

Alecsa then follows Chaedi and Galyhuld back to the main hall, where there is horrible wine cellar innuendo thrown around. Chaedi says she wants a proper room and a bottle of wine, and wouldn't mind sharing both. She and Galyhuld go "check the cellar." After a short time, Alecsa sees them come out of the cellar and head upstairs, where they will have more privacy. [Alas, this was the most excitement of the evening.]

Deciding the castle sucks for entertainment, Alecsa goes to hunt down the wayward and seriously late warlock. She eventually finds Cinoi passed out in a stairwell and drags him back to the barracks they had been assigned to sleep in for the night. [I see what Dannic's problem was. He wasn't going to be able to have any alone time with his wand, right, Cinoi?]

She tells Cinoi what she had seen, and then Osrik wanders in, wanting to know where Chaedi is. For whatever reason, Cinoi thinks he shouldn't tell Osrik. Whatever. When Osrik asks Alecsa, she tells him Chaedi is holed up with the lord of the manor. When Osrik says ,"So long as she's safe", Cinoi asks him if he wouldn't want to sleep at the foot of the stairs all night. Osrik gets all pissy with Cinoi and Alecsa when they poke fun at him for "liking to guard things." Cinoi asks him if he ever has any fun. +Osrik returns that "fun" is an unneccessary emotion and a waste of time.+ [What is he? Vulcan?!]

Silthond wakes up everyone in the morning. [Wonder how much Chaedi crap they had to listen to later...] Dannic is grumpy as hell. Chaedi makes a point of kissing her paramour on the cheek and making some sickening remark. Cinoi picks up a pebble from the broken castle wall. Osrik sees him do it and assumes it must be a spell component. Cinoi reinforces this idea by looking mysterious...

The wagons travel and eventually come to a swampy, treed area that holds a barrow said to be that of some long dead hero-king. Silthond tells Cinoi what he knows of the barrow. Cinoi is interested in the barrow but wants to get the whole Vim thing finished. They skirt it and finally arrive at Vim.

Vim is a small, unwalled town with a village hall, a small damaged temple, a manor house, and a dozen or so houses. Many of the houses are burned or badly damaged. One house has been mostly repaired and is possibly occupied. When the party talks of looking at the house, Cinoi quietly murmurs, "Remember the last time we looked at empty houses." Silthond orders the wagons be moved to stand around the well.

Lord Dannic announces that he will stay in the best-looking building. [Relatively speaking] He stomps up to the door [Alecsa is hoping there's a dog that will bite him in the wand] and is quite surprised to discover a villager actually living there! The man is Gardon Mor, a tough-looking man in ringmailed leather. He talks to Dannic for a minute then relinquishes his home to the ass. He isn't happy about it, but he can't do anything about it. Apparently, Dannic has the legal power to do this. When Cinoi prompts Osrik, Osrik refuses to do anything about it "because it's the law."

Gardon talks to the party, answering questions about the place. He tells them that despite the presence of goblins in the woods, it is safe enough in the village if one is willing to hide from trouble. He warns that the goblins are very tough; they've lately taken on wolves as mounts, which they never did in the past. He mentions that until the war the villagers had a truce with the goblins. They stayed in the village, and the goblins stayed in the woods. No such truce has existed since the war. The burial mound just east of the river was a traditional place to arrange a meeting with the goblins when necessary (such as when bribing them to calm down after an assault by random adventurers!). His mentioning of the Moonblade clan piques Cinoi's interest for a bit.

Cinoi asks about the barrow, and Gardon tells him it's been around a long time. Ancient kings of Kinis were buried like that. When Cinoi asks him if he's ever investigated the barrow, Gardon tells him he hasn't. However, some adventurers had looked at it, and one still lives in the area and is a ranger named Dex. Chaedi pricks up her ears upon hearing that name.

Chaedi excitedly asks where Dex can be found because she's looking for him. But, he hasn't been seen for several months. He left out to go help out a friend named Sir Dudley Whitehelm. Chaedi gasps! Her true love! Chaedi says she's looking for him, too, because he is her friend. [What coinkidink!]

Gardon can't tell them too much of where they went. He says Dex was looking for Dudley and their party to go to some ancient place, Alcon. Osrik knows it as a cursed place, an absolutely forbidden topic for dwarves. He doesn't really know anything about it. Cinoi is interested in the "cursed" aspect of the place. Chaedi knows Alcon was part of Civari. Civari was a somewhat mythical kingdom. Cinoi knows it was destroyed. Alecsa knows it was a kingdom of dwarves and humans, and knows the elves of Elfan Holds now were there in ancient times. It had something to do with all of what had happened back then.

The best lead he can give the party is that Dex's party most likely headed for their meeting at the headquarters of Dex's order, the Rangers of Otilis, located a day's travel west. Silthond confirms that this was once a large and busy headquarters since abandoned and may be now being restored. Silthond seems slightly worried about Dex's non-appearance and says he can spare the party in the interest of finding him. Cinoi is happy to go, since he's not interested in seeing Dannic push around villagers with his wand ... and is sure he can keep his property safe.

Osrik wants to hang around Vim for a couple of days. When Cinoi and Alecsa complain that they are already bored, he tells them they should be able to find something to do for two days. [Sigh. Will he never learn?]

Somewhere in the two days, Gardon mentions that he remembers Osrik's family (but not Osrik!) He said the dwarves ran the smithy until the monsters started to attack, and then all was chaos. All the villagers scattered as they tried to get out of danger. He lost track of them in all the confusion and has never heard that they are dead. There were no dwarf bodies among the dead.

The party finds the smithy and looks around. There obviously had been a fire, as in the other houses. It's also cleaned out, no sign of anvil or tools. Cinoi's close inspection yields no bones.

Alecsa finds a loose stone and pries it up. Underneath, she finds a box hidden in a depression. Osrik looks at it and declares it dwarf-made but can't say if it is specifically something of his family's. Alecsa picks the lock open for him and backs away in case it explodes. [She's no fool.] Inside, they find two bottles, a lozenge-shaped topaz-like gem with a diamond-like symbol carved on it. Cinoi recognizes the symbol on it, but it is not magical but may have been a personal seal. There is also a sheet of parchment with some dwarvish writing on it that reads, "... forest of Grin, tomb ... map ... ree kings. Come soon, must locate ... guagnol." Osrik does not recognize the handwriting.

What the note means remains a mystery, but Cinoi knows of a legend about Throf Equagnol, who is known for finding the Well of Stars. He had killed an evil necromancer and became the king of Kinergh. It may tie back to the lost shield of Kinis that the Duke of Tisloch is seeking. [There's something confused here because Kinis defeated the necromancer, unless this is another name for him. And wouldn't it be his sword someone would search for?] +I think Throf found the Well of Stars, and was with Kinis when Kinis slew the necromancer. Kinis was supposedly taken back (with his sword) to Elfan lands. Only his shieldbearer escaped, with the shield. It became an artifact of the kings of Kinergh.+ [Yeah but, didn't the history say only tht sheildbearer survived that final battle?]

Cinoi likes the way "Well of Stars" sounds. He suggests looking for it after checking out the lodge.

For now, they set it aside and plan on leaving in a day or two for the Ranger Outpost. Cinoi and Alecsa plot to kidnap Gloriana and take her along on the quest, since she mostly likely thinks she's going to hang around and help settle the village. Cinoi thinks he can get Osrik to lighten up and mulls over that task, as well.

At night, they hear wolves howling outside the gates. Gardon says the goblins are all stirred up and pissed off about something. Cinoi asks him how he's been able to keep safe all alone, to which Gardon replies that he kept a low profile.

And so, our intrepid party prepares for what they (or at least Cinoi and Alecsa) hope will be an interesting time.

SessionNine