Suggestions for a trial!

[Mattywizzat]

Without going into massive detail.. for a homebrew campaign I am DM:

Our heroes are holding a son of royalty captive... named Jack. He has admitted that he is indeed responsible for hiring an evil cult to cause destruction (for political purposes) and this cult managed to kill one of the coolest PCs... so they're pissed.

Jack also managed to get a few of the PCs to drink poison (under the guise of healing potions, ha). He knows the antidote, but they won't let him go in exchange for this info.

His father, a prestigous & noble count, will be coming for a trial. The PCs wanted to slice Jack's throat, but the antidote issue stayed them.

The count is meant to be a righteous guy, but he loves his son. Jack is guilty of high treason, 2nd degree murder, among other things.... penalty is death.

What does a righteous count who persues justice, but doesn't want his son to die offer to the heroes???

They can't kill the guy without first finding the antidote.

I got some ideas, but curious to know what some others might think.

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[aco175]

Seems like there were a few movies like this.

I can see the duke making a deal to save Jacks life in exchange for the antidote. Is the poison some sort where the PCs cannot cure it on their own or cast a spell/ antitoxin and be done. There could be some sort of research to do to find a cure- I smell quest.

Duke could just buy his sons freedom, this was quite common in old-timey days. Another person could take his penalty like a loyal friend or servant. His teacher could be blamed for not raising him right.

He should get off and come back even worse and taunt the PCs a second time.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Give Jack one chance to give up the antidote. If he does so then he deserves a fair trial for his crimes.

If no answer remove his nads.

If he remains silent continue to field dress Jack as slowly as possible.

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

If Jack is a super evil guy the PCs probably won't accept just handing him over. The duke could negotiate for a lowering of the sentence so that his son doesn't die. But some justice must be done. Hard labor, prison time, or reform education are all options.

I'd go with something like this. Since the PCs were wronged by him they will probably want to oversee his punishment somewhat. Have the duke negotiate for Jack to be brought to a prison that is infamous for it's harsh treatment of the inmates. It could be on a remote island, or inside a volcano or maybe even on one of the layers of hell run by devils. It might break the duke's hear but it's better than the alternative. The PCs then must deliver Jack to the camp. He'll try to escape at every opportunity on the road. And of course, when the PCs arrive a huge breakout/riot happens leading to new and exciting adventures.

 

[aco175]

Remember the end of Indiana Jones when he asks about studying the arc and the government guys tell him they got top people working on it- Have the Kings soldiers come to take Jack away for proper punishment. Behind the scenes the duke and king make some deal and Jack goes free at some point to come back and take revenge on the PCs. The PCs may not want to give him up, but they may not want the King mad at them either.

 

[Quickleaf]

Welcome to ENWorld

Without going into massive detail.. for a homebrew campaign I am DM:

Our heroes are holding a son of royalty captive... named Jack. He has admitted that he is indeed responsible for hiring an evil cult to cause destruction (for political purposes) and this cult managed to kill one of the coolest PCs... so they're pissed.

Jack also managed to get a few of the PCs to drink poison (under the guise of healing potions, ha). He knows the antidote, but they won't let him go in exchange for this info.

His father, a prestigous & noble count, will be coming for a trial. The PCs wanted to slice Jack's throat, but the antidote issue stayed them.

Bravo to being a rat bastard DM Well done! That's a terrific setup!

The count is meant to be a righteous guy, but he loves his son. Jack is guilty of high treason, 2nd degree murder, among other things.... penalty is death.

What does a righteous count who persues justice, but doesn't want his son to die offer to the heroes???

They can't kill the guy without first finding the antidote.

I got some ideas, but curious to know what some others might think.

I think you have an opportunity for both dramatic pathos & plot twists.

Jack's father the Count may give some surprising testimony, essentially giving the medieval version of a plea bargain / insanity defense on behalf of his son that might include any of the following points:

• Jack suffered some malady while adventuring – a curse, mental illness, spell cast upon him, etc – that has driven him down this dark path. But he's not beyond redemption.
• The Count has evidence/testimony about Jack getting lured into working with the evil cult that cast doubt on the theory that Jack masterminded everything, painting him as a victim of the evil cult as much as anyone else. The evil cult are the REAL villains, according to the Count.
• The Count needs an heir, otherwise his lands (which contributes considerable taxes to the king's coffers, which happen to support the courts, just sayin') could descend into chaos upon his death. He advocates for having Jack rehabilitated with clerical magic and put into his father's care.

As a twist, Jack likely learned some details about the evil cult's operation. And they're likely concerned about the vile noble divulging those details as a plea bargain, and may send an undercover agent to silence Jack... If it was done with poison that would be supremely ironic... maybe even leverage Jack to do one more thing for them before letting the poison take its course.

 

[Mattywizzat]

These are some awesome suggestions! I love throwing curveballs at the PCs.

I particularity like the idea of an insanity plea, pinning it on the cult and then the cult trying to silence Jack.

I know the PCs would be agreeable to letting him go, if they get to punish him in some way and they get the cure, of course.

These are so good!

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[Saeviomagy]

Without going into massive detail.. for a homebrew campaign I am DM:

Our heroes are holding a son of royalty captive... named Jack. He has admitted that he is indeed responsible for hiring an evil cult to cause destruction (for political purposes) and this cult managed to kill one of the coolest PCs... so they're pissed.

Jack also managed to get a few of the PCs to drink poison (under the guise of healing potions, ha). He knows the antidote, but they won't let him go in exchange for this info.

His father, a prestigous & noble count, will be coming for a trial. The PCs wanted to slice Jack's throat, but the antidote issue stayed them.

The count is meant to be a righteous guy, but he loves his son. Jack is guilty of high treason, 2nd degree murder, among other things.... penalty is death.

What does a righteous count who persues justice, but doesn't want his son to die offer to the heroes???

They can't kill the guy without first finding the antidote.

I got some ideas, but curious to know what some others might think.

Given that you have an incurable poison (when poison is relatively easy to take care of in D&D) and a captive that can keep secrets (again - when keeping secrets tends to be a really hard thing to do in D&D), I've actually got no idea whatsoever what a sentence of 'death' actually means in your game.

In a typical game, the count could potentially just let the sentence go through, then have his son raised. Justice technically served.

Historically speaking, you'd just pay off the families of the dead. In fact, I could see a situation in D&D where the whole "kill the guy and raise him again" bit is skipped, so that the resurrection costs go to the families of the victims instead of dissolving to the gods.

I would also expect that the D&D universe has more severe 'death' penalties, since the more thorough the destruction of the body, the more expensive and less likely resurrection becomes.

Finally you'd get up to harry potter's azkaban/dementor-level stuff where you find someone powerful enough to imprison the criminal for all time, or have a devourer consume their soul, or something similarly awful.

So... without knowing how this stuff works in your game, I don't know what the potential punishment of 'death' actually means, so I can't say what might be fair recompense.