Welcome to the Halmae (updated 2/27/07)

[spyscribe]

Part the Very Fourteenth
In which: oddly enough, the chest is not opened.
(as recorded by Fajitas)

“What do we think this is?” Cyrus asks.

“It’s a spare,” Missola pipes up from the back of the room. They all turn to look at him, but only Anvil notices the small bead of sweat trickling down his forehead.

“We should try it anyway,” Anvil says.

Cyrus, grinning now, fits the key into the lock. Click. He tries to lift the lid…

… and nothing happens. The lid won’t budge. Cyrus tugs and pulls, but the lid is still locked tight. Thatch, the strongest of the group, has a go, but it won’t open for him either. “Um. Maybe we’ll get better leverage on the floor,” he suggests, and tries to move the chest. But, to his surprise, the chest won’t move from the table.

“What the…” Cyrus mutters, as Thatch pushes the chest back and forth. The table moves, but the chest doesn’t.

“Perhaps…” Reyu says as she steps over to the chest. She grabs it and lifts -- but not as if she is intending to move it. Instead, she lifts it as if the chest were on a hinge, like it is merely the lid to some other chest.

The chest moves, revealing a small, black-lined compartment in the table beneath it. It is clearly magical, as the compartment is too deep to fit in the small table the chest was sitting on. Inside the compartment is a leather bound book.

Reyu smiles and reaches in for it.

Behind the party, Missola snarls, grabs a sword down off the wall, and charges at them!

The Watchmen are taken by surprise as Missola’s two guards come at them, and hastily defend themselves. Missola himself charges at Reyu, who drops the book and manages to avoid his attack. Desalle, snarling, takes his aggression out on Anvil by casting magic missile. A blue-white bolt of energy strikes the Justicar in the chest.

The party quickly responds in kind. Thatch, wielding his uncle’s greatsword, catches Missola with a mighty blow. Reyu backs off to give Thatch room and readies her short spear for the next attack. Cyrus and Anvil both draw, Cyrus focused on Missola while Anvil goes after Desalle. However, before either can attack, Hue, hiding behind the table with the chest, casts grease. The floor ripples beneath the combatants, and suddenly the entire area is covered by a slick, oily fluid. Wham! Desalle and Missola fall to the ground, as does Anvil on his way to his target. Cyrus keeps his feet, but his swing goes wide as he tries to adjust to the unstable footing.

Missola flails about with his weapon, keeping the party at bay but failing to inflict any damage. Meanwhile, Desalle, scrambling across the slickened floor, fires another bolt of energy at Anvil. Anvil is now fairly injured, but he scrambles out of the greased area and swipes at Desalle. Thatch stumbles to regain his feet, as Reyu and Cyrus both strike Missola. And then, as suddenly as it appeared, the grease evaporates like water on hot pavement.

But Hue is already casting again. This time, a cone of multi-colored light flies out of his hands. Beams strike various combatants. Missola’s two guards instantly drop. Missola and Reyu are also caught in the cone, but seem to shrug off any effects. “Oops! Sorry!” Hue calls out to Reyu.

The two Watchmen, now that their opponents have fallen, turn their attention to Desalle. The chamberlain, still on the ground, is suddenly faced by three swords: Anvil’s plus the two Watchmen’s. He snarls defiantly, but raises his hands in surrender.

Meanwhile, Missola, still undeterred, rises to his feet and strikes Thatch with a furious blow. But the young farm-boy responds in kind, as do Cyrus and Reyu. Missola falls, unconscious and bleeding. The battle is over. The din of combat gives way to gasps of pain and panting for breath

And, in all the chaos, no one notices as Hue, still hiding behind the table, slips the two potions that they removed from the chest into his pack. Well, no one but the Ferret notices, and he doesn’t say anything. But one can almost hear him thinking, Excellent work, Hue. These will be of great value to m-- er, “us”.

to be continued…

 

[dpdx]

I had to read it twice, but now I caught it.

Very subtle. I don't want to give it away, though.

 

[Fajitas]

Very subtle. I don't want to give it away, though.

I'm curious what you see, dp. Feel free to e-mail me with it.

There is something pretty subtle in there that even the players missed at the time. Though, to be fair, there are both in and out of game reasons why they'd miss it.

 

[spyscribe]

Part the Very Fifteenth
In which: some loose ends are tied up and others become plot hooks.
(as recorded by Fajitas)

Anvil and Reyu tend to the wounds of their friends. Anvil expends a cure minor wounds to stabilize Missola, after having him bound and arrested. Missola and Desalle are both taken away by watchmen.

Over the next few days, the scouring of the Missola compound turns up little further evidence of wrong-doing, but the leather-bound book found in the chest provides everything that they need. It is Missola’s ledger and details every scheme that he was involved in.

As it turns out, very few of his enterprises are fully legitimate. In addition to selling Blackroot Distillate, his business largely consists of importing goods from outside the Confederacy, but smuggling them into Dar Pykos as Confederate goods, thereby paying lower import taxes. Inferior goods from the city-state of Sirrus (Thatch’s home area) are being brought in and sold as goods from the esteemed craftsmen of Dar Karo. Incredibly rare spices from the Empire of Ebis are being brought in as spices from Dar Henna.

The records also clearly indicate the income from five innocent people Missola had convicted and sold as slaves. Roughly 10% of the profits from their sales are paid out to “trial expenses;” these figures are nearly equal to what Anvil found in Stalwart’s cell. In addition, 1% of both the slave sales and Blackroot sales have been paid out as “finder’s fees” to an unknown individual, presumably the scarred man.

Efforts are made to locate the scarred man. A watch is set at The Fortunate Traveler, but there is no sign of him. Subtle inquiries among informants on the street likewise turn up no trace. As near as anyone can tell, the mysterious man has completely disappeared.

Fortunately, his presence is not required. The combination of the ledger, the note Reyu obtained, the Bartender’s testimony, and the Justicars’ not-so-gentle interrogations of Desalle and Misolla are more than enough to condemn the two Aegosians for multiple crimes, and enough to clear Thatch and Reyu of all charges

Anvil has the pleasure of sharing the good news with them. “You are free to go,” he informs them. “Welcome to Dar Pykos. May Kettenek’s Justice be with you.”

“Um. Okay. I guess that’s that,” Thatch says.

“Indeed,” Reyu says.

And, with that, Thatch and Reyu are finally free to settle in Dar Pykos.

Their first concern is lodgings. As it turns out, Mrs. Blackburn’s boarding house, where Amos had been living, now has a few openings. It seems that Amos’s brief experiences in Dar Pykos were quite enough of city life for him. Thatch takes his room. He finds the accommodations quite good. Mrs. Blackburn’s cooking is excellent, though her busy-bodying is a little tiresome. It also does not take long for her sixteen-year-old daughter, Tessa, to develop quite a crush on young Thatch. He finds this somewhat embarrassing, although she’s too shy to do much more than glance at him over breakfast or look away red-faced whenever she notices him looking at her. He also finds it very strange to be addressed as “Mr. Thatch”.

Reyu also takes a room at the boarding house, rather than staying with the elven community in Dar Pykos. She feels that living among humans, though it may be distasteful, is probably more useful to her mission to learn about human society. Besides, she fears that the elven community will be much like the three assimilated elves she met at The Fortunate Traveler. It turns out, however, that there are more traditional elves in Dar Pykos, with whom she gradually makes contact.

Cyrus returns to his chapterhouse, while Hue vanishes off to wherever he stays in Dar Pykos. He tells them that if they need him, they should ask for him at the Great Library (he does not mention that he sleeps on a shelf in the basement there. At least, he does when the Librarians don’t catch him). And Anvil the Just returns to the Temple of Justice, to continue his duties, quite confident that this case will not go unnoticed by those higher up in the Temple.

How right he is.

A few days later, Anvil is summoned by Tenacious the Just, the 6th Order Justicar who heads the Universal Law Caucus in Dar Pykos. Anvil is admitted to Tenacious’s study. The desk is strewn with parchment. Tenacious himself, though a large man, seems barely able to keep his head above it.

He looks up as Anvil enters. “Anvil,” he says without emotion, “please have a seat.” Anvil does so. Tenacious regards him a moment. “Well, your handling of the Missola situation seems to have… come to a noisy conclusion.”

“No noisier than Justice demanded,” Anvil points out.

“You caused quite a stir,” Tenacious says.

Anvil thinks for a moment, trying to phrase the proper response in what is clearly a difficult position. But, before he can open his mouth, Tenacious smiles. “Anvil, relax,” he says. “You’re not being reprimanded. In fact, you’re being promoted.” From behind a stack of parchments, Tenacious pulls out a 2nd Order sash and tosses it to Anvil. “You’ve done excellent work for the Temple. And, more pertinently, for the Caucus.”

Anvil covers his pleasure with his usual dogmatic approach. “I only did as Justice--” he begins.

Tenacious cuts him off with “Uh-huh.” Tenacious regards him for a moment longer, then says, “Anvil, these people you worked with. Do you trust them?”

“They seem to be of good character,” he says. He takes a moment to consider if Hue fits in this category, but decides that yes, even Hue seems to be of good character.

“And they’re capable?”

“They have proven themselves so.”

Tenacious strokes his beard. “Do you think they would be interested in doing some… further work for us?”

Now Anvil’s curiosity is truly piqued. “Of what nature would this work be?”

Tenacious searches carefully for the words. “It occurred to me that the Caucus could use a… well, a troubleshooting team. For special cases, like this, where some form of action outside the usual range of Justicar activities is called for. You and your companions have proven yourselves fairly adequate to the task, so I thought you’d be a perfect place to start. What do you think?”

“For myself, I am happy to serve Kettenek in this manner. I cannot speak for the others, but I can inquire. They are reasonable people. I’m sure they will see the wisdom of furthering Kettenek’s will,” Anvil says. Tenacious sighs and rubs his temples. Anvil continues. “Are there specific tasks you have in mind for them? It may help to convince them if I can provide further details.”

Now, Tenacious smiles. “Well, as I said, you caused quite a stir with this Missola case. There’s been a lot of talk—a lot of outrage over this abuse of the Slave Ownership Ruling. And that has been very good for the Caucus. We’ve always been opposed to the Slave Ruling, and right now a lot of other people are coming around to our side. A lot of highly influential people. The Caucus is actually starting to get some attention.

“We want to levy this attention while we’ve got it. By our records, Missola sold five innocent Pykosian citizens into slavery in Dar Aego. We want to be the ones to bring them home. And we thought you and your companions would be the perfect people to do it.”

Anvil smiles. “I think, perhaps, they can be persuaded to aid in this endeavor.”

Two days later, the party is on the road to Dar Aego.

to be continued…

 

[dpdx]

Innocent question for Justicars and future Justicars: If a subject of the Darine Confederacy was to be incarcerated for a crime, but was yet himself a victim of a crime, and was due restitution, should that subject still receive it?

 

[Fajitas]

Innocent question for Justicars and future Justicars: If a subject of the Darine Confederacy was to be incarcerated for a crime, but was yet himself a victim of a crime, and was due restitution, should that subject still receive it?

So, I think what you're asking is: If someone were convicted of a crime, but was due restitution for a separate crime that had been committed against him, would he receive said restitution?

I'd say it's likely to be situationally dependent, based on the relative severity of the two crimes. If he was due restitution for petty larceny, but had himself committed murder, then no, he's not likely to get it; the Temple of Justice would probably keep it. If the situation was reversed, then yes, he is likely to get it. If the two crimes were of more-or-less equal severity, then it's likely that restitution would be made to his nearest kin or something.

That'd be my guess, tho' Bad Monkey Jeff, as the resident Justicar, may have a different opinion. Keeping in mind, of course, that neither of us have actually written the Confederate Law Code.

 

[Bad Monkey Jeff]

Innocent question for Justicars and future Justicars: If a subject of the Darine Confederacy was to be incarcerated for a crime, but was yet himself a victim of a crime, and was due restitution, should that subject still receive it?

Absolutely! Ketennek's justice be delivered upon all who deserve or bring it up on themselves!

(Unless Ketennek has delivered unto us a law indicating otherwise, of course.)

(Noting also that one found guilty of a heinous crime isn't going to have a lot to do with the proceeds of a minor civil judgement in his favor. If he's been enslaved, for example, one imagines the proceeds in question would become his owner's property.)

--
Bad Monkey Jeff, Follower of Ketennek

 

[dpdx]

Thanks, Jeff!

So while Missola is rotting away in the hole, Hue, who ripped off his potions, gets to pick the iron filings out of his gruel.

 

[Fajitas]

So while Missola is rotting away in the hole, Hue, who ripped off his potions, gets to pick the iron filings out of his gruel.

Hue, alas, will not be sold into slavery for being the first person to *actually* steal from Count Missola. Though it's an awfully funny idea.

For the record, the subtle thing no one ever picked up on related to Desalle's spell-casting abilities. Way back when Desalle first pointed the finger at Thatch and Reyu, he claimed he knew they took the statue by casting locate object. But, in the final fight, he was only casting one magic missile at a time. Why? Because he's only a second level sorcerer. He can't cast locate object. Nor did he need to, being in league with Remmer/Reller.

Clues based on rules are a little meta, I grant, but for some reason my addled, new-GM brain thought that this was the vital clue that would put it all together. It didn't, obviously, largely 'cause most of my players were newbies (or at least new to 3rd ed), and had no idea that a sorcerer who could cast locate object would cast multiple magic missiles.

However, given the place of arcane magic in the Halmae, it makes perfect sense that not everyone is entirely familiar with how it works.

Next up, the road to Dar Aego. It's paved with yummy, good intentions.

 

[jonrog1]

Tenacious sighs and rubs his temples.

I love this mental image. Just a vocie-over as Anvil speaks.

"Is he still talking? Gods, this can't be right. Nobody loves justice this much. Just Jimmy McJust, Winner of the ALl-Justice Just-off didn't love justice this much ... Nope, still talking. Wonder if we can figure out some way to get him out of town ..."