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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 1765733" data-attributes="member: 9626">True Heroes: The Trial of the CenturyLater that night, back at Tal’s manor, Zethar was busy making his greatest mistake.  He saw some lights in the manor, and decided to investigate.  The fact that he could turn invisible or go ethereal before investigating did not, sadly, cross his mind.  Meanwhile, Sinael finally had enough of waiting in the secret room, and also heard the strange noises coming from upstairs.  He prepared to investigate as well.Unfortunately, Sinael chose to investigate a little too late.  Zethar flew into the manor through a window, only to find a pair of rogues searching through the books the party found from Khaspar’s manor.  Zethar silently congratulated himself on at least getting Venym out of the way in time, and then prepared to deal with the intruders, relying on his protections against evil to help him.  What he didn’t know, however, was that the rogues in question were not evil, and they were much faster than he was.  They quickly surrounded him, and while he was confused by the attacks from many sides, they attacked his most vital points repeatedly, killing him almost instantly!  While they looked in wonder as his body dissolved into glowing particles, Sinael finally entered the room.  The two rogues prepared to deal with this new threat, until one of them was suddenly attacked by what was clearly a very experienced drow rogue.  With their advantage gone, the rogues grabbed a bag full of books and other suspicious items found in Tal’s house, and fled.  Sinael, who didn’t know Zethar was even there and didn’t see anything odd about the pile of particles, thanked his savior.  “I owe you my life, sir.  But may I ask who you are?”The drow nodded.  “My name is Annaryl Truesight.  I am what your culture calls a Melefactor drow.  I first came to this city a few months ago.  My kingdom was once under the de facto leadership of a being called Kulstra, or as she’s better known, the Lady of Blood.  After years of living without any understanding or need of gods, she brought to us knowledge of the goddess Bas, who gave us the power of divine aid once again, and had us make war on the Benefactor drow and the surface races again.  However, she was killed recently, and when she died, the alliance between Bas and our people broke up.  There was a power vacuum, and many were killed in the wars for control that followed.  I finally had enough, and decided to defect to the Benefactor drow of Methosilang, in the hope that they would grant me sanctuary in exchange for information.  However, while Bas lost her alliance with the drow race, she did still have some individual followers, and many of them tried to get into Methosilang as well while posing as refugees.  By the time I arrived, they learned about this plan and no longer trusted any of the refugees.  However, I soon discovered things were even worse than that.  There was another refugee who arrived at the same time as me, but he was one of Bas’ spies.  We were both discovered for what we were, but instead of freeing me and imprisoning the traitor, both of us were taken into military custody.  The spy had been given considerably more freedom than me, and I believe that he is working with at traitor very high up in your government.  They have some sort of plan to contact Bas with information about Methosilang’s location!  I finally was able to escape a few days ago when they focused all of your security on capturing the Heroes of Methosilang, and when I realized that they were the very group that killed the Lady of Blood, I decided to seek out their allies to help them, as I believe that only they can reveal who the traitor is.”Sinael nodded.  “I understand, but we need more help if want to aid them.  For now, we need a place to hide for the night.  If those thieves were also working with the traitor, they’ll report both of us, so it won’t be safe to hide here any more.  What about the Arcane Order?  One of the Heroes is a very prominent mage of the order named Danae.  She might have friends that can help us.”Sinael and Annaryl fled into the night, and when they reached the Order, they found Damien.  Neither of them was initially concerned, since neither of them was there to actually see who was in the arresting party, and Damien further made them relax when he explained that he was also interested in helping the party.  He let them hide at his place for the night, where Annaryl told him his story as well.  The next day, the military were ready for their legitimate investigation of the Hero’s manor, when they found Zethar’s remains.  Unlike Sinael, they had someone who recognized them as the remains of a good outsider, and suspicious about who it was and what he (or she) was doing in the suspect’s manor, they had him raised.  Zethar returned without incident, but the return had a serious effect on his physical health.  He was questioned by the law officers, but was given a room to recover from his ordeal after he told his story.  Again, he wasn’t really considered a suspect, but the rogues that killed him weren’t caught either (not surprisingly,) but an investigation will be underway.As he rested in his room, Zethar mediated on his recent performance.  He was supposed to be the guardian for the heroes, and yet here he was, away from them without any way to help them.  Of course, the shame of being killed by a pair of random thugs didn’t help his performance.  He decided that while he did want to help the party, he might not be ready to do so just yet, and he decided to return home to seek further advice, which proved that he wasn’t ready yet in the field of planar studies either.  In a matter of moments, he was gone from this plane.A week passed.  Lancaster and the heroes desperately planned their defense, while Damien, Sinael, and Annaryl tried to discover who the traitor was and how to rescue the party if the trial failed.  Finally, despite attempts by Lancaster to delay the trial, the court couldn’t wait any longer.  People wanted closure and for justice to be done, and the royalty was eager to find someone to lay the blame.  The trial began, even though neither Shekuldellstra nor the half-dragon paladin responded to their summonings from the church, and for some reason, Rothaire was a witness for the prosecution!The trial began.  The party still had Lancaster as their lawyer, which at least lent some credibility to their cause, while the prosecutor was an all-business dwarf named Thrat Lawhammer.  From the opening statements, Thrat was full of confidence, as if aware of the own inevitability of his victory, and Lancaster seemed doubtful and worried, and the jury picked it up.  The evidence didn’t help either, and the case against the party was very well orchestrated.  First of all, there were documents found at the party during the “investigation.”  More likely, of course, the same visitors that killed Zethar and stole many of Khaspar’s books planted it, but despite Zethar’s report, that angle was never explored.  Next, there was a letter that was discovered at the Delaspie/Orc Empire battlefield, and which was apparently written for the party by none other than Phellis Mune, their leopard-headed Strife Master friend.  It read:My friends, I have heard about your attempts to defeat our rival for Bas’ affection.  Tal, I know about your magical prowess, and I recommend you prepare fire magic against him.  Good luck sneaking past his forces, I admit your attempts to infuse yourself with draconic elements might make you stand out.  Robin, your bow may do well in this battle, since he is fond of using flight magic.  Galeron, I know you’re new to this organization, but I’ve heard much of your might and ability to mercilessly our enemies, no matter who they are.  That ruthlessness will do you well here.  Again, I wish you well; if you pull this off, we will easily become Bas’ favored servants.  I will remain here in the south, and make sure the Prince’s Death will not have too unbalancing an effect on the war.  After all, we want Delaspie ruined, but not too quickly!                    Your friend,                    Phellis MuneAgain, things weren’t looking good.  The prosecution also had the previous trial of Fenthrip, who was accused and successfully convicted on many charges that the party now shares, and then the testimony of Rothaire, their hired sailor.  According to him, they left the continent to meet with agents of Bas and perform dark rituals, not to mention summoning undead, training orcs, leading armies of orcs, and basically accuse them of helping every force that Methosilang has opposed for years!  But the worst testimony had yet to come, for Lerissa herself was a witness against the party!  She told the jury, with total sincerity and without any seeming doubt or hesitation, that she and the party were working together since before the time they supposedly rescued her at the Bas Temple!  They were the ones to rig the trial to take over the temple, they spent the whole time rescuing Lerissa to really formulate their plans, and they have been solely responsible for uniting various enemies under the banner of a false god for years now, all while playing as heroes and making the public afraid of this false god of theirs!  There was little the party could do to stop this carriage wreck.  Most of their best witnesses never showed up, were ruled ineligible (like Setisth eventually was,) or turned against them.  The best they could do was try for all the information they found on their various Bas raids, but it didn’t do much.  They never did manage to find a book of Bas, and their cloaks weren’t considered compelling evidence.  They tried to get the statue they recovered from Kulstra’s temple to be considered valuable evidence, but the statue radiated no magic, and they had no real way to know where it was or who made it.  Finally, Tal, having had enough, speaks up during his own questioning.  He says that the public and the jury know him, and they know the heroes.  They know that Galeron and Therron have dedicated years of public service to the church, they know that they have saved the people of Methosilang on many occasions, and they know that their adventures have cost them many of their friends.  He glares at Lerissa and Rothaire as he points out that some of the people he saved were those in this very room, and chose to speak out against him for some reason.It was a very good speech, and it appeared to have turned at least a few of the jurors’ opinions around.  However, in the end, it was too late.  Of the ten jurors, eight ruled them guilty, one said innocent, and one abstained.  At least 7 were needed to actually convict them, so there officially judged guilty of treason!And that’s when things first went to Hades.  His eagerness to help overshadowing his reasoning, Sinael leapt out of the audience, and tried to single-handedly free the party!  This lasted for about five seconds, however, for while Lancaster (who was still riding his stupid stag,) might be on the party’s side, he still respected the law of the land first, and he was NOT about to have someone commit such a crime in the city’s highest court.  Without even exerting himself, he ran Sinael down, a lance in hand.  He easily ran him completely through, and tossed the dying thief off to the side.  However, while Sinael’s actual attack was totally ineffective, it was a convenient distraction, and that was when Damien struck.  He flew out of the audience, literally, and grabbed the first two heroes he could find, which turned out to be Robin and Danae.  The three quickly used the chaos of Sinael’s attack to get out of the crowd, and Damien was able to quickly teleport them out of the city!OOC Notes: This was Chris’ fourth character death, but his next character will last quite a bit longer than poor Zethar.  In fact, you already met him (thanks to the miracle of Story Hour artistic license,) but I won’t formally introduce him until the next update.</blockquote>

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