D1: Ashin's Commission (El Jefe judging)

[Rystil Arden]

"Going to them is a mistake. At best, at absolute best and that is not likely, they tell us something that is a bit more descriptive version of what we just heard. In the average case, alerting them to our presence and squandering our time to pursue our own investigation means an armed and ready force prevents our entry. At worst, we are incarcerated by the occupying army."

"Forget not that a cleric of Azwan revels in war, even if the god professes benevolence--easy it is to tread falsely upon that path and lose the face of goodness and yet retain the god's favour. So too may a desire for order by a cleric of a goddess of Law turn to treachery and tyrannical assaults upon freedom, even as within his own mind he views his evils as good."

 

[ajanders]

"Fine. You want to go in there, we can go in. What do we do if we find out they have a disease and now we've got it? Are you going to stay in the quarantine, or are you going to go assing about the country spreading the disease?"

Michael rolls his eyes.

"Never mind, of course you are. Can we skip the long words and just admit it comes down to 'I want my lolly now'? Or do you need to be a toddler with a large vocabulary?"

 

[Rystil Arden]

"Most diseases that affect mortals do not affect us. If this is not the case, we will have it removed by a sufficiently powerful cleric, a luxury that the villagers of Duvik unfortunately cannot afford."

"As to your desire to dumb the conversation down, one can only suspect that it is either a desire to build a strawman of any argument contrary to your own or else an inability to argue against the logical necessity of our claims."

"Ironwolf put it best--since those two clerics could do nothing about the affliction and have already proved that fact clear, our only options are to conduct our own investigation or to simply leave now. We will consent to the will of the majority on either of those two options, though we suggest pushing forward."

 

[ajanders]

"And you expect to find the cleric where? I can't -- neither can the clerics of Azwan and Grendath, by your logic. Almayce, can you cure disease? Or is there another cleric here which you know about, but have neglected to mention to the rest of us?"

 

[Rystil Arden]

"Just because there are not clerics on hand here does not mean there are not clerics. If nothing else, the northern temple of Hyrag should suffice. They say those priests can cure anything, even death."

 

[ajanders]

"And you will find this cleric without meeting anyone else and perhaps passing the disease on? Perhaps not, it's true, but you're taking responsibility for a lot of people's lives if you make a mistake.

Oh, that's right. You just do freedom. Never mind."

 

[Rystil Arden]

"Better freedom than oppression, particularly when the execution of the oppression's intent would be carried out by a fool. When we do not wish to deal with mortals, we do not. But truly this malady is obviously not as contagious as you would make it out to be with your snide comments, with the evidence stated previously. There is no need to argue 'what-ifs' when the first premise of the little exercise is more-than-likely fallacious, so let us make a decision and move on, rather than sit here listening to you bickering like a child about the virtues of oppression."

 

[Patlin]

"Lords! Can't you two ever stop arguing? If you want to consult those other Clerics, Michael, I'll wait, but just go DO it. You can bring my psicrystal with you so the rest of us can have some idea whether you're in trouble or not. If Zaryl's right and they lock you up, we'll try to get you out eventually, but at that point we'll take it as confirmation that we need to contact the people of Duvik as soon as possible. You might get stuck for a while, possibly worse."

"Can everyone agree to that as a compromise, so we can get started on the problem?"

 

[Rystil Arden]

"If we do that, we should simultaneously pursue our objective in Duvik so as not to lose our opportunity. As we have just seen, clerics have mind reading and mind control powers, so it is not at all certain that our mission would remain clandestine after Michael's capture even if we can trust Michael not to expose us to these friends of his anyway."

 

[ajanders]

"Fine." Michael says crisply.
And people wonder why clerics charge adventurers for spells.

"I will take the three prisoners back to the stockade now: that way you don't have to take care of them and I don't have to worry about how you take care of them.
If we leave now, you can watch which way we go, then pick another direction to travel. That way I don't know anything and can't tell anything.
Pass me their boots."

(edit11/30/06: It occurs to me this plan perhaps asks much of our long-suffering judge. Please advise if something else is better from your standpoint.)