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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CuRoi" data-source="post: 5628895" data-attributes="member: 98032">I'll answer from my own campaign's perspective. First - the abducted nobleman would be released and most likely the commoner taken into custody. If the commoner claimed to have overheard some horrible thing, the nobleman would most likely deny he said it. Without witnesses, what was said is immaterial. Therefore, we now only have two crimes abduciton/false imprisonment and perhaps slander. There is no way such a case would move in the direction of magical interrogation of the nobleman based on one individual's word. The commoner is now the defendant in a legal case with the nobleman as the plaintiff. Each party would need to offer a pledge or surety based on this path. Most likely the nobleman can provide this in gold, the commoner may need to provide it in livestock or a family member or both. Each pleads their case, the Brehons (judges, most likely druids, possibly other noblemen or chieftains) formulate a verdict and provide support for their reasoning (whether maxim, legal verse, analogy, natural law, etc.) In the end, the commoner very likely loses everything he has, and quite possibly becomes a slave unless they were well-to-do with some assets to give (gold, livestock, etc. - In a case of abduction I would most likely place the ultimate fine at the value of a freeman, approx 21 milk cows...approx 600 gold) Now IF the nobleman wants to avoid the public scene caused by a trial, say, if that could shed too much light on the "bad deed", the noble could show mercy and decline to prosecute the commoner. Then, naturally, to tie up lose strings, said commoner would very likely end up dying an early death to silence him.</blockquote>

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