Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Amaroq" data-source="post: 1375405" data-attributes="member: 15470">Issue #9: Milo's Trial. Episode 3The courtroom slowly empties until only the five jurors remain. Miriel speaks first. She was clearly angered during the trial, but she has leashed her temper, and now her words are measured and rationed. “I don’t trust Milo at all,” she starts, “But I’m not completely sure he's guilty and deserving of death. I am completely sure we can’t trust him to travel with us. He made every effort not to be honest with us.” Stone nods. “I think Madriel has shown that it wasn’t his own free will, but I still don’t trust him, and I don’t think we should take him with us. I don’t think we should kill him yet... I mean right now... I mean...” “I have the same feelings,” Telryn concurs. “I conclude that he was innocent of the crime, but if this trial was based on personality, he’s quite a bastard, and I don’t know why you would want him guarding your back.” Taryn nods in agreement with the others. “I have to agree with what Stone says. From the results of the interrogation, he didn’t attack the stronghold of his own free will, but he was definitely dissembling, and I don’t know why. It was very difficult to get real answers out of him.” Telryn says, “Halfling are like that.” Taryn shrugs. “That may be true, but he was extremely evasive even by halfling standards. I don’t like him much either,” he says. “I can see why you don’t want to have him with you. However, in my years of campaigning, I have found that having rogues and halflings with you is often valuable, and it might be useful to have him with you in the swamp. On the other hand, you might also wake up with a dagger in your back.” Paks looks around to each of the others. “On the basis of what we have heard here, and the assumption that he was indeed under the truth spell, he is innocent. However, I have been able to resist the spell all three times, so I’m not sure that he was affected.” “Yes,” Miriel says, “I’m afraid it’s relatively easy to resist that spell.  I’m not that strong yet – but I don’t think he is, either.” Paks looks thoughtful for a moment, and then adds, “When we were in Southport, he told me a story. Now, I’m bound not to repeat it, but if that story is true, then I have more reason to trust him than any of you.”Silence meets her words. As it grows to an unbearable length, Telryn speaks. “Well, the worst case is that he kills all of us. The best case is that he’s trustworthy and helps us. It seems simple to me.” Stone “Hedrada has said it’s better to have an enemy under your sword than.... I forget the second part... but I think it has something to do with what we’re talking about.” Paks looks at Miriel. “So it’s four to one for innocent? Miriel?” “No, I don’t say he’s guilty,” Miriel says judiciously. “I just don’t trust him. I think he’s probably innocent.”“Why don’t you trust Milo?” Telryn asks.“You mean besides this?” she asks, with a chuckle. “Let me explain.” She tells him at some length the history of Milo’s association with the company. “Originally, several of us saw Milo hanging around Southport – we were staying there, at the Laughing Ogre. We saw him often enough that we began to suspect he was following us. Finally, Chuck accosted him, but he refused to answer any questions. “When we left Southport, we though we’d left him behind. We were breaking up this smuggling ring, and they’d been operating through a ruined tower many miles south of the town. Well, after our fight – and it was inconclusive, though we captured Delonia…”“Delonia?” Telryn asks. “But she’s…”“She’s with us, now, yes. Paks somehow convinced all of us to find forgiveness for her, and how she talked Grilliam – he’s the high priest of Hedrada, at Southport – into agreeing to let Delonia go, I’ll never know. Anyways, since then, she’s served with us, and been quite a help.“When we captured Delonia, Chuck also caught the halfling, hiding in the shadows and following us. He swore he was ‘sent by Madriel to serve me and protect me,’ though none in my church have ever heard of him. He refused to explain himself. I’m not sure why we kept him with us, after that.”“Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer,” Taryn grunts.“He hadn’t done anything to us,” Miriel concludes. “And he didn’t look particularly threatening.”“He still doesn’t,” Stone avows, drawing laughter from the other four.“He did once, though,” Miriel says. “We ventured off into the swamp to capture SySy, the ratman end of the smuggling chain. We captured her, and took her back to the tower, where we were debating whether to interrogate her, take her to Grilliam, or kill her. Delonia suggested killing her, and it looked like she was going over to put her plan into action. He attacked her! She was wounded, but Stone restrained him, and then we learned of the plot to attack here.”“So, he protected her once, and then set her free,” Telryn says. “Maybe it wasn’t just the effect of the spell.”“We can’t know that,” Paks says. “It seems clear he was under the influence of a number of spells, and its impossible to tell know what they were.”   “Okay,” Stone says. “So, do we take him with us, or leave him hamstrung by the side of the road?” “Well, we certainly can’t release him,” Miriel says.“If we think he is innocent,” Paks says, “That’s all we need to decide alone.” The remaining jurors nod. Paks looks around to ensure that she has unanimous agreement, and gives a decisive nod of her own. “Let’s invite the others back in, then.”Telryn slips out, and invites Goldpetal and Chuck to join the jurors. Paks formally gives the verdict. “We’ve unanimously decided that Milo was innocent of the attack on the freehold.” “However,” Miriel adds, “We’ve also decided that we really can’t trust him. It was clear that he was evading the questions, and I don’t want him traveling with us.”Paks furrows her brow. “But if the story he told me in Southport was true, I have a great deal of reason to trust him.” “If his story to me was true,” Miriel counters, “Then I’m not sure he’s behaved consistently with me.” Paks thinks back over Milo’s behavior, and declares, “His behavior has been consistent with the story to me.” “Well, I can’t say for sure one way or another,” Miriel admits, “But he’s given me quite a bit of reason to doubt him.” Chuck speaks up. “If we’re expelling him because we can’t trust him, and he can hide without us finding him, what assurance do we have that he won’t catch us?” “I’ll ride with him far to the north, and drop him,” Paks says.Stone suggests, “Leave him tied up with a dagger some distance away. Or cut his hamstrings.” “Are we unanimously agreed to expel him from our company?” Paks asks. Nobody speaks on Milo’s behalf. Stone and Goldpetal are nodding. Miriel asks Taryn, who has been silent through this part of the discussion, “Will Milo be safe, if we give him the run of the freehold?”Taryn shakes his head. “I don’t think he will be. One of you should stay with him, for his own protection.”“I will,” Paks says. With that, the court is adjourned.</blockquote>

Verification