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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dodavehu" data-source="post: 4858833" data-attributes="member: 72767">Chapter TwoConsequenses or Just Desserts The next time the party meets up is by force.   City guards have collected them one by one and put them in prison.  They are all charged with destroying the apothecary next to the Stoned Martyr.  Not too surprizingly, most of them protest.  The guards, for the most part, ignore their pleas.   During the night they feel strange virtigo that only accompanies Transia's shifts.  It seems odd since the city only teleports every few months (sometimes years) or so, and they just arrived on the current planet a couple weeks ago.  It also seems that it's winter time on whatever world they landed on as snow flurries drift down from the barred windows near the ceilings of their cells.   They are kept (sometimes literally) in the dark for all that night and through most of the next day.  Finally, a guard goes over to their cell and unlocks it--only to quickly slam the gate closed after Rem steps out.  The guard explains that Rem's wealthy family has bailed him out.  Rem begins to protest, but then looks at Aulenir, smiles, and waves goodbye to them.   A couple more hours pass an then Lefty stomps up with his iron boots.  He tells them that he's doing the best he can to explain the mix-up to the authorities, but that it's authorities' job to get in the way of the truth.  He says that Ethan's family, the Lionblades, are neogotiating with the city to find the Magisterium responsible since it was caused by two of their students who weren't supposed to be outside their walls.  Lefty guesses that the Lionblades would rather have their son charged with protecting his fiance, who was in turn helping her brother, than to take the responsibilty upon themselves and damage their name.   Lefty says that it wouldn't be the worst outcome.  Then they'd just go to trial at the Magisterium instead of the city (which would probably have vastly better penalties).  Either way, he'll be able to pay their bail once they figure it out.   Lefty leaves and the party discusses the situation a bit.  Then Lefty comes back and has the guard set them free on bail.  They are ordered to the Magisterium to trial and sentencing under their jurisdiction. They argue their case in front of the Magisterium.  The judges review some divinitory evidence and find that they were only accessories to the crime.  Aulenir is suspended for a year and everyone is ordered to work as cooking staff for a Magisterium hosted feast in a few days.   Aulenir's favorite professor tells him not to worry and to look at his suspension as an oppurtunity to apply his knowledge in the field.  He also tells him how impressed he was after seeing the illusory images of him in action.   A few days later they all meet at a banquet hall in the city.  It turns out that they aren't the only ones that were forced to work as caterers.  A dozen or so saturnine, a kithling paladin, and a hunched back creature who had what looked like worms coming out of his mouth all met in the kitchen.  A short-tempered human working for the Magisterium assigned everyone jobs and made it clear that he had little respect for them.  He called the wormed-faced creature Maggot, which was a name that seemed to stick. As they prepared the food the party found out some information. --The feast was to welcome a group of aselesti that had arrived just before the city shifted.  They were apparently very important figures on their world, perhaps even royalty.   --Maggot, whose real name was Osar, was of a race called the spirit-touched.  He said there were strange elemental creatures called the Old Spirits.  Sometimes, people were born to close to one of them and came out . . . different.  He suspected some earthen spirit was around during his birth since his skin was soil-like, his hands were similar to a mole's, and the worms.  He also had some mental abilities (which allowed him to communicate since he had no mouth to speak with).  He had been treated poorly his whole life and had gotten in trouble because someone framed him for a minor crime. --Most of the saturnine were part of a cult called the Belphigion.  They planned to get revenge on the Magisterium for their treatment of warlocks by assassinating the foreign dignitaries.   --One of the saturnine, Solaris, was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and had no connection to the Belphigion. (More later.)</blockquote>

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