Larissa proceeds to lay some healing on the dromite.
Leik's back in business.
The fine details of life... vision, sounds, pain... rush back into the bug man. With no delirium to dull the pain, he is acutely aware of his situation. He rolls over and stands, and pats himself down for missing belongings as he scrapes burnt detritus and built-up alchemical goop off of his carapace.
"i was attacked by softskins. And a big cat."
Rholf sighs softly in the street, breathing a short prayer.
The elf keeps still silent watch, his head moves so slowly as to be barely imperceptible.
"A big cat inside the city?? Those mobsters sure keep strange pets. Anyway, let´s get out of here, shall we? I don´t like this place." replies N´Kai.
As an afterthough, he turns to the innkeeper, somehow embarrassed... "No ofense."
where to?....
Does Leik find any of his possessions to be missing?
It's all there
A tiny fraction of his seething anger dissipates. The torches in the room, previously flickering somewhat strangely, return to normal.
heh heh
Pretty much.
Upon seeing Leik emerge more or less unscathed from the pub of ill repute, Edwin replaces his arrow in the quiver. Nodding his 'welcome back' to the insectoid, the detective falls in with the rest as they re-gather.
"Now that this little,... misunderstanding, has hopefully been cleared up, I believe we should prepare to present our evidence, what there is, at the trial in the morning."
Edwin does not look ecstatic at this thought.
"I still fear that what we have will not be enough to sway public opinion from the most obvious suspect, Dobitoc. But we shall do our best."
Then, the detective gets a feral gleam in his eye.
"However,... There IS one, last, possibility." He says, his eyes darting around as if he were a thief caught red-handed with his arms in the vault.
"Yes? Yes. YES! Quickly! back to the inn. We have preparations to make." He says eagerly, striding off without glancing back.
The party makes it back there without harassment.
"I believe Mr. Drood has a plan. Excellent!! Let´s go back to the inn."
While the party makes his way, the elf comments aloud "Hopefully the rest of you can give Aethorduil and me the full details on the case and what evidence you have found so far. Then we work out a plan and how to state our case. I am wondering if we should call attorney Gustav Kaple to come join us while we discuss Dobitoc´s defense."
"I believe Mr. Drood has a plan. Excellent!! Let´s go back to the inn."
While the party makes his way, the elf comments aloud "Hopefully the rest of you can give Aethorduil and me the full details on the case and what evidence you have found so far. Then we work out a plan and how to state our case. I am wondering if we should call attorney Gustav Kaple to come join us while we discuss Dobitoc´s defense."
If Edwin's plan requires spellcasting from Alinya, go ahead and 'bot the character's spell choice I guess.
Haven't seen them in a good while.
Huzzzah!!!
Back at the inn, N´Kai listens closely to Edwin´s plan...
Huzzzzahrrr!!!
GOIK!
Huzzah
Huzzahh!
double huzzah
Whozzat huzzahing?
I was gonna kick off the court case tonight, but I worked a looooot today, and I just found out I'm working tomorrow, so I'm going to go to sleep; maybe kick it off in the evening if I'm not working.
Finally, day 1 of the trial begins.
On the docket for the day.......the alleged killing by the Beast of 10 villagers at Morast.
Whoever's there, is seated in a paddocked area behind the defense counsel. The beast is before you, in the center, shackled to a massive iron chair. The crowd murmurs and gasps every time he so much as moves to scratch his ear.....
The Three Justices file in.
Ambrose Khard,...a wizened, no nonsense old geezer;
Kasp Aldaar,.....a known hardliner "hanging judge," and former general,
and
Embreth Diarmid, your principle who serreptitiously hired you to investigate the beast's crimes.
A gray robed priestess, the Holy Sister of Justice, floats in next.
She immediately floats over towards Alinya and whispers "you should be counseled that I will brook NO MAGIC during proceedings."
And finally the Herald of the Court, whose identity is a mystery as he is dressed in black full plate mail.
It is about to get underway......
N´Kai eyes the public. Anyone or anything suspicious among the audience??
There's three guys there sitting together that kinda rub you wrong.
They're dressed in extremely gaudy finery. It looks like they have no taste though, they go for expensive and garish.
Look like gangsters. Look like street trash with too much cash that don't know how to dress.
"Three mobsters. At our six. Trying to look incounspicuous. Absolutely no taste in dressing. Pass it on." N´Kai whispers to any members of the party adjacent to him.
Rholf scans the entire courtroom, lingering only briefly on the aforementioned three fops, and lingering longer on others...
Whispering back, he says "Maybe mobsters, maybe not. They have the look of men who've been bought off, be it as witnesses for the prosecution, or perhaps as troublemakers."...
I'm working tomorrow too; I gotta crash! Nitey Nite!!!!!
Leik looks around the room as well, but rather than looking at people, he looks at the lighting situation and means of egress. How many doors, windows, how is the room lighted and how brightly, that sort of thing.
The others will notice that he now bears clothing remarkably inspired by Mr. Drood. Not a copy, exactly, but the high collar here, the pattern of button there.
still in the poop here and will be for another 2 days.
It's all good; I'm wiped out right now and whatever.
"Hm. Yes. THOSE three. Most disagreeable. They should never have been allowed in polite society with those color combinations. And those cravats. Disgraceful."
Edwin raises an eyebrow as the Sister of Justice floats away after her whispered warning to Alinya.
"Well. That does put a prickly pear in the rhubarb pie now, doesn't it?" He asks trying to hide a sly, self-satisfied smirk.
Edwin doesn't really notice anything else interesting.
Leik;.....this building isn't mapped in the main adventure; if you really need one I can come up with it but it will be a while.
I'll make sure to allow that Leik has a cunning exit strategy in mind though if or when it comes to that.
Sounds good to me. All I particularly wanted to know at this juncture was if we are lit by torchlight or magical crystals or skylights or what.
Torches I guess.
The prosecution and defense go through opening statements; that takes a couple hours.
Then Otto Heiger the prosecuter gets the witnesses from Morast on the stand. Two women from Morast, and Big Daddy the Village Elder, get up and tell how things was.
They detail that over a series of nights, the Beast came and took 10 people away, that a trap was laid for the beast, and then they drive it out intuh th' swamp where they reckont it were kilt.
"I confirm, yer honers,....thet wer how it done transpired."
Then, it's up to cross examination time.
You guys can present any and all of your evidence at this juncture.
Just don't blow nobody up.
Spoiler:"I'll say..*Spit* They dun calt me to be the star witness up to their lil trial.*Spit*That damn beast, first, he done took lone villagers, stragglers, at night.*Spit*
.*Spit* but then, *Spit for stress* he done attacked folks in their houses.*Spit*
So I reckon, I'll lay a lil trap fer that sumb@$&*..*Spit*
So we wait in hidin, and he come up, and we ALL done come at him frem all directions.....*Spit* sumbich wuz 7 foot tall, ugly as an orc in a wedding dress......so we put torches to his grizzly .*Spit* ass and he done went to water.*Spit*
So, he took off, noisier than whore that ain't got paid, .*Spit* and we follered him in our boats, follered him t'th' boneyard.
.*Spit*
Then one them damn gators got to chompin on him. And, boy'd that dum sumbich go to cussin' thet gator up one end down t'uther.......
I never herd so damn many cuss words, and I'm an old mutherf&$#er! I'm 88!.*Spit*
Then it gut him by the leg, and done drug him under. We reckined it done ate his sorry ass, but apparently not. Well, I'll go there to Lepidstadt, and see he gits his beastly ass burnt all to hell, since, apparently gettin deathrolled by a gator aint nothin but a roll in the hay for that sumbich!!!"
.*Spit*
And that's th' damn truth! You kiss my wrinkly ass, don't believe me!"
N´Kai stands and slowly walks to the place where the witness is seated.
"Mr. Big Daddy? My name is N´Kai Sureblade. Pleased to meet you. We don´t know each other but I have been working for some time with those that did indeed visit your village a couple of days ago."
"Just let me get the fact straight about this matter, so that me, the Justices and the public can fully understand how the events in your village came to pass..."
"I have been told, and please correct me if I am wrong, that it was you that had the idea to spring a trap on the Beast? Could you tell us what happened exactly that night?? I believe you had the Beast on the run. Care to elaborate??"
"Pretty much whut ah dun said, Elf Boah! I dun lade a trap ferr im, and it sprung, then we got up in wupped th' tar s#!# outta the sumbich! We runned him off inter th' swamp! Figgered he's daid!
Weren't so, though.....thar he is, sittin thar in his ANGRY CHAIR!!!
Now, you guys! Longer yew play round with this sumbich, more likely yerr gone mess up and he'll be on the lam and killin good folk.
Let's do this sumbich in! Wut are you waitin for!!!"
Larissa tentatively steps forward, "May I speak to the witness?"
"Hello, Big Daddy. Do you remember me from our visit to the village? You told us when you caught and beat the attacker, he ran away into the swamp, to your boneyard, isn't that correct?"
"When you followed him in your boats, you said that you found an alligator had a hold of him and he was cursing up a storm right up until the creature got a hold of him by the leg and drug him under the water. At that point, you thought he'd been killed and returned to the village. Is that correct?"
"Well, yeah....I reckon I do remember you, darlin......yisser that's pretty much correct. Gater done tookim down fer a death roll I reckon."
Edwin stands, adjusts his cravat, and smiles.
"Big Daddy! Guut teh see yeh agin' suh! Glad yew cuud make it!" Edwin drawls out as he approaches the witness.
"Big Daddy, would you mind telling the court exactly where you 'put the torches' to the accused when you surrounded him?" Edwin continues in his 'normal' voice.
"I ask because, I see many injuries upon the suspect, but I do not see significant burning, as from being torched, or any signs of being mauled by the gator."
"In fact, While you were being kind enough to show us the area around your village, we were attacked by a particularly large and vicious gator. We were forced to kill the magnificent creature in order to defend our lives. As far as you can tell, that WAS the same Gator that attacked whoever you were fighting when you laid your trap. Correct?"
"Big Daddy, Sir, in your expert opinion, is there any way that ANYone, could escape being mauled and drug under by a gator as large as the one we fought,... Without showing a single sign of a gator bite? Presuming he survived, of course." Edwin asks the village elder with a raised eyebrow.
(No accusing or court dramatics (yet) Just pointing out obvious things that don't quite fit. Ed thinks of Big Daddy as a friend.)