RAngvald listens his large hands steepled in front of him. "A judge who managed to bring together 12 of the candidates most likely to convict him from a list of 200. The idea has merit. What was Mord's side of the tale? Was he even allowed to speak on his own behalf?"
Killian: He just said he was innocent, he didn't want to say more.
Sir Rekkart: Maybe because he was guilty, mhm?
Killian: He just said he was innocent, he didn't want to say more.
Sir Rekkart: Maybe because he was guilty, mhm?
"How does that make any sense?"
Sir Rekkart: I mean, a person like Mord..he was very simple minded, maybe he wasn't able to come up with a good story, you know?
Ebin: Speaking of simple minded...
Killian: Mord was clever enough to beat our part time jester here in a battle of wits.
"Indeed." Ragnvald acknowledges. "The man just lost his wife and children. Perhaps he had no story because he himself was simply trying to figure it out the truth instead? In any case would he have even been believed? Would you have even cared at the time? And no one spoke on his behalf? What about against him?"
What if the judge is here? Who is the only person who would be capable of getting 12 biased jurors, and who would know this courthouse best? Remember, Malgrin was killed with his own chain, not with an axe as one would expect from Mord who only used an axe. Also, who might have access to Mort's executioner's axe other than the judge himself?
Staring at Sir Rekkart AGAIN: What did you know of the judge. You are a man of law, you obviously would have had extensive contact with the person responsible with upholding the laws of the city.
Killian: No one spok on his behalf and tried to defend him...the few friends he had were browbeat and didn't turn up that day.
Halgrak: Mord had friends?
Sir Rekkart: Anyways, the accuser on this day was Alastir Wade, a very talented attorney. And you really suspect Silman Trabe? He has been a judge for more than 30 year now and he never ever pronounced a judgment that turned out as a miscarriage. And don't believe Killian, no one threatened Mord's friends, I mean not as far as I know.
Sir Rekkart - have you ever heard the term justice is blind? Well, I think that you wear blinders so that you can claim justice without dealing with the truth. Nobody spoke on behalf of Mord, so you just pronounced justice. The trial was short, did Mord even have a chance to call witnesses? You say his witnesses never showed up, did anyone ask why? Did the court not have the ability to compel witnesses to appear? What physical evidence did you have? If it was the axe, did any priest or mage divine whether it was used by Mord? It seems that someone, either on the jury or in the court was pushing things a little fast here.
Sir Rekkart: Well, the day after the judgment was pronounced there was this earthquake and everyone fled from Beldrin's Bluff.. I guess the people had other things in mind than thinking about a possible miscarriage. But you're right, it seems odd to me now that these steps weren't taken.
Ebin: Who cares about Mord, he is dead, we are alive. We should find and kill his ghost!
"One of the jurors was physically tortured by Malgrim." Ragnvald says not mentioning the name. "Would it have been possible for him to have intimidated any of his allies as well? What of this Alastir Wade?" Ragnvald speaks the name with a touch of venom. It's obvious he doesn't like lawyers.
Then Ragnvald turns to the Paladin. "As far as we know mord the Executioner did not kill anyone who he was not ordered to for a long number of years."
Turning toward Ebin:
Aw shut up you midget. We already know you hated Mord because he was funnier than you. Unless you want to participate in another round of stretchy stretchy, keep your mouth shut unless you have something useful to say.
Looking back to Sir Rekkart:
So, who would have been responsible for assuring that the proper procedures were taken, and more importantly, who could have seen that all these steps were not taken as they should have been?
Sir Rekkart: The paladin also glares at the not-so-funny gnome and says Either Silman Trabe or Alastir Wade. Wade was the upcoming star of Absalom's law-scene of this time. He had and has never lost a case.
Killian: Malgrim would have certainly been able to scare the s~&+ out of Mord's friends...he also was the head of a big gang and had a lot of influence. You suspect Malgrim and Trabe arranged everything so that Mord was killed?
Trabe would have had to have been involved unless he were being coerced. If Wade were concerned about losing his reputation, then I can see him trying to pull strings. What type of a person was Wade. We know that you have said that Trabe was a real hothead and dealt out punishment with an iron fist, so obviously he would have had no problem sentencing Mord to death if the evidence supported the verdict.
Actually, here is another angle. What if Wade and/or Trabe had something against Malgrim? And used that to force Malgrim to sway the jury.
Looking once again at the five remaining jurors.
Were you all in favor of the verdict from the start? Or were some of you hesitant about sentencing Mord to death and had to be persuaded? And if so, who were the jury members doing the persuading?
Halgrak: I knew nothing about the crime and the presented evidence didn*'t convince me, I just voted against Mord because Malgrim forced me to do it.
Ebin: You know why and what I did.
Killian: I followed the paladin's judgment.
Sir reakkart: And I'm still sure Mord was guilty!
Patrissa: I was unsure, but when all said he was guilty I just agreed.
Sir Rekkart: So, only Halgrak was forced to vote. the paladin seems a bit relieved that not everyone around him was browbeaten.
Jez looks at Sir Rekkart with a look of utter surprise.
Will you listen to yourself? You thought he was guilty for no reason. Malgrim forced Halgrak to vote. Killian decided a paladin had better judgment and just followed like a puppy dog. Ebin hated the man. And Patrissa just caved into peer pressure.
In other words, a man was sentenced to death because a paladin felt he was guilty, because a gnome had been embarrassed, because a criminal forced a half-orc to vote, and because two other people (Looking from Killian to Patrissa), were to incapable of making their own decisions and just voted with whoever had made a decision.
Ignoring Mobo, Sir Rekkart just slowly shakes his head No, it can't be...I mean...I'm a paladin...I can't fail....I... the grizzled man is unable to accept that he might have wronged Mord and you slowly realize that his stubbornness is just a defence mechanism...
Ebin: Yeah, listen to the goblin, let's move and find Mord.
Sir Rekkart: So, only Halgrak was forced to vote. the paladin seems a bit relieved that not everyone around him was browbeaten.
" We're not done here yet goblin. I'm not sure you have noticed but there are six people here that are missing. My uncle was not one to be easily browbeaten. But I cannot presume to speak for him. Who can say about the others? I'm starting to get the feeling there is far more to this then mere prejudice. Where are the other six? Why are we here? Were the adventurers who explored this place actually killed by a vengeful spirit? Or did they discover something that someone did not want them to find?" Ragnvald ponders these questions.
"What do we know of Mord, the man, what was he like? What did he do other than criticize performances?"
Killian: I didn't know much about Mord before the trial, but afterwards I spoke to a lot of people. Mord was a silent and taciturn man. He ddidn't binge or take drugs, he was fervent follower of Iomedae...
Sir Rekkart: Really?!
Killian: Yes, at least if you believe what the people say.
Sir Rekkart: But why didn't Trabe say that during the trial?
Killian: I don't know...well, Mord liked to spend his time at home, together with his wife and son, they meant the world to him...
To nobody: And I repeat - Justice is blind, especially when those upholding it are either so confident in their ways as to not look for the truth, or when those who are to uphold the truth wish to manipulate the truth for their own ends.
Turning to Sir Rekkart: You got used. You were put on this jury because either Trabe or Wade, or perhaps both, knew that you were so set in your ways that you could be easily steered to find guilt.
As far as my father goes, after the trial, he was a broken man. Before the trial he was cheerful and optimistic, after, he was moody and sullen - as though he knew that what had happened was wrong. I always assumed that it was the nature of the crime which caused the change in his personality - but perhaps it was the knowledge that he had allowed an innocent man go to his death because the rest of you were corrupt, weak, or so self centered that you allowed Mord to be killed.
Once again my face is starting to turn red and you can almost see fire in my eyes.
Sir Rekkart: She has always answered my prayers, so I thought my paladinhood was flawless...maybe I didn't interprete it in the right was...but doubts won't help us now, we should act!
The Ogre is listening in, trying to follow whats going on. As he does so, he starts poking around the room.
"Goblin is on to something, I keep looking while you lot is talking"
Ragnvald ponders this for a moment then gets up. "Arm yourselves as best you are able." He says. All of you. He growls pointedly at Patrissa and Halgrak. "Gorum's blade does not rise to protect those unwilling to protect themselves"
With that he stalks out of the room and back to the judges room from earlier. "I do not believe we have explored that office thoroughly enough. Perhaps a record of the trial was left there. Perhaps something more."
Ebin: At last we are moving...good stuff.
Sir Rekkart: Be cautious!
Inside the room of the judge you find a large collection of law texts, but as you page through the old books, you notice that their content has been mixed, warped and twisted. The sentences don't make sense any more, wrong word order, morphological changes that make no sense, words that have been blended, clipped or compounded in weird ways etc.: the texts are incomprehensible now. As you are about to give up, you find a scroll of parchment with spells written on it. This treasure wasn't touched by the corrupting influence that destroyed the other texts.
Light
Mage Armor
Shild
Magic Missile
Attalas wanders to a nearby door to see whats on the other side...
I follow Attalas over to check out the door at V14 while calling back over my shoulder to Sir Rekkart:
If you did not know that you had erred, then your lord would have had no reason to have chastised you. But the question still remains. What evidence was there specifically which caused you to find Mord guilty.
This lavish room of cold marble is festooned with a large but mangy polar-bear skin rug and an ornate desk of darkwood carved with an odd motive of cherubs grappling with vipers. Behind the desk in a high-backed leather chair rests a skeleton in judge's regalia, a long white beard still draped down the front of his robes. A rusted iron spiked chain still dangles from around the neck of the skeleton. Near the desk lays the desiccated skeleton of a large dog, a few of its ribs broken and its skull cracked.
As Ragnvald catches up with the others he remarks. "Nothing. Some scrolls I've taken but I'm not of an arcane mind. What do we have here? A dead man and his dog?"
I look at the man and the dog.
Strange - this must be the judge, I recall him having a long silver beard in my dream. But why would Malgrim have killed him? Or why would someone have wanted to frame Malgrim?
Turning to Killian:
Do you recall the judge having a dog?
Looking at everyone:
Did anyone see a dog in their dream?
Killian: No, wait, this can't be Silman Trabe. I saw him last week on one of the boulevards in the centre of Jeweler's District. But I remember there was a second judge working at the court who was in charge of checking the trial files of Trabe.
Sir Rekkart: Yes, and Trabe was in charge of checking his trial files...which was much more important... This system should further ensure that there were no miscarriages. The judge's name was Rayndros Felgor...
Sir Rekkart can't hide that he seems to loathe the man.
Sense Motive:
And, this Rayndros Felgor. He has a good lawful judge like Trabe? The type of person who you would have a pint with Sir Rekkart?
Diplomacy: <-- I am trying to goad him into blurting out his real feelings.
Sir Rekkart: A large vein protrudes on the paladin's forehead as he explains
Umm no...he was a fat man whose outer ugliness mirrored his inner depravity. He binged, ate the whole day, met whores in this holy room of Iomedae, and was easily bribable...
Killian: You don't know if the last point is true Rekkart Cole...there were only rumours.
Whatever: Whatever, he was a bad man and maybe it's good that he died here...even though I don't understand why Malgrim killed him and when?!
sense mot.
"Bad or not he's dead. And Malgrim, or someoen we presume to be him, wanted it so. Perhaps the judge found out his secret and saw an opportunity to blackmail him as the paladin would think he would do. Or perhaps he threatened to expose him. In either case it only confirms to me there's more to this than a hangman's vengeance. Why go through all this trouble to ruin a mans reputation and have him publicly executed when he could have given Mord the same treatment as this man? Search this place, but mind the dead. This place does not take kindly to their disturbance. PErhaps the judge kept a record, or at least it might ahve been destroyed by whoever slew him."
Sir Rekkart: I won't touch the belongings of such a cursed traitor of Iomedae.
Killian: Shakes his head and mutters something under his breath.
Ebin: I'll check the desk!
The gnome rushes past you, but freezes as the skeletal dog suddenly lifts its destroyed head and growls at the gnome. A dark fire burns in the empty eye-sockets of the loyal defender of his now dead master.
Sir Rekkart: I'm not surprised, a fiend!
Giggling - Perhaps we could throw it a bone? Or would that be cannibalism?
Drawing my sword - Well all, we figured there was going to be some bloodshed before this was done. Attalas, want to help with the pooch?
Round 1
Initiative:
Oh! Nymeria gasps as the hound raises its devlish snout. She points a finger at it and a thin blue ray shoots towards it.
Ray of Frost:
Damage:
Oh well, guess the quiet elf lives by the shoot first ask question second motto.
I move to V9 and attack the puppy.
Attack:
Damage:
