GM Foxy's Carrion Crown

Game Master Foxy Quickpaw

"From my view you are set. Please inform me shortly b-b-before the trial begins t-t-tomorrow what you want to bring up in c-c-court. If you want you can present that yourself. I will just do the formalities then." Kaple tells and excuses himself to go back to his office.

We are going to assume that you either know or can easily get the information where the crime scenes are.

Lepidstadt surroundings map

The first crime the Beast is charged with is the killing of 10 people in Morast, a small hamlet in the Dippelmere Swamp about 8 miles east of Lepidstadt. A narrow trail leads from Lepidstadt to the village.
The witness is the town elder Lazne who lives in morast.

The Beast’s second alleged crime is the murder of six children in Hergstag, formerly a small, religious farming community in the Dippelmere Swamp.
Three sisters named Garrow, Starle, and Flicht now own a small windmill
on the outskirts of Lepidstadt and are witnesses for the prosecution.

The Sanctuary lies some 3 miles north of Lepidstadt along the Lesser Moutray river.
The witness Karl now lives in a small cottage by the river in Lepidstadt.

"This will be a lot to do in one day." Kendra notes. "Let's head to Morast first, as Herm suggested."

Lost in thought at some point during their travel, Kendra remarks
"That poor creature..."

"That creature is a flesh golem. It would have been made by someone with quite significant magical powers. However it is highly unusual that it is capable of independent thought. I believe they normally are mindless, only capable of following orders. I trust that it isn't lying, and I would hate to see such a unique creature burn..." Harrold says thinking out loud, "If we can't prove it's innocence before the end of the trial..." he trails off

It is a tight schedule, but the trial is over the next three days. With one crime per day. The days are in the order: Morast, Hergstag, Asylum.

That saves us some headache then!

Whe need to track of time now as everything is on a tight schedule. Prepared magic users and everyone who gets stuff after 8 hours of rest should keep track of the sleep he/she gets. Some may want to sleep through the court hours. While sitting in court counts as rest, but not as sleep, if you don't partake in the defense.

Also I don't like horses. Nothing personal but they tend to stand around and once you come back they ran away or got eaten. Overland travel in this group would allow one hour of a hustled walk for 6 miles and the rest of the way there for 3 miles per hour. Only Herm would have to take off his heavy armor while doing so or it is reduced to 4 and 2 miles per hour. On the way back you can either walk slowly or you take the 1 point of NL damage and the fatigue from hustling as you're on your way to bed anyway.

Starting time now is 2 o'clock in the afternoon.

The first crime the Beast is charged with is the killing of 10 people in Morast, a small hamlet in the Dippelmere Swamp about 8 miles east of Lepidstadt. A narrow trail leads from Lepidstadt to the village. Morast is a miserable collection of 20 or so wattle-and-daub hovels built on stilts above the swamp and connected by soggy wooden boardwalks.

Current Time: A quarter to four
As you walk into the village you see two men washing nets and some kids playing on the board walks.

Know Local: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (11) + 9 = 20
"These people are fishermen. They also hunt blood caiman, which are a type of crocodile with a red-scaled head. They are noted to be very healthy generally,very rarely getting sick and living long lives. However there are stories of them mingling with swamp creatures in the long past. Perhaps we could use the fact that they are shunned for this to help them sympathize with the beast? We should also try and get a description of the beast they believe they saw, and if it could have been a large specimen of these blood caiman." Harrold says as they stand on the edge of town

"Hey. How about you sympathize with the guy who you believe killed ten of your neighbours?" Jominda comments rolling her eyes.

She moves forward to the men washing the nets. "Hello. I'm Jominda and I belong to an investigation team from Lepidstadt Court. We are here to double check what happened a year ago when the beast killed your neighbours. If you ask yourself why, then I have to tell you that we found out that the beast is a golem that works on orders given by it's creator. But so far we were not able to catch the creature behind the beast. So could you please tell me in detail what happened, or point me to someone who can?"

The men look startled at the woman and the other strangers. Two women, an old man and a man in full armor with a large weapon. Maybe the Herald of the court they have heard of from Lazne? "Lazne lives in that hut." one of the men replies trying to get out of this situation with some officials from the big town.

Yu move on and knock on the door of the hut. Lazne is a grizzled, middle-aged man with dirty gray hair and skin the color of swamp mud. He chews on a foul-smelling swamp weed and punctuates most of his sentences by spitting weed-juice onto the ground. "Cityfolk and furriners" he spits out as a 'greeting'.

Jominda rattles down her made up story again and asks him to tell the events in detail.

"Ah told ev'rythin' ta Heiger. Ask em." Lazne replies, showing no interest in cooperating.

Now the masters of diplomacy, intimidation or coercion may try their best.

Prof Herbalism: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (18) + 5 = 23
Know Nature: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (9) + 12 = 21
To Identify the chewing herb for reasons.

Know Local: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (7) + 8 = 15

Kendra smiles warmly. "Ah, you see, Heiger messed up a bit." She makes a nervous laugh, both to punctuate this 'Heiger' supposedly messing up and to hide her own nervousness at the lie.
"He seems to have taken to the drink a bit much, in secret, and our boss wants the information from a bit more reliable source."
She nods encourangingly at Lazne, as she tries to boast his feeling of worth. "Of course, we immediately went here, because who better to ask than Lazne himself!?"
Diplomacy: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12

"What Ah hate even more than furriners are furriners tryin' ta suck up ta me." He turns away and slams the door shut.

The DC was 20. If you fail by 5 or more, the character’s attitude toward you is decreased by one step. In this case hostile.

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (3) + 9 = 12

Herm looks the man up and day sizing him up, "Good Day Ser, what Ms. Lorrimor is trying to say is that we are here seeking the truth. We believe that Mr. Heiger is incorrect in his assessment of things and that might not represent you to the best of his ability.

Wow I did no better haha

Quickly edit is before you make it any worse. After all he closed the door so you couldn't speak to him

Hostile is the end of the scale. You can't worsen it further.

Kendra speaks loudly so that Lazne can hear, "Jominda, would you be so kind as to explain to this gentleman who just closed the door to us, that the court in Lepidtstad really needs this information again. And if he doesn't give it up voluntarily, our friend with the big sword here will have to get it... more forcefully"

Herm looks at Kendra as she mentions that.

"I cannot rightfully bring harm to this man if he does not deserve it."

"You lot really aren't helping. Maybe go ask some of the other locals what they know of the tale and give Lazne chance to cool off?"

Kendra whispers to Herm "Does obsruction of justice not count?"

Jominda had it with those grumpy guy. Se walks back to the children sits down besides them and gets some candy out of her backpack. Eating one herself she voices her joy. "Hmmmmm."

As the children stare at her she asks "You want one too?"

The kid is unsure what to make of this. But the curiosity and the want for the colorful candy is winning "Yes."

Jominda hands over the candy. "Do you know what horrible things the beast did in your village?"

The kid gets big eyes. "The beast?" is whispers. "It came at night and stole the people from the village. But Lazne and the other men of the village chased it away into the swamp and then it got eaten by a blood caiman!"

"When I don't want to come in in the evening my mom tells the beast will get me. But I'm not afraid I know the beast is eaten!"

Kendra smiles. "Can I have one too?" Trying to ingratiate herself with the kids as well by appearing as one of them.

Jominda gives Kendra a candy too. "What else can you tell me about the beast? Who did it take with it?"

"Only big, old people. And it decresated our ceteme... cemerte... place for the dead!" the kid tells, while chewing on the candy.

The door of the hut opens again. Lazne shouts from there "Hey leave the kids alone."

"I need a new source of myrrh... Where do you get yours?" Harrold asks the man

"Will you tell us what we need to know then?" Kendra says in a friendly voice, so as not to estrange the children. Before Lazne can even answer she asks one of the children "You must be really proud of your caiman if they eat the nasty beast that preyed on your village. And of the fishermen that sometimes catch caiman!"

The kid nods full of pride.

"If I must." Lazne replies.

"I guess Lazne has now time for us. We must hurry before he doesn't want to meet us anymore again. Here take another candy." Jominda tells and hands the kid another candy. Then she gets up and moves over to the hut.

"Well, nice to meet you again." Jominda says with a smile. "How about you tell us how the beast got eaten by a blood caiman."

Lazne looks to the ground and then at Jominda again. "We were lying in wait for the Beast, who attacked just after nightfall. Armed with torches, we attacked and wounded the creature — a huge, hulking brute about 7 feet
tall. The Beast took to the water, but we gave chase in our boats, pursuing it to the village boneyard, where it was attacked by a blood caiman."

Lazne grins as he recalls the scene. "The Beast yelled oaths and curses that even the worst whore in Lepidstadt would blush to say as the gator attacked it, and it grabbed the beast here" drawing where the gator grabbed the beast on his own shoulder "drawing blood and dragging the Beast under the water. The Beast’s blood tainted the burial ground, forcing us to abandon it and build another, but it was a small price to pay for the thing’s death. And now they tell me it's not dead! I'm looking forward to see it burn."

Herm tries to recall the beast they met, looking at the farmer.

"Not to ask more questions but you said the beast was wounded on the shoulder? The beast we met had not wounds on the shoulder, it also was simple of the mind and spoke only a few words together. Nothing overly complex."

Herm paces around a little, "Did you see the beast on the boneyard?"

"Yes. That's where the gator got it. After it went underwater, we waited for a moment and when the water got calm again we went back home." Lazne replies.

"Could it be possible that the beast you saw, is not quite the same as ours? You are sure yours was killed, was injured, stood 7 foot tall, and produced obseneties unfit to be repeated. On the other hand the creature we have in custody is very much alive, has no injuries that would indicate it was ever attacked by a gator, stands at 8 ft, and as Herm says, struggles to put a sentence together."

"How many beasts of Lepidstadt do you think are running around?" Lazne replies. But it is clear that this is a rhetorical question.

Humans, will they ever learn? (shaking head). Instead of thanking the man for his cooperation and maybe ask some interesting details about the appearance of the beast, like being stitched together you jump to comclusions (which are probably right) and try to get the man to admit that he is wrong. Which would help you in no way. Because you need to convince the court not Lazne.

And Lazne reacts of course in the same way - going into defense and losing interest to talk with this annoying guy who has the only truth that he wants to impose on him.

"I'm sorry, you are right of course." Kendra quickly says to try and calm things down. "It seems the beast may have survived after all, and is now in our custody. However, as a matter of form, could you tell us anything else about the beast? Such as the color of its fur?"

"It was an ugly thing made of flesh fur and scales. It was dark and I've seen no colors." Lazne answers.

"Of course, the darkness would have been a problem. Flesh, fur and scales, you say? That sounds like a mix of things... I'm having trouble envisioning that." Kendra says, trying to get more information on how the beast looked. "Could you explain it to me in a bit more detail?"

Meanwhile she thinks "While 'our' beast had scales, I can't remember it having any fur."

"I would also like to write down your description of the beast, if you don't mind." Kendra adds as she gets her writing kit out.

"It's been a year... " Lazne starts but you get nothing conclusive you can use to make a detailed sketch to compare to the beast.

"Thank you for your co-operation in this, can you take us to the boneyard, I wonder if the beast stored anything there." Herm follows the train of though from Kendra and Harrold.

"The boneyard is just about 100m down this branch of the bog. The island there." Lazne replies. He seems not willing to go himself.

The guys cleaning the nets have also two boats.

"Thank you again for your cooperation," Kendra insists, and looks at the men cleaning nets - and more importantly, their boats.

The guys with the boats are easily persuaded to leave you the boats for the day. For a small fee of course. After paying two gold you leave the wooden walkway and move on the standing water.

A tiny, miserable island rises from the swamp, a tangle of trees covering its dour, reed-choked surface. Hundreds of fetishes hang from the trees—simple, roughly humanoid figures made of sticks and bound with twine. Larger fetishes are planted in the ground on various parts of the island, leaning drunkenly in the soft mud. A large nest built of sodden swamp wood sits high in the boughs of a trio of tangled trees on the northwest side of the isle.

Chance: 1d100 ⇒ 56
The branches the nest is built from are the kind you'd saw and hack to keep the fire in your oven alive for a day. In the nest you see a lion headed beast.