"Sure. I might be a bit slow, I am always stiff first thing in the morning." Harrold says, already sitting on the side of his cot when Jominda comes to wake him
"Want to stretch out first and have breakfast?" Jominda asks.
"That depends, what did you bring me?"
"Nothing, I just have my own breakfast Kendra gave me." Jominda replies.
"Hmmmmm." Harrold groans standing, "Is there a bakery anywhere nearby?"
"I don't know. But I guess your morning routine is taking to long. I'll go to the court while you get ready." Jominda shoulders the bag and leaves towards the court.
"I'll meet you there!" Harrold shouts after her. He gets up to find something for breakfast.
It takes a while but there is a joy about bakeries, you can smell them from miles away. He buys some bread and finds a market stall to get some cheese. He has a basic breakfast quickly and then makes his way to the courthouse
Kendra agrees with Herm, and finishes up her preparations first. Then she goes to visit Herm.
"Ok, I'm ready to go. I'm sure you have a plan talking to it, because I'm not sure what we could ask that would do us much good.
While it's obviously more intelligent than your average golem, I don't think it's a good conversationalist."
As Jominda arrives at the court she is delegated to on of the offices where the court clerks sit. Five elderly, pale, and bookish clerks with
ink-stained fingers legally accept and record new evidence for the trial, document the proceedings, and ensure procedure is followed to the letter. They tend to speak in legal jargon, which in essence means that whenever they say anything, they use 10 times as many words as necessary.
They protocol everything handed over to them by Jominda.
"- A shovel, old rusty and dirty.
- a waterskin of similar status partly filled with wine
- old rancid trail ration remains
- an empty vial with remains of a substance smelling like carrots
- a mask no? A cut off face?!?" The pale clerk pales even more und uses the end of a pencil to put this thing to the side.
"- a sack, with bloodstains
- a rope, old and rotten
- a gag,
- a rusted lantern,
- a trio of heavy knives,
- a moldy leather travel bag with
- a damp artisan’s outfit consisting of a shirt, breeches, shoes, and a
cloth apron
That's all?" The clerk asks looking up from his inventory book.
"Yes, thank you." Jominda replies and leaves, coming back to th eCrooked Kin just as Kendra and Herm are about to leave.
As Herm walks up to the beast he will smile at it, "Good Day, Travis? IS that what Jominda named it? I have a question, when you were at Morast, did you go in the water and were you attacked by a beast in the water, biting you on the shoulder?"
The beast answers in his half angry, half whining roar "I didn't do it!"
"It is Thomas." Jominda corrects Herm, giving him a glare.
"I like Theodore better." Herm smirks a bit and nods at Jominda, winking at Kendra.
"I believe you, you have never had fur before?"
The beast looks at Herm dumbfounded.
"I will take that for a no. I think that is the clarity that we needed, Ms. Lorrimor anything else?"
"I believe he means to ask if you ever had a lot of hair, right over here, Thomas." Kendra says, pointing out the areas she'd seen fur on in Lazne's memories on herself, and then for good measure on the corresponding body parts of 'Thomas'.
She quietly says to Herm "No need to confuse the creature even further, it's distressed enough as it is."[/b]
The beast shakes it's head at Kendra's question.
"Thank you, Thomas." Kendra says with a soothing voice.
She looks at Herm as she asks "Did you have any other questions?"
"No i am satisfied with his answers."
"Perhaps we should check in with the defense attorney" Kendra says. "I even forgot his name by now."
She looks at the golem before leaving. "Don't worry, Thomas. We're friends, and we will help you."
Jominda leads the way to the defense lawyer. "Good morning Mr. Kaple."
"G-g-good morning." Kaple replies.
"Are you prepared for today? We did some investigation and think we can assist quite a bit"
"I t-t-told you I have nothing. I'll do the formalities in c-c-court and hand over t-t-to you to p-p-present the evid-d-dence you found." Kaple replies.
Herm will look down on the man a little, "What made you take up this line of profession Mr. Kaple?"
"I want-t-ted t-t-to help p-p-people. And have a rep-p-pectable job." Kaple replies.
Witnesses for the Defense. "I would like to introd-d-duce the assistance of the d-d-defense: Miss Lorrimor, Miss Fallenbridge, Mr. Dunlaven and Mr. Bathshforth. They will p-p-present the evid-d-dence and lead the questioning of the witnesses." Kaple tells. Then he sits down again.
Kendra stands up, and bows towards the judges. "Thank you for hearing us. I am aware we are not in a popular position, defending the rights of this person that you call 'the beast', from which you think you have suffered from so much."
She looks around towards the crowd. "We will, however, prove to you that least of the crimes in Morast, this person is innocent."
She turns to the judges. "Would you mind if I started with questioning the witnesses?"
Kendra nods at the Chief Justice in acknowledgement.
"Greetings, sir." Kendra says as she turns to Lazne. "We visited you yesterday to get a full description of the beast that you encountered in your town, and was responsible for the disappearances of the townspeople, is that correct?"
You provided us with a description that was imprecise, because of the stress and dark, and I cannot fault you for that. You did say, however, that it was 'a mess of skin and fur and scales', is that correct?"
"Yes. Lazne replies.
"And this monster of Morast... You and your townsmen heroicly chased it, with the intention of dispatching it, only to be beaten to it by a blood Caiman, correct?"
"Yes.
"I would like then, to call everyone's attention to the accused. As you can see, it does have skin and scales, but no fur anywhere upon it's body. As you can also see, there is no scarring from a caiman attack."
Kendra waits for reaction from the public before continuing
Kendra nods a thanks in Chief Justice Khard's direction before continuing. "Furthermore, we went to the island that these noble and courageous villagers told us they chased the beast of Morast. A gravesite used by the villagers. What we found there, however, chilled us to the bone."
She lowers her eyes and voice, so as to sound mournful. "Six desecrated graves and tools to dig in the dark without the need for light. It is well documented that the creation of a flesh golem requires six different corpses to take parts from. Further evidence found on the island suggests that the one who dug had done so fairly recently, certainly not as long ago as a year."
Kendra presses on, "All this evidence has been logged at the desk prior to the trial, including a shovel, a lantern, the belongings of the supposed digger and the remains of a potion of darkvision."
She looks the audience over, resting her gaze on the justices as she finishes the conclusion. "There is, therefore, evidence that more constucts are being created. It is not unreasonable to assume more have been created in the past in this region, such as the beast that was caught and devoured by a blood caiman of the marshes around Morast. Which would make this person," Kendra says as she gestures at 'Thomas' "Innocent of the disappearances around that fair township of noble fishermen."
Kendra isn't phased much by the jeering of the crowd - many people in Ravengro treated her similar for some time, if less openly. It only serves to strengthen her resolve, not weaken it.
All business now, she states to the group through nearly gritted teeth, "Time to investigate the second area then. On to Herstag."
As she remembers that she is actually talking to friends now, her features soften somewhat as she asks "Unless there is still business you need to attend to here? And perhaps ser Barrister would like to impart us with some of his knowledge and appraisal of our perormance today before we leave."
"We can travel out and investigate right now if you wish but it is mid day and we would get there at night I assume. We really came to Lepidstadt a day later than we should have." Herm waits for the wisdom that Kendra asked for.
"It doesn't look well. You had a lot more in store than I did, but the Hudges didn't seem impressed." Kaple replies unusually stutter free. "If you want to go investigate Hergstag you need to know what that was about. The witnesses are Garrow, Starle, and Flicht, three sisters that live in a windmill at the western fringe of Lepidstadt."
"Hergstag is a small village about 10 miles from here. You follow the road to the north and then west. There the beast has killed eight children they say."
"Ten miles? That's insane. How are we ever supposed to get there and back in time?" Kendra complains. "Can you not ask for a one day postponement, mister Kaple?"
"No. The trial is scheduled and will not be postponed. How about you get horses?" Kaple suggests.
"I am sure you could provide us with some." Kendra encourages
"You wish. But I can tell you where you get some." Kaple replies and points you to a stable around the corner of the windmill.
Kendra turns to her companions. "We should probably first visit the sisters that live here. The witnesses."
"I agree, this is going to be a very very long night, might want to get some coffee before we go." Herm heads off to the stables with Kendra and the rest then they set off north.
"I almost feel as if this trial is just a sham, something to keep the people complacent."