Siobhan over hears, "It just seems to rash to condemn the man without hard evidence." "True. We don't know if it's a lie that Sam confessed, I didn't hear it."
"I say be done with him. He is a risk to the rest of us, best be safe." "Amen to that." "Do we know if it was self defense?" "Just be done with this nightmare, end him." "I say a trial is in order, we are not barbarians."
It seems a trial is leading by a little.
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We have gone many years simply trying to survive. And I felt my word would be good enough. But your words do reach me. But a true code of laws hasn't been written. I have been doing my best to put the needs of our community first. This is obviously a very divisive issue. I will need five volunteers to listen to what happened, for today they will decide his guilt or innocence, and I will act as judge afterwards.
Polmar will produce his trusty silver-dyed sling and whip a bullet at the creature
Polar smacks the beast right between the eyes. It screeches in pain. Jalel your up.
“You shouldn’t act as the judge.” Karliah spoke up when Rose expressed that she would accept the trail as her people had spoken for it. That was a start, but Karliah wasn’t satisfied with how she was going to be the judge. “Your obviously biased towards handing him a death sentence. As a leader, you must know when to relegate tasks to others, and in this case, someone else needs to be the judge, someone who is going to be unbaised in their judgement.” Karliah wasn’t speaking for herself, but the possibility that she could fill the roll did cross her mind as she spoke.
Jalel took a step back away from the sizable beast. He had never thought to come face to face with something quite this large before.
Glancing at the other two, he grit his teeth and put a hand out forward. I have no idea if this will work or not. It's big...
"Shield your eyes." he says to the others.
"Sprae dath!" a moment later a blinding rainbow of colors shot forth from his hands covering the monster.
Lershoth stands a little off guard, somewhat stunned at the beastie. "That doesn't seem right... I wonder how it got so big?"
Curiosity momentarily abated as the rat goes after Polmar. Lershoth springs into action, moving towards the rat, drawing his swords as he moves. Moving into position he carefully studies the creature looking for weaknesses to exploit.
“And how will someone else being judge make a difference to that?” Karliah questioned when Rose came over, after saying that she should keep her consul to herself. “Are those five going to be the only ones in the trail? The only ones to judge him, and no one else there to see it? That hardly seems like a fair trial to me. Plus, you gave me even more reason not to preside over the trail. Your bias, with an alternative agenda to simply seeing justice done.”
“And how will someone else being judge make a difference to that?” Karliah questioned when Rose came over, after saying that she should keep her consul to herself. “Are those five going to be the only ones in the trail? The only ones to judge him, and no one else there to see it? That hardly seems like a fair trial to me. Plus, you gave me even more reason not to preside over the trail. Your bias, with an alternative agenda to simply seeing justice done.”
Talirin's hackles start to rise and his hands grip his Shortswords tightly as Karliah continues to question the honor and judgement of someone she met only 10 minutes ago.
When Rose makes her request. He walks up to two of the more trustworthy guards, Timor and Gundred.Timor, Gundred. The Duchess needs a word with one of the newcomers. Please give her some space but I expect you to keep her in view and safe. I don't yet trust them and their motives. Do you understand? Good, please see to your duty, I have to escort the prisoner.
Jalel catches the rat of guard stunning and blinding it The rat freezes up on the spot.
Lershoth, remembers hearing of these giant six legged rats being popular on the eastern continent as guard dogs of sorts. he also remembers that they are scared of fire.
The rat is stunned. Polmar, your up.
Polmar chucks another couple of stones at the rat taking advantage of its lackadaisical state. Some Dragon this hoard had guarding it
Polmar smacks the rat. Jalel, your up.
Whenever or not Karliah noticed how Talirin sent others to look over Rose as they found a private place to talk, the Scarlet Sentinel showed no signs. Instead, she raised an eyebrow when Rose showed asked her to follow, wondering why the privacy was so important... but mentally shrugged and followed. Curious what this voted leader would have to say to her.
Jalel steps back, clearly the guardian was more ferocious than originally thought.
He hadn't thought to show this ability to anyone yet, but now would be the time. He held his arm out and willed it to extend. Joints popped and out from his hand sprung a long whip like vine which he immediately threw out at the guardian, intending to pull its legs out from under it.
The was only slightly surprised for a second, but not blind nor truly stunned. As cool as Jalel looked for a brief second, his little trick did not work this time around.
Lershoth,your up.
"If either of you has got some sort of fire, that ought to do something."
Lershoth takes two swipes at the rat.
Lershoth, slashes the beast deep! It screeches in pain, it looks to be getting very desperate now, and goes all out on Lershoth! It manages to bite Lershoth!
The rat then goes for another attack on Lershoth! Lucky for Lershoth its claw attack misses. As Lershoth is able to back up in time.
The rat then goes for another attack swinging its large tail at.............................Lershoth!
But Lershoth, manages to duck under it!
Polmar your up!
Polmar decides that this thing is perhaps tougher than he gave it credit for...still he didn't have a ton of options that didn't entail him slowing down to ask for the blessings of Nuada Silverhand and he hadn't gotten into too much trouble just yet...why not keep tossing stones at this thing.
He once again with halfing grace rapidly threw stones from pouch to sling, from sling to rat-face.
The rat gets pummeled with two more stones to the head. *THUNK THUNK* It then lets out half a shriek then drops to the ground. Dead. Blood pouring from multiple places over some of the gold around.
Polmar tries to get the thing's blood off of the gold and continues packing it away in his sacks.
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When they reach as private a spot as they're gonna get Rose turns on her. How dare you come in here and call my honor into question, Everything I do is for my people. Every person in here has lost people and we have some mystical artifact that says for the price of one murder you can have one of them back, do you think that maybe people might be tempted? As to me being judge we've yet to set up anything resembling what we need for a true legal system, so as their leader I am the only one who CAN pass sentence on them.
We are still organizing and having a STRANGER come in and question my motives is the epitome of hubris. You obviously consider yourself some bastion of morality to pass judgement on others. So I suggest you give me good reason not to see you out of here now.
Lershoth groans a little, inspecting his arm and wincing.
"Where in the blazes did that thing come from? We ought to be careful, that rat was similar to a species that used to be used to guard things. There might be others around."
Lershoth drinks his CLW extract.
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Siobhan slipped after Rose and Karliah when she noticed them moving away from the main area. She slides into a patch of shadow nearby and listens carefully as Rose starts laying into the other newcomer.
Unsure of how to respond Siobhan simply waits in the shadows, suspecting that she may be needed as a peacemaker shortly. As she does so she mentally sorts through the information she gathered on her trip through the crowd.
“Its funny how you accuse me of hubris, yet you are the one in danger of it.” Karliah said mildly, not at all minding the fact that Rose was threatening to kick her out of the place so swiftly. It was after all the type of leader she was. “You accuse me of calling your honour into question. When all I have done is criticize your decisions rationally and logically. You ask for a reason why I should not be kicked out, yet I have to ask why criticism is not allowed.”
Shaking her head, Karliah turned her head away, looking towards a cave wall as she thought. “Your decision to keep the orb hidden from the community with its temptations is sound. That much I agree with. Yet even without a written scripture of law, there is no excuse for not giving another the power to judge. You have firmly expressed the opinion that the murderer should be executed for his crimes. Therefore, any decision you shall make will be biased towards it. You claim that you are the only one that can pass judgement on others, yet you are the one in control here. You have the power to give others the right of judgement.”
Glancing back at Rose, Karliah finished off by saying. “Let me repeat. I do not call your honour into question, I am simply criticising the decisions you make before me. I do not see myself as a bastion of morality. Simply a woman capable of calm rational and logical decisions. A leader must be open to criticism, otherwise how are they to see when they are wrong?”
"Yes, Lershoth is correct. We should go soon, Polmar. Forget the gold with blood on it, there's more than enough that isn't covered with gore for us to take. Whoever left this... rat thing here, even if it was the only one is sure to be irate when they come to find it dead and a notable portion of their treasure missing. I do not intend to be here when they arrive." Jalel said, hefting up a partly full bag over his shoulder, and turned to exit the cave.
So is this what the adventurers stories are like? Going into strange holes in the ground, fighting horrible monsters, and if they were lucky... like us, finding a sizable treasury. It's certainly less romantic than the tales I'd heard. But it's hard to deny the outcome. And to think, I didn't have to compel anyone to do anything.
Jalel let a small smile touch his lips as he pulled out a small sapphire then started to make his exit.
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And if he lives if he's judged guilty he can spread the word. The surest way to keep a secret is to kill the other person keeping it. At most I can hope to slow the spread by impressing the need for silence upon those who would be jury, my people's safety must come first especially with something like this. Nor do we have the facilities to hold him for the rest of his life. Do you think I don't think of these things? And you've only made it worse.
Jalel puts his hand on the brass door knob, and attempts to open it...except he fails...
Polmar will go up to the door What the hell Jalel, just open the door
"The door... it won't open. It's locked. I don't know what happened."
Lershoths tail twitches in agitation at the revelation. "What do you mean it won't open? Here let me have a look at it."
Lershoth moves up and inspects the door. If it is locked he tries to disable it.
Lershoth searches for a clue on how to open the stupid door. After a few moments he discovers that it has bolted itself shut. He then inspects the hinges, they look very rusty but he does feel confident he can undo them... After a fair bit of time he manages to get them off and open the door. The trio grab their goods and head for the rope. A little more time passes as they make a plan to get the treasures above. They come up with one and climb to the top. Once above, proud of their accomplishment, the notice a lone figure waiting for them... A tall man with a brown, dingy three point hat. "What are ye doin wit our treasure?" Ahe asks after a couple gold coins drop from Polar sack Soon after more dirty looking men and women walk through the trees from all directions, surrounding the three plunderers, there are at least 25 of them.
“Killing a man to keep his silence is a dangerous road.” Karliah said, shaking her head slowly at Rose’s words and reasons, hoping that the woman would listen to her on this. “A wise man once said ‘The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions. Many extremists back in the day truly believed they were do what is right and just, yet when judged were condemned to hell.” If Karliah wanted Rose to accept and take into consideration one thing from here... it was this message. “The easy route is the one that leads to hell. The difficult route, the one in which you have to struggle and fight down. Is the route to heaven. The choice is yours in the end, but do not make a choice simply because it is the easiest.”
Polmar puffs up his chest Well if you must know we were taking it as materiel for our settlement en route to collecting a seed. But I can see now we're not the only civilized people on this here surface so this may not have been the free money we thought - let me ask you brothers how did you survive the fog?
The man with the dirty, brown hat chuckles a bit, then says, "We survived, cuz we was never in that dirty fog."
Polmar thinks a minute Here take your gold - we need to talk...the fog is gone and that means the whole continent is prime for the taking - and the knowledge you hold in your heads is probably more valuable than this bag in my hands...what happened out here in the time-between
The man grins a yellow toothed grin at Polmar, "Nothin." The people surrounding you inch a little closer. "We could see the fog from here. Ya see? But it only got a few miles off shore of Gein. (That's the name of the western continent. Your continent.) The people inch a little closer.
Polmar will back off a step What about the other continent? Did it have the same nasty fog?
Jalel glances around at the group, he is immediately dismissive of the treasure in his hands as he steps forward. His arms outstretched in a peaceful gesture. "Everyone, please calm yourselves. We are but emissaries of our people who have stumbled upon your island and there is little wrong that cannot be undone. Why indeed, as my compatriot has pointed out, we can speak to each other of what has transpired from our perspectives and even exchange resources. I believe we can come to a beneficial arrangement. Now who is in charge here?"
“You're the one say you want to kill him to ensure his silence. That’s the easy route in this situation.” Karliah said mildly, a little annoyed that Rose seemed to be focused on HER and HER alone. Not her decisions. Not her people. But HER. Gods, didn’t this woman get that it wasn’t all about her? "What next? Would you kill me in order to ensure I can't tell anyone else about the orb? After all, I know off it, and I have made no promises to keep it secret."
Lershoth raises his hands "Of course, we'd be happy to come have a chat with your captain."
Lershoth's tail twitches nervously as he gives his companions an unhappy shrug.