"Um, we are not impaling anyone and thats final or in walking back to the city. Does anyone disagree? As long as we look vaguely like the group and come back late we should get a jump on them. So with the rest due at midnight gives use about three hours extra to get ready and rest if we can. To arrive while only a couple are on watch at about 3 am. I am in front and access and you all follow my lead. Orsino, you limp and look like Nikon. Set?"
"If we are attempting to appear as returning bandits, then being seen is not a concern. As to impaling..."
"Our charter is explicit regarding the punishments for banditry...sword or rope. Once the bandit has been executed, what gets done with the body is a different matter, but personally I think impaling the body is barbaric. Place the head on a spike if you must"
"What is all this talk of barbaric things? Why is it even a subject to be broached? Let us talk of tactics and nothing more. The idea of such distastful acts is beyond me."
"If a bandit must die so be it, but let's not become what we hunt."
Tessandriel states with an air of finality.
Orsino spoke in a cold voice, his tone was quiet and yet cold like the harshest winter. You see not wisdom in his eyes but you do see experience, yet the canny observer might also since great anger simmering inside Orsino like a dormant Volcano...
You may disagree with my methods but consider this, by showing the hard line you are willing to take with bandits you dissuade future bandits from becoming bandits. In doing so you save more lives then if you had not taken the hard line... Some men can be redeemed, others must suffer punishments that demonstrate the price that must be paid. As for true barbarity ye need only visit a temple of a god and watch what happens when a supposed "witch" is brought to be "tried". The "trial" itself is just a farce, the stake has already been set outside in the square and after five minutes of mumbling the "witch" was burned to death... She was but ten years old and had guided me and my master when we became lost, her name was Bizana. Bizana's "crime" to her captors was this, she was born with red skin, horns, yellow eyes, hooves, claws and a gentle demeanor that contradicted her fiendish heritage.
I and my master did not learn of what had occurred until two weeks later and when we arrived at the village to exact punishment we found that the judges had hired a great many bodyguards and powerful wizards... We could not get in to kill them and we fled before they realized our presence, that day my heart once filled with a relative "innocence" convulsed as it was clasped in bands of the coldest iron and the harshest truth. Justice must by it's definition be harsh if it is to be effective, there must be for the functioning of society rules that govern what offenses and crimes must be punished severely so that others may witness and take heed of the price for breaking them... I do not advocate the idiocy of tyranny, I do however advocate that some crimes must be punished not just with death but with pain. For without an example of justice extracted without quarter or mercy those who would seek to break social modes and rules will only be emboldened. I do not speak with the conviction of a paladin for the need of law or the iron tongue of thrice damned overlords of Cheliax, I speak from experience that to function certain inviolable laws and rules must be in place and the consequences for breaking these inviolable laws must be merciless and painful. If my experience upon the road of mortality is enough to condemn me to the bleakest hell in your eyes then so be it.
Tessandriel rolls her eyes again.
"Sorry, I don't see it that way. Law without mercy is not Justice, it is Tyranny. Torture is simply wrong; I won't be a part of it. Our responsibilities will require us to execute these bandits in many cases, but I'll not descend on the path you advocate just to exercise control."
Bexer scans the horizon for a moment.
"To do so devalues the very civilization we are trying to bring here."
The point is not pain to the transgressor, the point is the effect it has on others who consider doing what the transgressor did. That being said the illusion of that happening it perfectly acceptable, an illusion spell that make it's look like the transgressor was impaled on a pike is an effective alternative. It accomplishes the same objective, indeed any way that makes it look like that is perfectly acceptable so long as it reinforces the prohibition against such transgressions. A simple hanging does not cause fear in the man who does not fear death, however a slow, torturous death will dissuade many even if it is only a fiction.
"Death is death. Using torture to end a life doesn't degrade the victim, it ruins the torturer. Let's move on and see what these bandits are up to?" Mikhaela says flatly.
"How many well thought of countries, towns or barons do you know that use impalement can you think of? , there is a reason. And if you do a illusion of one its even worse. We are not tough enough to carry through. No one in the world had Detect Magic, <sigh> we are bringing law not terror. Do we have to start stating group laws and something you want to do is the reason they are on the books? Orsino Law #1, Orsino Law #2...
We are not here to cause pain, we are here to clear out some area and make some money, by sword or rope.
Only time will tell whether or not if your convictions hold true, many a prince came to the throne and upon it their hearts became wrought of cold iron. For idealism may hold itself in the Outer Planes but here on the prime everything is gray, you cannot simply apply black and white paint to simply everything you see. Despite the horrific nature of his spells do you honestly punish a necromancer for using his magic to hunt down and destroy the men who murdered his wife who was innocent of any crime except being married to a necromancer? Most people would call for this necromancer to be hunted down and executed. Yet if a "righteous" paladin of say Adabar did exactly what the necromancer did he would be applauded, a true "hero". Give me an answer to that question, one that shows me where you truly stand in the grand scheme of things.
"Let me tell you something simple to end up with this endless debate. If we were in Brevoy, or in several other regions Avistan, this question would be decided by the power of the blood! That's right, those with knighthood or some title of nobility, would have priority in the decision.
However, I don´t agree with that, I think that regardless of anything we should respect each other's opinion, because we´re in a wilderness, unexplored, surrounded by cruel robbers and unknown Denizens. So, I Ranzo and Mikhaela doesn't agree with any death penalty, mainly a wicked one. Bexer and Tess, from what I have observed, has indifferent opinions, but no less relevant.
As Orsino is the one who argues strongly to this kind of punishment, I think we have our verdict. Unless Bexer and Tess have also been shifting towards more consolidated ideas."
Komana speaks gesturing much, edgy.
"We can argue on the way, but let's make our basic decisions and be on our way. Up the river, or through the forest? I vote up the river; it's the path the returning bandits are expected to take, and it is less likely we will get turned around in unknown territory."
"There is nothing wrong with mercy, especially to one's foes." Mikhaela says mildly. "The goal is to be just, not to indulge one's wrathful tendencies."
"Oh I'm all for the death penalty, just not by impalement. They get one chance to give up, then we decide. The thing at Olegs was a special case, we needed information. If we take them prisoner and compliant and agree we could spare them, for now. They have not killed anyone that we know of, we can ask Oleg that when we get back. Lets take the river."
I speak not using impalement as a general punishment for most crimes ordinary banditry, murder and other crimes of that sort can just be given the rope or the sword. However there are some "outstanding" criminals that deserve a horrendous punishment, rapists, mass murderers and acts of voluntary treason are what immediately comes to mind. Such beings are beyond redemption and need to be made examples of. Justice must above all else be a successful deterrent if not it is without point.
As for what path to take I am on the fence, on one hand the river may be the safest course if we can make ourselves look like the bandits from a distance. However if we don't look like bandits at a distance we could be made into archery pincushions. Taking the forest if we can navigate it may give us not only surprise in combat if are disguises are failures but also lend us Lotus Flowers and other herbs. Depending on what I found there I could make any variety of useful items, however we know not what is to be found there. As such lets look around and see what we have already available...
"I don´t believe in any death penalty, but I know that such is an unusual view, death must to come from the battlefield or arena, by the sword, by the fight!
Anyway these thugs should receive a second chance.
Follow the river".
OK, simple majority rules on no death penalty for this at this time. Looks like the river has been chosen as the primary route.
@Orsino: I believe it was 2 potions.
Orsino grabbed from his pocket one of the small vials containing the dried blood colored sap and handed it to Ranzo. Drink this to heal your wounds and do not throw it up...
"Two cheers for medical magic. Thanks.""
Okay, moving on a tad.
After about an hour, the party has prepared the horses, drag the bodies of the dead men out of the former fort, and donned over their armor the cloaks of bandits. Oleg and Svetlana ask them to stay at least until dinner, but hoping to get the upper hand on the threat, they head out (though with some spiced apples from Svetlana).
And the day goes by largely uneventfully. The occasional animal track, trail, and odd copse of trees are all that are really seen. About an hour or so after sunset, the party finally encounters the Thorn River. This river is the marker the bandits at Oleg's had informed the party of, and following the river now into the woods to the northwest should take them straight to the camp of the bandits that have been plaguing the trade post for the last few months.
Orsino scanned the river area for herbs and especially Lotus Flower...
perception check
@Orsino: About midway thru hex 2 (so about a little more than a third of the way through the trip), whilst the party takes a short rest, you discover a small komarov lotus. However, it appears to be dead, the cold weather having more or less dealt it in.
(Roll a Knowledge [nature] check)
Orsino carefully studied the dead Lotus Flower his hands gracefully and reverently touching it's sacred form...
knowledge nature,
The Komana´s experience and skills to deal with horses makes she one in Frontline, on Bexer and Ranzo´s side. However, always concerned about the safety of everyone on the group, she seeks to take turns, getting some time in the rear, or accompanying Mikhaela for a few minutes.
In the route she thinks about train the horses to combat, when have a time to.
Ranzo will stay to the rear until we get close to the camp. Where he plans on being the first one in wearing Haps cloak over his head and shoulders, covering his body.
Tessandriel takes the lead since she has the most experience with the wild and tracking.
Travelling up river, a wide bank serves as a fairly stable trail. However, with night closing in hard, odd noises and rustling in the trees begins to cause the horse to whiny and slow. After about another hour and a half to two hours, the sound on humanoids and the faintest glow of what appears to be campfires can be heard and seen respectively.
After a few hours Komana get lost in her daydreams, thinking about how your life could be if she had continued training between the swordlords ...
perception
stealth
Perception:
Stealth:
@Orsino: The lotus, though dead, couldn't possibly be just one lone flower, and if you were to explore the are (hex) again in more detail, you may find a veritable garden of the Komarov lotus.
Mikhaela sneaks as she has never done before. Or ever will again.
You all approach from a more or less southerly route onto the camp. The sound of people talking and jawing is apparent, and there appears to be some sort of 'who's the better man' contest as the men relate tales. As you approach, Komana fails to notice it, but everyone else notices a large stand disguised to look similar to a tree. Just as your group approaches, Ranzo you see movement in the stand. Before you can manage to warn your fellow...
BOOM!
A sound like thunder rises from just below the stand, a shout ringing out moments later. "Traveller!"
Initiative, please!
Initiative
Initiative:
Ranzo takes his bow and looks at the stand. Aiming his bow.
"Up top over there. Scan for others and take them as you can."
Bexer shakes his head, trying to clear it, Too much at once...need to focus.
Alright gang, I'm heading in to work, but it should be a slow day, so I'll keep this updated. You all are near K5, K3 is where the 'boom' came from. K2 & 1 are where the bandits are, and just to the East of K1 are a small number of tents.
Komana keeps the control of her mount to a future advantage in combat, so, she increases her defensive skills at the expense of accuracy. She doesn't know the number and the power of the bandits!
Orsino calmly drank a vial of stone lotus extract to harden his fists....