Dugan swiftly moves forward and hooks Joanne's much larger frame under the shoulders and drags her through the proffered door, grumbling about half-explanations. The dwarf arranges the unconscious woman on whatever piece of furniture looks like it will provide her the most comfort before wheeling angrily.
'You're gonna have to explain this to me. Slow talking and small words, if you don't mind, as I think i may have just become a party to whatever nonsense you just kicked off.'
"Keen to potentially actually practice your profession Magistrate I take it Harg?"
"Harg, is it? I am Micheo Barbulcus, hospitaler of Sarenrae. My order emphasise the Healing Light and I would rather heal than harm. But Sarenrae also gave me gifts to strike at evil, those who can not or will not be redeemed. Kreed was a despicable man and striking him down was fair."
He pauses.
"If any of ye are wounded, let me know. A moment, Ulark."
Then he stands still. After a few moments, Ulark's bleeding starts to slow - and blood starts to well in the same spot on Micheo's chest.
He pauses.
"If any of ye are wounded, let me know."
Now in a position of safety looked at the assembled room. "Dugan, Inconnu, you have my apologies. I'll start from the beginning. I don't exactly think that I am a half-orc. That is, I think there is more in my blood than just that. I can speak several languages, of whom I know nothing about and have never studied." Turning to Micheo he said "I know that this language *feels* wrong, and I'm pretty sure it's from a lower plane. You are the first person I've met who has ever spoken it."
Then, turning back to everyone else, he continued. "I thought that was all there was to it. But today, when Kreed was speaking, I felt something. It was an anger. The more I thought about all of the horrible things that he has done to us all in the name of the consortium, the angrier I got. And I heard this voice, in my head. It was-"
"Evil! Purge all evil. Dispel the darkness."
"And I changed. You all saw it. And all I could see was Kreed, and all I could think about was ending his evil. It was like the world ceased to exist, and there was only me and him. And I could only think clearly again once he was dead. I'm sorry...I'm sorry that I dragged you all into this mess."
Magistrate Vamros Harg paces about the Tribunal office, breathing quickly and visibly excited.
"I can't believe you actually did it," he babbles. "You actually killed the son of a whore. He's gone. That means...but it also means...but then..."
He ruffles his short, precisely parted and greased hair into an unruly mess.
Managing to compose himself somewhat, he turns back to the party and offers more directed rambling.
"If anyone was going to finally kill Kreed, it's good that it was a local. If it was an outsider, these rubes would fall back onto their stubborn Valer pride and rally around the dead bastard. But since it was one of their own, and since you gave that impeccable oratory...Hells, if I could manage that, maybe my law career wouldn't be festering out in this wilderness."
He takes a moment to futilely smooth his hair and straighten his collar, but the halfling remains jittery.
"Okay. I'm pretty sure you got the crowd on your side, but the sheriff is still going to treat this as a murder. He hated Kreed as much as anyone, but he wouldn't want the bumpkins thinking he was condoning vigilante justice. Not to mention the Consortium is going to be out for your blood after this. Kreed guaranteed increasing profits for them, no matter how he had to do it. You're going to need to run or hide or something..."
Harg finally takes a moment to sit down and catch his breath.
"...or fight."
"If the likes of Kreed were the best the Consortium have to offer, then they have met their match. And very publicly at that!"
Looking at Ulark, Micheo continues.
"If I had to guess, I would imagine that the planes had touched one of your ancestors. You could well be an 'aasimar', the descendant of a celestial being. It would explain the language that you know."
And then Micheo sighs.
"I have been blessed by Sarenrae, and for that I am thankful. But there is a...curse on me. Through my blood, touched by another sort of being. Kytons, the sadistic and cruel chain devils, which makes me a 'tiefling'. It is why I can speak *that* language, infernal, the tongue of hell itself. And when battle comes, it is *all* I can understand or speak. I strive to do good works but that speech can make matters difficult."
Ulark slapped Micheo on the back. ”I have no idea what any of those things are, but thank you. And if you’re a paladin, then that makes you alright in my book!”
Then turning to Harg he said ”What should I do now?”
The magistrate runs a palm down his face, thinking deeply.
Frustration reads upon his face until, suddenly, he brightens as though an idea has come to him.
He laughs a bit, jumping from his seat, and begins to look through the myriad documents on a desk.
"Of course! It's perfect! We'll use Kreed's own skullduggery against him. He never failed to remind me how I only held this post at his pleasure and that he could unmake me as easily as he made me. Well guess what, you cur: I'm still magistrate!"
Harg descends into a muttered tirade against Kreed's ghost until he finds what he's looking for and remembers your presence.
"So often Kreed had me falsify documents to suit his idea of 'justice.' Usually to protect him and his cronies from their misdeeds, but also to ensure that someone who displeased him suffered for it," he says, furiously scribbling upon the paper with a pen.
"The Consortium will likely have me removed from office, but for now I'm still magistrate, so I will draft legal papers treating this as self defense. It's fitting, considering Kreed had me use the same trick when he killed that baker whilst in a foul mood."
His head bolts upright, a thought occurring to him.
"We'll need people to sign as witnesses, though. Kreed and Pay Day always signed off on these things, and their word carried enough weight to get the Consortium to believe that up was down. You'll need to convince a couple locals of upstanding repute to corroborate the story, especially to put the sheriff off your hides."
Joanne starts waking back up
Joanne groggily asks
"What the heck happened?....."
Look at Harg "That is going to be a tough sell, Kreed was being his usual pleasant self but that's definitely skewing things. We need to follow through on this mayor thing for a few reasons. It'll help make things more legitimate and if there is someone the people point to as a legitimate Mayor it'll be a counterpoint to the power of the Consortium, curb their antics and provide a natural rallying point against them if they don't usurp it... and a magistrate would be more legitimately appointed by them not some upjumped company."
Seeing Joanne wake up Inconnu turns to her "Ulark killed Kreed and we all helped a bit. Aside from that apparently anyone with outsider blood has weird abilities and like scavenger hunts... I assume you've got something special in your family tree as well."
"Sheriff Baleson actually did talk to me in secret not too long ago about organizing the town's first mayoral election," Harg says, stroking his almost non-existent chin. "He wanted to know what sort of paperwork and legal hoop-jumping would be required. His biggest worries were finding an honest candidate to stand against whatever puppet Kreed nominated and then protection against Kreed's meddling. Those don't really matter now, do they?"
Ulark shook his head. ”No...they do not. Hey, you said Kreed murdered a baker? Perhaps we could show proof of that. And say that I was deputized to bring him to justice for it? Or any of his other crimes?”
Micheo turns to Joanne with a kindly smile and offers a hand up.
"Hello Joanne, I am Micheo."
To all:
"We must right the lawful channels, which have been clearly corrupted here. Showing the justice of slaying Kreed with evidence, and holding an honest mayoral election are fine ideas. Who in this town would make for the best witnesses to Kreed's evil and corruption?"
While speaking, Micheo will make sure with his soul sight that sure no one else is wounded, even unbeknownst to themselves. If none are, he will finally heal his own wounds. Regardless, he speaks words of praise to Sarenrae and makes the motions before touching his head or the wounds of another with a fragment of healing light.
Micheo discovers, to his surprise, as the newest addition to this band he was the only one to walk away from the unexpected fight with any injuries.
His magic soon rectifies this, however.
"The baker's murder is fruitless. The official documentation characterizes it as self defense. I saw to that," he sighs heavily. "Kreed ensured that all official records only paint a picture of clean, smooth sailing for the Consortium, the People's Council in Almas, and the Eagle Knights at Adamas. Nothing that could incriminate him ever made it into the books."
"But there is the black book!" he shouts, straightening his posture like a suddenly raised pike.
"Kreed kept notes on almost everyone in town - a private record of vices, secrets, blackmail, and anything he could use to keep everyone beneath his heel. There might be some evidence in there that could definitively incriminate him."
"It would still take some cunning persuasion to convince the sheriff or anyone else that killing Kreed was actually based on such evidence, but it could be a start.”
”Maybe with your help we can get through this. Get me the black book. We find something in there pointing towards a crime he was going to commit. And I turn myself in, saying that I acted to stop him. Worst comes to worse, I pay for what I did. Hopefully, I manage to talk him out of it.”
"Where would such a record of vice be kept? In his dwelling presumably? Hopefully there would be enough in there and with witnesses of Kreed's low character that none of the just would have to suffer."
"It's unlikely he had the book on him; if he did, the sheriff will undoubtedly discover it and all his deeds will come to light. I doubt any of us are that fortunate."
"Most likely, he kept the book hidden in one of two places on the Perch. Either he kept it in his personal quarters within his manor, in which case it may as well be secured within a fortress, or he kept it ironically in the Consortium Headquarters building, reasoning that a building that is essentially abandoned would be utterly overlooked."
The magistrate is interrupted by a pounding on the tribunal door.
"It's the sheriff!" he hisses. "There's no rear exit, but there's a secret bolt hole you can hide in until he's gone."
Harg scrambles towards a closet and fumbles with some keys to unlock the door. Inside, the storage shelves are immaculately ordered yet covered in dust. He lifts a handsome carpet to reveal a trap door.
"Hurry, hurry," he whispers urgently as a second, more insistent pounding sounds upon the front door.
Ulark nods. ”Thank you.”
Micheo dips his head in gratitude.
"Thank you."
And starts moving towards the trap door.
"I'll have to put a bloody bell on that axe so I'll have some warning Ulark is starting to feel like 'Righteous Justice' must be dispened." Inconnu grumbles as he heads out the bolt hole "It's a dogs dinner and no doubt but we should make the best of it..."
The trapdoor reveals a creaking ladder that descends into a cramped space dug out beneath the tribunal, with wooden beams supporting the earthen walls and ceiling.
Rather than a full cellar, this is barely more than a crawlspace, forcing Ulark and Micheo to hunch over - and Joanne to keep to her knees.
The bolthole is musty, perfumed with a myriad of strange, earthy smells, and once Magistrate Harg shuts the trapdoor behind you, you are plunged into darkness.
A number of boxes occupy at least half the space beneath the tribunal.
Some of them are long, roughly made wooden cases filled with straw, cradling numerous brown bottles. Others are more finely made crates stamped with some sort of emblem or heraldry and bearing locks. Quite a few, though, are simple boxes containing strange, pungent white lumps wrapped in burlap.
"Where are they?" you can hear Sheriff Baleson command.
Magistrate Harg's reply is too faint to distinguish, but you can hear heavy footsteps spreading across the tribunal floor.
Trying to stay as quiet as possible, Ulark strained to hear the conversation above.
To have to hide from the law - this is not what I expected!
Micheo stays as still as he can, in silent prayer but with eyes open.
Inconnu tries to stay very quiet and listen to the conversation above while thinking of how he'd be best able to survive this whole thing... excluding just running.
Magistrate Harg's voice is very soft and hard to distinguish, but Sheriff Baleson is louder and more commanding.
He asks Harg the questions you would expect - what the magistrate witnessed, where the suspects went, the events leading up to the killing.
It also seems that his deputies are bringing Kreed's body into the tribunal, both to examine and to keep it out of public sight.
Harg's story is utterly convincing, and his voice betrays no falsehood. If you didn't personally know the truth, you would have easily believed him.
Footsteps continue to trace across the floor for a span, then there is the sound of something heavy being set down roughly.
Finally, you hear the sheriff and his men exit the building and the door slam behind them.
After a few long minutes of silence, the trapdoor opens again and Magistrate Harg invites you back up.
Micheo re-emerges, not having to adjust to the light.
He quietly says:
"Thanks be to the Healing Light. Do you know what the sheriff will do next?"
"It'd be best to avoid the Sheriff until we can get out hands on Kreed's notes." Inconnu keeps his voice low not wanting to be overheard if the Sheriff is being covert.
Magistrate Harg looks morosely to the table where several stacks of papers have been toppled to the ground to make room for Gavel Kreed's body.
"Sheriff Baleson will be heading for the Aiba farmsteads," he says, watching as rivulets of blood stain the papers on the floor. "I claimed to have overheard your plans to flee and hide out there."
The halfling notices the upset look on Joanne's face when she discovers that her family will soon be accosted by the sheriff.
"I had to make the story believable," he insists, "And that was the farthest I could think to send him. It will grant you a couple hours' head start to make your next move."
”Thank you. While I am sorry for all of the trouble I have caused, I have to believe that good will come of this. We have the opportunity to make the Hollow a better place for everyone. It would be best to go to Kreed’s manor.”
”Uhm...do you have any insight about the place? Guards? Traps? Where the book might be?”
"His dwelling sounds like a good place to start. Do we have any way of reaching there unseen though?"
Dugan has remained quiet, a look of displeasure on his face, or perhaps confusion. Trying to take it all in, but not used to the speed and machinations of life in civilization. In the wilds, you knew who your enemies were and more often than not they were too busy also trying to survive to cause much trouble. He finally rejoins the conversation.
'A great mess you got me wrapped up in, maybe not too deep though. I never raised arms against no one here in town, all I did was help carry Joanna, there. I could do some poking around and just say I wanted no part in all this if anyone stops me.'
"You may not have much to worry about there, then," Harg reassures Dugan. "Even without the many witnesses in the market, Sheriff Baleson would probably believe you....perhaps. Your real problem, though, will be when the Consortium's directors hear of this. Much like the late Gavel Kreed, they believe in guilt by association.
"As for Kreed's manor, it sits up on the Perch behind 10 foot high darkwood walls. Along with Boss Teedum and the owner of the Rogue Lady, I'm perhaps one of the few people who've been allowed to see the second floor of his home. Over time, as he added to the opulence of his home, he also made it more like a stronghold.
"Kreed was a paranoid man, though not without cause. For instance, a few years ago, rioters attempted to burn down his manor - with him inside, of course. In response, he had four water towers installed. While he always kept the grounds well patrolled - either by mercenaries on the Consortium's payroll or thugs on loan from the Redrock Guild - he also took stationing crossbowmen atop the roof after harpies began trying to infiltrate the upper story on moonless nights.
"Then there's also the usual slew of traps and guard animals Kreed liked to keep within his manor. I'm not sure what will become of his security measures now that he's dead, but I doubt getting inside will be an easy feat."
"Well the consortium headquarters building could hold it too and if far less trafficked. Lets try their before the manor. Let's keep alert for his underlings, theirs a job opening and dealing with us might be worthy of a promotion all by itself."
"Yes, but if Magistrate Harg has seen this book and knows it to be in the manor...I would prefer not to have the storm the consortium building. Magistrate, do you know exactly where the book is kept?"
"He said it was at one of the two. Going after the easier target first is more sensible... and with the kind of rats Kreed associated with some might have jumped ship from their duties at the manor, I wouldn't put it past most of them to take from his objects for back pay. But a ledger probably wont make the most tempting target."
Ulark nodded. "I see. That does make alot of sense."
Micheo nods.
"I can see the sense in searching the consortium building first. And there may be other signs of corruption there besides that ledger."
"I have little doubt of that. We will have to deal with what we find."
He turns to Dugan "I wasn't exactly out for blood their either but guilt by association, we are tarred and feathered... though I'm not completely innocent I drew no blood... merely assault and inciting a riot."
Magistrate Harg hesitantly inspects Kreed's body, holding his nose against the overwhelming smell of blood.
"He wears his ring, his mail shirt beneath his clothes - for all that did to save him - and his father's old crossbow. No sign of the book, though."
Inconnu clears his throat and gives the Magistrate a meaningful look. "Time to start breaking old bad habits I think."
Inconnu casts detect magic to see if Kreed had any magical gear.
Micheo turns to Harg, and says softly and without condemnation:
"You can be better than that. Better than him."
Micheo then turns back to look at the body, also casting detect magic.
"Fine bit of moralizing from the men who took his belt and sword," Harg scoffs, although he does so while replacing the coins.
Quite a few of Kreed's possessions radiate magic as Inconnu and Micheo cast their spells, prompting a further skeptical look from the magistrate.
In addition to the rapier, belt, and wand you initially took from him, his mail shirt, light crossbow, the gold ring on his finger, and even one of the hip flasks he carries seem to be magic.
Ulark looked down at his belt. It was his trophy! What did the magistrate care about a belt? Still...they did need his help. Reaching to his belt he pulled out the pouch of gold he had found out at the Dwarven Temple. It had 42 gold crowns in it. He tossed it to the magistrate.
”You’re right. Here. We appreciate your help in all of this.”
He also passes an unidentified potion to Inconnu. ”Forgot I had this. Maybe you can figure out what it is.”
Dugan remains quiet for another short stretch, chewing over his own thoughts. Finally, he speaks up 'If these Lumber thugs are as bad as you all say, we all got people out there unprotected. We need to act quick. The longer we hide in here, the more likely it is someone's gonna get drunk and go looking for revenge. Unless someone's got a better idea, we should go search their hall for that book.'
Harg eagerly pockets the gold Ulark offers, the halfling's eyes bulging at both the number and age of the coins.
He walks over and opens the door a crack, peering outside.
"The crowd has largely dispersed. Death is no freedom from work, after all. In fact, many of them would probably expect Kreed to rise from his open grave and thrash them for slacking off," Harg chuckles grimly.
"I don't see any of Baleson's deputies, either. I suppose he doesn't have enough men to spare any to guard a corpse. If you intend to search the Consortium offices, you'll have to be careful when you take to the Perch. Avoid anyone loyal to Kreed! Pay Day, Bloodeye, Salk - they will all be eager to exact their own justice, even if only for their own satisfaction."
The magistrate is about to shoo you out the door when he suddenly remembers something and slams the door shut again.
"Oh! And stay away from the Sitting Duck! Don't trust the owner, Tock, or that pretty barmaid of his. The older Artem girl. What was her name? Jocelyn? No, that was the younger sister. Jalene, that's it! Most people know Tock used to work for Kreed, but I don't think anyone realizes she was also one of his agents.
"They feed - or rather, they fed - information to Kreed. Warned him about attempts to form unions, or when inspectors or undercover Twilight Talons came to town. That's how Kreed always knew when to destroy evidence before it could be discovered. Kreed kept those two comfortable, and I suspect they'll be bitter about losing that. The Artem girl, especially. She scared me almost as much as Kreed himself."
There is a rumored fourth branch, however, known as the Twilight Talons. Although the Andoren government denies its existence, most citizens tacitly accept this supposed spy network as fact.
”The Sitting Duck? Wasn’t that owned by Kried, the retired adventurer? The one who vanished awhile back?” He was silent for a moment, before continuing.
”Magistrate, we’re in this together. There’s something about the Sitting Duck you aren’t telling us. Please, leave nothing out.”
"I'm not saying we just bury his gear with him but right now it wont help our cause to be palming gold and hiding it from each other, if we all took something valuable discretely half his gear would be missing... but a surprising amount of his gear is magical but if the Sheriff comes back and he's almost naked there'll be more questions for you Magistrate. which we don't need. If I can figure out what some of it is we can cherry pick a few useful items that will aid our current endeavour and hope they aren't noticed as missing."
"That would explain why Jalene has always been so wretched to me, but I can't shake the feeling you know... or at least suspect a little more. Perhaps concerning the nature of the dubious deed Tock picked up?"