"We'll need to speak with the Beast of course. And if they are starting with the Morast case maybe that is the first details we need to see. How far is Morast? And are there witnesses there to speak with? Or are they here for the trial?"
"Well whenever you're ready and done asking any questions you may have, then we can go speak with him. Morast isn't very far, you can get there and back within a handful of hours, so you should have time to go investigate in person."
"Their village elder, Lazne, was called as a star witness by the prosecution for the Beast’s trial, since he led the mob that drove the Beast away. He's not very friendly to most of us, and it's been a real challenge working with him. Maybe you can get him to open up, I think he stays at the courthouse during the day and might be downstairs."
"Good to know. I don't have any more questions now. Let's go see the Beast."
Gustav escorts the group down into the courthouse's cellar jail to meet the Beast.
A towering abomination sits in an iron chair, bound with no less than a dozen sets of manacles. Stitching holds together this grotesque patchwork of flesh and bone, beast and man, though the wires are so taut they look as though they may fly apart at any moment. Its mouth is twisted in a permanent sneer, and a shock of lank, dark hair clings to its scalp. The creature slumps in its chair, a despondent expression upon its monstrous face.
"The uh...legendary Beast of Lepidstadt." Gustav says, waving a hand towards the thing in the cell.
Raj looks at the Beast and around the cell in general, tuning his senses for this interview. ”Hey. I’m Rajuna. These are my associates; they’ll introduce themselves when they have questions. We’re here to look into your case to figure out what really happened… because some of the ‘evidence’ has a stink on it. With your help, maybe we can get you out of the worst of this mess. Are you willing to talk with us? If so, were you in Morast a year ago? What do you remember of that time?”
Park nods with Rajuna's question. "My name is Park. Also, can you tell us what you remember about the break-in and damage at the Universty? They say that you stole something called the Seasage Effigy, and caused a lot of damage? We've looked over the room where you were captured and there are some obvious issues with the explanations. It looks like someone worked with you to take the Seasage Effigy. Like it was handed to someone outside the room through a window. After it was passed out of the room you started breaking things?"
"We want to help. The charges don't sound right. We think maybe someone is framing you?"
Mila looks aghast at the sight of the monster-- no, she reminds herself, the accused-- as they enter. It's certainly.... it's sure....
Remember what happened with Zhandar, she reminds herself. You said you weren't gonna judge folk by... by their looks. Even if... golly. They sure do 'look.'
"Hello," she offers hesitantly to the... creature. "Uh.... I'm Milovica, but everyone just calls me Mila. What... would you like to be called? I guess just 'Beast' but... if you have something else instead... Um... are you hurt at all? Those... those chains look tight."
The Beast is truly a monster in its current state: it is dirty and miserable, covered in flies, and as it sees you enter its field of vision it roars and struggles at its chains anew. The restraints are doing a satisfactory job holding it back, for now at least.
Hearing the group talk, however, he stops yelling and starts listening. After everyone is done speaking and it's obvious you're waiting for an answer (and a few more awkward seconds after that), the Beast finally speaks.
"I didn't do it." it says, its mouth struggling to form the correct words and ending up making the sentence sound brutish and as if he were speaking a foreign language without any knowledge of said language.
If so, were you in Morast a year ago? What do you remember of that time?
"Mor....ast." it continues, as if mulling the word over in his thoughts. "Was not there. Never been."
Park's flurry of questions overwhelm the poor thing, and the Beast lays his head on the ground howling quietly (somewhat surprisingly) and rocking back and forth.
"Woke up in school. Angry, not know why I there. Confused, smash things." it says finally, after a few moments of getting its thoughts together.
What... would you like to be called? I guess just 'Beast'
"Beast fine. I am Beast." he says, almost despairingly.
Mila's hesitancy gives way at the thing's-- no, person's-- obvious misery. It can talk. It IS talking. Or-- he? It sounds... like it's already given up.
But is it telling the truth?
"...Who are you?" she asks. "Who named you Beast? Can you remember, well... anything?"
Park watches and listens to the Beast's answers. Seeing the chains and obvious discomfort he can only feel pity for him. "So. Someone is using him. Committing crimes and blaming the beast, and probably embroiling the crowds so it'll be hard to get a fair trial."
He gets Gustav's attention. "We'll go to Morast then, and look for evidence. Somebody committed the crime, but the Beast wasn't even there.... Any chance you could look in to who is 'working the crowds'?"
"Who named you Beast? Can you remember, well... anything?"
"Town. People. They call me Beast and I am, so is good." he answers, looking a little confused at the question. "Creator not give me name, so I go by Beast."
Any chance you could look in to who is 'working the crowds'?"
Gustav looks at Park curiously before answering. "I'm not sure there is anyone working on anything with the crowds, if I'm being honest. The people of Lepidstadt have been terrorized by the Beast for many years, they have built up a hate for the thing all on their own." he sighs, running a hand through his thinning hair. "You go to Morast, see what you can find from the people there. There's also that witness from the village upstairs, should you wish to talk to him first."
"Mor....ast.. Was not there. Never been."
"Woke up in school. Angry, not know why I there. Confused, smash things."
Raj considers the new pieces of the puzzle. ”You were never in Morast… What about a farming town called Hergstag. That would have been a little more than half a year ago. Were you ever there? There might have been some kids.”
"Creator not give me name, so I go by Beast."
”Kinda cold, not givin’ you a name. What do you know about Creator?”
"You go to Morast, see what you can find from the people there. There's also that witness from the village upstairs, should you wish to talk to him first."
”We’re definitely gonna talk to him. But first I got a few more questions for our client.”
Park nods at Gustav's words. "I spent a couple of years here at University. And I'm a Bard. I know about working a crowd. You use whispers to create screams. Suggestions to steer a crowd to do things that they normally wouldn't even consider. You say they have been terrorized by the Beast for many years. I don't remember any stories about this.... man, terrorizing anyone. Has he been seen chasing locals with weapons, randomly attacking them? Has he been eating babies? Ripping intestines out of animals and decorating homes with the blood and gore?"
"Nevermind. I've seen the crowds now. Even if we can win the legal case he can't stay here. No way he could live his life with the crowd wanting to burn him alive. But we'll have to figure that out after."
"Where is the witness? Maybe we should get his story before we head to Morast."
”You were never in Morast… What about a farming town called Hergstag. That would have been a little more than half a year ago. Were you ever there? There might have been some kids.”
"I...I 'member Hergstag. Ellsa..." it says quietly, nearly whispering. Its face tightens, the stitching pulling back its jaw into a grimace, making it look almost like the Beast is laughing. Even a cursory glance, however, shows that the Beast is actually trying to cry.
After the mentioning of Hergstag, the Beast doesn't speak for quite a while, the crying continuing for a few minutes before finally pulling itself together.
"I lived..in tangle by lake. Local girl my friend. The children dead, but not me. A ghost who stole their souls and walks at night. I didn't do it!" the beast is straining at its bonds again, and Gustav steps in to suggest that perhaps more questioning isn't the best for now.
"The witness, an elder of the village named Lazne, is downstairs. Feel free to question him before you head to Morast."
Lazne is a grizzled, middle-aged man with dirty gray hair and skin the color of swamp mud, and is currently shooting the breeze with a couple of the guards lounging around in the courthouse. He chews on a foul-smelling swamp weed and punctuates most of his sentences by spitting weed-juice onto the ground.
The group heads downstairs to speak with Lazne. Approaching the man Park tries a friendly smile. "Hello Lazne. My name is Park. My friends and I would like to ask you about the Beast. We understand that you are here to testify to his activities in Morast? We're curious to know what happened. Was anyone attacked? Seriously harmed?"
Zhandar casts enhanced diplomacy on the others as they head downstairs.
Beast gets upset…
Raj is quick to try to make eye-contact with the Beast, ”Hey! Look at me! I believe you. A ghost took them. We’ll look into that, too. OK? Try to be calm.” Raj makes a mental note to exclude Kaple from their next interview. He didn’t need anyone running interference while he was trying to dig up the truth. He tables that matter as they allow themselves to be shepherded out to go meet Lazne.
The rogue says nothing but watches and listens to Lazne closely, trying to determine the truth of anything he has to say to Park.
Mila isn't entirely sure what they hope to find in Morast-- the Beast says he never went there, and it's hard to find evidence of a negative, she reckons-- but she puts that thought on hold for now in favor of their talking to the supposed witness.
She offers an attempted polite smile at Lazne.
"Yessir, just some questions to get it all straight in our heads!"
Lazne looks over at you, pulling himself away from his idle chit chat and spitting the swamp weed on the floor unceremoniously.
"Why do you wanna know? Don't rightly trust cityfolk and
furriners like you all. I can tell you ain't like us." he says suspiciously, eyeing the party over carefully before sighing dramatically. "Ah, well, I've told my story enough times here, may as well tell it again."
"At first the Beast only took lone villagers who were outside at night, but soon became bolder and began to attack houses. These attacks only ended when I organized the villagers and set a trap for the Beast. I recalls that night well. 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."
"It took to the water, but us swampers gave chase in their boats, pursuing it to the village boneyard, where it was attacked by a blood caiman." Lazne grins as he recalls how the Beast yelled oaths and curses that even the worst whore in Lepidstadt would blush to say as the gator attacked it, and describes the deep bite wound the gator made on the Beast’s shoulder as it dragged the Beast under the water.
"Although the Beast’s blood tainted our burial ground and forced us to abandon it and build another, everyone in Morast thought it a small price to pay for the thing’s death. Hearing that the Beast actually survived was all that I needed to tell his story to the authorities, and I am greatly looking forward to seeing it burn." he finishes matter of factly, smirking smugly at his 'victory' over the thing torturing his village for so long.
Park listens to the man's story critically.
"That's very disturbing. I've seen the Beast and can't imagine wanting to face such a hideous creature in battle. And you say he was yelling, oaths and curses? You must be very brave. How many of your neighbors fought with you? You must be a very respected leader."
"As I said, we went down to see him. He's chained down, completely harmless now. Perhaps you should go see him. Let him know how you feel. The worst he might do would be shake the chains and yell at you. I doubt he would though. He hardly looked at us...."
He watches the man while he speaks, wondering how he will react. They'd definitely need to investigate, maybe in the village 'boneyard'.
Lazne does genuinely believe what he's saying is the truth, there is no hint of deception in his words. Whether or not that means it is the truth is a different question, obviously.
He doesn't seem to like the way Park is speaking, perhaps sensing some sort of sarcasm in the bard's words, but shrugs it off and answers them anyway.
"If you've seen the Beast as you claim, then you know just as I do what a brave feat it actually was. I don't have any interest in seeing that thing again until it's in court or burning. Thanks for the invitation anyway."
"Now, unless you've got any more actually useful questions, I'd like to get back to wasting my time until tonight's court. Enjoy your travels." he says coldly, seemingly done giving out information.
Park stares at Lazne for several seconds after the man's obvious BS response. Since he is feeling that he's just wasting time Park wonders why he's even here. Well, they can take his 'testimony' apart in from of the judge and jury. The errors are so obvious they didn't even need evidence.
But, since the people of Morast seemed to have actually faced something or someone that was trying to frame the Beast. ?? He turns away. "Thank you for your time Lazne. We'll see you at tonight's court then." He motions for the others to leave.
"We don't have much time but I do think we need to go out there. The town folk apparently did face something, and maybe the gator did get a bite of it? I doubt we'll get any better story from anyone else. But we should take a look around that burial ground."
Raj looks at Park like he’s taken leave of his senses. He doesn’t need any acting skill to sell it. At the bard’s motion to leave, Raj shakes his head emphatically. Summoning every ounce of his upland, mountain accent, he replies. ”I’m gonna set a bit. But you aughta take a walk, right now. Clear yur head.”
After Park (and anyone else) leaves, Rajuna mutters and shakes his head again before looking at Lazne. ”If I said sorry ever-time the ‘college man’ got a bug up his arse, I’d be doin’ it all day, every day. Only thing worse would be unnerstandin’ why that bug crept up there at’tall… But sorry to you and yours for havin’ to hear whatever that was.”
”I got some questions I think are useful. Least-wise they may put a thorn in some Leipdstadt mucky-mucks' side… As I hear it, Morast ain’t much more than a stretch from here and that monster kilt ten of your’n. An’ it sounds like you dealt with the creature all yourselfs. How long did the beast threaten your village and did Lepidstadt send you any help to kill it?”
Mila stays with Rajuna, feeling there's maybe more questions to ask (and perhaps feeling stung about being lumped in with 'cityfolk').
"Yessir, I'd hate to have faced it down myself, it's huge. Now 'm sorry if this is a dumb sorta question, 'm just aimin' to get it straight in my head-- so you all ran it off, right? You chased it to the boneyard, an' it tried to get away in the water, and thass when the gator got it and dragged it under? An' thass the last you saw of it, til you heard he'd been caught here in the city?"
And you ain't seen it-- him-- here.... so why're you so sure it's the same creature y'all fought? she thinks, but doesn't say aloud.
Lazne noticeably calms down upon Rajuna and Mila speaking up, his anger quenched by their apparent similarities.
"It threatened us for 'bout...a couple of weeks. It was pestering us before, testin us we thinks. But then it started taking people at night, so of course we had to take action. First victim was a hunter from the outskirts, that one made me sad, I quite liked her. We didn't ask the fancy sheriff or nothin' for help, you and I both know out there you take care of your own."
"Tha bout right, yeah. They sent a letter saying they had found it, and captured it. We thought the gator got 'em good, but apparently not."
Raj has a proper think about what’s being said. ”I got some experience with monsters as you mighta guessed, Mister Lazne, and hunting ‘em.” The scars across his face speak for themselves. ”I’m apologizin’ if my next questions are hard. I’m tryin’ to get a handle on the beast you’all fought. It stalked your village and took lone folks to start. Did you ever find any of them or any of the folks attacked at home? What did it do? Did it claw or bite’em like an animal? Or beat’em? Or somethin’ else? When you chased it to ground in your boats… was it hard to catch up to, like it was a good swimmer?”
”We didn't ask the fancy sheriff or nothin' for help, you and I both know out there you take care of your own.”
Raj nods grimly. ”That is for truth! Unless the problem is in their backyard, the city-folk do nothing... But when there’s taxes to collect, oh they’re standing in yur kitchen when you get home for dinner. Do you rec’llect anyone tellin’ the city-sheriff about what happened in Morast?”
Did you ever find any of them or any of the folks attacked at home? What did it do? Did it claw or bite’em like an animal? Or beat’em? Or somethin’ else?
"Dunno, never saw any of its victims until the day we caught it in our trap and drove it off. They always just disappeared, and we all decided he probably ate 'em."
When you chased it to ground in your boats… was it hard to catch up to, like it was a good swimmer?
He looks a bit confused at your question, wondering at the purpose of it, but answers regardless. "Wasn't that good of a swimmer, no, but we didn't get much of a chance to chase it before the caiman caught up and gave him a good bite. Assumed it was dead, and didn't think about it again until the good ole sherriff came round and let us know they had it in their jail cell."
When he hears that you're heading out to Morast and want to investigate the boneyard, Lazne actually offers to take you there himself. "Can't get to the island boneyard except by boat, I'll take you there since you all are offering to help and all that."
The trip to Morast itself doesn't take all that long, just about over an hour. The people of this small village look much more healthy and energetic than you would've thought that such a backwater place would have, lending some credit to the rumors you heard about the place earlier. Lazne does indeed paddle you over in one of their coracles.
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.
In addition, a length of rope stretches from the boat into the waters below. The rope is attached to something quite heavy when pulled on, requiring a DC 10 Strength check to haul up.
Zhandar will take a minute while they are traveling to prepare another casting of tears to wine, and she will cast it for the party just before they make shore.
Since she doesn't believe they should split up to search the island, she will wait to see where the others decide to start, so she can aid them with guidance and by looking around herself.
As they travel to Morast, Raj considers the information gleaned during the interview. If their killer wasn’t a strong swimmer, there are caiman in the water, and his pursuers had boats… why head into the water? You can't outswim a boat or a caiman, and a large strong man fights better on land. Going for a swim seems desperate. Looks like he was trying HARD to get to the island-boneyard. Why?
Raj is no-nonsense when they arrive in Morast. ”Scour the isle quick, so we can git back for court. I’m gonna root around the southwest area.”
[GM will we have time to search more than one spot each?
"I don't think any of us should be alone. Zhandar can go with Rajuna. Mila can come with me and Birdie. We'll start in the graveyard."
They continue to the South end after the graveyard.
Assuming Zhandar and Rajuna also did the Southwest shore since they were in that area? We can meet up before going back to the coracle.
Not the first time they've had Zhandar's strange mind-sharpening drink now, but Mila always wonders what precisely is in it, yet not had the courage to ask....
She nods her understanding of Park's suggestion, and trails along with Park and Birdie, eyes scanning the graveyard for trouble, or signs of meaningful things. She's never worked an 'investigation' before; it's a little exciting.
"Those graves... why're those six messed with? Who was buried here?" she wonders aloud. Milovica carefully writes down the names and any other information of the missing bodies, if such information is written on the gravestones. She also whispers a prayer to detect magic frequently as they walk.