subplotkudzu | Emirikol Session 15, part 6

Cyble, Deitrick and Melas enter the city to find the face-wounded constable cleaning his rifle by the carriage. Deitrick gets recruited to help capture the wanted felon, looking over the writ of arrest and finding that it does not specific Encial as the point of confinement – a major error of assumption on their part that he can exploit. He then keeps the locals from killing the badly confused lions, earning the thanks of the gnome huntsman, Oguz Cizniski, who is staying outside the city until his animals recover. Clearing his plans with the constables he then employs a local hedge wizard to amplify his voice so that he might announce that he, the paladin Deitrick von Eisenwald, was prepared to personally accept the surrender of Hiram Desaud with promises of a fair trial. He then settled in to wait in the town square, seeing Scarface covering him with a rifle from a rooftop lest the dangerous fugitive try something.

Meanwhile the others try to follow Hiram’s track. Knowing him they start at the whorehouse, but they learn quickly enough what the constables have discovered – Lord Desaud is just too wily a target. Eventually he spots them and initiates a cautious contact, ending with them sharing beers and heavy Halfling bread in a 24 hour caravanserai tavern. “I’ve had this beer before,” Cybele warns. “You’ll need the bread.” They eventually convince Hiram that the three of them are on his side when they hear Deitrick’s statement. Cybele signs in relief, “Well, he’d never sell you out and would never lie, so he must have figured some way out of this.” Hiram agrees, dispenses with his disguise and openly goes to surrender to the paladin, holding his sheathed sword and dagger dangling from his our stretched arms as to remove any claim from the constables that they fired in Deitrick’s defense. He could see in the wounded guards eyes that he really, really wanted to fire but was bound by law not to.

The surrender accomplished Deitrick informed the guards that he is his role as a paladin would be bringing Hiram to Poorock, the river city that was the desitnation of many of the local caravans, as it was the closest city with an imperial judge. He then noted how their warrant did not state Encial. Again, the guards were not thrilled, but the law was the law. Hiram was careful to make no threatening or even sarcastic moves and Deitrick oversaw every aspect of his re-confinement in the carriage to prevent any accidents. Cybele and Melas secured two more horses and the group ate caravan dust all the way to Poorock, some two day’s ride away. The group suspects that Oguz – not an officer of the law but a retriever hired by Lucian Desaud – made some abortive attempts to reclaim the young actor on the trip but he was too well guarded for such shenanigans to go past the reconnaissance stage. Still, they are sure that Oguz will be a problem again in the future.

By the time they reach Poorock – a lively, well ordered city unlike Emirikol in nearly every way, with hit’s right angle streets, even construction and every building being slightly shorter than the one next to it, giving the whole a feeling a hill rising to the central prominence of a single wizard’s tower – Hiram had brought three of his four former captors around to being more or less on his side. Scarface, aka Calvet Alfredo, is still unfavorably disposed to the young actor, but the others find himself swayed by his considerable charm. Not so swayed that they wouldn’t kill him if ordered, but they weren’t ordered to so do. (They might be agents of an unjust legal system, but it is still a legal system – why Lawful Evil opponents are better than Chaotic Evil ones).

They visit the local imperial magistrate who, upon reading the writ and hearing the basics of the case, places it on the spring docket. She feels no need to rush this and has many other local cases to deal with first. Hiram will have to remain here in custody unless someone can vouch for his return. Melas immediately does so, asking the cost of the bail. “None,” she sniffs, “You are a nobleman after all.” Hiram swears to Melas before the magistrate that he will return to Poorock for his trial date, and Melas swears to the magistrate that he will make it so. And thus Hiram’s release is, at least temporarily secured. The constables hand Hiram’s sword over to Melas for keeping (technically speaking Hiram is not supposed to wear it while bound by law, but Melas can loan it to him for emergencies) and begin their long trek back over the mountains and back to Encial.

Our heroes, meanwhile, begin their planning to enter the forest and slay the dragon Bluebeard.

Emirikol Session 15, part 6

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