Meet 104, Adv 6, 11/23/19

The party had the chance to try Lord Gregor Ostlerson in a Council of Lords - with half the group playing themselves, and the other half LARPing the officiating Lords. So half the group had to PROVE to the other half of the group about Big GO/Lord Gregor Ostlerson's crimes. Lord Gregor was able to defend himself and more importantly, bring doubt to the proceedings.

It was very satisfying but at the same time aggravating because although they knew he was dirty, they couldn't convict him on all 4 counts.

And they have established a nobleman who hates them and his darkly charismatic son as life long enemies.

Write up follows:

The two groups made their way east and southeast through the cold snow, the horses and sleighs turning the trip from a horrible slog to something decent. The two groups talked at length about what they had learned, Thalin and Shim at opposite ends of the spectrum regarding the Falsers. Shim had felt better but had the fear that the Falser Brothers were still acting in the Theocrat’s interests and enslaving gnomes outside of Nightwoods. If ever we got a chance to return to Stivil, he’d like the opportunity to look further throughout their factory.

The crux of it was the Falser’s were still criminals and murders – and to Shim they were and they were not. It was a tense conversation and the miles passed by slowly and over some time.

Darius, Barb, Thon, and Eoghan arrived at Durcent Province first. It had to be about 2 in the morning or so and there was no one around to talk with. After a brief conversation with the guards at the Demesne the group went off to stay at the Woodward (acting) Nagaf at the north end of the Province.

We went off and after some tense back and forth with Nagaf and Fain, the former wards of the original Woodward, we managed to arrange a place to stay (Fain was concerned we were here for sex, deviant or not, as the former Woodward often had late visitors come by) while Darius went back to the trail IN to the Province to await for Rhygar and the other sleigh which arrived some 40 minutes later.

We all slept well and the next late morning awoke, ate, and then made our way to the Manorhouse and Lord Durcent. From there we spent some time filling the Lord, Sheriff Thurbarn, and the Ranger’s assistant Sundar Longwalker of everything we had been a part off since we arrive almost 3 weeks earlier, the Wolf Skull Orcs, the raids, the hunt for the killer, Ixitch Barrowman and Canaslan, our problems there, the Bloodtusk tribe, the woodcutter’s cottage, Big GO, Thon, Stivil, the Falser’s, and eventually all the paperwork and books and disjointed pieces of evidence we had acquired which shows a long and winding trail leading everything back to Lord Gregor Ostlerson as the perpetrator behind everything.

Lord Durcent was stunned. As a fellow lord, he had to elevate this to the next step and that meant sending it off for a Council of Lords tribunal, where the case was being forwarded to Baron Skuddrid of Stivil, an older lord and statesmen, who had presided over 30 of these cases already.

The Baron agreed to the case and would convene the Council on the 16th of Deathmonth where all the parties would be able to come and present their case. So we laid low and then on the 15th, made our way back to Stivil where we found ourselves at the hospitality of the Baron himself. The Council was also going to be judged by Lord Dunthar Rockholm, a dwarven lord whose family has been part of the rebuild of Stivil since the Randari war over a century earlier, and Sir Agor Randari, an orcish lord who was folded into the nobility some time ago, his clan given the original lands they had owned long ago as their own Demesne.

Lord Gregor Ostlerson was here as well, along with his son Fersic Gregson, the applicant Sheriff. Tensions were high and tempers were strained, especially once the Council of Lords began and Gregor discovered that HE was the subject in question! A number of charges had been leveled against him and the Council’s job was to discover if his crimes were elevated to the state of no contest. If so, he could be stripped of land and titles.

Lord Durcent had three of the party members come forward and detail the crimes and the path lead: Barb, Darius, and Thon – as each of them had a specific point of direct knowledge of how the crimes were laid out.

Throughout the trial, Lord Ostlerson rebutted as need be, offered alternative points of views, and did succeed on many occasions to muddy the waters and cast doubt on the proceedings – even though the party knew what they were presenting was the truth.

It took many hours and Fersic was most upset with Thon who he had assumed was a friend. And Darius and the younger Sheriff applicant had little lost love for each other. Baron Skuddrid kept the trial moving along and with many prompts had the story come out. However, upon the end of all things, even though there were 4 charges leveled against the Lord, only one of them was found to be guilty enough to merit disciplinary action.

As punishment, Lord Gregor Ostlerson was responsible for 5% of the Net Profits of the Demesne to be paid to the Baron for 10 seasons and Fersic Gregson was to be stripped of hereditary titles for taking over the Demesne. That was it. And since Lord Gregor has not acknowledged any of his bastards and only had the one son from his 2nd wife, it meant that as of this moment, upon Lord Gregor’s death, the land would revert to Baron Skuddrid and the Baron could assign the 120 acre Demesne to another Lord as he sees fit.

The group was…disappointed at best. Lord Gregor effectively gets away with his crime and that was it. There was a bright point; Baron Skuddrid was dispatching an investigative team of 12 members to go over the Demesne to find signs of the drug manufacturing on the property. If that was to be found, there would be further punishment and fines levied at the benighted Lord.