Write up follows:
The few party members still at the Council of Lords had the opportunity to see Lord Durcent go up to Baron Skuddrid and vent his intense displeasure over the verdict. Punishments? Fines? What about Sedition, and Murder and everything else? How the hell can you all three on the Council sit there and just LET him get away with it?!?
The Baron informed Lord Durcent that he has been a part of 35 of these Councils over his 60 plus years, sometimes as a junior member, lately as the head arbiter. And they are fraught with issues that plague everyone. We live in a feudal system – the line of support runs up and down the chain from Duke down to knight and eventually to serf and peasant. Each level taking from the level both above and below it – and offering support in each direction. Stratifying? Yes. But vital in order to maintain order and goodwill to all personages.
At any time evil forces are looking to disrupt any level of the system and everyone needs to work together to keep the fabric as a whole. And when you are Baron, you see so many more threads and buttresses and lines than the levels below – and it’s precarious because if any one part of society realizes that they can be supplanted – the system will break down.
So stripping a Lord of his name and titles needs to be done only at the UTMOST and 100% without a doubt reason where everyone can look at the crimes and nod their head in unison and say, Yes, THAT is a bad man and deserves to be taken apart and thrown down.
And the case against Lord Ostlerson is NOT that. Yes, it’s complete in its own fashion, and yes he did try to appoint his son as Sheriff, but his issues and plotting and crimes both minor and major do not rise to the level of removal of position. If other Lords, Knights, or gentry came to the realization that they can be punished accordingly for their 60% petty crimes and schemes – the system would quickly collapse. And Baron Skuddrid cannot let that happen – since the case was only somewhat compelling against Gregor.
BUT, his son is no longer possible to become Lord, and he is losing profit and freedom, there are investigators on his Demesne looking to his actions and activities looking to find and expose his lies. Lord Durcent will still have to work with Lord Ostlerson, but the other Lord will now be on an uneven footing and will be much more guarded in his dealings on a going forward.
While still in Stivil, Shim did go back and visit the Falser Confectionary where he had the chance to sit with Malted and Uke. They took him to their apartment where Shimlagesh had the opportunity to eat with them and some 20 other gnomes, hear from them their stories on escaping the Nightwoods, see how they live and are treated, and then went on a tour of the factory floor where he saw gnomes making a life for themselves and trying to find a place for themselves when their servitude is up after giving the Falser’s 15 years.
Not slaves. Not a part of the Theocracy. And being treated well and with dignity. Shim also learned that the Falsers felt that the contract work they had been doing on behalf of Rargitild of the Green Hills with the “boorish human” was about done. He is a blowhard, in some sort of trouble, and truthfully, although humans attacking other humans for a profit is funny to watch, the Falsers want nothing more to do with the tall folk and their stupid short sighted games in order to garner a profit.
Shim left feeling real good and the party proceeded back to the Durcent Province where Darius and Shim had many long discussions about Shim’s feelings regarding the Falsers. They are murderers – and that’s it. And Shim had a different feeling on it, and IT was a long round and round discussion on the matter that had the two of them feeling a strain in their normally bucolic friendship.
At the Durcent Province we did gather a reward from Lord Durcent for our efforts, a pile of the bark to return to Celeste Firesworn, and considerable foodstuffs as further appreciation for what we’ve done.
We then traveled back to Erylond where we arrived at long last on the evening of the 20th of Deathmonth. We took our sleighs and horses to the Mage’s District where we fulfilled the final part of our contract and were paid a bag of silver for doing our part. The party was going to head back to home at long last…
However, during the 3 plus weeks since we’ve been gone, the OTHER half of the group had many meetings with Pha-iyr Carom where after a week of waiting on the group’s return, decided to hold interviews on potential people to join our party. We know we needed some sort of front line fighting and possibly a cleric of some sort. Pha-iyr had 7 interviews for us and we met them the next day at the Adventuring Guild.
They were a mixed bunch. From the key handing lover dwarven bard named Flint, to the paladin who was so off putting about his skills or lack thereof that he effectively wrote himself out of consideration. There were a pair of monastic brothers, each one larger than the other, followers of Sif who although were enticing, didn’t have the skills the party needed at this time.
There was a Fighter Priest who certainly fit the bill although his experience was a bit lacking, and a half-orcish Druid to Idun that we felt would be a good mix to our party. But there was a knight with a squire, human, tall, that seemed to be above the party’s capability and skills. He was returning to the fold of adventuring after retiring a few years ago and doing bounty work finding criminals to bring in to justice.
Ozure Parson, he was a possibility but the group assumed he would be a no since we were not at his skill level but he thanked us for the interview and confided that he was following some visions he had of coming in and interviewing here. His latest bounty was going to take years to resolve and he was following the skein of the Norns at this time, going where he felt led.
When he got up he and his man unfurled their surcoats and we could see his personal sigil of a blue boar on his field of off white. He joked saying he had the nickname of the Blue Boar, Ozure Parson…Azure Porcine…that he took no offense to and was happy to known as.
And although this half of the group, the name Blue Boar meant nothing…the other half of the group currently out adventuring KNOWS that the Blue Boar is the name of the “being released” to hunt down Barb as warned to her in the seamstress’s shop in a possessed vision regarding the Ravenstone.
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