Feeling uncomfortable with Marshall Westwinter, they opted to forego the honor and thereby defined the way this little town-jaunt was going to go.
Write up follows:
Over the 4 weeks that we trained we also had our equipment repaired, sold off odd bits of esoterica we had found, purchased new supplies and items we thought would come in handy, and made sure our home was in fine repair and well stocked.
Auri was a constant appearance at the Hall of Heroes, although getting any real conversation out of her was difficult as she was very non-descript in her answers and most of her past was still a shrouded mystery. She spent the majority of her day painting, working on some heroic 4 part depiction of Tempi’s final days.
As for the rest of us we read books, wrote spells, made contacts, and tried to learn what we could of Marshall Ippsilas Westwinter and his deputies. The Marshall himself was a Centurion during the Goblin Purge and his charter and appointment came directly from King Argos in his desire to “ensure law” to all the towns, cities, and thorps to the west of Elvenkeep that had suffered the most under the goblin yoke and most recently from the organized banditry that was plaguing the roads. Aristocratic, militant, exacting – he seemed to be well received by the people of Shakun although he had made some waves with the established militia and the Captain of the Guard, Thragriel.
His deputies were next. An Amazonian woman of 6’2” and 200 lbs., Caladis was his right-hand person and although capable with sword and spear, sported a massive 16# double-bitted war-axe as her weapon of choice. She was terse and showed no emotion except for quiet disgust unless with the Marshall. Sterkis of Woodhelven was next, a wood elven archer who supposedly had some skill as a sharpshooter, greasy looking and furtive, he was known for his long bow which was almost as tall as he was.
After that was Zerphis of Gul, a bladesman who was fond of rapier and dirk combat and had spent much of his time patrolling the Elven quarter as well as Tanner’s Way. According to Fist’al, even Pellis the Rugmerchant (local leader of the thieves guild) gave this guy a wide berth and avoided contact with him. Lastly was Belamy Freespell, a booming voiced and friendly personage who although had a broadsword at his waist, was more proud of his ironwood Barmeerian made heavy crossbow. The presence of an overly large tom-cat named Magnum that often shadowed his steps made the locals think that Belamy might be a sorcerer of some sort.
It was on the 24th of Heatmonth, just as the summer was beginning to flow and the temperatures rise that we were paid a visit by Marshal Westwinter and his deputy Caladis. We welcomed to the Hall of Heroes and the Marshall wasted no time in getting to the heart of the meeting, which was to ask the party to be deputized to, as he put it, “promise to support and defend the people and property of Shakun against all banditry and lawlessness in the name of Baron Taugis and King Argos.”
Needless to say we were stunned. We tried to ask questions and work around this but the Marshall was looking for an answer now. Our questioning of his request only seemed to irritate the Marshall who began to lose confidence in us. He wondered aloud at what type of adventurers we were, if we were rabble-rousers or not. He asked to see our charter which we presented and he pointed out that Geld, Auri, and Bildad were NOT on the charter and therefore were not entitled to stay at the Hall of Heroes and should find lodging elsewhere. He also wondered if the town Exquecher, Gilderoy Farwalk, had come in to take our quarterly tax responsibility.
We begged for time to see if taking the deputation would conflict with our current charter with Baron Taugis and settled on finding out and an answer on the 26th. The Marshall left, Caladis with him, reminding the party that Geld, Auri, and Bildad had to be out and someplace else by 10 PM.
After he left we realized that the Marshall being pissed at us for not jumping at his request was going to be a thorn in our side. He had mentioned bandit attacks between here and Orland over the last week or so and that if that was the case, we were not performing our current charter as adventurers. Also, since he ostensibly answered to King Argos and not Baron Taugis, the Marshall was a bit outside the normal chain of command. By having us be deputized we would then be under his “command” so to speak and not the Baron’s. This was a bit beyond us for now.
Auri went to the Rhyback’s to sleep, Bildad going with her. Marcus put up Geld in the Pixie Down Inn for the night. As expected, we were “checked” just after 10 PM and assured the deputies that we were good, and the 3 non-signed members were not staying here. We rested and the next morning gathered together and made our way to Town Hall to meet with the Magistrate and add BIl, Auri, and Geld to the Charter.
We noted that Sterkis, the elven deputy, was watching us during our trip across Town Square and did NOT see him upon our leaving. From there we went to see Baron Taugis and spoke to him in couched terms about the Marshall where we were given to learn that the Marshall was actually following the letter of the laws in question if not the spirit. We left the Baron and returned home where we were asked to show our Charter and then had to sit with the Exquecher as he went over our finances and made sure our tax responsibility was up to date.
After he left we talked long about the deputation and eventually decided that we would NOT accept the tin stars the Marshal was offering. Belamy Freespell did show up to visit with us on the 25thand even though we knew he was checking up on us, he was engaging, conversational, and seemingly friendly. We did try to get his drunk of Bullywug wine but the effects instead seemed to pass on to his cat and he remained clear-headed.
As expected, on the morning of the 26th @ 8:30 promptly AM, Marshall Westwinter and Deputy Caladis returned where we respectfully declined his offer of deputation and told him that we wanted to maintain our focus as adventurers first and maintain our primary allegiance to Baron Taugis.
It went over like a drunk dwarf at an elvish wedding.
The Marshall had just left, incensed and disappointed at our decision and hoping that we would at one point come to our senses and revisit this issue.
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