Session 16: Hettle, Ace Attorney
General Summary
Previous Session: Session 15: Try, Try Again
Erlenwald, Hettle, and Muda are taken in manacles to the guardhouse as Willow informs Jaraleto of the development, and they go as well. Jaraleto asks to see the captives at the guardhouse, saying Erlenwald is his brother. The guard goes inside to have Erlenwald confirm this. The guard returns and allows the two to enter, escorting them to the holding cell. Willow and Jaraleto want to pay their friends' bail, but Hettle is adamant that he can argue his innocence to the reeve and refuses to pay. Willow attempts bartering with the guard to release their friends but is unwilling to pay the 150 GP the guard wanted. The guard says that their friends' court hearing is tomorrow before noon, before escorting them out. As they reach outside, they see Glen arriving after sleeping in on the first night of their journey. He asks if Louis was with them, but they had assumed Louis was with Glen. They head to the Busted Lute and have drinks while they await their friends' trial, thinking Louis is on guild business again.
They sit at the only open table in the tavern, at the back and next to tables of bandits. As they drink, a bulge-eyed lizardfolk enters the tavern. It single-mindedly walks to the Lads' table, walking on one of the bandit tables stepping on their food and spilling their drinks. The bandits draw their weapons and threaten the Lizardfolk and Lads, ready to attack. Glen decays one of the bandits with necrotic energy, and Skha'k instantly kills another; the remaining bandit at the table drops his weapon, apologizes, and flees the tavern. The Lads sit back down, and the Lizardfolk introduce themselves as Skha'k. He explains that he has been following the party around Mariam since they returned. Like them, he tells them that his former party was doing silk collecting for the guild some time ago, but the shoddy weapons the guild provided broke and led to the giant spiders killing all but him. Suspecting foul play, Skha'k wishes to join the party, hoping that together they could stop the Silk Guild and prevent any more tragedies. Willow tells him of Krosk, their former Lizardfolk companion, and Skha'k explains that, like Krosk, pirates attacked him before becoming an adventurer. The Lads discuss, and Willow has the idea to hire Skha'k to break into the Silk Guild. Skha'k agrees and spends the rest of the night with them in the tavern. The Lads then camp that night in the village.
The next day, the party meets at the reeve's manor for the court proceeding. Guards escort them into the courtroom; Erlenwald, Hettle, and Muda sit at a table while the rest of the party sits on benches. The guard calls for all to rise as the honourable reeve Helena Kordun presides. Helena declares that Muda is to pay a 100 GP fine and 5 GP for damages, and Erlenwald and Hettle are to pay a 50 GP fine as accomplices, believing that they are Muda's caretakers. Hettle argues that simply being privy to a crime does not incriminate him and Erlenwald and that they are not related to Muda, nor are they his caretakers. Hettle's convincing argument is enough to have Helena waive his and Erlenwald's fine, but Muda must still pay 105 GP. Muda uses all of his money, and Hettle and Jaraleto help pay for the remainder. With the penalty paid, Helena adjourns the court and dismisses everyone. Outside, the party regroups and moves to their regular campsite in Mariam. Muda thanks Hettle and Jaraleto by offering them his Beltsnik, which will go to whoever wins in a fight. Jaraleto refuses and concedes the belt, saying it is a waste of time and should focus on the task at hand. Hettle berates Jaraleto and takes the Beltsnik with a sense of pride and accomplishment. They spend the remainder of the day resting and doing some shopping in the markets.
At night, the party gathers outside the Silk Guild, shrouded in shadow, while the paladins stand at a distance with the horses and cart. Willow casts Pass Without Trace, muffling their steps as they attempt to scale the eastern wall of the guild. Muda stands below a window on the second floor and holds Glen on his shoulders. Skha'k then climbs them and finds the window is unable to open, so he quietly breaks it to enter a bedroom. Skha'k drops down a rope, and everyone can climb in. Searching the bedroom, they find some guild documents referencing transactions, but none of them stand out as significant. Skah'k manages to find a black-wood stick and a pair of cobweb embroidered slippers in a bedside drawer. He also finds 50 GP, 200 SP, and 400 CP in the drawer. The party skulks their way through a hallway, peeking into several other, smaller bedrooms with sleeping guild employees inside. They find themselves on the second floor of the main lobby through one door, with the supervisor and two thugs below. They manage to cross the balcony silently and to the weapons display room. They find more of what they had seen in this room before. Skha'k picks the lock on another door in this room. Inside, they find bookshelves filled with books of membership logs and transactions. One of the transaction documents they find lists purchases of 'Animal Goods' from 'Zesto's Finest,' which they recognize as the person Gelden Greybeard said was his boss. Willow copies down a page of these transactions as the party now plan to find out where precisely the bandits are in Mariam to stop them.
Next Session: Session 17: Silk Guild 2
Rewards Granted
- Black-wood stick
- Cobweb slippers
- 50 GP
- 200 SP
- 400 CP
Character(s) interacted with
- Skha'k, the Lizardfolk
- Helena Kordun, reeve of Mariam
Comments