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[mainiac]

Aduail and Winston ride through the town with the crowd parting before them.  Seeing them on horseback within the town the populace assumes that they must be important and get out of the way.  They get to a few houses away from Lorsen's home and confirm what was suspected, it is ablaze.  Aduial leaves Winston with the horses as she pushes her way into the crowd to search for the Baron or the Marshal.  But she arrives a bit late to take part in the rescue effots, the blaze is too large to enter the house and the populace is instead mobilizing to attempt to prevent it from spreading any further.  Ignoring the protests of the neighboring homeowners a group of men with axes are resolutely destroying the adjacent houses to prevent there from being anywhere for the fire to spread.  Aduial leaves them to it and circles around the crowd looking for the nobles.  She finds them after pushing through to the east side of the crowd.

Lorsen is sitting in the street outside the throng.  He watches his home go up in flames with defeated resignation.  He spots Aduial moving towards him and stares at her for a few seconds but doesn't move.  Then he returns to staring at his home.  The crowd doesn't even notice him, being much more interested in the conflagration.

Aduial turns her attention back into the crowd and finds the baron in the midst of it.  He must have inhaled some smoke because he is leaning on a member of the town guard for support as he walks.  Another man has a sword drawn to make sure he doesn't escape although it doesn't seem like there is much point in that.  Questioning the baron is Guild Magistrate Theon, surrounded by a gaggle of guildsmen, evidently the fire interrupted some sort of meeting.  Aduial draws closer to see what their conversation is about.  She isn't the only one, Customs Master Taddernes pushes through the crowd with an escort of two guardsmen.  He doesn't go up to Radhan though, instead he confronts Theon.

"You will step away from the prisoner now, Theon." the young man coolly commands his counterpart after pushing through the crowd.
"Taddernes?  This is neither the time nor place!  Run along and annoy someone else you damn whelp!"
Taddernes smiles in response.  "It gives me great pleasure to tell you that I am here to place you under arrest.  Now stand down Theon!"
The guards flanking Taddernes place their hands on the hilts of their blades and the confused guild master steps away from Radhan as instructed.

"Enjoying the show then are we?" Aduial is startled by a man grabbing her shoulder from behind.  She turns to see the unkept face of Sargeant Regdar leering at her.  "My boss has a message for you little lady.  You've been snooping around long enough, time for you to pack on back to the king.  If you have any sense in that pretty little head of yours then you can tell the king that the guild magistrate was a bad apple and he was behind everything.  We'd appreciate that." Regdar smiles and it is very clear that he hasn't gotten this far in life because of his charming smile.

[LordBucket]

"My boss has a message for you little lady.  You've been snooping around long enough, time for you to pack on back to the king.  If you have any sense in that pretty little head of yours then you can tell the king that the guild magistrate was a bad apple and he was behind everything.  We'd appreciate that."

: "Oh? Well, since you asked nicely, maybe I'll consider it. But tell your boss that it's not me, or the king he needs to worry about. His majesty doesn't particularly care who runs towns like Narseus provided they pay their taxes on time. I'm not here to stop your little coup. I'm here to convince House Dmarra that his majesty is taking reasonable precautions to ensure that the flow of trade goods through their most significant port remains unhindered. They're prepared to go to war to ensure that this region remains stable. And little demonstrations like this do nothing to paint a picture of regional stability."

*Glance in the direction of Theon*

"Arresting the Count's former steward probably won't impress them either."

*shrug and look indifferent*

"It doesn't matter much to me one way or another. I'll be leaving in a few days regardless. But I think it would greatly benefit whomever plans to still be left standing when this is all over to ensure that the remaining few days of my inspection are uneventful."


Provided he doesn't reveal anything especially useful in response, approach Tadderness next. Wipe Regdar's cooties off my shoulder on the way. I anticipate that the fact that I didn't threaten him now will later become significant. (Oohh...foreshadowing.)

: "Customs Master, by what authority are you placing this man under arrest? I don't see you confiscating any smuggled goods, and last I checked, speaking to a prisoner is not a customs offense. What are the charges?"

Speak loudly enough that the guildsmen surrounding Theon hear me.

[mainiac]

Regdar continues to smile.  "Oh you are a fiesty one.  But you shouldn't worry about the count." Regdar leans in close and whispers  "That son of a whore isn't even going to be count anymore when we're done with him.  Now get out.  Next time we meet the kid gloves come off, missy."  Without another word Regdar departs into the crowd.

"Customs Master, by what authority are you placing this man under arrest? I don't see you confiscating any smuggled goods, and last I checked, speaking to a prisoner is not a customs offense. What are the charges?"

One of the guild masters grabs Theons' arm and demands "I'd very much like to know the answer to that as well!  Last time I checked it was the mayor and the marshal who decide about arrests of this nature."

Taddernes smiles and brings out a scroll with a flourish.  Upon it bears the seal of the town and the seal of the mayor.  "It is the mayor who sent me.  Sadly the marshal could not take care of this matter himself.  But it can not wait.  Theon Alexandrus, you stand accused of treason against the town and and conspiring with demonic cultists.  I have uncovered evidence that you have been under the pay of Count Dmarrra since the day you arrived in our town.  You created this cult at the bidding of your real master.  I can not fathom the depraved reasons they would have for trying to unleash a daemon on our city."
"Taddernes you slimy bastard!  I'll see you hang for this one day!"  Theon scream in rage but does not resist as the men at arms reach out and take hold of him.  However someone else does resist, one of the guildsmen has gripped Theon closely and pulls him back.
"Evidence!  We demand to see evidence!"  There are murmurs of agreement at this demand from some of the other guildsmen.  The men at arms try to pull the magistrate again but he is still being held tightly.  One of the guards watching Radhan wades into the fray trying to pry the guildsmen off and the scuffle is starting to attract attention away from the men fighting the fire.  A shoving match is starting over the magistrate and it looks like this could be heading towards a riot soon enough.

[LordBucket]

Try to calm everyone down.

: "It's common knowledge that Alexandrus is a former associate of house Dmarra. That he be on their payroll is neither a crime nor particularly surprising. You claim the charge is treason. Very well, if you have evidence of that then present it. While we're at it, why don't you show us what's on that scroll? All I see is a piece of parchment with a seal."

(Call Lorsen over)
"Marshal!"

"The customs master appears to be claiming that you are unable to perform your duty and that he has been granted arrest powers by the mayor. It strikes me as awfully suspicious that this be decided just in time for him to show up as your house is burning down. It also seems strange that a customs officer would be given authority that supersedes the law. (glance to the guildsmen) And I think we all know that the mayor has been acting strangely of late."


Basically trying to rally the crowd while avoiding a riot. If they agree with me it doesn't matter who has legal authority. Nevertheless, inspect the scroll. Ideally it will be blank and he's simply waving the seal around. Still favorable would be that it's written in his hand and only signed by the mayor. If so, very loudly point that out and ask why that is. Even if it all checks out, I'm calling him out of his little wordplay game of charging treason but only claiming to have evidence of affiliation with count Dmarra. I expect that there are probably quite a few guildsmen in the crowd who would be very uncomfortable with the idea that receiving payment as a middleman between legitimate trading partners is now being interpreted as evidence of affiliation with cults.

Also, be on guard for a spellcast when the scroll is opened.

Regdar continues to smile.  "Oh you are a fiesty one.

Why do I get the impression he would have said that regardless of my response? Shrugging, expressing indifference, agreeing to consider leaving as he suggests and specifically telling him that I'm not going to try to stop what he's doing hardly strikes me as "feisty."

[mainiac]

Why do I get the impression he would have said that regardless of my response? Shrugging, expressing indifference, agreeing to consider leaving as he suggests and specifically telling him that I'm not going to try to stop what he's doing hardly strikes me as "feisty."

It does when he's the patriarchy!  Regdar can't exactly say "agree to what I say and get back in the kitchen!" to a noblewoman so "feisty" is what he settled for.

"All I see is a piece of parchment with a seal."

"Care to take a closer look?"  The customs master holds out the parchment to Aduial.  There is a lull in the scuffling as the guards and masters wait to see her assessment.  A few crowd behind her to read over her shoulder.

I Mayor Dailgon of Narseus hereby authorize the immediate arrest of Guild Magistrate Theon Alexandrus.  He is to stand trial before the town elders in three days time presided over by Sargeant at Law Petronius.  The use of deadly force is authorized if her resists.

Below the short message the parchment is signed and dated.  Taddernes smiles as Aduial reads.  He is clearly enjoying himself.  One of the guild masters behind Aduial mutters a profanity.  "In the mayors own hand too."  This strikes Aduial as strange.  Because the handwriting doesn't seem like the letter she saw penned in the mayors name before.

"Satisfied yet?" Taddernes asks as he brushes a piece of dust off his cape.  Aduial glances over at the Marshal, he is still sitting in the spot from before, having not stirred the least at her call.  One of the masters see's the direction of the glance and heads over to the marshal to summon him.

"Alexandrus doing business with his old master would be perfectly fine, my... noble lady." Taddernes' smug exteroir cracks as he stumbles over the title that he doesn't know.  But it quickly resumes as he moves on.  "He has received a payment of twenty banners just this past week.  This is interesting since he has no known business with the count.  And I can't help noticing that the payment comes immediately before Lorsen catches the demonic cult smuggling items into the city for a deamonic ritual.  Care to explain this payment, Theon?"
"It's a pension for my decades of service, nothing more!"
"Quite the generous pension, is that not?  We all know how long the Count has desired to exert control over this city.  Do we want to trust a man on our council who is in pay of another master?"

It also seems strange that a customs officer would be given authority that supersedes the law. (glance to the guildsmen) And I think we all know that the mayor has been acting strangely of late."

One of the guildsmen take umbrage at this last statement.  "Now see here!" he shouts as pushing his way past the other masters to Aduial.  "I saw my father just two days ago and he was in perfectly fine health.  I will not have you joining in Theon's slander of my father.  He may be resting but he still retains his wits!"
One of the other guild members openly groans at this.  "Oh give it a rest already!  If your father is so fine then how come my men have been waiting him to pay them for two weeks!"
"Perhaps Alexandrus is to blame!"
"Perhaps you're an ass!"

The two are wrestled apart and the shouting and scuffling almost resumes when the guildman retrieving the marshal shouts out.  "The Marshal is here!  Perhaps we ask him!"  Taddernes snaps his finger and points to the guards with their hands on the magistrate and they release him.  The guildsmen behind him continue to grip the magistrate tightly.  Taddernes continues to smile.  "Well then, any questions for the marshal before I take this man away?"

[LordBucket]

Still waiting for evidence of treason.

[mainiac]

Sorry, edited that in.

[LordBucket]

"He has received a payment of twenty banners just this past week.  This is interesting since he has no known business with the count.  And I can't help noticing that the payment comes immediately before Lorsen catches the demonic cult smuggling items into the city for a deamonic ritual.  Care to explain this payment, Theon?"
"It's a pension for my decades of service, nothing more!"

: "You're joking, right? Is that truly your "evidence?" The man happens to get money from a third party in merely the same week that somebody else entirely is arrested, and you've leapt to conclude that he's involved with the people who were arrested?

(look at the guildsmen)

"How many of you have 'received payment' this past week? Are you all guilty of treason too?"

Do we want to trust a man on our council who is in pay of another master?"

: "Make up your mind, Tadderness. Is it treason or is it simply inconvenient for you that he be on your council?"

[mainiac]

There are murmurs of agreement to Aduials challenge but the crowd doesn't quite seem unsure (diplomacy roll of 8, btw.)  And a few of the guildsmen look nervous at her question about their own transactions.  But Taddernes dismisses her questions out of hand.

"Twenty banners and another twenty a month before that.  That's a lot to try to sweep under the rug.  But you would try off course, you are here on the counts bidding after all.  I've had enough of this, the rest of the evidence will be presented at the trial.  Bring him!"  Taddernes snaps his fingers and the men at arms grab the magistrate again.  But the guildsmen don't let go.  One of the soldiers throws a punch and finds himself wrestling with one of the larger guildsmen.  Angry shouting breaks out and more soldiers and guildsmen start pushing themselves into the fray as the magistrate is buffeted back and forth.

The marshal just leans against the man supporting him and shakes his head to tired to leap into action.  The magistrate just protests weakly as the struggle goes on around him.  And the customs master just stands there watching the riot breaking out in front of him, content to let it unfold without any further action on his part.

[LordBucket]

..ok, after much consideration between several different options...this is what I'm going to go with:


Approach Lorsen. Give him a very serious look. Then whisper in his ear:

: "Marshal...I believe that Tadderness is a cultist. He is manipulating the mayor. You are the law here. You can't allow him to seize control of your men."

[Bluff+4], with possibly a circumstance bonus from the fact that it happens to be true. I do think he's a cultist.

the guildsmen don't let go.  One of the soldiers throws a punch and finds himself wrestling with one of the larger guildsmen.  Angry shouting breaks out and more soldiers and guildsmen start pushing themselves into the fray as the magistrate is buffeted back and forth.

Try to calm them down.

: "Gentlemen, this is both improper and unneccesary. Your difficulties are not with each other, but with the mayor. We all saw the mayor's signature. And this is not the first time he has authorized a questionable detention."

(Point to Baron Radhan, and the guards holding him.)

"A week ago Baron Pedro Radhan was arrested merely for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and has been held with neither counsel nor visitors during that time. And now he's ordered the arrest of your magistrate under circumstances that are just as questionable."

"Clearly some bad decisions have been made, but fighting with the town guard helps noone. We need to take this up with the mayor. I remind everyone that he is merely an elected official. If he is making decisions that are not in the best interest of the town, he can simply be impeached."

"I suggest we all go together, to issue a formal protest with him right now. If he is in control of his wits, then surely he will listen to reason. If not, then we need to know."


So...rally the guildsmen and a few guards to go with me to the mayor. If he's talking to plants when we arrive, that instantly calls into question all his decisions and we declare him unfit for office. If he's suddenly all better, then we simply talk to him and explain that pretty much everyone disagrees with this and if he wants to be relected, he'd better get his act together.

Take a moment on the way to tell Winston to take both horses to the stables on the edge of town and wait for me there.

[mainiac]

Hurrah insomnia posting.))

((Aduial's bluff roll (with circumstance bonus) is 8+4+2=14.  Missed it by that much.))

The marshal shakes his head slowly as if trying to regain his senses before speaking.  "I'm sorry, m'lady, for my... actions before.  But I can not go against the mayor on your hunch."

(Point to Baron Radhan, and the guards holding him.)

Aduial would point to the Baron but when she looks his way she only sees a guard clutching his nose with the man he was restraining no where to be seen.  Apparently nobody even noticed the escape amid all the arguing and shoving.  But her comments about taking this matter to the mayor strike a chord with the magistrate.  He yells out to the guildsmen.  "She's right!  She's right!  Let me go peacefully.  What you need to do is take this matter to the mayor at once!"

The guildsmen calm down at these words and the magistrate is wrestled away from their weakly resisting hands.  He is manhandled away from the guildsmen and towards a freshly arriving trio of men at arms lead by Sargent Redgar.  These guardsmen are hefting maces and decked out in armor.  They grab the magistrate by the arms and shoulders and wait for orders.  Taddernes doesn't seem particularly relieved at the way the situation was defused.  He clucks his tongue a couple times contemplatively then speaks in a tone that seems unconcerned.

"Well it looks like the fire is under control now so if you insist on taking this up with the mayor then I'll be glad to come with you.  Lorsen and Redgar should be able to take care of the prisoners... the prisoner.  Seems we have a fugitive on the lose.  But I'm sure that can't possibly be more important then letting the noblewoman from Dmarra complain to the mayor."

Aduial sets out for the mayors house.  With her are four guildsmen, including the mayors son and the master of the smiths, with whom he was fighting before.  Sargent Valens of the men at arms, who was previously occupied with the fire fighting, is the only member of the guardsmen among the group.

Winston catches up with the lady on the walk, leading her horse behind him.  The horse he himself rode is absent.  Aduial diverts over to him and he whispers to her that he saw the baron was escaping and allowed him to take the other horse.  He accepts her instructions to return to the stables with the lady's steed.

The group arrives at the mayors house and finds the garden empty.  Taddernes strides up to the doorway and bangs on it until a voice cries out from inside.  Taddernes opens it and ushers everyone inside.

They find the mayor in the hearthroom, reclining in a chair and staring at the empty fireplace.  He stares skeptically at the people filing into the room "What do all of you want?" he demands.  He doesn't seem to exhibit the confusion or absentmindedness of before.  Aduial doesn't pick up on the signs of any enchantments affecting him but she could just be missing the signs.

The mayor's son speaks first.  "Father, I told these men that you are perfectly alright but they insisted on seeing for themselves.  Some people..." he glares at the master of the smiths. "have been jumping to conclusions while you were under the weather."

The master of the smiths returns the dirty look of the mayors son and steps in front of the mayor's chair.  "Look, Dailgon.  If you are so fine then we want answers.  First you jerk us around with the payments now you go and order the arrest of Alexandrus.  What explanation can you offer for this!"

"You come barging into my home and then speak to me in that tone?  Bah, young people today."  The venerable mayor stares bitterly at the guild master in front of him who is himself middle aged at the least.  "I ordered the man arrested because he was on the take from Dmarra and he had a bunch of crooks on the take from him.  The halfling Orsi Stoutfoot who was caught smuggling all those items of dark magic had two golden banners on him.  Says he got them from Alexandrus.  Is that what you barged in here for?  Didn't Taddernes tell you all this?"
"Well I'm sure I would have, mayor, but there was nearly a riot and I didn't get a chance to explain things properly."  Aduial doesn't have the least trouble seeing through the man's lies this time.  He does a poor job hiding his smug satisfaction at having jerked everyone around by withholding information.  The mayor just grunts in reply before casting an eye around the other people in the room.
"Anything else you lot need with me?" he demands of the smith, who seems too caught off guard to come up with much in the way of replies.

[LordBucket]

Ok. I think I'm done. Nothing I do ever works.  I can't fight against the DM and win. Thanks. It was fun for a while, but this is pointless.

Piece of advice for your next game: the role of a gamemaster is to give players a fun and interesting world to interact with. Gamemaster and players aren't supposed to have an adversarial relationship. Your function as GM is not to defeat players by burying them in obscurity and making every single thing they ever try always fail by having circumstances change to shoot them down.

I told you a week ago this was like treading water.

Honestly, I kind of feel like you had a general idea of what the situation was, and every time I pursue a reasonable hypothesis, you eliminate it as a possibility. It's like there never was an answer, so I'm not eliminating incorrect choices, but rather I'm handing you things so that you can decide they're not what's going on. I don't see any way to get a positive result. There have been a couple times that I said in the thread that I thought something was probably true, and then BAM your next post something happens to make that very definitely not the case. And consequently, I kind of feel like what I do doesn't really matter because whatever I choose to do is going to be wrong as a result of you becoming aware that I considered it a possibility.

It's the same basic thing. Nothing I do matters, nothing I try works. All my theories are wrong, and any time I try something, no matter how reasonable, it gets shot down.

Even when I do more or less "succeed" at something you find ways to sabotage it.

 * Succesfully charmed Lorsen? Oh, better reduce the spell duration and give him rerolls.
 * Succesfully picked his pocket? Oh, better screw it up by having him notice it.
 * Succesfully convince people to go see the mayor? Oh, well better have his feeblemind effect conveniently gone and have him be in full agreement with his handler, so I wonder what the point of having him act like a vegetable was in the first place.
 * Player anticipated that the mayor would somehow be magically ok when it was convenient for the villain so he set up a king/rook split contingency so that even so the relevant npcs would still act in a favorable manner? Oh, well have some new piece of evidence come up that was conveniently not mentioned when I specifically asked for the evidence twice a few posts back.

There's no way to win. This is an endless treadmill of fighting against the gamemaster in charge of a world that constantly changes to be whatever it needs to be to ensure that I can't win.

I'm done.

[mainiac]

You have at this point physical evidence of the wrong doing and have him in the same room as the authorities that are unsuspecting.

 * Succesfully charmed Lorsen? Oh, better reduce the spell duration and give him rerolls.

-I'll admit I didn't think this one through.  I thought that you were going to go a different route and that the 5 minutes would be all that it would take to squeeze the marshal's brain for every scrap of information.  I didn't anticipate you bypassing him entirely.

 * Succesfully picked his pocket? Oh, better screw it up by having him notice it.

-You didn't successfully pick his pocket.  You failed the pick pocket roll.

 * Succesfully convince people to go see the mayor? Oh, well better have his feeblemind effect conveniently gone and have him be in full agreement with his handler, so I wonder what the point of having him act like a vegetable was in the first place.

-He isn't under full agreement with his handler, his handler just had a contingency plan in place.  Hence how his son loves to repeat endlessly how his father is perfectly okay every time he visits the old man.  But that doesn't mean that the mayor is in full agreement with his handler, it means that in the most obvious thing for the handler to suspect he is in agreement.  But there are awkward questions that Aduial could ask the mayor that would disrupt this simpatico arrangement.

 * Player anticipated that the mayor would somehow be magically ok when it was convenient for the villain so he set up a king/rook split contingency so that even so the relevant npcs would still act in a favorable manner? Oh, well have some new piece of evidence come up that was conveniently not mentioned when I specifically asked for the evidence twice a few posts back.

-Taddernes withholding evidence was supposed to drive home a point.  He could have made his case and arrested the magistrate cleanly.  But instead he deliberately withheld evidence and nearly caused a riot (I was planning for it to be him causing a riot but taking the matter to the mayor directly was a pretty good plan.  Your actions do actually change the story I'll have you know.)  The whole point to this campaign is supposed to be that it's about treachery and ulterior motives.  How is that supposed to work if NPC's dont lie and scheme?

Edit: At this point I'm convinced that the game is poorly conceived and we should just give up on it already.  Thanks for playing, I wouldn't mind taking part in an easier to run campaign with you sometime.