Courtroom Drama (well, not really)
Mar. 5th, 2005 02:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothThis week, I *was* sleepy while running the game. z.z The drugs started wearing off about what would normally be halfway through, so I had to end it early. Or, well, I was asked to end it early because I was lying on the couch with my eyes closed muttering incoherently, and they couldn't follow.
The party was woken from their sleep before they were fully rested, and told to come immediately to see the chief -- by a very rude contingent of village guardsmen, with even more expensive looking weapons and such (they looked enchanted now in addition to being clockwork). The whole city was in twilight, despite the sun being clearly visible overhead, and lit by magical lighting, and the buildings were more 'ordinary' instead of being native huts. Something had changed.
One thing that had changed was their reception. They passed through three concentric rings of magical protections (notably, a standard old pentagram, which blocked magic from crossing its border) before coming to the audience chamber, where the shaman/chief/whatever he was was set up as a king, now, with courtiers and a gaudily dressed court wizard -- blue robes with stars, pointy hat, everything.
There, they were accused of many, many crimes, basically everything related to crashing the UFO into the village, lying about crashing the UFO into the village, blowing up the abandoned city, lying about blowing up the abandoned city, and killing a bunch of people who were, for the most part, not dead. 'Little Arrow' (John) was also charged with bringing vampires into the village, but that was almost an aside compared to the standardized laundry list. They plead not guilty (for the most part) and were taken to prison to await trial.
On the way to the prison, which was cut off from both the throne room and the outside by pentagrams, Kitten decided that it was a good time to try to escape. The owl spirit which the chief/king/shaman had sent to watch them asked him, in his mind, if he really wanted to do that... because if he went quietly, his master had an offer for him to get him out of prison without violence. The owl wouldn't say what the offer was, so Kitten was too curious to try to escape before hearing it, although he almost got himself killed when his magic went wild trying to conceal things he didn't want taken from him. He was, for the most part, a likable sort, though, so despite the horrific nature of the crimes he was accused of, they merely beat him with their spears instead of actually attacking.
John and Don more or less went along without resistance, either because they were sure they were innocent or because they were less confident in their ability to fight their way out openly.
So, the party was taken to the jail, and stripped of all their possessions -- which revealed that Don was actually a girl... this confused the guards, who weren't sure what to do with him. Her. She didn't care how they treated her, so they threw her in the cell with the men, since that was what their orders said to do with 'Don'.
Guard 1: "Well... let's put him in the men's cell, I guess."
Guard 2: "You're going to put her in the cell with all the rapists and murderers?"
Kitten: "You have lots of rapists and murderers?"
Guard 2: "Well... we have one...."
Before being jailed, they were also put in an antimagic box for a short time to cancel any pending spells, including John's disguise as a woman and all Kitten's Hide Object spells. Kitten managed to palm the things he really cared about (his energy-fetish, and his ressurection stone).
The cell had a crazy guy in it, who tried to hit on Don by offering her a moldy old bone. She wasn't amused.
After waiting around for a while, the court wizard appeared as a cloud of mist, and reformed to talk to them. He told them that they were in prison because they had refused to dismantle the remaining 'barriers', and that if they agreed to do so, they would of course be rewarded, in various ways, most of which involved getting in on the ground floor of rebuilding Athens Industrial, which was currently 'under attack by the hordes of hell'. Only releasing the ancient power under Athens could save the world... and as the heroes responsible it would be easy to make sure they got credit. Or, they could just take cash, if they wanted to stay on a more magical world, like Kitten's home or Athens East.
The wizard was a bit surprised that Kitten was there instead of Charlie, but Kitten had proved capable of removing the barriers as well, so that was okay. The party was leery of pursuing any task that Charlie had agreed to, as they distrusted Charlie's... morality. And, to tell the truth, the wizard was a pretty nasty character, killing their crazy cellmate when Don asked him to shut the guy up, expressing an utter lack of empathy for the people killed in the explosion, and so on... but he insisted his aim was to save tens of thousands of people, who were currently holed up in Athens to escape the scourge. "But how long will that protection last?"
At any rate, they agreed to take on the job, and Kitten asked if he could see the rat before they were removed from the prison, since he'd promised to send him home (and intended to keep that promise, even though the rat was the chief witness for the prosecution at the hearing, and no doubt the one who'd ratted on them). The wizard said he could arrange that... and about an hour later, the rat was thrown into the cell with them. The rat was Not Happy about this, but Don explained the situation and got him to understand that his imprisonment was only a ruse.
The rat did tell them not to trust the wizard, though, and whatever they did, not to mess with the barriers! If there were more explosions, after all, the consequences on his world would be enormous... but the party would not be dissuaded. When the time came for the wizard and his personal guard to escort the party from the jail, Kitten cast darkness to suppress his wildness, then sent the rat back.
So, the party was given back their stuff -- except for Kitten's cat, who was being held in the village for its own safety (and as a hostage) -- and tossed out the gate. They decided to head for Athens first, because that was where Don's lab was, and a vehicle would make the three day trip much faster and safer. Kitten teleported them to the boundary, and they walked inside, careful to fix their mind upon heading for the *lab* and not for Charlie's House, which minimized reaction from the field protecting the city.
They managed to find Don's lab without running into anything too deadly, or any Nobles, and found that while it had changed drastically, it did have a vehicle in it, at least. It even looked mostly complete. Whatever it was.
last session | next session
After the game, Snowwy told us that he wouldn't be able to make it next week, as he was being dragged by his family to some benefit dinner for some cause or other. That means no game next week, although we'll probably meet and play magic or something.
Murdock suggested he could build me a computer right there, we'd just drive over to Fry's and pick up the parts... maybe we'll do that, I don't know. He said he'd price out how much a custom-built system would cost, at any rate.
The party was woken from their sleep before they were fully rested, and told to come immediately to see the chief -- by a very rude contingent of village guardsmen, with even more expensive looking weapons and such (they looked enchanted now in addition to being clockwork). The whole city was in twilight, despite the sun being clearly visible overhead, and lit by magical lighting, and the buildings were more 'ordinary' instead of being native huts. Something had changed.
One thing that had changed was their reception. They passed through three concentric rings of magical protections (notably, a standard old pentagram, which blocked magic from crossing its border) before coming to the audience chamber, where the shaman/chief/whatever he was was set up as a king, now, with courtiers and a gaudily dressed court wizard -- blue robes with stars, pointy hat, everything.
There, they were accused of many, many crimes, basically everything related to crashing the UFO into the village, lying about crashing the UFO into the village, blowing up the abandoned city, lying about blowing up the abandoned city, and killing a bunch of people who were, for the most part, not dead. 'Little Arrow' (John) was also charged with bringing vampires into the village, but that was almost an aside compared to the standardized laundry list. They plead not guilty (for the most part) and were taken to prison to await trial.
On the way to the prison, which was cut off from both the throne room and the outside by pentagrams, Kitten decided that it was a good time to try to escape. The owl spirit which the chief/king/shaman had sent to watch them asked him, in his mind, if he really wanted to do that... because if he went quietly, his master had an offer for him to get him out of prison without violence. The owl wouldn't say what the offer was, so Kitten was too curious to try to escape before hearing it, although he almost got himself killed when his magic went wild trying to conceal things he didn't want taken from him. He was, for the most part, a likable sort, though, so despite the horrific nature of the crimes he was accused of, they merely beat him with their spears instead of actually attacking.
John and Don more or less went along without resistance, either because they were sure they were innocent or because they were less confident in their ability to fight their way out openly.
So, the party was taken to the jail, and stripped of all their possessions -- which revealed that Don was actually a girl... this confused the guards, who weren't sure what to do with him. Her. She didn't care how they treated her, so they threw her in the cell with the men, since that was what their orders said to do with 'Don'.
Guard 1: "Well... let's put him in the men's cell, I guess."
Guard 2: "You're going to put her in the cell with all the rapists and murderers?"
Kitten: "You have lots of rapists and murderers?"
Guard 2: "Well... we have one...."
Before being jailed, they were also put in an antimagic box for a short time to cancel any pending spells, including John's disguise as a woman and all Kitten's Hide Object spells. Kitten managed to palm the things he really cared about (his energy-fetish, and his ressurection stone).
The cell had a crazy guy in it, who tried to hit on Don by offering her a moldy old bone. She wasn't amused.
After waiting around for a while, the court wizard appeared as a cloud of mist, and reformed to talk to them. He told them that they were in prison because they had refused to dismantle the remaining 'barriers', and that if they agreed to do so, they would of course be rewarded, in various ways, most of which involved getting in on the ground floor of rebuilding Athens Industrial, which was currently 'under attack by the hordes of hell'. Only releasing the ancient power under Athens could save the world... and as the heroes responsible it would be easy to make sure they got credit. Or, they could just take cash, if they wanted to stay on a more magical world, like Kitten's home or Athens East.
The wizard was a bit surprised that Kitten was there instead of Charlie, but Kitten had proved capable of removing the barriers as well, so that was okay. The party was leery of pursuing any task that Charlie had agreed to, as they distrusted Charlie's... morality. And, to tell the truth, the wizard was a pretty nasty character, killing their crazy cellmate when Don asked him to shut the guy up, expressing an utter lack of empathy for the people killed in the explosion, and so on... but he insisted his aim was to save tens of thousands of people, who were currently holed up in Athens to escape the scourge. "But how long will that protection last?"
At any rate, they agreed to take on the job, and Kitten asked if he could see the rat before they were removed from the prison, since he'd promised to send him home (and intended to keep that promise, even though the rat was the chief witness for the prosecution at the hearing, and no doubt the one who'd ratted on them). The wizard said he could arrange that... and about an hour later, the rat was thrown into the cell with them. The rat was Not Happy about this, but Don explained the situation and got him to understand that his imprisonment was only a ruse.
The rat did tell them not to trust the wizard, though, and whatever they did, not to mess with the barriers! If there were more explosions, after all, the consequences on his world would be enormous... but the party would not be dissuaded. When the time came for the wizard and his personal guard to escort the party from the jail, Kitten cast darkness to suppress his wildness, then sent the rat back.
So, the party was given back their stuff -- except for Kitten's cat, who was being held in the village for its own safety (and as a hostage) -- and tossed out the gate. They decided to head for Athens first, because that was where Don's lab was, and a vehicle would make the three day trip much faster and safer. Kitten teleported them to the boundary, and they walked inside, careful to fix their mind upon heading for the *lab* and not for Charlie's House, which minimized reaction from the field protecting the city.
They managed to find Don's lab without running into anything too deadly, or any Nobles, and found that while it had changed drastically, it did have a vehicle in it, at least. It even looked mostly complete. Whatever it was.
last session | next session
After the game, Snowwy told us that he wouldn't be able to make it next week, as he was being dragged by his family to some benefit dinner for some cause or other. That means no game next week, although we'll probably meet and play magic or something.
Murdock suggested he could build me a computer right there, we'd just drive over to Fry's and pick up the parts... maybe we'll do that, I don't know. He said he'd price out how much a custom-built system would cost, at any rate.
