Wanting to Find the Truth

After another 2 days of flying (and Perdrix having slain a couple of aggressive werewolves during a night) the group arrived at Ael’Tas, at the Valyrian estate. Perdrix wanted to land at the summit, hoping for prepared treats and gathered masses to bask in his splendor.

Luckily for their draconic friend, both the treats and almost worshipping massess, celebrating the arrival of a dragon at the Dragonlands capital.

Apart from masses a couple of guards arrived that immediately took in Arthur for questioning and asked Meicoril and Tara to remain at the premisses. At that point a tiefling approached, asking whether he could pay attention to the proceedings. Tara, being sceptical of Ael’Tas justice was quite alright with this, so Sador and Tara started to move towards the Golden Goose for some quality mead. Unfortunately they were stopped by guards. With some clever lawyering Sador got the guards to fetch the mead.

In the meanwhile, Arthur, faced with an investigator, decided to tell most things they found, though he hid Meicorils family name and some of the more esoteric things they found, just sticking to the basics of the case. When pressed on James, the sorcerer they met in Faykeep and whom was (for all practical purposes) was defrauded by Dashawns trickery he feigned ignorance.

After his interrogation he was told to remain at Valyrian manor until after the trial (given that his family was on trial.)

Meicoril and Tara were brought in after that, but crossed Arthur whilst going there, allowing Tara to touch base on their strategy. (After all, no one sees Telepathy.)

Going in second, Meicoril pretended to barely know the group, merely having a crush on Arthur. The investigator wasn’t impressed, and explained that he basically exactly knew who Meicoril was. Unfortunately Meicoril didn’t plan to cooperate for the time being, leading to a frustrating experience on both sides of the table.

Tara was next, and the investigator first recalled the previous time Tara had been there. “The only sane person after that play, aren’t you?” Tara, stressed out by being there again, held Ember close to her chest and did the entire story, only hiding the tree of life and Meicorils situation. Unfortunately, the story about giants and warning of grey elves that would want to drown this case had only one effect: making investigator Hubert doubt that there was anyone who came sane out of the cursed theater play. In the end Tara gave the original pieces of evidence to him, keeping her own copied notes.

With that, Meicoril, Tara en Alruna were asked to stay at Valyrian manor until the hearings and trial. They were escorted back to the manor and were joined quickly by Sina. During the evening Meicoril had another conversation with Hubert, this time tersely revealing that she indeed was Meicoril Listrid, but little more. In a blastproof cellar beneath the estate Sina and Tara conducted a 12 hours long ritual  to create the Staff of Tara, using the branch of the tree of life and the commissioned blue glass stave as base components. No sooner had Tara finished the staff or the group was summonned to the courthouse for an emergency hearing.

Once arrived the anxious youngest Valyrian (Lancelot) got Ember and Yuki to keep him company and more or less alright in the gallery while the group took place at the defendants side. With James as the prosecutor, flanked by his assistant. At the judges bench 5 people were seated, amongst which the high judge, Hubert, Sador’s employer and a strange fellow whom Tara recognised to have grey skin and pointy ears behind a layer of face paint.

To start the hearing, a Zone of Truth was cast and maintained by the bailiff, after which the High Elf judge revealed that the evidence was stolen and a feather, similar to the one Alruna had was found on the crime scene.

Tara was the first to take the stand, having telepathically conferred with her friends. Under the effect of the Zone of Truth she revealed that she identified 2 grey elves she had explicitly warned Hubert about as far as evidence about giants went.

In response, James’ assistant took the stand, implying that Tara’s mind was broken in the same theater 2,5 years ago and that she should be pitied but not believed, imbuing his words with what probably was a Mass Suggestion. Tara had a rather poignant objection to this though, and revealed the grey elves true colours with Prestidigitation. Roll Initiative!