Death and Taxes
Session Four of The Crucible of Youth Campaign

Sharday, 33 Chillbone 204 [Continued]

After the revelation that Dominic knows next to nothing about the poison Illyan doesn't know where else to turn. Arax suggests that there are other people in town who have some skill in herbalism. One of them is Vitor who was allegedly once a ranger of the wild. The head back to town. Krais wanted to see Kaleena but she has gone to the evening service with the rest of her family.

Meanwhile, back in town the service is over. Kaylas bids his grandfather good evening and hurries to catch up with the others. In the middle of the town, looking rather perplexed with the world is Nits. The half-orc is rather confused after waking up for the first time in four days to discover the town overrun with soldiers and many of the buildings knocked down. Kaylas quickly tries to explain what has been happening, and he does it quickly in case Nits falls asleep in mid-sentence.

Krais, Arax, Thorn and Illyan continue their journey toward town. It is now dark and a light snow is beginning to fall. They are just passing the graveyard when Arax inexplicably vanishes. The others stop immediately and begin to call and search the immediate area for any sign of their company. Nits and Kaylas soon arrive and join in the search. Thorn points out that Arax is a wizard and wizards have a tendency to disappear so it probably isn't anything to worry about. His companions disagree, however, and after satisfying themselves that Arax is nowhere to be found they head to the Old Mill assuming that something must have transported him there. Although why they assume this is something of a mystery.

Meanwhile, Arax is nowhere near the Old Mill. He is feels himself floating as if in water. All around him is mist. Eventually his eyes become accustomed to the muted colours and his feet touch down on something that is probably supposed to be the ground, but doesn't feel entirely solid to him. There are indistinct shapes around Arax in mist.

Then he hears it. A snorting and a snuffling and a snapping… and something else. A woman's voice screaming in anger and determination. He doesn't recognise the language, and it is impossible to tell the distance through the mist. Suddenly, the icy curtains roll back you see the source of the noise.

Before Arax is a tomb, a block of hard stone eight feet to a side and five feet high. Atop it stands a woman. She appears to be in her mid-twenties with long corn-yellow hair. She is dressed in furs and brandishing a spear; but the tip of the spear is broken and hangs precariously from the end of the weapon. She is swinging the spear wildly at a pack of creatures surrounding her and the tomb.

These creatures are a deep blue in hue. They a bipedal beings four feet high, but seven feet long thanks to a long and powerful lizardine tail. They have no forelimbs. Their upper body is almost entirely mouth. Four barbed beaks conceal a maw large enough for a man's upper body. They are circling the tomb, yapping in a spine-curdling high-pitched voice and trying to get up to the woman. They are also far too close to Arax for his comfort.

However, the woman is outnumbered and Arax does not shirk his responsibility. Summoning his profound magical powers he causes one of the creatures to fright and sends it scurrying away. The other five have now noticed him and, sensing a meal they can actually reach, thunder toward him. However, Arax is equal to this task. A quick use of his favourite spell and he races off at high speed leading the creatures away from the tomb and the woman.

Arax's companions arrive at the Old Mill and peer in through the windows. There is no sign of him. Illyan suggests returning to the graveyard. This amount of time consuming toing and froing in the cold is not the liking of the party, but no-one has a better idea so they retrace their steps.

Which is much what Arax is doing. Having lost his pursuers in the mist, Arax now doubles back to the tomb. Here he finds the sixth creature. It is dead, killed by the woman with the broken spear. She climbs stands from where she was crouching over the creatures body and smiles radiantly at Arax. She says something that he does not understand and moves closer to him. She kisses him on both cheeks and then, almost as an afterthought, she removes one of the many necklaces she is wearing. It is a strange affair made of beads and bones, with a tiny skull dangling from the end. This she places around Arax's neck and as she does so he wakes up face down in the snow.

"He's here!" exclaims Kaylas, although he is certain that Arax wasn't there just a moment ago. The five companions are in the graveyard where the snow is getting heavier. Arax is lying next to the tomb of Scarman Thorn. The wizard stands, putting his hand to his neck. He is still wearing the necklace. Arax looks flushed as if he has just run a considerable distance. Arax looks at the tomb. It is the same tomb the woman was standing upon, although it did not look dilapidated with age.

The group defer explanations until they get out of the snow. Half an hour later, and snugly ensconced in Trevane's tower, Arax reveals his amazing story. He says that he thinks he crossed into, and possibly through, the ethereal plane to another domain entirely. Searching through the few books Trevane has left in this part of the tower he finds a picture of the creatures he encountered, something called an Ethereal Marauder, by the Learned.

A few mundane incantations later it is determined that the necklace given to him by the woman is faintly magical. Arax cannot offer an explanation of why he dropped into another dimension. He speculates that it might have something to do with the tower. All these occurrences might happen every time it rises from the sea. All this talk of magic, monsters and other dimensions is too much for Nits who sinks into a happy coma by the fire.

While Krais, Thorn and Arax remain in the tower, Kaylas and Illyan decide to follow their original plan and go and see Vitor. By now it is quite late, and there are no lights burning in the Grushko farmhouse when they arrive. Their heavy knocking awakens Vitor who staggers to the door in his woollen undies carrying his sword. The provost is surprised to see his grandson and his friend, but ushers them both in nonetheless and stokes up the fire.

Over the rattling death that is Yelanna's snoring, Kaylas and Illyan explain their theories to Vitor. He is surprised that they have made such progress so quickly, but warns them against concluding that Jennete is a murderess, despite her familial ties. He takes the goblet and examines the contents closely.

Vitor agrees that the poison was in some soluble form that was added to the goblet and not the wine. However, as it is dissolved in the liquid, he cannot tell what it was or what was in it. Illyan is still carrying the spore that Thorn discovered the previous evening. The spore has an acidic quality that burns a small divot into the table (and has also burned a hole in Illyan's pocket). Vitor says that he has never seen anything like it. Part of it is the nettle in question, but it has been spliced with several other poisonous plants and other things that Vitor does not recognise.

The provost concludes that Jennete isn't the killer. He says, rather arrogantly, that if he can't see how this thing was made then Jennete wouldn't be capable of making it. He thinks the party are right that Jennete and Barvin have taken advantage of the situation and framed Tarn, but someone else killed the baron. Vitor doesn't want Kaylas and the others risking themselves by trying to trace a murderer. They should concentrate on proving what Barvin and Jennete did. However, when asked how they should go about that, he is at a loss.

The rest of the group at the mill has returned and Krais is back in the inn and heading toward his bed. When he reaches his room he discovers Mab asleep in his bed. He grabs her and wrestles his sister of the room, throwing her into the hall. He then barricades himself in, trying to ignore Mab's thundering fists on the door.

Mab demands to be let back into the room. Her room is currently a foot deep in snow, after all. Krais steadfastly refuses, and tells her to share with their mother. Mab goes from petulant to angry to tears in the space of a few minutes. Krais isn't sure whether she is fooling him or whether she is genuinely upset and, as she says, doesn't want to be alone. He delays.

Outside the room, Mab tries a different tactic and questions Krais on what he and his friends have managed to find so far. Do they know who killed the baron. "Sort of," says Krais, "but we can't prove it yet." - "Who?" demands his sister. Krais whispers their suspicions through the door. "Jennete!" Mab yells in a voice loud enough for the entire house to hear. She is then all ababble with exciting theories and devilish ways to make Jennete pay for what she has done.

Krais tells her to be quiet and to go to bed. Again Mab mopes at the door until guilt gets the better of Krais and he lets her in. Immediately he expects her to turn on him and throw him out the window, but it doesn't happen. The two share the bed although Mab talks incessantly for several hours. She says, with all seriousness, that Krais has until midday to prove to the captain that Tarn didn't do it, or she will take matters "into her own hands". She doesn't say what she will do, but the prospect fills Krais with dread.

Morday, 34 Chillbone 204

Dawn sees Barvin sitting in the taproom eating breakfast alone. When asked where Jennete is she says that she left early to get eggs, now that the inn has no chickens of its own. Grint appears shortly after Krais, still sporting his black eye. When Krais enquires to his brother's health Grint says that he walked into something (Mab). Krais doesn't believe him, but lets it go for the time being.

Very soon the fivesome meet up in the Old Mill, and Krais reports that they don't have long before Mab "takes things into her own hands". Kaylas and Illyan tell the others what Vitor said the previous evening. All they can think of doing is finding a sample of the solid poison before it was dissolved. Maybe Vitor can shed some light on that, and that can prove something. It is a slim hope.

They head back to the inn and down to the secret room. They search it once again, and find a mortar and pestle that has obviously be used to crush something in the last few days. Looking at all the jars and items, as well as the work Tarn was doing here, Illyan is sure that he was searching for some cure for his wife, Salia. It would seem that Tarn's motives were pure. A fact that seems to fly in the face of Nature. Certainly, there is none of the poison that was used to kill the baron.

Our heroes retreat to the Old Mill, where Nits is still sleeping (partially buried beneath Habbakuk). Once more Arax goes through Trevane's books, this time looking for mention of something that could have been used to poison the baron. The book, Remarkable Plants and Fungi looks promising. However, it will take him a while to skim through it and, as the only reader of the draconic script, he is the only one who can. With nothing else to do everyone else decamps to see Havelock Weaver and see if the chronicler can shed any light on the mysterious fur-clad woman Arax encountered.

Present at the home of Havelock Weaver is the Scrivener Janus Thomsett. Krais challenged Thomsett over what is happening to his father, and the meek cleric bolts from the building. Kaylas chastises Krais for treating Janus in such a manner (it wasn't his fault) but Krais isn't feeling particularly rational. Krais's brother Grint, who is also visiting Havelock, leaves after hearing the latest news of the investigation to clear Tarn. This leaves the group alone with Havelock and Truss Njedelstrom who can often be found with the Chronicler.

Kaylas has a theory that the woman Arax encountered was Rhiannon Thorn, the barbarian wife of Scarman Thorn. After he is convinced that the request is urgent, Havelock digs out what he can find on the historical figure. As is common in Norandon history, not much is written about women. However, it is known that Rhiannon was a fearsome warrior, and one of the spear-maidens of the tribe. She outlived Scarman and finally met her end at the hands of a band of marauding orcs. Her body was discovered close to Bear's Reach along with seventeen orcs she had slain. Her spear had been broken in the battle.

Kaylas is pleased that the facts certainly fit the woman that Arax met. When Arax arrives he takes great pleasure in telling him. However, Arax discovered nothing of any help in Trevane's books and naming the spirit as Rhiannon Thorn brings them no closer proving that Tarn Brewer is innocent. Krais is getting frantic for his father's safety and his sisters. Then Illyan has the idea of going to see the water cleric, Curran Fisher. He has some mastery over divine magic and may no something. The group heads down to the Fisher home. Thorn absents himself, saying that he has chores to perform and that he is remarkably unwelcome at the Fishers at present. However, he insists that they come and get him if anything exciting happens.

At the Fisher home the group has no trouble in finding Curran Fisher. The middle-aged man has no love for Tarn Brewer, but doesn't want to see any man punished for a crime he didn't commit. He doesn't know anything about poison, but he can cast a spell that will remove the liquid (the wine) from the goblet so that only the original powdered poison remains. In short order he has done such a feat, and the party are hurrying back to Vitor hoping that some good will come of this.

By this time it is almost noon. Krais spots his sister, Mab, hiding in the alley by the inn with Bernard Goodie (a member of Tarn's not-so-secret band of thieves). He hurried over to discover her big plan for rescuing Tarn involved a bucket of pitch, a flaming torch and a lot of knives. He persuades Mab that they have made a break-through and that they are going to Vitor with more evidence. She believes Krais, but insists on accompanying him.

Krais and Mab, together with Arax, Illyan and Kaylas head to the Grushko farm to find Vitor. However, the house is locked up and all the storm shutters are closed (something not particularly unusual at this time of year). Mab enlarges a knot hole with her knife and peers in. There is no fire and no sign of anyone home. Mab suggests breaking in - "It'll be just like when we did over the Craftwright place!" she says to her brother. However, Kaylas isn't happy with that idea.

They check around the back of the farmhouse and find a single set of tracks walking away from the backdoor toward the Wyrwood. With nothing else to do, the group follows the tracks into the barren woodland, the snow making it very easy to track. Mab is getting progressively more impatient, but eventually the path and the tracks end at Higham Dip.

The water of the small lake has not yet frozen. Vitor is sitting at the foot of a rocky escarpment staring across the water. Large mounds of snow surround Higham Dip, the remains of the flood that nearly consumed Bear's Reach five nights ago. Vitor hears them approach.

"Someone has been up here mutilating small animals," he says as his grandson and the others approach. Vitor gestures to a crooked tree, devoid of its summer coverings. Three rabbits hang from a low branch by their necks. They have been dead for some time and have begun to decompose. The party immediately believes Rod Njedelstrom to be responsible, but for the moment there are more pressing concerns.

Illyan gives Vitor the powder to look at. Vitor is amazed that they were able to extract it from the wine, and seems quite impressed by it. He taps some of the powder out onto the rock and examines. Vitor sounds impressed. "Deathrattle, obviously," he says, "but it has been blended with a dozen other deadly plants and fungi and possibly a deadly pudding." Vitor takes a moment to explain the nature of the amorphous and aberrant puddings that ooze their way through the deep parts of the world, dissolving and consuming all in their path. However, Vitor isn't sure how it was put together, and he couldn't reproduce it himself.

"Can I have a word with you, Krais?" asks Mab sweetly. "It's about Grint." Krais and his sister leave the others, and when they are sufficient distance away that they cannot be overheard, Mab says: "He's lying his head off?"

"Who?" questions Krais, "Vitor?" Mab rolls his eyes. "Of course Vitor, can't you see it? It's obvious." Krais says that it is far from obvious to him, and none of his companions seemed to pick up on it. "Typical bunch of men, you can't see anything even if it's right in front of you."

"Are you sure about this, Mab?" Krais asks, "This is serious." - "Of course I'm sure, and I know its serious. Dad's going to hang because of him," Mab fingers her knives dangerously, "we have to sort this out now." - "No!" exclaims Krais, "Don't say anything, not yet."

Krais and Mab return to the others. The three seem a little dispirited that their investigation has hit another dead end. They ask Vitor who could have made such a thing. Vitor says that he can't think of anyone in the town who could have done it - with the possible exception of Trevane, but he emphasises that it just a wild guess. The party realise that they only have Trevane's word that he actually left, and he could still be here hanging around. If it's not Trevane then the deed must have been done by an outsider.

The group thank Vitor and return to the village. Once safely out of the Whittenwood, Krais stops them all and has Mab tell them what she told him. Kaylas is crestfallen. A part of him was suspicious of his grandfather, but he couldn't bring himself to believe that Vitor was capable of a murder like this. "It explains his odd instructions to us," says Illyan, "prove Tarn innocent, but don't find the killer."

Kaylas determines to go and confront Vitor. Krais asks if he wants him to go as well, but Kaylas declines the offer. Mab is all for drawing knives and going after Vitor, but Krais is adamant that no-one is going to fight him. Vitor is a good man. Everyone knows that.

Kaylas heads back through the Whittenwood alone. It doesn't take him long to reach Higham Dip. Vitor is still there when he arrives. His grandfather has been waiting for him. He knows.

"The baron had to die, Kaylas," Vitor says sombrely. "I didn't like to do it, but it had to be done. I've done worse in my time." Kaylas says that disturbs him more than any of these events, but "… why did you do it?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Vitor asks. Kaylas says that it isn't. That it doesn't make any sense. That Vitor must have known that if he killed the baron the taxes would still be collected by the captain, or the Crown would simply send another baron to do the job. There must be something else. Another reason that Vitor isn't saying.

Vitor ignores Kaylas's explanation. He says that there is little time for talking. "It is almost dusk, and I won't see an innocent man die." - "What will you do?" Kaylas asks - "I'll give myself up to the captain. Trade my life for Tarn's. I shouldn't have let this go on as long as I did, but I hoped that you might find some way to prove Tarn's innocence. As it was I suppose nothing could have persuaded the captain."

Vitor leads Kaylas from Higham Dip and back toward the Grushko farmhouse. He ignores Kaylas's questions until they are inside. "Kaylas knows," Vitor tells Yelanna. "Knows what?" the old woman snaps. "Knows that I killed the baron," Vitor quickly says. "But not why," Kaylas says, confronting the old couple. "I want to know why you did this. You're not stupid enough to have thought it would do any good."

Vitor and Yelanna exchange significant glances. Vitor puts his hand on Kaylas's shoulder and says, "How do we know he was a real baron? I'm surprised it didn't occur to more people in the town. We only had his word that he has been sent to collect taxes, we only have his word that he has the authority of this new king. For all we know, there might be no new king. Yaddagon XIV might still sit on the throne. And why come now? Why come all this way in the last days of Autumn? They must have known they would be trapped here until the Spring thaw. Why not just come and collect the taxes in the Spring. It made no sense. So I poisoned his goblet. Heh. I sat all day in the inn making sure no-one else drank from it."

Kaylas nods. The baron was after something else. What else? "It must be connected to the tower in the sea. It's due to rise in two weeks! What else would bring him all this way?" Vitor shrugs. He doesn't know, but he knew that he had to do something. Kaylas is still suspicious. He doesn't think Vitor has told the whole truth, but the desire to find as much information as possible is eclipsed by the realisation that Vitor is going to his death, and this will be the last conversation the pair will ever have.

Yelanna tries to persuade Kaylas to stay with her and not see this sight. But he youth is determined to be with his grandfather, and Vitor seems grateful of that. He and Yelanna exchange significant glances and she rests her hand on his breast. From the woodshed, Vitor removes a bag containing more of the poison he used to murder Baron Swift. "The captain might need proof," he says and then Vitor and Kaylas turn and walk to the town.

In the meantime a great deal has been happening. Expecting some sort of ill-conceived rescue mission Captain Malkor has cleverly moved the time of the execution forward by one hour. A blubbering Tarn with a black bag over his head is led on horseback from the inn to the old hanging tree. Malkor follows on his own horse. They are flanked by soldiers.

From their vantage point overlooking the town Krais, Mab, Arax and Illyan see these events. Krais and Mab charge down the hill as fast as they can and run headlong into the strong arms of the soldiers who keep them at bay. They beg and they plead but they are not let through. Krais appeals to Corporal Cole, but the old campaigner shakes his head sadly. There's nothing he can do.

A great crowd from the village, inspired by morbid curiosity, have arrived to see the final few moments of Tarn's life. Arax and Illyan join the throng trying to get as close to the centre as possible (although they haven't a clue what they are going to do). "Sir! Sir!" Krais yells to the captain, "My father is innocent!" Krais struggles through the soldiers and grabs hold the captain's boot, pleading for Tarn's life.

From the crowd, Barvin Brewer watches the scene intently, his hand gripping Grint's shoulder. Grint is staring on impassively. Krais's elder sister, Enid cries onto the shoulder of her husband, but there is nothing either of them can do to stop this. Mab is barely contained, and the newly armoured crotches of the soldiers have rendered her primary tactics redundant. The captain kicks Krais away, and orders Corporal Cole to put up another rope for Krais if such behaviour continues. The horse is manoeuvred beneath the tree, and the rope is lowered over Tarn's head.

"Stop this!" calls a powerful voice. Vitor Grushko strides purposefully down the hill, Kaylas at his heals. "Tarn didn't do this Malkor," he announces. "I did." The crowd gasps as one as the soldiers unconsciously part for Vitor and let him through to stand before the captain.

"You don't believe me?" Vitor asks, throwing a pouch at Malkor. "There's all the proof you need. I wouldn't touch it though, it's poisonous." Malkor snarls and moves to draw his sword, but Vitor unbuckles his sword-belt and let's the weapon fall to the ground. "I'm not going to fight you," he says. "Come Aryas, would you rather execute me, or Tarn Brewer?"

As the party watch, the captain gives the order for Vitor to be bound and placed on top of the horse. Tarn is thrown to the floor. Mab and Krais rush to their father who has passed out with fear. Ignoring what is happening around them Mab, Barvin and Enid hurry Tarn back to the inn. But Krais cannot ignore what is going on. Vitor means a great deal to him. Kaylas too does not want to stand idly by as his grandfather is hanged, but what can he do? It is the dark of Terranor. He has no magical powers and surely there are just too many soldiers. Arax and Illyan move closer in through the crowd, both want to help but neither know exactly what they can do.

A cry goes up from the crowd. It is Layanna Chiesa, Vitor's daughter and Kaylas's mother. Her attractive and kindly face is awash with tears. Kaylas's sister, Lanna, is also present, her grief the image of her mother's. Skellan stands impotently next to them, regarding his father-in-law and superior in the town militia with sympathy.

No-one seems willing to act. No-one but Krais. He dodges through the soldiers to the horse where Vitor sits. He hears the warning from Corporal Cole, but ignores it. The soldiers close in around him, hands reach out for him. But as they grab Krais they slide off him. A well-placed spell from Arax has greased Krais like a Sunday roast. Krais nimbly jumps up onto the back of the horse and draws one of the "special knives" his father mentioned. With a flick of the wrist he has cut the rope and Vitor is free. The horse rears and the greased Krais (rather unsurprisingly) falls flat on his back.

Everything happens at once. The horse and Vitor lurch off down the hill toward the sea. Guiding the mount with his knees, Vitor turns the animal and sends it back toward the soldiers. Malkor's men - who are all on foot - scatter, allowing Krais to pick himself up and run for the safety of the Old Mill.

Captain Malkor recovers himself swiftly. He barks an order for the soldiers' horses to be fetched and then turns his own mount in pursuit of Vitor. "Come here!" yells Illyan to the horse, and there is magic in his voice for the captain's mount, far from galloping off after Vitor, strolls placidly over to the healer and begins to chew nonchalantly on his hair.

The captain snarls, and pulls his animal away, but the damage has been done. Vitor, who has now worked his hands in front of him, is in full control of his own horse and is now heading with all speed into the Wyrwood. Malkor gives chase, not waiting for his men to support him.

But his men are having problems of their own. Many of the soldiers are now mounted and riding after the captain, but their horses start to buck and throw the rider's to the ground. Many animals go wild with fear and scatter across the town. Arax, Illyan and Kaylas throw meaningful looks at one another. They can all sense magic at work. Someone is throwing magic around to scare the soldiers' horses and delay them. But the only other spell-weavers in the town are Sigmund, Raven and Curran - none of them has this power. Could it be that Trevane hasn't really left Bear's Reach after all?

It takes almost half an hour for the soldiers to ride after Vitor and Malkor. Kaylas is quite satisfied. His grandfather is a ranger and he doubts that they will be able to catch him in the Wyrwood. He now has a responsibility to make sure Bear's Reach is still here when Vitor returns.

He approaches Esher Walker (who was among those watching the proceedings). Although Esher is distracted by what is going on, Kaylas uses his position as Shepherd and a resolve beyond his years to make the old man listen. Kaylas tells Esher of Vitor's suspicions - that the baron was not really a baron and that they had no authority from the King. He questions why they came here at the end of Autumn with no hope of returning to Uris until the Spring. Esher sees that it did not make sense, and he will surely bring this up before the council meeting tomorrow. Kaylas urges Esher to do just that. "The village must go on," he says.

Arax heads up toward the Old Mill and lets Krais inside. Although no-one is after him yet, Krais expects that his part in Vitor's escape will undoubtedly be punished. He sits down in the comfy chair opposite the snoring Nits. The fire is still roaring in the grate and Krais can only imagine that things could have worked out much worse for him. It is also this at this stage that Thorn arrives on the scene (still wearing his cleaning pinny). He is exceedingly annoyed that his friends didn't come and get him when all the action started.

As the afternoon wears onto evening it becomes apparent that twenty of the soldiers, plus the corporal and the captain pursued Vitor into the Whittenwood. The scrivener Janus Thomsett and nine soldiers remain (ten if you count the ensorcelled Tam). The rumour planted by Kaylas that the baron was not all he seemed begins to spread around the village. Kaylas makes very sure his family and (especially) Sigmund know and are convinced. Tomorrow is Sunday, and the council plan to meet.

The End of Death and Taxes
The Crucible of Youth Campaign continues in
A Murder of Crows

Death and Taxes Index | Previous Session | Next Session