Re: heortling Justice

From: Ian Cooper <ian_hammond_cooper_at_yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 09:19:57 +0000 (GMT)

Frank Rafaelsen wrote:
>The murderer is from a very powerful clan, so the
>player-characters are opposed to starting a blood
>feud with the other clan before other
>options have been examined. How would they go about
>to get his bloodline to court?

>It seems like a very time-consuming process if they
> have to drag both clan-chiefs and both bloodlines
> before the tribal king at the quarterly
>moot. Any suggestions on how heortling justice would
>handle such a case?

1. 'Violence is always an option' - ---------------------------------- Draw your swords head off to the curse of existence's stead and eliminate the chaos threat. Of course his clan, unaware of your motives, may think of starting a blood feud or take legal action. Thye may or may not be happy to listen to your arguments - see option 2 'Obey Chosen Leaders'. If they won't listen then like Orlanth you will attempt to restore order. You do so (in saga tradition, after the fact) by having your lawspeaker prove in court that he was a foul and evil worshipper of the predark. If that can be proved, you had every right to kill him. His clan might wish you had approached them, but it is now too embarrassing to do anything about it. Of course if you can't prove it there is going to be trouble.

Of course if you have started a feud there could be trouble before you can get to a court. Your clan is not going to be best pleased with you, reminding you that you should have tried option 2.

2. "Obey Chosen Leaders"

- -------------------------

The chief and not you is responsible for dealing with outsiders, advised by his ring. The 'right' thing to do is: first you convince the chief (Relationship To clan augmented with Speak with Authority etc) that this guy is a servant of the predark. If you succeed, they reward you by sending you off (maybe with a member of the ring) to the other clan to present your arguments. You don't need to go to court for this, you are in fact trying to do the other clan a favor, and they will be in your debt. You only go to court if you need to restore balance between two aggrieved parties (i.e. in 1 above where you have to explain why you offed the guy). More relationhip to [his] clan rolls. If you can convince his clan, then they will support justice themselves (although if the narrator desires his players to be in at the denoument they could declare him outlaw and ask the heroes to join the posse hunting down the predark on their tula).

3. No one can make you do anything

- ----------------------------------

Chaos cannot be allowed to live. If your clan does not believe you, or their clan does not believe you then return to option 1. Or try to gather better evidence and return to option 2. Or maybe you have to look for an alternative and try option 4.

4. There is always another way

- ------------------------------

The local Uroxi would undoubtedly be very interested to hear from you. And they can sniff him out, proving his guilt to everyone's satisfaction. Lets hope they don't cause too much trouble when you ask them over to discuss it...

Ian Cooper

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