Trials of Beasts and Men
Twenty-Sixth Day of the Twelfth Month 293 AC
Finding a boar in a forest, even one that is also a man, is ordinarily no easy feat, but with the ruin of Old Jon's life all around you, divination foci are easy to come by. You settle upon an old skinning knife, its dear bone handle tied with sinew likely from the same beast, its iron blade dull and cracked. Your image ripples in the scrying glass, and then you have your answer. You see not one silver-hided boar but two, tusks locked, grunting with rage and pain.
Old Jon had found his former lord.
It is clear that no matter the form, a man's reason, even driven by rage and vengeance, will win out over blind savagery. Part of you wants to let the tragedy before you play out to its last act, a fitting fate for a man who thought nothing of putting his own subjects to the sword for a hunting trophy, but you might yet have use for the former lord of Grassfield Keep.
In a moment, all three of you are carried to the clearing the mirror shows, and before either of the two combatants can even notice your presence, Lya casts slumber upon them both.
"Well isn't this a proper pile of shit," Ser Richard says in disgust looking over the two now slumbering foes. "Old Luthor's going to want the poacher's head now more than ever if we send him back to be lord of the land. Not sure he has any business ruling in a pigsty let alone a keep. Tried to go hunting a silver boar with iron blades and no magic just to say he did it..."
"There's the fact that he's a heartless son of a bitch, too," Lya points out dryly.
"If that barred men from from lordship we'd have to topple half the rulers of the realm," the knight shrugs with a faint click of steel on steel.
"Be that as it may, I for one don't trust someone who is both a
fool and undutiful to understand why he should strive to be better at his appointed task. From the sounds of it, his son merely distrusts magic. We've dealt with such before and likely will again."
"There's the trouble of his mother, too," you muse, not yet inclined one way or the other. "She was ruthless enough to condemn her husband to death over the curse. Either she was always planning to rule through her son, or she despises all thought of sorcery that much. Neither bode well for the rule of these lands. Without revealing her part in the plot, removing her from the young lord's counsel would be more difficult."
You could assassinate her of, course, but you do not wish to kill the kin of a lord whose pledge you wish to keep.
"So bring back his corpse, the real one this time," Lya replies still looking coldly down at the slumbering Lord Luthor. "It should revert to human form in death."
"And accuse Lord Elwood's mother on the basis of that alone?" you ask dubiously. "She would cry witchcraft and trickery in a thrice. I might be able to persuade him otherwise, but only if he's of a mind to
listen."
What do you do next?
[] Awaken Lord Luthor and clear his mind, offering to restore his lordship and explaining what had happened in his absence
[] Finish what Old Jon started and present the old lord's body to Lord Elwood as proof of the intrigues swirling around him
[] Write in
OOC: I keep getting really short updates today for some reason. I might end up doing four like in the old days depending on how long the third one ends up being. Not yet edited.
