[X] Seek out religious authorities. See if the religious authorities are willingly to handle the corruption of the local authorities. There should be at least one sect which goes after crime and corruption as a matter of principle.
I'd like to actually have a Useful good-guy church for once.
[X] Seek out religious authorities. See if the religious authorities are willingly to handle the corruption of the local authorities. There should be at least one sect which goes after crime and corruption as a matter of principle.
Adhoc vote count started by Oshha on Aug 29, 2018 at 6:55 AM, finished with 8 posts and 6 votes.
[X] Seek out religious authorities. See if the religious authorities are willingly to handle the corruption of the local authorities. There should be at least one sect which goes after crime and corruption as a matter of principle.
[X] Seek out Imperial authorities. See if there are any higher authorities of the Solaris Imperium that can handle corruption by the local authorities, especially when that corruption violates the greater laws of the Emperor.
[X] Seek out religious authorities. See if the religious authorities are willingly to handle the corruption of the local authorities. There should be at least one sect which goes after crime and corruption as a matter of principle.
It turns out that when you stop to think about it, you actually know a lot about the religious authorities of the High Pantheon despite your lack of zeal as one of their followers.
You know the basics of that there are five deities in the High Pantheon, four sisters and a brother with the sole god of the High Pantheon being in charge of the four goddesses.
Of these deities and their followers, only three may be relevant for your purposes. The irrelevant ones are the goddesses Aria the Curious and Gwen the Creative.
The goddess Gwen the Creative holds the domains of Arts, Learning and Knowledge with her sacred animal being the fox while her sister Aria the Curious is the goddess of Adventure, Challenge and Magic whose sacred animal is the dog.
Createons are primarily artisans and record keepers, creating works and seeking out new knowledge and insight while preserving what has already been created and discovered.
Surprisingly or perhaps not so surprisingly when you think about it, these two goddesses are the two mostly commonly worshipped by the nobles and burghers of Dusk City. It makes sense as the Aria is the patron of ambition and seeking out new things while Gwen is the patron of the rich and wealthy due to those being able to support arts and literature.
They are also the deities that care the least about crime and injustice and therefore the best choices for the corrupt leadership of Dusk City. Before you started compiling your knowledge, you assumed that the leader god of the High Pantheon, Cardin the Leader, would be worshipped by a significant amount of the nobility.
As things turned out, he is privately shunned by the leadership of Dusk City even if none dare publicly voice such thoughts. You are certain that this due to the fact that while Cardin represents Power and Leadership, he also represents Justice and that is something that many in Dusk City seek to avoid.
Cardin is your best option for getting someone to deal with a member of the corrupt local authorities. Not only is he the God of Justice, but his other aspects and the position of the High Pantheon within the Solaris Imperium means that the Leadeon sect has no shortage of official power and even more unofficial power.
Your second-best option is the Kindeon sect of Eunice the Kind, Goddess of Kindness, Charity and Judgement whose sacred animal is the eagle. As the Goddess of Judgement, Eunice and her followers are involved in dealing with crimes.
In theory, they should meet your needs, but in practice, they seem to be more involved with dealing with the victim of a crime while the Leadeons deal with punishing the culprit.
The final option is Serena the Mighty, the Goddess of War, Women and Beauty with the cat as her sacred animal. While she and her followers have no direct reason to be involved in the affairs of justice, the Mighteons are often used to enforce the will of the Leadeons and that means bringing criminals to heel.
You also learned how to identify the followers of each goddess. Well, not so much as learned, but rather you figured it how to apply trivial knowledge that you already knew. Each of the goddesses has a sacred animal and upon giving a devoted follower a permanent blessing, the blessed followers can some physical features of the goddess' sacred animal.
Primarily it is a tail and set of ears, but eyes and hair changes are also common and in rarer cases, wings, claws and fangs are also gained. How you get what is something that you don't know, but it is surely something you can find out if you were willingly to devote the time to it. Of course, you would have to consider whether or not gaining such knowledge worth it the time investment of course.
And to your total lack of surprise, 'devoted followers' just happened to be clergy and the rich. The clergy you get because they devote their lives to serving their deity, but it turns out that wealthy burghers and nobles who don't have livelihoods to work on a daily basis can afford to devote enough time to earn a blessing from a goddess.
As for why the nobility and burghers would seek out a blessing, it is because a goddess' blessing contains more than physical changes. While you don't know that Gwen the Creative and Eunice the King grant their followers, you do know that Aria the Curious increases the magical potential of her followers while Serena the Mighty grants increased beauty and strength.
It puts the old saying 'You can judge the power of a Mighteon by the size of their breasts' in a new light. Except it only applies to female followers of Serena and it fails to account for the fact that some women are born with naturally a large chests.
It also fails to account that the blessing of Cardin the Leader is stronger than any of sisters' blessings. As the God of Power, Cardin's blessing is a general empowerment for his followers and unlike the blessings of the goddesses, the god's blessing does not grant any draconic features to his followers.
You also discover that each of the sects has a major temple in Dusk City with the Mighteons maintaining two. It makes sense that the High Pantheon have such a large presence in the city as Dusk City has traditionally belong to the followers of the Elder Lords and they would have an interest in converting the inhabitants of the city to strengthen their hold on it.
Having decided that the Cureons and the Createons are unsuitable for your needs, you just need to decide which of the remaining sects you wish to seek out.
[] The Leadeons. The followers of the God of Justice, they will almost certainly help you, but there isthe chance that they might decide that you are a criminal that needs to be brought before justice. [] The Kindeons. The followers of the Goddess of Judgement should be willingly to help and are a good choice in theory, but in practice, their involvement in justice may not be what you are looking for. [] The Mighteons. While the followers of Serena the Mighty may lack a direct religious reason to aid you, their position as the enforcers of the Leadeons means they will hold a criminal and the evidence of his crimes until a Leadeon can deal with the matter, regardless of the criminal's position or associates.
[] Write-in.
This update is a bit info-dumpy, but since you have a trio of choices (technically five, but Night knows enough to discard the two non-helpful choices), I want to make sure you were properly informed with what knowledge Night has in-universe (which is quite lacking by the way).
Religious Authorities in Dusk City
Expertise: Religion Check DC10: 17+8+5 = 30, 5 DoS, Night picked up a surprising amount
of religious knowledge of the years.
I was planning an investigation check, but Night's stats were too high to fail it even on a critical failure.
[X] The Kindeons. The followers of the Goddess of Judgement should be willingly to help and are a good choice in theory, but in practice, their involvement in justice may not be what you are looking for.
[X] The Kindeons. The followers of the Goddess of Judgement should be willingly to help and are a good choice in theory, but in practice, their involvement in justice may not be what you are looking for.
Curious, Mighty, Kind, Creative, all sisters, the one male god is the leader...
You can judge the power of a Mighteon by the size of their breasts' in a new light...
This is the religion from that Spirit quest you ran awhile back is it? Hunh.
Not quite. The High Pantheon is a mixture of some Spirit Quest deities combined with a couple of other pantheons that I have invented over the years.
The same applies to the Ancient Ones and the Elder Lords. All three major religions (the ones which have actually deities backing them up) are a mixture as of various pantheons I have made up to get something new.
Not quite. Due to Night realising that, he plans to just drop off Captain Hargrove along enough evidence to prove his crimes at one of the temples and let the clergy deal with the captain and his crimes.
[X] The Kindeons. The followers of the Goddess of Judgement should be willingly to help and are a good choice in theory, but in practice, their involvement in justice may not be what you are looking for.
Adhoc vote count started by Oshha on Sep 6, 2018 at 10:44 AM, finished with 7 posts and 3 votes.
[X] The Kindeons. The followers of the Goddess of Judgement should be willingly to help and are a good choice in theory, but in practice, their involvement in justice may not be what you are looking for.
[X] The Kindeons. The followers of the Goddess of Judgement should be willingly to help and are a good choice in theory, but in practice, their involvement in justice may not be what you are looking for.
In the end, you decide to go to the Kindeons. While they are unlikely to be as helpful as the Mighteons or the Leadeons, you won't risk the potential pushback that you might receive if the Mighteons or Leadeons decide that you are just another criminal. Given that your actions are against the law even if they are done in the pursuit of justice, that is valid concern.
Even then, you won't be going to them directly. You will just drop off whatever evidence you collect at their main temple in Dusk City and let them deal with it. You won't worry about getting credit for this as you aren't in this for fame or glory and frankly, you see more benefit to not getting the attention of the authorities right now.
Which is pretty ironic as you are going after one of those authorities right now. Speaking of Captain Hargrove, it is hard to get any details on what he is up. You know who he is and what he is up along with benign information such as his barracks, what shifts he usually has and where his office is. Yet you are unable to get any leads on his smuggling activities beyond he is involved in at least one of the Bronze Thorns' smuggling operation.
To get evidence, you will need to take a more direct approach, either going after Hargrove himself or looking through one of his bases of operation for any records of his corruption.
While you could go to his home, you judge his office in his barracks to be a more likely source of incriminating evidence. Captain Hargrove is more likely to keep anything proving his corruption at work in his place of work, especially since he is almost certainly be actively using the evidence.
You know where Captain Hargrove's barracks are and you have a rough idea of the layout. You just need to sneak past the guards.
***
It is simply a matter of waiting. There is only one guard on watch and you just need to wait until they are distracted or busy. One of the few, well, you hesitate to call it an upside, but the corruption within the city militia means that they obey their own regulations less just as they obey the laws they are supposed to uphold less.
You don't like it, but that doesn't mean that you will hesitate to take advantage of it. Frankly, it is useful and if it wasn't for the greater context and implications, you would consider it a welcome boon.
In this case, you don't have to wait long as the guard soon heads off to relieve himself, giving you the opportunity to walk in unopposed.
Now you gained entry to the barracks, you just have to make your way past anyone inside and sneak into Captain Hargrove's office undetected. You won't need to worry about running into the man himself as you know the man is busy elsewhere this day, but this is a city militia barracks and there will be other men and women in the building. And none of them will take kindly to your presence.
But to your shock as you carefully infiltrate the building, you are practically unopposed. You fail to encounter anyone on guard duty and the handful of people who do cross your path are just going about their day, completely off-guard for the possibility of there being an infiltrator.
Honestly, the hardest part of infiltrating the barracks is finding Captain Hargrove's office. And even that is easy.
Nonetheless, you have made it to Captain Hargrove's office undetected and even if it was far easier than it should have been, you aren't one to look the gift horse in the mouth.
Having entered the office, you quickly get to work. You make an effort to be quiet as you rummage through the belongings of Captain Hargrove, but don't bother to conceal the mess you are making. You don't want to alert anyone while you are still here, but if someone finds the mess that you left after being long gone, well, you are long gone and it isn't like they would know that you were the one here.
But despite your best efforts, you aren't able to find anything solid on Captain Hargrove. Oh, you find bits here and there which can be used to paint the man in a bad light, but nothing that outright proves he is doing wrong. Just some little things which could be part of a bigger thing.
Still it is something and the question is whether or not it is enough. Do you decide that is enough and pull out now with only incomplete evidence or do you stick around to try and find something solid?
[] Pull out now. While incomplete and nothing that proves the guilt and misdeeds of Captain Hargrove, it should be enough to turn the right eyes in his direction. Hopefully.
[] Search for more. While you run the risk of being discovered, you need to find more if you want to make sure that Captain Hargrove gets dealt with.
Investigating Captain Hargrove.
Investigation Check DC15: 6+11 = 17, 1 DoS, Night gathers general information on Captain Hargrove's activities.
Sneaking in.
Stealth vs Perception: 17+9 vs 18+2 = 26 vs 20, 2 DoS, Night successfully sneaks past the outer guards.
Getting past the guards inside
Stealth vs Perception: 17+9 vs 4+2 = 26 vs 6, 5 DoS, Night successfully sneaks past the inner guards.
Searching Captain Hargrove's office
Investigation Check DC15: 2+11 = 13, 1 DoF, Night finds only incomplete evidence and nothing concrete.
In for a penny, in for a pound.
[X] Search for more. While you run the risk of being discovered, you need to find more if you want to make sure that Captain Hargrove gets dealt with.
[X] Search for more. While you run the risk of being discovered, you need to find more if you want to make sure that Captain Hargrove gets dealt with.
You barely need to think about. While you may have some evidence, it is nowhere near enough to prove Captain Hargrove guilty of his crimes. You will just need to take the risk of being uncovered, but you have already taken the first of being here in the first place so you might as well get the job done properly.
Thankfully, it doesn't take long to find something of actual value. Having looked through what is not hidden away, you begin to look for anything that Captain Hargrove is attempting to keep hidden in his office. Placed behind a bookshelf is a set of papers and documents, position so you wouldn't find or spot them unless you were actively looking, but also placed so they could be casually taken out and placed back.
Clearing a bit of space on Hargrove's desk, you take a moment to glance at some of the contents. Some of it makes no sense to you, but a fair amount of it is blatantly criminal at just a glance. You begin to frown as you continue to look through the evidence.
It is becoming quite clear that these documents implicate Captain Hargrove as being involved in more than just smuggling. Thinking about it, it makes sense as if the man was involved in one criminal operation, he would be willing to get involved in others.
You don't have time to look through it all and with these documents, you have enough to get Captain Hargrove into some serious trouble. You just need to make it out with the evidence and pass it onto the Kindeons. Once the proof has been delivered to the temple, you can let others take care of Captain Hargrove for you.
Getting back the guards on the way out once again proves to be easy despite one moment when you almost stumble across a wandering guard. Thankfully, your skills are good enough that combined with the guard not expecting to encounter anyone in the building, you are able to avoid being detected.
After that close call, you don't try and get out by one of the proper entrances, but instead exit via window, climbing out of it and then using your grappling gauntlets to reach a nearby rooftop.
***
"Yes milord, they are definitely smuggling more than just goods," confirms Avitian as the two of you go over the evidence together.
While the elf has served your family loyally since before there was a House Wallis and raised you after you lost your family, he has never been a replacement for your father nor has he ever tried to be. Instead, he has attempted to fulfil the role he would have had, an honorary uncle and loyal retainer.
Yet despite Avitian's efforts to keep his distance, the elf can't avoid the fact that he is your only remaining family and all that comes with that.
And now the two of you are working together as the pair of you look over the evidence that you brought home with you. Trustworthy and utterly loyal to House Wallis, Avitian is the only other person who knows that Benedict Wallis is actually the Night. While you have mostly relied upon his fighting skills to learn how to throw a punch and so forth, tonight you call upon his skills as a lawyer and his knowledge of both Imperial Law of the Solaris Imperium and the local city laws of Dusk City.
That knowledge proves invaluable when it comes to figuring out what crimes Captain Hargrove has been up as while you are more than capable of going over the evidence, it is Avitian's knowledge which has identified which laws have been broken and what crimes have been committed.
You suspected when you first look at the evidence, it turns out that Captain Hargrove has been involved in more than just smuggling goods. As it turns out, the corrupt city militia captain has also been smuggling weapons and people.
"Children," you say in an almost snarl, "People are not something to be treated as mere property, especially not children."
"Indeed," agrees Avitian before looking back down at set of documents the two have spread out on the desk, "Take a look here and compare it to here."
"Hmm," you hum as you look at the two documents that Avitian has singled out, "Gods, I hope this isn't what I think it is."
"It most likely is," says Avitian gravely, "Not only is Captain Hargrove smuggling children into the city, he is smuggling them out of it."
"Damn it," you curse, "Anything I should do?"
"Given the general nature of people smuggling on the border, both imperial and religious authorities have a strong interest in shutting it down," answers Avitian as the elf takes on a thoughtful look, "Historically, such smuggling would take two different forms. The first is smuggling out Elder Lord worshipers who didn't desire to convert or fight out of High Pantheon controlled territories. The second is smuggling in those who did want to fight in order to create spy networks and support rebel groups. They either support a foreign Elder Lord army in conquering the lands from High Pantheon followers or launch a local uprising to drive out the High Pantheon worshipers."
"I don't see how either of those would work here," you muses, "I might not know much about the current politics of the world, but I do know that the Kingdom of Forthwich is in no state to launch an invasion right now and would struggle to hold its own if it was invaded. It is also a well-known fact that the Solarian Imperial Legions are the strongest military in the world right now so even if the Forthwichians could muster up an invasion, they would lose."
"The Legions are the strongest human military," says Avitian, correcting your statement, "Even the Imperium would struggle against Elven or Dwarven armies. But yes, there would be no way that an Elder Lord nation could reclaim Dusk City from the Solaris Imperium."
"Which leaves launching a rebellion," you conclude, "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't think of a way that would succeed. While they might be gain enough support to pull off a significant uprising, there is no guarantee they would be able to overcome the local forces and even if they did, they would certainly lose when the Solaris Imperium would bring down its might on the city in response."
"I concur," agrees Avitian, "But I can think of a couple of other possibilities, especially given the involved of a city militia captain."
"Go on," you say.
"People like Captain Hargrove or those he backs have nothing to gain from a successfully rebellion," says Avitian, "However, they would stand to gain something from a small rebellion that is crushed by local forces. If there is an Elder Lord uprising, it would give the local nobility an excuse to clamp down on the city and if it was defeated locally, the greater authorities wouldn't look into how it occurred or how local leadership deals with the matter as long as the situation stays handled. Needless to say, that would be a bad thing for you and your goals."
"Without doubt," you agree, "What about the second possibility?"
"Captain Hargrove might not realise the full implications of what he is doing," answers Avitian, "You would be surprised how many serious crimes are committed due to a person being greedy or selfish and not fully thinking through their actions. The captain may simply be doing it for the bribes and not realise what his actions may result in."
"And now I just need to decide whether to let the authorities, the greater authorities that is, deal with this or intervene myself," you say to yourself.
[] Let the authorities handle it. Staying out of this and letting the greater authorities handle this. With the threat of an Elder Lord uprising, the authorities of the Solaris Imperium with come down on this and involving yourself may only mess things up and bring unwanted attention down on your head.
[] Take care of this yourself. Children are being smuggled. Nothing more needs to be said even the authorities will take care of this for their own reasons. You are the Night and you will deal with this yourself.
Searching Captain Hargrove's office again.
Investigation Check, DC15: 19+11 = 30, 4 DoS, Night finds only extensive evidence and gains +2 circumstance bonus to later analysis.
Sneaking back past the inside guards
Stealth vs Perception: 2+9 vs 7+2-2 = 11 vs 7, 1 DoS, Night successfully sneaks past the inner guards.
Sneaking out of the building.
Stealth vs Perception: 3+9 vs 2+2-2 = 12 vs 2, 3 DoS, Night successfully sneaks past the outer guards.
Analysing the evidence.
Investigation Check, DC15: 17+11+2 = 30, 4 DoS, Night almost complete details in on the smuggling operation alongside details on other criminal activities that Captain Hargrove is involved in.
[X] Take care of this yourself. Children are being smuggled. Nothing more needs to be said even the authorities will take care of this for their own reasons. You are the Night and you will deal with this yourself.
[x] Take care of this yourself. Children are being smuggled. Nothing more needs to be said even the authorities will take care of this for their own reasons. You are the Night and you will deal with this yourself.
[X] Take care of this yourself. Children are being smuggled. Nothing more needs to be said even the authorities will take care of this for their own reasons. You are the Night and you will deal with this yourself.
[X] Take care of this yourself. Children are being smuggled. Nothing more needs to be said even the authorities will take care of this for their own reasons. You are the Night and you will deal with this yourself.
In the end, you decide to deal with this matter yourself. Every moment you wait is another chance that children could be taken from their families and every moment increases the possibility of a child being moved out of Dusk City and beyond your reach and ability to save.
As much as it pains you admit it, your influence is limited to Dusk City and even then, you are still getting by relying upon what your family built up before they are killed and how your old house is older and more entrenched and then the newer noble houses of Dusk City. Despite your recent efforts to increase your influence and reach as both Benedict Wallis and the Night, it will easily be at least a year or two beyond you have noticeable sway in Dusk City. Even then, it wouldn't be uncontested sway and your influence would still struggle to reach beyond Dusk City.
It doesn't take long to find where to go. Between the information in the evidence and your own knowledge of Dusk City, it takes less than an hour for you to reach the storehouse being used to keep the captive children in. Located on the other side of the city to the docks, the storehouse is close to city walls. It makes sense that they would have it close to the edge of the city as they are smuggling people in and out of it and since they are not to smuggle further into the Solaris Imperium, they wouldn't find it beneficial to be near the docks like with regular smuggling.
Perching on a rooftop, you take a couple of minutes to spot the guards. There is a couple at the front entrance to discourage people from poking around, two on the rooftops with bows and you can spot another couple inside when you look through a window. Half a dozen in total and while there may be more, you suspect that there is not.
Aiming one of your gauntlets at the building, you jump off of the rooftop before activating the grappling lines within your gauntlet. It strikes the building, the thin and sharp head embedding itself in the wall.
You swing over, coming to a halt against the side of the building. Shuffling over, you make your way to a glassless window before climbing inside.
Having entered the storehouse, you take a moment to look around for any guards you missed before. Not seeing any others and being able to hear noises from below, you make your way along the top floor of the storehouse as you down below.
Now inside the building, the children are plain to see. Eleven of them are chained up down below with manacles around their ankles to hinder their movement. From what you can see, the youngest is six or seven while the oldest are in their mid-teens at most.
The two guards that you spotted inside before are the only ones in the storehouse and from your position, you got the perfect drop on them.
Jumping over the side of the top floor, you land on the top of one of the guards on the bottom floor. As the man crumples as you slam into his back, you punch his compatriot in the face, sending her tumbling backwards and out cold.
With the element of surprise on your side, you can afford to put more power in your attacks at the expense of accuracy as none of your target are going to be attempting to dodge your attacks until it is too late.
Glancing at the children, as much as you wish to help them, you need to leave them be for the moment as you engage and eliminate the remaining guards.
Using your grappling gauntlets, you shoot up to the entrance to the roof. Climbing through the open hatch, you watch the two rooftop guards chatting with each other as they overlook the city.
They don't notice you creeping up on them until you have already your move and it is too late. You slam into back of one, sending him over the edge before kicking one in the knee and slugging him across the face.
With that dealt with, you sneak over to the front of the storehouse to engage the last pair of guards. Despite the noises from dealing with the other four, the final two guards are still unaware of your presence.
Just like you did with the first two, you drop down on one, both taking him out and cushioning your landing. Before the other can react, you kick him in the gut before bringing your knee up into head as he doubles over. The last guard collapses, leaving you with one secured storehouse with almost a dozen kids held captive inside.
At least this last problem is easy to deal with.
***
"And you just left them there at the temple?" says Avitian as you return home for the third time that night.
"Yes," you answer, "I free them from their chains, escorted to the closest temple, one of the Mighteon ones. While it isn't ideal, the sect will keep them safe and looked after until they can be returned to their parents if that is possible. They won't let the children be returned to slavery."
"Then you returned home to get the evidence to deliver to the Kindeons," concludes Avitian, "The children are with the Mighteons and the rest of the evidence is with the Kindeons. Any particular reason for the split?"
"The Mighteons were the closest to the storehouse and I wanted to get the children to safety quickly as possible," you reply, "That meant the closest temple, which turned out to be a Mighteon one. I couldn't afford to have spent too long escorting the children about the city. Sooner or later, someone would have stopped us and that someone was more likely than not to have ill intentions.
I know my limits. An open fight against multiple foes who can see me coming isn't something I want to risk, especially when I've got a bunch of kids to protect. Sneak attacks or one on one I can handle, but otherwise, I can go down to numbers or a lucky blow all too easily."
"And now what?" inquires Avitian.
"I let the various authorities do their best to resolve this situation," you say with a shrug, "I have done what I can and know I have to let the things I have put in motion play out. Hopefully Captain Hargrove and his fellows in this affair receive justice, but if they don't, well, I'll deal with that when it happens.
In the meantime, I will continue to fight other criminals, stopping crimes in progress and disrupting criminal operations while building up the power and influence of House Wallis."
