Session 53 - On Trial for Heroism

General Summary

Phosidaeus is defeated! Xanthos walks up the wall and chews through Jangles’ cell door and frees him, and we are pointed to Silanos’ cell. Hands grab at Xanthos as he climbs, people begging to be freed, but he moves past them to free Silanos. Silanos had slept during the whole fight, he seems kinda chill despite everything, but is also a bit of an arrogant clod. We have Ophia lead the two prisoners back out, they’ll hide out and meet back up with us at our place.
Kestor finds some loot in the armoury, including 2 scrolls of dispel magic, 1 scroll of counterspell, 4 scrolls of see invisibility. Xanthos gets Nicanda’s spear. One of the prisoners tries to escape by casting a spell, but Ionessa silences it. Kestor manages to convince people to stop escaping, and plays them a tune to help soothe their souls. Ionessa checks on Xanthos, he was being pretty risky back there! Why does she have to be safe but he doesn’t? It’s because she’s more important to him, and he thinks he can take it. It hurts less to be injured than see her hurt, but she feels the same way! That means he’s hurting her when he gets hurt! Relationships are hard when your partner is in mortal peril 23/6.
Polemarch Brygos arrives and he’s mad, he detects that Ionessa is lying about not doing anything with the prisoners. He sees the body of the Beholder and tells us all to get outside for a talk, he’s mad that we didn’t wait for the Archons to act, but we know we were doing what was right. The message Theages sent was really unnecessarily disruptive with skywrite. We argue with him about the morality of what we did, but we’re still going to jail. We hand over our stuff, Neo tries to keep his staff but they don’t buy the lies. To prison we go!
We chat a little about how we’re going to handle things, the truth should serve us well. Xanthos hears a voice in his head the next morning, “Xanthos, this is King Bion. Learchos told me of your trouble, do you all require aid? Understand, my involvement could become somewhat political.” We decline his help for now, we’re going to try getting out of this ourselves. Someone comes to ask us questions, things are moving quickly, we’ll have the opportunity to defend ourselves and he asks if we want to represent ourselves. He thinks being represented by the Noonshadow is a terrible idea, but we gon’ do it anyway.
We’ll be defending ourselves against the people, everyone will have an equal right to ask questions, and we will be testifying from a zone of truth. We are brought out to the agora! Kestor answers questions and defends the party as best they can. When Kestor brings up Nicanda, the guy running the proceedings (Eponymous Dexios) seems to really dislike her and will probably be using this to discredit her, but we defend her really well and he backs off.
Kestor goes through the events, explains what happened and why, we admit to our crimes but justify them to the crowd. Dexios then moves on to questions about our character. Neo tries to dodge questions about his character, but he’s honestly pretty sus and the crowd doesn’t like him. He explains about the divine mandate he delivered from Kairemos, that he was present at Korymour. He also says he is from Foutiour, but successfully denounces Acheric. Ionessa says we were delivering a seal from Vas to request peace between the two nations. She admits to being banished from Oiakis for being bound to Kovu, she shares a soul with him after she was killed by his father and forced to bind souls. They really want to know more about the dragon stuff. She also mentions being around when the tomb of the fire eater was breached, and maybe dodges the follow-up questions.
Xanthos time. He lives in an independent town within Vas, but has no allegiance to Vas. He says he doesn’t want to answer any questions about his crimes because he’s a warrior, not a speaker, but this doesn’t get him off the hook. He says he doesn’t know the law, but everything he has done in Rheo was for the betterment of the people. He also admits to brokering a deal with Vasili Eurydia to secure the independence of Sideris. He also reveals that the sidero trees are no longer extinct thanks to the intervention of the god Vasithari! Kestor defends himself and apologises for his past actions, explains his curse, and makes a speech about how he is trying to redeem himself and dealing with the Panopticon is part of that redemption, to help Rheo heal. ROLLS A 36 PERSUASION WOOOO! They’re silent, nobody yells at him, woah…
Nicanda aces her defence. Next, we take questions from the crowd. Some people speak in favour of Nicanda. Lambros speaks up, “there was a time that I thought I knew Kestor quite well, and there was another time that I thought all of that had been some sort of deception but I do not doubt the words Kestor has brought before the people of Rheo. If he says that his and his companions’ actions are on behalf of the people then I for one do believe him.”
Parmenion speaks, “I have not known the accused for long. However, I have spoken at some length with Kestor and I do believe he speaks truth in this matter. That in this situation it is for the good of the people of Rheo that this injustice was taken care of. I think we are alike in that way.”
A voice booms out from the stands. “I know not this Nicanda, but I would trust the others with my life! They have come to the defence of myself and my people and when I heard that they were in danger I knew that I would come to speak on their behalf!” It’s Tidecaller Axiokeanos! He’s escorted out because he’s not a citizen and not allowed to be there, everyone has to ignore his testimony. After a few general questions and comments, we are escorted back to the prison. Eventually we are acquitted! Ionessa volunteers to help Brygos further in his investigation, but he says it’s important that it be done by the book. We also volunteer to go into the shaft, the beholder body is likely to be buried after examination by philosophers.
Six prisoners escaped from the Panopticon, though it’s unclear how many of them escaped or how many were just killed by the Beholder. Brygos wants us to bring any information we find about missing prisoners to him immediately. We leave and the Tidecaller is waiting for us! He found Pearl, communed with Thalakyma, and found that the platform is the ideal place for the child of Thalakyma to stay. Someone from the temple will be sent to help educate Pearl. We invite him to stay with us at our little cottage. Ophia, Jangles, and Silanos are there too.
We tell Axiokeanos about what we’ve been up to (after checking for scrying orbs), Silanos is a rowdy boy. There’s a lot of stuff we want to get up to, but it’s probably best to save it for next time! We get a stinger! Axiokeanos brings up a serious matter, there was an attempt at accessing the “potion”. It happened within the last few days, we suspect Pairairi. He hasn’t informed the rest of the conclave in case any of them are in on it, or in case they will take this as an excuse to take the potion’s safety into their own hands. We toast to our freedom!
The end.

Notes

ヽ( ⌒o⌒)人(⌒-⌒ )ﾉ

Report Date

17 Dec 2023