Fantasy RPG Forum - Standing Trials

Reports were coming in from all across Scalvoris but nowhere did it seem there was more chaos than the Element Hall in Almund. Not twenty four breaks ago an ice storm had ravaged the islands and very shortly before that the people were terrified of a full on pirate attack. The hall was more busy than ever but the chaos was organized. Elements rushed back and forth in strange patterns but they did not often collide with each other because they were all alert an aware, they were just moving fast. Balthazar lead a small cell of his recruits through the bloodstream of the Element Hall, flowing in the path all the way to the office that they worked out of. Balthazar opened the door for the trio and they moved in quickly behind him with their reports in hand.

Lunden and Lydia sat on one side of the table while Cedric sat across from them and Balthazar stood at the 'head' of the round table. "Trooper Daegal, give me an update on the pirates. Anything new about Captain Vane or Lucas Mallory?" Balthazar asked first, trying to get caught up on the progress of their active investigations before moving onto the newest problem of the trial. They'd encountered a pirate two trials prior who was trying to increase his power by recruiting lesser captains. He used fear and intelligent threats to keep the captains in line but he did not seem as mad as Kenway had been. He seemed much more organized and it was a problem no one wanted to leave unhandled.

"Land Troopers have seen Mallory going in and out of buildings along Port Diablo but no sign of Vane and as far as we can tell, the assassin isn't staying in any of them." Cedric said without looking at his report. "Apparently he has also been seen going in and out of the Siren's Embrace. No one, land or water, has seen the captain since that night." Cedric sounded a little spiteful when he said the last part. Cedric wished they had just charged the mass of pirates and taken them all on. Cedric would have gotten himself killed doing this job alone.

"What do you think he is up to in the port and Siren's Embrace?" Balthazar asked.

"We have no idea." Cedric said with a gesture around the table.

Balthazar shook his head, "I asked what you think he is up to. Give me a theory. You need to start somewhere. What does your gut tell you he is up to?" Cedric narrowed his eyes slightly at Balthazar for a trill. He scratched the side of his jaw and shifted his weight in his chair.

"Looking for crew, maybe? I don't know. He never stays long anywhere he goes." Cedric said again.

"He could go to any of the mercenary companies if he wanted muscle for Vane's ships." Balthazar pointed out, "and the Siren's Embrace is an expensive choice for a pirate. He has to have a better reason for going there. He is up to something and we need to know what. The next time you and the others are in the port, I want you to look into the buildings that Mallory is frequenting. If there are clues to find, we will find them there. If not, we will move to the Siren's Embrace. That's all for now." Balthazar turned his head to Lunden who had the report for the trial's most recent problem; rampant threats. "Trooper Leoric, report on the threats."

Lunden cleared his throat and peered down at his report briefly. He pulled slightly at the collar of his shirt and then began, "This morning several people across Scalvoris woke to find threatening letters at their homes and workplaces. Some received multiple letters, others received only one, but in general the reaction has been the same. People are afraid and the dark of Cylus is not helping. The Elements have already put out the same offer they did last arc, and numbers are up on the streets, but people are still afraid." Lunden explained.

"It wouldn't be unreasonable to think that there are some people who received threats and did not report them, because of the..." Lydia's voice trailed off as she realized she was interrupting Lunden. Balthazar looked at her with a level expression and he could see her shift uncomfortably. Was this what Rand felt when he did this to Balthazar?

"Continue, Trooper Clement." He said.

"I'm sorry. I-" Lydia began.

"Just continue." Balthazar interrupted.

"If people are afraid, maybe they didn't report. When we find a pattern we should poke around people who meet the pattern and see it... maybe they were threatened too." Lydia said. Balthazar nodded.

"Good idea, but we have to build the pattern first." Balthazar said, "Go to the homes of everyone who was threatened and collect the threats. Do it discretely but let them know the Elements are not ignoring it. I want to know who is being targeted and what they are being asked to do. Those are the most important questions but not the only ones you should ask. Lydia, you seem to have a mind for it so you lead the questioning. Cedric and Lunden keep a lookout for anything similar you see at the crime scenes. Once you have the threats, bring them back here and we will go over it together again." He knocked twice on the table and took a step back, dismissing the recruits to go and follow up on the threats that they were aware of.

Lunden and Cedric stood first with a slightly timid looking Lydia rising just a bit after them. "Are you going with us?" Lydia asked.

Balthazar nodded, "I will, but I will keep my distance. I want to see how you three work together. Remember, you will always be working with a team. You have your own strengths but your allies have their own as well. Support each other."

That was the last advice he gave before gesturing out the door. Time spent here was time not spent collecting the threats and it sounded like there were going to be a decent number of them to work through. The four set out for another trial of work.

Maybe being an officer just wasn't for him? Balthazar couldn't help but feel some sentiment similar to that as he watched his recruits at work. It was not that he did not think he could not do it, he just had to wonder whether he preferred giving instructions or leading the investigation. Maybe that was his mistake? Maybe he should have been leading more proactively in that moment? It wasn't as if he was not investigating. He moved with them, listened to the answers and saw the faces. He walked the same path they walked he just didn't interject. He observed better now than he did when he was in their position. By the end of the trial they were back in the Element Hall with a pile of letters and pictures that had been sent around to each citizen.

Lydia took the time to make sure that they had a label for each threat so they knew where it had come from, who had found it, and who it was intended for. Cedric wasn't as cautious but Lydia made up for his failings in that regard. They all sat around the table again, opening, reading, and passing along the threats. It was monotonous work to say the least but Balthazar, Lydia, and Lunden all seemed intrigued to enough of an extent that it was bearable. Cedric hated it but read quietly in his boredom.

After he soothed his mutations, it took them about three breaks to be sure that they had all read each threat. Balthazar's memory helped in that regard. By the end of the time, thanks to Lydia's labeling, he could recite every threat that had been made, who it was made to, and what they had implied they wanted the victim to do. He knew who stood out to him, and he knew what he wanted to do next, but he also wanted to hear what the others thought. Maybe someone stood out to them that did not stand out to him?

"What do we have?" Balthazar asked the trio around the table without providing much further context. He wanted to see how they interpreted it. Lunden and Cedric exchanged glances with each other while Lydia looked down at the notes she had been taking. While the boys sat in a moment of confusion trying to collect their thoughts, Lydia read off the thoughts she had already collected.

"Seven different threats were delivered overall. Four went to the homes of the victims while three went to a workplace- the Council Halls, the Merchant Guild, and the Greenleaf Garrison. Mayor Tide, Counselor LeShard, and Administrator Fletcher all received threats that were passed along to us. The four that delivered to homes went to fairly decent families; the Archibals, the Dunstans, the Winifreds, and a woman named Mirabel who runs a small soup kitchen out of her house." Lydia reported. "In general all of the threats targeted people important to the victims, not the victims themselves. It seems like they were meant to coerce and intimidate."

"But that doesn't mean they couldn't be precursors to attacks." Lunden pointed out. Lydia pointed to him, signaling that she agreed, and then continued.

"Almund doesn't have a great many charitable families but the ones who were threatened all try to help out in their own way. The mayor, council member, and administrator have all also done a lot for the city and islands in their own way. As far as I can tell that is the only thing they have in common. The families don't know each other and the merchant's guild isn't very forthcoming." Lydia said, finally looking up from her notes to meet Balthazar's gaze for the first time since she began reading. Balthazar nodded to her and turned his gaze on Cedric.

"And you?"

"I don't know," Cedric shrugged slightly, "After a while they all really just started to look and sound the same. No clues, no hints, nothing." Balthazar smiled and Cedric's brow furrowed. "What?"

"They do all sort of sound the same, don't they?" Balthazar asked, turning to look at Lydia and Lunden. He moved over to the pile and spread out the letters again, putting them all side by side so that the recruits could see them. "I noticed that they keep the nature of their threats vague. They all focus on hurting family or damaging property but they are written with words even I have a difficult time understanding. Intelligent, clever, and apparently well connected enough to deliver all of these without leaving any sign as to where they came from. Well, almost no sign. Trooper Clement, you have an eye for it, look at the writing on each letter and tell me what you see."

Lydia leaned forward over the table slightly and began comparing the two letters but she didn't quite see what Balthazar was trying to point out. He cut to the point. "They've all been written by the same hand. Look at the letters and the spacing. Trooper Daegal had it right. They sound the same because it is the same person making the threats. The same person writing each one."

"So we are looking for one person?" Lunden asked.

"I doubt it." Balthazar said, "I suspect we are looking for something very well organized. We found nothing except for the threats." He didn't want to toot his own horn, but he was sure he would have found something if there was something to find. That meant whoever was doing this was good at covering their tracks. No, not just good, excellent at it. "More organized than pirates, more intelligent, and apparently with more access across the city. We will need to look at threats received in other parts of the island. If they appear to be written by the same hand then the theory becomes more plausible. We need to figure out their motive and finding out other people who were threatened should help."

"We know their motive don't we?" Cedric asked, "They want to scare people."

"That's not a motive, that is the goal behind the threats. Why make the threats? What are they getting by scaring these people? We need to figure out what they are after so we can get ahead of them and be there when they make the next move." Balthazar pointed out. "Take the night, think about the people who were targeted. We'll meet again tomorrow and discuss it. Dismissed."

Cedric was eager to go, rising from his chair with a small nod to Balthazar before leaving. Lunden rose at the more gradual pace and thanked Balthazar before leaving. Lydia took a few trills to finish writing something down and then left in a manner similar to Lunden. Balthazar remained in the office with the threats on the table. All his magic, all the abilities Vri and the spirits had given him, all his own experience investigating and he still felt like he was missing something. He didn't want to stumble blindly into a bad situation. He didn't want to drag the recruits into one... but something in his gut told him this was going to be a problem if they did not get to the bottom of it. They had time, but how much?