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#47
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Adivion nods dutifully, looking at Mara with something between thanks and contempt, before digging through the papers, as if he's going through the motions of something he has no intention of doing... because he's done it before. But that seems unlikely, unless the prosecution has the same documents. Which, of course they do. Jamir smiles up at the rest of the group as it seems they're primed to depart.
Kaple nods. Standing, he moves through the door and calls out. "Cadet Almsdale! Almsdale? Where the Devil did that girl—" A voice issues forth from the stairs, quick steps rising up them. "C-coming! I'm coming, so sor—OH!" As the mousy-haired girl from before appears, she trips on the last step, stumbling forward at the feet of some legal aides in front of the prosecution's room. Dressed in the blue uniform of the Lepidstadt Constabulary, she seems too small for it, and for the blade at her side, her red-brown hair bouncing and bobbing all the way to her faceplant. The two aides move to help her, as she lays motionless, but as they touch her, she holds up a blue-gloved hand. "I'm... I'm ok." She rises, slowly, and Kaple, his face somewhere between worry and embarrassment, steps forward. "This is Cadet Veronique Almsdale. She'll be your escort to interview the witnesses, who are currently in the prisoner's holding chamber until we move them into the court chamber in half an hour, I believe. Cadet, where would be a good place for my associates to conduct interviews of the witnesses?" She steps forward, a large red mark appearing on her left cheek; at least it wasn't her forehead. "The Common Room, I can kick the others out. Uh, hi, I'm Veronique. Call me Veronique. Please?" Kaple nods. "Are you alright, Cadet?" She meekly scrunches her face up, then nods twice. "Y-yes, I'm just... clumsy, is all. Nervous. The Prisoner, sir. We.... I'm just on edge." Kaple narrows his eyes, then smiles. "Glad to hear it, but put something cold on it. Check with the chef, she might have something worthy of your head." He turns back to the others, before Hrani, Carlo, and Andrzej head off. "You all have inquisitive minds, but I'm beyond hope. Prove me wrong. Find what I've missed, with eyes unclouded. And don't muck this up." He moves back into the Defense chamber, and shuts the door. The two legal aides privately laugh among themselves, the same laughter as joined Adivion a moment before. The viewing chambers above are still empty, the chamber of judges somewhat audible but indistinguishable from the near-party attitude of the prosecution chamber. From there, the two groups split: Hrani, Andrzej, and Carlo head downstairs first, while Cadet Almsdale leads them southward, into the holding cell.
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he/him\his
In Repose Last edited by Sassafrass; Apr 9th, 2017 at 04:08 PM. |
#48
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#49
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Father of proud children. Expect the next 18+ years to be erratic and/or chaotic.
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#50
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Allowing Pike to take the lead, Mara doesn't ask any questions herself. Rather, she spends most of the interrogation simply listening with interest to the testimony, and ensuring that the witnesses are comfortable, or at least not too nervous, with the dwarf's businesslike questioning. “Please, there is no need to fret. We understand what a terrible bother this must be for you, telling your tales yet again.” She smiles sympathetically, her warm voice suffused with genuine compassion—after all, she herself wouldn't want to be the recipient of a dwarven interview. “But, unfortunately, the questions are quite necessary, so I do hope you'll indulge us. At any rate, we shan't be as troublesome as the prosecution.” A mirthful expression dances across her face as her eyes twinkle playfully. “We have no agenda; we do not wish you to feel compelled to answer a certain way. We are simply interested in learning all the details of what truly happened—no more, no less.”
During one of the breaks, Mara smiles congenially at the guard and gently takes her aside. “Thank you ever so much for assisting us, Veronique. It must be a challenge working here in the courthouse, under the present conditions.” The singer looks pointedly in the direction of the weeping sound, then glances at the group of witnesses from Morast. “I imagine the witnesses must be anxious too—perhaps more so than when they first arrived? I wonder how the experience has changed them?” Mara pauses for a response, then clasps an outstretched hand over her breast, gently shaking her head as she sighs. “I think that everybody is nervous about this entire affair. But ... if I might ask, what exactly is it about the prisoner that puts you so on edge? Has he been acting strangely over the past several days?”
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#52
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Perhaps Carlo waited a half a second to answer the question that was almost assuredly directed towards Hrani, but it was hard to tell. And his countryman's attempt at letting the elf explain their goals here went completely unacknowledged. The opportunity to bring chaos to this whole process was so ripe for the taking that he could hardly pass it up. Probably the exact reason why he had been selected for this particular mission.
“Drinks, my man. Drinks,” Carlo says enthusiastically. “Our elf friend here needed to call in some backup for this mission, as he’s a bit of a neophyte in that department. We just came from the courthouse, and they are going to be tied up all morning with the other witnesses. bluff: Dice Roll:
Carlo was completely oblivious to Hrani’s conspiracy theories, but was at least observant enough to notice he’d been avoiding all the alcohol that had flowed so freely in their midst. The fallen scrolls and books go completely ignored by the arcanist. He never was one to go out of his way to help another out.
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On hiatus while I figure out my gender. Checkout my games at itchio. my mailbox is full, but you can reach me on twitter: @goatmealery |
#53
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'Perfect!' Hrani thinks, as he sees the disheveled professor in the streets, his demeanor quickly confirming what the elf had already suspected: That he was the expert witness. Andrzej seems content to let the magus answer why they were meeting, but Carlo quickly jumps in with his own explanation...and one he isn't convinced will go over well given them time of day. Hrani's expression remains neutral, however, as he contemplates his options. He had figured something like this would happen, after all, if he went out and about with the two Varisians. They would certainly prove most useful when it came to working Myphar and the general populace of Lepidstadt, but the elf knew better than to have any illusions about being able to control the pair in any way. He'd be happy if he needed some mayhem caused and could succeed at pointing Calro and Andrzej the right way to take care of it, but he wasn't even sure of that much.
Still, his companion is correct in that they are here to delay the professor, so as to draw out the university proceedings going on today. "My companion always has drinks on his mind, but I think those are for a little later. Here, let me help you..." Hrani bends down to begin assisting the professor in picking things up, having decided on his strategy to delay the good man. Or at least it seems like he is helping, in reality he could hardly be moving more slowly. Whenever the distracted Doctor Crowl is looking another way to pick something up, Hrani sets whatever he is holding back down, farther from the man than he originally picked it up. Every so often, he will take the chance to knock one of the smaller items a foot or so away. But this is all just minor stalling, intended to drag this meeting out. Because the professor of antiquities has already proven to be forgetful. Maybe they can get him distracted enough that he won't be in a rush to get to the courthouse, with Carlo's words about a delay in the proceedings in the back of his mind. "The main reason we wanted to meet this morning..." Hrani says, wrapping his knuckles loudly on the chest of books he has set down on the ground - incidentally right on top of some of the scrolls Crowl had dropped so he would have to spend even more time looking for those - intending to startle the man into hopefully dropping another armful of this things. "Is that we were going to bring you these books. You know, the ones Professor Lorrimor wanted us to deliver to you in his will? They must be truly fascinating, because even though he has had access to them for over a month now, Jamir, my companion from yesterday, spent all night pouring over them one last time before he had to give them away today. It would be for the best to put these somewhere safe as soon as possible, don't you think?" If only he had the slithering tongue of some of the others in the group, this would probably be an easy sell. But Hrani is Hrani, an elf of action. Subtlety of words eludes him, and how to talk to other races all the more so. Still, he does his best to Dice Diplomacy (including -2 for Xenophobic):
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#54
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he/him\his
In Repose Last edited by Sassafrass; Apr 19th, 2017 at 10:50 AM. |
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Father of proud children. Expect the next 18+ years to be erratic and/or chaotic.
Last edited by Thorsten; Apr 19th, 2017 at 03:25 AM. |
#56
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To his great surprise, Hrani finds the good doctor actually swayed by his words. He has no idea how that happened. Perhaps being around Mara and the others so much has rubbed off on him ever so slightly? Or did all the stars just happen to align perfectly? The magus wasn't keen on having to push his luck any time soon in order to get an answer. Maybe Montagnie Crowl was just easily swayed. His attention span seems short, so perhaps whatever was suggested to him most recently is what he feels most inclined to do? 'Well, unless that suggestion is something he considers as outrageous as going out for drinks before lunch, apparently...'
The elf makes a note of all the documents that pass through his hands, though while he is unsurprised, he is still a little disappointed. Money, money, money. That is what this was all about in the university case. There were SOOO many questions begging to be answered, and the court apparently was wasting time on the only totally irrelevant one: How much monetary damage did the beast do? Ah, humans... "Do feel free to point out some taverns, I'm sure they'd appreciate that. But I was going to introduce them to Myphar, he had promised a pub crawl yesterday that I unfortunately had to decline the invitation to..." Hrani says in a suggestive tone. He wants to get the professor talking, and any subject will do. Perhaps bringing up the colorful gnome in the context of drinking will loosen the man's tongue and keep his attention elsewhere, rather than recalling the fact that he is supposed to be in court. When it seems like that avenue of conversation has run out, Hrani moves on to the next. "So, the books Lorrimor sent you...they are something special, aren't they?" And when that won't go any further even with his encouragement, the next topic follows. "I've been wondering, how did you know the professor?" The magus couldn't even care less if subjects come up that were discussed already the previous evening. Normally, he really detests petty smalltalk. Because it is sooo pointless. But right now it isn't pointless, but serves a higher purpose. And Hrani has gotten plenty of practice at this smalltalk business over the last month or so... |
#57
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Pike listens and takes notes both mental and the more traditional paper-written ones. He realizes that he might have been overly straight forward and brusque in his questioning and is more than a little thankful for Mara's presence, keeping the witnesses calm.
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#58
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Carlo watches and listens as Hrani does his best to delay the would be witness. He is partly impressed by the delaying tactic the elf takes with the books and scrolls. But he is also a bit struck by what a poor job the elf does at trying to talk the man out of going to testify. Someone should help this guy out when it comes to persuasion, Carlo muses. Perhaps that someone should have been Carlo, but then he was often the one everyone tried to keep silent, so the idea to speak out now didn’t spring to mind until it was too late. Fortunately, those books pretty much spoke for themselves and it looked as if they were going back to the museum.
Unfortunately, Professor Crowl seemed to think Carlo was somehow responsible for the problems with his books. Even when he was completely innocent, they blamed him. Was it because he was Varisian? Or was it that other thing about him? Why did he even bother trying to follow the silly rules when it came to this sort of stuff. That elf wasn’t even taking responsibility for his own shenanigans. He shot a frustrated side eye at Hrani, but Andrzej wasn’t even paying attention: looking off into the crowds or something. “Actually, I’m a bigger fan of books than I am of drinks as it turns out,” he finally says rather tersely. “I suppose we must have had some sort of communication problem and I got you mixed up with the gnome. Not that you look like someone who would drink before noon, but I try my best to avoid judging people’s habits based on their heritage. So, anyways, take me to this library and we’ll see if you have anything of interest.” Sarcasm is a new look for Carlo, but the only other option seemed to be blowing their cover by pointing out Hrani’s trickery.
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On hiatus while I figure out my gender. Checkout my games at itchio. my mailbox is full, but you can reach me on twitter: @goatmealery Last edited by goatmeal; Apr 20th, 2017 at 11:21 PM. |
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#60
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