In which the judicial duel begins – several times over, in fact.
Monday, August 27th
Arrival and preparations
In the morning, Gräfin Marie-Ulrike von Ambosstein sent the adventurers ahead to check on the preparations for the duel. To their slight surprise, Hanna Kohl-Goldwasser volunteered to go with them. She and Marike both wore wide-brimmed hats with widow’s veils in order to not be recognised more than needed.
The duel was to be held in the square in front of the town hall in Ulricsmund, near the Grand Church and within sight of the walled-off palace district. The hall, a solid stone building with a colonnaded front, apparently held both the council hall, a courtroom and some holding cells for prisoners awaiting their trial or execution. Kethe wondered if someone might be hiding up on the roof – better check that out, or even anticipate it – and took a walk around to examine the hall and any good paths onto the roof.
In the cobblestoned square an oval area was marked off by colourful ropes, secured to stakes. Inside a few workers were spreading sawdust on the cobblestones. There were openings at both ends; on the eastern side a group of servants in Dammenblatz’ livery of green and white were milling around a pavilion in the same colours. The Gräfin’s servants quickly set up a similar pavilion in the Ambosstein colours of red and yellow.
On the north side of the ring, carpenters were building a grandstand with a box for the presiding judges, the two nobles and their close retinues. There were a bunch of other seats for any other nobles or town councillors attending.
As the pavilions were finished, the servants began carrying in equipment and furnishings. Aenlinn, the champion, took position in her shady pavilion, loading up with water and munchies.
Dignitaries and formalities
In front of the grandstand the Gräfin’s lawyer Claudia Rimensberger was talking to some other distinguished figures. Hanna helped identify the other dignitaries to the adventurers and added what she knew about them:
- First off, the three Law Lords, the highest judges and lawmakers in the principality. All three were middle-aged and elegantly but soberly dressed.
- Regina Ehrlinger has a good reputation for being fair-minded and humane, but also has a history of bouts of severe depression.
- Joachim Hoffmann is known as the harshest judge of the three, and also as something of a puritan.
- Karl-Heinz Wasmeier is known as the most learned and knowledgeable of the three. He’s also said to be something of a balancing force between Ehrlinger and Hoffmann.
The Law Lords
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City magistrates Hannah Amann and Hannes Rohr (Art from Rough Nights & Hard Days)
A grey-clad priest with long dark braids and a sour expression was Dean Edel Müller, the head of the Order of the Arbiter in Middenheim. - Dammenblatz’ lawyer, Laurenz Stengel. Hanna knew him only by name.
- Three of the city magistrates – Councillors Hannes Rohr, Hannah Amann and Gerhard Ullrich – were also present to assist the Law Lords and witness the proceedings.
Claudia came over to brief the adventurers; the parties and their champions were to be sworn in at half past eleven – in a little under two hours – and the duel itself was to commence at noon. The combat is not to the death, but until the point where one fighter surrenders or is clearly too injured to have a chance of victory.
An accident
As people were starting to fill up the space, suddenly part of one railing of the stands collapsed. As every head turned to look at the noisy accident, Kethe took the opportunity to sneak onto the roof of the council hall.
At the same time, someone tried to grab onto Marike’s sling bag. Spinning around, she saw a hooded man recoiling and trying to flee into the crowd. She and Wernhart pursued the thief, but he managed to get away.
A familiar face
About a quarter to eleven, the von Dammenblatz party arrived. After a drummer boy and a servant carrying the family’s banner came Baron Eberhard himself and his daughter Magdalena on horseback; his mother the dowager Baroness Violetta in a sedan chair; his steward, Werner Markheim (quite a handsome man, Marike noted); and a handful of guards, servants and lackeys. They took their places to the left of the judges.
The von Dammenblatz champion’s face was at first hidden by a huge hat, but when she took it off and shook out her dark hair Aenlinn recognized her: none other than her old rival Bernadette de Capricorne. She came out and the two cheerfully greeted each other. Aenlinn relaxed slightly, knowing she had beaten Bernadette before (although that time, they were two on one). Bernadette also seemed confident, taking a little turn to receive the cheers of the crowd.
Suddenly Bernadette spat a curse, spun around and, making a face, pulled a small feathered dart from the seat of her breeches. Baron Eberhard rushed to his champion’s side and made a great row: was someone trying to injure or even murder his champion? The Ambossteins must be behind it! Bernadette didn’t appear to be badly hurt, but the baron loudly demanded that the matter be investigated and anyone nearby – especially anyone wearing the grafin Marie-Ulrike’s livery – be searched.
Kethe very quickly crept off the roof – being caught there at this point would look very bad.
As Marike’s bag was searched, her own darts were found and she was taken to the judges. Fortunately, the dart was clearly of a different kind than hers, but she was still under suspicion. She managed to persuade them to sit under “house arrest” in the stands with the Gräfin’s party and be questioned properly after the duel, rather than being locked in the cells as was first intended. She had to surrender her weapons and bag, and one of the city watchmen was posted to keep an eye on her.
The adventurers suspected this attack was a fakeout in order to frame them, though they weren’t sure whether Bernadette was in on it or not.
The Gräfin arrives
Finally the Gräfin Marie-Ulrike and the rest of her retinue also arrived. The former champion Bruno Franke was coming along too, carried in a small sedan chair; though still far too weak to fight or even to walk, he didn’t want to miss the fight.
From her place in the stands, Marike spotted a nearby sinister-looking pair in dark cloaks and slouch hats: the witch-hunters Matthäus Hübkind and Adele Ketzenblum. Hübkind, a tall middle-aged man with greying hair and beard, was eyeing the Gräfin’s retinue intently and said something about sorcery and poisoning to his companion. Ketzenblum, a younger woman with an icy stare and a steel hook for a left hand, almost seemed bored, and after some further quiet conversation she walked away. Hübkind remained, still with his eyes on the Gräfin’s party.
The swearing-in
A herald marched into the ring, blew her trumpet and asked for order and silence for the law lords and city magistrates, who filed past to take their seats.
Some time later, as the crowd was starting to grow restless – now about half past eleven – the herald called the nobles and their champions into the ring, where Dean Edel Müller, the priest of the Order of the Arbiter, had them swear by the Five to only speak the truth, to accept the verdict of the duel and to seek no other remedies should they lose. Both the Gräfin and the Baron swore their oaths without hesitation, after which they and the champions were to read a short prayer for the Arbiter to strengthen the hand that was true that justice might prevail.
The snake
While all other eyes were upon the swearing-in, Kethe and Wernhart instead made sure to keep watch around. And indeed, Kethe saw a man moving through the crowd towards the back of Aenlinn’s pavilion carrying something. By the time they’d gotten around the pavilion the man was gone. Had he smuggled something into the tent, or even crept under the canvas himself.
Inside the pavilion, Kethe found an empty wicker basket with the lid off and, searching and probing with her rapier, she discovered a poisonous snake lurking under the table. She and Wernhart managed to quickly kill the snake.
Meanwhile the swearing-in had finished and the herald instructed the champions to retreat to their pavilions to get ready. Wernhart joined Aenlinn and filled her in on what happened while Kethe took the basket with the dead snake to the Gräfin’s lawyer. The lawyer and Marike agreed to notify the Gräfin but advise her not to make a scene yet but save the evidence until needed.
Whatever was going on here, one thing was clear: someone was playing very foul.
The duel begins
Finally the tower clock struck noon, and the hearald called Aenlinn and Bernadette to their positions in the ring. Bernadette had put on armour about as heavy as Aenlinn’s – plate harness and a light helmet – and was armed with a long rapier and a buckler.
Law Lord Ehrlinger rose and raised a white handkerchief in the air. After a long moment of silence she let it fall, and the fight was on.
Jailbreak!
But after only a couple of indecisive exchanges, there was suddenly a tremendous explosion from the far side of the town hall. The ground was rocked as a pillar of fire and smoke rolled into the heavens. The judges quickly paused the bout and sent the champions back to their pavilions. The watchmen who had been posted around the ring ran into the town hall, while those who had flanked the grandstand escorted the Law Lords and magistrates inside.
The square was abuzz with rumours of what had happened. Apparently someone had blown their way into or out of the prison cells with gunpowder! Kethe and Marike both immediately thought of Emmelinde and her imprisoned lover. But other rumours were about as well:
- Some claimed that the freed prisoner was the infamous murderer and gangster Piet Weelink, recently sentenced to death. The judges who sentenced him – one or two of whom were among the magistrates today – had apparently also had threats to their families.
- Others believed it had to do with those witches who were executed the other week. Apparently a few of them refused to confess and are still imprisoned – maybe they’re the ones who escaped now?
After 15 minutes or so, order was more or less restored. Newly-arrived watchmen relieved the earlier set, and the bout was begun once more. But it didn’t last long this time either.
The cooper and the witch-hunter
Suddenly a pistol shot sounded from just west of the grandstand. The witch-hunter Matthäus Hübkind, standing just by the grandstand, quickly crouched down as people nearby were screaming and running aside. Standing suddenly in the open was a large man, his face blackened by soot, with ragged clothes and scars and bruises on his arms and face. He threw away the smoking pistol, roared “HÜBKIIIND!” and charged toward the witch-hunter, unarmed but frenzied.
As the herald blew to once more stop the barely-begun bout, and the more distant parts of the crowd booed and jeered at the interruption, Kethe impulsively got in the man’s way and managed to stop him with a basket-hilt punch to the knee.
“Let me through!” yelled the man. “He murdered my wife… tortured her…”
Kethe hesitated, but by now the watchmen had caught up, quickly subduing the desperate man and dragging him off.
“See if Klöcker is still there!” Hübkind shouted after one of the watchmen running off to the prison. Then he shook hands with Kethe, introduced himself and thanked her for her quick-thinking intervention. He briefly explained that the attacker was the cooper Diedrich Böttcher, one of a group of witches recently apprehended. His wife Metze and a pair of the others had already confessed and been executed, but Böttcher – like the artist Gustav Klöcker – was tougher and had refused to confess. They had been imprisoned in the town hall cells.
So that’s what happened to the people on Pfeffergasse 2. Kethe wasn’t sure how to feel about all this.
A third restart…
For the third time the bout was restarted; by now the crowd was impatient and testy. As before the fighters were evenly matched, but Bernadette got lucky and managed to disarm Aenlinn with a swift maneuver. As Aenlinn retrieved her sword, Bernadette connected with a thrust that was only a hair’s breadth from slipping in through her unarmoured armpit and causing a potential mortal wound. It was Aenlinn’s turn to be lucky (and spend a Fate point), though, and the rapier point harmlessly slid off her breastplate.
…and interruption
Just then, Magistrate Ullrich suddenly stood up, his face a mask of horror, pointing across the arena at a hooded woman standing at the back of the crowd, carrying what looked like a sleeping baby on her arm.
“Roland!” cried the councillor, rushing down from the stand. “Stop her! She has my son!”
Kethe vaulted over the ropes and took a shortcut through the ring as Courage and Wernhart ran around it. Once more the herald blew to interrupt the bout; the boos and jears rose to a worrisome level as the crowd was nearing a riotous mood. Aenlinn gave a frustrated sigh, while Bernadette laughed out loud.
Marike, meanwhile, had noticed that Law Lord Regina Ehrlinger’s face had turned ash-grey, as if she had seen a ghost, and moments later she fainted. Marike wondered to herself if she had also suffered something similar.
The kidnapper
By the time Kethe, Wernhart and Courage had managed to push through the crowd, the masked woman had gotten on a horse, still with the baby on her arm; but before she could ride off they were upon her, Kethe and Wernhart grabbing the reins on each side while Courage caught her belt.
Looking around, she stared Wernhart in the eye for a moment before heaving – almost throwing – the baby over to him. “Catch!” Cursing, he let go of the reins to catch the baby, allowing the rider to get them.
Kethe, realising the time had come for quick and drastic action, hung by her full weight in the reins, swinging upward to aim a kick at the rider, She missed, but still managed to weigh down the horse enough to make it lose its footing. By this time the watchmen had also caught up, and the surrounded woman quickly surrendered and was led away.
Fourth time’s a charm?
The baby was still asleep – drugged? – but appeared unharmed, and Wernhart returned it to the father. Ullrich was immensely relieved, but too emotionally exhausted to continue presiding. Law Lord Ehrlinger was also unwell, although she had recovered somewhat, and both were helped off the grandstand. Dean Edel Müller took Ehrlinger’s place as judge in order to let the trial go on.
Finally, order was somewhat restored (though the feeling of riot was still in the air). Once more the champions took their positions and Law Lord Hoffmann raised the white handkerchief. And dropped it…
The Enemy Within: Remixed 
I was interested to read how you used the Fate Point to save Aenlinn from a hit. I’m curious what I would do in a similar scenario. Strictly speaking I don’t allow fate points to be used to change outcomes during play merely to negate the death of the character, but I can see why that wouldn’t have worked in this case as Aenlinn would have lost the duel if she was injured.
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I’ve more or less adopted the 4E rules for Fate points, which state (paraphrased) that you can use a Fate point in two ways:
1. Get out of being killed or a life-threatening situation alive – you’re out of the scene, and you might be unconscious, taken prisoner, etc, but you’re alive and out of danger for now.
2. One single attack or source of injury miraculously misses you. You’re fine and can go on acting, but there’s no guarantee you won’t have to spend another point next round.
In this case, it was the second variant. The hit was enough of a fluke that it was worth gambling on it not happening again right away.
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