Autumn 216
Northgate
Ethan, Garbon, and Talith returned from their expedition on the southern roads and told Lumotu of what had transpired.
The next day, the four set out from the Roasted Swan in order to attend the Battle of the Beasts at the Grand Theater, but arrived early enough to spend some time in the markets.
They learned there from a crier that the murderer Ellis Savenrel had been captured and was to be executed an hour before noon.
Alarmed and anxious, Ethan pulled the others aside, telling them that he knew that Ellis Savenrel was innocent of the murders of which she had been accused.
Garbon pressed Ethan for information - and Ethan decided to reveal a secret he had been harboring - that Sireli in haste and panic killed a man who tried to take advantage of her in Rinsfeld and that Ethan had helped her hide the body, but the elf had developed a taste for the killing of such men and continued to use her magic to lure and murder those noblemen who would make victims of women.
After some conversation, the party resolved to find a way to help Ellis Savenrel.
Ethan posed as a bounty hunter who had been on Ellis’ trail and went to the stockades, suggesting he believed they may have captured the wrong woman.
There he met with Guard Captain Harkam and was given a chance to speak with Ellis - who pleaded her innocence too to Ethan.
Believing her to be innocent, Ethan departed and rejoined the others and they devised a plan.
Garbon used his magic to take the form of Ellis and accompanied Talith in public to a nearby inn overlooking the gallows.
Meanwhile, Lumotu took a seat in the inn itself, while Ethan stood outside in the courtyard near the gallows.
Garbon and Talith purchased a room in the inn, and with some help from Lumotu, created an illusion that Talith had been wounded by magic of ice and corruption in a method similar to the murders.
Once inside the inn, and when Ellis was brought toward the gallows to be executed, Talith used his magic to blast a whole in the wall of the inn - from which Garbon (appearing like Ellis) used his slippers of climbing to climb up the side of the building in view of the towns-people and up onto the roof, where he began to undulate enticingly while cackling gleefully to the gasps of the crowd and guards gathered below.
Ethan and Lumotu aided in drawing attention to the fact that Garbon must be a witch, while he began to flee across the rooftops while the guards gave chase and fired with crossbows.
Garbon was wounded, but managed to make it into a secluded alley and changed his disguise to that of a broad nosed man with hands made for killing wolves.
Guard Captain Harkam discovered him in the alley, and while Ethan and Garbon were able to convince several of the guards that the witch had fled farther into town, Harkam noticed the blood dripping onto the ground from Garbon’s wounds and investigated more closely… and then attacked!
IEthan and Roux helped Garbon escape, but killed Guard Captain Harkam as a result.
Shortly after, The Painted Swan army occupied Northgate.
Back to: Season 11 - Northgate