Alvec
The guard had set up two positions, one down the street where the devil had been slain and one outside the compound. Alvec hated the silent implication of it. He'd have offered them his services in the investigation, but he was already keenly aware of how it would look if he pushed the matter further, especially being a Tiefling. They were already being considered possible conspirators based on the guard's positions. Pushing to join the investigation would read to them as fear. Fear of what they might discover on their own.
It was forty minutes before the guard marched into the square, spears at the ready. Fear dug it's claws deep into Alvec when he saw who was with them. A soldier with a white cloak and shining silver chainmail strode in with them, face hidden behind a golden mask with an expressionless face on it.
Someone had called in a Captain of the Gold Banner Army.
Alvec took a deep breath, trying to center himself. They had done nothing wrong. He could prove that the strength of the magic used exceeded his current power to cast. Teleportation was 5th circle magic; Alvec had only recently learned to use the third circle. He'd learned a spell to speed himself and his comrades up, but that meant he was still far from being able to teleport. Granted, that didn't rule out the usage of a scroll, a piece of parchment with the spell inscribed into it. Often, the ink would burn away as the magic inside was put to use, and sometimes, the whole thing would burn to ash. Either way, there wasn't a spent scroll or any ashes just lying around in the area.
"Everyone, line up," the Captain ordered, voice distorted by the mask.
Alvec jumped down, letting the magic from his boots nearly nullify what might have been a hard landing for anyone else.
"Come on now, what is this all about? We already have given our statements." Illaria asked as she and Bait fell into place.
"We are investigating who summoned this devil. You will participate in our investigation," the Captain stated firmly.
"So you think we did this?" Mavec asked. "We were the party hosts; why would we want to crash it?"
"We don't worry about motive, just the truth," The person in the mask said. Naya joined the lineup, still struggling to stand. "I will ask this only once. Did you summon this devil?" Divine power pulsed around them. It felt like chains wrapping around Alvec's mind, locking up the parts of his psyche in charge of creativity and lying. He'd heard of this spell before, but it was his first time experiencing it. The Gold Banner Army didn't have the right to Alvec's mind. He pushed back against the sensation until he felt the chains snap. He made sure not to look too at ease lest the Captain take his fighting back for a non-answer. "No," he, Naya, and Mavec responded the same. The other two looked stiff and tense. Neither looked to have busted out of the spell.
"Why would we be doing that?" Illaria asked. Shit, she'd broken the spell too.
"Bait, hear screaming. Bait, grab musket. Bait, try to shoot devil." And so had Bait.
"Understood. Guards take these two in for further questioning," the Captain said, pointing at Bait and Illaria.
"Excuse me?" Mavec asked. "They've been with us all night, and the Goblins drunk off his ass. If Illaria was a spell caster, we'd have noticed by now."
"Would you like to join them?" the Captain asked.
"Where is the arrest warrant?" Mavec asked.
"The writ of arrest is in my office."
"You didn't even bring it with you?" Mavec asked.
"Now, step aside or be cuffed as well," he said as two pairs of handcuffs were brought forward.
"This isn't right or fair," Alvec said as he slid out of the way. "Where are you taking them?"
"If we deem them innocent, you'll know tomorrow."
Alvec fought to keep his tongue in check; his words needed to be measured in response. He wouldn't do them any good losing his temper.
"They couldn't have summoned it. I was with them all night; I'm an expert in my spellcraft, top of my class at Ot Najan..... I've been traveling with them for weeks now. If either was capable of such a feat, I'd have seen it by now."
"If you are correct, then you needn't worry," the Captain said before marching Bait and Illaria forward.
"Arresting fellow armed services seems like a pretty shitty thing to do, you know," Illaria stated while walking with them, fully cooperating. Alvec wasn't so sure if he could trust the man's word. No, he knew that he couldn't. The Gold Banner Army operated with near impunity. He only knew one man who had survived a run-in with the Gold Banner. Even though he had been forced into near exile, a life of servitude amongst the Blue Banner Army was the price of his dealings with the infernal. Iridel Reynore... Alvec's no good rotten devil-fucking grandfather. The very one who had created this bastard branch of the Reynore family. He let out a deep sigh and waited for the guard to leave.
"Why are we just standing here?" Naya asked. "We should be doing something," She pleaded. "They're our friends." She barely took two steps forward before stumbling into Echo, who propped her up.
"Oh, we will be. I'm off to the academy, Mavec; wake up our lawyers. See what, if any, legal recourse we have. Perhaps we can shift this out of their hands and into local jurisdiction." Alvec wasn't counting on it. Not if half the rumors were true about them, but it was something they had to do. He rushed to the academy, trusting that Echo would keep Naya out of trouble. He was a reasonably intelligent wolf, and Naya was seriously unwell. Alvec ran till the blood in his chest felt like it was pounding in his ears. Almost no one was around at the academy at this late an hour, but small things like locked doors, arcane or otherwise, wouldn't stop Alvec today.
He found thankfully that the main door was open, and it took him only a few moments to find a lone-bored young man at the help desk. "Hello!" Alvec nearly shouted as he came running up to the man.
"By Kushang, I'll call the guard if you don't turn back around," He said, reaching for a wand beside his desk. Alvec glanced down at the devil's blood smeared all over his clothing. He pulled out his bronze badge and slammed it on the table.
"Relax, it's not my blood. I need to buy a scroll of sending. I have the gold for you," He hurriedly dumped his coin purse out on the counter and shifted a pile of one hundred coins aside.
"Sir, it's after hours. I'm not authorized to sell any scrolls. I don't have the license for it. If you could return after eight Am. I'm sure they'd be delighted to help you."
"Look. I'm buying a scroll of sending. If you can't sell it to me, that's fine. If you don't have the keys, that's fine. I've had a very long night, friend, and I can not wait till morning. So I'm going to leave the money here. You're going to count it and verify that it is, in fact, enough to buy the scroll. Then I will let myself into the scroll room and break whatever arcane locks I need to. Take a single scroll, and be on my way. That way, you didn't do anything wrong. Your bosses can't be mad at you; a man covered in blood threw a sack of money at you and then helped himself. All while you pleaded for him to stop. Whoever comes in for the first shift can process the payment as they have the correct license. We have an understanding?"
The man looked at the blood stains and back to Alvec's face a few times. "Am I going to be a bloodstain if I say no?"
"Look, I'm not going to threaten you, but I'm not taking back the coin either. So just look the other way; you're not paid enough to deal with this shit," Alvec said as he went to the door. The arcane lock was the easy part; who needs to dispel magic when you can subtly subvert it, giving himself the permission required to open it. The more complicated part was the actual lock on the door. He didn't have much time to deal with that, so he smashed a vial of alchemist fire into the wooden door frame. He then guided the goop to burn through the small bit of wood needed to pull the door free.
With one good yank, the door was open, and Alvec was inside the scroll room, where he again found himself using Alchemist fire to eat away the wooden drawers. After he had what he needed, he mended everything back to perfect, locking up behind him again. It was like nothing had ever happened. A scroll bought in the dead of night was no less legal than one purchased in broad daylight. Alvec walked back into the hallway and powered up the spell. It may have been of a higher circle of magic than Alvec could normally power, but the scroll was doing the heavy lifting for him, so to speak. "To Iridel Reynore: Friends of mine are accused of summoning a Devil. I know for sure that they didn't summon it. The Gold Banner has them. Assuming they are innocent, how safe are they?"
A reply came, "I thought you were smarter than this Alvec. Just wait."
"Oh fuck off," Alvec shouted at the spent spell scroll. He could entirely do without the lecture. "It's called building a body of evidence, you short-sighted git." If they were watching Iridel and spying on Alvec even now, they would know exactly who was contacted and, better yet, what was said. Last Alvec knew, Iridel was near the coast, near Ac-Aziza. The distance was so long that it would be effortless for someone to splice into his transmission. Which was fine. He hadn't asked anything damning. There wasn't anything to damn. It was a simple communication, in which a scared kid, running up against something much bigger than himself, asked an adult he knew had come out the other side of dealing with them if his friends would be ok. As far as potential messages, it was a tame question.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
However, he quickly concluded that the Gold Banner Army wasn't just sketchy and abusive of their power... but also wildly incompetent. It would take no time to verify that Illaria couldn't cast spells. Magic leaves a mark on you, arcane or divine. It's a thin aura, but given even rudimentary analysis, which could have been done in the field, they should have been able to confirm that she wasn't the one casting 5th-circle magic. The anger it inspired in him was deep, and he wasn't entirely sure which aspect of this turn of events pissed him off the most. The incompetence was an extra insult to the injury of arresting his friends on charges easily disproved. For now, he'd have to just go back and get some sleep. If the Gold Banner didn't reach out to them by morning, he'd take more direct measures. While it might not be possible to track the duo with magic, Alvec already had the beginning of a new transmutation spell in mind. If he could amplify Rem or Echo's natural ability to track by scent, he was confident they could track down Bait.
Mavec:Scythefell Street
Mavec hammered on the door of Abul, Feng, and Krog in the dead of the night. Feng eventually answered the door. He was wearing a comfy pair of pajamas and bright purple slippers. His hair stood up at odd angles as if he'd lost a fight with his pillow. "Quick, let me in," Mavec said as he pushed into the entryway.
"Dear boy, you do know what time it is, right?"
"Two of our companions just got arrested by the Gold Banner Army. And can you believe it? He said the writ of arrest was in his office!" Mavec seethed. "Didn't even bring it with him."
"Slow down, slow down. What even happened?"
"After you guys left, there was an incident," said Mavec, trying to calm himself. "A devil was summoned, maybe teleported is the better word, onto our street. We fought and killed it, and then the Gold fucking Banner Army showed up, compelled us to answer truthfully, and arrested Bait and Illaria."
"How many years old are you in human? The halfling asked him.
"Like twenty-two," Mavec responded.
"Alright, let's sit down. I'll make us some tea. This might be a bit longer winded of an explanation than you had hoped for, Mavec, but I'll do my best to bring you up to speed." Feng guided Mavec into the small kitchen, where he pointed him to Krog's seat, which sat at an elevated position at the table. After a few minutes of futzing around in the kitchen, he presented Mavec with a cup of tea and sat beside him. "They call it Ardesian swamp tea; I assure you it's quite good."
Mavec took the cup and took a sip of it. It had a strange spicy taste he was unfamiliar with, but it was pleasant.
"When he said the writ was his office, he didn't mean that he had an actual writ or that it was in his office," Feng explained. "He meant that his position, his office, so to speak, gave him the right to arrest them. For better or worse, the Gold Banner Army has very little oversight. There is very little legal recourse if they decide to arrest or execute someone."
"That is some bullshit," Mavec replied.
"Perhaps, if I too had grown up during the calm of Ageneon's reign, I might think it excessive," said Feng, taking a slow drink of his tea. "I was here for the Anarchy and Ageneon's War. You have to understand, young sprout, back then, Devils were everywhere, and those who consorted with them were fairly adept at hiding it. To root them out, the Gold Banner Army needed near total authority and the ability to exercise their power without first going through due process. If they had, the devils would have escaped time and time again. They got a whiff of trouble and were in the wind."
"Aren't you worried about innocents getting caught up in it?" Mavec asked.
"If I had not lived through both wars, I might feel similar to you. Perhaps in this day and age, they have overstayed their welcome. Back then, however, they were strictly necessary."
"There had to have been better ways?" Mavec said.
"I'm afraid not; they were in every shadow, willing to cut deals with anyone, and if you gave them even the slightest amount of time, they managed to escape. If we wanted to deal with the threat, there wasn't much other choice. They had to be able to rush in and deal with whatever they found, free from consequences."
"It's pretty shitty," fumed Mavec
"Perhaps. The tax inspector wasn't Gold Banner, was he?" Feng asked.
"No, just a regular civil servant."
"Good," Feng nodded. "Because if so, it would be much harder to get the charges reversed if they had."
"Alright, well, what do you recommend we do?" Mavec asked as he drained his cup.
"Go get some sleep to start with," Feng said. "In the morning, they'll hopefully reach out to you."
"Thank you very much, Feng," Mavec said, standing up. "May I never need to darken your doorstep at three in the morning again?"
"I sure hope not; I wish nothing but the best to you and your friends."
Mavec took his exit, returning to the tower; he collapsed into a fitful sleep. Never thought he'd be so worried about the damn Goblin, that's for sure.
Bait and Illaria: Hidden jail
The pair of Blue Banner soldiers were marched through the town in the dead of night. Eventually, arriving at a nondescript warehouse. They were quickly ushered in and shoved into holding cells behind iron bars. The guards took their armor and weapons, storing them nearby. "So what happens next?" Illaria asked.
"I ask you as many questions as I feel necessary till I am sure you either did the summoning or didn't," the Captain said.
"My answer wasn't a yes, you know that right?" Illaria asked. "I simply asked why you thought we might have done that? Why would we want to crash our own block party? Seems a might stupid to me if you don't mind my saying so."
"The most charitable reason is that you wished to advertise your prowess to your neighbors," said the Captain. "The least charitable reasons involve the defenses of Sha-Laial and important figures Devils might seek to corrupt, kill, and coerce in their own schemes."
"Alright, I can almost see where you are coming from, but we didn't summon them," Illaria stated.
"You're an Aasimar, correct?"
"Yes, I am."
"Your kind are hard to read," the Captain said. "Like your Tiefling companion, you naturally have some innate spellcasting ability. Even if you never refined it, I need to call in an expert to gauge if you could pull this creature from the shattered facet. The fact that you resisted my magic is a point against you, as one possibility is that you are stronger than you appear, which would indicate that you might be a conspirator after all. Granted, your goblin friend also defied my magic, so it is possible that you merely got lucky."
"All of this is because I beat your spell and didn't say no?" Illaria asked. "You lot really are as bad as the rumors say."
"And what rumors do the Blue Banners tell of the Gold Banners?"
"Dey say youse guys are parana-nnoid!" Bait said while he grabbed onto the bars and shook them lightly.
"Don't be minding my friend too much," said Illaria. "His grasp on common is tenuous at best. I do believe he meant to say you're paranoid, which I happen to agree with."
"If we're going to spend all night together, I think there's one more thing I need your companion to do." Magic flowed through the air and wrapped around Bait's mind. He tried to slip and squirm out of it like before, but this time, he didn't have the add-dren-al-aine from the fight to help him. The fog of the cheese beer was lifting, too. "Bathe,"
"No! NO!" He screamed as the spell took root in his mind. Bait stood up and walked over to a water basin, verbally protesting the entire way. The magic was too strong, and he began to clean himself with soap and water. "You ruin Bait's precious dirt skin. Help protect Bait from cuts!"
"What did you do that for? That was just cruel and unusual." Illaria said.
Another soldier arrived. He bore the chainmail and cloak of the Gold Banner Army but no mask. "We have a report to make on the other companions. Sir."
"Go ahead," the Captain said, sitting at a small wooden table.
"Alvec Reynore quasi-broke into the academy and borrowed a scroll of sending. He contacted Iridel Reynore. The contents of the message were simple. He insisted his friends were innocent and asked what, if anything, he could do. He was told to wait. Since then, he has returned back to the tower."
"The other wizard?" asked the Captain.
"Went to a lawyer's house where they had a conversation for around a half hour. Scrying spells were successful. He was given little more than a history lesson from one of the lawyers about the reason for the Gold Banner's existence. He has also returned home."
"Their other companion?"
"Has fallen asleep with her wolf," the soldier said. "Our men are not approaching her since she has made no effort to leave."
"How long till our Diviner gets here?" asked the Captain.
"No estimate as of yet, sir; this operation has occurred much later at night than any of us were expecting."
"Might I be asking a question?" Illaria asked.
"No," said the Captain. "You should just sit there and wait quietly."
"Well, I was just curious: what does Quasi-breaking into the academy look like?" Illaria asked.
"Actually, elaborate on that point, soldier," said the Captain.
"He entered the academy. Tried to pay gold for a scroll. Was refused," the soldier said as he scanned the report. "So he handed the man behind the counter the correct amount of gold and then entered, damaging the locks and repairing them as he exited. As far as I can tell, the only real law broken is the sale of a scroll without a correct license. This would constitute a small fine as it was a non-violent misdemeanor."
"He's as hard-headed as those damn ram's horns," Illaria said with a warm smile.
"BAIT DOES NOT WANT TO BE CLEAN!" Bait wailed in the background. Outside of the minor update about their allies, nothing else happened until another person in a gold mask arrived. This one pulled a chair beside Illaria's makeshift cell and looked intently at her.
Illaria glanced over at the Captain. Their armor was identical to the newcomer, save an insignia of rank on the fold of the cloak. Even their voices sounded identical behind the mask.
"No," said the Diviner. "No way she summoned it or used teleportation. Her arcane talent is limited to whatever she can do from her bloodline. She's never spent the effort to develop it. Might have made a fine sorcerer, but that's about it."
"Alright, that's good news for the two of you." The Captain said.
"Do you want me to check the Goblin too?"
"They pay us to be thorough. Please do," replied the Captain.
"No worries, it's like looking into an arcane black hole. Nothing going on with spellcasting at all," the Diviner confirmed.
"Great, so when do we go home?" Illaria asked.
"Oh, not till after we chat with your friends," said the Captain. "We'll be seeing them early in the morning."
Illaria sighed and did her best to get comfortable; it would be a long night despite proof that they were innocent.
-
B: The Gold Banner Army presented an interesting problem for me when the mid-game rolled around. It was one thing to have low-level players chasing around automatons on abandoned land or running into mysterious monsters on the road, but as the players got stronger the threats I needed to throw at them would need to be stronger too. Since I made Kian a peaceful, orderly place, it was hard to throw the usual D&D enemies at them. Marauding bands of Orcs and Dragons gathering a hoard would be threats addressed by the Empire’s military, not a random band of adventurers. It forced me to think outside the box, the results of which you’ll see in later chapters.