The head judge Alve turns to the accused wolfkin, “Now Devon Thornclaw, it is your turn to tell us whatever scintillating tale you think will get you out of this.” At this point our group realize they didn’t know his name until now. Everyone had always referred to him as the brat or some other colorful term.

While the group is getting over their shock a wolfkin sitting next to the ambassador stands. Unlike the rest of the kin the group had met this one was dressed in a full suit. He clears his throat and speaks up, “If you will judge, my client's son has had a rough upbringing and is bad with words. They would like me to answer for him and the kid only answer whether what I said was the truth.”

Alve closes his eyes and rubs his temples with one hand before sighing, “I will have to deny him the privilege of such representation. While I respect a good wordsmith, I am under direct orders to get the story directly from the accused. This is much too serious a case at this point. Any other time I would be fine with you planning out and answering the questions so as to get your client out of trouble. With a truth spell making certain of things I don’t mind letting the occasional criminal go if you can spin a good tale. Keeps us on our toes for when we see the real nasty pieces of work. But orders are orders so I must once again ask, would Devon Thornclaw please come to the stand?”

The ambassador and the lawyer whisper back and forth. They seem to be unable to come to an agreement on something. Finally, the lawyer throws his hands up and turns to Alve again, “My client would like to object to this treatment of his son. I, on the other hand, would like to apply for asylum. Not only for myself but my family which I would like to be removed from the ambassadors compound. He has not threatened me per se but I would rather not have some promises fulfilled.” The wolfkin ambassador looks quite stunned at this turn of events. With a slight sneer the lawyer turns back to him before announcing, “Not everyone is so into the whole ‘pack’ thing, sir. Some of us just want to live our lives. I brought the only family I cared about when you moved me out here. To be honest, it was surprising how long you kept things going if some of the rumors back home are to be believed. Now with the head judge's permission I would like to join the general audience.” and once again turns back to Alve only to give a short bow while waiting for a response.

With a look of surprise Alve chuckles a little before announcing that, “I must admit of all the outcomes this was not one I expected. Being brave enough to abandon your country's representative is impressive and I see no reason to deny you. Welcome to the country, Doon here will retrieve your family and they can join you in the audience. In fact, after the trial and for all sorts of reasons I must insist you and yours accompany me back to this kingdom's capital.” With a nod towards Doon who quickly leaves, Alve turns back to the ambassador to once more ask for Devon to approach the stand.

With only a bit more grumbling the ambassador lets Devon approach the stand. Then the nameless magi finally dispels the silence on the boy. It seems that the seriousness of the situation had finally sunk into his thick head as he stayed quiet until asked if he permitted the truth spell. He scowls, “Not that this is any actual sort of choice but yeah, whatever. Cast your spell and ask me your stupid questions.” Okay maybe he didn’t quite get the seriousness of the situation.

Alve’s face looks a bit cramped at this but with the spell in place he soldiers on, “Did your group try to poach the boss?”

Devon scoffs, “Of course not.” He smirks a bit only to have a red light appear above his head, “Fine, whatever, we tried to poach that boss.” and the light goes away.

With a clap of his hands Alve looks relieved, “Finally we are getting somewhere! Okay, did your group know that was a designated new player quest zone?”

Devon rolls his eyes and responds offhandedly, “Of course man, how could anyone not know? If you’ve already had your first quest that is like the first thing you're informed of here. They even go through the whole spiel about what the punishment is for ‘poaching’ it. Though if the damn pansy couldn’t get it first whose fault is that, the weaklings.”

Off on the sideline the ambassador can’t help but facepalm. It even stuns Alve, “Okay, well you answered my next question as well. This is going a lot smoother than expected. It looks like you got none of the proper lessons from your father on tact or following laws.”

Oh, how Devon’s eyes roll at this, “Man, don’t try to lie to me. Power be everything. Just because this country has a few people with power looking out for the weak doesn’t change that. Survival of the Fittest you low borns.” and he shakes his fist at the audience.

Alve sighs, “Welcome to civilization boy, we protect the weak because everyone starts there. I am glad that the lawyer wasn’t allowed to talk for you. Otherwise I might have spared some of my sympathy for you. Luckily not only has your talking relieved me of that burden but it has also gotten the main part of this trial over in record time! Now let’s get onto this stack of earlier complaints.” and he reads through a few sheets of paper. Each line is another brief description of an incident and the names of who was affected.

Devon’s eyes glaze over within the first few minutes and finally he cuts the judge off, “Hey man, yeah I did all that. The ones you haven’t read yet? Yeah, likely me. In fact, those are too few pieces of paper to record all I have done. I’ve poached bosses, harassed shopkeepers, destroyed property both as a punishment for ticking me off, and honestly just because I could. If it wasn’t for my dad’s minder you could add things like taking slaves ‘illegally’ and abusing the ladies.”

Finally Alve has to silences him again. The ambassador is honestly looking quite green at this point. They both look at each other for a few moments of silence. Alve finally speaks up, “So I think we can describe this as an open and shut case. I think you should be happy that this doesn’t give us any permission to ask you to the stand. As an ambassador we aren’t even allowed to if we had dire need of information in your possession if only because you also have private knowledge from your country. From my studies of history it seems this wasn’t always the case. Though after a few accidently slipped secrets while under a truth spell an almost realm wide accord was reached on this subject. Your own country might have a few questions for you though. I have personally been in a few meetings with your higher ups about how to guide your country away from exactly the sentiment just on display. We both know the troubles your people have from lack of starter towns just like this one. It seems the reason for that was just displayed. Anyway, I guess we should get onto the sentencing. Sadly, there isn’t much to say. While the Powers That Be weren’t expecting such a cut and dry case they gave orders just in case. He will be shipped back to your kingdom of origin and they will decide the punishment. Case closed!” and with that Alve seems to slump down and relax, “Now I have to go make some reports so peace out.” Then he raises up the wood gavel he was holding. After swishing it in the air all the wood that was covering the room trembles before sliding off all the surfaces towards him. In moments the entire room is stripped down to the gray stone the rest of the court was made of and the gavel had turned into a gnarled wooden staff. Though it was still too small for the amount of wood it absorbed.

He turns to the lawyer, “Sorry your family didn’t make it in time to see this. We can meet up with them on the way out!” Then he waves the staff again, and the lawyer seems to float into the air and is carried out with Alve as he leaves.

Akhier

Things I wanted to mention but didn’t:

I don’t really know how the story got here. While I have a plan for the future I generally just let the characters play out how they will. Devon was raised under the idea of might makes right and being born above others. His upbringing spoiled him and gave him an inflated idea of his own power (you can seem really strong when daddy is paying others to make sure you don’t fail too hard). This developer as the story progressed as the pieces just fell into place for why he would act like he did when the group first met him. Oh and we likely won't see him again. I don’t mind having past villians come back to haunt the hero later on this guy is just a spoiled child.

Also another thing we found out in this chapter is a bit about where they are and the importance of starter towns. Shine Fish Village is close to another Empire. The other Empire has until recently been very much a might makes right sort of place and with the kin this generally meant a predator kin like a tiger or bear. (Sneak peek, the current Emperor there is a Haast Eaglekin.) Finally after a regimen change (the previous ruler was a Polar Bearkin) they tried to move away from this to more match their neighbors philosophy. The starter towns are just a small part of it but the locals definitely know that during a war the players are an important resources and they tend to defend where they think of as their ‘home’. This generally means wherever their starter town is.