Trial and Error Part 1

The trial of the Mayor of Arundal begins.

The Judges gavel bangs against the desk. Since Judge Root is a Badger it doesn't take much to quiet the clammor of noise generated by the packed court room. The court house is a simple long retangular room with windows along the sides. The far back is filled with beasts, surprisingly segregated into woodlanders on the left, vermin on the right. To the right there are several chairs filled with various species of jury members. On opposite sides of the room there is the defendents desk and the prosicutions desk. "Now..." Judge Root adjusts his wire frame glasses, "I know this case has been trying on the city. But in an effort to get some sanity back into Arundal, I suggest we start soon."

Sitting at the defendent's desk is a rather intelligent looking Mole that also wears a pair of wire frame glasses, though the glass is a bit more thick than most others. "Doan't you'm be wurryin' zurr Edwin," he says quietly to the shrew. "Oi'll be gettin' 'ee out o' this when that thurr judge foins out thurr bain't 'nough evidunce."

The shrew sits next to the mole and responds, "You better." There is a pause while Thaddius stands up, he glances back to the crowd behind him before saying, "Certainly y-your honor. I don't think this trial will take /too/ long." The cat approaches the bench, stopping half way there he turns to the jury and begins to recite the speech he had practiced for the last few weeks, "Beasts of Arundal, lend me your ears. I will be brief, your Mayor stands accused of mass murder. Stands accused of orchestrating events to poison the beasts that lived on this land to open a mine for his own profit. For trying to silence witnesses to this event. To kill, murder, and plunder the land. If, no WHEN convicted, he will face the hangman's noose. And when we get done here I can guarantee that you will think that is the least punishment he deserves.

The mole lawyer narrows his eyes at the cat, having heard of Thaddius before. He couldn't say he had a particular liking for Thaddius, though he knew of the cat's reputation, and he knew that this would be difficult for him to pull off.

The cat concludes by sitting down back in his chair, taking a long swig from a glass of water. Why did he have to choose a profession that involved public speaking? The old badger on the judges seat turns to the mole, gesturing for him to begin his beginning argument.

Clearing his throat, the stout mole hopped off his seat, walking to the middle of the room and turning to face the crowd. "Naow...oi knows that this hurr Thaddius wunts t' convince all o'ee that 'ee conspoired t' do these horrid things!" The mole certainly seems to put quite the show on, even taking out a kerchief and dabbing at his eyes as he continues. "But oi say no! Oi be sayin' that zurr Edwin wus framed boi Henri Truchon, an' oi woan't be standin' 'ere an' watchin' him take th'blame fer Henri!"

Several jury members nod their heads to the mole's statements. Thaddius knows this is going to be a difficult battle. The jury was selected from beasts of all walks of life but still, it's hard to convict the beast that gave them roads, made the town flurish with silver trade, and seemingly helped to run off a tribe of maurading beasts back when the town was owned by Bushfolk.

Lordan the mole finishes mopping his eyes with his kerchief, sniffing. "Thankee zurrs an' marms. Oi knoaw we'll be seein' justice done!" With that, he moves to sit at his spot next to Edwin, pocketing the kerchief and chuckling softly to himself, though taking extra care to make sure that nobeast heard, cosidering he kept a somber expression on his face.

Thaddius Sharpclaw makes no expression to show his inner emotions. His tail however does twitch back and forth irritably. "Alright then, now that /that/ is taken care of," Judge Root says as the mole sits down. "Mr. Sharpclaw, do be so kind as to bring in your witness or peice of evidence." The cat stands from his seat, "Right away your honor We..."

"Quickly, I might add." The cat gulps slightly at the badgers glare. "Y-y-yes sir. I call in first the otter Derrin, one of many witnesses the Mayor kidnapped and tried to murder."

The summoned otter enters the courtroom moments later, escorted by two guards. Derrin does his absolute best to not meet the eyes of anybeast in this room, being very unused to things like this. He soon is led to a stand for the witnesses, and the plaintiff stands in front of him. "Please put your hand over your heart sir," He says. When Derrin complies, he continues, "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, lest you suffer at the gates of dark forest?" The black otter gulps, nodding slowly. "Aye, I do." He manages to say through nervousness. The plaintiff nods, walking over to stand at his post again.

The cat then begins to go into asking the otter questions, asking about his service record, his relationship with his the other witnesses such as his parrents. He Skillfully glosses over his relationship with his brother who at the moment is under arrest by the Militia for releasing all of his other witnesses. Thad then asks the more important question of, "Tell me what happened in the Mayors house a few weeks ago, after the Sheriff Byron wisked you away in the night. What happened Next?"

Derrin takes a deep breath, having become much more comfortable while answering the questions. "Well...I was carried into th' house, an' Edwin was there wid Henri, an' I asked wot was goin' on." He goes on to describe how Edwin and Henri had basically revealed everything they had done, and he does his absolute best to be detailed. "After that, I tackled Edwin, and I didn't see wot happened t' Henri, but eventually Byron told me t' stand aside, an' Edwin was arrested."

"So he told you h-himself of what he did? That he hired Henri to poison the Bushfol who owned this land." The cat folds his arms behind his back as he addresses the Jury, "He admitted, to several witnesses of his deeds. He might have well written his confesion down on paper to save us all the time of convicting him." The feline sits down at his own desk, "I have no further questions for this witness."

Standing from his desk, Lordan walks over to stand in front of Derrin, his beady eyes scanning the otter, though Derrin had plenty of experience with these types, and he held his ground. "Naow, Derrin...you'm say that you'm wurr thurr when Edwin told 'ee o' these croimes?" Derrin nods, sure of himself. "Aye, that I was sir," he replies. The mole nods slowly several times. "Quoite roight..wull in court, 'ee need a likkle thing called evidence. You'm wudn't harpen t' harve anythin loik that wud'ee?" He asks. Derrin hesitates, then shakes his head. "No sir, I don't, aside from my words an' the words of the other witnesses." Lordan smiles slightly, then he turns, heading for his desk to sit down. "Oi harve no further queshtuns." He says as he goes.

"Very well, you may step down Derrin." The judge commands. Thaddius is begging to sweat. Of course the mayor wouldn't have been kind enough to write down his evil deeds for all to read. If the cat pulls up the otter's parents that blasted mole would just use the same argument, and probibly say the otters were just trying to help out their son by lying for him. No its time to pull out the big balista...at least the only balista he has left. "Your honor I would like to call Tavis Longtail to the stand." The militia leader arrives shortly there after, wearing a chain mail tunic with out his usual blade. His arm is in a sling. After being sworn in the mouse begins to relay his own experience of coming upon the chaotic scene, and how the mayor tried to bribe him. "...I almost regret not gutting the little rat where he stood to be honest." Thaddius gulps, "Thank you for...putting that so tactfully. I turn the witness over to the Defense."

The mole stands up yet again, sweating lightly as he walks towards the witness stand. He certainly hadn't been expecting Tavis to be brought up, and Thaddius almost certainly knew that Lordan couldn't bring up charges of lying against somebeast like Tavis without facing reprocusions, but it was his only option. "Alroight zurr Tavis, you'm said Edwin broibed 'ee? An' where exactly cud th' proof be shown fer this?"

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Rorgan,Derrin and Lordan all belong to Rorgan, all othters belong to me

NOTE:

Like most stories we run we involve six sided dice rolls in determining the outcome of the case. In this story at the end of each argument the dice are rolled, me in favor of the heroes, Rorgan rolling for the villains. Each dice win gives the side an extra dice to roll at the end of the trial, which will determine the outcome. so far the score is Villains to heroes 2-0