Tales of Neutral Ground IC

[3SecondCultist]

Castling

The gray pall barely lets up on your journey from the Reprieve back into the heart of town, but thankfully your party is once more able to fit into last night's new transport, which has miraculously survived the evening parked in the shadows of the inn. The horse - much the worse for wear, having been left out in the wet - neighs in protest until it is dried off with a blanket, had some water to drink and fed some tack before pulling you begrudgingly on your way. You are stopped at the usual border crossings - Port to Thrane, Thrane to Karrnath - until once more you are before the gates and battlements of the now-familiar castle of Thronehold.

This time, your carriage is admitted through the entrance without too much of a fuss. Thanks to Gryphon messaging ahead to Berem Lann, the Throne Wardens have been alerted to your imminent arrival. The banners of House Deneith look a little bit less than noble soaked in the rain, yet you take note that as soon as you pass under the shadow of the walls and emerge in the yards on the other side that there is no trace of water. On the castle grounds, it would appear that some great invisible hand is at work, for not a single droplet touches soil or cobblestone.

The greeting party that has come out to see you is quite a bit smaller than the last time you stood in this same spot. Other than the usual contingent of guards - with the additions of a few robed figures you surmise to be extra magical security - there is only one official: a short gnome with a shock of white hair around her shoulders with several streaks of... hot pink? Her clothes could charitably be called garish, with puffy sleeves, entirely too much frilly lace, and make-up that looks caked on. She has a bright feather in her cap that is surely the rage in certain rarefied circles, but out here among the soldiery looks more like a peacock shorn of most of its feathers.

"Arimart! ThereyouareIwasexpectingyoutenminutesagocomeoncomeon!" squeals Nyctessa Orolain Esquire, in-house defense attorney for the Thronehold Tribunal and Arimart's counterpart on the other side of the aisle. Pushing past the Deneith escort, the three-foot nothing figure all but manhandles the paladin to drag him up the drive towards the keep and the Hall of Justice.

"Youmissedsomuchlastnightyouknow." She stops to take a single breath, forcing herself to slow down (if only barely) as she forges a brisk path ahead. "I was in the law library doing research for the Nameless case and preparing my witness list and did you know that your friends make up most of my list hi there everybody! Anyway as I was saying I was making a lot of progress but I kinda sorta missed evening meal and they closed the gates for the night as they usually do so I got out my magic cot to find a little nook but I didn't get the chance because before I could get to sleep they raised the castle alarm and I ran out and met a pair of Deneith soldiers leading Nameless out of his cell but then I saw other Wardens and they asked me if I'd seen the prisoner and I pointed them in the direction and it was so chaotic!" The gnome stops in her tracks, as though a deeply profound idea had just occurred to her.

"I'm counting this as a technical win in my column, since there was no 'guilty' verdict. Score one for Orolain!"