Dueling Suspects (Erastus [VII] 2nd, 4707 AR)

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Sveth drugged the jurors (and heroes) and brought them here. Judge Silman Trabe and Alastir Wade received blackmail letters in each others' hands. The letters were addressed to them from each other, threatening to go to the authorities and expose the other’s involvement in the “horrible miscarriage of justice” unless they met “where we did the deed” and brought 1,000 gp along with them.

The heroes heard the ring of steel on steel coming from the Great Hall. When they investigated, they found an old man with a sizable paunch staggering backward as he defended himself from a tall, lean opponent with a full beard and a flashing blade to match his intense blue eyes. Their rapiers clanged and cast silvery sparks as the tall man adjusted his black top hat gallantly and launched another barrage of thrusts, disengaged, and riposted. The heavier man’s silver goatee and drooping moustache dripped beads of sweat while his green eyes showed terror and strain as he barely turned aside the assault. A final feint on the part of the tall bearded man opened a gash in the fat man’s arm. He stumbled backward, turned his ankle with a painful yelp and fell hard on the flagstone floor of the Great Hall.

The two men described above were Silman Trabe and Alastir Wade. Trabe is heavy-set, aged, and silver-haired, with a drooping moustache and goatee and wears weariness on his face. Alastir was still as debonair as he was ten years past, although his temples showed some distinguished gray. Wade relented his assault and told the heroes about how Trabe threatened to sully his reputation with bald-faced lies concerning the long-closed case of Jarbin Mord. Trabe sputtered and claimed it was he who was being threatened with lies and produced a letter. Alastir did the same.

The game was afoot.

Alastir didn’t even bring the pay-off gold. Trabe had a thin parcel wherein lay the pay-off. Alastir pointed to Trabe’s money as a sure sign of his guilt, while claiming he brought no gold, saying, “Why would I pay someone to silence something I had no hand in?”

Wade did his best to cast suspicion on anyone who presented themselves (Aranthor, or Sveth). When he saw Sveth, he claimed the rogue must have been behind the whole thing. Alastir did his best to convince everyone that they were wrong to suspect him or that whoever accused him was lying.

When Alastir met with Aranthor, the knitting needle from Aranthor's vision animated from his backpack, flew across the room, and drew a bloody furrow on his cheek, matting his beard in blood. Afterward, the needle dropped, inanimate.

The visions pointed to Wade as well. Alastir had grown a long beard that covered an unsightly scar marring the lower left side of his face (where Malene slashed her murderer in Aranthor's vision), but close inspection revealed the scar beneath his well-trimmed facial hair.

As the list of suspects (and surviving jurors) dwindled, the heroes had to deal with the dangerous Alastir Wade, slay the monstrous jurors, and collect enough evidence to damn Wade to the gallows.

When the heroes succeeded by discerning Wade was the true culprit and hanged the evil ex-barrister, they ended the haunting of Beldrin’s Bluff Courthouse.

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