Case 10: When Wizards' Wars Went Wrong

I am quite with you about this, and hope the Tribunal will follow you in it, too.

Good to know that we can consider all your statements as proven - that saves a lot of time. :slight_smile: But there is one fact that IMO we might still need to understand, if we wish to adjudicate the case.

Drowning takes some one or two minutes. During that time Gorax was incapacitated, hence not casting any more spells, or capable of any other offense. But what were the defendants doing during that time?

Were they all just completely absorbed by extinguishing the fire threatening the library during those minutes, and did not consider Gorax worthy a thought any more at all? Not even by keeping an eye on him, lest he break free of his incapacitation? Were they aware of his situation during that time?

The way I had interpreted cj.23's initial statement is that the three magi just assumed that Gorax had been killed by the mechanical wyvern, and left him for dead while dealing with the damage he had wrought. Whereas it may be that Gorax wasn't actually dead, but had simply been knocked out (i.e. incapacitated), and actually ended up drowning.

Same here. Having a mechanical wyvern eating your entrails, I would assume that is the cause of your death, not some lousy transparent liquid.

Self defense of common property. Acquittal vote.

So in any case, for the time that would be needed for drowning - one or two minutes - they just did not know about his state.
Did they care? Unless they were suicidal, they needed at least to ascertain that he was no longer dangerous.
So what did they do during the one or two minutes following their successful attacks on Gorax?

Bury him under a Sun duration massive amount of mud? I would have done that.

There's a subtle difference between not knowing that something is true, and not knowing if something is true.

If you are unaware of the truth, but you are aware of your ignorance, you may choose to take action and find out the truth (that's socratic ignorance for you :slight_smile:) If you are unaware of the truth, but you are convinced you know the truth, you will not seek further; and you can hardly call this "suicidal" even if the consequences of your ignorance could be lethal.

Octavius of Bonisagus rises from his seat to request the right to speak. Once the tumult dies down somewhat and he is recognized by the Preaco, he adresses the assembled magi.

"Sodales, although the facts seem clear, I would have some questions to the quaesitor who investigated the scene. I assume of course that there was such an investigation? After all, with two magi dead, the accused surely sent for one with all due speed?" With a quirked eyebrow, he awaits confirmation. Once he receives it and the quaesitor of the case comes forward, the plump Bonisagus continues.

"Would you be able to clarify the timing of the matter for me? According to the defendants, Gorax collapsed the tower, which caused a fire. Clara and Heironymous attacked Gorax in retribution, while Gorax was casting a Muto Terram/Ignem spell. Meanwhile, Clara was using Crea Aquam to put out the fire. All of this, the defendants say, 'within minutes of opening the hostilities, while Antonius was still in his sanctum'."

"Where were the defendants when Gorax walked into their covenant? How come their response was so immediate, while Antonius, who was the target of the Wizard's War, stayed in his sanctum? Was Antonius' body recovered? Can the defendant prove that it was in fact Gorax who collapsed the tower?"

"Furthermore, I am a bit suspicious that a fire started so fast on the library's roof. So fast, in fact, that the defendants did not check on the condition of their attacker until Gorax had drowned. Which other witnesses questioned? Were you able to verify that the tower was indeed collapsed by Gorax? What was the actual cause of death, and when did it occur? I have to wonder aloud at how it might have been convenient for the defendants to simply toss Gorax into the pit, after he had been incapacitated, and leave him to drown. Perhaps you, as the investigating quaesitor, can clarify some of these facts?"

(the crotchety Flambeau also looks expectantly at the queasitor in question...)

"Are we really supposing that Antonius planned his own death in such a way as creating the perfect opportunity with which to attack Gorax?" She looks at the magi expectantly, "Because if that's what we're asking, we have some mighty incompetent Quaesitores investigating and then subsequently prosecuting this crime."

"I am not suggesting anything, sodalis. Rather, I find the accounting of events lacking in details, and incomplete. Details are important for us to be able to base our decision upon. The presence or absence of Antonius' body is one such detail. If the body of Antonius was retrieved, it tells us something. If no body was found, it opens different possibilities. So I am asking for clarifications so that we can base our decision on facts, not mere speculation."

"If, as the defendants say, they simply reacted to an attack and dispatched the attacker as part of their response, then it is one thing. If, on the other hand, the attacker was incapacitated by their response and later pushed into into the pit to drown, then it is something else."

So at least we can guess your theory, why Clara, Valeria and Heironymous did not look up the state of the oh so threatening Gorax they had to dispatch a second before: they must have twiddled thumbs while finding out whether their ignorance was Socratic or not. :smiley:
Others might, however, ask themselves what really had happened during that time.

Cheers

Consider Gorax dead, fight the fire (might require a few spells), run around organizing the covenfolk (difficult) and making sure there were no more problems at hand. Gorax was under the intensive care of a metal massive wyvern, so no special attention to her seemed to be required. And if Gorax was alive, so what? They had tried to kill her anyway under forfeit immunity. The fact that they had to use a second spell would not have changed the fact that she was a threat to the covenant and so a valid target. In one second or a thousand. Does not matter. Seems like Gorax went for first strike and nailed it there, but failed abysmally in its intelligence gathering activity and got herself open to perfectly valid retaliation.

If you attacked my covenant and my apprentice, library, wife or servants were injured while you attacked any of my colleagues, be sure that the retaliation would be as swift. I applaud my colegues for not allowing a trespasser to hide behind a wizard war to get away with a clear breah of the code. This is not Normandy but a civilized tribunal.

Jerome of Guernicus thinks hard. My esteemed Bonisagi Octavius, with my great respect for your House and illustrious forebear, I would be pleased to attempt to answer your questions. Firstly, on timing: by detecting magical traces, I could find the following spells had been employed. The magnitudes are correct for my arrival, after three days. Where I was able to establish the sigil I have included it in brackets. If I have some idea what the spell was based upon my examination of the traces, I have included it. (And the rules for the spells Jerome employed are on HOH: True Lineages p.71 if you want to check what it means. Please note the following list is not sequential.

A Rego Terram Enchanted Device : Trace Magnitude 0. (Clara) courtyard
A Perdo Terram Spell: Trace Magnitude 0 (Heironymous) - Pit of the Gaping Earth courtyard
A Second Perdo Terram Spell: Trace Magnitude 0 Tower Ruins
A Creo Aquam Spell: Trace Magnitude 0 (Valeria) courtyard, tower ruins, library
A Creo Ignem Spell: Trace Magnitude 0 (Clara) courtyard
A Rego Imaginem Spell: Trace Magnitude 0 (Gorax) Gorax's body
A Muto Corpus Spell: Trace Magnitude 0 Gorax's Body
A Muto Corpus Spell: Trace Magnitude: 0 (Valeria) - Make someone's eyes stick out on stalks? Courtyard
A Muto Terram Spell: Trace Magnitude 0 (Gorax) Covenant Wall
A Creo Corpus Spell: Trace Magnitude 0 (Clara) Gorax's Body
A Creo Corpus Spell: Trace Magnitude 0 (Valeria) Courtyard
A Perdo Aquam Spell: Trace Magnitude 0 Courtyard, Tower Ruins, Library
An Intellego Corpus Spell: Trace Magnitude 0 Pit
An Intellego Corpus Spell: Trace Magnitude 0 Tower Ruins
An Intellego Corpus Spell: Trace Magnitude 0 - detect the presence of life in a body Pit, Gorax's Body
A Creo Corpus Spell: Trace Magnitude 0 - Bind Wounds Courtyard
Aegis of the Hearth - Active - Sixth Magnitude Covenant

Please notice that even with our special quaesitorial magic it is not possible to determine the order in which the spells were cast, once there traces have decayed to Magnitude 0.

I hope this helps.
cj x

According to the defendants they had just left the tower, well Valeria and Heironymous had, where they had been talking with Antonius about his preparations. Clara was flying back to the covenant on the Wyvern after a last minute attempt to negotiate a cessation to the Wizard's War at Gorax's covenant. She dropped off the Wvern after her attack run, joining her sodales in the courtyard.

Gorax's body was interred in the chapel crypt. The marks were those of a violent death - the head was almost detached from the body, the lungs had considerable quantities of water in them. It was impossible to say which was fatal - either could have been, or theorder in which the wounds were inflicted.

There were two witnesses - one grog, Antonious' shield grog, who was flung from a window and injured when the tower collapsed, and next remembers someone casting Bind Wounds upon him. He saw lots of water, and steam, and heard a lot of screaming and spell casting. That's about it. The other grog who was on the other tower armed with a crossbow saw the mechanical wyvern with Clara on it descending, heard the other tower collapse, ducked down and heard a lot of spellcasting, and when he looked again there was water and steam everywhere and the three accused gathered around a pit, pulling out a body and casting spells upon it, except for Clara who was moving through the steaming ruins of the tower, and casting some kind of spell that involved her poking at the ground.

cj x

"This is unusal. I find it interesting that so many spells were cast in such short span of timing. May I ask why the defendants felt the need to upon after they checked he was dead? And who was Gorax 'disguised' as?
I reconmend that the defendants attepmt to be more detailed in the description of the events. A 'blow-by-blow' account as it were."

OOC: are you referring to the Rego Imaginem effect on him, or to the Muto Corpus spell effect? The Rego Imaginem one is unlikely to have been a disguise. The Muto Corpus one could have been a disguise, but could as well have been something else.

Ecelo ex Miscellanea, an itinerant seeker, mulls over the list of magical traces.
"Sodales, he says, let us try to examine the evidence."

A Rego Terram Enchanted Device : Trace Magnitude 0. (Clara) courtyard
"Are these the traces of the mechanical wyvern?"

A Perdo Terram Spell: Trace Magnitude 0 (Heironymous) - Pit of the Gaping Earth courtyard
"This one we knew about."

A Second Perdo Terram Spell: Trace Magnitude 0 Tower Ruins
"Probably Gorax's spell used to collapse the tower."

A Creo Aquam Spell: Trace Magnitude 0 (Valeria) courtyard, tower ruins, library
"This is probably the spell used to quench the fire. Nothing we don't expect but... water was found in Gorax's body, and we can assume he was protected by his Parma. Why didn't Valeria cast the spell forcelessly?"

A Creo Ignem Spell: Trace Magnitude 0 (Clara) courtyard
"AH-HA! This is an odd one. Could it be that Clara started the fire herself? Having a fire does in part help out the case of her covenant -- they can claim they panicked, that Gorax created a serious threat to their magical power, and they can justify casting the water spell. This is important: perhaps Gorax was not dead, and they decided to get rid of him permanently. Or he maybe he was dead; but with water in his lungs it would be uncertain whether his death would be the responsibility of the wyvern's attack, or of an "accident" involving the water -- and thus Clara, both the owner of the wyvern and the caster of this spell, would be acquitted.

A Rego Imaginem Spell: Trace Magnitude 0 (Gorax) Gorax's body
A Muto Corpus Spell: Trace Magnitude 0 Gorax's Body
"A spell used by Gorax on himself. Probably, though not certainly, unimportant."

A Muto Corpus Spell: Trace Magnitude: 0 (Valeria) - Make someone's eyes stick out on stalks? Courtyard
"What is this spell? I admit I am clueless. Unless it is a botched attempt at something I don't quite understand ..."

A Muto Terram Spell: Trace Magnitude 0 (Gorax) Covenant Wall
"This was probably used by Gorax to enter the Covenant."

A Creo Corpus Spell: Trace Magnitude 0 (Clara) Gorax's Body
"Hmm, so Clara -- the same maga who cast the mysterious Creo Ignem spell -- tried to heal Gorax. Or did she simply pretend she tried to heal him, leaving clear evidence for the quaesitores?

A Creo Corpus Spell: Trace Magnitude 0 (Valeria) Courtyard
"Possibly the spell used on the injured grog."

A Perdo Aquam Spell: Trace Magnitude 0 Courtyard, Tower Ruins, Library
"The spell correctly used to get rid of the water after the fire was quenched."

An Intellego Corpus Spell: Trace Magnitude 0 Pit
"What was this spell used for? Possibly to find Gorax's body, which would have been difficult given his Rego Imaginem spell."

An Intellego Corpus Spell: Trace Magnitude 0 Tower Ruins
"This was probably used to investigate the fate of Antonius"

An Intellego Corpus Spell: Trace Magnitude 0 - detect the presence of life in a body Pit, Gorax's Body
"A reasonable inquiry ..."

A Creo Corpus Spell: Trace Magnitude 0 - Bind Wounds Courtyard
"Some more healing..."

Aegis of the Hearth - Active - Sixth Magnitude Covenant
"And the shield of our Order. And a fairly strong shield, I may say, one which would have seriously hampered Gorax's efforts -- as the covenant magi undoubtedly knew".

Sodales, I would just want to point out that this is a covenant of the Order of Hermes. Magic is regularly used in such environments, both inside and outside the labs. Whatever cast by the magi during that day WOULD have left marks on the environment. I would say that quite a few of those spells are likely to be totally irrelevant to the case. I cast Creo Ignem spells in my covenant all the time to burn bonfires, create light and heat the air in winter. Clara could have been doing that same thing easily enough. Rests of magic need to be proven that refer to the exact same moment, and since they can linger for unspecified periods of time (specially spells cast during the same Sun duration as the culprits of this situation) I do not accept the spells as necessary proof of the magi in the covenant wrongdoing.

An aggression is performed on your property, family and friends, in acts that fall outside the Code. I cannot find fault on the actions of our sodales.

If my sodales are still unconvinced, I am sure that they will agree to make SEPARATE and UNHEARD descriptions of their individual actions and conversations regarding the situation at hand while under Frosty Breath of the Spoken lie and a Perdo Imaginen spell active on them in front of the tribunal. I am fairly sure that they will be acquitted.

Ignaeus sits down

"Quaesitor Jerome, thank you for these important details. Could you answer an additional question? I must admit to being unfamiliar with Queasitorial magic, but I notice that for a number of spells, you were unable to determine the sigil. Could you tell me what couse be the cause of that?"

(After the explanation...)

"Let us review the spells attributed to Gorax, or present on Gorax' body..."

"Does anyone find it strange that Goarx' sigil is not present on the spell used to collapse the tower, while it is present on the other spells attributed to him?"

"Furthermore, amongst all of this information I notice something missing. Was Antonius' body recovered?"

Sophronia speaks next, A Perdo Terram spell centered on the Tower Ruins is strongly indicative of an attempt to destroy the whole tower, rather than the sanctum within. Please also note that there is a Muto Terram spell trace on the covenant wall, but there is no such Muto Terram trace on the tower itself, so he didn't enter the tower in the same manner he entered the covenant. He may have entered and been detected and decided to bring down the tower around him. All we can do is speculate. But we do know that there was a Perdo Terram spell cast on the tower, which is now in ruins, which contained the sanctum of Antonius of Verditius. It might be that Gorax botched his spell, and the magic was out of his control. That's pure speculation, and even if it were the case, he's prosecuting a Wizard's War and must maintain a precise duty to ensure that his attacks are only on the person or property of his opponent.