The Trial of Sierra - Prologue

You look down at the young man, no more than 24, and watch as the pool of blood spreads across the floor, emanating from the gash in his neck. You also recall slamming him inthe gut numerous times. The wet, dripping dagger is still in your hands. A simple farmhouse is off to your left. Young children run in fear towards the house. A low quality sword lays on the ground next to the body. You feel a numbness across the left side of your chest. It throbs in time with each beat of your heart.

An old crown stands to your side, her gnarled arthritic hands folded over a cane made of bone. She sounds and resembles emperor Palpatine, a black hood pulled up, slightly concealing her features. “ Tell me paladin. Is it justice to kill a man who wants nothing more than to commit genocide against a farmers family?” she asks as she gestures toward the house with her wrinkled hand.

If I know his intentions are to slay that family, then yes it is justice to stop him before he can slaughter them old woman. But tell me, how is it that I arrived at this place fighting this man when the last thing I recall is going to bed after helping out a friend achieve her destiny?

"Iomedae judges your actions child. She looks into your heart and finds your honor lacking." she says with a cackle. (remember she sounds like the emperor from star wars. hear that voice when she speaks :-)

"Now I ask you, paladin. Do you think the world to be so black and white that you can view this action as just with so few details?"

She points to the family with her cane. "Would it still be just to kill this man if he knew this family had blackened, murderous hearts and that, knowing that this family would end up causing an entire town to perish, he struck out to kill them before their actions could come to fruition?

"Come, child of the light. Who deserves justice now? The man committing genocide or the family that would end up killing hundreds that you just said deserved justice?"

He would be slaughtering the young children as well as the parents if he commited genocide. While he may be trying to save the town he should not have included the young ones in his quest of preventing the slaughter. The small ones could be shown the errors in the way they had been taught as to why the plot to murder the town was wrong if their parents were sent to jail for their plans, whereas they would never get the chance to be good people if they were just murdered by a random stranger due to machinations beyond their control.

She cackles at your answer. The images of the children shift slightly and, if only for a second, resemble some sort of monstrous body before they disappear around the corner of the house. "Yin and yang. Black or white. I fear everything is that way with you, oh righteous one." She says with a hint of sarcasm.

"Let the record show that your answer is to kill the parents and spare the children, even though there is the chance that they could grow up destroy a town." She says as she strikes the tip of her cane into the ground like a gavel.

The sword at the ground fades to mist and is replaced by a bottle of alcohol. "What if this man was a drunkard? Every night he beat his poor children. Maybe the crop did not yield enough. Maybe his wife sleeps around. This day he was especially drunk. This night, in his drunken rage, he would have killed his youngest child. Beating her with his fist, the whole time she pleads for mercy. Knowing that there are only 2 actions you can take, which would you choose? Kill the man before he can swing his fist, or allow him to do so, knowing that he has yet to do the crime and, how did you put it "could be shown the errors in the way?" Stop him tonight. Put him in jail. He will be free in the morning when he sobers. His death is the only thing stopping the eventual outcome." She says with a cackle.

"Who deserves justice here? The poor child he would have killed if not stopped, or the dead man, killed before his crime is committed?"

He has already committed crimes of violence against his children due to his drinking. Even if life is being unfair to you there is no reason for him to take it out on his loved ones. If the final result will be in the death of the small child I would have to stop the man. Buti have a question for you old woman. It is clear you are more than you appear based on what you can do, so what is it you want of me since you have apparently taken me from my friends side? I would have that before I answer any more of these questions about possible events.

She cackles at your question. "Friend or foe. Good or evil. Brother or traitor. They are not always as different as you think, child." Her shoulders shake as she continues to cackle as if from an inside joke.

"Most people are more than they seem, paladin." She says, serious again. "That foolish question is why you are here. I am to judge your action, for Iomedae looked into your heart and find your honor lacking. Your justice in err. Do not make me repeat my self a third time."

She then strikes the tip of her cane in to the ground like a gavel for the second time.

"Let the record show that your answer is to kill the man with out trying to reach out to him first."

"Let me ask you this before I ask my final question. What if the act of killing his poor child was the very thing that caused this drunkard to hit bottom and turn his life around? What if he chose to never touch the bottle again? To devote himself to protecting children instead of hurting them. What if the loss of his child ended up saving many more? Who do you choose to save now, righteous one? His child, or the many lives he would save from the loss of his child? Feel free to answer honestly, for your answer has already been recorded. Your answer here will neither hurt nor hinder my decision."

If the life of a single innocent is the cost of such a "noble" turnaround I would say that it is too high a price to be paid. I have sworn to protect the innocent and vanquish those who would harm them. I follow the teachings oft iomedae but i must be true to my persoaonal convictions to be able to continue on my path in this world. Even if she makes a request of me personally I would have to make sure it did not go against my own moral code before I would be able to accept it as something I could do. she might find me unworthy of her but I am not a cleric letting her act through me. I am driven by my orders code of conduct to be a beacon of order and good in the world, not by the word of a goddess, no matter how powerful she may be.world.

She nods at your answer. "Understandable, but perhaps you follow the wrong deity then. It is those "personal convictions" that led you here paladin. Maybe while you are tried, you can look within. Perhaps a different deity has been calling your name but you are to scared to hear them. But as I said. I will not hold what you said against you child for it was honest."

She cackles again. "But now you must answer my final question. A man loosens an evil upon the world that kills hundreds before it is ultimately stopped. If you know this mans location. What do you do, child of the light?"

I would go bring that man to justice so he can be judged for his crimes. He commited crimes against a great many people and I am sure they would want to see that he be punished for the deaths he has wrought.

"Let the record show that the man should be brought to justice!" she says slamming her cane down a third time.

"Of all three crimes I have described here, you have been found guilty, even by your own answers. Oh yes, paladin. I was always referring to your own crimes. Maybe if you truly desired to follow Iomedae instead of what you wanted to do, she would still have use for you child."

With that the area around you starts to swirl and turn to mist and everything turns dark.

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To be continued in the next exciting chapter!