Chapter One: The Iron Sphere of Sthombo

Felor trudges along behind the cart, glad to be back in the countryside. Walking next to Vad, he leans in and says
"Best keep those parlour tricks under wraps around the common folk. They don't hold much truck with magic 'round these parts."

Vad nods in agreement, "Yes, bad move on my part."

"I'll have to find a more inconspicuous way of releasing some of this energy from time to time..."

OoC: I assume we all at least had a chance to exchange names prior to the execution, seeing as we're all participants in this planned ceremony...?

Leth glances back at the "mourners" in disdain before turning his gaze back to the road ahead. Their fake cries grated on his nerves like sandpaper, and it was all he could do to keep himself from snapping around and letting them know exactly how he felt about their attempt to make some money off of the tragedy at hand. Instead, he tuned them out by turning his thoughts to the quandary before them. It just didn't make sense. He had heard the magician - Vad, if he recalled his name correctly - mention a "Zora", but Leth didn't know who that was or what connection they might have to this mystery.

No, the thing that most puzzled him was the witnesses. Edvers had been an exceptionally likeable fellow; the executioner's comments about Ed had not gone unnoticed by Leth. If even those who subjected him to torture and ultimately death had taken a liking to him, it was hard for Leth to imagine that "Uncle Ed" could have had many enemies, especially enemies of the type that would frame him for a crime punishable by death. Perhaps the late Mayor had, in fact, been "skulking about"... but to what end? Why would he have taken the sphere? Where could it have gone? If he was doing anything suspicious, but hadn't taken the sphere... what was he doing? And who DID have the sphere?

The entire affair troubled Leth, and he said just loud enough that his five companions could hear, "If we get a chance, I would like to return here and find out a little more from the witnesses who implicated Edvers, and perhaps examine the shrine where the Sphere was taken from. There's just too many things that are out of place here... And I'd like to get to the bottom of it. For Edvers' sake as well as the village folk displaced by the Justiciars'... 'searching.'"

"Friends, we should get to the bottom of this iron sphere mystery first and clear Kells' name, lest he be re-arrested immediately upon resurrection. I fear the justicars would not accept that one execution is sufficient."

"If he must remain far from his family and friends for the rest of his life, is it worth the cost? Is life without your kin really life at all?"
Felor trudges on a few steps before continuing.
"Of course I would dearly love to have our friend back, but... " he trails off with a shrug. "If Kells was involved in something that he was willing to risk his life for, surely we owe it to him to follow up on it? I sense there are bigger things at work here than a simple missing lump of iron."

Leth knew a little bit about magic; growing up in the wilderness tended to make one more conscious of survival than of social taboos. In fact he had sometimes tried his own hand at a few spells before, though he didn't consider himself anywhere near proficient enough to reliably cast anything. But what was being talked about here was certainly far beyond his ken, and Leth wasn't even sure he believed it. But if it could be done... It would certainly be the best option available to them. They would have thier friend returned to them, and Kells was far more likely to be able to supply them with the information they sought.

"If this is the option we are taking, I will do my part to help see it done."

Felor assists the grave diggers with preparation of the body, blessing it and wrapping the body in a traditional North Bloadian burial shroud. He stands over the body as it is lowered into the grave, and says a prayer.
"Great and wise Fjorgyn,
We commit this body to you.
A wise and loved friend,
Gone from us now,
But received into your arms.
May his spirit live on,
As the wind at a mountain peak,
The sparkle of a spring's water,
And the call of a soaring eagle."
The prayer finished, he throws a handful of pebbles into the grave.

Wandering away from the funeral proper, Tzipporah slipped the finger of Kells into her silver snuff box. Prayers were for the dead and the gods, she had no interest in them. She gazed off into the murky sky and pondered Kells involvement in this madness. Did he take the Sphere? If so why and where is it now. If not, then who framed their friend? She needed answers but where to start.

As the grave diggers set about thier work, Leth cast his gaze around the ruined village nearby. Without actually straying too far from the general area where the burial was, he began to look at what was left. It was obvious that the justiciars had been very thorough, but Leth held on to the small hope that maybe there was something they had missed. He studied the landscape carefully, hoping something would jump out at him as something that would require a closer investigation once the ceremony was finished.

Vad slowly walks towards what little remains of Edvers' home. "Where might you have gone, Zora? You have to know something about this." Kneeling on the ground Vad sifts through debris. "There's got to be something here..."