Some heroes are born. Others are created. Still others are called. When the god of Justice asks you if you love justice; if the fire of justice burns in your heart? Halmar and I were compelled to say, “Yes,” to both.
“Excellent,” beamed Justice’s avatar. “If you are strong of mind and body, you may be able to see this task to completion. The time has come for the most heinous fiends that cower in the shadows to find the light of justice shining down upon them. I ask you to seek them out and deliver our sentence.”
We did not have to ask what the sentence was. The gravity of his words told us what we had to do.
Our first criminal was Branack Welk, whom we tracked to the Academy of Arcane Sciences in Freeport. We decided to hail him, on the off chance he would understand the error of his crimes and appeal to the Tribunal for mercy. We quickly realized that the reason we had been given this task was the criminals in question were so hardened that there was no saving them. As soon as we identified ourselves as working on Tribunal’s behalf, he attacked. His last mistake in this Plane.
After Branack we were able to follow some local tips that led us to Neriak, where we found Encan V’Dal in the house of D`abth. Needless to say, his fate was identical to that of Branack. The same was true for Eoando Kelu who we found in North Felwithe, Gloribo Hammerbreaker who was hiding in Kaladim’s warrior guild hall, and Snogge who was tucked away in Oggok.
Tomee Stenk in Qeynos’s Lion’s Mane Inn put up quite a fight. We were able to corner him in a first floor room. He nearly slipped out past us, but my trusty Rokkath blocked his retreat. “Going somewhere?” he growled. He must have felt he had nothing to lose, taking on the three of us. He was, of course, wrong. Wrong also was Doran Keez in the tall trees west of the waterfall in nearby Surefall Glade. Then, in Grobb, we met another hardened criminal by the name of Bronkks in a tunnel near a froglok prisoner. We suspected his friend Uzak the Jewelcrafter was helping to hide him, based on his proximity, but in the end, Uzak watched on the sidelines as Bronkks succumbed to Justice.
Rivervale is usually home to rogues of a more lighthearted sort. You always have to watch your money pouch there, but if it does go missing, it’s very likely been given to a needy family, minus a thief’s commission, of course. Scooky Moog was no such character, though he did all he could to blend in with the folks of the Halfling city. You may notice that only Halmar is visible in this image. That is because in order to dispense justice to this heinous creature, I had to sneak behind as Halmar pretended to be a lost traveller. One nail-biting fight later, justic prevailed and we prepared to travel to Halmar’s home of Erudin to finish the bidding of the Tribunal.
This last leg, I thought, would be particularly hard for Halmar, because I had learned over the course of this investigation that Halmar had known Silva Tonk as a child. Halmar’s silence on the topic told me that my partner might have some regrets about our mission. Even so, I trusted Halmar completely so we made our way to the Vasty Deep Inn on a tip Halmar received from some aquaintences in his hometown guild.
Once confronted, Silva did what all the other criminals did and fought us. I glanced at Halmar only to be surprised at the ferocity of his magical attacks! I was nearly blinded by the bolts of electricity, the fire, the ice, the pure magical energy. Silva was down and as he looked up with his dying breath, he recognized Halmar. “You!” he croaked and before he could say anything else, he had expired. “Yes,” Halmar said quietly. I knew better to ask Halmar then what had transpired between them as youths, but perhaps he will find it cathartic to post the story here sometime.
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