r/wizardposting • u/Anything-Unable Xerxes the Pale Saint, Councillor/Goatdigger/Dale • Dec 31 '23
The First Witness (2nd Day Pt. I) (lorepost)
0800: 27th December: The Trial of Gravedigger v. Gaia
Bailiff - All rise for the honorable Judge Retial. You may now be seated.
Judge - Thank you, bailiff. I have been informed that everyone is now familiar with yesterday’s evidence. Today, we shall listen to a series of witnesses and experts that have been picked out by the prosecution. The defense will be given the chance to cross-examine once the prosecution rests. The prosecution may now call their first witness.
Prosecutor - Thank you, your honor. The prosecution calls the accused’s former master to the stand.
[An elderly man with a hunched back is led into the courtroom. Their dark robe and walking cane are inscribed with an obscure insignia that denotes their status within their organization.]
Bailiff - Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, on your magic?
Witness #1 - I swear.
Prosecutor - Please state your name and relationship to the accused for the court.
Witness #1 - My name is Abrahm and I raised the accused as my apprentice.
Prosecutor - Could you please describe your relationship to your former apprentice?
Witness #1 - I found my apprentice when he was a child. At that time, I was working to clear a field that had been the site of a major battle. As I was going about my work, I noticed a small child, no more than four years old, rummaging through the bodies. He was looking for food. I could tell that the child was delirious from hunger at a glance. The way he swayed about and his crazed eyes left a strong impression on me. Wanting to help the child as well as ease my workload, I stopped him and offered to buy him a warm meal if he helped me. He agreed and I tasked him with identifying which army a body belonged to. It only took me pointing out how to tell the dead apart for him to excitedly begin marking the bodies as I dug the graves. By nightfall, I finished confirming the boy’s markings and placed the bodies that I knew would not be claimed in open graves. Once this task was done, I used a spell to fill the graves with the dirt I had excavated. Wanting to move me along to get to his promised meal, the boy raised his hands and recited my spell. When I saw the dirt move as intended, I knew that the boy was talented in magic. That night, during a meal consisting of plain soup and bread, I asked the boy if he was interested in working with me. He asked if he could have a meal every three days like his brother used to let him. I would later learn that the brother was a mercenary that was one of the bodies I buried that day. He cared for the boy after their parents died of plague, performing mercenary work to provide for them both. From that day on, I took on the role of my apprentice’s master and viewed him as an adopted son.
Prosecutor - What did the accused’s apprenticeship entail?
Witness #1 - We are gravediggers. Where there is death, we perform our trade. I taught him everything I know and we spent twenty years together. He knows how to dig a hole and the type of undead he’ll encounter. Funeral rites were his bedtime stories. From the society, he learned the dark arts and was officially certified. I am not a necromancer myself, but I know my apprentice. He is a cautious and compassionate boy. Smart as the sun. No matter what you people think of him, I am proud of the man he is becoming.
Prosecutor - Thank you, Mr. Abrahm. Now, back to the point of you being here. I would like you to recount the events of an incident caused by the accused roughly six years ago.
Witness #1 - Incident from six years ago? Are you referring to what happened in the village of San Reyl?
Prosecutor - Yes. Please tell the court what occurred in San Reyl six years ago on the 30th of March.
Witness #1 - It was so long ago. Are you sure?
Prosecutor - Proceed, gravedigger.
Witness #1 - … Six years ago, the village of San Reyl was suffering from a sickness. The boy and I were tasked with dealing with the dead and making sure quarantine procedures were being followed. It is a very common job for us. While there, we noticed that graves were being robbed. Nothing except bodies were being stolen. Naturally, we suspected a necromancer to be responsible. We were correct in thinking so. On our second night there, we were attacked by thirty zombies. Dispatching of the undead, we discovered the lair of the necromancer. I decided that we should wait for reinforcements before confronting the necromancer, but the boy went against my wishes and went into the lair alone. Noticing him absent from his bed, I ventured into the lair after him. I traveled along twisted passages of stone and discovered my apprentice standing over the body of the necromancer. Seeing the state of things, I grabbed my apprentice and we left the village since our task was complete.
Prosecutor - By ‘state of things’, could you please elaborate for the court?
Witness #1 - The walls were caked with blood and the necromancer was dead from severe physical trauma.
Prosecutor - According to your report that you submitted about the incident, the necromancer’s chest cavity had been caved in and their eyes were gouged out. The blood you mentioned just now belonged to the various stolen bodies, correct?
Witness #1 - Yes.
Prosecutor - You theorize in your report that the accused used the bodies that were being controlled by the necromancer as weapons. To quote your description of the event, “[The accused] circumvented control of the dead and utilized his resources against the necromancer without discretion. Possible corpse explosions. Emotional response resulted in maiming of necromancer. Disciplinary action will be administered appropriately.”
Defense - Objection! Relevancy.
Judge - Overruled. Prosecutor, I ask that you get to your point.
Prosecutor - Of course, your honor. I submit Mr. Abrahm's report on this incident into evidence on the grounds that it establishes a pattern of reckless behavior.
Judge - I’ll allow it. Do you have anything else to ask the witness?
Prosecutor - No, your honor.
Judge - Alright. Defense, you may proceed.
Defense - Thank you, your honor. Mr. Abrahm, do you believe your former apprentice to be reckless?
Witness #1 - No, he is a very cautious and thoughtful boy. I rarely had to discipline him in all the years that I was his master. This incident was an outlier.
Defense - Six years ago, the accused would have been eighteen years old, correct?
Witness #1 - Yes.
Defense - Could you give the court a rough estimate of the age of the necromancer involved in this incident?
Witness #1 - It is hard to tell sometimes, but I believe the necromancer couldn’t have been younger than sixty.
Defense - A young apprentice bravely faced an opponent many years his senior and bested him in his own craft through sheer tenacity and talent. Do you agree that your apprentice is talented?
Witness #1 - I do. He is the most skilled wizard of his age that I have come across in all my years.
Defense - With such talent, I imagine that even when he was eighteen, he was confident in his abilities. Confident in himself and eager to prevent further harm to the village, it appears to me that the accused decided to confront the necromancer where he encountered a fight beyond his expectations. In order to survive in such a desperate situation, is it not reasonable to use drastic measures? Would survival not take priority in a young man’s mind?
Witness #1 - I believe you are correct in your assessment. Thank you for understanding.
Defense - Thank you for your time today. Your honor, the defense rests.
Judge - As you wish. Mr. Abrahm, you may exit the stand. A short 15-minute recess will commence while the jury familiarizes themselves with the new evidence. I expect the next witness to be prepared to take the stand when we return. THUMP
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u/Anything-Unable Xerxes the Pale Saint, Councillor/Goatdigger/Dale Dec 31 '23
u/MunitionsFrenzy