The law in action

In a recent game a situation happened that became a matter of law. We shall now review it, keeping our attention focused on the Dennerron Rules and the laws that are easily drawn from them. ( I do not have a detailed law code for the kingdom of Axandorf, but I will soon. )

Act 1. A small group of mercenaries was sent to retrieve an item from a cleric. Two of them entered a church and had words with him. They were armed. A fight broke out. There were no witnesses to that event. The cleric was injured. One merc was killed; the other ran back to his companions outside and fled. In their escape one peasant woman was knocked down and injured severally.

What laws have been broken in this event?

1. Taking weapons into a church is a minor offense. No defense argument would be here. 

2. Fighting in a church is a more serious offense. Two mercenaries are implicated, one is dead. Guilt here is clear and no real defense can be offered.  

3. As there are no witnesses to how the fight started, we have the words of the two men involved. The cleric being the elder and having a better social rank would be believed if there are any conflicts between the accounts. However they do match quite well.

The combat by general law was honorable. The mercenaries drew first, but gave warning and time for the cleric to ready his defense. They did not launch a sneak attack, nor did they strike at an unarmed man. The accusation of attempted murder is thus disproved.  ( murder is linked to an unfair assault, involving surprise, where the target has no chance to defend or surrender )

4. The woman, who was trampled by a rider on horse, would have clear claim to compensation for her injury. She may accuse him of mistreatment and possibly attempted murder. He would say it was an accident. As a higher social rank than a peasant, and skilled rider, his claim would tend to be believed. If she claimed injury by accident, she would win. If she tried to accuse him of murder and lost, as would likely be the case, she would get no settlement at all.    

Act 2.  As the three mercenaries right away from the village down the road, they encounter a group of local riders, including the noble lady Ellsbeth. She announces herself and orders them to halt. They ignore her and ride around the group who was trying to block the road. The lady and her party give chase. Ellsbeth and her arms-man injure one merc and knock him off his horse, other members of the group stop to take him prisoner. One of the remaining two mercenaries fires a hand crossbow at the lady, who deflects the bolt. The chase continues, with one more merc being unhorsed. The remaining merc rides madly back into his camp, with the lady in hot pursuit. The mercenary captain and a few archers step out. He demands that she halt. She tries to ride him down. He orders his archers not to fire at the noble lady. Ellsbeth rides through the camp, sees that the odds are greatly against her and then rides away. The mercenaries make no attempt to stop her. However some of them do rush out towards lady Osbera, who was taking the second fallen merc prisoner.The mercenary captain insists that Osbera accompany him to see the Baron, who lives only a short distance down the road. She reluctantly agrees.

What laws have been broken in this event?

1. A noble ordered mercenaries to halt on the road. They ignored her. This is not a crime, but is clearly disrespectful. She would be with in her rights to have a small beating administered to the men, for their discourtesy. By tradition she should take the matter to their commander, and he would order them to stand for punishment. 

2. One merc took a shot at the lady. This is a clear crime of assault. His only defense is that he was acting in self defense, seeing how the lady and her man just took down one of his companions. He would almost certainly be found guilty.  But because it was a clean attack during combat, the penalty would not be death, unless the lady insisted strongly. The judge would consider the fact that the lady was acting as a warrior, not a helpless noble woman.

3. Regarding the ‘abduction’ of lady Osbera, the merc captain would claim it was protective custody. As she is a young woman, the daughter of a local noble, he would be required to take her as soon as possible to the home of her father or other friendly noble. Which is exactly what he was doing. She could claim that the men threatened her. The captain would claim it was a misunderstanding about his concern for her safety.  Her word would carry sizable weight, but so would his because he is a veteran commander, recently back from the Jor war, and still in the employ of the crown.

Act 3. As the troop of mercenaries march towards the Baron’s town, they are ambushed by a local ‘ranger’ Lor. Who, with out any conversation, starts shooting. In the fight, the captain is injured and one merc killed. Lor eventually gets the captain as his hostage as lady Osbera rides for freedom. Even at this point the captain reminds his men, not to shoot the lady. After a short talk the stand off is resolved the captain orders his men to let Lor go. He runs for the woods, the guards from the town ride up to take charge of the situation.

As the captain is healed the Barron is called out to deal with the bizarre incident. He get the merc’s side of the story first, which is a very accurate account of the recent events. No big lies or cover up attempts made by the captain.  An hour or two later, lord Oswin, after having talked to the cleric who was assaulted in his own church, rides up with lady Osbera and lady Ellsbeth and a few troops. The case is discussed, largely between the Baron and lord Oswin, with a few questions and comments being made to other people who were involved.

Eventually the Baron makes his ruling on the case. The mercenaries are to be exiled from his land, never to return. Any captured merc is to be set free. The captain is to pay compensation to everyone injured. The captain’s demand for Lor’s head is denied. 

After the Baron has spoken, lady Ellsbeth exclaims how unjust the ruling is. She thinks the entire merc troop should be held as guilty of assault and attempted murder. The Baron tells her to be silent and know her place.

What laws have been broken in this event?

1. Clearly Lor is at fault here. He made a sneak attack, attempting to kill the captain with a shot to the neck. When this failed he did manage to land a shot to the face. Lor would correctly be charged with attempted murder. Also he did kill one of the merc troopers. But this could be argued to be part of a stand up fight, as both men were defending themselves, the kill is clean. 

2. Taking the captain as hostage is no real crime, it just displayed a lack of honor. However Lor did offer him a chance to surrender and honored his part of the bargain, thus not breaking any more laws regarding combat. The captain was well with in his rights to demand Lor be punished, although asking for his death was a bit excessive it was not unreasonable.

Lor’s only defense was that lord Oswin had sent him to ensure the safety of lady Osbera. 

Let us consider how well or badly justice was served.

The mercenaries received a fairly light slap on the hand for the trouble they caused. However, should any of them come back they may be arrested and punished simply for being in the barony against the Baron’s clear orders.

The very substantial charge against Lor was completely dismissed. Thus the Baron showed clear favoritism towards one of his subjects. The only compensation given to the merc captain was free healing service from the Baron’s cleric.

The attack on lady Ellsbeth by one of the mercenaries could have resulted in charges being pressed as an individual crime. However the lady did not pursue this point at the time. 

Thus the question may be asked; why was the Baron not more stern in dealing the mercenary troop? He would have been with in his rights to inflict more punishment on them. At the same time it should be understood that his ruling was completely in keeping with social norms. A noble has a wide range of ability to interpret the laws and to hand out rulings. If other nobles and those who know the law looked at this case, few if any would find it extraordinary. Those who did, would point to the fact that a peasant ambushed a group of warriors and was not punished for it.  

End of Analysis.

If you think any important details have been left out or that I got some facts wrong, let me know and I will update this entry with the more accurate data.