(TFT) Tainted Inheritance. Part 3

[Rick Smith <rsmith@lightspeed.ca>]

		Tainted Inheritance
		A TFT adventure for 3 to 4 beginning characters.
		(C) 2001 By Richard W. Smith


  Start of Part 3
  ---------------
  The next day:
  Very early the next day the Baron arrives.  He has 26 men at arms and
has the third will with him.  He is inclined to believe that the third
will is the correct one and will rule that it be obeyed unless he is
given strong reasons not to.  His men at arms are tough fighters (from
40 to 45 attributes with the 2 officers just under 50 attributes) and no
fighting force in the town could face them.  If the manor house was held
against them, they would have a fight, but the Baron moves in as a
guest.

  The Baron Strongfist has one of his men interview the party if they
are being active.  The Baron wants to know who they are if they have
been hired by either side, and warns the party not to cause trouble.  He
relays a request for them to attend the funeral, so that the Baron can
keep an eye on them.

  The burial service is held.  The two sides stand on opposite sides of
the grave but behave themselves.  After the burial, Sheena and the kids
make a break for freedom, and manage to get to Carrol's family.  Under
the eyes of the Baron's men at arms, Mort and Emmeni glare and pretend
that they are not bothered by this.

  If the party tries to meet Zaff at the Traveling Tea Tavern, his
interest in the party will be directly proportional to how much
information they have gained.  Since the attack (perhaps murder) of
Kunnell, Zaff is more interested in hiring some fighters to protect his
interests.  If he party is hired by Zaff, then he will ask them to
follow him and will take them for a visit with Sheena.

  Sheena will not look the party in the eye, and speaks quietly with a
stutter. She actually does not know that much.  She & the children were
held in the Manor and knows Emmeni and Mort have hired more troops.  
She was not allowed to leave or to receive visitors.  She thinks that
they faked the 4th will, but does not have any evidence that this is so.

  Zaff wants the party to realize that his siblings are willing to
resort to kidnapping their family to better their chances of passing off
this fake will.  He would like the party to help the Carrol family guard
Sheena, and introduces them to several of the brothers if they have not
already met them. (The brothers are 34 to 37 attributes but are not
fighters.  They have a maximum of one combat talent each.) 

  Zaff is concerned for Sheena's safety but if the party would like to
do something else he could be talked around.  In particular, if at 
least one PC is with her, the rest are free to do what ever they want.

  There will be no attempts at kidnapping.

  ***

  If the players are watching Mort's red wizard he will leave very early
in the morning disguised as a tradesman.  He will head into the hills to
the west with a half dozen of Mort's thugs with him.  When they get into
the open terrain a kilometer from town two thugs will stop and watch the
back trail while the wizard and four other men will continue on to the
hills.  There is no way to shadow the wizard with out being seen (save
magic).  If they attack the two watchers they will shout a warning and
surrender once hurt.  They don't know anything about what is going on,
they are just following orders.  If possible, the wizard should get 
away.

  He will go to some caves and question a scholar called Neftroll.  He
will return to the manor house a bit afternoon still in his disguise.


  If the players are hanging around in town they will see the Baron
heading to a place to eat.  He sees an ork walking down the road minding
its own business.  The Baron will shout, "ORK!  An Ork!  Kill it!"  The
ork will take off down an ally pursued by a thrown javelin and 3 of the
Baron's men.  They return in a few minutes having lost the ork.  Mort 
sees this and laughs, enjoying the display of power.  Mort will head to
the Manor to talk to Emmeni.

  
  If the players are very closely keeping tabs on Emmeni she talks to
several people who come and go on her orders.  One of those people goes
to a junk shop / pawn shop in town and buys a fine dagger with an
interesting pattern of 'water marks' in the metal.  This is bought for
over a thousand silver.  The dagger is carefully wrapped up and returned
to Emmeni.


  If the players are keeping a careful watch over who goes in and out of
the manor, a person dressed like a servant goes into the house with a
number of other tradesmen.  When they leave this person is not with
them.  A 5vsIQ to recognize the wizard in this simple disguise.  (Feel
free to give bonuses if the PC's are alert, get a good look at the
people entering, or otherwise have behaved competently.)


  ***
  Late that afternoon, the Baron will order all interested parties to
come to the Manor house.  If the players have been hired by either side
they will be there.  The Baron reads out the 3rd will and says that he
has hear rumors about some newer will that gives everything to Emmeni
and Mort.  The Barron says that unless there is strong evidence that the
newer will is real, he intends to see that the holdings are divided up
according to the will placed in his care by Mordent.  

  Mort loudly claims that the new will gives Sheena and Zaff "hundreds
of silvers" but everyone ignores him.  Emmeni says she would like to
hear what the Baron's will says.

  The Barron reads out the 3rd will.

  Emmeni says that this will is not as unfair as she thought.  Sheena
and Zaff spent a lot of time in the last year slandering her and Mort. 
Mordant eventually caught on, and rewrote his will to reflect his
distaste over those that tried to sabotage their father's sympathies
towards his loyal children.

  Sheena starts crying, Zaff quietly says, you KNOW that is not true,
I've been away trading for 10 months of the year.

  Emmeni says that she thinks that the 4th will should be accepted but
if it isn't then the 2nd will should be accepted since that is the will
written before Sheena and Zaff poisoned their father against them.
Mort yells, "NO, we should use the new will!" and stares angrily at
Emmeni.

  (Emmeni after hearing what the Barron said about ignoring the latest
will is hoping that if he ignores one, that he will ignore two and go to
the 2nd will, which is still pretty good as far as her and Mort go. 
Mort thinks that she has betrayed him.)

  Emmeni hands the Baron the 4th will and he reads it.  Angrily he
throws it down and says, that he does not believe that Mordant would so
poorly treat these two loyal, hardworking children. "What proof do you
have that this will is not a fake?"

  Emmeni says that the will was witnesses by the priest Metzz, and by
the scholar Neftroll.  The Barron looks and says, "I see Metzz's name
here but not Neftroll's.  How do you know that he witnessed the will?" 
Emmeni says because he says he did.

  The Barron wants to see both witnesses, and Emmeni says that they are
here in the manor and she will bring them at once.  She opens a door and
asks Metzz to come in.

  Metzz the priest is a poor witness.  He says that Mordent was getting
somewhat confused in his final days and made a few new wills, which
after reading he then ripped up.  Then he dictated the final will and
signed it.  The Barron closely questions Metzz and tho he does not trip
up Metzz in any lies, Metzz seems to have an awfully poor memory of
these early wills that were destroyed and many other details.  Metzz
says he forgot the details of the wills since they were thrown away. 
Those who have the Detect Lies talent get a 3vsIQ.  If they make the
roll the GM should say they think he is lying.  (This is an information
roll so the GM will make the roll for the character secretly.)

  The Barron looks unimpressed with Metzz and asks to talk to Neftroll. 
Emmeni goes to the door and asks Neftroll to come in.  He does but seems
ill at ease.  Rather than sitting he stands by the door.

  Neftroll says that he was in Mordant's sickroom a week before
Mordant's death.  Mordant seemed angry and confused and dictated a will
to Metzz.  Neftroll thought the new will was so unfair to the younger
two children that he refused to sign it and argued with Mordant. 

  Neftroll claims that Mordant was sure that Sheena and Zaff had
something to do with his illness and insisted that once they saw this
will he would get better again.  Mordant ordered Metzz to witness the
will and once Metzz had done so, Mordant ordered him to leave so
Neftroll did.  Neftroll says that there is no question that this new
will is real, but that he hopes that the Barron will revert to an
earlier will where all the children are treated fairly since Mordant was
confused when he wrote the last will.

  Mort yells, "It doesn't matter if he was confused, this is the REAL
WILL!"

  Neftroll says, "I'm not feeling well, pray excuse me!" and runs from
the room.  Emmeni closes the door after him and says, "I think it is
clear that this will is the true will.  I think it is unfair but since
most of our assets come to me, there is little harm.  I will be sure to
give Sheena and Zaff a generous allowance, they won't hurt for money."

  The Baron seems to believe Neftroll, who spoke sincerely and
forcefully.  When he hears that Emmeni plans to deal generously with the
two younger children he starts nodding slightly.

  Zaff says, "I want to question Neftroll.  Call him back in here." 
Emmeni, gives Zaff a dirty look but says, at once.

  She calls for Neftroll to return but he does not come.  After a minute
or two, she looks anoyed and says, "I will get him!" and leaves.

  A couple minutes later alarms ring.  People rush into the room saying
that Neftroll said he needed air, and when out the back door and sat
down on the orchard bench.  But a band of orks have kidnapped him. (If
a PC has Detect Lies a 3vsIQ will indicate that they are lying.)

  Emmeni who has returned with the servants, asks for her guard Captain.
When he arrives she wants to know why he and his men didn't stop him. 
The leader says that they didn't have orders to prevent Neftroll from
leaving the building.  She asks the Baron to give her his men to help
hunt down the orks.  The Baron refuses, and says, "Send you people after
him at once!"  She does so and her guards race off.

  Zaff, Mort and Emmeni each start claiming that the other side has done
away with Neftroll so that he couldn't be further questioned.  Mort
claims that the orks are Zaff's friends since Zaff refused to cheat them
like most other humans, now we know why!

  The Barron wants to know if Zaff is a friend of orks, and Zaff says he
has had business dealing with many orks but he is not really friends
with them.  The Barron looks angry at this reply.

  After a lot more shouting, the Baron says, that he is angry and that
everyone should shut up.  He will check in the town and find out if
anyone knows if Zaff is friends with orks.  Mort says he knows LOTS of
people who can testify that Zaff is an ork lover, but the Barron tells
him to shut up, we will find our own witnesses.  The Baron says that he
will wait for Emmeni's troops to return hopefully with Neftroll.  "I am
very unhappy with the behavior of all you!  Is there not enough wealth
that you can't share!"

  Zaff says, "If you wait for Emmeni's men to find the scholar, he will
be lost forever.  Would it not be fair to let my people look as well for
Neftroll?"  The Baron starts to snarl something then changes his mind
and says, "Yes, I want him back here alive!"

  A few minutes later, a man comes in an says the attacking orks 
dropped this dagger with this funny pattern in the metal.  (It is the
fine dagger that was bought from the pawn shop this morning.)  Mort
chirps up, "Zaff, that is a magic dagger that you sold to an ork a
couple of years ago, isn't it?"  Zaff thinks for a moment and says,
no he sold it to a merchant.  The Baron looks angry, and asks if he 
has records of who he sold it to.  Zaff says, no he records what his
items sell for but does not write down who bought what.  The Baron is
not happy with this answer.

  Things calm down for a while as everyone waits angrily.  If the party
is working for Zaff, then he take them to one side and talks to them.
They must find Neftroll because he is a highly respected scholar & the
Barron believed his testimony.  The whole thing about him feeling ill
and being kidnapped was fishy.  They are to do anything they can to
bring Neftroll back alive.  He sends them off.


  The Baron hates orks and finding out that Zaff is friends with them
has swung him over to Emmeni & Mort's side.  He virtually places Zaff
under arrest, and begins quietly talking to Emmeni in a friendly way. 
Things look very bad for Zaff, Sheena and her children.


  ***
  The Neftroll that spoke to the Barron was not the real Neftroll but an
Image created by a wizard that Mort has hired.  She and Mort kidnapped
the real Neftroll so that the wizard would learn how he speaks and his
mannerisms.
  ***

  If the party is working for Emmeni or Mort, then Neftroll is not found
and plenty of witnesses (from the poor part of town) will testify that
Mort was an ork lover who always gave them good deals and sold them
weapons.  (Neither of these actions are illegal.)  The Baron will rule
in Emmeni and Mort's favor.  Emmeni will loudly say that she will look
after the other children but Zaff and Sheena will be kicked out within
the year, virtually broke.


  If the party gets involved in finding Neftroll, go to part 4 of the
adventure.


  Rick
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