A solution for the rat problem
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I believe I have finally understood how to get the were-rats with minimal human casualties. They are utterly monstrous - but they still care for their own. Stongly. And this includes normal rats. They have revealed this to me when they captured and infected me. It all fits together nicely.
The plan is, therefore, rather simple:
- We need to capture some normal rats. As many as possible. Ideally of different sizes, including some of the smaller ones. New adventurers could be recruited to help with this step, as they tend to be cleaning out those houses. I might pay, e.g., 50 gold per live rat.
Material Requisition Requirement: I would like to request some portable rat cages, as well as a larger rat-proof cage in the Crown Guard. I suppose we may have something like that on hand anyway, given the current infestation?
Optional addition: A wand with "sleep" charges (if available).-
I announce to the rats that I am going to "feed them" after all (leaving out that this means feeding rats to humans), and that they can expect a great feast, to wet their appetites.
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I start cooking and slicing, and boiling the rats. Recipe suggestions are highly appreciated to make them as tasty as possible. I am sure some prisoners might help with the consumption part. Perhaps our Captain Farmerson might want to supplement his diet as well, as well as help provide a running commentary via the sending system. We might do this in his special quarters here in the Crown Guard, with sufficient Guards posted.
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We keep making explicit announcements concerning the upcoming dishes, including as many rat squeels and death-rattles of the beasts as possible. We should also make sure that the smell is well recognizable throughout the city.
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We announce to the rats that the "rat-feast" will end once they turn themselves in to be arrested. We furthermore request help from the adventurer-population to be prepared to turn those monsters in, in particular in the event that they might bring some of their foul breed along with them.
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We subdue and arrest them here, at the Crown Guard. I am quite certain it will not take them long at all - to arrive.
Note: In order to not spoil the surprise, I suggest that rat-hunting adventurers be contacted in person, rather than via some kind of bulletin board announcement.
Yours, in determination,
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I don't know what to write except that this plan makes me feel physically ill and sounds utterly horrifying.
//Jasda al Tyr//
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I assure you it makes me sick as well to even contemplate it. However, these are just rats. Base animals. People eat and kill such creatures every day. This time... we will just have to make a bit more of a show of it. It is a stain on my soul.. and screams.. and squeals, I am much more willing to endure than waiting for just one more human being to be consumed by these monsters.
Alas, I challenge you to detail another plan. One that would be likely to cause fewer casualties, and have fewer risks to Crown and Country than this one. Present me this plan, and I will gladly go along with it. But, please, do it soon!
But if I have to get a few stains on my dress to accomplish this deed. I will.
If it is of any help to you towards the aim of detaching your immediate emotional response from that of sound ethical reasoning, please consider that even the rats which are going to be caught via this plan would all have been killed anyway. We put them to sleep, and then consume them - whereas otherwise, those adventurers might simply kill them and leave their corpses behind to rot and attract further disease.
I am still willing to put my life and sanity on the line for the "mushroom" plan as the subject who will be required to test its limits. However, even after such a sacrifice, loss of human life and sanity could not be prevented with complete certainty. I.e., let us be realistic about that. Also, I hope that you will not let your own personal dark misgivings about me cloud your judgment in this matter.
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While I have had a rather fruitless discussion with my colleague, the priestess Mirari of Tyr on this matter, I have talked with Ms. Barena, the artist, in the aftermath. She indeed pointed out a valid risk of this approach. I.e., if the rats were to disbelieve the ruse.. or fail to act upon their emotions - then they might perceive this as a declaration of war and step up their efforts against us in rather horrible ways. Hence, this approach could only ever be done in full. or not at all. I can also see that the Priestess will never change her mind based on any arguments that I might make. I am therefore willing to agree to pursuing the plan suggested by my esteemed colleague, the Priestess Mirari of Tyr, before giving any further consideration to this one.
May Ilmater, Talona, Tymora, and Beshaba, all have mercy on us if her plan fails.
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Allow me to be blunt, Officer Brown.
Casualties are inevitable. Do your duty.
You are not the reason evil men perform evil, no more than you are the reason than Daleroy is a sad sack of alcoholism. Your duty, and the duty of the Crown Guard, is to defend the realm, uphold the will of the monarchs, and see to it that these adventurers and monsters do not present a threat to the Royal Peace.
Do not quiver and falter because someone might die, for in inaction, someone will die.
- Sir Everduke
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Sir Everduke.
Understood.
I shall proceed with this plan on my own initiative then, as I still believe it is likely to have the greatest chances of bringing in exactly those two were-monsters, instead of raining a pile of shit on some adventurers fumbling about with poorly considered summoning rituals. Perhaps the priestess might work with the Precept or someone else whom she might trust more than me then, to pursue her plan with those feces.
That said, I must report that the reason I am feeling cowed and pressured by her is because she says that she is holding the preparation of some ominous capital charges of Treason and / or Murder over my head. She has been hinting that I might strike some kind of underhanded deal with her to see those false charges being lessened. I have rejected that poisoned offer in my correspondence to her. However, I admit that it has been influencing my initiative as well as my willingness to go against her explicit wishes in this and other matters.
This has been days ago, and still she keeps taunting me with it, pretending her charges had some kind of substance - which, in fact, they do not.
Yours,
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As to that, I have brought my concerns and my evidence to Count Immerdusk. After discussing your position and behavior at length, he has mitigated several of my charges, but not all. I am not alone in my concerns about your history, your behavior, or your recent suggestions.
We have decided to offer you the opportunity to retire from the Crown Guard with a small pension and in honor. If you choose not to retire, he has granted me the authority to handle the remaining charges on my personal authority and to mete justice as I see fit.
I will expect to see your resignation on my desk by the end of the tenday.
//Jasda al Tyr//
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You talk of „retribution“ and deny me exactly that, on the basis of charges you do not even tell me?
You listen to the whispers of rats and hold their well-being in higher regard than that of your fellow man?
You judge me on suggestions and a „history“ you do not even understand?
What have those rats done to you, I ask you, that you feel you have the right to call upon that righteous fury while denying me mine?
What have those monsters taken from you that you miss more than anything in the world?
Are you a cleric of the god of holy justice? Or are you a spider, working its poison through perfumed papers in the gloom of ebbing candlelight?
Answer me these questions and answer them true. Then, yes, I shall leave and let you ponder your false self-righteousness. Undeserved through any deed or suffering.
-Elsa
P.S.: Do you really think I care about some silly pension? And „honor?“ The Crown Guard here even „forgot“ to ask me to have me swear any vows (I was waiting, I was expecting, but none ever came)?
Or do you really think I care the tiniest bit, what someone like you thinks of me? Mete out your „punishment“ and mete it out hard! Have me jump from a cliff, if you so wish! But I am sick, and I am tired, of being pushed around by hypocrites like you!
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Very well.
//Jasda al Tyr//
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Priestess Mirai of Tyr,
I assume you will never answer any of my questions, given your malign intent and disposition. Nevertheless, even if only for the sake of formality, I hereby repeat my request for you to present me with the actual charge for which you are blackmailing me to abandon my post. Wherever you come from, I suppose that it may not be customary even to interview the person to be accused by a person of the law. However, in our proud and noble kingdom of Arabel, I believe these holy values are generally still well-recognised as holding merit.
P.S.: Since you have previously failed to respond to this most reasonable request in due time, please be notified that I have been reporting you on this.
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When I took the case file up to the Count I pushed for two charges.
The first charge was Treason, where the evidence was judged insufficient.
The second charge was Murder, and we argued back and forth for a little while. While neither the Count, nor I, believe that you are fit for service following the letters you exchanged with the were-rats, we differed in the opinion of how to proceed. There are other concerns; namely, your proposed methods of dealing with the were-rats have caused concern with your fellows, and he finds some of your decisions dubious as a purely internal-to-the-Crown concern.
The Count wished to offer you the opportunity to retire peacefully, and I wanted to prosecute you for her murder under the letter of the law, which allows for 'causing directly or through carelessness, the death of a citizen of Arabel.' Therefore we agreed to offer you the opportunity to retire before I built this case.
Because it was an internal matter, and I thought you were smart enough to know this based upon my earlier letters - which I reviewed - I took your several pages of angry responses to me to mean that you already knew you were being prosecuted for Imyra's death. My apologies for not being explicit. I had been wondering what you could be thinking by refusing the Count's mercy, and now I realize that by handing the case directly to the Count, I had not sent you, yourself, the exact charges, as you are no doubt used to reading in my personal judgements. In Arabel while this is considered courtesy, it is also not required, which is a point of law we should probably codify.
As the situation currently stands, I have sent several letters out asking for character witnesses to determine, from people who have known you longer, whether you were intelligent enough to understand what you were communicating to the rats when you sent those letters. As you have been trying to browbeat me with your intelligence for the last few days, I find it unlikely you couldn't have known, but I am willing to be persuaded to fire you rather than sentence you for it depending on what the character witnesses say.
//Jasda al Tyr//
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Additionally, before you start, I have read your other letters on the subject. And no, I do not need or want you to write another small novel about the situation. If you want to make your official statement, refrain from repeating what you told me in our discourse, and please, please, be succinct.
//Jasda al Tyr//
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//We should really meet about this IC. Way too much forum work on this one.
