01/08/2023 - Murder Investigation (2)

Dealing with Gordon

Gordon Allardice is only semi-conscious and bleeding out from his wrist. Samuel attempts to stop the bleeding, but he does not know how. Instead, he uses his fire magic talents to encourage the embers of the fire in the room to glow hot, and then he pushes his brother’s stump in. Gordon screams out in pain, then passes out.

Logan is wounded and calls for a healer, while trying to bind out his wounds as best he can. There is also the body of Lilly lying on the floor. He then demands that Gordon is arrested and taken to the cells.

Banquo challenges anyone attempting to enter the room, holding them off with his sword and demanding to know who they are and what they want, including the guards. Logan has to tell him to let the guards in to take Gordon away.

Strange Dagger

Malcolm examines the strange dagger without touching it. The blade definitely looks unusual, of a strange kind of metal. He scoops it up into a bag within another bad and keeps hold of it.

The Bride is dead

Someone then shouts into the room that the bride has been killed. Logan immediately gets up and heads for Cormac’s room, leaving everything else.

Samuel tells the guards to take Gordon, including his hand, to the cells and get a medic for Lilly, then heads off after Logan, along with Banquo.

In Cormac’s room, Count Torien is there and Cormac is still asleep on his bed. Logan pushes past him and to the body of his sister on the floor. She has a hole in her chest, probably where her heart would be. It looks like a fatal wound, though there is a lot less blood than would be expected.

Logan does what he can for Nairne and then starts to tap into his magical talents to try to heal her. This will take several minutes.

Cormac Still Unconscious

There is a lot of shouting and people asking questions, which Count Torien is trying to deal with. The main confusion is that Cormac is not awake and even when the Count shakes him, he groggily says to be left alone.

When Fraser MacRuaidhri sees Nairne on the floor, he cries out in horror and forces his way into the room, disrupting Logan’s attempt to concentrate on his magic. He demands to know who killed her.

Fraser Gets Angry

Logan slaps him and tells him to get out of his way, he is trying to save her. Fraser is so angry he punches Logan in the face, then gets up, draws his sword and moves to attack Cormac. Count Torien, who is still trying to get Cormac to wake up, tries to stop him.

Fraser barges Torien out of the way. Banquo realises what he intends to do and is able to pull him to the floor. He then holds his sword at Fraser’s throat and tells him not to move. Count Torien has the guards take him away to the cells.

Cormac Awake

Cormac finally wakes up and sees his wife on the floor. He rushes over in a fit of emotion and grabs his wife and holds her, distraught. In doing so, he knocks Logan out of the way, ending any chance of saving Nairne with magic.

There is an awkward pause as most people in the room look on as the brother and the husband of Nairne come to terms with her being dead.

Sir Simon Montrose asks Banquo to make sure Fraser MacRuaidhri is taken to the dungeons. He goes with the guards and during the journey down there they meet the guards taking Gordon Allardice to the cells.

Escape Attempt

Fraser asks what happened to him and Banquo tells him he went mad and tried to kill Logan. He then asks if Gordon was the one who killed Nairne, but Banquo gives a confusing response that does not help.

As they continue to the cells, a couple of younger MacRuaidhri clan members pass by and ask Fraser what is going on. Fraser tells them Nairne has been murdered by the Allardice and asks for their help to escape.

They attempt to free him, but Banquo helps the guards fight them off. During the fight, he cuts the throat of one of them in a good but unfortunate move. This ends the fight and the remaining MacRuaidhri calls for a healer.

Reflecting on Gordon’s Behaviour

Neither Samuel nor Malcolm can get into Cormac’s room to speak to Logan, so they have to wait outside. Sam goes to see his mother, Olivia, who is focused on keeping the clan safe and disowning Gordon’s actions. They talk about his behaviour during the wedding.

Olivia would normally keep him under control or have her monk advisor to tutor and look after him. She has been busy during the wedding and Gordon was unusually quiet, so was mostly ignored. She knew he was against the wedding, but he was always a whiny young man who is never happy about anything.

As the Best Man, Samuel kept Gordon on the fringes of the ceremony, but he was sat near his brothers at the feast. He remembers Gordon bringing some drinks for his older brothers for a toast before bed. Sam wonders if there was something in those drinks that made him and Cormac so sleepy.

Who Did This?

After an hour or so, Cormac starts to ask who has killed his wife. He accuses Logan, but Count Torien tells him it was his brother Gordon. Cormac demands to know why and then goes back to wailing and holding Nairne.

The rest of the night passes with few people sleeping and everyone feeling tense and concerned. Neither Logan nor Cormac want Nairne’s body to be touched. Count Torien and Sir Simon Montrose just manage the situation as best they can.

Dougal MacRuaidhri finally persuades Logan to leave the room and return to his own. When they get there the body of Lilly is still lying on the floor. The brothers get some servants to finally remove her. They spend the next few hours talking about their sister and their memories of her.

The Next Day

In the morning, Sir Simon Montrose takes charge of an investigation in the murder. He asks Malcolm and Banquo what they saw and heard that night while arranging for the guards to be present and calls in more from the town to keep the peace.

Sir Simon also questions Banquo further about the death of the young Jamie MacRuaidhri. Banquo says he was stopping them from allowing the prisoner to escape. Simon accepts this, though he reminds him that Knights do not take life unnecessarily and he should be careful with his skills.

Cormac has stayed up all night and is reluctant to have the body of his wife removed. It takes a lot of work by Count Torien, Minster Malcolm Greenwood and Olivia Allardice to persuade him to let her go. He then collapses into despair.

To the Dungeons

The four Companions meet up for a late breakfast and discuss what has happened and what they will do next. They cannot be sure it was Gordon who murdered Nairne, but he certainly is the most likely suspect. The best way to find out would be to talk to Gordon directly.

Banquo suggests just hanging Gordon, but instead they head down to the dungeons to talk to the prisoner. Fraser is in a cell opposite Gordon and he chides Logan for not killing all the Allardices and even being friends with one. “The only good Allardice is a dead Allardice!” Logan tries to reason with him, but Fraser is just angry, calling his cousin a traitor and accusing him of causing his sister’s death.

Interrogating Gordon

Banquo opens asking Gordon why he did it. He says it’s about the clan’s honour. Logan asks him how murdering an innocent girl defend his clan’s honour? Gordon says she was MacRuaidhri scum, just like he is.

MacRuaidhris are heretics who worship the wrong gods and should be driven out of their lands. Cormac could have done a lot better for himself and he was simply doing his brother and the clan a favour.

Angry Little Man

Logan asks where he got the dagger. Gordon says it was a gift from Haelyn and he did his duty for his faith. Logan points out murder is against the teachings of Haelyn, but Gordon questions how a heathen knows anything of the true faith.

Gordon confesses that when he was young, he was the one who burned the sacred Tree of Erik, the event that caused the war between Allardice and MacRuaidhri. He was only five years old and but he knew what his duty was. It made the clan stronger.

Gordon exchanges barbs with Logan for a while and the Companions decide to leave. The conversation is overheard by Fraser, who shouts that he is looking forward to Gordon being hanged. He tells Logan if only Nairne had listened to him, he would have taken her away from the wedding before it happened.

Commissioned as Guardians

As they leave, Sir Simon Montrose arrives with some guards. He is impressed that Banquo has taken a lead in investigating the murder and speaking to Gordon.

He tells them that the Liddell Baird-MacGregor and his family have all left unexpectedly. He does not understand why and is not sure if this behaviour is suspicious or just the old man being his usual dislikeable self.

Sir Simon asks, as the leading law officer in the county, for the Companions to start an investigation into this murder, with Banquo in charge. He wants them to determine if this was just an angry relative going on a murdering spree, or if there is anything more to this. He is going to be busy setting up the legal proceedings against Gordon. Banquo agrees to this.

Fraser begins to petition to be released. Simon asks Logan if he can vouch for his cousin, but Logan says it would be good for him to stew in a cell for a while.

Tricking Gordon

Sam arranges to speak to Gordon alone, while the others listen from the corridor. He tells Gordon that he knows he did not kill Nairne, that another person involved and they know it was mother’s monk. Gordon denies this and tells him he killed Nairne.

Sam presses him that Brother Gregory has confessed he was involved, but Gordon denies this and says the monk is innocent. He stole the dagger from Gregory’s room and used it to kill Nairne. It is a magical weapon that is dangerous and the monk was looking after it.

Sam tells him he was revealed more than he realises and leaves.

End of Episode Two