Legal Questions

Mr. Cypher,

Thanks, but I've got the priest here looking at the first draft.  Once he's through with it, I might pass it under your nose for a second opinion, but I'd rather have just one editor at a time.  It's kind of long and already makes my head hurt.

Mr. Quan Liu,

I didn't mean vigilante justice - I'm not talking about being allowed to dish out justice to any citizen of Travance.  I'm talking about the ability to police OURSELVES.  In other words, if one of MY men breaks the law of the land, or breaks Company Policy, or both at the same time, I want to have first dibs at punishing him.  The Baron could always overturn our ruling, throw on extra punishment, or otherwise change how we did things as he sees fit, of course, but it's important that a military organization be allowed to police its own to an extent.

The idea is this - we need strict discipline.  That strict discipline needs to come from the Commanders - that's how a military needs to work, or it will fall apart.  On top of that, if I'm allowed to discipline my people under both the Laws of Travance and under my Company Charter, I can hold them to a much higher standard of behavior and discipline.

It appears to me you are trying to establish a guild, with you as the guild leader.

-Odo Garaath

I looked this up:

"The Guildmaster is a position that a noble can sanctify within his realm. By doing so the Noble gives the Guildmaster deference in matters of justice within the walls of the guild. In other words, by making the Guildmaster an official, the noble has relinquished his authority within the physical bounds of the guild. Thus allowing the Guildmaster to punish his member as he sees fit within the physical confines of the Guild. There may be unofficial Guildmasters within the lands of a noble but they are subject to the laws of the land as any commoner would be, and could be tried for any action they take on guild members."

Looks like that's EXACTLY what I'm looking for - to incorporate an official guild.  I may or may not be the Commander - I'm just doing the legwork on finding out what we need to do to be able and allowed to police our own.

High Magistrate's domain is in enforcing The Kings laws over the Nobles, Any other disputes or questions dealing in the law, are referred to myself or to my Inquisitors.

Please do not trouble him with issues that do not concern Nobility.

Correction on what has been stated, baronial law supper-seeds your charter, for instance if you fine members of your group 20 gold for stealing from each other, the baronial law will collect and enforce punishment before you do, for instance, if the subject at hand only has 20 gold it will go to the barony and the person who has been stolen from first, and any remaining gold that person has left is then subject to your laws.

On another note, I personally do not see the need for soldiers of fortune, as all the lands always need vassals, the guard of the town is currently recruiting and we are under marshal law where everyone in these lands will fight as needed for the Count and refusing to fight when called because you were not paid is subject to treason.

What the heck is a supper-seed?  Is it something you southerners eat?

Oh.  "Supercede."  Gotcha.

I'd like to see where your "correction" is written down, because it looks to me like Guildmasters get full legal reign over their folks.  The quote I pulled comes directly from the "Code of Laws" posted at the Baronial Library.

If it IS written down somewhere, it hardly matters, because, either way, I fully intend to enforce Travance Law as well as charter policy within the Company.  If one of my men is caught stealing, I'll make sure the Barony and the victim get their gold, and then we'll do with the offender as we see fit.  If what you say is true, then with more serious infractions I'll make sure Baronial Law is satisfied first before we impose our own punishments.  I'm more interested in disciplining infractions than I am in taking my mercenaries' money.

Like, say, with repeat-offense Torture, I'll happily see to it the offender is publicly executed, that his belongings are surrendered to the Barony, and that the Baron gets the opportunity to exile or obliterate him before enacting the Company's justice.  In this case, all that I would feel the need to tack on to all of this would probably be a public beating and expulsion from the Company, so I might ask if we can do this before the offender is executed.

As for whether or not you see a need for soldiers of fortune, I'm forming the Company so I can create a proper strike force - well trained, cohesive, and ready for action.  We'll do our duty to Travance, of course, but there are always odd jobs around town that need doing - goblins here, gnolls there, a cave full of monsters, etc.  Simple things that aren't exactly "threats to national security."  We can take care of these things, get paid, and be all the more ready to answer the common call to action.  Given the opportunity and the right people, I can train a force that will be ready for action MUCH faster than any gathering of the townsfolk I've seen yet, and who will take the field as a disciplined force, well versed in tactics and strategies that will certainly help carry the day.

If you don't see the need for this, then ... why are we under marshal law?  It seems to me that any situation which would require the Barony to be under marshal law would be precisely the right time to have a well-trained force available.  Given people who'd rather not be in the guard, who are able to perform under the Company's difficult training requirements, and  who measure up to our strict standards of discipline, we would be quite the asset in these dangerous times.