The realm · Law and crime
Law and crime
The realm has laws, and men paid to keep them. A crime that others hear of puts your name on the wanted roll with a price on your head, and the watch can see it over your head as plainly as your hat.
The wanted roll
A murder, a blow struck in anger, a purse reached into and caught, a door or a strongbox forced: each one the realm hears of goes on the wanted roll with its bounty, and the bounties add up.
| Crime | Bounty |
|---|---|
| Murder | 400 groschen |
| Horse theft | 250 groschen |
| Extortion | 250 groschen |
| Housebreaking | 200 groschen |
| Kidnapping | 200 groschen |
| Smuggling | 150 groschen |
| Robbery | 150 groschen |
| Pickpocketing | 120 groschen |
| Cattle rustling | 120 groschen |
| Poaching | 100 groschen |
| Assault | 80 groschen |
| Crop theft | 60 groschen |
| Trespass | 40 groschen |
| Robbing a fish trap | 40 groschen |
An unpunished crime is forgotten after a week. /wanted shows your own record.
Who keeps the law
The night watch on duty, the members of an official faction, the town's officers and the staff are the law's men. They see [WANTED] and the bounty over a criminal's head, they are told of each new crime as it happens, and they may set a tracking hound on the wanted (pets and dogs).
/arresttakes a wanted criminal who lies wounded, is carried or has yielded with/surrender. They go to the cell for ten minutes for every hundred groschen of bounty, five at least and an hour at most, and half the bounty goes to the one who brought them in, from the Crown's treasury./fine: the Reeve's fine, up to 200 groschen, paid on the spot. A fine large enough clears a petty record./pillory: up to an hour in the stocks, for all the realm to see.- Banishment: the staff alone may banish from the realm, for a week at most.
The cell holds: a prisoner who walks out of it is put straight back, and nobody fights from behind its bars. A prisoner who leaves the realm finds the rest of the sentence waiting at the next login.
What is no crime
- Killing between two factions at war: war is declared with a stated cause and a day's notice.
- A lawman striking down a wanted criminal.
- A formal duel before witnesses, to the yield, to first blood or to the death (duels).
Accusations go to the courts, where a Lord, a Bailiff or a Reeve tries the case, sometimes by combat: see politics and courts.
Wounds, and death
A blow that would kill leaves you wounded instead: down on the ground, still bleeding, able to talk and nothing more. Another player may carry you, and a physician may bind your wounds with /treat for a fee and set you on your feet. Untreated, after five minutes you are found and taken to the infirmary, which charges 50 groschen and leaves you too weak to fight for ten minutes. After a minute you may /giveup and be carried there at once.
A wounded body struck again dies, and the one who struck the blow is a murderer in the law's eyes, unless your factions are at war or it was a duel to the death. The infirmary's barber-surgeon brings the dead back from the brink for 120 groschen, and they too cannot fight for ten minutes. Your character lives on, and keeps what they carried.