A new spot for ongoing out-of-character discussion. The previous OOC thread had to be put out to pasture, due to it nearing the one thousand post mark.

Mal, if he detects as evil to Sir, why not apprehend him then and there? He would still be some kind of evil infiltrator of the shrine even if he were not our cultist.

If he does not detect as evil but Brother Othar confirms our suspicions, then we might go with our surveillance plan.

I guess I'd need to know more about how the justice system works in Helix.  Is having your alignment detected as some version of evil enough to be apprehended and put in prison?  What if St. Ygg is lawful and so is Gamdar?  Does that change things?  Could he legitimately worship the lawful aspects of St. Ygg even though he is evil?

I was assuming there would need to be proof of actual wrongdoing, not just an alignment detection.  But maybe I'm making it more complicated than it needs to be.  I'll gladly accept the considered opinion of our GM here.  I don't want to bog the game down unnecessarily.

As I've come to understand it, Helix is on the frontier and is subject to its own brand of frontier justice which is applied, if ever, in a corrupt fashion. One local tavern operator was even known to have employed goblin muscle.

My presumption has been that were we to successfully apprehend the cultist, we would return them to Mazzahs for interrogation.

If Gamdar is determined to be evil by Sir Dryvyk or another means, that would be sufficient for Brother Othar to expel him from the church. St. Ygg is a lawful good deity and does have adherents that differ from that alignment by a step (i.e. Neutral Good or Lawful Neutral), but the god would not accept nor heed the prayers of any who were of a truly evil disposition. Othar would be within his authority to put an end to Gamdar’s service under the presumption that he was not of acceptable character to perform as a member of the clergy.

Anything further would require additional proof. Justice, such as it is in Helix, operates at the whim of Krothos Ironguard. Krothos is lazy and self absorbed, but he isn’t completely obtuse when it comes to matters of import, such as a cultist sneaking about the village, victimizing people. If there was compelling evidence that showed that Gamdar a) was involved in harming residents and/or visitors of Helix or b) that he was involved in the worship and dark workings of Orcus, it would be sufficient to prompt the younger Ironguard to act to detain him, at the very least. If Mazzahs or Othar (or both) were able to compel Gamdar to confess to any heinous acts, such statements would serve as proof of wrongdoing for Krothos’ purposes.

Additionally, if Gamdar is found to be evil, that would be sufficient for Brother Othar to detain him at the church while the adventurers sought further proof of their suspicions (such as searching the acolyte’s residence). Mazzahs would be inclined to do the same, if the group preferred that Gamdar be held at the spire.

On a side note, a couple of participants here haven’t signed into the game since last week, so I may hold off a day or so to see if either or both turn up. If we’ve lost folks, I’ll need to give some thought about how best to move forward, or if it’s viable to continue.

It seems to me we are better off to keep an eye on Gamdar even if he turns out to detect as evil, to figure out his plans instead of just calling him out.

I being one of those whose presence was missed... sorry. Power outage borked my computer and I hate IC posts by phone.

There's some history between Sir Dryvyk and Krothos Ironguard, some drama that may slowly unfold, and it may very well be that Krothos will not take his word as evidence at all... It'll be fun to see how this plays out. Especially if my hunch is correct that Gamdar's not our guy.

I'm going to IC right now.