The Free Council Trials

Following the reign of terror of The Hallows Killer, The Consilium By The Bay was in an unfortunate position. Ford was in hiding in the Preston Consilium, who would not allow him to be extradited. Sending in a party to seize him would lead to war. With this dilemma in mind, Rynel floated a suggestion: The Free Council technically had a legal claim on Ford that went beyond Consilium boundaries. If they sent a party to take him, tried and punished him themselves as representatives of the Order, then there would be a convenient legal shield that would provide a fig leaf to protect the honour of their Consilium. The motion was voted on, and passed.

The extradition did not go to plan. Protean had never seriously planned to take Ford prisoner, and when he attempted to flee from them, she attacked and killed him. The fig leaf had been thoroughly shredded, and matters were now almost worse than when they had started. Those present agreed to dispose of the body, return home and pretend this never happened.

When the Argent Agenda began, the Freaks flew into a panic behind the scenes. Their cover-up had not done its job, and now all their chickens seemed to be coming home to roost. Rynel in particular took it very hard, as it had been his idea. He fought to be the one chosen as the target of Rayth's curse to keep those not involved from being harmed, but when he heard that Iseult or Ebraucus would also be harmed, his conscience overcame him. He confessed everything to Rowntree, stating that things had gone too far and they needed to come clean. Rowntree did the only thing he could: he told Rynel that he would tell Hagstone about this tomorrow, and that whatever happened in the mean time was up to the Freaks.

Rynel called an emergency meeting of the Free Council, and came clean about coming clean. Nobody was happy. Knighthood promptly fled the Consilium, apparently ending up in France. The others went home and prepared for the trials.

The actual trials happened shortly afterwards. Download and Tattersall accepted Rowntree's offer of legal representation, Rynel and Protean refused. The punishments were a mixed bag.

Rynel, Download and Tattersall all relied on a similar defence: their intentions were good, and once Ford was dead, they were shit out of luck and had no good options. Download and Rynel were hit with significant Tass fines but otherwise came out unscathed; Tattersall was exiled from the Consilium, his position as the Hierarch's favourite acting against him. Protean, in the mean time, presented a complex legal defence grounded in precedents of many nearby Consilia - in essence, presenting Hagstone with a pre-packaged defence to use should Preston seek legal restitution. She was found guilty, and after much deliberation, forced to produce a Soul Stone and to give that Stone to Rowntree.

The Trials effectively broke The Free Council as an Order in the Bay, ridding their name of what respect it had previously commanded. Rynel would leave the Council as a direct result of his perceived betrayal.