Letters; of Marche, Reprisal, and Blight
Goodmen, Gentles, my Lords, in the best exemplification of the heroic stories you have found the Villain, battled him and his minions, plundered them of their treasure then returned victorious. But Now you discover a greater horror.. Lawyers.. Lawyers...
There are many scrolls of protection, but how does a poor but honest Bounty-hunter, Adventurer, or Mercenary party leader protect oneself and companions from one of the most insidious of vexations, Lawyers.
There are only two places one can gain such scrolls, either a Magistrate's or a Lord's Courts, these boons are called, Letters of Blight, Letters of Reprisal, and Letters of Marche. The previous listed letters are in order from least difficult to aquire to most the difficult.
A Letter of Blight may come in two parts the first is proclamation that a whole people or species of beast, is a Blight to the Realm (people) or Estate (beast). This Letter of Blight includes in its clauses the level of authority to gather against this proclaimed blight. Some of the time this clause of authority is stated as; 'any allowed bearing of arms', sometimes this is specified as as a lesser court. If this case is the lesser court such as Dustyfoot or Baronet Magistrate's Court, these courts may Write and Post, using this authority a Letter of Bounty promising to pay out of that courts purse a certain amount of coin or allow the captor to retain the blight as per law, subject to stated fine if lost.
A Letter of Reprisal is most often written by a Lord's Court or his Magistrate.
It allows one to kill or capture enemies of the Estate, or State (if the Lord is a Royal Magistrate) within the limits of that estates marches (borders). Taking the captured enemies condemned property in lieu of payment for their capture. It is possible to assign such to a requesting lesser court were upon that court writes a general or special letter of bounty. A general letter to be publicly posted and paid out of the courts purse or trust, a special letter is often written to the name of a member or the guild of bounty hunters or another person or gentle of trusted rank.
The Lords that often write such Letters of Reprisal are often, Lords Temporal, Lords Spiritual, Lords Martial, and Lords Merchant, each writting on such as are enemies within their Estates for those in their Estates and their armsmen.
A Letter of March is most often written by a Lord Magistrate, or Sovergn this letter allows one to kill or capture enemies of the State beyond the limits of that States Marches (borders). Taking the enemies property in lieu of payment. Such letters in peacetime are always special letters assigned to a person, ship or military company to take a special target or any listed outlaw. General letters of marche are almost exclusively written in time of war, and such ship letters by a special admiralty court by the assigned Lord of the Sea.
Such Sovergns as originate Letters of Marche can be Imperial, Royal, or Noble Sovergns.
It must be noted that in all such cases, whether dustyfoot court, to the greatest Impearial Magistrates Marche or Admiralty Court such taken property must be condemned by the issuing court or an assigned other court. It is traditional that those waiting for their case to come before the court to be considered under the hospitality of the court, housed, boarded and served suitably to their station and rank. (An example would be the one-hundred gp per lvl per month in 1E ADnD). Often Adventurers awaiting their court date may be housed in an Adventures guild hall, local mercenary guild barracks and served served Standard Court Fare at no charge. It is not unknown for an Adventuring Company to take another commision or attempt another bounty, or prize, if the court date is far enough away
Included beyond such domestic services is the services of a local guild broker to estimate without magic the value of condemned property, as well as an offer to list in the Broker's property book at court discount. The court may choose to use magic to identify magic items and if done reserves the right to buy the items from the condemned property minus cost. Masterwork Clan items will be identified by the court Herald and held in trust for the Letter holder while ransom is sought. Enemies taken before the court living or dead May be redeemed by bounty or ransom, or in some kingdoms the living captive may be sold on the block or taken in bond by the captor(s), the loss of said enemy captive being fined.
It is possible to combine Letters of March and Reprisals, and holders of such letters are considered as trusted rank if issuing special letters of bounty.
Mercenary companies, and Adventurer Guilds, often assist Courts and Nobles in forming Adventuring Party/Companies to take general and special letters.
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? Responses (3)
Useful for realistic fantasy worlds.
A good idea, though there are some significant wording issues and typos that are very distracting to me, and take away from this idea.
Some sentences are not formed well. For example:
'Taking the enemies property in lieu of payment.'
,.. Is what? Allowed? Not Allowed? Encouraged?
There are bolded words which are setup as links, but do not link to anything. Eg. Blight to the Realm people or Estate beast.
I would suggest putting this submission through spellcheck (Google docs is easy and free) or using chrome and it's built in one.
I would also suggest reading the submission aloud to yourself to catch the odd wording, sentence structure, and the occasional run-on sentence.