Item

Writ of Conditional Service

Vestra's sealed writ temporarily places the party under Captain Ormlyr's authority for the Voss investigation while preserving every unresolved charge against them.

WritLimited civic authorityLegal pressureBeregost lawVestraOrmlyrVoss investigationconditional service

General description

A stiff two-page instrument written in Vestra's narrow, exact hand and sealed by both Magister Vestra and Captain Kelddath Ormlyr. The document gives the signers limited civic authority to pursue Seldran Voss, but turns every recovered record, living witness, and act of restraint into a condition of their continued freedom.

Reference details

Instrument: Conditional deputation and stay of proceedings
Issuing Authority: Captain Kelddath Ormlyr, upon Magister Vestra's petition
Scope: The Voss investigation in and around Beregost
Duration: Until written discharge, completion, or breach
Effect On Charges: Held in abeyance, not pardoned

Key facts

Each party member must sign or make a witnessed mark. One character cannot accept the writ on behalf of the others.

The writ requires the party to preserve witnesses, surrender recovered records, disclose material evidence, and obey Ormlyr's lawful directions concerning the Voss case.

It forbids killing a surrendered suspect, silencing or intimidating a witness, concealing or destroying evidence, and leaving Beregost with case material.

Pending proceedings are delayed while the writ remains in force. The writ does not pardon prior killings or prevent later testimony about the party's conduct.

Once per signer during Adventure 006, displaying the intact writ grants advantage on a Charisma check made to secure lawful cooperation from a Beregost official, guard, clerk, or citizen. This Conditional Authority ends for every signer after a deliberate breach.

Example text placed before the party

WRIT OF CONDITIONAL SERVICE

By the civic authority vested in Captain Kelddath Ormlyr, and upon the sworn petition of Magister Vestra, the persons signing below are received into conditional service for the sole purpose of investigating Seldran Voss, his household, his agents, and the criminal association called the Circle.

I. The signers shall act under Captain Ormlyr's direction and within the bounds of Beregost law. This writ authorizes entry, inquiry, and the request of lawful cooperation. It does not authorize private punishment, seizure for personal gain, or judgment by the signers.

II. Every ledger, letter, seal, cipher, weapon, compact, and other material recovered in the investigation shall be preserved and delivered without alteration to Captain Ormlyr or his named officer. No copy, page, or substance shall be withheld.

III. Every witness found alive shall, so far as the signers can reasonably accomplish it, remain alive, unsilenced, and able to give testimony. A surrendered or helpless suspect shall not be killed. No witness shall be threatened, purchased, removed, or instructed to forget.

IV. The signers shall not burn records, conceal evidence, flee Beregost with case material, knowingly warn Voss or his servants, or frustrate a lawful arrest made under this writ.

V. Proceedings presently contemplated against the signers shall be held in abeyance while service is honestly performed. Nothing in this writ is a pardon, an acquittal, or a promise that prior conduct will be forgotten.

VI. Service ends only upon written discharge by Captain Ormlyr, delivery of the material evidence sought, or breach of any condition above. Upon breach, this authority ends at once, the stay of proceedings is lifted, and the writ itself may be received as proof that the signers knew their duties.

Signed under the Lion's seal of Beregost and the brass seal of Magister Vestra.

Kelddath Ormlyr, Captain of Beregost
Magister Vestra, Petitioner and Witness

Names or witnessed marks of those bound: ____________________

How Vestra presents it

Vestra does not call the writ mercy. She places it flat on the table, identifies the clauses that preserve witnesses and records, and waits in silence while the party reads. If asked what happens after success, she points to the words held in abeyance and says, 'You are purchasing a hearing, not an absolution.'

Breach and completion

A mistake made during a dangerous scene is not automatically a breach. The violation must be knowing and material: executing a surrendered foe, deliberately destroying a record, coercing a witness into silence, hiding a major piece of evidence, or fleeing with it. Ormlyr may discharge the writ after the Voss evidence is secured even if Voss escapes; Vestra cannot keep the party in indefinite service merely because she dislikes the result.

Adventure appearances

006 — I Shot the Sheriff

Vestra uses the writ to put the party under Ormlyr's conditional authority for the Voss investigation without pardoning the killings that brought them before him.

Player-facing prop
Conditional Authority
Failure and restraint framework

Also known as

writ of conditional service
conditional service
Vestra's writ