"The good people of the urban order committee have told us a number of times that this proposal only permits these grisly punishments, and does not mandate their use for any particular crime. Certainly it's been implied that they'd be used sparingly. For truly extraordinary crimes, for high treason perhaps. But I heard the Count Cerdanya mention just now that he'd like people to fear "a slow execution for rioting". So I'd like to ask for some clarification. The bill doesn't mandate particular punishments for particular crimes. Fine. Count Cerdanya, how many people do you envision broken at the wheel or taken to pieces after the riots of the third? Just Vidal Espinoza? Just him and Select Wain? Every single rioter the watch brought in? Or perhaps only a tenth of them, chosen by lot?"

"I am not a magistrate of Westcrown, but were it up to me, I would desire the ringleaders and orchestrators of the riots to be punished for high treason. I would likewise see those men who, having condemned themselves to death with one capital crime, decided that there was no reason to restrain themselves from further such crimes — men like Vícenç Bardera, whom I spoke of earlier — sentenced to be broken on the wheel. I would not see every man who took to the streets tortured, regardless of the severity of his offense, and I would particularly be opposed to a slow death for men such as the one the honored Songbird told us of earlier, who repented of his crime and voluntarily handed himself over to face justice."

Just Valia, Victoria, Alicia, Laia, Jilia if they can nail her on anything, and Rui d'Argent. A very restrained list, really.

Lions? Really?

Regular lions or dire lions? Why lions and not anything else, is it because they're Iomedan now? He's pretty sure that's not how it works...

...The respectable people in the room do not seem to approve of the lions, even though it's a perfectly reasonable ordeal as ordeals go. Oh well. He'll vote for lions but not speak in favor of it.

Lions are Iomedae's animal, so this is basically just a proposal to exempt Chosens of Iomedae from the law. Maybe Wain was secretly tortured to death, and the people proposing lions are upset about that?

Do people being eaten by Lions count as torture?  He’ll miss out on all the fun if he’s really strict about avoiding watching anything close to torture.  If the Lion punishment amendment loses they’ll have to figure out a non-torture way of doing fights with lions and then he can watch those without hurting his odds of avoiding Hell.  He gets in line, he can explain his idea for non-convict gladiator fights.

Alexandre isn't going to spend a Dimension Door on this, but he is, unfortunately for de Cerdenya, in line!

"LIONS!" he shouts, projecting his voice across the auditorium, before smirking behind his mask and then starting into his oration.

"Men of Cheliax," he says, "Delegate Guerrero is correct in every particular, and I swear he did not bribe me to say this. Gladiatorial games are practiced in Taldor, were practiced in Aroden's Cheliax, are practiced in Absalom, founded by Aroden, and provided for in its laws. Gladiatorial games are described in the Acts of Iomedae; she considers them a waste of money, because she considers practically everything but big armies and bread for the poor to be wastes of money, but this did not stop her from participating in Oppara. Since she was not merely Good but boring it was against summoned outsiders, but we aren't paladins, are we? - No harm intended to those of us who are, Lord Marshal -" he taps his mask "- but a man who's fed to lions is dead and damned and a man who's hanged is dead and damned, and if the lions take longer that's time he isn't burning in Hell. It's an act of charity, really," he adds smugly.

"Now, His Excellency de Cerdanya is probably damned for proposing this, but that's because he's proposing there should be circumstances when we give souls to Asmodeus, from whose rule we were only just freed, when we have a Final Blade to use. If we want people to suffer horribly we can instead reanimate them as undead, maledict them to the Abyss or feed their souls to summoned daemons, but no, no, His Excellency de Cerdanya wants the followers of Asmodeus burned at the stake and so makes a farce of the entire war we're fighting. But if we're going to have a farce, let's have a fun farce. Let's feed them to lions! Martin Guerrero looks at this and says - let's make the people of Westcrown happy! I'm with him. If we're going to kill a man in agony because it will make us feel better, let's make us feel better and the same for the lions! It'll entertain an arena of people, teach everyone not to do stupid shit that gets you fed to lions, raise tax receipts, and provide wizards employments as lion-summoners at a time of their deepest financial dissatisfaction.

"So I am for the Lions Amendment. But first I want to add another one: That no person with any chance whatsoever of being Lawful Evil ever be executed for any crime whatsoever by any means whatsoever other than the Final Blade in any city which has one, except by direct order of the Queen. That's my amendment."

You know, he's not that bad, really.

She is actually in favor of lions.  She’d give herself decent odds against a lion even without her holy symbol.  It’d be enough of a challenge to help her level, especially if it’s several lions, which actually makes it more enticing.  She’ll get up to speak in favor of an amendment mandating clerics of virtuous Gods be guaranteed their holy symbol if sentenced to fight lions. She can appeal to the crowds’ desire for an interesting fight which cleric spells can help make happen.

As for delegate Ibarra’s amendment… it’s sensible enough, no point getting damned because she voted for a fun option. 

Technically, this makes people like Valia Wain just about the only criminals they're allowed to throw to the lions in Westcrown, but maybe that's... fair...?

Well, of course Delegate Ibarra supports the lions amendment, he's a powerful wizard, he could just kill all the lions with magic. It would admittedly make her feel better to watch him be torn apart by lions but only if the lions won.

That's... not as terrible as it could be.

Awww, that's no fun, you can never be sure whether someone isn't Lawful so if that proposal passed almost no one could be thrown to the lions. Get better material, funny mask man.

No, seriously, why are open cultists of Norgorber allowed at the convention? Maybe once they've worked out an acceptable form of laws against private worship of Evil powers they can have him arrested on those grounds, but for all he knows the Galtan archmage will decide that's unacceptable.

"Honored delegate, I would not wish to see any man damned if it can be avoided. With that being said, our Queen is far more familiar than I with the effects of the Final Blade in practice, and even she has chosen not to make it mandatory as a form of execution, but merely to extend the offer of the Final Blade to convicts, where practical. This law does not forbid the use of the Final Blade, which is, of course, a form of beheading, and any subsequent decrees may certainly clarify whether the use of the Final Blade shall be mandatory, permissible, or forbidden."

No one has actually seconded the amendment yet, which he's pretty sure means he doesn't have to call a vote on it.

No she thinks it's a good move - sow confusion, cripple the bill -

"I second the amendment! Send no one to damnation!"

No one’s seconded it… and denying Asmodeus souls is probably Good.

Oh wait he was too slow.

"Very well. As it was proposed second, we shall vote after the gladiatorial amendment on the amendment to require all criminals sentenced to execution in a city with a Final Blade to be executed by Final Blade, if they cannot be unambiguously proven not to be Lawful Evil, save by order of the Queen."

That seems really bad? Like, sure, it's good to stop Asmodeus from getting more devils, but even setting aside the people who deserve to suffer, if someone does a crime that's not Evil, and they know they're, say, Chaotic Neutral, this would force them to be executed by Final Blade. She'd be fine, she's a priestess, but lots of people aren't.

All right, how does the balance of power seem...

Your external conscience thinks you should go say something.

Political credibility is valuable and hard to get more of.

And yet I bet you're going to go say something!