Rallo

Rallo is the high judge of White City in the campaign Raphael Efsanesi ("The Legend of Raphael"), introduced as the only high judge in the city. He calls himself a paladin of Moradin, whom he names a god of justice; Moradin is the older name of the god now known as Volkan.¹

The Palace of Justice

Rallo sits in the Palace of Justice, a large building entered under guard. At its entrance stands a statue of a long-bearded dwarf holding scales and a war hammer, and the same dwarf figure is repeated on the door of the judge's chamber upstairs. Raphael did not recognise the god it showed when he first saw it.²

The bargain with Raphael

Rallo told Raphael that his inn would normally owe a monthly tax, but that he had excused it for four months in return for the clearing out of Kalel. He set out his terms plainly: he wanted no suspicious deaths among the honest, tax-paying settled people of White City. Raphael was to work in the underworld, and if he committed crimes against such people, or touched those tied to the Empire, Rallo would hang him.^{3 1}

He also explained how the capital was governed. Matters had gone badly with the gang called the Night Rats; Lord Floris was ruling in the emperor's place while Emperor Vaden I attended a council of war at Chain Castle, and it was with Floris that the tax exemption had been agreed.⁴

When Raphael admitted his part in the killing of a man named Yasis, Rallo had his secretary record that Yasis had carried papers of treason against the emperor, drawing up after the fact a judgement covering both his death and his lands. The lands went to the Empire and their income to the peasants who worked them.⁵

The ruby box

Rallo announced that Lord Floris would come with soldiers to inspect the inn and deliver a task, and that Raphael should not ask his usual fee, though there would be a reward. The inn's manager guessed that the commander Fin would come instead, and so it proved.^{6 7}

On the judge's behalf Fin gave Raphael a box set with rubies, sent by a priest. In an old wizard's tower to the north-west was a young man said to be possessed by a devil; Raphael was to kill him, put his hair in the box and bring it straight to the judge, and keep the whole matter secret. Once the hair was taken out, the ornate box would be his reward, and in exchange no search was made of the illegal goods in the inn's lower rooms.^{8 9}

In the tower, when Raphael shut the hair inside the box, the being that leapt at him crumbled into dust. On the way back to the city Raphael was caught in a confusion of time, until Rallo's personal priest and physician, a halfling, noticed it and touched Raphael's head; though this set things right, it did not undo the ageing Raphael had suffered. Rallo moved the hair from the box into a small tube and put it away, and when asked what it was for, said that was none of Raphael's business. His priest would not say what the box was worth or what it did.^{10 11 12}

The merchant Fiz later told Raphael that the box was a collector's piece made to imprison spirits, its stones said to hold them, and bought it from him.^{13 14}

Later warnings

Before a public execution held by the visiting knights, a city soldier brought Raphael to Rallo. Because of their unwritten agreement, Rallo warned him to commit no notable crime inside or outside the city for about a month while the knights were there. He said there was no word of Karas and no body had been found, mentioned that they seemed to be catching Zulu as well, and advised Raphael to cut any ties he had. In return for this private meeting he asked for help in the future.^{15 16}

When Derek Sunshield later pressed Raphael into service, Raphael told him that his dealings with the judge were not bad and asked that the work not cost him his inn; Derek said he would speak to the judge.¹⁷