If she weighs as much as a duck
Indulge me as I tell you a local story.
In 1652 my hometown was the site of witchcraft trials. A local woman, Sophie Straszybot or Strasibotka, after a quarrel with her brother, was denounced as a practitioner of black magic. She was subjected to torture - controlled drowning in the pond next to the town square. The trial did not confirm the accusations and the mayor set her free.
A bit later, the acussations reappeared and on July 8th 1652 (almost exactly 374 years ago) new trial was opened. Officials from a bigger nearby town were summoned to help in this serious matter. A torturer also had to be brought in from another town, as there were no specialists of this trade locally. What were the accusations? According to the record preserved in the archives, Sophie "spilled the water when she was carrying it from the well" and "walked backwards from the fence". It was also said that she caught frogs and hanged them on strings above cattle as a protection against losing milk.
Sophie did not survive the interrogation - she died under torture. As it is written in the record, as she was dying, "a black dog moved away from her and butterflies flew out of her". Her body was buried outside the city limits.
Not much has changed. Prejudice, primitive stupidity, picking a scapegoat to blame - still present today, just as they were hundreds of years ago.
Dramatis personae (new supportless minis in the repository):
Sophie (17th_prisoner_female) - with my hopeless attitude to naming conventions, I decided to add a "17th_" prefix to models related to that century.
An accusing town official (17th_townsman_preaching)
A torturer (17th_masked_thug), can be used as a bandit
A devil counselor, whispering his devilish schemes (Devil_counselor), just as a reminder, where the real evil stands in this and similar stories.
A bit of difficult times ahead for me - I'm going to be renovating a new apartment (with hopefully more working space for BriteMinis than a living room), and it will take some time so apologies if I bring some dust and noise from all that construction work here.