Upon reaching the city's entrance, you witness the corpse of a man on display, and obvious criminal captured...

Law and order doesn't reach very far beyond the city walls at best, and beyond whatever serves as law enforcement at worst. When you need such displays "pour encourager les autres", well it means you know there are plenty of "autres" still out there. So, there's probably work to be had, legal or otherwise.

Smile and say to myself that this city knows how to deal with the scum.

It was how criminals were treated in the past anyway. Being a adventurer in a medieval(or older) setting I shouldn't be surprised with death and harsh punishment

Something cheesy about a city in need of a hero most likely. Though whether its rife with truly detestable sorts or has simply been left alone so long it doesn't know any other way to resolve conflict is unknown.

Or that spell casters don't particularly care how you perceive it.

"This place probably has a severe crime problem if they need to resort to such brutish measures. most sane people just keep guards at check points."

It means their crime problem is bad and they mutilate any "easy catches" they can get to try and scare off the rest. Sign of incompetence and general brutality in a guard force that tries to strongarm civilians in to complacency. On the Murderhobo Viability Scale from 1-10 I'll put it at a 7, you could probably get away with a couple of murder-robberies as long as you don't do them all in the same area.

They obviously don't follow Jewish law. Such people should be stoned to death and then buried in a criminal's mass grave by the end of the day.

Yup. The city’s hold on order must be tenuous if it needs to resort to these tactics.

I’d ask how fresh the body/heads look and how much traffic the route gets. That gives you some clues about who gets executed, how frequently, and how hard the city is working to impress upon people that it will not tolerate... something.

Come to think of it, it’s a rather vague warning, isn’t it?

Rolled 14 (1d20)

the vagueness is probably deliberate to keep thieves guessing. A gentle repose every few days can drastically slow the corpse's decay to make it look fresh and even allow for the bodies to seem overcrowded so the guards can seem more effective as years worth of criminals basically end up out here.

Frankly, I'm rather disgusted by the lack of sanitation concerns or anything to stop some Necromancer from making off with these bodies, I understand crime can get out of hand but you don't need to endanger the public and visitors by exposure to disease and feed practitioners of the dark arts.

Let's go to town hall and see what we can learn and find out what we can do, maybe ask around with the locals as well. This shit has clearly gotten out of hand.

>roll investigation

guys, these corpses are obviously bait
What for? My money is betting that they have a ghoul infestation.

Cool they inforce laws.

the (somewhat) civilized gnoll understands this as a clear territorial marking and a warning against misconduct, though exactly what they consider misconduct is't clear unless the bodys have something clarifying their crime. she is very hesitant to enter the city, fearing being attacked simply for being what she is. assuming she isn't attacked on site/the bard can convince them she isn't going to cause trouble, she keeps her nose clean and doesn't fight unless her life is on the line, opting for non-lethal options to prevent responding guards from going all "kill the beast" on her.

that said she internally wonders why they insist on letting perfectly good meat rot like that when bare bones would sent the same message.

Make some comments about similar practices in places she's lived in previously, which could go off on a long tangent of "Back in my day..." or stories about some long dead minor warlord. Then watch the party.

As a Paladin, i think its time for an internal Inquisition as to whether their crimes were justly prosecuted, fairly investigated, and whether the punishment is proportional to the crime

man you are so cool and hip, i wish i were like you.

My 18 year old human cleric would become fearful of a community that would treat it's members this way, regardless of what they did to deserve it. But she wouldn't say anything, as this isn't her culture. She would then attempt to bless the dead as best she can, considering all that's left are rotting heads.
The Barbarian would probably get a boner
The rest of the party (Warlock, Fighter, Rogue) would probably not give a single shit about it, or proceed to ask the local law enforcement if they can get a handsome reward for helping behead criminals, because all those assholes care about is money

There are no quests here, they obviously have a robust city guard.

If they had a robust city guard, they wouldn't need to use such extreme mesures to try to appear competent. Heavy-handed "law and order" tactics are usually a symptom of things going horribly wrong, either through corruption, incompetence, or external pressure.

I never said I was intelligent, either in or out of character. That would just be my first thought.

Fair enough.

It has witches for its lawmakers, binding the souls of the dead to their heads to be ever watchful of criminals.

Well, I know what my current party would do.

>My 16 y/o peasant character winces and mutter something like "these guys don't mess around.." and proceed to hide behind the roadwarden whenever they meet a soldier or lawman in the city.
>the old scoundrel will probably be unaffected and look for ways to steal some money without getting caught.
>the roadwarden will probably look at the display in silent approval and be oblivious to the scoundrel's attempts at criminality. He's for pursuing outlaws in the wild, not for investigating and noticing criminals in a city.
>our elf would probably mutter something about uncivilized humans and act snobbish

Crucify 150 nobles

I will not take special notice as it is standard fare for any self-respecting city and proceed with business as usual.

We're largely indifferent by now as we've been heading into Not!Roman Empire with highway after highway decorated with crucified criminals.

>Hanging_of_William_Kidd

"In vain, great-hearted Kublai, shall I attempt to describe Zaira, city of high bastions. I could tell you how many steps make up the streets rising like stairways, and the degree of the arcades' curves, and what kind of zinc scales cover the roofs; but I already know this would be the same as telling you nothing. The city does not consist of this, but of relationships between the measurements of its space and the events of its past: the height of a lamppost and the distance from the ground of a hanged usurper's swaying feet; the line strung from the lamppost to the railing opposite and the festoons that decorate the course of the queen's nuptial procession; the height of that railing and the leap of the adulterer who climbed over it at dawn; the tilt of a guttering and a cat's progress along it as he slips into the same window; the firing range of a gunboat which has suddenly appeared beyond the cape and the bomb that destroys the guttering; the rips in the fish net and the three old men seated on the dock mending nets and telling each other for the hundredth time the story of the gunboat of the usurper, who some say was the queen's illegitimate son, abandoned in his swaddling clothes there on the dock.

As this wave from memories flows in, the city soaks it up like a sponge and expands. A description of Zaira as it is today should contain all of Zaira's past. The city, however, does not tell its past, but contains it like the lines of a hand, written in the corners of the streets, the gratings of the windows, the banisters of the steps, the antennae of the lightning rods, the poles of the flags, every segment marked in turn with scratches, indentations, scrolls."

>and then buried in a criminal's mass grave
Hitler did nothing wrong.

>"Waste of material, servitor service is far more efficient. But this a Feudal World after all,"
- Ex-Magistratum Double Agent

>you witness the corpse of a man on display, and obvious criminal
You can't see guilt. You can assume they were hung for crimes. Work on your descriptions.

I would take note that we have indeed just entered Cheliax territory and that we should tread carefully inside the city.

...

>What is genocide?
>What is invading Russia whilst still fighting everyone else?
>What is being an insecure, paranoid dictator that won't allow any autonomy within his own ranks that everything falls to shit the moment you spend an hour too long on breakfast?
>What is fuck off you fucking facist neo-nazi romper-stomping /pol/tard maga cock-munching communist cocksucker?

It’s a lovely book, isn’t it? I have nothing to add, beyond noting that I wish I’d thought of your answer.

They have strongly eugenics criminal justice policies. this might be a nice place to live in a couple of hundred years.