Pizazz's Beyond Annihilation

Zendrak looks casually over at Mal as he sits, now both arms stretched on the back of the pew he sits upon.  "I never let my guard down." 

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The priest looks up to Mordekai, "Oh, yes indeed. Well, I suppose I have a few minutes to empart some wisdom on a heathen."  He smiles, those as he does so, Mordekai notices that his teeth have all been filed into points.  "Nobanion is our great and mighty lord. The most powerful beast there ever was. He teaches us that whoever is fit to survive is deemed worthy to continue the line of their people. We follow his teachings...well....religiously.  Those who can survive and show that they are most fit to lead, to procreate, to carry on, are the ones who do so. But don't mistake us for some backward group of thugs led by the nearest bully. No, being the fittest is accomplished through a regular series of tests throughout the year that show mental, physical, and spiritual determination. We have a ladder system as it were, and you move up and down that ladder, though...you can fall off the ladder as well, if your fitness does not maintain itself." 

Mordekai shrugs as if this is all perfectly normal.  "I don't think that differentiates your society from any other civilization.  The strongest and fittest seem always to seize the most power for themselves.  You're just honest and transparent about the methods you use to form the societal ladder, that's all.  When do these tests happen, by the way?  They sound fun.  What's the name of your town, by the way?"

In another life, Mordekai might have considered sticking around a place like this a while longer to see how far up the ladder he could manipulate himself.  As it is, he satisfies himself with asking his couple of questions and observing.

Kari Listens seriously to Mal and then sits watchful beside Zendrak. And waits. And looks around. And waits a few more minutes. And looks at the container of holy water, spending a few moments debating whether or not to stick her finger into the water, but ultimately deciding not to. Then waits some more.

Finally her boredom can't take it anymore. "I'm just gonna stretch my legs a bit, I will be just outside. Not far at all." She stands and stretches her back before walking out the door of the church, doing a couple of stretches as she watches the people in the village. Thinking how strange they are acting, trying to act like catfolk or something.

The priest looks to Mordekai, "Yes, well, perhaps not. However we here do not hold to the sensitivities of many societies who coddle and prop up the weak. The bloodlines of the weak do not deserve, in fact endanger our very existence by their continuation. Here, the weak are left to nature to find their eventual outcome, as all weak in nature do. So our lord commands, for he says, survival is the domain of those that are fit to take it. As such, you and your friends should beware that trying to...help those with weak bloodlines here is seen as a crime." 

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Outside Kari stretches her legs somewhat, looking about the strange town with curiosity. It's then that a young girl, her face smudged and her 'cat makeup' all but wiped off approaches her. With pleading eyes she says, "Strangers have come. I heard people talk. Do you have a healer amongst you? My little brother fell and broke his leg....and if it doesn't heal right....he'll never be able to walk properly...he'll never be the same....and our papa shuns him. Please, I just need someone to set the bone right so he can grow strong again."   

From across the street, a man who's watching the exchange yells, "Dara, leave off that stranger immediately....if you're lucky you won't doom your family!" 

"Ah, there I see the flaw in the logic. If someone 'weak' is able to manipulate another into helping them, is that not simply a different type of strength? Outlawing one type of strength over another seems to me to simply weaken the collective. But each to their own, we will heed your warning."

Mordekai is careful not to use words like 'respect', 'obey' or 'abide by'.

Kari grows concerned as the girl makes her request, but she stiffens and her eyes go a bit hard at the man's demand. Softening her face for the child she says "Well there's a priest inside, can't he help you? Or I know a bit about patching people up the old-fashioned way. Don't you worry about dooming anyone."

Mal grins at Zendrak, "Well obviously you let your guard down once, otherwise how did you become a ghost? How did you die anyway becoming a ghost?"

Zendrak looks to Mal, "Oh, the typical horrible way, sacrificed to a cabal of arch-mages who sought to create a magical spirit of great power that they could use as a slave. They succeeded in part of their goal, but, unfortunately suffered terrible fatal fates before the could complete their enslaving." 

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The girl shakes her head, "No, the priest won't help him. Come...come with me..." the girl tries to lead Kari away.  The man stiffens and his eyes harden as he watches Kari's response.

Kari follows the girl, narrowing her eyes in a disapproving way for only a second before focusing on the child again. She keeps her glaive steady in one hand and walks light on her feet, not willing to trust that the man won't attack her.

The other man just stares daggers as Kari follows the girl away.  The girl leads Kari through town and down a few side streets until she finds a run down house on the outskirts of the small village.  The girl opens the door and heads inside. Kari follows cautiously.  Inside a man looks up, then looks at his daughter, then looks at Kari.  The man looks to be in pretty good shape, with cat whiskers drawn across his cheeks.  He looks to the girl, "Dara, who's this now? Why have you brought a half-orc to our home?"  

Dara looks to her dad, "She's here to make Dani's leg strong again."  

Her dad's face grows dark, "If his leg was strong, it wouldn't have broke. If his blood is strong, he'll heal as is Dara, leave off."  Then he looks up at Kari, though...looks a bit mollified by her size and armaments, "Um, look, stranger, you don't know the way of our town here...but...your help is not wanted...please leave."

Kari moves over to the boy to examine his leg, probing for the break as gently as she can to see if it needs to be set first. Her jaw clenches tight and there's fire in her eyes, but she doesn't say anything at first. Taking out her healing kit she starts opening it up to see what supplies she might need when she sees two particular stoppered vials set in with the bandages. Picking one up she looks over at the man, presumably the father. "And what of the strength of family, or is there only one kind of strength that is honored here? Because I'd wager on who the strongest is in the room, and it isn't you!" Blinking some of the fire out of her eyes she turns back to the boy and unstoppers the vial. "Here, Take this medicine. It will... keep the strength inside you." She will help prop him up and help him drink the greater healing potion if necessary.

Kurik rolls his eyes at the man.  "Unelss your scripture specifically says 'thou shan't partake in divine healing' then I'm at a loss.  Does your God also dictate that you cannot use tools?  No spears or bows for the hunt, no daggers, nothing?  Is your God against the strength of the pack?  With such a limitation then I can hardly belive how one grows up in society here...  children get hurt just from playing, athletes get hurt just by competing, seems more blasphemous to forsake ones strength," kurik says in a rant.

"But I'm not of here, you're free to do as you will," he says with shrug.

Mordekai, leaves the priest and looks for the rest of the party. Seeing that Kari isn't 'just outside' as she said she would be, he goes back inside and takes a seat in a quiet corner of the church, pulls out his Tome and scribbles a quick note in it.  Kari hears Mordekai's voice in her head, "This is a frustrating place. I don't see you around, are you still wandering?  Is everything ok?" 

He also mutters to Quinn, "What do you think of this place? What are the chances of them being persuaded to change their ways?"

 Kari blinks twice as she hears the voice in her head, then decides to respond with her thoughts. "A kid broke his leg and his dad isn't helping, but it should be fine now. I'll be back soon, probably." ((Assuming Kari knows which cardinal direction she followed the girl in, she will add "I'm on the *insert-cardinal-direction* side of town."))

Mal pops her head up from between one of the rows of pews, looks over at Mordekai rubbing the sleep out of here eyes. She looks around the room and then seeing that nothing has changed she lowers her head back down to continue her nap, talking to Mordekai, "Wake me if anything is happening or we going somewhere else to wait, otherwise back to my beauty sleep."

Mordekai doesn't respond outwardly to Mal so as not to raise the priest's suspicions, but continues appearing to make notes in the Tome. Mal hears in her head, "Trouble may be brewing for Kari. I think she's just helped an injured kid. We should stay ready."

Mal thinks to herself, How would helping a kid bring trouble? Then she will respond to the ghost voice, not sure if this will work or not, sighing , Can't bring Kari anywhere without her getting into trouble, where is she so I can once more go pull her butt out of the fire. Laughter in her mind voice.

Mal will once more raise her head above the pews and stretch and then move to the church exit with a nod toward Mordekai.

Zendrak mutters to Mal, "I'm not going anywhere.  My eyes are on this phylactery until we can destroy it." 

Kari completes her healing of the boy, who looks overjoyed, but the father looks nothing but angry as she departs and returns to the group. No one stops her or tries to interfere and soon enough she's back with the group at the pews.  The group is free to let the time pass. 

The evening comes and goes. The group takes turns keeping watch as they camp out in the church, and the priest for all his strange beliefs doesn't even challenge them. He seems to understand the importance of their quest and that they planned to stay close to the Liche's soul. 

It's early the next morning though when there's a bit of trouble. There seems to be some yelling out on the street in front of the church and soon the priest approaches the group. 

"Good morning. There is a group outside claiming that your half-orc treated a boys broken leg against our 'survival of the fittest' core tenants. Grols demands your attention outside." 

Sighing Mal approaches the priest, "Look we came here for one thing and one thing only, holy water, which we happily paid for. Now we are planning to leave. Regardless what my friend here did, she did it according to her faith and frankly I would be annoyed if she didn't follow her heart and faith. From what I know no one explicitly told Kari not to heal the boy and frankly to be honest, I would feel sorry, sort of, for anyone that did tell her not to heal someone that was injured. We are done here and we will make it a point not to ever enter this town again if you let us leave now. If you attempt to make us deal with this Grols person," then Mal will lean in close and glare into the priests eyes, "you will not like the outcome. You do remember we came here to destroy a Lich's phylactery, a LICH'S phylactery." Then sarcastically she continues, "No offense, but do you really think meager townsfolk are any threat to us. Think of us as a test from whatever god you worship and the test is to recognize some threats are just to be avoided." As she then rests her one hand on the glove of her ring hand and smiles.

With that, Mal will look around the room and see if there is a back way out of the church as she really doesn't want to kill any random stranger that are just being stupid but she will if she has to.

Intimidation: 4

Seeing Mal attempting to persuade and intimidate the priest, Mordekai prepares himself to deal with the imminent reckoning outside. These are exactly the kind of situations he was made for. Persuading, deceiving, cajoling entire towns... If he were some kind of fictional character, this would be what his entire backstory revolved around. 

(And if the priest's reply to Mal takes things in a different direction, feel free to disregard the following...)

"Seems like we've got some music to face. Are we ready?" Mordekai makes to lead the group outside, preparing himself to do some fast talking.