Vilus pants, out of breath and looks away from the mess at his feet, a quiet fear slowly writing itself across his face. "How are we all? I feel like I wouldn't take another hit without succumbing to the wounds. I need rest..." Vilus stands and looks around to the group members, his eyes lingering a little longer on Joren and his beaten bleeding visage. "...we all need rest" in a fit of fear and frustration Vilus takes himself over to the outside wall and punches it, still not able to bring himself to look upon the mutated thing dead in the middle of the room.
In the same downward motion of his Dunamis Blade that Joren's echo lands weakly upon Andra's head to somehow finish off the corrupted cult leader, the warrior himself collapses to a knee, legs buckling and blood spilling generously from his mouth, his shadow-inflicted wounds blackened and deep.
He stares on glassy-eyed as Vilus punches the wall. "That... that is what this Watcher is turning you into?"
Further teetering, Joren falls face-first onto the floor, mumbling. "Ah... going to lie here a moment. If we are needing to get going, you know, just be giving me a little kick..." The half-dwarf's eyes close like window shades and he falls instantly asleep (or unconscious). Only Joren's shallow breathing and his iron grip on Jean-Lou's strange greatsword betray that he retains more life than the puddle of black ichor beside him that was once Andra.
Samir stumbles back from Andra as the cultist seems to come apart at the seams. All but tripping over his own feet, the half-orc backs away until he feels the wall behind him. For a long moment he simply stares at the dead man-turned-monster, before sliding down the wall into a sitting position. The pain of his own wounds, lost in the middle of the fight, are suddenly all too prevalent, and he takes the moment to check himself over.
Malachi recoils as Andra, or what was left of him, splits apart and slides to the floor. “That was not what I expected.” As Joren and Vilus collapse to the ground, Malachi spares a brief moment to make sure that they are okay. He moves forward, careful to avoid the splatter of gore and focuses his attention on the hydaelym, trying to determine what Andra was doing. “Samir, get up. Can you tell what he was doing to the runes around this thing?”(Providing help to Samir to investigate the runes)
He turns to a battered Vilus “And you, I think you owe us some answers. What does your Watcher have to do with this? How did this happen to Andra?”
Vilus continues punching the wall in a rage as he answers, not turning back, "the watcher just observes, gives power out to one who can be eyes for them, this bastard stole my book when I was tortured here... He dabbled in something he didn't understand and got greedy. If the watcher was involved then why would Andra sacrifice these cultists... he went rogue, trying to get more power by any means, and he f*cking used me to do it! F*CK!" As his knuckles start to bleed, causing fresh splatters to start trickling down the wall, he stops and slumps "it was so easy for him to give in to it... To be consumed... He was weak."
Purely mesmerized by what happened to the man Andra and how his face and body shape changed as they hit him, Ashley can't stop herself from kneeling next to the body. Careful not to kneel in the puddle of ooze, she rolls the body over to get a better look at him, to see if his face was actually his, even if it was now split. She then carefully looks at the rest of his body, wanting to know why one leg was now longer than the other and what other crazy occurrences happened that they didn't see during the fight.
Getting a short rest really didn't help her at all, but she looks over first to Joren, "I don't have many spell slots left, but if you require some healing... please let me know."
Then she looks over at Vilus and concern etches deep into her face, "Vilus, are you alright? What do you mean he used you? Are you talking the book he stole... or something else?"
Pulled from his pains by Malachi's voice, Samir levers himself up and joins his friend. Adjusting his glasses, he kneels next to the alterations that Andra had made in the runic workings, letting his eyes play over them in study, taking his time. Getting anything wrong with this level of power was... ill advised.
"I am.. unsure what his end goal was." Samir does his best to avoid looking at Andra's misshapen corpse as best as he can, concentrating on the runes instead. "From my initial glimpse, it looked as if he were trying to... distort, or warp the magic surrounding the hydaelym somehow. Not to free it, or remove the containment, but something else..."
Investigation roll = 26, Arcana roll = 9. Womp womp.
Examining his face, Ashley sees what looks like a second layer of skin under the first, wherever it had been torn by attacks or by the eye. Peeling back the outer layer, the face that was Andra's, she sees very different features of the face beneath it. The body shudders and his knuckles and elbow on one side begin to click and pop. Ashley watches as bones shorten and lean, muscular arms turn soft and slightly plump.
The parts of him that have changed look like someone else entirely. In fact, what she can see of the face and body structure remind her an awful lot of Jon Shep. The man from Opportunity's Knock.
It seems the real Andra had perhaps never really returned from that expedition across the seas. Instead, the Andra she knew had been a follower of Razmus wearing his face and mimicking his body. People did say everyone came back from that trip a little different.
Samir thinks through the situation. Based on what he's seen, the hydaelym seems to work as a conduit for some kind of raw magical energy. Hmm, but is that right? It's only hooked up to one device, both here and at Andra's office, and if it's the same device, it only uses a tiny trickle of magic to generate a map. He thinks back to the map the other hydaelym had created. This spot may very well correlate with one of the glowing dots he'd seen. On a hunch, he pulls out the medallion from Jon Shep.
Holding it near the hydaelym, he watches as colour and light returns to the crystal in the center, and it once again glows blue and red.
Resonance. It looks like magical resonance to Samir. So the magical signature from the hydaelym could be used to locate other sources of similar magic, and could enable the medallion to serve a similar function. This was mostly known, but now Samir understood better. What it really drove home for him though, is that that could not be the main purpose of trapping all this energy here. He examines the hydaelym closer, but it yields few clues. Until he looks closer at Andra's symbols. As he thought, Andra had been carving negations into the ground to funnel that power into himself after he abandoned Razmus in favour of the Watcher, but the negations themselves lent context to the original function.
The hydaelym was a dam.
It was a trap designed to collect magical energies and hold them here specifically so they couldn't go elsewhere. It seems the cultists couldn't use this magic directly, but they could keep it from others. And so when they'd broken the previous one, the magic had been unleashed, free to go where was meant to be.
But what was the source? Magic comes from within people. That's what was taught. Right? So where did this magic come from?
After a catnap during which he appears virtually dead, Joren's eyes open and he gets to his feet quietly with a grimace, looking still injured but far better than before. Just as importantly, his strength appears to have returned and he seems able to shoulder his blade and move around in his heavy armor.
To Ashley's query about healing, he replies seriously, "The fire you were throwing at those shadows was likely saving my life sure as any healing after the fact would have. You are knowing your own magic best, but I am thinking you should save it. I must do a better job protecting myself."
Otherwise, Joren listens to the others as they study the magic of the hydaelym and knows when to keep his mouth shut. Instead, he inspects the room for other points of entry, and if there are none, posts himself as sentry at door the party had used to enter.
“So Andra developed a connection with the Watcher when he stole your book, imprisoned you and what, siphoned off some of your magic?” Mal runs his hand through his hair and looks back at Andra’s body “And it drove him mad? Is that the kind of struggle you face in your connection? How do you stand it?” He looks at Vilus with a little sympathy and concern.
Samir’s findings from the runes brings his focus back to the hydaelym. “What are they storing magical energies for? To strengthen Razmus in his return or just deny it to others? Do we dare break it open like we did in Tensmith?”
Vilus uses some down time to calm himself, to sit and meditate, try to connect once more however much s bad idea that might be at this time, once he is finished he acknowledges Malachi's question, but looks away a little embarrassed and only answers with a, "...you've seen what's in my head, and what did it do to you?".
As the conversation progresses to the hydaelym and how it works Vilus stands and walks over, "we shouldn't break it, not this time... They've been syphoning magic from people, the result is that vial I gave you Samir, but could this be another use for it?"
"No... no, I don't think that's it." Samir shakes his head slowly, inching carefully around the edges of the runework and studying what he can see. "This... magic, I don't think it comes from anyone that the cult has abused. All of this power... it can't have come from the populace. It's too much, too strong. It would take... thousands of people drained and killed to create this." With a sigh, he sits back on his heels, shaking his head once more. "All of my life, I have been taught that the source of magic resides within mortal being. That magic comes from people. But given what we experienced before, and what I see before me. Not to mention the runes that we keep running into that defy everything I have ever been taught... I am beginning to think that Marion in her religious belief is closer to the truth than I could have ever imagined. I think..." he hesitates, adjusting his glasses but his eyes never leaving the defaced runes before him, "that we should release the hydaelym and allow the magic to run the course it was meant to. Like a river flowing to the ocean..."
Ashley about jumps away from the body and exclaims, "This is not the man they call Andra! He.. he looks a lot like that strange man that ran the Inn we first went to after the Shield Pass." She then looks at the others, the color draining from her face, "Do you think anyone that has gone West across the sea has ever come back? Or is it some creepy person with a skin suit pretending to be the one that left Talmouth??"
She listens a bit to the others and their discussion of the hydaelym, but her discovery of the body switch has her a bit dizzy.
When Vilus came out of his meditation, there was a sharp change in his underlying anger toward the situation ass whole, as if his frustrations had been unnaturally withdrawn from him and left him with a more logical and calculating view.
He looks over to Ashley as she jumps away from the body and he quickly goes over, his eyes flitting over the new face of the corpse, however destroyed by the eye it might be, he takes in every aspect. Crouching down he searches through the man's robes. "Brood parasitism." He states coldly to Ashley as he searches "It's when animals lay their eggs in other animals nests and have their offspring raised by a proxy parent. Sometimes the invasive animal offspring also devour the eggs or babies of their proxy parent... These people could be anyone now."
Malachi snaps his mouth shut at Vilus’ response, remembering well the experience at the tower under the forest. He gives Vilus an awkward pat on his shoulder and moves away to give him some space.
He looks on as Ashley and the others examine Andra’s body, or what was left of it. “It matches what we found at the docks, sailors with missing faces, and what Stenwick said about getting new faces. Apparently these creatures can also change hosts.” He turns back to Samir and Vilus as they discuss breaking the hydaelym. “I am all for releasing the magic. If they want it stored for a reason, breaking it will disrupt their plans. But can we do it a little safer than we did at Tensmith?”
Samir glances over as Vilus offers up his relatively apt description of the cultist's behavior, but his attention is quickly back on the set up in front of him. He taps his fingers lightly on the ground in front of him, careful not to touch the actual markings themselves.
"I belive that we can certainly try for something a bit more controlled than before. These... devices... are akin to a dam, or dike. They hold back the spill of magic into the world, somehow. I fear that Razmus has been at this for quite a bit longer than previously thought. The construction of these things alone must have taken a significant amount of time and effort."
He stands, absently brushing off the knees of his pants before swinging his bag into a more comfortable position. "Perhaps if Vilus and I work together, we can accomplish this in a manner that hopefully avoids any collateral damage..."
Looking closely at the face, both the side that still sports Andra's visage, and the side that shows the man's true face, Vilus notices a major difference in the face. Not the structure. That difference is obvious. But in the tension of facial muscles.
Vilus closes his eyes and sees visions of Jon Shep's eerie smile, the creases in his forehead, the wide fanatic eyes that made no crinkles in the skin at the corners. They match the face under Andra's. If you know how to look, the lines and muscles of a man's face can tell you much about their composure. For the man hiding in Andra's skin, and any others masquerading as high-profile Cambrian citizens, to have blended into society, they must have changed their personalities drastically.
The cultists were taking more than just faces and appearances. They were taking personalities. Maybe memories too.
Vilus thinks back to Jon, and back to the bickering he heard during his imprisonment. He realizes a potential flaw with their methods. Jon had been a true fanatic. Dedicated unwaveringly to his cause, practically insane with his devotion. But with Marigold and Andra, pride had started to enter the equation. Pride and ambition and conflict and bitterness... traits that had led Andra down a path of self-destruction.
As Vilus has this realisation he shares the details with the group, rounding the info dump off with an opinion, "I think their personality change could likely be used against them, they're corruptable, greedy, we can use that."
As Samir asks for help Vilus doesn't hesitate in going over, and assisting. Taking the book of symbols from Samir's pouch Vilus begins flipping through it, muttering. "perhaps if we can inscribe a new rune, one that will slowly release the magic in a more controlled way, if this is a dam then we need to carve on a 'tap' or a 'leak', you know?, I'll try to find something that correlated to 'hole' or 'opening' first."
Ashley walks over by Samir and Vilus, figuring there was nothing else to learn from the body. Musing on the change in physicality as well as personality and possibly memories. The whole thing baffles her. This was not what she thought she would run into when she left the Sands. She doesn't regret her decision, quite the opposite. Wondering if these people weren't stopped... would they take over the entire continent, including her home.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" She asks the men as they pour over their runes and books.
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Vilus pants, out of breath and looks away from the mess at his feet, a quiet fear slowly writing itself across his face. "How are we all? I feel like I wouldn't take another hit without succumbing to the wounds. I need rest..." Vilus stands and looks around to the group members, his eyes lingering a little longer on Joren and his beaten bleeding visage. "...we all need rest" in a fit of fear and frustration Vilus takes himself over to the outside wall and punches it, still not able to bring himself to look upon the mutated thing dead in the middle of the room.
In the same downward motion of his Dunamis Blade that Joren's echo lands weakly upon Andra's head to somehow finish off the corrupted cult leader, the warrior himself collapses to a knee, legs buckling and blood spilling generously from his mouth, his shadow-inflicted wounds blackened and deep.
He stares on glassy-eyed as Vilus punches the wall. "That... that is what this Watcher is turning you into?"
Further teetering, Joren falls face-first onto the floor, mumbling. "Ah... going to lie here a moment. If we are needing to get going, you know, just be giving me a little kick..." The half-dwarf's eyes close like window shades and he falls instantly asleep (or unconscious). Only Joren's shallow breathing and his iron grip on Jean-Lou's strange greatsword betray that he retains more life than the puddle of black ichor beside him that was once Andra.
Tanis(Ranger1): Shiverquill's Tempest City | Xarian(Fighter2): NioNSwiper's Tyranny of Dragons
Dyson/Eleo(TwilightCleric4): Vos' Beyond the Veil | Soren(ShepherdDruid5): Bartjeebus' Ravenloft | Ophelia(WildMagicSorcerer4): Ashen_Age's Risen from the Sands
Joren(EchoKnightFighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Sabetha(MercyMonk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court | Seri(NatureCleric3/DivineSoulSorcerer1): Bartjeebus' Greyhawk
Samir stumbles back from Andra as the cultist seems to come apart at the seams. All but tripping over his own feet, the half-orc backs away until he feels the wall behind him. For a long moment he simply stares at the dead man-turned-monster, before sliding down the wall into a sitting position. The pain of his own wounds, lost in the middle of the fight, are suddenly all too prevalent, and he takes the moment to check himself over.
Malachi recoils as Andra, or what was left of him, splits apart and slides to the floor. “That was not what I expected.” As Joren and Vilus collapse to the ground, Malachi spares a brief moment to make sure that they are okay. He moves forward, careful to avoid the splatter of gore and focuses his attention on the hydaelym, trying to determine what Andra was doing. “Samir, get up. Can you tell what he was doing to the runes around this thing?” (Providing help to Samir to investigate the runes)
He turns to a battered Vilus “And you, I think you owe us some answers. What does your Watcher have to do with this? How did this happen to Andra?”
Vilus continues punching the wall in a rage as he answers, not turning back, "the watcher just observes, gives power out to one who can be eyes for them, this bastard stole my book when I was tortured here... He dabbled in something he didn't understand and got greedy. If the watcher was involved then why would Andra sacrifice these cultists... he went rogue, trying to get more power by any means, and he f*cking used me to do it! F*CK!" As his knuckles start to bleed, causing fresh splatters to start trickling down the wall, he stops and slumps "it was so easy for him to give in to it... To be consumed... He was weak."
Purely mesmerized by what happened to the man Andra and how his face and body shape changed as they hit him, Ashley can't stop herself from kneeling next to the body. Careful not to kneel in the puddle of ooze, she rolls the body over to get a better look at him, to see if his face was actually his, even if it was now split. She then carefully looks at the rest of his body, wanting to know why one leg was now longer than the other and what other crazy occurrences happened that they didn't see during the fight.
Getting a short rest really didn't help her at all, but she looks over first to Joren, "I don't have many spell slots left, but if you require some healing... please let me know."
Then she looks over at Vilus and concern etches deep into her face, "Vilus, are you alright? What do you mean he used you? Are you talking the book he stole... or something else?"
Pulled from his pains by Malachi's voice, Samir levers himself up and joins his friend. Adjusting his glasses, he kneels next to the alterations that Andra had made in the runic workings, letting his eyes play over them in study, taking his time. Getting anything wrong with this level of power was... ill advised.
"I am.. unsure what his end goal was." Samir does his best to avoid looking at Andra's misshapen corpse as best as he can, concentrating on the runes instead. "From my initial glimpse, it looked as if he were trying to... distort, or warp the magic surrounding the hydaelym somehow. Not to free it, or remove the containment, but something else..."
Investigation roll = 26, Arcana roll = 9. Womp womp.
Examining his face, Ashley sees what looks like a second layer of skin under the first, wherever it had been torn by attacks or by the eye. Peeling back the outer layer, the face that was Andra's, she sees very different features of the face beneath it. The body shudders and his knuckles and elbow on one side begin to click and pop. Ashley watches as bones shorten and lean, muscular arms turn soft and slightly plump.
The parts of him that have changed look like someone else entirely. In fact, what she can see of the face and body structure remind her an awful lot of Jon Shep. The man from Opportunity's Knock.
It seems the real Andra had perhaps never really returned from that expedition across the seas. Instead, the Andra she knew had been a follower of Razmus wearing his face and mimicking his body. People did say everyone came back from that trip a little different.
Samir thinks through the situation. Based on what he's seen, the hydaelym seems to work as a conduit for some kind of raw magical energy. Hmm, but is that right? It's only hooked up to one device, both here and at Andra's office, and if it's the same device, it only uses a tiny trickle of magic to generate a map. He thinks back to the map the other hydaelym had created. This spot may very well correlate with one of the glowing dots he'd seen. On a hunch, he pulls out the medallion from Jon Shep.
Holding it near the hydaelym, he watches as colour and light returns to the crystal in the center, and it once again glows blue and red.
Resonance. It looks like magical resonance to Samir. So the magical signature from the hydaelym could be used to locate other sources of similar magic, and could enable the medallion to serve a similar function. This was mostly known, but now Samir understood better. What it really drove home for him though, is that that could not be the main purpose of trapping all this energy here. He examines the hydaelym closer, but it yields few clues. Until he looks closer at Andra's symbols. As he thought, Andra had been carving negations into the ground to funnel that power into himself after he abandoned Razmus in favour of the Watcher, but the negations themselves lent context to the original function.
The hydaelym was a dam.
It was a trap designed to collect magical energies and hold them here specifically so they couldn't go elsewhere. It seems the cultists couldn't use this magic directly, but they could keep it from others. And so when they'd broken the previous one, the magic had been unleashed, free to go where was meant to be.
But what was the source? Magic comes from within people. That's what was taught. Right? So where did this magic come from?
After a catnap during which he appears virtually dead, Joren's eyes open and he gets to his feet quietly with a grimace, looking still injured but far better than before. Just as importantly, his strength appears to have returned and he seems able to shoulder his blade and move around in his heavy armor.
To Ashley's query about healing, he replies seriously, "The fire you were throwing at those shadows was likely saving my life sure as any healing after the fact would have. You are knowing your own magic best, but I am thinking you should save it. I must do a better job protecting myself."
Otherwise, Joren listens to the others as they study the magic of the hydaelym and knows when to keep his mouth shut. Instead, he inspects the room for other points of entry, and if there are none, posts himself as sentry at door the party had used to enter.
Tanis(Ranger1): Shiverquill's Tempest City | Xarian(Fighter2): NioNSwiper's Tyranny of Dragons
Dyson/Eleo(TwilightCleric4): Vos' Beyond the Veil | Soren(ShepherdDruid5): Bartjeebus' Ravenloft | Ophelia(WildMagicSorcerer4): Ashen_Age's Risen from the Sands
Joren(EchoKnightFighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Sabetha(MercyMonk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court | Seri(NatureCleric3/DivineSoulSorcerer1): Bartjeebus' Greyhawk
“So Andra developed a connection with the Watcher when he stole your book, imprisoned you and what, siphoned off some of your magic?” Mal runs his hand through his hair and looks back at Andra’s body “And it drove him mad? Is that the kind of struggle you face in your connection? How do you stand it?” He looks at Vilus with a little sympathy and concern.
Samir’s findings from the runes brings his focus back to the hydaelym. “What are they storing magical energies for? To strengthen Razmus in his return or just deny it to others? Do we dare break it open like we did in Tensmith?”
Vilus uses some down time to calm himself, to sit and meditate, try to connect once more however much s bad idea that might be at this time, once he is finished he acknowledges Malachi's question, but looks away a little embarrassed and only answers with a, "...you've seen what's in my head, and what did it do to you?".
As the conversation progresses to the hydaelym and how it works Vilus stands and walks over, "we shouldn't break it, not this time... They've been syphoning magic from people, the result is that vial I gave you Samir, but could this be another use for it?"
"No... no, I don't think that's it." Samir shakes his head slowly, inching carefully around the edges of the runework and studying what he can see. "This... magic, I don't think it comes from anyone that the cult has abused. All of this power... it can't have come from the populace. It's too much, too strong. It would take... thousands of people drained and killed to create this." With a sigh, he sits back on his heels, shaking his head once more. "All of my life, I have been taught that the source of magic resides within mortal being. That magic comes from people. But given what we experienced before, and what I see before me. Not to mention the runes that we keep running into that defy everything I have ever been taught... I am beginning to think that Marion in her religious belief is closer to the truth than I could have ever imagined. I think..." he hesitates, adjusting his glasses but his eyes never leaving the defaced runes before him, "that we should release the hydaelym and allow the magic to run the course it was meant to. Like a river flowing to the ocean..."
Ashley about jumps away from the body and exclaims, "This is not the man they call Andra! He.. he looks a lot like that strange man that ran the Inn we first went to after the Shield Pass." She then looks at the others, the color draining from her face, "Do you think anyone that has gone West across the sea has ever come back? Or is it some creepy person with a skin suit pretending to be the one that left Talmouth??"
She listens a bit to the others and their discussion of the hydaelym, but her discovery of the body switch has her a bit dizzy.
When Vilus came out of his meditation, there was a sharp change in his underlying anger toward the situation ass whole, as if his frustrations had been unnaturally withdrawn from him and left him with a more logical and calculating view.
He looks over to Ashley as she jumps away from the body and he quickly goes over, his eyes flitting over the new face of the corpse, however destroyed by the eye it might be, he takes in every aspect. Crouching down he searches through the man's robes. "Brood parasitism." He states coldly to Ashley as he searches "It's when animals lay their eggs in other animals nests and have their offspring raised by a proxy parent. Sometimes the invasive animal offspring also devour the eggs or babies of their proxy parent... These people could be anyone now."
(Investigation 18)
Malachi snaps his mouth shut at Vilus’ response, remembering well the experience at the tower under the forest. He gives Vilus an awkward pat on his shoulder and moves away to give him some space.
He looks on as Ashley and the others examine Andra’s body, or what was left of it. “It matches what we found at the docks, sailors with missing faces, and what Stenwick said about getting new faces. Apparently these creatures can also change hosts.” He turns back to Samir and Vilus as they discuss breaking the hydaelym. “I am all for releasing the magic. If they want it stored for a reason, breaking it will disrupt their plans. But can we do it a little safer than we did at Tensmith?”
"I'll do it if you want... It's my fault that this thing was bastardised by whatever Andra had become." Vilus offers bluntly.
Samir glances over as Vilus offers up his relatively apt description of the cultist's behavior, but his attention is quickly back on the set up in front of him. He taps his fingers lightly on the ground in front of him, careful not to touch the actual markings themselves.
"I belive that we can certainly try for something a bit more controlled than before. These... devices... are akin to a dam, or dike. They hold back the spill of magic into the world, somehow. I fear that Razmus has been at this for quite a bit longer than previously thought. The construction of these things alone must have taken a significant amount of time and effort."
He stands, absently brushing off the knees of his pants before swinging his bag into a more comfortable position. "Perhaps if Vilus and I work together, we can accomplish this in a manner that hopefully avoids any collateral damage..."
Looking closely at the face, both the side that still sports Andra's visage, and the side that shows the man's true face, Vilus notices a major difference in the face. Not the structure. That difference is obvious. But in the tension of facial muscles.
Vilus closes his eyes and sees visions of Jon Shep's eerie smile, the creases in his forehead, the wide fanatic eyes that made no crinkles in the skin at the corners. They match the face under Andra's. If you know how to look, the lines and muscles of a man's face can tell you much about their composure. For the man hiding in Andra's skin, and any others masquerading as high-profile Cambrian citizens, to have blended into society, they must have changed their personalities drastically.
The cultists were taking more than just faces and appearances. They were taking personalities. Maybe memories too.
Vilus thinks back to Jon, and back to the bickering he heard during his imprisonment. He realizes a potential flaw with their methods. Jon had been a true fanatic. Dedicated unwaveringly to his cause, practically insane with his devotion. But with Marigold and Andra, pride had started to enter the equation. Pride and ambition and conflict and bitterness... traits that had led Andra down a path of self-destruction.
As Vilus has this realisation he shares the details with the group, rounding the info dump off with an opinion, "I think their personality change could likely be used against them, they're corruptable, greedy, we can use that."
As Samir asks for help Vilus doesn't hesitate in going over, and assisting. Taking the book of symbols from Samir's pouch Vilus begins flipping through it, muttering. "perhaps if we can inscribe a new rune, one that will slowly release the magic in a more controlled way, if this is a dam then we need to carve on a 'tap' or a 'leak', you know?, I'll try to find something that correlated to 'hole' or 'opening' first."
Ashley walks over by Samir and Vilus, figuring there was nothing else to learn from the body. Musing on the change in physicality as well as personality and possibly memories. The whole thing baffles her. This was not what she thought she would run into when she left the Sands. She doesn't regret her decision, quite the opposite. Wondering if these people weren't stopped... would they take over the entire continent, including her home.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" She asks the men as they pour over their runes and books.