Razmus doesn't break eye contact with Ashley when she holds the necklace up. He turns his head a bit to the side and spits out some blood from when he smashed his chin trying to escape up the ladder. "Fine, you want a better expllanation? The neckllace llets me controll the rats. The rats llet me controll the peoplle. Peoplle llike you llot who brave the mountain pass hoping for opportunity. I offer them the celllar and then take them in their sleep. Humans are too compllex and rebelllious to be directlly controllled by the neckllace, but not rats. And by carefullly, dellicatelly, removing the organs of a large Enzian rat and fitting its upper body over a person's head llike a gllove, I can use their simplle brain to puppet the body whille circumnavigating the compllexities of the human mind."
As Ashley begins to show signs of discomfort at his graphic explanation, his eerie smile begins to return. He continues:
"Of course the first few attempts were faillures, as with most important innovations. The rats, simplle though they may be, were unablle to overcome the dissonance of being in their new bodies. They cllawed themsellves apart with the humans' hands in a bllind panic. But that didn't stop me for llong, oh no. I started picklling the human llimbs to make them llook more rodent-llike to the rats, and pumping them fulll of a muscle stimullant to get them up to a strength that is roughlly proportionall for their new size. Those tweaks allone were enough to make the rats and the humans compatiblle."
Razmus looks at the dead rat-man on the floor. "But I never killled any of my guests. Oh no. This one? Those five back in the other room? That was alll you. Is that good enough expllanation for you?"
Ashley's mind is racing at this revelation and soo many questions bombard her at once. She tries her best to stay calm and collected, even when that eerie smile returns. She moves on him a bit and makes sure her hot skin is touching his. She has known from previous contact, that those that aren't fire genasis get very uncomfortable fast with the agitation of the hot skin.
"Well, that is a much better explanation. Though you never said why you did these experiments. What are you controlling them for? What is their purpose to you?"
If he is continuing to answer her frankly and he either asks her to not touch him or is in obvious discomfort, she will move. If he is not responding as he was, she will continue to keep contact until he does.
And once he responds to those questions, she asks, "What about the passage behind the bookcase? What is it's purpose and where does it lead to?"
Razmus doesn’t respond to the first question right away, and for a long time he and Ashley sit there in a stalemate. He doesn’t break eye contact, nor does his expression change, but Ashley sees him growing sweaty. Finally he says curtly, “For llabour.”
When she asks her next question, he is again slow to respond, though his face grows red. His will may be strong, but his body seems weak. “Would you llike to find out? Would you llike to see?” When Ashley doesn’t respond right away, he presses on. “There are more, you know. More ‘guests’ through that passage there who haven’t finished undergoing the procedure yet, whose minds do not yet bellong to my rats…”
It’s at this point that Vilus opens his eyes. At first all he sees are the runes, lingering upon his retinas, but then the world creeps back in and he is able to bear witness to Ashley’s interrogation. His tongue feels numb.
Ashley shudders thinking that they almost went that way to get away from the rats. "Are the ones in the passage the other two ears that were on this necklace?"
Once he answers that question, Ashley presses on..
"What kind of labor do you need help with all the way out here? Why wouldn't you just hire it done? I mean at the prices you were talking, you outta be swimming in gold"
“Oh, they don’t go on that neckllace untill they are ready to serve. The ones I speak of… they are most llikelly just crying in their cellls, wondering how long untill their turn comes. They need to be thoroughllly broken for the procedure to take, you see.
What do I keep them for? That’s hardly your business. Besides, I grow tired of answering these questions. Arrest me me or maim me or whatever you feel you must do.”
With that, Razmus finally looks away pointedly and keeps his mouth shut.
"you're asking the wrong questions, No offense"Vilus pipes up now awake and in his Goliath form. He continues whispering to Ashley as he gets up, pockets his book and approaches "I don't know what I saw from my information gathering, nothing good, something wrong, something strange with the magic that this one uses, that's all I can grasp really... But the reasons behind his capturing and killing people don't matter, terrible people given power will do terrible things, the question to ask is, where did it come from?" With that Vilus motions to Ashley to move herself from Rasmus' back "get yourself comfortable girl, If you need to rest the last little bit you can, but It'll be time for all of your friends to rise soon, then we can have some fun with the Rat boy here." Vilus pats Rasmus' head with one large stone like hand, If Ashley concedes, then Vilus will retake his position sitting on Rasmus until the end of the shift. then he will wake everyone.
Ashley shrugs and gets up, heading back over to her original cot. “Wrong questions? I got out of him what he was doing here and the grotesque project he has going on, as well as the ones we really need to rescue back in the passage. Where his magic came from? I don’t really understand that question. Magic is magic, who cares where it came from? We obtain it in our own way and figure it out as we go.”She doesn’t wait for any response and relaxes back on the cot. After her nightmare and what she just learned, sleep was the furthest thing from her mind. She was actually worried if she would ever sleep again.
"No, Archimedes, it's not breakfast time yet... Samir stumbles upwards out of his dream, vaguely swiping a hand through the air as if brushing away the cat left behind ath is parents' home in Madurst. Blinking slowly, the room slowly swims into a blurred sort of presence, reminding him that he is indeed locked in a cellar room with a group of people and the possibility of further assault by rat monsters of some kind. Fumbling his glasses free from his pocket, he adjusts them onto his nose and sits up, looking around. He begins to open his mouth to say something to Ashley and Silas, only to stop as he notices the bound form of their erstwhile captor.
"Oh... well. Um, I see some things happened in the night..."
"something indeed.. wake the others, we need to sort this out and get moving"Silas grumbles from the side of the room where he sits perched upon Rasmus' bound body.
Joren gradually wakes up, still sore and stiff, though not quite as exhausted as he had been. What had happened? It was getting hard to separate nightmares from reality in his head. He takes a moment to focus and look around, convincing himself that this is not just another dream version of alternate reality. He attempts a smile when Ashley rouses him.
"Dobré ráno. I am hoping we are all in one piece."
He notes that Razmus is in the room with them. He hopes that some of the others know how best to deal with the treacherous innkeeper who had set the rat-men on them. In his mind, he cannot shake one recurring thought.
Ashley rolls her eyes at Silas, maybe he should have slept as well, she thinks. She then gets up and proceeds to wake everyone else and then fill them in with what she learned from the ratman creator.
"I feel we have some humans to hopefully still be able to save within the passageway back there."
The bookcase sits there still, illuminated as everything else in the room in the dim light from Samir’s contraption. All the candles have long since burnt out by this point. The mechanism on the bookshelf should be simple enough to unjam and reopen. Over in the other room, the trapdoor lies open, still venting the last few wisps of sleeping gas. Though the ladder has been obliterated, the ceiling isn’t so high as to be utterly inaccessible with a bit of stacking. The faint sound of bird song from outside marks it as earl morning, likely before the sun has even risen over the Shield Mountains.
Vilus lights a torch and sets it down wedged between two slats of a vacant cot, Illuminating the room to full visual range and giving everyone that bright morning visual shock. He then drags Rasmus roughly from the cot he is tied up on and brings him to the center of the room onto his back for everyone to see, Ripping Rasmus' shirt down the front, Vilus exposes the circular glyphic tattoo and takes his blood soaked crossbow bolt ( the one previously used as a pen ) and digs it just under one of the man's now exposed ribs, through gritted teeth he snarls to Rasmus, "where did this come from? who tattooed this onto you?"
The wince Razmus gives as the bolt tip presses against his pale skin does little to diminish the defiance and malice in his eyes as he snarls back. In the improved light with the tattoo fully exposed, Vilus can see that the skin on his chest surrounding the tattoo is even more pale than the rest of his body, and riddled spidery blue veins. "Razmus!" He hisses seemingly in response to both questions.
He takes in a breath, cut short by the bolt threatening his diaphragm, and looks around the room quickly. His eyes drift over the walls, ceiling, and bookcase, landing on each person in turn. Then he locks eyes with Vilus again, a determination shining within. "If you disllike us and our tattoo so much, why don't you bring that bollt a llittle higher and take care of two rats with one boot?"
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Looking quizzical at this response Vilus checks the bartender's neck, primarily checking for more staples and such like, If he finds nothing of note he uses the bolt to cut the man's cheek "Rasmus? where did he find these runes?, do you even understand them?" (intimidation? 18)
Vilus’s hot minotaur breath puffs out over Razmus’s face as the bolt tip slices a clean line in his cheek. A thin stream of blood trails along his cheekbone to drip on the floor. But Vilus sees a fanaticism in his eyes. He looks fearless. Ready to endure whatever pain he must, even prepared to die. But he is not yet out of cards to play, it seems. Without breaking eye contact, he rolls his head slightly toward Ashley. “You know, with every moment you waste here with me, those peoplle in my llab change further and further. Perhaps you’lll find your answers there as welll”
Samir looks on in growing horror as the shape-changing man inflicted small but visible wounds on their captive. It was... barbaric... Samir was on his feet without realiing it, having taken a half-step forward towards Silas and Rasmus.
"I know this man has done atrocious things, but if you continue on this path you will be no better than him..."
Silas sneers, not looking up form Rasmus but apparently listening enough to Samir to answer. "continue on this path? Samir, this path was forged by people like me.. and you do not know the extent of things he has done, which is what we are going to find out!" He jabs the bolt threateningly toward Rasmus' ribs and addresses the bartender once more. "The runes and glyphs, how do you know them!?".
Joren sits up, sensing the tension in the air. Feeling as if the evil, bleeding fanatic before them may even be reveling in the tension. Feeding off it. He wishes he understood what is going on. It seemed the nightmares were just reflections some horrific truth that Joren has not yet fathomed and might never.
He is a simple, results-oriented person without too many grand concepts of honor. But torture is a bridge too far for him. Of course, that hasn't actually happened yet. Much. He closes his eyes briefly.
He does not see how they can leave Razmus alive to betray or backstab them one way or the other. The party would be compelled to follow the hidden passageway. How could they not? How could they leave captives to be transformed as the gruesome, pitiful rat-men had been? And how could they leave Razmus at their backs to likely break free and continue with this evil?
Ashamed I am to be admitting, but a clean death for this monster may be the best thing. One sweep of my greatsword. Person who is passing the sentence should be swinging the blade. Though it is hard to be describing killing a captive as clean in any way. But what other choice? And the bodies - the bodies we should be burning. All of them.
He keeps his counsel for the moment. Watches and listens for what the others do and say.
Razmus doesn't break eye contact with Ashley when she holds the necklace up. He turns his head a bit to the side and spits out some blood from when he smashed his chin trying to escape up the ladder. "Fine, you want a better expllanation? The neckllace llets me controll the rats. The rats llet me controll the peoplle. Peoplle llike you llot who brave the mountain pass hoping for opportunity. I offer them the celllar and then take them in their sleep. Humans are too compllex and rebelllious to be directlly controllled by the neckllace, but not rats. And by carefullly, dellicatelly, removing the organs of a large Enzian rat and fitting its upper body over a person's head llike a gllove, I can use their simplle brain to puppet the body whille circumnavigating the compllexities of the human mind."
As Ashley begins to show signs of discomfort at his graphic explanation, his eerie smile begins to return. He continues:
"Of course the first few attempts were faillures, as with most important innovations. The rats, simplle though they may be, were unablle to overcome the dissonance of being in their new bodies. They cllawed themsellves apart with the humans' hands in a bllind panic. But that didn't stop me for llong, oh no. I started picklling the human llimbs to make them llook more rodent-llike to the rats, and pumping them fulll of a muscle stimullant to get them up to a strength that is roughlly proportionall for their new size. Those tweaks allone were enough to make the rats and the humans compatiblle."
Razmus looks at the dead rat-man on the floor. "But I never killled any of my guests. Oh no. This one? Those five back in the other room? That was alll you. Is that good enough expllanation for you?"
Ashley's mind is racing at this revelation and soo many questions bombard her at once. She tries her best to stay calm and collected, even when that eerie smile returns. She moves on him a bit and makes sure her hot skin is touching his. She has known from previous contact, that those that aren't fire genasis get very uncomfortable fast with the agitation of the hot skin.
"Well, that is a much better explanation. Though you never said why you did these experiments. What are you controlling them for? What is their purpose to you?"
If he is continuing to answer her frankly and he either asks her to not touch him or is in obvious discomfort, she will move. If he is not responding as he was, she will continue to keep contact until he does.
And once he responds to those questions, she asks, "What about the passage behind the bookcase? What is it's purpose and where does it lead to?"
Razmus doesn’t respond to the first question right away, and for a long time he and Ashley sit there in a stalemate. He doesn’t break eye contact, nor does his expression change, but Ashley sees him growing sweaty. Finally he says curtly, “For llabour.”
When she asks her next question, he is again slow to respond, though his face grows red. His will may be strong, but his body seems weak. “Would you llike to find out? Would you llike to see?” When Ashley doesn’t respond right away, he presses on. “There are more, you know. More ‘guests’ through that passage there who haven’t finished undergoing the procedure yet, whose minds do not yet bellong to my rats…”
It’s at this point that Vilus opens his eyes. At first all he sees are the runes, lingering upon his retinas, but then the world creeps back in and he is able to bear witness to Ashley’s interrogation. His tongue feels numb.
Ashley shudders thinking that they almost went that way to get away from the rats. "Are the ones in the passage the other two ears that were on this necklace?"
Once he answers that question, Ashley presses on..
"What kind of labor do you need help with all the way out here? Why wouldn't you just hire it done? I mean at the prices you were talking, you outta be swimming in gold"
“Oh, they don’t go on that neckllace untill they are ready to serve. The ones I speak of… they are most llikelly just crying in their cellls, wondering how long untill their turn comes. They need to be thoroughllly broken for the procedure to take, you see.
What do I keep them for? That’s hardly your business. Besides, I grow tired of answering these questions. Arrest me me or maim me or whatever you feel you must do.”
With that, Razmus finally looks away pointedly and keeps his mouth shut.
"you're asking the wrong questions, No offense" Vilus pipes up now awake and in his Goliath form. He continues whispering to Ashley as he gets up, pockets his book and approaches "I don't know what I saw from my information gathering, nothing good, something wrong, something strange with the magic that this one uses, that's all I can grasp really... But the reasons behind his capturing and killing people don't matter, terrible people given power will do terrible things, the question to ask is, where did it come from?" With that Vilus motions to Ashley to move herself from Rasmus' back "get yourself comfortable girl, If you need to rest the last little bit you can, but It'll be time for all of your friends to rise soon, then we can have some fun with the Rat boy here." Vilus pats Rasmus' head with one large stone like hand, If Ashley concedes, then Vilus will retake his position sitting on Rasmus until the end of the shift. then he will wake everyone.
Ashley shrugs and gets up, heading back over to her original cot. “Wrong questions? I got out of him what he was doing here and the grotesque project he has going on, as well as the ones we really need to rescue back in the passage. Where his magic came from? I don’t really understand that question. Magic is magic, who cares where it came from? We obtain it in our own way and figure it out as we go.” She doesn’t wait for any response and relaxes back on the cot. After her nightmare and what she just learned, sleep was the furthest thing from her mind. She was actually worried if she would ever sleep again.
"No, Archimedes, it's not breakfast time yet... Samir stumbles upwards out of his dream, vaguely swiping a hand through the air as if brushing away the cat left behind ath is parents' home in Madurst. Blinking slowly, the room slowly swims into a blurred sort of presence, reminding him that he is indeed locked in a cellar room with a group of people and the possibility of further assault by rat monsters of some kind. Fumbling his glasses free from his pocket, he adjusts them onto his nose and sits up, looking around. He begins to open his mouth to say something to Ashley and Silas, only to stop as he notices the bound form of their erstwhile captor.
"Oh... well. Um, I see some things happened in the night..."
"something indeed.. wake the others, we need to sort this out and get moving" Silas grumbles from the side of the room where he sits perched upon Rasmus' bound body.
Joren gradually wakes up, still sore and stiff, though not quite as exhausted as he had been. What had happened? It was getting hard to separate nightmares from reality in his head. He takes a moment to focus and look around, convincing himself that this is not just another dream version of alternate reality. He attempts a smile when Ashley rouses him.
"Dobré ráno. I am hoping we are all in one piece."
He notes that Razmus is in the room with them. He hopes that some of the others know how best to deal with the treacherous innkeeper who had set the rat-men on them. In his mind, he cannot shake one recurring thought.
I should have killed him.
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
Ashley rolls her eyes at Silas, maybe he should have slept as well, she thinks. She then gets up and proceeds to wake everyone else and then fill them in with what she learned from the ratman creator.
"I feel we have some humans to hopefully still be able to save within the passageway back there."
The bookcase sits there still, illuminated as everything else in the room in the dim light from Samir’s contraption. All the candles have long since burnt out by this point. The mechanism on the bookshelf should be simple enough to unjam and reopen. Over in the other room, the trapdoor lies open, still venting the last few wisps of sleeping gas. Though the ladder has been obliterated, the ceiling isn’t so high as to be utterly inaccessible with a bit of stacking. The faint sound of bird song from outside marks it as earl morning, likely before the sun has even risen over the Shield Mountains.
Vilus lights a torch and sets it down wedged between two slats of a vacant cot, Illuminating the room to full visual range and giving everyone that bright morning visual shock. He then drags Rasmus roughly from the cot he is tied up on and brings him to the center of the room onto his back for everyone to see, Ripping Rasmus' shirt down the front, Vilus exposes the circular glyphic tattoo and takes his blood soaked crossbow bolt ( the one previously used as a pen ) and digs it just under one of the man's now exposed ribs, through gritted teeth he snarls to Rasmus, "where did this come from? who tattooed this onto you?"
The wince Razmus gives as the bolt tip presses against his pale skin does little to diminish the defiance and malice in his eyes as he snarls back. In the improved light with the tattoo fully exposed, Vilus can see that the skin on his chest surrounding the tattoo is even more pale than the rest of his body, and riddled spidery blue veins. "Razmus!" He hisses seemingly in response to both questions.
He takes in a breath, cut short by the bolt threatening his diaphragm, and looks around the room quickly. His eyes drift over the walls, ceiling, and bookcase, landing on each person in turn. Then he locks eyes with Vilus again, a determination shining within. "If you disllike us and our tattoo so much, why don't you bring that bollt a llittle higher and take care of two rats with one boot?"
Looking quizzical at this response Vilus checks the bartender's neck, primarily checking for more staples and such like, If he finds nothing of note he uses the bolt to cut the man's cheek "Rasmus? where did he find these runes?, do you even understand them?" (intimidation? 18)
Vilus’s hot minotaur breath puffs out over Razmus’s face as the bolt tip slices a clean line in his cheek. A thin stream of blood trails along his cheekbone to drip on the floor. But Vilus sees a fanaticism in his eyes. He looks fearless. Ready to endure whatever pain he must, even prepared to die. But he is not yet out of cards to play, it seems. Without breaking eye contact, he rolls his head slightly toward Ashley. “You know, with every moment you waste here with me, those peoplle in my llab change further and further. Perhaps you’lll find your answers there as welll”
"Silas, stop!"
Samir looks on in growing horror as the shape-changing man inflicted small but visible wounds on their captive. It was... barbaric... Samir was on his feet without realiing it, having taken a half-step forward towards Silas and Rasmus.
"I know this man has done atrocious things, but if you continue on this path you will be no better than him..."
Silas sneers, not looking up form Rasmus but apparently listening enough to Samir to answer. "continue on this path? Samir, this path was forged by people like me.. and you do not know the extent of things he has done, which is what we are going to find out!" He jabs the bolt threateningly toward Rasmus' ribs and addresses the bartender once more. "The runes and glyphs, how do you know them!?".
Joren sits up, sensing the tension in the air. Feeling as if the evil, bleeding fanatic before them may even be reveling in the tension. Feeding off it. He wishes he understood what is going on. It seemed the nightmares were just reflections some horrific truth that Joren has not yet fathomed and might never.
He is a simple, results-oriented person without too many grand concepts of honor. But torture is a bridge too far for him. Of course, that hasn't actually happened yet. Much. He closes his eyes briefly.
He does not see how they can leave Razmus alive to betray or backstab them one way or the other. The party would be compelled to follow the hidden passageway. How could they not? How could they leave captives to be transformed as the gruesome, pitiful rat-men had been? And how could they leave Razmus at their backs to likely break free and continue with this evil?
Ashamed I am to be admitting, but a clean death for this monster may be the best thing. One sweep of my greatsword. Person who is passing the sentence should be swinging the blade. Though it is hard to be describing killing a captive as clean in any way. But what other choice? And the bodies - the bodies we should be burning. All of them.
He keeps his counsel for the moment. Watches and listens for what the others do and say.
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