Khessa joins Master Akkron as soon as she realizes that he is examining something magical... given the precedents, she is ready to try to do something, in case Azash, suffering from delusions of protagonism, tries to interfere for the umpteenth time and put himself at the center of attention. Plus, she's curious what the object is... 'Will it be another sliver?' she thinks 'Or will it be something different this time?'
Akkron finishes cursing all three idiots (so, using his three 5th-level spell slots), before taking the item that Mal offers to him.
"Interesting," he mutters, taking it over to a table so he can examine it a bit more thoroughly...
Ever cautious, he starts by casting identify as a ritual and, once he determines that it won't explode in his face, he stands a few feet back and carefully unwraps the item by use of mage hand
As you unwrap the object with your mage's hand, the cloth revels a small figure, worn with age. "Don't touch it with your hands!" Brother Maynard warns as he joins you at the table. "Where did they get this?" Maynard wonders loudly. He looks at the group. "This is an idol of Azash! I have seen sketches of them, and read their descriptions. They used to be found in the temples that worshiped Azash. We thought they were all destroyed, that none of them exist anymore. Fascinating!"
Khessa joins Master Akkron as soon as she realizes that he is examining something magical... given the precedents, she is ready to try to do something, in case Azash, suffering from delusions of protagonism, tries to interfere for the umpteenth time and put himself at the center of attention. Plus, she's curious what the object is... 'Will it be another sliver?' she thinks 'Or will it be something different this time?'
The idol appears to be carved from a similar black stone, but not the same as the slivers. It is a male human in shape, wearing something that looks like a toga. As you look at it, it almost appears due to your sensitivity to magic, there is an energy around it, though more oily than electrical around the shape. You can sense a foreboding, a darkness that does deep into the idol.
"You sure had good reasons to destroy idols like this one, Maynard..." Khessa reflects, while taking notes in her spellbook with the spider-web decorations on the cover "By doing so, you limited Azash's power and influence. But I'm wondering if couldn't be more useful, at the moment, to keep it in our lead container to show it to our divine allies... Who knows? It might help us understand Azash's ways and means better - and thus help us defeat him".
Mal thinks for a moment, "I am not great at magic but I do understand it a little bit, but can;t we also scry on Azash using this idol, or whomever its owner was? The idiot god seems to be able to scry on us at his leisure and now maybe we can learn something about it. Not sure how difficult or dangerous that will be but it might be worth it."
"Perhaps we could, Mal" Khessa concedes "but it is not guaranteed that there is such a... symmetry... this object could also, figuratively, be like a window far from us and close to him... do you know how it is; who is close to the window can easily see who is outside... but who is far from the window sees little or nothing of what is inside".
"Anyway, it's something I would prefere to leave to our allied deities try..." admits the blonde arcane warrior "because I feel there could be a strong element of danger. Today I have already come into contact with Azash twice... enough to understand that, every time he meets you, he tries to catch you, to taint you, to hit you... I got away from him, all right, but I'd hate, one time, him to be luckier than usual... or me to be unluckier than usual".
"What I advise," concludes the tall adventuress "is to keep the idol safe, for now, and moving on to question the professor".
"You sure had good reasons to destroy idols like this one, Maynard..." Khessa reflects, while taking notes in her spellbook with the spider-web decorations on the cover "By doing so, you limited Azash's power and influence. But I'm wondering if couldn't be more useful, at the moment, to keep it in our lead container to show it to our divine allies... Who knows? It might help us understand Azash's ways and means better - and thus help us defeat him".
Brother Maynard nods in agreement. "As it has been some time since one of these have even been seen, it may be worth studying. While I am sure it is evil, it is a fantastic find!"
"Perhaps we could, Mal" Khessa concedes "but it is not guaranteed that there is such a... symmetry... this object could also, figuratively, be like a window far from us and close to him... do you know how it is; who is close to the window can easily see who is outside... but who is far from the window sees little or nothing of what is inside".
"Anyway, it's something I would prefere to leave to our allied deities try..." admits the blonde arcane warrior "because I feel there could be a strong element of danger. Today I have already come into contact with Azash twice... enough to understand that, every time he meets you, he tries to catch you, to taint you, to hit you... I got away from him, all right, but I'd hate, one time, him to be luckier than usual... or me to be unluckier than usual".
"What I advise," concludes the tall adventuress "is to keep the idol safe, for now, and moving on to question the professor".
Sparhawk nods. "I agree, we need to find out how much damage he has done here, and get as much info as possible. Let's head back to the inn."
Brother Maynard makes sure the idol is secured, erases the ritual circles, and gathers all of the candles and supplies. Once all is gathered, Sparhawk leads the group back to the inn. "I'll tell the inn keeper know about the tower, then I will meet you below," Sparhawk comments as he heads to the inside of the inn, Brother Maynard leads you through the door to head back down to the basement.
You enter the room with the holding cells, and one of the inn workers is waiting. He bows to Brother Maynard.
"The prisoner is awake," the worker states, bows and departs. Brother Maynard places the bags and everything that was taken from the tower on a table. You are soon joined by Sparhawk, with a man in a hooded deep blue cloak, his head shaven, and another worker with the keys to the cell. "Are we ready to speak to our guest?"
"Certainly!" Khessa smiles "After all, a professor's job is to teach, isn't it? Let's allow him to teach us how he has served Azash to date and with what help".
Tyekanik follows the others into the room with the professor, now prisoner, and leans against the wall, arms crossed, glaring down at the man, as the others ask the questions.
Akkron is more than happy to let someone a bit more charismatic than himself do the questioning.
"Let's start with putting him in a zone of truth before we get to work extracting the truth out of them," the lich says. "I can go ahead and curse him as well before we remove his gag to minimize the risk that he casts any spells."
Sparhawk has one of the inn workers bring a chair and set it in front of the room. The table with the items on it is set next to it. "Go ahead and cast your spell around the chair, it should work." Waiting for Akkron to caste the spell, then Sparhawk nods and the keeper with the keys unlocks the door and with a creek, it opens. The two go in and drag the semi-awake professor to the chair and roughly plop him down on it. They back off and stand to the side.
The professor blinks his eyes for several moments, adjusting to the light of the room. Then he looks at you all, and in a haughty voice demands, "What is the meaning of this, how dare you take me from my class and bring me here. I demand to know who you are!" Then he stops, and his face changes, both from the impact of the spell, and like he realizes something is missing.
"What, what have you done? I can't feel him, I am separated and alone, I have no power. What have you done to me?"
Akkron looks at the professor and can't help but chuckle. It's a rather creepy sound coming from an animated skeleton.
"I'm afraid that we took that little magic sliver out of you," he says, laying a hand on the professor's shoulder. "I didn't work so hard and sacrifice so much to obtain immortality just to let a failed god and his idiot followers destroy the world where I happen to reside. Hmmm... interesting... we're already getting valuable insights. So without that sliver you are rendered powerless? Are all of you dependent on such a trinket?"
(OOC: Also... Akkron can't cast zone of truth, I kind of assumed that Sir Sprhawk would do it since he's a Paladin. Akkron was going to curse the professor using the option that basically makes victims semi-catatonic for a while to prevent him from casting spells... though he would feel no need to cast bestow curse at a higher level since he'll be right there to maintain concentration until we're ready to toss the professor back into his anti-magic cell)
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(OOC: Or maybe some of our holy fellow party members feel like casting the zone of truth spell on the professor... Come on guys! We need you!)
Khessa is amused and pleased by Master Akkron's words. The professor should at this point realize how futile and stupid he has been, to bind his fate by double thread with an entity from whose help it is so easy to be separated... If he has no reasons that push him to blind loyalty, he should be willing to change sides.
For good measure, the blonde arcane warrior adds: "Reply, man - and know that we have our ways of knowing whether or not you're lying to us. Considering how easy it was to discover, capture, and neutralize you, a quick mind like yours should immediately understand what the best course of action is. A fanatic would perhaps choose torture and martyrdom... and die, after great pain, still separated from the 'lord' he was trying to serve. But a smart person... a person like you... I think that you understand when it is time to abandon loyalty to someone who cannot help you at all".
The professor does attempt to try something magical, you observe his mouth moving to an incantation, but sense nothing. His voice rises, you can now here the incantation in the Zemoch language. Then his eyes grow wide, then he slumps into the chair, and tears even begin to fall down his cheeks.
"Now that was interesting," Brother Maynard states, then begins to write in his notebook. "That ladies and gentlemen was an example of an ancient Zemoch prayer to Azash, very similar what we Pandions would have to do to get magic granted to us by our patron Goddess. As I suspected, it failed utterly." He looked at the weeping professor and shook his head, then speaks directly to the professor. "Lucky for you, we severed your connection or that incantation would have snapped back and I am sure, would incinerated you as you sit."
The professor almost slumps deeper in the chair, still weeping. He finally takes a deep breath then looks at the party. "You don't understand do you?" he whimpers top the group. "Just kill me now and save me from my fate. I gave away my soul, when I pledged myself to Azash, to be his disciple. Now that I am severed, I will die a painful, slow death."
The man in the dark blue cloak, lowers his hood and walks up to the professor and lays his hand on his head. The dejected professor doesn't even move, he is just wallowing in his self-pity. The man has a surprised look on his face.
"He is telling the truth," he states as he pulls his hand away. "I saw no soul in him, and his mind is open to anything, so if you have any questions, he will answer them truthfully, I left that in his mind. I am not required to probe, but what I saw in his mind, it is a rotten one." He steped away then turned around and faced the professor. "He followed the old practices and rituals of Azash, orgies followed by blood sacrifices, all in the name of Azash." The man spat on the ground in front of the professor. "Death is too good for him, if we're lucky our gods will prevent his death, and grant a long life of misery. Ask what ever you need, I am returning to my study." He turns and leaves the basesment.
Khessa frantically takes notes in her spellbook, probably reporting many more details than those that Maynard is writing, who has the advantage of a greater basic knowledge and therefore does not write down things that are obvious to him. Having discovered how the professor handed over his soul (apparently, literally) to Azash and with what ceremonies, she shakes her head, sighing...
'I will never understand, how can one fall so low...' the blonde arcane warrior thinks 'How can one accept becoming a monster? To abandon everything that matters and that gives true pleasure... Love... The smile of those who are dear to us... The serenity of innocence... For what? Always for something worse... which doesn't satisfy and which is never enough'.
As already in front of the monk, also in front of the professor the piety of the tall adventuress takes a holiday, ready to return when elements at least remotely worthy of receiving it present themselves. She first has the professor's network of contacts revealed to her (OOC: I'm not asking the questions in detail because if he answers us anyway and doesn't lie to us, perhaps there may be no reason to do so... Let's assume that he reveals these details to us, so that we can have other Azash faithful arrested or otherwise made harmless, ok? Or, @DM, if you prefer, I'll ask him the questions one by one...).
"And the statuette?" she then asks, once the network of contacts has been noted - ready to be neutralized as soon as possible "We have found an evil statuette that belongs to you... An idol of Azash, carved from a similar black stone, but not the same as the slivers. Tell us what you know about this idol. What powers it has. How it is used. How it is produced. What limitations it has. Everything you know, in short, about it".
"Why turn an orgy into a sacrifice?" Tyekanik asks, "What a waste of good talent..."
He then says, about the professor, "Perhaps death is a kindness, but one I'd be happy to grant. If he helps us against his former master, we can release him from this life."
"Why turn an orgy into a sacrifice?" Tyekanik asks, "What a waste of good talent..."
Khessa smiles intimately, agreeing with Tyekanik's opinion... but she tries to concentrate on the professor's answers. If he was given the idol of Azash, he must know, if not everything, at least something... at least how to use it... and this will already be a starting point - since she had underlined the importance of study it.
Akkron nods in agreement with Tyekanik... he really doesn't see much reason to keep this bastard alive once they have what they need from him.
"I'm sure that there are a fair number of people in this room who would be more than happy to put you out of your misery if you tell us everything we need to know," the lich says. "If not... there are far worse things than death that can happen..."
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Unhappy that the market got rid of individual purchases for one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters?
Khessa joins Master Akkron as soon as she realizes that he is examining something magical... given the precedents, she is ready to try to do something, in case Azash, suffering from delusions of protagonism, tries to interfere for the umpteenth time and put himself at the center of attention. Plus, she's curious what the object is... 'Will it be another sliver?' she thinks 'Or will it be something different this time?'
As you unwrap the object with your mage's hand, the cloth revels a small figure, worn with age. "Don't touch it with your hands!" Brother Maynard warns as he joins you at the table. "Where did they get this?" Maynard wonders loudly. He looks at the group. "This is an idol of Azash! I have seen sketches of them, and read their descriptions. They used to be found in the temples that worshiped Azash. We thought they were all destroyed, that none of them exist anymore. Fascinating!"
The idol appears to be carved from a similar black stone, but not the same as the slivers. It is a male human in shape, wearing something that looks like a toga. As you look at it, it almost appears due to your sensitivity to magic, there is an energy around it, though more oily than electrical around the shape. You can sense a foreboding, a darkness that does deep into the idol.
"You sure had good reasons to destroy idols like this one, Maynard..." Khessa reflects, while taking notes in her spellbook with the spider-web decorations on the cover "By doing so, you limited Azash's power and influence. But I'm wondering if couldn't be more useful, at the moment, to keep it in our lead container to show it to our divine allies... Who knows? It might help us understand Azash's ways and means better - and thus help us defeat him".
Mal thinks for a moment, "I am not great at magic but I do understand it a little bit, but can;t we also scry on Azash using this idol, or whomever its owner was? The idiot god seems to be able to scry on us at his leisure and now maybe we can learn something about it. Not sure how difficult or dangerous that will be but it might be worth it."
"Perhaps we could, Mal" Khessa concedes "but it is not guaranteed that there is such a... symmetry... this object could also, figuratively, be like a window far from us and close to him... do you know how it is; who is close to the window can easily see who is outside... but who is far from the window sees little or nothing of what is inside".
"Anyway, it's something I would prefere to leave to our allied deities try..." admits the blonde arcane warrior "because I feel there could be a strong element of danger. Today I have already come into contact with Azash twice... enough to understand that, every time he meets you, he tries to catch you, to taint you, to hit you... I got away from him, all right, but I'd hate, one time, him to be luckier than usual... or me to be unluckier than usual".
"What I advise," concludes the tall adventuress "is to keep the idol safe, for now, and moving on to question the professor".
Brother Maynard nods in agreement. "As it has been some time since one of these have even been seen, it may be worth studying. While I am sure it is evil, it is a fantastic find!"
Sparhawk nods. "I agree, we need to find out how much damage he has done here, and get as much info as possible. Let's head back to the inn."
Brother Maynard makes sure the idol is secured, erases the ritual circles, and gathers all of the candles and supplies. Once all is gathered, Sparhawk leads the group back to the inn. "I'll tell the inn keeper know about the tower, then I will meet you below," Sparhawk comments as he heads to the inside of the inn, Brother Maynard leads you through the door to head back down to the basement.
You enter the room with the holding cells, and one of the inn workers is waiting. He bows to Brother Maynard.
"The prisoner is awake," the worker states, bows and departs. Brother Maynard places the bags and everything that was taken from the tower on a table. You are soon joined by Sparhawk, with a man in a hooded deep blue cloak, his head shaven, and another worker with the keys to the cell. "Are we ready to speak to our guest?"
"Certainly!" Khessa smiles "After all, a professor's job is to teach, isn't it? Let's allow him to teach us how he has served Azash to date and with what help".
Tyekanik follows the others into the room with the professor, now prisoner, and leans against the wall, arms crossed, glaring down at the man, as the others ask the questions.
PbP 🎲: Tyekanik; Moneo Noree; Korba Muris; & occasional DM:
Akkron is more than happy to let someone a bit more charismatic than himself do the questioning.
"Let's start with putting him in a zone of truth before we get to work extracting the truth out of them," the lich says. "I can go ahead and curse him as well before we remove his gag to minimize the risk that he casts any spells."
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Sparhawk has one of the inn workers bring a chair and set it in front of the room. The table with the items on it is set next to it. "Go ahead and cast your spell around the chair, it should work." Waiting for Akkron to caste the spell, then Sparhawk nods and the keeper with the keys unlocks the door and with a creek, it opens. The two go in and drag the semi-awake professor to the chair and roughly plop him down on it. They back off and stand to the side.
The professor blinks his eyes for several moments, adjusting to the light of the room. Then he looks at you all, and in a haughty voice demands, "What is the meaning of this, how dare you take me from my class and bring me here. I demand to know who you are!" Then he stops, and his face changes, both from the impact of the spell, and like he realizes something is missing.
"What, what have you done? I can't feel him, I am separated and alone, I have no power. What have you done to me?"
Akkron looks at the professor and can't help but chuckle. It's a rather creepy sound coming from an animated skeleton.
"I'm afraid that we took that little magic sliver out of you," he says, laying a hand on the professor's shoulder. "I didn't work so hard and sacrifice so much to obtain immortality just to let a failed god and his idiot followers destroy the world where I happen to reside. Hmmm... interesting... we're already getting valuable insights. So without that sliver you are rendered powerless? Are all of you dependent on such a trinket?"
(OOC: Also... Akkron can't cast zone of truth, I kind of assumed that Sir Sprhawk would do it since he's a Paladin. Akkron was going to curse the professor using the option that basically makes victims semi-catatonic for a while to prevent him from casting spells... though he would feel no need to cast bestow curse at a higher level since he'll be right there to maintain concentration until we're ready to toss the professor back into his anti-magic cell)
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(OOC: Or maybe some of our holy fellow party members feel like casting the zone of truth spell on the professor... Come on guys! We need you!)
Khessa is amused and pleased by Master Akkron's words. The professor should at this point realize how futile and stupid he has been, to bind his fate by double thread with an entity from whose help it is so easy to be separated... If he has no reasons that push him to blind loyalty, he should be willing to change sides.
For good measure, the blonde arcane warrior adds: "Reply, man - and know that we have our ways of knowing whether or not you're lying to us. Considering how easy it was to discover, capture, and neutralize you, a quick mind like yours should immediately understand what the best course of action is. A fanatic would perhaps choose torture and martyrdom... and die, after great pain, still separated from the 'lord' he was trying to serve. But a smart person... a person like you... I think that you understand when it is time to abandon loyalty to someone who cannot help you at all".
The professor does attempt to try something magical, you observe his mouth moving to an incantation, but sense nothing. His voice rises, you can now here the incantation in the Zemoch language. Then his eyes grow wide, then he slumps into the chair, and tears even begin to fall down his cheeks.
"Now that was interesting," Brother Maynard states, then begins to write in his notebook. "That ladies and gentlemen was an example of an ancient Zemoch prayer to Azash, very similar what we Pandions would have to do to get magic granted to us by our patron Goddess. As I suspected, it failed utterly." He looked at the weeping professor and shook his head, then speaks directly to the professor. "Lucky for you, we severed your connection or that incantation would have snapped back and I am sure, would incinerated you as you sit."
The professor almost slumps deeper in the chair, still weeping. He finally takes a deep breath then looks at the party. "You don't understand do you?" he whimpers top the group. "Just kill me now and save me from my fate. I gave away my soul, when I pledged myself to Azash, to be his disciple. Now that I am severed, I will die a painful, slow death."
The man in the dark blue cloak, lowers his hood and walks up to the professor and lays his hand on his head. The dejected professor doesn't even move, he is just wallowing in his self-pity. The man has a surprised look on his face.
"He is telling the truth," he states as he pulls his hand away. "I saw no soul in him, and his mind is open to anything, so if you have any questions, he will answer them truthfully, I left that in his mind. I am not required to probe, but what I saw in his mind, it is a rotten one." He steped away then turned around and faced the professor. "He followed the old practices and rituals of Azash, orgies followed by blood sacrifices, all in the name of Azash." The man spat on the ground in front of the professor. "Death is too good for him, if we're lucky our gods will prevent his death, and grant a long life of misery. Ask what ever you need, I am returning to my study." He turns and leaves the basesment.
Khessa frantically takes notes in her spellbook, probably reporting many more details than those that Maynard is writing, who has the advantage of a greater basic knowledge and therefore does not write down things that are obvious to him. Having discovered how the professor handed over his soul (apparently, literally) to Azash and with what ceremonies, she shakes her head, sighing...
'I will never understand, how can one fall so low...' the blonde arcane warrior thinks 'How can one accept becoming a monster? To abandon everything that matters and that gives true pleasure... Love... The smile of those who are dear to us... The serenity of innocence... For what? Always for something worse... which doesn't satisfy and which is never enough'.
As already in front of the monk, also in front of the professor the piety of the tall adventuress takes a holiday, ready to return when elements at least remotely worthy of receiving it present themselves. She first has the professor's network of contacts revealed to her (OOC: I'm not asking the questions in detail because if he answers us anyway and doesn't lie to us, perhaps there may be no reason to do so... Let's assume that he reveals these details to us, so that we can have other Azash faithful arrested or otherwise made harmless, ok? Or, @DM, if you prefer, I'll ask him the questions one by one...).
"And the statuette?" she then asks, once the network of contacts has been noted - ready to be neutralized as soon as possible "We have found an evil statuette that belongs to you... An idol of Azash, carved from a similar black stone, but not the same as the slivers. Tell us what you know about this idol. What powers it has. How it is used. How it is produced. What limitations it has. Everything you know, in short, about it".
"Why turn an orgy into a sacrifice?" Tyekanik asks, "What a waste of good talent..."
He then says, about the professor, "Perhaps death is a kindness, but one I'd be happy to grant. If he helps us against his former master, we can release him from this life."
PbP 🎲: Tyekanik; Moneo Noree; Korba Muris; & occasional DM:
Khessa smiles intimately, agreeing with Tyekanik's opinion... but she tries to concentrate on the professor's answers. If he was given the idol of Azash, he must know, if not everything, at least something... at least how to use it... and this will already be a starting point - since she had underlined the importance of study it.
Akkron nods in agreement with Tyekanik... he really doesn't see much reason to keep this bastard alive once they have what they need from him.
"I'm sure that there are a fair number of people in this room who would be more than happy to put you out of your misery if you tell us everything we need to know," the lich says. "If not... there are far worse things than death that can happen..."
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