He turns and looks at the prince. "I did not intend to have the prince and his guards brought here. To be worthy, they must be successful, smart, hardworking, powerful, wise, and cunning."

Titus let his grin fade to a smirk, hoping it would be enough to distract from the cold sweat that he'd just broken into. So--a celestial. One that was an archangel of the Sun God, worshiped as a minor god in his own right, all by his own power, and now scorned and working for the Demogorgon. It wasn't sounding promising. Of course, it could all be a ruse, but before the fighter could challenge the being...

Quote from KingOrc >>

He violently swings his flail at Titus, knocking his spirit, which looks like a specter, right out of his body. Apparently, though, Titus' body is undamaged. He then pushes the specter back into his body, leaving Titus physically unaffected. (for roleplay purposes, it was 100% painless). "I hope that doesn't bother you. I mean the worthy no harm."

He was too stunned to reply. Had this guy just knocked his spirit out of his body, with only a casual flick of his weapon?! Not good, not good, not good!

There was no point in questioning his power--he'd demonstrated more than enough. They had to regroup, strategize, but most importantly, get out of here and away from this creature--whatever it took. Titus watched the figure carefully as Phait and Cunning also questioned him, until the Vindicator responded:

Quote from KingOrc >>

"I did not intend to have the prince and his guards brought here. To be worthy, they must be successful, smart, hardworking, powerful, wise, and cunning."

"And a perfect 10 in beauty as well, I'm sure,"  came the sarcastic, unbidden thought, which Titus bit his tongue to keep to himself. Glancing toward the prince, part of him was rather curious as to which particular aspect the archangel deemed him to have failed in, but it really didn't matter--that he had been deemed unworthy meant one thing: the prince was a potential target.

"Oh, great Telestial Vindicator," said Titus suddenly, bowing to the celestial. "Clearly we are no match for your might. Our only salvation is in your decree of our worthiness. Please allow this humble fighter to help guide the prince to his end with some measure of dignity, before we seek more of your wisdom." Wiping his brow, he stood tall and then turned and immediately walked directly to the prince.

"You highness," he said, loudly enough for Aedel to hear, "it is out of our hands. You've been deemed unworthy."

"Which means every minute you stay here, you're in trouble," he added in a whisper as he stepped closer.

"Please find a quiet place for you and your men to make peace with your gods in preparation for your sacrifice!"

Another whisper: "Meaning, calmly walk--DON'T run!--towards one of those tunnels and find a way out of here while we distract this guy! Act sorrowful if you can, it may help."

Hoping beyond reason that this worked, the fighter finally slowly walked back, buying as many seconds as he could, and stood before the Vindicator. "So, then? What do you ask of us? Is our worthiness to be tested, perhaps?"

Insight (don't worry, this is the only insanely high skill he has) 26

Edit: Says manipulated rolls because I got the bonus wrong. But original role was 6, so this would be and 18, not 26.

"I hope you don't help him. Although I could just end him now... But I'll give you a chance to change your worth." He turns to the bodyguards and lifts up the silver sphere of his flail. Waving his hand over it, a small sparkly light shines over everyone in the room. For most of them, the light is white, but for the prince and one of the bodyguards, the light is dim and yellow. "Unworthy." He says, pointing to one of the bodyguards, who begins running. The vindicator launches at him with incredible speed, and the guard instinctively swings his scimitar at him, hitting his left arm. Surprisingly, this attack draws blood. Normal, mortal blood. "The purge will start the morning after tomorrow. Warn the people to change their ways. I'll even let you escape." He readies himself to swing at the guard, who quickly grabs at the ball, once again showing the same twinkling lights, but also one new one. A dim, yellow light over the Telestial Vindicator. This time though, the vindicator knocks the life out of his body but does not release the soul, leaving him as a zombie. The vindicator pushes the wall of rocks down and flies out the open entrance.

"That which bleeds can die." mutters Phait. He thinks of the lessons his father gave him as a child. Part and parcel of learning to treat those under you well. Not only because it is right, but because it was how you kept your head. He chuckled. How funny to be remembering such a lesson in the revently deoarted presence of a fallen god.

He looks at the zombified guard, "A brave lad. We shall avenge him. One way or another. If the TelVin could fall before then there must be a way to do it again." His tone gets fierce by the end.

Fuego:

”Okay…so, the world has changed a LOT more than I thought since I was imprisoned—this isn’t normal, is it?” asks Fuego, bemused by the proceedings.  He looks worriedly at the new zombie, wandering what fresh horror is next

The prince slowly enters the wagon, and his bodyguard follows. "Well, we have much to tell the Queen tonight. But at least we know he's mortal." And then his face brightens. "If he's only mortal, what if the power comes from the flail? It was the flail that knocked the soul out of Titus. It was the flail that showed the lights to see if we were worthy. And an angel's power comes from the deity they serve, and he serves none. The Demogorgon must have made that for him. He's nothing without it."

Cunning looks to be deep in thought. Finally he speaks...

"I've been thinking about what I've just seen, tell me if I have missed something. When it used the ball of the flail to 'test' us, our lights were white, except for the 'unworthy'; but..." he pauses.

"When the guard grabbed the ball of the flail the light above the being was dim yellow. So does that mean it is also 'unworthy'? If we could take the flail could we take its soul?"

"Or was that a reflection of the guards 'worth'?"

Thrudor stands quietly watching all of this. When their new "friend" flees the cave Thrudor pipes up "What a bunch of malarkey....I do not serve him or a God of light....but he did clear the way for us. No need to go spelunking." 

The prince smiles at Cunning. "You're a genius, Cunning. But there's just one problem... As we saw with the guard, the unworthy get zombified. He could still fight us like that. Or maybe he zombified him out of rage. But yes, we need to take his flail and kill him with it. The only question now is how. Should we head back to the castle?"

Titus, listening quietly to everyone, nodded. "First, though," he said as he approached the zombified bodyguard, "I think we need to put this poor man out of his misery."

(( We can skip the RP of the fight with the zombie if you like; I'm not exactly expecting him to drop loot when beaten. After finishing it off, he'll head back to the wagon to resume our trip to the castle. ))

"I would not be so quick to kill him" says Phait to Titus. "If your soul could return then there may be a way to return his. So if we can, I'd prefer to try."

To Thrudor he says, "It is strange though. First the trap. Then-" he hesitates and looks at the Nightmares, "These are his servants, no? Might it be wise to not discuss further in their presence?"

The zombie slowly reaches for his scimitar but ends up collapsing instead. He pulls a knife out of his jacket and then begins scraping something into the ground, but stops before he finishes. His body withers away. "Oh my... I'd assume it's not normal to zombify victims. Perhaps this is extra punishment for making him bleed. What was he trying to write..."

The words are difficult to make out. You can roll the investigation and click the box (explains inside, so I don't have to keep responding to people with spoilers):

Investigation: 1+1 = 2 (lol)

"Doesn't look like much to me. Though maybe one you fellas will have better luck at it?"

Investigation 2

"Well, I guess we don't have to end his suffering."

Fuego investigates:  12

Fuego:

”He must have had his mind left, momentarily anyway.  He was writing ‘Avenge me’, but his body gave out before he could finish,” says Fuego, squinting at the markings.

Fuego:

Taking the scimitar with the vindicator’s fresh blood on it, Fuego sheathes it without cleaning off the blood, saying, “The fallen angel’s blood may be the key to killing it—and avenging this unfortunate guard with his own blade seems…poetic somehow.”

"The price is here somewhere, this is where he was taken." "Maybe they're in the cave." "But why would they be there?" "We'll have to ask. Maybe it has something to do with that angel thing that just flew past." "Angels are good though, it must have freed them." "You didn't see it, did you? Right, we split up. He seemed more like a hitman, swooped down and-" "There they are!" A spare wagon and 8 horsemen ride into view. The horsemen rush into the cave, some of them in tears. One of them bows to the prince and states in a fearful voice, "It was a-a cel-celestial." "Stop stuttering. What happened? Speak up!" "A horrible, horrible celestial, your highness. He killed him..." "What? Who?" "The king is dead, your highness." "He was unworthy?" The prince mutters. "What has the creature told you? He entered the castle and demanded to see the king. He made these lights, I think he cast a Locate Creature spell. We tried to stop him." "You saw the Telestial Vindicator." One of the men looks around. "Did you not have 2 guards?" "One was slain. Peter Gyno." "Peter... He was a good man." "Perhaps his targets aren't those who are unworthy, but rather those who the Demogorgon wants to slay. Those he keeps are worthy in his eyes. The Telestial Vindicator is a tool for them, and in the end, the Demogorgon hates celestials. Maybe that's why he had a yellow light."

Phait's jaw lowers. "The king is dead; long live the king." he says in a quiet tone, still shocked by the news before his mind gets back to the situation at hand. "The guards still addressed you as highness. What kind of man is your brother the crown prince now king?"

[[ I assume the Nightmares have left if the guards aren't reacting to them? ]]