"I...I don't know," the noble stutters. "At first, I thought they intended to ransom me. But they made no demands. They just...they just delighted in tormenting me! They are sick...twisted...I had no idea this place even existed."

Blood still oozes from the man's many wounds. "Please...I just want to get out of here."

As the prisoner talks, Kazzira's face remains impassive, her stoicism in stark contrast to the man's loquaciousness. 

     Kaster is still using the Healer's Kit of bind and bandage the freed prisoner's wounds, assuming they hold still enough for him to do so.  He also listens to what they are saying and tries to gauge if he is telling the whole story of not - He could have been just a play thing but Kaster's first thought is these people would likely grab those who would go unnoticed if all they wanted was a toy... (Insight 6) but Kaster finds his sympathies with the wounded man and finds it hard to be too distrusting.

Threnody turns to Kazzira, squeezing the shaft of her spear, evidently impatient for answers. "What is your name and who is in charge of this cult? What did you want with this nobleman? How many of there are you, and what are your goals?"

She rattles off the questions all at once in the interest of expediency, but then looms over the defeated prisoner, her eyes flaring with darkness. 

"Remember, this is a game of push-and-pull. If you are forthcoming, I keep my spear where it is. If you hold something back, I break you down until I pull it out of you."

"Speaking of names-..." Liatris finally chimed in. "I know you wish to depart as swiftly as possible, and to certain degrees we would be obliged once Kaster there has finished your treatment. But, if you would indulge us just a bit more, I would ask for your name, sir? I would in turn give my own, but in mixed company as this, I beg thee accept my humblest apologies on that front for the moment." She further elaborates while taking care not to let too much of her attention slip from Kazzira. 

As far as Kaster can tell, the man is telling the truth, and his fear and anguish seem genuine. 

"My name is Klim Jhasso," says the nobleman. "Can I go now? If you could but show me the way, I can make my way out." 

Kazzira's only response to Threnody's questions is a stony expression. (Make an intimidation check!)

"I said speak!" Threnody hisses, her voice preternaturally booming in Kazzira's ears, loud enough to rattle her skull. 

Keeping to her word, the paladin smashes the butt of her spear in Kazzira's face with a firm, precise strike - hard enough to break a nose, to bloody her lips, to punish the Banite woman. Yet the blow is delivered in a measured, controlled fashion - not violent enough to take a life.

"You try my patience."

Intimidation: 16 (with advantage from Thaumaturgy
Attack with Spear. To Hit: 25 (with advantage because Kazzira is restrained), Damage: 8

Hearing the name, Liatris eyes became unfocused as she searched her memories for any recollection of the name. She even further stimulated her mind by quaffing some mysterious liquid dug up from her satchel. (History w/ Guidance: 15) However, she's shaken from her thoughts feeling the Banite woman jerk in her grip from the punishment, even if only ever slightly so, but manages to reaffirm her hold in time. But after that, all her focus is now on the interrogation, leaving it up to the rest to handle/screen the nobleman's questions.

     "Whoa!  Hey!  Wow...  Yeah, no thank you..." Kaster says in response to Threnody brutalizing the captive.  Kaster was about healing wounds, not causing them, and had no stomach for watching torture.  Quickly turning away from the brutality, Kaster points towards the door and tells this Klin Jhasso "Through there then keep on until you come to an intersection and then you want...  Well, I think it would be a right turn?  If you find a bloody shrine you went the wrong way entirely and you should turn around..."

     Not seeing the brutalizing of the defenseless didn't make it better, but it at least made it easier to ignore.  Kaster wasn't sure what kind of person that made him but he didn't want to be here in the first place.

"And watch your step on the way out." Samosh gives the prisoner one of the torches.

He sees the expression on Kaster's face and nods and shrugs in empathy. Violence in certain circumstances can be unappealing. 

"Maybe just leave her there, she's not going to tell us anything we won't find out if we finish exploring this place." He waves towards the exit, "Let's keep moving?"

Threnody enhances her already commanding voice with magic and then strikes Kazzira with the butt of her spear. Blood begins to pour from the woman's now broken nose, and she sways on her feet. There is a flash of pain across her face, but then she schools it back into a hard glare.

Liatris remembers that there is a minor noble house called Jhasso in Baldur's Gate, but it has fallen on hard times. Despite Jhasso's earlier promise of a reward, Liatris doesn't believe the family would actually be able to pay such a thing. If the kidnappers did attempt to ransom Jhasso, it's likely they would've met with failure.

Meanwhile, Kaster and Samosh instruct the tortured nobleman on how to leave the dungeon, equipping him with a torch. Jhasso doesn't need to be told twice. He scurries away with barely a backward glance. Kazzira sneers at his retreating form.

"Pathetic dog," she says finally. "You should have let us kill him. He's a waste of air."

Spitting out some blood, the prisoner turns her hard eyes on Threnody. "Perhaps I will tell you what you want to know," she muses. "Seeing as how there is no chance you will make it out of this place alive, not if you continue. You should leave while you still have the chance."

In a haughty tone completely at odds with her current predicament as a prisoner, Kazzira continues, "I am called Kazzira. We serve the Dead Three. Our numbers are great and ever growing. Our goals? Nothing more than the veneration of our gods. We pay homage to the Dead Three with every drop of blood we spill. That is our purpose."

As she talks, the zealousness in her eyes grows, and she speaks with a fervor bordering on mania. "The worthless wretch you spared could've died with glorious purpose, his life's blood sustenance for our dark lord. Instead, he will return to his miserable, pointless existence and while away his hours with drink and gambling until he's gutted in an alley for his last coin. What a waste. As for our leaders...that I cannot tell you for I honestly do not know who is pulling the strings. That was never my concern. All I need to know is how sharp is my blade and who is the next poor fool I will use it on."

At this point Bees can't help but stay silent. He walks over to the cuffed woman with a disgusted look on his bearded face. "Sharp blade you say? We'll see about that." Still puffing on his cigar, Bees blows the smoke in Kazzira's face as he looks on her person for the blade she mentioned. "Perhaps I'll use it to spill the blood of you and your ilk instead. You can be the next poor fool yourself."

"She is a fool, and useless to boot." 

Convinced that any further interrogation will prove fruitless, Threnody turns to Kaster, her face full of contempt for Kazzira. "Do you still believe all gods are part of the same whole? That these maleficent deities that inspire tyranny, undeath and murder are no different to the gods of justice, life and salvation?" 

The dark-cloaked paladin raises her spear, and begins dispatching Kazzira in precisely the same fashion that Yignath was torturing Klin Jhasso before the party arrived. "I piss on you and your Dead Three." She says coldly, delivering vengeance for Jhasso and innumerable others before him. 

Threnody skewers Kazzira over and over again, severing veins and arteries, piercing every organ in her body until the life goes out of the woman's eyes.

     Kaster in return gives Threnody a sad little frown and a sigh of disappointment.  "Oh dear, I am afraid that you misremember my words and have leapt to some radical conclusions about me and my beliefs.  I would be happy to sit down with you and discuss these matters, perhaps Sunday evenings for the next handful of months or so would be enough to help you grasp them?  But you will need to try to listen better and to pay attention..."  Kaster would love to expand the flock but he's afraid Threnody will be a difficult student.  Very difficult indeed.

     Once Kaster realizes that Threnody is torturing the poor captive for no other apparent reason than fun(?) the Halfling once more readies their crossbow and does what they can to expedite the captive's passing, trying to grant them at least a quick death.

Samosh pats Kaster on the shoulder. He has some understanding where the Halfling is coming from. An enemy usually deserves a quick death.

Violence is a part of the world, it isn't something that can be avoided, it is how the world is. But there is a difference between necessary violence and shedding blood for no purpose.

The thaumaturgy gradually ebbs away from Threnody's demeanour. "I hope very much that I'm mistaken." She says in a gentler tenor, unruffled by Kaster's patronising tone and yet unconvinced by the blasphemy he has promulgated. 

"If you are troubled by what I have done here, know that I only deliver an eye for an eye. No more, and no less. A punishment meted out commensurate to the wickedness wrought upon Jhasso and the others before him." The words are spoken in a matter of fact voice, as her gaze drifts to where they first happened upon the torture being done to the abducted noble. "By my god and my oath, I settle the scales."

She steps away to the south, in the direction that Bees investigated earlier.