The Summit Road Campaign Thread

Caelius's dark lightning subsides and he continues the look at Taran before kneeling beside the oni and checking to see if it's alive.

Medicine: 9 Synaptic static: 3

Int save: 3

Caelius finds that Tariiq is indeed still breathing shallowly, but will likely expire shortly without interference.

Caelius looks to the group and signs,

Taran sees Caelius's hands, and has a momentary shock, his hand twitching down to his dagger, "I-I, he's st-still alive?" Taran looks at the rest of the group, knowing that more than likely it would be him who healed the Oni, "I-If w-w-we s-save him, wh-what good would it do?" he asked, "W-W-We can't h-hold s-s-someone with m-magic as powerful as h-his, he c-could slip any b-bonds, b-bypass any cell. H-He c-c-could t-tell us where S-Shen is, b-but h-h-he won't, h-he w-w-will try and c-complete his m-mission. An-And, h-h-he is a m-murderer. A k-killer." Taran looks away from for a moment, "K-Killers are executed f-f-for their cr-crimes. I-It w-would j-just d-delay th-the inevitable."

It takes a moment after Taran is finished healing Vishal before Kaori notices, quickly moving to the Kalashtar's side and dropping her sword beside him as she pulls him into a tight hug.

"You are ... Okay. They will ... hurt you ... no more."

She remains quiet at Taran's inquiries, though Vishal can feel her wince slightly.

“You were very brave out there. But our work isn’t done. We still need to find the real Shen.” He then bites his lips before making the difficult decision, “Finish him. He’s too dangerous to keep around. And then we search this place top to bottom for Shen.”

Akuma glances to the others for a moment before unhesitatingly drawing one of her daggers from her hip, twirling it slightly in her hand while navigating towards Tariiq on the ground, staring down at him with annoyed disgust "Vishal's right. He's useless to us. I will have no remorse finishing him off if that's what we're deciding." Akuma kneels down next to Tariiq's body silently, moving to curiously remove his mask with the edge of her dagger by cutting the tie. She carefully lifts the mask up and tosses it to the side with the edge of her blade, tilting his chin upwards with her dagger carefully as she looks to the other for their decision.

Tashana, who seems to be waking up and recovering rather more slowly than Bhimaani and Soravai, rubs her forehead, wincing. "I think I know where Shen is," she says distantly, eyes unfocused. "If you kill Tariiq, there's some kind of fail safe in place. Nothing to harm us, but his spirit will...stop fighting me, you dying bastard, I could crush your mental defenses while drugged...return to Sulatesh." Her voice is significantly tenser and more strained than usual. "But we would have killed him soon regardless, and he's...oh no, you don't, I learned that trick when I was ten...been giving reports nightly anyway." She winces and opens her eyes. "Finish him."

Bhimaani watches the oni's body grimly. "We need to find Shen, now. Tashana, do you have everything you need from the prisoner?" At Tashana's tired nod, Bhimaani nods seriously. "Finish him quickly. Soravai, go inform the security team that the threat has been neutralized."

Soravai vanishes quickly through the door.

Without his mask, Tariiq looks like a white-skinned oni (duh). A pale, straight scar runs across the right side of his face, starting at his hairline and beside his eye all the way to the bottom of his ear. His eyes are closed, his nose is broken, and his breathing is getting shallower by the second.

Caelius looks at the body,

 Caelius makes an exceptionally rude gesture that Taran does not need to translate for everyone in the room to understand. He gestures to Akuma to seal the deal.

Akuma gives a brief nod, letting the squeamish look away as she tilts her head, studying Tariiq for a split second before intertwining her fingers in the Oni's red hair, using it to tilt his head back. With one quick and fluid motion, Akuma slits Tariiq's neck with her dagger skillfully, attempting to keep as much of his blood off of her as possible. As the Oni bleeds into oblivion, Akuma lets his head drop to the floor again like a piece of trash, moving to wipe the blood off of her dagger and hands with a spare cloth before re-sheathing her dagger on her hip. Silently she moves to hover near the rest of the group with her arms crossed, expressionless but obviously fully unbothered by what she just did.

Kaori doesn't watch as Akuma kills Tariiq, keeping her head over Vishal's shoulder in her forced hug. When the sound of Tariiq's head hitting the floor meets her ears, she begins to shake slightly, but otherwise doesn't react.

Taran had watched Akuma slit the Oni's throat, shaking in place. Once the deed was done, it was like a chord snapped inside him, loosing him into movement.

"I-I-I'm s-s-sorry, s-s-suspected him, b-but, that d-d-doesn't m-matter," Taran darts across the room, nervous energy causing him to start righting chairs and putting the room back in order, "I br-broke under pr-pressure, p-panicked, s-s-sorry, I tr-tried to th-think of s-something new, b-but l-low on s-supplies, low on p-potions, l-low on pellets, n-nothing w-was working."

"Shen," Taran turns to Tashana, "Y-You s-s-said you kn-know where Es-Esteemed Shen is, w-we should re-retrieve him, ar-area is likely tr-trapped, k-kill sw-switches," He twitches back to moving furniture, body vibrating with emotions, "m-maybe I sh-should g-go alone, if there is an ex-explosion it would only k-kill me and Esteemed Sh-Shen, ev-everyone else s-s-safe, b-but Esteemed V-Vishal and M-Mister C-Caelius would dis-disapprove, p-put ev-everyone in d-danger, n-not j-just me, n-need to..."

Taran froze, taking a deep breath, "N-Need to c-calm down. F-Focus. W-Worry later. St-Stop p-panicking."

Tashana rises slowly, still looking tired. "Bhimaani," she says simply, making eye contact with the monk for a moment, who nods and turns, walking straight through the wall to the right. Once Bhimaani is gone, Tashana turns her attention to Taran. "He tricked us all, including several people who knew Shen personally, and for a long period of time. He's caught and dead now. Don't break your back for a burden you've put down." She places a hand on the dead Tariiq's forehead, and a soft, green glow spreads from her hand across his body, fading after a moment. "Bhimaani will meet us at Shen's location, her earth walking allows her to move faster, and she doesn't have to provide explanations. Tariiq placed Shen in an extradimensional space in his room, she is searching for the trigger. I do not believe it was trapped, as that would draw undue attention to it should the room ever be searched. We need to search the body."

"Taran." Vishal says sternly hoping to keep him distracted before the human goes too far down the rabbit hole, "Help me go through his body." Moving, a little sore, Vishal's eyes glow a light blue as he gives himself a little guidance and with Taran's help begins to search the body. 

Investigation: 20

"R-R-Right, his r-r-room," Taran mumbles moving towards the body, "Sh-Should h-have  th-thought of that, b-b-body was a red h-herring."

He shakes his head at Vishal's command "R-Right, s-sorry Es- I m-mean, Vishal. F-f-focus, n-need to f-f-focus on the pr-present, s-search the b-b-body, m-make sure h-h-he wasn't c-c-carrying orders or s-s-something." Taran bends down to start stripping everything off of the Oni, organizing it in piles for his commander to go through

(Assisting with Investigation)

Taran and Vishal work together to search Tariiq's body and find little of note. His glaive, obviously, as well as his mask. Vishal also finds, in an inner pocket of the oni's tunic, a small faded grey gem with a faint web of cracks starbursting through it. Around Tariiq's neck is a simple beaded necklace with the symbol of the Path of Inspiration on it, wrought in crystal. Around his right ring finger is a simple stone band with a small piece of crysteel set in it.

As the pair searches the body, Akuma glances around the room at the others before sighing softly to herself, drifting towards Caelius. As she steps beside him, she places a hand on his shoulder, her shadows dissipating into his skin, sealing a small portion of his wounds (have 5 more hp). After a brief pause, she lets her hand drop and studies him, speaking with a hint of amusement. "That was quite the gesture... No questions about what you meant. Regardless... He's gotten what he deserved."

Vishal looks at the equipment and says, "Give me just a moment, let's see if anything here is magical." He then recasts Detect Magic, the spell having ended when he went down. 

Vishal finds that the ring radiates illusion magic, and the amulet transmutation magic.

Caelius smiles faintly before frowning at the body,