Neya makes sure the rope is secure, then jumps down the ravine and rolls to prevent injury (Slow Fall). She then turns to catch Biscuit as he jumps down (help) to soften his landing.
"Sounds like it went as well as expected... Did they hurt anyone?"
As the last cultist drops, Utar throws back the hood of his robes and loosens the knot keeping it cinched around his waist. As keen as he is to investigate the altar and the book, he knows it is best to see to the children being held captive..
Making sure the white hand of Torm can be seen, he tries to spy Elisande's face in the crowd before approaching the group, and taking a knee in front of them.
"We've come from the village, we've come to make sure you're safe. Is anyone hurt?"
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
OOC: Making a short post as I’m out and about right now but don’t want to slow game.
Graxx walks over and picks up the book the cultist had and puts it in his backpack for safekeeping.
Graxx surveys the seen very happy with how things turned out. CRAP has survived once again. Till his eyes scan and he sees the chest rising of the Drow that Doozey knocked unconscious.
“Drow filth...” says Graxx as he approaches the Drow. He retrieves his manacles and places the drows arms behind its back before applying the manacles.
Graxx will then conduct a search removing everything he finds on the Drow and tossing it to the side as he knows a sneaky Drow could use anything as a weapon.
Doozey makes a few more suggestions to Neya before heading back inside. The monk swiftly jumps into the ravine and catches a leaping Biscuit as well. She then follows the halfling. The rope is left behind, still attached to a tree standing over the ravine.
Inside, Doozey begins to fashion crude bandages while Graxx makes use of his manacles for a second time today. The barbarian relieves the unconscious drow from his leather armor and scimitar and also makes sure to put away the tome the Cult of the Dragon was clearly after.
Meanwhile, Utar preoccupies himself with the captives. Answering the cleric's question, an older man reveals a horrible gash on his thigh, and two kids complain about bruises and scrapes. Most villagers are shaking with fear. Looking carefully, Utar does not see Elisande among them.
With the short fight now over, the group takes a more careful gander at their surroundings. There is much to gather in addition to the crude serpentine artwork on the walls or the rust-colored stains laying about. Dust is everywhere, including in the air following the fight. A clear rectangular spot can be seen dust-free on the altar, obviously marking the place where the tome was located for many years. The altar also holds many other items, including parchment, coins, and the shining glint of at least one other metal object. A pile of books lie in the corner.
(OOC: A refresher on the original chamber description can be found here).
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Just as soon as Doozey's done treating wounds, the stoutling is immediately on the move to look over the prisoners. Seeing no Elisande in sight after leaves him visibly disheartened, and were it not for Biscuit's nervous whimpering, lost in thought for longer than just a few moments. Refocused, Doozey uses the same time spent brushing Biscuit's fur and whispering soothing words to further bury budding anger and sentiments of defeat. "Are you all getting a stronger feeling that there might've been more to there previous attacks than 'recruitment'?" He tries to quietly ask other members of CRAP, though wouldn't try censor himself by much if unable to get that chance.
Rather, he turned upon the fearful villagers, and looked at them with a renewed suspicion. "Oi! I don't s'pose any of you lot happen to know much about this place, would'ja?" He asked politely, yet coolly while moving on to check any unchecked fallen cultist bodies for useful goodies.
Utar backs up from the old man and lets Doozey work bandaging his wound.
"They purposefully came here for that book, and made specific mention of it being the only thing they needed. We need to know why..."
Utar find his gaze drawn to the altar and begins to move towards it. His hand finds his amulet, casting guidance. Examining the altar, Utar tries to determine who it is dedicated to, and more importantly, what it might be for.
Graxx looks down at the manacled Drow with disgust. He has the urge to slide off all the Drow's limbs but he closed his eyes and forces himself to remember the teachings of Tempus about torture.
Graxx instead opts to use his foot to roll the Drow facedown and places his foot on the back of the unconscious Drows neck so that any verbal spellcasting like he saw years ago could be choked out.
"Doozey!" Graxx calls out.
"What do you want with this pile of filth? The beast will do nothing but lie to you and is better off dead. Let me remove one more from this plane. I'll be quick which is far more than they would grant you or I. I've seen these monsters at work." Graxx snarls.
Graxx slaps his backpack.
"I got the book they were after so they'll probably be comin' to look for it. I'm guessin' it's a wizard book so if y'all want to take a peak I'll give to one of you. I just can't take my foot off this devil." says Graxx as he readjusts making sure his foot is not suffocating the Drow.
Doozey frowns back Graxx, not really caring much for the snarling. But with a "hmph", he briefly pauses his search to say, "They're not beast. At least such a creature's antics are a wee more understandable. But semantics aside, I'd still wish to try and converse with him for a moment or two. For short of saying nothing at all, a good lie has a grain of truth to it... Or so 'n old friend once told me..." Though Doozey initial trails off at the end with a far off look, he shakes himself out of it mercifully quick.
"Ei-either way. After a quick try at a Q and A, do feel free to send him on his way to the otherside. My figure'n is we can at least learn whether they'll linger around for the book, giving us at least a chance to rescue the others."
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
When you realize you're doing too much: Signature.
She approaches the huddling villagers and tries to reassure them, "Don't be afraid, we just came from successfully defending the village. Were the any others that came in with the three that came before us?"
After wondering about the cultists' real intent, Doozey engages the villagers in the cave. The oldest girl in the lot, who can't be any older than nine or ten years old, looks at the halfling for a moment and says: "No master dwarf, we've no idea. We'ren't even allowed in de dark wood normally... De creatures gobble ye!” Another one of the older kids, a boy of perhaps fifteen, follows up with "Dis 'ere mussin' be ye creature of de woods lair!" After hearing that, the smaller children's eyes go wide, filled with fear. The few adults look just as uncomfortable, but respond to Neya's question letting her know that those were the only cultist that found them here in the cave.
(@Ori and/or @Drache: Give me a survival check as part of your next post).
Turning to the other cultists' bodies, Doozey finds nothing of worth except basic armor, damaged cult robes, and ill-maintained curved swords. Utar then offers a possibility for answers by suggesting they look at the book the cultists were after. Graxx offers to let others read it by holding his pack in the air but remains otherwise reluctant to move away from CRAP's newest prisoner. One of the kids, a seven year old boy with missing teeth, tries to be helpful by pointing to other books piled in one of the corners.
(@Grx: Give me a medicine check as part of your next post).
While the party considers their options, Utar notices some of the wall artwork is also reproduced on the sides of the altar, crudely. The cleric shows preference for examining these markings first as opposed to the items on top of the altar. He notices what looks like a sacrifice of wealth to a multi-headed sea serpent. Other than this clue, Utar comes up with little that reminds him of the usual worship practices of the more popular deities in the land.
Doozey raises one finger, and looked for a moment ready to argue against being called a dwarf; only to give up wih a sigh of defeat. "Better a dwarf than some unbelievable myth, I s'pose." He half mutters to himself. After taking a moment to process their words, and probably even notice the adults look they way they did, his eyes again narrow in suspicion towards the latter. Rather than confront them, he straps one of the curved swords to his hip, silently hopeful it would do in an absolute pinch, and then say, "I thank you, wee ones. And here. Share dis among yourselves fer a bit. I know I'd 'ave a mighty thirst after so much running around." He offers them his waterskin just long enough to sate their thirst.
Though in the meantime, he heads back over to the drow and begin pondering how best to wake him. As far as further hints at reading or collecting the other books, he just absentmindedly gestures to Neya and Utar.
Struggling to understand the importance of the altar or why it would draw the cultists to this island, Utar decides to at least look over the pile of books.
Methodically lifting each title, he scans the cover creating two piles. Ones he can read, and ones he cannot.
"So, this is their home...? It does have an atmosphere that they might find more comfortable." Neya takes a glance around the cave. "There are other invaders at the landing, as soon as we find out what they're here for, we'll go and save the folk they have there."
She then goes to Graxx and takes the book from his hand so he could keep an eye on the drow, and opens it up, ready to activate her helm of comprehending languages should she need it.
Following the child's suggestion, Utar leaves the altar for now and moves over to the pile of books in the corner. Mostly all of them are moist, rotted, and useless. A couple of them have salvageable pages, but they are faded and written in a language that Utar does not understand.
As the more recent arrival, Neya takes a moment to look around the cave, taking it all in. With the words of the adult villagers in her mind regarding how only a few cultists found this place, the monk notices that the dust around here only seems to have been disturbed near the prisoners and corpses. This suggests that these areas were stepped on only recently, while corners which no one approached remain as dusty as they probably have for many years. Neya's gaze meets Doozey's as she looks around and the halfling instinctively knows what conclusion the monk has arrived at. His own quick look about confirms that the people in here are likely the first visitors in a very long time. The kids are probably being honest when they said they were barely allowed into the woods, let alone this cave.
The ranger then thanks the kids, collects a scimitar, and passes around some fresh water. Deciding to ask some questions of the party's prisoner next, Doozey approaches the fallen cultist. Any pondering on how to momentarily wake the drow is suddenly interrupted by Graxx's rough treatment of the elf. Whether the prisoner is going to naturally wake up in one minute or one tenday is something that clearly baffles the barbarian at this point in time, but his not-so-gentle toe pokes are not helping, that's certain.
Letting the pair deal with the prisoner, Neya only approaches them to collect the prized tome. The tome is old and bound in some sort of leather strip. Flipping through the pages, she realizes that she does not need the help of her helm to understand the script in this particular book. It is written in the tongue of the Dragons, a language she happens to be fluent in due to previous rigorous training. In a few minutes worth of skimming, Neya finds some interesting passages detailing the final resting place of an ancient Draconic Artifact. It is something referred to as a Dragon Mask, and it is named as if it were one among many. This mask, revealed in the tome to be colored green, can be found somewhere within the Kryptgarden Forest, wherever that may be...
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
While still a little suspicious of the adults, having not forgotten their looks of discomfort, the paranoid stoutling eventually fully pushed aside all other lines of thought to focus moreso on the drow. Whether he was aggravated by Graxx continued rough treatment or approved of it, his face never changes from one of cool neutrality. He does calmly assess whether the Drow's wound might've accidentally re-opened; and if so, he tightens up the makeshift bandages prior to asking Graxx to splash some water from the skin into his face.
"Rise and shine, sleeping beauty. You have big day ahead of ya! If'n ya do us the solid of confirming a few things about you and your ilk, we'd be happy to let you go on your way." Doozey would say cheerily if his suggested method awakens the Drow.
If not however, and with no further ideas, he'll sigh, and then nod to Graxx, giving him the okay to end him. "As much as I'd like to have me answers sooner than later, we cannot afford to linger here for more than a minute or so more at this point." He then turn back and glare down at the drow. "Just wish he could confirm if there was some actual devilry involved in this whole business. For Ms. Villy's sake."
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
When you realize you're doing too much: Signature.
"This... I don't know what to make of this." Neya says, flipping pagess back and forth. "This reveals the location of something called a 'Dragon Mask.' Certainly something these cultists would be interested in... While this mask is elsewhere, this information is here. Why?"
She then goes to where Utar is and starts looking through the books by Utar, hoping there may be some answers in the pile.
Graxx stops with his foot prodding and takes the waterskin from Doozey and dribble the water on the Drows face. While doing this Graxx will have place his hand around the Drows throat with no pressure.
"I'm watching it for any funny business, Doozey." says Graxx.
Doozey and Graxx work in tandem to wake up the drow. A splash of water and a small dose of indifference seem to do the trick. The cultist wakes up groggy, with a lost expression on his face, and a hand around his throat. He tries to speak a little in response to the halfling's offer to let him go, but it is clear that even this simple act hurts him. He looks fragile, as if he may fall into unconsciousness again at any point. Any questions the group may have may as well be asked quickly.
(OOC: Just to be clear, the text in the spoiler box below does not actually happen).
Quote for @Orileo:
If not however, and with no further ideas, he'll sigh, and then nod to Graxx, giving him the okay to end him. "As much as I'd like to have me answers sooner than later, we cannot afford to linger here for more than a minute or so more at this point." He then turn back and glare down at the drow. "Just wish he could confirm if there was some actual devilry involved in this whole business. For Ms. Villy's sake."
In a different corner, Utar shows Neya the few pages he was able to salvage from the rotted pile of books. This time, the monk recognizes the need to activate her Helm of Comprehending Languages. Once that is done, the broken passages reveal some sparse details about a type of exchange. What one side gave up is not clear, but what was received is partially revealed in the faded, rotting pages: power and protection. Another salvaged page seems to mention an actual, physical contract to be "kept in the place of worship."
(@Neya: Give me an insight check with advantage, please).
Neya makes sure the rope is secure, then jumps down the ravine and rolls to prevent injury (Slow Fall). She then turns to catch Biscuit as he jumps down (help) to soften his landing.
"Sounds like it went as well as expected... Did they hurt anyone?"
She walks inside the cave.
Extended Signature
As the last cultist drops, Utar throws back the hood of his robes and loosens the knot keeping it cinched around his waist. As keen as he is to investigate the altar and the book, he knows it is best to see to the children being held captive..
Making sure the white hand of Torm can be seen, he tries to spy Elisande's face in the crowd before approaching the group, and taking a knee in front of them.
"We've come from the village, we've come to make sure you're safe. Is anyone hurt?"
OOC: Making a short post as I’m out and about right now but don’t want to slow game.
Graxx walks over and picks up the book the cultist had and puts it in his backpack for safekeeping.
Graxx surveys the seen very happy with how things turned out. CRAP has survived once again. Till his eyes scan and he sees the chest rising of the Drow that Doozey knocked unconscious.
“Drow filth...” says Graxx as he approaches the Drow. He retrieves his manacles and places the drows arms behind its back before applying the manacles.
Graxx will then conduct a search removing everything he finds on the Drow and tossing it to the side as he knows a sneaky Drow could use anything as a weapon.
Investigation: 7
Doozey makes a few more suggestions to Neya before heading back inside. The monk swiftly jumps into the ravine and catches a leaping Biscuit as well. She then follows the halfling. The rope is left behind, still attached to a tree standing over the ravine.
Inside, Doozey begins to fashion crude bandages while Graxx makes use of his manacles for a second time today. The barbarian relieves the unconscious drow from his leather armor and scimitar and also makes sure to put away the tome the Cult of the Dragon was clearly after.
Meanwhile, Utar preoccupies himself with the captives. Answering the cleric's question, an older man reveals a horrible gash on his thigh, and two kids complain about bruises and scrapes. Most villagers are shaking with fear. Looking carefully, Utar does not see Elisande among them.
With the short fight now over, the group takes a more careful gander at their surroundings. There is much to gather in addition to the crude serpentine artwork on the walls or the rust-colored stains laying about. Dust is everywhere, including in the air following the fight. A clear rectangular spot can be seen dust-free on the altar, obviously marking the place where the tome was located for many years. The altar also holds many other items, including parchment, coins, and the shining glint of at least one other metal object. A pile of books lie in the corner.
(OOC: A refresher on the original chamber description can be found here).
-> Biscuit's WIS saving throw {DC 10}: 14
-> Neya's WIS saving throw {DC 10}: 18
Just as soon as Doozey's done treating wounds, the stoutling is immediately on the move to look over the prisoners. Seeing no Elisande in sight after leaves him visibly disheartened, and were it not for Biscuit's nervous whimpering, lost in thought for longer than just a few moments. Refocused, Doozey uses the same time spent brushing Biscuit's fur and whispering soothing words to further bury budding anger and sentiments of defeat. "Are you all getting a stronger feeling that there might've been more to there previous attacks than 'recruitment'?" He tries to quietly ask other members of CRAP, though wouldn't try censor himself by much if unable to get that chance.
Rather, he turned upon the fearful villagers, and looked at them with a renewed suspicion. "Oi! I don't s'pose any of you lot happen to know much about this place, would'ja?" He asked politely, yet coolly while moving on to check any unchecked fallen cultist bodies for useful goodies.
Body Search: 2.
When you realize you're doing too much: Signature.
Utar backs up from the old man and lets Doozey work bandaging his wound.
"They purposefully came here for that book, and made specific mention of it being the only thing they needed. We need to know why..."
Utar find his gaze drawn to the altar and begins to move towards it. His hand finds his amulet, casting guidance. Examining the altar, Utar tries to determine who it is dedicated to, and more importantly, what it might be for.
Religion 7 plus 4
Edit: Utar is the worst cleric for actually knowing anything about the pantheon of DnDeities.
Graxx looks down at the manacled Drow with disgust. He has the urge to slide off all the Drow's limbs but he closed his eyes and forces himself to remember the teachings of Tempus about torture.
Graxx instead opts to use his foot to roll the Drow facedown and places his foot on the back of the unconscious Drows neck so that any verbal spellcasting like he saw years ago could be choked out.
"Doozey!" Graxx calls out.
"What do you want with this pile of filth? The beast will do nothing but lie to you and is better off dead. Let me remove one more from this plane. I'll be quick which is far more than they would grant you or I. I've seen these monsters at work." Graxx snarls.
Graxx slaps his backpack.
"I got the book they were after so they'll probably be comin' to look for it. I'm guessin' it's a wizard book so if y'all want to take a peak I'll give to one of you. I just can't take my foot off this devil." says Graxx as he readjusts making sure his foot is not suffocating the Drow.
Doozey frowns back Graxx, not really caring much for the snarling. But with a "hmph", he briefly pauses his search to say, "They're not beast. At least such a creature's antics are a wee more understandable. But semantics aside, I'd still wish to try and converse with him for a moment or two. For short of saying nothing at all, a good lie has a grain of truth to it... Or so 'n old friend once told me..." Though Doozey initial trails off at the end with a far off look, he shakes himself out of it mercifully quick.
"Ei-either way. After a quick try at a Q and A, do feel free to send him on his way to the otherside. My figure'n is we can at least learn whether they'll linger around for the book, giving us at least a chance to rescue the others."
When you realize you're doing too much: Signature.
She approaches the huddling villagers and tries to reassure them, "Don't be afraid, we just came from successfully defending the village. Were the any others that came in with the three that came before us?"
Extended Signature
(@MB: A roll of 11 is not so bad).
After wondering about the cultists' real intent, Doozey engages the villagers in the cave. The oldest girl in the lot, who can't be any older than nine or ten years old, looks at the halfling for a moment and says: "No master dwarf, we've no idea. We'ren't even allowed in de dark wood normally... De creatures gobble ye!” Another one of the older kids, a boy of perhaps fifteen, follows up with "Dis 'ere mussin' be ye creature of de woods lair!" After hearing that, the smaller children's eyes go wide, filled with fear. The few adults look just as uncomfortable, but respond to Neya's question letting her know that those were the only cultist that found them here in the cave.
(@Ori and/or @Drache: Give me a survival check as part of your next post).
Turning to the other cultists' bodies, Doozey finds nothing of worth except basic armor, damaged cult robes, and ill-maintained curved swords. Utar then offers a possibility for answers by suggesting they look at the book the cultists were after. Graxx offers to let others read it by holding his pack in the air but remains otherwise reluctant to move away from CRAP's newest prisoner. One of the kids, a seven year old boy with missing teeth, tries to be helpful by pointing to other books piled in one of the corners.
(@Grx: Give me a medicine check as part of your next post).
While the party considers their options, Utar notices some of the wall artwork is also reproduced on the sides of the altar, crudely. The cleric shows preference for examining these markings first as opposed to the items on top of the altar. He notices what looks like a sacrifice of wealth to a multi-headed sea serpent. Other than this clue, Utar comes up with little that reminds him of the usual worship practices of the more popular deities in the land.
Doozey raises one finger, and looked for a moment ready to argue against being called a dwarf; only to give up wih a sigh of defeat. "Better a dwarf than some unbelievable myth, I s'pose." He half mutters to himself. After taking a moment to process their words, and probably even notice the adults look they way they did, his eyes again narrow in suspicion towards the latter. Rather than confront them, he straps one of the curved swords to his hip, silently hopeful it would do in an absolute pinch, and then say, "I thank you, wee ones. And here. Share dis among yourselves fer a bit. I know I'd 'ave a mighty thirst after so much running around." He offers them his waterskin just long enough to sate their thirst.
Though in the meantime, he heads back over to the drow and begin pondering how best to wake him. As far as further hints at reading or collecting the other books, he just absentmindedly gestures to Neya and Utar.
Survival: 20.
When you realize you're doing too much: Signature.
Graxx sighs at Doozey.
"So be it but be quick about it. It might try to cast a spell on us with it's wizardry. " says Graxx.
Graxx takes his foot off the drows neck and starts lightly kicking it's head with the toe of his boot.
"Hey, you. Armpit of the Underdark. Wake up.."
Graxx will continue to prod the head of the Drow till they become conscious.
Medicine: 7
Struggling to understand the importance of the altar or why it would draw the cultists to this island, Utar decides to at least look over the pile of books.
Methodically lifting each title, he scans the cover creating two piles. Ones he can read, and ones he cannot.
"So, this is their home...? It does have an atmosphere that they might find more comfortable." Neya takes a glance around the cave. "There are other invaders at the landing, as soon as we find out what they're here for, we'll go and save the folk they have there."
She then goes to Graxx and takes the book from his hand so he could keep an eye on the drow, and opens it up, ready to activate her helm of comprehending languages should she need it.
Survival: 12
Extended Signature
Following the child's suggestion, Utar leaves the altar for now and moves over to the pile of books in the corner. Mostly all of them are moist, rotted, and useless. A couple of them have salvageable pages, but they are faded and written in a language that Utar does not understand.
As the more recent arrival, Neya takes a moment to look around the cave, taking it all in. With the words of the adult villagers in her mind regarding how only a few cultists found this place, the monk notices that the dust around here only seems to have been disturbed near the prisoners and corpses. This suggests that these areas were stepped on only recently, while corners which no one approached remain as dusty as they probably have for many years. Neya's gaze meets Doozey's as she looks around and the halfling instinctively knows what conclusion the monk has arrived at. His own quick look about confirms that the people in here are likely the first visitors in a very long time. The kids are probably being honest when they said they were barely allowed into the woods, let alone this cave.
The ranger then thanks the kids, collects a scimitar, and passes around some fresh water. Deciding to ask some questions of the party's prisoner next, Doozey approaches the fallen cultist. Any pondering on how to momentarily wake the drow is suddenly interrupted by Graxx's rough treatment of the elf. Whether the prisoner is going to naturally wake up in one minute or one tenday is something that clearly baffles the barbarian at this point in time, but his not-so-gentle toe pokes are not helping, that's certain.
Letting the pair deal with the prisoner, Neya only approaches them to collect the prized tome. The tome is old and bound in some sort of leather strip. Flipping through the pages, she realizes that she does not need the help of her helm to understand the script in this particular book. It is written in the tongue of the Dragons, a language she happens to be fluent in due to previous rigorous training. In a few minutes worth of skimming, Neya finds some interesting passages detailing the final resting place of an ancient Draconic Artifact. It is something referred to as a Dragon Mask, and it is named as if it were one among many. This mask, revealed in the tome to be colored green, can be found somewhere within the Kryptgarden Forest, wherever that may be...
While still a little suspicious of the adults, having not forgotten their looks of discomfort, the paranoid stoutling eventually fully pushed aside all other lines of thought to focus moreso on the drow. Whether he was aggravated by Graxx continued rough treatment or approved of it, his face never changes from one of cool neutrality. He does calmly assess whether the Drow's wound might've accidentally re-opened; and if so, he tightens up the makeshift bandages prior to asking Graxx to splash some water from the skin into his face.
Medicine: 21.(if needed?)
"Rise and shine, sleeping beauty. You have big day ahead of ya! If'n ya do us the solid of confirming a few things about you and your ilk, we'd be happy to let you go on your way." Doozey would say cheerily if his suggested method awakens the Drow.
If not however, and with no further ideas, he'll sigh, and then nod to Graxx, giving him the okay to end him. "As much as I'd like to have me answers sooner than later, we cannot afford to linger here for more than a minute or so more at this point." He then turn back and glare down at the drow. "Just wish he could confirm if there was some actual devilry involved in this whole business. For Ms. Villy's sake."
When you realize you're doing too much: Signature.
"This... I don't know what to make of this." Neya says, flipping pagess back and forth. "This reveals the location of something called a 'Dragon Mask.' Certainly something these cultists would be interested in... While this mask is elsewhere, this information is here. Why?"
She then goes to where Utar is and starts looking through the books by Utar, hoping there may be some answers in the pile.
Extended Signature
Graxx stops with his foot prodding and takes the waterskin from Doozey and dribble the water on the Drows face. While doing this Graxx will have place his hand around the Drows throat with no pressure.
"I'm watching it for any funny business, Doozey." says Graxx.
Doozey and Graxx work in tandem to wake up the drow. A splash of water and a small dose of indifference seem to do the trick. The cultist wakes up groggy, with a lost expression on his face, and a hand around his throat. He tries to speak a little in response to the halfling's offer to let him go, but it is clear that even this simple act hurts him. He looks fragile, as if he may fall into unconsciousness again at any point. Any questions the group may have may as well be asked quickly.
(OOC: Just to be clear, the text in the spoiler box below does not actually happen).
Quote for @Orileo:
If not however, and with no further ideas, he'll sigh, and then nod to Graxx, giving him the okay to end him. "As much as I'd like to have me answers sooner than later, we cannot afford to linger here for more than a minute or so more at this point." He then turn back and glare down at the drow. "Just wish he could confirm if there was some actual devilry involved in this whole business. For Ms. Villy's sake."
In a different corner, Utar shows Neya the few pages he was able to salvage from the rotted pile of books. This time, the monk recognizes the need to activate her Helm of Comprehending Languages. Once that is done, the broken passages reveal some sparse details about a type of exchange. What one side gave up is not clear, but what was received is partially revealed in the faded, rotting pages: power and protection. Another salvaged page seems to mention an actual, physical contract to be "kept in the place of worship."
(@Neya: Give me an insight check with advantage, please).
Insight: 25
Extended Signature