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"WHAT DO YOU GET FROM A PAMPERED COW?""Like Lady Vaelia of House Wintermark?"
Luisila's memory reaches back to a gala banquet in Absalom.
"Not much as I recall, Conan."
"Something to do with milk, I'm sure. Well....? What is it?"
With her typical deadpan serious gaze you are not sure if she is taking the question seriously or realizes it is a pun/joke/riddle. There's something spooky about Marta.
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Reyna walks forward to the rest of her group to see all of the demons defeated. She turns to Craggrior and begins to look for and ask about the prophecy.
"You are alive for now but that can change quickly, give us the prophecy and you may live to see another day"
Diplomacy = 26
Perception = 32
Marta will aid as she attaches another set of manacles to Craggrior, though these ones are not magical or masterwork or anything.
She observes Reynas progress and helps when possible.
After you guys easily subdue Caggrigar and with some urging to talk he spills his story, ”I was A Shadow Lodge agent, Caggrigar, though I presume you already know that, I was dispatched with my best Pathfinders to retrieve the Sarkorian Prophecy first. While I am loyal to the Shadow Lodge’s cause, I was not so loyal as to put my own interests second.
Revealing a holy symbol of Deskari, ”I am a high-ranking member of Deskari’s cult outside of the Worldwound. I hoped to find the prophecy for my own use, I expected to find it full of revelations about my lord’s pending conquest of the Material Plane. My allies knew nothing of this plan, but if I got my way all of Golarion would bow before the Lord of the Locust Host.”
Searching him you find a scorpion familiar and you find he carries with him an ornately embroidered bag of holding of Keleshite origins that contains the entirety of the Sarkorian Prophecy volumes taken from the Storasta safe house’s cellar.
The tomes themselves are priceless, but the bag that holds them is a normal bag of holding of its type. Additionally, he has a small chest of precious gems worth 2,500 gp altogether which he planned to use to fund the spread of Deskari’s word throughout northern Avistan.
With the capture of Caggrigar and his revealing of the plan, your other two captives are more cooperative knowing they were betrayed and were again simply pawns this time of Caggrigar. Your large group makes the return journey through the wastes of the Worldwound without further incident, avoiding roaming demons and avoiding the harshest of the environment’s elements.
Upon your return to the safety of Nerosyan, you are welcomed back by Venture-Captain Thurl, he congratulates you on surviving the Worldwound, and reaching Storasta. He is impressed that not only did you survive the Worldwound but also a vicious plot by the Shadow Lodge to sabotage your mission. He quickly ensures the Sarkorian Prophecy is well preserved and prepares it for transport back to Absalom as well locks up the Shadow Lodge Pathfinders for questioning.
During this time, he asks many questions about both the Your encounter with the Shadow Lodge and Caggrigar specifically, focusing on his cultish fervor, he also keeps him locked up in his basement, questioning him as well.
If you guys so wish, you may spend this time looking through the prophecy themselves, or they may take Thurl up on his offer of transportation back to Absalom ahead of the document.
Over the course of several months, the Pathfinder Society’s most accomplished diviners, archivists, and researchers pore over the recovered Sarkorian Prophecy for information. While they discover an astonishing number of correct predictions up to 4606 ar—the year of Aroden’s death—no events after that year have come to pass, and many contradict the actual flow of history entirely.
Despite the inability for the Decemvirate to trust the accuracy of the document for future events, its retrieval nevertheless provides the Society with an incredible boon, sure
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"I just don't get it. Why there are always those who choose to hitch their horse to someone like the Lord of the Locust Host. What does he really expect? That that nasty thing is actually going to reward him with anything but a painful death and tortured afterlife? Why is it so hard to get people like him to see reason. Simple, logical, reasonable, reason! I just have to keep trying. If Ragathiel could make the leap from the abyss to the heavens, then someone like him should be able to and should be given the opportunity, don't you think? "
The question is addressed to nobody and everybody. It is a question she has asked before and will ask again. As usual, it is followed by a long sigh.
Marta will indeed take the opportunity to peruse the prophetic writing, figuring that even if most of them do not make a lick of sense there may come a time when a snippet becomes useful.
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Always up for a semi-serious discussion about theology and life, Luisila responds to Marta with her pet theory.
"I think for the same reason diet fads, lotteries and 'get rich quick' scams are so prevalent, Marta."
"Lots of people want a quick-fix to achieve their desires NOW and don't want to know or even care about the effects their current actions may be having on their own future."
She tries imitating Primarch of Absalom, Lord Gyr of Gixx. "We'll worry about the future later."
"Oh wow! That was terrible! Conan does a waaaay better job."
"As for Deskari ... he's flavor of the century for the brand of crazy that wants a short-cut to power and wealth. And in all seriousness, he has been making obvious, well-publicized headway in this part of the world."
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"Perhaps there is something to that, at least for the more simple members, but for those like Caggrigar - it seems more... personal. Like there was something that happened to him that just broke him and this satisfies some kind of twisted need that was once whole. You have to be a bit broken to want power so badly that nothing... or noone else matters. But there was humanity in there too and so there is hope. I still don't get it - I never will. But I guess that's not my job. They have others that do that. I just try to make sure the part of the world I'm in doesn't get too far gone I guess."
"So, how about you Luisila? Off to another party? Ready to save the world in your own delightful way, or do you want to stick around and get all dusty and confused reading these things?"
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"I swear you've got partying on the brain, Marta." Luisila teases.
"Just say the word and I'll take you shopping for some essentials!"
The priestess runs an index finger along the folio's upper edge while Dame Alie reads. She pulls a face as she rubs the ancient, grey dust between finger and thumb.
"There are two mysteries of the Faith that well and truly pre-date Aroden's death that would bring great honor to the one that unravelled them."
"What are the names of the three gods slain by Calistria, who drag themselves from their foul resting places once a century to kneel before the Sacred Sting, begging Her not to bring more Vengeance down upon them."
"One of Our Lady in the Room's handmaid/mens is a chaotic frog-like Outsider named Threv. Nobody knows whether He is a True Protean or throwback Slaad."
"Unfortunately, neither are particularly humanocentric. So I doubt the Sarkorian Prophecies will shed any light on them."
She *shrugs* "Still I'll have a skim when the Stormtamer's done. Nothing ventured ... yadda, yadda."
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With the demons defeated and the cultist interrogated, Conan feels well accomplished! MUCH EVIL WAS VANQUISHED.
"SOME people are simply NAUGHTY to their core, and not in a fun, good, Calistrian kind of way," he opines. "Such souls are to be PITIED and reformed when possible, and if not... DESTROYED."
The life and world-view of Conan is a comfortingly simple one. He does take a look-see through the old bookw hen the others are done with it, because who knows what new joke material he might find?
