@Agrippa
You gather the necessary for you ritual. Anticipation fills you as the chant and rites go on. It seems like a building tension up to the moment when you do the deed.
Then nothing. The feeling disappears, and nothing happens.
Thinking back, on your first sacrifice, you remember that there was a feeling of purpose, of ‘rightness’. Someone had broken a sacred contract, you were just making it right again.
Johan grins back at Sakkarot, though as usual, it comes off more like a sneer. But the pot is sweeter this time Fire-axe, I assure you. And your need is greater. The knights of Taligarde will not stand for what has been done here today and they will ride forth to meet your host as an ironclad tidal wave. Coins will not protect your people from their lances - shields and weapons will.
Johan frowns at Sakkarot's offer of 7000gp for the stockpile of weapons and gear that he and his companions had spent the last months bleeding for. Every single one of those items the ninth knot had literally pried from the cold dead fingers of their owners. I'll be damned if I'm letting them go for a third of what I'd have to pay in an open market. Okay, 'damned' might be a poor choice of words...
10,000 Johan counters. Then after a muttered word in his ear from Sidious, adds, And we will fix the trebuchet on the keep's roof for you.
"Tell me master Hale. What use do I have for a working trebuchet in the roof of a keep that I'm about to abandon?" he asks.
In the time before the war chief comes Father Sidious studies the damaged siege engine. It was really a thing of beauty and with his divine powers quite easy to repair with only a few castings of Make Whole. But the engine of war fascinated the cleric. What a devise of destruction! Asking for the wizard's help he began to work to dismantle the thing. It was simply too useful and too beautiful to leave on top of the the roof. It was made to come apart and Sidious wanted to learn how to disassemble it. If he forced a piece, damaging it, he had the ability to repair it with magic. This both encouraged him and increased his learning pace.
Once apart the pieced were still quite heavy but manageable. The larger pieces could be lowered down the side of the tower while the smaller ones, all marked and placed in numbered baskets, could be hand carried down. And with all the pieces in the courtyard the priest, consulting his notes, was able to reassemble the machine. The satisfying sound of a boulder being launched at the front gate was test enough to show the trebuchet was in working order.
"Tell me master Hale. What use do I have for a working trebuchet in the roof of a keep that I'm about to abandon?" he asks.
At audience with the war chief Father Sidious approaches the leader of the war band. He wears full religious regalia and the Imp rides on his shoulder openly. War Chief Sakkarot Fire-Axe, we anticipated your need for such a device and have re-located it for you. It is there, behind the stables now. I have studied its workings and can instruct your troops how to take it apart and to re-assemble it as well as how to fire it accurately. Consider this a gift from us and from our lord Asmodeus. I hope it brings much destruction to our common foes. It is good that each of us gives what we can to support the other. Do you not agree? He bows his head slightly while looking to the war chief for his reaction.
The bugbear looks the newcomer with interest, his hands never far from his great axe.
”I don’t know you. But I appreciate your offer.” he says ”For this war machine, I’m willing to add two thousands gold pieces.” ”But only if you teach my sergeants how to assemble it correctly.”
Of course. We shall see which of your sergeants learn the fastest. He says with a smile.