Cladissa throws up her hands in exasperation. She walks around the chair and gets close to him. Her height had varied throughout her different mutations, but her most recent change has her standing just a shade taller than him.
"You need to figure it out, Argor. At the start, you were supportive. Encouraging. A friend.
"Then, something happened. You say it was me. But somewhere along the way -- maybe during that trip up in the mountains, maybe earlier -- you became condescending. Hurtful. Cruel." She shakes her head and holds up a hand to forestall any protest. "Not always in your words, or their content. But in the way you say it. In your dismissive tones. The way you sound as if you and only you could be right and any dispute is lunacy or idiocy."
She takes a step away from him, turns and moves toward the window. Then she looks back at him over her shoulder with smoldering eyes and the hint of a cruel smile. "Maybe it is me. The serum increased my intelligence too, you know. Maybe I became smart enough to see that you were always just an arrogant ass who couldn't stand an intellectual equal."
Cladissa keeps moving deeper into what appears to be a curio shop. The air elemental picks up swirls of dust and sets papers and tags flapping as her new friend picks a spot that gives her a good view of the door.
::No idea who the female was, but the male human was Roald Havaari. We... used to date::
The shopowner pads lightly over to them, asking if she was looking for anything in particular. Cladissa glances around, then points to a crown with a large stone set in its center inside a case. "Can I see that, please?"
The shopkeep blinks in surprise, and does a double take when she sees what Cladissa pointed to. "Are you sure? It's quite an exotic and expensive item."
Cladissa cranes her neck to get a better view of the front door. "Yeah, yeah. Sure," she says absent-mindedly. When the shopkeeper moves away to unlock the case and disable the wards to retrieve it, Cladissa glances at Sabrina, who is probably contemplating violence. ::Look, I'm not exactly afraid of him; I just don't want to talk with him. Our last meeting was a total disaster::
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The air elemental reaches into her bag and pulls out the lovely bow that she wears in her hair.
::Would you like to use my magical bow? It'll let you Disguise your appearance. I usually take it off before Wild Shaping in case of emergencies, and I think this counts as one::
He clenches his teeth, realizing that he had let his emotions get the better of him, and centers himself once more. "It wasn't until much later, when I attempted to make amends with you at the wedding, that I had realized the childish nature of my actions. And in return, I was met with hostility..." he walks to stand beside Cladissa and look out the window at some of his servants tending the gardens below. "Perhaps...perhaps you are right. Maybe we are destined...despite my best intentions...to be at odds with one another..." he says with a sigh.
Cladissa looks pained and she shakes her head. ::No... I was -- am -- the crazy ex. It's rather complicated, and embarrassing::
Then she holds up her arm that looks covered in patterned fur. ::No need. This is my own ability. It won't last all day like yours, but it's far tougher to see through::
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She sips her wine and turns back to Argor.
"Any tactics that you're particularly fond of? I'll be glad to see if I can accommodate them. As for me, if you can put your summoned buddies in a flanking spot with me or Bentley, then that would help us out quite a bit. I usually coil around him, so it's mostly for Big B's benefit. A good Haste spell also goes a long way."
::I see. If you don't want to talk about it, then that's perfectly reasonable. As for my bow, I was offering it because I thought you'd want to take a different form. Something like a Hellknight in full armor. Oh, I could make you Invisible if you want! It'll last a little over an hour, so we can just hold hands and fly away, and he'll never notice!::
Taking another sip of wine, he adds, "This is a conversation we should be sharing with Gianluca as well, as he is now taking Nyugusk's position on the team."
Argor rings a silvered bell resting on his end table, and Reginald, the head-butler, steps inside. "Fetch Mr. Gianluca and inform him that Ms. Churchill and I would like to speak with him." Refinald bows and hastily exits.
Cladissa is struck with confusion. "I belittled? Insinuated? Wait -- that's what upset you?" She searches her memory of those days, trying to recall her feelings behind her statements. "I didn't mean anything by that! You said you had expended most of your magics -- but I hadn't since Nyug and Hrim had been poisoned. They needed my skills as a healer while you led the battle!"
She turns to him, eyes welling with tears that soon begin streaming down her cheeks. "All of that-- the dinner, Auronee, that horrible dessert, it was because of something I said?"
The concept that she was complicit in starting this feud strikes her hard and she stumbles backward, clutching her stomach which has twisted in knots. "Argor, I-- I don't--"
Cladissa thinks over Sabrina's suggestions, then shakes her head. ::No, he's already seen me. It'll look even stranger if I disappear from here. No, we're here to do some shopping, so let's shop::
The shopkeeper returns cradling the diadem. "Dette er en katteøje krone. « En kraftfuld magi element af de katte mennesker. Mens iført krone, fjern stenen at se gennem øjet," she says in the Catfolk dialect.
Suddenly, Cladissa's attention is turned fully to the object. She listens entranced to the object's description and is soon trying it on, exploring the magical object. She turns to Sabrina. "She says that I can take the stone out of this crown and then see through it so long as I'm wearing it. What's more, I can hand it to someone and then see through their eyes! I give this to Hrim when he scouts, and I'll know what he's encountering! It would be good to know in case he gets into trouble. What to you think?"
Cladissa takes the proffered handkerchief and dabs at her eyes while she composes herself. Her mind reels as she replays the events, the chain reactions, the downward spiral that cascaded from an innocuous remark. She needed to think more, and didn't want to give Argor the chance to say something to ruin this epiphany.
She straightens and turns again to face him. "Well," she begins as she hands back the slightly damp cloth. "This has been enlightening. I suppose I should go."
She begins to maneuver around him and head toward the door.
Reginald finds Gianluca naked, resting after a daily offering to his deity. The honeyed freak wraps a sarong around his waist and comes to join them. Along the way he runs into Cladissa and Hrimnagel chatting and invites them to join the conversation as well.
Once caught up, he adds, "For myself, I specialize in melee. Even before this surprising turn of events I could hold my own quite well in a fight...and I've learned a few tricks to help protect my allies, or buy them time to get them into better positions.
"By the grace of Arshea, the Empyreal Lord of Freedom, Sexuality, and Passionate Self-Expression, I'm blessed with some small portion of divine ability as well. Sometimes my strikes can have particularly strong effects on evil Outsiders, or can heal my companions while I harm those who would do evil."
After a pause, Gianluca adds, "Argor, I want to broach this honestly and with respect since I know you've served Nyugusk (and your whole team) well. And now you're generously offering us all your hospitality.
"I want to let you know that the sight that Arshea grants me allows me to see evil when it is in peoples' hearts." As he talks, his eyes take on a silver glow. "I hold people accountable for their actions, not their thoughts...but I wondered if you knew that your heart has been so infected? I am confident that--with divine grace--I can help your spirit leave the clutches of evil, should you choose. It would be my honor to assist you, as you've assisted Nyugusk in his experiments."
For the rest of that week, Cladissa says nothing to Argor and any time they are in the same room the temperature drops several degrees. She simply busies herself with her project and avoids being in his presence for any amount of time.
When Reginald the butler invites her to the parlor to join the conversation between Argor and Sabrina, she is about to politely decline. But then she sees that he's with a shirtless Gianluca and finds herself curiously out of breath. She barely squeaks out an affirmative and follows him, er, them to join the others.
Once in the room, Cladissa refuses to take a seat. She folds her arms and hangs by the door opposite from Argor, tail whipping back and forth. She takes an extreme interest in her glossy nails, seemingly paying no attention to the conversation until Gianluca mentions Argor's evil nature. She looks up, studying his reaction.
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Upon hearing Gianluca's revelation to the group, Sabrina... decides to look at Cladissa and study her reaction.
Sabrina quickly switches gears.
"That sounds great! You know, my little sister sneaks into dangerous places all the time without such a convenience. Granted, her enemies as of late tend to be big dumb giants, who aren't exactly capable of spotting Invisible creatures, but still! I think Hrim would appreciate having a trump card, so I say purchase it if you want."
Argor makes no reaction beyond taking a sip of his wine. Feeling all the eyes in the room now upon him, he sighs and addresses the elephant in the room...
"I find such detections to be frivolous evidences, at best, given how easily they are generated and/or deceived. I have known some of the most vengeful and bloodthirsty fools radiate an aura of good simply due to the divine patron they chose to follow. For myself, I generally tend to offer up my divine homages to Nethys, but even so I do not consider myself a devout practitioner beyond the fact that I take my magic seriously."
Argor continues as he sets his wine glass down. "Regarding the 'infection' you claim to detect in my own aura, I make no act of denying nor confirming it. I let my actions speak for me. And I feel no shame in saying that I would go to any length to protect myself, my loved ones, or my property from any threat."
"Wow. That was rude," Rutai mutters to himself as he takes a sip of wine himself and turns his attention from the conversation to the window.
Cladissa's demonic shape seethes so hotly it appears she may spontaneously combust. She glares poisoned daggers at Argor for a second, then she spins lightly on her cloves hooves. She strides out with a curt flap of her wings.
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Sabrina watches Cladissa nearly spontaneously combust and then looks back at Argor.
"...I should probably step out; this matter seems rather... personal," the Naga Aspirant says lightly before she finishes the wine and places her glass somewhere for the staff to retrieve.
Before she departs, Sabrina leans over to Gianluca and whispers softly in his ear, "That might've been better left unsaid or at least only in private between you and him."
As his conversation with Cladissa is interrupted by Gianluca's less than subtle observation of Argor' condition, Hrim unconsciously blends into his shadows.
He floats near Cladissa and whispers.
Gianluca frowns momentarily at Argor's response, but his eyes still show sympathy for the arcanist.
"I had hoped you might want help, but as I said I hold people accountable for their actions, not their thoughts, and I know your treatment of Nyugusk at least has been fair. I've been a Pathfinder long enough, I know how to work toward a common goal with a wide range of personalities, so I don't doubt we can be effective members of the same team. And if you indeed eschew evil acts, I suspect the evil in your soul will fade."
The honeyed aasimar hesitates, and then adds, "If...if you find you're on a path you regret, know that it's not too late to ask for help
"...and on the otherhand, if you choose to act in a way that impinges on the freedom of an innocent person, know that I'm oath-bound to oppose those acts."
Cladissa pulls up short several paces away from the parlor.
::Yes, I am unsurprised about Gianluca's revelation. But Argor's response is more of what I have come to expect from him. I tried to make amends, but I fear he has gotten worse. He can't seem to rise above the evil in his heart::
She smiles in a guessed direction. ::Thank you for your concern for my own::
She then works her way to the interior courtyard of Verde Heights and paces back and forth for a while, sorting her thoughts.
After all the team is assembled in the dingy gambling room, they are left to wait for a minute or so. Just as they are starting to break the awkward silence, and catching up on the last few days, the door opens. The 'game's' mysterious host appears — the enigmatic Osprey, an agent of the Pathfinder Society with unclear objectives likely known only to the Decemvirate. Two strangers accompany the lean-featured Chelaxian — a tall man wearing dark robes and a black mask that conceals his face, and a grizzled, prune-skinned gnome, with a slight facial palsy.
"Good-day, Freaks! Pleasure!" Osprey smiles cordially. "Please, sit, enjoy a cup of Absalom's worst grog!" The druid doesn't seem to notice or care that everyone is already seated. Though offering grog, he makes no move to actually get it from the bar for them.
“My fellow Pathfinders, I appreciate you making yourselves available on such short notice. I trust the accommodations here are sour enough to keep others from our business. As usual for these briefings, I prefer to get right to the point."
Osprey hoists and slams a large sack down on the table, a high-pitched yelp bursting from within the bundle as he does so. He quickly reaches into the sack and drags out a tiny pestilent-looking creature by the throat. He beats its head against the table a few more times, and yells, Then he pins it down against the table, where it flounders weakly, a bony clump of glinting scales, hollow-eyes, and leathery wings. With his hands still locked on the creature’s throat, he raises his eyes, looks across the table and says, "So, what do you know about demons?"
Hrim has heard of the Osprey but does not volunteer any extra information. Maybe later.
At the mention of demons, he opens his eyes to Count Ranalc to study the auras within the room. Besides studying the odd bird in the Osprey's claws, he double-checks his companions auras.
"So, what do you know about demons?"
Cladissa stares at him, stunned at the question. "Are you for real?"
"Osprey...a pleasure," Argor says dryly.
He remains silent as the man reveals the quasit from the bag, and when posed the question regarding his knowledge of such creatures, Argor replies, "A good deal, I assure you. We've dealt with their kind on more than one occasion."
"Ho ho!" Rutai chuckles as the quasit is revealed. "Looks like you got yourself in a pickle, didn't ya pip-squeak?" he taunts as he hops onto the table and walks over to the restrained demon. He looks up at Osprey and asks jovially, "Hey, bud. Mind if I rough this little guy up a little? Remind him of their place in the cosmological pecking order?"
He grins at the Pathfinders' responses. "Brilliant!"
Turning back to the demon, he holds its face out for Rutai to kick a few times. "You're gonna tell them what you told me, or the imp sodomizes you!" The quasit quivers silently in the druid's iron grasp.
Suddenly Osprey seems to check himself. He takes a deep breath. "Oh my! I've completely forgotten my manners. I apologize. Allow me to introduce my companions, this," he says gesturing to the decrepit-looking gnome,"is Xersus Abergris, an expert demonologist and historian." Xersus grunts, and bows to the Pathfinders.
He nods to his second companion and says, "Please, offer your complete attentions to my most esteemed guest."
After a dramatic pause, the cloaked man steps forward and addresses the group in an eerily dry monotone. "I represent the Decemvirate. I’ve come to oversee these proceedings as they are of personal interest to me. Osprey and Xersus shall speak on my behalf, unless I find it necessary to intervene. As far as you are all concerned, you have never seen me. Do I make myself clear?"
Rutai smiles toothily as he kicks the quasit in the face a few times. "I dunno about the sodomizing bit," he says between kicks, "but I like yer style, bub!"
Argor nods politely to each of the other guests in turn, but his focus remains on the quasit primarily. "So, little demon....what secrets do you have for us?"
Cladissa nods to the cloaked man. "Yes. Understood."
She works hard to keep from scowling at Rutai. She was beginning to earnestly despise the cretin.
Once the mysterious stranger is finished speaking, Osprey nods to Xersus, who then addresses the room.
"One of the problems with demons is their complete lack of organization. We sages have very little to work from when investigating and cataloging them. Devils of course,keep lengthy records," he says, nodding to Rutai. "With these things," he pauses to disdainfully poke the quasit, “these things couldn’t tell you the name of their own mother. This makes the job of studying and cataloging them very important. Many years ago, I used to work with a cleric and expert demonologist named Baldimar Trud. Trud was also a revered cleric of Cayden Cailean, and guided all of his research to assist in the fight against these infernal brutes. Still, the church had few available funds for his elaborate studies, and thus he sought out and received funds from other investors, including significant patronage from the Society."
"Over the course of several years, he built a research laboratory and compiled an extensive archive. Unfortunately, we have seen none of his work since he died before revealing its location. After Cayden’s Hall burned down the last time, I thought his works gone forever. Though a few days ago, I came upon this little fellow going through my personal notes — notes concerning my old friend Baldimar. I don’t believe this is a coincidence and strongly believe this fellow shall soon tell us why he was in my possessions. After that, I’m sure Osprey has a plan for you."
Osprey looks to the Freaks. "If you can get 'im to talk, great. Otherwise I'll gladly beat it out of him," the druid grins.
Cladissa leans forward, becoming very interested in the topic. She turns her attention to the quasit.
She thinks at the demon in Abyssal, ::Go ahead and talk! You have allies here.::
::Or you can just talk to me::
Grinning as well, Rutai leans down and picks up the demon's head by a horn, "Well, what say you, pal? Easy way or hard way?"
Before it can answer, Rutai takes one of the quasit's wings in his other claw and lifts it up, then violently stomps on the main bone to snap it in half. "Please choose the hard way. I'm thoroughly enjoying this."
The quasit doesn't seem to trust Cladissa, but it responds to Rutai kicking it again.
"Oy! Alright, alright! I'll spill!" The quasit grumbles and squirms a bit in Osprey's grasp. "I was pokin' around in his things because my master is back!"
At the threat of using sexual coercion, Gianluca frowns sharply and his amethyst eyes glow with silvery light.
"I dunno about the sodomizing bit,"
With a rueful smile, he says, "For once, I and the imp agree."
When the quasit begins to spill the beans, Gianluca listens attentively and says, "Yes, go on. Who is your master? And what does he want?"
"His name is Graz’ith Ur Maurgith. I am bound to serve him for all eternity. He disappeared many years ago. I thought him gone forever. I was free. But now, I heard his voice again. He was calling to me. His voice came from Cayden's Hall."
"What sort of demon is he? Who are the rest of his minions? Who or what else heard his call? What was it he commanded you to do?" Argor asks.
"I don't know, I swear! His call is just that I should come to serve him. He has many servitors, all kinds of demons. He is a powerful Hezrou noble. He once held vast estates in the Abyss and on the Shadow Plane. If you can defeat him I would be free. I do not wish to serve Graz’ith Ur Maurgith any longer. You must believe I am telling you everything I know. I am but a lowly quasit....nobody tells me anything. I just do what I'm told to avoid kicks..."
Osprey smacks the quasit. "Luckily for you, I do actually believe you. Now shut your mouth." The Decemvirate's servant turns to the Freaks. "This is not good, obviously. You need to get to Cayden's Hall and investigate. Find High Priestess Saphira and see what she knows. We have to get to the bottom of this and stop that demon if it's on the Material Plane. If you find yourselves out of your depth contact me immediately at the Grand Lodge."
Xersus adds, "Demons are masters of infiltration and disguise, as I'm sure you well know given your history with the Blakroses."
"You would do well to utilize whatever element of surprise you can muster should there really be powerful demons in the Hall."
Argor speaks to Rutai in their secret tongue, conferring their knowledge of the named type of demon.
He nods to the representative as well as Xersus before turning to the others. "We need to plan our next move carefully. We know all to well of what these fiends are capable..." he says with an apologetic glance to Cladissa.
"Rutai, go and covertly scout out the exterior of the temple, see if there are any entrances not being heavily watched we could take advantage of. If there are demons there, they are likely to have established their own security in some way or another."
The imp nods and flies off, fading from sight once out the door...
Argor turns to his companions, "This seems an unfortunate foe to test our new composition against, but we seem to have little choice. In the past, we have struggled against swarms and incorporeal foes...do either of you have reliable means to thwart such threats? My magics work well, but make me a favored target." As he speaks, Argor retrieves his spellbook from his pack and lays it on the table, preparing to alter his spell preparations as necessary.
Osprey speaks before Rutai flies off too far. "The Hall is a large public place, if there were anything obvious amiss we'd have heard of it by now. It's probably better if you finish making a plan and then go in as a team."
The masked figure folds his arms over his chest.
Osprey coughs, "Look at me, telling the famous Freaks how to do their job...I think our work here is done. Toodle doo, mates! Remember I'll be at the Lodge if you need to report or need assistance."
"It was a pleasure to meet the Freaks in person. Go and give those demons hell!" Xersus smiles and giggles.
Osprey shoves the quasit back in its sack, and the three of them leave the room to the Freaks.