Yaziyah waves a hand towards the dead man. "He doesn't need to be alive to talk to us. Or to me, at least. Let's take him up as well."
Taking hold of one arm, she prepares to help Li hoist the dead man to the surface. That poor boatman was in for the scare of his life pretty soon. A sea hag and a faceless dead man talking... She shakes her head, almost smiling. When did these things cease to impress her? She was quite certain that at some point in her life she had been what was called a "normal person". She unconsciously pats the deck of Harrow cards nested in her belt pocket.
Talfryn casts a practiced eye upon the items rescued from the sea hag, and then begins to swim up toward the surface, allowing the zephyr of animated ocean air to carry him aloft with the utmost ease.
His brow is creased, and his normal pleasant expression cast into a frown. Still, he keeps his thoughts to himself.
Once out of the water, Yaziyah examines the items that had been in the hag's possession. "Ah, this one is a healing stick. Anyone would like to have it? And this spear is magical, although nothing special. I might hang on to it though."
"How does the healing stick heal?", asks Garvid, taking the wand in his hands and pointing it towards his eye. He taps the stick twice to one of his recent bruises, then passes it back to Yazi. "I think you should use the healing stick. I'll stick to the wounding one.", he grins widely, giving the unconscious hag a solid thwack in the ribs with his halberd's hilt. He sits back down, then feels the grip once more. "So, can any of you break that... weakness magic? Or does that go away soon?", he asks both Yazi and Talfryn, raising an eyebrow.
Yaziyah shakes her head as she pockets the wand. "I am afraid that as long as she is alive and nearby we will feel it. And if you're going to thump her into more unconsciousness, now would be a good time, my magic is wearing off."
Nodding, Garvid unceremoniously twirls his halberd. "You might want to turn around for this.", he laconically states with a grim expression, as he cracks his knuckles. Giving the others a moment to turn around, he brings down the halberd's weighted hilt into the hag's ribs with a horrid crunch. Lifting the weapon for another hit, the next blow lands in the hag's guts, following with a heavy kick in the thigh.
Never beat someone who's tied, my old man said., a thought passes through the guardsman's head. The words stay in his head as he pushes aside the twisting and twitching hag, aiming his steel toed boot towards her face.
The group emerges on the western bank of the Jeggare river and proceeds to cough up all the water in their lungs. The sun has now set, and the sky is quickly turning from dull grey to black. Once everyone has fully recovered, you signal the fisherman you hired, who is just a few hundred feet away on the same bank. He rows over and looks surprised when he sees the bodies, not sure whether to approach or not.
"What'cha got there? You bringing up the bridegrooms of the River Queen? Is it safe?"
Mouse takes one look at the hag - and her knees go weak, so weak that she'd fall to the ground without the water buoying her up. She tries to stay and fight, but the sight of the woman is too much - she turns and begins to struggle back through the Jeggare, her limbs leaden and her mind racing. It's only when everyone else emerges with the hag bound and in tow that the shame begins to fill her.
"It is not safe yet, my good man. This here creature is so horrifically twisted that to lay eyes on her could spell your doom." Yaziyah warns the fisherman, raising a hand to forestall his approach as her mind is racing. What was this effect that the hag was having on them? They had all seen worse things than this, surely. Only the events of this morning were more terror-inducing than the mere sight of an ugly woman, underwater or not. So it must be a magical effect, but how does it work?
Giving Mouse an inscrutable glance, Yaziyah bends over the hag's form and, pulling out her dagger, cuts off a strand of hair which she places in one of her innumerable pouches. "For later" is all she says.
As she straightens up, she turns to the others. "Interrogate the hag, if you wish, I would like to have a chat to our deceased lad here." She spends the next quarter of an hour preparing the ritual, placing various objects near and on the corpse, chanting under her breath all the while and burning pinches of bitter-smelling herbs.
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As Yazi prepares her ritual, Mouse remains yards away on the shore, curled in on herself with her arms around her knees. Every breath shudders as she fights to draw the air in, and she glances wildly back and forth between the water and the bodies on the water's edge. In her mind's eye, horrific scenes spring to life all around her, and it's all she can do to keep from screaming.
The dead man rises, one hand at Yazi's waist and one at her throat as he pulls her into the macabre dance of the Carowyn manor.
The hag's gaunt form shrivels and twists into an avatar of hunger, and Mouse's own stomach rumbles at the memory of nights on end without food.
The still water churns and rages against the shore, the waves' gaping maws foaming as they lunge to devour the desperate forms bobbing among the wreckage.
The ground begins to crumble, only too eager to betray her to the water's gluttony as the ship's deck had.
But yet, despite the turmoil, Mouse remains still as a statue. Crying out would only give the Maidens dogging every step a way to find her, after all. Or if not them, someone else - other dirty fronters like herself, jealous of all her new finery, all the things she didn't deserve. Lambs who weren't so pleased as Auntie and Unx and Blister about their world being torn apart by bolt and bullet.
Quiet...quiet was what would protect her, would keep her alone...alone, like she'd been for so long...
Li shakes her head emphatically no at Yazi's last comment. "I ain't be goin' anywhere near tha hag."
She turns her attention to the footlocker. "This be somethin' I c'n do somethin' about, if'n I'm not bein' too rusty."
Before touching anything, Li inspects the footlocker intently. Her lack of trust truly evident as she expects a trap to have been set.
Satisfied that she has inspected it well enough, she sets herself to trying to open the lock. She gets out her tools and takes a deep steadying breath before inserting anything into the lock. She then moves the picks with purpose, moving tumblers until she hears the satisfying click.
Yaziyah takes a closer look at the black-robed corpse they have brought up from the wreck of the Direption. His face has been half-eaten by crabs and fish, and his tongue is completely missing. Musing on these conditions, the shaman is pretty sure that understanding any of the deceased's words will be quite difficult.
Yaziyah also notices something everyone had missed before: the man has a small phylactery strapped to his upper arm. It is clearly stamped with a fly whose body is in the shape of an upside-down skull: the holy symbol of the dread goddess of undeath, Urgathoa.
A few steps away, Li carefully inspects the footlocker and notes that the water seal seems to be intact. Before attempting to open the lock, she notices that there is a patch of skin and hair stuck to the corner of the box; it matches the hair color of the black-robed man.
Her careful ministrations tease open the lock and she hears a satisfying "pop!" as she breaks the seal. Inside are a strange assortment of things: a leather pouch containing 75 Chelish platinum pieces, and 38 gold pieces, a magical cloak embroidered with the same symbol found on the robed man's phylactery, and a book. The book is hand-written and exquisitely illuminated, and bound in black silk and velvet over darkwood covers; it contains no title on its cover, but seems to offer various prayers to the goddess Urgathoa, along with numerous recipes for how to cook and prepare countless species of humanoids as meals. It also contains a primer for taking a conciliatory approach to dealing with the undead and for transforming oneself into an undead creature. Strangely, whenever the name "Urgathoa" appears within the book, it has been crossed out and replaced with the word "Andaisin".
Pausing in her ritual preparations to inspect the contents of the footlocker, Yaziyah is able to discern the properties of the cloak and inform the others as well.
"Phah! Urgathoa!" she exclaims disgustedly as she examines the phylactery and the book. "Although I do not know who this 'Andaisin' is, but Lady Despair is an enemy of both Pharasma and Abadar. Very bold of her followers to come here." She sets the items aside as she returns to her preparations. There was a slim chance that they may learn something useful, although the corpse's lack of a tongue may pose a problem, so Yaziyah prepares some crude writing implements and sketches a rough map of the city. This done, she is ready to cast her ritual.
After finishing the ritual, the corpse begins to vibrate, as if it were a large, cast iron bell being struck by a mallet. The movement eventually stops and the dead man's lungs deflate, expelling large amounts of river water along with several small fish, crabs, and a bucketful of worms.
"Whaaaarghhhhh!" the corpse speaks, "whooo aaaa ooooo? Whooo caaaas ne aaaaack oooon heee oool?"
"I am a shaman of the Shoanti people. My name is Speaks For The Dead. I seek knowledge from you."
Should the briefly reanimated corpse acquiesce to this, she asks her first question.
"We found you inside a wrecked ship, the Direption. Was this ship carrying disease on board? A plague? You can nod or shake your head if you have difficulty speaking, or you can scratch your answer into the mud with this sharpened stick."
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Garvid, stepping to the side as Yazi begins her weird magical handwave-y malarkey, he taps his halberd on the ground as he approaches Li. "Hey kid. Hag's out cold, figured I'd keep an eye on you.", he mutters, sitting down with a grunt and a jingle. "My old man never taught me that part of the trade.", he notions towards the lockbox. "Said if you're on the right side of the law, a halberd's the best lockpick you got. If you don't mind an audience, I'll watch." Been thinking about the old bastard a lot lately...
As the box is opened, he nods appreciatively at the gorgeous book, then spits out as Urgathoa is mentioned. "Sure... Urgathoa and Lamashtu. All we're missing is Kuthites and the mass murder-orgy is f!+@ing complete.", he grumbles. "Wait, did you say... Andaisin?", he stops for a moment, looking at Yazi. "Like, Andaisin Plaguebearer? Nidal's number three on the most wanted list?", he glares with amazement, then reaches for the book. "Well, f%#$. That's really her name. Don't suppose that's her, eh?", he looks at the hag, and gives her a solid kick. "Just in case."
As the ritual commences, Garvid can't help but shudder back at the moving corpse. Can't give a bent copper about what Pharasmin people would say about that. But it freaks me the hell out... At least hope he's gotta go back to... deaddom after we're through here.
The dead man looks up into the sky and shakes his head. Translated from tongueless gibberish: "No, no. No plague was brought on the ship."
Pietro nodded at Garvid, "I think you're right. It's the plague bearer said to have decimated a village in Nidal."
He shook his head, "This woman is a wanted criminal and never caught. I wonder if she's involved."
The Dr. looked curiously at the Shoanti shaman, "I don't think he can write, can he?"
Yaziyah glances at Garvid and Dr. Pietro before asking her second question. "Was this woman, Andaisin, on the ship?"
Li gives Garvid a lop-sided grin, "Be suitin' yerself. If'n ya really want ta learn, I c'n give ya a few lessons."
Once she gets the footlocker open and starts going through things, the book catches her eye but not because of it's contents but because it could be sold. She is hesitant to touch the coins, not knowing if they are also connected to the plague. Seeing Yazi's, Garvid's, and Pietro's reactions to the symbol and book contents causes Li to not want to touch anything in the locker. "We could be sellin' tha book. Lots of churches be payin' a bounty on books like this so they c'n be destroyin' 'em. Mebbe a certain priest o' Abadar be willin' ta pay fer it."
Yaziyah glances at Garvid and Dr. Pietro before asking her second question. "Was this woman, Andaisin, on the ship?"
The corpse continues, wheezing slightly with its bloated vocal chords. "The great Lady Andaisin was not with me when the ship went down."
This stiff was being obtuse on purpose. Yaziyah looks at the others, irked. "I have one more question that I can ask him. Anything that you want to know about this whole situation?"
This stiff was being obtuse on purpose. Yaziyah looks at the others, irked. "I have one more question that I can ask him. Anything that you want to know about this whole situation?"
Pietro became concerned that there could be a connection between the plague here and that madwoman of Lady Andaisin.
"Ask him if this Lady Andaisin is town?"
What I wanna know, Mouse murmurs to herself, is when we c'n git outta 'ere...
The corpse coughs up more river water and seaweed, spilling it out of the corners of its mouth.
"Oh yesss," it whispers, "she is here."
It then spasms several times and grows still.
That particular bit of business done with, Yaziyah dusts off her hands and rises, moving to where Mouse is sitting on her own, all curled up. Crouching in front of the girl, she puts a soothing hand on Mouse's arm.
"I'm so sorry, dear. The hag has cursed you. There is nothing that I can do right now, but come morning I can prepare a ritual to get rid of the curse. Just hang in there, dear one. We are here to protect you, nothing bad will befall you with us nearby."
Slinky underscores the older woman's words by slithering out of her coat, still wet from the river, and rubbing itself against Mouse's arm and hand, apparently demanding to be petted with much chittering and snuffling.
Garvid's frown grows into a grimace as the body stiffens one final time. "Abadar f@&+ing damnit!", he roars, his fist flying towards the wall he's leaning on, a cloud of dust flying out at the impact. As he steps away, his face is red. "Next thing, the Queen will announce that the Whispering Tyrant will drop by for a casual visit.", he grumbles, leaning down to pick up the hag once more. "Let's go drop that thing in the dungeon, and that", he points out at the body of the Urgathoan, "in a pyre somewhere."
Lifting the body with a grunt, he shoulders the unconscious hag. "Let's go bring Marshal Kroft the good news.", he suggests with an acerbic tone. "I'd suggest we check out the hospice after that.", he starts tapping around, clearly uneasy on his feet. "Yazi, Lordship - any of you know whether Lamashtu and Urgathoa are usually that closely knit?", he asks as the party departs, once again starting to scribble in his journal.
So, given the information that we now possess, I suggest it's nigh time we had a nice little friendly chat with a Plague Doctor about the disease. Should we go for the hospice, or should we try and snatch one somewhere? We can do the dropping off and selling of the book today, and tomorrow, when Mouse is de-cursed and we've regained strength, we can set off to dig for more clues.
[dice=Knowledge religion]1d20 + 13
Yaziyah shakes her head. "Lamashtu and Urgathoa are at odds. One of them is a goddess of birth, monstruous as it may be, the other one of disease and undeath. So at least that unholy alliance we don't need to fear. And... strange that you should mention the Whispering Tyrant. I expect Urgathoa views his followers with some favour."
Lord Talfryn stands to one side, hands linked behind his back, scowling at the surf.
"I had hoped for clear connections between the Direption and the contaminated coins, but instead we are given tantalizing clues as to the arrival of this Andaisin. Each answer seems to only lead to more questions."
He sighs and turns to regard Mouse.
"Still, we have our priorities. Time for our friend to recover, and then yes, perhaps the hospice bears looking into. We might also want to alert the Marshall as to the confirmation we've received of Andaisin's arrival in Korvosa."
A sidelong glance at Garvid. "Are you intent on delivering the hag to the Korvosan guard? Do you think they are equipped to handle one such as she?"
As Li gives her offer of lockpicking lessons, Garvid nods. "Might do. I heard finesse helps sometimes.", he smirks. "Though, that'll have to wait until things die down a bit. We're stretched on time as it is...", he remarks, before nodding down and focusing his attention on the lock as it clicks.
As the price of the book is mentioned, Garvid shakes his head in disbelief. "That's a tall bounty for a scrap of paper and... But I'm not one to judge." he takes a long glance at the book. Hopefully not skin. "One thing's for sure - I'm not keeping it. I prefer "serving the citizens of Korvosa" in a bit less literal sense.", he lets out a grim chuckle as he nods at Yazi's words. "Well that's a small relief, at least." I'll take any.
Scratching his head at Talfryn's question, Garvid gives a thoughtful nod in response. "You may be right. I've brought in a couple in my day, but those were usually students with way too much to drink.", he chuckles. "I'm not so sure, although...", he starts thinking. "Lord Talfryn, you're a man who knows his stuff."
"If you can explain to me like I'm an idiot how most of the magic works, I'm sure we can come out with a way to keep her, and anyone else, safely contained.", he says, clearing his throat. "Not that many mages want the glamourous life of a guard, so the current tradition is 'accidentally' breaking of fingers and teeth and burning spellbooks.", he shrugs. "How would you do it?"
"I'll have it be noted from the start that I believe we should interrogate this hag ourselves and then execute her. Again: she belongs to a race that is irredeemably evil. No good will come from entrusting her care to a judicial and guard system that is already taxed to its limits."
He tugs on his wet mustache a couple of times before settling his shoulders and linking his hands behind his back once more.
"Given what I know of her nature, she should be tightly, even cruelly gagged at all times. The entirety of her head should be contained within an impenetrable sack, chained at the neck, so that even if she should free her hands she should not be able to free her head. Her hands should be manacled behind her back with extremely strong handcuffs, and even her fingers should be bound so that should could not execute the gestures needed for magic."
He ponders the question further, clearly looking uncomfortable. "It's possible that she may know telepathy, and thus even gagging and binding her might not insulate her guards from her abuse. Worse, there may be other sea hags in the area that are connected to her; I fear that these sisters may be drawn to free her from the jail, resulting in a horrendous assault."
"If we do not execute her as is my wish, I would urge that we first ask permission from the Marshall before bringing her into the city, and whether she personally can vouch for her ability to guard such a creature. I fear that the Gray Maidens may 'requisition' her, leading to grave perils for our company down the road."
Eyes still red from the swim, Mouse looks up to Yazi and nods at her friend's words of comfort. But...I ain't gon' be no good t' them like this...what'f they don' wan' me roun' no more? Ain't no way they're gon' put up wit me as dead weight - 's back t' Old Korvosa wit' th' sickness for y', Mouse, 'f y' don' pull y'rself together! Somehow, though, thoughts of helpless suffering and plague do little to dispel her worry and anxiety. Slinky's attentions help slightly more...although Mouse carefully keeps her hands away from the weasel's mouth, and flinches at every quick movement. Animals were unpredictable, after all. She'd gotten enough rat bites to know.
Profession(Guard) to find out how the Guard (or Sable Company) deals with magical criminals.]
Li listens to Garvid and Lord Talfryn discuss the hag and she gets a confused look on her face. "How ya be interrogatin' tha hag if'n ya need ta keep her gagg'd tha whole time?"
Talfryn gives her a patient nod. "That would be only if we were to deliver her unto the Marshall. If we performed the interrogation, we could skip the gag and settle for bagging her head. At the first sounds of a spell, I could signal Garvid to pummel her with the butt of his halberd."
"I think the Marshall has more than enough things to worry about at the moment. I say, interrogate her ourselves. You can do as you wish after that."
She stretches, a hand in the small of her back. Gods, but she needed some rest. This had been a long, long day.
Pietro's sapped strength was getting the better of him. His mood had soured with the discussion of what to do with the hag.
Who was he kidding? He was no judge. His talents were better spent trying to heal the city, the people. Not deciding whether monsters should be redeemed.
With a sad heart, he turned to his companions, "I think this is the end of the road for me. At least for now. There are people out there who can use my skills, whose lives I can ease."
He shook his head, "I'm no adventurer. I almost killed Yazi last time that vampire took over my mind. No, my place is elsewhere."
He concluded, "You may find me in my clinic during the day if you require anything from me. And I mean anything. And you may see me in the poorer parts of town at night."
And here was the first to leave, the first to lose patience with the boorish, brainless, helpless, hopeless Mouse. It ain't 'is fault...he ain't wrong, t' wan' t' git outta 'ere...we shou'n't be 'ere, none o' us... Again the half-elven girl buries her face in her knees, trying to hide the tears and the heavy gasps that spring up unbidden once again. Git back t' Mister Cal's...'s safe there, 'less 'e's decided me an' the little 'uns ain't worth th' trouble...
Garvid stares at Pietro with a long look, one being unsure whether the guardsman understands, or he is a moment away from snapping. A moment later, he nods. "You've got a point, Doc.", he says quietly. "As much of a help you are to us, a doctor should be helping the city. And you've done more than your share." His voice is clear and curt, but respectful. "Same goes to you - if you have a hassle, call for us. I promise to bring you interesting scars, at least.", a smile crawls on Garvid's face.
As the hag is dragged to a darkened alley, Garvid stares at the bagged figure with a solemn gaze, giving her a kick when those more knowledgeable of magic give him the go. "I have to say, there's no way I'd help my executioners in her place, and I'm sure as hell not planning to bring out the red pokers." He looks down. "But I think we owe Korvosa to at least try."
"Hag.", he says, "You've been judged of being a danger to Korvosa.", his stoic voice carries a note of disgust at the situation. "By Korvosan law, I am to take your name and a final message, if you choose to give one." He pauses, then continues. "If you have someone in here you care about, I'll personally see to it they receive a blood pay. And if you have any information about the source of the disease, I'll ensure they receive a reward on your behalf.", he adds. Fat chance of that. He looks around, waiting for questions to be asked.
"What is your answer, hag?", he asks, standing in a stoic stance, halberd at the ready.
Li tries to convince the doctor to stay, "But nobody be perfect. We all be knowin' ya weren't bein' yerself when ya hurt Yazi." But she realizes from the look on his face that his mind is made up. "Yer patients be lucky that ya be carin' about 'em so much. It be nice when ya matter ta others," she mumbles.
While the doctor talks with Garvid, Li can't resist lifting Pietro's dagger once again. "Are ya goin' ta come back ta tha manor an' say goodbye ta Cal?" Then she holds up his dagger and asks jokingly, "An' will ya be needin' this or c'n I be havin' it ta remember ya by?"