Speaking to his hammer quickly in a moment of respite, Karmid frowns.
"That's not supposed to happen Angela! You hit, bones break, they scream, blood spurts. That was our agreed upon arrangement!"
The fight against the cultists is tense and tooth and nail, as they are unwilling to back down within their own four walls. Despite their tenacity, your own shifts the balance in your favor until you are battling what seems to be their leader and a group of four cultists on the top floor of the sawmill. He appears to be a tall, very slender man dressed in the robes of office of a judge employed by the city of Magnimar and a terrifying mask sewn from human skin. He dodges your blows and wields a short sword with supernatural precision. The fight drags on for several moments until the judge lowers his weapons and holds up his other hand in a gesture of surrender.
"Peace!" he shouts hoarsely, his remaining four followers gathering around him protectively. "This battle has gone on long enough. What right do you have to break into a private place of business?"
Drasven signals to the others for them to take the lead in this and realizes.....he's still invisible...
Karmid immediately looks for dirty tricks or signs of the man lying.
Slamming his hammer into one of enemy leader's already dead comrades to make his point, Karmid lifts the huge weapon with one hand again. Pointing the weapon with bits of hair, skull, and brains falling off of it as he replies to the enemy speaker: Karmid only has hatred in his eyes.
"Murderers! F!+&ing death cultists! You don't GET to speak until we ask the questions! Now...DROP YOUR WEAPONS AND KNEEL WITH YOUR HAND ON YOUR HEADS! Or so HELP me, I will turn every one of you into my next F@&#ING work of art on the floor!"
The cultists look to their leader who slowly and carefully puts down his sword and gets on his knees. Seeing this, the others do the same, but all retain their masks.
Even though he is clearly not in control, the leader seems to be quite calm. "We have done as you asked, Shoanti. Now I ask again, what gives you the right to break into this place of business?"
Karmid holds his hammer in front of the man's face.
"I am a divine representative of Gozreh, and I have a pretty good idea what you and your friends are. And this hammer? It and my god gives me the right to kill as many of you sick a&&#&*!s I deem fit in order to defend the rights of other free-living citizens of this city. You wear human skin, worship a monster you call a god, and dare ask me what rights I have? You and your group's actions have removed whatever pity or remorse I have had left today. Drasven, collect their weapons and toss them in the other room. Ro, go look for any incriminating evidence that must be here. We will need it once we report all of this to the city watch. Now...why did you send the unnatural assassins to the townhouse! Speak NOW...while you still can."
Drasven jolts as his name is called.
Mentally chucking at the sight of what he'll look like as he picks up the discarded weapons.
Weapons that are raised up by themselves and then disappears into thin air only for them to reappear mysteriously elsewhere in another room.
While at it Drasven uses a simple prayer to detect for any magical auras on the weapons and the cultists....
"Yeah, your stalker pals talked. We have your communications with Foxglove. We have the deed to his townhouse. We know that if you're not 'The Seven' yourselves, they're your masters. We know everything except why. Cut the "place of business" bullshit and answer all our questions. Let's start with who is Xanesha?"
"I'm not sure whether all the things you've done will earn you a death penalty, or just never seeing the light of day again since I don't know the in and outs of the city's laws. But I'm sure you can fill us in on that Judge Ironbriar, isn't it? You're guilty, so what will your sentence be?"
Lias hair stands up with Goosebumps as Karmid starts calling out names.
This was it. Karmid was telling a Judge that he'd take him to Court. A well-known judge, of all things. Chances of success? Miniscule. Unless of course he was bluffing and going to murder them all. In which case he also wouldn't need to try and keep any names secret. Such as those he called out when bellowing orders.
Things were...in balance, between different interpretations and outcomes.
For now, the frail girl remained on edge, invisible, silent, and close to her allies.
The masked men all drop their weapons and get on their knees, putting their hands on their heads as instructed by the very persuasive Shoanti. It's hard to tell their emotional state given that they are all still wearing their terrifying masks, but from their twitchy body language, they are all (with the exception of their leader) thoroughly crapping their pants.
The leader takes off his mask, revealing a stern elven face of indeterminate years. "This is far from over, interlopers, and Xanesha will be your doom. She is already waiting for you and preparing your coffins."
Ro removes any weapons close at hand on the floor and begins hogtying the cultists, including Ironbriar.
"We'll take a look around and get back to you about Xanesha. I hope for your sake you've decided to be more useful by then" she tells Ironbriar.
Once the majority of the enemies were tied up, Karmid pulls Lia aside.
"If any one of them cause a series ruckus? Burn them...mildly. None of them would be as gentle to us."
He then moves to aid Ro's actions to tie up the prisoners tightly, pulling her aside afterward.
"We need to look for incriminating evidence before Lia burns this place to the ground by sheer accident. Should we send Drasven for the watch now you think? It might take a while for them to get arranged and arrive to take charge. I also get the feeling Ironbriar won't talk to us in front of his flunkies. He's the real threat here anyway, but we need to speak to him alone."
Going through the sawmill and Ironbriar's private chambers delivers you a large amount of equipment and treasure. Some of it is strange but quite mundane, such as Ironbriar's office art, but other is less ordinary, including the magical masks made of human skin worn by the cultists.
Additional, in Ironbriar's office you find that the walls bear macabre decorations–human faces stretched flat over wooden frames by strips of leather or black twine. Each face grimaces in a slightly different expression of pain, looking down on a cramped room that contains a desk, a high-backed rocking chair, and a low-slung cot heaped with scratchy-looking blankets.
A ladder in the office leads to a trap door in the ceiling.
Additionally, the room contains a painting depicting a city carved from a vast frozen waterfall with towering ice cathedrals and dome .
A footlocker contains various and sundry items:
A wizard’s spellbook emblazoned with two entwined snakes (one red, one green) that contains the following spells: blink, cat’s grace, chill touch, enlarge person, fox’s cunning, grease, haste, lightning bolt, mage armor, magic missile, scorching ray, shocking grasp, shrink item, spider climb, and web.
The second book is an old and beautifully filigreed tome containing numerous hand-drawn illustrations and titled The Syrpents Tane: Fairy Tales of the Eldest. The book presents tales of the Tane—the most feared of a group of notorious fey known as the Twisted, goliaths of war and madness dreamt and stitched into being by the Eldest. The Tane are said to be terrible to behold, and the stories speak of them stumbling into mortal lands, where they ravage kingdoms by creating firestorms, crushing keeps with their feet, and eating dragons. Specific Tane described include monstrous creatures like the Jabberwock (a thing of scales and fire and crushing fury), the Thrasfyr (also known as the Dreaming Hill of the Dark, a chimeric monster wrapped in chains that the book claims took part in the Three-Thousand-Year War of the Eldest), and the Sard (the Storm of Insanities, a thing of boughs and briars and misery, an ancient Wychwood Elm given life and hate by the Eldest).
Finally, a slim book filled with what appears to be indecipherable script
--------------------------------
Spending some time around Justice Ironbriar gives some of you a strange feeling, and not just because he is a remorseless killer dedicated to the god of murder. There's something odd about him, in the occasionally vacant way he looks and in the speed of his reactions. It's a very subtle thing, however, that only Ro and Lia pick up on.
It takes some time but Drasven does come back with the Watch.
Even then It's clear they easily outpace the dwarf's shorter legs.
It takes some time but Drasven does come back with the Watch.
Even then It's clear they easily outpace the dwarf's shorter legs.
Drasven eventually tracks down a sleepy Watch sergeant at his post a few blocks from the sawmill.
"You did what and where? A cult of what god? Hold on, let me get some of the lads off of their bunks and you can explain this to me on the way over."
He rouses a half-dozen other guards who complain about being woken during their otherwise uneventful shift and arrive several minutes later.
Seeing the bodies on the ground floor, the sergeant scratches his head, but recoils when he turns over a dead cultist wearing the Skinsaw mask.
"What in the Seven Heavens is that? Is that human skin?" he mumbles, stumbling back a few steps.
When everyone is well trussed up, Ro suggests Karmid give her a hand carrying Ironbriar to his office. She thinks he might be right about the villain's tongue loosening when he's alone.
"No need for us to work so hard when the judge can kindly give us a tour."
She has all the masks stripped from their wearers. Partially this is because there could be something about them that gives the wearer some power or advantage. Besides, if they desire to hide behind masks, their desire will now be denied.
She mulls what to do with the captives while the search of the place is happening. She doesn't want to kill them all out of hand, but at the same time she believes too much in Ironbriar's position giving them the means of avoiding any consequences. And he simply cannot be free again.
Ro mentions nothing about the strangeness she feelings in Ironbriar in his presence, but she mentions it and asks for opinions from everyone else when he won't hear.
"My best guess is it's some sort of enchantment? Probably a strong one if it's power lasts for very long?"
So many occasions seem to arise when it would have been a good idea to have paid more attention in her classes. Ro has always sucked at knowing much of anything about magic beyond the spells she knows.
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Lia keeps herself busy gathering sawdust from the lower levels in 2 buckets, then emptying it onto the prisoners. When they are sufficiently covered with it, she fetches a torch and sits nearby, addressing the cultists with a expression lacking any kind of irony:"Ready. You can cause a ruckus now. Thanks for the patience."
She also takes note of Ironbriar being under the effect of a spell - but is unsure if she could learn more than Ro
Ro curses under her breath when she realizes Drasven shown up with the Watch.
No options now and if anyone in the world can skate right out of court, or even before then, it's a judge.
As much as she trusts Ironbriar's ability to avoid punishment and go free right away, she distrusts the Watch to really do anything in the first place when they realize who they're there to arrest.
Ro does her best though, taking them on a grand tour of the evidence in detail.
While Ro gives the watch the grand tour in glaring detail, Karmid sits Ironbriar down in his office and works him over verbally, but quickly.
"I need some idea why you sent those assassins to meet us! Why send those monsters? Why not some of your flunkies? Speak now or forever hold your pieces..."
The surviving cultists seem to be pretty hard-boiled characters who do not succumb easily to Lia's implied threat of being burned. If anything, they seem dispondant and the fire seems to have gone out behind their eyes; they have been defeated and they cannot quite believe it. Lia even hears one of them wondering out loud how they have offended their god, since he has abandoned them in their time of need.
===========================
Ironbriar seems confused by Karmid's questioning and answers as if schooling a small child.
"Why would I risk my own faithful against an unknown threat? Better to pass the danger off to a deniable asset. That way, even if they fail, none of those who follow the Skinsaw Man are harmed, and I cannot be officially implicated. Foxglove should have spelled your doom, but it seems he too was flawed."
===========================
The watch are guided through the mill with a growing sense of fear, but seem to believe the story they are being told by Ro. It is clear that this is not an ordinary sawmill and that the cultists are not innocuous workers.
Listening to reasoning Ironbriar gives, Karmid laughs.
"I hate to tell you, but you got 'implicated' I think here. So...bad move there. Now! Back to the point at hand: Cough it up! Why us? Why are you trying to get rid of us? Foxglove was a fool...and a ghoul by the end too! His damnable house was a necromantic deathtrap! But his evil shenanigans led us here...to you!"
Ironbriar, fear still in his eyes, takes a seat at his desk and absentmindedly stares down at his collection of accumulated treasures stewn about.
"Foxglove was but a means to an end and was able to provide us with valuable resources thanks to his forefather's tragic fate. Foxglove wrote to us about you, asking us to help him in ending your inquisitive nature. Sadly, he was already too much in debt to us, and we couldn't assist him. Perhaps a bit shortsighted of us, but at the time it seemed like the right decision. We had to stop you from discovering our own involvement and that of our mistress, however, which is why we sent the changelings to take care of you."
Karmid's eyes light up.
"Mistress? There's a silent player here? What's her name! Where can we find her. Is she in town?"
Ironbriar gives a look of shock and throws up his hands in frustration. "Merely a figure of speech, my good Shoanti. My mistress is simply a human woman I keep as a plaything. I talk to her of my dealings after our lovemaking, and didn't want to expose her unnecessarily, but now you know! Please treat her gently, she is an innocent in all of this."
"This Mistress, you mentioned. You hold her in high regard. She must be very important to you isn't it?" Drasven having now joined the others after bringing the watch and assuring them that is was safe to arrest the cultists.
"Who is this woman who has captured your heart so."
"Look, we're not going to run in circles with you about this stuff. You talk about this woman and we also know there is a Xanesha you plot with. Sounds like a woman's name to me, are they one and the same?
"You also talk as if she directs you, but she's not a member of your little death cult. Is she your superior in the cult, or is she an outsider and you're working together for a common goal?"
"What are you doing, and what do you want?"
Since none of the can try to dispel the charm affecting Ironbriar, Ro tries a minor protective spell offering protection against evil. It only has a slim chance of working she thinks, but it's at least worth a try.
As Ro casts her spell on Ironbriar, the elf first looks alarmed, but when nothing happens, his face takes on a confused expression.
"Hey, why did you do that?" he asks Ro pointedly. "Are you trying to ensorcel me to get me to talk? That won't work, I can tell you. I have the Skinsaw Man on my side. He protects his servants."
Ro frowns at Ironbriar impatiently.
"You idiot, you're already 'ensorcelled'. And you talk like some peasant's grandpa. "You practically reek of enchantment. I'm trying to remove it."
As Rojava casts the spell again, Judge Ironbriar's face slowly changes from confusion to anger. He begins struggling (in vain) against the ropes binding his hands behind his back and cursing loudly in Elven.
Karmid smirks at the man.
"I think he's upset. NOW TALK! Who is this 'charming' woman."
Drasven would have smirked too but his long beard hides that.
Instead he crosses his arms.
"Are you yourself now Judge?"
Judge Ironbriar grumbles, seemingly unamused by Karmid and Drasven's atempts at humor.
He says a few more choice words in Elven and then switches into Chelaxian.
"That whore charmed me and made me her slave. I'll tell you where you can find her if you give me 12 hours to flee the city. I promise to tell you as much as I know about her and how she manipulated and desecrated myself and my followers. I'll even tell you about the strength and forces of her guardians, but only if you set me free."
Ro's lack of faith that Magnimar's justice system would actually punish Ironbriar makes the choice fairly easy for her, even if she doesn't like it.
"Alright, I think that's a deal we're willing to make with you. But there's something else you have to tell us as well. Are there any more cells, or chapters, or whatever you might call them of your little murder club, in the city?"
Ironbriar sits up straight in his office chair, a look of complete indignation plastered across his face.
"Another cell? What do you take me for, woman? Do you think I would allow anyone to live and offer competition for the Skinsaw Man's favor? How little you must think of me."
Ro snorts in sour mirth.
"You're not wrong about me thinking very little of you, but for other reasons than you believe. Good to hear you're eager to purge each other though. It makes things easier for us."
Frowning, Karmid suddenly looks serious and shakes his head.
"No. We caught them wearing HUMAN SKIN. I'm not willing to take that deal. He's a multiple mass-murderer! His cultists are just duped idiots. He would just build another murder cult somewhere else if we let him go. No...he must face justice for his crimes here. We will find the woman another way somehow. I'm sure there is evidence here in the office if we take the time to look. 'Xanesha' is also a fairly unique name to my ear...she must be known around town somehow...somewhere."
Looking down at the judge again, Karmid spits at his feet and smiles a little too evilly.
"That Charm will overwhelm you again soon enough, right? Good luck with getting rid of that with no help from us. I doubt the constabulary would be willing to bother to remove it. It would cost the city too much coin. You know how city bureaucracy goes...don't you Judge? After finding this orgy of evidence, I doubt you'll last more than a day in court before the city makes an example out of you, or some bailiff you angered in the past shanks you in the toilet to save the taxpayers the cost of giving you your day in court."
Ironbriar's face once again assumes the unyielding, implacable facade it was wearing when you first saw him.
"Very well. Good luck finding Xanesha then. I'll throw myself at the mercy of the court."
Smirking again, Karmid makes a rude gesture to the captured judge.
"Then have fun being Xanesha's b@+*~ for the remaining part of your life. See you in court. 'Mercy' that just funny."
Karmid then turns to Drasven.
"Get the watch in here and have them take this scum away: He has 'rights.' Then when we are done here, contact the church of Abadar and make sure they are informed what happened here and that we are willing to testify against the judge and would appreciate their help making sure we do things legally and within the law. When word of these arrests get out, that should make us a major target for this 'Xanesha' in order to keep us quiet about her and her activities in the city. She should come to US at that point."
Drasven looks between Karmid and Ro.
"Both of you bring good points to your arguments. Much as we bring this one to the courts. What is our next step from here on? This Xanesha is still in the shadows and this Judge may be stuck in the legal system for a long time and even then might not be a resolution that we might wish for. The church while it has its influence, I doubt that they possess the power to push this city's ruling powers into doing what they want. This puppet master obviously knows of us and where we are but we don't have anything on her. this also means we won't know when or where she'll strike." the dwarf pauses even as he turns slightly to beckon the patient watch waiting outside.
"Gentlemen. This prisoner and all evidence here is in your hands. Please do note that we are witness and able to testify against this man's crimes." with that done he turns to the rest while making space for the watchmen to do their job.
"It's being a long day. Perhaps we should head back to rest after giving our report to the church. It's a task I should be able to do so alone. Anyone else wounded? Allow me to treat your wounds before we leave."
He waits for the others to take up his offer if any.
The guards get about their work dragging the cultists off and gathering evidence from all around the sawmill. When the watch captain arrives a short while later, he asks you all to accompany him to the watch station in order to take down your statements of what happened here tonight.
Smiling mildly, Karmid waves off Drasven's worry.
"I'm not worried if the city drags out the court's time on this, nor do I expect the church to make a huge difference in the results. I DO expect them to make this PUBLIC. A big deal. 'Noise' that gets Xanesha's attention. Feel free to let your church elders know we are using them and this situation to bait a bigger fish too. A fish that seems set on causing chaos and destruction. They should like that idea: Two chaotic dragons slain with one spear...so to speak."