Andre, though he has an arrow nocked to his bow, attempts to approach in a non-threatening manner.
"Don't be a fool about this. We can help you," he says.
Ihon stays quiet and simply watches the proceedings.
While the cultist is focused on the speakers, Devron carefully circles around the perimeter, while Urzoth does the same from the opposite side.
With some help, you are able to convince the man to speak.
It was about destruction. Plain and simple. And if you want to know why it left me alive, I suggest that you ask the demon itself. He coughs a bit before continuing, If you are simply travelers wandering these woods, you have a lot more than just that demon to worry about. Still coughing from his wounds, he laughs and remains disinclined to help you, though he is at least talking and has made no move to attack yet.
"Did you and your friends summon the demon to this forest?"
"Answer her question," Andre growls, watching the other man carefully.
Sazu tugs on Andre's sleeve to pull him aside.
"I could try to charm him," Sazu whispers, "We might get more out of him, but if it fails he'll definitely know, and after it ends he'll still definitely know."
Andre glances down at the gnome and back at the man, not relaxing his grip on the bow. Out of the corner of his mouth, he mutters, "Let's wait and see if Phaedra can get anything out of him...if not, that's probably our best choice."
The man laughs, smiling through bloody teeth. Summon the demon here? Of course not. They just come. They come to destroy. And we come for the right to join them. Soon you'll burn just like the rest. Soon everything will burn and Rovagug will take this place as his own!
"Is there a certain area that they come from?"
Ihon tilts his had as he looks around at the forest seemingly uninterested in the conversation.
Isn't it glorious? They come from the land here. From the fires, and the ash. From the doorways and the caverns. This is Rovagug's land. And we relish it. He smiles through the blood.
Well I'm bored. Should I kill him? He's just wasting our time. Devron thinks. He will make a hand gesture to Urzoth, and the two will stalk around the man so they can rush in and make a pincer attack as soon as his usefulness is over.
"Is there any certain one that is in charge of the others?"
The man smiles again, Yasen is the chosen of the Great Beast. He knows the vision and he guides your destruction.
"Can and will you lead us to where this 'Yasen' is?" Andre asks, arrow still ready on his bowstring.
The man laughs, spitting at your feet and clearly not intending to answer.
Phaedra frowns at the man. "It will not go well for you if you choose to no longer be of use to us."
If he is no longer willing to answer our questions, I suppose we may as well kill him...
Sazu steps in and quietly hums a small diddy as he approaches the man.
"Sir, we mean no disrespect. We simply wish to fulfill the roles that have been given to us, and I believe that means meeting Yasen."
Charm Person
Saving Throw Will negates; Spell Resistance yes
SPELL DC 16
The man blinks and seems to become more cooperative. Well I don't actually know how to get in touch with Yasen to be honest. We're mostly just a group of followers of Rovagug. Leaders are the ones that can fight better. And it isn't like we have orders. He pauses a bit and thinks, Well there's the cave up north. Yasen might be down in there. That place is dangerous though...nobody goes up there without a good reason to.
Sazu nods as the man speaks.
"Anything else you think would be helpful for us to know? In exchange, we could help put your fallen comrades to rest for the work they've done."
He gestures to the two dead men felled by the demon.
The man laughs, spitting on the corpses, To rest? Death is the only rest they deserve. He stops to think again, [b]The demons get more common and more aggressive and powerful the closer you get to that cavern. You better be prepared to fight them if you want to go that way.
Ihon quietly watches the exchange with disinterest.
Andre watches the exchange, one eyebrow cocked. "Well, there now. That wasn't so hard, was it?" He turns from the man, and to his companions. "Useful idiot or no, the man's a demoniac. Can't just leave him...does anyone have shackles?"
"If not, I have something more permanent than shackles."
"Let us try to avoid the permanent solution. If he is left alive he can go to Her Majesty's courts and be tried justly for his sins."
"Shackles would be more secure, but failing that...does anyone have any rope?"
Sazu looks at the equipment that he and the dead men carry, seeing if there's anything useful or could help fight that creature.
Sazu produces a rope from his pack
"But I don't think he'll survive unless we take him back straight away. It might be worth it to see if we can find somewhere who sells weapons that will benefit us to fight the beast better."
We cannot leave him here. He frowns as he looks around, We have no time for weapons. They will make little difference. What we cannot kill with what we have, we will not be able to kill with what we can afford.
Devron rolls his eyes. "I ain't gonna stand around here forever. Just kill him and be done with it."
Sensing her master's agitation, Urzoth moves a few feet closer to the bloodied and wounded man, a predatory light in her eyes.
Sazu, while searching you find two suits of leather armor, a quarterstaff, a greatsword, a longsword, and two shortbows with 23 arrows.
Ihon will, as usual, look over all of the equipment with detect magic.
Ihon, none of the gear appears to be magical.
"Well we can't risk taking him with us, he's bound to do something that will f!@@ us over and we are not going to just let him go. However, we certainly can't just tie him up and leave him here either. I mean, not even taking into account the usual wild animals, there are apparently demons roaming free and we would be sentencing him to a likely slow and horrible death."
Phaedra shakes her head. "I say it's best to just give him a quick death now."
Phaedra will unsheathe her greatsword and finish off the cultist.
The sight of freshly spilled blood and violence is too much, and Urzoth dives in shortly after Phaedra withdraws her sword, clamping her jaws down on the dead man's head and worrying it like a dog would. She pulls away from the group and chews contentedly as she ignores Devron attempts to get her to stop.
"Urzoth! No!" Devron shouts as his companion tears into the dead cultist. "Dammit!"
He stalks over to her and shakes his head angrily. "You know you can't eat when we're on the hunt! Put him down!" he exclaims.
With all of the cultists dead, there seem to be no other sounds around you and, from what you can tell, the demon they were fighting is not returning. You still have plenty of daylight left if you want to continue exploring or wish to head somewhere specific.
"No sense in wasting daylight. Let's keep moving but I insist we make a full retreat should we encounter that demonic creature. We may beat it, but we might lose a few lives in the process."
Sazu looks around nervously, as if mentioning the creature would summon its presence.
Ihon frowns slightly, tilts his head for a few moments, then shrugs. We wouldn't beat it...or survive. He looks off into the woods distractedly, finally simply saying, North.
Andre grimaces and bows his head as the cultist is executed, saying a brief prayer to Erastil that his soul will be judged as it is worth. As the group prepares to move on, he nods.
"North's as good a direction as any, says I," he comments. "No reason to stop now."
Phaedra finishes cleaning off her sword and then follows the others north.
"North sounds as good a direction as any," Amideo remarks as he trots alongside the group.
Ihon nods and quietly follows the others.
Ihon walks along distractedly looking off into the woods.