Her armored hand hits the table just as Marduk's had mere moments ago. "Ah, there you go. Now for ro--"
*Knock - Knock - Knock*
A voice from outside the door yells through the thick wooden door. "Mistress! We understand it's insubordination to eavesdrop on a superior's private conversations and I personally accept the entire regiment's impending punishment, but we can all hear quite clearly you. Are you fooling around in there? We've got important logistics to go over!"
The centaur pauses for a beat. "R-right. My personal business IS done here. You may enter, Hellknight. She turns back to the standing party. "If you'll excuse me, Pathfinders, I have official Hellknight business to take care of. Until we meet again."
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Marduk snarls at the interruption but relents when he sees his opponent has already submitted to her peers.
"Very well. We will have to finish our last round another time", the hulking Orc says.
Shooting another fierce expression at the interrupting Hellknight, Marduk leans in and speaks in a low voice.
"If you ever tire of this farce, come find me in Abasalom. Yours are a strong and proud people. You don't belong here.
After giving one more meaningful glance to the centuaress, Marduk looks to his party.
"Are we ready to move on?"
The Field-Maralictor adds another question atop the previous. "So, are we to see the Lictor or get a supplementary signature?"
Also called the Keep of Tyranny, Lictor’s Keep rises in the center of Bastion Dominus. Rising two stories above the open bailey, this forbidding structure features few windows, each seemingly narrower than the last, and a roof rife with spikes of iron and stone. On the first floor, is the Hall of Edicts, an austere courtroom of sorts where the order’s lictor and lesser tribunals judge those who have violated the law. On the floor above are the private quarters of Lictor DiViri, though these are guarded and strictly off-limits to anyone but the lictor and his guests.
At the bottom of a staircase, your guide stops. "I can go no further into the Keep. I will be here when you return. The lictor has already been notified of your arrival with the Affidavit."
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Marduk raises a brow at the question.
"No, nothing like that. There's many people in this damned kingdom that want me in irons or dead. Sometimes they even succeed for a time."
"But there's a reason I'm here with you and the Pathfinders and not rotting in a Hellknight prison like this one. Whether they like it or not, Zarta and her allies need me - I have the strength to do the things their more weak-willed agents can't. So they keep me content and free."
You notice that every of the numerous archways in this walkway is under effect of a permanent Alarm spell. Mental alarm, not audible.
After a climb that felt far longer than it should have, a door flanked by number of individuals in Hellknight plate. One of you shows the affidavit to the contingent of elite Hellknight guards watching the entrance to the tower, and the guards stand aside to let the PCs and their liaison pass.
Inside, this ominously furnished room contains a low hanging chandelier made of smoky glass and bookshelves filled with leather-bound tomes. A wide stack of yellowed, black-bound volumes sits atop a raised dais—the ebony colored judge’s bench—in the center of the room. Sitting in the judge's seat is yet another individual heavily clad in armor. The lictor’s right hand is fully engulfed in a prominent, black steel gauntlet; shadows from the candlelight chandelier make the scars on his face seem even more ghoulish. The scarred indidivudal ceases his current paperwork and looks down over his desk. He then simply a single sentence, in a gruff, deep voice.
"Tell me what you know."
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Erin steps up to the desk and places the evidence in front of the Lictor.
"Lictor Diviri, before you is evidence proving Zarta Dralneen is innocent of the treason for which she is accused. We have the letters she allegedly wrote, compared with letters that she actually wrote, showing the handwriting on the treasonous documents is a forgery. We also have Zarta's personal travel logs, which place her well outside the city when the betrayal took place. She is completely innocent in this matter and should be released on the grounds of this information."
The lictor merely stares down at you while listening intently.
He nods and using his left hand, he pops open the scroll tube and leafs through the evidence. Even the least emotionally perceptive of you can tell he's getting angrier and visibly frustrated with every passing page. With mighty heft, he picks up and chucks his onyx letter opener against corkboard holding a multitude of wanted posters on his right and lets loose a short barrage of words, most of which Paizo's ToS won't let me post.
he yells out, drawing another paper from his desk.
He then begins writing things on the paper with a unholy fervor and the spiked pointer finger of his gauntlet. He speaks a little more calmly than just moments ago, though that's not saying much. "Pathfinders, I know now that what you say is true: Paracountess Zarta Dralneen is innocent. And thus, she must be freed. This document here gives you temporary access to where she's held." he says, continuing to fill out a second page of paperwork in his fury.
"Travel to the southernmost end of the keep; there, beneath a tower called the Forgetful Spire, you’ll find an entrance to our oubliette—a place we call Caina. Pay no mind to what or who you find there, for they are meant to be forgotten. Just give this certified affidavit to Maralictor Ganden Heriphis, the oubliette’s keeper." He sets a two-page set of paperwork on the edge of the desk closest to you. "He’ll know what to do. Now, quickly, be on your way—this blunder will be rectified promptly or not at all! You've got 3 hours, starting now."
As you leave, the Lictor stands to get the knife out of whatever unfortunate "Wanted" poster he hit. Your parting glances are of him doing a double-take between Erin, the poster, and back again. He shakes his head and mutters something to himself on short walk back.
Meeting back up with the Field-Maralictor guide, she asks if you have any further business in the Citadel.
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Awaiting the others to exit, Erin lets out a deep breath confides to Ashur in a whisper.
"I have changed my appearance since then, but I was almost sure he was going to arrest me right there."
She then conspiratorially adds.
"Also, this method of escorting the prisonor sounds very fishy. Should they not bring her here for some sort of formal processing and then let us take her? Sending us ourselves down to the prison sounds like some sort of trap."
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Erin runs her fingers through her shoulder-length blonde hair and looks coyly up at Ashur with her blue eyes.
"Ashur I am Varisian."
She states, as if it explains everything, then quickly switches topics back to the job.
"But for the matter at hand, we may want to make a quick detour back to see the Mistress of Blades to see if this is correct protocol. I know we have a small window, but it is much easier to spot a trap when you know one is there."
"A-hem," Field-Maralictor Elixia interrupts to help direct this conversation. "While I can't stop you from deciding to attempt to revisit the Mistress, I can tell you these two things. If there is a prisoner unlawfully being held here, there is no additional paperwork on the plaintiff's part beyond the affidavit to release them, since their induction paperwork has become null and void. All further paperwork is most likely on their approriate desks. Secondly, the Mistress' advisers took the opportunity during your personal meeting to raise the priority to their meeting to a level that even she will not be able to interrupt." She sighs out the addendum. "They've gotten quite efficient at that process."