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Roldala looks incredibly uncomfortable, but voices her views nonetheless, "I don't understand how we're supposed to trust a devil.
We don't have to send her back to hell though. We can avoid that damnation at least."
She looks like she really wants a way out of just killing her, but can't talk herself into believing this thing.
"Toots? that's fresh... were you born a hundred years ago or something? haven't heard that one in a while," she says, her teary eyes staring up at the Slitheren Kid. "It would suit you, if I attack you now, yes? it would give you easy justification for killing me outright yes? because having a mind of your own is hard, and thinking your own thoughts is hard, right? and loving your enemy is impossible, yes? well, I guess you're ripe for Hell then. Legions of people down there who just go on and do what they're told or live by some thoughtless code or some predefined easy to follow morality. Do remember this: the fact that I kept my own memories was the most precious thing I've ever had in existence. So no: I won't attack you, even if the devil flesh they slapped my soul into wants me too... wants to make me angry and hurtful to others... I don't care. I won't attack. I'm done with all this. If you strike me down, this will be your idea, and you'll own it until you meet Pharasma."
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Andor steps back and thinks for a moment.
"I am truly torn inside ... I have to admit that I do not know if that is because I am charmed or you are so manipulative ..."
He turns to Red and Roldala who voiced their support for the little devil. He ignores Blosodriette's pleas and pushes the thoughts of compassion away again.
"I ... I know that I am biased! She is from hell!! You decide ..." and he steps farther back.
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Edmund is taken aback by the things that he is seeing- standing mostly in awe of the events unfolding around him.
"Uh... guys. Do you see these dragonflies? Something unusual is going on here- and her aura. It ain't like any I have seen before. Flashing all sorts of colors and the like. She's got an evil aura, but its flickering rainbow. The devils want her back in hell. I don't understand a lick of this!"
Blosodriette resumes her sobbing. Her tears run on the tiles of the Wasp Nest, and they turn red. Kissan approaches and smells the red liquid, and starts licking it.
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Seeing Kissan's natural instincts shift from fear and aggression to trust and playfulness. As the dragonflies swarm through the underground cistern- Edmund's vision flashes purple, and everything clicks.
"The Starsong is interceding on her behalf. Little can I, as man, disregard the will of my patron. Speak again Blosodriette, and tell us how you can receive relief from this imprisonment."
Blosodriette looks up from her tears, disbelief on her face, "I... I don't know if I'll ever be free. But... I don't want to go back to Hell. Perhaps here, with you all... I can somehow be redeemed. If you tear the contract, I go back to Hell... if you appropriate the contract from the Sarini family, I can help you with your efforts here in Kintargo... if this one is a Sarini, I'll know immediately as soon as he touches the contract..." says Blosodriette, looking at Andor and wiping her tears.
Dragonflies land all around Blosodriette and on Kissan's fur. Some of them land in the red liquid and start drinking it.
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"I don't rightly know, Red. Seems that Desna has taken an interest in this devil. Personally, these evil things still make me uncomfortable. I reckon we see if Andor has this bloodline she's wailing on about. If not, we can more her contract to some 'safer' location to keep 'er away from the sensitive stuff until we figure out what to do."
Edmund still appears very uncomfortable with the situation, reaching out to touch one of the dragon flies- almost as if confirming they really exist.
"If she's been around since the before the civil war, perhaps she's familiar with some of the stuff that we are looking fer..."
He turns towards the devil.
"So, youve been stuck here for quite a while. What can yer tell us about the 'Silver Ravens', from back in the day. I am sure you were around a lot of em, with the 100ft from your contract thing an all. This would likely be a pretty good step of faith to convince us not to just rip of that damned paper..."
”Of course. Where do I start? Sigh. Very well: the day I was bound to the material plane. It was a beautiful autumn day in Kintargo. I was delighted to find myself back in my hometown, and found far more satisfaction serving my new master than my infernal commanders. My contract bound me to the servitude of one of Kintargo’s noble houses—the Sarinis. I enjoyed aiding the Thrune loyalists in working to erode Kintargo’s resistance during the civil war until my master, Merindius Sarini, died in a failed attempt to ambush a Silver Raven known as Jackdaw. The Silver Ravens covered up their involvement and made it appear that Merindius had drowned, but they took several documents the man had been carrying before doing so. Among them was my contract. Bound by the terms of the contract to remain in its proximity, I remained invisible and hidden.
I knew I couldn’t risk exposing myself directly, and so I set about making a nuisance of myself in hopes of convincing the Silver Ravens to either destroy my contract or give it away. My plan backfired when, instead, the Silver Ravens merely abandoned their hideout under the mistaken assumption it had become haunted, and left my contract behind in a cache of documents and supplies, in the basement of the Fair Fortune Livery. The civil war came to an end a few weeks later, and with it came the Silver Ravens’ defeat. The freedom fighters never returned for the cache, and in the decades that followed, I was left to my own devices. With no one to take my frustrations out on, I have pondered how much blame I myself deserve for my past cruelty and current predicament. I have made numerous attempts to circumvent my contract (the most audacious of which was an attempt to open a portal to Hell using information gathered from a year’s worth of weekly commune spells), but I have finally realized that the contract is too well worded for me to affect it directly.
I have somehow… been blessed with a disarming smile, I’ve been told, and massive curls of black hair reaching down to my toes, as you can see. Unique among imps, I have only one horn—the result of a mortal scar that translated to my infernal form. After the last decade alone, I… have developed a habit of debating with myself, I fear, and… I may interrupt a conversation to weigh in with my own approach to a topic… at times. For any such future transgression I apologize in advance!
As you know, ahem, already, ahem, well, I can play the pipes— one of the rare memories from my old life unrelated to my original master— yes… as many halflings are, I was a slave during mortal life- but the pipes I carved for myself in Hell have been imbued with magic, summoning swarms of rats who dance to my tunes just as I once danced to my master’s…”
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Andor smells the tear's transformation and Red, Roldala and Edmund's opinion is very important to him but this is all too much.
"I do not know if what you say is true but I trust my comrades. And ... and Desna and Chaldira are close friends so Desna's ... whatever she did ... must mean something ..." he says with a sigh.
He thinks for a moment and shakes his head and he is clearly uncomfortable. He looks at Blosodriette
"But I assure you that I will not touch this contract and I will not be responsible for a being from hell! Until you show us your path to redemption I believe no word of what you say Blosodriette. Because of you this whole mission of ours could have been discovered! Dozens of supporters would have been sent to prison, would have been tortured and many would have died ..."
Andor looks at Blosodriette with anger and continues.
"So excuse me if you saying that you 'pondered how much blame you deserve for your past cruelty and current predicament' means little if your actions do not match that."
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While the presumed devil explain her predicament, Red grows tire of listening. With inaction he roams about and takes a dip into the watering hole to emerge dragging out a very bloated dead albino crocodile carcasses and a drawer containing a whip, a gold holy symbol of Calistria, and a single daredevil boot.
"Rrr...Look what I found!" Red exclaims with some excitement as he starts to rip open the crocodile with his croc hands to investigate what lies inside it.
Looking at Andor, she stands, and asks, "Very well. How would you have me start on the way to redemption? what can I do for you all?"
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Andor ignores Blosodriette for a moment and looks at the others, especially Slitheren Kid II.
"I would ask her to invest her time to improve the living conditions for those in need in this city! What about the Tieflings? They know that the skin they wear is judged by others but has nothing to do with their character and heart!"
He looks at Blosodriette "We know a Tiefling called 'Zea' who is now helping the Tiefling community in the Devil's Nursery to recover from a hideous murder series. The root cause for the murders is not solved yet and a hellish ritual was used to create tooth ferries that acutally committed the murders. Could you help Zea and the Devil's Nursery community and support us to find out more about the ritual?”
He waits to hear Blosodriette’s reaction.
"Sure. I'd be happy to help! My specialty is spying and finding stuff out, but that would require the Silver Ravens acquire my contract from the Sarinis. Otherwise I'm stuck down here in this Wasp Nest- or stuck within 100 feet of the contract, should you move it," says Blosodriette.
As soon as Andor takes the contract, Blosodriette immediately feels the bond that binds her to Andor. "Sir, whoever you are... you are a SARINI! I can now go wherever you please. I will aim to serve at the best of my abilities! What is your name, master?"
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Andor is clearly confused now.
He never knew anything about his father ... he only knew that his mother had lived in Kintargo. That is the reason he had returned to Kintargo a year ago. And now he not only learns which origins his father had but sees a devil call him 'master'. This is all too much.
"Please, I do not want you to call me 'master' Blosodriette! Edmund, Roldala, Red, SK2, what do we do now?!" Andor asks a little helpless.
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"Desna has her purposes. I just wish I understood 'em more often. I am guessin' we should probably move her out of here and find something she is good at doin."
"I reckon we need to be careful round her. She already tried to sabotage us once- and if I followed her little song'n dance earlier her original master was front and center for the Thrune side of the civil war. She may know a bit about the Silver ravens, be she definitely count 'em among her enemies."
He pauses for a second to think.
"We should probably check the wording on that contract, and be very careful with the commands we give her. Don't want to leave her any loop holes to wiggle through. It'd also be good to limit her knowledge about the rebellion as much as possible."
Upon returning upstairs, Laria tells you something arrived for you. A large bouquet of roses was just delivered from a somber looking street urchin, she says.
A slip of paper is hidden in the bouquet.
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"Desna has her purposes. I just wish I understood 'em more often. I am guessin' we should probably move her out of here and find something she is good at doin."
"I reckon we need to be careful round her. She already tried to sabotage us once- and if I followed her little song'n dance earlier her original master was front and center for the Thrune side of the civil war. She may know a bit about the Silver ravens, be she definitely count 'em among her enemies."
He pauses for a second to think.
"We should probably check the wording on that contract, and be very careful with the commands we give her. Don't want to leave her any loop holes to wiggle through. It'd also be good to limit her knowledge about the rebellion as much as possible."
Without the presence of the little devil Andor is slightly relieved but you see that he is very frustrated and a little frightened by the situation. He nods after Edmund speaks his thoughts.
”You are completely right Edmund as I do not know what kind of interesting clauses this contract has! But how should we be able to read the contract when Rexus was not able to do so and we have no magic that can help us?“ he asks.
He looks at Red, Roldala and SK2.
”What do you think we should do with the little devil?!“
Later in the evening Rexus comes down from his study to relax and discuss your activities with you. After the last customer exits the shop and Laria turns the 'CLOSED' sign towards the street, Rexus tells you that his mother, Porcia Victocora, was a member of a secret group of historians called the Sacred Order of Archivists. It was for this reason that she and her estate were targeted for destruction by Thrune, and now he grows increasingly convinced that his mother still lives, and that she’s been in hiding in the stronghold of the Sacred Order.
If nothing else, he would like the return of any of her personal effects from the hideout, as all of those that had been stored at the manor were burned.
Now that Rexus has finished translating the Silver Ravens documents with your help, his convictions that his mother survived the Night of Ashes grow stronger. He asks you for one more favor: he reveals that the Sacred Order of Archivists have long used chambers below a local museum of oddities called Hocum’s Fantasmagorium as a secret base of operations. If his mother survived the fire, she may have remained silent for so long simply because she’s been lying low in the chambers below the museum. Rexus has never been inside the place—indeed, it’s been closed to the public for many years—but he knows the mithral key that was among the things his mother left him supposedly opens many locks within the building.
The revelation that the Fantasmagorium was used as a safe house for the Sacred Order makes a lot of sense to Laria. Once she learns of this, she encourages you all to investigate the Fantasmagorium. If any members of the Sacred Order of Archivists survive, they’d be great allies to have. At the very least, the number of documents the order has in safekeeping should be a significant boon to the Silver Ravens. Of course, complicating matters is the fact that the building was closed down many years ago after its previous owner fell into debt.
Rexus hands you the mithral key, and tells you that it should even work on the front door.
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"Rexus, this seems to be a very dangerous mission but of course we are willing to help. Why didn't you tell us before about the Fantasmagorium? On a sidenote ... we received these flowers recently. Do you guys potentially know who these might be from? I fear that our presence here and in the Wasp Nest has been discovered and it is only a matter of time before you Laria are in grave danger! The flowers by really be from a supporter or from somebody pretending to be ... what do you think we should do?" Andor asks Laria and Rexus.
Andor carries Blosodriette's contract with him now.
"I am quite honest that I have no idea how this is going to develop! This is still hard for me to fathom. But I want to give you the chance to redeem yourself. Edmund believes that you are kind of special ... I hope that means that you can return to the light. I have two tasks for you and wish you refrain from any evil and malevolent acts when you perform these tasks." Andor says and looks at Blosodriette with hope in his eyes.
"1) I will accompany you to Zea so that I can introduce you to her and I want you to do your best to support the Tiefling community in Kintargo without hurting anybody and without endangering us or anybody else during your efforts!" he pleads.
"2) When you have time please use your invisibility to gather information in the city and especially around the Opera that could be useful for our rebellion without hurting anybody and without endangering us or anybody else during your efforts!" Andor explains.
"Rexus, this seems to be a very dangerous mission but of course we are willing to help. Why didn't you tell us before about the Fantasmagorium? On a sidenote ... we received these flowers recently. Do you guys potentially know who these might be from? I fear that our presence here and in the Wasp Nest has been discovered and it is only a matter of time before you Laria are in grave danger! The flowers by really be from a supporter or from somebody pretending to be ... what do you think we should do?" Andor asks Laria and Rexus.
Rexus: ...seems taken aback by Andor's finger-pointing, and says, "There was the initial shock of losing my home and my family. That... perhaps played a part in my delay to share this info. Mourning and such annoyances, you know? You were also complete strangers, but since then... we've all become family, and I think it's now safe to trust you implicitly, as you've time and again risked your neck fighting the oppression of Thrune in the last few weeks."
Laria: "Now you're being paranoid boy! if you balk every time you receive flowers, or a threat, or a sword in the chest... then you're not in the right job! What do I think you should do? be an adventurer and deal with things as they come; leave the long-term planning to politicians, and medium-term planning to Coffeehouse owners..." she says, winking at Andor.
Andor carries Blosodriette's contract with him now.
"I am quite honest that I have no idea how this is going to develop! This is still hard for me to fathom. But I want to give you the chance to redeem yourself. Edmund believes that you are kind of special ... I hope that means that you can return to the light. I have two tasks for you and wish you refrain from any evil and malevolent acts when you perform these tasks." Andor says and looks at Blosodriette with hope in his eyes.
"1) I will accompany you to Zea so that I can introduce you to her and I want you to do your best to support the Tiefling community in Kintargo without hurting anybody and without endangering us or anybody else during your efforts!" he pleads.
"2) When you have time please use your invisibility to gather information in the city and especially around the Opera that could be useful for our rebellion without hurting anybody and without endangering us or anybody else during your efforts!" Andor explains.
Blosodriette: "You are my master, and of course, I'll do whatever you aaaaask.... but... well, if you'd ask me, I'd recommend against number one, and focus on things like number 2. Simple fact is: I still look like a devil, even though I have a heart of gold... hehehe... so... parading the streets of the Devil's Nursery with Zea might not be so smart after you found evidence of an infernal ritual involving a... sacrificed baby, yes?" says Blosodriette. You notice she shudders at the concept of sacrificing a baby. "What? why are you looking at me like this? even as far as infernal affairs go, that was pretty dam cold... I don't even remember a devil in Hell doing something that nasty... leave it to power hungry humans to do stuff even a devil would not do..."
Blosodriette returns a few hours later, clearly afraid, "Well well... if I were you I'd avoid the Opera House for the foreseeable future... I flew around the place, keeping my distances, and counted at least six bearded devils coming in and out of that place- maybe more, maybe less, as they all look the same to me, and I may have double counted or under counted... I saw at least one, but maybe two, bone devils through the windows... but.. when I saw one of the Furies casually lounging in the rafters when I looked up... that's when I decided to take my leave. No thanks. No way! I hope she didn't see me, or I'm dead! her sight extends into the ethereal plane, so only my stealth and small size may have saved me here! but please, don't order me to go back there Master!!!"
FANTASMAGORIUM!!
Andor, you recall that the structure was the passion of a struggling stage magician and salesman named Braedan “Hocum” Azperex. The man had the building constructed a year after the Chelish Civil War ended, with the goal of “bringing whimsy and joy back to Kintargo.” His plan was to have the Fantasmagorium serve as a museum of fantastic oddities and “authentic” magical phenomena.
His charm and showmanship transformed the bizarre concept into a minor success for many years, but when the exhibits (many of which were either grossly exaggerated or utter hoaxes) began to lose some of their novelty, the Fantasmagorium struggled to make ends meet. It finally went out of business 20 years ago, and Hocum died not long thereafter—the building has remained shut down and something of an eyesore ever since...
When you retell this story to the group, Rexus says, "Hmm... now that you mention it, dear Andor, I seem to remember as a child some vague conversations between mothers and some of her friends... I think the gist of it was that once the Fantasmagorium began struggling financially, the Sacred Order of Archivists secretly purchased the building from Hocum to use as its own hidden headquarters... if I remember correctly. So maybe old Hocum stayed in business much longer than he would have, I figure... as I'm sure he would have had to move out if my mother and her friends hadn't bought him out while allowing him to live there and keep showing his oddities."
Edmund and Red, while investigating the streets near the Fantasmagorium, you find that most people scoff at the notion that this old abandoned building would be the subject of anyone's interest. Towards the end of the day, your persistence pays off however: you find a small group of people sitting on chairs in the street trying to cool off before the curfew, smoking tobacco from well-worn pipes. One of the men finally opens up to you both, "Yep... I seen some o' dem priests of Asmodeus comin' and goin' late at night through that ol'Fantasmagorium’s main entrance... mum's the word though, and I'd avise ye keep 'tis to yerselves, lest ye wanna test yer luck against priests of the Prince of Darkness!"
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Rexus: ...seems taken aback by Andor's finger-pointing, and says, "There was the initial shock of losing my home and my family. That... perhaps played a part in my delay to share this info. Mourning and such annoyances, you know? You were also complete strangers, but since then... we've all become family, and I think it's now safe to trust you implicitly, as you've time and again risked your neck fighting the oppression of Thrune in the last few weeks."
Laria: "Now you're being paranoid boy! if you balk every time you receive flowers, or a threat, or a sword in the chest... then you're not in the right job! What do I think you should do? be an adventurer and deal with things as they come; leave the long-term planning to politicians, and medium-term planning to Coffeehouse owners..." she says, winking at Andor.
Andor sighs. ”Of course you are both right! Rexus I am very sorry for my words and I really wasn’t thinking ... I have to put myself in your shoes and it is obvious that you would not share such a very important secret with strangers! Rexus and Laria ... thank you for your trust and seeing us as a family! Without you we would not be where we are today so thanks a lot!“
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Blosodriette returns a few hours later, clearly afraid, "Well well... if I were you I'd avoid the Opera House for the foreseeable future... I flew around the place, keeping my distances, and counted at least six bearded devils coming in and out of that place- maybe more, maybe less, as they all look the same to me, and I may have double counted or under counted... I saw at least one, but maybe two, bone devils through the windows... but.. when I saw one of the Furies casually lounging in the rafters when I looked up... that's when I decided to take my leave. No thanks. No way! I hope she didn't see me, or I'm dead! her sight extends into the ethereal plane, so only my stealth and small size may have saved me here! but please, don't order me to go back there Master!!!"
Andor gathers the group and tells them what Blosodriette witnessed.
”Blosodriette, I understand that you were in danger and nonetheless stayed there to fulfill your mission. Thanks! Team, maybe it would really be better to use Blosodriette‘a skills to gather information and I have to admit that the sightings at the opera house are frightening and incredible! To know that our enemy wields such power and so many fiends are at their disposal is hard to believe! I do not know how we could ever fight against them!?“ Andor says ... clearly disheartened.