"Indeed, your king is dead. You are our prisoner, and now is probably the time you will plead that he suborned your will," the dwarf replies as he relieves the human of his exquisite and exquisitely expensive armor.
"Nope, was hired to protect him. Now that he's dead I owe him nothing." He frowns as Toramin reaches for his armor. "Take a piece and I'll gut you again. Wouldn't fit you anyways."
Toramin knocks the man out.
Bjorkus ignores the brief squabble in favor of opening the throne room doors.
Marcus spits out a tooth, but remains conscious. He turns to you, and you see no anger in his eyes. "I don't f*#+ around dwarf. You wanna know why I protected this mad bastard? Because he hired me before I knew of his intent. When I found out it was too late; I was bound by my word to protect him. They call me Marcus the Dog, because when you hire me you buy loyalty." He stares into Toramin's eyes. "And I keep my bloody word. So I'll tell you this one more time, and you know I mean it. Release me now, or I'll hunt you down and gut you." He sits back. "Either that or kill a helpless man whose only crime is keeping his honor. See how your god views that."
"Your punishment is for the authorities to decide. Your crimes for them to weigh. Whether your 'loyalty' in the face of genocide, torture, and other crimes is an excuse -- theirs to determine. Whether your freedom and possessions are returned to you, also their choice. You have but one choice now: the manner of your compliance. You will surrender your weapons, your arms, and come as a willing prisoner of war or you will be beaten into compliance. I will not suffer you the opportunity for your particular morals to determine the outcomes of other people's lives. My god does not favor redemption. My god recommends the complete destruction of an enemy's capacity to do harm. You have proven yourself to be an enemy of all the living when you knowing choose to protect someone who planned genocide."
Toramin will give him a moment to comply or not, before he continues to beat the war criminal into a dreamless sleep.
He leans back with an amused snort. "Is this how you always pass judgement? Assume everything they have done before it can be proven? Your trials must be short." He glances over to locate his tooth. "I don't take evil jobs, tell anybody that asks me that. I was approached by Nuro and asked to do one simple job. Protect him. Simple as that. I am to render harmless threats if I could, kill them if I could not. Remember I disarmed you first?" He spits at Nuro's body. "Had I known what his plans were I wouldn't have taken this job. But I had given my word, and that was to protect him should anybody make an attempt on his life. The madman is dead so I am no longer bound to him. That is how seriously I take my oaths." He looks back at Toramin. "There are people I can help if you release me now, people you don't even know are in danger, but instead you intend to rob me with the excuse of false accusations as a pretense. So listen to the oath I make now. Release me, or I will not rest until one of us is dead."
Lindale is interested in the conversation and listens while pretending to be busy. He takes the items from the dead necromancer.
Bjorkus brandishes his bloody axe and roars. ”Nuro is dead!”
”Anyone that’s in his pocket had better use this time to run. Andril’s army’s gunna be coming through those doors any minute now”, he adds after the initial shock has passed.
"Who could you help besides yourself if we let you up?"
"For one, my men. They were as bound as I am and do not yet know they are released. More importantly are the civilians underground. I don't imagine you know the back entrance to those cells? There's a lot more people down there than you know about."
With the danger passed, Bjorkus takes a moment to see to wound. After leaning his axe against the wall, he tears a strip of cloth off the clothing of a slain guard to use as a bandage that he wraps tightly around his heavily muscled midsection. The bleeding stopped for now, he makes his way to the front of the castle to await the Colonel.
And my freedom...
"I am apprehending you. The authorities will judge you. You certainly do not get to go free because of your 'word,' which you have already placed above the lives of a nation. You have one final chance to surrender peacefully or I will take you to them after I have rendered you compliant."
"Fine, take me captive. Let the deaths of hundreds help you sleep at night." He spits in Toramin's face. "I bet you had to control your laughter when you took your oaths."
"If you care about those people, then you will tell us where they are and how they can be reached. Otherwise they and their lives are merely a ploy to secure your illicit release. If that is the case then a priest with Detect Thoughts will be brought in from the army to elicit the information from you. Such actions speak more of your moral code than mine. In fact, that you know and haven't yet told us, but are using them as a bargaining tool is as wicked as you doing nothing about their plight in the first place."
Marcus finally lets his voice raise. "I am many things but I am not a liar! My word is truth, regardless if it is information or an oath!" Marcus shakes his head. "Door won't open for you, and no amount of beating it with that hammer will get it open. Nuro used magic so only a select few could get in. Apparently I'm one of 'em."
"I have no idea whether you are a liar. I know that you are (now) holding your word up as a talisman, an idol. This idol is more precious to you than the lives of this nation. To me, that makes your word dross only fit to be thrown back into the fire and reforged. People make mistakes. The crime is allowing your mistakes to destroy the lives of others. However, you purport to value your 'word' highly. If you surrender without reservation, and help us free those people, then at your trial I will testify on your behalf, recommending that your life be spared. I do this knowing that you have made threats against my life several times, and have even given your word to 'end' it."
"The fact that I protected a mad king beyond all reason should prove I'm not a liar." He looks at Nuro. "You felt that blade. I wouldn't have been able to stand up to him for a minute. If I had known your group could take him..." He ponders for a moment, seeming lost on what he would do. An opportunity to help slay the king, but then he would put a stain on his untarnished word. His eyes return to Toramin. "Need to listen to what you're hearing dwarf. Said I'd kill you if you didn't release me. I'll go to your little trial, but I'm going armored with a sword on my belt. And I mean to be judged by your commanding officer, not some bloody trumped up noble who thinks to understand how men of war think. Promise me a trial with whoever you call sir and I keep my gear. In exchange I will stay until my fate has been decided and lead you to those in need."
"I will promise that if you are freed your gear will be returned to you. I will also promise that you will be tried by Colonel Geoffrey. You will not be tried by the courts of this failed state. However, you will, surrender without reservation. In that way we will both learn how valuable the word of the other is. You already know that I am not making an attempt to kill you now, but I do not know whether you will further harm the innocent. Prove your good faith and I will show you mine. But you will not go armed. You will not go proud. Suspected criminals do not get to keep their weapons to strike their judges should they not like the verdict they hear. Credit me with not being a complete rube."
Marcus stares at you a long time, finally working his jaw around. "Fine. I can work with those terms. But my oath stands, break you word dwarf, and I'll kill you."
"Agreed, though the potential threat is meaningless. I will be true to myself and the common weal. They are what moves me not the fear of death."
As Toramin finishes stripping the man of his arms and armor, and respectfully storing them on his person, he will inquire, "Where is this entrance, is it far? Do you have any knowledge of the source of Nuro's power. People say that his sorceress grew in power rapidly. If there are evil artifacts they need to be contained. How many drow were working with Nuro? Are all the people below infected? We may need to see if the genocidaire can create a cure before releasing them back into the general population."
As he leads Marcus, Toramin calls to the rest of the party, "We should go see to freeing these people."
As Toramin asks his questions, Marcus walks over to the throne and gives it a hard kick. The throne topples over and underneath it is a slab of adamantium. "He's a magus, she's a sorceress. That about covers my knowledge of magic. Don't know what you mean by artifact. Haven't seen a drow besides yours. Probably." He frowns down at the slab. "Can't do this with my hands tied."
Toramin unties his hand and gives the shifty human a long look.
Marcus rolls his eyes. "Never been taught to fight with my fists. 'spose I could pick it up sometime, might be useful." He kneels, placing a hand on the adamantium. After a moment the metal glows gently, then slides to the side. Beneath it you see a thirty foot pit mostly full of wood elves but there are various races. They flinch at the light, as if they haven't seen it in a very long time.
"Don't ask me how he gets them out, but how he got them in included a lot of gravity." Marcus rubs his wrists and walks around the room, checking the pulses of the royal guards. "These were good men."
"In war even good men die -- usually good men -- that is why it is a tragedy."
With a rope lowered they look up warily, then seeing their rescue is here they begin climbing up. Some of them are too weak, but the others help them out. Eventually they all stand in the room, and upon closer inspection you see they are all druids, and all fairly young.
"Fear not, younglings. The mad king is dead. Are they any among you requiring urgent care? Do you know why he imprisoned you."
One of them steps forward. "We are hurt, but now we can take care of ourselves. We came forward to request Nuro reconsider his decision to burn the forest. We were...not met with kindness."