"Uh oh. This doesn't look good," Kethaera said worry filling her voice.
We might have to switch bases. Phillip narrows his eyes.
"I don't think Pylos would do that Phillip. Now that I'm thinking about it, maybe we shouldn't have gone after that treasure. Nothing good comes from things that are corrupted by greed."
Phillip is ready to let his dagger slip out if things go pear shaped.
*Urrrp*
"I do...um are you okay?"
She asks while casting a detect magic spell on Pylos wondering and worrying what they did to him in that wicked cathedral of vile evil.
Kethaera does not detect any magic emanating from Pylos.
So what all happened there?
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"Not here, not where they can listen," Pylos said quietly, his eyes darting from side to side. "Meet in the secret spot in an hour, and for the love of the gods, don't be followed!" The last was said with an earnest, almost broken look on his face. Not daring to say more, not so close to the church, he gave a final look around the group before rushing off, eyes peeled for any tails.
"Okay. Well I didn't detect any magic on you.
She gave Pylos a look of concern showing that she was worried about him.
After an hour, everyone is back at the Wasp Nest. Pylos didn't notice anyone following him.
Phillip makes sure their trail is covered and lets their noble sponsor that there is trouble with Pylos.
I was thinking something with the man in the mask would be perfect. Steal their smallclothes and run screaming down the street, perhaps?
Ok, Pylos. What happened?
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"We've got major problems," Pylos said as they were all gathered in the Nest. "In my haste to distract the priests during our heist of the grave, I wound up in a one on one conversation with the high priest of Asmodeus. He really has earned his position. He hit me with a truth spell, and while we aren't compromised just yet, I have to attend a special private service on Sunday." A shudder racked through his body at the thought. "In case you were wondering, the local church fully backs Barzillai. We need to completely change bases. And I can't be told anything."
"I don't know if we can change bases this quickly. Is there anyway we can get you out of this service so they aren't suspicious of you anymore? Maybe we can use the treasure we found to get you off the hook. Oh, nothing ever good comes of greed. I wish I had pushed harder for us to just leave this damn junk alone!"
In anger, mostly at herself for not doing more to try to talk the others out of getting the ill gotten gains, she shove it into the floor.
"I believe we have to do something as we don't have time to change bases while trying to save those prisoners and investigate the burnt music shop. And the only possible solution is to give that priest this treasure and bribed him to let Pylos off the hook. I know it is an evil church but right now our friend here is in danger. Plus, there is the chance that we don't have any time to change bases! Besides like I said this treasure was gotten through evil means and thus we need to cleanse our souls and hands by using it to save Pylos's life."
She picks up the bag of loot and tells Jules, "Jules disguise me as a half-elven merchant woman again. I think my shifty merchant role has one final act to perform. I'm probably the only one here who might be able to convince the priest to get Pylos off the hook and save our fledgling rebellion. If we are not too late."
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"Kethaera, no!" Pylos exclaimed. "This operation is already in trouble as it is with just me on the chopping block. We don't need you to get caught as well. With it being so close to Sunday, anybody tring to get me out of this will be as obvious as a halfling infiltrating a tribe of giants." Running his fingers through his hair, he started pacing back and forth. "No, I need to appear at this service, no matter what. I will try to keep any information about all of you from them, but we need to be serious and pragmatic about this."
"I am being serious! This loot is what got you in trouble in the first place! If it can get you off the hook then so be it! Besides I'm the only one here with a tongue silver enough to get you out of this mess. We got you in this damn mess and we are all going to get you out of it! And sacrifices have to be made. And this wicked treasure will be sacrificed."
Evil means? We helped a halfling get out from slavery while pushing dirt around. I say the scales are balanced.
Because Cheliax is nearly a theocratic nation in their devotion to Asmodeus, all members of church wield significant power. This acting high priest would command similar power to that of the head of a noble house. Pylos has been requested to visit the church by it's current leader, not to make a donation. Only someone of higher authority than the acting high priest could excuse Pylos. Such people would include the actual high priest, the Lord Mayor, or a ranking member of the Thrune family itself (while Pylos is a Thrune, he has no actual rank).
Jules rolled his eyes at the hysterics. "Ms.Nightbreeze! Getting rash will not solve this. Bribing religious zealots will not solve this. Faith usually overpowers greed when it comes to priests of asmodeus. We do not have a fallback at this point. Throwing our latest resource away foolishly would make any sacrifice we just made null and void."
The halfling walked over to stand directly in front of pylos, "All is not lost. How much do they know?"
"Well what about giving the money to the Lord Mayor!? He does have the authority to get Pylos off the hook! We got Pylos into this damn f*~!ing mess and we should be the ones to get him out of it. We got to do something! We don't have time to switch bases and we have many things to do. We should have left this treasure alone and never gone after it."
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"Fortunately nothing about our group," Pylos said with some small relief. "All I revealed was that I was losing faith with Barzillai and with Asmodeus for allowing him to drag this city down. That's how I found out that the church backs the Lord Mayor. And I highly doubt that dear cousin Barzillai will give this poor bastard cousin a good word to get me off of the hook. Without that, I can't think of a way out of this." Shaking his head, he added, "But this service... I've heard rumors about what Asmodean priests can do to people. We need to work on the theory that by the end of Sunday they will know everything."
"Paying Barzillai to get out of a meeting with his own church is out of the question and more than an admission of guilt." Jules stood staring at Pylos still. "It seems your ruse as an inside man has come to an end. My only idea at this point in time would be to fake your death and move here. Continuing your fight only in your mask."
Kethaera thought with all of her might trying to come up with a way to help Pylos and then as if hit by a divine light, she thought of something.
"Shelyn! The Church of Shelyn! They can take you in and give you shelter! You can tell the acting high priest that you have decided to become a follower of Shelyn! They can't do anything about that, because if they try to stop you they would be breaking the law of not only Cheliax but also of House Thrune and the Queen herself!"
The half-elf continued, "To quote the law: 'The veneration of deities other than Asmodeus and subservient entities (archdevils, infernal dukes, malebranche, et al.) is permitted by the grace of Infernal Majestrix, Queen Abrogail II of the Thrice-Damned House of Thrune, and may be revoked at any time at her sole discretion. Those practicing these faiths in opposition to the Church of Asmodeus may be declared heretics and tried for their crimes, the penalty being execution, or in the case of clerics of the Dark Prince's enemies, damnation to Hell. Asmodeus is generous, and those who serve him will be rewarded, even with the ability to follow other gods, as long as none supplant the Archfiend in the hearts of his eternal servants--the people Cheliax. Edict 4671.315A.2v5 &15j (Revision 6).' Worship of Shelyn is legal in Kintargo! Even your cousin and the real high priest can't stop you from worshiping Shelyn! If they did that would call into the question of being able to obey royal law! Only the queen herself can revoke the worship of Shelyn and I can tell you that not even your cousin would want to do that. Besides everyone loves Shelynite art! Barzillai would have a full scale riot if he banned the worship of Shelyn, one in which he might not be able to contain thereby making him and the high priest look like fools, which might even cause the Glorious Crusade to come to Kintargo and we all know that would damage his image a great deal! So he can't touch you if you become a follower of Shelyn! And yes you can still worship the drunken hero too."
Is there some way to sub in a corpse for Pylo's? Make it's face look like his, dress it up and me oh my, those nasty Silver Ravens just whacked a faltering noble..
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"Um...Phillip. You do realize that if we make it look like the Silver Ravens killed a member of House Thrune, then everyone from the Hellknights to Barzillai to the Asmodean church will be after us! And then our goose will really be cooked for sure! So we need to make it look like someone else did it. Maybe make it look like the Asmodeans did it to cause tension between House Thrune and the Church of Asmodeus," the diva replied to the spy.
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"Kethaera, calm down and think!" Pylos said loudly, his fist banging on a table. "All that law means is that Barzillai and the church can't do anything overtly. And suddenly claiming to follow Shelyn would be readily figured as an admission of guilt. No, I either go to the church on Sunday, or something happens to me. Besides, do you really want your church to come under intense scrutiny at this time?"
Looking over a Phillip, an idea swimming in his head and slowly finding purchase, Pylos said, "No, with the spells available to a priest, a random corpse would be discovered as soon as the body was found. But maybe...maybe it wouldn't have to be a fake corpse... And Kethaera is right, we cannot implicate the Silver Ravens."
Maybe the Red Jennies? Make it look like a revenge killing by them for the attack on their base.
Kethaera thought for a moment listening to Pylos.
Ugh...I forgot about that part. I had to go to one once. It was like going to a political rally run by loud mouth morons while getting your teeth pulled by said morons!"
She shudders but she nods in agreement with him that it wouldn't be good to have her own church under the watchful eyes of Thrune and Asmodean alike.
"Surely there are poisons which while not killing you, make you look like you've been killed and said poisons actually make it look like your death was natural."
After sitting in silence for a long time, Tarnagius perks his head up.
He motions Jules off to the side away from everyone else.
What if Pylos is killed, but the body's never found? Even a bastard Thrune would be a big enough deal to make him someone people generally assume is safe. He disappears, we issue pamphlets from an anonymous group demanding that Barzillai leave Kintargo and the city go back to what it once was, and begin painting sigils of a non-existent group that's not the Silver Ravens - call them the Cobalt Crows or something. Then, and this is where things get ugly, we have to kill some other people. Phil and I go out and slay some more members of the Citizen's League or similar folk we'd probably want eliminated anyway, paint the Crow sigil there, and act as though this new organization is killing people and generally engaging in acts of terrorism more extreme than the Silver Ravens ever do. Once it is assumed that Pylos is dead and there is a new terrorist organization out there, nobody will come looking for the Silver Ravens, they'll be looking for our new group. The only actual members of this group are you and me. Nobody knows who you are, and if we get caught you can evade questions about the Crows by implicating me. I go down as the public face of this extremist organization, and the Silver Ravens remain unmolested all while ensuring that nobody gets the chance to question Pylos under duress again.
Kethaera for a bit. She knew that she didn't know the first thing about poisons that could do the things that might help them out, but surely there was someone in this city who did.
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"Don't you think that they'd check for that?" Pylos asked as he saw Tarnagius and Jules walk to the side. Knowing that they would be willing to make the hard choices necessary, he hoped they had something good in the works. "Look, as of right now, I either die before Sunday, find a way to believably disappear, or I go into the devil's den. Unfortunately, the only thing I can think of is for me to die in some way for them to not gain access to my spirit. Preferably have my body consecrated by holy rites."
Unable to figure anything out, she tossed something to Pylos.
"Here this is a good luck charm of mine. I've had it since I was a little girl. It's brought me a lot of luck over the years but now well I think you need it more than me."
The ring was made of blue glass.
"I know it's made out of glass but trust me: that thing can't break. Trust I tried and countless others have as well."
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"I...thank you, Kethaera," Pylos said as he took the ring, completely taken back by her gesture. To give up something precious just like that. Taking the woman's hand, he placed a soft kiss on her knuckles and said, "I shall strive to be worthy of this token, fair diva." But in his heart, he knows that it might not be a promise he could keep. He honestly could not see a way out of this with his life. But if he could make their's easier...
"Phillip, can I talk to you for a moment?" As the two walked to a corner, his mind rapidly went in circles.
There I go overthinking things again.
Tarnagius claps his hands.
What if you defected to Andoran? Go home, steal some barely-worth-it intelligence, leave a letter saying that you can't bear to see the suffering of your beloved home anymore, and some clues that you have taken the intelligence to the Eagle Knights in hopes of petitioning them to aid in both the Invasion from the north and in the reconquista of Kintargo. What's Barzillai going to do? Invade Andoran with the Dottari to find you? The rulers in Egorian won't help, they're dealing with the Crusaders and the last thing they want is out-and-out war with Andoran. If he leaves to chase you for Gods only know what reason, we win and he's gone. If he stays, he assumes you are gone, and that monkey is off our back. If he calls in Abrogail, well, we're done anyway. We can't beat her.
The invisible imp perks her ears up "Abrogail? Is that witch still alive? She was ruling while I was still around."
Laria says "If you want to defect anywhere, your better bet is Varisia. That's usually where we send our people in the Network. Andoran is very far, and you would have to travel through most of Cheliax to do it."
You misunderstand, Laria. Pylos doesn't actually leave the city. The reason to go to Andoran is 1, they are more likely to be able to help Pylos' alleged mission, but more importantly, 2, the prospect of bringing Eagle Knights across the border during another war would probably give even Barzillai and the Church pause. If the intel Pylos steals is of little value anyway, and he's going somewhere far away from Barzillai and very dangerous for him, he won' likely look into it and discover that Pylos never left town. And besides, investigating the roads to Varisia would endanger the Network's operations.
"There's also the possibility that they don't suspect anything and just want him to make a heartfelt prayer to Asmodeus. I mean yeah I know that's unlikely, but like Pylos said they don't suspect anything, and even if they did, I doubt the Church of Asmodeus would want to do something as drastic as mind control a member, even a bastard, of House Thrune. And again what with the Glorious Crusade going on, both church and state need to stay united. So they're probably not going to do anything rash to make the other faction wary of the other. Plus this could be used to our advantage: it's a long shot but maybe Pylos could get us some Asmodean robes to help with Jules's disguises. He could even buy them with some of the treasure we found. I think we have beating this thing to death trying to come up with a solution, but frankly maybe we just need to pray to the gods of good to give us a lucky break and hope for the best. Every plan we come up with has so many ways to go wrong, maybe we should I don't know go with the simplest solution: Pylos just goes there and sees what happens. I mean did the priest should suspicious or did he just sound like he wants you to come in and say a prayer and be done with it? You're still a member of house Thrune so I don't think they can really do anything without angering the queen or your cousin."
Kethaera twiddled her fingers sighing a bit.
"Purchasing robes is too risky, however, we do know a certain tailor with a great level of skill and sympathy who may be able to fabricate some. This also keeps our gains in house and in the hands of sympathisers."
"True Jules. I was only suggesting a way for us to take advantage of a bad situation. Although...another more realistic idea would be that this gives us a chance to get some idea of the layout of the church. We will have to take down the Asmodean Church eventually and this might be useful to us with Intel," the diva said.
"We can't get a detailed layout of the church from this mind you, but it'll at least give us a little bit of information. Not to mention it'll allow us to gauge our foes' strengths a bit."
He already encorcelled you into speaking against your will. There's no reason to believe he would fear your name enough to keep from interrogating you, especially once it's discovered that a slave vanished while you were mucking about with other priests. Everyone knows you're a rabblerouser, and now you've gone and confessed to losing faith in Asmodeus. Now you're participating in slave escapes? They'll put two and two together and conclude that you're a member of the Bellflower Network, then they'll interrogate you, probably under other magical coercion, and the Silver Ravens may be compromised. We absolutely can not let you go to the meeting unless we kick you out, sever all ties, move bases and go completely underground so you no longer have any useful information. It's just too much of a risk. Similarly, we can't assume that Barzillai would disagree with the local church authorities investigating the loss of their property, remember he is an inquisitor, so he won't intervene on Pylos' behalf, especially when the official story is that Pylos went to them first.
He shakes his head.
The only feasible option I see is either Pylos going public as a supporter of the Silver Ravens and opposition to Barzillai Thrune, or we fake his death or flight from the city. Everything else is much more risky.
Laria has to stop for a moment and really process what Tarnagius is saying. "So... are you suggesting that we spread information that Pylos fled to Andoran, but in truth he's just lying low here? You're right, we do not need the Thrunes nosing around our ships. We use ships to get to Varisia. Otherwise you have to walk through Nidal. Not a good idea."
"I'm sorry Tarnagius but from the looks of things any plan we come up with has the huge potential to backfire or hurt us or someone else greatly. Besides I don't think they'll force Pylos to do something against their will. If word gets out that the Asmodeans are brainwashing Thrune members, bastard or not, Cheliax will fall into even a worse civil war than its already in. The church and house Thrune need each other and probably won't do anything drastic. Besides slaves escape all the time right. Besides, Pylos was inside when our friend escaped their yokes, so they can't accuse of him doing something like that. They would need proof which they don't have. The queen won't take kindly for one of her relatives, even an illegitimate one, being falsely accused of a crime no matter who the accuser is. Doing so makes Barzillai looks bad and he doesn't want to do something that will make him choose between his family and his faith. Not all Thrunes worship Asmodeus. Some probably worship other devilish deities or follow diabloism. The church doesn't want to lose its connections with House Thrune so it can't afford to do anything like charm or dominate a Thrune member."
"I hate to say it but Pylos might have to just go to the service. He can at least get a general idea of what we may eventually have to face when we take down the Church of Asmodeus."
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As he felt an invisible form settle down onto his shoulders, Pylos suddenly felt like banging his head on the wall. "People," he started with a slight chuckle, "we forgot about our lovely little ace in the hole when it comes to devilry. Blossom, how would you like to pull a prank on the big bad church of Asmodeus? New plan, here. I go in, I bow and scrape and bemoan my temporary loss of faith, heartfelt apologies pouring forth from my lips. And in the middle of promising a sacrifice of 10 virgin chickens on the quarter moon, who should appear but an agent of the dread lord himself, sent to watch over this lowly mortal and make sure I stay true to the faith?"