The man's expression changes from an uneasy one to a more relaxed, calm disposition. His right hand, earlier holding the dagger at his belt, now hangs losely in the air. He quietly observes the scene in the pit.
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Cypher smiles at him as they lounge over him, putting their arms closely around him.
Your such a good boy to listen... how good of you... how about you get a reward for being such a good boy? You wanna spend some time with me don't you? Why don't you undress.... and I can show you a very good time.
Eadric can see a wicked grin cross Cypher's face as they mouth to them.
This is going to be HILARIOUS.
"I'm not so sure about this.", Grelph disrobes hesitantly, still observing the Lashmistress at the bottom of the pit. Several acolytes facing your direction look back up at the young acolyte and his company of three.
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Cypher gives him a kiss on the cheek and smiles.
I can understand your hesitation... but we could have so much fun...
With a wave of their hand, the acolyte is suddenly covered in slick grease. They step close and whisper into the Acolyte's ear, running hands up and down the now slippery Acoylte's body.
Why don't you go ask your mistress for permission? Ask if you can play with the Aspis... Ask if you can...
Cypher then makes some suggestions that is bound to make the acolyte and Eadric blush.
But make sure you yell when you ask. It's very loud in there. You wouldn't want the Lashmistress to miss hearing you would you?
They give him a little smack on the rear and smile.
Go on, go ask!
With that Cypher steps back and looks at Eadric.
Count of 3, run like mad.
As soon as the Acolyte begins running forward, Cypher begins casting greasy patches behind him, ensuring that anyone running after them is going to have a VERY slippery time of it.
1.... 2...3!
As the Acoylte runs forward, Cypher casts a spell against the Lashmistress!
With that, Cypher starts following their own advice!
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Eadric does indeed start to turn bright red as Cypher starts giving the greased up acolyte some suggestions on what he and the Aspis can do together. He had no idea how far their plan was going to go, although he perhaps shouldn't be quite so surprised, and can only watch as the poor guy is sent off to embarrass not only himself, but his boss too. However surprised he is by the current scene, Eadric still has enough wits about him to get ready to run when advised to, planning to stay just behind Cypher the whole way to make sure they are protected from any reprisals the wanton spellcraft might cause.
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Kazu starts figetting in discomfort as Cypher begins their ... diplomatic interactions. Thankfully for his feathers, it is not so clear that Kazy has turned immediately red either. He is left stunned momentarily when Cypher turns tail and run, but he quickly follows behind Eadric.
He does make a short detour back to the sabotaged room and gives the rigged door just a little nudge, triggering the carefully laid trap inside.
While the young acolyte was fairly simple to coerce, the Lashmistress below gives Cypher a mean look once they cast their last spell. The other cultists noticed she focused her attention elsewhere, and look in that direction. Three strangers and an oddly glistening acolyte can be seen on top of the pit, with the acolyte attempting to get into the center of the pit, screaming "Lashmistress, please... I had a question!" as he moves downwards.
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Cypher sees that their spell is unaffected, and knowing the power of their spells, decides now is the time to boogie, and FAST. Cypher calls out behind them as they run for it....
Teach you to mess with the Aspis!
As they begin to move out, and pass through the curtains to arrive back at the original room, they look at the others.
Trap is sprung, let's get out of here! Quickly!
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Tenibri quickly draws a wand and activates it, instantly becoming more alert as he listens for the sound of pursuit and starts making his way out of the complex.
You enter a heightened state of awareness that allows you to notice more about your surroundings and recall information effortlessly. You gain a +2 competence bonus on Perception checks and on all Knowledge checks that you are trained in.
If this spell is active when you have to make an initiative check, you can instantly dismiss this spell and gain a +4 bonus on that check.
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Tenibri waits to hear the signal from above; everybody was out.
Standing as close to the left wall as he can, he opens his eyes to the barest slits, staring down the plane of the wall until he can just see the bars, hopefully with no chance of seeing the threat beyond them. He calls his invisible hand into being and opens the cage, then quickly turns and scrambles up the ladder, out of the complex. He nods to Garr and Eadric, both looking eager to 'disable' the ladder.
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As they make their way out, Cypher takes the time to liberally grease the floors behind them... it would make chasing after them a desperate, slippery mess as they go. As they clamber out of the hole, they case one last grease on the floor below them.
I think we've caused enough havoc. We need to make ourselves scarce... I didn't see any other way out, but you never know with cultists.
The trip back to Magnimar is a relaxing one. After being reminded to leave the ship's cat alone, you are taken to your bunks to get some rest. You have a few days on the ship to recall the events of the past few days, and sort the shaken pile memories into a neat collection.
The uneventful trip, besides the occasional ship headed in the opposite direction, proves to be quite calming, especially under the Varisian sun. But all good things come to an end, and so does this. Once you arrive into the busy, cosmopolitan Magnimar, you head straight for the Heidmarch manor to meet your Venture Captain. Within a few shourt minutes, you find yourselves in one of the manor's gathering rooms, with Sheila Heidmarch sitting across the table, sipping on tea. She offers some to everyone in the room, and gets to business.
"I'm not sure how, but my informant tells me there was a...", she checks her notes to make sure she read it correctly, and turns back to you: "... a basilisk on the lose? And an explosion? What?"
She looks at you curiously, waiting for a response.
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"So the informant survived? Good. I was briefly worried that they might have been caught in the explosion, despite the care I made for it to explode on the slightest trigger. Hmm, oh, good thing the basilisk didn't catch them either." Kazu does not quite answer the question. Whether deliberate or not is anyone's guess.
Heidmarch shrugs in her seat. "They must have been running errands... Anyway - 3 people are still missing after that explosion, not mentioning the problems with the basilisk.", she grins ever so slightly. "No, I don't think they will work with the Consortium any time soon. A job well done, I suppose. Anything else I should know before I relieve you here?"
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Cypher quickly sets out the pilfered religious items in front of Heidmarch.
I can't say for sure, but I'm willing to bet that if you reached out to the orders we procured these from, they would be most happy to have them back and it would endear them to the pathfinder society in the region... well, perhaps not the Besmarine one, unless their under new management. Seem to be troublesome sort.
Cypher is wearing their normal beautiful face again, with none of the scarring that they had as "Shadowtongue".
Gotta tell you, it's good to be back in my normal looks and not scowling all the time. It's gonna take me weeks to get all that snake stench out of my system.
They play shudder and smile.
If anyone wants to join me for a bath, I haven't done my devotions yet today.
They give a wink and laugh.
"Ooooh... good idea.", Heidmarch glees audibly. "We could have those sent back to the temples to earn a good name. Make up a story about us intercepting them somewhere. Even the local temples, perhaps. They'd put in a good name for us."