After all, Kailin-Bloody-Kros is here from bloody Fairyland, mate, to chronicle the momentous, er, moments, as it were, of a new band of epic bloody heroes!! He must be rather expensive to keep as one's chronicler, as it were, and I feel we owe him a bloody better show than some expository hearsay from a talking knick-knack like yourself, Mister Mahatma!
"A talking knock-knock!? You are trying to say that Mahatma is a joke!? Oh! Wait until My Lady Levinson summons me, you glorified do-rag! I will use your convex part as a convenient receptacle for my marble poo, you stitched stooge!
Chiseled chump!
Knitted nitwit!!
TEE-HEE!! The monocle on the brim of Radsworth's talking top hat seems to glitter with mirth....
I rather fancied that last one, old chap.... Your command of the King's English is improving, Mister Mahatma, and it adds a savor to your wit, sir!
Why, thank you, my dear Mister Chesterfield, you are too kind.
You're welcome.... Graven goofball....
Woven weirdo!
Sculpted scat-pile!
Crocheted crackpot!!
*Sigh*.... Did you say The Magic Flute talks, too?.... Jesus.... I sure as hell hope you don't start yacking at me, too.... MJ says to "BJ"....
That blow-hard talk, when he can sing? Never, sir! The Magic Flute never talks, sir.... He really enjoys singing, so much so, that he never speaks what can be sung instead.... It can be rather annoying when he's warning you of something you need to react to quickly, as you can well imagine.... Singing: "Looook ooooouuuut for zat guy about to puuuuuut you in zee baaaaaaag, Chesterfieeeeeeeld!
Mahatma the marble elephant figurine seems to bounce in Levinson's backpack as she walks in a way that makes it seem as if his elephant head is nodding in agreement with Chesterfield's assessment....
Indeed! He has the most beautiful singing voice, though! He is The Magic-bloody-Flute, after all.... Was that a proper use of bloody, Mister Chesterfield?
Quite proper, Mister Mahatma, jolly good, sir.... Carry on....
How about both of you play "the Quiet Game" for awhile?
Ooh! "The Quiet Game", you say? How does one play this Quiet Game?
Whoever shuts the hell up the longest wins! It's a fantastic game for annoying kids....and talking objects....
Message received, and summarily ignored as the attempts of a lesser being to censor his superiors, Mister Whoever-you-are! retorts Chesterfield to MJ....
Ooh! I believe you have just been told, Mister Whoever-you-are! squeals Mahatma to MJ....
MJ can't help but laugh....
It's Mikey Jay.... Never thought I'd be introducing myself to a top hat and a marble elephant figurine.... Not without significant pharmacological assistance, anyway....
My people sometimes use these little "buttons" from the peyote cactus that can make you introduce yourself to top hats and marble elephant figurines....after you puke your guts out.... She shivers involuntarily.... Once you puke, its pretty awesome.... I met my totem spirit, Eagle, and learned that I could summon an eagle named Kwa last time I took peyote.... That was last Blessingway dance, when I was nineteen....
The young Navajo woman seems suddenly embarrassed by the memory, and clams up....
Wow.... Your religion sounds so cool.... We just ate these flavorless little wafers and got one little sip of watered-down wine from a cup that, like, a hundred old people drooled on before it got to you....
MJ grins at Daisy.
If we got to eat little buttons that made us trip our balls off at church, I'd've been waking my folks up bright and early every Sunday.... Heheheh!
Radsworths color changes from tan to red, containing as best he can the urge to shoot a marble elephant and sit on his new hat. He nods to Mikey.
"Go ahead and bond her. I don't expect she will survive the next ten minutes, but her information may be useful to us. I imagine Arthur likely has a few ways to inquire politely about the forces in the tower, who controls the place, and what specifically we should know. For starters, where we would find pockets of people who might be alive."
The cultist struggles mentally against the enchantment that holds her still....
Will save vs DC 18 hold person fails.... She remains paralyzed by Kailin's spell!
MJ nods at Radsworth and binds the cultist's wrists tightly with the length of silk rope. He then cuts another length to bind her ankles with....
Once her wrists and ankles have been bound, the cultist seems to become catatonic....
Bluff check to appear catatonic and incapable of answering questions is pretty damned convincing....fetal position, thousand-yard stare, the whole nine yards....
Oh, look, everybody! Suddenly, she's too batty to talk....
Sense Motive vs DC 26 Bluff
Oh, wait.... I don't think she's pretending, actually.... Haha! She really is too nuts to talk.... Well, that's what comes of reading forbidden grimoires and summoning the f$#*ed-up demons and s##~ they show you how to summon in those books.... Bat-s@+@ crazy, baby!
Sense Motive vs cultist's 26 Bluff check ....
Ew! Yup, that b%$$~ is crazy. Won't get nothin' useful out of her....
Walks up to the cultist and kneels beside her and backhands her
she isn't crazy or at less she isn't this crazy. now i suggest you stop acting and lying to us before i let my friend in the armor over there have his way with you. oh fyi he doesn't like people who work for an evil "god" bent on destroying the world.
nods towards derrik
The priestess gasps and blinks back tears after Yingzen backhands her across the face.... Not a typical catatonic response....
Derrik or another PC can now attempt a Diplomacy ("good cop") or an Intimidate ("badder cop") check against the priestess to get her talking, with a +2 circumstance bonus thanks to Yingzen's "bad cop" warm-up....
You cannot hope to fathom the motives of Dread Cthulhu, Tengu.... If destruction were My Lord's goal, we would not be here to discuss the fact.... He seeks not to destroy this pitiful world, but to remake it! You....you fear only because you do not understand.... Remove my bonds.... Join us.... And you shall reap the rewards of those who serve His Dread Omnipotence in the new world!
Bluff check not quite so convincing as her last....
Sense Motive check
Hmmm.... I think I speak for all of us when I say "hell no"!
Sense Motive check
It wasn't a sincere invitation, anyway, Daisy.... This b@&!$ is tricky.... She just wants those bindings off so she can suicide bomb us all to hell with that necklace of fireballs she and all her sisters wear....
That said, MJ pulls the necklace of fireballs (type IV) off of the cultist's neck and tosses it to Levinson....
Meanwhile, just one floor above where The FOs are interrogating the cultist, the barghest that escaped via dimension door scurries down a long corridor, yapping like a frightened dog....
YIIIIPE!! YIIIIIPE!! INTRUDERS DOWNSTAIRS!! THEY KILLED THE GREAT KRAKEN!! YIIIIPE!! YIIIIPE!!
He slides to a halt before an open office door, thrusts his goblin-like head in, and repeats his panicky warning....
Rad scowls, angry he had forgotten about the necklaces.
"Levinson, can you detect magic please? I usually don't have much divination on hand."
He squats by the woman and sighs.
"You are being brave, but that's not what is best for you right now. You are going to die. Probably soon. You should be thinking about your immortal soul and this point. I imagine that spending all of eternity with an angry Cthulu whom you failed is not a pretty picture. It's entirely possible that you've been controlled or influenced, weve seen that already. Either way, when we end your life, your soul will be judged. Perhaps if you repent now, partly by telling us where to find other survivors, when your deeds are weighed and measured, another god besides Cthulu might be willing to claim your afterlife. Stop wasting the time you need to redeem yourself and try to lessen the weight of your evil soul."
He stands up and walks away, then takes this moment to reload Traveler.
A look of hopeless dejection in the face of inescapable doom settles over the cultist, and she almost grins with relief as she begins to spill the beans about The Silver Tower....
Wow. This crazy b*!!+ doesn't know whether to laugh or cry right now....
The cultist paints a plausible if bleak and macabre picture of the situation as it stands around The Silver Tower....
Essentially, it is an outpost for a new kingdom--The Kingdom of R'lyeh--ruled by His Dread Monstrosity, Cthulhu, from the marine capital city of R'lyeh.... The ST is only one of several such outposts or strongholds that supposedly strengthen the hold Cthulhu has over his new kingdom....
Apparently, The Lord of the Silver Tower is a fairly coveted position among the minions of Cthulhu, given the location and the area of influence of the infamous edifice.... The current occupant of the title and the stronghold is a piscodaemon, said to have been spawned by Cthulhu himself.... This Daemon-Lord holds court in the penthouse Fane of Cthulhu above....
According to the cultist, the Daemon-Lord is advised by a Tentacled Terror, whatever that may be, a Spitter of Nightmares, and a Thief of Minds, all horrific monsters from other worlds or dimensions.... All lurking somewhere in the office building above....
The cultist further admits that the 90 refugees freed by The FOs and sent with Todd and Granny Smith were not the cult's only captives--more apparently are being held in offices on the floors above, perhaps another hundred people, kept sedated with potent sedatives, until the upcoming Summer Solstice, at which festival they were to be sacrificed in various gruesome ways to Cthulhu....
I'm not entirely sure why.... I'm trying to put my finger on it, and I think it has something to do with his past-life experience as king of a country, and the fact that he rightfully wields "the King of Swords, and Sword of Kings"....but I feel like Arthur has the most authority....and maybe the biggest duty....to chop this f&+*ing whore-of-Cthulhu's head off as payment for her crimes....
MJ looks at Derrik with a look of bemused awe for a moment as he contemplates the spiritual connotations of what he's heard about the young inquisitor-paladin.
Then he looks, not without pity, at the bound woman, who is now at turns weeping and chuckling over her sins....
....but Yingzen, Koran, and myself are more than capable of acting as "the king's justice" in such cases, if you prefer, Arthur....
In the open office upstairs, where the panicky barghest has just yapped out its warning of "intruders downstairs" having killed the Great Kraken, the Spitter of Nightmares chuckles....
In Abyssal: If the intruders this four-legged goblin-turd barks of truly killed the Great Kraken, they might be these "Fierce Ones" I've heard so many monster tongues wagging about lately.... I've been spoiling for a good rumble for eons, it feels like.... I'll gather me chums and see just how fierce they truly be....
To the barghest, in Common: Heel, barghest! You shall join me when I avenge your fallen master against these intruders! Thereafter, I shall see to your care and utilization as your new master, understand?
Looks at camera....
Ruh-roh!
While up on the 7th level:
Where did she go?.... She must have used magic to escape so swiftly.... Perhaps teleported.... Perhaps invisible.... Or using a disguise.... Something is not as it seems here.... Where did she find that sword?.... What is that sword?
What are we going to do with her?
We should teach her what mercy is.... Spare her life.... Her punishment has been inflicted upon her well in advance, I think....
Daisy seems somehow older and wiser than a 20-year-old for a brief moment....
We could kill her, but.... That doesn't change anything, or....bring back her victims.... But if we could show her....what they're missing, you know? What it means to be good--kind, compassionate....forgiving?
You're right, Daisy.... Killing her won't bring back her victims.... But it makes damned sure she doesn't accrue any new ones.... And retribution gives the victims' loved ones a sense of closure, however meaningless it may seem to an objective observer....
It's just fighting fire with fire, Mikey.... An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind....
Not the whole world, baby.... Some of us can control our impulse to poke someone in the eye, ya know? I happen to think, that after an initial "cleansing" period, in which all the Hatfields and McCoys blow each other to pieces, an eye for an eye leaves the whole world filled only with cool people who don't go around poking each other in the eye, know what I'm sayin'?
Violence, Mikey? Is violence always your answer? It solves nothing....
No, it isn't. In fact, it's always my final resort, when no other answer will suffice.... And, to play the devil's advocate a bit here, actually, violence solves everything....permanently....Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuked after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, and I believe we are going on, like, seven decades of nothing but friendly relations with Japan ever since....