Druamin chuckles at Trox's joke as he stride up to get a closer look at the desiccated devil. "Well now, I don't know a lot about these things but it really does look dead. Devils are generally undead, right? But before we raise this gate, maybe we should look at the other one."
Druamin walks to the other end of the room. He attempts to detect magic on the red ash or the runes.
Skarn looks at Druamin like he's an idiot. "Are devils generally undead? No! Undead are undead! Demons are demons! Fey are fey! Devils are devils! That isn't to say that a devil killed by a spectre might not come back as a spectre-devil," Skarn shudders at the thought of one of those. "But, no. Let it suffice to say that devils are NOT undead, generally, but they could become undead. WAIT! Are you saying you detect this one as undead?"
Trox considers poking it with a sword though the gate.
"This one looks fully dead. Should I poke it?"
"Allow me!" Reynard says, walking right up to the devil with surgical alchemical tools in hand. He examines the devil thoroughly, then, if it really is dead, starts dissecting it.
As soon as Druamin enters the room the devil stirs slightly, and a weak voice sounds in everyone's heads. "Free...me...."
Skarn takes a step back when the devil moves and speaks, "DAMMIT! I warned you! Those things are bad news!"
A faint impression of a rueful sigh comes across. "Once, perhaps, but no longer. I have something you may want, though...free me, and I swear by my name that I will tell you truthfully how the dam functions."
"You will swear by your name, huh? And what would that be?" Druamin remains wary. His rather limited experience with devils was enough to let him know that they couldn't be trusted. He looks to the others. "Do any of you feel up to negotiating?"
”Negotiate with it? You’re crazy!”
Skarn is aware that a devil treats an oath taken by its name is binding...to the strictest and most advantageous (to it) reading of that oath.
Trox is standing next to the devil and starts a little when it speaks, raising its shield.
"Free you? How did you get stuck here?"
Skarn adds, "look, devils, by their nature, may be evil and untruthful, but they are known to fastidiously observe the letter of any agreement they make. Although they will twist the words to their advantage in any way they can." Skarn looks at the devil, "I mean no disrespect when I say these things mister devil sir."
"I was summoned by a wizard of extraordinary power and skill. He conjured me into this trap to power the engine around you with my life."
He doesn't dignify Skarn's comment with a response.
Cordwin is intrigued by the knowledge that the devil offers to impart.
+3 to identify creature abilities and weaknesses
Skarn knows that under normal circumstances, summoned outsiders (as would be called up with a summon monster spell) are merely sent back to their home planes upon the destruction of their form on the Material Plane. However, those spells don't last for millennia. This suggests that the unnamed caster who bound the pit fiend used a gate spell, or something like it, to summon the devil. Under those circumstances, destruction of the outsider's body on the Material Plane will also disperse the creature's essence. Lesser devils would be utterly destroyed by this, but greater devils have been known to reconstitute themselves over a period of centuries (at a minimum) after such an event.
Reynard puts his alchemy tools away, looking disappointed.
Skarn grabs a quick drink from the flask at his side before turning to face the imprisoned pit fiend. "I shall call you Devil, unless you wish to exchange names. I understand why you may not be willing to do exchange names, of course." Skarn takes a deep breath. "I find what was done to you abhorrent. Evil you may be, but imprisoning of any creature for such a length of time is a heinous act, and one that I will not stand to allow to continue further, even to one such as yourself." Skarn pauses, and takes another swig. "Here is my conundrum. If we were to free you directly, I fear you may slaughter us, or wreak havoc upon this world, as is your wont. If you were an ordinary summoned creature, we could free you by killing this mortal shell and releasing you back to your plane of origin. The magic that has summoned and imprisoned you here, though, is such that were we to finish off your corporeal self, you may not reconstitute back in the Hells. I do not even claim that we have the ability to finish you off. I am thus, at a crossroads. It stings my soul to see any creature bound as you are, but the greater evil might be freeing you, and I would not kill your current incarnation without knowing this was a choice you wanted. What would you have us do?"
The devil nods slowly. "I would be free. Dispel the magic of this circle or break it, and I will return to the Inferno. Regaining what's been drained out of me will take some little time, and revenging myself on the wizard who bound me will occupy my attention for some time after that. For one such as he is unlikely to have merely died."
"Ok, so if we break the circle, you can get yourself home? And you will do so without injuring us, or anyone else on this plane for, shall we call it 100 years?"
Skarn looks to his companions, "everyone good with this? Trox, your sword can probably break the circle I should think."
Is there some sort of 'contract' he would be bound to obey? Cordwin asks.
"Well, that is sort of where I was going with the 100 years thing?"
"So, he tells us how the place functions, and we let him go, with that 100 year limit?"
"Wait, if we free him won't whatever he was powering stop?" Torx scratches his head wondering if he has it wrong.
"It has already stopped...with my companion in chains drained--" The pit fiend points at the pile of crimson ash in the other circle. "--I lack the vital force to make it work."
"We'll need to figure out a non-criminal way to power the thing, but one thing at a time, I suppose."
"Tell us of this wizard who bound you. To bind such a devil, he must have been powerful indeed." Reynard says, his curiosity piqued at the idea of a wizard powerful enough to bind a pit fiend.
"All I know is a name: Karzoug."
Skarn shakes his head, "that's a dumb name. Probably an elf. Ok, let's get this bargain done. The deal is that we release you, then you are going to tell us the dam secret of how it runs, and finally that you will go back home to your own plane and bother no one on our plane for the next 100 years, which is likely how long you'll need to recuperate anyways. Agreed?"
"I vow by my name to tell you what I know of how the dam operates, to return to the Inferno when I have done so, and to bother no one on the Material Plane of my own volition except for Karzoug for the next 100 years, if you release me from the circle."
"Karzoug, sounds like his parents knew he would be a bit of a sh$t" .
Skarn chuckles, "I'll let you go with the Karzoug exemption." He turns to Trox, "if you would please, can you break this open so we can get on with this bargain?"
It takes some time, even with Trox's adamant blade, to cut away enough of the stone to break the circle. The pit fiend doesn't physically move, but it relaxes noticeably. "As promised. The floodgates are powered by the life of anyone standing in the alcoves." It extends an emaciated, clawed hand, pointing at the other alcove behind the portcullis. "The engine will drain the equivalent of one level from each creature in an alcove, and it operates automatically when the water level behind the dam gets too high. I have felt the water rising, and the engine tugging at what's left of my life force, but I lacked enough to power it. With that, I have fulfilled the first half of my oath. May your lives be long."
Unless there are any other questions, the pit fiend vanishes.
"Well now. This whole thing seems like a terrible idea. Who's going to volunteer to get their life sucked out?" Druamin shakes his head and walks toward the other alcove. Now, with more knowledge about the situation, he looks more closely at the pile of ash and tries to imagine what creature that was before.
"I'd say we could force our enemies in there but, you know, I'm just not that cruel. But I guess we have another option. One of us could volunteer and then I could use some magic to restore the person. I mean, depending on how much the person is drained, it might take me a few days to get them back to normal. But it's an option."
Skarn places his thumb next to his nose in the universal dwarven sign for "not it!"
"If we go back to the idea that this elf originally summoned the devil and something else into these boxes, then maybe we can summon a couple critters here for the same purpose. Unlike that pit fiend, a standard summoned critter, when dead WILL return to its place of origin unharmed right? Druamin, you can summon a couple things onto the pads, yes?"
Based on what's left in the other alcove, it was probably a second pit fiend.
Trox thinks for a moment.
"We can't let the dam break. I will do one circle, maybe I am tough enough to withstand it until the pressure is released."
"Oh yeah. I can summon some things. I like that idea. I know, I'll summon a rat. Those are ugly creatures."
Druamin spends a few seconds and a moment later a big, ugly dire rat appears standing on the pile of ashes.
"Ok. Does this just work automatically now?"