The northern door opens onto a short passage leading north. At the end of the passage is another wooden door. Unsurprisingly the door is inscribed with yet another platitude: Cruelty is a tool not a pastime. Be ruthless to thy enemy but reward those who serve thee well. You pause to read the inscription before pushing through into the room proper.
The square chamber is lit by an oil lantern hanging from the center in the same style as the other. There is only one thing in this room – a torturer’s rack. This cruel implement is functional and ready for use but currently does not contain a subject empty. There is nothing else obvious here.
However as you review the room, you notice that the South West corner has a faint traced outline of a small secret door - perhaps leading to a small void about three feet high.
Mi'Dre did actually enjoy exploring, and didn't mind going first all that much, but if Shendalyn wanted to risk his bound underling then Mi'Dre wasn't going to complain.
He enters the room a few moments after Gurthok when nothing leaps out to attack the 'pit fiend' and starts to poke around. Well I'd dispute the clue for this room, but I'm not sure what it means regardless." Mi'Dre observes.
"So it would seem. Except the only one we've run into was that mist thing, and I don't think a rack would be much good for that. Maybe we're meant to find something in the other room...?" he muses, before they locate the small, hidden door. "hmm, after you Gurthok..." he says with a malicious grin.
The tiny pitfiend gives an immolating stare to Mi'Dre before Shendalyn speaks up. "You heard the embodiment of law and darkness Gurthock."
With a vein pulsing on his forehead the tiny pitfiend shoves the normal sized Gaav (which consequently is the same size as Gurthock) and moves through the secret passage as carefully as possible.
Stealth
Perception
The secret portal is opened and you find a small crawlspace within... that is occupied. Crouched in fear and terror is a young man wearing the livery of Talingarde who judging by his dirtied face and clothing has been hiding for a short time. He reacts to the sight of the devil "Aaah! Iomedae help me." before beginning to blubber and tear up. He makes no hostile movements, and merely covers his head with his hands by way of defense.
Gurthock seems to visibly calm a bit in the rpesence of a mortal who actually fears him. Shendalyn merely rolls his eyes.
"Oh joy. A chance for pointless revenge." Shandalyn remarks without any sense of humor. "Boy I think you should start praying to some of the lower gods as they're likely the only ones that can hear you right now. Tell me child by what stroke of fortune saw you here away from Sir Balins no doubt flawlessly polished ironfist?"
|
"Wonderful!" Albina says in a rich voice, clapping her hands in delight. "We need a foe to torture, and the Dark Prince provides! I like this game."
To those who have traveled with her, albeit for a short time, her behavior seems over the top and uncharacteristic, but she's no doubt hamming it up a bit for the quivering audience.
The youngling stammers and makes no attempt to move from the hollow "Mmmy mmaster was ttaken and I barely fffled with my life. A bbald man hurt me and I mmmanaged to hide here.... who are yyou?"
Mi'Dre smiles as he sees the huddled man, a little too broadly, his undisguised, sharp, pointed teeth on full display, not to mention the bright, shiny symbol of Asmodeus sitting on the blonde-haired child's chest. "Oh this will be fun..." he murmurs to himself, though as he thinks back to the riddle that fades slightly. If he was understanding it correctly, they should torture this guy until he gave them what they wanted, and then reward him.
Pushing that thought aside Mi'Dre stepped forward, doing the same to Gurthok as he reached down and grabbed the cowering man's arm with a surprisingly, and with his current appearance, frighteningly firm grip, the devil just starting to drag him out of his hiding place towards the rack. "How pray did you find your way to this little alcove? You're in a basement quite a ways underground."
Are we suppose to torture the boy until he helps us? But help us with what? What can he possible knows about our current predicament?
The mention of Sir Balin spice Jack's interest.
Say it again boy. Was Balin captured? By whom?
Grabbing the boy's other arm the blackguard helps Mi'dre.
Clicking hsi tongue at the overeager cleric and demon he waggles a finger. "Now, now, how can the boy know anything? What point would there be in flaying him alive. Ok, other than fun, though personally I find torture distasteful. I say we shove him back in the hole and see what's on the other side before we go about the messy business of unprofessional torture."
"Feel free to step into the other room and take a look then." Mi'Dre responds to Shendalyn, nodding at Black Jack in thanks for his assistance as he drags the boy into place and sets to work strapping him in; he was pretty sure he could handle the boy by himself even with the size difference, but they were meant to be trying to work together, so he didn't make a fuss about it.
Rolling his eyes at the overeager bloodthirstiness he gestures to Gurthock who sighs in full understanding. The tiny pitfiend moves out of the room and checks the unexplored east door.
Stealth
Perception
As Mi'Dre and Black Jack drag the boy from his place of hiding he goes limp in their arms, crying pitiously. You sense a flicker of recognition as his eyes cross over Asmodeus' pentacle, and all he says of his master is "I hope that Sir Balin escaped... I hope..." before tears come again. You find it no trouble to secure him to the rack.
His pockets are empty, and he only possess his clothes and a chain shirt.
Gurthock moves off to the other portal and opens it onto another corridor leading East to yet another inscribed portal The chosen are revealed by their might. The weak deserve no sympathy.
Looking up at the inscription the tiny pitfiend snorts. "Berk is crazy as snot. Moight don't have anything ta do with it. It's how cunning ye is, how ruthless." Gurthock contemplated going back and reporting his findings. Afterall there could be deadly traps, horrible monsters, granted in hsi true form these would be minor annoyances. Right now though they'd cut this weak form to ribbons and he'd be blasted back to his home plane....
With a serene smile (made more terrible by a maw full of fangs) the tiny pitfiend pushes through the door as quietly as possible. The prospect of discorporation had merit. But pain did not.
Stealth
Perception
Initiative:
Gurthock:
Cobras:
Perception: and
Gurthock reacts quickest of the group...
Surprise Round: Gurthock, Cobras
After securing the boy the blackguard once again begins his interrogation.
Maybe he did, maybe he did not. What happened to you both? Tell me your tale boy, and start from the begining. You dont want us getting nasty, do you?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Nope." The pit fiend says as he slams the door and makes his way back to the group.
Mi'Dre leaves Jack to his attempts to intimidate the boy, though he makes sure to listen to the boy's responses, mostly he starts to slowly look over the wrack, figuring out how it works and how to squeeze the most out of it; he'd never tortured someone before, but he was eager to try...
Shendalyn looks over the room. Considers the riddle. Considers the boy. Looks at the rack. Quietly he steps to the edge of the doorway. Then he took a better look at the boy.
The lad remains stoic throughout Black Jack's attempted interrogation.
Shendalyn detects no magic on either the boy or the rack.
|
|
Switching to Infernal, Albina comments,
Faced with the opportunity to take out her hatred of Sir Balin on this boy, she seems to have lost interest in this 'vengeance-by-proxy.'
"But we do not know the contents of it unless Gurthock what was in the other room?"
"Iron snakes."
Shendalyn shrugs deciding not to demand further detail. Instead he goes over to the crawl space and takes a deeper look within making sure there was not some hatch or lever hiddine within.
As he searches he calls over his shoulder. "I've really no taste for the torturing of children myself. Or women for that matter. And torture is precisely what they are about to do to you my boy. Partly to get information out of you but mostly mostly because your sir knight has made quite a few enemies and some of them would very much like to harm him even if in a proxy manner. My suggestion to you boy is to seriously consider your predicament. Answering how you got here does not betray your sir, nor does it endanger the realm anymore than it already is. However, not answering guarantees you hours of messy pain and agony as the devil there gets in touch with his roots and tries to play amateur torturer hour."
Diplomacy
Shendalyn is sure that there is nothing else in this room. Judging by the reaction of the squire you get a sense that Shendalyn's angle is sound... but he looks to Albina in particular for reinforcement.
|
|
Albina steps to position Shawn between herself and the boy, before muttering a soft incantation to sharpen her wits, not wanting him to see and possibly believe that she is trying to bepell him. She then steps up to the boy, and makes sure not to loom over him (kneeling so that they are face to face, if he's kneeling, for instance), wearing a look of concern and disappointment.
"My friend has the right of it. I fear that your master Balin has left you to our tender mercies, and I do not think that you owe him any loyalty for leading you into this sort of trouble. Just tell us what you know of his last whereabouts, and then feel your doubts fade away. You have been placed in an impossible situation, by someone who should have known better than to bring such a young man into these affairs, and expose him to such risk."
"Hmph, I could care less about who he serves..." Mi'Dre mutters after Shendalyn's little spiel, but otherwise keeps quiet and lets the more charismatic members of the group talk, looking bored now.
Sensing his tatics did not produced the desired effect the Blackguard steps back to let Albina try.
He is not worth of your consideration my Lady. looking at the boy. This one have cannon folder written all over him. I am sure right now Sir Balin is warming his bones by a nice fire with some dinner while "brains" here covered his retreat.
The young squire trembles as he speaks "I don't believe you, my master is not a coward... I have heard whispers between a man and woman that shows he lives still. I know they were not lying because they talked of these chambers and their risks... He will come for me..." though you sense his words are not as confident.
Standing up and cracking his back Shendalyn sinks his talons into the boy. "And how long do you suppose that will be? Before or after that mean little bastard flays your flesh off the bone? Quite frankly I look forward to waiting for him to come for me again, when I'm not passed out and exhausted. He may find I'm not such easy prey without a trail of bodies, a bloodsoaked manor and a burning town to find me in..." Shendalyn trails off letting the nasty memories fade as he regains his composure and continues. "Point is m'boy we are looking for a way out and we need to know how you got here. While you're at it describe what these people of yours looked like. They sound familiar."
Jack slowly starts turn the wheels that overstretch the prisioner's chains.
The squire squeals when his flesh is pierced, then sobs and whimpers as Black Jack applies the force of the rack. He manages "I was hurt and ran and hid." before all sensible thoughts flee from the lad's mind and he murmurs over and over "I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead"
Holding the chains stretched Jack looks at his companions with a question in his eyes. More? they ask.
"From where? How did you get into this room?"
"When the bald man attacked us my senses were overwhelmed and I lost contact with my master. As I fled I came to this place and found the alcove in the corner opened to me... I.. I.. can only hope Sir Balin escaped... I know that my time is past, I have heard there is no escape from these tunnels of death."
Through further application of the rack and words you are able to garner the following from the squire of the tunnel complex:
- There are vicious metal cobras in a nearby room
- a secret door across from the stairs hides the way out
- somewhere is a plant creature that screams when there is light or movement near to it
- the scream heralds the rise of four drowned men
Most of this is elicited between sobs and tears, and he swears that it was overheard in a conversation between the bald one and a woman... though he did not see her face.
As they start to actually get some answers from the boy Mi'Dre perks up a bit and joins in extracting the information now that the diplomatic avenue has been exhausted. He laments the lack of fire, and tools, making a note to obtain some items for this purpose in the future, but makes do with what he has, applying claw, and some of his natural magic abilities in an attempt to unsettle the boy.
When they have extracted all they can the now somewhat bloody child/devil looks at the others.
Looking at the squire Jack shrugs his shoulders. The boys fate is of no consequence to him. He would easily leave him to his luck chained to the rack as he is.
Hand on his sword. So, lets move?
With Albina's agreement and Jack's indifference Mi'Dre simply starts to release the boy from the rack. "Through that room, right door, left door, then left up the stairs." Mi'Dre instructs the boy, prodding him into motion if necessary. That hadn't really been as much fun as he hoped, his enjoyment hampered somewhat by the boy's snivelling.
"Lets go see what the riddle says, shall we?" he suggests in reply to Albina once the boy was out of sight, heading back into the other room and down the east corridor to check out the inscription there. "That's fairly clearly a 'face' to me." he observes, looking back at the others, repeating the inscription for them if necessary. "Everyone ready?" he asks, waiting a few moments before yanking the door open.
The squire attempts to withdraw from you as you release him, before bounding off on the path advised like a jackrabbit - clear terror etching lines upon his face.
You make your way to Gurthock's door and compose yourselves before wrenching it open. Within is another of the familiar thirty foot square rooms... though this one bears twin metallic serpents that have malevolent intent...
Mi'Dre:
Albina:
Black Jack:
Shendalyn + Gurthock:
Action Tracker (Round 1): Shendalyn + Gurthock, Cobras, Mi'Dre, Albina, Black Jack
But actually.
Shendalyn will cast shield on himself (19 AC) and move. Position will be noted with map.
Gurthock will edge back keeping the gaav between his glorious pit fiendish self and the cobras.
The shiny cobra constructs slink apart from each other and face the interlopers, fangs bared and at the ready.
Action Tracker (Round 1): Shendalyn + Gurthock, Cobras, Mi'Dre, Albina, Black Jack
Mi'Dre grit his teeth for what was to come, glaring momentarily at Gurthok as he shuffled backwards and Shendalyn moved into the room past his servant. Pushing aside the momentary distraction Mi'Dre leaps forward, attempting to tumble past the fangs of the serpents.
Mi'Dre comes out of the roll, springing back to his feet... and hesitating, waiting for the distraction of an ally before he lashes at the thing...