Marvin whirls his staff around, looking out for the creature's return.
Talia will wit until the doctor throws and than take the blue restorative elixir indicated and quaff it.
Marvin steels himself and Kelvar moves in to back him up. You hear the screams of the creature as it tries to escape the flaming oil Rose is pouring into its home. It finally comes back up rushing for Rose and hissing hate at her but Kelvar and the Doctor are ready and it screams again and falls to the floor burning, soon a gooey red puddle at your feet.
2 paths stand before you. 2 doors leading to yet more tests.
Looking at the Doctor, Kelvar says, "Save your potion. I will use the wand to heal her."
Talia allows the magic from being stabbed to filter through her, and returns the potion to the Doctor. She is not up to full, but as good as can be expected. Once again she takes the lead.
Rose puts the stopper back on her oilskin and tucks it into her small pack. [b]"It's going to get dark for a second."[b] she says, reaching under the cloak covering the object generating the darkness on the pedestal.
Then she pulled the object out, took a moment to run her hands over it and feel it's shape. Then she tried to pick it up and tuck it into her pack.
It merely sits in a small hollow on top of the podium and is easily removed. The object is a very smooth globe, 4 in. in diameter made of stone weighing about 5 lbs. Nothing but the return of darkness happens as you remove it from its place. Your pack radiates a slight shadow but it is light tight enough that the light in the room returns to normal once the pack is closed.
Shouldering her small pack again, Rose moved up behind Talia. "This one?" she said, gesturing to the north door.
Talia will examine each door, not touching them yet.
Both doors are barred but easily unbarred with a little effort. They each open to another hallway. The north hallway is a short 20ft. long and another door can be seen with an inscription above it...
The other hallway heads north for about 50 ft. before turning to the right.
The Doctor lets his cackling settle down into chuckles until he finally silences them with a few coughs. He pulls out a pair of rimless glasses, using them as a virtual mask as he regains his composure. He shrugs as Talia is healed by the wand rather this potions. It didn't really matter much to him.
He scoffs slightly at the claim above the next door, but otherwise doesn't comment on it. What a simplistic view of the carrot and stick. "Shall we continue through the northern door then? I assume we'll have to explore both eventually."
"They had me at cruelty." Rose shrugged, moving north with Talia.
"Is this going to be about murdering some innocent prisoner?" Marvin asks, as he follows. "Pedestrian, but sure, why not."
You move north through the hallway and through the door is another square stone room. The pattern is this place is repetitive; Door, Inscription, Problem to Solve.
There is only one thing in this room – a torturer’s rack. This cruel implement is functional and ready for use but currently empty. The chamber is lit by an oil lantern that hangs from the center of the room. There is nothing else here.
"Agreed, we shall start to the north."
Kelvar considers the room they are in, walking around the rack, examining it, then examining each of the walls, looking to see if there was more.
She will circle the rack, watching out for any change or creature. "Perhaps the other door will lead to a stock of servants of Mitra to interrogate and faithful servants to reward. If we don't find anything we should examine the other room."
Looking around at the rather sad and lonely room, the Doctor comments, "I would agree with Talia. After the interrogation, probably a secret door in here will unlock or a passage somewhere else will reveal itself. Or else we will get information about a secret door. I suppose while we're here, we may as well look around, but if we don't find anything, how about we check out the other branch?"
The Doctor and Talia both spot a hidden door in the southwest corner leading to a small storage space. Inside is a terrified young man. "Who are you? Please let me out of here."
"Well then, let's get him in that chair and see what he's willing to tell us."
Talia will hold her hand out to request that the others keep quiet. She asks the young man. "Who do you worship?"
"I worship Mitra. Are you here to help me?"
"Yeah, we are. Just hold on." Rose said, her voice full of concern and reassurance.
"Just keep talking to us while we get this open, alright? What's your name? How did you end up here?"
The young man breathes a sigh of relief. "I thought I was the only one down here. I'm Timeon, squire of Sir Balin the renowned witch hunter. I followed him to this mansion but the old man saw me and I hid down here. He almost found me. I'm sure sir Balin must be stuck down here. If you help me rescue him I'll make sure you get a reward."
Rose grinned. "Sir Balin is down here too?"
Marvin wonders just where this is going, but says nothing.
"I don't know. I just know he came this way and this mansion is the only place within miles."
"Didn't anyone else come with you? Who knows you are here?" Rose asked, faking trying to get the storage door open.
"It is vitally important, Timeon, that you tell us everything you can. We cannot do anything for Sir Balin unless we know everything." Kelvar ensures that his axe is clearly in a non-threatening position, looking for all the world like a guard of some kind.
As the other have talked, Talia has been listening closely. She's evaluating if he's telling the truth, and if he's holding anything back.
"We've heard that there is some sort of devil-cult after Sir Balin." She shudders at the term "devil-cult". "We need to find him."
The Doctor frowns slightly, mentally trying to piece together what piece of information this man might have that they would need. He got the feeling that they might not find out until exploring more, and he admittedly wasn't a huge fan of the idea of of having a literal enemy following them about (unless his companions decided to give up their ruse anyway). His fingers twitched slightly. This would be so much easier if those idiots hadn't burned all my experiments before locking me up. Then I could give him something to make him more...amenable to our way of thinking.
When he finally gets out of the cramped storage space and into the light of the room the young man shrinks back as he sees Rose adorned with devilry. "You're the devil cult!"
"Yeah..." Rose said a little sheepishly, a big grin on her face.
"So, do you want out of this place?"
"I won't tell anyone you're here. Please let me go. I'm just a worthless squire!" And a coward.
"Not telling is not enough." She will bring her mace close enough to the boy's face that he can feel the heat. "We need to know what you know. We will find out. You do have a choice. You can cooperate willingly or you can be forced to cooperate."
Looming over the squire, Kelvar studies the lad before saying says, "You would not enjoy being forced to cooperate."
"Oh, stop you two. You're scaring the poor guy." Rose said giving Kevlar gentle, backhanded swat. "He knows he has every reason to be scared. We aren't good people."
"That doesn't mean we can't be nice people though. Now, Timmy, if you want to get out of here it's easy. All you have to do is renounce Mitra forever. Then we'll help you."
"No I would never do that." He whispers a quick prayer and pulls a holy symbol out of his pocket and holds it forwards as if to ward you away. "If the old man sent you to look for me, I won't do what you say. Sir Balin will find me and deal with you." It seems Rose has triggered a burst of defiance in the young man.
"Okay. Torture time?" Marvin asks.
"Might as well." Rose said. "Come along, Timmy. You're about to find out whether or not your god loves you."
"Hint," Martin adds, "He doesn't."
Timoen's eyes go wide as he looks at the torture table. He clutches his holy symbol close, "You can't do that! I've done nothing to you. Please just let me go!"
"You really think we will if you ask us to?" Marvin's eyes widen a bit. 'Just what do you think Asmodeans are?"
And then he grabs the man by the arm, hard, and starts to yank him towards the chair.
"As much fun as it may be, what do we actually hope to gain from this? We are on a bit of a schedule. Perhaps we could simply lock him back up and enjoy him at our leisure once we're through with this little 'test'?"
Despite his words, the Doctor was quite curious about how the little 'therapy session' would go. He had never inflicted pain quite like this before, and he was quite eager to see how it compared to his usual methods. But he could wait. After all, it was impossible to build up a network of addicts all desperate to do anything for you without patience. But then, the process was part of the fun, now wasn't it?
"No! No!" He screams and tries to resist you but can't stop himself from being strapped down. "Please, I'll tell you anything."
"Anything? How about you tell me that you renounce Mitra? Unless you think your god is actually going to save you here? If Mitra is so great and powerful, then why are you scared?" Rose asked sweetly.
"Great, good, yes. Tell us everything you know about this building and your friends, with no lies or omissions, and then I guess none of us will tear your eyes out," Marvin offhandedly suggests.
Tears start to form in Timeon's eyes as he imagines what sort of terrible tortures might be inflicted upon him, "I won't. One day I will be a paladin..." He holds on tightly to his faith, clenching the holy symbol in his fist. When Marvin questions him about the building he blurts out, "I just ran down the stairs and through a few rooms! There was nothing there. But. I heard him talking to someone about how dangerous this place is! There are metal vipers, no, pythons! I think. And drowned men. And, a shrieker that senses light and movement! Please let me go! Please. He said there's a secret exit across from the stairs."
"Why do you care about my friends? They are far away in Aldencross. My family has estates up there. If you return me to them they can give you money. We are connected to house Balentyne."