She says mater of factly.
"Can you be any more condescending. It's not changed, it's just your not needed for it to be enforced. That is our good sheriff's job. And if you demand to come along so the knights here will demand to come along."
She says mater of factly.
"Can you be any more condescending. It's not changed, it's just your not needed for it to be enforced. That is our good sheriff's job. And if you demand to come along so the knights here will demand to come along."
"Child, are you in need of medical attention? Your senses and faculties appear to have been damaged because you aren't making a shred of sense."
She looks on now unhappy.
"Wow, you can be more condescending, go on do it again. Tell us your doing all this for our own good and how much you know better than us."
She shakes her head at the out and out aregence, then says to the sheriff.
"I will come willingly and show you but the Knights, and old lighting here. They stay behind or I show nothing. That's the deal."
She offers up her hands again to be bound.
It seems you're all beset by some madness.
Fumiko, i suggest you stand back and tone it down. In your position your behavior isn't befitting at all. It doesn't help to trust you or shine a better light on you, on the opposite.
Sheriff, with your agreement we go and search out this mysterious magical laboratorium, so it exists. This could provide some instant answers.
[dice=Diplomacy]1d20 + 25She then glances at the knights.
I wonder what your intentions are. Just before you were offering unsolicited aid to me by sending a voice to my head. Apparantly you made the same offer to Fumiko here, who at first jumped on it. You are making false accusations and i very much doubt your presence here. I know where you come from and i have to wonder as you seemingly use magic or something similar yourself...[dice=Sense Motive to get a hunch about them]1d20 + 25
Belor again casts a serious glance around the assembled company,
"Until I have settled the many pressing questions that presently weigh on my mind. I am unwilling that any of those here present should be otherwise. First, I want to have a look at this purported laboratory from which the late Fumiko Kaijitsu claims she recently returned to us. Then, I want to speak with eyes who was present during the attack on the festival, including this mysterious lady who you claim to be a witch or sorceress."
"That makes sense. So what are you going to do with the sorceress while the lab is investigated? Surely not bring her along? Should we not be doing rather than talking? There could be evidence being destroyed while we waste time flapping our gums in the street."
Ynja looking the way the Lab was says.
"I'm not going anywhere, and that lab was a morgue by the looks of it, also will not be going anywhere anytime soon. Some simple orgry can tell you what was being done there. Were as there has been one violent attack in the town that cost lives, and if there are more attacks being implemented right now. By associates of the sorceress here. That is the clear and present danger. It is more logical to seek what this woman knows and what she and others like her are up to. "
The Heldannic Knight who had previously interjected now speaks again,
"Sheriff Belor, I think you will find it of note that I observed all of those presently assembled in the company of this sorceress who they now claim to have apprehended. I can only guess their escape from the scene of the crime was foiled, and they are now attempting to sacrifice one of their number to eventuate an escape. You should stop them."
"That is immediately detectable as a lie, as I only just got here while the sheriff was observing."
"That is immediately detectable as a lie, as I only just got here while the sheriff was observing."
"And who might you be to gainsay the sworn testimony of one of the Immortal Vanya's chosen?"
"And who might you be to gainsay the sworn testimony of one of the Immortal Vanya's chosen?"
Aleister chuckles at that last statement "I'm a high priest of the Immortal Lissala, while our new arrival is a ranking member of Gozreh's faith. You're not exactly special friend."
"And who might you be to gainsay the sworn testimony of one of the Immortal Vanya's chosen?"
Aleister chuckles at that last statement "I'm a high priest of the Immortal Lissala, while our new arrival is a ranking member of Gozreh's faith. You're not exactly special friend."
The Heldannritterorden or Heldann Ordnung venerate the Immortal Vanya, Lady of Battle.
Vanya was a brave warrior princess of the Kerendan tribe, who lived in Davania, the vast southern continent to the south of Brun, around the VII century BC. Fleeing before the marching forces of the Milenian Empire, a nation of philosophers, oracles, architects, and mighty pikemen where Citizens elected their own leaders, and ultimately the Emperor himself. Vanya led her own people northwards, together with the ancestors of the Thyatians and the Hattians, looking for a refuge where the Milenians would not pursue them.
When it was clear that the only hope lay beyond the ocean and that they needed to abandon their homeland, Vanya formed a battalion of brave soldiers, and with hit-and-run raids she delayed the Milenian troops enough to allow the three tribes to build the ships and to sail northward. This sacrifice cost her freedom, since the survivors of her warband were captured and enslaved by the merciless Milenians.
After years of serving her hated enemies as a slave, Vanya was sent near the southern border of the Empire, in the Lower Arypt. Here she found an unlikely ally in a Milenian cleric of Khoronus, who admired her indomitable will and eventually fell in love with her.
When her master threatened to kill her when she refused to submit to his sexual desires, the Milenian cleric organised her escape and followed her heading southwest in the uncharted wilderness.
After days spent marching, they arrived near the coast where Vanya helped many primitive Neathar tribes living here to withstand the might of the rakasta tiger-people raiders. Thanks to her wits and military prowess, as well as to the superior knowledge she learnt from her Milenian captors, she taught her Neathar allies to build better weapons and armours and trained them in more efficient military tactics.
In a decade she became the warleader of a large clan, and later the overlord of a whole coalition of tribes, building a fortress as her seat of power that would have later be renamed Vanya's Rest by the Heldannic Knights that discovered the keep in Lower Arypt.
Once the rakasta threat was dealt with, Vanya convinced her allies to plan a massive raid against the northern Milenian outpost she fled many years before. This way she would have halted the Milenian expansion in the south and avenged all the years of slavery she had to endure. Vanya's troops obtained a crushing victory and the city was completely annihilated.
Following this success, Vanya returned among her allies and in BC 586 she was proclaimed Queen Varellya, using the name the Neathar gave her, which meant "Victory".
In the following years she faced two major threats to her kingdom but she was ever victorious, until one night Khoronus appeared in her dreams and asked her to abandon her people and to follow him: only in this way she could have earned true immortality.
Vanya abdicated in favour of her son and went on a quest, looking for an artifact to travel through time. Thanks to this artifact, she assured her dynasty a firm grip on the Kingdom of Varellya for the centuries to come, and after building the new capital of the kingdom turned Empire in the middle of the Vulture Peninsula while using a fake identity, she finally managed to become immortal in the Sphere of Time around BC 380, leaving her mortal body in the ancient fortress of Vanya's Rest.
From that moment Vanya became patroness of war and victory, and she extended her protection first over the Varellyan Empire, and then over the Thyatian Empire, the latter founded by the descendants of her people, and therefore considered with a special attention.
The last consequence of her machinations was the war that led the Order of Vanya to migrate from Thyatis and conquer the Heldann's Freeholds, thus establishing the new theocracy called the Heldannic Territories in AC 956. The Heldannic Knights were then guided by Vanya to find Vanya's Rest and take possession of the Star of Vanya, a priceless artifact the Knights used to improve their military might and impose Vanya's will all around the world.
"What does it matter who I am, when your sworn testimony means less than nothing, being an obvious lie. You do a great disservice to your faith by lowering yourself to untruths. You would do well to stay out of whatever business has transpired here." He says, his words clearly carrying the command to leave. His tone then softens as he turns to Belor. "After all, the lady here claims that you may have been meddling about with secret messages trying to incite something here. Now, certainly such is not readily provable, but it does cast doubt as to why you are intervening or even present here."
influence opponent's attitude
DC 10+HD+WIS mod
im thinking "…take actions that do not endanger it" as in shove off and out of the situation. leave this to the PCs and the lawful authority.
"What does it matter who I am, when your sworn testimony means less than nothing, being an obvious lie. You do a great disservice to your faith by lowering yourself to untruths. You would do well to stay out of whatever business has transpired here." He says, his words clearly carrying the command to leave. His tone then softens as he turns to Belor. "After all, the lady here claims that you may have been meddling about with secret messages trying to incite something here. Now, certainly such is not readily provable, but it does cast doubt as to why you are intervening or even present here."
[dice=intimidate]1d20+33
** spoiler omitted **
[dice=religion]1d20+15
[dice=sense motive]1d20+15
[dice=history or local]1d20+11
The Heldannritterorden or Heldann Ordnung venerate the Immortal Vanya, Lady of Battle.
Vanya was a brave warrior princess of the Kerendan tribe, who lived in Davania, the vast southern continent to the south of Brun, around the VII century BC. Fleeing before the marching forces of the Milenian Empire, a nation of philosophers, oracles, architects, and mighty pikemen where Citizens elected their own leaders, and ultimately the Emperor himself. Vanya led her own people northwards, together with the ancestors of the Thyatians and the Hattians, looking for a refuge where the Milenians would not pursue them.
When it was clear that the only hope lay beyond the ocean and that they needed to abandon their homeland, Vanya formed a battalion of brave soldiers, and with hit-and-run raids she delayed the Milenian troops enough to allow the three tribes to build the ships and to sail northward. This sacrifice cost her freedom, since the survivors of her warband were captured and enslaved by the merciless Milenians.
After years of serving her hated enemies as a slave, Vanya was sent near the southern border of the Empire, in the Lower Arypt. Here she found an unlikely ally in a Milenian cleric of Khoronus, who admired her indomitable will and eventually fell in love with her.
When her master threatened to kill her when she refused to submit to his sexual desires, the Milenian cleric organised her escape and followed her heading southwest in the uncharted wilderness.
After days spent marching, they arrived near the coast where Vanya helped many primitive Neathar tribes living here to withstand the might of the rakasta tiger-people raiders. Thanks to her wits and military prowess, as well as to the superior knowledge she learnt from her Milenian captors, she taught her Neathar allies to build better weapons and armours and trained them in more efficient military tactics.
In a decade she became the warleader of a large clan, and later the overlord of a whole coalition of tribes, building a fortress as her seat of power that would have later be renamed Vanya's Rest by the Heldannic Knights that discovered the keep in Lower Arypt.
Once the rakasta threat was dealt with, Vanya convinced her allies to plan a massive raid against the northern Milenian outpost she fled many years before. This way she would have halted the Milenian expansion in the south and avenged all the years of slavery she had to endure. Vanya's troops obtained a crushing victory and the city was completely annihilated.
Following this success, Vanya returned among her allies and in BC 586 she was proclaimed Queen Varellya, using the name the Neathar gave her, which meant "Victory".
In the following years she faced two major threats to her kingdom but she was ever victorious, until one night Khoronus appeared in her dreams and asked her to abandon her people and to follow him: only in this way she could have earned true immortality.
Vanya abdicated in favour of her son and went on a quest, looking for an artifact to travel through time. Thanks to this artifact, she assured her dynasty a firm grip on the Kingdom of Varellya for the centuries to come, and after building the new capital of the kingdom turned Empire in the middle of the Vulture Peninsula while using a fake identity, she finally managed to become immortal in the Sphere of Time around BC 380, leaving her mortal body in the ancient fortress of Vanya's Rest.
From that moment Vanya became patroness of war and victory, and she extended her protection first over the Varellyan Empire, and then over the Thyatian Empire, the latter founded by the descendants of her people, and therefore considered with a special attention.
The last consequence of her machinations was the war that led the Order of Vanya to migrate from Thyatis and conquer the Heldann's Freeholds, thus establishing the new theocracy called the Heldannic Territories in AC 956. The Heldannic Knights were then guided by Vanya to find Vanya's Rest and take possession of the Star of Vanya, a priceless artifact the Knights used to improve their military might and impose Vanya's will all around the world.
They are trying to get the group in trouble for refusing their advances -- apparently to both Ynja and Pai individually.
They are widely considered to be preparing for the annexation of this territory from the wizards of Alphatia.
|
You are quite bold, perhaps a bit too bold. I would hate to be worried about your wellbeing, with you being so bold. I mean obviously you just offered your aid to Fumiko/Ynja here and me as well. Then this poor soul in her desperation jumped on it. Now you are spreading clear and easy to see through lies. I wonder what your goal is with that. You also cloaked yourself with some magic ward so nobody could see when you have ill intentions. That is quite suspicious overall.
At the same time you don't seem surprised at all by the Fumiko situation here. I'm afraid you're not giving a good impression. It seems more like divide and conquer, what your state is famous for. Are you trying to prepare something here?
You are quite bold, perhaps a bit too bold. I would hate to be worried about your wellbeing, with you being so bold. I mean obviously you just offered your aid to Fumiko/Ynja here and me as well. Then this poor soul in her desperation jumped on it. Now you are spreading clear and easy to see through lies. I wonder what your goal is with that. You also cloaked yourself with some magic ward so nobody could see when you have ill intentions. That is quite suspicious overall.
At the same time you don't seem surprised at all by the Fumiko situation here. I'm afraid you're not giving a good impression. It seems more like divide and conquer, what your state is famous for. Are you trying to prepare something here?
Warily, Belor looks back and forth between Pai and the Heldannic Knight who has identified himself as 'Helmut'. He regards each with an intense, probing expression. The sheriff's dark eyes narrow as he visibly weighs his options. His monstrous terror bird mount throws its head, resisting its reigns, but Belor, without any indication of surprise, moves with a practiced gesture to force the immense beast's cruel beak back to his eye level. Then, he hits it hard on the snout with a gloved hand.
He turns to the assembled parties, including his men.
"In light of the many questions that remain concerning the assault on the shrine and its aftermath, I have decided that we all will return to the constabulary barracks so that the truth of the matter may be discerned."
Belor pointedly addresses Helmut and his companion knight,
"That includes you."
"Seems fair enough."
Belor fixes each of those assembled with the same penetrating gaze, more fearsome even than that of his monstrous avian steed,
"Do the rest of you agree? If so, I and my constables shall escort all here present to the constabulary barracks, and we will see what the truth of the matter is."
You are quite bold, perhaps a bit too bold. I would hate to be worried about your wellbeing, with you being so bold. I mean obviously you just offered your aid to Fumiko/Ynja here and me as well. Then this poor soul in her desperation jumped on it. Now you are spreading clear and easy to see through lies. I wonder what your goal is with that. You also cloaked yourself with some magic ward so nobody could see when you have ill intentions. That is quite suspicious overall.
At the same time you don't seem surprised at all by the Fumiko situation here. I'm afraid you're not giving a good impression. It seems more like divide and conquer, what your state is famous for. Are you trying to prepare something here?
Helmut's undeniably handsome face is broken by an exaggerated grimace,
"I have not a morsel of an idea what nonsense it is to which you are referring!"
"I have no objections. I am most interested in what this sorceress and these knights might have in common, both being here at the same time and looking to force their views on those of Sandpoint." Henric focuses on the sorceress, clearly viewing her as the most dangerous - and most suicidal - individual in the area. "If you don't mind, I'd like to walk with the sorceress. We've already stopped one attempt to silence herself, and I hate to see good work go to waste."
"I have no objections. I am most interested in what this sorceress and these knights might have in common, both being here at the same time and looking to force their views on those of Sandpoint." Henric focuses on the sorceress, clearly viewing her as the most dangerous - and most suicidal - individual in the area. "If you don't mind, I'd like to walk with the sorceress. We've already stopped one attempt to silence herself, and I hate to see good work go to waste."
The Shoanti sheriff nods before replying gruffly,
"As you wish."
"You mean you want us to actually follow the suggestion I've attempting to make for some time now and go speak someplace private?"
"You mean you want us to actually follow the suggestion I've attempting to make for some time now and go speak someplace private?"
Belor snaps gruffly,
"Stranger, I don't need you to make decisions for me -- I will determine our course of action in my own time. Now let us be off."
***Back at the Garrison***
The Sandpoint Garrison is a sturdy stone building. In addition to the above ground structure, which acts primarily as a barracks, a subterranean section acts as Sandpoint's jail.
The garrison is currently under the watchful eye of Sheriff Belor Hemlock, a Shoanti who inherited the post of sheriff when the previous holder, Casp Avertin, was murdered by Chopper. Belor saw the town through that last terrible night and is generally held to be the man who stopped Chopper's rampage. In the emergency election that followed a week later, the people of Sandpoint made his role official. and Belor became the first Shoanti sheriff of Sandpoint. Honored and eager to live up to Casp's legacy, Belor changed his last name from Viskalai to its Chelish translation, Hemlock --- a choice that has endeared him to Sandpoint's mostly Chelish populace but hasn't sat well with his brother Garridan. Belor's not-as-secret-as-he'd-like romance with Kaye Tesarani has put further strain on his relationship with his family.
The Sandpoint Garrison serves the community of Sandpoint as both a prison and barracks, and is administered by Sheriff Belor Hemlock. Though the Garrison is populated by more than two dozen individuals, and acts as a rallying point for the town's additional militia members, there is rarely any need to rally the full compliment of defenders housed within the building's wall's.
In addition to housing Sandpoint's full-time guardsmen, and their support staff, the Garrison acts as a training location for the community's militia. The jail wing generally acts as only a temporary holding location; those within are either released fairly quickly or transported to Magnimar for trial.
This stone fortress serves double duty as Sandpoint's militia barracks and its jail. The jail is located in an underground wing, while the above-ground portion houses the town's guard. Sandpoint's town guard consists of a dozen full-time guards; about twice this many servants and other experts (smiths, cooks, bookkeepers, couriers, and the like) dwell here as well. Guards patrol the city alone --- there's generally not much trouble beyond the odd drunk for them to handle, so usually only three or four are on duty at any one time.
The jail below the garrison is generally empty save for a few drunks or Sczarni doing time for some minor crime. Murderers and other hardened criminals generally stay for only a few days before an escort from Magnimar arrives to bring them to trial in the big city. The garrison's jailor is a heavily scarred brute named Vachedi, a Shoanti tribesman who hopes to someday earn enough money to buy back his from Kaer Magan slavers.
You peer through the open doorway into a broad, pillared hall. The columns of stone are carved as tree trunks and seem placed at random like trees in a forest. Stone root systems crawl out into the floor and marble branches expand across the ceiling. You even note a few carvings of small birds and squirrels. Beautiful as they are, the sculpting doesn't appear elven, and it's nothing dwarves would carve.
This chamber holds one occupant: the statue of a male figure with elven features but the broad, muscular body of a hale human. It kneels on the floor as though fallen to that posture. Both its arms reach upward in supplication, and its face is a mask of grief. Two great feathered wings droop from its back, both sculpted to look broken. The statue is skillfully crafted.
This chamber is clearly a prison. Small barred cells line the walls, leaving a 15-foot-wide pathway for a guard to walk. Channels run down either side of the path next to the cages, probably to allow the prisoners' waste to flow through the grates on the other side of the room. The cells appear empty but your vantage point doesn't allow you to see the full extent of them all.
In the center of this large room lies a 30-foot-wide round pit, its edges lined with rusting iron spikes. About 5 feet away from the pit's edge stand several stone semicircular benches. The scent of sweat and blood lingers, which makes the pit's resemblance to a fighting pit or gladiatorial arena even stronger.
Several round pits lie in the floor of the room before you. Spaced roughly equally apart, each is about 15 feet in diameter and appears about 20 feet deep. A lattice of thick iron bars covers the top of each pit, and each lattice has a door of iron bars that can be lifted open. The pits smell of sweat and offal, but the room seems unoccupied.
Corpses and pieces of corpses hang from hooks that dangle from chains attached to thick iron rings. Most appear humanoid but a few of the body parts appear more monstrous. You don't see any heads, hands, or feet -- all seem to have been chopped or torn off. Neither do you see any guts in the horrible array, but several thick leather sacks hang from hooks in the walls, and they are suspiciously wet and the leather looks extremely taut -- as if it' under great strain.
Rounded green stones set in the floor form a snake's head that points in the direction of the doorway you stand in. The body of the snake flows back and toward the wall to go round about the room in ever smaller circles, creating a spiral pattern on the floor. Similar green-stone snakes wend along the walls, seemingly at random heights, and their long bodies make wave shapes.
Six narrow, round towers are low, but set firm and strong for a great defensive line and are connected by fairly low, narrow walls made of green stone.
Refined windows are scattered thinly around the walls in seemingly perfect symmetry, along with same-sized holes for archers and artillery.
A huge gate with enormous metal doors and large crenelations protects those in need of aid in this rough mountain pass, but it's not the only way in, which fortunately only very few know.
A handful of waterfalls flow into various small rivers and provide the precious farm fields outside the castle with needed water.
This castle has clearly been around for at least a thousand years, but it doesn't seem like it will collapse any time soon.
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***Back at the Garrison***
The Sandpoint Garrison is a sturdy stone building.
Six narrow, round towers are low, but set firm and strong for a great defensive line and are connected by fairly low, narrow walls made of green stone.
Refined windows are scattered thinly around the walls in seemingly perfect symmetry, along with same-sized holes for archers and artillery.
A huge gate with enormous metal doors and large crenellations protects those in need of aid in this rough mountain pass, but it's not the only way in, which fortunately only very few know.
A handful of waterfalls flow into various small rivers and provide the precious farm fields outside the castle with needed water.
This castle has clearly been around for at least a thousand years, but it doesn't seem like it will collapse any time soon.
In addition to the above ground structure, which acts primarily as a barracks, a subterranean section acts as Sandpoint's jail.
The garrison is currently under the watchful eye of Sheriff Belor Hemlock, a Shoanti who inherited the post of sheriff when the previous holder, Casp Avertin, was murdered by Chopper. Belor saw the town through that last terrible night and is generally held to be the man who stopped Chopper's rampage. In the emergency election that followed a week later, the people of Sandpoint made his role official. and Belor became the first Shoanti sheriff of Sandpoint. Honored and eager to live up to Casp's legacy, Belor changed his last name from Viskalai to its Chelish translation, Hemlock --- a choice that has endeared him to Sandpoint's mostly Chelish populace but hasn't sat well with his brother Garridan. Belor's not-as-secret-as-he'd-like romance with Kaye Tesarani has put further strain on his relationship with his family.
The Sandpoint Garrison serves the community of Sandpoint as both a prison and barracks, and is administered by Sheriff Belor Hemlock. Though the Garrison is populated by more than two dozen individuals, and acts as a rallying point for the town's additional militia members, there is rarely any need to rally the full compliment of defenders housed within the building's wall's.
In addition to housing Sandpoint's full-time guardsmen, and their support staff, the Garrison acts as a training location for the community's militia. The jail wing generally acts as only a temporary holding location; those within are either released fairly quickly or transported to Magnimar for trial.
This stone fortress serves double duty as Sandpoint's militia barracks and its jail. The jail is located in an underground wing, while the above-ground portion houses the town's guard. Sandpoint's town guard consists of a dozen full-time guards; about twice this many servants and other experts (smiths, cooks, bookkeepers, couriers, and the like) dwell here as well. Guards patrol the city alone --- there's generally not much trouble beyond the odd drunk for them to handle, so usually only three or four are on duty at any one time.
The jail below the garrison is generally empty save for a few drunks or even Iron Ring or Sczarni doing time for some minor crime. Murderers and other hardened criminals generally stay for only a few days before an escort from Magnimar arrives to bring them to trial in the big city. The garrison's jailor is a heavily scarred brute named Vachedi, a Shoanti tribesman who hopes to someday earn enough money to buy back his from Kaer Magan slavers.
The party peers through the open doorway into a broad, pillared hall. The columns of stone are carved as tree trunks and seem placed at random like trees in a forest. Stone root systems crawl out into the floor and marble branches expand across the ceiling. The assembled travelers even note a few carvings of small birds and squirrels. Beautiful as they are, the sculpting doesn't appear elven, and it's nothing dwarves would carve.
This chamber holds one occupant: the statue of a male figure with elven features but the broad, muscular body of a hale human. It kneels on the floor as though fallen to that posture. Both its arms reach upward in supplication, and its face is a mask of grief. Two great feathered wings droop from its back, both sculpted to look broken. The statue is skillfully crafted.
This chamber is clearly a prison. Small barred cells line the walls, leaving a 15-foot-wide pathway for a guard to walk. Channels run down either side of the path next to the cages, probably to allow the prisoners' waste to flow through the grates on the other side of the room. The cells appear empty but your vantage point doesn't allow you to see the full extent of them all.
In the center of this large room lies a 30-foot-wide round pit, its edges lined with rusting iron spikes. About 5 feet away from the pit's edge stand several stone semicircular benches. The scent of sweat and blood lingers, which makes the pit's resemblance to a fighting pit or gladiatorial arena even stronger.
Several round pits lie in the floor of the room before you. Spaced roughly equally apart, each is about 15 feet in diameter and appears about 20 feet deep. A lattice of thick iron bars covers the top of each pit, and each lattice has a door of iron bars that can be lifted open. The pits smell of sweat and offal, but the room seems unoccupied.
Corpses and pieces of corpses hang from hooks that dangle from chains attached to thick iron rings. Most appear humanoid but a few of the body parts appear more monstrous. You don't see any heads, hands, or feet -- all seem to have been chopped or torn off. Neither do you see any guts in the horrible array, but several thick leather sacks hang from hooks in the walls, and they are suspiciously wet and the leather looks extremely taut -- as if under great strain.
Rounded green stones set in the floor form a snake's head that points in the direction of the doorway you stand in. The body of the snake flows back and toward the wall to go round about the room in ever smaller circles, creating a spiral pattern on the floor. Similar green-stone snakes wend along the walls, seemingly at random heights, and their long bodies make wave shapes.
The sorceress has been placed in one of the small barred cells which line the walls. Her pained groaning pierces the chill subterranean air, which, though it reeks on account of the chamber's contents, is moved by a surprising current. It seems as if the steady stream of cold air, which helps to air out the fetid odors of the prison, is directed by some as yet hidden current produced somewhere else in the underground corridors of the garrison.
Slade walks in, says nothing, and sits down on one of the benches by the pit.
Slade walks in, says nothing, and sits down on one of the benches by the pit.
One of the town guards contributed by the forces of House Kaijitsu, marked out by his distinctive glass armor, regards Slade with an amused expression.
"Take care not to fall in old man."
Henric stays quiet through the walk, keeping an eye on the sorceress. As they reach the prison building and go deeper into the chambers, he eyes the surroundings. What a mess... This place has not seen a good clearing out in ages. It seems they are quite liberal with dismemberment too. He steps back as custody of the sorceress is officially handed over.
Henric decides to keep his opinions small and movements quiet, not trying to hide but not standing out or drawing attention to himself.
Traveling with the carnival, Vincent isn't fond of overeager lawmen. He stands near Ameiko, as if he is her companion. This is not only to offer support to her, but to also appear innocent by association.
Vincent notices that the House Kaijitsu guardsmen of the garrison, who are identifiable not only by the epicanthic eyes common to their eastern ancestry, but also their unusual glass arms and armament, a product of their patron's famed Glassworks, look askance at the outsider's obvious attentions to the daughter of their liege.
Slade walks in, says nothing, and sits down on one of the benches by the pit.One of the town guards contributed by the forces of House Kaijitsu, marked out by his distinctive glass armor, regards Slade with an amused expression.
"Take care not to fall in old man."
"Oh, I won't," he says, smiling, "Wouldn't be fair to anyone that ended up in there with me."
"Oh, I won't," he says, smiling, "Wouldn't be fair to anyone that ended up in there with me."Slade walks in, says nothing, and sits down on one of the benches by the pit.One of the town guards contributed by the forces of House Kaijitsu, marked out by his distinctive glass armor, regards Slade with an amused expression.
"Take care not to fall in old man."
The guard only grunts derisively in reply.
Aleister walks quietly along with the rest of his companions, noting the corpses both whole and otherwise. "Interesting assortment of bodies down here. Seems a little bit out of place for such a small town's jail." He says to Belor.
Aleister walks quietly along with the rest of his companions, noting the corpses both whole and otherwise. "Interesting assortment of bodies down here. Seems a little bit out of place for such a small town's jail." He says to Belor.
The Shoanti sheriff growls in response, flashing a predatory grin with his reflectively bright, white incisors.
"Sandpoint lies on the northern frontier, and we dispense the justice of the wilds. It is hard and fast and sure."
"That's not exactly an excuse for the seemingly mindless butchery that I see down here. Tell me is such mutilation of the dead common nowadays?"
"That's not exactly an excuse for the seemingly mindless butchery that I see down here. Tell me is such mutilation of the dead common nowadays?"
"Nowadays, were you born in some distant age stranger?" Belor chuckles.
"What you disdain as 'mindless butchery' is the standard practice among my Shoanti tribe, and I would dispute any assertion that we are not a cultured people. Our children are raised with a high degree of ethics, and we possess traditions of oral poetry and music that extend backwards into the great stream of time for dozens of generations. Our ways may seem strange to your mind, but that does not mean that they are practiced without thought, or are inherently uncivilized."
The sorceress moans loudly again from her prison cell; it sounds as if she is waking up from a hangover or coma.
"As far as I'm concerned you can do whatever you want. Doesn't affect me. Let's stick to the matter at hand and leave the politics aside, shall we? The nature of man is to be cruel, though many have the luxury to tell themselves otherwise."
"As far as I'm concerned you can do whatever you want. Doesn't affect me. Let's stick to the matter at hand and leave the politics aside, shall we? The nature of man is to be cruel, though many have the luxury to tell themselves otherwise."
The House Kaijitsu guard replies gruffly
"Go ahead old man, does it look like we're stopping you or something?"
"Stopping me from what? I figured I'd hang around and not give the Sheriff any more trouble. He wanted us all here for questioning or something. I'm just waiting for it to move on. You youngsters think you have all the time in the world, I guess."
"Stopping me from what? I figured I'd hang around and not give the Sheriff any more trouble. He wanted us all here for questioning or something. I'm just waiting for it to move on. You youngsters think you have all the time in the world, I guess."
The unpleasant guard merely grunts in a surly manner.
Belor seems to regain his focus on the matter at hand when the sorceress begins her unsettling ululations.
"Okay, let me get the facts straight here - you all say that this woman is a sorceress. How exactly did you arrive at that conclusion? Did she manifest some kind of arcane powers while you were fighting her and these goblinoid allies to which you have previously referred."
"I am unable to offer any sort of proof of her magickal ability, or lackthereof. While the battle raged between my companions and this woman, I was busy directing the townsfolk away from the fighting, and saving the life of Yoshi." Aleister replies in his calm, even voice.
"I am unable to offer any sort of proof of her magickal ability, or lackthereof. While the battle raged between my companions and this woman, I was busy directing the townsfolk away from the fighting, and saving the life of Yoshi." Aleister replies in his calm, even voice.
"So who exactly decided that she was a sorceress?"