02.001b - "Interrogation, part 2"

"Stay the crossbow, Able.” Bismark said, seeing him starting ti wind up his heavy crossbow. “ I sink ve should let our little mudball from ze vyrmwoods take care of him vhen she returns." Bismark turned and knocked the veteran in the side of the head to knock him unconscious again and proceeded to stand guard over the prisoner making sure that no one kills him prematurely.

"Wait wait wait", Able said, scratching scratches his stubble-covered noggin. "There are two half dragons? The one from the keep was blue, but this one is black? Each step forward we take seems to always find a larger pile of shit" Able grumbled, "What the Hells are we supposed to do with hemi- demi- semi - dragons behind every tree?"

“Chop down the trees? Or don't go behind them” Blak offered, shrugging, while Bismark began dragging the unconscious veteran a ways off through the woods from the others.

Able nudges the still-unconscious cultist "India Napolis? He males?" The cultist began to stir awake. His eyes opened, revealing that all the blood vessels in his left eye had burst from the wallop that Able gave him earlier. "Ooo, lad, your head's gonna be spongy for a month" Able knelt next to him before he is totally awake.

"wha . . ."

"We rescued you from those townsfolk, boy. Which cell are you with? Who do we tell you are back?", said Able, wearing the new cultists robes that they had taken from their ambushers.

He mumbled around a mouthful of broken teeth, "I'm one of the Frulan Blues . . .  guardpost . . .five fingers not three"

"Atta boy. There you go. You just lay there while I check you out for other injuries" Able said, searching the man's body for a tattoo and finding a three claw mark tattoo on the back of the cultist’s neck under his long hair

Meanwhile, Blak assumed a guarding posture in his robes to help Able sell his angle.

Able signalled over to Blak "Care for this man, brother, while I seek more aid" Able hustled over to the group to relay what he learned. And snatched some bandages from a kit before running back to the injured man and bandaging his head in a way that covered his eyes.

The cultist mumbled  some more, most of it unintelligable. “Can’t see... “ came through well, though, drawing a grin from Blak.

Able gathered a few of the party together. "Let's keep him isolated from the party at large, so that he thinks we are his allies. If we need to approach the camp we can carry him in as a cover. Used this trick up north during the troubles. Might work again here." He showed them the hand signs the cultist told him about.

"Great plan, Able.  Do you think everyone else will be on board with it?" Blak asked.

"so far their plan has been 'murder all informants', so..." Able said, weighing his two hands as a gesture

Blak thinks. "The Paladin was left behind, so that's one down.  Leofinas seems predispositioned due to past events involving his family.  I get that, but we'll need to think of a way to rein that in a bit for now, I'd think.  Gamble seems predispositioned to...well whatever Gambles thinks feels good at the time from what I can tell.  I think A'postrofae would be OK with it if she knew it is getting her closer to Frulan. Brynne seems to be OK with anything that doesn't involve us charging right in or killing somewhat haphazardly… I guess...what's our goal here?  Let's start with that.  Say we take this poor sap back and use him to get in.  Do I need to give everyone a cultist-makeover while we rest up here because we want to get in deeper; say to those caves that were mentioned?"

"Well, my plan would be to hem them in, shit in their water supply, and wait for them to die of dysentery," Able said, "but apparently they have prisoners, so we gotta get in somehow"

"Shame, that" Blak replied.

Able either didn’t notice or chose to ignore the sarcasm. "Aye, it is. Would be a lot easier."

"You know, Gamble was very interested in funds earlier.  Didn't that other cultist mention treasure and prisoners stored in the caves?  Perhaps he would be good with this plan if we emphasized the treasure portion."

Able chuckled. "If we send them in first we'll never know how much was there to begin with."

"Prisoners or Treasure?" asked Blak, smiling, and winked at Able. "So, sounds like everyone's getting a makeover.  I'll start working on everyone currently here. Some of us may need...baths.  I think I saw a stream nearby," he says and points.

Apostrofae returned after a couple hours, and went to check on the prisoners. "It's good to see that you behaved yourselves while I was gone. I have some information on the camp. "It is about 20 minutes from here. It opens to the northwest where there is a guard tower. The walls are dotted with caves but there is a large cave on the eastern wall. That appears to be where they are keeping prisoners and whatever they have stolen."

“Are the walls scalable? For those of us without handfangs" Able asked

“I believe that the walls could be scaled but we would need to go slowly”, she answered, before continuing her report. "There is a large number of small huts spread around made of mud and are sloppily built. There is a large tent that appears to be where the important people are running things. That is guarded by 5 drakes.There are about 100 kobolds, 20 people and dozens of drakes in the camp. I watched for an hour and security is lax. It appears to be mostly bandits and mercenaries. There are very few cultists but I did see the half-dragon that fought Leo. There was minimal password challenges or security measures. They are using prisoners for work around the camp. They are kept under guard at all times. As I was leaving I saw someone attached to a cross in the SE area of the camp but I couldn't see who. I also ran into some stragglers as I was coming back so we will need to be careful - In general they seem to believe that they have won and that they have nothing to worry about."

Able patted her on the back. “Good job", and then caught her up on the hand signals, the other things they had learned, and the now-blind cultist idea.

"Ok. Where is the veteran?” Sheasked, looking around.

Blak gestured over to where Bismark hd dragged him.

"Did you get everything from him you needed?" A’postrofae asked.

"Not as much as hoped, being that he is the more seasoned and likely to know more details.” Blak said. “I'd like to know more about why they have a dragon egg and how that dragon that attacked ties in, but I think he is to the point where he won't provide more information without hostile measures. It seems between what came from him, what came from this one, and what came from you, we have a great deal more information than when we started."

Seeing A'postrofae returning, Bismark stuffed some rags into the mouth of the veteran, and kicked himin the side to wake him, before kneeling beside him. When the veteran came to, the ground began to shake around him and BIsmark leaned in closely with a grim expression on his face. He looked the veteran in the eye, and Bismark’s eyes turned to a bright glowing ice blue color as he grabs the man’s throat. Speaking inches from the man’s face, his voice louder than it should be, Bismark spoke in a calm, but stern voice. “VHERE IS YOUR DRAGON GOD NOW? TIAMAT CANNOT SAVE YOU HERE, AND HAS LEFT YOU TO DIE. KNOW THAT THE VIGILANT ONE GRANTS YOU NO PROTECTION, HERE NOR IN THE NINE HELLS VHERE YOU ARE HEADING.”

He then stood and turned to walk back to the group as the ground stopped shaking and his voice and eyes return to normal. He quickly found A'postrofae, and pointed in the direction of the veteran. "I questioned him. He was a part of what happened in the forest of wyrms and had no remorse for it. He is a danger to all, and should die, but I felt it would be more appropriate for you to do it if you wished."

"A'postrofae.  you may want to do the deed, but at least consider that it's what that cultist wants now anyway.  It may be more fitting to let him rot in a cell, uncomfortably until he receives sentence." Blak interjected.

"Who is going bring him to a prison?" A’postrofae asked, drawing a “not it” gesture from Able.

Bismark rabbed the handle of his dagger. "If you do not want to, A'postrofae, then I will."

"I still have questions for him, regardless of what happens after." Apostrofae said

Bismark nodded and released the dagger handle, leading her to where the man was tied up and gagged.

Blak sighed submissively, then grabbing up a cultist robe, looked at Able. "Well? Ready for your makeover?"

"he's right zhere", Bismark said to her, nearly a quarter mile off from the others.

Walking up to him, A’postrofae  squatted on the ground in front of him with her dagger out. "You were at the attack on the village in the Forest of Wyrms, yes?" Rag stuffed mouth, eyes glaring defiantly, he nodded once. “Is what you took from the village in your camp?" Another nod, causing Bismark to raise an interested eyebrow. "Is the necromancer in the camp?" The veteran showed a confused expression. There was a pause, before he shook his head no. "Did he come with you to Greenest?" The man shook his head no. "FUCK!" A’postrofae stood, pacing around him in an increasingly agitated manner, as he tried to follow her with his head. "Where the hell did he go? Why would he leave?" she muttered to herself "Why did you kill everyone?, she screamed. "You didn't need to! you had what you fucking wanted!" The veterans nose flared as he begins to breath heavily.

the cultist, a quarter mile away, stirs slightly, trying to turn towards the sound. "what was that, brother?"

Blak leaned over his shoulder while dousing Able in foundation, "We captured the interloper that wounded you.  We are interrogating him. Any requests?  I'll pass them on."

A’postrofae began muttering some druidic words and shot out her hands, which now had long sharp claws protruding from them. "Tell me where the fuck he went" she hissed in his face as she pulled out his gag.

"They talked about heading north towards Waterdeep to be part of the Queen's Return Vanguard. That's all I fuckin' know. Let's get this over with" A’postrofae slashed at his throat, effectively ripping it completely out. Arterial spray shot everywhere on the forest floor, on the tree, and on A’postrofae, who stood there looking into the air.