Session 35

What is a Little Torture?

Date: Wednesday, 7th of October, 2020
Attending Players: Ashara, Embra, Ish'Mael, Victalyassa
Time 3.75 Hours (Total: 110 Hours)

Game Time 14th of Sowmeadow, 12:00 PM
To
14th of Sowmeadow, 12:30 PM
Game Locations:
Watcher's Quarter of Orvadah

"Doctor, we have an emergency patient," the young man, huffing as he slowed himself on the door, caught the elder woman at a late meal. "She's lost a lot of blood, swallowed. Someone cut her tongue out!"

"Show me," the doctor stood up quickly, grabbing her coat and rushing out as she put it on. "What do we know?"

"Little yet. It appears to be torture. Bruising on her neck, arms, and small lacerations on the chest. Her toes appear to be dislocated. She's been drugged, conscious but not fully lucid yet."

"Have the guards or clerics been notified?"

"Waylon has gone to the guard-post, and Sorvech is trying to locate a cleric that has the means and is willing to work on charity."

As the doctor entered the emergency room, she saw the patient being tied down, her eyes rolling and her body wavering in a weak attempt to fight off the medics hoping to help. A young medic, studied in the arcane, held a small torch up to a metal rod, focusing the flames into a very hot, small stream directly against the device.

"Status?" The doctor asked as she approached. Another medic quickly approached and put leather gloves on her hands.

"Still not lucid, we've drawn blood to compare the toxins, but we don't have the means here. We have sent for the sleep draughts until we can stabilize her."

"No, we won't know if they interact with the toxin in her until we can identify it. Now hold her. We need to cauterize her tongue before she bleeds to death."

Ashara walks through the city with the determination to meet with Gavathrak while the rest of the party begins to finally rest at the end of the longest day. The humidity of the night is preparing for the fog that will come in the morning. Ashara walks for a bit, slowly meandering toward the Ruby Barge but searching for a desolate space to meet with Gavathrak. She finds an old abandoned factory of sorts that is boarded up and closes which she slips inside to a darkened interior. With her darkvision, she is able to see but the cloudy night makes it difficult even for her. Ashara lights her pipe of smoke monsters and makes a figure of Yula in the puff that she blows. "Gavathrak, who is this?"
The room begins to darken more and eventually Ashara feels the presence of Gavathrak. She asks him about Yula and what she needs to know. Gavathrak whispers from the shadow that she is a child just like Ashara and she will complete the task given to her, saying: "Oroval seeks to know what he shouldn't, you will stop that. Once that task is completed, you will never see Yula again."
Ashara tells him the note, and he appears in front of her as a skull with black smoke, she feels a black smoke of warm heavy comfort and a hand that reaches under her chin, lifting it up but can see nothing. "Worry not child, if it concerns you, I will let you know. Focus on destroying the embodied, Yula will aid you."
"Will it be obvious what to look for?"
"Yes, my brother does not care much for hiding, you will recognize him when you see it."
"Then I will do ask you ask."
"Peeerrrffect." Slowly, the darkness fades and with it Gavathrak leave. Ashara stands up and blows a new puff of smoke, this time it comes out looking like the floating skull and black smoke of Gavathrak. She whispers to herself: "now I know what you look like..."
Ashara falls to sleep for what feels like only moments before popping back up 90 degrees with Katana in hand, she gives a good stretch to get up and begins her walk to the Ruby Barge. She is passed by a passing traveler on the road who tries to share niceties, but Ashara's dark eyebrows furl in anger as she moves forward silently... refreshed.
Back at the Barge, Ish Ma'el is awoken to the sound of Quequeeg waking him up much like that of an alarm rooster. He grumbles and slaps the alarm quiet before strapping his boots and walking down the stairs to order breakfast. Victalyassa awakes and grumbles her way over to a mirror placed near her rum bottle. She grabs the bottle and dabs some rum into her hand before slathering in into her fur on her face, waking her up and feeling quite refreshed, with a hop and skip she wakes up Embra, and they head downstairs together to order drinks to go with their food. As they are ordering their food and drinks, Ashara comes through the door and orders water for herself to go with the meal that Ish Mael is paying for, the other girls double down and Ish rummages through his coin purse to pay the 4 pips for their breakfasts.
"What am I getting out of this job Ashara?" asks Vic breaking the silence of the bar top.
"Same thing you get from any other job."
"So pockets of gold?"
"If that is available from Oroval, then yes."
"So I'm getting nothing?"
"Well I haven't asks Oroval, but you may equally have the opportunity to get any of the riches of an Embodied God."
"Well, let's go over the plan again one more time," says Ish Ma'el breaking into their conversation. Ashara grunts.
"I have already went over the plan once, I will do so again when I finish my meal, politely." She says looking back down to her meal and enjoying the silence from a shocked Ish Mael. She finishes her meal while the others wait for her, feeling the surrounding tension before another dark day.
"What questions do you have Ish Ma'el?"
Embra buts in "What are we doing?" Ish ma'el begins to talk but is cut off from Ashara who tells him to say she is going to answer one question at a time, and Embra will be first. Ashara answers and reaffirms that she is there to find the embodied and that Ish Ma'el is there for the statues, which she makes him explain. Embra satiated, Vic asks if she will be rewarded and Ashara says she will be standing there to give her all the riches, Embra says she will take some too and Ashara explains she would have the constant game of picket that would go forever should they not share. Ish Ma'el is offered his question and asks about the Mind Flayer and enemies that will be faced. Ashara shoots it down and says that she will deal with it and perhaps it's the Embodied she seeks anyway. With all questions answered, and small bickering between the team on the ability to kill mass amounts of people and where they all stand on it, they leave.
The party arrives outside the temple or Orvadah and meet with Yula, who offers a ...warm welcome before they open the door to the library. Ashara opens the door and it bashes against the backside of the wall, and Yula walks inside. The librarian begins to explain that he can offer any assistance, clearly waking up at the moment. Ish Ma'el moves ahead quickly to beat Ashara and Yula, inquiring about a few specific goods. Ashara walks behind the desk, slowly toward the librarian who grows uneasy. Ashara grabs him by the hair and mouth, attempting to put him to sleep. Ish mael contests, and she gives the old man time to explain where the statue is, when he doesn't answer correct she bashes his head on the table before stopping the bleeding and asking him to explain another time. When he made it obvious he had no idea, she let the man decided which open door, provided by Embra and Ish Mael he would like to wait in while they work. He chooses the right. Embra locks the door behind him and the party head into the back of the library, finding a stone book with a wand inside of it, just as Nola described the night before, found by Que Queeg, saying he found nothing suspicious.
Small animatronics walk around the library but are largely ignored. Ish Mael strides toward the shrine as Vic sits down comfortably to wait until she is needed. There are two doors which border the stone book and Ashara has Ish Mael open one door as she moves to open the other. Embra is sent to lock the front door to make sure no one can creep up on them as they complete their tasks. As he opens his door, Ish finds a woman with her head on the table, sitting and crying. "Is something the matter?" he says.
"Who are you?"she replies, looking up.
"No one of consequence, what are you doing her this early or late?"
"Am I to be arrested for being here, what do you mean? Why are you interrogating me here, has the sun even come up yet?"
"Well I'm just shocked to find someone crying in this otherwise empty room. I will leave you to your peace if you don't want to talk about." With that he closes the door and Embra locks it behind, they discuss how ugly the woman and Ish Ma'el are, but eventually open the next door. Inside 3 men and a woman are sleeping and after joking of letting Ish Ma'el in to commit mass murder. Vic suggests they lock the door and move a bookshelf in the way to keep them inside. Vic is winded from the task but Ashara has Yula open the stone book with the wand. She does and Ish Ma'el hears a noise of moving stone inside the room with the crying woman, Embra unlocks it again.
"After you Ish Ma'el," says Ashara.
Ish Ma'el opens the door and the woman says, "you just unlocked the temple, who are you?"
"He says I'm no one of importance and secondly, there's a temple??" he says trying to deceive that he knows nothing. She continues, "are you from one of the other temples then?"
"Do you think I show this face around regularly"
"I'll admit, you are pretty ugly, uglier than me for sure. Jovich doesn't sleep much these days, if you are here to see him, do not startle him. He is obsessed with that damn statue, the Final Fight one."
"My boss sent me to go help out with that one," he continues the deception.
"Well if you are here to help, the spectators don't like new faces."
"Well say this is a surprise inspection."
"Since when do the followers inspect one another, you may want to come back another day."
"Valid point, by the way who are the other people in the other room sleeping."
"No one of consequence," she smiles, "workers and researchers in the assist of the library."
Ish Mael walks closer, slowly, and says, "may I ask why are you crying?"
"He has been blessed, embodied by Oroval. By being so, he is no longer the man I knew. We used to travel together for our research, he's different now since the illithad has come. The two of them have been inseparable."
"A mind flayer here?"
"Yes, but not the job of mine to question the Embodied. He hasn't asked for anything unusual, we had to bring homeless to feed it of course but it came after the statue to work with the Embodied."
"Where did you acquire the statues?" he moves closer, now behind her as she is sitting at the table. The rest of the party sits outside patiently waiting for Ish Mael to finish up.
"I don't know, I just work with botany, Jovich has recently brought in a warforged from the last age and the statue too,"
"A warforged too, this temple has many wonders, where did that come from,"
"An Enrith ruin south of here, but it barely functions. It's in the artifact room."
"Oh, that's very interesting" he says, putting both his hands on either side of her head and activating his shocking grasp. The blue lightning shoots between her ears, and she shakes vigorously. She then falls face first on the table, and he moves to check her pockets, he finds 6 Hi Marks, 2 Marks, and a Key. Ashara walks by and shakes her head as he loots her still breathing body and moves toward the open stone staircase on the side of the room.
"Did you kill her?" asks Vic walking by.
"No, she's just knocked out, got a key though." Ish Ma'el pockets his findings and follows behind the party down the now revealed stone stairs. Two floating disgusting heads with long eye-stalks with large purple tongues swinging around are making gibberish noises. They get a look of surprise and shoot a ray of light into the ceiling.
Victalyassa reacts the fastest, running up and blasting the second Spectator with her Flurry of Blows, taking a lot of damage from her first strike and capitalizing on it with each subsequent strike before disengaging and returning to the back of the room. The spectator's shock turns to anger as it's central eye is closed and is reeling in pain. The ray of light in the ceiling explodes into a mist of smoke that sprays down on the hallway. As the smoke fades, each of the heroes protecting their eyes and mouth and avoiding the smell, they see the spectators turning to run away; Quequeeg lying on the ground asleep.
"What kind of library is this?" says Embra running forward into the room to give chase. She puts her hands up as she does, "Flame on!" and fire ignites from her fingertips to burn the second injured spectator. Ish Mael says, "Boom!" and casts shatter between the two spectators knocking them around for heavy damage. Ashara runs forward to attack, missing with her first strike and swiping up for a second. The Katana cuts one of its stalks off and after a moment of pause, the spectator violently swipes around, spraying blood and falling to the ground dead. The other spectator fires a necrotic beam at her, but she cuts through it with her blade. Astonished, the spectator flies up into the ceiling, into a mystical hole that opens before it and it is gone.
Ashara kicks the spectator beside her and tells Ish Mael to go into the room by them as Yula expresses that they are known in the temple and should move fast. Ish Mael checks the body, noting they aren't the intellect devours they were expecting. Ashara comments to Vic, "see how easy these are to kill."
Vic huffs, "yeah but you were slow to act." Ashara shrugs and preps her weapon, whipping the blood off the blade.
"Standard breach and clear method?" asks Ish Mael to Ashara. She nods and holds her Katana at the ready. Ish Mael finds the door locked and Embra comes over to unlock the door, her fingers getting a workout today. The doors aren't super reinforced but with some effort they could be busted down she finds; possibly easier than the lock she is working on. Ashara comments that the lock is taking some time and Embra gets upset and tries to knock down the door with her fist, she essentially knocks on the door.
Ish Mael walks over to Quequeeg on the floor and gives it a nudge to return it to work. He then asks Yula if she is any good at picking locks to what she replies, "not as good as your friend there, the way she handles the doors are very sensual and quick."
The door clicks, satisfyingly, and the door is opened to an alchemy room which is extremely messy with a foul chemical smell. Ashara and Ish Mael enter the room with Victalyassa, who promptly turns back from the "overwhelming senses" and returns to the hall. Ish Mael finds potions that have various properties but Ashara specifically investigates the room hoping to find something specific to use. She finds two potions of Healing, two Greater Potion of Healing and a Potion of Hill Giant Strength, which she drinks down quickly. "Shall we continue to look for the Embodied already?" says Yula from the hallway.
The party leaves the alchemy room and Ish Ma'el uses his key from up above to open the door across the hall. On the table is a a dead blue dragon wyrmling with a lion's head surgically attached to it, seeming that they were trying to make a Chimera through alchemical means. Magic swirls around the corpse, trying to keep the body from decaying and Ish Ma'el notes that necromancy magic is being used to try to create the beast, though it isn't the natural way. The Wyrmling is relatively unharmed and Ish Ma'el considers how to make money on it. Ish Ma'el explains that they should come back later for the scales off the dragon later. Ashara comments that he is ridiculous and Yula comments on how is is always looking to make a buck before she leaves. Ish mael explains she must've been someone he played in Three Dragon Ante but she's a sore loser.
Embra walks over to a vat of green liquid that has some type of odd body floating in the murkiness. A dark shape swims toward the glass and jumps onto it from the inside, it stares at Embra from between the glass. She can recognize from stories and her dungeon diving days, this is a Ghast, an undead creature. "What would they want with this Ghast?" asks Embra.
"Undead it looks like, never good." says Ashara walking up to the glass. It follows Embra as she walks around and Ish Mael walks over to knock on the glass. It bites its teeth at him. Ish Mael goes over to the levers, labelled with a bunch of directions, technical in nature. A small wheel valve could be twisted to drain the tank. "What are you doing?" asks Embra.
It's in the vat, it should be tame, I want to know what this liquid is and what will happen when it's just the ghast," says Ish mael, observing as the liquid pours into the floor and the ghast is standing on its feet, otherwise unaffected. "It's back! Its back!" says Quequeeg, looking to a wall near Ish Mael.
A stone hole opens on the side of the wall and an eye stalk pops through. A laser shoots at the base of the table and prepares to fire another blow at Ish Mael. The "Chimera" on the table is affected by the laser and raises up into the air surrounded by cyan smoke. It stands tall on the table, undead, and both faces roar. Victalyassa runs inside, hearing the panic, and takes out her battleaxe, running to the chimera. She strikes into the chimera and hurting it. It shifts from her attack and skids across the scales as she prepares for another attack.
Embra pulls out her rapier and stikes into the Chimera from behind, doing heavy sneak attack damage. The spectator opens another hole and leaves out of the room after breaking the glass vat to release the ghast. Yula sprints in a after yelling out an expletive, attacks the Chimeras with her Tooth blade for heavy damage. Ashara looks on at the Chimera in sadness that she will need to kill it, but the ghast cuts into her. She quickly reacts, slicing it twice and bumping it back into the broken vat to keep it back. The chimera fires lightning damage out of its mouth at Vic and Embra, who ducks down and the entire blast hits the ghast, killing it quickly. Vics fur poofs up a little, same as Embra's hair, but they are otherwise unharmed.
Ishmael prepares Aganazzars Scorcher, yelling "Burn!" as fire licks across the ground onto the table and burning the beast. Quequeeg flies into the beasts face and distracts it as Vic takes her shot punching the chimera over and over, knocking at sideways into Embra's rapier strike. She strikes so hard into it that it dies on her first strike, but she strikes over and over again, severing the lion head to the floor as the wyrm falls to the table. "I rather like your brutality, but we have work to do," says Yula.