Castle Amber: A D&D Adventure

Gizmog · Post by **Gizmog** » Sat May 23, 2015 7:25 am

"Mornin'! My name's Voulton" says the half-giant, pointing to his axe in preparation of the second half of the sentence: "and I'm not a wizard so it's safe to talk to me. What's your name?"

BMR · Post by **BMR** » Sat May 23, 2015 7:29 am

Kalar leaves Voulton to it. Seeing as how he's the most obvious magic-user in the group, probably wouldn't do to speak up at the moment.

Instead, he keeps working on the feather token he started earlier that day.

Master K · Post by **Master K** » Sat May 23, 2015 3:06 pm

"Good morning." Lynda says. "My name is Lynda. Lady Lynda, to some. Fear not, I'm no wizard." With that, she places a hand on her amulet.

"What might your name be?"

Post by **Bob the Hamster** » Sat May 23, 2015 3:34 pm

(I assume that we are all still walking/riding alongside the wagon while this conversation is happening)

Rob ignores the others, and studies the scrolls he is now carrying, as he rides along on Stumpy's back.

The scrolls seem fairly complicated, and he remembers how he failed last time he tried to use one. He recognizes the names of many of them, and the arcane symbols seem familiar, but he feels like they are outside of his usual experience.

"Kalar," are you able to cast a little spell called Read Magic? Many years ago, when I was first learning to be an Arcane Bard, my teacher, Gerard de l'Automne, cast Read Magic on me so I could more easily study a Bardic Songbook. If you could cast it on me now, I think I might be able to make sense of these scrolls."

Master K · Post by **Master K** » Sat May 23, 2015 3:46 pm

Lynda looks over to Rob. She takes out her glasses.

"Here." She says. "Wear these things. Trust me, it'll make it much easier to read them."

Spoonweaver · Post by **Spoonweaver** » Sat May 23, 2015 4:59 pm

The man sheepishly answered Lynda, "My name is Paul-Henri." He got a bit panicked and yet bold then. "Release me or the armies of the inquisition shall descend upon you!"

Meanwhile, the glasses Lynda gave Rob had made reading the scrolls child's play. He could feel his knowledge of the arcane rise as he looked around and was able to plainly see each and every magic item on the party.

Gizmog · Post by **Gizmog** » Sat May 23, 2015 5:37 pm

"We've actually been discussing that. Will it be safe for us to release you? You've been out of contact with the Inquisition and hanging out with your new friends for a long, long time now! Do you think they'll really gamble that you aren't one of us in disguise? That a wizard hasn't disguised himself as one of your teeth and is just waiting for the right moment to breathe fire all over the camp?"

He pauses to let the words sink in and then shakes his head. "Awww, hell no! I wouldn't take that chance. Wizards are ten times trickier and six times scarier than anything I can imagine. I'd much rather hang you as a "traitor" and impress some new farmboy into service than take the chances of one of them runnin around, getting into people's teeth."

Voulton starts petting the man. "It wouldn't have to be your teeth of course. You have a lovely head of hair... Damnit Sasha!" he plucks a strand from the man's scalp. "I told you to wait until after we've talked to him. Maybe he'll listen to reason! No more of your stow-away tricks!".

Pausing to gently set the hair down on the wagon, it is a friend after all, he rolls his eyes and gives the guy a friendly chuck on the shoulder. "You wouldn't BELIEVE the places we've found her! This one time, she was hiding behind this dude's eye. Seeing everything he saw. Hearing everything he heard. And waiting. Juuuuuust waiting. The only hint the guy had was a little... itch." Voulton points to the side of his eye. "Right about here. You feel that?" ...that's not good! He leans in close and peers into the man's eyes as if he's looking for something. "Nah.. just checking. She works fast though. Never know where she might be hiding..."

"Anyway, Paul-Henri, as you can see you can't return to the Inquisition. They'll kill you on sight as a traitor or infiltrator. It's really the smartest thing they can do. Try again. How else would you like to spend the rest of your life?"

Master K · Post by **Master K** » Sat May 23, 2015 5:41 pm

Lynda rolls her eyes.

"Of course they will." Lynda says. "Whether or not we release you will not change anything. The inquisition simply wants us put to death, and you cannot deny that. Even if we had went to Ximes in peace, you would've lynched us regardless. We have our own missions to accomplish that will benefit the people more. As for you magic haters, well, you certainly aren't all that you're chalked up to be. I already witnessed your superiors cry out to their leader, simply to break their chains and use their own magic. For an inquisition that hates magic, you people certainly use it well. We also do not appreciate you people lying, nor not listening to us when we tell you about the real threat of magic that you oh so apparently despise."

"We aren't violent people unless you give us a good reason." Lynda says. "And people screaming 'kill them all!' is a good reason for us to fight back."

BMR · Post by **BMR** » Sun May 24, 2015 1:26 am

Without looking up, Kalar chimes in:

"I was in the military once, a field medic. And I know that officers are always representative of the best the army has to offer."

He looks up and fixes the man with a glare.

"I do wonder what that says about you though, that the best your army had to offer was a hypocrite and an oathbreaker."

Spoonweaver · Post by **Spoonweaver** » Mon May 25, 2015 4:31 am

The other man wakes up then. "Oh, I'm alive?" says the man as he wakes up. The first inquisitor then asked, "I do not fear the judgement of the inquisitors. Will you release us, or will you incur more wrath?" The newly awoken inquisitor looked at the first with a surprised look as he finished talking and then nervously turned to the party and shrugged.

BMR · Post by **BMR** » Mon May 25, 2015 4:44 am

Kalar bursts out laughing.

"Really now. Your masters broke their oaths. They lied about us being shown mercy. They deliberately and underhandedly deceived a group of heroes who had just saved hundreds if not thousands of innocent lives. They make liberal use of the evil magic they claim to suppress. And you, a mere underling, a lowly foot soldier, believe that they will be fair with you? That after being in our wicked company for so long, they will welcome you back with open arms and act as if nothing at all happened?"

Kalar chuckles some more.

"Sir, I must say. Either you are the most devout of close-minded, and close-eyed fanatics, or you are just absolutely and completely naive and ignorant about the world. Take your pick."

Kalar then gives the man a stern look.

"And in case you didn't notice, the 'wrath' of the inquisition did oh so well against us when we were bound, chained, and taken by surprise. I am so absolutely certain that they will completely crush us into dust when they attack us when we are unrestrained and ready for them."

The last part, he says with a sardonic smirk.

With all that said, he goes back to work on his feather token.

Spoonweaver · Post by **Spoonweaver** » Mon May 25, 2015 7:34 pm

The second inquisitor to wake up spoke then, "What are you going to do with us? I'm not sure what Paul said before I woke up, but please don't judge us too harshly based on that. He's never been the best speaker." Paul-Henri gave the second man an angry glare, "What are you doing Francis?"
Francis ignore him.

Post by **Bob the Hamster** » Mon May 25, 2015 7:48 pm

"Neither of you have anything we want. Neither of you know anything we need. We don't care where you go, and we are not afraid of your friends."

(Unless one of his team mates stops him) Rob will release the men, press a cold meal ration into each of their hands, and point sternly back in the direction of Vyones.

EDIT: Rob waits for Voulton

Gizmog · Post by **Gizmog** » Mon May 25, 2015 7:48 pm

"He's got a point, you know. And you know, I'm proud of you. When you woke up, you didn't have any backbone at all. Look at you now. What changed?" Voulton asks Paul-Henri, before turning his attention to the newly wakened guy. "Your friend is really brave. I hope you won't let him get you both into trouble."

Voulton also gently stops Rob. "Not yet. Couple questions and then they'll be right on their way. But they need to know what they're getting themselves into."

"I don't wanna bore Paul, he's heard this all before so I'm gonna keep it short. I'm Voulton. This is an important time in your life. Possibly the end, possibly the beginning. You've been missing and presumed dead for some time now, in the known presence of wizards. If you come strollin back to camp without a scratch on you, things are gonna look pretty bad. Hangin' rope bad. Nothing personal, of course. Just like werewolves: Better safe than sorry."

"You've got a few options. We'll go over 'em later. Paul-Henri thinks that you're going to be rescued any second now..." Voulton points to the blood still covering him "and my companion has pointed out how unlikely that is. Still, don't let me snuff out hope. Maybe you will be rescued. Maybe all your friends are still alive. Maybe.. this is all a dream? You can worry about it later. There's some things I'm curious about. Little things, really. You make me feel better about them, and maybe you can try your luck with the inquisition. Hell, you make me feel good about it I might even try my luck with you."

Voulton puts his big meaty paws on the prisoners shoulders, an intimate yet semi-threatening gesture. "You boys got good eyes. When you left Vyones, surely you saw an impressively big dead body lyin right outside the front gate. Now I got pretty good eyes too, and I tell you what I didn't see: The Inquisition stopping him. Did your good eyes notice what mine did? Your bosses shooting lightning out of their hands? Lighting their swords on fire? Shooting green crap out of their bows? Stuff that would've been VERY HELPFUL in taking that monster down! Why'd they sit that one out?"

Voulton waits for an answer. He'd better get one. And get it fast. He's got more questions and wants these guys gone.

My post got eaten earlier and I forgot to put it in, but I had intended to take one of the holy symbols with us. It's gonna make asking questions about it a lot easier, and I'm gonna need it for the later parts of this interrogation.

Spoonweaver · Post by **Spoonweaver** » Mon May 25, 2015 10:06 pm

Francis shrugged, "I don't know what to say. I had heard some of the officers were reformed wizards, but I had never seen anything like I did before getting knocked out. I had also heard there was a plan for when the colossus struck the city. We were all on alert at the time, waiting for orders. I'm not sure what the plan was though, and your group stopping the beast seems to have thrown everyone by surprise."
"Stop telling them things!" cried Paul-Henri.
"We have nothing to hide Paul," replied Francis. Francis kept his hand up towards Paul-Henri as a way to calm with as continued talking. "We were told your group's appearance was suspicious and the colossus was likely all a ploy to gain political power. I found this questioning, but assumed everything would be worked out in the trial. As far as our suspicion I don't think our escape from our captors will be looked at with any more contempt then the actions of those who fled."
Francis held up his shackles then, "So will you let us go now?"