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Old 10-15-2021, 01:01 PM   #202
coronatiger
 
Join Date: Apr 2018
Location: Trondheim, Norway
Default Session 67 (2021-10-08)

22nd of Ratanu, year 412 (continued)

I threw on my cloak and was ready to go. Grogg and Wolfram had to put on their armor, which made the spy impatient, and he asked if Yana and I could make them hurry. The ruckus below continued, and at the time I thought it was the spy’s men arguing with city guards, but what was to come made me believe the city guards were the spy’s men, and that they argued with some of the inn’s staff or patrons to make a diversion for our departure.

I knocked on the door to the other room and asked if they were coming soon. Xipil replied that they were just finishing up. The spy asked us to follow as soon as they came out and vanished down the narrow back stairs. I led the way when Xipil, Grogg and Wolfram appeared; Wolfram was still adjusting the straps of his armor.

A wagon stopped outside the back door. I suspected the heavy construction was used for prisoner transportation, but the two drivers wore no visible uniforms or insignia. The spy unlocked the door and gave me both the padlock and the key. I gestured to the spy to get in, but he didn’t plan on coming, so I climbed in and pulled Yana with me. Two solid wooden benches were the only contents of the compartment. Yana clung to my arm once we were seated, for it was completely dark in there. The darkness didn’t bother me, of course, thanks to Your blessing.

Grogg, Wolfram and Xipil followed us inside. It wasn’t much room in the wagon. Grogg took up an entire bench by himself and Wolfram – nearly as large – practically forced Yana to climb into my lap, not that I minded in the slightest. Xipil settled himself on the floor between Grogg’s legs. The spy said we should lock the door, which was possible from both inside and outside, and I followed his advice.

Wolfram asked if we should signal for the drivers to go, but Xipil cautioned him to wait. The wagon would surely leave soon. Wolfram was concerned that the uproar on the other side of the inn would escalate, but Xipil assured him it was a cover-up for our benefit. Grogg fondled his club while we waited; I soothed Yana with a firm embrace. I couldn’t shake the feeling that the spy was actually in Larma’s employ and that we were being herded into a trap, but I kept my face smooth and my voice steady. Grogg and Wolfram were anxious enough as it was, locked inside a dark wagon, and Yana didn’t need me to agitate the mood either. I thought she was brave, coming with us into the unknown, unarmed and unarmored as she was.

The wagon started rolling after a few minutes. Xipil retrieved a glowing stone from his pouch and made the stuffy ride more bearable for himself and my other friends. Wolfram discovered that the wagon had four hatches, one on each wall, but they were closed. In fact, the hatches were double, hiding between them a locking mechanism. Xipil opened the one on the door and his nimble fingers bypassed the lock and slid aside the outer hatch so he could peek outside. He made sure the light source was hidden behind him.

The wagon didn’t go very fast, but eventually, Xipil reported that we were passing outside the northern gate to the temple district. A little while later, we turned south. It seemed we were going around the temple district towards the parade ground, but we stopped before quite reaching it. Xipil closed the hatch when it became clear we had reached our destination.

It took some minutes before we heard one of the drivers jump off and knock on the wagon door. Xipil put away his light-stone before we opened the door. The driver wore a nice uniform, making it clear he was no ordinary city guard. He asked if any of us were afraid of narrow tunnels and looked in particular at Grogg and Wolfram. Grogg commented that there wasn’t room for ten strangers in narrow places, so we would be all right.

The guard told us to follow him, and I registered that he was trying to hide his anxiety. I completely understood. If this was a trap, he’d be the first to die. He knocked on a door and opened it slowly. A guardsman inside said everything was ready. The two guards took us down to the basement, each carrying a lantern.

The guards unlocked a dungeon and led us past seven empty cells before bringing us out on the other side. One guard locked the door behind us while the other struggled with the one in front. He was nervous, all right, fumbling to find the right key, but I could tell he wasn’t a complete stranger to this place.

The next room was an interrogation chamber, and as soon as I set foot inside, I knew someone had died here, not long ago. I made Your sign in the air by reflex. There were several doors out of this room, and the nervous guard unlocked one and beckoned us to follow. A set of stairs led down, and I felt I needed Your permission to ascend again. Going down brings us closer to Your realm, after all.

At the bottom of the stairs, a damp tunnel went in two directions. It was low enough that both Grogg and Wolfram had to bend over to proceed. The leading guard looked at a note that he tried to hide, and then he took us to the left. We came to an intersection. The right passage sloped down, but the guard led the way up and to the left. I was glad; the other way smelled of sewage. Going up, the guard slipped and had to steady himself against the wall. He warned us about the slick floor, as if we hadn’t seen him slip.

We came to another crossing and the guard turned right. This hallway continued straight on for several minutes and had only one passage going off to the right along its entirety. The hallway ended in stairs leading up to a large, square chamber with massive iron bars cutting it in half. There was a large gate in the middle, with a solid-looking padlock. Along the walls were fixtures for chaining prisoners, and I could tell someone had died here in the last couple of days. On the other side of the room was another exit, stairs going up as far as I could see.

The guard looked around nervously and said we had to wait a little so he could pass us on. I glanced at the stairs going up and knelt to pray. I included Yana and Xipil in my prayer and added Grogg and Wolfram as an afterthought. They had come with me down here, and I would hate if they offended You. After a while, I could hear footsteps coming down the stairs. I finished the prayer while two people entered the room. One of them slapped the stone wall.

As I stood up, You blessed me with the insight that whoever had died here recently, their death had been violent. More people stomped down the stairs, and Nulius was the first of them. He wore a self-assured smile and gestured for one of the soldiers escorting him to shine his light on us. Nulius didn’t come all the way to the fence and probably thought himself safe, out of melee reach.

We said hello to Nulius, and he asked how much time we needed for our talk. I proposed that the guards left for an hour; the two who had escorted us left, but Nulius’s men remained. Grogg asked why we were there, but everyone ignored him. Wolfram told Nulius that we had an idea about what was about to happen in Byblos and asked us in a low voice for permission to reveal the prophecy to Nulius. He got our assent and went on to relate that blood would be spilled in one of Your holy places, a dragon would bring chaos, and a demon would claim lives. All within the span of the coming week. Nulius asked who had these visions, and after Wolfram had received another round of nods, told him about the old Azura priestess. Nulius was surprised that there had been a real Azura priestess here and asked glibly if this was what we had come to discuss with him. Wolfram brought up the conflict among the religious and said he wanted to know where Tivito kept their demon.

Nulius wanted to barter information. I told him Tivito cooperated with other cults to grant them the same privileges in the law, and that I didn’t understand how Tivito would benefit from this. Nulius said that this was not what Tivito was saying on the Council. Wolfram told how Elik and an Ashtarite apostate had been involved in the attempted assassinations of Niffi and other important people in Ur, which Larma – who control Tivito – had ordered. Nulius mused that the Elik people were interesting. In his home country in the west, they were called Elam and were used to drive out orc rabble.

When Wolfram and Xipil began to hint at what had truly happened outside Ossei, I asked Nulius to send his people away. I realized that he could just fill them in afterwards, but at least Nulius would have to take an active choice if he wanted to spread our story.

Grogg showed the hole in his armor where the Elik cultist had stabbed with his burning dagger, and Nulius understood that this had happened that night outside Ossei. I allowed Xipil to tell the story, since he had been so eager to, before. I just added our motivation for luring Tivito into this ambush, that we wanted to interrogate them for information about their demon.

Xipil told Nulius where to locate Korro, the prisoner they let go. Nulius jumped on the opportunity to get a source inside Tivito despite our explanations that Korro had just been brought along as muscle and didn’t know many of Tivito’s secrets. Nulius asked if Korro knew magic, which we denied. He was under orders to stay out of mages’ business.
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You don't need to spend 100 CP on Status 5 [25] and Multimillionaire [75] to feel like a princess, when Delusion [-10] will do.

Character sheet: Google Drive link (See this thread for details.)

Campaign logs: Chaotic Pioneering / Confessions of a Forked Tongue
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