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- Jul 6, 2008
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Kitchen Interrogations
After hauling the stripped and gagged survivors back to the village, you give them to Rin to do as she wishes.
“Finally. I can kill them now?”
“What? No, no, what do you usually do with prisoners?”
“I don’t take prisoners,” she says without even a hint of shame. “They do not call me the Black Deathaxe for nothing!”
“Okay, what do the other generals do with prisoners?”
A light goes on in her head. “Ah, you mean torture?”
“Your people are good at that, right? Interrogating someone for information?” You have taken prisoners, unlike Rin, but they were more like hostages used to guarantee your target’s good behavior until your teammates could move in for the kill. Torture was something you only saw the aftermath of, particularly in the demonic dungeons. Surely the crown princess of demonkind was more experienced than you in the art of torture?
“O-Of course I know how to do that! I studied under the Mistress of Pain after all!” Bravely, Rin rises up to your challenge; a challenge that exists only in her mind. The Mistress of Pain… that brings back memories. Uncomfortable memories where the line between pain and pleasure was blurred.
Oh well. If she did study under that hag, Rin should be competent enough. You’ll let her do the troublesome work of getting the prisoners to talk.
A very grateful Boss survives the rescue. You ponder briefly whether or not to grant him a healing potion, but it does not seem necessary: though heavily injured, he would likely recover on his own. Your actions in personally defeating the intruders and saving the chief further enhance your legend amongst the goblins, but they could hardly worship you any more faithfully than they already are.
In the meantime, you have some goblins retrieve the items that had been left behind by the humans. Many of the supplies had been damaged during the battle. You managed to get your hands on a map, which marked out the ruins and part of the kingdoms surrounding it. It seems that the humans call these ruins Camlann. You also get your hands on more food – bread and dried meat, mostly – as well as a casket of ale. Unfortunately there were no handy documents full of writing, with official looking seals, which would have shed light on their purpose here.
The armor and the weapons you divide amongst the goblins. The holy sword of the so-called paladin does not flame at your command. Strangely, it seems to burn the goblins if they try to hold it, but you can wield it just fine. For now, it is just a normal metal sword to you.
***
Besides those, the goblins also bring you something interesting from the loot:
A. A tattered spell book with a dirty white cover plucked from the camp. You do not understand the writing yet, but you can probably work your way through it.
B. A strange cylinder with a handle, with something that looks like a crossbow’s trigger. There is a faint hint of magic emanating from it. It had been found hidden under bedding in the camp.
C. A jewel-encrusted gauntlet, gaudy but solid in its construction. It had been in a chest, and strangely enough wrapped in scrolls.
***
The stripped and gagged prisoners had been sent to the only place suitable to hold them while Rin conducts her interrogations: a small kitchen at the back of the hall. You had been hearing terrible screams all day – it looks like she had been getting to work immediately, but the screams seemed to be growing fewer and fewer in number.
Would she kill them all before you get any answers?
You decide to take a look. The unearthly noise is interrupting your nap anyway. Long before you approach the door, the pungent scent of blood fills your nostrils. You pause, reminded of what happened at the ruins. There is a slight kindling of a desire to kill in your heart, but for some reason it is nowhere near as strong, even though the smell of blood is thicker this time. Perhaps… only on the battlefield? You shake your head. You will figure this out later. For now…
You throw the door open and walk in. You see Rin hovering over the body of a whimpering mage, a bloody kitchen knife stuck in his chest. It looks like he’s still alive for now. Rin gives you a sheepish look, and you cast a glance over the other prisoners. They are quite certainly dead. Blood spatters stain the walls and the floor: it will be difficult to clean. Some of the viscera have even gotten into the jars. A large pot has toppled over and smashed, spilling its contents – thankfully, just boiling water – all over the floor. It looks more like a butcher’s abattoir than a torture chamber; of course, there have been times where you could not differentiate the two. But still… within a day?
Dammit, Rin.
“It was an accident, I swear,” she says quickly upon seeing your disbelieving look. “My hand slipped once or twice. I’m… I’m just out of practice! And there are usually regenerative specialists at hand to assist!”
You silently look at the commander’s head, barely hanging on from a few strings of sinew. His eyes are open, his face frozen in a death mask that perfectly conveys the horrifying agony of his demise. Rin follows your gaze and explains.
“I tried using the axe at first, but it was too big and I accidentally cut one of them straight in half. That’s why I had to use the knife. But the blade was pretty dull, so I accidentally used more force than I needed to at the first go, and hit the wrong spot. Then I had to fix it, so…”
So she’s the chatty sort when it comes to explaining her mistakes. You make a note of that in your mind. “It’s alright, I don’t mind,” you say, putting on your best, most comforting smile.
She nods. “Oh, okay. If you say so.” But she does not seem particularly grateful or touched by your magnanimity over her mess-up. In fact, any slight stirrings of repentance in her expression fade away immediately, replaced by her usual charmless arrogance. Ah, well, baby steps.
You walk over to the last survivor and say, “I’m slightly sorry for leaving you here. How are you feeling?”
The mage gasps at your arrival. He gurgles blood, trying to get his words out. “I… I’ll tell you what you want to know. Just… just get this knife out of me! You want to know why we are here, right?”
That is one thing that you want to know, amongst many. You nod.
“We… the Confessor-Princess… she received a dream. Something would appear in the center of Camlann that would shake the earth and part the heavens. Whoever obtained it would be able to change the world… some sort of highly dangerous magical relic that could not fall into the wrong hands… We were already in the area on another mission, so an urgent message was sent to us along with some reinforcements. We split off from the main group to investigate the ruins…”
“The main group?” Could there be another force out in the forest? You had spotted no signs of them, but you could have overlooked something.
“They’re… raiding the local villages... about seventy of them in all, we were a third of the fighting force… that was our original mission… to frame the Galbaldians…”
If that is the case, they must not be too far away. You look down at the dying mage. His face is twisted in pain, and his breathing is ragged. He might not last long. “Please… I’ve told you everything I know… get the knife out of me…”
“Right, I hear you. I know, it's a bit of a pain, and I don't want to be here either, but... next question,” you say, giving him a sympathetic smile that offers the hope of reprieve after the next question.
He groans in resignation and nods weakly.
***
For your next question:
A. You ask about the nation he belongs to and his organization.
B. You ask about the Confessor-Princess in particular. What is she like? Does she get prophetic dreams often? Is she pretty?
C. You ask about the spells that he uses – they are spells you have never encountered before.
D. You ask about the current political status in the region: is it stable? Which of the states are unfriendly to each other?
E. You ask about angels, what they are, and why it is rumoured that Methuss has one.
F. You ask about the item that you retrieved from the camp.
G. You ask him about something else (think of another question).
H. You decide not to ask him anything, the poor man, and have Rin remove the knife.
***
As for the main force which he claims to be raiding the Methussian villages:
A. According to Runde, there is a human village nearby, about a day’s travel away from the goblins. You might be able to catch the raiders there, for more information and equipment. It would also give you another location you can teleport to.
B. They can do as they wish. You just got back from an unwanted excursion. It’s too much of a hassle to go out again for at least another week or so. You’ll just send a few goblins to keep an eye on things.
After hauling the stripped and gagged survivors back to the village, you give them to Rin to do as she wishes.
“Finally. I can kill them now?”
“What? No, no, what do you usually do with prisoners?”
“I don’t take prisoners,” she says without even a hint of shame. “They do not call me the Black Deathaxe for nothing!”
“Okay, what do the other generals do with prisoners?”
A light goes on in her head. “Ah, you mean torture?”
“Your people are good at that, right? Interrogating someone for information?” You have taken prisoners, unlike Rin, but they were more like hostages used to guarantee your target’s good behavior until your teammates could move in for the kill. Torture was something you only saw the aftermath of, particularly in the demonic dungeons. Surely the crown princess of demonkind was more experienced than you in the art of torture?
“O-Of course I know how to do that! I studied under the Mistress of Pain after all!” Bravely, Rin rises up to your challenge; a challenge that exists only in her mind. The Mistress of Pain… that brings back memories. Uncomfortable memories where the line between pain and pleasure was blurred.
Oh well. If she did study under that hag, Rin should be competent enough. You’ll let her do the troublesome work of getting the prisoners to talk.
A very grateful Boss survives the rescue. You ponder briefly whether or not to grant him a healing potion, but it does not seem necessary: though heavily injured, he would likely recover on his own. Your actions in personally defeating the intruders and saving the chief further enhance your legend amongst the goblins, but they could hardly worship you any more faithfully than they already are.
In the meantime, you have some goblins retrieve the items that had been left behind by the humans. Many of the supplies had been damaged during the battle. You managed to get your hands on a map, which marked out the ruins and part of the kingdoms surrounding it. It seems that the humans call these ruins Camlann. You also get your hands on more food – bread and dried meat, mostly – as well as a casket of ale. Unfortunately there were no handy documents full of writing, with official looking seals, which would have shed light on their purpose here.
The armor and the weapons you divide amongst the goblins. The holy sword of the so-called paladin does not flame at your command. Strangely, it seems to burn the goblins if they try to hold it, but you can wield it just fine. For now, it is just a normal metal sword to you.
***
Besides those, the goblins also bring you something interesting from the loot:
A. A tattered spell book with a dirty white cover plucked from the camp. You do not understand the writing yet, but you can probably work your way through it.
B. A strange cylinder with a handle, with something that looks like a crossbow’s trigger. There is a faint hint of magic emanating from it. It had been found hidden under bedding in the camp.
C. A jewel-encrusted gauntlet, gaudy but solid in its construction. It had been in a chest, and strangely enough wrapped in scrolls.
***
The stripped and gagged prisoners had been sent to the only place suitable to hold them while Rin conducts her interrogations: a small kitchen at the back of the hall. You had been hearing terrible screams all day – it looks like she had been getting to work immediately, but the screams seemed to be growing fewer and fewer in number.
Would she kill them all before you get any answers?
You decide to take a look. The unearthly noise is interrupting your nap anyway. Long before you approach the door, the pungent scent of blood fills your nostrils. You pause, reminded of what happened at the ruins. There is a slight kindling of a desire to kill in your heart, but for some reason it is nowhere near as strong, even though the smell of blood is thicker this time. Perhaps… only on the battlefield? You shake your head. You will figure this out later. For now…
You throw the door open and walk in. You see Rin hovering over the body of a whimpering mage, a bloody kitchen knife stuck in his chest. It looks like he’s still alive for now. Rin gives you a sheepish look, and you cast a glance over the other prisoners. They are quite certainly dead. Blood spatters stain the walls and the floor: it will be difficult to clean. Some of the viscera have even gotten into the jars. A large pot has toppled over and smashed, spilling its contents – thankfully, just boiling water – all over the floor. It looks more like a butcher’s abattoir than a torture chamber; of course, there have been times where you could not differentiate the two. But still… within a day?
Dammit, Rin.
“It was an accident, I swear,” she says quickly upon seeing your disbelieving look. “My hand slipped once or twice. I’m… I’m just out of practice! And there are usually regenerative specialists at hand to assist!”
You silently look at the commander’s head, barely hanging on from a few strings of sinew. His eyes are open, his face frozen in a death mask that perfectly conveys the horrifying agony of his demise. Rin follows your gaze and explains.
“I tried using the axe at first, but it was too big and I accidentally cut one of them straight in half. That’s why I had to use the knife. But the blade was pretty dull, so I accidentally used more force than I needed to at the first go, and hit the wrong spot. Then I had to fix it, so…”
So she’s the chatty sort when it comes to explaining her mistakes. You make a note of that in your mind. “It’s alright, I don’t mind,” you say, putting on your best, most comforting smile.
She nods. “Oh, okay. If you say so.” But she does not seem particularly grateful or touched by your magnanimity over her mess-up. In fact, any slight stirrings of repentance in her expression fade away immediately, replaced by her usual charmless arrogance. Ah, well, baby steps.
You walk over to the last survivor and say, “I’m slightly sorry for leaving you here. How are you feeling?”
The mage gasps at your arrival. He gurgles blood, trying to get his words out. “I… I’ll tell you what you want to know. Just… just get this knife out of me! You want to know why we are here, right?”
That is one thing that you want to know, amongst many. You nod.
“We… the Confessor-Princess… she received a dream. Something would appear in the center of Camlann that would shake the earth and part the heavens. Whoever obtained it would be able to change the world… some sort of highly dangerous magical relic that could not fall into the wrong hands… We were already in the area on another mission, so an urgent message was sent to us along with some reinforcements. We split off from the main group to investigate the ruins…”
“The main group?” Could there be another force out in the forest? You had spotted no signs of them, but you could have overlooked something.
“They’re… raiding the local villages... about seventy of them in all, we were a third of the fighting force… that was our original mission… to frame the Galbaldians…”
If that is the case, they must not be too far away. You look down at the dying mage. His face is twisted in pain, and his breathing is ragged. He might not last long. “Please… I’ve told you everything I know… get the knife out of me…”
“Right, I hear you. I know, it's a bit of a pain, and I don't want to be here either, but... next question,” you say, giving him a sympathetic smile that offers the hope of reprieve after the next question.
He groans in resignation and nods weakly.
***
For your next question:
A. You ask about the nation he belongs to and his organization.
B. You ask about the Confessor-Princess in particular. What is she like? Does she get prophetic dreams often? Is she pretty?
C. You ask about the spells that he uses – they are spells you have never encountered before.
D. You ask about the current political status in the region: is it stable? Which of the states are unfriendly to each other?
E. You ask about angels, what they are, and why it is rumoured that Methuss has one.
F. You ask about the item that you retrieved from the camp.
G. You ask him about something else (think of another question).
H. You decide not to ask him anything, the poor man, and have Rin remove the knife.
***
As for the main force which he claims to be raiding the Methussian villages:
A. According to Runde, there is a human village nearby, about a day’s travel away from the goblins. You might be able to catch the raiders there, for more information and equipment. It would also give you another location you can teleport to.
B. They can do as they wish. You just got back from an unwanted excursion. It’s too much of a hassle to go out again for at least another week or so. You’ll just send a few goblins to keep an eye on things.
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