Devil in the Dungeon

Log Info

• Title: Devil in the Dungeon
• Emitter: Karasu
• Characters: Paenitia, Seyardu, Shalethiste
• Place: Arcanist Dungeons
• Time: Wednesday, September 22, 2021, 5:48 PM
• Summary: Paenitia, Seyardu and Shalethiste question the Erinyes they rescued from Mei's Tower. She refuses to answer Paenitia or even acknowledge Shalethiste, responding only to Seyardu. Some details are provided, there are two groups of devils, some work for the Demon Duke, but not a lot, not even her name.

Deep in the bowls of the Arcanists guild, is a dungeon. A place of flickering torches because within the dungeons themselves no magic will work. Guards stand at the ready, hands hovering near their weapons in a way that suggests that they are nervous. But that's perhaps to be expected. After all. It's one thing to guard natural beings of this plane, and quite another to guard a devil.

The devil in question sits in the back of her cell, wings tucked tight against her body. She's healed quite well from the damage that was done to her, and shows no evidence now of it. She doesn't look up as her guests arrive. Instead curling tighter into her bunk and purposefully ignoring your presence.

Seyardu had brought back the Erinyes. But due to the nature of the location, only traditional medicine could help them heal, as the risk was too great otherwise. So she waited, until they were healed. And Seyardu ventured down into the dungeons, leaving her weapons at a guard post but keeping her armor.

And they travelled deeper, down to where the guards were posted outside the cell. She waved to the prisoner, but they seemed intent on ignoring their presence for the time being.

Sister Paenitia, Paladina of Tarien, has few magic items to her name. A shield, which she can leave behind on Ramirez, and a lance, which she always does. Her other items of worth are on her steed, as are her weapons, which she made a separate trip back to place on her hippogryph. There's enough distrust of the guard she isn't going to leave her things with them.

She retains her armour, her wide brimmed hat, her grinning mask, and her cloak of peacock feathers. The little knight marches behind the silverscale sith'makar, clanking with each step and arrives at the cell. She leans up against the bars, peering through them, staring at the devil as she curls away from the group.

"She does not look to want to have the talk." Paenitia observes, then spins on her heel with a cheerful dismissive, "Ok! We go."

Shalethiste, having acquiesced to the particulars of the dungeon 'dress code', follows the guidance downstairs. She finds the firelight to be some small relief, as often the mana lamps can be a little irritating, though she, of course, recognizes their utility. The subtle...weight on her mind, the access to the flow of mana that's hers by birthright, as well as some of the favors of the Sky Dancer's blessing are somewhat discomfiting, though certainly not so much as one who has had more time to grow used to them.

The Mul'niessan Silver Guard sounds a smooth, if cool, "Greetings."

Because 'Good evening' would be crass, and not a particular well wishing one offers to a manifestation of evil.

GAME: Paenitia rolls bluff: (1)+11: 12 (EPIC FAIL)

The devil does not stirr. Does not react. Not to the greetings, nor even to the threat of being left alone for some indeterminable time. The only thing that it does do is flick its wings and huddle closer to the wall.

Seyardu crosses her arms, and steps off to the side of the cell.

"Greetings." She says as well. "You are doing better, this is good to see. Are you willing to speak to myself?" She asks with a raised brow.

The Dark Lucht clanks several steps down the hallway before she halts, looks at the others, and returns. "The 'hello' and the 'goodbye' not work. What we should try next?" She leans and calls through the bars, "all your pieces have come back?"

Shalethiste folds her arms loosely and waits for the silence to prevail from the constrained hellspawn.

So, they sulk when kept from their full power, after all.

The Mul looks to her companions, then back to the demonling for any potential reply to Seyardu's query.

"We can speak, yes." Seyardu nods, looking to the two others. "But it was not just me who rescued you. the luct here helped with your wounds. And the sil helped as well." She adds.

"Already she dividing us. She has skill." The Red Knight calls back, "You think she carry you the whole way with no help and no agreement from the rest of us?" She turns her grinning mask towards Seyardu. She laughs, " Well you are the only one she give permission to speak, so far. Think the good questions."

She taps her a foot softly, looking up the hall, back in the cell, "Tell her they want us take her out soon, does she want the big box she can move around in, or the little box that tight to her body?" The Red Knight stands, legs wide, hands on her hips, a devil's arm's reach and a little bit beyond the bars.

The Mul'niessa arches an eyebrow as she considers the fear of commitment on the Outsider's part, "They do that." she notes almost absently.

The paladin's weight, sliht as it is, shifts to her other hip and she holds her even stare at the otherplanar creature as the others continue to discuss the situation, "That little box doesn't sound comfortable at all." she remarks urbanely.

The devil flashes her teeth at Paenitia. "You all would have left me for dead. Kindness is a rarity that even my kind can respect. I owe the rest of you nothing!" She shifts her wings, and close examination might reveal that there are still feathers missing. She's healed but... how well?

GAME: Seyardu rolls sense motive: (16)+7: 23

"The only reason they would have is because they could not read your request for help." Seyardu states with a shake of her head. And a squint at the captive. "You are not well. Are you still injured in some way?"

"Ha!" The Red Knight laughs, then chuckles, shaking her head slightly, "You know me without ever meeting. No, I would give you at least the mercy kill to end how you suffer. Maybe that pop you back the the other ones go. Even more luck for you."

She gazes up at Shalethiste, "maybe she like the bug, happy curl up in a bean not much bigger than she is now. Maybe she fine being still like statue for hours. I do not know the many infernals."

"The kind that laid a trap so they could prey on the kindness of strangers, perhaps? Respect, indeed." Shelly asks dryly, then spares a look to Seyardu, "It's lies are boring."

There's a glance to the little Red Knight as she says reasonable things, then back to the hellspawn the Mul'niessa, "Best if none on this plane did, but they're keen to invite themselves to trouble the mortal world."

"Yesss." Hisses the devil. Looking balefully at Seyardu. "My wings healed first, but the rest of me is not so fortunate." She turns her burning gaze on Paenitia. "Do you come to mock me then? If you want to kill me then kill me! I can not stop you!" She stands suddenly and her wounds become clear. She was hiding them with her wings. Her body has healed - miraculously so - but her arms and fingers are jagged where bone has set wrongly. Her body still battered and bruised from the beatings she took during her torture. It is as if all the healing she had focused on her wings healing first, and the rest of her had healed only human-slow.

Seyardu looks to the erinyes, and sighs. "Your arms are not setting properly. If you offer one, and only one at a time, I can do what I can to set the bones."

She looks to the other two, and gestures for them to step back. "This is true, I have only heard of your kind taking advantage of kindness and seeing it as weakness. There are reports of winged fiends pretending to be injured so they may torture and slay passing travellers."

"She will attack you when you move close to do that, Friend Dragon. We are more unarmed than she is, the guards have seen to that. To ask her not to, is to invite a bargain." The Dark Lucht says, her serious voice and her grinning mask unsettlingly dissonant.

"You will have to break those bones to set them right. That will be much force, much pain, almost torture, with no spells to ease it, nor Paladin gifts to less the pain." She looks at the Sith, "you are set to this course, knowing that?"

There is a nod, and Shalethiste concurs with the Knight, "To invite any route to a pact with an outsider is foolish, Hearthguard. Even without her infernal powers, honeyed words, and carefully crafted entreaties could steer prudence aside and put yourself, and others, to risk." she explains to the Sith, then fixes the demon with another look.

She dosn't take any steps in any direction, yet, though she does advise, "This is business more suitably handled by Inquisitors."

"If they attack, I will be ready." Seyardu nods. "This one seeks no pacts."

A pair of gloves are donned, and she raises the arm to take a look. And then she begins the careful, but harsh process of setting the limb right, bandaging as she goes. "Why did those at the tower do this to you?" She asks while doing so.

"Ah! That I want to know. Her name also, who she work for." Paenitia says cheerfully, standing back and watching Seyardu work. "If the silver bone-breaks needed because the normal ones will not do. These many useful things."

Shalethiste edges closer and to one side, tensely waiting for any indication that the Outsider is planning to get froggy, sparing a glance to the guards to be sure she isn't obstructing their closure in the doing.

Seyardu was slow and patient with her work, but still wary. By the time she was done, the Erinye's arms were practically mummified. There was topical ointment as well, to dull the pain.

"Can you tell me your name?" She asks with a raised brow. "And how are you a failure? I would have thought if they needed to torture, they would have done so back on the lower planes."

GAME: Shalethiste rolls sense motive: (6)+7: 13
GAME: Seyardu rolls sense motive: (6)+7: 13

The Mul'niessa remains on alert throughout the process, offering nothing aloud to break the Hearthguard's concentration during her work. Without taking her eyes off the demon as a whole, considering potential motives and cues of anything untoward, the Silverguard continues to hold.

"I could." Replies the devil to Seyardu. "But I'm not going to. I want out of these sun-cursed lands." She pulls her arms back and returns to the back of her cage as soon as she is able. Seems like maybe you are the ones untrusted. "I am a failure because I was supposed to protect the orb. Supposed to keep it from the hands of people like /you/. My kind do not kill so easily. Not even our own kind. Why kill me and send me to the Hells where I would recover when they can keep me here?"

The Red Knight has been watching without comment as the bone re-breaking, splinting and bandaging occurs. With her mask, and only her eyes visible, this is a commentary in itself. The Smiling Man's grinning face appears pleased with all she surveys. Her eyes are inscruitable.

"I think we learn she would be better off in hell." Paenitia comments to no one in particular, "Not much else."

"The desire to kill, is not one with me. Not when I am cold blooded. You project." She states simply, answering an earlier accusation. She shrugs, "When you want the swift death to send you back where you heal fine, call for me." Paenitia has partially disconnected.

"I do not understand. There was another group in the tower, unrelated to you? Or your own group punishing you?" Seyardu seems to ask. "I do not see why not telling us your name matters here. If you go back , things will be worse, will they not?"

The Silver Guard's observation continues as the conversation does, such as it is. Because the devil hasn't found an opportunity to inflict pain in service to its end yet, doesn't mean it won't after all.

She looks between the others present, her stance on allowing the creature to run free probably a foregone conclusion.

"But you said it was your own people torturing you. Why would going back to that be better?" Seyardu asks with the gloves removed. "Do you not have a name that can be referred to without summoning?"

"No, it was the other group of devils. They steal the orb from her, then torture her for not protecting it hard enough. She fail at that, and they want rub it in." Paenitia suggests, nodding, "That make much sense."

The dark elf remains in the room for reasons. She's trying to find the angle, and hopefully avert any well-intending altruism to unlock the binding on this particular monster. A couple of Pardoners, maybe a Redeemer, with the Inquisitors of the Moon, should be sufficient circle of wisdom for this intersection of two infernal cabals before it spills too much further than it has....

"My /kind/ not my allies." Corrects the devil. "Some of my kind work for that demon, but not I. They tortured me because that is what we do. My allies... they will likely punish me for my transgressions, but they will not treat me as those demon-loving..!" She covers herself with her wing. "Call me anything you like! I've not been summoned to your world enough to have a name for those I am friendly with."

"Can you tell us what happened at that tower then that lead to this?" The silverscale suggests. "I would not expect you to be friendly with people here. But if you do not come to this world often, then why now?"

The Red Knight leans back against the wall beside Eluna's Mul'niessa. She ticks things off on her gauntlets, "We have the devil we can't keep here. It need stay somewhere while it heal. To bind, it could be done, but we need more and there is no reason. To banish, would need the more powerful cleric."

"It tell us, there are two group of devil and demon, but no name of itself or the others, that help. It understand mercy enough to make it a weapon and the trap."

"It will not talk to me, and ignore you like you not there, answering only Friend Dragon. There is the useful information it will not give, without bargains, that we will not make."

"Ah!" Paenitia straightens up suddenly, "I am here to be the teated bull!"

The devil grins suddenly at Paenitia sharply. With pleasure and no small measure of meanness. "I was sent to guard the moon, that's all I know. Until /his/ people came. Attacked. Took over. Tortured me." She shivers and hides her face. "Then you came and I was rescued. For however long that lasts."

She peeks over her arm and looks at Paenitia. "You were cruel to me so I am cruel to you. You threatened me so you get no answers."

"I am not sure what you mean." She replies to Paenitia, before she sighs. "And what of the people before? There were reports of people tortured and slain by winged angels. Those in the tower did not have wings."

The Silver Guard nods to Paenitia's appraisal of the situation, giving a little smirk at her phrasing, "That's about the whole of it." she returns. With a glance to Seyardu preceding one to the demon, she comments under her breath, "Let's see where this goes."

"It mean that I am useless." Paenitia tells Seyardu, "What she say is accurate. I offer her no kindness that she has not offered others, so she will not speak to me."

"So, when the Arch-paladins say, 'What we do Paenitia?' I will reply, 'she give no information and will not speak to me. There is no need keep her around. Do what you will'."

The Dark Lucht shrugs, "The ones with wings, that do the killing, likely her allies that get chase out. It the five foot picture we only seeing the few inches of. See what she tell you, but she make it clear, there are no answers for me so no questions. It hurt only her."

"I know nothing of it. Nothing." The devil hisses, and waves the group off. Refusing to answer any further questions.