Gameplay 3 - Demonic Petitioner

Nar reaches out for the mask, "Let me try that thing..."

He puts the mask on and scans the prisoners, the party, and various passers by.

Jhishma growls after seeing the jailed humans, "I'll tell you what this reminds me of," says the dragonborn, "Abidal's jailbreak, that's what. Mass illusion and mass mind control - that's what we saw when Abidal escaped, and that's what happened here. At the jailbreak we saw it was powered by some blood magic. That's the part we haven't found here - the sacrifice..." The paladin trails off in thought.

"Anyhow," he goes on, "that's why I'm anxious to deliver the Duke's letter. Helge will know what to do - and maybe even have some answers. It all seems connected to me."

"I agree with Jhishma. We should see to the letters first. It would put me at ease if that was over with. Every moment increases our chances of losing them, getting assaulted, or worse."

Grok touches the dagger gingerly and stares at the prisoners with a mean grimace, scrunching up his face and bulging one eye towards them as if to say "I'm on to you punks!".

"The mask reveals nothing special to me," says Nar, handing it back to Cyrind'ae with a nod of thanks, "and neither did Tyr."

"Anything, brother?"

Grok looks quizzically down at the dagger, then back up at the prisoners. He squints a bit, shakes his head as to clear it, then looks to Nar. "I dunno. Hard to see. Both there and not. You try." He holds the dagger hilt towards Nar, the chain still around his neck.

With a sidelong glance at his fellow paladin, Nar slowly reaches out to grasp the hilt, gazing upon the prisoners, and then the party as a test.

Jhishma gives Nar an impatient nod.

"Perhaps your deity interferes with it Nar." Owen comments, scratching his head. He is rather ignorant to the goings on of gods and their followers.

"Is Grok okay? What happened?"

Fritz kneels beside Grok and checks his pulse.

"Huh? Light. Hurt." Somewhat groggy, Grok shakes his head and comes to his senses --or what's left of them. A slight panic show in his eyes as he frantically looks around him, but he instantly relaxes as his hand grasps the dagger that still hangs in it's chain.

"We not do that again. That make Grok feel like building land on head." He looks around at his friends, then the prisoners, then towards the exit. "Not care if them really bad or just bad, leave 'em to rot. Let's get on road. Grok not like this place anymore."

"I felt like the knife was trying to convince me that they are innocents -- that they didn't know about the giant -- but I was able to resist."

"Jishma, do you see any value in perhaps the two of us having a private meeting with one of these 'people'? Maybe get some answers? I worry that we're leaving this city with a disease that they won't be able to cure."

"Wont they keep until we've completed our task?" Owen asks Nar impatiently. "You can always question them when we return."

"This whole thing started with a demon cult letting themselves be made prisoner, breaking out using nefarious magic, then opening a portal to the Abyss to let demons invade the town. It's just too eerily familiar."

"That might be a good idea," the dragonborn answers to Nar with a voice of gravel, "Lemme think a sec..."

Jhishma used his divine sense in the prison with Abidal and he was able to detect something. He remembers what that felt like and he'll reach out again now to see if he senses the same thing here again in order to see if it can be predicted whether another diabolical transformation could occur in this dungeon.