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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Creamsteak" data-source="post: 6730226" data-attributes="member: 552">The creature taps his index fingers on the table in front of himself for a moment. "A rescue..." his thoughts seem to trail off. His focus returns as suddenly, "You have already made me lose my thought... It will take me at least fifteen minutes to pick up from where I left off. Such is the nature of distraction. The cost is not in the simple moment lost, but in the compounding of having to rebuild the necessary state of mind to continue one's work."The figure stands up from the desk and looms forward. His long black hair still seems somewhat... present... his skin is wrinkled, shriveled, and slightly translucent. His robes look... noble, but in tatters. The thing looks like the picture of death incarnate, skeletal..."Of course, one might believe that as my time is measured in centuries... not moments... this cost would seem trivial. This is false. Every moment of my time is worth exponentially more than the expenditure of time of someone such as yourself. It can be said that the momentum behind my movements is so much greater. It is focused. It has purpose. A million lives stand in my past, each ally fallen, each enemy slain... I carry their weight... their lives... their goals... and their mission inexorably forward. I am possessed of the a vastly greater purpose than one such as you, elf, who lives a paltry life-span measured in mere years. Perhaps you can understand where I am coming from when you compare yourself to the creatures you yourself might, in hubris, consider lessers?"The creature walks all the way up to the door. It touches the colorless skin of its face with its long decrepit nail. "Now, with the costs you have incurred me laid before you, you ask me a question for which I cannot possibly know an answer. One might, in a childish way, insist that there is no knowing a thing completely. That's certainly possible. I know not whether I know that to be true. But that is a matter for children. What is more important is what can be induced from the chain of events that have transpired. I took up residence here. My work was disturbed. Cultists of some ill-informed nature wished to acquire my assistance with their paltry projects. I, of course, rebuffed them in a suitable fashion. Now, a set of new interlopers come up to my very door with the blood of these cultists all about them. They talk of a rescue."The figure turns his back and starts to meander away still talking to itself."Whether by truth or folly they bluntly ask me if I know of these prisoners. Are there prisoners here? I would surmise that, within a reasonable certainty, there must be. Given the nature of the cultist woman, she likely puts anything she can to use. She also... appears to be dead. Given that constant infernal ringing of metal and stone down below, the notion of captured individuals being put to work as slaves just below this keep would seem likely. They seem to still be at work... not yet molested or disturbed by the conflict that occurred here. Nor were they interrupted when that blasted statue fell into my crypt."The figure gestures to the west."I would suggest going down those stairs into the mines below. If my deduction is correct, at least someone currently considered a prisoner would be found there. I would avoid the northern section of the mine if I were in your condition. And stay out of my domain. You will find that the doors are locked with an arcane manifestation, much like the one you just picked. A lack of disturbance would be appreciated."A wry smile crosses the creatures mouth. "I would suggest you leave now, unless you plan to repay me for this interruption."</blockquote>

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