IC: Dichotomy's Age of Worms Redux, Part V(b)

[TiCaudata]

Erdolliel gets directions to the temple of St. Cuthbert and proceeds to lead the group there.

 

[Dichotomy]

After getting directions, the trio makes way back to the Garden Quarter to find the Sacred Temple of St. Cuthbert. The building itself is an impressive, stoic cathedral. Immediately inside, the entrance leads into a large sanctuary. Upon finding an acolyte for assistance, you are lead through the sanctuary itself (passing by a large plaque reading: "Obstinacy brings lumps to the heads of the unfaithful.") to the back leading to the temple's offices. Without giving away too much information, you are shown to the office of "Investigator" Gust.

Gust appears to be a late 30's human. He is fairly tall and appears to be in excellent physical shape. His office is small, but functional, and utterly devoid of decoration except for a small holy symbol on the wall behind his desk.

"I would offer you a seat, but, as you can see, I have none save my own." Perhaps in a gesture of kindness, the cleric remains standing. Other than that, however, he wastes no time on pleasantries. "You were referred to me for a reason. How can I help?"

 

[o3caudata]

"We have something for you to investigate, obviously. This is a rather involved story however, you may appreciate your chair."

[sblock=oc]is it necessary to relate things to him ic? i'm having a sort of difficult time deciding if you're giving us leeway to pursue this story arc, or if you want us involved in it.

I don't believe there's anything specifically about the abduction stuff we don't tell him. Quite explicitly we don't tell him about why we're actually here, or anything about Eligos, but beyond that i think we're safe to tell him everything that happened.

Either way if you'd like us to elaborate the discourse IC, i'm down.[/sblock]

 

[TiCaudata]

[sblock=oc]ditto with leeway confusion and being down with discourse.[/sblock]

 

[Dichotomy]

[sblock=OOC]We can probably go into the specifics with as little or much detail as you guys want. I might make some assumptions on the range of stuff you cover. If I go too far, just let me know, and we can retract accordingly. I'll proceed as follows for now...[/sblock]
Investigator Gust listens intently as you relate the tale of your abduction. Despite being in Gust's office, with a desk and presumably paper, the Investigator takes no notes. "Written summaries can be misplaced or stolen. While not impossible, it takes greater efforts to pry information out of my mind. I keep only mental records, as much as possible."

Unlike Eligos, who patiently waited for you to finish your tale, Gust frequently interrupts. He, typically, does not seem to ask substantive questions or go on tangents. Rather, he asks very pointed questions anytime you mention a new person or place, as if he is filing away every detail you have.

Once the tale is finished, Gust barely pauses. "I've got a fairly good sense of what you say is going on. But I must ask some questions. If you are willing, I'd like you to submit to a zone of truth spell. Corroborating what you know with the spell will be enough to give me official leeway to investigate further."[sblock=OOC]If you have any questions about the spell, Nethezar explains what it does and how it works.[/sblock]

 

[TiCaudata]

Erdolliel nervously nods her assent to the spell. [sblock=oc]If he asks anything touchy in ZoT that we might want to give a careful answer of we should probably IC it[/sblock]

 

[o3caudata]

"We have told you the truth and if your spell will aid the force of your investigation we will assent."

[sblock=oc]I agree, if we need to answer anything 'weird' we'll probably want to do answers IC.[/sblock]

 

[Dichotomy]

[sblock=OOC]In a real effort to keep this game moving as much as possible, I'm going to take some leeway in my extrapolation from your last few posts. While I don't want to short-change any roleplaying opportunities, I am, to be blunt, worried about our momentum.[/sblock]
Waiting until both Erdolliel and Kushnak agree, Nethezar also agrees to be bound by the spell. Investigator Gust offers a prayer to St. Cuthbert for "the wisdom to see the truth of words." He then proceeds to regurgitate the story that you told him. He tells the story very matter-of-factly, and in almost alarming detail. In a very odd fashion, after each sentence, he asks, "Is that true?" and then waits for your verbal confirmation before continuing. While Investigator Gust needs a bit of correction on some minor details, his retelling is very accurate.

Once he has finished retelling the story, he then refers to the documents you have from the map room and the bed chamber in the warehouse. He asks each of you to confirm that you did find these documents where you found them and that they are in the same condition that you found them (you didn't alter them at all).

"I just have a couple more questions. These creatures abducted you from the holding cells or jail cells of the watch. Do you believe they were after you specifically for some reason?"
[sblock=OOC]I've thought of a few things that you may or may not have told him that he would want to know. It might be easier to just find out if you'd have already told him any of the following: (1) that Erd was kidnapped and replaced earlier, (2) specific details on how you got jailed (i.e. that a doppelganger framed you for trying to kill Tarquin), (3) the fact that there appears to be an illithid operating behind the doppelgangers and anything about that.[/sblock]

 

[o3caudata]

"No. We found nothing in our investigations of their lair that would make us believe that, including their selection of prisoners. We weren't alone in our kidnapping and torture, and none of us had any connection (that we were aware of) to the others we saw or met.

We have certainly made numerous enemies along our journeys here but this level of sophistication is far beyond anything we've encountered.

Though, it would make sense that they sought to leverage our status as adventurers to expand their influence beyond the walls of this city."

[sblock=oc]I think we tell him everything you asked about yes. I would say i am (hopefully i'm the one talking??) careful to not use the word illithid, since it implies some level of knowledge about the things. otherwise yes, the kidnapping/switch and the framing definitely.[/sblock]

 

[TiCaudata]

Erdolliel merely nods in agreement with Kushnak, her mouth firmly closed.[sblock=oc]I agree on what we tell him (namely everything including about the illithid without using the word illithid). If Erdolliel is asked directly about the illithid she'll merely call him "squid face".[/sblock]