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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Emperor Valerian" data-source="post: 1488654" data-attributes="member: 15043">The Interrogation - The party interrogates Ilia... With a solid clamp noise as shields locked around the party, the guardsmen near them formed a tight wall around them, hustling them through the corridors of the mountain.  Where-ever the party looked, right and left, they could see the grim results of the Guardsmen’s work... cut down Black Rose assassins and fighters lay strewn about.  Behind, the noise of hte guards whipping on the prisoners the party had taken echoed through the halls.More and more guardsmen formed around the party, till Shaun was sure that there were several hundred clustered around, ranks five and six thick on all sides of the party.  The General, of whoever, was to the front, shouting and calling as more troops joined in the procession.When the party left the mountainside, the sky overhead was already changing from the depths of night to a navy blue, as the sun slowly was starting its rise behind the mountain.  A few quick turns through the streets of the still sleeping city, and the party, along with their extensive guard accompaniment, were now outside the colonnaded walls and spires of the Governor’s Palace.Shaun was surprised, however, when the General barked a few orders, and most of the sea of guards surrounded Siabrey as she conducted herself off towards the palace forge.  By the looks in her eyes, she was undoubtedly surprised as well, as they quickly ushered her and the rest of the party to their destinations within the safety of the Palace walls.“Tess?” Shaun asked uneasily, “why are most of the guards going with Siabrey?  Especially considering the general up ahead is with us?”  I’m very confused.“Shaun,” Tess turned to him, her eyes quiet in seriousness, “we are merely going to interrogate an unconscious, bound woman.  Siabrey....” she stopped, and Shaun could almost see the anguish of Luke’s disappearance on her face as well, “Siabrey for all we know... is the lone ruler of the entire Empire right now...”“Pelor help us...” Shaun muttered.  He knew his friend... and in his mind, he could already see her mentally collapsing...The General, who gave his name as Andronicus, led the rest of the party through a winding barrage of stairs and increasingly dank halls, into the bowels of the palace.  After perhaps a half hour, he opened an, iron door, which led into the part of the palace that only traitors saw......the Imperial dungeons.The room was only slightly lit by a few candles, but their soft light illuminated numerous vicious looking implements... racks, manacles, whips, flails, even an iron maiden.  Shaun was split... part of him, the party that loathed and hated Ilia and all she stood for, relished the thought of making her talk in here.  Another part... the former thief in him, quailed at the sight of all of these instruments of pain.Tess gave a slight whistle at all of the instruments, and a few seconds later the still limp form of Ilia was dragged into the room by several guardsmen, and unceremoniously dumped alongside a wall.“You have free reign to question her as you like... I only ask that you turn her over after to my jurisdiction after you finish,” Andronicus said.  “I know this woman has caused Your Lordships great harm...”“We wish you to stay, General,” Tess said calmly, too calmly.  She had sunk into the same quiet, dangerous mode she had been in while questioning Tess, and while questioning the Black Rose.  “So that you may hear any useful information we obtain from her.”  And possibly, you could instruct us on how to use some of this equipment, if she has information that might save our friend!  “As for now,” Tess leaned over towards the prone woman, and drew Fa’rallan, “its time to wake her up!”As Fa’rallan slid alongside Ilia’s throat, Shaun rudely tossed a bucket of water into the assassin’s face.  Her eye flared open with a jump, a twitch that was cut short as she felt the cold steel of a dagger by her throat.“Good morning,” Tess said quietly, her voice a terrifying whisper.  “Do not worry, you are bound... just like I was.  You will answer our questions,” the bard said with finality, not asking or brooking any dissent.  Ilia’s eyes betrayed a sneer, and Fa’rallan bit slightly closer to the assassin’s throat.“How many troops does the Countess have, Ilia?” Tess asked quietly.  To her fury, the assassin gave a deep chuckle... Fa’rallan scratching her throat slightly as she laughed.“You should already know, witch... considering what you did to Rogar!” Ilia growled.“Why did the Countess take Lucius?” Shaun jumped in, his own voice dangerously quiet, as his hands toyed with the same rose colored rapier that had been Ilia’s bane only an hour or two before.  I’m not sure I want to know the answer... but I must know!  Why?“Do I look like a sorcerer?  Or a demon?  I don’t know, you fool!” Ilia snarled at him.  For a second, Fa’rallan closed tighter on the assassin’s throat, before Tess withdrew the weapon and stood, looking at Shaun, Orion and Grumki.“It’s clear she’s not going to cooperate,” Tess said, reading the defiance in the assassin’s eyes.  Tess eyed the instruments along the wall... wariness coming back into her head, as her humanity pushed aside her anger.  “I’m afraid we might have to start asking how to use some of those,” she whispered.  The thought of using them suddenly did not seem so welcoming... her human side was now frightened to touch one of them.“Let me talk to her... Grumki has a way with assassins,” the half orc announced loudly and proudly.  Tess nodded to him, and Grumki stepped over towards the prone assassin, baring his tusks in a dangerous half orc smile.“Last time I interrogated someone... it was a young man named Shivalas,” the cleric threw in her son’s name.  “When I looked at him, he peed all over the floor of the Temple of Kord.”  The cleric drew closer and closer to the woman, his shadow looming massive over her.  “I will resort to ever harsher things to you... if you do not cooperate.”  His bass was loud, rumbling, the full Intimidation of Kord on full display.“Ha!” Ilia’s mezzo-soprano laughed echoed.  “It is unbecoming of a cleric, even a cleric of so obscure and pointless a diety as Kord, to lie to a prisoner!”  Her guffaws made Grumki’s greenish skin turn bright red with fury, and before anyone can say something, his massive paws grabbed Ilia by the throat and hefted her skyward.“You doubt that Grumki can hurt you?!” an ear-splitting bellow came from his throat as he started to shake her, her legs flailing like those of a ragdoll.“You honestly... expect...me... to... talk...when... I....am...being...choked?” Ilia managed to rasp out.  Tess tapped the half orc hard on the shoulder, and reluctantly Grumki let her drop to the ground.Perhaps its time for a new tack, Shaun thought, looking on as Ilia recovered.  Unlike Tess, his anger and fury stilled burned bright as Ilia's eyes still screamed defiance.“Your son is dead... why should you think it would be...”“You lie!” she positively snarled at him, leaning forward as if to try and rush him. Ah... so I’ve hit a soft spot... Shaun smiled inwardly.  Now to twist the knot a little bit.“Why would I lie about such things?” Shaun said with a grin... even a deadly smile.  “Orion... if you please.  Go fetch the boy’s head.”Ilia merely spit towards Shaun.  “You lie!  I will not believe such rubbish!  Shivalas is a strong, valiant young man!”While I wait, I might as well have some fun Shaun thought again, sadistically.  He grabbed her eyepatch, and whipped it over so it covered her good eye.  Moving it revealed to the world the empty socket that the long scar on her face ran over.“Now... how do you honestly expect me to believe you when you cover my eyes like this?” she sneered again, engaging in her own mind game to try and irritate and annoy him.  “You obviously...”As she continued to rant, Shaun roughly grabbed her by the hair, and drawing his dagger, began cutting pieces of it, and throwing the blond strands into her face.  It gave him a sense of satisfaction, of release, to see her elaborate blonde locks destroyed... a taste of what would happen when Orion returned.“Why are you tossing your hair in my face!” she snapped, unable to see.  “What kind of interrogator are you?  You think I’ll talk just because you annoy me and tell me silly tales?”Shaun stood and waited, enduring a few moments of her ranting, before Orion returned, with the severed head of the young man.  Carefully, Shaun brushed away the hairs on her face, and moved the eyepatch back. Just as Orion thrust Shivalas’ head, eyes replete with looks of abject terror, into her face.As Ilia’s face contorts into a look of absolute horror, Shaun dryly commented, “I don’t lie about such things.”A second later, Ilia retched into her own lap.  The look of terror, the look of horror in her eyes was invigorating almost.  Now you feel what you’ve caused so many! Shaun wanted to shout.  Instead, he tossed the head into her lap, as Ilia started to softly mew, sobbing.“Now that we’ve shown you what we can do... answer our questions,” Shaun said simply.  When he looked up, he saw Elenya and Tess were looking at him with looks of fright on their faces.  Their looks brought his humanity back again, and he dismissed his next plan to humiliate and frighten her.  She’s broken now, Shaun thought, seeing her openly crying now, She’ll answer your questions now.“How many march with the Countess?” he sighed.“I...I don’t know,” she said between sobs.  “I...I don’t know!  P...please...s...stop!”“What are they going to do to Lucius?” he asked again, confident her response to the first question was truthful.  Her crying increased even more.“I...I...I don’t know...s...she said s...she needed another...a...another to k...keep t...the balors in line...” Ilia sputtered between genuine tears.Another to keep the balors in mind? Shaun wondered, and his look spoke of his unasked question to Tess.“Balors are extremely powerful demons... they don’t like to listen to any authority save force,” the bard said quietly.  “If she needs Lucius to go evil to help keep them in line... she’s having trouble with controlling her own ranks...”A very valuable piece of knowledge, Shaun recognized with a nod.  He then turned back to Ilia, her head down, now only a shell of the defiant assassin that had been there only moments before.“Does the Countess march with her army, or stay in Holstean?”“S...she...she marches,” Ilia gurgled quietly.  With a nod of disgust, the party left her to the ‘care’ of General Andronicus, and marched up towards the throne room of the palace, to try and discover what really happened to Alexander...The party’s arrival in the massive room they had once danced in at a gala caused quite a stir.  Court rumor had long linked them with Emperor Alexander, and almost immediately they were assailed with petitioners demanding to know where the Emperor was, as well as the status of their cases.Overwhelmed, the party quietly deflated many of their hopes by telling them they were just as in the dark as everyone else, and in fact had come here to find out the Emperor’s fate themselves.  Couriers streak in and out, some from the nobles and merchants gathered inside, some from others not in the palace.The ones that attract all attention are those bearing the livery of the Imperial family, which seem to arrive every five minutes.  Some claim that the Emperor is dead, and that Lucius Caladron has been proclaimed in his place.  Others say he is just fine, and marching on Holstean as they spoke.  One courier, clad in the colors of the Lord Holgren, even claimed that the Emperor had fought the Countess in a great battle, and had single handedly slain her.Rather quickly, the party realized that they were stuck in the midst of a confusing maelstrom, and that likely no one understood what was happening...</blockquote>

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