Chapter 53: Detective D
The tap of fingers on the table, the shuffle of cards in his hands, the King stares at you, awaiting a reply.
"Well," you begin quietly, hesitant to break the silence at the table, "We need to see to any overt threats in the city but we also need to check in with the army to ensure nothing has befallen them."
"Yes," Thaïs quickly expresses her agreement, "We can not risk the army but it would be more practical to deal with any opportunities or threats that may confront us here first."
"You wish to pursue both?" Albrecht questions the two of you, a little concerned that perhaps you intend to do too much.
"I think we have to," you sincerely reply, "We need to spend a few days to get our affairs in order anyway before we can head south so we might as well let our people handle the details while we get to know your family in the city."
The King still seems sceptical but your partner works to strengthen your case, "Once we have had a chance to investigate a little we should be able to give you our finding and the Pathfinders can pursue any leads we uncover while we head south to aid the army against whatever they will find down there."
She pauses and takes a sip from her glass giving you an opportunity to jump back in, "We will need a few things from you to help us succeed at both tasks."
"Such as?" the weary dwarf manages to muster as he gulps down his fourth glass.
You list your first request, "We will require written letters in your hand empowering us to act on your behalf in all things."
"Done," the dwarf nods slowly, "Of course. You shall have them before you leave."
"We will require you to mobilize funds and personnel to aid us as well," the first request was largely a formality, you know this one will not be.
"What sorts of funds and personnel are we talking about?" as you suspected the King is quick to ask for details, understandable really given the scrutiny he will be under.
You raise a hand and a single thin finger, "First, I want you to hire on a company of mercenary mages for at least a month."
"More mages," the King squints.
"Yes," Thaïs answers rapidly, "Almost all of your enemies have substantial magical reserves and you have only us and the Academy."
"Is that not enough?" the King asks as he refills his glass, soon he is going to need a new bottle.
"So far it has been," you admit with a little pride, "We have been bold and we have been cunning but most importantly we have been lucky. In our battle with the Watcher's northern host we were at a significant magical disadvantage, one which we only overcame because of a superior position, hidden assets and enemies that did not take us seriously. We will not always have those advantages and we will need more mages to address that balance."
As usual your partner works to drive home your points, "The fellows of the Academy are fine in a researching role but how much practical battlefield experience do they have?"
"Point taken," the King concedes, "The fellows are a bit too eccentric to send out with the army, they would be as much a danger to our own people as they are to the enemy. So what did you have in mind?"
"Battlemages," the two of you answer as one.
Thaïs elaborates, "We have been speaking to our officers about the various mercenary companies in the city and one in particular seems to be of obvious and immediate utility. The," she pauses for a moment, attempting to recall the name, "Seekers, I believe they are called."
"I am not familiar with them but I will have my people contact them with an offer," the worn and weathered dwarf replies, "I should be able to justify the cost as 'in the interests of the Kingdom', should I send them on immediately or?"
He leaves the question hanging for you and you seize it with a grateful bob, "No, we will lead them out to join the army, best not to travel in too small of a group given the conditions to the south and if we arrive as a group it should prevent any traitors in the army from getting them killed before we arrive."
"Is that all?" the King empties the last of his bottle, tapping out the life giving fluid into his glass.
It isn't, and you tell him as much, "We will also need more money for supplies and we want the fellows at the academy to look into developing a very special weapon for us as well."
"Why do you want the money?" he asks by rote, already well aware that he will be giving it to you.
"Energon cubes, a spell ring, and more," you answer plainly, "Things we will need to increase our chances but which we do not have the funds available to cover at the moment.
"I can't be seen giving you anymore," he empties the glass, "The lords and their agents in the treasury will-"
"You won't need to physically give us any funds," you assure him, "Simply let us use the Pathfinders' account with the Brothers Dietfried. Roll the whole thing into the administrative costs you are already hiding from the lords."
The King grins at that and musters a weak laugh, "Ever considered politics? I imagine you would make a fine queen, er, queens," he nods slightly to your friend and she gives him a thin smile in thanks for the courtesy.
"Really?" you remark with genuine surprise, "I would make a poor queen I think, too little patience for all the petty posturing that comes with the post."
He closes his eyes, his smile spreading as he rolls backward through the years in his mind, "I did not think I would make a good king either when I was young," he laughs, or perhaps barks would be more accurate, "Maybe I was right to think so, but I have not done such a terrible job have I?"
"Of course not your Majesty," you reply in unison, "Without you there would be no Kingdom."
"How horrid of you if you flatter an old dwarf?" the smirks, "And how much worse for us all if you don't?"
The strain on the dwarf has stripped away that air of self-confidence that he wore so naturally only a month ago. You can not even imagine what it must feel like, to have one of your own turn on you. You might not have a family similar to his but if someone in your own family, your Circle, betrayed you like that... if Serpent, or Brigit, or Gareth, or Christine- actually, scratch that, you could completely see Christine betraying you- but the rest, if they turned traitor on you, you are not sure how you would take it or even if you could do what Albrecht is doing now, to essentially order their deaths...
The King is giving everything he has left for his kingdom and perhaps that is what stirs in you the desire to be truthful with him.
"Albrecht?" he opens his eyes as you call his name.
"Derryth," he replies with a single slow blink and the happy smile of the slightly inebriated, the world must seem softer to him now, less horrid perhaps.
"Do you want to know what happened when we went to the desert?" your friend shoots you an asking glance, she must be wondering what you plan to accomplish here.
"Yes," again he answers, a slow blink and that same soft tone but you are not a fool, you can already feel the slight shift in the dwarf. You have his full attention now and he must be prepared to capture every detail.
"We were invited to meet a mage in the hills and caves outside the city," you look to your friend and she subtly sighs then dips her head slightly in agreement.
Now that you have committed to telling Albrecht she seems willing to see this through to the end with you, she turns her full attention to the King and she speaks, "The mage was Mazzarin."
The King laughs, it is bitter and scornful, "Look ladies if you do not want to tell me then do not, but do not lie-"
"We are not," she insists, "He was incapacitated, worn down, dried out and he needed our help with a ritual we knew or at least knew part of."
Good, she left Nine out of the narrative. No sense mentioning the former Fallen Lord that sleeps in your pack, you do not intend to mention Lyssa either, or at least not the most damning parts of her past, you push on as the King's look of annoyance passes over into curiosity, tinted with fear, "We helped him complete the ritual and asked to have Lyssa join us in payment, not as a servant or slave but as an employee," you are quick to add, you do not want the King getting the wrong idea about any of this.
"You, you are not lying are you?" the old dwarf mutters, largely to himself, as the lights sway in the dim backroom, "Mazzarin... Is he on our side?"
A natural first question but one you can not give a satisfying answer to, "He is on his side."
The King frowns.
Thaïs attempts to cushion the blow, "Meaning he is definitely against the Watcher."
The King pinches his nose and leans forward, "Well the enemy of my enemy..." he laughs, "Is more often than not also my enemy. Was he living?"
"Living?" you ask together, what an odd question, you would not have been able to help him if he had not been at least a little alive.
"Yes, living," the King pauses, considering just how much he should tell you, "Not many know this but if you are going to deal with the Great Mage, if this really is Mazzarin, well, you should know. During the Great War the Watcher was struck by an arrow, the arrow was enchanted with bone taken from his very arm and when it struck him it turned him to stone. It did not instantly kill him though-"
You know this story, you have heard it told by Berserk veterans the Empire over, "Yes, we know. The Watcher was petrified, overpowered by the peculiar magics woven into that arrow by Alric and his followers but it took one hundred men to return and slay him, staying behind the Legion, ensuring the job was done. Just a shame he did not stay dead."
The king shakes his head, "Yes that is the version everyone knows but it is not quite what happened. Alric sent in a team of Berserks with one hundred men to see the Watcher off before Soulblighter could free him. However his men were not the only ones present. I had a team of Pathfinders observing the battle, if Alric's men failed then they were to ensure that the Watcher did not survive. Thankfully they were not needed but they did have a lot to report to me when they returned westward to my camp after the war. There are complications with that story that leave me wondering."
"Such as?" you ask together, leaning in, now he has your full attention.
"The arm that the Legion recovered at Silvermines was the Watcher's left arm. They carried it with them as they fled east and it proved to be the undoing of the First Necromancer. The problem though is that the Watcher was not missing his left arm when my dwarves encountered him. He was missing an arm but it was the right arm."
"So he restored his left arm then," you answer with a shrug, "Some time between when he was freed and when the Legion ambushed him he replaced his missing left arm."
"And lost his right arm," Thaïs reminds you, "Who could have cost the Watcher an arm?"
"Exactly," the old dwarf replies with a worried smile, "Someone powerful, very powerful, someone with a grudge against the Watcher, someone that had been stalking the archmage since well before the War and was capable of tearing his arm off and pressuring the mage so much he could not replace it."
"Mazzarin?" you hazard a guess.
"Maybe," the King whispers, "There is a second piece of information that I think supports such a theory. When the Berserks made their final assault on The Watcher, when they had broken through his last defences a Shade or a Shade-like being appeared and attacked them along with a handful of thralls. The Berserks cut it down and then finished off its 'master' and for these many years I had thought it nothing. A Shade forced to defend its lord that fell to the steel of brave men but the more I think about the less I like it. The being was visibly weakened and its reserves spent, as if it had to fight through the Watcher's host to reach the archmage..."
"Perhaps it was wounded fighting Alric's men?" your friend theorizes.
"Those one hundred were brave but insignificant against the sheer numbers the Watcher had and certainly against the reinforcements Soulblighter was bringing across the Gjol behind them. It was my belief, based on the accounts submitted to me by my observation team that this shade, if that is what it was, did not belong to the Watcher. Now you tell me that Mazzarin was alive all this time and I am led to believe that the creature was none other than the Great Mage himself!" the King slams his glass down at that declaration.
Perhaps all of that drink is going to his head. The theory is not strictly speaking impossible but it strikes you as unlikely and if it were the case then why would he not share the information with his allies over sixty years ago?
You tell him as much and he nods vigorously, "True, true, if the Great Mage was active during the War then why not inform Alric, right?" the dwarf king lowers his voice, "Well, why inform the King of something he already knew?"
You both give him a puzzled glance and he laughs, "Archmages, dear ladies, archmages. There were wars within that War that were not fought between armies and in the open. So much happened and so little was told to us by our 'allies' the Avatara. Alric was captured during the War, not many know that but it is the truth. He lead his army eastward on the advice of a being I never trusted and he fell into the Deceiver's hands. Five champions were chosen to free him, five heroes of the Light sent into the east by balloon. Two of them were dwarves, some of my best agents but the five that set out were not the five that reached the King. Along the way they lost a member, one of my dwarves, and gained another in the form of a Berserk, wandering alone across the sand. These new five found the King and rescued him and they would serve him loyally throughout the War. When he returned the surviving dwarf told me a tale of fighting hordes across the sand, of struggling against sad odds with a half mad archmage in tow. He told me a great deal of interest but what was even more interesting is what he did not say."
The King pauses here and reaches for another bottle under the table, when he has carefully refilled his glass he continues, "Months later the missing dwarf returned. He had slipped away from the group to neutralize the scouts of the enemy, when he returned his four companions had replaced him and they were behaving strangely. He trailed them, hiding from the champions and later the archmage as well. He followed them through the desert and he recounted a very strange conversation that Alric had with a certain Shade by the name of Sinis, right before he granted the Shade a second death. The King and the Shade exchanged words and Alric mentioned that he thought Sinis had died in the ruins of the Shrine of Nyx when Mazzarin, of all people, collapsed the roof in on him."
You each give the King a confused look, "So then Alric was referring to ancient history, some account of a mage battle perhaps?" you must admit you have never heard of this Shrine of Nyx, though you assume it has to do with the Trow, nor are you familiar with an archmage named Sinis.
The King shakes his head, though he confesses to a certain uncertainty, "That is what I thought as well at first. But my agent was convinced that Alric was referring to recent events. The way he said it, it sounded like the King was there for the event."
"So what are you saying," perhaps you have had too much to drink, or too little, to follow the King's logic.
The King drains the rest of the new bottle and rises to his feet. Pauses, then sits down again, "I- ah, well I am not sure but I know it is important. Alric must know things about Mazzarin, something must have happened in that desert sixty years ago, it all has to make sense somehow but I just don't know. At any rate, I wanted to warn you. Mazzarin may or may not be a Shade, what sort of ritual did you cast on him anyway?"
"Something to restore his youth," you answer together absentmindedly.
"Like the healing spell you worked on that dwarven family?" the King probes further.
"More or less," Thaïs replies noncommittally.
The rather intoxicated dwarf grins, "Well, no problem then. If he were undead then the natural properties of the mandrake roots you used on him would have destroyed him right?"
"Maybe," you mutter. You do not know what a mandrake root would do to a Shade, having never had a chance to test one and find out. All of that is beside the point anyway, you did not use mandrake roots during your ritual and in this case blood might not out.
Mazzarin, a Shade? That would mean that somewhere, someone is or was his master. Could there be a hand guiding the greatest mage to ever live and if so have you played into it by reviving him?
Sobering thoughts to consider as you make the final arrangements with the King and Astrid, then step out into the night.
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"So who first?" Thaïs is quick to ask as she slips in beside you for breakfast.
It is good to be back in the capital, back to a place where you can begin your day with something a little nicer than pork and ale. Lyssa to your right is working her way through a chicken while the girls fight over a plate of pastries across from you. Before you is a full spread of food courtesy of the royal kitchens, it is a lot, too much really, but you did not have the heart to send it away so you invited the rest of your group in for breakfast. Of course there are not enough plates and glasses to go around so everyone simply mingles at the trolley snatching up what they like, it would not do for a formal meal in 'polite company' but it is far more to your liking than half of the parties you have been forced to attend.
They were all quick to accept, well, except for Berty. He kindly turned you down, it seems he had business to attend to this morning but he promised to return before everyone received their orders for the day.
"Well I don't much feel like dealing with a self appointed crime lord today," you reply as you work on your eggs, "So let's leave son number three for tomorrow."
Thaïs pours herself a small glass of something crimson. Wine perhaps but whatever it is it has a lovely bouquet, "So, son two or four it is then, we leave Wenzel for now."
"Have any preference?" you enquire as you steal her glass and take a sip, hmmm, tastes like, cherries, nice and a wonderful change of pace.
"Well," she snatches the glass back and tries some with a grin, "I was thinking it might be best to arrange a proper time to meet Timo, unless we want to storm the Silver Flame and create a scene we will need at least a day to arrange for a proper meeting."
She takes a long drink from the glass and places it back on the table. You scoop it up again and top it off, "Would that not give him more time to prepare?"
"Possibly," she takes the glass from you, "But I doubt he is the sort of dwarf we could surprise anyway, from what Albrecht has told us he runs an information network that can almost rival that of the Pathfinders' or our dear friend Mister Mayer."
Mayer grunts from across the room, he has been talking to Skite all morning in preparation for today's interviews but he can not help but eavesdrop on your conversation, he calls over "It is true, Albrecht's second son has one of the best networks in the whole Kingdom but he does not have the best agents," he raises his voice even louder, "And whoever is spying on us right now can tell him I said that!"
The banker is no doubt being a little paranoid, a trait you can sympathize with and admire, hell some small part of you even swears you can hear someone moving through the walls in response to Mayer's declaration. You are not sure if it is merely paranoia on your part or an actual agent from one of the numerous networks that might want to keep tabs on you.
"Alright," you take the glass back and pass her your plate, the trade is conducted without resistance now as the two of you work out a proper system to manage things, "So that leaves... Jan, was it?"
She nods, "Yes, the fellow of the Academy and Albrecht's fourth son."
Well it sounds like a reasonable way to go about things, "Jan first then, and we can use the opportunity to check in with the Academy and see what sort of work they can do for us now. We may want to get them started early."
Following breakfast and the prompt return of Berty Levy, with a blue, twitching sack over his shoulder, you set to work handing out everyone's assignments for the next few days.
You, Thaïs and the girls will spend your days meeting with Albrecht's children, if all goes smoothly then you will see Jan today given he is the most accessible. You will then visit Wenzel and Timo respectively after Albrecht's people can arrange proper meetings for you with them. This does run the risk of giving them time to prepare if they are cultists or traitors but at the same time each is surrounded by layers of security that you would need to bypass just to reach them. It is also unlikely that either dwarf would willingly talk to you if you forced your way into their chambers. You reason that there will be plenty of time for violence if your initial investigations yield results.
Most of the rest of your group will be focused on a different task. The Kingdom is rotten, cultists and spies have infiltrated most branches and the list of people you can trust is quite small all things considered. If you are going to be fighting a war against multiple opponents then you will need an army and you plan to leverage your reputation as genuine 'heroes' to help you build it. To that end Lyssa, Mayer, Berty and Skite will focus on expanding your operations by any means necessary. This will involve meeting with various mercenary leaders to see which is amenable to a buyout while also investigating the feasibility of a proper recruitment drive to bring in unaffiliated sell-swords and fresh recruits. Each member of your four person panel will serve a particular purpose. Berty as you resident tactical expert will evaluate the recruits on their potential as military assets within your organization. Skite as the only one of your mercenary captains on hand will give his impressions on the condition of these assets on an organizational level. Mayer will evaluate their potential to increase the earning of your organization and will also attempt to gauge what if any commercial assets possible recruits can bring to the table. Finally Lyssa is there to help screen the candidates for traitors and infiltrators, though she is not a mentalist like you or your friend and will not be able to determine if the minds of others have been seriously tampered with she will still be able to detect any magic directly at work on them and should at least be able to filter out the most likely spies and liabilities. Hopefully you will have the time to further screen your recruits if need be though time will always remain an issue.
As for you mouse allies, they departed earlier this morning in a third group. Martin, Poppy and Mirra have led most of the mice and rats into the walls to eavesdrop on events within the palace. Hopefully their operation will bear fruit as information must be getting out somehow. Ideally they will be able to pursue leads on this end while your group looks for clues out in the field.
That is the plan at any rate and most of your people think it is a good one.
With your meeting concluded you and your three friends set your feet toward the Royal Academy and Albrecht's fourth son.
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You find the Academy is its usual state of controlled chaos.
"I SAY WE BLOW IT UP!!" shouts a little dwarf that you immediately recall from your previous visit.
"He was the one that wanted to cut our arms off," Thaïs whispers as the four of you slip past him.
"No you fool!" a taller, hunched over dwarf screams as he charges across the room, "If you blow that up it will take months to replace it!"
"And it will kill us," an elderly dwarf reminds them with a relaxed chuckle, "Us and everyone within three blocks of the Academy."
He does not seem terribly concerned about such a fate and to be honest you find him the most unsettling of the three.
You hesitate to bother them, as their work does seem quite important, and dangerous, very dangerous, but you have to find Jan so you begin your attempt, "Excuse me."
You are trying to be polite but they pay you no mind, "AH! WHAT ARE THE ODDS IT WILL ACTUALLY SELF-DESTRUCT? WE CAN JUST USE A LITTLE EXPLOSIVE IF-"
"No, no, no!" the hunched dwarf snatches the cocktail from the tiny dwarf's hands, "No explosives!"
"WHAT ABOUT A REALLY BIG HAMMER!" the little dwarf attempts to strike some sort of compromise.
"That would also likely kill us all," the relaxed dwarf replies, "Perhaps we should attempt something a little less drastic first?"
"Excuse me," Thaïs repeats you plea for attention.
"Oh, don't bother with them," a voice calls from behind you.
You turn to see that dwarf from your first visit, the one that suggested that, ah, proton pack? Was it? Janine was her name and she did strike you as one of the more reasonable individuals in the place. She approaches you and leads you away from the other three, "Something I can help you with? Did you wish to try my more permanent solution to your bracelet problem?"
"No thank you," Thaïs responds, "We managed to deal with that problem satisfactorily."
"Oh, that's a shame," she face clouds over at the realization that she will not get to test out the device on you, "What can I do for you today?"
"Well actually there may be a few thing," you begin, "We have come to pay a visit to Professor Jan if he is in," you reach for the formal letter of introduction provided to you by the King but she waves away your efforts.
"No need to stand on formalities, we don't," Janine smirks, "And yes, he is in, he is always in. I rarely see him leave in fact. Come on then, I will take you to him."
While you weave your way down into the building you take the opportunity to ask a few more question, "We sent over a few samples of a powerful adhesive and prototype explosive this morning."
She nods, "Yes, I think we had something like that delivered by the King's own courier a few hours ago. Some of the boys down in one of the labs are working on it and they sounded confident they could have something worked out in a day or two."
Well, that is good news. Either these people really are as good as you have been led to believe or Astrid already did most of the work for them.
Thaïs chimes in next, with a question you were just about to ask "While we are here, would it be possible to commission more work from the Academy?"
"Certainly," Janine responds enthusiastically, the prospect of more work visibly exciting her, "What did you have in mind?"
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You discuss possibilities with Janine, special fabrics and armour, unique rings and weapons, spell lessons, everything you can think of and she is remarkably honest about what is and is not feasible. The prices she quotes you are often high but as long as the King is covering the costs they should be manageable. The real issue for you is time, how long do you want to spend in the city and what are you willing to leave behind when you do move south? Those are the real questions.
Finally she leads you to a large lead plated door in the third sub-basement. Hanging off its impressive handles is a rather unimpressive bit of wood on a wire string. Painted in rough letters across its surface is 'Magic at work, enter at your own risk!'
Wonderful.
"Well, here we are," he declares cheerfully, "Just go right in."
"What about the sign?" Thaïs notes with a little suspicion.
"Oh that thing," she snatches it off the door, "Jan puts that up to give himself a little quiet. That's all. But ah... keep your weapons close."
With a grin and a wink she is off down the hallway, she spins on her heel before ascending the stairs, "If you want to pursue any of those research subjects we discussed then let me know when you are done talking to Jan."
The dwarf disappears into the stairwell, leaving the four of you alone in the otherwise empty hallway.
You knock.
No response.
You knock again.
Again no response.
With a shrug you shove the door open and are met by blinding light, "Kindly come in or shut the door!" a voice calls out to you from inside the chamber. With not much choice in the matter you enter and your friends follow suit.
The room is white, walls, floor, roof, it is all white. In fact it reminds you very much of Miosguinn's lab under Muirthemne, not a happy association to be sure.
Thankfully there are no tubes with people growing in them or angry cultists waiting to impale you upon their knives.
Instead you are greeted by a slim dwarf in a white tunic and trousers, he is leaning over a large wooden table studying six black eggs. On tables pushed up against the walls of the chamber rest a number of items and artefacts. All of them in an unusual black stone that you instantly recognize as similar to the artefact of the Spider Goddess you encountered under Muirthemne.
Immediately you focus on them, readying your defences, certain you are about to be assaulted by the Goddess herself but you receive no messages, no visions, no threats.
The dwarf looks up at you, his confusion matching your own but quickly recognition lights his face, "Do you, do you actually know what these are?" he grins slightly, "You must, you must, to stare at them like that! The question is who are you?"
It is an interesting change of pace, to have someone in the Kingdom that does not recognize you on sight by now. You can't say that you mind either, "My name is Derryth, this is Thaïs, and that is Biliku and Uttu."
He squints, attempting to pinpoint where he has heard your names. It takes him a moment, but he gets there, "Ah, you are the human mages that have been helping father with his troubles," he rounds the table and approaches you, arm outstretched, "My name is Jan, though if you have come all the way down here you probably know that."
"It is a pleasure," your friend assures him, "We just wanted to ask you a couple questions about events over the last few weeks."
He immediately grasps what you mean, "That business with the Pathfinder prison? Horrible incident and the escape of the necromancer, what a terrible shame."
"So you are well aware of what has been happening in the Kingdom?" you ask as you wander toward his tables and examine the closest egg, you do not touch it, for some reason that feels like a bad idea, but as you examine it, it pulses slightly.
"Yes," he comes up next to you, "Timo visits about once a week and we have lunch upstairs, all he can talk about is politics and he knows I will happily listen to all his complaining."
"He is not happy with the way your father conducts things?" your friend asks innocently.
"Ah, well. He thinks he can do a better job. Maybe he can, maybe he can't, I try not to get involved," Jan shifts uncomfortably, "I have never been much of one for politics really. I can't even play the game between the researchers here, always playing for position, trying to get the most funding from the King. Honestly the only reason why I am given this room all to myself is that many of my colleagues are afraid I could use my connection to my father to take their funding away. They put me down here and let me do what I want, honestly, I am fine with that."
Not a terribly fascinating fellow, this Jan, but you know that outward appearances can be deceiving. For the moment you are at least as interested in the artefacts lining this room as you are the dwarf himself, "You are studying the Spider Goddess?"
He beams, "Yes, it is a subject near and dear to my heart. The Goddess has been outlawed for centuries among my people but there is absolutely no denying that she was one of, if not the most important deity worshiped by the dwarves in the distant past. Some of the temple sites, especially in the south and the northeast are truly impressive in their design and demonstrate a great respect for the Goddess. There is a real treasure-trove of history and culture to be unearthed here alongside a few admittedly undesirable elements."
"Such as?" you give him just the slightest of nudges, it is all it takes.
"Ah well, the cult was prone to live sacrifice. Usually of non-members and preferable of non-dwarves but they made do with what they could find. In exchange for these sacrifices the ancestors of my people seemed to believe they would be gifted political and magical power over others," he shakes his head, "It is all so tragic but very fascinating never-the-less."
"Yes, very fascinating," Thaïs strings him along, "These powers, have you found any evidence that they were real?"
"Well," he hesitates for several moments, trying to decide how much he should tell you, when he does decide to speak it is with excitement and a little fear, "Yes, to put it bluntly. I say this to you because I think you already know, that look on your friend's face, that look of recognition, you must know, right? These artefacts down here, if they were taken from this room, I think, I am certain in fact that they would allow her to directly communicate with us, it is truly fascinating."
"Have you ever tried?" you ask together, your tone flat.
He squints slightly, "Ah, maybe I have said enough..."
If you want more out of him you might have to give him something or you could also try forcing it out of him. That is up to you.
1. Jan and the Goddess: Jan does not seem too interested in the affairs of the Kingdom but he seems to be quite knowledgeable about the Spider Goddess. He could likely tell you more if you wish to convince him somehow.
A) Tell him about your past history with the Goddess as a show of good faith. If he is merely a researcher or maybe a guardian of these artefacts then this might win him over, of course if he is a loyal cultist...
B) Lie to him, play up your connection to the Goddess but frame it as that of a loyal servant. If he is a cultist than Thaïs should hopefully be able to convince him to tell you all he knows. Of course, if he is concerned you are a cultist then...
C) Attack him, if you hit him hard enough with your mental spells you should be able to extract all he knows. It is a bit thuggish but he may know important information.
D)Play up your archaeologist side with Thais's vocal help to create a favorable impression without mentioning your time with the Damned.
E) Share the tale of your 'friend' Miosguinn's fate, the way he was ruined would discourage any contacts attempts and show how dangerous this whole clutist situation is. It would show part of the Goddess' true character as well.
F)Play up your archaeologist side with Thais's vocal help and pose yourself as a fellow researcher on the matters concerning the Spider Goddess. Share your findings and 'progress' with him - Miosguinn's story (with several touchy details omitted), knowledge about the origins of the Goddess and her story (say we've found it in some ancient manuscript or whatever is more plausible), Biliku's and Uttu's proficiency with the language (tell him they are daughters of late professor Casgair in Muirthemne or something) - and get everything he knows about the Goddess (and her potential followers) in return.
G) freeform
2. Research Options: Assuming you successfully meet up with Janine when you are done with Jan there are a number of possible avenues of research you could pursue. (Any option with more than half the votes rounded up will be pursued).
A) Create another spell ring - The spell storage rings that the Brothers Dietfried supplied you with have proven quite useful but they are now out of stock. It would take a month and an entire research team but the fellows are convinced they could create an exact duplicate. Once they have the process down they might even be able to mass produce them though you are not sure how wise that would be. If you want to leave them a ring for a few hours or days they can begin on it at once.
B) Weave steel-cloth cloaks - This would require giving them your spinner and the general dimensions of the cloak you want produced but it should allow them to spin four or five cloaks in a few days giving you a reasonably light weight and fairly protective cloak to wear on your journeys.
C) Weave steel-cloth armour - This would also require giving them your spinner and your measurements but it would allow them to make several suits of armour for you and your people out of finely spun metal over the course of a month or so. It would be lighter and more flexible than plate while also providing you with greater protection than leather. Though it will take them around a month to complete the suits once they have the process down they should be able to mass produce them, assuming they do not somehow break the spinner.
D) Weave a composite armour - This would also require giving them your spinner and your measurements and it would require them to source the proper materials. Janine intends to begin by trying to reproduce the compounds silkworms use to create their cocoons. She believes that lightweight silk armour in combination with the odd protective plate or padding will provide a nice blend of flexibility, strength and low weight needed by the 'modern adventurer'. It will likely take them several months to complete the suits but once they get the process down they should be able to mass produce the suits assuming they do not somehow break the spinner.
E) Enchanting lessons - If you want to spend an afternoon working with the fellows they can likely teach you a spell or two in a tradition you are naturally predisposed to.
F) Flight capable cape - It might be possible with the use of the spinner to construct a cape capable of allowing you to glide on the air like a bird. Even the dwarves think that is a little crazy but they are willing to try if you want.
G) freeform
3. You wonder what would happen if you feed on of the pulsing eggs to the spinner. Do you do it?
A) Yes
B) No
Note: Jan and general questions. While the ladies have managed to get in a few broad questions there are likely a number of things you would like to ask Jan that I have not yet covered. Feel free to ask him anything you want as usual and I will provide his answers. There are some subjects he will not be willing to talk to you about if he does not trust you and if that is the case I will simply tell you to ask again after the vote is closed and you have either won him over or thoroughly alienated or abused him.