[Leela] Chapter 7: Cardinals of Xalaster

[Ella]

Leela Steading

Although she got the feeling that Bishop Mateo was a huge fanboy of the heroes, she could not help but to smile to herself at the words he spoke. She assumed he was reciting them from something, perhaps their holy book, from the way he said it. Depending on how things went during her audience with the cardinals, perhaps she would make it known that she was a hero. She had a few hours to decide on how to best go about it. "I see."

INT Check

Rolled 1d20+2 : 1 + 2, total 3

[close]

~~~~~~~~~~

So... it seemed they were keeping their prisoner in the Grand Cathedral where Leela's meeting with the cardinals was to take place. She had expected them to keep such a prisoner in a well-guarded place, though she wondered why they would choose to house something that was supposedly extremely dangerous in a place where their leaders did business and possibly lived.

The princess stared at the nights as the blocked their entry. They seemed confused that Bishop Mateo was trying to show her the demon. She waited a moment to see what would happen before stepping forward to address the knights.

"I, Princess Leela Steading of the great country of America, have come to see for myself if the demon you hold prisoner is the one I am here to speak with your Cardinals about. If it is not, I do no wish to waste my or the Cardinal's time on the matter when I meet with them later today." She said this with confidence, but kept her voice low, having taken the hint that Mateo did not want others to know about it.

[Throndir]

Even though you spoke in a hushed voice, the knight placed a finger up to his lips. "Shh! Not too loud!" He said whispering back fiercely.

Roll a diplomacy check for Make Request. State whether you are the primary roller, or using Aid Another on Mateo's attempt at diplomacy.

[Ella]

Aiding Mateo in Diplomacy

Rolled 1d20+7 : 19 + 7, total 26

[close]

[Throndir]

"Sir knight, we will be meeting with the cardinals later today, and this is a matter of importance between our nation and the princess of America." Mateo responded. "I can indeed get one of the cardinals, though that would delay with our proceedings..."

The guard looked worriedly for a second, but he eventually sighed as he moved aside and opened the lock on the door. "Very well. By the goddesses' light!" He said saluting.

"May she be with us all." Mateo responded as he walked in beckoning you and your two retainers with you.

The passage was surprisingly dark and it was a tunnel that headed underground. Deeper and lower in elevation as a few torches lit the way every now and then. It didn't really light up the passage brightly, but it was enough to walk through it. It contrasted sharply with the city above, where everything was kept clean and in order, where most of the buildings were white with silver or gold trimmings on them. In here, they used simple stone and cobblestone, without much flare or decoration.

Eventually the tunnel opened up and revealed a larger room, with prison cells on either side. There was a knight sitting on one of the chairs on a table in the room, and the moment he noticed the both of you, he stood up, then saluted. "Bishop! I wasn't informed of your visit. Anything I can help with?"

Mateo waved his hand as he continued walking. "We're off to see one of the prisoners." He explained, to which the knight nodded and sat back down.

Eyes stared back at you from the prison cells, and it was then that you realized that most, if not all of them, were demihumans. They each had animal ears of some sort, and they were all dressed in tattered and torn clothing. Their eyes were sunken, and their visage was saturated with a somber and depressing tone.

[Ella]

Leela Steading

Leela stared at the knight, her face unreadable as he shushed her. She chose not to speak more, figuring Mateo would be more likely to persuade the knights than she could if they knew who he was. Besides, he must be a diplomatic enough fellow to be positioned in a station where he would be the first to greet important people coming in through the East gate. It was clear to the princess by this point that she was not as charming and diplomatic as she had been back in her own world, considering the fact that "wishes" being granted had most likely been the only reason she had gotten as far as she had since arriving in the Orthodoxy.

Luckily, putting her faith in Mateo's diplomatic skills turned out to have been a good decision. She gave a smile of appreciation to the saluting knights as she followed the bishop inside. She was surprised at the sudden change in lighting. It was definitely not what she had expected upon entering a part of the Grand Cathedral. When they came across the knight seated at the table inside, she gave him a nod of acknowledgement as she continued to follow Mateo past him.

Feeling eyes watching her, Leela could not help but to look around at the occupants of the prison cells as the passed. She could feel the unpleasant sensation of her heart sinking as she saw the conditions of them. But surely, there was a good enough reason that they were in prison and being treated like this... She moved closer to Mateo so that she could speak to him quietly, hoping the demihumans ears would not pick it up, but doubting their footsteps and the sounds the prisoner's made were loud enough to cover it up.

"I cannot help but notice the amount of demihuman prisoners there are." She muttered to the bishop. "Are they really such a dangerous race that there are this many of them in prison?"

[Throndir]

The bishop nodded. "Unfortunately, it is true. You see, Princess of America, the demihumans have claws, or fangs, akin to animals, but it's not just that, they too have more animalistic urges that consume them. When this happens we take them here, so they can be kept safe from themselves and others." Mateo explained. "They don't need clothing up to par as it's just them down here, but they are fed. When they repent of their sins and we feel they have really committed themselves to the goddess, we free them for work outside the city. In this way they can still be productive citizens. Did you know their country actually enslaved humans? It's quite preposterous."

[Ella]

Leela Steading

Leela wondered exactly what these animalistic urges were and if they involved horrible crimes such as murder and rape or if the issues were more of... them just doing or saying things that the Orthodoxy just did not like. Such as them simply not believing in the same deity. Or saying certain things to a foreign ambassador. She chose not to inquire farther on that.

"Slavery is a terrible thing. Although it was abolished in my country hundreds of years ago, we still see the unfortunate side effects of it in the form of racism today." She sighed sadly, hating that such a thing still existed. She also could not remember exactly when slavery had been abolished, but she knew it was at least a hundred years and that was good enough for her.

As she continued to follow Mateo, Leela considered the possibility of offering to take some of the demihumans off their hands. Her dilemma was that if any of them were actually murderers or whatever, she did not actually want to take them. Perhaps she would bring up the idea to Efrit later... Although it would be better to discuss it with Zavan, considering Efrit's amount of advice on most things she asked him about had been minimal, if not disappointing.

[Throndir]

Mateo nodded. "That is true... it's sad, but even those demihumans look towards human with hate in their eyes, not letting the compassion of the goddess enter their lives..."



The group went down a flight of stairs, and though there were other doors that lead off to other levels, you continued your descent at least 5 floors downwards. There were guards at various points as well, who simply nodded at the bishop and gave you a questioning glance, but did not say anything.

There were a couple of gates that you went through, the security on the entire place was tight. Eventually Mateo lead you to a room with a single individual with her hands shackled and chained to the wall. She looked pretty battered. There were two robed men in the room as well, and when your group entered, they nodded. The girl shackled to the wall looked just like the busts of Ashaki that were plastered all over the place back at the Roshandan castle. Efrit's eyes widened as well, but instead of going forward, he simply stood further behind. Abi's eyes widened too.

[Ella]

Leela Steading

Leela kept mental note of how far the traveled, hoping that if she needed to, it would fit within the range of her ability to teleport. She had not tested out how far she could teleport, but remembered Zavan telling her that they could teleport roughly a hundred feet at a time. If she could not teleport all the way from the surface to where they were keeping Ashaki, then she would also need to remember areas that could be stopping points. With the amount of security they seemed to have the farther they went down, she did not think they would be able to just storm the place to free the demon.

As they entered the room in which Ashaki was being kept, Leela glanced back at Efrit, giving him a warning look to remind him not to do or say anything. She also moved her hand to Abi's head, hoping the imp would remember not to say anything, either. She then turned her attention to look over the battered creature shackled to the far wall. The girl certainly did look like what Leela had seen back in that room. She was certainly a lot younger looking than Leela had expected a hundred year old demon to look, but that was the least of the princess's concerns at that moment. What concerned her most were the facts that Ashaki wore practically nothing and there were two robed figured inside the room with her. She eyed the robed men, trying to determine why they were there.

[Throndir]

Note, when you teleport, roll Autohypnosis (or straight INT) if you remember exactly where you plan to teleport, not usually an issue for open areas, or areas you can see, or are familiar with, but these are tight corridors, and is unfamiliar to you.

Also, you have an implicit Perception made, feel free to roll that when you can.

"Well... Princess of America? Is she the one you are looking for that would help forge alliances better?"

[Ella]

Spoiler

Reg Perception:

Rolled 1d20+5 : 1 + 5, total 6

Spellcraft Perception:

Rolled 1d20+21 : 6 + 21, total 27

[close]

[Throndir]

Perception: 6, Perception: 27
It was too dark for your normal eyes to see much of any details of the two men. However, you did get a sense of the mana in the room. You could tell that the demon girl, Ashaki, had a lot of mana in her. Mateo too had a surprising amount, more so than the regular knight or guard, even though the man did indeed looked like he sat around all day. The two men's amount of mana though, that was something else, from them you could feel a large amount, more than yours, but not as much as Ashaki's. You also noted that a couple of their clothing articles and gear they wore exuded mana.

[Ella]

Leela Steading

"There is no doubt, she is." Leela stated, turning her gaze back to stare expressionlessly at the demon girl when Mateo prompted her for an answer. The demon hero wanted to talk to Ashaki, to find out her side of the story, but not with so many others around. Besides, she had told Mateo that she only wanted to look at the captured demon.

"I strongly recommend you have your people cloth her properly and discontinue any foul treatment until further notice." She looked around the room once more as she said this, her eyes landing on Mateo as she finished speaking. There was a hint of a cold, threatening undertone in her voice as she spoke, strongly implying that she would not accept no as an answer. The longer they had walked in this dungeon, the fouler her mood had seemed to become. She did not know exactly what all those demi-humans she had passed by had done, but if she had not already been clued into it before, there was no way she could miss the obvious racism portrayed in the dungeon. Between that and her desire to get what she wanted without relying on some god-like being granting her wish to be diplomatic about things, she decided she was done being nice for the moment. Intimidating them into doing what she wanted sounded much more agreeable to her in her current state of mind.

That done, Leela reached down to grab Abi's hand and forced herself to turn around walk away, back the way they came from. She spoke softly to Efrit as she stepped closer to him. "Come, Erik. We must finish preparing for our meeting with the Cardinals."

Spoiler

Intimidation:

Rolled 1d20+14 : 15 + 14, total 29

Also, good to move on to when they exit the dungeon unless Mateo has things to say as they go back up. Leela will keep a closer watch for parts of the dungeon that she could use as points to teleport to if needed.

[close]

[Throndir]

The clothed men shifted under your intimidating gaze. It may have been a trick of the light, but they looked as if the color drained from their faces. Once you started to head out, Mateo quickly nodded his head in greeting or perhaps farewell to the other priests, then ran up to catch towards you. Heading back out of the complex would be simple enough, though Mateo took to leading the group again.

State any other plans before the meeting

[Ella]

Leela Steading

"Thank you for allowing me to confirm that she was the one, Bishop Mateo." Leela said once the group exited the final door of the dungeon into the outdoors. "We shall see you at the meeting?"

Leela intends to spend the hour+ they have before the meeting having a last minute meeting with her companions about their plans and options for if things do not run smoothly.