The Red Prison

[bigstipidfighte]

In a quiet corner of the living areas, Mixtivtics pours over a scroll in the company of a half dragon. The drows sits at ease leaning on one arm. The dragon squats next to her, conferring in hushed tones. Cantora can make out some draconic letters, but cannot read them, aside from a proper name, “Io”, which seems to crop up frequently in the text. A few moments after Cantora approaches, the half dragon bows its head to Mixtivtics and rolls up the scroll. It pushes a small urn towards the drow before exiting.

“Cantora, how long has it been now since you last sought my counsel? I was beginning to think you were avoiding me, dear.” A thin smile etches its way across her features. “Please, do tell me what has troubled you deeply enough to seek me out. I’ve no doubt you can afford my expertise, considering your recent good fortune.” She removes the lid from the urn and drinks deeply. The contents fill the room with a sour smell, and an equally sour expression briefly crosses her face. Cantora can make out two Infernal runes carved on the side- “Fire” and “Water”.

-

Camoran is lying down as Hyloe and Ch’tiryeh approach, but he stands up stiffly as he notices them. He is forced to stoop slightly, as both this room and the chamber leading to it are barely large enough for a creature of Hyloe’s considereable height. Camoran’s broad ape shoulders and eight legs leave him looking even more oversized for the tiny hovel.

“I know you.” He intones sternly. “You’ll find nothing worth killing for here.” That seems true enough, even by the low standards of the Warrens. In one corner, gourds are stacked into two piles- one uneaten, the second stripped to the husk.

“Let me alone to rest, would you?” He flexes and curls his fingers, looking ready to defend himself with his bare hands if necessary. It seems the creature hasn’t even a spear or club to call his own. Old injuries cover his flesh. On closer inspection, it’s clear that some of these are still affecting his ability to move, even beyond what the cramped quarters would limit him to otherwise.

[Feathersnow]

Excuse us, good sir. My friends and we mean no harm, nor intrusion. As a gesture of good faith, may I bestow on you the healing grace of my Divine Patron, Apollo the Sun Shepherd?

The poor man. Apollo was a God of healing and, whatever this strange being did to end up here, it would be wrong to let him suffer. Regardless of his moral character, they were reasonably sure he was born, not spawned from the aether, so he had free will, at least to a point. Thus, he was entitled to the benefit of the doubt, if he offered nor threat to innocents. And few were innocent in Carceri.

[bigstipidfighte]

Camoran peers past Hyloe and Ch'tiryeh, trying to get a better look at the person following behind. For a moment he considers.

"Doubt you could." He sounds tired, his reservations perhaps linked more to despair than the paranoia so common in the Warrens. "There's no sun in this accursed world. Come in if you want to try."

-

Two Large size creatures will have difficulty passing one another in the cramped quarters(Escape Artist DC25). If you want to get close to Camoran, you'll probably have to back off, and come back in at the head of the party.

[Feathersnow]

Ch’tiryeh, would you step out of the way so Adora can minister to Camoran? Adora says. After Ch’tiryeh backs away, Adora scuttles forward and attempts to use the power of the twins' healing devotion on Camoran.

Spoiler

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This causes fast healing 1 for 1 minute. The fast healing is increased by one for every 5 HD the user possesses, which is currently 4. The twins should normally be as cute and radiant as giant creepy centipedes girls can be, but the effects of being good clerics in Carceri makes them seem warped and otherworldly in a hard to describe way. They are reasonably sure their God is still with them, but anyone else would have reason to doubt.

[Morcleon]

"Hello Mixy dear~" Cantora coils herself up beside Mixtivtics and smiles cheerily, chuckling softly. "What, can't a girl just wanna chat?"

"But yeah, good fortune does mean I have to be warier of some of the other prisoners and that takes up a lot of time. I mean, just a few days ago, I had to beat up Duon for trying to sneak away with my sword." She rests her chin on her hand, winking at the drow. "Not you though. I do enjoy your company."

[bigstipidfighte]

Camoran's unease is evident as as Adora advances on him. He tenses, but doesn't shrink away from her touch. "Hmm," he he hmms softly. Yhen once more, with feeling. "Hmm!" He presses on one of his partly healed wounds, testing the still tender flesh. "Not bad. Still going to be more where that came from. Fights always find me here."

-

"Duon remembers it differently. But rumors are my stock and trade, so I can't be giving his story away for free, even to me good, dear friend." She takes another from the urn, and goes quiet for a moment, staring past Cantora. When her focus returns, she still sounds a little distant. "There was a time, I thought you might fall into place here, Cantora. You were always, considered odd, but enough people, found you charming, in your own way." Mixtivtics frowns slightly, replacing the lid on her strange drink and setting it aside. "Against my better judgement, I'm going to, tell you something, for free, Cantora. Since you started working, with that centaur, you've been losing your place here. She's a menace, not like the others. I could always tell, if one of them was to fight, and why. Not her."

She goes quiet again for a moment. When she speaks again, she seems back to her usual self. "Was there something else on your mind?"

[Feathersnow]

Adora mutters praise to Apollo then bows lower than any of the assembled had ever seen, requiring her to slither backwards into the hall.
Hyloe, you have a better idea of what to ask... Acreda trails off.

[Morcleon]

Cantora tilts her head to the side curiously. "Oh? Losing my place here? What do you mean?"

"As for the other reason..." She chuckles sheepishly, then smiles at the drow, leaning in with a wink. "Honestly, I'm just feeling a bit tired and need a break. With the increased theft attempts and the standard work I still have to do, it might be a bit much. Any way you can set my group up with a bit of an easier to manipulate guard or something?"

[bigstipidfighte]

"You know very well, that digging crew of yours, doesn't share your... relative popularity. They've been very insular. Don't get sucked into their little clique of obscurity."

Mixtivics gives Cantora an appraising look. "A guard you could trick into giving you a break? Not easy, but I could point you in the right direction. Might even be able to help a bit more directly, for the right price." She lets the silence drag out for a moment, tracing the patterns of her rug pensively. "Those twins," She finally announces, bringing her gaze back up to meet the lillend's. "They can communicate with each other over distances, correct? Lend me one of them, for the duration, of this... break. For that, I'll do what I can to set you up with your best chance at a vacation."

[Gideon Falcon]

Seeing that the others weren't sure what to say, Ch'tiryeh shrugged. "I know feeling. Hardly day goes by somevon doesn't try to pick fight. Can't alvays get out of it. Vorse now, everybody vant my nice tings. Zis vhy ve can't have nice tings in prison." He hopped up onto a stalagmite, perching like a vulture as he spoke. "Zat is alzo vhy ve don't vant be here any more. Do not sink you vant be here, eizer."

[Feathersnow]

We don't wish to go too deeply into our personal life, but, yes, if you need a communication relay, there is no where you could take either of us that the other could not repeat what the other heard, if that is what you want. That said, it would be... undesirable.. to rely on us for much else while the other is out of easy reach. the twins were visible shaken at this, uncertain. Their skin faded from porcelain to

eek. Her bodies, she suspected from stories of true Dvati and experiments as girls, could not cleaved into two minds by any means less than divine intervention. But... they rarely left each other's side's in the Temple. Here, in this place, who knew what could happen. Adora and Acreda needed to be there to keep each other safe. But... they would die here even more surely. It had to be this way.

[bigstipidfighte]

"You think there's anywhere else to go? It's a wasteland out there." Camoran lowers his thorax down to the sandy floor with a sigh. "I know you guys are supposed to be tough. Maybe you get past the guards, then what? I saw some few souls out in the wastes. Each group was about as mean as the last. Except when they were lying like it wasn't so. Probly couldn't find even those sods now, though. Land is always changing. Wind shifts the sands."

He reaches for one of the uneaten fruits, taking a bite right though the leathery skin. "No point running. No point maybe dying. Not for that. Not without a place to go."

[Gideon Falcon]

Ch'tiryeh let out a hearty laugh that belied his frame. "Perhaps is nothing up zere. Is still better zan down here." He tapped his chest, proudly. "You should know, a Thri-Kreen never gets lost. Besides, as is said, vere zere is vill, zere is vay. Am knowing I have ze vill. Ze question is, do you?"

[bigstipidfighte]

"I have the will to live," Camoran snorts grumpily. "Died once, not ready to try it again yet."

He tosses an empty melon husk aside. "Listen, you want to go, all the best to you. I could help you maybe, if you're looking to hire someone for distraction or something. But I got no wish to leave without a place to be leaving to. Be nice to see the open sky, but not so nice to see the sandstorms again."

[Gideon Falcon]

Ch'tiryeh put a claw to what closely approximated a chin, and looked back to Hyloe and the twins for any ideas.

[Morcleon]

"You know very well, that digging crew of yours, doesn't share your... relative popularity. They've been very insular. Don't get sucked into their little clique of obscurity."

Mixtivics gives Cantora an appraising look. "A guard you could trick into giving you a break? Not easy, but I could point you in the right direction. Might even be able to help a bit more directly, for the right price." She lets the silence drag out for a moment, tracing the patterns of her rug pensively. "Those twins," She finally announces, bringing her gaze back up to meet the lillend's. "They can communicate with each other over distances, correct? Lend me one of them, for the duration, of this... break. For that, I'll do what I can to set you up with your best chance at a vacation."

"Yeah, don't worry about me. I'll be as me as always." Cantora winks and grins at Mixtivics.

"Hm? They can indeed. Some sort of innate telepathic connection or something." She hums softly and tilts her head to the side, nodding slowly. "Well, I can probably convince them to split up temporarily and have one of them be with you temporarily. I can't guarantee it, but I'll do my best."

[Feathersnow]

All we know is that we were sent here. Presumably, that means something could send us somewhere else. Who, or how we could get them to agree to such a thing, is beyond us. Even being trusted with work more critical than digging redundant tunnels to nowhere is a good step in the right direction, but that seems to require getting to at least higher levels of tunnels, for some reason.

We've been here three months and missed orientation. They shrug in unison and do a synchronous "palms up" gesture, indicating a total loss of what to do next.

[bigstipidfighte]

"I have, every confidence, in your powers of persuasion. You'll hold up your end. Now, this... break, you're wanting. Any, particular requirements? Time? Destination?" She raises her eyebrows slightly. "I could certainly set you up, with something, of my own choosing, if you prefer. I promise it, would be informative."

-

"Don't know about being sent out. As best I can reckon, I showed up here when I died. Not sure if I could leave. Some of the others say they popped up in different sorts of places. Barren mountains, poison jungles." He frowns. "Never anything pleasant. All I ever saw was desert like what's outside, though."

[Gideon Falcon]

Viktor nodded, helf to himself. "Vell zen, if you cannot leave, and do no vant to, then maybe the doing of the distracting vould be more to your taste? Vat vould ve need to do for your help?"