70: So some people will be left behind. It's evolution

[Ebiris]

[12:14] <@Ebiris> Suborning the two captives doesn't take much after all the violence displayed so far, although Will does look distastefully at where Bertrand has soiled himself and edges away as much as he can while tied up. Searching throughout the keep doesn't find much of interest unless you're into animal husbandry, with the exception of Will's gear and his logbook which proves quite a detailed source of notes covering his work over the past three years. But that is all the past, the question remains as to where the future will take the Irregulars and their one Jade Raven ally...
[12:15] <@Rudy> Away from the prisoners, Rudy speaks quietly to the others. "There's nothing here about human experimentation," he says, closing the logbook. "Do you think they know?"
[12:16] <@Henrietta> "We should ask," Henrietta responds, somewhat mollified by the logbook in question. "About his assistant, specifically."
[12:16] <@Lucie> "Could be their leader farms the work out to different cells, doesn't tell each of these flunkies everything?" Lucie speculates with a shrug. "Don't really care as far as these two are concerned. Guilt by association."
[12:18] * @Lucie pauses to heal herself and Liamae as the discussion continues.
[12:18] <@Ebiris> "The notes at the lighthouse said Terlonius was ordering things, so he could be the leader, right?" Liamae suggests, "And he swung by here recently and will probably stop by on his way back from that beastman village..."
[12:18] <@Lucie> roll 5d8+5 me
[12:18] * +Hatbot --> "Lucie rolls 5d8+5 me and gets 30." [5d8=5, 8, 3, 1, 8]
[12:18] <@Lucie> roll 5d8+5 Liamae
[12:18] * +Hatbot --> "Lucie rolls 5d8+5 Liamae and gets 35." [5d8=8, 4, 8, 7, 3]
[12:19] <@Rudy> "You're thinking we should ambush them here?"
[12:19] <@Henrietta> "That's what I was thinking as well!" Henrietta instantly agrees. "As long as we have any sort of idea when he would be returning."
[12:19] <@Ebiris> "Oooh, thanks! All better!" Liamae is all smiles after being healed. "Either ambush them or get the hell away, depending on whether we think we can take them," the sorceress explains.
[12:20] <@Lucie> "I don't want to stay here unless we know damn well they're coming back, and soon," Lucie says. "Better to hit another hideout than sit around giving more chance for word about us to get to the rest of the group."
[12:24] * @Henrietta decides to take a more active approach, and heads for the prisoners to fill in the blanks in her knowledge.
[12:24] <@Rudy> Rudy shrugs. "If we can bank on them coming here, I'm prepared," he voices, before turning to head after Henri.
[12:25] <@Ebiris> The two look up expectantly at Henrietta as she comes over after the strategy pow-wow.
[12:26] * @Lucie accompanies them, looming in an appropriately imposing fashion.
[12:27] <@Henrietta> "Do you want to live?" Henrietta asks the prisoners, looking from one to the other. "We just came from Lessmus, where people have been disappearing in terrible amounts." The letter recovered from the lighthouse is procured, and she reads from it, "Theresa requests two able bodied adults from Lessmus for further experimentation." She raises her eyes from the sheet of paper afterwards. "Their
[12:27] <@Henrietta> brand of justice will be more terrible than anything we could do."
[12:31] <@Ebiris> "Yes, we know about that," Will replies stiffly, sitting straight as best he can with his bindings. "It's regrettable of course if any die as a result, but that's why we're doing most of our work on animals here," he insists. "Those that prosper from the fruits of our work will be able to see past the sacrifices needed to get there."
[12:33] <@Lucie> "Big talk," Lucie says, sounding unimpressed. "Easy things to say for someone not making those sacrifices."
[12:33] <@Rudy> "It must be easy to say that when you're not the one making the sacrifices," remarks Rudy.
[12:34] <@Henrietta> "Can you be that high minded yourself?" Henrietta asks him. "You had an assistant, it seems. An Alice? We came across a reanimated skeleton named Alice, along with a similar one going by Beth. She had a sister, this woman? Do you care about what was done to her in the course of this research? Did she get the reward that was promised to her?"
[12:38] <@Ebiris> Shrugging in response to Lucie and Rudy's moralising, Will seems unimpressed, though Henrietta's words seem to strike a chord. "What?" he jerks and turns back towards her. "It was that odious madman at the lighthouse, wasn't it? Blast it, he's just supposed to be security! No, Alice was working for Theresa, now! There must have been an accident, somehow, and that lunatic got his hands on her body for who knows what!" he rationalises it away, shaking his head from side to side. "Our work is about life, not death," he adds, scowling.
[12:40] <@Henrietta> "That might be your work, but what of Theresa Khull's work? Xanius worked for her just like you, did he not?"
[12:40] <@Lucie> "Well, your comrades seem to have some trouble telling one from the other. Whole horde of skeletons and zombies shambling about the lighthouse. If your group's supposed to be all about healing, well, nobody told them."
[12:43] <@Rudy> "Alice and Beth, in particular, were particularly unique creatures in death," remarks Rudy. "Lycnanthropic skeletons, I think they were called? It sounds to me like something went wrong with the mutation process, and they made the best of it."
[12:46] <@Ebiris> "Theresa's work is the next step up from mine, taking the more promising strains and applying them to humans," Will explains. "Alice was excited, she thought it would one day be able to heal her!" he protests. "And I don't even know any Beth, her sister was- is! Is called Sarah." Nonetheless he's battered with words from all sides, falling silent. "Maybe there was an accident and Xanius got his hands on the bodies. But that means we have to work harder to stop such accidents happening in the future!"
[12:47] <@Lucie> "Oh, we're already working at that, trust me," Lucie says ominously.
[12:53] <@Henrietta> Was it? It was! Maybe she would actually remember it better if they had not been introduced while trying to kill them relentlessly each time. "I think you are grasping at straws, as the saying goes," Henrietta tells Will. "You know what is the likeliest outcome, and you are willfully closing your eyes to it to be able to continue with your work. But those people have to be stopped! Do you think
[12:53] <@Henrietta> you will escape from it, however things turn? Or will you have failed them for the last time as well and be handed to the next necromancer in line?"
[12:57] <@Ebiris> "I haven't failed!" he draws himself up, affronted. "Being beaten up by a bunch of hooligans has no bearing on my research nor expertise. Of course I know you'll take me to be hung, and any petty display of crocodile tears on my part isn't going to change that." Bertrand abruptly starts bawling and banging his head on the floor as he loudly insists that he's sorry, prompting a quiver of disgust from Will's mustache as he looks away.
[13:00] <@Henrietta> "A pair of skeletons gave us more trouble than any of your pets," Henrietta points out. "I may not be Miss Khull, but I know success from failure."
[13:03] <@Ebiris> "Simpleton," Will sneers at Henrietta. "You think me nothing more than a pit dog breeder?"
[13:04] <@Henrietta> "I judge you by what I see," she tells him calmly. "If you tell me about your employer, about the others working for her and about other places they might be using, I will do all I can so that you keep your head. And I can do quite a bit, I assure you."
[13:12] <@Ebiris> "A ruffian only sees what things are good for bashing heads, I see," he shakes his head before glancing to the side, "Oh grow up, Bertrand! They don't even care about you!" he tells his assistant who whimpers with his head on the floor. "My employer only goes by the Mistress, and she stands far above the likes of Terlonius and Theresa Khull. She liberated me from incarceration and had me take over the work of my predecessor who burnt himself to death, no doubt expecting a biological approach to bear more fruit than a magical one. I know of the lighthouse, which I am sure you do as well, where all communications are routed through to keep cells ignorant of one another. The master alchemist Paerolan is based in the ruins of Harvendale, from where he provides mutagens to be tested and refined upon various animals under my purview. I send promising strains and samples to Theresa Khull, in the forest behind the next two hills Eastwards, where she works to create a better human. I know there is a so called 'tainted valley' where work is done primarily upon local and imported flora, likely to provide Paerolan with ingredients, though I don't know it's location. There is a buried temple somewhere that Terlonius is greatly interested in, though I don't know or care why." Concluding his long spiel, he looks up at Henrietta, "Does that satisfy your curiousity, madam?"
[13:14] <@Henrietta> "It is a good start," Henrietta responds. "What about this man, Terlonius? Is he expected to stop by any time soon?"
[13:15] <@Ebiris> "Any day now, unless he got my animals killed and doesn't deem it worth his time stopping by to tell me," Will replies. "He's not one for social graces, though I imagine you'd get along smashingly."
[13:16] <@Henrietta> "Rather than talking about me, how about we discuss yourself?" Henrietta asks, just a bit piqued. "You were imprisoned, you say? In the capital, perhaps?"
[13:16] <@Rudy> "Why were you incarcerated?" asks Rudy, leaning against a wall. "
[13:16] <@Lucie> Lucie is, as always, watching people carefully for any sign of deceit throughout this speech!
[13:17] <@Ebiris> OOC: roll sense motive, Lucie
[13:17] <@Lucie> roll 1d20+16
[13:17] * +Hatbot --> "Lucie rolls 1d20+16 and gets 23." [1d20=7]
[13:21] <@Ebiris> "I don't see that it matters, but I was imprisoned in Jherlund. Given their distrust for magic, a physician can do well for himself there. Unfortunately despite my best efforts, my patient died. He was the grandson of a local elder, they saw fit to rough me up and throw me in the dungeon to rot for a while. Whatever they intended, however, I was released within a week after the Mistress drafted me and put whatever pressure she felt necessary upon the superstitious ingrates."
[13:21] -> *Lucie* He doesn't seem like he's lying. Everything's just coming out naturally.
[13:23] <@Henrietta> "It seems like quite a way to go, from saving lives to making beasts that are only good for taking them," Henrietta notes.
[13:23] <@Rudy> "Ah, but it's all part of the grand scheme, isn't it?" remarks Rudy. "So, what are the traits of the so-called better human that make it such a worthy cause?"
[13:27] <@Ebiris> "Stronger, faster of body and wit, healthy enough to shrug off all but the most virulent poison or supernatural disease, hardy enough to resist all but the most ferocious physical assault," Will lists off. "It would be a revolution. With such improvements, living as long as a dwarf or an elf wouldn't be out of the question."
[13:29] <@Ebiris> "And everyone would get the benefits, huh?" Liamae asks dubiously, "Or just a select few who fall on your Mistress's good side?"
[13:29] <@Henrietta> "I doubt that the people deemed expendable would be considered for such benefits," Henrietta agrees.
[13:30] <@Rudy> "Probably, it would be used by one group to gain an advantage over others. Maybe a country, or maybe just some small organization?"
[13:31] <@Ebiris> "Maybe at first," Will admits, "But no matter how much she tries to retain the secret, once the knowledge is out there, how many groups do you think would spare no effort or expense to steal it? You're spellcasters, think! What happens when one wizard develops a better spell than anything currently being used? Everyone else copies it!"
[13:33] <@Henrietta> "Unless his Mistress kills the wizard after he develops the spell for her and keeps it to herself, of course," Henrietta responds. "And speaking of your employer, do you know more about her than what you told us? Did you meet her in person, perchance, or was it down through intermediaries?"
[13:34] <@Rudy> "If they can't steal it, they might just repeat the experiments themselves. And, of course, there will always be the improvement process. The flow of blood would never stop."
[13:39] <@Ebiris> He just shakes his head in disgust. "If people like you had their way we'd all be living in caves, still. Would that be better? No one would have to die to fire or blade or magic, would they? Pfah, they'd all be dying from disease and dragons instead." Looking mutinous, he nonetheless answers Henrietta's question, "She's like no other woman I've ever seen. Young but ageless, or old but full of life... she has a touch of the wild about her, but can talk like the most cultured Duchess. More than anything else, though, she feels like power. It just radiates off of her..."
[13:40] <@Lucie> "Sound pretty smitten," Lucie observes. "What's she look like?"
[13:44] <@Ebiris> "Hah, she'd break me in half, I don't doubt," he snorts. "I hardly need to describe, you couldn't ever mistake her if you did see her. She's tall, taller than any of you, and she's thin but what she does have is all muscle. Hair like iron, wild and unkempt. Her face is younger than her hair would make you think, though. Except in the eyes."
[13:47] <@Lucie> "Huh," Lucie says, not sounding terribly impressed.
[13:48] <@Rudy> "Someone who cultivates strength, huh. Survival of the fittest as a mantra, I'll bet?"
[13:49] <@Henrietta> "I think we know enough about that, for now," Henrietta muses. "Now, for Terlonius's return, in the event that he does stop by. Would he be expecting anything from you upon approaching? Who is he traveling with?"
[13:51] <@Ebiris> "I haven't heard her say that in so many words, but it sounds apt nonetheless," Will agrees. "If Terlonius does stop here he'll probably just expect some food and an update on my work. He'll be with Stanford, Kezwick, and Hortia. As well as two of my animals if they still live, and any beastmen he's taken hostage for their good behaviour."
[13:53] <@Rudy> "What sort of abilities do they have? They lean towards magic or arms?" asks Rudy, flexing his fingers.
[13:53] * @Lucie glances at the others. "So we might have some unlikely allies there, sounds like?" she speculates. "Figure we set up watch her, get what rest we can, make the place look like normal so no one suspects anything's up when they get back."
[13:53] <@Henrietta> "Why is your group attacking these beastmen?" Henrietta wonders. "And come to think of it, were you people involved in any way in establishing that swamp that conveniently cut this town off from the rest of the country?"
[13:53] <@Lucie> *her = here
[13:58] <@Ebiris> "Same reason I'm here controlling the only road North," Will tells Henrietta, "The area's been cut off to keep interference to a minimum, the road West was flooded to make it into an impassable swamp by damming the river, and the beastmen are convinced to attack anyone approaching through the Northwest wilderness," Will explains, "Keeps everything contained. You want to know about Terlonius and his flunkies, though? Well I know Stanford's an illusionist, but haven't seen much out of Kezwick. Hortia's a nature witch, it was her job to keep the beastmen on side but she must have offended them to force this action against them."
[14:04] <@Rudy> "How long has all this been going on? It's no small operation," wonders Rudy. "Under a decade?"
[14:06] <@Ebiris> "I don't think it really became anything big until a few years ago when everything started getting isolated," Will shrugs as much as he can in his bindings. "But who knows how long it's been in the making?"
[14:07] <@Lucie> "Doesn't much matter," Lucie says with a shrug. "We're shutting it down. We're shutting it all down."
[14:19] <@Rudy> Rudy pats Myra on the shoulder. "So we're gonna be sticking around for bit. Wonderful news! We'll be locking you up until your friends get here," replies Rudy, cheerily.  "Hey, kid, what're you doing here, anyway? You his apprentice or something?"
[14:20] <@Ebiris> "I help with feeding and organising supplies and running messages and anything else I'm told to?" Bertrand offers lamely, looking up.
[14:21] <@Henrietta> "Were you recruited out of prison as well?"
[14:22] <@Ebiris> "No," he replies eloquently.
[14:23] <@Henrietta> "So how did you end up working for these people?"
[14:23] <@Rudy> "Yeah, I'm really asking how you got here," replies Rudy.
[14:27] <@Ebiris> "I walked. Or ran. Away from home, that is," the boy responds haltingly, "I'd been in the hills for days when I fell into this big flower that tried to eat me. Miss Freyja let me out and looked after me, though. I helped her until I was told to help Mr William."
[14:28] <@Lucie> "A...flower tried to eat you?" On consideration: "Well, I guess that's not so surprising. We've had enough trouble with hungry plants ourselves, after all."
[14:29] * @Henrietta shudders at the thought of flora used for evil.
[14:29] <@Rudy> "Hey, do you know how to grow plants like that?" asks Rudy, turning to Henri.
[14:29] <@Ebiris> "I would've taken days to die. But I couldn't get out on my own," Bertrand nods his tear-streaked face.
[14:31] <@Henrietta> "Do I look like the type of person who would make these sort of plants?" Henrietta asks Rudy back, sounding offended.
[14:32] <@Rudy> "Well, you could put them in m'lady's garden, and catch intruders!"
[14:32] <@Henrietta> "I think not!"