Brightest before the duskfall

[Ebiris]

"Parts of his brain were cut out?" Alicia asks, revolted.

I only saw briefly before I had to intervene, but he was being subtle. Careful, like someone who understood the importance of his actions and the necessity to not be seen. Not the actions of an automaton.

[Anastasia]

Strange and stranger. Thank you, I fear I may have made a mistake otherwise.

In a moment Syala is there as well, kneeling with Antenora. "This won't be pleasant," she warns. "Imagine a brain sliced up and incomplete, like a half eaten wheel of cheese. If either of you wish to look away, now is the time."

[Ebiris]

Alicia has seen worse.

She's even had to slice up a few giant sized ambulatory brains in her time.

[Anastasia]

A tap on the forehead and a spell. The mercane's head opens up like a series of blocks, moving aside of their own will. His skull does the same, revealing his brain within. Indeed, chunks throughout are gone. Rather like someone scooped out helpings of gray matter, leaving it like holey cheese. Despite this the mercane does not show any signs of harm or discomfort.

You can see it. Strange, swirl-like symbols of tiny size are carved into the brain that remains, often within the recesses where gray matter has been removed. In other places tiny filaments of glass and steel have been installed, often with a tiny, near invisible metal thread that connects to another such. Often visible lightning runs along these threads.

"What manner...?" Antenora murmurs.

> roll 1d20+73 Syala (+15 divine inspiration) HEal check
<Rei-chan> Kotono rolled : 1d20+73 Syala (+15 divine inspiration) HEal check --> [ 1d20=11 ]{84}

"Have you ever wondered why lightning can momentarily paralyze or cause your body not to respond properly?" Syala mentions as she examines it. "It's a little known fact that some of the brain's biology involves a tiny fraction of electricity. In those cases the electricity going through you overwhelms what's already there to cause it. This is a gross perversion of the concept. Whomever did this is sublimely talented. It's almost a shame they'll have to face judgment for their sins, the work is exceptional."

"That narrows down our pool of possibilities," Antenora states as Syala continues to examine the mercane's brain. "And if I take your meaning, you mean that these wires and lightning overwrote normal behavior?"

"I believe so." A slow click of her tongue, "I believe Ebony once mentioned that Canderella has a passing familiarity with these arts, but to more...enjoyable ends." Clearing her throat, Syala continues. "I'd want to consult with perhaps her and Jetina. I believe Jetina has the sort of background knowledge in this that may be well suited to this. I don't think Latha does, she's always been focused on magical healing, but her senses may well be useful as well."

"How did he even survive the surgery and modification?" Antenora asks curiously, "Brain injuries are so often debilitating or lethal. A wise torturer knows well to be careful of such things."

With a slow look over, "Talent and perhaps magical support." A comment at that, "Sometimes I forget your previous affiliation and the unique insights it lends us."

"Be grateful this knowledge can be put to productive ends," Antenora says with no embarrassment, "...are you going to..." she gestures at the head and skull blocks.

[Ebiris]

"Brain or bone, a regenerate spell doesn't care," Alicia says, as ever full of confidence in the boundless potential of magic.

"But still, where is the electricity coming from?"

No magic on the brain that I can see? This doesn't count as a magic item? I can do spellcraft things with?

[Anastasia]

None.

"I'm not sure," Syala says, "Between that and needing to study the work, I'm going to do this slowly and carefully. I suspect the metal itself is some sort of rare material, or it's somehow using the brain's energy to generate it." With a grimace, "I don't trust that there's no traps."

Syala pauses a moment, blows out a breath. "Give me an hour or two and we should have more answers. Whomever did this is distinctive, I doubt there's many who can do this in Creation. It may well be a clue to the culprit, this manner of work is rare and speaks of surpassing skill."

"It would stand to reason there may be a stealthy trap if this work is a telltale sign," Antenora concedes, "Will you need help?"

"No," Syala declares, "Just time."

[Ebiris]

"We'll let you work on it for now, but regardless there are spells to probe the memory that we can try whatever the outcome," Alicia says as she peers at the curious fusion of biology and mechanics. "Whatever's done to the flesh, the soul still remembers."

Honestly, after Violet she's getting remarkably sick of people producing these mind-wiped disposable trouble-makers to throw at her. If she wanted someone to detonate a bomb on Avernus she could manipulate them to do it a lot more simply without leaving any trace back to herself, it's like people are addicted to complexity.

[Anastasia]

"Yes," Syala agrees, then stops. "Also, it wasn't just us. I asked Jetina a question and she said Hope's Landing had someone like this, with the same mental alterations. They stopped him too, if just."

Antenora's quiet a few moments to mull that before, "A coordinated attack? Unless it's a misdirection, what enemies do we share?"

[Ebiris]

"Someone with a lot of time and expertise to do this kind of work on multiple occasions," Alicia says. "We already have our obvious candidates, but lets not lose ourselves in baseless speculation. Once we've recovered this person's mind then we can work on some actual facts."

[Anastasia]

> roll 1d20+73 Syala (+15 divine inspiration) Heal check
<Rei-chan> Kotono rolled : 1d20+73 Syala (+15 divine inspiration) Heal check --> [ 1d20=9 ]{82}

An hour passes before Syala emerges. In a wooden container sits a pile of those threads as she comes out, carried by Syala. "He's restored," she announces, "Go on, you can stir and talk to him whenever you're ready. I took the liberty of applying a spell to soothe his mind in case he has trauma. He probably does. We can skip the break down in tears or screams part of this interrogation."

[Ebiris]

"For the best," Alicia agrees, going in with Antenora to see what they can learn from their unfortunate mercane.

[Anastasia]

He lies on a bed that's new to the room. His eyes are open and watch you as you enter.

"Thank you," The first words out of his mouth are filled with gratitude. "It's over. The nightmare's over."

"There are no nightmares here," Antenora agrees, going to his bedside. A chair appears from nowhere as she rests. "I am Antenora and that's Alicia. What happened?"

A slow gulp, "Honored patrons of Sylica. Thank you." A beat before he continues. "We traveled back from a trading venture in Air," The mercane begins, "We had taken a portal to the Astral to visit either gith traders or the Cauldron, or maybe both. We hadn't decided yet. As we took a rest to decide, we were beset by a sudden attack. Yugoloths." A soft shudder goes through him. "Mercenary yugoloths."

"Redundancy," Antenora notes wryly.

"Yes," Almost a smile, almost a moment of rest before he goes on. "In short we lost the battle and I was beaten into unconsciousness. The cell I awoke in was cold. It was so cold there. The air was thin. Dark stone, dirty dark stone. No manacles or shackles. The door were layers of dagger like rib bones that only opened to the ones there. Each to a last clad in full body coverings. Robes mostly, but some wore layers or armor. No faces, only masks. Masks of the dead, of rotting faces, of fiends. They didn't speak much, but I did catch them using Abyssal once or twice when they thought I couldn't hear. I have good ears."

Antenora smiles at that observation, "That's helpful. Go on."

[Ebiris]

As he seems to be a victim in all of this, Alicia has her 'comforting face' on rather than her 'threatening face'. Trusting Antenora to see through any lies in the tale she listens to what he says, nodding along at Antenora's prompt for him to go on.

[Anastasia]

"Eventually they took me elsewhere. I can't tell you of the trip, they blindfolded me and the sounds were those of.." a pause. "I remember the smell.  Rotted meat. Have you ever battled zombies in a cold climate? I had the displeasure and the smell was similar. There weren't many sounds. The occasional moan. A snap of what may have been bone once."

A pause. Distant pain. An echo of it on his face as Antenora rests her hand over his. "Courage."

That hand is taken. "It was a chamber. Not too large but I got glimpses of the walls. They were engraved stone. A skeletal face with horns was common. Some horrid demon, grossly fat. I was bound by chains and unable to move." A squeeze of Antenora's hand. "I only saw one person, the person who...worked on me. The thing. Tall and lanky, it wore a white smock of sorts and was badly bloodstained. Old bloodstains and new. Undead, it was rotting. It had this blade it used to cut into me."

A pause for breath. "It loved what it did. Sometimes it laughed and spoke in a language I don't know. Sometimes it shivered as I bled and paused to lick the blood up. Other times it recoiled from its own work or grew excited, chanting to itself at a maniac pace. A few times I believed it even touched itself. Then it began to dig into my brain. I don't easily remember much after that. My thoughts weren't my own once it started to add things to my brain. Metal wires."

[Ebiris]

Honestly, undead in cold climates are far more pleasant to face than undead in warm climates. Tropical undead are the worst. The dryness of the desert usually scours away the worst of it, and the sulphurous stench of volcanic regions masks many other sins. But oh, nothing is worse than fighting a wet rotting corpse surrounded by bloating flies in an otherwise verdant jungle, the smell of rot mixing with sweet fruits and flowers...

Well. Best not to dwell on it, really.

"It's alright. Those wires are gone. Your mind and body are your own once more," she speaks. "You never did tell us your name?"

Distracting him with that prompt she reads his mind. Seeing this creature and hearing its voice for herself to see if she can identify it.

Using a miracle to emulate probe thoughts, DC 51 will negates.

Take 10 for 107 on knowledge religion to identify the undead, buffed up with divine insight and guidance of the avatar.