Fantasy Fading Flames 2: Interrogation

[Inheritance]

Brom Beararm​

Brom had watched the interrogation go by without a problem. The methods used weren't terribly cruel, at certain points being so ineffective that he thought he might need to step in and crank it up a notch. The toenail torture was usual, and the scratches and cuts were expected; but what made the man crack was something Brom heavily disapproved of. Magic. Magic seemed to cause the man extreme agony, enough to make him drop his tough guy-cultist act and tell them what they wanted to know. It seemed that with one spell, they could torture a man to the point where he would tell them anything. Brom shook his head. This was the reason magic users were so desensitized to human emotion. They could be as agonizingly cruel as they wanted, and all they had to do was mutter a few words!

Even the most hardened of killers had their limit (assuming they had some soul in them). If you had to tear someone's eye out, you had to watch it be done. You reach in and pull the eye out, living through the sight, the smell, the feel. Everything in fighting, torture, or anything else that involved causing extreme pain to another man forced you to do it yourself. Eventually you would have to stop doing what you were doing-else you lose your humanity altogether. Sure, there were great soldiers that fought their whole lives and killed hundreds or thousands, but even they eventually retired and gave up the sword, died in combat, or saw themselves turn into a monster.

But magic was different. You could hum a tune and look away while your enemy suffered. With a few words you could mutilate them in horrifying ways, not bothering to care. You could kill a man with a stare, and you could kill thousands more without truly understanding what you have done. Magic made you numb to hurting people, it made you ignorant of the suffering. When you're in combat going blow for blow, you understand what it is like to be in pain. Killing someone with a spell? It practically forces you to lose your compassion, your empathy: to lose what made you human.

But regardless of what Brom thought, it was too late. What had been done was done, and they had learned what they needed to know. What happened next was a bit strange, the room clearing out before Brom could even begin to project his thoughts on the meeting; leaving him, the assassin, and the victim alone in the room. He shrugged and turned to leave as well, but stopped dead upon hearing Sylvia's words.

"...now, what do I do with you? perhaps some fun before I slaughter you and use your blood as a bath? or do I torment you by flaying you limb from limb?"

"Aaaalright miss, he's had enough!" Brom said suddenly, taking a second to comprehend what had been said. "He told us what we needed to know, now we need to decide what to do with him. Let's ask our knight friend, alright?" Bron's tone was friendly, but held a serious note to it.

He wasn't really asking her, despite phrasing it as a question. Even though he didn't like how it was done, the mission was a success and there was no need to cause this man any more harm. Sure, the man was almost certainly a murderer; and sure, the man and his demon cult had condemned themselves to death- but it was not his place to be murdering people left and right, especially in a new land such as this. He would have no trouble bringing down the axe, but he wanted to be sure it was what the group wanted. Besides, there was a huge difference between killing someone in the name of justice, and torturing them in the name of cruelty.

Brom took a few steps towards the door. "After you." He said sternly.

ShadeAlucard Kabboom Noble Scion Silver Wolf

 

[ShadeAlucard]

Sylvia

Sylvia, just as she was about to dig into the man, froze when she heard the other's man voice. 'Fuck' she thought to herself, she had totally forgotten the other one was in the room because he had been so damn quiet this entire interrogation. She decided to go along with it for now because she knew she couldn't fight him head on in this room alone. She stood up straight, released her power, put the blades back on her sides and sighs. "Fine...but you owe me a drink for not killing this heretic." Sylvia said to Brom before walking out of the room in a huff, walking right past Jazmin, in which the kitsune mumbled under her breath to the healer something about this is fucking stupid and that she guesses the bastard needs healing before she makes her way to the outside. Upon getting outside, she stopped in her tracks as she heard heavy breathing nearby. She crouches down and looks over at the fish girl. "im gonna move up ahead and spy on whatever is up ahead. ill come back once i know more." Sylvia says as she moves silently forward, moving behind a tree and peeking around, noticing a lone guardsman just standing alone. 'odd....why is he alone?' she thought to herself before slowly climbing into the tree and decided to watch from there.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jazmin

As Jazmin sat there, wondering when the torture would be over, she saw the wizard run off and she went to stop him, but decided it would be best to leave him alone. 'is...is it all over?' Jazmin thought to herself, before jumping at the kitsune coming out of nowhere, mumbling a few words and then taking off in what seemed like a frustrated hurry. Jazmin sat there a moment, trying to comprehend what just happened before walking up to the door, not daring to peek in yet. "Ummm...is...is it ok to come in now and fix any damages now?" Jazmin asked, knowing that one other member remained in that room.

Interactions: Brom( Inheritance ) Bryn'ai ( Aryasaurus )

 

[Inheritance]

Brom Beararm​

"Yes, mend his wounds and do what you can so he isn't in pain...just be sure he doesn't have the strength to cause problems." Brom said to the healer. Brom disliked healing magic the least, because at least that type of magic was used for good. Anyone who would devote their lives to the healing arts was someone that Brom could respect, and if everyone could use magic like that there wouldn't be so much inbalance and death. Brom strolled out of the room with another glance at the man, and entered the larger part of the cabin where the group was waiting.

"Ladies and gents, we have a decision to make. We've gotten what we need out of him, but we need to figure out what we do now." He said, addressing everyone. "The way I see it, there a few things we can do."

He looked around at the group. Sylvia seemed to have already left to go stalk (or whatever assassins did in their spare time), and everyone else seemed to be either slightly horrified or bored. Brom wondered who was supposed to be in charge here. Their plan had worked pretty well for no solid leadership, and despite their lack of order this little team was pretty effective. But no matter how effective they were here, they needed some sort of leadership. Brom had fought in several dozen battles, and while he was no great military commander, the reason he had stayed alive was due to a strong leader and good planning. He knew he had taken a backseat for most of the mission, but perhaps it was time to step up and take charge.

"One, we can let him go free. We got what we needed, and it would be oh-so righteous of us to release him; but I think that's a great way to get ourselves killed. Two, we could take him prisoner, bring him back to the base. We would have done our mission and not done anything drastic. Three, we could out him for being a traitor, and while I'm sure there is some sort of witchcraft that could allow us to do that, I wouldn't know how to go about that." He paused, holding three fingers up. "And four, we could kill him. He is probably a murderer and is plotting for the downfall of this empire; he deserves nothing more than a quick death." He let his words sink in.

"But the most important thing to consider here is what happens next. Capturing him would be the same as killing him. If he vanishes y death or capture cult activity will swell, but instead of having to burn a body we'd have to constantly guard him, feed him, and make sure nobody can hear him. The first two options seem like longshots to me, so I think we should give him a quick death in the name of justice, then lay low while cult activity increases. If they get more and more active, it should be easier for us to track them down."


He looked around at the rest of the group. "Thoughts?"


Noble Scion Kabboom ShadeAlucard Silver Wolf Aryasaurus

 

[Noble Scion]

Eliza Starborn

Spoiler: Appearance

​

"Two. He may be a villain, but even villains deserve a chance at redemption, especially after the.. unethical methods employed against him. Frankly, I feel that we should all seek ablution after this, but I suppose it will have to wait until the mission is complete. One is a bad idea and will tell our enemy that they should leave, which would waste our time here. Three would do the same, and... The slaughter of one incapable of defending themselves is not something I could condone under the watch of the lord's knight." Eliza spoke rigidly, their eyes stuck to the floor near the centre of the room as she maintained her position by the window, gloomily serious.

"We will need to keep an eye on these two fine women while we're at it. Unfortunately, they will also need to remain at our base until all this blows over as we couldn't possibly allow them to roam free due to the aforementioned reasons. At any rate, I believe the sooner we return, the better. It's only a matter of time until we're discovered once the cultists realise their 'quarry' isn't coming." she continued, sending a watchful gaze to the two women before feigning a smile at their terrified faces.

What mess had the higher-ups thrown her into? Cooperating with such cruel individuals..
Kabboom Inheritance

 

[Silver Wolf]

Alastor Lupom
Location: Shitshack
Interactions/Nearby/Mentions: ShadeAlucard (Jazmin), Inheritance (Brom), Noble Scion (Eliza), Aryasaurus (Bryn'ai), @Slop (Augur) Kabboom (GM boi)


​

Several minutes passed as Alastor regained his bearings. Once he had finally shoved back his collapse he began breathing in and out in a calming manner. He was no less disgusted with himself. He needed to move on though. Pulling himself up, he wiped his eyes with his sleeve. He rejoined the conversation after Brom stated their four options and felt himself grimace upon hearing what Eliza said. He saw it no different naivete than Strangfel. Being blinded by a simple notion with nothing to back it up was a sure fire way to just turn things against them. Unquestioned belief or base desires were the two greatest enemies to thinking clearly.

"Sure, a serial kidnapper willing to sacrifice women and children for himself and his base desires is worthy of redemption," Alastor remarked to Eliza with his words spitting venomous sarcasm. "If you really wanted to do option three it's completely possible to convince him the night was a dream while dulling out important details, such as our faces. Though we would have to find a way to prevent him from seeing any holes or real evidence to second guess that. Even then it's stupid, allowing him to continue kidnapping people and serving the cult. Unless we have a way to stop him, such as branding him as a traitor, I'm against letting him have any semblance of freedom. Killing him would be the second safest option."

Alastor thought further about the situation. He then drew his attention to the women stupid enough to follow him. "Honestly, if he's been serial kidnapping people I'm surprised nobody has drawn conclusion to him yet. Investigation isn't my specialty, but the security in this city must be beyond horrendous if nobody has seen that a number of missing people cases all run dry with 'Strangfel went on a walk with them' and not realize the common thread."

Perhaps the entire region was so far gone, it wouldn't be a stretch to see the darkborne overrunning the region within the year. It would be simple if the people in charge were failing to draw such easy conclusions. Though it is likely since they had been asked, and only one party had a brain not the size of a peanut. Then again, Alastor could see it if the nobility weren't far off from Strangfel. That would be pretty easy to believe too. They were essentially the same breed of human after all.