A Hero's Quest: Eye of the Demon Emperor

"Wait!"

Cervitou stops at the stairs, then looks up to see you running up to him. He stares.

"If you're going to trial for stealing that staff, then I have to go with you!"

Cervitou shakes his head. "Why?" he asks tiredly.

"I have to go with you," you insist, looking back at him with determination. "Because... I'm a witness!"

"Witness?" he tilts his head.

"Witness to your... not crime."

"Are you that insistent on helping me?" Cervitou sighs then thinks silently for several seconds. "Fine. I won't deny help. Come with me."

You follow after Cervitou until the two of you are outside. The snowflakes are still surrounding the mansion at this time of year, but with each day, the sun becomes stronger and more of them recede into the water, that will then drip into the earth and become the foundation on which grass, flowers, bushes, and trees will grow. The circle of life.

Cervitou looks at you. "You know the drill."

You take a deep breath, while Cervitou grabs your shoulder. As soon as he grasps you, the two of you disappear and turn into black mist, only to reappear elsewhere.


The two of you walk together, out of what appears to be a magic circle of red color drawn on the ground, on a circular piece of stone with stairs surrounding it. You walk down and look around.

There are two other, similar slabs next to you, but they don't appear to be used extensively. The two of you are in some kind of large hall, with only one exit in the form of a pair of open, wooden doors. To the left and right, are windows made out of colorful glass fractals. They all have the shapes of triangles with a circle inside that touch the edges of said triangles, inside of them. Inside of the circle, on another hand, is what you presume to be a COLORFUL FLOWER, and even deeper within it, is an open eye. And finally, inside the eye's pupil is a PLANET. A notable feature of the triangles is that each is split into three pieces: one red, one blue, and one yellow.

"What do these symbols mean?"

Cervitou speaks, telling you about the symbols. No; more than that, he explains them in great detail, explains their history, their legacy, their meaning; both symbolical and literal. Somehow, all he just said is gone from your mind the moment the information entered it. All he said simply went in through one ear and left through the other, with not a word sticking along.

"Sorry, what was that?" you ask, feeling dumb for not listening.

"I can't tell you," he sighs, shaking his head. "This place is warded to ensure no secret is spilled. Even if I broke the ward and told you, that'd result in punishment for me, and memory removal for you."

The two of you move into the hallway. Finally, you see movement. A plentiful of people moving through, from towering, reptilian lizardmen in bulky armor and with obviously magical weapons, through old elven sages with long, wooden staves and long hats, dwarven engineers followed by spider-shaped golem servants noting their every word on special papers, to what appears to be a more ordinary, human bureaucrat with a feather dipped in ink, writing down some kind of information into a book.

"What is this place?"

"The headquarters," he mutters irritably.

"Of what?" you ask, then you realize he can't tell you. "N-nevermind."

You pass by a great number of bizarre faces and intriguing characters. You also walk by what appears to be a bar, riddled with orcish mercenaries and human adventurers, exchanging tales, drinking sweet ale, and singing merry songs in unison over a fire in the middle of the room, which is roasting a pig.

The hallways, built out of stone, although tight, have not a single window, nor do they appear to have a light source. Indeed, there is some kind of mystical, omnipresent light everywhere. That makes you assume this place is underground, but the windows from earlier may be the death of this theory. Then again, nothing keeps weirdo builders from putting windows underground for the sheer architectural effect of it. You built a treehouse from a dragon skull, after all.

Finally, you seem to arrive at the destined location. After several minutes of tearing through the thick crowd of colorful personalities, Cervitou and you walk into a set of doors, outside of which was a very peculiar, gold-plated tablet on which the words 'COURT' were written in an eloquent font.


Cervitou tells you to sit down and wait, then proceeds inside.

You sit down in the chair, in the middle of a hallway. The hallway is guarded by a pair of guards, one of which is near the door to the courtroom, with the other near what you presume to be an office of some kind. Next to you are sitting: Beronica, although she seems awfully quiet, some kind of bizarre, slime-humanoid with no clothing (although it does not have genitals, nor a discernible gender, so it seems to be fine,) and a sleeping, drunk, or perhaps dead; orc in thick, mithril armor.

You wait.

And wait.

And wait...

... And wait...

... And so, five minutes have passed.

Finally, you see someone walk into the hallway. In very long, white-gold robes, with a well-made magical staff in hand. An elven woman, very young and beautiful, but knowing elves; she might as well be well over two-hundred years old. She is followed by a pair. One is a smiling, smug halfling in... interesting, elegant attire, with a small book in hand, and the other is an old, stern-looking, stubby gnome with a thin beard and a mean look in his eye. They are followed by another, short guard with a spear in hands, who appears to be a kobold, as he surely isn't an ordinary lizardman.

The elven woman; who you now presume to be the judge, proceeds into the office. The stocky pair of attorney and prosecutor proceed into the courtroom, followed by the kobold guard, who must be the bailiff.

This is, indeed, a very interesting place.

You wait, once again. You hear sounds from the courtroom, as the trial has probably started.

...

... And, after four minutes or so, Beronica is called into the courtroom by the kobold bailiff.

You wait another four minutes...

It lengthens into five...

Into six...

Anxiety begins to fill your mind. You counted each second, yet no one has approached you yet.

At the seven-minute mark, the kobold bailiff exits the courtroom and walks up to you.

"Artoria Baragar? Please, proceed into the courtroom," it hisses in a very alien accent. "You will testify as a witness, in the case of Cervito–––"

"Yeah, yeah, let's get on with it," you interrupt, rudely pushing past the small kobold creature, which growls in contempt and follows you into the courtroom.


Well, this is different than you expected.

To your left and right is a wide audience of people wearing black robes. Their hoods are like walls of darkness, obscuring even an inch of their face from getting in. The middle of the room is circular in shape, with a large, tall, booming torch of iron giving fire and thus light to the whole room. There are red flags everywhere, with the same symbol you saw when you entered through that fancy portal back there. To the left of the audience is Cervitou and the halfling, to the right is the prosecutor; the gnome.

You are gestured to go to the middle of the room by the bailiff.

You walk through the small crevice between the seats of the audience, then around the large torch, and you walk up the stairs to a small podium. You are being actively observed by at least a a hundred robed men, and most likely women, many of which are staring oppressively. Anxiety fills your mind once again, so you clench your fists and look up, at the elven judge above you.

"Miss..." she looks at her desk, reading something from it. "Artoria Baragar, correct?" she looks up at you again, awaiting confirmation.

"Yes, your... honor?" you gaze at Cervitou with the side of your view. His mask is off, as expected.

"Miss Baragar," she states in a 'frank' tone. "This is your first time in this sanctum, correct?"

"Yes," you nod, not understanding what the word sanctum means.

"Very well," she nods. "Then I ask you subject yourself to a self-geas scroll, so that none of these proceedings leak out."

A kobold servant runs up to you with a large, golden pair of wooden rods, between which a scroll is tied. The kobold opens it up, handing you a quill, already dipped in ink. You read through the scroll, and it is some kind of magical contract that binds you not to tell anyone to tell of anything you hear here, conditionlessly, and automatically. Your mind will simply stop before you can say anything, basically making you incapable of talking about it or trying to subvert the system in attempts to find other ways of communing about it.

You take the quill and sign it with your full name and surname, doing your best to make the font look neat. As soon as you sign, you feel a small zap inside of your head, which ends as soon as you're done.

"Miss Baragar, before we proceed, I'd like you to swear an oath before the court," the judge demands sharply. "Do you oath to only tell the truth, no matter what?"

"I promise to only tell the truth, no matter what," you hold up your right hand, gulping. This is serious business. Who are these people?

"Very well, then any attempts to lie will result in excruciating pain. Be warned," she smiles.

"Wait, what?" you protest. "Isn't that a bit extreme? Why not just use a lie-detection spell?"

"Worry not," the judge says. "So long you don't lie, you will be fine. In addition, you must lie two times for the spell to work. The first time will only give you a mild chest pain, muscle cramps, and possibly a seizure. As for the reason we don't use lie-detection spells, is because they are very easy to overcome using internal, self-targeted mind spells, that make the user believe what he is saying is true. It is, however, rather obvious and easily detectable when one feels pain, and it can be easy to remove immunities to said pain."

You gulp.

"Now, I will read out several things aloud. I'd like you to –– from your point of view –– either confirm or deny these. Simply say yes, no, or otherwise answer the question as concisely and shortly as possible. After we are done, you will be allowed to speak and tell us... your side... of the story," she flips the page in her notebook, writing down several things with her quill. She writes things down there for around nine seconds, then looks at you, taking another piece of paper in her hand. A lot of paperwork in this place, or so it seems.


"Is it true you were attacked by demons on the first day of the Month of Time, roughly at nightfall?"

"Yes."

"Is it true that you went to Miss Beronica's house in order to seek shelter?"

"Yes."

"What were the numbers of the attackers?"

[] They were like the whole army of a kingdom, bigger than anything you've seen in life. (Huge exaggeration. Lie.)
[] Humungous. The armies of hell were there. (Slight exaggeration. Easy-to-pass Willpower check to see if it counts as a Lie.)
[] Very big. At first, at least twenty imps and several knights of hell attacked you, but they soon received reinforcements.

"And what... kinds of attackers were they?"

[] Lords, knights of hell, powerful demonic sorcerers, and more. (Lie.)
[] Attack imps, knights of hell, possibly some other greater demons.

"Is it true the defendant asked Miss Beronica for her teleportation crystal, which she reluctantly gave to him, not knowing what he would do?"

"Yes."

"Is it true the defendant returned with the Prism Staff in hand?"

"Yes."

"Is it true the defendant sold a quarter of his soul to the minotaur guarding the staff?"

[] Yes. (Lie. You have no way of knowing that.)
[] "I don't know, but I think so."
[] "I don't know."
[] "I don't know, but I don't think so."
[] No. (Lie. You have no way of knowing that.)

"What was, in your opinion, the defendant's motive?"

[] To protect me. We're pretty tight.
[] To destroy the demons, endangering the PLANET and ENVIRONMENT. (Lie.)

"Last question. Did the defendant then proceed to use the staff to destroy, and, or, exorcise the demons?"

"Yes."

"And now, Miss Baragar. Tell us your side of the story in precise detail."

[] Stick to what you said but in lesser detail. You will only repeat half of the lies, or just say "basically what I just said."
[] Stick to what you said.
[] Stick to what you said but in greater detail, to make the story more believable. This means you will have to repeat every lie and expand on it.
[] Write-in.

Calendar: 1005-02-30
Time: Noon