"A thousand appologies my lady! Are you alright? Please forgive me my foolishness, the knife had seemed safe to touch before."
Aduial:
(Left hand cups my left breast, right hand touch my forehead)
"Yes, I seem to be ok. All of my important assets are in order, at least. We, however. might have a problem with a demon."
(Sit up, quick self inspection, stand up if it feels safe to do so.)
"I apologize, Marshal. I had assumed that the rumors were simply the paranoid superstitions of peasants. There are far more who are foolish enough to claim that anything they don't understand belongs to the demonic realms than there are those foolish enough to actually go charging into those realms to say hi. As for the knife, don't worry about that. My injury was not your fault. It
is safe for
you to touch. It's only dangerous to me. For now, anyway."
(Look him in the eyes)
"Marshal, I have no authority within the province to command you in this matter. Narseus is a free city, and my kingdom lies elsewhere. However, I
strongly advise you to accept my help."
(If he appears willing to listen, then walk back over to the table.)
"Some of these items are valuable. Some are worthless. The knife, obviously, is magic. Most of the rest is not. (Point to the ram skull.) I suggest you destroy that. Smash it to pieces and bury it outside of town. It is of little consequence on its own, but could possibly be used in some esoteric ritual and serves no particular other purpose. (Wave hands over the various metal instruments.) These are harmless. Sell them, throw them away, give them to your blacksmith to smelt into useful metal...they don't matter. This...
vile thing that it is... (pick up the gaudy fabric with a look of horror and disgust on my face) ...is a hideous crime against fashion. Please burn it. (Say it with a straight face, but go ahead and smile if he does too.) This... (pick up the vial with insect wings, hold it up to my eye and shake it gently) ...is valuable. (Look at him.) But it is like an axe that can be used equally well to murder a man as to cut trees for firewood. It is neither good nor evil. Simply useful. I request that you relinquish it into my care. (Set it down.) These....(indicate the various parchments) appear to be the ramblings of a man who was either already possessed, or was soon to be. They are written in a variety of tongues, and appear to describe his efforts towards some sort of imminent event involving a demon whose name I will not speak aloud. Unfortunately the writings appear to be incomplete. Many pages are missing, and of the pages that are available, I have yet to decipher entirely. Given time I might learn more. I request that you entrust these into my care as well."
"Which brings us to Baron Radhan. I know you've expressed reluctance to let me speak with him, but I suspect his involvement with this affair might not be what you think. It's probably best for his safety that he remain in your custody. I recommend that he be kept under guard. Not so much to keep him from getting out, but to keep cultists from getting in."
"There are two ways he may be able to help us. First, if you will not let me see him, then I would ask that you see him yourself. You two fought in the war together, yes? He's likely to trust you. Ask him if he has a son his wife doesn't know about. I'm guessing that he does. Second, sit him down with a bucket of water ready...and ask him to touch the knife. If I'm right, he'll react almost as strongly to it as I did. About...half as strongly."
"With that test done...it really would be best that we destroy the knife. It was intended to be used to perform a sacrifice to a specific demon. The only uncertain thing is why the cultists would prefer to sacrifice the Baron's son rather than the Baron himself. It's possible they might need a virgin. Good to know that I'm safe."
"If possible, I suggest we do this the easy way. Have your men rest the blade against a rock, and smash it to splinters with a mace. It might be that simple. If it doesn't break, smash it a bunch more times. If Narseus has a crematorium, or a brick burning kiln, we can burn it to dust. If not, have a peasant grind it into powder with a millstone. Though if it comes that, I recommend the stone not be used for grinding grain afterwards. However we destroy it, take the shattered fragments and spread them at sea. Don't get me wrong. I'm a wizard. I'm all in favor of magical solutions. But you know from personal experience how effective a simple warhammer to the face can be when dealing with orcs, demons and their ilk. If we can do this the easy way, let's do it the easy way. If not, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
"That does still leave the matter of the cultists. It takes a great deal of time and effort to create a magic item such as this. It will not be easily replaced. Destroying the knife should set them back tremendously, but it won't stop them forever. You said these items were recovered from a caravan, yes? If you have anyone from that caravan in custody, I would like to speak with them.
Hopefully, it will turn out that the caravan acquired these items with purely innocent intent. One genuine artifact amidst so much trash...it's possible they were simply merchants collecting scary-looking items for resale, with no idea what they'd found. If so, then we may be looking at artifacts left over from a conspiracy that failed years ago rather than a conspiracy in the works today. I suggest we explore the possibilities."
"Finally there is the matter of the boy. The one with tattoos who spoke in tongues. Tell me, did his speech sound like this: [Speak in Trafnor:
"Fluffy bunnies are cute and you probably think this sounds ominous and scary, but you can't understand a word I'm saying haha! Boo!"] I suspect he was the intended sacrifice. He may be the Baron's son. Or Sayud might be. Either way, what we need to know is whether it was his
death that was required for a sacrifice that has yet to happen, or his living body that was required as a vessel as part of a sacrifice that has already occurred."
"So there it is. Would you have me wait while you speak to Baron Radhan privately, or shall I accompany you?"
Quick question: the room in this tower the items are kept in is lit by lanterns. Does it, or does it not have windows or other exterior access?