An adventuring party recruited from Osirion teleports into Azir on the 8th of Desnus. Rahadoum's recruiting contact in Osirion wrote ahead to note they were expected. Couple of guys he's known a long time - a wizard, a ranger - and a new guy, sorcerer, probably to replace the cleric they usually travel with. They spend two days in Azir getting oriented and head out to the front. The ranger wears an unusually high quality amulet of Nondetection; the sorcerer wears a headband for intelligence, which is a bit unusual as sorcerers usually don't need it to cast, but some variants do; they are otherwise unremarkable. Chaotic Good, Lawful Neutral, no reading, which could mean neutral or 'hiding it'. They work quickly and effectively, manage resources reasonably well, get recommended to higher-ups for a closer look on that account.
"- Oh, gods, this is going to be really awkward in either order, they're lifebonded. Um. I guess Starwind. Is there anything you can do to make him unconscious for ten minutes if he's really upset?"
"I can put a consenting person to sleep, it won't work if he's trying to fight me about it."
"All right. I - think he can probably manage, it's - not like there's much he can do here even if he is very upset."
"And it won't be ten minutes, we should be able to raise him with an ordinary Raise Dead and that's only one minute."
"Oh, right - I wasn't sure if it'd be the usual Velgarth thing where Raise Dead never works, or if She was actually putting them back from wherever She fished them out. I think a minute is fine."
"We told her to put them back. I know Resurrection diamonds are cheaper now but I don't like spending them that casually."
He Raises Starwind.
Starwind seems confused and distressed, but he holds still. He doesn't even look around to see where he is.
Vanyel squats next to him. Seems torn on whether to offer him a hug, and in the end doesn't, but stays next to him for the next minute.
(Savil does.)
Moondance looks around. He seems - more visibly distraught than Starwind, there are tears in his eyes.
Starwind jolts into motion, and a couple of seconds he has his arms around Moondance.
Neither of them moves from the ground, or looks at Khemet.
He reaches out to touch them, one at a time, on the arm, and cast a Truth Spell. If they throw it off he'll just cast it again; it puts Abadar's holy symbol on their forehead so it's not hard to tell if they throw it off or not.
Moondance does lift his head from Starwind's shoulder and sort of look at Khemet, clearly waiting for whatever he has planned here to happen. There are tear-streaks down his cheeks.
Aroden steps forward, looks them in the eye, and addresses them one at a time. Starwind first.
It's almost better doing this after getting Leareth back, because he knows which questions to ask.
Starwind isn't helpful, exactly, he's certainly not proactively volunteering any information, and divine truth magic isn't as good as Velgarth's second-stage Truth Spell and can't drag him out of him, but he does answer direct questions. While hanging onto Moondance. Mostly he seems to be in shock.
Honestly Vanyel thinks this is very reasonable, from their perspective they just got murdered. After carrying out what they must have known was a suicide mission. They must have been terrified, or at least, he would have been in their place.
Moondance is harder to get answers out of because he's obviously miserable. He does, eventually, admit to using some Healing-Adept mind projection technique to find and destroy Leareth's link to immortality.
He keeps glancing at Savil and Vanyel.
Vanyel doesn't move from where he's standing. He didn't want them dead, but - he has trouble seeing a scenario where Starwind and Moondance murdered his ally and they can still be friends.
Aroden makes it through verifying all of the events and actions taken before getting to the thornier part. "Why."
"It - seemed the correct response. When She first ordered it, in the Tower. Afterward, I..."
He trails off. It doesn't actually matter if he was conflicted because he demonstrably did it anyway.
Aroden pokes at the question for another few minutes, but eventually sighs and turns to Khemet. "Is there anything you wish to ask, or say to them?"