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Darth Occlus in Wrath of the Righteous
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"You can use your judgement on how credible the escape attempt is, and you aren't obligated to execute him, no, just to keep him alive until he has seen a confessor and had a few hours, as long as he makes absolutely no escape attempts.  To be clear, someone else executing him because of an escape attempt, even a minor ineffectual one, would not be breaking your word either."

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"Okay, then in exchange for that information provided to you, I will do that to the fullest and best of my ability, you have my word."

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Anevia looks back to the cultist "Satisfied?"

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"Uh-" this is probably the best he is going to get "-sure."

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"Then get talking."

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"The Wardstone is unstable, give it enough time as it already is and it will explode, maybe blowing up a few adjacent Wardstones in the line.  And we all know the line is overstretched even as it is.  Minagho was supposed to get to it and make sure it blows faster and maybe takes down the entire line with it.  Something was holding her up, I think the original plan was supposed to have the Wardstone in some other location?  So anyway, we were close with our underground base, so we were going to secure it and maybe help with the desecration the slow manual way."

He suppresses the urge to glance at the scary person, he isn't getting anything useful from her.

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"Do they have any other follow-up plans?  I'll take rumor and hearsay if you have any."

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Occlus will let Anevia run the questions, only keeping a light touch on the prisoner's mind to ensure no lies slip in to his testimony.

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There are all sorts of wild rumors!  Various rumors of notable demons that might aid the attack on Kenabres, of plans for once the Wardstones fall, and even of the grander plans of Areelu Vorlesh herself!  (She has been spotted in person, various rumors claim she is plotting an ascension as a new Demon Lord).

There are plenty of names and identities of other cultists.  (He barely seems to mind selling them out, and what little he does mind is the pragmatic concern they might try for vengeance if he escapes.)

There is an ongoing plot with kidnapping mongrelmen from the caverns and ritually feeding them Aasimar flesh under the guidance of a greater demon, a Vrolikai!  They have a few mongrels held prisoner, there was supposed to be a ritual soon, but the Vrolikai fucked off to who knows where for who knows what reason.

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"Alright, I've heard enough."

She loosens his bindings (she has some trick knots she knows how to work quickly) enough that he can walk.

"You can take him over to the Wardstone Seelah.  Let everyone know of our deal."

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Seelah guides him back (the terrain is rough enough and his arms aren't free Seelah needs to help him over some rocks).

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Once they are out of earshot...  "You have some extraordinary senses right?  Did anything he say feel like a lie?  Anything else stand out to you?"

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"He believed he was telling the truth as he knew it. Minagho mentioned an attack on the Wardstone via something called the Shield Maze just before I slew her. Many of the demons fled at that point; perhaps this vrolikai was among them."

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"Alright... I think I'll interrogate one more minion just to corroborate everything, I don't want to be dragging around more than two prisoners, so I'll execute the rest once I've gotten some corroboration.  We'll want one to guide us back to the Shield Maze so we can loot their base and rescue the mongrels.  Not now, once we have more reinforcements, the Wardstone is the priority for now.  And we will want reinforcements in case the greater demon didn't actually flee, a Vrolikai will be beyond everyone except you, it might even have a chance against you if it gets the drop on you."

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"Very well. Shall I witness the next, or return to the Wardstone?"

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"I wouldn't mind a second person watching for lies.  Tactically I prefer your presence... and a bit of ominous looming isn't strictly forbidden by the Eagle Watch regulations on interrogation."  (She says the last part with a bit of humor in her voice.)

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"Then I shall remain. Ominously."

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Anevia chuckles at that.

She prepares for the second interrogation the same way.  The minion she picks gives in much faster than the previous one, not even demanding a Paladin as assurance on her deal.  He is a bit too eager to simply agree with everything Anevia says when she is corroborating details, but Anevia is clever about asking questions to check for this and mitigate it.  Overall, it looks like much of the information is corroborated.

Anevia calls someone over and has them take the cultist back to the group waiting around the Wardstone.  She then confers with Darth Occlus.

"Any lies stick out to you?"

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"Nothing malicious, but he was guessing on several of the names..." Which she can list.

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"That matches my impression... well I wasn't sure about that last name, so good to know for sure that was a guess."

Anevia thinks a moment.

"I don't think there is any useful information worth keeping another cultists alive for.  Unless you would guess otherwise?"

She pulls out her knife and starts looking over the cultists.

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"No, I am in agreement. I think we may wrap up this little diversion."

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Intact corpses are best for avoiding undead problems.  Does she need to remind Darth Occlus of that?  Actually... do other planets have undead problems?

"Do you have problems with undead on 'other planets'?  You know, the bodies don't get a respectful burial or get outright desecrated and then they spontaneously reanimate as a zombie or skeleton or whatever?"

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"No. Dead bodies stay dead, in my experience."

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"Right, so on this planet-" she is going to provisionally treat that story as true, but keep an eye out for discrepancies "-there are a bunch of risk factors for undead arising.  Besides desecrating the bodies, there is: powerful regrets on the part of the deceased, certain kinds of planar anomalies, necromancer activity, fey activity, the God of Undeath intervening, uh... there are more obscure factors probably, maybe ask the wizard about it.  Burning the bodies prevents corporeal undead, but incorporeal undead like ghosts are more troublesome to deal with, so the normal tradition in most places is burial and some prayers for the dead."

"So, circumstances permitting, you generally want corpses put together in one piece in the ground.  It isn't usually worth a Make Whole (that is a second circle spell for repairing things I can't remember if I mentioned it earlier) but if you have one to spare and the corpse needs reassembly..."

"Anyway, I bring this up because I wasn't sure if you were going to offer to help-" Anevia nods at the sleeping cultists "-but I figured I would mention all this before you uh, got loping and chopping." Anevia lets a little bit of grim humor into her voice.

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"I can kill just as well without removing any body parts, if you require assistance."

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