Blood Cultist Leader
- Dialogue
- questdialog_blood-cultist-leader
- Reached by
- A quest character: Where the Wind Blows
Openers (2)
The game picks one. They are alternatives, in the order it prefers them.
Only after the player has spoken to the speaker
*An old man emerges into the crimson glow, his face hidden behind a macabre mask. His eyes, sharp and knowing, gleam with quiet calculation.*
The conversation forks on the graph-variable check:
If True
The killer of my associates stands before me. But what is their purpose, their goal, I ask myself?
The conversation forks on the graph-variable check:
If True
I expected resistance. A desperate fool charging in, brandishing virtue like a dull blade. Yet here you stand, red-handed and unburdened. *He chuckles, a dry, knowing sound.*
You did not free them - you finished what we began. Tell me, then … was it conviction or pragmatism that guided your hand?
Killing those wizards was my decision alone - it has nothing to do with you.
You tell yourself it was your will alone, but every death is a doorway, and you have already knocked.
Whether you meant to or not, you are at the threshold of something greater. Why turn back now?
Very well. You've compelled me. I will walk this path with you.
Perfect.
- Changes how the speaker feels about the player
The conversation ends
How do I know this isn't a trick?
You almost felled me. Anyone mighty enough to overcome me is surely a worthy candidate for the rite.
Returns to the previous choices
What must I endure to prove myself?
First, put down your offense.
The conversation forks on the graph-variable check:
If True
Second, head to Ishgana and spill blood there, since you let tonights sacrifice escape.
Returns to the previous choices
If False
Second, finish off the prisoners downstairs. We'll need their blood for the ritual.
What madness would compel me to stand among your kind?
Power beyond your wildest imagination.
The knowledge of the secret art of blood magic.
The pursuit of immortality! Greatness!
Returns to the previous choices
I’d sooner die than join your wretched cult.
A wish I am more than capable of granting! Fool!
You could have been great ...
A true shame ...*The mage lifts his staff as a strange crimson force begins to crackle with unstable energy above.*
- Starts combat
[Attack] I’m done listening to your smug, bloated nonsense - let’s settle this here and now!
Fool ... you could have been great.
Oh, well ... *The mage lifts up his palms and begins to glow.*
And who are '<i>we</i>', exactly?
We are the Children of the Crimson Serpent, and we seek the power over death - immortality.
Blood is the river of the soul, and we are its patient fishermen, casting our nets where the current runs deepest - treading waters others fear to enter.
We are what's coming.
Returns to the previous choices
(Coming soon) I see the truth in your ways, and I would walk your path alongside you.
[Attack] You and your lot are next!
If False
Only while Where the Wind Blows is started
I've come to free the captive Wind Wizards of Ishgana.
*The elf laughs loudly.* Oh, a savior! A hero to the kith of those Wind Wizards!
Blood ebbing with strength, yet they cower in their tents and send a stranger to save them.
What are you doing with them?
Ishgana's blood, however thinned, bodes vigor beyond anything I have ever seen.
They are a necesssary sacrifice, a branch felled to heat a room, a stone cut to lift a castle wall.
To comprehend the cursed divine, we must learn of the inner workings of life, and to do so, we must expell it.
The trees may wither, the bodies may fall, but it is important work that will not be interrupted.
- Changes a variable of something the compendium does not publish
*The cultist smiles darkly* Have you ever questioned why these peaceful wizards of wind have such potent blood?
Why?
Their crimson eyes tell a tale of failure and weakness. The great wizard, Ishgana - *he spits out the name like poison* - he had a different name once.
Rakasag. Flesh Eater. He ended more lives than you or I could ever imagine. And he did it under the banner of the Children of Crimson Serpents.
He tried to run from his past, but that did little to mend the villages he had left in his wake.
I've already freed the Wind Wizards from your clutches.
*The elf blinks, startled* Regardless of such treachery, there is nothing you can do to stop the children from achieving their goals.
*The elf begins to glow a deep crimson.* Do not worry. Your blood will not spill in vain.
- Triggers an event in Where the Wind Blows
- Starts combat
Be that as it may - the past is in the past. You will fall where you stand!
*The elf grins darkly* There is nothing you can do to stop the children from achieving their goals.
Your lies do not affect me, Flesh Wroughter.
I haven't - why don't you enlighten me with your madness?
I'll ask again. What are you planning to do with them? Speak plainly.
That doesn't answer my question, freak.
*The elf smiles with a disturbed excitement.* My, how the malice burns within you. There must besome vigor in your veins.
Ishgana's blood, however, bodes vigor beyond anything I have ever seen, even in such a diluted state.
They are a necessary sacrifice - a branch felled to heat a room, a stone cut to lift a castle wall.
To comprehend the cursed divine, we must learn of the inner workings of life, and to do so, we must expell it.
The trees may wither, the bodies may fall, but it is important work that will not be interrupted.
What do you disgusting zealots call yourself?
From what depths do you crawl, and why do you surface now?
Like roots twisting unseen beneath the ground, we have always been here, drinking deep from the lifeblood of the world.
Under a thousand guises, in a thousand tongues, we have toiled in shadow, unwinding the knotted thread of life and severing it strand by strand.
This is your only offer to leave with your life.
Oh? And why in the world would we leave?
Only when the game's own check passes. The compendium cannot name what it reads (Graph Variable → Get Quest Boolean).
You're the only cultist that remains. The rest have met their end at my hand, as will you, if you chose to stay.
... As you wish. But we will meet again, [player]. And consider my parting words ...
A dormant volcano - it broods, quietly nursing its magma, cloistered within stone and biding time for the next eruption.
That is my strength, stranger. Biding its time like a viper in the grass, ready to strike when least expected.
Farewell.
The conversation ends
- Triggers an event in Where the Wind Blows
I've let your victims go and they will be alerting allies to your precense.
If you don't, I'll be left with no choice but to destroy you.
The conversation forks on the graph-variable check:
If True
The conversation forks on the graph-variable check:
If False
*The elf roars in laughter.* You think you're any match for me?
*The elf begins to glow a deep crimson.* Do not worry. Your blood will not spill in vain.
- Triggers an event in Where the Wind Blows
- Starts combat
If True
- +0 experience
Fine. Let down your weapon ...
It will be as you wish. But we will meet again, [player]. And consider my parting words ...
A dormant volcano. It broods, quietly nursing its magma, cloistered within a stony facade, biding time for the next eruption.
That is my strength. Biding time like a viper in the grass, ready to strike when least expected.
Farewell.
The conversation ends
- Triggers an event in Where the Wind Blows
If False
The conversation forks on the graph-variable check:
If True
The conversation forks on the graph-variable check:
If True
- +0 experience
Fine. Withdraw your mana ...
If False
The conversation forks on the graph-variable check:
If True
The conversation forks on the graph-variable check:
If True
- +0 experience
Fine. Call off your familiars ...
This hovel reeks of decay and neglect. Why stay here?
*The elf chuckles somberly to himself.* I can see how, to the ignorant eye, it may appear that way, but it's more.
It's a canvas upon which the unseen paints its grand design. It is a forgotten verse in the hymn of the old world. It holds many secrets buried by the sands of time.
Alters proper for the rite, great spirits to fulfill my commands, and privacy from the prying eyes, just to name a few of the pleasantries.
Returns to the previous choices
All right, if you won't leave, perhaps I can get some answers out of you.
I'll entertain your questions. You may consider it your dying wish.
Your time here is over. Take your wretched lackeys and leave.
I demand to know what dark schemes are at play here.
The Children of the Crimson Serpent are studying the cursed divine, struggling to catch but a glimpse through the fog of death, to comprehend and overcome such treachery.
Studying death and its effects, a dark goal that no one succeeds in.
*The elf gives a slight nod* We are here to bring forth unlimited life, to break the chains of death.
[Attack] You're using forbidden magics. Blood rituals for power ... fools ... all of you.
Forbidden, yes. But, why? Because the nobilities fear it?
The blood conceals secrets most supernatural, elf / dwarf.
*The elf grins darkly* If the fear of others is the only thing stopping you from unimaginable strength ... then the only fool I see standing here, is you.
- Triggers an event in Where the Wind Blows
- Starts combat
I've peered upon dusty tomes that tell of forbidden blood magic. That's what you're doing here, isn't it?
Forbidden, yes. But, why? Because the nobilities fear it?
Blood magic grants a potency you could only wish to possess without it - only begin to imagine.
Returns to the previous choices
Unlimited life? What are you talking about?
*The elf chuckles arrogantly.* No tricks or riddles. I simply mean life without end.
Immortality.
You better start making sense, quickly.
Children of the Crimson Serpent? Strange. I've never heard of you.
A lot of words to say you’re a necromancer.
We do not raise the dead here, nor are we puppeteers of corpses.
The children of crimson serpents are here to bring unlimited life, to break the chains of death.
What were you planning to do with those men you captured?
I am here to put an end to all of this.
*The elf chuckles dryly.* Your words are simple, elf / dwarf. Perhaps that is for the best.
Do not worry. Your blood will not spill in vain.
- Triggers an event in Where the Wind Blows
- Starts combat
[Attack] I've heard enough. I'll slay you just as I slew the others!
[Attack] I've heard enough!
*The elf chuckles dryly.* You've heard more than enough, I'm afraid.
Let us release the serpent from you on the altar. Let us see what secrets your blood whispers.
If False
The conversation forks on the graph-variable check:
If False
A shadow bleeds across my domain ...
Why are they here? To gain knowledge on the cursed divine, or merely to plunder what is not theirs?
Only when the conversation's own flag _offeredToJoin is set
*The elf slouches and puts up his palm.* Wait! Slaying me won't stop the Children of the Crimson Serpent.
What do you mean?
Listen to me good, [player_shortrace]. Not all who are children of the serpent dawn a cowl and dwell in ruins.
We have members in very high places throughout Aruden. In the houses of the empire and the Otsoboro.
We can be a very powerful and damning foe ... or the greatest teachers and the strongest of allies.
As if I believe a word that comes from your mouth.
[Attack] It'll be a good start!
You foolish child / old relic ... greatness was within your grasp, yet you fight only to return to dust ... let us end this!
- Starts combat