The Keepers of Chaos: A Vault of Hell

Herod Westwood: LXXX

Dealings of the Devil: LXXX

"He appeared to me, in that same dream I described to you? The same vision, the burning Waterdeep.. There were-"

"Bannisters on the ground." Markos finished. Herod nodded in agreement.

"He tried to recruit me.. This is the second night he's tried." He hung his head angrily. "Vulity has.. Stepped in each time. Warned me, she's kept my mind from being taken by the Innocent murderer."

"Stepped in?"

Of course Markos was curious what that could mean. He stared blankly into those large purple eyes, hadn't they been green only ten minutes earlier? Everything about this man made little sense.

"When he appeared it was like I was paralyzed.. I couldn't move right, my head was foggy and my memories.." Herod shook his head trying to recall just how that talk had gone. Markos seemed to listen intently but it was hard to tell.

"Drink?" The cultist asked innocently. Two mugs floated in the air courtesy of Lif. his body shivered a little.

"I wasn't scared.." Herod continued taking a drink from the air. "It was just so surreal and his temptations kept coming one after another after another."

"Did he.. Offer to cure you?" Markos sounded wistful, like someone had offered Herod a piece of chocolate he wanted. Herod's eyes narrowed. 'Did Markos see something similar?' The pieces were there, he had already suspected the innocent murder trying to tempt the half-elf, but that question all but confirmed it.

"My grip?" He quizzed like he didn't know the answer to Markos's question. 'Can I get it out of him?' he wondered.

"Y-yeah.. The grip." Markos frowned like he was desperate to remember something but couldn't quite recall it. The doubt in his voice made Herod reconsider what he was thinking.

"He did.. But I refused, he offered me power, service to something greater the first time round. And then Puderis showed up." He grinned a mad smile, the image of his god crashing from the atmosphere down to the dream scape below to literally trample a whorish temptor was an amazing and absurdly cool sight.

Markos slipped a cup to the air. "Here you go." Herod watched a pink flying squid with blue eyes take the cup and begin to.. Vulity sake! That was a disgusting way to drink something!

'Oh his familiar!' Vulity jumped onto the table and began to examine the flying octopus.

"Your god.. Showed up?" There was that wistfulness again, he couldn't shake it away, Markos sounded like a wounded animal hearing about his deity. "To h-help you?" Herod nodded. His head was filled with the images of a burning Waterdeep, isles and isles of blood with scorched banners and priests hung on spikes. "How is The innocent murderer supposed to tempt you if all he's showing is chaos and destruction?"

"Honestly!" He set his sword on the table carefully pushing the edge away in case Vulity got a funny idea. "Like my dude, you can't show us the DeStrUcTioN of all we love and then be like; ay join me cause we can do all this terrible shit but we do it togetherrr." The two of them broke out into laughter, probably the nerves or something else making the joke funny.

"Sorry.." Markos apologized suddenly looking down at his drink. "Please keep going." The half-elf was dressed simply in a set of black pajamas and his signature tattered yellow cloak. Right now he seemed to be hugging that cloak.

"We talked." Herod stated plainly. "He asked what I wanted, kept repeating what he had said before. He played on my gluttony and tried today to play on my hubris and pride. He wanted me to 'grasp a higher power' before eventually Vulity stepped in again... I.." He grit his teeth carefully recalling the events that had transpired. "He held out his dagger to me and it was suddenly like.. The world was spinning, my body still felt paralyzed and frozen but my hand, my hand could move." Herod shivered coldly despite the tavern being rather warm. "I had this pounding headache in the back of my head, like something was trying to gnaw at it. It was a corrupting squeezing sensation."