Voss/Transcript

This is a transcript of the interaction with Kith'rak Voss and Sarth Baretha's Githyanki squad near the Mountain Pass. A pivotal dialogue exchange in Act One, it contains a number of ability checks that, if passed, allows the party to skip a difficult fight and proceed to the Rosymorn Monastery Trail.
The dialogue tree contains many branches and will change consequentially if the interacting character is a Gith, if Lae'zel ran ahead of the party in a scripted eventThis event occurs if Lae'zel is present as the party approaches Ellyka and catches sight of the Gith for the first time. If this event occurs while Lae'zel is at camp, then Lae'zel is later added back to the party, she will not alter the conversational outcomes. or if Lae'zel speaks to Voss while under control of the party.
==Non-Githyanki character==
Kith'rak Voss: What easy prey you make, walking right within my blade's embrace.
Kith'rak Voss: These creatures are so simple to ensnare, Baretha. You mewl too much about your task.
Sarth Baretha: Forgiveness, Kith'rak.
Kith'rak Voss: And as for you, tell me - why shouldn't I run you through this instant?
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***Kith'rak Voss: Hmm. You make good use of silence. Too many think hot air will save them...
***Kith'rak Voss: If I have no use for you alive, I'll have your death, slow and sweet. Understand?
***Kith'rak Voss: A vessel fell from the sky. We seek a precious weapon that was taken from it.
***Narrator: *You suddenly feel a strange anxiety take hold - not your own, but that of the artefact you carry. Somehow, it's afraid...*
***Narrator: *You attune your mind to it. The artefact does not want to fall into the gith raiders' hands any more than it does the Absolute followers'.*
***Kithrak Voss: Help us find it and I will leave your blood beneath your skin, unspilled.
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*****Kith'rak Voss: Of course. Obedience is your only hope. Now stand still...
*****Narrator: *He begins to move his hand in a quick flurry of gestures.*
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*******Kith'rak Voss: What's this...?
*******Kith'rak Voss: Ts'kva! You carry a ghaik parasite in your head! Death will be a kindness to you...
********Kith'rak Voss: Baretha! Rid us of this worm. I need to continue the hunt for the weapon. 
********Sarth Baretha: At once... Htak'a!
********(Dialogue ends, resulting in combat)
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********Narrator: *You realize he's casting Detect Thoughts.*
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***********Kith'rak Voss: Bah! Nothing even approaching a useful thought in that skull. I ought to just kill you...
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**************Kith'rak Voss: Unlikely you'd be successful... but it costs me nothing to spare your sorry life.
**************Kith'rak Voss: Very well, istik. Seek out survivors from the ship that crashed on this wretched world.
**************Kith'rak Voss: Bring me their heads. Bring me the weapon. If you succeed, the reward will be great.
**************Kith'rak Voss: Now go.
**************(Dialogue ends in peace. The party gains experience for each opponent defeated by your words. . Charlatan backgrounds are inspired.)
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**************Kith'rak Voss: Help? Absurd. You're already a hindrance, wasting my time.
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**************Kith'rak Voss: So bold in the face of death... Perhaps you may live after all.
**************Kith'rak Voss: Better to let stronger blood thrive. It can give rise to worthier foes and hardier slaves. Don't disappoint me.
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**************Kith'rak Voss: Killing vermin requires no daring.
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**************Kith'rak Voss: My blade is my right. If I can take your life, it is mine. But perhaps you have other uses...
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**************Kith'rak Voss: I have every right. I am strong, you are weak.
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*************Kith'rak Voss: Curious. I thought even the lowest of creatures had at least a shred of dignity. You prove me wrong. But there's a repellent logic in your words. You may notice things a noble gith does not.
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*****Kith'rak Voss: Do not speak. Your bleating offends my ears. Just stand still...
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*****Kith'rak Voss: It cannot be.
*****Kith'rak Voss: Just like that, you offer up what I seek. Remarkable. You have my thanks.
*****Kith'rak Voss: In gratitude, I'll grant you a swift death. Baretha? You know what to do.
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*****Kith'rak Voss: You haggle with your own life, fool. Be silent and hold still...
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***Kith'rak Voss: You think I don't see that pathetic fumbling?
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***Kithrak Voss: Chk! You dare speak to me like my better? Others have died for lesser insults - slowly.
***Kithrak Voss: But your bravery amuses me. Finally I find a wolf in a world of lowing cattle...
***Kithrak Voss: You may live. For the moment.
***Kithrak Voss: Now, we seek a weapon, taken from a vessel that fell from the sky. Understand, istik?
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***Kith'rak Voss: I gave you a chance to save your hide. Instead you chose empty bluster. 
***Kith'rak Voss: You are a waste of flesh. Perhaps the worms will have use for you.
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***Kith'rak Voss: Senseless creature - I don't want to dull my blade on your overly thick skull.
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***Kith'rak Voss: Of course you are not a threat! You are nothing until I tell you otherwise.
***Kith'rak Voss: For you to keep sucking air, it is necessary for you to tell me something of worth.
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**Kith'rak Voss: No creature from this wretched world is important, half-wit.
**Kith'rak Voss: The only value you hold is as meat to the carrion birds.
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== As Lae'zel ==
*Lae'zel: Rider - my time is short. Lead me to...
*Kith'rak Voss: Sh-sh-shh. Such a familiar tone.
*Kith'rak Voss: Were I not merciful, I would slice the skin clean from your meat.
*Kith'rak Voss: Yet you are not bleeding. For I am nothing if not merciful.
*Kith'rak Voss: Your name, child.
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***Lae'zel: ...Lae'zel.
***Kith'rak Voss: 'Lae'zel.' Proud. Regal, even.
***Kith'rak Voss: You will call me Jhe'stil Kith'rak.
***Lae'zel: Voss, Knight Supreme. The queen's silver, the queen's sword.
***Kith'rak Voss: I am who you say.
***Kith'rak Voss: A ghaik vessel has fallen from the sky, Lae'zel. Thieves aboard have taken a weapon most precious.
***Kith'rak Voss: Take word to your creche. You are to join our search.
***Kith'rak Voss: Speak up, child. Affirm your mandate.
***Lae'zel: My mandate, Jhe'stil Kith'rak, is to locate this creche. I was infected aboard a ghaik ship and need to be purified. Your mandate is to aid me.
***Kith'rak Voss: Purified? Oh, Lae'zel - why must the truth be so bitter? Soon, your skin will go grey, and your blood will run silver. You will shed your skin to become ghaik.
***Kith'rak Voss: Only in death are the infected cleansed.
***Kith'rak Voss: You will give us the weapon. Then you will bend your head for the sword.
***Lae'zel: Stand down, knight. I do not have what you seek!
***Kith'rak Voss: Our queen's word binds me.
***Kith'rak Voss: Baretha, see that her skull is split and the tadpole crushed. Then examine her corpse. I will take word to the Undying Queen.
***Kith'rak Voss: Qudenos - to the sky!
****(Dialogue ends, resulting in combat)
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****Lae'zel: ...Lae'zel.
****Kith'rak Voss: 'Lae'zel.' Proud. Regal, even.
****Kith'rak Voss: You will call me Jhe'stil Kith'rak.
****Lae'zel: Voss, Knight Supreme. The queen's silver, the queen's sword.
****Kith'rak Voss: I am who you say.
****Kith'rak Voss: A ghaik vessel has fallen from the sky, Lae'zel. Thieves aboard have taken a weapon most precious.
****Kith'rak Voss: Take word to your creche. You are to join our search.
****Kith'rak Voss: Speak up, child. Affirm your mandate.
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*******Lae'zel: You honour me with this duty, Kith'rak. I shall alert my caretaker with haste.
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*********Narrator: *The Kith'rak nods, content with Lae'zel's answer.*
*********Kith'rak Voss: You serve your queen well, child. Take your slaves, and hunt those who escaped the ghaik ship. They must carry the weapon.
*********Kith'rak Voss: I fly now to Vlaakith, our Undying Queen. She will see your faith rewarded in this plane and ours.
*********Kith'rak Voss: Qudenos - to the sky!
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********Kith'rak Voss: Lae'zel. Child. Your lies sting. Has Vlaakith not demanded better?
********Lae'zel: Vlaakith demands my purity, Kith'rak. I was infected aboard a ghaik ship. By protocol you must aid me.
********Kith'rak Voss: You were on the nautiloid? Then you are a ghaik wearing githyanki skin.
********Kith'rak Voss: Bend your head for the sword.
********Lae'zel: I have done no wrong, Kith'rak.
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******Kith'rak Voss: Our thieves come forth, Baretha. Did you imagine such fortune?
******Lae'zel: Half-wit! 
******Kith'rak Voss: You will give us the weapon. Then you will bend your head for the sword.
******Lae'zel: I have done no wrong. Vlaakith demands my purity, Kith'rak. I was infected aboard the ghaik ship. By protocol you must aid me.
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****Lae-zel: Imbecile! Stay back! 
****Kith'rak Voss: Now, now, child - your pet means to speak. Tell me, pet: why shouldn't I run you through this instant?
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== Githyanki character ==
Kith'rak Voss: You are unknown to me, kin. Are you straight from the creche, wandering unbidden?
Kith'rak Voss: And in the company of local vermin...? Explain yourself, vin'iisk.
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**Kith'rak Voss: Tsk'va! You seek to impersonate us? To spy on us?
**Kith'rak Voss: Baretha - kill this fiend. I will hunt for the weapon elsewhere.
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**Kith'rak Voss: Insubordinate at best. A blood traitor and deserter at worst.
**Kith'rak Voss: Baretha - kill them and search the bodies. I will hunt for the weapon elsewhere.
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***Kith'rak Voss: How dilligent you are, vin'iisk. If only all our queen's warriors served with such rigour.
***Kith'rak Voss: Take them to the creche. And see about fetching reinforcements. But first, a question...
***Kith'rak Voss: We hunt a weapon, taken from the ghaik slave ship. Have you seen such an item?
***Narrator: *You suddenly feel a strange anxiety take hold - not your own, but that of the artefact you carry. Somehow, it's afraid...*
***Narrator: *You attune your mind to it. The artefact does not want to fall into the gith raiders' hands any more than it does the Absolute followers'.*
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*****Kith'rak Voss: It is polyhedric in shape, inscribed with the sacred runes of our people. It is our queen's, and she shall have it back.
*****Kith'rak Voss: Clearly you know nothing of this, vin'iisk. No matter, it will be found. Make for the creche.
*****Kith'rak Voss: And if you come across any survivors of the ghaik vessel, kill them and search them. Thoroughly.
*****Kith'rak Voss: Baretha - keep hunting. And do better. Qudenos - we fly!
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*****Kith'rak Voss: No matter. More spears will make short work of this hunt. Make for the creche.
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*****Kith'rak Voss It cannot be... You have the weapon? Someone would have reported it to me.
*****Kith'rak Voss Unless... you carried it off the ghaik ship yourself.
*****Narrator: *He begins to move his hand in a quick flurry of gestures. You realise he is casting Detect Thoughts. You feel him rummaging in your head already.*
*****Kith'rak Voss ...It is true. You were corrupted by the filthy spawn of the ghaik. Yet you still retrieved our queen's weapon.
*****Kith'rak Voss You have done well, in spite of your affliction. Allow me to reward you. Baretha?
*****Sarth Baretha: Yes, Kith'rak?
*****Kith'rak Voss Kill him/her/them. Make it swift and clean.
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***Kith'rak Voss: Your lips spill falsehoods! You have taken on the soft, cowardly ways of this world.
***Kith'rak Voss: Baretha! Rid us of this disgrace. I have to continue my hunt for the weapon.
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***Kith'rak Voss: Cunning. You will do well, vin'iisk.
***Kith'rak Voss: You will return to the creche and fetch reinforcements. But first, a question...
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Kith'rak Voss: Explain yourself, vin'iisk.
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***Kith'rak Voss: Curious. Most coming from the creche would come across this bridge behind me. You did not...
***Kith'rak Voss: ...but I suppose you are young and untested. This world can be confounding to navigate.
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***Kith'rak Voss: Lies. You speak like the vermin from this wretched world. What are you, a deserter?
***Kith'rak Voss: No matter. Baretha! This one is no kin to us. Kill him/her/them. I will continue searching for the weapon.
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***Kith'rak Voss: Ha! Your tongue is sharp - good. The creche's hatchlings have not been compromised by this meek, wretched world.
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***Kith'rak Voss: There is no conviction in your voice. What are you? A deserter? A traitor?
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== Trivial changes ==
*If Shadowheart is in the party, she will appear to become nervous when the artifact is mentioned. These changes do not change any outcomes.
*A passive Perception check is made when Voss flies away and Lae'zel is present. It doesn't change any outcomes, but insinuates that he was lying about returning to Vlaakith, hinting at his true allegiances.
== Footnotes ==