Patia Orb Knowledge

TRAVIS (CERRIT): "I would like to get your eyes on this room, the body. You have the knowledge of the arcane that I do not. I would like to also go back to my offices at Cloudstone, reexamine Vespin's room, his items, see if there was anything else that we missed and maybe I can bring those items to not just the bow, but perhaps something we didn't pay close enough attention to."
AABRIA (LAERRYN): "Okay. I'll help you however I can."
TRAVIS (CERRIT): Can I lead them over to the room, and ask for a guard.
BRENNAN: You go to the room. You guys can absolutely just get a guard posted to this room.
LUIS: Oh yeah.
BRENNAN: Patia has people that can be posted up. You guys enter into the room, see this dead body, see the cracked mirror. You may roll arcana, you may roll history, you may roll perception, investigation, whatever you want to roll. The best results will come from a religion check.
LUIS: Great.
AABRIA: Cool.
LOU: A plus 3?
MARISHA: Is this all of us?
BRENNAN: All of you. You're all in the room, you can all roll.
TRAVIS (CERRIT): "Also, just saying, handled that with just a melee weapon. I didn't need any [trilling], you know."
LUIS (ZERXUS): I just rolled a natural 20 for my religion check.
LOU: First the speech, then the roll.
TRAVIS: Let's go, let's go! Magic fingers, here we go.
LUIS: Pally-daddy! Thanks, Kyle.
BRENNAN: Hold on just a sec here.
LOU: So do the rest of us need to roll anything?
MARISHA: Yeah, I know.
LOU: Or can we just coast on that? Can we just coast on that nat 20? LUIS: I mean, it's a 25.
TRAVIS: I mean, if you want to do an animal handling check or something.
LOU: Let's ride that! Save the rolls.
AABRIA (LAERRYN): I just want to admire the wet work like, ooh, aah, right across the neck.
BRENNAN: A million percent. So-
MARISHA: Oh god, oh god, fire.
LOU: Oh god, no.
TRAVIS: Too tired.
BRENNAN: So, you all enter the room. Everyone starts looking. There's stuff to glean here, you can read some of this Infernal, the mages of this place can find different stuff. Zerxus, orange irises and bloodshot eyes. You look into the eyes of a dead man. Runes everywhere, you hear in your mind- It's not a comforting feeling. Nobody likes to feel like they're dreaming when they're wide awake.
"Ghor Dranas."
MARISHA: Fucking Ghor Dranas again.
BRENNAN: You see the Infernal on his body and you see the exposed injury. You're a healer.
LUIS (ZERXUS): I am.
BRENNAN: You know you have Lay on Hands, You know-
LUIS (ZERXUS): Yes.
BRENNAN: You're one of the only people that can cure disease. So you know that if this man was still alive, that his body would be riddled with tumorous growths all throughout. They're coming from the things that he has carved into his flesh, Infernal runes. Clerics have fallen out of vogue here in Avalir. What does it mean to draw power from a deity? It's complicated. What is the clerical version of a wizard's study? We all know that clerics draw their power from their gods, but if the gods want power, why wouldn't they just grant their most powerful spells to any and all of their followers? Why are some clerics stronger than others? It's not arcana, it's not history, it's their wisdom. As clerics grow in a deeper understanding of the facet of reality manifested by their deity, they become more aware and attuned to those forces within the world, and can wield greater magics. There is a limit to what is safe to grant a follower.
But now, what if you weren't worried about keeping your followers safe? You look into this man's eyes and a term floods into your mind. It's a term in Infernal. It means puppet. It's a human so devoted to you that it's not even worth magically dominating them or charming them anymore. They just let you into their soul. And the word is K'nauth. It's a word that hasn't been spoken on Exandria since the foundations of this world. The man you are looking at became a cleric of a Betrayer. And he became a cleric of a Betrayer, looking at the speed of these growths, maybe a little over two weeks ago. What would you do if you came back to the world after a long time away and nobody worshiped you, and you needed to make some moves real quick? This is a mortal man that was forced to understand things that he was not ready for, because his master didn't need a servant, he just needed a puppet.
AABRIA: Oh my god. Love a Betrayer.
LUIS (ZERXUS): Wow... As Zerxus is processing all of this and seeing the wasted person devoted to who he was following, and consumed by that devotion that was taken advantage of, he just kneels and traces the wounds with his finger, and just spends a moment on those tumors, and takes a closer look. Is there anything about that? Nothing is more familiar to me beyond what's been described. I've not seen this like this before.
BRENNAN: This is all unfamiliar.
LUIS (ZERXUS): I'm going to point out the runes to those that are of an arcane understanding. I don't know if it's worth copying them down or understanding them better, but this is what I see has happened here, and I explain to them what I saw.
MARISHA (PATIA): I've already copied them down, and you see-
AABRIA: Ooh, the note taking.
MARISHA (PATIA): -thin, yes. Thin wisps of light pour out of the runes, and into the orb that is constantly floating around Patia.

Episode 2 - Bitterness and Dread - 1:47:07