>>5193539You hastily replace the incriminating cache of hellish leverage, slipping out of the room without a trace and circling back so as to appear that you have come from another direction. It is then that you bump into the human you have taken to thinking of as The Androgene: the large, almost-manly-yet-faintly-feminine enforcer who served as host and avatar of this place’s master when first you visited.
“…The snakegirl,” The Androgene acknowledges you, with some suspicion. “Couldn’t sleep.”
You smile easily, and shrug. “Excccited about tomorrow, I ssuppose. My companion iss out like a ssnuffed candle, though.”
The Androgene chuckles, a sound full of forced femininity. “Maybe he’ll wake up on the not-a-total-asshole side of the bed.”
“He jusst doesssn’t trussst your bossss.” You tilt your head. “Do you?”
>16 for politesseYou watch the human’s aura and micro-expressions with interest. How total is the demon’s control of its inner circle? Not total, you’d wager—you see confidence waver, even as this human says:
“Of course. I owe The Master everything… Everything I am, and can be.”
“All carrot, no sstick?” you ask, tone and expression carefully neutral. “How unlike a demon.”
The Andogrene only shrugs. “The Master isn’t like most demons, then, maybe. The master is… More.”
“And nobody ever triess to leave? Ever tiresss of the arrangement?”
You see defensiveness rising in this human, the familiar and exploitable cognitive dissonance that comes from a believer having their own doubts thrown back in their face.
“I… We have nothing else. We’re the forgotten, abandoned, rejected. The Master isn’t some perfect flawless angel… But what have angels, or gods, or priests and Paladins ever done for someone like me, or Tetovala, or any of us?”
“Sso you’re free to leave,” you interpret, “but with nowhere to go, sso you sstay.”
The Androgene falls silent.
“What would happen if you left?” you ask.
“We can’t leave,” The Androgene says, sounding less happy about it. “We… We won’t. We wouldn’t. Look, I was just… I’ve got to go. There’s work to be done… For The Master.”
What do you do?
>Let The Androgene go, and then loot the room [specify if you take valuables, blackmail material, magic items, or all]>Offer up the cache to The Androgene, and suggest a revolt or renegotiation of terms between these humans and The Incubus>Offer and alternative pact to The Androgene, with Irinnile [specify terms]>Return to your room, and get a bit more sleep>Go find and confront The Incubus with what you’ve learned, and demand further concessions [such as?]>Write-in