Quoted By:
<span class="mu-s">Results</span>
Try to pin the nature of The Abbot's "higher power": <span class="mu-s">13</span> (failure)
Try to discern The Abbot's personal motivations: <span class="mu-s">20</span> (success)
--
You stare at the Abbot closely, considering his every move. He doesn't notice, as he is preoccupied... it seems like he's almost finished the stew he's making for the mongrelfolk, which actually smells pretty good. For a madman, he's pretty talented.
Normally you find it fairly easy to pin a person's mindset. When you stayed in Waterdeep back on your travels across the Sword Coast, everybody was lying at all times. Yet everybody seemed to see through each other's lies - in a sense, it was the most honest city you had ever stayed in... except you felt like somebody had forgotten to explain the rules of the game to you. So, you had to adapt. You learned to read people, and to pick up on subtext. It's the same way you picked up your religious studies, your novice swordsmanship, and your medical knowledge, for what those things are worth.
But the Abbot's apparent motivations seem to betray what you'd expect his actual motivations to be. He acts as though his actions here in the Abbey are the most normal thing in the world. But the problem is that his actions don't seem to benefit him. He is acting selflessly, but still performing vile acts all the same. So, why? There's nothing under the surface that you can detect, no twisting of words, no dishonesty from his voice.
The only rational explanation is that the Abbot believes his heart is pure, and that his intentions are noble and good. He believes that no act he can do can possibly be bad, as he cannot be corrupted. His devotion to what he believes is holy is unnatural. It's as though he possesses no detectable human desires - he is a paragon of devotion to his twisted cause, and, save from the disturbing nature of his worship, he radiates an aura of purity that you haven't seen even in the sects that worship Kossuth. Why?
"It sounds like your... purity, comes with strict rules that must be enforced to satisfy the gods who watch this Abbey," you say.
He nods solemnly. "I must do what I was sent here for: to lift corruption from this valley. I am just doing my job, nothing more."
"I would like to respect the sanctity of this Abbey too, but... as is the nature of mankind, I am not perfect, and I sin. If you could maybe just... give me a list of things NOT to do, so that I can avoid the death penalty, that would help me!"
(cont.)
