Interrogation

JP with Hunter, Voah and Cagliostro

The Arbiter used the wet sleeve of her overcoat to wipe her face leaving streaks of dirt down her cheeks and around her eyes. She then walked over to the man’s feet and removed his muddy boots and dirty socks. When they were exposed she found a stack of parchment and set one piece between his legs for the moment. This process got the man’s attention.

Once he was looking at her, Voah pulled out her sword which had previously been hidden beneath the long coat. She began circling the table slowly staring intently at the bright blade in the lamp lit room as if reading it. Then she looked at Emmen Blank and back at the blade. She closed her eyes and began to hum. This was a sort of strange tradition she allowed herself when she knew she had someone. It helped her focus and it was somewhat intimidating to others as they had no idea what she was doing. There were superstitions and rumors about Inquisitors that the general population didn’t know were fact or myth and she used that.

When she opened her eyes again she continued switching her gaze from Emmen Blank back at her sword like it was having a silent conversation with her. When the man looked away, she would adjust her position around the table until she met his gaze again. This was one of her other tactics. Make people think you can read them or at the very least make them uncomfortable. It often got people to talk before she did.

This man was having none of it so she asked Hunter to move out of the way and she stood right over the man’s head and put her hand over his face gently, closing her eyes while continuing to hum her little hymn.

“Are you Emmen? Emmen Blank?” she asked mysteriously. She moved her hand off of his face and met his gaze again. His eyes were wide but he refused to look at her or say a word.

“Emmen, this is going to hurt.” she said very matter of fact. “Hunter.” Then she nodded to the paper and made a slight cutting motion with her sword as if to say, ‘you know what to do.’

"Yes!!!! What in Zin's name are you doing???' screamed the man, recoiling at the sharp pain of the paper cut.

Hunter remained speechless and emotionless after giving Blank a paper cut. He was curious which direction Voah was going to go with this interrogation.

She chose to ignore the man's call for Zinheim for now until he gave her what she wanted.

"Very good, Emmen. If you continue to cooperate there will be no more of that. Tell me lies or refuse to speak... and I have no choice."

Glancing around the shelves of the workshop, Voah found a series of tiny hourglasses used as short timers for cooking or alchemy experimentation. She grabbed the small one labeled 1 minute.

"Now let's start with your employment."

She knew he was a sailor by trade, a dock hand, and a general laborer, but she wanted to see how he reacted to a different answer.

"You repair and careen ships for a living... isn't that correct?"

She turned over the hourglass and the fine grains began to funnel down from top to bottom.

Nicolaus placed a cup of tea within easy reach of the two then moved back to watch events unfold.

"What? No. You have the wrong man." He said struggling against his restains. "HELP ME!!!! HELP!!!!" He started to scream at top of his lungs.

"I see... What is it that you do for a living, Master Blank?" Voah asked pretending to be surprised.

The man was obviously scared and afraid but slowly regained some of his composure despite his predictment. He now realized who was addressing him, as the fog cleared from his mind.

"Screw you..." He cursed and closed his mouth. He could tell what this was about now.

"Unfortunate..." she sighed and nodded at Hunter again.

Hunter took Voah’s nod as a cue and proceeded to move the paper to the next toe webbing and quickly gave Blank another nasty paper cut. He looked at Voah to see her response. She didn’t react.

The man grunted but kept his mouth shut. They all got the feeling that paper cuts wouldn't cut it any longer.

Seeing the lack of response from the cultist, Voah knew it was time to ramp things up a little. She would have her answers.

"Lemon juice, vinegar or the hottest pepper you have please." she said with some authority to Cagliostro.

Moments later, Emmen Blank's head was in a vice staring at the ceiling. Voah asked Cagliostro to setup a dropper system elevated above the man's face. It was filled with a liquid concoction that would offer a lingering, burning pain to his eyes, nose or mouth, as well as the small, sword shaped laceration she was about to cut into his forehead.

Her intent was to slowly annoy him for the next 20 minutes with random drops of stinging liquid in his open wounds without speaking. If that didn't work she would throttle him to the point of passing out so the pain would quell and then come rushing back as she removed the pressure of her thumbs from his the arteries in his neck. Make him think he was dying, then relent. If these techniques failed her, she would give over to Hunter as she fancied mind torture over mutilation.

Hunter offered up his knowledge of pressure point torture with needles, which Cagliostro had. Voah could hardly disagree with this interesting method and was intrigued to learn.

As Voah and Nicolaus prepared the water torture, Hunter pulled out a small knife and sliced open the leggings on Blank's pants to expose his legs.

Nicolaus breathed in the aroma from the tea, clearing his head and took a small sip. "If I may, you mentioned earlier a need to act quickly, what exactly do you need to know so pressingly?" he remarked as he placed the delicate cup carefully on a table and began organizing the elaborate system they had requested.

Voah motioned Cagliostro to talk with her outside the room.

“Anyone in enough pain and pressure will eventually confess. What I need is truth and that doesn’t come as easy. I need to know that he is the one who committed the murder aboard the Hogue. More importantly, I need to know who the cult is targeting, if they have taken their target and where their sacrifice will take place. Undoubtedly their leader will be there but I don’t think all of their followers will be… Otherwise I would have waited and followed him to the place they intend to conduct their ritual… Why do you ask? Did you have some other methods of extraction in mind?”

Nicolaus thought for a moment. "Arbiter, I do." He replied with a grin.

The Arbiter let the cultist sweat as she twisted the spigot of the dropper. She faced the man in his vice.

“You will talk… By the Pillars… you will.”

Then she left him as the dripping started and she took tea. Hunter began inserting the needles a centimeter into some rather painful nerve endings. Blank was quickly overwhelmed by the pain in his body as the water began to drip on his forehead. A strong man would only last an hour under this level of stress, but Blank would be lucky to make it thirty minutes.

When the Arbiter got her answers, she quickly put the man out of his misery.