Voss/Transcript

Kith'rak Voss interrogates the party.

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 event 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?

• Player: DC 15 Sleight of Hand check - Silently hold his stare and discreetly prepare to attack
  • (If you pass the check)
    • 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.
      • Player: I'll help if I can.
        • 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.*
          • Player: Do nothing
            • 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)
          • Player: DC 10 Arcana check Silently interpret the meaning of the gestures.
            • (If you pass the check)
              • Narrator: *You realize he's casting Detect Thoughts.*
                • Player: Wisdom saving throw Resist the probing into your mind.
                  • (If you pass the check)
                    • Kith'rak Voss: Bah! Nothing even approaching a useful thought in that skull. I ought to just kill you...
                      • Player: DC 15 Persuasion check - I could help if you let me live - search for this weapon, perhaps.
                        • (If you pass the check)
                          • 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.  +1 +1. Charlatan backgrounds are inspired.)
                        • (If you fail the check)
                          • Kith'rak Voss: Help? Absurd. You're already a hindrance, wasting my time.
                          • (See above)
                      • Player: DC 15 Intimidation check - Why are you hesitating, then? Try it, I dare you.
                        • (If you pass the check)
                          • 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.
                          • (See above)
                        • (If you fail the check)
                          • Kith'rak Voss: Killing vermin requires no daring.
                          • (See above)
                      • Player: [BARBARIAN] Advantage DC 15 Intimidation check - Give it a try. I'm hungry for a little fun.
                        • (If you pass the check)
                          • (See above)
                        • (If you fail the check)
                          • (See above)
                      • Player: DC 15 Persuasion check You ought to just leave. You've no right to decide my fate.
                        • (If you pass the check)
                          • Kith'rak Voss: My blade is my right. If I can take your life, it is mine. But perhaps you have other uses...
                          • (See above)
                        • (If you fail the check)
                          • Kith'rak Voss: I have every right. I am strong, you are weak.
                          • (See above)
                      • Player: [OATH OF THE ANCIENTS] DC 15 Persuasion check You must've seen my knowledge of these ancient lands. I could be of use to you.
                        • (If you pass the check)
                          • (See above)
                        • (If you fail the check)
                          • (See above)
                      • Player: [ROGUE] (No check) A corpse is useless. But a living informant might unearth something.
                        • 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.
                        • (See above)
                      • Player: Attack
                        • You chose violence.
          • Player: [WIZARD]/[WARLOCK]/[SORCERER] Wisdom saving throw - He is casting Detect Thoughts - steel your mind to resist it
            • (If you pass the check)
              • (See above)
            • (If you fail the check)
              • (seeabove)
          • Player: Attack.
            • You chose violence.
      • Player: You'll need to start from the beginning - what is this weapon you're after?
        • Kith'rak Voss: Do not speak. Your bleating offends my ears. Just stand still...
        • (See above)}
      • Player: Produce the artefact. Ask if this is what he seeks.
        • 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.
        • (See above)
      • Player: I might know something. But it'll cost you.
        • Kith'rak Voss: You haggle with your own life, fool. Be silent and hold still...
        • (See above)
  • (If you fail the check)
    • Kith'rak Voss: You think I don't see that pathetic fumbling?
      • (See above)
• Player: DC 10 Insight check - You would've done so already if you didn't want something from me first.
• Player: DC 15 Intimidation check - I just want passage - if I have to go through you, so be it.
  • (If you pass the check)
    • 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?
    • (See above)
  • (If you fail the check)
    • 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.
    • (See above)
• Player: [BARBARIAN] DC 18 Intimidation check You'd sprain your wrist trying.
  • (If you pass the check)
    • Kith'rak Voss: Senseless creature - I don't want to dull my blade on your overly thick skull.
    • (See above)
  • (If you fail the check)
    • (See above)
• Player: DC 15 Persuasion check I don't know you, I pose no threat.
  • (If you pass the check)
    • 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.
    • (See above)
  • (If you fail the check)
• Player: [FIGHTER]/[RANGER] Try it - let's see who walks away alive.
  • (See above)
• Player: [ROGUE] Claim you're an important person. A valuable hostage - or ally.
  • 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.
  • (See above)

As Lae'zel

(Lae'zel's conversation, if approaches the Gith as a Companion without any other party members around, is a direct route to combat.)

• 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.
  • (If Lae'zel is not the Avatar and approached Voss as a member of the party)
    • 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)
  • (If Lae'zel is not the Avatar and left the party, running ahead to approach Voss, or if she approaches as a Companion with other party members nearby.)
    • Player: Nod to Lae'zel Go ahead.
       +1 +10
      • 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.
        • Player: Mouth a silent command to Lae'zel: 'truth'.
          • (See above)
        • Player: DC 10 Persuasion check Mouth a silent command to Lae'zel: 'play along'.
          • (If you pass the check)
            • Lae'zel: You honour me with this duty, Kith'rak. I shall alert my caretaker with haste.
            • (The player avatar rolls a passive DC 12 Deception check)
              • (If you pass the check)
                • 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!
                • (See above)
            • (If you fail the check)
              • 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.
              • (See above)
          • (If you fail the check)
            • (See above)
        • Player: Produce the odd artefact. You're looking for this, I take it?
          • Kith'rak Voss: Our thieves come forth, Baretha. Did you imagine such fortune?
          • Lae'zel: Half-wit!  -4
          • 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.
          • (See above)
        • Player: I have my own mandate. Time to die, gith.
          • You chose violence.

• • • Player: I will be speaking on her behalf, gith.
      • Lae-zel: Imbecile! Stay back!  -1  +1  -5
      • Kith'rak Voss: Now, now, child - your pet means to speak. Tell me, pet: why shouldn't I run you through this instant?
      • (See above)

Githyanki character

Kith'rak Voss: You are unknown to me, kin. Are you straight from the creche, wandering unbidden?

(If approaching with other non-Gith party members)

Kith'rak Voss: And in the company of local vermin...? Explain yourself, vin'iisk.

• (If using  Disguise Self) Player: Honestly? I'm not really a gith.
  • 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.
  • (See above)
• Player: These are my comrades. I will not stoop to explain my choice of company
  • 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.
  • (See above)
• Player: DC 15 Deception check These are my prisoners. I intend to bring them to the creche for interrogation.
  • (If you pass the check)
    • 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'.*
      • Player: I need to know more. What is its appearance? Its purpose?
        • 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!
        • (See above)
      • Player: I don't know of such a weapon.
        • Kith'rak Voss: No matter. More spears will make short work of this hunt. Make for the creche.
        • (See above)
      • Player: Produce the artefact. Ask him if this is what he seeks.
        • 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.
        • (See above)
  • (If you fail the check)
    • 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.
    • (See above)
• Player: DC 15 Performance check These are local guides. I'll get rid of them once they cease to be useful.
  • (If you pass the check)
    • 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...
    • (See above)
  • (If you fail the check)
    • (See above)
• Player: Attack.
  • You chose violence.

(If approaching alone with only Gith party members or alone)

Kith'rak Voss: Explain yourself, vin'iisk.

• (If using  Disguise Self) Player: Honestly? I'm not really a gith.
  • (See above)
• Player: DC 15 Deception check Play along as a gith. Say you're indeed from the creche.
  • (If you pass the check)
    • 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.
    • (See above)
  • (If you fail the check)
    • 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.
    • (See above)
• Player: Performance check Impersonate a fierce gith and refuse him any explanation.
  • (If you pass the check)
    • Kith'rak Voss: Ha! Your tongue is sharp - good. The creche's hatchlings have not been compromised by this meek, wretched world.
    • (See above)
  • (If you fail the check)
    • Kith'rak Voss: There is no conviction in your voice. What are you? A deserter? A traitor?
    • (See above)
• Player: Attack.
  • You chose violence.

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.