The Feral Kobold struggled against the chains holding it in place, when ArmBasher and two of the guards dragged the miserly creature to the room Allen finally got answers to a question he never would have considered.
Locking the chains to pairs of rings set in the columns and ceiling Allen counted thousands of them, running deep to the back of the shrine room, remenants from a dark and ancient past when the Conclave fought against the Feral plague without success, from the monster's struggle Allen knew it was familiar with these actions which made them part of the NPC routines for a very very long time.
The other Kobolds stood in rigid silence, "nothing will come out of this atrocity except more suffering to everyone involved", BoneSmith finally spoke, "Crystal worship and sacrifices have been banned for a hundred and fifty years", she said angrily, "and for good reasons".
Allen scanned the properties of the Feral after loading it to his compiler but couldn't find what was wrong, then he displayed Gem's attributes and it was almost the same, all except for the spoken language which in Gem's case was Draconian and in the Feral's it was Beastial, mind numb from the stupidity of it all he changed the Feral's language to Draconian and immediately recieved a flow of curses and threats in english, knowing that wasn't all there was but satisfied from the looks of shock and horror on the other Kobolds' faces he then loaded JewelSetter's properties to his compiler.
"Eat your faces and wear your hides you filthy monsters", the monster didn't realise it was understood, "release me or I will burn your toes and feast on your children's innards", was when Staffson whacked it on the back of its head with the Shaman staff, "why the fuck would you do that for you crazy bastard?" The creature asked "fuck you and everything that looks like you", its tone changed "I was having me a nice nap when you psychos dragged me over here", the words never stopped flowing "not my fault you are all too dumb to speak a real language".
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"Shut up already" JewelSetter shouted and the Feral turned its head to stare at her so fast a wave ran through the chains and back.
"What the fuck?" The creature asked in obvious shock, "you can talk now?"
JewelSetter's jaw dropped, Staffson lost its grip on the Shaman staff that cluttered to the floor, being the only sound resonating throughout the room, the guards dropped to their knees and started humming the crazy mantra Allen didn't quite listen to before, BoneSmith stared at the crystal, "what did you do", she asked in a voice filled with untold accusations, sorrow and remorse.
"What have we done", ArmBasher followed the words, emphasizing the 'we', "what have we done" she repeated and dropped to the floor, begging forgiveness for the sins of a past she will never put behind her.
"This doesn't answer anything", Allen spoke and the feral jerked looking to where the sensor array was floating, "it doesn't tell us why they turn violent", he continued, "or why others coming in contact with them become violent and speachless", he thought for a second "well it does answer the speechless part", then he fell silent and started thinking.
"Who is there?" The feral shouted, "are you an admin?" He looked around in confusion, "I just did as the system told me", he added, "I don't want to be tortured", his voice shrilled in a whine, "I didn't hack or anything", eyes drawn to the crystal, "I swear I was just sitting in my cell and didn't even speak with the others".
"Are you in the NPC program?", Allen asked, "the Neuro Psycho Correction facility" he added the full name know only to the people involved in the program, the Kobold stared hard at him before nodding, the conditioning to keep the secret was hardwired to the nerve blockers, failing to hold it was almost worse than hacking and revoked a lot of privileges, like a sweet gig in a dark cell where you didn't have to do anything for whole shifts.
The humming was grating on Allen's nerves but he didn't want to break a religious seremony so he just lowered the volume on his sensor and sank deep into his thoughts.