Chapter 48
As the darkness became more apparent, the fennec fox girl pulled out her driftglobe to light the way. Soon, the party reached the east gate and reported what they found out. By then, the apprentice had woken up and tried chanting a spell, but Polka smacked her with her portable cask and knocked her out again. After turning her over, they headed straight for the guild office, hoping to find out where they could arrange for lodgings for the night.
Thankfully, it was still open and Reine was still there, who greeted them, "Hello! Welcome back. Did you complete the request?"
As Lamy wrote down what happened, Nene asked, "Do you have housing here? Or if not, any good inns or taverns for food and lodging?"
"Ah! I see. Well, we actually do have housing," stated the peacock girl, "Just walk down the street and you'll see the sign for the Guild Dorms. It isn't a big one and there are only several small rooms. As for food, the tavern across the dorms should do. It's called the Chicken's Delight. Unfortunately, no chicken dishes. They serve great lamb though."
"Wow, thanks!" exclaimed the lore bard happily.
After the report was handed in, they said their goodbyes and headed straight for the dorms. It was a two-story building owned by a fox boy who introduced himself as Isaac. After picking out their rooms, they went to the tavern to take their dinner. They, as in Lamy and Polka, discovered that not only did they have great lamb dishes but also tasty spiced mead. By the time they left, the half-snow elf had taken a bit too much of the mead and the fennec fox girl had to help her back to the dorms.
"Welcome back. Had a bit too much, I see," Issac greeted jovially as they stepped through the doorway.
"You get used to it," stated Botan with a grin.
"Unfortunately," quipped the red-faced monk as the red-faced cleric let out an uncharacteristic burp, "She likes drinking and she always ends up like this. And I'm the one who's supposed to be the drinker."
"But you do it for training and toughening your stomach," pointed out Aloe.
"Well… maybe she's stressed out and this is how she lets go," he suggested with a shrug, "Anyway, I'll bring a spittoon for her to throw up in."
"Thanks for the help," said Nene gratefully.
The next day, after completing their morning routine, the party went to the guild office again. Reine greeted them with a welcoming smile.
"Well, what will it be today?" she asked, "Will you be taking another request?"
Glancing at the board, which already had a few members looking over it already, Nene stated, "Well, we'll let them take their pick first. We can wait."
"Oh, that's very considerate of you," she praised them.
They moved off to the side to wait for the adventurers to disperse. However, a few minutes later, a heavily armored man stepped inside the office and made his way to the counter. After a whispered conversation between him and the peacock princess, he moved on to talk with them.
"Hello, I am Quin, head of the royal guard," he introduced in a low tone, "I have received word that some wayward cult is sowing dissent in the populace. Your group is the one that brought in the bandit priest yesterday, correct?"
"Yes, we are," replied the lore bard, "Do you need any help from us?"
"Perhaps," he answered with a nod, "From our interrogations, they have been using the unhappiness of the populace to form bandit groups all over the kingdom. Interestingly enough, we also discovered where the leader of the cult, Nislak is hiding. We wish to have you go in and cut the head of the snake."
They blinked in astonishment for a moment. "I don't think we have ever done this before," she admitted freely, "I'm not sure how we can do this."
"Hmm, it would be difficult then, as the guild here doesn't have anyone here who has links to any assassins," he stated with a frown.
"We can try and infiltrate the cult," suggested Aloe, "I mean, we have some acting ability, right? Maybe then, we can find out more than just taking the head."
"Yeah… maybe even find out where the other bandit groups are," supported Botan, "We can take the cult apart better that way."
"That can work," the royal guard agreed with a nod, "Hmm, but how will you begin to infiltrate the cult?"
They fell silent, trying to figure out how to go about it. Then, Polka smiled, "Sir Quin, how do you feel about a jailbreak?"
Stunned, he demanded calmly, "Explain."
"We can pretend to save the bandit priest. Then, she can take us to their base and leader," she explained.
"Ooh, tricky. I like," cooed the succubus.
"But she saw our faces," stated Nene with a frown, "I'm pretty sure there is no way she will follow us, of all people."
"Hmm, but she didn't see Lamy and Botan," pointed out the monk with a grin.
Said two looked at each other and said incredulously, "You want us to break her out?"
"Yup!" she stated confidently, "We can follow sneakily to their base."
"I refuse."
The royal guard captain glared at the monk sternly as he stood tall, "I will not allow any jailbreaks to occur in my city, sanctioned or otherwise."
"Hng, that goes out the window," she muttered dejectedly.
"Not to mention they… wait, did the bandits from yesterday get apprehended yet?" asked the lore bard.
"A squad was sent out this morning," he stated, "They have not returned yet."
"I was thinking that if they were taken in, so they couldn't join up with another bandit group and tell anyone else about us," she reasoned, "Then, we can find another group who doesn't know us and maybe… persuade them to bring us to their leader."
"Hmm, that is a valid plan," he stated with a nod, "Very well, perhaps think of other backup plans in the meantime. I shall send word to you when the squad returns."
With that, he turned around and left the building. By then, the adventurers crowding around the bulletin board had cleared up, leaving several requests behind. However, all those were disregarded. They had something larger given to them and they had to do something about it.
Later, the party received word from the captain that the squad had returned. Unfortunately, not all the bandits survived. They had a conjurer with them that lost control of their fire elemental that burned half their number to death. The rest were rounded up after banishing the elemental and thrown in the lockup. After getting that confirmation, they went back to the board and picked up the first bandit extermination request they saw. Having done so, they got ready and left. Heading out the west gate, they headed west in the direction of the next town where there were supposed to be a bandit group.
They made sure to look a little more shabbily dressed. They left their money and other monetary valuables they didn't need to bring along with them with Reine, who was filled in with what was happening. Most of their things were easily hidden either in their pack or in plain sight, except Lamy, who wore a loose robe and hid her chuul shield on her back under it. It didn't take long for them to encounter a rather strange sight. A broken statue was on the ground, the arms and legs missing. Ahead of it were a hand and a leg. They followed the trail of broken parts and came across a wrecked carriage that had the door ripped off with two more statues on either side of the door.
"Looks like the carriage was attacked by the bandits," muttered Botan.
"Hmm, that means most of the stuff has been picked off already," muttered Aloe, "But maybe there's stuff they might have missed." She then tossed her pack on the ground and declared, "Wait for me. I'm going in to search the place."
"I doubt you'd find anything that the bandits haven't already found, Aloe," said Polka as the succubus headed straight for the open door.
"Hey, no harm checking, right?" she replied, looking into the darkened insides of the carriage, "What could go wrong?"
Suddenly, two pairs of glowing pale green eyes showed up inside the dark interior. Two roars and a scream later, the rest were drawn to the carriage, packs dropped and weapons drawn.
"Basilisk!" Aloe screamed, feeling her limbs grow heavy and stiff as she averted her eyes. She grit her teeth as she did her best to try and overcome the petrification effect.
"I got you!" shouted Nene before she ran forward and pulled her away.
"Thanks, Nene," she said gratefully as she slowly got some feeling back in her limbs, "Don't look them in the eyes. You don't want to know how that feels." She then shouted in pain as the monsters came lumbering out and bit her in the legs. They had green, leathery skin with dark purplish spines running along their back and eight legs.
"Here I am!" exclaimed Polka as she appeared next to her with her eyes closed.
That didn't work all that well as she just flailed around blindly without hitting a thing. On the other hand, Lamy's magic and Botan's arrows fared better once they put some distance as they focused all their attention on one. With them attacking from range while the others ran interference, they quickly cut down the basilisks with ease.
After the battle was done, Aloe vomited off to the side. Even if the fire in her veins felt numbed off, she could still feel that sickening feeling in her stomach.
"Are you alright?" asked the lore bard as she rubbed the succubus on the back.
"Wonderful, actually," she snarked as she wiped her mouth. She straightened up and pat herself down, then looked over to what the others were doing.
"Wait a bit," said the monk as she took out her jar of ointment and rubbed her legs down while the cleric cast a healing spell on her.
Meanwhile, the archer was busy examining the basilisk bodies. "Hng, can I borrow a dagger?" she asked the succubus without taking her eye off the bodies.
"Why?"
"I want to take out their eyes," she requested.
"...What?" deadpanned the latter.
"I heard from my shaman that some eyes have powers after death. I was thinking maybe we can dig out the basilisk eyes and keep them just in case," the former explained.
"Makes sense," quipped Polka.
"...You wipe them before you give them back," the succubus muttered as she handed over one of her daggers.
"Okay," the lion girl sounded as she dug into the skulls, trying her best to keep the eyes intact. Unfortunately, she was only able to dig out one eye without damaging it. Before handing the dagger back, she wiped it on the grass as best she could.
Aloe muttered her thanks before sheathing it. As she did so, a voice spoke up, "You seem to be capable ladies. Are you for hire?"
A figure stepped out from the treeline in front of them. They wore black robes that covered their body entirely, head covered with the hood.
"Maybe. Who are you?" asked Nene, assuming and deciding that maybe pretending to be mercenaries would be a good idea.
"Someone that wishes to free the land from oppressors," they announced as they approached, "The guards abuse their power and the nobles do nothing, even encouraging it. We must rise up and take back our land from the corruption that has infested the ruling class."
"What's in it for us?" pressed on the lore bard, "Will we be rewarded?"
"Greatly."
"Alright, I suppose we can," she stated after some thought, "How much?"
"That depends, of course, on your actions," the figure declared, "Perhaps a much more, quieter place to discuss your rates."
"Sounds good. Lead the way," she stated.
The robed figure bowed and headed into the forest. The party followed after them, wondering where they were going to go. They didn't know if they were walking into a trap or if they were just going to a nearby bandit camp. They were just trailing after this mysterious speaker. However, they suddenly stopped.
The figure then turned to them and said, "I am afraid you will have to be blindfolded. I will be bringing you to speak with my teacher."
"How do we know you aren't going to attack us when you blindfold us?" Nene demanded. Inwardly, she was a mix of nervousness and excitement. They were actually getting a chance to enter the main cultist base!
"I swear on the name of Talos, you will not be harmed before my teacher makes her offer," the figure swore as several armored bandits with black cloth strips in their hands stepped out from behind the trees.
Her eyes widened a fraction. She somewhat recognized the name. There was a story told by the shaman about a man wearing robes with three lightning bolts stitched on them. He went around, performing feats of destructive power, bathing in the blood of innocents before the adventuring party the elder was in before he became the tribe's leader killed him and stopped his rampage. From the subtle growling coming from Aloe, she must have figured it out too.
"Fine. We'll do it," she said aloud.
"You will be richly rewarded for your trouble," assured the figure as the bandits stepped forward to blindfold them.
Botan was thankful that at least they were allowed to move while hanging onto each other's shoulders while they were blindfolded. She kept her ears open for any trickery just in case though. She couldn't really tell where they were going but she could hear less and less of the sounds of the forest. It made her wonder where they were going. Then suddenly, they stopped. A few seconds later, the blindfolds were removed. To her surprise, they were in an open field, facing a modest-looking stone building that had a large hill looming behind it.
"Welcome to our place of congregation," the figure said as they pulled down their hood, revealing a wolf girl with dark brown hair, "Please, follow me."
She led the party up the stairs, the bandits dispersing and walking off. Glancing over her shoulder, she could see the treeline from far off. It looked like they were in a very large clearing. Inside, eight pillars lined the side of the hall. An engraving of three lightning bolts striking a single point was on the floor. On the far end of the hall was a wooden table flanked by two spiked braziers. There was a wooden door on opposite corners of the hall on the same side. The party reached the center of the hall before they halted.
"Please wait here while I get my teacher," the wolf girl told them before walking on ahead and going through one of the doors.
The party looked at each other nervously. They huddled around each other and discussed the situation.
"Nene, are you sure about this?" asked Aloe, "You know what we heard about this, right?"
"I'm sure. Just leave the talking to me if you don't feel confident about it," assured the lore bard.
"I think just being careful should be alright," spoked up the archer. However, she did wonder if this building was it. She expected more people here, maybe tents or other buildings around here as there should be a lot more than just one person.
"Hey, maybe if she comes here alone, we can capture her," suggested Polka with a grin.
"That is a very big if," stated Lamy with a frown, "And for all we know, she brings help with her. So, please do not take unnecessary risks."
Botan's ears twitched when the door the wolf girl went in creaked and opened. The robed lady then walked out with an older-looking bear lady who was heavily armored. They made their way over to them and stood there for a moment, scrutinizing the party.
"I am Nislak, high priest of Talos. My apprentice here tells me you are capable mercenaries," she stated sonorously yet sounding motherly and welcoming at the same time.
"We are. Your apprentice said we would be paid well if we helped you," spoke up Nene as she stepped in front of the others.
"Indeed you will," confirmed the high priest of Talos, "Perhaps even instrumental in taking down the royal guard and the nobles." She then gestured, "Come. Follow me."
They followed both priests into her room. It turned out to be a study of sorts. A few tables and chairs scattered about with a set of shelves mounted on the far wall. It was illuminated by candles mounted on either side of the walls. The bear lady gripped one of the tables and moved it aside easily, revealing a ladder leading down into the darkness.
"If you would please follow my apprentice, she will lead you to my study," the high priest stated, "I shall be with you soon."
AN: Hello again, readers. Welcome back.
So, I have a feeling this is going to be ridiculously long. Having the Holo5 party infiltrate a cult is not easy. Of course, before they are able to find the cult, the cult finds them fighting off basilisks. Now, granted, at their level, it is rated easy. But, getting surprised by a basilisk, let alone two, and overcoming the petrification is no laughing matter. Lamy doesn't have greater restoration yet so a setback like this is big. Luckily, Aloe passes her Con save. And then, Botan takes their eyes. One eye. Enough for one use. Hopefully, it stays fresh. Then, the party gets brought to a high priest of Talos. So, I decided on using this particular god of destruction for the certain chaos and bloodbath his followers potentially bring. Not to mention configuring the priest and war priest stat blocks to fit a follower of Talos. This basically involves lifting some stuff from the Tempest Domain to replace some skills and spells. Interesting times.
Next chapter, Holo5 will join a cult. Thank you for reading and have a good day, dear readers.