by David M Zahn
Once inside, we decided to take seats in the back row off to one of the sides so we could keep an eye on the entrance and everyone attending the service. The chairs placed out were simple but pretty comfortable overall, which was good since I had no idea how long we'd have to sit here.
Up front near the alter, a young man in robes, perhaps seventeen or eighteen years old, was busy arranging things and setting up. This had to be the Rurir that Loren mentioned. I guess even in the fantasy world of Alderoth they had the equivalent of altar boys.
I decided that now was a great time to allocate some of my skill and stat points since I had nothing better to do unless I wanted to watch Rurir move stuff around, which I really had no interest in. If I stuck with my system of keeping a couple of points of each in the bank just in case, I had eight skill points and six stat points to allocate.
Part of me wanted to throw all six stat points into Charisma. Last time had significantly increased my spell power and damage, but ultimately, I decided I should boost my Wisdom by a couple of points. As a sorcerer, I could never have too much mana.
You are attempting to increase your Wisdom from 20 → 22. This will increase your total MP from 260 → 280. Do you wish to confirm?
Yes or No?
I confirmed the change noting that my mana was now one hundred points higher than my health. I was okay with this, because almost all of the time I felt like my MP was way more important than my HP. Maybe if I was a different class it would have been different. I guess I'll never find out.
Next, I added four more points to my Charisma which would make my spells even more powerful, in addition to making people more likely to like me. It really was the best stat as far as stats went.
You are attempting to increase your Charisma from 22 → 26. This will increase your spell potency and grant you a total increase in spell damage by +32%. Do you wish to confirm?
Yes or No?
I confirmed this change and moved on to my skills. Firstly, I was definitely going to put a couple of ranks into Disguise like I planned to back in Ithielthiel before I got distracted.
You are attempting to raise your Disguise Skill from 0 → 2. Disguise is a sub-skill of Stealth, and as a sub-skill, it can never have a level higher than its main skill. Disguise works directly in opposition to Perception. This will help you pretend to be someone or something else. This will change the following:
+0% → +10% bonus towards fooling others when you wear an unnatural outfit
+0% → +6% bonus towards fooling others into believing you are a different gender
+0% → +4% bonus towards fooling others into believing you are a different race
Do you wish to confirm?
Yes or No?
Confirming, I moved on to the next skills I wanted to put points into. I decided that Intimidate would be useful to level up, so I was going to put a couple more points into it, and while I was leveling up Charisma, sub-skill Bluff would be another good place to invest.
Lastly, I decided to put a couple more points into Linguistics, because I really wanted to learn some more languages. I couldn't stand not being able to understand it when others were talking. Already, I had Elvish and Goblin on my list of languages to learn.
You are attempting to raise your Intimidation skill from 1 → 3. This will change the following:
+5% → +15% towards a successful intimidation
Do you wish to confirm?
Yes or No?
You are attempting to raise your Bluff Skill from 0 → 2. Bluff is a sub-skill of Persuasion, and as a sub-skill, it can never have a level higher than its main skill. Bluff works directly in opposition to Sense Motive. This will help you tell successful lies and get people to believe you. This will change the following:
+0% → +10% bonus towards fooling others into believing a lie you tell
Do you wish to confirm?
Yes or No?
You are attempting to raise your Linguistics skill from 4 → 6. This will allow you to know four basic languages. You have learned 2 out of 4 possible basic languages. To learn an additional language, it will take 20 hours of study.
Do you wish to confirm?
Yes or No?
Satisfied, I accepted the changes and closed out of my menu. Now, I just had to get my hands on a couple of books to learn both Goblin and Elvish, but when I did, I'd knock them both out in no time.
Nothing else happened for the next fifteen minutes until people slowly started to file in. Some of them I recognized, like the mayor and Thomas, while others I did not. By the way they dressed, some of these newcomers were obviously farmers and craftsmen, but none made me think they were suspicious. As the half an hour mark approached, more and more people entered the temple, and surprisingly, even the mean-spirited innkeeper came in.
Finally, after the last of the townsfolk entered, Loren followed behind and began to sing something in another language as he walked down the central aisle towards the altar. The townsfolk began to sing along as well, and I was momentarily taken back in time to my childhood and being forced to sit through Catholic mass.
When Loren reached the altar, he bowed low to it and turned around and said, "Good morning Roselake. What a fine Ilethday we have today."
Several people muttered good morning in response but otherwise did nothing, and Loren began the service. Most of the first part of the service consisted of Loren reciting prayers in whatever language he had been singing when he first walked in. Then he performed a small bit of magic over the altar and made some flowers grow out of a pot. After they grew, he sacrificed them and returned them to the soil to help the next harvest.
Losing focus on what Loren was doing, I began to scan the crowd for anything that might help our investigation. No one in the crowd really stood out, unless you were counting the goblins and elves in our group. This entire town was a monolithic block of fair-skinned humans.
There was a row of fishermen in front of us that were filthy, but that was hardly a sign they were abducting people–just that they weren't very hygienic. Next to me, Tits was starting to fidget, and I could hardly blame her. Loren was droning on and on praising Ilethian for the bountiful harvest and blah blah blah.
Breathing out, I shut my eyes. This was a waste of time. Maybe after this service was over I'd be able to talk with some of the people and get a better idea of who we'd need to spend some time investigating.
My face hitting the floor with a loud smack jolted me awake. Damn, I'm definitely going to have a headache, I thought, grabbing my head and checking it for blood. I wasn't bleeding, but I definitely felt a bit groggy and dazed.
Behind me, I heard the sound of raucous laughter, and I slowly turned to see Eldertits and Rondo both hysterical. They looked like they were about to fall out of their own chairs. Fall out their chairs? Oh shit.
Climbing back up into the chair I fell asleep in, I looked around mortified. Sure enough, a large section of the temple stared at me. Guess that's what I get for dozing off during their worship. Loren even stared all the way from his position at the altar. Fuck.
After a moment, he looked away from my embarrassed face and continued, "May Ilethian watch over the harvest and continue to bless us with growth. That concludes today's service. Please, go in peace."
This was followed by a scraping of chairs as the townsfolk began to stand up and make their way for the exit. Part of me wanted to go and talk with them, but a stronger, more dominant part just wanted to disappear and hide. I sunk down in my chair and waited for all of them to file out.
When they left, I looked up and both Rurir and Loren disappeared, probably into one of the backrooms. I should really try to go apologize to Loren for that. Something tells me I didn't want to make an enemy of the priest.
"What now?" Eldertits asked.
"I'd like to go find Loren and at least apologize to him," I replied, starting to stand up.
This brought on a new bout of laughter from Rondo and Tits.
"Oh m
y god, that was priceless," Rondo said still laughing. "I mean, I was bored as hell, too. But you actually slept through at least an hour of the service before falling out of your chair and causing a commotion."
"I'm an old man, it's hard for me to stay awake sometimes," I said chagrined.
"You're physically in your twenties in this world," Rondo replied smiling. "That excuse isn't going to fly here."
"Whatever. Let's just find Loren," I said still embarrassed. "I can apologize, and then hopefully, we can ask some questions about the disappearances."
"Fine," Eldertits said as the rest of the group climbed to their feet.
Leading us towards the front of the temple, I took us past the altar and off to the left where a simple opening led into another room. This room was furnished very simply with a desk and bookcase. In the back was a closed doorway but no sign of the priest or his altar boy.
"Loren," I called, hoping the priest would respond.
He did not, and so I slowly walked towards to door, which I had initially presumed was a closet. Maybe it led to another backroom behind this backroom? Opening it revealed a surprise. A narrow stone staircase leading down into a dark basement lay behind it.
"I guess we're headed downstairs," Rondo suggested.
"Yeah, I guess so," I replied, beginning my descent.
Chapter Ten: Beneath the Temple of Ilethian
The staircase went a hell of a lot further down than I expected. We went at least twice the temple's height down before we came to the floor below. The floor was made of stone, but I couldn't see much of anything past where the little bit of light trickled in from the staircase.
Reaching into my inventory, I summoned a torch and ignited it with a touch. The light from the torch revealed we were standing in an ancient-looking hallway made entirely out of stone and dirt. Creeping plants grew all across the walls which was a bit surprising because of the lack of light down here, but maybe these plants didn't need sunlight.
"Wow, this looks old," Rondo said. "Much older than the temple above that's for sure."
"Pretty sure it's older than anything in Roselake," Eldertits said, touching one of the stones. "I think this was here long before the town."
"What could Loren and Rurir be doing down here?" I asked, still marveling at the stonework that arched across the top of the tunnel.
"I don't know," Elaria replied, "but this seems like a pretty good place to stash people away if you are abducting them."
"Yeah," I replied, "be careful."
I led us down the hallway until we reached a larger room. This room, which was also covered in dark green and purple plant life, looked like it might have once been an intersection between other rooms. The room was cylindrical and had large stone pillars every five feet shooting up to the ceiling. One of the pillars collapsed, but the rest looked to be holding steady.
There was only one way to continue forward as three tunnels off of this chamber collapsed and were blocked by a pile of stone and dirt. Looking over, I caught the two goblins inspecting the architecture, which was truly impressive.
"Iasz, do you know anything about this place?" I asked the only goblin I could communicate with.
The big nose turned towards me and said, "No, we have never seen anything like this. I can tell you it wasn't made by goblins. While my race is known for many things, our architecture isn't one of them."
"I don't think it's dwarven or dark elvish either," I said, remembering the road under the mountains and the city of Maleuhur.
"Either some ancient human civilization or something else entirely," Eldertits said, "Judging from the plant life growing all over the place, I'd say whatever made these ruins has been gone a long time."
"Let's continue on quickly," Elaria said. "There's only one way they could have gone, and I don't like this place very much."
Elaria was always more irritable than normal when we went underground, so I wasn't surprised by this. Still, I didn't want to be a dick, so I moved toward the open tunnel. As I got closer to the wall, red and purple flowers bloomed suddenly from some of the vines. They really were quite pretty. It's a shame they were down here in the dark all the time.
Glancing at one, I was just about to continue forward when a mist sprayed out from the flowers and covered our group. At first, it seemed harmless enough until I felt my throat swell up, and I began having trouble breathing. I began coughing and stumbled backward into Elaria, who was also clutching at her throat.
You have gained the status effect: Poisoned
You have gained the status effect: Suffocating
Grasping at my throat for breath, I went to the ground trying to think of a way out of this. At the same time, large purple bulbs came out from behind some of the vines and split open, revealing sharp plant-like teeth. The vines moved slowly towards our group until they began latching on to us one at a time.
One of these finally reached me and latched onto my side, easily ripping through my flesh. It felt like my insides were being sucked out, and after a moment, I realized it was slowly draining the blood out of me.
Fuck. Think Ryland. Think. Looking down, I noticed my torch and lazily swatted at the bulb vine monster with the flaming end. It screamed and let go. Good, now I just need to figure out a way to breathe. Got to get rid of this god damn status effect before I suffocate down here.
The rest of the group wasn't fairing much better than me, but I could see both Elaria and Eldertits unstoppering bottles and pouring some sort of liquid down their throats. I wish I had a potion to get rid of this pollen poison.
That's when it hit me. I'm such a goddamn idiot. I did have a way to get rid of this status effect. My new spell, Cure Disease, would be perfect for this, but it had a relatively long casting time.
Immediately, I started casting it on myself watching the charge meter slowly fill up at the top of my vision as I lay on the ground. Finally, after what felt like an age, it filled, and I cast the spell.
Spell: Cure Disease has failed, please try again.
Oh, fuck me. Come on, I thought as I coughed and began charging the spell again. This time it filled even slower, well, at least it felt like it. While I waited, I wondered which way of dying would be worse–suffocating or having my blood drank by a plant.
The green meter filled, and I unleashed the spell for a second time on myself. This time I knew it worked, because I immediately felt air rush into my lungs. Taking in all this air at once caused my body to convulse and shudder. I hacked violently. When I finally gained control of myself, I had to wipe a significant amount of drool off of the side of my chin.
Sitting up, I looked around, quickly trying to take stock of how my group was doing. Elaria and Tits were fine and administering potions to Minty and Rondo, respectively, but the goblins were still down on the ground choking. Glad to know I'm at the bottom of the save list of our friends, I thought crawling over to Iasz.
I began casting Cure Disease on the goblin while I grabbed the torch and stabbed one of the three bulbs attached to him with it. The bulb hissed and jerked back. A few seconds later, I unleashed Cure Disease on him, and blessedly, it took.
I heard the goblin began to cough, and then he rolled over and retched on the group splattering something onto one of my hands. I'm not sure what, and I'm not sure I wanted to know.
Leaving Iasz, I moved to Graard and began casting Cure Disease on him. The first time I cast the spell on him it failed which took another ten seconds off the clock. Jesus, I hope goblins are good at holding their breath, it's already been a couple of minutes.
I quickly waved the torch at a couple hovering plants while I began to cast Cure Disease on him for the second time. Even with most of our party beginning to fight back slashing at the plants, they were getting more aggressive. The initial surprise of pollen spray weakened us, and they weakened us further by draining us of some of our blood. Whatever these plants were, I knew they were predators that were very methodical in the way they killed.
&nbs
p; Finally, the ten second charge time was up, and I unleashed the spell on Graard. He sputtered and coughed while drawing in huge breaths of air, and I knew it took hold. Now that no one in the party was in danger of suffocating to death, I could fight back.
Summoning a fireball, I shot it at one of the purple bulbs and knocked it backward. It screamed and died. I was going to clear this room in no time fast. Choosing another target, I shot it with another fireball, and with a satisfying sizzle, it burst into flames.
"That's right," I said, growing in confidence, "You picked the wrong sorcerer to mess with."
One of the bulbs on my left shot towards me, intent on latching onto my chest.
"Guess you're next," I said to it as I began summoning another fireball.
You do not have enough mana to cast Lvl. 4 fireball. Total mana: 8/280. Please choose a different spell, wait for your mana to recharge, or drink a mana potion.
Oh hell, I thought as I felt its sharp little teeth rip into my flesh. I've really got to watch my mana consumption better. I burned through damn near all of it casting Cure Disease.
Using my hand that was holding the torch, I flipped it around and drove the burning point into the plant on my stomach. Hissing, it let go of me and retreated, but I hadn't done enough damage to take it out of the fight.
Looking around, I could see the rest of the group was struggling mightily with the swift little plants. Rondo, Elaria, and Eldertits were all using slashing damage against them, and it was only somewhat effective. If they actually managed to make contact with the vine, the bulbs were attached so they could sever it and kill it, but the problem was they weren't making a ton of contact, and they all had a couple of bulbs attached to them already.
