Images of chaos and slaughter danced behind his eyes and, somewhere inside his mind, the Whisperer laughed.
Seventeen
“So that’s what a twelfth-level structure looks like,” Hawke muttered, looking up at the Golden Dome that rose above the central nave of the Temple of Light and filled its interior with illumination and warmth that might as well have come from the sun.
The architecture was impressive and the magical and divine power that suffused the building even more so. Hawke could feel the presence of Lumina almost to the same degree as when he’d had personal conversations with the goddess. It was all a little daunting, and he wondered what it would be like for normal visitors to the temple.
I almost feel bad to come here after killing those snipers. Good thing I changed out of my Thanatos armor.
Wearing the Death-attuned set to the temple would have probably been a bad idea. Hawke was wearing the dead gladiator’s outfit, although his status box identified him as Hawke Lightseeker, Paladin and Monster-Tamer. It still wasn’t the whole truth, but the goddess herself knew his reasons for hiding it, and since she was okay with it, he figured the local priests would be as well.
As he stepped into the cathedral-sized building, he noticed a large number of worshippers. There were no pews; people were either standing in a line in the center, or gathered around five statues of Lumina. Each sculpture wore different outfits, befitting different roles: warrior, advisor, judge, healer, revealer, and protector. The biggest crowds were around the sword-wielding warrior aspect and the shield-bearing protector one. Each statue was eight or nine feet tall and was on a pedestal that added another five feet to their height. Their features were identical, and Hawke could attest they resembled the entity he had seen. Their realism was emphasized by the fact that they were all colorfully painted, down to the purple-blue eyes and black hair on the goddess’ face.
People from all walks of life, from wealthy merchants in silk robes to common peasants in rough homespun tunics, stood or knelt before the large statues and prayed. They seemed worried or outright terrified. A line of people was formed along a carpeted path in the center; everyone there was carrying something: food, bottles of liquor or elixirs, rolls of fabric or other goods. Donations for the temple.
I probably should have brought something.
The people bearing offerings were lined out the door. It was as if they were looking to bribe the goddess, or at least her priests, to help them in their time of need. Something was going on, and Hawke doubted that it involved the Nerf Herders. Their plots were mostly aimed at the city elite; he was sure that most people in Akila knew little about the guild, let alone that it posed a threat. Whatever was happening was worse than the guild war Kaiser had kicked off by shooting Hawke in the head.
Hawke looked around for a priest. There were two of them accepting donations at the back end of the temple, but if he went there people would think he was trying to cut the line and start trouble. He’d do just that if it came to it, but fortunately he spotted acolytes – assistants to the priests, often on their way to becoming priests themselves – near every statue. He walked toward the Aspect of Justice, which had the fewest people around. The female acolyte was young, barely a teenager, and looked tired and worried, but greeted him warmly enough. As a normie, she couldn’t see Hawke’s class and level, just an armed man in body armor.
“Greetings, warrior,” she said. “Are you here for the wisdom and blessings of the Goddess of Light?”
“In a manner of speaking. I have to speak with someone in charge. I’m a servant of Lumina, and have some important news.”
Her expression wavered with a mixture of hope and fear. “Oh! Has the Goddess brought you here to deliver us from darkness?”
“Perhaps,” he said, not wanting to commit to anything until he knew more. The Realms would drop a quest on your head if you spoke too hastily, and unlike most other vows, you didn’t have to blurt out something stupid three times before you got stuck with it.
“I will tell the Rector right away,” she said and left off at a rapid pace, clearly wanting to break into a run but worried that it might be undignified.
A couple of worshipers had been close enough to hear the exchange, and they stared at Hawke with a similar mixture of emotions. What was going on? Thane Stern hadn’t mentioned any major crisis, but the Hills were like a separate city. They had sources in the rest of Akila but weren’t as connected to the local gossip network. Whatever was happening, it wasn’t official, or there would be city edicts everywhere, posted in writing and read out loud by professional Lectors who walked around acting like a primitive version of news radio.
While he waited, Hawke looked up at Lumina’s statue. The paint job made it look both lifelike and a little garish, mostly because he was used to seeing pictures of classical statues in plain stone and marble, without any paint or decoration. He wasn’t sure if painting statues was a local tradition or something that the ancients on Earth had done as well. In any case, he hoped the gods were on the job here. This place could use a little justice.
The statue’s head turned toward him and nodded.
Hawke stumbled back and almost fell on his ass, but managed to stay on his feet. The statue was back to its original position, and nobody else seemed to have noticed the gesture. Maybe he was crazy, or it was some sort of hallucination.
Why not just send me a mental email?
He frowned. The Demiurges, of course. Whoever pulled the strings of puppets like Kaiser or Laryn the Revenant must be the cause behind the situation. Hawke had a feeling he would have to get involved, since he also was an agent, or another puppet, depending on how you looked at it, of one of the Makers. In his case, whoever was pulling his strings hadn’t bothered to introduce him- or herself.
Doesn’t sound like a good deal for the puppet.
The young acolyte returned, accompanied by two men in chain mail armor, holding short halberds in their hands and wearing blue tabards with Lumina’s starburst sigil on them. Temple guards; Hawke wondered if they were there to escort him in, or toss him out.
“These men will show you to the High Priest himself,” the girl said, her eyes wide with awe. “He has been expecting you, Hawke Lightseeker.”
He’d been right. A quest was about to land on his lap, and from the looks of it, it was going to be a doozie.
Eighteen
“A great evil is rising, and no one is brave enough to stand against it,” said Secondo, High Priest of Lumina.
The obese man in the blue robes didn’t look as if he did a lot of standing at all. Even as he spoke, Secondo was popping stuffed dumplings into his mouth, although only after offering some to Hawke, who had politely declined. The prelate was an eighteenth level High Priest, which was both a title and a specialty class, but he’d either gained all his experience doing administrative or otherwise peaceful quests, or his adventuring days were long behind him. He also wasn’t acting like someone vested with the power and authority of a goddess, but more like a bureaucrat dealing with something above his level of competence.
“I will do what I can to stop it, your holiness,” Hawke replied. “I came here to speak with you about the Nerf Herder Guild and the threat they represent, but if there is a more immediate danger,
I will of course assist in defeating it.”
“The Nerf Herders! Yes, of course, they are Eternals, and the Goddess said you were one as well.”
Would be nice if the powers that be didn’t blurt out all my secrets to all and sundry.
“They indeed are a threat,” Secondo went on. “They murdered their own people if they followed any gods, unless they agreed to forswear them. Two disciples of Light abandoned their faith under compulsion, something which I learned through my connection to the Goddess. The Prefect promised to investigate, but he is now under the sway of that damnable guild. Ever since the Council of the Wise was attacked, Prefect Orelio all but kneels in front of Kinglet Wrecker, or whatever his name is.”
The High Priest popped another dumpling in his mouth and swallowed it with barely any chewing before continuing. “Even worse, they have brought strife and disorder into the city. Their paid criers turn the common people against the temples, claiming we use their alms to enrich ourselves rather than serve the faithful. They have also fanned rivalries among factions, turning minor slights into mortal insults. Intrigue and murder are rife within the city walls, even as a hidden evil gains strength.”
“What sort of evil, your holiness?”
Where is my darn quest notification, so I can get going?
“I fear that Undead have entered the city and are growing in number by preying on the citizenship.”
Sounds like what happened to Orom, back in the good old days, all of three months ago.
Secondo told the story: “A member of one of our mendicant ministry orders was among the first to suspect something was wrong. His order serves the Light by tending to the poorest among us, providing food and healing, although there never seems to be enough of either.”
Might be more if you sent a few extra priests to help, or maybe cut down on the never-ending dumpling train you’ve got there, buddy, Hawke thought, but he kept the thought to himself. It wasn’t a good time to get involved in temple politics, but he suspected that the propaganda Kaiser had been using against the priesthood contained more than a kernel of truth. Those were the best lies, after all.
“Priest Julo noticed several disappearances among those who would be missed by few or none: beggars, prostitutes, and others with few friends or patrons. He realized too many people were gone, with no word about their whereabouts. Julo sent word to the temple, went to investigate further – and went missing as well.”
That’s some reward for actually caring about people, Hawke thought. And the goddess didn’t do anything to help him.
“We alerted the City Watch seven days ago. They have done little and uncovered even less, other than the fact that such disappearances have occurred throughout the city’s poorer districts and even some of the wealthier ones, and that they appear to be connected to the great sewer network beneath the eastern side of the city.”
The western half of Akila, up until it ran into the higher ground where Dwarven Hills stood, was too close to the water table to have sewers, using canals instead. The eastern side was higher up and disposed of rainwater and human waste through underground tunnels, many of which had been abandoned or in disrepair. In other words, a perfect place to hide an army of zombies until it was time to unleash it.
The High Priest kept blathering on, but Hawke’s attention turned to the floating quest that appeared in front of him. Finally.
You have been offered a Quest: Evil Lurks Beneath the Earth, Part I
A dark force is murdering the citizens of Akila for some nefarious purpose. You have been asked to venture into the sewers and investigate.
Quest Objective: Explore the sewers until you learn the truth behind the disappearances.
Quest Rewards: 5,000 Experience, 25 gold; +250 Reputation with the Triune Goddesses; +100 Reputation with the authorities of Akila (when the deed is known). A follow-up Quest will become available.
Penalties for Failure: -300 Reputation with the Triune Goddesses.
Accept? Y/N
“I will do it,” Hawke said after the High Priest finished a much lengthier version of the quest goals and beseeched him to help in Lumina’s name. “I will head into the sewers tomorrow morning.”
Assuming I can get past Kaiser’s snipers. Which I should be able to. My enhanced stealth spells are better than their detects. Maybe I’ll pick up a couple more guns.
He couldn’t wait to take a good look at the two weapons he’d ‘liberated.’ Hopefully he would have time to examine them before he and his friends went into the sewers. Which reminded him of the main reason he had come to the temple.
“I seek to hold the Nerf Herders accountable for their crimes,” he told the High Priest. “While it is clear the danger threatening the city must be handled first, I was hoping to count on your support when it comes to dealing with them.”
Secondo nodded vigorously before eating the last dumpling. “Of course,” he said through a full mouth. “In fact, there is a guest in the temple that you should speak with, one who can be of great assistance in both matters. I’ll have him meet us here right now.”
A gesture sent an acolyte off, presumably to fetch the mysterious guest. He waited for Secondo to go on and tell him who was joining their meeting, but the High Priest apparently didn’t want to ruin the surprise, and instead had another serving of dumplings and more wine delivered to the office. Hawke suppressed a sigh, tried a dumpling – a bit too greasy for his taste, as it turned out – and willed himself to be patient. He had half a dozen things he needed to do right away, but maybe this was important.
The gray-haired man who entered the office seemed unremarkable enough. He looked like a fit man in his late forties or early fifties, clean-shaven, as was the fashion among high-class Akilans, and wearing a nice set of robes that would be fitting for a bureaucrat or merchant. There wasn’t a floating status box above his head, which normally meant he was a regular human without a Class or Vocation. Except that, as soon as Hawke set eyes on him, he felt a tingling in the back of his head that warned him that there was more to the stranger than met the eye.
Before he could activate Advanced Mana Sight and confirm his suspicions, the man smiled and spoke – in English.
“Howdy, stranger. You ain’t one of them Herder fellers, so I suppose we can be frank with each other. Or you can be Hawke and I can be Jake, if that suits you better.”
The newcomer’s status box materialized after whatever magic had hidden it was turned off:
Jake Duchamp (Human, Eternal)
Level 29 (20) Rune Lord, Wizard
Health 1,426 Mana 4,711, Endurance 1,245
“People around these parts know me as Archmage Jacobus. That’s what my floating dog tag usually says, too. Figured you might as well know my Christian name, since we’re probably going to be doing some business together, if you catch my drift.”
Hawke nodded. This was going to be a meeting he was looking forward to.
Nineteen
“What did the guy have to say?” Grognard asked after Hawke finished his story.
“We didn’t have time to go into details, yet. Only that he’s been around a long time; over two hundred years, in fact, although he claims to have arrived at the Realms in 1946, which doesn’t add up. And that he can tell us a lot more about the Realms; he’s been in a few of those before deciding to stay in this one. We mostly talked about the Nerf Herders, though.”
Jake had provided a few hints of other things as well, and promised to provide a lot more information when he came by in the morning. Hawke would confer with the powerful wizard before leading his party into the sewers, looking for Undead. Undead that could ignore powerful wards. He had a strong suspicion of
who was responsible.
First things first, though. He set on the table the two prizes he had captured earlier that day. Both guns had been lousy with traps and inscribed spells to both destroy the weapons and kill anybody who didn’t belong to the Nerf Herders and dared to touch the weapons. Hawke had dispelled all of them before storing the sniper rifle and carbine away. His Advanced Mana Sight gave him an enormous advantage when it came to using the Disarm Traps skill, which he’d raised by a couple of levels after dealing with the guns.
Mark One Dragunov Sniper Rifle (Masterwork Quality)
Level 15 item.
Damage: Armor-Piercing Round: 100-600 (Physical), 50-300 (Earth), 50-300 (Death).
Range: Short: 300 feet. Medium: 1,200 feet. Long: 6,000 feet.
Special Effects: Increases Accuracy by 30%; Increases Critical Chance by 15%, and Critical Damage by 50%. Reduces target’s Armor and Resistance levels by 30%.
Armor Value: 50 against all forms of damage. Resistance: 75% (Physical), 60% Elemental, 40% (Forces).
Durability: 443/450
Mark One Roland Assault Weapon (Masterwork Quality)
Level 15 item.
Damage: Armor-Piercing Round: 60-360 (Physical), 30-180 (Earth), 30-180 (Death).
Range: Short: 100 feet. Medium: 300 feet. Long: 600 feet.
Magazine Capacity: 7 rounds.
Special Effects: Increases Accuracy by 25%; Reduces target’s Armor Value and Resistance levels by 30%.
Armor Value: 50 against all forms of damage. Resistance: 75% (Physical), 60% Elemental, 40% (Forces).
Durability: 443/450
Both weapons looked a lot like modern rifles, but were covered in gold, silver, and jewels, like some drug lord’s idea of a Christmas present. In the Realms, however, those decorations served as the housing of a variety of spells.
Guilds at War: The LitRPG Saga Continues Page 14
