Scholar Feng smiled brightly. He walked past the cultists with the players following close behind. They entered a spacious temple. Cushions were scattered on the floor and a few cultists were kneeling on some of them, their heads lowered in prayer.
At the front of the temple there was a large effigy surrounded by candles. The effigy depicted a giant looking not much different from a tall human. Its lack of distinct features made one think that not even the cultists knew what their 'god' looked like.
The only outstanding point about the effigy was the red gem inlaid in its chest, which flickered ominously.
The temple was completely silent, making the party's footsteps echo conspicuously. Scholar Feng kept his bearings walking until they were hallway towards the front.
When the group came to a stop, a single cultist kneeling directly in front of the effigy slowly began moving. She stood up and turned around, presenting the group the fair face of a female elf, which was quite rare in the Western Ocean. Her melodious voice gave off a relaxing feeling:
"Scholar Feng. I have expected you. Welcome on Jailed God Island."
The players perked up, realizing that the island's name changed in the cultist leader's mouth.
"Thank you, High Priestess Efroahnol. I am glad thankful that you allow us to set foot on your beautiful island. Maybe this is the first step of a fruitful friendship."
The two NPCs entered a lengthy talk, using many words to say little of value. The players were quickly bored, looking around the temple.
Lenn was the first to walk away from the group, exploring some corners of the temple. His initiative was quickly rewarded as he actually found a treasure chest within a sideboard.
Immediately the other players gathered around him. Lenn and Braag quarrelled for a moment but eventually Lenn relented, allowing Braag to open the chest.
The dwarf had a sparkle in his eyes as the loot landed in his inventory. Seeing the two pieces of uncommon equipment he was quite satisfied, but his smile froze as one of them fitted Lenn and the other was not useful for the group at all.
Lenn let out a boisterous laugh as he took a shield from Braag's hands and equipped it. The equipment was of level 39, one level lower than him so there was no trouble in equipping it.
Even with the commotion the players caused, the NPCs were completely unimpressed continuing their negotiation. Their behaviour reassured the group. With some more courage they explored the temple further, hoping to find more chests.
Melodious Edelweiss kept her steps soft, approaching the effigy at the back of the temple. She looked it up and down. Just as she wanted to turn away, she found a book at the bottom of the effigy.
The sad story of Lekraxc?
Intrigued by the title Melodious Edelweiss looked around carefully before crouching down and taking the book in her hands. From its description she quickly learned that it was a lore book.
The young woman's eyes lit up. She had always been someone to enjoy a good story. Curious, she began browsing through the lore book.
It told the story of Lekraxc, a mighty troll shaman. He lived in a troll tribe deep in the Eastern Mountains. Due to his aggressive nature his position in the tribe was quite controversial.
Eventually, after provoking a powerful enemy, Lekraxc was expelled from the tribe with five of his most loyal subordinates. Disgraced, he wandered endlessly for a while until a human found him. Despite his small size the human proved to be quite powerful as they clashed. Convinced, Lekraxc listened to what the human had to say. It was an invitation to come to the Western Ocean.
Melodious Edelweiss was invested in the book. When a hand landed on her shoulder she shot around in shock, meeting Fortune's smiling face.
"What are you reading? Seems to be quite captivating."
"Oh... ah. It's the story of a troll."
"Can I see it? My viewers might be interested."
Melodious Edelweiss nodded lightly. She showed Fortune the lore book as she narrated the story so far. But just as she wanted to continue reading further the situation changed abruptly.
Scholar Feng had a conductive talk with the cultist leader. Listening between the lines they even got to a few agreements. But then Scholar Feng said something stupid:
"Of course, we also would like to meet your god..."
Suddenly the entire temple fell silent. The cultists slowly raised their heads staring at the scholar with frosty eyes. The high priestess's voice was brimming with fury:
"You dare to covet our god?!"
"What? No, but..."
"Unacceptable! Blasphemous! Leave!"
Scholar Feng was caught unprepared. He tried salvaging the situation:
"My apologies. I didn't..."
But at this point High Priestess Efroahnol didn't deign to listen any longer. She raised her hand and a spear of surging, dark water formed in the air in front of her. It instantly shot towards Scholar Feng, aiming right for his heart.
The scholar was shocked and couldn't react. Just as the spear was about to pierce through him, an inconspicuous ring on his hand broke apart and an invisible force surrounded Scholar Feng, blocking the attack.
"You...! Bind!"
Stopping himself from lashing out at the high priestess, Scholar Feng retaliated in kind. A magic circle appeared below Efroahnol. Magical ropes shot out of it, tying up the cultist leader.
With lips twitching in anger the scholar stared at the players, shouting loudly:
"What are you still standing around for? Help me get out!"
"Let's go!"
Liam's shout woke everyone up after being overwhelmed by the sudden change. Their quest updated as well, telling them to escort the scholar safely back to the ship.
Lenn immediately did his duty as a tank and took a central position in the room. Around him the cultists were all standing up, drawing their weapons. There were six enemies taking out staffs and one drawing two daggers while entering stealth.
"I will buy time, you can take them down one by one!"
As he said so, Lenn threw out a small metal sphere. It landed on the ground and quickly expanded, rattling and spewing steam, until it formed a vaguely humanoid figure. Knowing that his team might now be familiar with all his skills Lenn quickly gave an explanation:
"My decoy can attract all aggro for five seconds! Attack freely!"
"Hey, not bad!"
"You heard him!"
The others didn't hesitate much longer. Melodious Edelweiss gave everyone a buff while Fortune was the first to attack one of the enemies while using a swift [Inspect].
[Cultist priest of the jailed god
Rank: Common
Level: 39
HP: 26.000/26.000]
A magical sphere flew out, landing on the enemy two levels below Fortune.
[-2578!]
Fortune's expression showed her dissatisfaction with the damage. She immediately changed her tune, staring the cast for a skill.
Meanwhile the rest of the group rushed towards the priest Fortune had picked out, focusing their attacks on him.
"Hey, Lenn. Can't you get those guys to stand closer together?"
"I'm working on it!"
"As if..."
Braag grumbled unhappily. The cultist priests were scattered throughout the room. His powerful AOE skills couldn't reveal their full might like this. Thus, he was forced to attack a single priest for now.
With a loud boom his launcher shot a small bomb, which exploded on the priest's chest.
[-2269!]
The priest's body trembled but this didn't stop him from doing his holy duty. With a swing of his staff an attack landed on the decoy deployed by Lenn.
Of course, his action wouldn't intimidate the players. A moment later Liam and Quickstep reached the priest, their swords dangerously looming above the priest's neck.
Liam had great anticipation in his eyes as he swung his two unique swords for the first time.
[-2762!]
[-1381!]
Liam grinned. His damage had noticeably improved, even if one didn't consider the boost thanks to Melodious Edelweiss, beating Braag by a full five hundred points with his main hand. But his closest competition was still Quickstep, who attacked almost simultaneously.
[-2563!]
[-1281!]
With the addition of Liam and Quickstep the priest suffered heavily. After only one round of attacks his HP approached the halfway mark.
Two seconds later the first enemy was lying dead on the floor. Fortune and Braag didn't even join in on the last round of attacks, instead focusing elsewhere.
Finishing the cast of [Arcane Bolts], Fortune turned into a magical ballista, taking down one enemy almost single handedly. Another priest fell under the cooperation of Liam and Quickstep.
Just then the duration of Lenn's decoy finally ran out. The mechanical puppet suddenly began to whistle and boil like a kettle of hot water. Suddenly it unleashed a ferocious suction force.
The players were unaffected, but the cultists were helplessly drawn towards the decoy. Just as everyone expected it to explode, taking down the enemies, the decoy instead transformed back into a metal sphere, which shot towards Lenn, giving the dwarf no chance to escape.
"Ow!"
Lenn let out a cry as the sphere crashed into his chest, damaging him for a fraction of the damage the decoy endured.
[-6341!]