Cassius stood atop the bow of the ship, his party members in varying states of alertness behind him. That morning they had received a distress call from a nearby island and the captain of the ship had agreed to make a detour.
“Hey Cassi do you think there will be any hot island chicks?” Asked Julien the party’s warlock.
“How is that a relevant question?” Cassius replied with a deadpan glare.
“Of course it’s a relevant question!” jumped in there roge who Cassius knew had been sleeping just seconds earlier. Cassius swore that girl had some sort of elven blood in her for how lightly she slept. He looked to the other two who nodded or shrugged. Before giving a sigh of defeat and saying. “I don’t know whether or not there are any attractive women.” The rogue and the warlock high fived before walking off to talk about their exploits.
It took another day and a half before they reached the island. As the ship docked the party jumped over the railings glad to finally be on solid ground. The town they entered seemed more accurately described as a large village, but there was something wrong with it. There were no people in the streets and most of the houses had boarded up windows. The group continued alone through the main dirt street until they reached the only brick building in the city. Julien quickly ran over and started knocking on the door keeping up a fast, unending flurry of knocks.
Julien had barley been knocking for more than twenty seconds before a rather plump man in silken robes answered the door. He looked around nervously before jest jesruring for them to come inside. “Hello I’m Elliot the Baron of these lands and the one that sent out the distress call.” The plump man said upon entering a large room covered on every wall with paintings. In addition to paintings the room had an excess of luxurious cushions and couches to the point one could barely move without tripping over one.
“We came as fast as we could lord Elliot. Do you mind filling us in on what exactly the emergency is and why your city looks like a ghost town?” Cassius asked biting the last few words out as he watched Julien and the rouge begin throwing themselves at the pillows. “Yes, yes I do suppose that would be helpful wouldn't it.” Elliot said with a nervous chuckle before continuing. “You see a couple weeks ago people started going missing. It started out with a person a night but it quickly escalated to the point where when we woke up this morning five people were missing and we don’t even know what’s causing it.”
“Are there any monsters on this island capable of this that you know of?” Cassius asked knowing full well that an island of this size could support little more than a small goblin village.
“No not that we know of however there must be, because at night when the screaming starts it goes inland.” The Baron said sheepishly.
“So you mean to tell us that people are going missing in the middle of the night. Not quietly mind you but flat out screaming and you haven’t sent any guards to you know…. figure out what it is?” Julien cut in. A disgusted look plastered on his face.
“Well you see we did send out guards the first few nights but they either disappeared or found nothing.” Elliot said, sounding even more sheepish.
“Well isn’t it obvious then?” Julien said standing up. “People are doing this. We all know this island isn’t nearly large enough to support a monster capable of this and if the screams go inland it’s very unlikely we are dealing with a sea creature. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out you probably have a group of people going on a killing spree.”
“Julien.” Cassius interjected with a warning tone “you don’t know that we are dealing with humans.”
“No Cassius Julien is right. It is far more likely that we are dealing with humans and the people know that too. You saw the distrust and the heavy atmosphere. People deal with monsters differently than they deal with their own.” Responded the rouge with a long sigh.
“But-“
“See Cassius Tina agrees.” Julien responded smugly.
“Yes, well it would be helpful to do some investigation. Would it be too much to ask you to point us in the direction of the screaming, lord Elliot?” Cassius said in a defeated tone.
“Yes of course. The screams head east toward the mountain.” Elliot replied.
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With that Clare the party’s cleric stepped forward “I think it may be time to take our leav. I would prefer we make progress before sun down.”
Cassius nodded and the group headed out. Julien suggested they set up camp on the mountain and wait for the screams. The rest of the party didn’t love the idea but nobody had a better one so it was decided. They would try and find a place on the mountain to set up camp.
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With the creation of its first D rank creature Sanctus decided It was time to create a new floor. After considering it for a moment it began pushing mana downwards slowly expanding its domain into the earth. It was tedious work and after a few hours of it Sanctus finally figured out that it could split its attention. It had a small part of its mind push its mana further while the majority was able to focus on the rest of its dungeon.In particular the new creature that had just swam into its dungeon. Sanctus watched as the eel swam deeper into the depths of the dungeon. With almost giddy excitement Sanctus sent its favorite octopus to go deal with it.
Speaking of the octopus it had begun toying with its victims, pulling them under water and letting them drown. It was a rather gruesome form of execution however, to the octopus it seemed to be important. With the drowning of its victims it had also started a collection that it squirreled away to a dead end tunnel it had turned into a sort of den. The cave had become almost a forest of dead bloated bodies floating in the water.
Sanctus looked at the den for a few moments before feeling the death of the eel. Sanctus considered the blueprint and decided to wait until the second floor had been developed before creating any eels. Sanctus then refocused its attention on its entrance waiting for the cult to return with new prey.
Sanctus felt the familiar feeling of souls entering its dungeon, but these were different, brighter. Sanctus looked closer at the intruders, there were five of them, a shiny blond one, a relatively small one who’s features were hidden by an embroidered cloak, a pointy eared one holding a curved stick, and two that felt similar to Sanctus’s mana yet different from each other. Sanctus watched them continue into its dungeon yet hesitated to send them to its octopus. They seemed different from the other humans that entered its depths and Sanctus didn’t want to risk putting its favorite creature in danger.
The group continued downwards until they met the first pitfall. Sanctus felt a spike of anticipation as the intruders approached the trap, however much to Sanctus’s disappointment the cloaked one stopped the group before they met the trap. Sanctus focused closer and heard the words they were saying.
“Definitely a dungeon, the trap is too seamless, it’s like the pitfall was formed naturally,” the cloaked intruder said.
“This could explain a lot. A profane dungeon capable of summoning a greater demon combined with a fanatic group on a secluded island would perfectly explain the disappearances and general sense of distrust in the city,” replied the shiny one. “We should return to the entrance and message the guild for further instructions on how to handle this.” The others seemed to agree and the group headed back the way they had come.
Sanctus cursed internally as its prey exited the dungeon. It had really wanted to kill those intruders and find out what made them bright. Alas it seemed Sanctus would have to wait for that answer. It gave a sigh of defeat before returning to the tedious project of pushing mana and waiting.
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As the group made it out of the dungeon Cassius was already pulling out his guild crystal. Cassius then threw it to Julien who began feeding it mana, this caused it to light up and flash colors for a few minutes before it suddenly projected the upper torso of a burly old man. Who then began to speak “This better be important Cassius I’m on my lunch break,”
Cassius chuckled before responding, “yes sir, it is important. We found a profane dungeon while investigating a distress call. We think there is a cult or some other form of religious fanatics that are sacrificing other people to the dungeon.”
“Yes I see, that does complicate things. Do you know what type of core it has?” Asked the old man.
“Most likely crystal possibly a very powerful metallic,” replied Cassius
“I see. That complicates things if it was weaker I would tell you to destroy it, but the possibility that it is a crystal core changes things. They are a valuable asset and if the dungeon wasn’t religious I would tell you to allow the locals to proceed with their sacrifices for the pure reason of jumpstarting its growth. However the fact that it is profane means that if we allowed a murderous cult to continue sacrificing people to it the church might feel we are showing the cult favoritism,” rambled the old man.
“So how exactly do you want us to deal with this?” Cassius asked.
“See if you can lure the cult into the dungeon. Then kill them for illegal activities. That way the church will be happy and the dungeon will benefit from their deaths.” The old man said with a bloodthirsty glint in his eyes before ending the communication.
Cassius and the other group members were not surprised about the orders they had been given. This kind of thing was not too uncommon. The guild would look for any excuse to have people die in a fledgling dungeon, after all the quicker the dungeon could be big enough to make a substantial profit off of the better. Cassius sighed before turning to Julien “see if you can’t make a psychic lure in the dungeon. We will lead the cultists as deep as possible before killing them. Remember to try and let dungeon creatures get as many kills as possible.”
Julien nodded before muttering “we better get a bonus for this,” under his breath.