Part XVII: The Corruptions

Yusef hadn’t been kidding about how many followers he had. We’d seen only some of them before on the road to Coldharbour, when I’d made the mistake of thinking that was a lot of followers. And then, when Yusef had threatened us with retribution through setting “a thousand worshippers” upon us, I’d thought he’d meant that was the whole of his flock. But, judging by the sight before us, that would only have been some small part of it.

Beyond the calls of Coldharbour was a sea of tents, stretching if not as far as the eye could see, at least some great distance. Amidst these tents, almost everyone wore those familiar orange robes—the robes that the team were still wearing too, seeing no good reason to lose our disguises. There were merchants amongst them, and armourers, and mages, and bards, people from all walks of life, united by Yusef and his words of hope.

It had been two days since Yusef had revealed that he had Val and Arzak prisoner, and we’d spent the time trying to track them down. Lambkin’s bribed eyes and ears in the city had proven most valuable, and we’d learned quite early on that Arzak and Val were amongst the camp somewhere. But this camp was large enough that we’d needed more specifics…

Slowly, we’d unpicked the inner workings of this large mass of followers. They worked their trades as they travelled, selling their goods on the road at prices that undercut the locals, with any profit going towards supporting their church. It had taken us a moment to understand how they could afford to go so low on prices, but we’d stumbled across an interaction between the cult and a local mining guild, and… Well, to cut a long story short, the answer was intimidation. If people didn’t sell to them cheap, then who knows what might happen? It was funny how these people thought that just because they were with a Player, they could do whatever they wanted—that the rules didn’t apply to them. It infuriated me, but there wasn’t much we could do. Except kill their leader, of course.

But this couldn’t happen until we’d freed Val and Arzak, as we couldn’t have their lives hanging in the balance.

All this led to this moment, where we walked through the camp in our orange robes, doing our best to look as though we belonged. We strode with purpose, our brows furrowed, doing our best to emulate the true followers so we would blend in. Our destination was towards the outer perimeter of the camp, away from the prying eyes of the city and the Coldharbour patrols, but also away from the merchant roads into town. Out here, hidden in plain sight, the cultists could do what they wanted.

I checked the map our informant had sketched for us, before handing it again over to Lambkin. He seemed to have a far better sense of direction with this kind of thing, and I suspected it was something to do with his Ranger build. He took one look at the sketch, cast his head around, then nodded; he agreed we were heading in the right direction. I locked my eyes upon a large tent some way off, and figured that was our destination—any prisoners they had would need space to move around, at least if they were being treated right. For all Yusef’s fault, I thought he was probably above mistreating his prisoners. Or at least he considered himself above it, which played to our favour.

‘Got it,’ I said, then the others at my side—Lambkin, Corminar, Lore and the Trio, prepared themselves. We didn’t know what we’d find in the tent, if we’d need to swing into action or if we could simply walk our old friends out of there. So we had to be prepared for every eventuality.

As I approached the tent flap entrance, a woman happened to emerge from it at the same moment. She took a step back when she looked up at me and the others staring back at her. ‘...Can I help you?’ she asked.

‘The Divine Prophet sent us,’ I said, adopting the cult’s usual deference for the Player, even though it made me feel a bit sick.

‘The Divine Prophet sent you… here?’ the tiefling woman in orange replied. ‘I didn’t know he took such interest in our work?’

I could see elation behind the woman’s eyes; for all that she was sceptical of it, she really wanted to believe that Yusef took an interest in her personally. He held that much power over her.

‘Of course he does!’ Corminar said. ‘Our Divine Lord takes great interest in all of his most loyal.’ Though he wore a big smile, there was nausea behind his eyes to match mine.

‘He sent us for…’ I gestured to the tent behind her.

‘For the packages?’ she asked.

‘The…’ Corminar started, then trailed off, a bit confused.

‘You know, the packages?’ the cultist replied. ‘The ones we collected a few days back?’

‘Ah, yes,’ I said, catching on. I gave the woman a knowing wink. ‘The “packages”. We’re here for the packages.’

The worshipper stared blankly back at me, and then stood aside, granting us access to the large tent.

Inside, Corminar and I saw not prisoners, but stacks of crates, filled with fresh fruit and ironed robes. I turned back to the tiefling woman. ‘Where are they?’ I asked.

‘The packages?’ The worshipper gestured to the crates in front of us.

I nodded. ‘Ah. I think there’s been some—’

Stolen novel; please report.

‘Err, Styk?’ Lore said, poking his head between the sheets of fabric and looking around. ‘Wrong tent.’

I smiled an apology to the tiefling woman, and then Corminar followed me back out into the sun. Across the makeshift alleyway, Raelas held a flap of fabric open, revealing an array of desks inside this neighbouring tent. People in orange were bent over the desks, studying books and making notes, and I wouldn’t have thought anything of it if they hadn’t been guarded.

I poked my head in the tent, caught the eye of a guard, and then pulled back into the sun once more.

‘You see em?’ Lore asked. ‘Val and Arzak?’

‘It was crowded, but I’m pretty sure I caught a glimpse of an orc woman in there, yeah. Considering they were…’

‘Much taller?’

‘Yep.’

‘And Val?’ the big guy asked, and I could see a certain level of expectation on his face.

‘I didn’t see her.’

‘But she might have been in there?’

I shrugged. ‘I dunno. Maybe?’

‘Is this the manifestation of your awkward feelings surrounding Val, or do you sincerely, in fact, not know?’ Corminar asked.

‘I sincerely don’t know.’

‘Would you like to have another look inside?’

‘What, and tip off the guards? What do you think they’ll reckon about me poking my head in and out over and over?’

Lore raised his hand to have a go at answering. ‘Maybe that you really like the game “peek-a-boo”?’

‘I honestly don’t think that’s any better than them thinking we’re doing a prison break.’ I turned instead to the Trio, who stood there with painfully neutral expressions as this conversation unfolded.

Ama raised her hand, copying Lore. ‘So, are we doing this, or…?’

‘It pays extra, I assume?’ Carle added. Really we should have had that discussion before we’d got this far, but maybe that was part of this bartering strategy.

‘Sure,’ I told him, mostly to keep us focussed. I had no idea where the reward money for killing the Player was going to come from anyway, so what was the harm in making it a larger amount? That was a problem for another day. ‘Shall we?’

Without waiting for an answer, I flipped open the tent flap, and strode in confidently, my eyes on the people at the desk, ignoring the guards as though I wasn’t worried by their presence. I clasped my hands behind my back, as I thought that made me look more like I knew what I was doing. It must have worked, because although the guards stirred at our presence, they didn’t immediately jump to attack.

I found the orc woman in the rows of desks once more, and made my way towards her. In this low light, I couldn’t quite tell if it was indeed Arzak, but there was an easy way to find out. I made my way through the rows of desks, the rest of the team remaining at the side of the large tent. As I walked, I cast my eyes down at what these people were working on.

A man at my left was copying out one of Yusef’s speeches onto new parchment. The next prisoner along adjusted a large bracelet on her wrist before stretching her fingers and going back to copying out another speech. Was that all that was going on in here? Were they just put to work copying out Yusef’s words? Or was there more to it? Were they expected to internalise the words they were copying? Were they expected to be converted?

As I passed the next desk, a hand shot out to grab my wrist. Instinctively, I reached towards my dagger, but then I saw who’d reached out for me. A familiar face looked up from her desk, quill in her ink-stained hand.

‘...Styk?’ Val asked.

"Styk"

Level 19 Bladespinner

Base Stats:

Vitality — 50

Intelligence — 212

Dexterity — 125

Strength — 78

Wisdom — 74

Charisma — 49

Skills:

Worldbending — Level 57

Knifework — Level 41

Stealth — Level 25

Identification — Level 18

Needlework — Level 18

Abilities:

Stab III — Put your weight behind your wielded blade and force the tip through tougher hides and armour. Damage scales on [STR], increased by an additional 50%.

Execution III — Attack a target while undetected for +300% damage.

Closed Reach — Bend reality to narrow the gap between blade and target by up to 8 inches. Uses mana.

Mana-Fuelled — Passive. Optionally, use mana in place of stamina to activate Knifework abilities.

Knifestorm — Lash out at all surrounding enemies in a tornado of blades, using either one or two daggers. All enemies with arm’s reach receive physical damage worth weapon’s base damage and additional damage scaling on [STR].

Enhanced Portals — Create a portal to another location within current range of sight or within a thirty yard radius. Support up to two pairs of portals at once. Uses mana to open portals only.

Portal Slice — Passive. Portals can now be spawned within non-sentient objects. Doing so slices through all objects that are not reinforced by magic.

Tamed Portals — Passive. Increased efficiency of portal magicks means that your portal glow is reduced by 50%, making them less likely to be detected by enemies.

Ash Husk — Convert your flesh to ash, strengthening it against flame for ten minutes. Gain 50% resistance to fire attacks.

Shrill Perimeter — Create a perimeter wall of 20 foot radius, invisible to all but those adept in magicks. If an enemy crosses this perimeter, this spell releases the shriek of a banshee.

Warped Shield — Passive. If an enemy strikes you with a low-level melee weapon, Warp Shield automatically activates to open a portal that deflects this attack. You must not have any portals currently active. Uses mana on activation.

Pocket Worlds — Open and access pocket dimensions. Storage capacity of summoned pocket worlds scales with [INT] of creator.

Silence III — Create a bubble of 20 yard radius in which sound is eradicated. Uses mana to cast, zero mana to maintain. You may only have one bubble active at any one time.

Saved Portals II — Select a location to “save” for future portals. Until your save point is moved, you may always open a portal here, even if it is beyond your current Local Portal range. Mana is used only upon opening the portal.

Stealth Attack III — Passive. 200% boost to damage when unnoticed by enemy.

In Plain Sight — When activated, you have a heightened abilitiy to hide in plain sight, and are able to spot opportunities to break from combat at a higher rate. Scales on [WIS].

Gentle Step — Passive. Your footsteps are dampened on even the hardest of surfaces. Reduce noise of movement by 80%.

Stitch — Create a basic stitch in common fabrics. Ability scales on [CHA].

Improved Cloth Armour — Craft a cloth armour of significantly higher quality, dependent on materials, time and skill level.

Active Effects:

Legacy of Sisyphus:

XP gain increased by +1,400%