Unwilling Eldritch Horror of Fortune

The four of us left the conference room with our individual tasks, although all I had to do was "supervise" the lunatics, although what that really amounted to was a whole lot of nothing. We had decided to use this town hall as our base of operations for the time being, and I had the chance to walk around the place trying to find where those three cult leaders had gone. I found them in the basement after the second pass through the building, but what was notable was how efficient my friends were with their tasks.

I saw Q and Xalla scurry around the building doing things that were too complex even for my partially awakened mind to comprehend while they chatted, and true to Molly’s word, she had done a remarkable job getting this place clean in record time. She had commandeered some cultists to help out, and all of the larger pieces of debris had been cleared away.

It took me so long to find the three cult leaders because they had convened in an underground bunker, a very well-hidden one at that. I had to extend my senses past the mortal limits just to see the small imperfections of the secret entrances and pathways that these aliens had constructed. It reminded me of those strange priest holes that the Brits used to build all those centuries back.

This particular secret entrance was hidden in the middle of a random hallway, and I had to pry the loose floorboards apart to get to the underground cellar. The dimly lit passageway was barely wide enough to fit me, and I had to do my best not to get my clothes dirty by squeezing further down.

Thankfully the passageway widened up and led to a cavernous ritual room. Half a dozen senior cultists were hastily preparing for some kind of ritual while the three leaders oversaw the operation; they were drawing strange arcane symbols on the ground while scurrying around getting what appeared to me to be random items. There were some live animals, life sacrifices if I had to guess, caged in the back while various candles and faint torchlight were the only sources of illumination in the dank room.

I minimized my presence as best I could, slightly altering the perception of the small group of people so they wouldn’t get freaked out while they did whatever it was that crazed religious nutjobs did, and I waited. I waited a long time.

Whatever ritual they were planning to conduct needed a lot of preparation, and it wasn’t until almost three full hours of frenzied movement that the three leaders could even begin. Once they double-checked that everything was set up, each cult leader drank from a communal chalice and inhaled some sort of hallucinogenic. That’s when the ritual devolved into degeneracy… Let’s just say that in order to commune with some of the gods, they had to be quite physical. Honestly, what did I expect from cultists?

I got out of there after that. It looked like whatever they were doing was working since the sheer amount of energy gathered in that room increased to the point that even my mana-insensitive body could feel. I didn’t need to be there for the rest.

I was the last to arrive back at the planned meeting room, and much to my amazement, my friends and their commandeered help had managed to turn the old meeting room and its surroundings into quite a lavish reception area. Gone was the thin coating of dust and various spilled body fluids that lined the grounds, and in its place was a beautiful red carpet that lined the hallways. New paintings were hung on the clean walls, while small desks and comfortable seating arrangements were placed tastefully in the rooms and halls. Molly had even somehow gathered paintings to hang.

The old meeting room itself had undergone a complete transformation as well. The horrible desk was taken out and a smaller one that sat six took its place. More of the nice sofas lined the walls, and there was another smaller table near the entrance that held snacks and drinks for anyone to enjoy. I took one of those for myself when I made my entrance. Lastly, the rather plain and uncomfortable chairs were taken out and huge ornate wooden ones took their place.

“Damn,” I muttered as I took another bite out of the small pastry I held, “How’d you manage to do all this in three hours?”

Molly chuckled, a rare sound coming from her. “From a lifetime looking after children, Walter. You’d be surprised how often I’d have to clean up after the mess of fledgling deities, and how fast I have to do so.”

“Alice doesn’t seem like she’d do that,” I said.

Another laugh, “That’s because you weren’t there when she was unstable. Probably for the best, it was not a pretty sight...”

“But she’s fine now.”

Molly smiled, “That she is, especially if she can spend some time without me by her side. Anyway, we can talk about that later," She turned to the other girl in the room, "How is security going along?”

Xalla answered, “Everything’s set up. I’d have liked a little more time, and the limitations on what we can do without destroying this whole place are annoying, but I should know if anything tries to spy on us or sneak in.”

Q nodded, “We’re as secure as we’ll get in the short term.”

“So… we just wait?” I asked, “I don’t think the cultists will be done with their ritual for a while. Probably won’t be for a few hours.”

“Anyone care for some Xollon board games? I have Multinopoly on me.” Xalla asked with a smile, “The rules are simple even if you’ve never played before.”

“Now that’s a classic!” I smiled. “I’ve won my fair share of Multinopoly in my time and four people’s the perfect number for it as well.”

“I am quite good at games,” Molly added, “Many long years of experience. I don’t plan to lose.”

Q chuckled, “Count me in then. I’m also quite adept at that particular game. I’ll get some drinks for everyone while you set up.”

* * *

“Aw, damn it!” I grumbled in false dispair, “I swear these dice are rigged! How’d I step on Xalla’s planet again? That’s the third time in a row!”

The Xollon woman chuckled, “It’s not all about luck, Walter, and that will be 150 credits. Better pay up! Although if you can’t, you can always trade one of your properties…”

I grumbled and looked at my meager savings. I only had 400 credits left, while Xalla had amassed a small fortune. “Take your money... but just you wait, Xalla, you’re right next to five of my planets. I’ll get my money back!”

I gave my set of dice to her and waited for the good news. She had to roll over 8 in order to avoid my row of properties so those were good odds, and if she just stepped on one of them…

“And that’s an 11!” Xalla smiled in glee, “Looks like I skip your solar system and go right into the wormhole. That’s another chance card…” She picked up a paper card from the middle stack. “And I won the local lottery and get another 500 credits!”

She passed the dice to Molly.

“Never mind, the whole game is definitely rigged!” I protested with mock outrage, “Come on Molly, you’re our only hope of stopping the Xollon tycoon! Do it for the rest of us, avenge Q!”

Molly rolled her eyes but took the offered dice. "You remind me of the children when you play, Walter. I'm not sure if that's a good thing."

Q chuckled when he heard that and got us a refill of drinks. He had been eliminated from the match a few rounds ago, and there he was bragging about being quite good at this game. Then again, I was about to join him in bankruptcy soon enough.

Molly didn’t have the chance to make her roll before someone knocked on the door. I extended my senses and saw that one of the cultist leaders was standing patiently by the door. It was the large one, and he looked quite out of breath and tired, no doubt from his ritual. More images of what that would entail started to creep into my mind but I immediately flushed those thoughts out the door. No thanks, I’ve dealt with enough mental pollutants as is.

Xalla nodded and quickly put away the game pieces.

“Well, since we were interrupted, let’s just call it a draw,” I offered with a wry smile, “How about it?”

Molly rolled her eyes again. "Just like children."

“We’ll have a rematch next time,” Xalla answered, “Let’s get Big Bob and Raffiel to join as well. Have a nice board game night, it’ll be nice after all this chaos here.”

“Agreed.” I smiled, “But there's still stuff to do here." I got up and sighed. "The cultist waited long enough outside, let’s see if he’s done sending that message to that god of his”

I opened the door and gestured for the big alien to come in; he did so but just barely, choosing to stay as close to the exit as he possibly could.

“Alright,” I started, “So what’s the news?”

“There’s-”

“Wait,” Xalla interrupted with a frown, “I have to step out for a bit. There are some intruders that I need to take care of.” She turned her attention to the now fidgeting cultist, “I really hope for your sake that the interloper wasn’t sent by your god.”

Now he was sweating bullets as Xalla casually walked past him and closed the door behind her. The cult leader was now trapped with the rest of us, and judging by his body language, it was abundantly clear that the intruder was sent from his faction.

“Please continue,” I said evenly. “Don’t mind my friend, I’m sure that she’ll extract all the information from our unscheduled guest soon enough. Just tell us about your communications.”

“Right, sir,” he said, trying his best to keep his voice from wavering, “The gods have agreed to your conditions. Trakar, the god that I serve, will send a delegate to meet with you here because they cannot descend into the mortal realm without much difficulty, especially now that the planes are unstable.”

“And when is this delegate scheduled to arrive?”

“He is ready when you are, Lords.”

I nodded, “Alright, then go back and let them know that we can meet with him in… 15 minutes?” I looked at Q. “Is that enough time for Xalla to be finished?”

“More than enough.”

“Then 15 minutes it is,” I continued, “Let them know to send their delegate to this room in then.”

“I’ll let them know, sir.” the big alien said.

“Alright, you’re dismissed.”

And true to his word, the envoy for his god came right on time, not a single minute late. Xalla had returned a few minutes before that, letting us all know that the annoyance had been dealt with and safely contained. The spy that tried to come here could act as a bargaining chip later on if things don’t go our way, or as a nice gesture of peace if the local gods here were amicable to discussion. Either way, having more tools and options at our disposal was never a bad idea.

The envoy himself was an interesting individual if the cultists could be trusted. According to them, the envoy wasn’t a god or even a demigod, but acted more like a mortal avatar or conduit to the divine; it was a concession as the local deities’ ability to influence this world was severely limited. Seeing how fragile this dimension was, it wasn’t too big of a surprise that that was the case. If someone as skilled as Q had a hard time not accidentally destroying this place with a portal, then I can only imagine the destruction that someone less adept would do. It really showed just how primitive and underdeveloped this plane was.

“Welcome,” I greeted the man.

He was dressed in a fancy golden robe that I assumed had some kind of cultural or spiritual significance but was otherwise no different than the others. Then again, judging from the revertant reactions of the other locals who looked at him, maybe he was slightly different, but I still could barely tell these creatures apart.

Q stood up and nodded to the newcomer. “I was told that you serve the one known as Trakar, but can I assume that you represent all of the gods that the people here worship?”

“That is correct. I am the Avatar of Trakar but I am here on behalf of all of the True Gods,” the man said, his voice pleasant.

“Good,” Q continued, “Then we can have a proper discussion.”