With minimal effort, Roko and the gang managed to sneak into the basement of the inn through the backdoor. As Roland closed the door behind them, Helena removed her hat and let down her hair again, tossing her headwear onto a random box in the underground storeroom.
"Alright." Helena sighed, "We're in. What's next is-"
"Hey check it out." Roland chuckled as he picked up a small action figure, "It's a vintage figure of Darylan the Twin Bladed."
"Am I supposed to know who that is?" Roko frowned.
"He's a super popular legend among children." Roland explained, "He'd slay evil monsters and tyrants with his twin swords, Instant and Eternity. He went on a ton of adventures with the living cursed sword, Moment."
"Does he have any friends that aren't swords?"
"I mean...Moment has the soul of his dead girlfriend that has forgotten all about her past life, including him."
"Uh huh."
"His adventures continues on to this day but like..." Roland grimaced, "I dunno, feels kinda soulless and corporate."
"I didn't know commercialization existed in this fantasy setting." Roko smirked, "I suppose this is a pretty universal concept."
"Man, you got it too? Looks like we both got it rough. Hey, Roswell, you know about Darylan?"
"Yeah. I watch it with Melia's kid niece. I dunno, it seems fine to me."
"Nah man, you don't know about the old stuff. The old stuff is like, legendary. Like his fight with the Grudge Dragon, Grimgarl."
"Actually, Grimgarl was kinda underwhelming."
"No, not the recent Grimgarl! The old Grimgarl was-"
"Hey so how long are you going to complain about a children's show?" Helena said as she came back, "I already found the entrance to their secret base."
"It's not a children's show!" Roland objected, "Well...it's not just a children's show."
"Uh huh. Now put down that children's action figure and come with me."
"It's not a children's action figure, this is from the original Arfigure line and costs like 8000 gold!"
"And I will break it if you don't hurry up already!"
Roland quickly placed the figure back as he followed everyone else to a wooden door in the back of the room. Swinging the aged door open, the group stepped into a dimly lit room lined with caskets of wine.
"Wow." Roswell whistled, "Pretty fancy for a mediocre looking inn."
"If anyone finds the Cask of Amontillado, I call first dibs." Roko called.
"What's that?" Helena blinked.
"Wait, Roko, you drink?" Roland frowned.
"No. It was just a joke."
"I don't get it."
"You don't get a lot of things, Roland."
"Hey guys, can you grab a torch?"
Roland continued to give Roko the stink eye as he reached into his bag and pulled out a torch, lighting it and brought the torch closer to Helena as she knelt down in front of a small drainage vent.
"It's through here." Helena said as she tried to look through the darkness of the vent, "At least, that's what I was informed."
"This is a pretty small vent." Roswell noted, "There's barely enough room for anyone to fit through there. If there is anything there at all."
"Help me pull it up." Helena grunted as she grabbed the vent.
Roswell knelt down and grabbed the vent as well. Together, they pulled until the vent finally popped out, throwing the two of them to the ground as the vent clattered to the ground next to them.
"We got it!" Helena said as she crawled up to the open vent, "Give me the torch."
Roland handed her the torch and she poked it into the hole revealing its abnormal depth, deep enough to allow a person to stand within it and a passage that stretched on into the darkness.
"Looks like a hit." Helena smiled, "Let's get in there."
Without waiting for any interjections from anyone else, Helena slipped her legs down under the hole and dropped herself in. She landed in the passageway and stepped back, holding up the torch to illuminate the landing for everyone else, "Come on. There's not that much room but we can all get in if we go single file."
"Lady Helena, perhaps it would have been best if Roland or I was first?" Roswell frowned, "Just in case anybody attacks us?"
"Oh. Whoops. Oh well, no helping it now."
"'Whoops'? Is that all you have to say for yourself?" Roland sighed, "We can't even switch places with in that narrow passageway."
"Sorry, geez. Don't worry, I have my magic so I can defend myself if anything comes at us."
"We're so dead if anything comes roaring down the entire passageway." Roland grumbled.
"I get it already, but this is the only way forward! So come on. Who's next?"
"I guess one of use should go next then." Roswell said as he turned to Roland, "Just in case."
"I'll do it." Roland sighed, "She's my princess after all."
"Then Roko will go next and I'll head up the rear." Roswell nodded.
"Make sure to light a second torch so the ones in the back can see as well." Helena called.
In a few minutes, everyone managed to squeeze themselves into the secret passageway.
"Everyone in?" Helena called as Roswell landed in the drain, "Alright. Let's go."
"Good thing Corissa isn't here." Roland smiled, "With her body she would just get stuck in the drain."
"Is that right?" Roswell blinked.
"Yeah. Her giant tits and ass would just get her stuck in there." Roland laughed, "Man, I wish I could see that now."
"Hmm...Do you have any pictures of this Corissa?" Roswell asked, interested.
"Helena does on her phone."
"And I'm not showing them to you." Helena said crossly, "Now let's get going."
Helena lead the way through the passageway. There wasn't much room to move about nor a whole lot of things to distract them from the long darkness ahead of them. Quietly, Roko tried to keep track of where they were under the city and where they were going. The inn was set in the middle of the city and if he wasn't mistaken about the direction they were heading in was the royal castle…
"Oh! Look!"
Roko looked up as Helena led them out of the tunnel and into a small room. It was a really small chamber, smaller than the wine room they had started in. A few crates were set randomly around and the only real furnishing was just a simple small wooden table and chair. There was a lantern that had been left unlit and a small book on the table, the only sign of any kind of life since coming here.
"This looks like a guard room." Roswell said as they all spread out around the room, "More of a look out than a checkpoint though."
"What's really strange is that there's nobody around." Roland said as he checked around, "If this is a lookout, where is the guy looking out?"
"Maybe they're in a meeting?" Helena shrugged as she lit the lantern with her torch, "Either way, this is a big break for us. All we need to do is find where the prisoners are being kept and escape."
"We're not going to capture them?" Roland asked.
"We're here to save Melia." Helena explained, "And anyone else we can. This isn't their main base but their prison. At least, that's what I was told. Now, we need to find their cells. While there doesn't seem to by anybody around."
Taking the lamp with them, the group continued down the only other path outside the guard room. The tunnels had widened significantly, allowing them to spread out a bit more instead of staying in single file. The halls were now decorated with small torches, though they were sparse enough that the lantern was still a welcome tool. More than anything, the torches were mainly used to light up the start of many forks in their path. Signage was rare but not completely absent. They never had any words on them, mainly pictures with maybe a number to indicate multiple rooms of the same purpose but none of the ones they had come across so far definitively indicated a cell of any sort. Their search was beginning to drag on and the more irrelevant rooms and dead ends they came across the more anxious everyone started to become. The cultists were still largely absent but who knows when they would run across one. Or perhaps all of them at once. There was no place to run to and they hadn't found an exit to escape from which was almost as important as finding the cells. If they couldn't secure an exit, they might have to protect any victims they find. Despite the concerns that knowingly hung over the group, they continued to walk down the halls of this elaborate underground base until Roko spotted something down one of the halls.
"This way." Roko called, catching the group's attention.
"What? What did you find?" Helena asked as she backtracked to the hallway Roko was standing in front of.
"That."
It wasn't subtle. The wrapping of many interwoven tentacles taking over all four walls midway down a tunnel was a sight that Roko had learned to quickly associate with the eldritch monsters he has fought quite a few times now. With renewed vigor, they all traveled into the alien catacombs. Growing ever closer to their goal but also closer to where the cultists had all likely gathered. It wasn't long before they had to face one of those eventually and to everyone's relief, rows of cells came into view as they passed around a corner.
"Oh my god!" Helena cried as everyone rushed to the nearest cell.
The young woman inside was naked, shackled to the wall, dirty and limp. She was breathing so she was clearly alive but she seemed unresponsive to Roko and the group's presence. As Helena tried to get some sort of response from the girl and Roland and Roswell tried to open up the cell door, Roko looked around at the other cells. As far as he could see, there were only women trapped in the cells, all of them in similar condition to the one they observed. There was not a shred of clothing among them and they were all left in various states of disarray. None of the girls seemed aware of them nor of anything in their environment. They weren't asleep as some of them were left with their eyes open but they just stared off into nothingness, blank and glossy as if they were in a trance.
"Got it!" Roland cried as he managed to break open the cell door.
Helena rushed to the girl's side and shook her, trying to get her to respond as the two knights went to work on destroying the cuffs that kept her tied to the wall. Roko watched with a disturbing knot in his stomach, something that was a first when dealing with the eldritch. There was fear and disturbance, sometimes even anger but this was an anxious foreboding of some sort of connection or understanding that Roko has yet to make, or that his mind was too afraid to make.
Once Roland and Roswell unchained the girl from the wall, Helena hugged the poor girl tightly, gravely emphatic for her state and what she must have gone through.
"Our next priority is finding an exit." Roko finally spoke up, gathering everyone's attention, "We haven't found a way out yet so we've yet to free them."
"Right." Helena gulped as she laid the girl gently on the ground, "But we can't leave these girls alone. I'll help to free as much of them as we can and try to get them to wake up."
"Roland should stay and help." Roswell nodded, "We can't leave you defenseless and you two are used to working together."
"Alright." Helena agreed.
"Leave it to me." Roland smiled.
"Actually..." Roko frowned, "Roland, come with me and Roswell, help Helena."
"What? Why?" Roswell said, confused.
"I'm afraid of the off chance that Roland might grope one of these girls by 'accident'."
"WHAT?!" Roland cried, "Oh come on, I'm not that depraved!"
"I'm not taking any chances."
"You can't possibly think I'm that bad. Look at them! If it does happen, it's purely on accident!"
"That's what I said. But perhaps I didn't emphasize the parentheses around 'accident' enough."
"Why you little..."
"Roko has a point." Helena shrugged, "Roland, go with Roko."
"What?! Oh come on your too?!"
"Roland, I know you."
"Then you should know better!"
"I do know better." Helena replied, "But there's no reason to have you risk your reputation now."
"Why does Roswell get a pass then?!"
"Roswell's a gentleman." Helena explained.
"Why thank you." Roswell bowed.
"For the most part."
"Well, I try." Roswell shrugged.
"Now get going." Helena said as she stood up with her hands on her hips.
"I hate you so much." Roland muttered as he glared at Roko.
"Not helping your point." Roko scoffed.
Finding a way out of the cells, Roko and Roland could feel some tension in the next pathways. At first it was a just something in the atmosphere of the hall but soon there was a definite vibration gently rocking the walls and the hum of a chorus of voices. They were getting closer to where the cultists had all gathered but that was the last thing they wanted to find. They needed an exit. There was no need to confront the cultists at this point. If anything, they needed to find that exit before whatever they were up to was complete. But no matter how many different routes they took, they felt drawn to the activity that was filling the air. They kept running until the vibrations became rumbling and the sound of humming became distinct chanting in a language that Roko didn't recognize. Still, with no exit in sight, Roko and Roland pressed on until they found an entrance. An entrance into a room where the shadows of flickering flames lit the walls outside with the silhouettes of numerous people inside. The chanting was deafening as it all came from inside that entrance. Roko and Roland looked at each other and they quickly understood. The cultists were definitely beyond that entrance and there was little chance there was an exit there...but they had to see. Together they sneaked up to the entrance and slipped inside.
They walked out directly into a platform with a set of stairs leading down on the side. Down into a giant room, decorated with numerous religious regalia that seemed otherworldly. A huge mass of people in cloaks stood in the room, completely filling it up, shoulder to shoulder with their hands in the air. Their chanting was deafening now and the truly strange language they were speaking was starting to sound inhuman. In the far end of the room was a grand platform, set with the grandest of religious ornaments, four people stood around a single table with one man in a fancier robe holding a red book and chanting along with everyone else. Lying on a stone table in front of these people...was Melia.
"That's-!" Roland almost cried out in shock but quickly covered his mouth.
Roko frowned. He didn't believe he saw Melia in the cells when he ran past them but he had hoped he just didn't recognize her in her more disheveled shape. But now here she was, not nearly as bad as the other prisoners but still showing signs of some previous abuse. They had probably cleaned her up some for this ritual. The chanting continued as another booming voice spoke above them,
"Now, O great Biomancer! Take this woman as a sacrifice and gift onto us your power. Raise your head and bless us with your great thoughts. Show us unworthy humans the next step in our proper evolution!"
A magic circle appeared underneath the table and tentacles began to spring up from the ground, ones more detailed and twisted than the tendrils that covered the walls and floor.
"What's going on?!" Roland hissed as he hid behind the banister.
"Roland." Roko said steadily, "Go find the exit."
Before Roland could respond, Roko jumped on top of the banister and jumped off. He landed on a chandelier that hung from the ceiling, creating a rattling noise that was almost drowned out by the chanting. Roko swung the chandelier forward and jumped off onto another chandelier that he took across the room as well. He made one last jump before he landed on the last chandelier right above the person with the book. A few of the cultists had begun to notice and a chatter had begun to spread among the people but Roko acted quickly, drawing his sword and jumping down from the chandelier, ready to plunge his sword down on top of the cultist's leader. He came inches away from the person's head before a barrier suddenly manifested and knocked Roko away, sending him tumbling across the ground as the ritual fully came to a stop.
"It seems we have an intruder."
A deep booming voice, the voice that had spoken earlier, echoed around the ritual hall as the person with the book turned to face Roko and withdrew his hood. A man with slim rugged features and slicked back black hair looked down upon Roko with a wry smile.
"We've been expecting you."