“The festival!” they shout at you. “It all starts at the festival! Find the others…”
Then they fall unconscious.
“No chance of the festival being delayed, with how big a deal it is for Nual,” you mutter. “So we’re on the clock for finding any more of these.”
Then an unsettling thought strikes you.
“Oh hells, is there going to be one of these for every god?”
“Doubt it,” says a Protector. “This setup is real complex, and the fact it was basically unguarded suggests they don’t have the numbers they need to pull off that many abductions while keeping things quiet. No, I’m guessing they only did this for the gods they absolutely needed to keep from interfering. I’ve seen something like this once before, slavers were using it to keep Reth from helping us find them and take down their operation. Too bad for them we know how to track down that kinda scum without divine aid.”
“Do you know anything about how it works?”
“Well, the weird thing about this one compared to the one I saw is, that one was being run by a slaver,” they reply. “Didn’t need any sort of mind-control magic. Or ugly statues, either.”
“Ugly statue?” You look at the rubble. “You could see it? I felt real uncomfortable every time I tried.”
“Probably set up with magic to keep humans away. Bet it was put there by those tailless freaks outside, and they figured the rest of us wouldn’t come near it because it’s got nothing to do with Reth. Don’t know what it was for.” They look down at the thrall. “Looks like another one with a brand. Haven’t seen any of the others fight back against it, though.”
“Yeah, there was a brand on a wizard at the old theater,” you recall. “That one seemed to be just mindlessly casting some kind of spell, apparently to control priests without a brand. Still got no idea what the point of all that was, but at least we stopped it. We should probably do something about the brand even if they were able to resist, though.”
“Leave that to us,” says the other Protector. “They’re not the first branded victim we’ve run into tonight. Me, I’m wondering what they were doing that has them so worried about Hool intervening.”
You’re now Minnie again.