In the search of Orichalcum 3 – The Cult of Five

Uklag smelled his goal before he saw it. The air is filled with the smell of burning incense, wax and blood. The typical smell of a demonic Cult. ‘I wonder which lower fiend they praise here.’ He thinks to himself and follows his nose.

“Hello, neighbours.” He shouts into the cave that is the main source of the smell. “Oh, who would you be?” a seductive man’s voice echoes from deep within. An incubus with oiled up darkly toned abs steps from the darkness, his long, midnight blue hair waves with every step. His tail is wrung around his hips like a belt and the horns curve like a goats and like all sex demons he is naked. “What an attractive man. Tarzana, you have to see this.”

“If you are talking about your cock, Kay, I just had that inside me.” A witch with bloodstained blue robes comes from the darkness. Her hair is light brown in colour and generally not paid much attention too by the look of it, her curves are not visible under the robes. The right sleeve is missing and reveals the intricate patterns of a demonic mark. “Oh, he is rather attractive indeed. Tell me, mage what do you want from us?”

Uklag undo’s part of his robe and reveals his own mark that spreads from his neck down the left side of his upper chest. “Just a fellow warlock, looking at his neighbours. My name is Uklag. Have something to eat? I would love a small conversation over dinner.” The witch named Tarzana smiles. “Now, that is interesting indeed. Come inside.” Uklag follows her words but stops when he feels a slight pull at his emotions. “If you don’t stop that right now I will burn you inside out.” He says to the witch, all emotion has drained from his voice. “I doubt you can do that.” The witch says and looks at him in a challenging way, the pull on his mind stops however.

They stare at each other for a few more moments before the Incubus steps between them. “Now, now we can all hate each other after eating.” The suspension is still in the air but the two nod and a few minutes later they sit at a table.

Cultists are running around the place all clad in a red robe with a black pentagram on them. “I thought I would find another Fiend Cult or something dumb like that.” Uklag says and bites into the bread they presented him with. “But you are actually part of the Cult of Five.” Tarzana raises an eyebrow at his suddenly jolly behaviour.

“You look pretty happy for somebody that just threatened to kill me. Sorry about trying to manipulate you by the way. Old habits die hard.” Uklag waves his hand. “Just make sure that doesn’t happen again. I would murder you.” Tarzana smiles, “I still doubt you can do that. Maybe we should have a duel later.” “Sounds good.” The Incubus at the table sighs. “Mistress, why don’t we talk about some more interesting topics? Which demon did you form a contract with, warlock Uklag?” Uklag swallows the food in his mouth before he answers. “The twin succubi, Analea and Aelana. Your name is Kay, right? That would make you the centre piece of the demonic orgy of Carthabathena.”

Carthabathena was a city of mages from times long gone, where people from time to time had crazy ideas. One of them was said demonic orgy where they summoned a ridiculous amount incu- and succubi in order to amass so much lust in the city that a part of the Arch Lady of Lust could enter the realm. It was the biggest single orgy humankind has ever seen.

Kay’s face brightens up. “You know of that? Oh never have I slept with so many men and women at once. Truly a great day. And you have summoned the twins? I haven’t seen them in decades.” Tarzana interrupts him. “You mentioned being our neighbour, where exactly have you build your base?” she makes a signal at a nearby cultist and he gets them a map of the area. Uklag points at a marked spot. “You raided Akzurk’s cave?” the witch asks. “Yeah, guy invaded my dreams. Sadly I had no means of killing him back then, banished him back to the demon realm instead.”

Silence. Uklag smiles and takes another bite. “That sounds like you do have means to do so now.” Kay asks, slightly afraid. “I do actually.” He taps his staff, which leans again the armrest of the chair he sits on. “I have enchanted it with Soul Shattering, should kill lesser demons if I stab them often enough.” “Would you mind if we remove it from the table then?” The incubus asks, “I wouldn’t say I’m a lesser demon but I don’t feel particularly safe with that thing around.”

“You are welcome to try.” Uklag says and waves a cultist towards him. “Go ahead take it a few metres away from me.” He says and gives the robbed figure his staff. The figure only manages to take a single step before turning around. “I believe this is yours.” A male voice says and hands the staff back to Uklag. “Thank you, very kind.” Uklag says and leans the staff back against his chair. “It’s also enchanted to make people want to return it to me.”

That is when Tarzana puts her hand on the incubus arm. “Let it go, he got rid of Akzurk for us.” She looks at Uklag again. “What happened to his summoner? She should have been around there.” Uklag puts the rest of the bread back on the table. “Her body was around, don’t know if her mind could have been saved, neither did I care. Electrocuted her to get rid of Akzurk.” Tarzana gives sad nod. “She was my apprentice, but apparently her thoughts didn’t reach far enough to see one of the most classical betrayals in the book. You took over the cave then?”

“Correct. That was over two months ago. I had some things to do and now I am searching for Orichalcum in the caves, according to the books there should be some around here.” The duo looks at each other, “What would you need Orichalcum for?” Kay asks with suspicion. “Just a rather ambitious enchantment.” Uklag figured that telling the Cult of Five of his plan to absorb a Demon Lord wasn’t the smartest idea. Tarzana looks at his staff and nods to herself, she believes him. “Well we might be able to strike a bargain then. As luck may have it we did possess around 5 kilo of Orichalcum that we have found over the past two years.”

“Where?” Uklag’s smile vanishes, his mind focused only on his goal now. “The cave we kept our stocks in has been raided a week ago by Bandits, if you help us get our stuff back you can have the Orichalcum, it holds no value to us.” Uklag nods and shakes the extended hand of the witch. “How many?”

“We are 25 Cultists but only seven of us can really fi-“ Uklag raises his hand “No, how many of them?” Tarzana looks startled, “Around 30.” “Where?” “They camp further north, about three hours.” Uklag’s smile returns, its sinister look sends a shiver down the witch’s spine. “I will be back tomorrow around noon.” He stands up and leaves without another word.