Eldritch Guidance

Chapter 26: Finding the Unexpected

“Just as there are countless strange entities from outside our world, there are also countless cults that exist inside our world. The majority of them are small with very little membership. They are often referred to as the lesser cults, to distinguish these groups from the more infamous cults. But, be warned. Even though they are not as prolific in their atrocity as the big three cults, they are nonetheless extremely dangerous.

“They engage in all manner of strange and unholy acts. An example of these lesser cults actions was reported by witch hunters about a group of cultists that belong to the Consuming Ooze cult, and the Festering Venom cult, who were capturing people for the twisted rituals. The Festering Venom cult was injecting innocent people with a painful poison and watching their victims slowly die in their cruel rituals, while the Consuming Ooze cult was melting people down into sludge while alive with chemicals for their own sick rituals.

“Because of how small these lesser cults are, they often hide in isolated communities out in the wilderness. From these isolated communities, they try to spread their twisted ideas into the more populous areas and recruit new members. But, thanks to the efforts of the church of light and government officials, they have found little success in recruitment over the years.

“The church of light and government organizations have launched campaigns to eradicate these dangerous groups in the wilderness, but due to their hiding and the existence of numerous cults, they have eluded complete eradication. However, these campaigns still had some success in limiting the reach of these cults.

“It should be mentioned that by the year 2889, the members of the Consuming Ooze cult and the Festering Venom cult have been successfully eradicated in the western continent. Thanks to the valiant efforts of the witch hunters.“

—Writings of Light Scholar Lukka on “The Machinations of the Nameless Cults”

Joe and his crew were standing in a nearby alley from the place where they were preparing to enter, “The Mortar And Pestle’. The alley they stood in was absent of other people and hid the police officer presence. It was relatively clean for an alleyway, but Joe could still catch a whiff of something most foul every once in a while. Something that smelled rotten and putrid, from an unknown source that Joe couldn't see in the alleyway. He could only assume that it was something rotting in one of the nearby garbage bins.

Joe: “Ok, are we ready?” he said, wanting to get out of this alley and away from that foul smell.

Mike: “Wait, let’s go over what we’re going to do again. This is Dan’s first time.”

Joe: “Fine. The plan is that once we get Wren alone, we put on the good cop bad cop act. Where I play the bad cop and threaten him, while Mike plays the good cop and tries to calm me down, while trying to strike a deal with him for info.”

Dan: “Is that really necessary?”

Mike: “Actually, I'm kinda with Dan on this one. Why bother with the whole good cop bad cop act. We're just going to ask him where you might be able to find some druids.”

Joe: “He’s Jack's friend. Meaning he probably won’t be cooperative with us, but if i threaten him a little he might. We already know he deals in shrooms, so I'll play that up a little. I’ll accuse him of selling shrooms to help fund a cult or something.”

Dan: “You really think he’s working for a cult?”

Joe: “Dan, are you listening? I said I'm going to play it up a little. I don’t actually think this guy is working for a cult, but if this Wren guy thinks I'm accusing him of it, he’ll become talkative. More likely to tell us stuff about druids to try and clear his name. Him trying to prove his association with druids is a good way for him to distance himself from those cult, and for us to get the info we need.”

Mike: “He could also just lie and say whatever if you scare him too much with those accusations.”

Joe: “That’s where you, the good cop, come in,” he said while pointing at Mike. “I agitate and you placate. He’ll be more honest toward you if he thinks you're the more reasonable cop. C’mon Mikey, we’ve done this thousand times together now. We did it to get info out of Jack the other day.”

Mike: “That wasn't me doing the good cop act with Jack. That was…oh by the light,” he said while palming his forehead. ”I just realized that the good cop bad cop thing isn't an act. You really are a bad cop, and by extension making me a good cop when I try to stop you.”

Joe: “Whoa, what are you saying. That’s a bit much.”

Mike: “How have I not noticed this? We’ve been working with each other for years,” he mumbled out while ignoring Joe.

Joe: “Mikey, focus,” he said, bringing Mike back to attention. “Let’s just do the thing and get our info and leave, OK?” Joe then turned his head towards Dan. “While we do the ‘interrogation’, you stand by the door and make sure no one comes in or leaves, got it?

Dan nodded his head at Joe.

Joe: “Good. So Mikey, let's show Dan how it's done,” he said as he walked out of the alleyway.

The other two officers followed behind Joe. The group of men poured out into the street and slowly walked down the gray cobblestone street towards the “Mortar And Pestle”.

The design of the herbalist store was simple and modern that had some elements that invoke eastern continent aesthetics. The front windows of the store had shelves of different kinds of jars and packages of dried herbs and tinctures. The front door of the store sported an abstract design of plants that none of the officers were familiar with. Despite the many unique elements of this store, it didn’t stand out much compared to any of the other stores on this street.

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Joe looked at the front of the store for a minute, before confirming that this was the place they were looking for. He then pushed on the front door and entered into the “Mortar And Pestle ''.

Inside there were even more shelves packed with dry herbs. The shelves formed very narrow aisle that were only wide enough to let one person walk through comfortably. The distinct smell of dried herbal concoction was pungent and ever present in the space. Looking down one of the aisle to the back of the store, he saw a woman talking to a man behind a counter top.

???: “I’ll be with you in a minute after I’m done helping this customer,” a male sounding voice called out from the back.

Joe turned to Mike and they both nodded to each other. He then gestured towards Dan to stay near the door. Dan nodded and stood near a shelf close to the door, pretending to look at the merchandise.

Both Mike and Joe split up and walked down different aisles, out of sight from the people conversing at the back. Joe quietly tried to get as close as he could, so he could eavesdrop on the conversation. Once he was close enough to hear, he turned to one of the shelves and pretended to look at merchandise while he listened in.

Female customer: “I don’t know, Wren. Are you sure this will help?”

Wren: “Trust me. That stuff is amazing. It will definitely help with that problem of yours. Just like that cream I gave to your husband last week.”

Female customer: “Oh, speaking of my husband's cream. He asked me to pick up some more of that cream you gave him while I was here,” she said while chuckling a little.

Wren: “Already? I thought I gave him enough to last a month.”

Female customer: “He’s going out of town for a while, so he wanted to take a little extra cream while he was away. Just in case he runs out.”

Wren: “Oh, OK. No problem. Let me just grab that for you.”

Where Joe was standing, he couldn't see what was happening. But, he could hear what sounded like rummaging through a shelf and then something being placed on a countertop.

Wren: “There you go. That all together comes to ten thousand Glint.”

Joe gasps in surprise at the amount of money being spent. He thought that this was a simple herbal store, Joe didn’t think people were spending that much on the stuff here. He started to become a little nervous at the packages of dried herbs in front of him. Wondering if this stuff was also extremely expensive.

Female customer: “OK. Here you go.”

Wren: “Thank you. Please come again,” he said cheerfully.

Joe could hear the rustling sound of a paper bag and footsteps heading toward the entrance of the store. Joe took this as his chance to talk to this Wren person. He then stepped out of the aisle and approached the man behind the counter.

The man standing behind the counter, who Joe assumed was Wren, was tall and skinny sporting a thick brown beard. He wore glasses and his hair was braided on one side with weird looking ornaments hanging from it. The rest of his long hair was tied up in a tight bun. The man was wearing a collection of tribal looking necklaces around his neck and a cream color hemp t-shirt with baggy gray shorts.

Joe could see people mistaking this guy as a druid. A few more weird ornaments and some dirt on his face, and he could easily pass off as a druid to the people living in the city.

Wren was looking down while writing in a book before he looked back up to see Mike and Joe approached.

Wren: “Oh, hello. Is there anything I can help you with?” he said with a smile.

Mike: “I'm officer Mike and this here is officer Joe,” he said while pointing to Joe and showing Wren his police badge. “We wanted to ask you a few questions.”

The happy demeanor of Wren was presenting, shifted and became more serious and concerned.

Wren: “Um, what’s this about?”

Mike: “We just want to ask you about some people you might know.”

Wren: “I-I’m afraid I won't be able to help you today. I’m about to close down and—” he said, before being cut off by Joe.

Joe: “Cut the crap. We know you're dealing drugs.”

Wren: “W-what!?!” he said, starting to show signs of panic.

Joe: “You heard me. I know you're a drug dealer. So you better tell us what we wanna know.”

Mike: “What my friend is trying to say is, if you help us with our investigation, we’ll go easy on ya. Maybe even look the other way.”

Wren: “Y-you have n-no proof!”

Joe: “We have enough proof, or we wouldn’t have bothered talking to you like this.”

They didn’t really have any proof. They only had the info given to them from Jack about Wren. But the goal wasn't to arrest Wren. Joe just wanted to scare him a bit, to get him to be a little more cooperative.

Wren: “I-I know my rights!”

Joe: “A lot of good those rights are gonna do once they find out you're dealing drugs for the nameless cults.”

Wren: “H-how—”

Mike: “Just help us out man. Don’t make it any worse yourself. We can be reasonable, but only if you help us find what we're looking for.” he cut in, before Wren could say anymore.

Wren: “P-please. We haven’t committed any egregious crime. W-we just sell a little on the side to make some cash. I d-don’t sell to kids. C’mon, those drug laws are stupid anyways.”

Mike: “Like I said, we might look the other way if you help us out. I really do wanna help you out here, brother.”

Wren: “F-fine. What do you want to know,” he said, sounding defeated while looking down.

Joe raised an eyebrow. It was extremely suspicious to Joe at how fast the person caved and didn’t try that hard to defend himself from the accusations. He was Jack's friend, so he thought that he might try to act a little more tough.

Joe: “By the way. You said ‘we’. Who is this ‘we’?”

Wren: “Um, the group I belong to,” he said confusedly.

Joe: “Is this group a cult?”

Wren: “I mean, people call us a cult. But, I think of ourselves as more of a religious group.”

Mike: “Wait wait wait wait! Are you saying you're actually a cultist?” he said, surprised.

Wren: “Isn't that what you’ve been accusing me of the whole time?” he said, also starting to look even more confused.

Both Joe and Mike looked at each other in surprise. They then both upholstered their guns and pointed them at Wren in perfect unison. Preparing to shoot if Wren did anything hostile against them.

Wren: “Gaah! P-please d-don’t s-shoot!” he said while quickly raising his hands up in the air.

Wren was now sweating profusely and his hands were visibly shaking. Clearly scared that he was about to potentially get shot.

Mike: “Dan! Lock that front door and get over here!” he yelled out.

A few seconds later, Dan came running to the back.

Dan: “What’s going on? Why are your guns out?”

Joe: “It turns out, Wren here is a member of the nameless cult.”