[NR] The Forgotten Fool Of A Dwarf - Chapter 605

The Forgotten Fool Of A Dwarf

Jame’s raged! His whip slick with blood as he “punished” the unfaithful. Things weren’t going well for the cult. Which was annoying for him because he felt ready to take some revenge on that original party of his.

But no, the cult had to go and develop a schism in their beliefs! Worse, it was the belief that truly mattered, that his family was divinely appointed to be in charge of their religion. Such nonsense could not be allowed to fester!

So, James had been going around to all the cult locations and letting the local believers know the wrath of the Pyrebeard family. It was kind of cathartic for him, even if most would consider his tactics pure evil. Of course, since his family was a bit lost in the sauce of this religion, they didn’t have all that much trouble self justifying what they were doing.

Unbeknownst to James, his efforts weren’t working. While that was what his family thought the schism was about, in reality such ideas couldn’t be called a schism when everyone but their family now believed it. Not that they suddenly thought the Pyrebeards weren’t in charge. Just that they didn’t think they were in charge because of divine right. Which in a cult like this could be a big problem.

And Jame’s family was making it so much bigger. Obviously they were out punishing someone, it was only a question of what group ended up under their whips. Because, there was a schism at the moment. The only problem was that it was actually about whether his family should stay in control of the cult.

On one hand, Him and his family were targeting the right people. It hadn’t even been that big of a group who wanted to oust them from the position and so easily targeted. Except, that wasn’t why they stated they were punishing them. He and the others in his family were punishing them for simply believing his family didn’t have the divine right to rule. A belief that everyone else believed as well and they just saw fellow members get broken over that belief.

So what was once a small group began to grow with each cell of the cult that got visited. It was of little relief to those punished that their fellow cult members decided they might be into something after the whole punishment, but it was something. The only problem left was those high-level members of Jame’s family.

After all, part of ruling with an iron fist is actually having that iron fist to rule with. Which in NeoRealm came part and parcel with having at least one person at least one break ahead of everyone else. Except while the Pyrebeards certainly had that, they barely did. Because of their beliefs, the family hadn’t exactly done too well in NeoRealm, focused more on trying to backstab and politic their way back to the top.

Not to say that can’t work. If you’re in a kingdom with a pretty developed bureaucracy, it is relatively normal. After all, skills are skills, no matter your actual level. However, that wasn’t what the Pyrebeards were playing at. After all, to join with an existing kingdom would be to admit they had lost their real world stature completely. So instead, they formed a cult to try and gain power.

To be honest, it actually worked for quite a while. By having devoted followers in NeoRealm, they could gain gold and property which they could directly swing around irl to great effect. After all, even if they were a family fallen from nobility, that didn’t suddenly remove all their connections.

Now, though, they were suffering from abusing this. The locals in their cult couldn’t see what was happening outside of NeoRealm. So as far as they could tell, gold and land would be tithed to the cult, only for the money to disappear and the land to end up in someone else’s name who was unrelated to the cult. Worse, the Pyrebeards didn’t even bother putting too much back into the cult, expecting them to just believe.

Maybe if they had used some of that money and land to help the cult instead of just their irl positions, things would be different now. They didn’t and now, with the recent round of beatings, things were in motion. The largest barrier being Jame’s uncle, the cult’s only seven break member, though just barely. He was only level 203, having mostly given up trying to reach higher since no one else showed signs of matching him.

Which was true. The next highest level member of the cult didn’t even hit 150. Except, they had a lot of company. Whether it was the System providing some behind-the-scenes help, the cult getting oddly lucky with recruitment, or some enemy influence they had managed to get four other people to around the same level of power. Worse for the Pyrebeards, those five fit together like a proper party, so it wasn’t just five noncombatants or oops all healers.

So with this last stone on top of the pile of grievances, the cult rose up. James found out as he was relaxing in the same compound where he had just been punishing the last of the “heretics”. Well, he found out after respawning, because they didn’t exactly give him that much of a chance to realize anything during his first death. The local group had an assassin twice his level who was more than happy to kill him.

Now, if the cult had just went right into killing his family, they wouldn’t have gotten a second shot at him, but Jame’s ended up being the bait to lure his uncle out. So he was able to respawn and go check things out and to him, it seemed like a local rebellion. After all, everywhere else was peaceful. So, of course, the best response was to bring in the big guns to really suppress this nonsense before it can go too far.

Just like what the cult wanted. And so his uncle showed up, only to be cornered by the five and slain. Oh, and at this point they also kill James, almost as an afterthought. This sets the cult’s rebellion off in full and soon enough his entire family is waiting to respawn.

A respawn in which James is one of the few lucky ones. Since they are a part of a somewhat illegal cult, most of his family had their respawns set within the various cult compounds. And so, with little effort, the cult was able to turn said respawn points into prisons.

Which normally wouldn’t be too big of a problem as after a few deaths, players are given the option to choose one of their earlier points. Except this only goes so far and most of Jame’s family never really left the cult’s various holdings. Meaning they were a bit stuck. James, on the other hand, since he was moving around so much had been setting his respawn point not at the cult, but rather more central cities so he had a home base to work out of. This only being workable because he was new enough that the various kingdoms hadn’t added him to their blacklists.

And so now, James is without his gear or any support. Worse, if he even tries to go near any of his various hideouts, the cult will find him and take him out. That didn’t exactly leave him with many options.