[center]
[h2][color=d7d7d7]Roland[/color][/h2]
Level 7 Roland (21/70) - (Holding 1 level up)

Location:  Hammerhead > Refinery
Word Count: less than 750
[/center]

Infiltrating lower into the complex wasn't too bad for the pair with both of them being the stealthy members of the seekers. While Therion relied on traditional stealth methods, Roland just walked past the cultists not bringing much attention to them; his mask letting him blend into the crowd of the bugsnax cultists. Although this didn't work in less crowded areas, within the main complex this worked pretty well for the most part.

Speaking of the main complex, as the pair got into the main area, they found something horrifying. A ritualistic site with what looked like a force feeding machine as the central focus was sitting in the middle of the main room. Cultists were loading living bug looking snack food into a hopper preparing for a new convert to the cult, a forceful one. Once the hopper was filled, a nondescript humanoid was escorted out and placed into the machine, before being force fed bugsnax as the cultists made a ritualistic chant as the person was slowly converted to whatever the cultists were.

[color=d7d7d7]"Not the first time I've seen this. At least he didn't get turned into a gear."[/color] Roland said, seemingly in his element. Yeah this sucked to watch, but thats cults in a nutshell. While he could hide himself from the cultists, there was something he couldn't hide from. Invisible creatures were stalking around the area. Things that Roland didn't see until they crept up on him as he kept scouting the area, deciding to look for more information about what was here besides the bug cultists. 

These creatures, [url=https://dusk.fandom.com/wiki/Wendigo]Wendigo[/url], seemed to completely ignore the cultists. They weren't security for them, it was more they just ignored them and the cultists ignored them. Instead, they were attracted to Roland for some reason, his perception mask only slightly working on them as they seemed to be lured to him by a sense of smell. While they didn't know who Roland was himself, they were only interested in what he was made of, not snax. Thus Roland found himself in a fight with one of these guards. 

The wendigo were strong, but simple creatures. They could only attack by rushing at Roland or swiping their claws at him in a bestial manner. What made them annoying was, besides their footprints of blood, they were completely invisible even while attacking. This made them really difficult to predict at first. While things like this did exist in the City, they were pretty rare. Being unable to see the first attack headed his way, Roland got knocked into a wall at first being blindsided by the wendigo. Aware that there was an enemy around now, he pulled out his lance and thrust at where the blood footprints were, but heard his weapon get deflected by the powerful claws of the creature. 

Jumping back to get some space, he then fired his new shotgun at the creature not only damaging it, but figuring out its 'weakness', that it was visible when taking damage for a short time. Seeing this, he followed up his shotgun blast with a swing from his demonic fire axe, setting the wendigo on fire and keeping it visible for his next few attacks. At this point he gained emotion level 2, and with it, gained Scars reducing or outright nullifying the damage of attacks on occasion with a woman's voice saying "It takes a strong will and courage to cut your own wrist.". 

The wendigo retaliated, attacking Roland with its claws, however he countered it with his axe before swapping to his katana to dice up the creature. While strong, its attacks were simple and Roland had to just keep moving to duck in and out of its attack range. After a few more clashes with Roland's hammer and two hander, the latter finishing off the Wendigo after it had managed to overpower Roland's hammer, Roland gained emotion level 3, gaining Guilt, a young woman's voice saying "Dear, you seem to be quite… unnerved, aren’t you?" as well as the EGO Frost Splinter and a book of the Wendigo.

Now that things were starting to heat up, hopefully he'd find something useful down here. Looking over the burger he had just gotten, Roland remembered what the book had told him about the item and decided to give it a shot. While it was pretty ok, he felt his health restore itself almost like magic and after a quick look over to make sure he wasn't turning into a bugsnax, he continued onwards. Therion had apparently split from him, taking his own path instead.