Shadows on the Lake of Illusions

Shadows in the Lake of Illusions Ch 1

(Disclaimer: Felarya is the brainchild of Karbo and the Felaryan Community. The Lake of Illusions was created by Tifalover88, and the Aureusrana temple was created by Oldman40k2003. Wila belongs to Chryostrand. Art is also done by him. Ariel, Flounder, and Sebastian belong to Disney. OC characters belong to me.)

Shadows in the Lake of Illusions Ch1

Felarya is a beautiful and dangerous place filled with giant man-eating women who like to swallow humans and other small races whole. Life can be tough on the smaller races both on land and in the water.

Traveling through the Tolmeshal forest, a group of five adventurers. They were sent by the Adventurers Guild in the city of Negav to the ancient ruins in a remote lake the locals called the Lake of Illusions.

This strange, misty lake whose waters are unusually calm. The water looks like a mirror at first glance, reflecting the image of the light mist and making it very difficult to see beneath the surface.  The mist is magical and attuned to any creature in the area.  Once attuned to a creature it then forms an illusion of what the creature wants the most on the island that is at the of the lake. Because of the mist, it's almost impossible to see that the illusion is an illusion unless it tries to interact with something real.  Even then the victim has to realize that there was no interaction where there should have been, which is difficult.

It is said that the Aureusrana temple lies at the bottom of the lake, filled with lost treasures and a 20 ft golden idol of an azure frog. According to legend, the temple slowly sank into the lake, too big to move, and the locals had to abandon the golden frog idol as it sank into the depths.

These adventurers had been hired to discover any archaeological finds. Leading the team was a young archaeologist named Dr Maya Brooks. She was a dark-skinned woman with brown eyes and long black dreadlocks. She wore a mauve lightweight synthetic long-sleeve shirt with khaki pants and brown trekking boots. She was armed with a 0-VM or Hot rifle.

The 0-VM was a type of laser rifle used by the Vishmital. Dr Brooks had heard of the ruins and wanted to study as much as she could about the locals who once lived there.

Her second in command was a beautiful elven woman named Misha. She had silvery-white hair that flowed down to her mid back and green eyes. Her clothes were a green lightweight synthetic long-sleeve shirt with khaki pants and brown shoes. On her belt were two tree runner axes.

Tree runner axes were a favored weapon to tree-dwelling Elves, a well-crafted hatchet with a curved blade and a spiked protrusion on the other end. It allowed the user to scale up trees quickly and for self-defense.

Her assistant was a short burly man named Jyura. He had black hair and green eyes. He wore a black cotton t-shirt and black pants. He was armed with a Fairy Duster shotgun. Similar to a blunderbuss, this shotgun could fire small explosive fragments.

A dark-skinned neko named Pila. She had long black hair and green eyes. She wore a brown sleeveless shirt and green pants. She carried a Vishmitali or Vishmital pike. The Vishmital pike was a metal tube that could extend into a 20 ft spear with a serrated blade, the blade was coated with an irritating poison that would make predators think twice.

And the last member of the team was a 23-yr-old man named Jackie. He was a skinny man with beige skin, short brown hair and blue eyes. He wore a red shirt with a yellow jacket and blue jeans with sneakers.

He was the newest member, he was a college drop out who had just arrived from Earth through the Negav gate. After wandering around the Lower levels of Negav for a bit, he had signed up in the Adventurers Guild for fame and fortune like many other adventurers before him. He was fascinated by all the exotic races, from elves, dwarves, nekos, to a human-sized naga with white hair and black scales on her tail who was heading to the docks. He wanted a weapon like the others, but to his disappointment… he only got a knife and was tasked with carrying most of the equipment.