After Nox finished handing out invitations to former commander Wang and her eleven followers, she started expanding her missionary efforts to other parts of the Frost Palace.
Whatever time she hadn't spent feeding the people in the pits, and sneaking around the prison to spy on people, she had used on digging and building tunnels and secret passages to give her easier access to the various facilities of the Frost palace. This allowed her to more easily gather what she needed to make her food and drugs, while picking the right time to reveal herself to the prisoners without getting spotted
However, up until the day she handed out her invitations, she had refrained from making much contact with prisoners outside the starving pits. This was because unlike the ones sentenced to starve in an isolated hole in the ground, the rest of the prisoners were difficult to approach without getting caught. There are only a handful of short intervals where an inmate is not under surveillance, either by guards, or by other inmates who might tell on her. This made it difficult for Nox to approach them, because to them she was just a stranger offering them some suspicious food or drink without asking for anything in return. While some of the more desperate ones might accept her gifts without any thought, trying to earn their trust would normally take a little longer than she had to convince them, desperate as they were, which is why she had refrained up until now. However, …
"Thank you! *sob* *Glug* I will never forget your mercy!"
Because Wang had mouthed off about her to the prison guards, they had in turn spread rumors of the flavor savior being worshipped in the pits between themselves and any eavesdropping prisoners who overheard their whispers. Then those prisoners began spreading the word between each other and so she became well known throughout the prison. The reason why this mattered is because that alone is enough to build some trust in her.
Between someone you have heard rumors of, and someone who is a complete mystery, the latter tends to be more reassuring because they will give you some idea of what to expect, but the former is frightening because they know nothing about you. There is nothing scarier than the unknown but just knowing the tiniest detail could alleviate this fear to a surprising degree.
Of course, this suspicious little rumor would do practically nothing, had this been the outside world, or even just a more humane prison, but to the desperate prisoners of the frost palace who grasp at any straw they can get, even the smallest hope is a miracle. Just seeing the rumored savior in the flesh is worth more than a thousand words, for nothing breeds faith quite like hope of salvation in a place of suffering.
She would hand out sandwiches full of painkillers to those whipped and burned, water lightly laced with hallucinogens to the dehydrated, and soup filled with medicine and nutritional supplements to the ill. Even without the drugs, the mere fact she brought them warm and edible food would be enough to inspire loyalty within many of them. However, the drugs and medicine created an illusion of divine intervention, as her food, at least for a moment, took away their pain, their ailments, and to those tripping enough balls, she even gave them a taste of the freedom they had long since forgotten.
This had drastically sped up her recruitment efforts, as her cult spread like a wildfire. With nearly every personal visit resulting in a new fanatic, hooked on her cult like an addict as they preach of her mercy and kindness, while desperately praying to her for another audience. In just a week, she had basically been deified by half the inmates of the Frost Palace. What kind of goddess she was varied on who you asked as the many people she roofied would have different opinions depending on what they hallucinated.
Some thought of her as the goddess of hope, prophesied to strike down the dark lord, some said she was the goddess of freedom, come here to free them, and some thought of her as the goddess of the sun, who would one day melt these frozen lands to bring them all to the promised lands. Each account differed, adding or changing the mythos amongst themselves, leading to a number of conflicts that the guards had to physically break up. The only consistency between their accounts was that she was a tall, masked, silver-haired, goddess called the Flavor Savior, who would bring them salvation in the form of glowing food and water. Hence, the majority of the cultists see her as some type of food goddess.
At first, the guards laughed off this goddess as just a fairytale of some crazed inmate denying reality, to keep their last hopes alive. However, as more and more inmates began preaching, claiming they had been visited by the Flavor Savior, they started to notice something was not right.
This had not been the first such cult that had suddenly formed inside the Frost Palace's walls, after all, the majority of those imprisoned here had been pious believers of some faith before they had been captured and imprisoned. That was the case, even before it was passed on to the dark lord.
However, it was the first time one had grown so fast and so big. The scuffles between believers and none-believers, or just the scuffles between the factions within the cult itself would occasionally grow so intense that the whole prison would shake from the commotions. In the past, such disputes and conflicts would have been suppressed with threats or a show of force. However, the fanatics no longer feared punishments, or even death. The warden had publicly executed some faction leaders of the cult, meant as a warning to others. However, it only had the opposite effect, as the ensuing riots only increased in intensity, resulting in even some guards being killed in their stampedes. The dead were viewed as martyrs, the threats but the word of the devil, and the punishments but a test of their faith, and a chance to meet with their beloved goddess.
Because they would swiftly break the spirits of new arrivals, any riots and conflicts would swiftly quiet down after a few threats, or a show of force. Because they domesticate their prisoners into obedience early on, the Frost Palace has been treated as the lowest maintenance palace within the Dark Empire. This, and the chaos plane they are in being in their favor, has led to its guard detail becoming a bit lacking in numbers compared to the number of prisoners they are responsible for. The number of guards stationed here is more for dealing out punishments, suppressing small skirmishes between small groups and ganging up on individuals too strong to take one on one. However, if the entire cult staged a revolt, depending on when and where it happened, there is a good chance they could overwhelm the guards through share numbers, and the warden was very aware of this from the men who died after the failed executions. Normally, this could have been solved with just a simple request for reinforcements from the outside, however, the chaos plane of the Frost Palace is preventing them from doing so.
Due to the spatial nature of the chaos plane, there are only a handful of times a year where it becomes possible for anyone to safely travel in or out of this biome, that applies to the guards as well as the prisoners themselves. Fortunately, one of those times is in a few days, however, as things are, that might still be too late. That is why an inmate, sentenced to execution for treason, was brought before the warden.
"Speak! I hear you had some important news about this food cult!" The many armed man spoke.
Sitting behind the desk within the warden's office was a large, four-armed man, with a red dot on his forehead, wearing a thick black winter coat and smoking a cigar. This was warden Lei, the immortal bound to serve at the frost palace for the rest of his existence due to the cursed bloodline he possesses. Stuttering before the warden, sitting on his knees in cuffs and shaking like a leaf, sat a certain former commander.