by Kyle Vauss
I checked the map from time to time to see our progress. Our going was slow, but inch by inch, the map marker for the goblin village grew closer. It was strange being this far north, and it made me think that I should have seen more of Infarna. I must have put thousands of hours into the game, yet 95% of them were spent in the same old newbie forest.
A day later, we had just crossed into an area that looked like a desert, when Gabber stopped walking. He put his hand to his forehead to blot out the sunlight, and stared ahead. I’d been talking to Loria about her accident, but I broke from the conversation to see what Gabber was looking at.
Just a quarter of a mile away, was the goblin village. It was a dirt-covered area two hundred meters long and wide. A circular wooden fence surrounded it.
“What are the things hanging off the fence?” I said, nodding at the odd collection of bones and stones that rattled in the wind.
“Wards and talismans,” said Gabber. “Meant to keep hostile forces away. Given how the clan was wiped out, they were about as useless as Dagnor in a magic duel.”
There were eighteen huts spread around the village. They were made of wood and had various charms and wards stuck on them. The huts were four feet off the ground, supported by circular beams driven into the earth. The dirt floor was marked by animal prints, though there was no sign of any life now.
In the center of the village was the only hut that didn’t rise off the ground. This one was the largest, and it had more charms and wards than the rest. On the roof, watching over the rest of the goblin village, was a giant dried head that looked like a mammoth. I felt like it was watching me.
“So, which clan was this?” said Loria. She looked around with curiosity.
“The Hunchtails,” said Gabber. “They were once allies to my clan, but we cut ties with them seventy-two years ago.”
“Why?” I asked.
“The Hunchtails liked to mix with humans. They built bonds with them. They even had humans in their army. One human, chosen above all the rest, would become the protector of the goblin chief. Doesn’t seem like a bad thing to me, but the rest of my clan don’t share the same ideas.”
The smaller goblins spilt forth into the village ahead of us. Although they’d originally spawned in a forest, maybe they had a programmed backstory that made them recognize a goblin village.
When we got closer to the village, the air changed. Despite the pattering of the goblins as they sprinted across the dirt, there was a silence in the air. A kind of emptiness that made me feel cold. It reminded me that this had once been home to a family of goblins whose lineage went back decades, but were now gone.
“What happened to the Hunchtails?” I said, as we followed Gabber through the village.
“Their relationship with humans was the end of them. It only took one human born with a hatred for goblins. He was able to convince the others that the Hunchtails were monsters. The chief sent a runner to our clan asking for help, but Father refused.”
Gabber had always spoken of his father in a good light. I wasn't so sure now. This sounded like he’d let a fellow clan get murdered by humans. I decided that now wasn’t a good time to go poking at the ethics of things. Gabber seemed affected enough by just being in the village. I couldn’t blame him. It felt like we were walking through a graveyard.
“That was a pretty shitty thing to do,” said Loria, putting her large foot in it.
“Father wasn’t perfect,” said Gabber, heading for the shack in the center of the village. “I once convinced him to learn some English. We sat in his shack at night after everyone else was asleep and I tried to teach him to say ‘welcome to my tribe’.”
“Did he manage it?” I asked.
“It was weird,” said Gabber. “It was like he was scared of the sound that the words made. He tried, he really did, but in the end, Father was just like the rest of my clan. Their fear of humans was just too tightly woven into them. That’s why I kind of feel at home here, despite everything. I should have been born into the Hunchtails.”
“What happens if you take back your clan?” said Loria. “They’ll still be the same human-hating jerks.”
Gabber corrected her. “Human-fearing. Not hating. Most aggression is born from fear, and my clan are no different. And if I’m ever chief, I can start to turn them around.”
We walked through the village until finally, we stood outside the shack in the center. I looked around and tried to get a sense of what life had been like here before. It was so deserted that it was hard to imagine it had ever been inhabited. The whole place was haunting.
“Through here,” said Gabber.
“What about the little ones?” said Loria.
The goblins ran around the village, darting in and out of shacks and squealing with delight. A group of them had found a set of goblin armor and were trying to put it on, but it was made for bigger goblins than them.
Gabber sighed. “Leave them here for now.”
“I hate to say this, but I don’t know how you’re going to make an army out of them,” said Loria.
“Just trust me,” answered Gabber.
Loria was right though. While Gabber carried himself better than most people I knew, his goblin kin were feral. They were like children, in a way. Except that they had sharp teeth and bodies packed with muscle. I didn’t see how he could shape them into an army.
I decided that I’d hang around for a night. Gabber would give me my reward soon. After that, I’d try and help him train his goblin soldiers. That cut my time short, but I should still have been able to sell my shadow warrior by the deadline.
Gabber gathered 3 goblins around him. He looked down and smiled. He leaned in close and spoke to them in his goblin language. The goblins chattered back, then sprinted toward the village gates.
“What’s going on?” I said.
“I’m sending these 3 out to watch. They’ll patrol a circumference a few hours away from the village and let me know what they find. There might be something interesting. Or dangerous.”
“Good thinking,” I said.
“Just through here,” said Gabber, walking toward the shack door and pushing it open.
The inside of the shack was surprisingly clean. It was as though whatever critters had raided the village while it was deserted hadn’t bothered to come in here. There were a few cooking pans set next to a disused stove. On the wall was a wooden rack with various axes and maces on it. There was a bed in the corner that looked spacious and comfy. All told, this goblin shack was better than my apartment.
Gabber walked to a rug in the center of the room. He lifted it up to reveal a small metal door in the floor. He tugged on the handle, but it wouldn’t budge. After a few pulls, he gave up.
“The vault’s down there,” he said.
I walked over, grabbed the handle and pulled, but nothing happened. The vault door wasn’t made to be opened by brute strength, since that would defeat the point. If any old barbarian could waltz in and access the vault, it wasn’t much use.
I looked at the vault door. It was made of metal and painted black. It was half the size of a normal door. I assumed that once opened, it would reveal stairs that went deep underground.
There had to be a way of opening it. I looked around. Canvasses were on the walls with crude drawings on them. The goblin chief who once lived here had been something of an artist. One showed the goblin chief stood over the defeated corpse of a giant. The other showed him punching a dragon. The old chief wasn’t a modest goblin, it seemed.
“Check behind the paintings,” I said. “See if there’s a key of some sort.”
I walked over to the dragon painting and turned it around, but there was nothing.
“Nothing here,” said Loria.
I looked at Gabber, but he shook his head.
Damn. After coming all this way, I wasn’t leaving without the weapons Gabber had promised me. According to my map, we were just a few hours away from the northern point where Gabber would leave u
s. That meant that our journey was almost at an end.
I felt strange about it. I had come all this way on the promise of valuable items. And boy, did I need them now. But now that the time of him leaving was nearly here I felt almost…empty.
I needed to concentrate. “I thought you’d know what to do here?” I said.
Gabber shrugged. “Every chief protects his vaults in a different way. I thought I’d be able to work it out when I got here.”
This was getting frustrating. I paced across the room and then sat on the bed. I looked at everything around me and tried to take it in. It was annoying. There was no clue or indication about how to get the damn thing open.
I looked at the floors and the walls, praying for a sign, but there was nothing. And then I looked at the roof. At first, it seemed normal. It was made of straw that had been woven together so tightly that there wasn’t a millimeter of space. There was nothing unusual about that.
Near the vault door, the roof was different. It was such a subtle change that it was easy to miss. In three spots directly above the vault door, the straw was slightly darkened.
I got up. This was it. I could feel it. I strode across the room and then to the vault door. I looked up at the roof and lined myself up with one of the dark patches on the ceiling, standing underneath it.
“Are you okay, Tamos?” said Loria. “You didn’t hit your head, did you?”
“Gabber” I said. I pointed at a spot on the floor. “Stand there.”
Gabber shrugged and then moved to where my finger pointed.
“Loria, stand there please.”
When the illusionist crossed the room and stood where I indicated, I waited. I felt the cold slither of nerves in my stomach. I gave it a few seconds, but nothing happened.
I rubbed my forehead. There had to be something I was missing. “Gabber, move a little to the right,” I said, realizing he was just a little out of place.
As the goblin moved, I heard something click. There was the sound of machinery rumbling below us, then a scraping noise as the vault door began to move back.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Just as I expected, the vault door slid back to reveal a set of steps that led underground. We took torches from the chief’s room. Gabber lit them, and we walked down the winding steps. The wind rushed at me, and there was a musty smell in the air, as if we were the first people to walk down there in decades.
When we reached the bottom, the vault was not what I expected. In my mind, a treasure vault brought images of golden walls and glittering jewels. Coins littered over the floor, and expensive statues holding legendary weapons.
Instead, this goblin vault was like a mausoleum. It was so dark that even our torches struggled to penetrate the black. I’d had my fill of dark spaces, so I cast Glowing Orbs and sent them out into three corners of the room.
With my white light illuminating the shadows, I saw the room in full detail. There were a few chests on the floor. A weapons rack was against the wall, though to me, the weapons looked ordinary. That could have been because they hadn’t been identified for me yet. Once identified, they would look different.
On the east wall, there was an expensive-looking suit of armor. It was a full set, starting with a helm and then offering protection to shoulders, chest, arms, back and legs. It was made of a metal that seemed to gleam despite the darkness of the vault. The whole ensemble was impressive and looked like it had been made for a mighty goblin warrior. I wondered how much it was worth.
“That’s the chief’s armor,” said Gabber.
He stood in front of it and ran his finger down the chest plate.
“Why don’t you try it on?” I said.
He shook his head. “It’s the chief’s armor. It can only be worn by descendants of the chief of this clan. If another goblin tried to wear it, he could die.”
“What do you mean?”
“If a goblin who isn’t descended from the chief tries to wear this armor, the armor will test him. If it deems him unworthy, it will close around him, suffocating him.”
On one end of the cramped room, there was a giant oval door. Jewells were encrusted around its circumference. It was the only thing in the room that matched my mind’s image of what a treasure vault should be like.
“What’s through there?” I said.
“Only the chief can go through those doors,” said Gabber. “They won’t open for us.”
He walked over to the two chests by the wall. He struggled with the latch of one, before grunting as he pushed it open.
As the chest opened to reveal the items inside, I didn’t want to look. My feelings all hit me at once, and with such force that I was unprepared for them. This was it, I realized. I was going to get my items, and then soon, Gabber would go.
Once he left the map, I wouldn’t be able to follow, and I would never see him again. I felt my throat close a little. It was ridiculous, but this little guy, this wild goblin, had been the most company I’d had in years. Ever since Baxter.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” I said.
What was I saying? Was I trying to convince him to stay? I knew it was ludicrous, but I couldn’t help myself.
Loria put her hand on my shoulder. “You need to let him do this,” she said.
I knew she was right. And really, what was I going to do? Spend my days travelling Infarna with Gabber? He had a goal. He needed to take back his clan. I couldn’t hold him back from that, and it surprised me that I was even considering it.
Gabber pulled out a sword from the chest on the left. At first appearance, it looked like a normal broadsword. Then, Gabber closed his eyes and ran his finger down it. As he did, the metal seemed to shimmer. Markings burned into it. When Gabber opened his eyes again, the sword had a name.
[Shadow Sword of Arkness]
I checked the sword against known items lists and item auctions on the Infarna forums and wiki. There were no matches. Wow - this sword wasn’t elite. It wasn’t even legendary. This sword was one of a kind.
“This is yours,” said Gabber, handing it to me.
[Shadow Sword of Arkness]
Value – 96,000 GD
Attack Points: 280
Bonus:
1 in 5 chance of causing paralysis on successful hit
1 in 4 chance of causing poison on successful hit
1 in 7 chance of fire damage on successful hit
I took it from him. I found that my hands were shaking. It was payment for helping Gabber, and then some. This item, once I sold it, would pay my debt and let me leave the country.
“How did you know it would be here?” I asked.
Gabber put his finger on his chin. “I knew the Hunchtails were wiped out, and I guessed that the humans who killed them wouldn’t be able to get into the vault. Every goblin clan has a vault like this.”
I ran my fingers down the blade and felt the cold of the metal. My heart was pounding. I’d done it. Finally, I could pay my debts and say bye to the last reminder of Sarah.
“You should try and wear the chief’s armor,” I told Gabber.
He looked at it, then shook his head. “I can’t, Tamos.”
“What’s wrong?”
Gabber’s face screwed up. “I’m scared, okay? I’m worried I’m not good enough. That I’m not strong enough to be chief, and that I’ll never be able to take back my clan.”
I sighed. Gabber had shown more courage over our journey than I’d displayed in a lifetime. I’d never met his brother Fengr, but I knew he wouldn’t be half the chief Gabber would be. The problem was just getting it through to him.
“You’re not going to give up, are you?” said Loria.
Gabber shook his head. “No. I have to try. But if I put on the Hunchtail chief armor, I could die on the spot. Then all of this would have been for nothing.”
I put my sword in my inventory. Despite getting the reward that Gabber promised me, I felt strange. I’d thought that once I got it, all my problems would be s
olved. That was true, in a way. So why did I feel like this?
Gabber looked at me. He was smiling, but there was a sadness behind the expression.
“Thank you, Tamos. I was always fascinated by humans, even when they attacked me. Every person I ever met showed me their dark side, but I still knew there’d be one good one out there. And lucky me, I found two – you and Loria.”
