by R. A. Mejia
Greebo nodded in agreement and said, “We’ll leave markers telling you which direction we went.”
The three of them slid down the snow-covered hill to the icy trail and followed after the group of Scavengers and the mysterious trio. Manny and I took our time since his bronze splint mail jingled and my heavy footsteps crunched the snow and ice beneath my feet. It all sounded so loud to me compared to the soft soundless steps Greebo made when he went all stealthy.
Manny and I were really just along as muscle and backup in case this quest turned sour, but we wouldn’t ever abandon our friends. At the same time, Manny and I hadn’t spent a great deal of time alone. I felt the urge to fill the quiet as we walked and decided the wind blowing into us was enough to cover the sounds of our voices, so I whispered, “So, how long have you known Greebo?”
Manny looked up at me as his boot crushed the ice beneath it. “I’ve known him his whole life. I’m his cousin.”
I considered how Greebo referred to other goblins and asked, “Like Greebo calls every goblin his cousin?”
He shook his head. “No. His real cousin. My mom is his dad’s sister. We grew up together.”
I wondered what that must have been like. I knew Greebo as he was now and wondered if he’d been different when he was younger. “What was he like as a kid?”
Manny smiled as he recalled the memories. “Greebo was a little hellraiser. Well, we both were if I’m bein’ honest. We were a couple of little gobs, stealing, drinking, fighting, and making trouble.” His expression turned sad as he said, “Greebo really changed after his dad died. I don’t think he’d expected his pa to die--ever. My Uncle was so powerful and important to our people, he seemed like a god when we were young. His death sobered both of us up. We came of age soon after and moved into the apartments. I went to work in the factories, and Greebo started to go into the dungeon to try to get to level five and become a Scavenger like his pa.” He scratched the back of his head. “I wasn’t sure if he was gonna make it for a while. He seemed so lost sometimes. No one wanted to group with a lone goblin without a class, but then he met you, and you helped him get the XP and coin he needed.” He stopped and looked up at me with a serious look in his eyes. “Thank you for that. Since Greebo met you, he’s seemed like a new goblin. He has focus, goals, and he’s helping other people. He’s starting to remind me of his dad.” Manny sniffed and said quietly, “I think his pops would be proud of how Greebo has turned out.”
I didn’t know how to respond to that. I said, “Thanks, but he’s done all that by himself. He’s helped me out too. I don’t think I’d have been able to get as far in the dungeon without his guidance and inventiveness.”
I wanted to ask about Greebo’s mom and how my friend had ended up having to work alone even though he was the son of the guild leader, but Manny pointed to a group of rocks near a bush ahead of us. The rocks were laid on the ground in the shape of an arrow pointing west. He said, “They changed direction and went west.”
I looked over the ground for footprints or some other sign to track but either the trail was too faint, or I just didn’t have a skill for tracking. Without the arrow pointing out where they went, I never would have been able to follow Greebo and the twins. “Yeah, they did. Let's head that way.”
We continued to walk in silence, looking for markers. We spotted several more and changed direction three more times. North, east, and back west. The Scavengers and the three cloaked figures were clearly taking a circumspect route to wherever they were headed.
The wind picked up, and snow started to fall. I had no idea where it came from as there were no clouds above us in the dungeon cave, just a ceiling too high to see and a giant crystal that glowed a cold white-blue. Manny and I continued our trek through the ice and snow, searching constantly for new markers and monsters. I heard a low growl to my right and spotted a pair of red eyes staring at me from on top of an outcropping of rocks. The eyes belonged to a leopard-like creature with snow-white fur and two twitching tails. It was set to pounce, and my first instinct was to call out my Flintlock Rifle and blow the creature away before it could jump. But then I remembered we were trying to be stealthy and I hadn’t loaded the rifle with a silent round. I realized that I should use my Blacksmith Hammer but had taken too long to decide and felt a sixty-pound ball of fur, teeth, and claw crash into me and knock me down. I hit the ground with a thud and crack as the icy top broke.
I heard the screech of metal being cut as the claws and teeth of the monster gouged away at my armor and I saw red double-digit numbers float away from me. I pushed out and lifted the front half of the monster off of me, stopping it from ripping my throat out. The snow-white creature was as long as my torso, and I brought my knees up to my chest and I kicked out, trying to get it off of me. The creature howled and hissed as its struggle to kill turned into a frantic effort to get away from me. I let it go, more than willing to let it get away, and it scrambled off of me and into the snow. I quickly pushed myself up and saw that the monster’s fur was no longer pure white but red with blood, and I realized that I’d kicked it with my spiked feet.
I chuckled and said, “I guess you're not the only one with claws now.”
I heard the jingle of metal to my left and saw Manny walking toward me with his bronze shield out and his mace raised, ready to strike. A bit more loudly than I intended, I said, “No shouts or taunts. We don’t want to let our targets know we’re back here. We kill this thing as quietly as we can.”
He nodded, and we split apart. As I circled to the right, I activated my integrated Blacksmith Hammer, my right hand transformed, and took a moment to use Inspect on the monster.
Nekomata
Level 7
HP 32/46
The level seven creature didn’t appear to have been badly hurt, but it was surprisingly wary. As soon as Manny got behind it, it spun and clawed at him. The powerful claws dug deep into the shield, leaving furrows behind as its claws drug through the metal. Manny struck out with his mace but only hit air as the large cat twisted out of the way of the blow.
I swung with my hammer hand while its back was to me, but with an almost preternatural ability, it seemed to sense the attack and spun out of the way. After that, we went back and forth with the monster. It tried to get through our armor with its claws, and we tried to smash it. All our efforts seemed to be fruitless, and then the monster did something I hadn’t seen before: it gave up. I don’t know if it sensed the futility of continuing to fight well-armored opponents or if it was just tired of wasting energy with us, but either way, the monster turned and ran back up the snowy hill and disappeared.
Manny dropped his guard and sat down on the road, breathing heavily. His new armor was heavier than his old splint mail, and I didn’t think that he was quite used to it yet. Moving in heavy armor must be draining, and fighting in it was probably even worse. He rested for a moment and then got back to his feet and we continued to follow the trail we’d been left. I checked out my health and saw that I was down almost a fourth, but I knew I couldn’t stop to repair myself. I was already having a hard time seeing through the falling snow, and if we waited too long, we’d lose the trail of targets or miss a change in the direction they were moving.
We walked for another hour without seeing a marker, and I’d almost thought we’d lost the trail in the snow when I heard a hiss. I stopped, put a hand on Manny’s shoulder, and scanned for another Nekomata hiding somewhere, but then I saw movement from a group of trees and rocks to my left. I watched as a small gloved hand poked out and waved, and then Frak’s head popped out with a smile. I looked down at Manny, who waved and smiled back at the goblin, and we moved through the snow to join our friends.
Once behind the rocks and trees, I saw Greebo and the twins. They were all crouched down, and I realized that I was the largest of them and quickly knelt down to better hide behind the trees. Greebo nodded and put a finger up to his lips, indicating the need for quiet, then turned and pointed to a hill jus
t a hundred feet ahead. I didn’t see anything at first, and then there was a flicker of light in the center of the hill, and a small goblin walked out of the seemingly solid hill with an axe on his shoulder, making a path through the thigh-high snow, and went off into the woods to the north to chop wood.
“An illusion?” I whispered as I turned to look at Greebo.
He nodded and whispered back, “Yes. We followed the group to the hill there, and one of the cloaked ones cast some magic that revealed the cave. They disappeared inside, and then the cave disappeared as well. We don’t know what’s beyond it, but that’s where they went.”
“How are we going to get inside?” I asked.
The other goblins looked at me, and I realized they hadn’t thought about it, and I continued, “Well, we are going inside, aren’t we? I mean, we still don’t know what the Scavengers are smuggling or who is behind it all.” I turned to Greebo and added, “Don’t you want to find out if Guild Master Dobliao is in there running things?”
Greebo considered my words and nodded. “Fine. We’ll get inside and see what they’re doing and who is behind it all. Then, when we have evidence, I can bring in the guard against whoever is using the Scavengers guild this way.”
“But how do we get inside? Won’t the mages have spells to tell them people are coming or something?” asked Frik, his twin nodding beside him.
“That’s a good point.” I thought about it for a moment before realizing the answer was obvious. “Parker,” I called. The mechanical trap spider that I’d created stirred from it’s resting spot across my back. Its legs twitched as it rose off my back and climbed down to the ground and awaited orders, its two front legs raised up towards me.
I recognized the gesture as a request for a pet and obliged the mechanical spider. Then I pointed to a point directly along the path the goblin with the axe had made in the snow when he left and said, “Go and dig a pit trap there.” It was a perfect chance to capture one of the goblins and see how it was able to come and go from the cave. The mechanical spider scampered off to where it was directed, its light frame letting it walk on top of the snow. When it reached the location I’d indicated, it used the small shovel-like tips of its legs to dig through the snow and into the ground with surprising quickness. The mechanical creation didn’t seem to mind the ice or snow or even the hard-frozen earth. Its appendages cut through each with equal steadiness, and before long, there was a hole just deep enough to completely hold a goblin. The mechanical spider then sprayed some thin stringy substance from the back of its body that covered the hole. When it was finished, it covered the now-concealed pit with a layer of snow so well that I couldn’t even tell that it was there, and I knew where to look for it. Once the spider was done, it returned to me and waited for further orders.
“That’s all for now, Parker,” I said to it. The mechanical spider calmly climbed back up onto my back and wrapped its eight mechanical legs around me to secure itself. Once it was settled, I hardly knew it was there. I turned back to the goblins. “Ok, now we just have to wait.”
We didn’t have to wait too long as soon the goblin returned with an armload of chopped wood almost as tall as he was. He carried it in his arms in front of him, peeking around the sides of the stack to make sure he was heading back along the trail he’d made through the snow toward the hill. I was glad that he had the stack of wood obscuring his vision as it made it nearly impossible for him to see the trap ahead of him. Then there was a yell as he fell into the hole. Our group scrambled through the snow to reach the goblin and found him at the bottom in a daze, surrounded by chopped wood.
He looked up at us with wide eyes and asked, “Can you help me out of here, guys?”
I looked down at him and used Inspect.
Kenny Gobsmacker
Level 6 - Scavenger
HP 19/23
Mana 3/3
Greebo held a hand down to the young goblin and helped pull him up. The goblin brushed the snow off his pants and only then noticed that the goblins surrounding him weren’t the ones he’d come with. A panicked look came over him, and he tried to cry out, but Greebo’s short sword was already out and at the goblin’s throat. A drop of blood fell from where the tip of the blade pressed, and Greebo said very seriously and quietly, “Don’t make me slit your throat, guildmate.”
I didn’t think the young goblin’s eyes could get wider, but the tone Greebo used must have scared the goblin because his eye popped open as wide as saucers. I put a hand on Greebo’s, and he flinched like I’d pricked him. The tension in his eyes lessened, and he withdrew the tip of the shortsword.
I grabbed the young goblin and said, “Look. You’ve gotten mixed up with something you shouldn’t. Greebo is here to set things straight. If you cooperate, we’ll see about keeping you in the guild.” I turned him to look back at Greebo, who raised his shortsword menacingly and added, “But if you don’t tell us what we want to know, I can’t help you. I’ll have to let Greebo get the information out another way.”
I turned the goblin back to me and saw him gulp and nod vigorously. “Sure. Sure. Whatever you want. Just don’t let that goblin alone with me.”
“Good. Now, tell me everything.”
The goblin proceeded to describe that he’d only joined the guild a year ago and that he’d been recruited by Guild Master Dobliao himself after he’d gotten into trouble with the guard for stealing. “He said he was giving me a chance to make something better of myself. After I joined the guild, he had me running all over town, ferrying items here and there. He even gave me quests for it so I’d get XP for completing my deliveries. Guild Master made me put all my class points into Stealth, Speed, and Pack Mule so that I could carry more and sneak around faster. I didn’t mind. After all, it was a sight better than starving.” He scrunched up his face before continuing. “Then, about three months ago, the deliveries changed. Instead of going about the city, I started to go into the dungeon. It was odd, as I’d never wanted to fight monsters, but I was grouped up with different people, mostly this troll and this uppity mage. We’d go into the dungeon and kill monsters.”
“What’s so weird about that? That’s what most people do in the dungeon,” Greebo said.
Kenny shook his head. “No, we didn’t kill just any monster. We always waited to kill these strange ones. When I asked about it, the mage just told me to shut my gob mouth and carry whatever he wanted. I did ‘cause he and the troll were scary.”
“And there was the money?” I asked.
The goblin shrugged but didn't look embarrassed. “Yeah, the money was good. The mage only wanted a few things and let the troll and me split the rest of the loot.”
The description of the others and the mage made me think of the time we’d been robbed. “What did you do if you couldn’t find the ‘strange’ monsters before some other adventurer killed them?”
The goblin hunched his shoulders and looked down. Greebo took a step forward, raised his shortsword, and the goblin quickly said, “We tracked down and robbed the folks that had killed the monster. The mage has some kind of spell that let him find who he wanted.”
“So, it was you who robbed us, was it? I lost quite a bit of loot that day,” Frik said. He moved to strike the goblin but was held back by his brother.
The goblin flinched away. “Yeah. But not ‘cause I wanted to. The troll and the mage made me. I felt bad about it, but what could I do? I was only doing my job as the Guild Master told me to.”
“He told you to rob adventurers?” Greebo asked.
“Well, not in those words. But after the first time it happened, I told him about it, and he said to just do whatever the mage told me to do,” the goblin answered. “He looked scared when he said it, and I figured the mage must be a big somebody if the Guild Master was scared of him. So, I wasn’t about to not do what he told me.”
The other goblins looked at each other but didn’t look angry at the young goblin. Manny nodded and put a hand on the goblin’s shoulder. “I
t’s hard to turn away from the only job you’ve got when you don’t think you have anywhere else to go. Even if it's doing wrong. We understand that. But it all has to end now. You gotta choose to do the right thing. Ok?”
“But what about the Guild Master? He’s the one that decides what’s right for us, isn’t he?”
“Oh, don’t you worry. He’ll get his. I won’t let him use the guild my dad founded like this. You just tell us who else came with you and what you’re doing here,” Greebo said.
Kenny looked at him strangely, and then he seemed to recognize who Greebo was, “The guild founder’s son? I’d heard you joined but wasn’t there when you got your class.” He swallowed and continued, “Well, sir, me and some of the other delivery goblins are told to come here once a month with empty packs. We meet with the mage and troll or someone else and go to some cave. It’s never the same one twice, which is why we have to be shown the way. But when we get there, we load up our bags with these caskets and then take them to somewhere in the city and drop them off. It’s the best paying quest of the month.”
“Where do you take these caskets?” I asked.
“Once, it was in an empty warehouse. Another time, it was to a fancy dress shop. On another trip, it was to a factory outside the city. It’s different each time, and we aren’t told where to go until we’re loaded up.”
