We head out from Grubwick the next morning, having supplied up and added two new goblins to our party for the time being. Nika, the Elite [Hunter] and Gurgo, an Elite [Gatherer] who will be doing a survey of mushrooms and traveling with us is probably the safest place to be.

“These tunnels lead to a village named Usk,” Nika says. “That’ll be our first stop.”

Much of the In-Between is lit by bioluminescent plants and fungi, but I keep alert with my [Aura Sight] to make sure nothing potentially hostile is approaching us, whether it be monsters, animals, people, or overly aggressive plant life.

“We’ll need to stay far enough away from the bank so the carp can’t reach out and drag us into the water,” says Nika.

“These fish are too hardcore,” I say.

“Our mighty fishers still bring them in,” Nika says. “They have a much more dangerous job than we hunters. They’re why we weren’t worried about anyone sneaking in by the riverside gate. You were very fortunate that the fish were quiet the day you snuck into the village.”

We make out way downriver, to where the water grows broader and more sluggish and eventually opens up into a vast underground marsh. (Or swamp? I don’t know the difference between a marsh and a swamp and this isn’t a biome that existed on Earth anyway.) The trill of insects echoes through the caverns. Glowing blue mushrooms cling to the sides of weird cave trees with purple leaves. I do not know nearly enough about botany to figure out cave trees and for all I know, it’s magic anyway.

The swamp is treacherous. Although the deadly giant carp don’t populate the shallow, muddy waters of this area, it has plenty of other dangers to make up for it. Nika is experienced with looking out for patches of soft mud you can sink into as well as signs of dangerous animals. The monsters have mostly gone back to deeper layers but there are beings that inhabit the swamp year round that can cause problems for an unwary traveler.

Thanks to [Aura Sight], I don’t wind up covered in giant cave leeches. Nor do I stumble into a giant cave wasp nest. I even direct us around the sleeping giant cave sloth.

[Why are there so many giant cave things?] I send to the group. [I’d have thought living in caves would make them smaller, not bigger.]

Nika shrugs and doesn’t give an answer aloud as we’re trying to be quiet, but no amount of stealthiness is going to prevent me from making inane observations over party chat.

The village of Usk sits in the middle of the swamp, surrounded on all sides by muck. The village walls are the only signs of stable ground in the area. (Although fortunately there is a stable ceiling.)

You have discovered Usk. Your Survival (Careful Step) skill has increased to level 2.

[I really hope they let us in,] I comment. [I’m not looking forward to making camp out here.]

The rest of us wait out of range of thrown spears and stones while Nika and Milo approach the gate. There’s a heated discussion I can’t quite make out from here, and eventually one of the guards goes off into the Hearth. He returns shortly with an old goblin man with milky white eyes, leaning on a stick. He gestures us forward, and I identify him when I get close enough to get a good read on his aura.

Category Person Race Goblin Gender Male Rank Heroic Class Invoker

“You may come speak with me,” the old goblin says. “Only because I do not care to walk out into the mud, and not because I desire your presence in my village. I am Kinog Usk, [Elder Warlock].”

Your Language (Goblin) skill has increased to level 2.

Huh. I’d only spoken with Grubwick goblins so far. He speaks mostly the same as Grubwick goblins, but his word choice feels a little more archaic even than [Elder Witch] Griza’s speech. (Will my Common skill be forever stuck at level 1 because I can’t actually hear it as Common but as English?)

“You won’t let us in?” I ask.

“I will not,” Kinog says. “Not even the goblins in your group.”

“Why not?” I aks.

“I do not approve of the direction you are taking Grubwick,” Kinog says. “We seek to preserve the old ways, not merely become small green humans. Grubwick incarnated a human in green skin. We will be watching to see what happens from here, but we will not be exposing our children to these new ideas until they are old enough to understand.”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Okay,” I say, and turn to my party. “Let’s go.”

“What, you’re just going to leave it at that?” Anise says. “Hey, Elder Kinog! We’re totally cool! Don’t send us back out into the swamp!”

“Whether you came here by choice or by quest, I am unconcerned about your wellbeing,” Vorg says. “Move along.”

Milo sighs. “I do not believe my level of Persuasion is sufficient, either.”

We head back off into the swamp, not actually terribly upset about the encounter. We’d expected many of the goblins villages we might run across would not welcome us with open arms. This one just opted to tell us to go away rather than attack us. They had at least one Heroic and probably at least a few combat Elites, so I have no doubt that they could have killed us all if they wanted.

And yet here we are, wandering around without a single Heroic of our own, because experience I suppose. Yay. I can practically feel my skills tingle.

We move on, and as the swamps get deeper, stone ledges just out and form layers with small trickling waterfalls running between them. Nika leads us up a ramp leading back toward the shallower parts of the In-Between. Goblins live between two worlds, never venturing too deep and remaining cautious about visits to the surface. The [Hunter] leads us into a ledge with two narrow ways out and a good view of the swamps below, concealed behind some clusters of mushrooms and weird purple plants.

“This is a good place to set up camp,” Nika says. “Hidden, good view of surroundings. Don’t light a fire.”

Once we’ve gotten settled in to rest and are munching on some cold rations, I go and sit next to my mom. She’s feeling chatty and not being nearly as quiet as she ought to be in this situation.

As Anise babbles on, sharing anecdotes about her adventures, my [Aura Sight] picks up something large moving near us. A red aura indicating a monster.

[Quiet!] I send to my party. [I’m detecting a monster nearby. I don’t think it has spotted us yet.]

Anise obediently shuts her mouth and looks a little sheepish. It’s easy to get complacent on the surface where there aren’t usually any monsters outside of dungeons except during swarm season. I turn my attention to analyzing the creature’s aura.

Category Monster Type Funeral Gender Male Rank Heroic Aspect Decay

I share the screen with the others. Between four combat-capable Elites and one Elite who isn’t combat-focused but can probably hold his own a bit, we’re probably capable of killing the thing, but not quietly. And I’m still Basic rank, so the creature could probably kill me instantly.

The swamp monster isn’t actually visible at first, but a low rumble echoes through the caverns. The stench of rot permeates the air, heavy enough to almost make me gag. Slow, heavy footsteps squelch and plod until the being finally comes into view. He’s bipedal, covered in or made of black and yellow lichen.

He pauses beneath our ledge, his glowing yellow-green eyes surveying his surroundings. Perhaps he heard us, or maybe he can even smell us. After several tense minutes, though, he moves on and plods back deeper into the under-swamps.

Skill acquired: Subterfuge (Hiding)

“I hate those things,” Nika mutters once we can no longer see, hear, or smell the fungal monster. “Tough, annoying, and you can’t even eat them. If we had a fire going, it would have gone berserk.”

We take turns on watch and have a restless rest period before moving on.

“We’re heading out of the swamps now,” Nika says. “This part of the In-Between should be safer, usually, but don’t get complacent.”

“I’m just happy to get out of the mud,” Milo says. “I would kill something for a hot bath right now.”

“I do know where a hot spring is,” Nika says.

“Is it close?” Milo wonders. “Or at least on the way to another goblin village?”

“Hmm,” Nika hmms, and looks around at our surroundings. Her eyes fall upon a weirdly shaped stalagmite that probably makes for a good landmark. “Yeah, it’s not far from Splott.”

“Great,” Milo says. “I’ll take the springs of Splott over the swamps of Usk any day.”

“If we’re lucky, there might be hot spring pythons near the water,” Nika says.

“Lucky?” I wonder.

“Yes!” Nika says brightly. “They’re good eating. Don’t worry, I’ve never seen one higher than Elite.”

“Please don’t say things like that.”

Nika continues leading us through the tunnels and after what must be hours of wandering around a maze of twisty little passages, all alike, we arrive at the promised hot spring. The narrow tunnel we were crawling through opens up into a large steamy cavern bursting with lush growth around several burbling pools.

You have discovered Underground Hot Springs. Skill acquired: Survival (Caving)

“Do you smell that?” Milo asks, turning to me.

“Smell what?” I wonder.

“Exactly,” Milo says. “I don’t know how many hot spring resorts you visited in your last life, but the thing I distinctly remember from the natural ones is that they usually have a sulfur smell to them.”

“What’s sulfur?” Nika asks.

“A kind of mineral that apparently isn’t here,” Milo says.

“I guess this isn’t a volcanic spring,” I say. “Could be completely made up, because dungeons do whatever they want. Are there even any volcanoes in Tempest?”

“What’s a volcano?” Anise asks.

“A mountain that spews out lava,” I say.

“Hmm, there’s no lava dungeons that I know of, and certainly not in any mountains,” Anise says. “The only real one is the Black Mountain. Maybe it has lava features in the lower floors? I haven’t actually been there before.”

“I suppose one cannot expect plate tectonics out of countries that are comprised of floating discs,” Milo says. “If there’s something you wanted to make that requires sulfur, it might be hard to get in Tempest.”

While we were chatting, Nika has already caught a pair of meter-long snakes for supper and I didn’t even need to use [Aura Sight] to find them for her. A thorough scan of the area indicates no Heroic hot spring monsters that will try to eat us should we decide to take a dip or light a fire, so we can thankfully have roasted snake and not raw snake, not that eating raw meat bothers the goblins.