“So, what’s the plan?” I asked. “Are we just going to fight our way all the way to the goblin king?”

“Works for me,” Slade said.

“I suspect the encounters will get stronger the farther south we go,” Max said.

“We’re already pushing the odds,” I said. “Another fight or two, and then there will just be too many of them.”

“Says who?” Slade said.

“Anyone with a brain,” I said. “We’ve got to be more clever about this.”

“Maybe there’s a way to bring the king to us?” Max offered. “You’re a hunter. Do you have any insight into how goblins think?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “Let me check...”

I pulled up the Codex and searched for goblins.

Goblins

Goblins are a common humanoid species known for their resilience and cruelty. These small, green-skinned creatures can be found in all habitats, including dense forests, dark caves, sweltering jungles, and arid wastelands.

Smaller than Humans, goblins typically stand between three and four feet tall, with wiry frames and large expressive faces. Their skin ranges from sickly green to dark earthy hues. Goblins have sharp, jagged teeth suited to a carnivorous diet.

Goblins are highly social creatures that typically form loosely knit tribes. These tribes are constantly engaged in internal social dominance struggles. When a tribe grows too large, it often faces violent internal conflicts as members vie for control, which reduces their numbers. A strong central leader can impose enough control to minimize these conflicts. Often these leaders will use external foci to direct goblin aggression outward instead of against the tribe. If this leader is overthrown, the large tribe almost always fragments into factions, leading to significant casualties.

Like many humanoid species, Goblins are fond of treasure and have developed currency in place of barter. Strong leaders will often use the promise of treasure to control the masses.

If individual goblins are discovered in the wild, a larger tribe is often nearby.

You speak Goblin.

“Okay, then,” I said, exiting the menus. It looks like killing the king will result in a goblin civil war, ending their expansion into human lands.”

“Sounds good,” Max said. “But how do we get to him?”

“Goblins like treasure and money,” I said.

“And we got neither,” Slade said.

“They are also prone to internal fighting,” I said. “This group is only expanding north because of a strong leader. Most likely, he’s promised treasure from the human lands.”

“I don’t think Springfield would want us using them as bait,” Max said.

“We don’t have any treasure,” I said, “but what if we tried convincing another leader to step up?”

“Create the civil war the king’s death would cause?” Max asked.

“Right.” I said, “We convince one of them to step up and let them do the fighting for us.”

“That’s a dumb idea,” Slade said. “Especially since they are trying to kill us.”

“We haven’t actually tried talking to them yet,” I explained.

“They haven’t been much for the hellos,” Slade said, “what with the spear throwing and charging at us.”

“He’s not wrong,” Max said.

“We should try.” I said, “Next gang we see. We try negotiating with them. Okay, Slade?”

“I still think it’s a dumb idea,” Slade said.

“What if we offer our king to meet theirs?” Max said.

“Our what?” I asked.

“Our king,” Max said with a wicked smile, “Slade the Slayer, King of all Humans.”

“And what if they just attack us?” Slade said.

Max paused momentarily and said, “We’ll need to capture one to take a message back. They don’t all fight to the death. In our last squabble, several ran off once we killed the leader. If they get hostile, we finish it, but we have to capture one of the runners.”

“We got a plan,” I said. “Now what? Stay here or go deeper in?”

“These rocks aren’t much of a defense,” Slade said.

Exasperated, I said, “Well, not when you go charging at everything.”

“Hey! It’s part of my tankiness, gotta get their attention,” Slade said.

“I’d prefer to wait here,” Emma spoke up.

“All right,” I said. “Two to stay. One to press on. Max?”

“I think Slade’s right. We should go deeper.” Max said.

“Great,” I said. “Two to two. How do we resolve this?”

“As party leader and king,” Slade said, “I’ll decide the ties.”

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

“Umm, no,” I said.

Slade rolled his eyes, “What then? Flip a coin?”

“I’d actually prefer that than you deciding,” I said. “Max? Emma?”

Max said, “For ties? Why not.”

Emma shrugged.

“I’ll flip,” Max offered.

“Okay.” I said, resigned to the fact that a coin toss might decide if we die or not.

“Victoria, call it in the air,” Max said, producing a coin. He wriggled his fingers, and it danced across them. He then tossed it up in the air.

“Heads.”

Max caught the coin and slapped it against his arm. All of us pressed in, looking. When Max lifted his hand, we all saw an image of crossed spears on the copper coin. To remove any doubt, Max flipped the coin over, showing a dragon’s head.

“Damn it,” I cursed.

“Let’s loot up and ride out,” Slade said, looking smug all over.

Party Gained: Coin, Copper x142

Spear, Short x9

Cutlass, Rusty x6

Dagger (rusty) x7

Chainmail

Chainmail (rusty) x5

Leather Armor x7

Pendant, Silver Necklace, Magical (unidentified)

Potion, Red, Brackish (unidentified)

Potion, Purple (unidentified)

Jerky x26

Nobody wanted any of the garbage except Slade, “Woohoo! Magic necklace is mine!”

He took it and put it on immediately.

“We should have probably identified that first,” I said.

“It’s magic, what could go wrong?” Slade said.

“It could be cursed?” I said.

“But that’s not magical, that’s cursed,” Slade said.

“Who puts curses on things?” I asked.

Slade shrugged, “I don’t know, witches?”

“And witches work in what?” I said.

“Cottages,” Slade said. “And big pots.”

“They work in magic,” I said.

“They work with magic.” Slade corrected.

“Ok, they work with magic. And they work with curses. Kind of the same thing, don’t you think?” I said.

“I don’t know that they are the same thing,” Slade said.

“All right, I’m done. I hope only wonderful things happen with your magic necklace.” I said, then asked the rest of the group. “What do we do with the rest of this stuff?”

“I’ll take the potions.” Emma volunteered.

We dumped the rest and mounted up. Then we were back on the road travelling south. After about thirty minutes of travel, the road started to curve back and forth, and we began a steady incline into the foothills. Another thirty minutes and we arrived at the palisade we’d seen from below.

The structure was smaller than I’d initially thought. It was really just one structure, not a town at all.

I spotted blue highlights all along the road in front of us. Riding forward past Slade, who always took lead, I swung down off my horse. Crouching down the blue highlights were calling my attention to many sets of tracks.

Tracks discovered: Horse, riding x8

Tracks discovered: Human x18

Tracks discovered: Swiftscale x12+

Tracks discovered: Goblin x20+

“Tracks here,” I yelled. “Human, horses, goblins, there’s a lot of them.”

Max came down off his horse, handing the reins of both horses to Emma. Slade got his battle-axe out.

“I don’t see anything,” Max said.

“I’m a hunter. They are plain as day to me.” I told him.

I started focusing on individual tracks. The humans and horses went north in a hurry, all of them. The other tracks were all over the place. The swiftscales also all went north. I guessed they may have been chasing the humans. Why would the humans leave the palisade? The goblin tracks, and there were more than twenty of them, crisscrossed everywhere.

A number of the goblin tracks went south to the human structure. I followed them, trying to count how many, but they overlapped, and there were just too many, at least a dozen. They went right up the double doors in the wooden wall. Over the doors, someone had hung a crude sign reading “Fort Stonewatch.”

Looking back, I saw an outline behind me. Max was stealthed. Slade was on his horse, slowly following us, and Emma was on hers, leading the others. I edge up to the palisade doors. They were slightly open. I drew my bow out of inventory.

“Come on, let's just bust in,” Slade called.

I held up a hand and shooshed him, “There might be goblins inside.”

“All the more reason to just bust in,” Slade grumbled.

I peeked through the open doors. The trail continued inside the compound. A couple of buildings were inside, the largest one on the far south of the compound. I pushed inside a little further, seeing no movement at all. There was no vegetation in the compound, just rocky soil everywhere.

Now that I was fully inside, I could see four buildings with four watchtowers. The watchtowers were placed in each corner, each looking out in different directions. There were two single-story wood structures. The one on the east was obviously a stable with huge doors capable of accommodating horses. To the west, the one-story building was nondescript, its purpose unknown. Next to it was a big kiln with all sorts of anvils, a blacksmith.

The final building on the far south of the compound, built right up to the palisade walls, was two stories of thick, crude stone blocks and a third story of wood. It looked like a miniature castle. I stopped and listened, hoping that goblins had a culture of being loud or rowdy or both.

Human and goblin tracks went in every direction. It was tough to tell how many or how old they were, as so many of them overlapped. I crept in further as Max followed. There was a grunt from outside the doors, then Slade pulled the giant door open and strode in.

“Yo! Goblins! Come get some!” Slade yelled.

Max and I both glared at Slade, but he shrugged, “What? We want them coming at me, right?”

Emma rode in behind us with three horses in tow.

“Goblins! Come out and play!” Slade yelled as he went to the stables.

Glancing at Max, I signaled that I would go to the opposite undetermined building. He nodded and pointed to the keep.

Keeping hidden, I snuck up to the building's door. I pushed it open and saw just a wide, vast room with rows of bunks. As I crossed the threshold into the building, my stealth was broken.

Stealth Lost: Urban Area

Crap. I stood and walked through the building. Everything of value had been stripped. There were no mattresses, no blankets, just random scattered empty footlockers. This had been a barracks. I counted twenty beds. Twenty soldiers that left this place.

Heading back outside, I saw Slade coming out of the barracks. When he saw me, he hollered, “Nothing there, not even bags of feed.”

“Mine’s empty too. A barracks, no blankets, no weapons, no nothing.” I said. “How would you know what a feedbag is?”

Slade looked around, “My dad owns a ranch. I know some things. Sweet castle there.”

We started towards the keep, and I told him, “Yeah, this is a keep. A fort on the frontier. Probably to watch for goblin incursions, I’m guessing.”

“And they’re all gone? Probably eaten.”

“Probably not eaten. They took all their stuff.” I said.

“Or… Hear me out here… Eaten and then… The goblins took their stuff.”

“Yeah,” I said, “That’s possible, I suppose.”

“Right?” Slade beamed and smacked me on the shoulder.

I glanced back, and I saw Emma had dismounted. She was pushing the gates closed, and the horses were wandering around on their own.

Slade shoved his way into the keep, battleaxe at the ready. I followed, bow in one hand not quite ready, but I was pretty sure that there wasn’t anyone here.

Inside was a large room the size of the building itself. Fragments of furniture, the remains of busted-up tables and chairs, were scattered throughout, but otherwise, the room was empty. Off to one side was a stone spiral staircase leading up, and on the opposite side, an opening leading down into the dark.

As we approached the spiral stairway, Max appeared descending them and said, “Nothing upstairs, just empty floors. Everything has been looted.”

The three of us went to the stairs leading down into the dark.

“That’s really dark.” Slade offered.

“Thanks, Captain Obvious,” I said.

“We’ll need light.” Max said as he pulled a dead torch from a sconce on the wall.

Emma appeared at the door and came up behind us as Max and I tried to figure out how to use a tinderbox. With some help from the help menu, we got it sorted.

“Emma, can you cast heals while holding a torch?” I asked.

“I can.” She said, accepting the burning torch.

Something clanged in the dark down the stairs, and all of us nearly jumped out of our skins. Max went invisible in an instant. Slade stepped up the stairs, axe in hand. I pulled up my bow and readied an arrow while Emma held the torch higher.

Slade turned back and winked, “See? I told you there were feasting goblins here.”