"Wake up."
He was shaken awake by a heavily scarred older goblin, likely predating even Drool.
"Do you mind? I was having an important conversation." Scratch complained.
The pony had been untied from the cart and most of the essential items taken.
The crusty subhuman roughly grabbed at the wooden tags he'd gotten from Nadia's highlands.
"Wood. 's one of Mama Nadia," he decided, though he didn't give any indication of understanding their exact purpose and why having two would be unusual. "Go to your mama."
The goblins were tearing up the cart as he sat inside, looting not just the non-essential equipment left behind by the adventurers but even the wood and metal of the wagon.
The adventurers themselves had chosen the high ground to make their stand, an elevated mound in the sandy clearing almost directly behind them, and almost half the goblin army had turned around to encircle them.
"Go on. Go." The old goblin demanded and pointed the other way. With half the attacking army distracted, the defenders had opened the gate and were pouring out to beat down the remaining siege, Nadia and a few other brood mothers were in the back screaming at their children to hold the line, offering no real tactical guidance.
Scratch recognized their faces. Nadia was one of them, but there were nearly seven of them. The leader and most assertive among them he recognized as Anna, a relatively new brood mother. Among them she felt the most comfortable commanding other tribe's goblins. Nadia had said she would be joining a larger troupe from the river home, and Anna had been assigned to there, so Scratch immediately assumed she was the ringleader.
Assumed to be part of Nadia's forces he was then given a stone hatched as a weapon and send off towards the clashing army. He was allowed to keep the coat at least, it must have looked like protective padding to them.
-
With a certain existential besetment he crossed the distance over the ploughed earth to the fray of goblins fighting over a wooden lattice.
His naked toes sank into the loose dirt and he had to avoid more and more sharp objects on the ground the closer he came to the fighting, until he was eventually in the middle of it.
"What is this? An advance or a skirmish? Let me through." Scratch forced himself past the fighters, they were exhausted enough that he could brush by, despite their eagerness to attack.
There was no tactics or formations to speak off, the bandit women simply send their goblins at each other like blunt weapons.
"You, Nug," he recognized one of the defenders and grabbed his spear by the pole, "it's me. Where's Lydia?"
Nug hesitated to respond, simply trying to wrestle control of the spear again.
"Hello? I said it's me, 'papa Scratch', right? Let me in, I need to talk to her."
"Papa is dead, and the knight is at the Promise," Nug insisted as yanked the spear loose and jabbed it toward's Scratch's innards once more.
"And you have two eyes."
"Two eyes," Scratch dodged the sharp point, "why does everybody only remember the eye-patch? You know what? Fine, I'll be back."
He pushed the small stone weapon into some random comrade's hands. Now duel-wielding, the goblin's confidence doubled and he valorously charged into Nug's spear, leaving Scratch room to escape from the fray.
Crossing the entire field again he returned to the adventurers.
The humans were viciously cutting down the legions of hapless goblins being send into their swords.
The duelist and paladin stood in front, while the bard was playing some sort of methodical waltz and the mage muttering an arcane phrase.
When he approached, Scratch could feel the movements of his body reflexively conform to the three-beat rhythm of the music. He stopped and restarted a few times, but he was trapped in the robotic pattern, all the goblins were. It became immediately obvious to him how the magical effect of the song made their movements more predictable to the melee fighters.
"Hey, hey, cut that out." he complained when he had finally forced himself out from the crowd and right into the path of the duelist's sword. The weapon swung to fast for him to even think about dodging, but Langley had the control to stop it inches away from his neck.
"Mite." The bard spoke up without stopping her song. "You followed us."
"Of course I did, what did you expect?" He held back the inexperienced goblins behind him so that they wouldn't rush into their certain doom.
"You're at the Promise like you wanted," Langley mumbled, swinging at the empty air between them. "We said we wouldn't kill you, so now's your chance to run away."
"We're drawing Harkness out with a massacre." The mage explained bluntly, there were already circle of magic swirling around his feet and hands.
"At the Promise? No we're not." Scratch talked quickly before they executed whatever it was what they were planning.. "This is an outer perimeter, it's here to protect some experimental vegetable gardens and wagon parking. It's still two miles until the cliff shore, Lydia isn't gonna come running if you raise a stink here. Besides..."
He gestured vaguely towards everything.
"...do you think these ones are her favorites? They're locked out, trying to break in."
"Okay, get in." He lifted his weapon to let him into the defended area, then forced back the horde behind him.
"What is your suggestion?" The bard asked without stopping.
"You see that?" Scratch pointed at the gate, the attackers were making headway again so the defenders hurriedly closed it, locking a portion of their own troops out. "Sooner or later, you're going to need to go through that. The way I see it, you've got a good thousand like-minded individuals, together you'll break down that gate in no time at all."
"You can get them to fight for us? I don't believe it."
"Not for you, just.... Listen. That woman over there is Nadia." He pointed at one of the adult figures standing out above the warriors. "She desperately wants to get these spear chuckers to the other side of that wall. You go to her, you tell her you'd like to break through as well, she'll make it happen, alright?"
"Then we'll arrive surrounded by a horde of goblin," the mage protested, "once we're done with the fortress we'll be out of mana. We can't trust that you creatures won't take advantage."
"An army moves more slowly than a small party," the paladin told him, "we can rush ahead before they pack up their camps, and be gone from the Promise before they even arrive."
"There you have it," Scratch concluded, "you see? Now come with." He grabbed Langley by the arm and led him into the bustling army.
The sea of goblins had never been a threat and it was easily parted with the duelist passing through.
Nadia noticed the man approaching her, but not the face of the goblin between the mass.
She looked frightened at first, and a pack of her most loyal sons clustered in front of her to protect her. At that point Scratch let go of Langley in order to not get noticed, leaving the man to negotiate with her by himself.
-
The communication was strained, and the two parties could be seen shouting at each other for quite a while.
"What has even gotten into you lot attacking the Promise," Scratch asked a random goblin beside him.
"Papa is gone," the boy shrugged, "got to listen to Mama. Mama says come use spear, there's enemy."
"Not much thought went into it then... hey, do you recognize me?" He pointed at his face, but the goblin shrugged and did not really try.
Eventually, with much gesturing, the shared objective between the groups was made clear, and the adventurers were given a place in the assault.
----------------------------------------
A siege of just goblins could have eventually knocked down the gate with sheer mass, but was repelled by an equal force of opponents been send into it. A siege of adventurers could easily cut through a force of defenders but would be seriously delayed by the gate simply remaining shut.
With their combined forces, the two parties conquered the gate in four minutes.
The push began normally, but as the defenders answered by sending in their own goblins suddenly the adventurers were there, piercing through the mass and pushing the gap they'd come from wide open.
Nadia and her fellow insurgents yelled triumphantly as their forces flowed into the defended territory and disabled the defending camps.
However, once they had secured the gate they could not immediately move ahead to the capitol. First they had to corral their forces into units again and have a number of them come to carry the necessary materials for the final siege. They had no plan or system for achieving this other than yell out individual commands to their own and each other's goblins and they were seriously held up. A defending brood mother even managed to escape with some of her sons in the confusion.
Langley and the other simply braved through, leaving the unorganized mess behind and walking with a brisk pace towards the cliff side, which was visible in the distance.
Scratch had trouble keeping up with their long paces and exerted himself hobbling after.
"Hah, hah... shame about the cart." He panted.
"Be quiet," the bard said, "we're surrounded."
The bailey they were crossing consisted of ploughed and cleared earth, layered with a thin crackle of frozen dew and a random scattering of barns and sheds. Not much could disguise the wolves circling the group at a safe distance.
"They're staying out of range of my enchanted songs," she whispered, "they've encountered bards before."
Scratch sighed and walked ahead of them. "Are your minds on killing at literally every waking moment?" Upon the path jumped the windwolf, unilaterally referred to as Wendy by the goblin patriarch and elder leader of the Promise's wolf pack.
"Dungeon master, your return was heralded by the voice in the darkness," she barked at him.
"Tell me you have good news." He responded.
Unable to produce most of the sounds of each other's language, each spoke in their own.
"Aiee," she complained, "naught but pain and misery. The man-things have turned against the darkness, and our pack sits precariously between the two. Yet I fear we must choose a side, as tensions reach their boiling point and a battle for control of the shard becomes inevitable."
"Not if I have anything to say about it, tell me what the surface situation is like right now..."
-
All of this was observed critically by he adventurers.
"What is he doing, talking to the wolf?" Langley asked the others.
"There is advanced magic from the western continent that allows communication with animals," the mage mused, "though a goblin would not be able to cast it. I suppose the beast is trained to relay simple concepts, one bark for danger, two for food, that sort of thing."
"I can only suppose these companions are temporary allies," Wendy told Scratch, after they had discussed their current situation and strategy,
"and you wish to dispose of them once they've served their purpose."
"You know me too well." He scratched behind her ear and then climbed on her back.
They rode right up to the party and spoke, "Wendy tells me she can bring you straight to Papa Scratch, it's only a few minutes from here."
"Really," Langley raised an eyebrow, "and it's not a trick?"
"It's not a trick, but you might be surprised."
-
The group as a whole proceeded forward, the wolves weaving in and out of a safe distance from the humans.
The walls of the promise rose up somewhat lofty from the flat surroundings, their majesty was diminished by comparison to the cliff side they leaned against. More stone had been added to the perimeter since Scratch last saw it, the wooden blockade broken up by the odd buttress.
There were some shacks and shanties surrounding the base, but they'd been abandoned, leaving the empty potato patch deserted.
The residents had all retreated inside the walls and closed the gate.
"Is this really their mighty fortress? What happened to it?" Langley wondered.
"It was never a mighty forest, just another farmstead," Scratch explained, Wendy stood across from the path, blocking them from walking out from between the shanties and exposing themselves to the guards on the wall. "And anyway, that's not where we want to be, come along."
-
One patch of forest stood untarnished.
A perfectly circular area of grass and trees, with a sharp border against the ploughed earth.
They had to go inside, behind the beeches and elms, to discover the mourning tree.
Months ago the goblins had started tying red ribbons to the large willow when a treasured family member died, and now the mighty tree was bend under the mass of mementos. The slight variation in hue from the differently sourced ribbons gave the plant an autumny palette, and the grass below had been cleared of leaves and detritus, exposing the vibrant green grass. The scene assaulted the eyes with incongruous seasons in the middle of winter.
Against the base of the tree stood a small shrine, protected by bars of cast iron.
-
"What is this? What are you showing us?" Langley complained.
"Look inside," Scratch said softly.
Displayed in a case, just behind the protective metal, was a world memory. The playing cards that would manifest to keep record of events and entities from the past.
"Death of the Patriarch." It stated, showing a hustle and bustle of directionless fighting goblins. Well lit and in the center of the picture the young human prisoner could be seen driving a knife into the chest of the patriarch, well dressed but visible only from the back. At the top of the picture
Ada, the daughter that had caused the commotion and opportunity for attack was displayed as a second protagonist, still angry and self-righteous at that time.
A little mount of earth indicated the place he had been buried.
"It's... some sort of burial shrine," the mage pondered.
"This is the event card, where's the character card?" Langley pointed, "look, there's a spot where the second card should go."
"Regardless of where what is," Scratch sighed, "your quarry is dead. It's over."
Outside the angry yelling of the attacking goblin horde became audible.
"Dammit! We can not have wasted that much time looking for a damn grave that they've already arrived." The Bard cursed.
"We haven't," Scratch explained, "that's just the sound of the lightly equipped rushing half an hour's travel ahead of the main force. With no strategy or discipline..."
"We can still attack the fortress then," the paladin proposed, "take out Harkness and get out of there quickly."
"Sure you could," the goblin agreed, "if Lydia hasn't taken refuge into that dungeon."
"Oh yeah..." he bit his lip in contemplation.
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"There's a good chance you can keep up your armistice with the rebels too, if you help them take the fort without too much collateral. I mean... after the fight when you're out of mana."
They looked at the mage, he slowly shook his head. Not able to contribute without causing widespread destruction.
"I don't want to say we came here for nothing..." the bard said began shyly. She hadn't intended to finish the sentence, but since nobody spoke she was forced to, "...but I think we have to go back."
Langley stamped his foot. "Harkness is right there, right there over that wall." He pointed at the vegetation obscuring the place.
"We can not justify an expedition into a dungeon when our original mission was this dead goblin." She pointed at the grave, "and also... we could really die. There's so many unknowns."
"Here." Scratch climbed over the shrine to himself to pry out the "Death of the Patriarch" card. "Take it, you can use it as proof or something.
For your guild people."
Langley snatched it. "So we just... walk away?"
"You can circle around via the south, you should arrive at the previous gate after the army there has already moved on."
"Then... we'll do that." The duelist thought deep and hard, considering all factors and entities involved in the situation to see the optimal path.
Suddenly, he looked at Scratch with new eyes. "And one more thing..."
Scratch went stiff with adrenaline, he bend his knees for a sudden burst of energy doing he-didn't-know-what if the man had caught onto him.
"Y-yes?"
"Give me back my coat."
"Sure thing... sir." He tried not to sound too relieved.
"Are you staying here?" He asked him.
"Yup, don't worry about me. I got my ride, I am where I wanted to be."
"...Whatever."
"By the way, Mite," the bard mused, as they pushed away the winter branches to leave, "what side are you on?"
"Hhm?"
"The rebels or the defenders, what side are you on?"
He answered with another question. "Which one do you like better?"
"Uhm, the rebels, I guess?"
"Then that's my team too."
She looked at him quizzingly, but didn't ask further questions. They all left together.
Having been stripped again, Scratch planted himself on the frosty ground and watched them walk away.
Behind him the loose earth of the grave became more and more undone, as something wriggled its way up.
He looked over his shoulder. "Can't you derive a pattern by now? I have to direct you every step of the way, do I?" He wriggled his fingers as he mentally commanded the familiar buried beneath.
As this went on the cacophony of the besieging army became fuller, taking up all the space around the town.
Eventually the leech-like demon wrestled itself free and he held out his arm to have it attach. "There, happy?" It eagerly suckled at the blood from his artery, unlike before it required no special command to keep it from injecting venom in return. "Now let's see what else's down there."
----------------------------------------
The entrance to the Promise was smaller than the tall wooden gates of the previous wall, and it was never opened to let out attackers. Instead, the defenders were pouring out streams of boiling sludge in front of it.
The goblins didn't respond much to the thread of a weapon, but the painful sensation of scalding liquid on their naked soles did repel them.
On top of the brick gatehouse stood Lydia Harkness, in a wide-legged stance.
The leader of the insurgents stepped out in front of the goblins to face her. "Harkness, you best surrender now. If we take this city by force neither you nor your children will be spared!" She felt she had to yell to carry her voice across.
The knight's voice, by contrast, rang loud and clear by nature. "If."
The leader of the siege audibly grumbled. "You're looking at a force of almost two thousand goblins, the forest on this side of the river all belongs to us. You have already lost! Will you give your life holding on, not to power, but a mere symbol of power?"
"Sara." The defender spoke as coolly as before, "I have housed and protected you for years. When you were helpless. Is this how you repay me?"
Sara grinded her teeth. "When you run out of water we will bring out the siege ram."
But she hadn't answered the question. "Sara-"
"Because I don't want to be helpless anymore! Don't you get that!? We're taking control of our destiny, right now, by taking that port." She turned to a goblin behind her, "shoot her, or something!"
He did shoot, but the arc of the crossbow bolt was large enough that the knight could see it coming and avoid it with minimal movement.
Sara stomped off. "Where is that ram!"
-
It seemed like the siege would be somewhat dragged out before the big push could be announced.
The goblins jumped around the sludge, picked apart the empty buildings, and inspected local curiosities, such as the tree grove.
When a few of the older goblins taking part in the siege first entered the grove to find their fallen leader's grave, they almost walked straight into him.
He smelled of dirt and dried corpse, but wearing his suit and eye-patch it was unmistakably him.
They clung unto him with emotional wails and he had to bid them to let go.
In order to knock on the door before the horde was there smashing against it he stepped on the burning liquid with his suit's fancy dress shoes.
Since he was on his own, Aimone on the other side did not see any risk putting the gate ajar and addressing him. "What are you- non, impossible."
With a backwards flip Lydia Harkness jumped down to see him. "How dare you dress up..." the words turned to lumps in her throat and her eyes welled up.
Then she fell to her knees and embraced him as tightly as she could.
"Whoa, you're gonna kill me all over again."
"Sorry." She let go and he saw she was crying.
"Hey, are you alright? What's the matter with you?"
"Nothing. I'm just-" she sobbed and grabbed on to his vest again.
Aimone closed the gate behind him. "You were dead, I saw your dead body. As the gods are my witness I saw it."
"Yeah, well, it's complicated. Can you get me that spellrod I'm always using? You keep it around, don't you?"
-
Not too much later he was standing on top of the gatehouse, where he was visible to everyone in the attacking army.
Lydia sat beside him, her demure posture was night and day against the intimidating confidence of moments ago.
"Second, can you let up with the frying oil? Thank you." He announced into the voice amplifying spellrod.
Second pulled back the kettle-like construction from the edge of the wall, so it stopped pouring the burning liquid. He looked at Scratch in utter amazement.
The besieging goblins began to approach, until Scratch held out his hand, bidding them to stop.
The youngest among them did not immediately react, but seeing their comrades suddenly halt, bumping into them at times, they hesitated in their movement as well.
All the way in the back, a battering ram made out of a barely processed tree trunk sank to the ground.
"I want you to know that I'm not mad. But I'm very disappointed in you." His voice boomed.
In the far distance he could make out Langley's party turning around and observing the spectacle, his voice was being carried all the way back to even there.
"What are you pests doing!?" Nadia spat angrily at her sons, who had stopped obeying her orders. "Attack him!" All her authority had dissolved in an instant.
Scratch continued. "Marching off to the Promise, raiding your own brothers, picking up weapons against poor Lydia, who is so pathologically selfless towards all of us! You should have realized that none of that is in your own self interest, or is it?"
There was a murmur of goblins wanting to protest against the lecture, some dropped their weapons and covered their faces in shame.
"But..." he gave them an out, "it has been a confusing few weeks. First I disappear, and then Sara starts telling you you have to fight and take something. Did you even know what you were here for?"
Some audible 'no!'s erupted from the crowd.
"So anybody that leaves is pardoned. That includes the leaders. If you go home now, we can forget all of this ever happened, things can go back the way they were before. But if you keep attacking me, and poor Lydia, I can't keep a blind eye. Those that don't go home today have declared war against the family. If you do that..." he paused dramatically... "you can no longer be part of our family."
At hearing this a number of goblins fell to the ground in tears, begging for forgiveness. The ones that hadn't been touched quiet so deeply were spooked by their comrades strong reactions and heeded the words even more.
"It's alright kids, it's alright. Just go home, I forgive you." He announced. "Oh, with one exception," he pointed at a specific person in the crowd.
"Nadia, you have some explaining to do, you can come inside."
----------------------------------------
"I thought... I lost you." Lydia had not lost sight of Scratch since she had first see him return.
Currently she had him tightly gripped in a teddy bear hug, pressing her head against his chest. Three of his sons were there too, Jasper, Will, and Constantine, but they didn't get to greet him properly while she monopolized him.
"It's okay, you can put me down. There's no shame in losing control you know, getting people to respect you is near impossible. I've never found the trick to doing it either."
Gildo glanced over to Sara and Nadia, who had been captured and were being brought in partly by their own troops. "I don't know, I think you have."
"Mannagia. This is nothing but temporary," Aimone spat, "we still have no provisions or resources. Your dove tower hasn't received word from the guild for weeks, and we can't go down into the port. Soon the knights will return and we'll be splattered like common monsters."
"You're such a downer," Scratch complained, "let me go down and see talk to the kids, okay?"
"Not without me," Lydia blurted out, "I'm not leaving your side."
"Uh, sure. Let's take a few people, but leave someone topside to let in the dogs and stuff."
"Papa," Jasper asked, "are you going to punish Ada?"
"Papa." Will added. "Bree ran away, will you get Bree back?"
"We'll see about all that. Can you three make sure everything's in order when we get back up?"
Jasper straightened his back, and so did his brothers. "Yes."
"Also, someone get me some blue grass and rolling paper."
-
At the back of the promise stood the manor, and at the back of the manor's atrium was the heavy and ornate door to the underground dungeon.
Currently, it was barred shut.
"Why did you close it up?" Scratch puffed on his cigarette, as two of the Grienicians worked together to open it up.
"We were spooked this morning because the wargwolves burst out and ran amok in the camp," Huckabee explained, "they've been acting feral ever since we lost the dungeon to Ada."
When they opened up the door it sucking the surrounding air, producing the sound of a giant monster belching.
"A dungeon needs to breathe," Scratch lectured, "the magic is completely cut off when you do that."
"Okay? Good?"
The exchanged a few glances, then Scratch went on ahead.
The initial section had once been a living space. A friendly foyer with carpeting and a bookshelf had been scratched up and tracked with dirt by the wild animals.
A trapdoor lead to a small tunnel. It was a bit cramped for the adult sized humans, but neatly decorated with interior wooden walls and a tiled floor. Passing through they had functional though oblique doors on either side. It was almost pitch black there and Lydia created a light. "We started having trouble passing through here because of the mimics and grues, but I suppose they've calmed down now."
"It's all fine, everybody just needs to calm down." Scratch brushed away the elemental darkness hiding at his feet.
-
At the very end of the tunnel the homely atmopshere disappeared and a wooden staircase lead down an open space.
This cave was similarly pitch black, but a few more of the bandits' magical lights illuminated the room.
A wooden flooring featuring many rounded indents with bedding and bones, next to an underground river that emerged from the stone wall and flowed underneath the other. A steel grate prevented subterrainean monsters from invading the space.
Near to the river was a bed of straw, on which green feathered cockatrices roosted, most without the protective blindfolds to stop their gaze from petrifying. On the river itself floated some two-headed geese, and one larger three-headed one.
The wolves were all gone.
New for Scratch was the wide open space stretching out at the other side of the river. He stared at it a bit from the top of the staircase, he had seen a bit of it being mined out using spellpaper, but after he'd gone a whole office floor of space had been opened up. Not that it had been used for anything.
"So... do we go down?" Huckabee was already at the bottom and looking down the elevator shaft.
A large wooden platform hung from a complex wooden pully system, normally it would carry cargo up and down through a shaft of thin scaffolding. It lead to the floor of a a great dripstone cavern, at least eight stories in height.
"We don't have a lot of choice, can you get it up here?"
Moving the platform disturbed the rest of a number of flying monsters. When they had first explored the great cavern below it had been lousy with dangerous dragonbats, but those had been largely exterminated. Now it seemed many had returned, and some were evolved versions with bright green scales.
Although visibly agitated, the flying creatures did not attack the group when they descended. They circled around them like a flock of impatient sea gulls.
-
The ground of the cavern was uneven. A forest of man-high stalagmites.
But a wooden walkway provided footing for them to go where they pleased.
"It's been a while since we've been down here," Gildo stated, "there's trolls about."
"And, Scratch?" Aimone asked half ironically, "does your presence calm down trolls as well?"
"I shouldn't count on it," he answered dryly, then puffed on his cigarette, receiving information from Cyclophan, "but I understand they stick to their side of the cave. If we go this way towards the port we won't run into any."
They walked towards the large stone ovens and smelteries that they had build to appease Lacrima, the witch from Eston.
"I messed everything up, didn't I?" Lydia sighed, she was still holding on to the back of Scratch's vest. "I am their mother. And they hate me. I keep thinking of those kids, huddled together in the dark. They're trapped between an army of trolls and the sea..."
Her men exchanged glances, they weren't used to the bandit leader showing weakness, nevermind airing out her insecurities.
Scratch reached over his head and patted the back of her hand. "Ada's headstrong. They don't hate you, it's... teenage rebellion. That's what it is. I'm sure all they're thinking about is how much they miss you, let's go meet them and make up. Okay?"
She sniffed. "Okay."
----------------------------------------
The hut around the devil altar was not enough to shelter everyone at once, but someone had to be outside at all times to keep watch, so it worked out.
Currently two of their younger brothers were refusing to come out and do anything, even when punished with lack of food, so Ada and Felix ended up being lookout most of the time.
"Here, dried meat," Felix offered his sister.
She took it without saying much.
The two of them were wearing comfortable human-made clothing, but they hadn't bathed or washed in weeks. And they had their weapons within reach, a sharp edged buckler for Felix and a knotted whip for Ada.
"It's from the shipyard," he explained, "I've been there six times now."
Still she didn't speak.
"I don't think we can keep them away for much longer. I only have so many trap ideas. And, you know, the witch can fly."
The monsters of the dungeon had protected them until that point, but they were running out of dragonbats and the humans of the harbor were not keen on giving up conquering the smeltery.
Ada angrily punched the ground.
"Maybe..." Felix spoke carefully, "maybe... we should tell mom we're sorry and ask if we can come back."
She punched his shoulder. "Sorry? I'm not sorry! She should be sorry! I am in charge, it's my town! She... stole it." At the end of her tirade she deflated due to lack of energy.
"Yes. She did, but... I think maybe it doesn't matter who stole what. I think maybe everybody would be happier if we were all friends again."
Ada looked at her clenched fist and suddenly smashed it into her forehead. She repeated it a few times before Felix grabbed her arm.
"Ada, no. Stop!"
"Why is it like this?" She whined, "I knew everything. I knew how everything was supposed to go, and it didn't. Why are we stuck in the dark?"
A high pitched giggling emanated from not too far away.
The incubus had been tied to a stalagmite with razor wire for a few days now. He didn't seem particularly worse for wear. "Confusion and regret!
So typical for the ignorant heirs, yet I still have not had my fill of its flavor. Hehehe. You sure are miserable Ada!"
"Shut up. Shut. Up!" She felt the ground for anything to throw, but they had long since exhausted the supply of pebbles to throw at the demon.
"You have many ways to silence me, young mistress." He liked his lips. "You can simply kill me, or you can release me and allow me to give you a taste of true power."
She stood up, angrily. "We don't need your gross power. You're disgusting!"
"On the contrary, my dear. You have never needed anything more in your life. You wished to command the Promise, but you lacked the strength, then you wished to take hold of the harbor, but you lacked the strength. Now, you wish to become master over the dungeon core, but still you lack the strength to defend it."
The two hobgoblins were silent.
Youthere wrestled free his arm. "I wish for nothing more than to help you, mistress. The stolen power of Eriad will grant you the body of an ogre, the most-" his voice was cut off when his own hand gripped his throat shut.
Underneath stood Scratch, his own arm hanged limb beside his body as he mentally commanded Youthere's instead.
Felix jumped up when they saw the party of humans approach, wielding their lights. "Papa! You're alive!"
Ada gritted her teeth in great anger. "You're here to kill us, aren't you?" She unhooked the whip from her hip, there were tears in her eyes.
"Because we took away the forge and because we cost you the harbor."
"No Ada," Scratch sighed, "we're not here to kill you."
"Liar!" She smacked her weapon violently on the ground before him, waking up her siblings in the process.
"Ada, stop." Scratch pleaded.
But she rushed ahead, swinging wildly with her weapon.
Aimone was already preparing some sort of ice attack, when Lydia landed behind her daughter and grabbed her arms into a vice grip, forcing her on her knees.
Bree and the boys simply stared, showing no intent to join in.
Scratch walked up to his daughter and cleaned her eyes with his hand. "Why do you think we'd want to kill you?"
"B-because it's my fault-" she sobbed, "I killed you, it was because of me~"
"Oh, Ada," he put his hand on her collarbones, "all of this started because you stopped being objective. Don't you remember your excercises?
Breathe in... Breathe out..."
He guided her beathing with his hand.
"Serenity in, stress out. That's right, you are not your emotions. I want all these nasty feelings to air out and my daughter to remain."
As she completed her meditation the redness in her face disappeared and she entered a calmed state.
"Have you calmed down?"
"Yes."
"Now then, let's all go upstairs and get you washed up. Huckabee, can you talk to Mabel and Lacrima? Tell them it's all taken care off and we can continue transporting goods normally."
"Lacrima? Lacrima is here?"
Scratch nodded, putting the cigarette back in his mouth. "There's been a development in Eston and she had to flee. We can discuss it later."
-
"I know that I can count on my master to release me." Youthere smiled as they were about to leave.
"I dunno, I think you're looking good up there. Very artistic, like a christmas tree."
"Master..."
"Are you ever going to touch my kids?"
"...Never."
Scratch gestured for Huckabee to untie the demon.
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With the usual order restored, the regular way of life could be picked up again with only trace amounts of shame and awkwardness to obstruct it.
Soon enough smuggler caravans were traveling through the goblin forest again to deliver goods for the dungeon harbor.
The raiding on the farmsteads had stopped. Although adventurer incursions were still more common than before, they had dropped off.
And goblins were once again mining and smelting for Lacrima's endless hunger for steel.
"You understand," the witch mentioned between sips of tea, "that there can now be no doubt that it is you who controls this dungeon."
She was visiting the manor at the Promise, having made a permanent home in the harbor. The children were out and she shared the living room with Scratch and Lydia, who still wouldn't let her lover leave her sight and had placed him on her lap.
"What makes you say that?"
"Do not play dumb with me. It is your presence that calmed down the monsters of the dungeon, and your absence that made it unusable. So we finally know where we stand, you are clearly a servant of evil."
Lydia tighted her grip around his waist.
"But," the witch put down the cup of tea, "equally clearly, you are a necessary evil for the operations of the guild."
"A necessary evil," Scratch leaned back, "I like that. It's probably the thieves' guild that got my name off the most wanted list of the adventurers, right? Or was it them that kept it up there in the first place?"
"The adventurers simply made a similar calculation. It is has come to light now that the aggression of the goblin colonies was the result of their
'Papa Scratch' losing power. Their objective has shifted more to 'reducing the numbers'. Of course, the yearly culling is coming up."
"I have thought of something for that," Scratch dug into his suit pocket. The once fancy clothing now had some patchwork and discoloration on it. Out of the pocket came a green rectangular piece of cotton. "It was made clear to me that half the reason these murders even come here is to loot precious metals. From now on we're storing the gold with the grues, and the colonies can trade these notes between each other. Each is good for 1 silver."
"Does that have your face on it? So gauche!"
"Well, it serves a dual purpose." He flipped his eye-patch up and down, revealing his function eye, "it's also so the kids know my face. I had some trouble being recognized coming back."
"You never did reveal how you were able to return from the dead." Lacrima enquired curiously.
"I didn't?"
"You did not." Lydia confirmed.
"I wish I had a story. The truth is, Benesant simply decided to give me another go, as a favor, you know?"
"You lie as easily as you breathe," Lacrima scoffed, "as if the goddess of light would take favorably to the likes of you." She stood up, "Enfin, keep your secrets. I have other business than to press you or your dark sorcery."
She left without much ceremony, and as soon as she was gone Mac dared to come downstairs to show a letter. "That black bird came back with another one," he said.
"Black bird? You mean that raven?" Scratch asked as Lydia took the curled up paper message.
"The last one warned us about my father's fortress." She stated.
"I haven't forgotten."
Just as the last time, the letter was in cursive, and Scratch had trouble reading it, but Lydia read it aloud.
Dear friend,
your dungeon has not grown much as of late. That is a pity!
I am fortunate enough to be able to visit your wonderful part of the country, and I would like to drop by later this week for a visit.
We can discuss your continued devotion to the ruinous powers,
R.
"Do you know what this is about?" She asked him.
"I... I have not the faintest clue."
"Because. If you're not devoted to these ruineous powers. The last sentence sounds almost like a threat."
Scratch pulled a pained face. Not in the least because he had no idea when the letter had been written and when 'this week' was.
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Magibat
Family: Dragon
Threat Level: D
Reward: 2 silver pieces
The evolved version of a dragonbat, magibats can be recognized by their fluorescent green scales. This is a species of monster that occurs exclusively in dungeons.
Magibats possess the ability to cast simple spells, often copying abilities displayed by adventurers exploring their dungeon. Because spellcasting is highly complex, magibats are presumed to have at least human intelligence.
Magibats will seek to flock together in swarms when possible, but in most dungeons they are sparse enough to be encountered alone. A single level D adventurer should have no trouble disposing of a magibat.
The scales of magibats can be used to create magic repellant armor, although it is considered an arduous task locating and slaying enough magibats to create a useful item.