Daggat sat on his throne while gremlins came before him. In one hand he had a goblet of wine. He didn’t like it, too sweet, but it looked impressive, so he sipped from it anyway. At his sides were Glut and Klaw, each watching the gremlins that came before him. Klaw was chewing on a steak.

“Dagga-”The gremlin was interrupted by Klaws growl, “Er, Boss! It’s getting a lot harder to find proper tribute. The big greens keep it locked down, and they have been careful handing it out. Even the stew is being watched over.” Daggat had anticipated this. This was one of the main reasons he had the gremlins stock up food. The logistics just did not work out. There were simply too many gremlins and not enough food. He had learned that human towns had even more mouths to feed, so there must have been a way they were getting it. He just didn’t know, yet. Until he figured it out, his gremlins would survive on his stash of pickled edibles, dried meat, hard tack, and other food stuffs that didn’t rot right away.

“But, the goblins still hand out stew.”

“Yes, but only enough for-”

“See, problem solved. You can still pay your fee. Now, what can I do for you?” The gremlin gulped. He looked thin, but he should be able to survive a day or two without food. Probably. Daggat, however, had gained some weight. His gremlin wrinkles had smoothed out some, and the tufts of hair scattered through his body had a healthy sheen. Klaw, Glut, and Zuss all had eaten well as well.

“Well, you see, Boss. Some of the other gremlin crews started carrying sharp and pokey things.”

“What, sticks? Knives?”

“Some of them, yeah. I was wonderin’… do you have some pokey things we could have? Two gremlins already lost their supper to the sharpes.”

“The who?” Daggat downed the rest of the wine.

“Uh, the sharpes. They are one of the other gangs.” Daggat tapped his foot impatiently. Right, one of the others. They had seen Daggat’s grow to, relative, power. Daggat supposed that imitation was a form of flattery.

“I will look into it. Tell Klaw all about the stew theft, and he will sort out that… misunderstanding. Is that all there is to report?” The gremlin nodded. Daggat looked to Klaw, who cracked his neck while slurping the last of his steak. It was important to keep Klaw happy, and he loved pure meat almost as much as Glut.

While the two chatted elsewhere, Daggat called Zuss. She dropped from somewhere above them. Daggat couldn’t even tell, with the fog as thick as it was above the camp walls.

“He is telling the truth. According to our eyes, the other gremlin squads have been given weapons before being led out of the camp. They usually came back with fewer gremlins and some meat. Hunting squads, is my guess.” Daggat tapped his finger on the throne as he thought. Rika must be getting desperate for food, if she is sending out gremlins to hunt. Soon, possibly the next day, Gobma’s Skwad would be sent to hunt down food as well. That was fine, but knowing Gobma… he would forget the important things. Like protection for the gremlins.

“We will be sent out soon too. I need you to knick some knives. At least three. I’ve got a bad feeling we will need them.”

The next day, Gobma did indeed take the gremlins to the largest gate. Other gremlin squads moved in and out of the camp. He had a sour look to his face, but nothing worse than his usual. All he said to the crew, was “C’mon.” And he waddled off towards the new gate.

Near the gate was a barrel of water. Gobma wiped some scum from its surface, then dunk his head in. He drank for a long moment. Briefly, Daggat thought about having Glut sit on his head. Then, with a gasp, he came up for air.

“Alright, squad. We got a hunt on. Today, you earn your supper. I know of a place to find a nice juicy… boar. We just gotta cut it then drag it back.” That didn’t sound right to Daggat. How would he know where a boar would happen to be? Well, no matter. He did not want a kicking this early in the morning, so he kept his mouth shut. “No use dawdling, lets get going.” Daggat gave himself a grim smile. Gobma had, indeed, forgotten to give them anything to hunt the boar WITH.

The gremlins had never been far outside of the camp before. This was an opportunity to see what the land outside the camp was like, and Daggat was not going to miss it.

Surrounding their immediate camp was a dense growth of large trees, similar to what they used to construct the wall. They were cleared, mostly. Deadwood had been burned a while ago and frequent passage had cleared the undergrowth. Still, he noticed critters he had never seen alive. Squirrel’s, rabbits, and other small creatures. He spotted a fox, two fierce looking badgers, and a deer as they traveled as well. If they truly were hunting, why did they let these critters go? An uneasy feeling washed over the gremlin.

Beyond the goblins immediate territory, the forest became more rugged. Wilder. They had to jump over small streams and brooks, clambered over fallen logs, and avoid falling into still pools of water. For over an hour they hiked through this terrain. All the while, the other gremlins were scanning the forest for anything dangerous. Even Gobma seemed on edge. He was clearly looking for something. His “boar” hangout. But, his crew was equipped and prepared, so they had few worries.

They rested in a large clearing that sloped down towards a river. Their presence spooked another set of deer on the other side of it. But, further to the north, something caught Daggat’s full attention. The trees seemed to grow larger the further away he looked. The largest of these trees towered far above their smaller kin, which Daggat had believed to be massive already. These trees were black and flickered with an orange moss. Unlike the others, these trees did not bow towards the Fountain. Instead, they stood straight. From this distance, it was difficult to tell the width of the trunks, but it had to be massive. Wider than any of the tents back at camp.

When the squad moved on, they lost sight of the giant trees. For another hour they hiked, then Gobma swore they were not lost for another hour after that.

Finally, they had arrived at Gobma’s destination. He had a worried, but malicious grin on his face.

“Here it is… This is the den of a boar. It is fat and easy to kill, don’t worry.” It was a small valley with rough walls on either side. At the bottom, it was only wide enough for one goblin to stand. Thick brush carpeted it, making it difficult to climb into or out of. In one end of the valley was a small cave. “Oh! But, I must have forgotten how small it was. Silly Gobma. I guess only a few of you can get down there. I am simply too big!”

Daggat smelled a foul scent in the air. Like rotten eggs mixed with an earthy musk. Taking a closer look, the shrub in the valley had blotches of black, like sections of it had burned. The stones had similar scorchmarks around the cave entrance. One of the nearby trees had a black line of char running down it as well.

Daggat felt his stomach drop. There was no boar in that cave, he always knew that. But there was SOMETHING. He decided to follow what his gut was telling him. He opened his biotraits menu and silently selected fire resistant skin. He shivered as his skin went numb, then thickened.

“I will choose four of you to go down there. You will get the honor and exper- er, the thrill of the kill!” Gobma continued, “To keep it fair, I will pick randomly.” His eyes unfocused as he looked at the party list. “Daggat, Glut, Klaw, and Zuss.” Daggat groaned. If that was random, Daggat would snort a worm.

“I am not worthy of the honor, surely. Would anyone want to take my place?” Daggat’s question became a command. Several hands hesitantly rose. Gobma marched up towards Daggat, then grabbed him by the scruff of the neck. He lifted him up to look at his face. Then whispered.

“No volunteers this time. This is a lesson. I am the boss.” His voice was so filled with malice, it threatened to boil over into rage. Then, he threw Daggat into the ravine.

He crashed into the brush, cutting himself on sturdy plants and stone, then tumbled to the bottom. Daggat hissed in pain as he landed on something. It was the knife he had stored in his back pocket. Luckily, it wasn’t broken.

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“And DON’T COME BACK UP WITHOUT SOME GRUB!” Gobma roared after him. His laughter was echoed by the gremlins. Zuss scampered down easily, while the other two had more trouble.

“Are you ok, Bro?” She asked him, checking over his wounds.

“Fine.” He dusted off his shirt as he stood. “So, he finally noticed, huh? I thought this day would come. Looks like my plans are going to be pushed up a bit…”

“If we can survive the day. What kind of boar lives down here?”

“Not a boar. I don’t know what it is, but it’s dangerous.” Daggat looked for a way to get out of this. Not without killing Gobma, he concluded. That would be foolish to try now, there were only twelve gremlins here. Finally, the other two caught up.

“That looked kind of fun!” Glut said as he met them. He picked out a splinter from his hand. He didn’t seem to feel it at all.

“This is a set up! I’m going to tear him to shreds. Then sew him back up, AND TEAR HIM APART AGAIN!” Klaw ripped up a sturdy bush from the ground, disturbing a snake.

At the top of the ravine, Gobma and the other gremlins gathered to watch them. The cave was barely wide enough for Glut to fit through.

“I guess we go in and kill whatever is in there.” Daggat mused. “Welp, sounds like a job for Klaw.” He slapped Klaw on the back.

“Gobma would beat any of us that didn’t go in, you know that.” Zuss’s cold voice dragged Daggat’s hope of not putting himself in danger into the mud. But she was right.

After a few more moments of hesitation, the crew entered the cave to face whatever mysterious creature was within. Daggat was weary, but not scared. The four of them were the strongest gremlins in their tribe, after all.

The gremlins’ eyes quickly adapted to the dark of the cave. Inside, the cave seemed to form crude stair steps before widening into a proper cave. From within, they could see this was not a proper cave. Rather, the crevice they crawled into widened at the base and closed at the top, only for vegetation to close is shut like a stitched wound.

In the faint lines of light from above, there was a glint of silver metal. Treasure. Daggat’s greed overwhelmed his sense of safety for a moment as he instinctively dashed for it. When Glut tackled Daggat from the side, he was sure it was to get the treasure first. But, then Glut grunted in pain and Daggat saw blood.

Then he noticed the other creature. It was so still a moment before, it was mistaken for a strange part of the wall. It was serpentine, with four legs. There was a cat-like grace to the way it stood. It’s head was lizardlike, as was the rest of it’s scaled body. Two small wings splayed from the back of the creature. A Drake. Though, a small one. Only the size of a particularly large housecat. Still, it loomed over the gremlins.

The drake’s claw dripped in Gluts blood, who stood over Daggat with a knife drawn. His chest was bleeding, but he didn’t seem to notice. Zuss and Klaw screamed in shock as it attacked as well. Glut tried to jump to the side when it swiped at him again, almost curiously, to see how this new prey would react. He was too slow, the claws racked down Gluts back. He let out a whimper of fear, but not pain. The pain tolerance worked as advertised.

Klaw rushed the beast and swiped with his claws. It leapt back, beating its wings once to extend the jump. It looked at Daggat, jaws parting. He could see the glow of flame behind those jaws. At the same time, Zuss had moved around to the side, trying to catch it off guard. Daggat smirked. He knew what was coming, and praised his foresight. Before it could release its fire attack towards Daggat, Zuss jumped at it, knife high in the air.

With the speed of a viper, it snapped its head to look at the incoming gremlin, then spat. Daggat felt himself screaming as the spray of boiling, flaming liquid hit Zuss full in the face. The flame lit the scene with an angry orange. Time slowed as Daggat watched the flames obscure her face. She screamed, a panicked animal like screech that tore at his soul. Her scream stopped when she hit the ground, not moving. Flame still burned at her face and shoulders.

Glut and Daggat attacked at the same time in fury. “Behind me, Big brutha! I’ll get it.” Daggat hesitated, allowing Glut to defend him. Glut’s crude blade stabbed into the creatures flank. The drakes jaws snapped at him as a counterattack. He caught it on an arm. His skin sizzled like pork belly, but Glut only grunted.

With a sure strike, Glut stabbed it in it’s eye. The beast howled, taking the knife with it as it retreated a few steps. Glut then turned and looked at Daggat, a grin on his face. “I told you I’d-”

“Look out!” Klaw and Daggat screamed at the same time. It was not dead. Glut was too confident. Klaw tried to intercept, but was too slow. Daggat froze. Both of them saw the beast pouncing as Glut turned to face the warning.

It’s jaws still dripped with a flaming saliva as they closed around Glut’s neck. With a sickening tearing sound, it ripped away at flesh. Blood sprayed down the monsters neck and Gluts body slumped to the ground. Daggat froze in horror. His whole body felt cold. This… this was not how things were supposed to go.

Klaw roared his challenge as he attacked. His metal claws swiped through the air, the drake dodging each blow. The drake was as graceful as it was deadly. It stepped back from the wild frenzy. But with each dodge, it’s movements slowed. It’s body shook as if with fever.

The poison!

Gluts foolish mistake might be what saved them here. Even dead Glut was still trying to protect them. And Daggat had done nothing against this threat. He was meant to be their leader. The boss. Wasn’t this exactly what he hated Gobma for? Sitting in the sidelines and letting those under him suffer. Daggat’s despair ignited into rage at the thought of Gobma. This was his fault. He threw them here to die as a form of… what, cruel entertainment?

Klaw managed to cut the monster several times as Daggat stood and wiped the tears and snot from his face. Had he been crying? He just now noticed how hoarse his throat felt. With another spit, fire spewed from the drake. But, it was slow due to Glut’s poisoned blood in its system. That gave Daggat enough time to shove Klaw to the side. Flame licked at his skin, but it only tickled. His shirt caught fire, but his skin was fine.

Daggat activated hypnotic Gaze. The monster snapped its eyes at him. They were slitted and burned with a red light. A cold intelligence was in those eyes. But, it was distracted. Klaw racked his claws down its back and shredded one of it’s wings. It screamed in pain at the same time Daggat screamed in rage. He charged, then stabbed. His knife cut into its scales, which felt small and incomplete. This was not a full grown drake, of course. Klaw sobbed as he vented his own despair into his attacks. Likewise, Daggat stabbed and stabbed again. Finally, they tired.

The drake was dead. The fire burning at Zuss was out. The pool of blood near Gluts body had stopped spreading. Daggat and Klaw collapsed next to each other, their chests heaving. They simply sat in silence for a long time. Klaw was the first to break it.

“Why… didn’t you do that earlier?” Daggat knew what he meant. He could have distracted the drake as Zuss attacked.

“I’m sorry.” His reply was weak and quiet.

“Why? WHY DIDN’T YOU?!” Klaw grabbed Daggat’s shoulders.

“I froze… I forgot. I’m sorry. I…”

“You could have done something, you bastard! Anything!” Klaw was not listening. “Glut was a coward, and he was there. Where were you? WATCHING? FUCK!” Klaw slashed a line through stone.

“No. NO! I wouldn’t. Couldn’t.” Daggat felt tears welling up again. “I saved you!”

“Not enough…” Klaw whispered. Daggat would never have admitted it, but Glut was his best friend. Zuss felt more like family to him than the others did. What he lost, he couldn’t get back.

Klaw was crying softly into his arms, knees pulled to his chest. Passively, Daggat scanned the room. His eyes skipped over the bodies of Glut and Zuss. He caught a glimpse of a pile of random knickknacks. The beginnings of a hoard. It was mostly scarp metal, shiny stones, and a few of the useless, but pretty, silver and gold coins. But, there was something else. A book. He had seen several books before, and had used them for sanitary reasons hundreds of times.

But, this one seemed special. It had silver corners and a blank cover. He picked it up, and opened it. There were pictures within, as well as unreadable script. The script used the same letters as his system. But, he did not understand this script as he did while looking at his statistics. The pictures seemed to be of the sky, the stars, and artistically rendered humans. He slipped it into his shirt.

“What do we do now?” Klaw whimpered. That was a good question. Daggat weighed his options. He felt resolve settle into his heart.

“Klaw. It’s my fault they died. I will own that failure.” Klaw looked at him, and blinked in confusion. “But, it’s not my fault we were thrown into this pit.”

“Gobma.” He growled.

“Let’s get our revenge.” Klaw snarled in agreement. “But not yet. He is still strong. I think he is stronger than this monster. We need to get stronger. Then we hunt him down, hunt them all down.” Daggat could feel the heat in his voice. “Every one of those bastards who run us gremlins into the ground. Gobma, Hobo, Rika. ALL OF THEM.”

“How? How can we do that?”

“We have to die.” Klaw looked at him as though he had lost his mind. “At least, they need to think we died… we need to leave the party.”

Daggat

True Name: Daggat

Soul: Monster

Genseed: gremlin

Monster Level: 3

Attributes [0]:

Strength: 5

Dexterity: 6

Constitution: 6

Intelligence: 15

Will: 5

Charm: 5

Feats:

Encounter: True Angel

Act: Fledgling Alchemist

Knowledge: System Knowledge

Ability: Mighty Intellect

Skills[1]:

Alchemy: 1

System Aptitude: 1

Biotraits [0]:

Base size: Tiny

Regenerative Teeth

Enhanced Night Vision

Rot Resistance

Hypnotic Gaze

Fire resistant skin

Other:

Variant: +10 Intelligence

Klaw

True Name: Klaw

Soul: Monster

Genseed: gremlin

Monster Level: 3

Attributes [0]:

Strength: 7

Dexterity: 6

Constitution: 5

Intelligence: 4

Will: 5

Charm: 5

Feats:

Knowledge: System Knowledge

Skills[0]:

System Aptitude: 1

Biotraits [0]:

Base size: Tiny

Regenerative Teeth

Enhanced Night Vision

Rot Resistance

Forged Claws*