With a sharp twist and a pull, Nathan freed his spear from the goblin leader. He spun around looking for more targets.
“Was that all of them?” he asked.
“I think so,” answered Margos.
“Yeah, the quest updated,” said the other player -analyze displayed his name as RedReaver- as he tossed away what remained of the shield strapped to his arm.
Nathan checked his log. True enough, the quest goals were confirmed completed.
[Quest] [Remove the goblin threat] has been updated, Goblin leaders killed: 1/1
[Quest] [Remove the goblin threat] has been updated, Goblin camp cleared: 1/1
[Quest] [Remove the goblin threat] has been updated, Report success: 0/1
He let out a breath he didn’t even know he held. “Thank fuck for that. This did not go anywhere near as smoothly as I thought it would. Are we the only ones left?”
RedReaver looked over to where the line had been and shuddered. Now there was only a pile of dead goblins and a couple of dead players left. “I think I saw one or two crawl away with heavy damage during the fighting. Can’t say for sure if they made it or not. Man, that was intense. I... I need to sit down for a while.”
RedReaver dropped his weapon and shuffled over to a small rock. He sat down, pulled his hand through his hair, and stared into the sky. “To damn real,” he muttered quietly.
During a fight one was seldom able to understand or respond to everything that happened around you. You just react, almost on autopilot, without considering the what ifs and the why’s. It wasn't until after you were able to take stock. Visualize what happened and how the bits and pieces you remembered fit into the while picture. Analyze what went wrong, and what went right. Consider what you have become and the things you have done to survive.
Nathan could relate. He’s done it many times himself. Although not while still in the field, and not for a long time.
“So, what now?” asked Margos, apparently unaffected, while he wiped the blood of his machete on one of the dead goblins.
“Eat something, then loot the goblins and the camp. Collect anything of interest in a pile, and we’ll go through it together afterwards. I’ll check for other survivors, and then come help.”
Margos nodded and got to work.
Taking his own advice, Nathan pulled out some dried meat as he walked towards the forest. It didn’t help much, but in his current state he needed all the regeneration he could get. He set a mental reminder to eat some more in 10 minutes, when the current food lost its effect.
“Hoy, anyone still alive over here!” he yelled as he neared the forest, although not too loud as they didn’t know what else could be skulking around in there.
“Yeah, over here”, and answer came.
Nathan moved towards the sound, stepping over the body of Semishade as he walked. The small dagger in his hand had not been enough to fend off the goblins, but it looked like he’d given as much as he got. It was weird looking down into the glazed still eyes of a brother in arms, knowing that in a day or two he would be back, as if this had never happened.
He looked up as Bruce came stumbling out of a group of trees, supporting another player. Or rather, they supported each other, as both struggled to move. Nathan ran over and threw an arm around each, walking them over to the others.
“So, I guess this means we won”, Bruce said as he was helped down close to RedReaver. He had a big smile on his face, but he looked more sad and tired than happy.
“I guess so”, echoed RedReaver. He was starting to come back, but his words still sounded hollow.
“Yeah, we got them,” confirmed Nathan. “Close call, though. Could have gone either way. What happened to you guys?”
“Embarrassing really. When Semishade went down beside me, I kind of panicked and ran away. I didn’t get far. Two of the goblins followed and tackled me to the ground, but Lucero here,” Bruce indicated the other player, a hard middle-aged woman by the looks of it, “noticed them following me. When I thought my time had come, she kicked one of them away, and grappled the other. Together we managed to kill them both. Barely.”
Nathan turned to Lucero. “You ran into the forest to save Bruce here, leaving Red and Margos outnumbered?”
“Yeah, you know, he’s the one paying for this little excursion. I’m not waiting a couple of days to get paid.”
“I see. That was some... quick thinking.”
“I definitely didn’t cut and run because I saw him bugger of, and accidently tripped over some goblins in the forest or anything,” Lucero continued with a tired smile. “That was not how it happened at all.”
“Thought didn’t even cross my mind,” Nathan returned the smile before getting back to business. “Ok, take a quick breather and get something to eat, and keep eating until your health is somewhat replenished. Never know what can happen on the way back, and it should help with your injuries as well. After, check to see what gear our departed comrades have dropped. We should return what we can to the village, so that it is there for them when they respawn. That goes for you too, Red. And stay vigilant. For all we know there could be other goblins around.”
They all indicated their consent, and Nathan walked over to see what Margos had collected. He had acquired a pile of mostly weapons, but also some food items and other valuables. As Nathan walked up, he was offered a stick with some meat on it.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Fresh of the fire,” Margos said while chewing greedily on his own meat stick.
“Christ, do you even know what meat that is? Could be you’re eating a villager or another player! I saw these very goblins carve up two other players last time I was here. It looked like they intended to eat them.”
“Relax. Analyze say it’s rabbit, and if that isn’t enough for you there were also the butchered remains of one of those giant rabbits beside the fire. You should eat it. It gives better regeneration than the dried meat you were chewing earlier. Besides,” he added, “it tastes really good.”
“Yeah? Ok, fine. Consider me convinced.” He grabbed the stick and tried a small bite. Margos was right, it was delicious. After a couple of larger bites, he also discovered that he now regenerated 2 hp per 10 minutes for 20 minutes. Even better, it stacked with the dried meat. That was good to know.
“Right,” he said after they had both had their fill, “did you find anything good?”
“Some good, mostly bad. I found a whole lot of shitty small weapons that are probably unusable but might be worth a couple of silver if we sell them. That’s like 90% of the pile. I also found some primitive jewelry and some shiny stones. Nothing nice or fancy, but probably also worth something. Besides that, there is the mace the big spiky dude had. It was apparently made of steel inlaid with pieces of bone, but it seemed sturdy enough. I didn’t bother with any of the armor. Mostly just random pieces of animal bone tied together with string, and –as with the weapons way too small for any of us.”
Nathan bent down and picked through the loot, picking up some random pieces and giving them a closer look. He agreed with Margos’s assessment. The majority was junk. “This is not the big haul I was hoping for. I thought there was supposed to be some big chest in the middle of the camp with not-so-random loot for each of us. You didn’t find anything like that?”
“I did actually find a chest, but it was a small one, and you’re not gone like the content.” He put his hand into his satchel and pulled out a crumpled note, yellow of age. “Looks like it’s written by a crow, but I was able to make out enough words to get the gist of it. It’s not good.”
Nathan took the note and had a look. It contained a couple of uneven lines filled with strange wild symbols. The ink used looked closer to dark red than black, and some symbols were so faded that they were hard to see. But something weird happened as he looked closer. While the symbols didn’t exactly change, they did become clearer, similar to what had happened with the goblin tracks earlier. At the same time, Nathan suddenly realized that he could understand it.
Clear the path, grow strong, and prepare. The vanguard will gradually follow in the coming weeks. Do well and be rewarded when the horde arrives. Disappoint, and be punished. There is no room for the weak in the horde.
The others walked over just as he finished decoding it, so he read it out loud for everyone to hear. When he was done, they all stood in silence.
“Nothing ominous about that!”, Lucero finally joked, and they shared a quick laugh.
“So, what does it mean? Is it bad?” asked RedReaver.
“That depends.” answered Nathan. “For us right here and now? It doesn’t mean anything. We finish up here, then go back to the village as heroes and warn them that while the current crisis has been resolved, shit is about to hit the fan down the road. Long term, it probably means that this area will become filled with goblins and other monsters, while the village becomes a quest-hub filled up with players. If you are looking for adventure and like fighting, this is great news. Whereas if you are an ambitious mayor-elect planning on building a peaceful prosperous community based on trade and innovation... Well, then I imagine you’ve had better days.”
"Fuckin hell! And it wasn’t like my day was great to begin with,” Bruce sputtered as he indicated all the dead goblins surrounding them. “Although I do feel alive. Like really alive. That’s something I guess.”
They discussed the implication of the note a bit more, but in the end, they could only speculate and didn’t actually know any of the ramifications, so the conversations sputtered out.
Bruce decided to change the subject. “So, what do we do now?”
They all looked at Nathan. "I thought you were supposed to be the leader here?” he asked.
Bruce looked uncertainly at the others, reading the room so to speak. “Yeah, I think we’re past that point.” No one disagreed.
Nathan sighed. “Well, if this was back in the real world, I’d gather up all the dead goblins and turn them into a great bonfire. That would have sent a fitting message to this vanguard. But I’m not sure how things work here. Do bodies despawn when we move out of the area or maybe after a certain time, or do they stay indefinitely? I don’t know. And honestly, I don’t care enough about the goblins to find out. Either they magically disappear, feed the animals of the forest, or they rot. All the same to me. But Semishade and the others deserve better. Even if they are not ‘dead’ dead, just leaving them here seems disrespectful, and I don’t have the equipment or patience to dig any graves. Therefore, I’m going to build a pyre using the goblin structures as fuel. You lot recheck that we haven’t left any equipment on the bodies, then pile them on. Get to it!”
As he walked towards the goblin tents looking for something to burn, he could hear RedReaver whisper quietly behind him.
“Did he just say he would have burned the corpses of his enemies as a message back in real life? What’s up with that?”
“Beats me? Probably just a figure of speech,” Lucero remarked.
Probably should tone down any references to the real world in the future, he thought to himself.
It didn’t take long to collect enough burnable material for a small pyre, and the bodies were quickly deposited when the foundation was ready. He took a second to put everyone in a respectable position before gathering the others.
“The fire could attract unwanted attention, so we should be ready to go before we light them up. If you have any available space in your inventory, fill it up with the heaviest objects. Then we pick up as much as we can carry while still moving at a reasonable speed. Prioritize the valuables first, then the player gear, and lastly the goblin weapons. If we have to leave a spear or two, so be it. What should we do with the goblin mace? I could need a close-range weapon, but if anyone else want it, we can figure something out.”
Margos shrugged. “We might have helped some at the end, but the goblin leader was your kill. As far as I’m concerned, you earned that mace.”
“Allright, I’m not gone argue with that.” He dropped the mace into his inventory. He also deposited the hide armor and the twohanded sword belonging to ‘Havoc’, and the crossbow and dagger belonging to Semishade, filling up his inventory. He also picked up an armful of goblin clubs, before readying a torch.
The others picked up the rest of the stuff, some electing to carry it on their shoulders, others in their hands. The combination of the food they had eaten, and the normal healing effect had removed the worst injuries so that they could walk without too much trouble, even when weighed down.
“Everyone ready?”
He went around the pyre, setting fire to each corner, and waited until he’d confirmed that the fire took. Seeing the fire engulf his fallen comrades woke memories of other times where he’d had to say goodby to fallen friends, and times where he hadn’t even had that luxury. Although he didn’t know this group very well, he’d always felt a kinship with those he’d fought alongside with, even if only for a short while. And while he intellectually knew this wasn't real, and that Bluelock and Semishade would walk into the tavern in a couple of days looking for their cut like nothing had happened, he was still overcome with emotion as the flames danced evermore upwards. With a force of will, he pushed his feelings back down and turned away from the fire.
“Follow closely, single line”, he ordered as he started on the trip back, his face set in stone.