Bringing down kingdoms and empires are often the climax of fairytales and stories. Bards across my world sing about dashing heroes and vile villains who with sheer skill and effort, brought down entire empires by themselves. Such feats are not accomplished in a day, they take years of struggle and effort as the hero must dismantle armies of goons and then the greatest protectors of said empire. 

It amuses me to no end that I manage to do what said legends did in just a day each. Kingdoms in this world lack certain advantages which we take for granted back in mine. Namely, they do not have any defenses against magic, which lets me easily dispatch and avoid the pitiful security measures that these various rulers have put into place. My cape of invisibility lets me avoid most of the various guards left around the kings, my incorporeal eldritch servants, and my occult eye spell let me disable and detect any hidden security measures. 

Over the last three days, Vles has dispatched me to the various Goblin Kingdoms so that I can subvert their rulers and bring them under our control. After my athanor finished processing the Elixir of Slavery, in such quantities that it would be feasible to bring them under our control. Along with the news that my crewmates had subverted the orbital weapons around this planet. It became apparent that the time to strike is now, especially as my earth elemental assured me that the digging would be over soon enough. With the tunnels in place, the leaders subverted, and the orbital weapons sabotaged it will be feasible to deal with the Shieldmaidens.

I return my focus to the task at hand as I look over at the ostentatious palace floating in a big lake. The last of the goblin rulers that must be subverted is hiding here, when I have enslaved him to my will then all the conditions have been met. My summoned servants can complete the tunnel to the main Shieldmaiden facility at any time. Morgera has also apprently managed to infiltrate the main orbital station above the planet, and in the process he did actually manage to subvert it.

I must say that I am surprised that the octopus has such skills, but I resolve to pay more attention to my so-called allies. Underestimating my opponents is the reason I am here after all, even amoebas can harm you if they catch you by surprise at an inopportune moment.

I step down to the lake and in the process pull out one of my alchemical concotions. This gel can when rubbed on the neck and ingested make me amphibious for a time, and that will serve my purposes well in approaching the palace. I slip into the cold water after having secured my staff in my mouth. I swim across the water and try to not let the tedium of the activity distract me. The Dreamborn that lurks at the edge of my mind can grow restless when it senses my mind not focusing, and a bestial horror running around in my mind when I am about to do something important. Is and would be very inconvenient for me.

After a good 20 minutes of a swimming, I can finally get up on the shore of the palace island. Now, that I am on shore I wrap myself in my cape of invisbility and resign myself to wait. Vleses agent on the inside is going to let me in through a secret door down by the lake. In the mean time I have to resign myself to being annoyed by the fact that I cannot dry myself with a flick of my wrist. 

Before I can get too lost in my annoyed reverie, I get distracted by the notable fact that a door has opened in the otherwise smooth palace wall. I step through the opened door into a well lit corridor that favors a combination of electronic lights, and some sort of coloured paper lamps that are suspened along the walls. A kneeling goblin is before me in the corridor and I deign myself to reveal my presence.

It blinks in surprise and takes the time to take my meassure, but it or should I perhaps think of it as a she? Does not throw away her diginity beyond that. "Agent of the resistance, I am here to receive your instructions and give you the location of the lord of this land." The deceidedly female Goblin says quietly and with a noticeable twinge of deference to her voice. 

I take out the cargo that this agent needs to have in her hands, three phials of Elixir of Slavery to be exact. "When my mission is done here, you are to slip these into the drinks of the Hand In The Glove for the next week or so. About a third of the phial each day should suffice. If you notice anything untoward about him you are free to up the dose to half of the phial." 

The female Goblin, which I now notice has dark clothing and what seems to be cosmetics applied to her features, replies with a question. "What does untoward mean in this instance?" I lazily flick my wrist as I respond, "That he doesn't do exactly what you says. The reason you are to slip it into his food is just so we can avoid tempting fate and his own innate mental strength. It is after all far easier to make someone swallow their medicine when they are not aware of it. Now, don't waste my time here. Give me the location and directions to his chambers."

She immediately complies with my order and from there I begin working my way through the labyrinthine corridors of the Palace. With the internal map on my NVR along with the directions given to my goblin, it turns out to be relatively easy to navigate. Even when I make mistakes I can easily course correct it and follow my map back to the point of failure. I must admit that I am surprised by where my path is supposedly going to lead me.

According to our inside woman this so called "Hand in the Glove", does not reside in any of the luxurious guest quarters or the rooms that treasured officials occupied. No, this Goblin seemed wiser than others of his ilk would be. Countless hidden hands have ruled over Kingdoms and Empires in eras past, most succumbed to base vices and simple mistakes. Chief among them being that they let their power over the realm become too obvious. This one must be taking steps to avoid that common mistake.

It might hint at this target being far more dangerous than I would give him credit for. But I stop my train of thought as I reach the nondescript door leading to the chambers of the Hand. It lays just outside of the servants wing of the palace. As I reach for the door I ready my staff and mumble to activate my Occult Eye spell along with Simple Mana Shield. The crackling eldritch shield bubble is hidden by my cape until the cape is either removed or something hits the shield. 

With these basic steps taken I enter the relatively spacious but spartan room. My magically enhanced eyes reveal the hidden truths of the room as I take it in. On the small bed in the center of the room lies an older Goblin underneat blankets, to both sides of me there are teams of five guards standing hidden behind heavy drapes. My mind slows as I immediately reach the obvious conclusion that this must be a trap. Two guards in each of the teams of five are armed with long halberds, the remaining three on each seem to carry those long ranged "guns" that are aimed at the door.

All I can do before they fire at me is to throw my cape aside so it is not in the way and then watch as a myriad of different attacks hit my simple mana shield. The purple field splutters out of existence as quickly as it appeared, as it is hit with four electric bolts and two streams of grey liquid. Each attack aimed surprisingly low on my body, closer to my knees and thighs than my center of mass. The shield lasts only long enough to stop and or deflect the first volley of attacks. Thankfully, I myself manage to act before they can repeat the attacks as I cast eldritch javelin and hurl a purple spear composed of flickering numbers at the group to the right of me. 

The unnatural attack pierces two of the five immediately, but I don't take time to look at the result of the attack as I dive forward in a roll to avoid the next incoming attacks. I am unfortunately not lucky enough as I get hit by one of the electrical blasts in the side as I get up on my feet. My magically hardened clothing absorbs the worst of it but I feel the sting of it, but I don't let it throw me of as I unleash another eldritch javelin into the rightmost group and this time it hits the two halberd carriers.

With the right side all but neutralized I spin around and only barely manage to deflect the two incoming halberd strikes that could have slashed my back open. I bring the staff into a spinning defenses pattern as I am too busy with deflecting the rapid blows of the Goblins to mind my surroundings. They take the opportunity to surround me on both sides and brings down their halberds almost in perfect concert. It is this slight misstep that buys me the split second I need to lean back to let the first blade pass me and jab the end of my staff into the Goblin's face. The electrical shock promptly paralyses him and I take the chance to fire a magical bolt into the other one. 

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This distraction costs me as I get hit with two electrical blasts from the front and two thick doses of liquid from the front and behind. I am sent flying into the wall as damage notifications flash across my vision informing me that I have sustained 43 damage. As I am slumped against the wall I absently noticed that the gray liquid I am partially coated with, is moving along my clothes to try to constrict me.

While the tendrils of the liquid substance move to wrap themselves around my form, I see the four remaining Goblin soldiers pointing their weapons at me. The old Goblin who had remained on the bed for the fight steps over to me and asks with a raspy voice. "Who are you working for? Who is seeking my death?" At these words I cannot help but smile as I realize their mistake, they want information out of me before they kill me. 

I cough loudly and make it seem like I am about to speak while I slither one of my hands into my rightmost pocket. The four soldiers step closer so that my interrogator is outside of my direct line of sight, but that doesn't matter as his death is unnecessary for my plan. My left hand which is stilly loosely wrapped around my staff, twitches slightly as I "cough" and two of my fingers point at the soldiers. "Shi...Shieldmaiden sends..their regards." I whisper and with one loud cough meant to mask the sound of my right hand crushing two glass orbs, I fall fully down to the floor as two eldritch javelins explode out of my fingers and into the grouped up guards.

With their dying screams and surprised yelp of the older Goblin drowning out the noise I mumble, "Morbid Deception." While I make a series of prearranged hand gestures that could seem like uncontroleable spasms to the uninitiated. And with that done my body grows cold, as a fake wound grows into being in the middle of my forehead and a blood-like substance pours out. The now lone Older Goblin, who must be The Hand or someone impersonating him, quickly bends down and checks my pulse with a finger. He angrily growls and mutters to himself as he quickly retreats from the chamber. I estimate that he will quickly seek out more guards and then see to it that he can find, whoever, arranged for letting me into the palace.

This time I intend to spend productively while my suspended corpse deception ritual is masquerading my continued state of sapience. I need to understand why this happened as it should not have been possible for me to be detected in advance. Only betrayal makes sense as the reason for why my infiltration had been revealed, yet why didn't the traitor reveal who was behind the attack?

My first impulse is to assume Vles has betrayed me for some kind of grander political game, yet I quickly dismiss that notion after examining it. It makes no sense for her to waste one of her most powerful pieces on the board, especially as she needs me to ensure that the tunnel is finished and remain hidden from Shieldmaiden until the assault can take place. 

The other major question that I am sitting or rather laying with, after this encounter is: why were the guards so ill-prepared? Ten armed guards with both ranged and close combat weapons in a confined room should have made minced meat out of me even with a few attack spells on my end. I only lost because I was quite frankly surprised by the counter-ambush. Since I had suspended two eldritch javelin spells and my morbid deception ritual, my victory or at least my escape was never in doubt. 

I suspect that they didn't expect an alien to attack them, but rather another Goblin as each attack was aimed incredibly low on my person. The weapons are meant to be non-lethal so aiming their attacks to my knee height makes no sense. My thoughts are interrupted as I feel the grey liquid tendrils wrap around more and more of my frame, finalizing their constriction of my body. Had my magic not deadened my nerves I suspect the sensation would be extremely uncomfortable, I should probably break free of this liquid before anyone enters the room.

It will be far easier to escape with that done now instead of during the actual escape attempt itself. Yet as I am about to break free I stop as a group of 13 Goblins step into the room. "Is the old man among the casualties?" I hear someone ask from outside of my field of vision, as the Goblins that I can see spread out to take in the room and seemingly pick up the corpses. "No, he must have escaped the ensuing battle. Vleses agent was good I will give her that much credit, he killed all 10 of the guards." A brawny Goblin over by the largest cluster of corpses near me remarks with a nod to my prone form. "Oh not all of them," a gasp rings out through the room as one of the other Goblins comment on the one I had stunned and quickly stabs him in the throat. 

"Fuck, I hoped he would kill the hand before he expired. I would have used his corpse to convince his majesty about the evils of aliens and Shieldmaiden. Vles would forgive me for the loss of her agent I am sure, but I have also told her the futility of working with outsiders." The same voice that had spoken the first time rings out in response and I start to recognize it as she came with that longer reply. She sounds different from the deferential Goblin that I had met at the secret door, but not so much so that she could be an entirely different person. Three of the Goblins lifts me up as others begin to carry the other corpses out of the room. 

"We will play it off as if you are all concerned citizens that wandered by and heard the battle take place. You are cleaning up the corpses and when they ask where the alien's body is, you will say that some of the janitors took his body away. Take his corpse and throw it in the lake and then make your escape, we need to make it seem like you were Shieldmaiden agents." The female Goblin quickly dispenses her orders to the assembled Goblins as they gather around her. 

My trio of carriers quickly start to walk away and I see the Goblin Woman clearly for the first time since I entered the palace. She stands there with a rank arrogance that she had hidden from me when I met her, and I must admit that her imperious aura does impress me somewhat. The Goblin who had stabbed the last living witness to the battle inside of the room stand by her on her flank with his knife still in his hands.

If I am honest with myself I must admit that there is a degree of pettiness in my soul and I don't like being made into a pawn in someone else's game. With that in mind I can't resist giving that little uppity Goblin a little lesson as my body and my staff are carried away. Just as my carriers are about to pass away from the corridor I whisper as silently as I can, "Lesser Dominate." And direct the magic into the knife carrier along with three mental commands. Most sapients will easily be able to shrug off a Lesser Dominate after a minute or two, but thankfully, my little revenge would not require more time than that. 

As I am carried away by the trio of Goblins I can hear distant screams and shouts where the words Shieldmaiden and traitor are the only ones I can make out among them. The trio does speed up in response to that development and before I know it I am carried out the same way as I entered the palace. When they reach the Water they try to pry the staff out of my hands, but thankfully I can pass of my grip around it as a result of the grey restraint liquid. I am tossed out into the water when their repeated attempts to pry my staff away all fail. 

The last I see of them is the trio running away from the place they threw me and to another beach on the island, but the three inconsequential Goblins pass out of my mind without much fanfare. It remains to be seen if my mission has been succesful, but in spite of my original goal failing I think it turns out that this will succeed just as well. With that thought I turn my attention to freeing myself from my restraints and ending the effects of the Morbid Deception ritual. With that done I begin to swim back towards the shore where my extraction vehicle is placed.