"The reason for the high rewards given for eliminating goblin lairs by local authorities is very simple. Even if these vermin pose little threat to nearby villages with occasional animal stolen here and there and possibly a small raid it is crucial to destroy them as quickly as possible. An average goblin lair has at least one shaman and a boss who oversees a couple of bugbears and hundred to hundred and fifty normal goblins but after roughly a decade of existence, the lair goes through a transformation. The goblins start to go on raiding sprees as their numbers swell rapidly with several specialized individuals growing also. This causes the primitive goblins stuck in the Stone Age to start forging their own weapons as they seem to match the technology of the surrounding people. There are stories of greedy lords not bothering with destroying nearby goblin lairs causing goblonoid armies to be created swallowing the nearby regions in chaos as they rush to destroy their stronghold as quickly as possible. It is said that these Commands as goblins call them which appear on the surface are nothing compared to the Commands that exist far in the depth of Niuran and if only these fractured Commands unified they would be able to spallow the world whole."
Extract from "Myths and Legends of Edor"
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The four walked through the opening made into the crude rock wall. They must have gone through the back entrance as none of the stacked shacks they passed gave either of the women the impression of being related to the military, with no barricades to stop intruders, no guard towers to peek above the walls nothing of this sort rather the windowless buildings resembled warehouses similar to the ones present in Marinya's port district,
"Hmm, there should be goblins crawling everywhere here." Shiro said as her crimson eyes lingered on the empty walkways connecting the upper levels with each other, in a chaotic web of sins against architecture.
So deep below the surface wood was a luxury in it of itself and it showed in the goblin settlement. The tall buildings were entirely made from roughly cut stone bricks stacked in a crude simulacrum of the style seen from the ruins the woman had fallen from. The elf's keen eyes noticed that a yellow substance, faded from age was used as a mortar for the first few floors. The higher her eyes went the more crude the already poor construction became looking as if the entire tower was at risk of falling over as even the rocks were held in place only by their own weight. Living upstairs must have not been the safest of things.
Scattered around the warehouses were piles of sacks, their cargo spilling from some of them. Looking closer, Iris's frown deepened as she realised that the bluish leather sack she was staring at returned the gaze with a pair of hollow eyes.
"I'm going to puke." The young fox stopped and pressed her clenched fist against her mouth, stopping her dinner from evacuating her bowls after following the elf's gaze. Both Iris and Shiro shrugged as they looked at each other, unsure if the realisation that goblins skinned one another to make these caused Nakatei to react this way or the horribly mangled face on said sack, stretched and mutilated so it could fit the tailor's wishes when creating this horror. Whatever it was the former slave and demi-human guard were not bothered too much by it.
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After making sure that the shaman was alright, they turned around and saw the pale mage squatting beside a wall. She hesitantly leaned forward and flicked a mushroom growing from between the bricks. The orange orb situated on top of a long stalk started to glow with faint orange light as a cloud of its spores hovered around it. The girl, untouched by sunlight strangely fitted in amongst the lifeless walls around her.
"You said you know where this is?" Iris asked.
"I do," Shiro answered. "It's making me feel very old. When I got here for the first time I saw a small pack of crawlers and cave goblins passing through here. I saw this place's birth and death. *Sniff* Those poor fuckers who will stick their thing in anything with legs, I almost miss them," The cat dramatically wiped a tear off, the cat had a talent for being able to convincingly act on the fly. "The cave is really isolated from the main system of tunnels which is a good thing when making a lair but not that good when wanting to go up. There were two tunnels I know for sure that led to where we wanted to go. The goblins had probably dug many more tunnels but I would like to avoid them as much as possible."
"Where are the two tunnels then?" The tall undead said.
"I don't know."
"What do you mean by this?"
"Well," Shiro raised her arm and began to draw circles with her finger. "Do you have anything except these shacks?"
"Oh."
"Yeah, we will have to wander around a bit until we find one of the tunnels."
"Seems like a plan."
The four slowly headed deeper into the goblin city through the dark meandering streets squashed on both sides by tall walls. The lack of any signs of what have might happened to the largest goblin lair they had seen slowly caused worry to creep into their minds.
They eventually reached what looked like market square and decided to stop and rest for a bell as the beast woman still hadn't fully recovered from the fall that brought them here. While they rested Iris decided to check inside one of the mercantile-looking buildings. Of course, the goblin city and everything inside was designed for goblins and not for the tall elf who had to bend her body in half and bend her knees a little to even look through the door.
She circled the entire market looking inside each shop and saw only the rotten and rusted remains of the tools the goblins used. There was both an armoursmith and weaponsmith right next to each other which must have been interesting to see. There was some kind of kitchen couple of shops after and a shop whose walls were covered with cuffs and chains and stone tables in front with a script painted on them. The black writing was too faded and blurry for Iris to read but it gave her idea that they were prices of whatever was chained there.
Looking inside another shop Iris saw the rotten remains of what looked like a tailor shop. There were stairs leading upstairs on the far side and a door right under them. Out of curiosity Iris went inside the shop and saw that the door was covered with scratches. The stone slab was motionless, whatever caused it to once move seemed to be missing but the risen simply forced the slab back into the wall.
A foul smell hit the elf as her lavender eyes pierced the darkness. She was staring into an empty room with a single cave lizard-like corpse slouched in a corner, its sickly green skin sucked onto its skeleton. Iris shook her head as an idea which would have never crossed her mind took over.
"What is she doing!" Nakatei let out a scream as she instantly turned around with the ribbon of dried meat no longer looking as appetizing as before.
"I like to ask the same question." Shiro shot the elf a stink eye before looking back at her hand and offering it to the undead mage sitting quietly beside them chewing on another ribbon of meat already.
"Kia, come here." Iris shouted.
"Mmmm!" Kia mumbled loudly as she tried to reply with her mouth full.
"Can you get some information from him?" The elf asked as the mage jogged toward her.
"Mmmm..." The devourer mumbled unintelligibly, her eyes glowing as she observed the corpse from head to toe. "Mhmgh."