I was still dumbstruck with Amanda’s plan. In the face value, it was a good plan, the roles were coherent and they were following, but I couldn’t follow what she was thinking.
Approaching the crossroads that we were ambushed, Amanda signaled us to stop and Bea to go forth, I was watching her, until I wasn’t, she vanished right in front of my eyes. I always thought that the “You didn’t see them” on the Role Play game was an over exaggeration, but watching in real time, I was really wrong.
We threaded carefully through the woods, I still could see the bloodstains on the leaves, but the bodies were gone. “Good” I thought “We sent a message. Don’t mess with us.” Maybe the message was “We’re coming for you” and we would be messed up, but I let these thoughts slip my mind and focus on the now.
Bea left the tall grass right next to us and spoke in a whisper. “I found their lair, it’s about 5 minutes east from here. Are you sure, Amanda?”
Amanda nodded. “I’m sure. Stick to the plan. Doc, do you know your part?”
I was pulled back into the conversation. “Yeah. No, I don’t.”
“Good.” Ghimli said with a grin. “As the only one without dark vision, you’re the bait.”
“Bait? Amanda, What the heck?”
“It’s a good plan, Doc” Bea said. “And keep your voice down.”
I was dragged by Bea until the entrance of the Goblin’s lair, a hole on the ground, what seemed to be the house of some kind of giant snake, or an armadillo. I was hoping for the latter.
I stood there in the dark, I couldn’t feel Bea anymore, my shield on my side and the sword on the other. “Stick to the plan.” I thought, and started to bang my sword into my shield. “Come fight me, you cowards! I’m here! Come get me” I yelled.
At first I let out a breath of relief, I didn’t even noticed that I was holding, until I saw the torches flickering inside the cave.
The first thing I saw was their ears, pointy, hairy, mangled. Next were the eyes, yellow, angry, hungry. And then, the arrows bolting in my direction as a death rain. I raised my shield and could feel the pressure of the arrows embedding into the metal, the dents on the shield forming and weakening the structure. There was nothing I could do now. “Stick. With. The. Plan.” I said to myself and waited.
Not the most bright creatures the Goblins, if they see someone that looked helpless, they assume that they were helpless, and the first one to commit that mistake would meet their maker. And that’s what happened. A curious goblin approached me with a dagger, I held my sword tight and launched in his direction, I could feel something inside me snap and the gates flooded my brain, my shield started to glow a faint blue light and my sword followed suit. My sword hit the goblin dead on his head, splitting him in half, making blood and gore spill all through my clothes, but I wasn’t done.
A few steps ahead, there was another curious Goblin, my actions made him flinch, but he wasn’t fast enough. My sword found hilt on his knees, he was well protected there, but I could feel the bones breaking by the weight of my blow, I left him behind, my friends would finish him. Shield raised one more time for another arrow rain, I was ready this time, the impact didn’t stop my movement, I was a berserk in action, until I saw my HP bar. It was getting low, dangerously low.
I felt my mind coming back at me, I protected myself better with the shield, a couple arrows still hit me, but it was only a flesh wound, I could feel some kind of warmth flowing through my body, and the health bar was filling. Slowly, but filling.
“You did good, Doc.” Amanda said, kneeling next to me. “They are in panic now. It’s time for the coup de grace”
She stood up, taking the scimitar with both hands and pointing into the opening of the cave, I could see the green arcane energy gathering in the metal of the sword and flying to hit one goblin at a time, they didn’t die instantly, but were severely injured to follow through their attack. She was sniping them with a precision that I didn’t know she had. I could feel the blasts getting weaker and weaker, and I stood behind her, just in case.
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She hit the last goblin standing, she fell on her knees with a hand in her head.
“Amanda, what was that?” I asked
“Eldritch Sniper. That’s what a Level 1 Warlock is good at, and I have plenty of mana to do this much, but I’m tapped. Leave Bea here to guard me and go find the center of the lair with Ghimli.”
“Roger.”
I went to find Ghimli bashing another Goblin’s head on the entrance of the cave, I was sure he was enjoying himself. “Amanda told me to go deep with you. Bea is on protect duty.” He nodded and we went ahead.
The cave was pitch black, I needed Ghimli to guide me on every step so I wouldn’t fall down on my face. I was expecting more defense forces as we went through, but we walked for several minutes and nothing. Granted, we were walking slowly, the distance we had covered would take one or two minutes tops on a regular pace, but still, something was wrong.
A pale yellow light could be seen reflecting on a water pool near one of the many curves of the cavern, we stood still but the light didn’t move. We made our way into the corner to see what was happening.
“You go ahead.” Ghimli said. “If anything goes sour, I got you and we book it.”
I nodded and threaded my way into the corner, I put my hand on the left side of the wall so I could get a sense of what I was, It was still too darn dark, but my eyes had adjusted a bit. As I peaked to the light source, I almost lost my lunch.
In a large room there was a big stone throne, ornate with several skulls in different stages of decomposition, some were bone, some were so fresh that the blood was a goop on the base of the cut. In the throne sat the ugliest creature I’ve ever seen, a tall Goblin with long white hairs dangling from his ears, the head balded. The Yellow eyes were open looking straight from where I was, and the pointed teeth covered with half-eaten meat stuck in between.
“Who dares come near my home?” He spoke, his voice coarse and gravel, but still high pitched, like someone was able to make a chalkboard talk by running his nails onto it.
Adrenaline pumping I didn’t hesitate. It could speak, so I could talk to him…it…they?
“I’m Doc, and I’m here to ask you to cease the attacks on Jhorn and leave Kethlen once and for all, or there will be consequences.” I said, masking the nervousness on my voice. He could attack me at any point, but I held firm as the Goblin chief talked again.
“Who are you to demand anything from a king? I was alive before you could ask to be born. This land belongs to me, and you’re trespassing.” A bolt of light came flying in my direction on the last words, I pull up my shield and it hit dead center, making me fly and hit the wall behind me.
“Doc, are you alright?” Ghimli came next to me, pumping some healing magic.
“I’m alright. Just… Let me talk to him again.” I said, standing up.
The posture of the Goblin chief was the same, he hadn’t moved to cast the bolt. “Interesting” I thought. With carefully measured paces I went near, his eyes moving with my position, another bolt came flying and I managed to sidestep, almost hitting Ghimli, with the sword on the ready I lunged at the chief, striking one of his arms. I felt the bones breaking in my own arm, he was a tough son of a goblin. The shriek of pain was worse than the chalkboard thing I was imagining, it sent a shiver through my spine and blood came out of my ears, another healing from Ghimli and my arm was back in shape.
“This is a fraction of our power!” I said, trying to sound threatening. “Yield and your life will be spared!”
“Surrender is not the way of kings.” He launched his head in my direction, trying to bite my head off, as a spectral mace flung on the opposite direction, making the head of the Goblin to fly backwards, he wasn’t dead yet, but it was just a matter of time.
“I said Yield!” I tried to stop my sentence but something compelled me to finish in another way. “In the name of Wee Wee.” Oh, darn.
I could see the fear on the Goblin’s eyes, he was on the brink of death, but behind the fear was something else, defiance, maybe.
He stood up from his chair, bones started to fall from the folds on his stomach, the stench of secretion and rotten flesh made me lose my balance, he took this as weakness and lunged at me, he was fast for a creature of that size, I’ll not beat around the bush, he was a tall, fat, ugly goblin, faster than the regular goblins. I couldn’t put my shield up in time and he sunk his teeth into my legs. The ethereal mace came flying down, hitting the goblin on the back of his neck, snapping some vertebrae. He went limp at my feet, still breathing.
“Do you yield?” I asked, anger taking over me.
An arcane bolt came flying down the corridor, hitting the goblin chief right in the chest, ending him before he had a chance to respond. I looked over and saw Amanda being helped by Bea coming in my direction.
“What the heck, Amanda? I was talking to him!”
“We don’t talk with Goblins. We kill Goblins.” She responded, turning her back on me and going to the throne.