At the edge of town, Max activated his Sneak ability. The dark goblins were everywhere. Broken furniture littered the streets. Shells of buildings, once family homes or dockside businesses, were now filled with squabbling goblins. Max listened to their harsh language. He could not understand a word, but it was clear when one group was amused by their destruction of the town or another was in a quarrelsome mood.
Officers, dressed much like the rest of the army but with the addition of large black badges on their right shoulders, were walking in pairs trying to bring order to the chaos. Max stopped in horror as a pair of officers dragged one goblin from a burned-out building and murdered it for some offense. They drew a jagged blade across its throat, tearing the flesh. Green blood gushed out, and then, when the beast stopped thrashing about, the officers removed its head and stuck it on a spike before parading it through the streets. Some goblins fell in behind and chanted as the officers hoisted the head up and down. Max could not imagine what offence had warranted such a punishment, but he fell in step behind the mob with their grisly trophy and followed in their wake. He followed them into the center of town where a throng of goblins was waiting, lolling around, drinking, eating, and fistfighting their fellows.
A goblin thrown from an upper story window landed on Max, knocking him to the ground. A pair of goblins looked out of the upper window, laughing. They stopped when they spotted Max, his Sneak ability cancelled as the goblin landed on him. They pointed and shouted.
Max ran to the nearest side street, away from the throng. A screeching cry went up as a pair of goblins followed him. Max dived into a burned-out building, and once out of sight, he activated his Sneak ability. He watched for a good chance to sneak off between the few goblins in the street. They started to laugh in a nasty snickering as two goblins came into the street leading a huge centipede. The centipede was sniffing the ground, its huge head darting side to side, scuttling forward on its many legs, leading the goblins to Max. He checked the stats on the beast.
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> Name: Scolopendra
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> Status: Malevolent
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> Attack: Mouth Pincers
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> Threat level: Relentless
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The beast led the pair of goblins right to the burned-out building Max was hiding in. They released it with a laugh.
The scolopendra scurried into the building with Max. It stood up on its hindquarters and looked down at Max, slime dripping from its pincers. Long antennae twitching. Max moved, and the lightest scrape of his boot on the charcoal remains of the building attracted the beast’s attention.
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> Scolopendra attacks Max.
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Max dived aside. His Sneak ability held, but the beast could detect him with ease. Max held up his sword.
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> Max casts Sword Lightning.
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> Scolopendra takes moderate damage.
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The lightning rippled down the scolopendra’s long body. Max retreated through the building. The scolopendra on his tail. Max had to abandon caution, and he used his Dark Movement to get away from the creature, and he found himself back on the edge of town. The beast still came after him, a group of goblins following behind.
At the edge of town, Max ran in to a burned-out building and looked to see how close the beast was. He heard a voice just behind, he turned, sword raised.
“I thought you’d get closer than that,” Anita said.
Jahrod stepped up, and Elderon cast Shield. Anita cast Bonus to the party.
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> Max casts Strength.
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“Take it down quick,” Max said.
The scolopendra came scuttling, swerving like a sidewinder along the street just ahead of its goblin handlers. It came close to the building, closing in on Max’s scent trail. As soon as its head came into range, Max struck.
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> Max casts Fireball.
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> Scolopendra takes heavy damage.
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Elderon hit it with a spear of frost, a long ice spear that skewered the beast as it reared up from the fireball. Jahrod struck it with crossbow bolts, Anita’s sling twirling and sending bullet after bullet. The ranged weapons slowed the beast, and the cumulative damage was significant.
Max launched another couple of magic missiles. They seemed to be doing more damage. His new level had made the magic missiles more potent, although he still only cast two glowing orange orbs for every spell.
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He cast his last Magic Missile.
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> Max casts Magic Missile.
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> Scolopendra takes moderate damage.
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> Scolopendra has been defeated.
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> Max gains experience points.
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The beast fell to the ground with the goblin handlers still many yards away. Max led the party to the back of the house and across a rear alleyway and into another vacant building. He looked out from an upstairs window. Goblins were closing in on all sides, drawn by the fireball.
“We can’t take them all on.” Max said.
“We need a plan,” Anita said.
Max checked his inventory. He grabbed the Potion of Intelligence and popped the cork off the small bottle. The liquid was cold and bitter. When he finished the bottle, he felt a wave of ingenuity wash over him. Problems he’d faced in the past occurred to him now as elementary problems with simplistic solutions. But what about his current predicament?
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> Name: Max Lightfoot
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> Class: Mage
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> Level: Six
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> Health: Moderately injured
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> Strength: 10
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> Stamina: 17
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> Agility: 18
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> Intelligence: 20
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> Wisdom: 12
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> Charisma: 16
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> Abilities:
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> • Climb
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> • Dark Movement
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> • Pick pocket
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> • Sneak
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He saw his Intelligence had been temporarily raised. It was currently higher than even Elderon’s. And he instantly knew what to do to get out of this spot.
“Hand me that pouch of guano, Jahrod,” Max said.
Jahrod handed it over as the party looked at Max with confusion. “It’s hardly time for supper,” Jahrod said.
Max opened the pouch and revealed the nasty white slime. He grabbed a burned piece of timber and scraped the blackened sides, dropping soot to the ground. He grabbed another charred piece of wood and worked fast.
“More soot,” Max said.
His party acted, brushing their confusion aside. They scraped a pile of soot before Max.
“Enough,” he said and added the soot to the guano.
Jahrod let out a little whimper as Max mixed the soot and the guano. Then he packed the dry, powdery mess into the empty bottle that had once contained the Potion of Intelligence.
“Your flaming torch,” Max said to Jahrod.
The dwarf handed it to Max. Max tore a strip of cloth soaked in flammable oil off the torch and stuffed it in the top of the bottle. He replaced the cork and then lit the strand of cloth from the torch.
“When this goes off,” Max said, “it will create a distraction. I’ll use it to get close to the general.”
“How will that cause a distraction?” Elderon said, interested and confused.
“Just keep your heads down,” Max said and ran to the upper floor of the burned-out house and climbed up onto the roof.
A dozen goblins were studying the defeated scolopendra and looking around for where their enemy might be. Max hurled the bottle filled with the black powder into the street.
The bottle bounced along the ground, and the burning taper made it to the cork and touched the black powder. The explosion burst like the mightiest crack of thunder, not a soft thump of fireballs exploding, but a huge heavy crack. The force of the explosion flung the goblins aside, and the partially burned-out building collapsed in the blast.
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> Max casts Disguise
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Even though he was impressed by the strength of his explosion, Max was smart enough not to linger and admire his homemade grenade. It seemed elementary, charcoal and guano, the basis for gunpowder, tightly packed into a bottle. The explosion was just the distraction he needed.
As he ran, he checked his appearance, a basic dark goblin. He bumped into a goblin charging around a corner, and the disguise held, not like hiding using his Sneak ability.
Max hurried on towards the docks where the general was camped, holed up in a large dockside building. Many officer goblins and goblin Barbarians stood around the building. A sign over the door hung from one corner, the other having been destroyed. Max thought it looked like a harbormaster sign. This building had once overseen the smooth operation of the port of Eastcrossing. Now it was the forward operations base of the goblin army general.
Max moved ever closer. A fresh company of dark goblins disembarked from a newly arrived ship and marched into town. Max walked up to the harbormaster building and stepped inside. He moved with confidence. The Barbarian guards did not challenge him. He walked straight up to the goblin general, who was studying a map of the continent of Awen. He looked up at Max as he approached.
The general looked at Max, and his disguise fell away. Max recognized the general from his dream. The general recognized Max. The general moved fast and drew his sword.
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> Goblin General attacks Max.
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> Max takes moderate damage.
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One of the general’s swords struck Max a ringing blow on the side of his head. He did not feel so intelligent now. He rolled aside and came up onto his feet and dived into attack.
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> Max attacks Goblin General.
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> Goblin General takes minor damage.
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> Bonus Lightning damage.
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> Bonus Strength damage.
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Max leapt back as the general swung a sword at him, the tip narrowly missing his throat. A pair of Goblin Barbarians came in and attacked Max, their clubs thudding into the walls as they narrowly missed him.
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> Goblin General attacks Max.
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> Max takes moderate damage.
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Max fell to the ground with the blow from the general’s sword. He rolled aside as a Barbarian’s club thudded into the floorboards next to his head. The floorboards splintered.
More goblins were coming into the office. Max ran away from the door, cornered by the general, snarling. The two Barbarians moved to cover the sides of the room, the arriving goblins standing in the doorway, sniggering.
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> Max casts Summon Fog.
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The fog filled the room in a moment, billowing up between the floorboards. Max activated his Sneak ability and moved as silently as he could. The Barbarians were thundering about, smashing their clubs into the ground and the walls. One blow fell perilously close to Max, but he held his nerve and moved towards the general. Then, once within a few inches, Max saw the general’s features through the fog. Max stuck out his hand and grabbed the dark shard around the general’s neck.
As the shard evaporated, anger and hate in the eyes of the general turned to confusion and fear. The general seemed to shrink in size. The general grabbed Max’s wrist, the grip strong for a small hand, so strong, Max feared his wrist would be crushed. But as the shard slowly evaporated, so the strength of the general’s grip failed. Once the shard was gone, black dust on the air, the general stumbled back.
The sounds of a ship hitting the jetty came from outside. The general backed away from Max, not so terrifying now, looking more like an ugly, frightened dog. He turned and fled the building.
Outside, the goblin army had already collapsed. Some sat in the streets, lost and confused. Others ran out of town into the wilderness beyond. On the wide bay, ships were out of control, slamming into each other, the jetties, and the rocky shoreline around the edge of the bay.
Max saw his party walking through the street, untroubled by the goblins that were fleeing or sitting, confused and afraid. He stepped out to greet his party. For now, they had nothing to fear from the darkness. For now, they were safe.