Prologue - Let Sleeping Witches Be
It was a quiet, soft and cloudless night in The Swamps. The pools were bubbling softly while insects were casually serenading the myriad nocturnal predators hiding in the shallows and the shadows, all awaiting their time to strike for the nights meal.
The peaceful serenity of the late-night during early-summer would not last long, however. The natural swamp noises were beginning to be drowned out slowly, by the many repeated instances of clunking metal carried by loud distinctly maniacal and obnoxious laughter.
It had such a unique and truly pungent echo as it travelled everywhere, that the accumulated cacophony permeated the entire swamp like a foul odour.
Every nightly creature willingly gave up its comfort as the noise grew closer, they all knew exactly what that noise was and wanted to be as far away as possible. It was a band of Mechanical Goblin-Riders darting forward through the swamps, sitting there on top of their metal beasts, stampeding forwards with no care in the world.
This wasn’t just any band of goblins though, this was the Wromtyx Gang, a gang of four goblins each specialised in a different type of Metal Beast Riding.
While the reason for their infamy would vary depending on who you ask, there were always two things everyone both in and out of the Goblin Valley could agree on about the Wromtyx Gang; other than to avoid them at all costs, of course.
The first thing that was universally agreed upon by all was that Wromtyx and his gang were really good at finding things and — for the right price —people, too.
The second thing that was well know —primarily to other goblins, granted — was that they conducted very little business in the Goblin Valley, on account of everyone avoiding them at all costs.
They were loud, they were smelly, they had little regard for others. While this was fairly common for goblins as a whole, it speaks volumes when even fellow goblins shun you for your poor manners.
They were not particularly good or evil though, by goblin standards, but to other goblins they were more of a nuisance, perhaps even an embarrassment; though you would have had to be a goblin to notice the difference.
The races for whom the Gang hunted for were themselves not goblins and so couldn’t possibly have known that their behaviour was any different to that of any goblin, unless you really got to know them. This was something that most non-goblins agreed was probably not a good idea anyway.
Currently the Wromtyx Gang was heading deep into the less explored parts of The Swamps, at the edge of Goblin Valley, at behest of a mystery client. They had been tasked with finding evidence to support an old rumour that , which seemed like a pretty easy task, for which they made sure to overcharge their client significantly; as is tradition.
Their current cheery demeanour, which had alienated all wildlife as far as their laughter could be heard, was inspired by a nifty little device given by the middle-man that contacted them.
It was a small metal sphere, and though it was adorned with some symbols as well as smooth carved grooves, there didn’t seem to be anything special about it otherwise. As far as anyone could tell it seemed like a single solid mass. This was because it absolutely was.
At the time the middle-man had tried to tell the goblins a little about the device before handing it over, but the goblins had not really cared to hear about it. They also took little notice of his numerous attempts to get them to refer to him by his name, which was ‘Wildart.’
What Wromtyx was currently holding and looking at while riding his mechanical boar, was called a Spell Seeker, and though Wildart hadn’t shared that bit of knowledge with them, he had told them exactly what it was used for: detecting and finding Mages.
While Wromtyx had told Wildart to keep the trivia knowledge to himself, he had taken a keep interest when he heard its purpose, and demanded to be told how to use it.
Wildart, never one to let an opportunity to shine in with his trivia slide, had immediately jumped in to clarify this as he had it over.
“The way in which it did that is pretty clever, actually,” He began, “You don’t really use it, it will work on its own. It’s all in the metal, you see. It reacts to the presence of magic by glowing.”
This, however, was trivia Wromtyx was very happy to hear.
They stampeded around the swamp for hours, one eye on the orb, waiting for some sort of glow to appear. Eventually a glow did appear!
Wromtyx ordered everyone to stop. The cacophony quieted down when all the mechanical beasts stopped as well as the laughter died down.
“Do we got somethin’ on the orb, Boss?” A slim slender sickly looking goblin asked slowly, standing at the back of the now stationary group of metal creatures buzzing in place. His head was sticking out a good head above everyone else.
“Why I do believe so, Xravat,” Wromtyx said giddily as he stood on the saddle-like contraption that was built into the back of his massive metal boar machine, holding up the orb, “See here!”
The three other goblins leant from their beasts to try and have a look at the orb Wromtyx was holding, revealing that he was in fact the shortest of the four.
The orb was indeed glowing, though only slightly. It was blue and barely even visible. It looked almost like a small and barely visible blue flame, pointing westward and slightly downward from their current position. In the dead of night with only starlight and luminescent bugs as light, the light was at least distinct.
In single file they all reengaged their mechanical beasts, following the direction of the Spell Seeker. As they journey deeper into the thicker growing flora around them, the flame got brighter and turned purple, then red, then yellow.
They were now deep enough into the thickest growth that the sky was no longer visible and their mechanical beasts no longer had the room or strength to push through the foliage. They were forced to leave them behind while they forced their way, mostly blind, following the direction of the Spell Seeker.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
The orb was now starting to turn green and engulfing the entire sphere just as they arrived as what seemed like a sand mound in a now dried up swamp pit. It looked like Wromtyx hand was caught in a green fire that did not burn his hand.
“Well,” He began as he turned around to his three taller accomplices, “This must be it!”
They all gathered around him, inspecting the dirt from a distance.
“So where is the witch?” The second tallest goblin stated, seemingly trying very hard to think about this conundrum.
“Where’s the flame pointing, Vort?” Wromtyx, insisted as he held up the orb to him.
“Euhm…” Vort began while he focused really hard, wanting to make sure he wasn’t seeing things, “Looks like down in front.”
“Very good, Vort,” Wromtyx began, partially proud and partially irritated, “So, where do you think the magic might be?”
“Oh! Oh, Oh. Is it possibly in the ground, then?” The goblin only slightly taller than Wromtyx shouted excitedly.
“Bingo, Frizgas!” He responded as he pointed his finger at him, “And because you won, go grab a shovel from the my Ride.”
Frizgas nodded and ran off through the thick foliage. Wromtyx then turned back to Vort and Xravat.
“You two!” He aggressively waved, “Start using your hands to dig!”
They complied immediately by kicking around the dried swamp pool, trying to find a good spot to dig in. It took them a while to find a good spot, but surprisingly the top of the small mound felt softest. Vort and Xravat began using their hands to move dried swamp grass and slimy muck away to reveal what seemed like soft soil which they could dig their fingers into without too much effort. Meanwhile Wromtyx took a walk of the pool perimeter, confirming without a doubt that whatever magic was causing this trinket of his to glow was most certainly just below them.
Frizgas had now returned with a shovel, which he immediately handed over to Xravat. As the tallest it made sense to the three others that he should be the one to shovel.
Xravat didn’t mind too much, and made quick work of the dirt mound. It took him barely five minutes to dig deep enough for the shovel to hit something particularly hard. The sound of the metal shovel against what sounded like sturdy rock echoed back and forth, raising a grin on all four of their faces as they enjoyed the sound.
Excitedly they all started digging with their hands. Slowly but surely stonework was revealing itself. Medium sized individual bricks held together with a hardened mud. The more dirt they removed the clearer it was that this was a wall of some kind, though it didn’t seem to be level at all; it was slanted at an angle.
“Maybe the mage’s house sank?” Xravat said as he tried to use his full weight to stomp down on the wall, attempting to weaken it.
“I’ve never heard of mages living in stone houses!” Frizgas added as he joined in jumping up and down, convinced that adding his weight would help.
“Will you both stop talking non-sense?” Wromtyx sighed as he rubbed his forehead in agitation, “Our client never confirmed we would find a mage, did he?”
There was a moment of silence as Frizgas, Xravat and Vort looked blankly at Wromtyx. They then looked at each other and muttered.
I’m sure he said we’re hunting for a mage. Yes, yes, the ball thing finds witches and wizards, I definitely remember him saying so. And it was going to be easy Coin because we just have to look for proof, that could mean anything!
“Alright, shut up, everyone!” Wromtyx interjected as he raised his voice well above their whispers and walked up towards them swinging his arms at them, “He said the orb detects magic, not mages.”
It took them a moment to catch up to his thinking, and Wromtyx was losing patience.
“Soooo…” He said as he walked in front of all three of them, on a piece of the wall, “More than likely we were sent here to find an object that belonged to a mage, and someone was very happy to pay far too much coin for us to find.”
He tapped the bricks under him with the heel of his foot as a way to indicate that the item was below them, which kicked some mud loose. Immediately after the bricks under Wromtyx crumbled and he fell through with a puff of dust exhaled by the small hole as the plopping of him hitting a sandy floor bed.
“Are you alright!” They all three shouted as they rushed to lean over the small hole, careful not to lose any more bricks, but close enough to be able to see the green glow of the orb casting some illumination into room as well as Wromtyx, seemingly unharmed though slightly surprised.
It took a few seconds but Wromtyx eventually managed to release a long-lasting groan.
He’s fine, he’s fine. Good. How are we going to get him out? The trio whispered amongst themselves.
Wromtyx eventually managed to return the air into his body, finally having the strength to stand up. He looked around the room which was tilted by 30 degrees. It was reasonably big, a few meters in all directions, with lots of ornamentation extruding around fancy but dusty looking walls all round. He looked at the orb in the sand beside him, the arrow was pointing up and behind him, in a very clear, very bright white stream. He looked behind him and saw that the light was pointing directly at a statue twice his size, in the shape of some creature holding out its claws holding a beautiful and slightly luminescent blood-red jewel.
“I think I found it!” He shouted up towards the others, “Can you guys get the r..”
He wanted to say ‘rope’, but he didn’t need to finish his sentence before a rope came crashing down, and three heads popped up around the hole, looking down at him.
“We can hoist you up when you need it!” Frizgas shouted down into the hole, “Just give the signal!”
“Will do!” Wromtyx shouted up at them, “Be ready at any time!”
“But first let me get my hands on that lovely jewel” He said softly, so the others couldn’t hear the grin on his face.
He started climbing the leg of the statue, which was short and stumpy, making it easy enough for him to climb onto. While he was climbing the orb in the sand started glowing a bit more brightly. Wromtyx could now see that he was climbing a statue of a crocodile, and the stubby arms and legs were too far apart for him to climb directly, he would have to climb unto its back first.
By the time he had climbed the back and reached over the head of the crocodile the orb was really bright and green seemed to have forced its way back into the mix, which gave Wromtyx an uneasy feeling. He ignored the feeling as he slowly made his way from the snout of the crocodile and climbed down onto its arms, almost stepping onto the jewel. He carefully let himself down completely, slowly and carefully leant down and grabbed the jewel firmly.
The orb in the sand below started glowing even brighter, and started pulsating, each colour making their way into the medley as Wromtyx took a moment to be captivated by the deep red colour of the jewel he was holding up. The crocodile arm seemed to tremble a little, which Wromtyx did notice, almost making him drop the jewel.
It wasn’t immediately obvious due to the light show happening below but the statue was slowly losing some of its statuesque properties, like being made of stone and staying still. With comparatively small Wromtyx in his claws the crocodile slowly began to awaken, its stone skin waning into breathing, moving, flexible scaled skin.
Wromtyx, seeing wide and rather intimidating jaws open before him as the crocodile yawned, wasted no time in jumping off towards the rope that was still dangling a small jump away.
“NOW!” He shouted, “PULL ME UP!”
The three goblins above started pulling with all their might, before Wromtyx had grabbed onto the rope. After jumping he quickly put the jewel in his mouth so he had both hands available, ready to grab the rope mid-pull. He snatched the rope and gripped on tightly, the rope slipping and burning his hands slightly, but pulling him safely away from the crocodile now throwing himself back and forth, stretching every part of its body as the transformation went down its body into legs; breaking free from the pedestal on which it was standing, burying the orb under its body.
Above ground, Frizgas, Volt and Xravat, from shortest to largest, pulled and heaved onto the rope until finally Wromtyx emerged, preceded by the ground starting to shake. All four panicked made their way out of the swamp pool as quickly as they could.
The ground continued the shake and some more bricks came lose, widening the hole slightly. Wromtyx spit out the jewel into his hands and stared at it for a moment, which the other three followed him in doing. The bricks that had fallen fell on the crocodile’s head, who let out a loud growl in response. Echoing though the room and coming out the hole above, it sounded loud and terrifying, snapping all four goblins out of their daze.
All four said something to the effect of getting out of there simultaneously.
To our Rides! Let’s get out of here! NOPE, Nope nope! AAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!
They ran as quickly as they could towards their mechanical beasts through the thick bushes and low hanging branches, getting hit and whacked several times.
Finally their mechanical beasts were in sight. They jumped onto their beasts, all of them trying to turn around and leave as quickly as possible, getting into each others way for several wasted attempts before they managed to form an orderly formation, and speedily stomp their way out of The Swamps as quickly as they could.
The resonating sound of mechanical clunking filled the area once more, but there was no merry maniacal laughter this time; only a slowly disappearing sound of metal ringing, eventually replaced by the sound of the nocturnal residents retaking their territory.