"Don't know!" the goblin squealed and squirmed uselessly in Mason's increasingly terrifying grip. "Just worker. Don't know secrets!"

"There's tunnels in the walls," Mason hissed. "Behind bed sheets or flags or whatever they are. Don't tell me you've no idea. Where do I get in the tunnels?"

"Just a worker!" The creature whined pitifully, then his eyes went wide in hope. "Engineers will know. Engineers know things, make tunnels. Yes. Go through door, and up further into tree. They mine crystals."

"What crystals?" Mason forced himself to get more information before he turned and charged away. "What are you creatures doing in this tree?"

The goblin moaned in pain, growing paler by the second as it dripped blood all over the floor. "Don't know. Just mine crystals. Heart of tree. For big bosses."

Mason growled and rammed his sword through the creature's chest, then tossed him away. He looked back at the others, all of whom stared with obvious concern. "We're here to kill every last one of these creatures. Time to grow a spine and pay attention. Until I find Streak there's no quests, no mercy, no weakness. You stay with me and you do your job. Or you can turn around and leave now. Now move."

Mason forced himself to open the door at the end of the room quietly, despite wanting to smash it from its hinges. Beyond was a winding corridor, and like the first trees he'd cleared, the path was clearly leading up. He crept through passing several doorways, glancing in each to find more supplies and crates and the occasional goblin that just looked like more workers.

He put a finger to his lips for the others, and gestured for them to move. He didn't know how long Streak had, but he wasn't wasting time killing more useless creatures. At the end of the corridor he could hear rhythmic pounding that grew in volume. He felt some hope, because the sound might be picks hammering at the tree.

He ran his hand along the wall, camouflaging himself the color of the tree as he left the others slightly behind. Then the hall opened up into a massive cavern, as usual too impossibly large to actually exist in the great tree they'd seen outside. It practically glowed with a dull phosphorescent blue, and all along the walls Mason could see what looked like 'crystals', just as the goblin said.

Most were blue, but he saw many other colors. Construction apparatus was set up everywhere. Ramps, ladders, platforms, and even mechanical lifts allowed hundreds of goblin workers to scale the tree and work at the crystals. Dozens of carts, and thousands of buckets were filled or in the process, the cacophony of working noise and goblin voices filling the cavern.

At the bottom, Mason saw many goblins dressed differently than the others—some carried little devices and wore what looked like goggles or lenses, others with pads of paper or blackboards, scribbling away. They sure as hell looked like 'engineers' to Mason.

"Wait, Patron," Phuong put a hand on Mason's shoulder. "What is your plan?"

Mason clenched his jaw and stared at the cavern. "Maim engineers until they talk. Kill anyone who tries to stop me. Any other suggestions?"

The older man winced and shrugged. "That's a lot of goblins. Could we capture an engineer and bring him back here? Perhaps...lure one?"

Mason gripped his sword with impatience but eventually nodded. It was a good idea. And though he'd literally used it maybe once, his Trapmaking actually did have non-deadly variants. He activated the power and could see options to make nets or slings. But maybe just hiding and grabbing one of the bastards would be just as easy...

"Alright. I'm going to get closer." He unsummoned his swords, unslung his bow, then started stripping. Mai and Seamus both stared vaguely wide-eyed as he went down to his underwear and debated dropping those too, but it probably wasn't necessary. "Make some noise or something. Get one of them to come a little closer and check it out. Then I'll grab one and bring him over. Good enough?"

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Phuong did something between a nod and a shrug, and Mason decided it would do. He kept low and ran his hands along the ground, keeping camouflaged with his Sleeves. The engineers seemed to be wandering around inspecting everything, and he figured one might even get close enough without something to attract them.

Then a minute later he heard a very goblin sounding shriek from the hallway. One or two of the engineers glanced over but didn't seem particularly concerned. Until a goblin voice started yelling.

"Boss! The crystals are exploding! Help! Oh no oh no!"

Two of the closest engineers exchanged a look, then started running for the hall cursing the workers for incompetent fools. Mason didn't move. They ran right past him, seemingly oblivious, and he decided it was even better to let them go all the way. When they reached the corridor and left the cavern, Mason heard a now familiar sizzling pop.

He crawled back to find Phuong standing over two very stunned goblin engineers, holding a worker at swordpoint.

"Thank you," he told the creature, then lopped off its head. "Two for the price of one, Patron," he gestured with a wry grin. Mason could have hugged him. He felt suddenly not entirely so alone, knowing this man at least would do what was necessary.

He searched the engineers and found all manner of strange tools, binding their hands and feet with rope before the seemed to wake up.

"I have questions," he said as the first blinked awake. It stared at the players all standing around it, then wiggled and discovered it was tied up. After a long, audible swallow, it nodded vigorously.

* * *

The goblin engineer turned out to be a font of knowledge, just not for what Mason actually wanted to hear. It knew absolutely nothing about secret tunnels or a giant snake with a ram's head, no matter how Mason threatened to butcher it. But it knew many others things.

First, the goblin 'tribe' had been hired by the nearby tower orcs to 'harvest' the great tree. They could apparently convert the magic-infused wood using some kind of chemical process, breaking it down into the crystals they'd seen, to be used for all manner of purpose. That process was what was leaving toxic sludge everywhere, and rotting the tree from the inside.

"Where are your leaders?" Mason said, still angry and impatient and anxious for his friend.

"Top of tree," the engineer said as if it were obvious. "Chief Engineer Mekik. But..." he swallowed and clearly failed to find enough saliva. "Not in charge. Not really. Mountain Tribe in charge."

"What mountain tribe?" Mason said, hardly caring.

"Greenblood Order," the creature whimpered. "Wizards and killers. They rule goblins. Not us. Never us. Not to blame."

Mason had run out of patience, but his anger had cooled. He felt no moral compunction against killing these creatures, but nor did he feel like killing a thing that hadn't fought, and seemed so helpless. He lifted both engineers and walked to the closest room, stuffing them into the corner.

Not sure what else to do, he put his hand against the tree and activated Speak with Nature, at first thinking to try and send out a call, much like he had with Violet in the Devourer's lair. But then he thought about the garden with Seul-ki—speaking with the trees and plants themselves. He tried 'talking' to the tree.

[There is a wolf here, lost, I'm trying to find him. Can you help me? I'm here to save you. But please help me save him first.]

For a moment nothing happened. Then Mason shook as agony coursed up his his hand and arm—like acid coating his skin. But he could take it. He let the pain surge towards his chest but stop, almost gripping his arm like some kind of awful connection.

He felt the thing’s voice more than heard or understood it. Images flashed through his mind, like a cartoon on flipping pages of goblins digging and cutting and burning a living thing. Mason shook at the pain, sensing the rage, the hopelessness that followed.

When the intensity finally faded, the images slowed and showed a snake and totem just as Mai had described. It turned, green and yellow eyes glowing and staring as if straight into Mason’s until a single name burned into his mind: Cerebus.

It occurred to Mason he was having a kind of conversation with a tree. But frankly the insanity of this world was just starting to become normal, and he didn't really hesitate to keep going.

[The wolf. Can you show me where he is? How to get to him? I need him to help you. I swear to Gaia, I will kill these goblins or chase them from you. But I need the wolf.]

Mason felt something like pleasant warmth break through the painful tingling on his arm. A sound like a creaking ship followed—wood bending and shaping to the edge of breaking, stronger than the sum of its parts. Mason shivered as he felt it pulling him with some kind of indescribable magic. The feeling it was trying to communicate as it did was…caution? Apology? But it wanted him to…let go, and let it pull him.

He looked back at the others.

"I'm going to Streak. Stay alive. Go back to the tunnel. You’re smaller than me, you might fit...you might..." He closed his eyes and bit the inside of his cheek as the agony in his arm flowed over his body. He tasted blood, and the pain was like the Devourer's acid but worse, coating him in a thick, sticky layer of awful.

Then the corridor was gone, and so was he.