“You just come through the Waystone?” A red-headed man speaks up from beside Erevan.
The hunter turns to look over at the ginger, his thick red beard obscuring his lower face, and his eyes deep-set with dark bags under them. The clothes the man-made are not fancy but are of high-quality cloth and fur. He is not a hunter or a commoner.
“I just sent another Chosen towards Ger Kroz on a mission. They could use some backup. Especially with someone as armed as you are.” The man nods.
Erevan nods, realizing having a ballista and a sled strapped to his back is probably not very low-key. He stands out easily in a city.
“Is there pay?” Erevan crosses his arms as he stares the man down.
“Of course. All adventurers get paid for jobs. You are an adventurer, right? You look armed enough that you must be pretty experienced.” The man pats a coin purse on his belt.
“Then I’ll join them.” Erevan turns and touches the waystone again. “Where am I going again?”
“Ger Kroz, it's in the jungles on the continent just east of here. Should be the biggest city you can sense in those jungles down at the southern tip.” The man explains.
Erevan steps through the portal, immediately feeling sweltering heat under a bright sun, in the middle of the crowded streets of a colorful city. Houses of clay and colorful stone. The populace was human, orc, goblin, hobgoblin, bugbear, troll, ogre, and more. Standing near Erevan next to the waystone was a man in a blackrobe wielding a black wand with onyx gems embedded in its hilt. The man looks over at Erevan.
“Another Chosen? Thought I was going to walk in late all alone.” The man is a bit older, brown hair, balding. He has the pale skin of a Yokind-viking. “Crenshaw.” The man puts a hand out to shake Erevan’s.
“Burkwood.” Erevan takes the man’s hand and shakes it.
“Well come on. They’re probably all waiting for us.” Crenshaw starts walking through the streets, following the flow of the crowd, with Erevan close behind him.
The two reach a tavern called the Green Pisser. They step inside and see orcs and goblins milling about, brawling, and drinking. A troll behind the bar looks up at the two. He points to a side door.
The two walk to that room, entering a small dining hall. There are several others in the rooms.
“Alright, they’re the last ones.” An orc stands up on the other side of the room. “Introduce yourselves to them and let's move on to debriefing.”
“Hera.” A woman with curved horns stands, she has a slight pinkish hue to her skin, and is wearing a maid uniform turning into a padded battle uniform. “My master discovered I was a Chosen and would appreciate it if I could develop my powers so I am being sent on this mission with all of you.”
“Honno Mushi.” A second woman introduces herself. She is wearing leather armor stained with oil, she has a few tools hanging off of her, and has a few metal canisters on her belt loop. “I’m a technician, and an actual professional.” She eyes the other adventurer who introduced herself already. Erevan takes note of the fox-like tail swishing from her backside with annoyance.
“I’m Crenshaw.” The balding man butts in, introducing himself, and taking a seat. “I am a pact wizard. So while I may cast a few spells, I am far more likely to summon allies to fight for me.”
“I am Samson.” A man wrapped in black cloth says. Erevan stares past the man at a coffin lying against the wall behind him. “That is mine. It carries someone dear to me.”
“Moving on. I am Marvela!” A woman raises her hands excitedly. Erevan, now looking at her, has no idea what he is looking at. “I am Shanno, a gastropod from the hollow, but you might see me as a slug-person.” She explained. Her skin was a reddish pink, and her head was surrounded by ruffles of flesh that almost mimicked hair.
“I am an alchemist, as such I will warn you not to breathe in any smoke I spread on the battlefield, and be wary of touching or falling into any of the friends I deploy.” She takes out a small metal canister that has see through sides where an arcane force holds and condenses a green slime. “This slime is technically alive and will melt whatever enters its composition. It will grow as it feeds.”
“And you are?” The orc at the end of the table nods to Erevan.
“Burkwood. You obviously know what I do at a glance and I’m here to get paid.” Erevan says, knowing he has a massive ballista on his back.
“Straight to the point then.” The orc nods to Erevan who leans against the back wall. “There was a group of goblins who defected from our kingdom recently, starting their own free love compound or whatever hippy shit free goblins do.”
Erevan had doubts he would be willing to kill goblins just for wanting their freedom. Freedom is all Erevan has ever wanted. This thought crosses his mind as he becomes acutely aware that his helmet is on tight and the man named Crenshaw is a Yokind-viking who may take offense as to him being a Crow.
“The goblins have been raiding smaller settlements, mines, and supply caravans. They have been stealing weapons and armor. But more than that they have been stealing raw resources; wood, iron, fuel, and arcane components. We fear they are attempting guerrilla warfare and trying to build weapons to take on larger forces than their manpower would allow.” The orc explains.
“We need you to get out there and stop them.” The orc concludes. “You will be compensated greatly for the mission with Iron-tier adventurer rates.” There are a few smiles and smug looks from the other adventurers. “Now go kill some goblins.”
The group will head back out to the waystone. They seem to partner up quickly; Hera and Honno and Marvela, Crenshaw and Samson. Erevan is fine walking behind them quietly. They reach the waystone and teleport to a closer settlement to the goblin encampment. From there it takes half a day's journey to get to the encampment. Along the way Crenshaw looks back at Erevan several times and calls out to him once.
“Are you new?” Crenshaw asks.
“Yes.” Erevan replies curtly.
“Agh, a Wooden-tier adventurer. Like Hera.” Crenshaw says. “All the others are Bronze tier, so try to stay behind me or Samson here.”
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“I don’t like anyone behind me.” Samson says quietly. The man is struggling under the weight of the coffin. A coffin he has strapped to his back.
“Why bring the coffin?” Erevan asks.
“Oh, you are going to love this guy’s abilities. Once we get in there, oh, I can’t wait.” Crenshaw says excitedly.
“Shhh.” Honno shushes the group and waves a hand downwards.
Everyone in the group crouches and moves forward to peer up at a hill that has the goblin base. There was a six-foot-high wall of stone, wooden spikes jutting off the top of it, and scaffolding with archers on it dotted around the wall. There were three platforms around the goblin base, and two goblin sharpshooters on each one.
The group silently approaches the wall, Erevan starts to unpack his ballista and set up its tripod. Marvela waves to the team as she lets out her first gelatinous cube. It squeezes through the cracks of the stone wall, destabilizing it with its acidic body, causing the wall to crumble away in the ten-foot span the gelatinous cube expanded to fill. Marvela tosses a smoke bomb over the wall, covering the entrance they just made, as the slime slides its way into the camp.
Goblin shouts fill the air and six arrows fly at the slime, slamming into its body, and dissolving inside of it. The slime jiggles from the impacts of the arrows. A few more goblins rush up with weapons drawn to fight the slime. Honno tosses a small metal canister at the group of goblins, it pops open with a bang, and a blinding light dazzles the goblins on the other side of the smoke from the group.
“I kind of feel bad for ambushing them,” Honno says. “What did they even do?”
“Treason,” Marvela answers. “That's a fair enough reason.”
"They're filthy rebels and we're getting coin for honest work. That's good enough cause for me." Crenshaw’s hands glow as he summons a Lemure, an infernal creature with an almost melting body of flesh and fat, with deadly claws.
One by one the group rush through the smoke. As Samson prepares to charge in, a black mist spreads from the coffin, he breaths it in, and his veins bulge with strength. He tosses two daggers into the air which the mist suspends and then draws two more daggers in hand. He charges through the smoke. All Erevan can see and here are spells being cast, bombs going off, arrows being shot, and weapons clashing. Hera stays behind next to Erevan.
“They might not even need me. Throwing a smokescreen in front of me and all.” Erevan says. “If you stay back here, reload my ballista.”
“How do I do that?” Hera looks at the already loaded ballista and then looks up at Erevan as he runs through the smoke with a blunderbuss in hand. She pauses for a second wondering why she would reload the ballista.
Erevan bursts out of the smoke on the other side and raises his blunderbuss up as the goblin base interior comes into view. There are tens of goblins swarming about, there are now two gelatinous cubes on the battlefield, and many goblins are already dead. But in the center of the base is a platform. A platform where several goblins with crude engineering tools are clearing away from a giant suit of armor, fifteen-foot tall, made of wood and iron.
“What the fuck…” Erevan stops and stares at the suit, lowering his ballista.
The suit of armor flies into the air as huge blasts of flame shoot out of its back. It hovers shakily twenty feet up. One of its arms raises, showing several barrels, and the barrels begin to spin as the weapon warms up.
Erevan raises a hand to point at the goblin mech with a finger gun. He pulls the imaginary trigger and his ballista moves, fires, and a bolt sails through the smoke piercing the chest of the mech. It falters, dropping a few feet, before maintaining its hover.
Crenshaw blasts spells across the clearing killing goblins, Honno tosses a grenade into a group, the slimes engulf several gobs, and Erevan senses his ballista being reloaded. Samson stabs some goblins as daggers float around him helping him kill the gobs. The mech sprays bullets across the clearing, blasting one of the slimes apart.
“Edwin!” Marvela screams out as the gelatinous cube destabilizes and starts to lose form spilling across the ground.
Hera will run through the smoke hearing the scream from Marvela.
“You named the slime Edwin?” Hera says in shock. She expected to heal a party member. “Ew ew ew ew! So gross so gross! It's warm and wet and sticky! Heal heal heal!" She quickly heals the slime with a burst of radiant energy and then retreats to the ballista.
Three goblins charge from underneath the mech towards the party. They run through their ranks, with daggers, slashing at unarmored legs. They make little teasing squeals as they do. Crenshaw flips a knife in his hand and shanks one of the goblins running past him, Samson eviscerates one with four dagger slashes, and the third goblin runs past Erevan through the smoke.
Erevan will fire his ballista at the mech again and once again a bolt slams into the chest of the armored goblin suit. Yet it keeps flying as it reloads its gun.
A scream comes from where Erevan left his ballista. He grits his teeth as he turns and runs back to his siege weapon. Hera is being assaulted by the goblin that ran past him. He quickly leaps into the fray, putting his blunderbuss against the goblins head, and pulling the trigger. The limp green body drops to the ground.
“I’m sorry he got past me.” Erevan huffs as tries to catch his breath while reloading his blunderbuss.
Shots blast out from the mech, as bullets fly wide through the base. A few bullets blast through the stone wall near the two.
“I’m okay. I think they need your help though.” Hera says rapidly as she starts reloading the ballista.
Erevan charges back in seeing more dead goblins, one less gelatinous cube, and a big mech that crashes back down onto the ground. Crushing one of the goblins underfoot. The hunter charges the mech with his blunderbuss.
The mech quickly uses its jets to get to the side of Erevan. It aims its other arm at Erevan, with the rest of the party downrange of him, and it expels the rest of its rocket fuel through a weapon on his arm. Flames and fuel spray across the clearing, Erevan can smell his own flesh cooking. He aims a finger at the mech and fires the ballista. In his pain, he doesn’t realize the line of sight is blocked from his ballista, and the siege weapon shoots the rock wall.
Samson rushes up behind Erevan, shadow mist seeps into his wounds, and they begin to close. The hunter then raises his blunderbuss and fires at the mech. The buckshot doesn’t pierce through the iron plating of the mech, but it does blast through the wood. The front wooden panel is blown apart revealing a goblin pulling levers and turning knobs.
The goblin panics and turns the mech to run away.
“I’ve got him!” Crenshaw yells as he fires a massive arcane dart that sails through the air, circles around the mech, and slams down into the goblin pilot. The mech slumps over.
"They were about to retreat! Do we really need to go this far trying to stop them from leaving..?" Honno calls out.
"It seems clear that they are dangerous. Just the fact they are trying to rebel, to begin with is an issue. I'm not biased because they tried to kill Edwin." Marvela scoops up the remains of one of her slimes.
"We don’t even know why they were trying to rebel. What if there was a good reason?" Honno calls out.
"Perhaps. Do they seem like they are nice people? At least some of them seem insane.” Marvela replies.
"In fairness. Would you be nice to someone who murdered your friends before you even knew what was going on?" Honno says with their voice breaking.
"Killing a goblin is reason enough. They're always a pest in any land they dwell in." Crenshaw spits on a goblin body.
"They were building weapons. Do you not see the giant machine? They were going to hurt people." Samson declares.
"A-And how many civilizations other than goblins have built machines for war, and we don't justify their slaughter for having them?" Honno raises their voice.
"I build machines for war." Erevan pauses.
Erevan pats out some fire on him, looking around at the burning and crumbling goblin base. He begins walking back to his ballista where Hera still is.
“You guys mind if I take the bodies for my farm?” Marvela calls out as Erevan steps over the remains of the goblin wall.
“Thank you for supporting me.” Erevan nods to the tiefling as he packs up his ballista.
“Supporting is my job.” Hera smiles.
“Well, thank you. Hope to see you on another job.” He lifts his ballista up and starts to walk back to the village they came from.