GERVAIS.

Squeeeek… Squeeeek…

The tavern sign swung erratically over them in the wild weather. It read THE HAPPY HALBERD, and depicted a roughly painted severed goblin head on the end of a pike.

Joss, using her good hand, opened the door of the tavern and ushered Gervais and the eight soldiers of the unit inside.

The warm inviting glow from a number of roaring fire places around the large open room and an enslaught of loud conversation, music, singing and raucous laughter overthrew the dreary cold and wet outside.

It was bright and rowdy and packed full of armed human soldiers and workers, dwarf travelers, even a small private group of elves in one corner; all with nowhere better to be and nothing better to do on a night like this than eat, drink and forget all about whatever was happening outside. The ceilings were low, held up by stout, age darkened timber beams hanging with old tankards, dungeon oddities and dart championship trophies. Plus a sign that read:

SAVAGE-KIND AND DRUNKEN FOOLS WILL BE

FORCIBLY EJECTED BY THE BARMAID.

DON'T SAY WE DIDN’T WARN YOU.

Gervais had to duck under each beam on his way to the bar in the centre of the chaotic space. The sound was obnoxious; there was shouting, yelling, laughter, multiple sources of music including a quality instrumental performance from a troupe of bards competing with some loud bawdy tunes sung well off key by a huddle of drunken seafarers in another.

OH TO SEA TO SEA TO WE SAIL!

HUZZAH!

OH TO BE TO BE TO BE WE SAIL!

HUZZAH!

The troupe of bards looked suitably unimpressed, but played on more loudly as their counterattack. Not that the seamen noticed. This town wasn't even anywhere near the coast.

A very tipsy dwarf was standing on a table proposing to a blushing young serving maid twice his height and half his width while trying not to topple over, and failing at both to the loud bawdy approval of his onlookers.

Two armour clad warriors in full battle gear were having a loud angry argument about who's dart was closer to the bullseye (neither were). It was about to get physical.

Gervais, Joss and the soldiers elbowed their way towards the bar. There was no space, until folks saw Gervais at which point they respectfully made some.

Tink, tink… Ker-thunk-Ker-Thunk! Swipe.

Without a word a hefty looking barmaid pounded ten large tankards of foaming ale on the bartop in front of them, five from each substantial hand, and swiped the coins Gervais had just dropped there. The sign had been right about the barmaid: you wouldn't want to cross that one.

He picked up his tankard, and the soldiers followed his example.

“CHEERS!” Joss shouted to be heard over the noise. She raised her drink with her good hand and they all clinked their tankards together. She threw her head back and swallowed half of hers before setting it down so she could wipe the back of the same hand across her foaming lip. Her other arm stayed protectively under the bar.

“I'VE BEEN LOOKING FORWARD TO THAT ALL DAY!”

This beer had been a long time coming.

"…w is yo.. ..rm …ing?" Gervais said something to her but she couldn't hear him.

"YOU'LL HAVE TO SPEAK UP" she yelled. Joss came to taverns like this often. She was used to this sort of conversation.

"I SAID HOW IS YOUR ARM FEELING" Gervais face showed that he obviously wasn't used to this sort of conversation.

"OH FINE FINE. HURTS LIKE DAEMONFIRE BUT EVERYTHING SEEMS TO BE IN THE RIGHT PLACE NOW SO I'M GOOD."

Gervais strongly doubted she'd say that if she had any idea how much daemonfire hurt, but she was a straightforward HEROIC warrior, quite a good one actually. Good leadership abilities. He let the inaccuracy slide. Anyway he appreciated her attitude to it. He'd spent a lot on getting it healed because she was an asset. Healing was one of those professions where you got exactly what you paid for. Which meant good ones were expensive.

Joss nodded to one of her soldiers and he gestured to the others who all moved off to drink together at a table leaving her and Gervais alone to talk business. That was another thing Joss was good at he thought: anticipating my intentions.

Kylie had been exceptional for that. He was feeling the impact of her absence already.

Self inflicted, he chided himself.

"Ca…. …ou ….dy.. t……nt an att…ays aft ..orrow?" he asked her when the soldiers had gone.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" She answered. The mage frowned, picked up his staff and waved it around a bit. The staff glowed at the tip emitting crackling blue sparks of energy, and though nothing else seemed to happen, when he spoke again, still without shouting, she could hear him clearly this time.

"Can you be ready to mount an attack in three days after tomorrow?" he repeated.

"WHAT SORT OF—" she yelled back, and the old mage cringed and cut her off, covering his ears and making a face at her,

"AHH! Eardrums! Eardrums! I've suppressed the - oh don't worry what I've done - just - you don't need to yell!"

"Oh" she said experimentally, and hearing herself speaking normally despite the loud surroundings, shrugged and continued, "SORRY! Sorry. What sort of 'attack' do you mean.. like another troll den? Sure we can be ready for that no problem."

"No, bigger. Much bigger. The High Council is issuing an extermination mandate for the goblins in the Jârvik Caverns day after tomorrow."

"Wow! For sure?! How did you find out already?"

She was impressed by Gervais. Not just by his powers: the way he had helped them take out the troll den had been much more effective than other Mages she had worked with in her time. Even the little tricks like this noise suppression were pretty sweet, even if she currently felt like she was whispering into a gale… she was impressed because this kind of inside info from the High Council meant he must be connected, and that meant so much more than clever tricks or even combat skills.

Joss had known of old 'Dungeon Gervais' by reputation for a long time, but had only got to know him in person a few months ago when she had been assigned to a cave spider defestation ordered by the Council following complaints from the local town, that escalated into a liche hunt through a long abandoned and forgotten necropolis.

Gervais had been the supervising Bright Mage, and Joss was pretty sure a great number of her unit and an entire town probably owed him their lives. He had certainly lived up to his reputation on that occasion, and she had made sure to keep in touch with him ever since.

So she knew he was good in a pinch and already respected him for that, but she didn't know he had contacts in The Council. Which is the only way he would have got this info ahead of the official announcement.

He winked an affable old man wink. It was disarming and she figured he used it a lot. He looked around the tavern conspiratorially then lowered his voice even further and leaned towards her,

"The Council will portray the goblin town as a social risk, which is arguable, but more prominent than that I think, there would be the significant loss of tax revenue from the thriving black markets the goblins are running down there. They aren't fussy who they sell to like the officially sanctioned markets up here and I'm quite sure the Council would want to put a stop to them. The Lord Chancellor himself will make the mandate, and I'll put your name up the minute he does. You'll be approved without a doubt: taking out that troll den today will have given you all the rep you need for the front row permit, Joss. Get yourself some trusted soldiers, and be ready in four days. We'll set out as soon as the announcement is made and we'll have goblin town cleared out before anyone else has got their swords oiled. Find at least eighty good close combat fighters. No shooters, you'll just need cold hard steel for close quarters work. I can handle any ranged requirements. And keep it quiet. I haven't been to Jârvik town myself, but from what I've heard it's developed into quite a sprawl down there… It will be rich pickings for the… lucky soldiers you bring along."

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"Ha ha!" she laughed and slammed her good hand down on the bar, "the savage scum won't know what hit them!"

Gervais gave her an odd look and a thin smile. She couldn't read him. He was a strange one this one. But THIS. THIS was the sort of opportunity that didn't come around often. A heads up on a huge… invasion… of a thriving black market town, where all the spoils of victory were fair game for the victors?

She eyed him shrewdly, "What's the catch?"

He looked straight back at her without even a hint of hesitation. "There's a troll I need you to capture. Alive this time."

"Ugh, Trolls again?" she said, rubbing her damaged arm. "The only good troll is a dead troll. I've got a score to settle, and next time I see a troll I'll cleave it in half before you set foot in the room!"

"Yes" said Gervais "Trolls again, but no, you won't cleave it in half. I said 'alive' and I mean it. That's the cost of putting you on this job. If that troll gets killed, I'll sign every last coin and trinket you find down there over to the coffers of the Chancellor as a Taxation levy. Do we have an understanding?" The tip of his staff crackled as if in warning.

Probably intentional she thought.

She gave him a long searching look, then raised her tankard.

"Ok old mage. In that case I'll settle my score another day." She raised the drink to her lips and drained the remaining half. By the time she put it down Dungeon Gervais was gone.

----------------------------------------

GOB.

STCHAK! STCHACK!

STCHIK! STCHIK!

Gob climbed his way up the stone shaft while Kylie fluttered along next to him. The pigironclors were extremely good at penetrating the stone, even throwing out a shower of sparks every time they hit the stone. They made surprisingly fast progress.

"You know how hilarious you look right now? You are a troll literally punching his way up a solid rock wall. With fireworks."

Gob growled at her. It was still hard work.

"don mak me eet yoo agin"

"I'd like to see you try you brute!"

He got to the hole in the wall where he'd fought the rat, and pulled himself up onto the ledge. He peered down the rounded tunnel tentatively, but he could easily see all the way to the end this time with his temporary skills, and there were no giant rats waiting for him. Unfortunately… he would have liked to see how differently that fight would go now!

On the way up, Gob and Kylie had been discussing where to go next. The voice of Krunch had given Gob a quest to 'find the white orc' to help explain his skills. She had actually heard of the white orc, coincidentally. Kylie had explained to Gob that her previous master, the Mage Gervais Stormbrow, who was right now in competition to them to be the first to Cragtop, had known him quite well, though before Kylie had been summoned here. She thought it was very strange that the voice had mentioned both of them. She wondered if somehow they knew this mysterious mountain troll…

Their agreed destination however was a place called the Jarvick Caverns. Not too far away from the forest where Gob was spawned, there were a series of old but abandoned underground spaces, much bigger than these ones, that a tribe of goblins had taken over some years ago and built into a small trading town which had become more of a city now, with a thriving marketplace that had developed a reputation for disreputable wares. It was commonly known as Goblin Town.

"Goblinz tase lik puk" said Gob when she described their destination to him.

"Oh don't worry about that, we're not going there to eat them!"

Kylie had suggested if they couldn't find the white orc there, they would definitely find someone there who would sell them the information on his whereabouts. And there would be plenty of booze. Goblins were big on booze.

Gob looked out from where the tunnel opened into the shaft, the same spot where he had used his intelligence to lure the rat over the edge to its doom. He could still see it's carcass down below. He looked further up. There was another, larger square opening across the other side of the shaft, and as soon as he looked at it he knew it would be the way out.

"it up dere" he said to Kylie.

"I already explored that one while you were fighting the rat" said Kylie, "it just leads to a looooong passage full of bats and a collapsed dead end."

"iz da way" he said "i can fel it in mi skilz"

skill:spelunker. You'll never be stuck in a dead end or trapped in in tight spot underground. Your subterranean affinity allows you to flawlessly find your way to your destination through underground caves or caverns.

Gob's face lit up at the prospect of another fight "AND it meen we juz hav to grind sum puky batz an moov sum roks!"

Kylie didn't look too sure about that.

Gob stchacked his way around the shaft, then up to the opening, and climbed up onto the ledge. Kylie flew up beside him.

Before them was a square stone passageway wide enough for two trolls to walk side by side, and the same height as it was wide. The stones were large and evenly cut, just like the ancient sturdy stones of the shaft behind them.

They hadn't walked far along, when the square passage opened up into a more natural cavern about twice the height of what they had been walking along, and just a little wider.

Whoever had built the tunnels had put a level and straight raised pathway through the cavern in a perfectly straight line from one side to the other, where the square passage continued. There was a pile of a powdery white substance mounded up in the middle of the pathway.

bat poop… dey hang upsid down an poop ot der moufs he remembered. He looked up. Hanging from the ceiling by pincer like claws that gripped the stone, wrapped up tightly in it's own wings, was a quiet, sleeping cave bat. A gigantic cave bat.

Kylie whispered "If we're quiet, we can sneak past. I got through without any of them waking up last time I came through here."

Gob thought about it:

*sneek? (sneak(0/2))

no way

*run? (speed(o/4))

no way

*wak it up an fite? (unknown)

"WAK UP BATYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!" cried Gob at the top of his lungs.

"Oh that was a terrible idea." Kylie winced.

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!

Two beady red glowing eyes snapped open accompanied by an echoing ear piercing panicked screech, as the beast instantly dropped from its perch. It flicked out wide leathery black wings and darted hapahazardly around the cavern.

Kylie had moved to the side of the cave, and from there called,

"GOB! Cave bats don't see well… it will know where you are through echolocation… that's the screechy thing it's doing. It would be a good idea not to stand still for too—"

The bat dropped down sharply, head first, from the top of the cavern. It was head down, wings tucked and plunging straight for Gob. Just as it was about to get to him, it threw out its wings and pulled up sharply mid flight, extending its long curved talons towards him.

Kylie flinched, expecting to see a horrible slash.

Gob didn’t flinch.

i haz in-isha-tiv! He thought. He REALLY wanted to try his new best stat out.

There was an unreal moment when everything seemed to go on hold. He could see the ferocious eyes and fanged mouth of the bat, it's snout wrinkled in a screeching snarl, the lean powerful muscles of its outstretched wings, and it's razor sharp talons arcing towards his own belly.

dey iz sharp clawz, he had time to assess. He figured they would have to be to be able to maintain that strong pincer grip on the stone ceiling even while sleeping.

What he really noted though, was how awesome it was to be able to go first. Runts didn't usually get to go first. He took a moment to revel in it. Some part of him knew that no matter how long he dawdled here, the bat just couldn't strike him.

in-isha-tiv iz da best fing eva!

Satisfied with his discovery, he drew back his heavy pigiron claws, gave them a little wiggle, then reached up and over the talons, and with a powerful

STCHAK!

Hit the beast square in it's snarly little face. It died instantly, dropping to the floor with a heavy

THUNK.

He turned and grinned at Kylie with a satisfied grunt. She shook her head, hands on hips. "You, Troll, are going to test me every step of the way!"

She turned away while he rummaged around in the bats guts.

POP!

Loot: 2xsilver 1xpartially digested rock

He obviously found coins because she heard a little,

Chink! Chink!

"me lik gold treza mor den siva treza" he said to Kylie as he examined the spoils of his bat bashing. He'd picked up two silver coins instead of the one gold the rat had offered up. He threw a gross piece of rock on the ground.

"I can store your treasure in your inventory if you like" she told him, and before he could ask what an inventory was, she pointed at the coins and with a

Crackle! Ting!

They disappeared into the cloud of magic shapes.

"nope, giv treza bak NOW' Gob said, not at all approving of making shiny things disappear.

"Oh Ok, ok grumpy… that loothoarder trait really makes you possessive doesn't it?" she replied, zapping them back into his hand again.

Gob had decided he liked the feel of coins in his pants, which is where he had been keeping them, much more than he liked the idea of zapping them into thin air.

"So, well done on the bat… seemed a little one sided, but you did what I suggested and you made it count. Good. Actually it was a weird moment just before you hit it. Like everything slowed right down… were you actually taunting it?"

"i try how long in-isha-tiv tak… it tak long!" he said.

"Testing is good!" she complimented "now a bit further along is a bigger cave with more bats… let's take it easy with the multiple—"

Gob had already turned and run up the passage.