Things progressed a lot faster than I would have guessed. I stepped -ducked and scooted- to get outside Seth’s shed and found the crowd had grown from about a hundred people to maybe four times that. Seth was arguing with an older guy. He was short and had a spark plug build and a face that reminded me of a bulldog. His hands were covered in scars too.

When this guy spoke his voice had that rough rasp people that drink a lot of hard liquor get. “... Listen here, you Technacoast reject! You do NOT get to mess with MY students. I am not afraid to…”

He stopped talking as Sunit, Angelica, Brunhilda, Brand, an older woman with iron-gray hair arrived at the scene. Zarina was the name over the new lady’s head.

Sunit pointedly ignored that conflict and spoke to me, “Hello Doug, how are you this morning?”

I kept an eye on Seth and …Travis Madigan -if the name tag was to be trusted- as I spoke to Sunit. “Good to see you Sunit, I am doing quite well. How are you?”

Sunit smiled and answered loud enough for the crowd to hear, “I am doing wonderful, Goddess Lola has revealed new Followers will be arriving in less than two days.”

“Doug!” Janie called, “What Cain are you raisin’ now?” She looked less than happy. The crowd parted to let her through. She seems to almost glide toward me. She stopped a half step away from me and scowled up at me, “Care to explain how people vanished out of my home in the night?”

Oh right, that probably would be upsetting from an outside perspective. You agree to babysit someone and then find the kid goes missing in the night, in a world with wandering monsters. Oops.

“Something came up, I needed Spine and Brand… for Titan stuff,” I said, not quite believing the claim myself.

One of her eyebrows lifted contemptuously, “And you couldn’t knock, or talk to anyone like a normal person because…?”

“It was a busy night, there was an Epic scale boss, and a time stop, and I forget the middle bit but things were complicated,” I explained. Seeing this did nothing to soothe Janie’s ire, I added, “I’m sorry.”

Janie clearly had not expected an apology. She hesitated before responding, “... well I guess no harm done, to me at least.” She leaned in conspiratorially, “Carla has one fierce bee in her bonnet over the events of last night. Lily is… addressing the situation, but she is just one woman. Anyway, I am here for the council business, and the book.”

“Book?” I asked, momentarily forgetting Spine’s Goblin-to-English dictionary.

“Little ol’ Spine’s codex, Doug,” Janie explained, stepping back, “With that I could be the first to discover how to understand the Goblin Language.”

“Don’t the goblins already speak it?” I asked.

“That’s a detail,” Janie dismissed, “I would be the first elf. Which is a big deal, I tell ya." Distracted from her gripes with me, another thought occurred to Janie, “Where’d Nameth Brand get off to?” She spotted him almost as soon as she finished talking. She moved both like silk on the wind and a viper striking its prey. She was quickly standing next to him with her arm interlocked in his.

Brand looked surprised but was also feigning delight. That… should be alright for now.

I turned back to the others. Angelica was struggling not to laugh. She looked close to losing the battle. Zarina was walking a similar path. Sunit seemed to have no opinions one way or the other. Madigan looked pissed. Brunhilda was clearly surveying the immediate area and unimpressed with the defensive state.

“If you’re done, wasting everyone’s time, we have shit to do,” Madigan said to me.

“Don’t mind him, most of us live for the drama,” Zarina said loudly. After a moment she continued, “Did my students hold their own against you?”

“I was impressed,” I started.

“That’s because you have a shit teacher,” Madigan scoffed.

I didn’t really know Seth that well, or even at all really, but Madigan had chosen to be an ass at every opportunity. “I mean, he has taught me three stages of a Cosmic martial art in less than 48 hours. How many Cosmic martials do you know?”

This caused the response I figured it would. Most of the crowd gasped. Some jeered. Seth looked more than a little embarrassed, he clearly didn’t like being the center of attention. Sunit looked surprised and impressed. Janie, Angelica, and Brunhilda all had a look that said ‘damn!’ Zarina was grinning in schadenfreude-induced joy at Madigan’s expense. Madigan was turning so red he purpled.

“Bet you think you are funny!” he challenged.

That seemed like a dumb accusation. Why not accuse me of having normal self esteem? “Are martial arts a joke to you?”

He did not have a pithy comeback to that. So instead he tried to pivot the conversation, “You were disrespectful to my student.”

“You mean Howard?”

“Yes, picking on a kid makes you feel like a big man?” Madigan demanded.

I almost believed he was sincere. Almost. “You don’t care about the kid. If you did, you would have lead with that. Instead you focused on spouting catty barbs at my teacher.”

“I challenge you to a duel,” Madigan growled.

“No you don’t,” Sunit stepped in. Seeing Madigan was about to argue he pressed on. “Doug is the guest of Goddess Lola. He is under her protection. To challenge him is to challenge her.”

A vein bulged in Madigan’s forehead . “Alright, let’s get this done.”

I turned to Sunit, “What are we doing?”

“Addressing the next few days,” Sunit explained clearly not wanting to announce an oncoming day of wrath to the massive crowd… at least not yet. I mean they were probably going to figure it out. There would be signs. Sunit smiled at Seth, “Could we intrude upon your hospitality?”

Seth looked cornered, “Sure.”

One duck and shuffle later and Janie, Zarina, Angelica, Brunhilda,, Brand Seth, Sunit, Travis, and I were back in Seth shed. Spine was sitting on Seth's bed, touching his stuff. After a brief discussion about not messing with other people’s stuff, and talking Seth down from beating the shit out of Spine, I found the others looking unimpressed.

“What?” I asked.

“This place kinda sucks,” Janie explained. “Seth, do you… need help?”

“I’m fine,” Seth said, slipping out of my grip.

Everyone looked more than a little dubious. Sunit spoke, “Are there any chairs?”

Seth paused before saying, “No.”

I pulled out my tools. I quickly constructed a floor. The gravel basically compressed itself into flat stone as stepped around Seth intending to do something to make the Craft skill go. That was awesome.

A quick Destruction roll later, and large shapes were instantly carved into the stone. Divine tools are game breaking. One Craft check and we had a big stone circular table and ten stone chairs.

“Seriously, what are we doing here?” I asked, sitting in one of the chairs.

Sunit sat across from me, “We are discussing what we need to do to prepare for the oncoming mob rush.”

Spine sat in the chair on my left. Seth sat down on his left. “Boss rush?”

Madigan- no. his isn’t cool enough for that name - Travis scoffed as he sat next to Sunit, “Of course you don’t know.”

“You found out ten minutes ago,” Zarina pointed out sitting on the other side of Sunit.

Angelica sat one my right. Brand sat next to her and Janie between him and Madigan. Brunhilda Sat between Seth and Zarina. Yep, that seemed peudo-stable.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“I am still playing catch up. Why is there going to be a mob rush?” Janie asked. She tried to scoot her chair closer to Brand. It was too heavy.”

“Doug is perpetually Gore Soaked. He has been that way for four days, and it is going to progress into the Blood for the Blood God Condition soon.” Angelica explained.

Seth swallowed before talking, “Oh.”

“This is part of Goddess Lola’s plans,” Sunit said. He pulled a folded sheet of paper out of his jacket. “She expects us to battle the mobs and grow powerful from the conflict. She will protect all who fight.”

“Let me see that,” Travis said. He unfolded it and read it. He set the note down, not satisfied, “Is she really only going to keep the Warrior’s Suraksha working?”

“She will be expanding it to every person within the city's limits,” Sunit explained. He kept his tone polite, but clearly didn’t like the way Madigan was talking.

“She expects a handful more than 4,600 people to stop a mob rush?” Madigan demanded.

“Yes,” Sunit said. He turned to me, “What is the timeline?”

“Just over three days,” I replied, checking the timer to make sure no shenanigans had occurred yet.

“That’s not a lot of time,” Janie acknowledged. She thought for a moment, “We have been running low on supplies, but my crew can provide weapons and ammo to cover about seven hundred people.”

“The group Goddess Lola sent was four hundred strong, and well supplied. They should arrive roughly a day before the mobs will.” Sunit explained.

Janie considered that. “I will see what we can do before things get… messy.”

“Thank you,” Sunit said with a nod. “The real concern will be keeping the greenhouses safe.”

“Greenhouses?” Spine and I asked in unison.

“We have two greenhouses south of the Mandir. Roughly eighty percent of the community's food.” Sunit explained before anticipating my next question, “The rest is meat from mobs.”

“Oh, so we do eat mobs,” I muttered to myself.

Sunit and Madigan looked at me, both deeply confused. It was a ‘does he not know how food works?’ gaze. I had seen it before. I accepted I would see it again.

Luckily Brand saved me, “Doug hasn’t had access to kitchens being in the Dungeon most of his life.” He stage-whispered to Janie.

Janie lit up, “Oh, then I am gonna have to invite you to the potluck! I make the best Bigfoot Gumbo. It tastes just like alligator. I haven’t gotten to make any hearty dishes for a while. It’s always just light snacks and bite-sized hand food. Grab and go stuff.” That pulled focus from me.

“Why not just grow mushrooms?” Spine asked.

This also brought the group to a halt, Sunit spoke first, “It is too cold.”

Spine sighed, “You build a hut, you keep it warm and dark. You let the snow roll over it. The heat from the hut will melt some of the snow providing moisture. You then let nature take its course.”

Janie considered that “It has potential. It would take some fiddling, but Diji and Georgina should be able to figure that out, with a base stock of seed- is it spore?” she asked Spine.

The Goblin shrugged, “I don’t know. Grout, Grime, and Beth were the main mushroom farmers. The rest of us were just helping with construction and harvest.”

“Well that’s that then,” Madigan said. He turned to Sunit, “I’ll have three hundred of my best students guard the green houses.”

“What if those three farmers could show you how to grow mushrooms?” I asked. Dipping everyone's toes into the idea of thousands of goblins showing up. You know to see how they react, and hopefully prevent any potential war crimes.

“It’s not like they are going to be here in the next three days,” Madigan dismissed.

I checked with Spine.

“Grime won’t be, but Grout and Beth will.” he confirmed. The matter of fact tone he had about confirming the death of someone… words fail, but it was dark.

“What does that mean?” Madigan demanded.

Oh good everyone was looking at me. “So, Spine’s family is heading here to ride out the mob rush.”

“You want to invite a bunch of mobs in ahead of the mob rush?” Madigan asked. He stared at me like I was stupid.

“They are not mobs,” I said before Spine could say something incendiary.

“We have more than 280 years of history saying they are mobs,” Madigan insisted. He leaned forward slightly. I guess that could have intimidated most people. Given he was more than eight feet away and just not that intimidating, I was unmoved.

“Then you have almost three centuries of incorrect information,” I explained.

“I think Doug has a point,” Janie said.

“And I know he is wrong,” Madigan said over her.

They glared at each other for a long moment.

Sunit spoke up before either could snipe at the other further, “How many goblins are we talking about?”

“Five thousand…ish” I said. Struggling not to flinch.

Angelica facepalmed.

Silence sort of hung in the air. It is strange how loud that is.

Janie broke the silence, by speaking in a force calm and even voice. “Now, Doug, I am going to say something loudly. I want you to understand, this is because I am a passionate person with deep feelings, and not because I am yelling at you. Do you understand?”

“Yeah-” I started.

Before I actually finished speaking, Janie had whisked herself to my side. She grabbed the front of my shirt and shook me as she screamed. “Five thousand!? That is too many! Put some back! That is gonna break the town!”

I am glad she clarified that she was not yelling at me. Without that I would have made assumptions.

Eventually Angelica put a stop to Janie shaking me. “How does people visiting the town cause a problem?”

“They are mobs,” Travis interjected

Sunit spoke over him to prevent any of us from arguing back, “This is a holy site. To keep the town and the Warrior’s Suraksha active, Goddess Lola must spend a significant portion of her power. The cost will only increase if the being in question is not a follower. Having the population of the town double with goblins who are not followers of Goddess Lola would likely result in all of us losing the boon of her protection.”

“We will have to kill ‘em,” Travis said, blatantly ignoring Spine staring right at him.

Brunhilda spoke up, “I don’t really consider myself a violent person, but if you try that I will kill you.” She watched Madigan. Her posture was loose, not relaxed, ready.

“We need to work together,” Angelica said, more to Brunhilda than Madigan. I am pretty sure because Angelica understood that Madigan was the sort to not be reasoned with.

“There has to be a way to protect those people.” I said. The memories of the burnt out goblin village flashed in my head. Small broken bodies. Bones that looked like children. Not again.

“They would need to all follow the Goddess Lola,” Sunit said.

“Is that a big deal?” I asked.

Janie shrugged, “It hasn’t been for me.”

Sunit and Madigan did exchange a look. The cost must have been higher for them.

“Goddess Lola mostly asks her followers to grow strong, and when needed fight for her interests. This oncoming mob rush would be an example of her requirements.” Sunit explained. He was very careful with his tone. He was clearly trying to impress that Lola’s followers had responsibilities without making it sound like people shouldn’t take the offer.

I glanced to Angelica and she said, “Lola didn’t become one of the big six gods by being unreasonable.”

That was comforting sorta, but that did imply that Adora became one of the big six despite being unreasonable or perhaps because of it. I don’t like Adora. Honestly, I was kind of on the fence with Lola.

“Doesn’t matter. They are mobs and I am not letting them in.” Travis said. He pounded the table for emphasis, or maybe it had wronged him.

“I am tired of debating observable reality with you,” I said. I dropped my half-assed attempts at politeness.

Before I could turn my attention to Sunit to talk like adults, Travis scoffed, “Too bad, because without my vote your green pets are going to stay in the cold.”

Brunhilda and I locked eyes for a second. She had my back should this get violent. Brand was clearly less eager. That said, he did lightly place a hand on Janie’s and distracted her, creating a window of opportunity. Angelica was obviously not on board with kicking the shit out of Madigan. Her eyes slowly hardened to a stern glare and she gave me an almost imperceptible shake of her head.

… who am I kidding. That wouldn’t have stopped at a beatdown. It would have been life and death. He was currently unkillable, so someone would step in. Hadn’t I just committed to not letting violence become the easy answer? This wasn’t even the easy answer.

I took a breath before speaking, “What will it take to get you to see the truth?”

“Like you said to my pupil, ‘Mobs can’t duel’. You have your pet fight my best student. I’ll consider my stance based on the result,” Madigan sneered.

“Let’s have two kids kill each other to stroke your ego. That’s fucking stupid,” I declared. “Sunit, why do we have to listen to this?”

Sunit eyed Madigan for a long moment, “Because, Mr. Madigan is one of the three members of the council overseeing this town on behalf of the Goddess Lola.”

A quick glance to Seth told me he wasn’t on the council.

Zarina raised her hand, “Janie and I are the other two.”

I softened my tone, “Oh, that is easy. Could you two outvote him so we can get back to planning for the mob rush?”

Travis was turning red again, but Janie answered, “No sorry, Doug. Lola mandated that the Council need to rule unanimously.”

“And you’re getting close to losing my vote forever,” Travis growled. “Your goblin fights my student.”

“Doug, let me fight him,” Spine said. He was saying it the right way to. He wasn’t angry, eager, or scared. He said it the way someone prepared to do an unpleasant task would. He didn’t want to do it but was prepared to try.

Sunit stepped in again, “If we are going to do this. It will be done right. First, you will agree to give your vote to Doug’s will should Spine win. A promise witnessed by the Hero of the Mandir.”

Madigan paused for a long moment. “Fine,” he snapped, still glaring at me.

“Good, the duel will be tomorrow evening at sunset.” Sunit declared, before amending smoothly “Should Doug agree.”

Everyone turned to me again. I hate when they do that.

I looked to Spine. “You don’t have to do this.”

Spine eyed me dubiously, “What’s the other play? You and the murder-factory battle it out, wreck the place until Lola shrugs and turns off the protections right before the mobs come.”

“You have a choice,” I said, echoing Angelica. “Even if it doesn’t feel that way.”

“Would you accept the fight to protect your family?” Spine asked.

I nodded and turned to Madigan, “Fine. Duel accepted.”