The rest of the day went by quickly, and we made good progress along the road. The idea that the dragon could return in a less merciful mood made it much easier for everyone to put one foot in front of the other more quickly. We were in the same marching order, with Patience driving the cart while sitting next to Tristus, Zevrack in the cart itself, millicent to the left of it, Nica scouting ahead, and Tib and I on the left and right toward the back. We got through the day without incident, made camp, and slept.

The next day after we’d only been traveling for about an hour, Nica appeared out of the forest, causing Millicent to jump, and the Mule to momentarily startle. “Goblins ahead.”

“Numbers?” asked Tib.

“Eleven.”

We all nodded, and began drawing our weapons.

Tristus gave a slight cough for attention and then spoke. “Are goblins a great threat to you?”

Patience shook her head. “No, and what little threat they are is solved easily.” She grinned and twisted a dagger around in her hand.

“Well. We just got that system change. Wouldn’t this be a good chance to try earning yourselves double XP?”

We all looked at one another. I decided I’d follow their lead, whatever it was. I hadn’t encountered goblins myself yet, so I didn’t know if a non-violent solution was possible.

Tib spoke first. “Would sneaking by them count as non-violent?”

Patience shook her head. “Probably, but I don’t think that’s happening with the cart.”

“You could try…talking to them,” suggested Tristus with a wry smile. “They’re not terribly bright right? It shouldn’t be that hard to convince them to let us through without violence.”

Millicent bit her lip a little. “Their blood is an ingredient for one of my spells, but I suppose we can try.”

Tib nodded and looked at Zevrack and me. We both shrugged.

“Alright…we’ll give talking a try.”

“I’ll hide out of sight in case things go as I predict they will,” said Nica, jumping back into the trees and moving to find a good position.

“So…who should talk?” asked Millicent. “Tristus?”

He shook his head. “No, I’d prefer to stay out of it. You’re all protecting me if you recall.”

“Good point. Zevrack, stay back here with Tristus,” I said.

He nodded and skittered out of his cart nest to stand next to him.

“Well, if not Tristus, who?” I asked.

“Cor,” said Zevrack, Millicent, and Patience all in unison.

I raised my eyebrows. “Me? Really?”

Tib shrugged and looked at me. “Yes. I’d say you’re the best at talking to new people. At least of the three of us.”

I nodded. I had gotten a lot of experience in that department recently, but I hadn’t realized other people thought of me in that way. Guess I’d stumbled into being the party face. I’d had the role in a few D&D campaigns, let’s see if I could handle it for real.

“In that case, let’s go.” I sheathed my weapons, though I kept my right hand on my sword hilt and my spells ready. Patience sheathed her’s as well, but it took her less than a second to draw them to begin with, Millicent contorted her right hand in preparation for a spell, and Tib sheathed his sword, but kept his massive shield ready.

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I led the party down the road, and quickly saw the trail the goblin’s had left. There were a number of small bones, some blood, a few teeth, and inexplicably, a single green foot. At the end of this trail I could hear cajoling in a sharp barking language, and cruel laughter. I approached the sound slowly and deliberately, making myself as visible as possible.

A small green face peered out at me and I gave it a little wave. Its eyes widened and it darted back.

“Humies! Humies coming!”

I heard some scrambling and movement, and gestured at everyone else to stay where they were.

Almost a dozen small green form appeared before us. They were wielding human sized daggers, kitchen knives tied to sticks, and in one case a sharpened ladle.

“Wait. We don’t want any trouble.” I said as they started to move closer to us.

They all looked confused, and the second largest one stepped forward. “That’s right you don’t want Truble. I’m the strongest. I haz the most teef and best cutta,” he held up the human dagger he had, which was more of a sword to him.

“Your uh, name is trouble?”

“Thas right. Truble.”

“Ah. Well, Mr. Truble. We were just passing through. Any chance you can just let us by?”

He scratched his head with the tip of his dagger. “Huh?”

One of the other ones next to him stepped forward. “I think they mean they pass by and we don’t do any stabbin.”

Truble shook his head. “Dat can’t be right. We needs to stab. How else are we gonna eat?”

I looked back at Tib while the goblins continued their highbrow conversation. “They eat people?”

He nodded.

“Oh…why are we trying to settle this peacefully then?”

“For the XP?”

“But, if we let them go they might kill and eat someone.”

Tib frowned. “That’s a good point.” He sighed. “This is what I get for listening to a suggestion from Tristus.”

I raised my left hand and cast a full dose of grease in the middle of them.

“What du?” said trouble as he was coated.

I threw a tenth of a fireball at him. He yelled as he was immolated, and the fire quickly spread as he screamed and waved his arms around.

With the middle four burning, the other goblins scattered. Two of them were felled by arrows just before they could reach the treeline. Patience threw a dagger to kill another. Tib ran and crushed three more beneath his shield, and the last of them was skewered by Millicent activating her rock spike spell.

It was over quickly, and just skewered corpses, green blood, and the awful smell of burning flesh remained of the goblins when we were done. I looked at the rest of the group. “I think we made a good effort.”

Patience laughed. “Well, I think our way was much faster anyway. We may have netted double XP if we’d sat and talked to them for an hour, but we could kill a hundred goblins in that amount of time.”

Tib nodded, his face serious. “Yes. This is honestly more economical. Besides, we shouldn’t have considered sparing such vile creatures to begin with.”

Millicent was already at the nearest goblin with a vial collecting some of their green blood, a small smile on her face. “It’s always just a bit more effective fresh,” she said glancing back at us.

I looked at the rest of the party. “Are we much better than they were?”

Tib frowned. “Well. We aren’t eating them.”

I nodded. “Sure. That’s enough of a distinction for me to sleep at night. Let’s go get Zev and Tristus.”

We headed back to find Zevrack curled up in Tristus’ lap as he scratched along the scales on his back.

Tib frowned at him.

Tristus rolled his eyes. “I’m just scratching his back.”

“That’s what you said about the Orc bartender at Primus’ wedding. The cake was ruined.”

Tristus smiled wistfully. “Bardook was the loveliest shade of green. So, how did the negotiations go?”

Zevrack stretched and stood up. “Badly. I smell burning goblin.”

I shrugged. “I didn’t think it was worth negotiating with things that eat people?”

“Goblins eat people?” asked Tristus with a surprised look on his face. “I thought they just fixed shoes?”

Millicent laughed. “That’s brownies. They’re blood is a useful reagent too, but harder to justify bleeding sweet critters that fix shoes.”

Tristus frowned. “Their blood?”

“Don’t worry about it.” said Tib. “In the future how about I keep my suggestions regarding your job to myself, and you keep yours regarding mine to yourself. Your PER stat is so high, it can make you seem a lot more knowledgeable than you are.”

Tristus leaned back sighing dejectedly. “It’s true. My charm has led to the destruction of many. It’s a burden I must bear.”

Tib grunted at him.

Tristus rolled his eyes. “Yes coz, I agree. I’ll trust you to do your job. Hell, I don’t even know goblins from brownies.”

Tib nodded and with that we got back in formation and started back up the road. Tristus grimaced a bit at the grisly scene when we passed the bodies of the goblins, but held his tongue. I wondered why Tib and Tristus seemed so close despite the fact that they were so different. There was definitely some history between them, but I wasn’t about to bring it up.

We traveled the next several days without any trouble. Chatting, eating, and all wishing we could bathe. Luckily for us, Tristus informed us that the city was full of baths, and it was about to come into sight.