Ravboom looks around the town, and scratches his head. "No look like gobbie town Ravboom ever see. Look like Gobbie try have human town. Never see gobbie's using signs with words before." He points to the 'shop' sign, and the 'sheriff office' sign. "That not normal for gobbie, gobbie no read, steal words from mind if read." His tone of voice makes it apparent to Pelo and Relas at least that he obviously thinks this is stupid. "Gobbie buildings no normally have sign at all. No want visitors. Visitors need sign, gobbies don't, gobbies know what buildings are." He shakes his head. "Very strange... very very strange..."
Surveying the scene in front of them, it seems for a while that the village is nothing more than an abandoned disaster - home to corpses and carrion. Yet the strange group of adventurers soon realise that they are not alone...
...far from it - there is definitely the sound of movement coming from the "Shop" and, just for the briefest of moments, the door to the drinking place opened and a goblin peered out...
"I don't think we can do anything for them now Palo. Let's look around, it looks like the big guy there wants to go check out that shop."
As he turns towards the building in question, he catches a bit of movement at the shop's door and a quick flash of someone peeking out at them. "Hey, did you guys see that? Another goblin!" he hisses. Clearing his throat slightly, he calls out, "Hallooo in there! We uh...we come in peace! We mean you no harm!"
He quickly looks back at the others. "That's right, isn't it? We're just here to find out about this star and then leave; no beating up on the locals unless they're like the crazy ones from earlier?"
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Solie skips along, not paying much mind to the state of the village. Sure, it was kind of eerie and creepy, but hey, half the goblins she had ever met were a little off their own rockers.
"What you looking at, Biggun?" she asked, coming to a stop beside him.
"HEY! HEY YOU!" Solie shouts as a goblin pokes his nose out of the shop. "Biggun! You see that? Go get him! Carry him out! He can show us to the star!"
In general, she ignores Palo's inquiries into her plans with the Sun. Such information was for believers only! As far as Solie had noticed so far, Palo had not lit a single fire so far. A bad sign, to be certain!
Walking past the gruesome scene of the goblins hanging from the tree, their feet swinging no more than a few inches from the floor and their skin blackened in death, the group approach the large building where the goblin stuck its head out of the door… For a moment, as Solie and Relas call out, there is no response – and then, ”What do you want? Who are you? And why you walking with Longshanks? Have you gone strange in the head too?”
Ravboom calls out. "No be strange in head. Well, Ravboom no be strange in head. Rest of group be strange in head, but not strange like those that be attacking everyone. Can prove it, Ravboom still good talk talk." The goblin says, making a thud noise as he rams his thumb into his chest, to emphasize he's talking about himself. "What happen to village? Why have word word signs on buildings? Why other gobbies go bug nuts?"
"Word words there from before... When Longshanks place... Big Chief Oddle like them so they stay - say it make us best tribe to be not scared of thoughts being stolen from head", the door opens slightly, "You'd better come in before they see you..."
Ravboom shrugs. "Many of us, few of him. Be careful, should be good good." Ravboom replies...
"Wai-er," Relas begins as Biggun waltzes into the goblin drinking establishment. He gives Palo and Ravboom a look as he makes a movement that must be the eidolon's equivalent of a shrug. "I guess we're going in!"
He turns and follows Biggun into the building.
Biggun's arrival into the Drinking Place virtually knocks the small female goblin behind the door backwards, "Wait... What!!! You aren't crazies are you? You said you normal... Please, please, please... get in and lock door before you seen"
Regaining her breath as she locks the door once everyone is in, "Yes... You normal... Not crazy... I am Nessa Nessa, Who You?". The goblin, burn scars across her left cheek and only one good eye, looks the group up and down...
"Sane Ravboom!" Ravboom thumps his chest. "Mostly Sane Reles." He thumps Reles on the shoulder. "Nutty Palo." He points to Palo. "Really nutty Biggun." He points to Biggun. Then he points to Sollie. "Totally nutjob runs from squirrels so they don't put her in tree Sollie."
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Solie scowls and shakes her fist at Ravboom after following Biggun into the building. "You crazy. Hanging around giant cat and human. Who hangs out around humans? Crazy Ravboom!"
She scowls one last time then turns back to the goblin girl. "I'm Solie. Not nuts. Why you hiding? Why everyone gone cuckoo here anyways?"
"Probably they hear Sollie coming, decide to compete and be crazier than her." He gives Sollie a long look. "They fail..."
Ravboom bites Biggun's hand as he tries to bonk him on the head. "Miphs Opph!" He says around flesh.
"Hello Hello then to all of you... Why goblins walking with Longshanks and big toothy cat thing? Not seem like clever thing to do", Nessa Nessa peers out of the window, "Seem like you not been seen... That good... Shamans of Zarongel gone real black-eye crazy... Kill you for not any good reason... Not even for fun!!! Nessa Nessa hide some of tribe here when smashing and mashing got too bad - only me and two other Gobboes left here now. One has been sleeping for two weeks already - not know his name... Other one, his name Vorthad, locked in room upstairs and might be turning all wrong-headed"
"Where Shamans of Zarongel? Maybe we go kill Shamans, then nobody need lock up in room? Why Shamans go wronghead?"
"Zarongel crazies in that building over there", through the boarded windows, Nessa Nessa points to the large building daubed in stick figures, "Is not just them go crazy though!!! They just worstest... Is them who hanging gobboes from village tree - is not right to be doing that!!! They say was offering to new god from the stars... Not proper goblin god - they not even set offering on fire!!!"
"You go make sure Vorthad not gone wrong headed before you go, yes?"
Ravboom nods. "Sure. Relas, you sniff through door, see if gobbies smell crazy or sick. Sleep for week seem like be bad sick, maybe dying."
"Sniff? Do I look like a dog?" Relas grumbles. "I'll do my best to be quiet though and see if I hear anything strange." After getting direction as to which way to proceed, Relas begins to creep up the stairs and towards the door in question, attempting to listen for sounds of anything unusual.
Silemtly padding up the stairs, Relas arrives at the third door on the right - the one that Nessa Nessa said Vorthad would be in. The sound of someone pacing and muttering to themselves can be heard quite clearly although, as far as Relas can tell, the low voice is reciting pure gibberish to itself...
"AAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!"
The muttering stops and, accompanied by guttural screaming, someone runs full speed against the door which, whilst holding up well against the impact, does shake in it's frame somewhat...
....a couple of doors down the corridor, a goblin is waking with the most almighty hangover... the sound of screaming reverberating around in it's skull...
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"NOT SET THEM ON FIRE?!" Solie roared, the offense she was taking over the concept written clearly as disgust all over her face. "THAT NOT PROPER! BLASPHEM--- Wait, did you say god from stars? I bet he know how to reach the Sun..."
Solie ponders a moment as the others start their way up the stairs.
"We will see shamans. Probably kill them if they don't say how to talk to star god. Biggun, we so close I can taste the fire!" she exclaims before turning to follow them up.
"Ungh. Who jabberin'? Shuddup..." Groans a goblin in a small pile of ratty old bed sheets and curtains that looks to have been made into a nest. He blinks bleary red eyes open and lifts a hand to reluctantly push his skull cap back atop his head so he can peer out the eye sockets. Which is a mistake as light filters in through one window. Stifling a snarl of pain, he squeezes his eyes tightly shut and pushes himself up to his feet, stumbling blindly for the door.
Despite one arm stretched out in front of him in an effort not to run into anything, he does just that. Face-first, straight into the door, and he falls flat onto his rump with a yelp of pain as the door creaks open before him. He draws both hands up to rub at his forehead through the skull that acts as a helmet for him and opens his eyes again to scowl. Only to stare straight at Solie, Biggun, and a very large cat, his eyes as wide as goblin-sized dinner plates.
"...wut," is as much brainpower as he can muster initially, not quite able to connect two aching brain cells together for long enough to understand what is going on. After another long moment of processing things, he finishes his sentence belatedly. "Is you doin' here? Who is you? Where Nessa Nessa?"
Ravboom backs up, holding his sling ready. Seeing the new gobbie, he shrugs. "Me be Ravboom, me be sane." He nods at biggun. "That be biggun, be crazy as big. That be Sollie, be gnome, be crazier than everyone in village combined. That be Relas, be mostly sane. That Palo, be hooman, be nutty, but better than most." The door splinters as it's hit again. "That be Vorthad, he be completely bonkers now, probably want to eat you now. Nessa Nessa be down stairs, hoping Vathad no eat her."
Relas flinches as Biggun comes stomping up behind him, then jumps away from the door as someone, probably Vorthad, screams and charges into it from the other side. "Har har. I'm not afraid of a lone goblin, but sometimes it makes things easier if you can be sneaky and get the drop on someone!" As the rest of the group comes tromping up behind him, he sighs. "Well, he's in there alright and it sounds like he's as crazy as the rest of them."
When one of the other doors opens and a very grumpy-looking goblin peers out, he simply nods as Ravboom explains the situation pretty well. "Sounds about right. Nessa Nessa said there was someone else sleeping up here, so I guess that's you. What's your name?"
The door creaks once more as it is smashed into again... The sound of splintering wood suggests that the door frame won't survive much longer...
A voice shouts up the stairs, Nessa Nessa asking, "What happening? Vorthad gone bad crazy?"
...and, before anyone can properly answer Nessa Nessa's concerned question, a final kick against the door smashes it from its hinges and bursting out into the corridor. Sweating and eyes an inky black, the goblin standing in the room grins maniacally at everyone in the corridor whilst pulling a rusty dogslicer from its belt...
Ravboom, who had held back with his sling ready, flings a stone at the insane dwarf, not wasting his rage on one enemy who's surrounded.
Ravboom’s flung stone strikes the head of the insane-looking goblin – the wound sustained is minor but it does, at least, distract the lunatic long enough for Biggun to dodge out of the way of its wildly slashing dogslicer.
Biggun smashes into the crazed goblin… and, incredibly given the size of Biggun, merely bounces off of the muscled lunatic. Worse still, the goblin slashes at Biggun with his dogslicer as the oversized fighter’s guard is dropped…
As Vorthad is occupied with Biggun and the others, Relas waits for an opening and then bolts foward, attempting to duck and dodge around the goblin's flailing dogslicer and into the room behind him. "Try and surround him!"
"Dum Dum Relas! No like that... Biggun, throw Relas behind black eye gobbie!" Ravboom says, shaking his head as the feline slams his head into the door frame.
As Relas, unsuccessfully, tries to get past the goblin, he feels a rusty blade cutting across his flank...
Globlob lets out a yelp of surprise when the door is very suddenly kicked down and he promptly makes an important decision. He elects to throw his lot in with the group that is on his side of the door, rather than the apparently crazed Vorthad. After all, there is only one Vorthad and there are many of these people.
So, he does what comes naturally to him in times of stress and great consternation as friends turn against one another. He begins to sing a horrible, rude song that belittles all but his new allies.
"We be big and you be dumb!
I crush you under my thumb!
We da best and you learn!
We gonna laugh and watch you BURN!"
Strangely, or perhaps not so strangely for the green skinned, height challenged members of the party, his new allies may feel better while he sings. Stronger, more accurate, more powerful.
Ravboom whirrs his sling, and sends another stone at the crazy gobbie!
Another of Ravboom's pellets thuds into the skull of Vorthad... Once more distracting him at the moment of slicing at Biggun.