"No, only chief and his best friends would know."
Will you take us to the chief so we can talk to him?
"Chief not talk to longshanks, ever. Chief not even talk to most goblinses of tribe. Chief only talk to goblinses almost as important and chiefses self. Can take you to someone who can speak for chief, though." He then turns and starts to walk into the village.
Brennus shifts from side to side on Bethella's shoulder, agitated. Oh, yes. Walk right into the goblin camp. That was *exactly* what they wanted to do.
Ollie whispers to Busara, "There are two who can speak for the chief. If he takes us to Gibgub the whelp-wrangler, the pretty talky one may be able to do what she wishes. If he takes us to Dindob the priest, be ready to fight. Dindob one in tribe who most likes hurty-hurt everyone."
"Thank you, Ollie, that is very helpful to know. I don't want to assume the worst, but we should be prepared."
Busara rests a hand on Smaxx's back, murmuring a few words. A shimmer envelops the digmaul briefly, then subsides. His skin takes a metallic sheen as she reinforces her companion's protections against attacks.
Smaxx's mouth curls into a grin at receiving his buffs,
" I always did love that voodoo that you do so well!"
Ollie looks concerned when he sees Smaxx's grin. Perhaps he's afraid of being eaten.
Alis follows the goblin.
The goblin takes you further into the camp. He pauses for a moment, like he's trying to decide who to take you to see.
So, did you want some cherry pies just for you, or should I just deliver them to the whole village?
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"Hey Ollie, wanna look really cool? Why don't you climb up on ole Smaxx's back and ride him on into whatever high nose we're goin' to see. Just be ready to hop off if things get rough!"
Brennus watches everything carefully, both wary of attacks and looking for opportunities to make some subtle mischief.
Azeban watches curiously. "Be wary of trusting them." He tells Alis. "They may seem simple but their capacity for chaos and violence is rather... unique."
While Azeban wanted to like Ollie - and wanted to like most living things - he also had only recently reunited with Alis, and did not want to have to spend several years trying to locate her again. He wondered, not for the first time, what lengths he would go to to protect her.
A grin spreading across his face, he turns to look at Alis, "Perhaps you can offer them tattoos while we're here. Their disdain for the written words aside - incomprehensible as it may be - there is a chance that they would appreciate symbols which make them look more... ferocious."
To Azeban:
I will be as careful as possible, but speed is also a factor in finding the child, and is worth some risk. I fear that if we just fought our way in, we would find the child dead. ... And thank you. What a great idea about the tattoos. That may be another thing that I could offer in exchange for the child's life. I should have thought of that. I'm so glad to have you around. Her thoughts radiate love and appreciation.
Ollie tries rather clumsily to climb up onto Smaxx's back.
The goblin leading you stops. [b]"Both of the chief's friends are in their homes. Who you want to see? Gibgub or Dindob?
Brennus is still trying to remain quiet and underestimated, or he would have voiced an opinion. Instead he just shifts again on Bethella's shoulder, still keeping a nervous watch on their surroundings.
"Let's go to Gibgub, if you please."
Busara glances back at her companions and nods fractionally, taking care to not look at Ollie, lest she give away that he'd been providing information.
As their guide starts walking again, she raises an eyebrow at Ollie to confirm that they are going in the right direction. As they walk, she looks around at the goblin camp, trying to discern anything of interest.
Smaxx lowers himself to help Ollie get up. He walks at a slow, even pace so as not to make it hard for him to stay on.
Gibgub nice. Sometimes wonder if she also doesn't worship like rest of tribe. Taught me to try not to hurt. Ollie whispers to Busara and Smaxx.
The goblins leading you takes you to a little hut near the baby cages. The hut seems a bit cleaner than the rest of the village. An older female goblin stands up when she hears you coming. Your guide whispers to her and then leaves. She turns to you. You catch a quick smile when she sees Ollie which she quickly hides. "Yes?" she greets you.
Greetings, Wise Gibgub. We seek the return of the human child. We are willing to offer trade goods (including pie if you like pie), or to attempt to heal the chief, or to talk about other things that we might be able to help the tribe with. We do not seek war with your tribe; we only seek to get the child back safely.
"Great chief already sent boy to fey friends of Dindob. He only listens to Dindob anymore, and Dindob trying to make tribe all about hurty-hurt everyone. Fey friends may already have hurt boy. Dindob about to leave on trip to get another human child. You can stop, so another human child is not taken? Then you go to fey, save child already taken?"
Alis hangs her head. They were apparently too late for diplomacy. She thanks Gibgub, nodding at her advice, and then turns to the rest of the group. I've failed. I tried to get the boy back before he was hurt, but it looks like we are past that. We're going to have to fight anyway. What do you guys suggest?
"Or I take you to chief, maybe you convince chief not to let Dindob go?"
"No, Alis, you haven't failed. We are all here together. We should not abandon hope just yet." To the goblin woman, Busara noods. "Yes, let us go to the chief. It sounds like Dindob has a bad influence on your tribe, or perhaps it is the fey's work through him. We go to the chief and make him stop this, then we track down the fey and see if we can still save the boy. I know that the first impulse for some of us would be to save the boy right now, but if we do not address the cause of all this, then we may come to war between these goblins and the town, and many more lives may be lost."
"If Dibdob is off to abduct another human child, then we might want to, er, permanently deal with this Dibdob," Bethella says.
She pauses, and thinks. "Hmm, I wonder if he has a nickname? Dobby, perhaps?"
Shaking her head. "In any event, if we can get Gibgub the ear of the chief back, it sounds like it might be possible to coexist with this goblin tribe. In any event, we have to find out where the fey are, so that we can rescue the child that's already been taken! And we probably don't have a lot of time."
Brennus, still wanting to keep a low profile, nods slightly in agreement as Bethella speaks. He might not be happy about being in the middle of the goblin camp, but since they were here, going for the chief and then chasing after these fey seemed like the best option. He just hoped there weren't a few dozen goblin warriors about to fill them with arrows when they arrived...
Ollie chuckles as he hears Bethella's musings. "No one dare call Dibdob such a name. He mean even from baby cages."
Gibgub takes you to the chief. There is a smell of something rotting coming from the direction of the chief's body. His leg is elevated. Several goblin women are tending to him, one of them pouring an ointment over his leg. He seems shocked to see you in his hut, and Gibgub moves forward and whispers to him.
"To the victor, goes the spoils...literally."
Alis waits for Gibgub to give the okay before talking to the chief. She also looks over at Busara to see if she wants to try some healing.
Busara nods respectfully at the chief. "Chief, wise Gibgub brought us here so that we may help you. I have skill with healing, if you will allow me to examine you and if you would tell me what ails you."
She shows her open hands, palms up, to demonstrate their peaceful intentions. Having the vague feeling that the chief may need more verbal massaging before agreeing to anything, she casts a pleading glance at Alis.
The chief looks over at Busara appraisingly. "Dibdob's fairy friends have already sent medicine."
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Getting a cue from Busara, Alis tries to sweet talk the chief:
Oh mighty and wise chief, we come before you today to beg for your help in finding a little human boy that is important to us. We are willing to trade with you for things that you need, though we only have humble things like magical healing, mending, or fortune-telling to offer. Or food, perhaps. We have lots of pie.
We seek to restore the young boy and to prevent any violence between the human and the goblin tribes, for which, O Chief, we are even willing to offer you free tattoo pictures for your whole tribe if you desire. All we ask in return is the location of the human boy and humbly ask that there be no further kidnappings.
Alis pulls the top of her shirt down over her shoulder to show one of her tattoos (just a picture... no writing), so the chief can see what kind of pictures he could get as well.
The chief thinks for a moment, and then looks at Busara again, appraisingly. "Dibdob's fairy friends have been sending me this medicine for weeks now. Up until recently, we have been providing them with stolen animals for use to make the medicine. Recently, they have been telling us that they need the blood of humans, since the animal blood medicine is not good enough."
He turns to one of the goblin women who are tending him. "Tell Dibdob to wait to leave until I am done with these visitors." She quickly leaves the hut to do his bidding.
The chief then turns his attention back to you. "All right, your healer has permission to approach me. If you can heal my leg, I will stop the raids on humans, and make Dibdob tell you where to go to recover the human boy, if there is still time."
The pungent odour of rot and decay is quite strong this close to the chief, but Busara is used to working with all sorts of items that many would find disgusting.
The druid slowly unpacks her satchel, pulling out small jars of ointment, clean bandages and strong-smelling potions. She bends to examine the chief's injury, hoping it would be something simple to treat. She had expended her healing magic on Ollie earlier, and she does not think that the chief would be patient enough to wait until she prepares another. But first, she must determine what is wrong.
Busara finds that the chief has an animal bite from something like a dog. Rather than healing, it has become infected. The ointment that has been spread on it looks suspicious.
Not even as close to the chief as Busara is, Smaxx's scent ability seeks to betray him!
"Hmm." Busara busies herself with rearranging the things in her healer's kit, pondering how best to put this to the chief. "The blood of animals... is not good for mixing with our blood. Animals may carry diseases and illnesses, and should those get into your blood, bad things happen to you. Like when the dog bit you, its spit carried bad things that got into your blood and made the wound bad. So, to start with, no more animal blood medicine." She adds hurriedly, before the chief gets any ideas. "And no human blood medicine, either! That would do you no good."
She sets aside a small wooden bowl and pours some water from her skin in it, then adds a green powder that dissolves easily, forming a jade-coloured liquid. "This powder is from the crushed and dried leaves of the plantain. It helps with wounds that have gone bad." To demonstrate that she intended no treachery and that the powder was not poison, she takes a small sip from the bowl, then raises it towards the chief.
"I would like to clean your wound with this, to draw out most of the badness. Then I would like to apply an ointment made of thyme, chamomile, lavender and lemon balm mixed in bear fat, to draw out the rest of the badness and help the wound close."
When Busara starts to clean the wound, it bursts and oozes pus several times, but each time the wound appears better afterwards. It is clearly painful to the chief, but he seems to accept that as part of the cost of getting better. Gibgub steps forward and encourages him, as does Ollie.
By the time the ointment is put on, the wound appears to be only mildly infected.
As she finishes, another goblin strolls into the chief's hut. He appears to be puzzled, but used to everyone taking his orders. He starts to complain that he was not allowed to complete his mission, but then he notices there are strangers present. His glance then lands on the chief's leg, and his eyes almost pop out of his head. He stops and thinks for a moment, and then charges at the chief, a dagger in his hand.
Brennus croaks and waves a wing, and suddenly the dagger is covered in slick grease!
Dibdob keeps his grip on the slippery dagger.
"This is the rough part I warned you about Ollie"
Smaxx attempts an acrobatic roly poly leap to safely lower, Ollie to the floor and pop him off, at the same time making a move at the attacker.
Dibdab drops his dagger in fear as Smaxx pounces at him. Everyone can tell the degree of fear he is feeling from the smell wafting off his pants. He starts alternating between threatening and blubbering, asking to be let go. Most of what he is saying is in goblin. Ollie, Gibgub, and the chief all look at him, shocked by what he is saying. The chief sends one of his wives to get ropes, and very politely asks Smaxx to allow the goblins to tie up Dibdab. It's obvious to Busara that her patient has had enough of a shock and so needs to rest for the night.
After you leave the hut, Gibgub and Ollie sit down with you and explain what Dibdab admitted to. Evidently, about a week before, the chief had been bitten by a dog. Dibdab, pretending to care for the wound as the tribe's cleric, had instead rubbed poison into the wound. Each day he had put more poison or noxious substances on the wound, hoping the chief would die. At the same time, he had been using the chief's suffering and fear to gain more power in the tribe, so that he would be chief soon.
Where is the human child?
Brennus, having revealed himself to some degree, figures he might as well talk now.
He fixes Dibdob with a corvid glare. "And where do the fey come into this tale, hm?" he asks.
"Dibdob had evil fey as allies. They have been providing him with poisons to use. They also have been giving him spies to see who was complaining, which is what happened to Ollie. Dibdob did bring the human child to the fey creatures, and they plan to harm him day after tomorrow. Ollie will take you there tomorrow. For tonight, please rest. See to the chief tomorrow morning, and be around while we deal with Dibdob. Then Ollie will take you and help you rescue the human. Then maybe you come here and we talk about humans and goblins finding ways to get along."
Brennus eyes the goblins suspiciously. He doesn't particularly like the idea of camping with them, but it seems like Alis's approach has actually managed to get them this far without getting them in trouble.
"I'll keep an eye out for mischief," he murmurs to Bethella. "If there are fey around..."
He knows his mistress will get the idea. After all, they themselves are no strangers to magical trickery.