"I know Lugruk is looking for her, and has some longshanks willing to work with him. I do not know anything beyond that."
At the mention of Meep's name, the tied up goblin flinches.
"Dik know nothing. Dik look for brother Bik. Bik go missing. Zuka no like Dik," the goblin says. "Dik harmless. Dik no trouble."
"Uhm, I'm pretty sure these are his girlfriends, Grob."
"More like lovers."
"Two made one!""Many hearts, one will."
"We could teach you all sorts of things."
The looks the four goblin women give Erigga are enough to make a Calistrian blush.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Betzolte's eyes widen in confusion as Krosk reveals himself. She had no idea how a goblin of all things could be handsome, yet somehow Krosk made it work. She props her axe up haft-down, holding the head like a cane as the conversation goes on, grimacing as the apparent goblin polycule describe their relationship to them and giving a sigh.
"You lot may be sleazy, but at least you're honest about it," she comments as she lets Moon take the lead in the hostage exchange. "Frankly, the fact that you're willing to deal forthright and honest with us and you...care for each other...in your own way...it's...some kind of honorable, at least?"
It'd been hard enough for her to avoid casual dwarven prejudices regarding goblins when talking to Meep, one of the least goblin-like goblins she'd ever met, trying to push past them to compliment Krosk and his group felt like prying ore from a vein with your bare hands.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
”As for Lugruk," he spits on the tied up goblin, "let him rot. I owe neither him nor Zuka anything."
Purely on instinct, Moon lowers her blade and signals Erigga to lower her bow a bit. She steps toward Krosk and wipes her blade clean with some snow. ”That’s fine. You’d be making trouble for Lugruk and maybe Zuka if you did let some of their scouts know you are leaving this fight… but that is your decision.”
"Dik know nothing... Dik harmless. Dik no trouble."
She looks to the unhelpful goblin for a long moment before pointing her blade at him. ”If you want to be free, don’t lie to us again. You aren’t clever enough to do it.” Moon turns her attention back to Krosk, ”May I see the map? And what can you tell us about this meeting?”
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Hard pass." She simply says. Oh, but her mind goes wild at the offer. Only one Krosk, but four lovers? He was probably into those dried elven blueberries the old folk was always talking about, otherwise some of the girls would be left drying. Unless they kept each other busy by...
Her hand trembles a bit so she lowers the bow. Thanks the Chaldira that Moon had just asked her to lower it.
"So, Krosk... you seem popular enough. If you do not like Zuka, have you considered taking his place?" She asks, mostly to clear her head, an idea forming as she goes. "Perhaps Zuka's foolishness to follow the coward Lugruk could be revealed to the rest of the tribe. And then perhaps someone else, a known hero, could step up to take his place."
Turning to the girls, she adds. "Unless you four do not fancy being lovers to a chieftain..."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Uhm, I'm pretty sure these are his girlfriends, Grob."
Grobradon shrugs. He's not really concerned about their feelings after they tried to kill them. But the halfling is clearly playing a pretty skilled negotiator so he will roll with things and glower.
Krosk and his ladies chuckle at Betzolte's comment and attempted compliment and become thoughtful at Erigga's musings even as Dik blanches at them and Moon's threat.
"Maybe it is time to replace Zuka," Krosk muses. "I will need to think it over and talk to the ladies about it."
He pulls out the map and carefully approaches Moon. Unsurprisingly, there's no writing on it, but it's still a surprisingly well made map.
"These," he points out several symbols that appear to represent the Bloodmoon, Bugwump, Manylegs, and Stickfoot tribes surrounding the town of Kassen, "are where the goblin leaders are camped. This," he points to a symbol of a house with spider legs in the area that appears to be where Meep had said Ganny Black Tongue lairs, "is where they will all be meeting up. We don't know where the Gruls are, but," his eyes flick up to Grobradon, "I did learn where Halk's supposed to be camping in the next few days," he says as he points to a symbol that's just crossed axes and a goblin skull. His face turns grim as he continues. "Better that you kill yourself or your friend than to let him take you or them. He does not take no for an answer."
Korsk looks up and gives Moon plaintive looks. "Is this enough to free Honey, Red, and Fi-Fi," he asks.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Betzolte offers a weak smile at the laugh she got. At least this awkwardness was better than a few minutes ago when one of these girls nearly killed her.
Moon takes the map, making sure she understands the goblin’s iconography. She sheathes her blade, ”It is enough Krosk... God of Sexiness.” She says it purely to feed his ego, a small price to pay for the goblin’s goodwill at this critical juncture. She looks to the team of Kassenites. ”Please let the ladies go… and give Fi-Fi back a healing potion. She might need her strength for the journey home.”
Dik receives a long look before Moon says to Krosk, ”We appreciate the ‘gift’ of this wretch, but let me talk with my friends. He might be of more use to you… as he know things about Zuka, or as a footstool, a sh!t-shoveler, or target practice for your ladies. Just give us a couple minutes, please.”
Moon walks back to her group, passing the released goblin women on the way.
"Thank you," Krosk says with a bow and turns towards the three captives while Glitzy hangs back, clearly feeling some shame over leaving the others behind. As Honey, Fi-Fi, and Red are freed, Krosk hugs them gently kisses them on the cheek, and is especially mindful of Fi-Fi's wounds.
Meanwhile, as Krosk is reunited with his ladies, Dik takes one look at Krosk and his harem before scrambling after Moon.
"Take me! Take me! Dik talk! Dik talk," he calls out before falling in the snow. "Look for Meep, yes! Longshanks take Meep. Dik know where longshanks stay! Dik told tell Longshanks where go next! No leave Dik with Krosk! He kill Dik!"
Histya recognizes this goblin's scent. He's related to the goblin she killed before you two first met.
The ranger turns to Dik, after he chases her for a moment. ”Since you want to be helpful… OK. Sit here and don’t move.” She looks to Krosk, ”It seems Dik wants to come with us, so we will accept your kind gift. We wish you and your ladies a safe journey home.” She offers him a parting bow.
Once she’s sure Dik isn’t going to run and is out of earshot of the group, she heads back to the team and whispers the sketch of an idea. ”We try to use the gobbo to sew division. We let him hear us talk about beating Lugruk last time and make sure he knows that we beat Krosk’s girls, that Krosk’s leaving this fight, but the God of Sexiness may go after Zuka’s throne. We can’t lie too much because Ganny knows a lot. But we can sew doubt and distrust… then, after Dik has led us to the humans, we let him go for helping us. With luck, he makes it back to the goblins and spreads the news we want spread. Agreed?”
Maidie nods approvingly to Moon's plan.
"I like it. We definitely want to keep stirring things up among the goblins. I'm not sure he's going to survive reporting this back to Zuka, but that's not our concern."
"I believe we should leave out the part about Krosk going after Zuka." She offers.
"Krosk did not seem bad, and that rumor could turn his tribe against him." Not that she cared too much about him and his harem. "It might be just wishful thinking, but perhaps the seed to him actually going after Zuka was planted and if he does so, we want him as an ally... if we go with this rumor, he could feel we set him up. I feel we'd be far worse with him leading his tribe against Kassen."
Grobradon looks at Moon, liking her idea. He hears Erigga's counter idea "Be honest with you? I don't give a damn about him or his harem. They're not part of our pack. Meep is. Only downside is I'm not sure any of us are good at long cons. Culver could but he's not here and has fam stuff. So That really could bite us in the ass as Erigga says. Let's try to make it happen with as much truth as possible. Now how to do that? Not sure. I'm no social charmer."
Moon nods, "I'm not good at lying either so, yeah, we stick close to the truth. We did whip Lugruk's ass and he did run away. And he didn't tell Krosk or his girls any of that... so what else has he lied to his allies about? That's the gap we widen. Also, I've been working on a song... our own propaganda. Maybe Dik will hear a few verses."
When they have a consensus of agreement, Moon nods. "OK. I'll collect our pet... fair warning, he smells like cooked cat's piss." Moon returns to gather Dik and bring him over to the group, saying, "If you tell us everything you know, don't cause problems, and help us find those humans - we'll let you go. I'm not lying. We let Krosk and his women go. You help us, you go free."
Krosk gives one last word of thanks to the heroes before disappearing into the woods. The one that had run away, Glitzy, seems to be getting chewed out by the others as they get a little ways from the group, but it seems that those bonds are not ones that are easily broken as the goblin takes it with about as much grace as could be expected from a goblin.
As Moon had warned, the smell is indeed horrible. The mixture of fresh and stale goblin urine stings and rankles the nose with its offensive odor. Given the trail of yellow that follows Dik around, it's clear there's something going on with his bladder. It certainly doesn't help his groveling and sniveling be any more palatable.
"Yes! Yes, Dik talk. Dik no cause trouble. Dik good! Dik good," he babbles before noticing the increasingly impatient looks he is getting. He nods to the map. "Dik told find longshanks called Grimscar. Tell him where go and what do. Zuka told Dik Grimscar camp in cave near town, south of Manylegs camp. Grimscar look for scouts and kill them. make look like animal attack. Dik told look for brother, Bik. Bik no come back after scouting near town. Dik find Bik or find what happened to Bik. Dik then go back to Zuka. Report."
The goblin looks around at the group and tries to put on what he things is a charming smile, but comes off as more of a grimace.
"Nice longshanks let Dik go?" He bats his eyes as he asks the question, making his expression even more grotesque.
Emerlad sneers at the goblin, clearly not impressed.
"Can we even trust this fool," she quietly asks the others.
Emerald sneers at the goblin, clearly not impressed."Can we even trust this fool," she quietly asks the others.
”About as far as I can throw him, but we can probably trust his sense of self-preservation and lack of brainpower.”
The stench was bad, but meh. Nothing too much new for someone raised taking care of animals and making stinky aged cheese. "We can trust him not to be trusted, but as long as we plan for it, we should be fine." He answers Emerald.
Now that the talk with Krosk was over, it was probably time to get moving again, so she gets her shield ready. "We will let you go after we find Grimscar, Lik Dik."
"His stench is likely to give us away before he gets a chance to try stabbing us in the back," Emerald complains, but leaves it at that as Erigga lays out the conditions for Dik's release.
"Lik is Dik's sister," the goblins says "Dik show way to Grimscar."
As everyone gets ready to leave, Doffery appears from behind a tree.
"Looks like that lot is going southwest. Where are we going now," he asks before he bristles. "And what, by the Green Mother's t#%@, is that stench?!"
Moon doesn’t bother answering the goblin. She had already stated the terms of release and Erigga had restated them. She is more curious in Histya’s odd interest in the goblin. Initially, she thinks it is a feline fascination with the stink but after a few minutes, it is clearly something more. ”Bik went to scout Kassen? How close would he go?”
She replies to Doffery, ”We’re going after some traitorous humans. Dik says he knows the way. You’ll want to stay upwind of him.”
"He go see what longshanks do to town. See where attack," Dik answers.
Doffery nods as he holds his nose and moves upwind of the goblin.
"I can get you there quick. We'll have to do something about that goblin, though. I doubt she'll be happy to see or smell it," Doffery says, his voice oddly amusing with his nostrils pinched closed.
Betzolte takes up her axe and hefts it over her shoulder, and wrinkles her nose at Dik's odor.
"Aye. Far...FAR upwind."
Doffery nods in agreement with Betz. The smell is certainly going to be a problem.
While the others appear to be deciding on where to go next and figuring out how to get there, Emerald moves closer to Betzolte.
"A-are you feeling well," the dragon turned human asks.
"In what sense?" Betzolte asks. "If you mean physically, probably gonna need another potion or two to get back into fighting shape. Emotionally? All over the place. I came close to dying less than an hour ago, and you're the reason I'm still here. I owe you my life, and I don't take that kind of thing lightly. And the one who nearly got me is walkin' away as a possible ally. Weird mix of respect and anger. And then there's that pissant, Dik."
She punctuates the statement with a disgusted expression.
Emerald snickers at the last comment about Dik the goblin.
"Is it often your kind has such a confusion of emotions," she asks. "Is that why you--um, what's the word again? Embraced me?"
Grobradon is grim, and quiet. This is more like he was before he accepted the others as his pack, before he opened up. On guard and reserved with an undercurrent of distrust.
"Maidie, do you have a spell to clean Dik up? I don't want that stink warning our enemies from an arrow-shot away."
"I do...I should have thought of that myself. Hold still, Dik, this won't hurt a bit..."
Maidie zips over close to the goblin and uses her prestidigitation to clean his soiled clothes.
"Hmmm...something tells me it's a good thing I can cast this at will...at the rate he's leaking..."
It takes nearly a full minute of magically scrubbing the goblin, Dik, down before the urine smell is gone. Thankfully, whatever incontinence the goblin suffers from isn't so severe as to need Maidie's continual intervention, only occasional. With Moon's pants and everyone's various wounds mended and Doffery as your guide you head east.
"Don't worry, this will save us a lot of time," Doffery reassures anyone who mentions that Grimscar's supposed location is the other way.
After about thirty minutes of walking, you arrive at a grove of conifers. Doffery cups his hands over his mouth and gives a shout.
Nothing happens for a moment, but Doffery is confident that patience will win. A moment later, the diminutive guide is proven right as an unamused fey woman steps out from behind the tree. Even covered in thick, warm furs and clothing, it's clear that she's a very shapely woman with long, feathery and supple fronds in place of hair done up in a bun that sticks out from under her fur trimmed cap.
"What is it this time Doff--" she starts to ask before spying the goblin, Dik and glaring at everyone. "All of you had best start explaining why you brought a filthy, wretched goblin anywhere near my grove," she growls as her eyes glow lurid green.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Erigga slowly steps forward. "Trust me, lady, this one is cleaner than he has ever been. We saw to it." She then shrugs. "Though he probably doubles down on the wretched part to compensate."
"We are from Kassen..." They were, but details. "and allies to Doffery here and Kernan. We are in a quest to protect the town and de-wretch the region from folks like him that decided it was a good idea to attack us."
"Reckon this makes us allies. Should the goblins take Kassen, it would not be too long for them to come here to mess with your groove."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Emerald snickers at the last comment about Dik the goblin.
"Is it often your kind has such a confusion of emotions," she asks. "Is that why you--um, what's the word again? Embraced me?"
Betzolte nods.
"Aye, on both counts. Only so many ways I can express the sheer gratitude and relief at being pulled back from the other side."
She keeps pace with Emerald as they travel and when Doffery introduces them to Fern, she gives a small bow, before snickering a bit at Erigga's joke.
Grob WAS going to mention Grimscar's camp was another way, but lets it slide as introductions are made. He looks at Moon wondering if she's feeling as impatient as he is.
Moon throws a glance at the strange fey accompanying them. She has no idea why Doffery was letting them handle this matter when it was his shortcut. ”Greetings, I’m Moon of House Dallion. I apologize for intruding into your grove. We wouldn’t have done so except the need is great. As I’m sure you know, there are goblins swarming the forest. We’re trying to deal with some of their more dangerous allies quickly – before we go after the goblins themselves. Doffery suggested that this route could be a ‘shortcut’ to get us where we need to go. Will you help us?”
Emerald falls silent as she thinks on what Betzolte has said.
===
As Erigga and then Moon explain the situation, the fey lady's visage softens, though she keeps glaring at Doffery.
"It's never to say hello or to see how I'm doing is it, Doffery," she asks tartly before looking to the rest of the group. "I have my ways of hiding from the wretched curs if I need, but if they are going to continue causing a problem for me. I'd rather not have to owe Prince Kernan a debt. It can be a dangerous place for an unaligned fey to be in. Blind and deafen the goblin however you wish. I do not want him to see nor hear anything."
A small puddle forms around Dik's feet, much to Doffery's, Emerald's, and fey woman's collective disgust. After blindfolding the goblin and stuffing his ears and another magical cleaning, the fey woman relaxes somewhat.
"I and my sisters can traverse unseen paths through these woods. Before I do, I need your oaths, especially you, forest priest," she gives Grobradon a hard look, "that you will not utter a word of this to anyone."
Betzolte draws her clan dagger and holds it in salute.
"I swear, on my Father's Love, on my life and honor as a daughter of Clan Ironhame and a protector of Kassen and the lands it rests on, I will not speak of your secrets to another soul as long as I live."
Then she sheaths it again, figuring a second bow would come off as too obsequious for Fern's tastes.
With gravity, Moon adds, "You have my oath."
Emerald looks at both Betzolte and Moon for a moment as she clearly struggles with something internally.
"You--You have my word as well," she says reluctantly.
"I swear to never reveal your secrets." Maidie says before applying yet another round of magic piss-removal.
"I and my sisters can traverse unseen paths through these woods. Before I do, I need your oaths, especially you, forest priest," she gives Grobradon a hard look, "that you will not utter a word of this to anyone."
Grobradon bristles a bit, at the notion of being bound by a stranger's Oath, "I am a keeper of the sacred tongue, I have the secrets of Gozreh lessons and the green's song. But you have my word I shall not utter a word of this to anyone without you or your sister's approval."
"I'd rather cover my eyes with a cloth than give an oath." Erigga says, pointing to the goblin. "Like we did for the goblin. Nothing personal."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The fey woman looks at Erigga for a moment before sighing.
"Very well, as you wish," she tells Erigga before waving her hand at the halfling fighter. Vines burst through the snow and covers Erigga's eyes and ears, rendering her blind and deaf.
"If you would follow me," she says before turning and heading into the grove. The air here is still and cold. The smell of lilies and carnations fills your noses as a sense of loss and mourning fills your hearts. As you pass through the supple branches of a pair of willows, you see a small pond surrounded by statues carved of wood and adorned with offerings to the dead. Stones whose smooth tops rise just above the still surface of the water create a path from the pond's bank to an island in the center with a massive oak.
The fey woman leads you across to the island and into an alcove formed by the roots of the mighty tree. She turns to you.
"Where do you wish to go," she asks.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Betzolte's eyes widen at Erigga's flippant response, and then even more so at Fern's response, before regaining her composure with a shrug to the others. She offers her hand to Erigga to help guide her.
At first Erigga startles at first, tugging at the vines. Then she feels a hand close to hers and eases a bit.
Grobradon also assumes they're going to Grimscar and says so "We're seeking out Grimscar and his camp. He's a traitor to Kassen, and no friend of the green."
Once the location is pointed out on the map, it takes the fey woman a few minutes to figure out where exactly she can get you to that would be at least in the area. Once that is done, she begins to chant as she traces ancient runes on the trunk of the oak. A patch in the shape of a door glows after a minute or so.
"Remember the oaths you gave. Tell no one of this," she warns before you all step, or in Maidie's case, fly, through the door way. The light grows bright until it is all you can see, then you find yourself next to another large oak in the middle of the Fangwood.
The vines covering Erigga's eyes and ears fall away as they wither into nothing. Dik however, seems on the verge of panic as he looks around with increasing agitation.
Popping the tip of her pinky on her ear, Erika blinks repeatedly as she looks around, trying to locate herself.
After spending a few moments to get her bearings, Maidie zips towards the top of the oak tree to have a look around and see if she can spot anyone. She makes sure to stay close to the branches to avoid being spotted.
Moon takes in her surroundings and moves quietly and cautiously.
Histya whuffles the air and practically vanishes in the bracken and snow-shrouded forest.