"Skipping town. If we stick around long enough for people to ask questions, we risk an unnecessary confrontation. After all, I don't want to have to rescue you again, do I?" You smirk.
"Get in the wagon, we're off."Snang rolls her eyes and climbs into the back of the wagon. Such displays of bravado are crude and boastful, especially given she knows you are no fighter, but necessary at this early stage. Once she has accepted her position as your minion, you will be able to treat her more respectfully.
[Handling: 13+2] You hop into the wagon and whip the reins. The mule has finally acclimated to your presence and sets off at a brisk clop. [Luck: 20!] You drive on through the night, checking back periodically for signs of pursuit. To your relief the glow on the horizon remains for a good hour after you leave; the fire must have gotten wildly out of control. You idly wonder if that insulting farmer or the teenage heckler got roasted; the thought makes you smile. You worry about villagers perhaps following the deep cart ruts at first, but about halfway through the night it begins to rain. At first it is a light shower, but pretty soon it turns into a horrendous downpour. [Handling: 19+2-5] You keep control of the mule and stick to the firmest ground near the river banks, but soon enough everything is turning into a muddy slurry. You feel confident that the rain will destroy any tracks.
When dawn is close to approaching, you wake Snang and show her how to guide the reins, firing off a couple of vague threats and insults. Once you are reasonably sure she knows how to keep the mule going, you head off to sleep.
You awake sometime around late afternoon, much further upriver. The mule is looking exhausted, so you direct Snang to a bit of firmer ground and declare that you will camp here for the night; you'll take the tent and she can sleep under a blanket at the entrance, close enough that bogeymen will not interfere. She nods and suggests that perhaps she should spend the next few hours getting food for the evening. You agree and order her to do so, then sit down with your newly reclaimed books.
Secrets of the Masons is about as interesting as you would expect. Since you are an avid reader, you find it fascinating, but anyone else who wasn't a mason would probably be bored to tears. In fact since most of it is technical explanation and diagram you find a lot of it quite difficult to read as well. You decide that the book would be excellent for training some masons from, but you really don't care to spend the time or energy dissecting it for the secrets of how to build a better wall. That's what slaves are for.
Your Masonry & Architecture skills have improved!
The Gilded Confederacy: A History is more promising. Much of it is lists of famous battles, cities being founded and such, but you are able to get a broad picture of the Gilded Confederacy quite easily. The Confederacy was originally three separate kingdoms: the Painted Leaves, centred on Dippedrivers; the Moaning Gems, based in Pewterwhites; and the Clear Flutes, based in Waterhills. The three kingdoms feuded with one another for centuries, suffering the depredations of the Knives of Cruelty to the south, the Inks of Sorrow to the west and periodic wars with the Tempest of Prides to the north. (You find periodic mention of the Inks of Sorrow's tower, Brightmurder, being located somewhere in the western forests.)
About three centuries ago, in 982, the famous elf hero Omo Thunderjaw left the Velvet Roots in search of adventure. He was responsible for slaying a great number of night trolls, vanquishing werebeasts and vampires and laying low the titans Pintcruelty and Burningeyes. In the course of his adventures he gathered many companions and found himself regularly in the service of the Painted Leaves, where he began to accrue a favourable reputation. When the Leaves found themselves at war with the Clear Flutes in 1014, Thunderjaw joined the fight and was responsible for leading several major victories. When the war seemed to be in the Leaves' favour, the Inks of Sorrow launched a surprise assault on Dippedrivers, laying waste to the city. A hasty truce was signed and the Painted Leaves turned their attention westward to the goblin attackers.
You smile fondly at the next part. Now that the Flutes were weakened the Knives of Cruelty launched their own attack and sacked Waterhills, leading to the second Sack of the Badger Temple (the later Third Sack would be responsible for wiping out the biomancer priests). As glorious as that assault was, it scared the Flutes into signing an alliance with the Moaning Gems. Fearing an attack after the immediate wars were concluded, the stronger Leaves demanded the alliance be expanded to include them or they would take it as a new act of war.
The triple alliance was successful in achieving its aims of repelling the goblin menace, razing Brightmurder to the ground and driving back the Knives of Cruelty. It likely would have collapsed into internal warfare again, had not the king of Dippedrivers died in the conflict. With no clear heir, Omo Thunderjaw had been appointed dictator by popular acclaim to lead the war effort. When the war was concluded his rule was legitimised and he negotiated the union of all three kingdoms into a single Confederacy; the kings of Waterhills and Dippedrivers would continue to rule their kingdoms until their deaths, after which their heirs would rule as Princes beneath the Confederate King. Fearing the effects of another devastating war, the kings agreed. Years later they would pass away from age, as humans do.
Thunderjaw ruled as king of the Confederacy until 1242, slaying several more titans and other megabeasts and making it his personal mission to wipe out night creatures wherever he could. He finally died in a successful (though costly) assault on the tower of the necromancer Curo Nightroars, who was cut to pieces and burned that very night. You don't find a precise location of the tower in the text, but clues suggest somewhere north of Pewterwhites. The Prince of Pewterwhites became the new king (after a short and vicious civil war with Waterhills) and appointed his two sons as Princes of Waterhills and Dippedrivers. The line has ruled since.
How very interesting.
You have gained History and Geography experience!
1293 Summer Trade Tables is exactly what it sounds like; an extensive almanac printed by the Waterhills Merchant Guild to help with pricing everything from silver to stew to slaves. It's a couple of years out of date, but you doubt the value of goods has changed dramatically. You should be able to use this in formal negotiations (or at least in bartering) as a reference to avoid getting cheated. After all, he who knows more...
Ruins of Akmeshnikus is another historical book, this time about the Tempest of Prides. The Prides were a dwarven civilisation that lived in the mountains between the Confederacy and the Velvet Roots. At the height of their power, their influence and settlements extended into hills all the way south into present day Confederate territory. Unfortunately, the author was more of a "sit around in libraries" scholar than a "go raid ancient ruins and tombs" scholar and so only has very sketchy details on most of the settlements. The Prides were notable for having three main fortresses in the mountains; the original Mountainhome of Copperneeds (apparently disfavoured and eventually abandoned due to an exhaustion of resources back in the 600s), the second Mountainhome of Pickledsteel and the (briefly) third Mountainhome of Syruptails.
Not long after Omo Thunderjaw completed his war on goblinkind, the Velvet Roots got into an extended war with the Tempest of Prides over logging disputes. The war hit a stalemate for about three years with the Prides slowly winning through attrition (though at great cost). In the second year of the war, the Queen and her entire court packed up and left Pickledsteel for the formerly minor mining fort of Syruptails. Syruptails boomed with thousands of migrants flocking to the fort to set up industry and fresh mushroom farms, almost certainly because of the relocation of the royal court. The author makes a conjecture that the Queen thought the war might turn suddenly and moved to the more defensible Syruptails in case of an attack on the traditional Mountainhome.
During the last year of the war, more and more dwarves were recruited or conscripted into the army. A massive standing force of dwarves was being trained in Syruptails; demands for imported grain from the Confederacy boomed and much dwarven gold and silver flowed into Confederate coffers. Just when the army seemed ready to crush the Velvet Roots and end the war decisively, all contact with Syruptails ceased. Wagons arriving at the surface trading post found it abandoned and when nervous traders moved closer to the (notoriously trapped) main entrance they found it had been collapsed. A cave-in was suspected, so the traders waited a week for the dwarves to dig their way back out or emerge from hidden secondary exits, but none were seen to emerge.
A month later, a rescue expedition was mounted by the Dippedrivers Merchant Guild. Human miners were sent up to Syruptails to try and mine out the entrance. Several were killed outright by traps and when they finally cleared several feet of heavy rock they found a solid bronze and steel barrier sealing the entrance.
It is at this time that the Guild representative in his report mentions that the expedition was waylaid by dwarven bandits with crossbows and axes; only he and a handful of others made it back alive. When further scouts investigated months later the trading post had been torn down and the entrance resealed so thoroughly it was impossible to find it unless you already knew where it had been.
The dwarves never spoke of what had occurred, those few who seemed to have any indication that they even knew. By the time a reasonable inquiry could be mounted, it was too late. The Velvet Roots heard of the sealing of Syruptails and sent their army at once to the weakened former capital of Pickledsteel. They captured the fort after a month of sealing and collapsed it from the inside, sowing a forest of hardy mountain trees over the site and eating any dwarves they found. The original Mountainhome of Copperneeds was sealed up by the dwarves in the same untraceable fashion as Syruptails (probably to prevent the thousands of dwarven tombs there from being raided), but the elves of the Roots washed through the rest of the Pride settlements like a violent flood. Every dwarf they could find was killed and eaten and while a few hundred fled to join the humans in the Confederacy or escaped west to join the Conspiracy of Mirth, the Tempest of Prides as a civilisation was no more.
Tempting as all this history is, the author makes no attempt to give a more precise location of the fortresses or hill settlements of the Confederacy. Probably he doesn't even know. How frustratingly short is human memory! It was only about two hundred and fifty years ago, some of the priests claimed to be able to remember back when Copperneeds was still the capital! You sigh and close the book.
You have gained History and Geography experience!
You camp, eat a rabbit Snang caught, sleep and ride on, reaching the river fork a day later. [Luck:9] You chose this spot for the copse present on the fork and originally buried the cache near a particular tree, but to your alarm you find the area recently denuded of foliage and sporting dozens of stumps instead of proud standing vegetation. Snang mentions that since the fall of the tower human logging companies have been hunting for more timber in and around the swamps, though she can't say why.
Skill Challenge: Geography! 16+4-5, 9+4-5, 19+4-5, 20!, 12+4-5You make camp on a hillock near the fork and rest up for a second night, intending to begin your search at dawn. Once day breaks, you get out your writing kit and cut a piece of bark from one of the tree stumps to use as a medium, then set about carefully mapping out the path of the river fork on the bark. [16+4-5] You start by marking out all of the tree trunks to recreate a map of the original bit of forest, only to discover that more than half of them have been pulled up (probably for burning into potash), rendering that particular endeavour useless. [
9+4-5] You sit down on a stump for a little while, musing over the next step. After about half an hour of fruitless thinking, Snang returns from hunting with a couple of blackbirds strung up at her belt.
"So what are you doing now, boss?" she asks.
"Trying to find the stash. Buried it under a tree, but the trees have all been cut down. Tried replotting the stumps to figure out where, but half of them have been pulled up and months of rain have washed out most of the signs of where they were.""Right. You know what sort of tree you buried it under?""Hm? Tamarack, I think.""Right. So why are you hanging around all these Black Spruce stumps?"You stare at one of the stumps in front of you, then smack your forehead firmly with one palm.
Right! Too busy looking at the forest to see the trees. You adjust your map and begin marking out the different tree stump types, getting a better idea of the overall shape that the copse used to have. [19+4-5] Pretty soon you are able to work out the general area where you buried the stash, after which you start looking at the relations of the Tamarack stumps. Here and there you spot depressions in the soil where stumps have been pulled out, filling in more and more gaps in your map until you end up with a small handful of possible locations for the stash. [20!]
You don't have a shovel [Woodcraft: 8+0] and your attempts to make one from the local bark are useless, so you just dig with wide pieces of bark beneath the trees you suspect are the right ones. The work is hard and tiring, taking three hours between the pair of you, but at the fourth stump you hit upon a stolen wooden crate about a foot beneath the surface. [12+4-5]
You dredge the crate up and drag it back to the wagon camp to examine. Contained within are three more books and a pouch of 12 silver coins, stamped with a picture of a jewel on one side and the three-barrel mark of the Confederacy on the other. You move to pocket the coins, then take one from the pouch and pass it to Snang, picking words that convey both appreciation and appropriate condescension.
"You're a useful minion. If we find somewhere more amenable to our kind, buy yourself something nice."How to Recruit Allies and Manipulate People is a book after your own heart. It contains page after page of handy and useful tips on how to bind minions closer to you, recruit allies and generally keep one's troops in line. You take a long time to commit its simple principles to memory and they pay off well.
You have gained Leadership skill! You have gained Persuader experience! You have gained Liar experience! You have gained Negotiator experience!
The Art of the Blade is a seriously advanced text on knife fighting and combat, written by some elven master. It touches briefly on technique, but a lot of the book is about state of mind, anticipating one's opponent, outmatching their thought processes and getting within their reaction times. It would be a fantastic aid to a skilled fighter, but you are not familiar enough with the basic use of a blade for it to be useful to you. This one might be worth keeping for later.
You have not reached sufficient skill to gain the benefits of this book.
Murder on the Dance Floor appears to be a cheap human thriller about a murderer, a watchman and several pages of courtly dance and steamy, steamy sex. This is an absolutely dreadful book, but some of the positions (not only the sexual, but the dancing and murder positions) are rather useful to copy, as the book comes with horrendously detailed pictures. You try copying them in person, improving not only your dancing but your general athletic ability.
You have gained Athletics skill!
Over the next few days you take the opportunity to read through the books, conduct a few sparring sessions with Snang and get to know your new minion a little better. You try a few different tacks, treating her with more and less respect and giving her more and less freedom until you think you have her figured out. [Leadership: 6+3] You aren't exactly the most graceful at this process, and your clumsy initial efforts leave Snang somewhat confused. [
Snang loses morale!] Still, you work out that like most hunters and other goblins who spend a lot of time unsupervised outside the tower, Snang is used to quite a lot of autonomy. Treating her with the respect afforded a valuable (but disposable) servant seems to be the best route to take. She should not be treated as an equal, of course; like all goblins, she has a need for order and organisation. Without clear leadership, she might feel she has to challenge you.
[Training Knife-Fighting: 19+2(own skill) + 2(difference in skill)]
[Training Dodging: 15+2(own skill) + 1(difference in skill)]Your sparring sessions are very successful. Your close combat experiences have brought you nearly up to Snang's own level of competence in a fight and her pointers help bring you the rest of the way. It will take quite a bit more practice to reach her ability with a blade, but you pick up a trick about executing combat rolls from her and soon are able to dodge knife strokes on her own terms.
After one particularly exhausting session you both sit down at the campfire for some roasted birds. You decide it is time to talk about the past.
"Snang.""Yes, boss?""Were you there when the tower fell?" Snang is silent for a moment. She takes a bite of birdflesh and nods.
"Tell me about it.""Well, what's there to say? I'd come back from a hunting trip two days prior, had just been gathering the tools I thought I'd need for the Prince's son job, when I heard the horn blow. I was rushing up to the battlements when the rocks hit the walls; piece of one nearly took my head off. I manned one of the towers with a couple of others, fired pot shots at the humans until they got through the main gates and the champions started falling, then made a break for it through the tunnels. Last I saw of the main fight Drilera, Queld and Tustong were holding off the main bulk of the human mob. I think I heard Drilera go down as I was running. No sign of the high priest throughout, but the priests Ongox Nightpatters and Ume Cruelflags were still leading the fight when the gates broke.""Queld didn't make it either, I watched him fall. Don't know about Tustong. I think I heard someone say that Ongox was dead, but I didn't see it myself. You wouldn't know because it didn't filter down past the middle ranks, but the high priest went missing about four days before the attack. Everyone assumed Ume had done him in, he was the most likely candidate for the post. Still, we never found a body so who knows? Know of anyone important who made it out?""Not really. There were a couple of hunter bands who were out at the time, they probably retreated to the bluffs when they found out, but I don't know where they'll have gone since then. I'll point the ones I remember out for you on your map, though I've been to a lot of them already. They're good places to hide out and relatively secure. I know that two of the snatchers, Omku Breakfasts and Oxgu Lightsilvers, were out when the tower fell. One was hunting near Dippedrivers, the other near Pewterwhites. I haven't heard anything of them since.""You said you met some slaves and drivers, though? We- I could use minions."Snang makes a face.
"Or somewhere more secure than a wagon for a base. I don't think we can stretch the 'leper' jig to more than one of us, and while I might be able to just hide and sneak around rooftops and alleyways while you're in a town I doubt the common slave is going to have that much ability. Still, that's your problem. If it's minions we're after we have a couple of choices I know of.
"I can't speak for scattered slaves here and there, but I imagine if you made enough of a presence they'd come to you. I know that some of the drivers got together at one of the hunting bluffs and started gathering up slaves again, mostly old goblins but probably a few humans as well. I haven't kept in touch with them, so I don't know if they're still there but if they are they could be a worthwhile source of minions. If you can talk them over or challenge them for control they should bend quite easily, so long as you appear to be fairly experienced at command. I'll mark where I last saw them on your map.
"The other option is a human slaver and bandit by the name of Speksi Flukecertain. He got ousted from service to the Waterhills Guild for breaching slaving laws and for petty banditry, so he retreated to the swamps and has been moving around doing raids since. He's a competent slaver and raider and has a handful of human allies; I worked with him for a couple of months doing scouting and ranged support. He's pretty competent.""Why did you leave?""Pervert. Tried to make a move on me."You make no effort to conceal your disgust at that.
Ugh. Inter-racial copulation? How human. "Still, you say he's competent?""Yeah, but a bit of his own master. You know how humans are. He won't accept orders easily if they don't let him do what he was planning to anyway, and he'd probably want in as an equal rather than a minion, if at all. He'd be a competent and very useful ally, but a pain to recruit and keep. Or, of course, you could just kill him and take whatever stock he has, probably mostly human with a few scavenged goblins thrown in. You'd probably need at least one competent driver to keep the slaves in line, though.""Well, that was worth knowing. Useful information, Snang.""Thanks, boss."You continue resting at the fork until you feel back to your old self again, the leg wound nothing more than a painful twinge and a jagged scar. Time to make some decisions; where to go, what to do, who and what to recruit and where to consider establishing a base - if at all.
Vitality: 10 (Leg scarred, but hale and hearty again.)
Full
Status: Ready
Kills: 2 human hunters.
Inventory: traveller's garb & hood
1 Ornal charm (around neck)
1 plain iron hunting knife
1 -iron quill knife-
1 writing kit
crude maps
1 medical kit (+4 to medical checks, 4 uses remaining)
a fire piston
8 days' beef jerky
2 sprigs of nightsbane (in packet)
7 copper coins (Gilded Confederacy - badger / three barrels)
11 silver coins (Gilded Confederacy - jewel / three barrels)
In the Wagon
1 lantern (w/ 3 pints of oil)
8 snares
3 bear/man-traps
ragged, formerly fine black clothing
several jars of pickled swede
Book - Secrets of the Masons by Thrut Belovedsmokes
Book - The Gilded Confederacy: A History by Usel Morosebleaks
Book - 1293 Summer Trade Tables by the Waterhills Merchant Guild [+2 to Negotiation when used as a reference.]
Book - Ruins of Akmeshnikus (The Tempest of Prides) by Arkoth Pulleywhites
Book - Predatory Beasts in the Velvet Jungle by Torn Washworthy
Book - How to Recruit Allies and Manipulate People by Dal Corneagle
Book - The Art of the Blade by Nemani Stormleaves
Book - Murder on the Dance Floor[/i] by Aga Crystalties
Expert Administrator
Proficient Historian |||||
Proficient Law Scholar
Skilled Geographer ||
Competent Negotiator ||
Competent Persuader |||||
Competent Liar |||||
Competent Judge of Intent |
Competent Dodger
Competent Leader
Adequate Knife-Fighter ||
Adequate Stealther |
Adequate Athlete |||
Novice Wrestler ||
Novice Wound Dresser
Novice Animal Handler ||
Novice Mason
Novice Architect
Dabbling Butcher |
Dabbling Forager
Dabbling Pump Operator
Dabbling Biter |
Dabbling Suturer
Languages: Perfect Goblin, Fluent Human, Broken Dwarven, Poor Elven
Contacts
Rist Easespices - A gregarious Dunish trader operating in the Mudcups area.
Bomrek Victualbronze and Olon Victualsteel - The Victual Brothers, a pair of amoral dwarven mercenaries.
Other Figures
Uta Pitchworthy - A man in Mudcups who acts as a go-between for the Victuals.
Speksi Flukecertain - A slaver in the swamps near Swamprazor, a capable raider and bandit. Independent.
In the Party
Snang Cutthreaten - A goblin hunter/snatcher you found imprisoned in Pilemurk.
Vitality: 6/6
Armour: 3/3
Morale: Wary
Inventory: 1 set troll leather armour, 4 -steel hunting knives-, 1 -composite horn bow-, 1 troll leather quiver [20 wooden arrows]. Various tools.
Skilled Stealther
Skilled Archer
Skilled Knife-Fighter
Skilled Mechanic
Competent Dodger
Competent Trapper
Competent Butcher
Competent Athlete
Competent Thrower
Competent Observer
Adequate Forager
Adequate Fisher
Adequate Armour User
Adequate Wrestler
Novice Leatherworker
Novice Bowyer
Novice Woodcrafter
Special (Hunting): While travelling with Snang in natural environments, food is safely and automatically gathered each day.
Author
Topic: Goblin (Read 13482 times)