The trek would take me to one of this world’s miracles first. I was quite eager to see this dwarven piece of engineering. An entire bridge made of glass crossing the ocean of Budding! I was quite excited to see it’s stone buildings at the end of this desert I’ve traversed for the past two days. The local wildlife was friendly enough and luckily I could take shelter in the night from the bogeymen when the first day ended. However as I walked up to the bridge and started looking for people I saw a trail of blood on the floor. I instantly felt nervous and held my axe closer to me.
I strolled forward and in front of me running come a small dwarven child he looked like he was about to turn 7 years old, completely calm and not even caring about the bloody trail the he was walking next to. He darted off when I asked about his father and mother playing withhis toy boat. Man I’d give so much away just to be that young again. And so I decided to follow the trail once more. The trail led into a building, a housing complex it seems. But there the trail went cold and I found a dwarf who explained that Sarvesh Paintedlasher got hurt in an accident and bled to death. They left the mark as a reminder to him. Rather bizarre if you ask me.
I went to explore the rest of the town, which with a nice breeze and the silty wind was quite a charm to explore. The glass glittered in the sunlight and it was absolutely beautiful. The library was filled with books but there were few that were actually interesting. Almost every book was about locking mechanisms. Not just by one author even! I read a few of the books and they re-examined the object and mechanism over and over and there were even novellas! What's with these dwarves?
I sat down at one of the taverns and two dwarves joined me. We started telling stories of our lives and the region and drank as much as we could. Needless to say, I woke up with an extreme hangover. Vomit was all around me and my shirt and armor was covered in sand and the sticky goo. I sat upright and took a sip from my waterskin. And next to me I saw two dwarves sleeping in the sand as well. I vaguely remembered their names and what we talked about. Zon the male crossbowdwarf and Erush a wannabe female dwarven bard. The sun slowly started to rise on the horizon and Zon woke up, after a yan he looked at me with delight in his eyes.
"Oi Abla! Remember I brought you an extra crossbow!"
I grabbed my head, this dwarf knew nothing of hangovers apparently.
"A crossbow? What for? And could you please for the love of not talk so loudly?"
"Why we're going to raid the goblin fortress Begunspiders! Don't you remember?"
I stared at him blankly as Erush started to wake up. Who laughed at my vomit covered... everything before handing me a small towel.
I cleaned myself and Erush said to me.
"I'm sure you will be the one to fell the callus of gutters. I believe in you."
"The callus of gutters? The demon lord?"
Erush smiled and started walking. "Lets go!"
We travelled through the southern island towards the forest. And night came to visit us once more. The fortress spire was visible however in the sky in front of us. It made me feel nervous. But then again close to a week went by without much happening so far. We set up a camp close to the dark pits that surround it. Tomorrow we shall confront the goblins and maybe their even demon overlord.
The next morning we stealthily set foot towards one of the towers that were spread on this landscape. The sun started to scorch us as it rised from it’s slumbering position and soon we found ourselves to enter one of their towers unseen. We heard sounds coming from outside and in a rage Zon had put a bolt in the first goblin he found. I saw it pierce the goblin’s heart. And it screamed in pain and agony it's friend started to run away! We had been spotted! I started to sprint after them. They couldn’t tell anyone!
Quickly I tackled the creature and it fell to the ground. I slashed it with my axe in it’s head And its screams ended after a 2nd blow which decapitated him. I looked back towards Erush who was chasing the pincushioned goblin and told him to stop. After which the goblin just fell down and died from blood loss.
After a closer inspection both seemed civilians. And I started to think, are these creatures truly evil? The dwarves surely seem to think so but these were just some ugly things. Erush reminded me of the demon. And I started to find her story hard to believe. But we were so close now, I just had to see for myself.
We continued and slaughtered more goblins. One fell over after multiple bolts shot by both Zon and me. I slashed it in two, amazed at my own strength and I saw another goblin in a hallway. Sprinting away. This day would become incredibly long. I followed the trail of goblins and killed two more that were trying to flee. I took out my crossbow again and fired two bolts, both hitting their target and one piercing another heart.
I looked up and there it was in front of me. The spire that touched the heavens. There was no way back now. I quickly turned around and saw my companions nowhere near. I must’ve lost them in my bloodlust. The screams of dozens of unseen goblins near me. I decided to take down whomever I could with my crossbow until Zon and Erush found me again.
After a few seconds I heard Erush screaming for help and I decided to turn around and sprint back. I struck down another goblin who was crying and sprinting away. And there I saw Erush and Zon, Erush heavily wounded and Zon running after something. Erush was winning his fight though as I saw the goblin he was fighting fall to the ground. I buried my axe in his head and ran after Zon who was chasing a heavily wounded goblin. As I grabbed my crossbow to help zon he
Zon smashed the goblin's upper leg after which it fell down. Walked towards the now scrambling away goblin who was terrified and smashed it's face to pulp with his crossbow.
Xbow Zon for best companion.
I shivered when I saw Erush after all of this, her eye was gouged out and she had wounds all over her body. None of them were fatal though. I picked her up and tried to bring her to one of the towers. She was in no condition to fight any longer and should stay put there. As we walked a bolt flew past me, I looked around and put Erush as hastily as I could back on the floor. A crossbow pointed at me as I started sprinting towards the goblin that fired it. It fled in terror and in the moment I grabbed a bolt from my quiver and threw it towards him, where it struck the creature in it’s achilles heel and it fell over. It stopped moving and I took this moment to break it’s skull.
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Ps. I absolutely loved to explore sandalswims, I could tell the amount of love that was put in. I also realized that I had to swim over part of the ocean to get to moonhome. I dont think that would work out with novice swimmer and a ton of armour.