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[King Zultan]

Hmm... clearly a good way to defeat artist block is inspiration! And nothing will beat inspiration quite like a near-death experience with the paranormal. Hopefully by experiencing the death of a paranormal from nearby anyway.

Let's go Google some goblins! Or whatever it is we do to research stuff before going out and sticking a shiv in it. Maybe open the email too. Might give some details.

+1

+1

+1

[Doomblade187]

((While I agree we are underestimating goblins, we can prepare properly for them at least, and we are likely a better 1v1 match.))

[NAV]

That spring revolver sounds pretty weak. We should get a bow or crossbow. Unless those are illegal too.
We should also get some armour.

Hmm... clearly a good way to defeat artist block is inspiration! And nothing will beat inspiration quite like a near-death experience with the paranormal. Hopefully by experiencing the death of a paranormal from nearby anyway.

Let's go Google some goblins! Or whatever it is we do to research stuff before going out and sticking a shiv in it. Maybe open the email too. Might give some details.

+1

+1

+1

+1

[Arx]

Hmm... clearly a good way to defeat artist block is inspiration! And nothing will beat inspiration quite like a near-death experience with the paranormal. Hopefully by experiencing the death of a paranormal from nearby anyway.

Let's go Google some goblins! Or whatever it is we do to research stuff before going out and sticking a shiv in it. Maybe open the email too. Might give some details.

+1

+1

+1

+1

Ooh, good idea. The goblins are probably the best return on investment, right? I guess I'll find out!

The Council and related people are far too old fashioned to have information on the internet though. You'd expect it to all be collected in dusty old tomes, bound in leather and with fancy gilt on the page edges, but it's not really like that. Most of the useful parts of my library are just foolscap pages stapled together with the notes I scribbled down when I could persuade someone to tell me something.



These books? Mostly novels. I bet you thought I had some great library of the arcane, didn't'cha? Nope! But at least I have the notes. As for goblins...

Goblins range drastically in size and power, depending on their location, age, feeding habits, and in no small part their natural strength. Creatures are usually considered goblins if they principally concern themselves with harassing humans, usually ones on the margins of society or that are otherwise weakened. The level of harassment depends on the marginalisation or weakness; a loner student is unlikely to be physically harmed, but is at risk of persistent "pranking". On the other hand, a homeless person or someone that has just suffered a car accident alone at night may be attacked, tortured, and potentially killed.

Weaker (and thus more common) goblins are rarely violent alone, but when in gangs are more likely to attack perceived easy targets. They are in many ways the hyenas of the supernatural world, although in most cases the exchange strength for intelligence.

All goblins share some defining characteristics. They are brutal and delight in suffering, but are cowardly and will flee a strong response. They are considered base creatures, and have an innate aversion and weakness to refinement. They in particular detest worked metals, running water, and fire and electricity - the elements of civilisation.

In reverse, they have an affinity for the filthy and unrefined. Raw stone, blood, green wood and excrement are all useless as deterrents.

...'kay, I wrote a bunch of notes on rural and industrial goblins here, but these are urban goblins so I'm gonna skip a bit.

Urban goblins rarely grow to the fearsome sizes of rural or wild goblins, but are typically larger than the diminutive industrial goblins and gremlins. Smaller specimens are usually on the order of 95cm tall, while very large specimens may reach up to 170cm or even 200cm in extreme cases. The average height is closer to 120cm, with a weight commonly on the order of 40-50kg.

Their build is typically squat and either powerfully muscled or obese, more commonly the latter. Lean or slender urban goblins are almost non-existent, due to the easy availability of junk food scraps.

Unlike their wild counterparts, urban goblins do not have powerful natural armaments. Their finger and toe nails are large, sturdy, and usually sharpened, and their teeth are pointed, but they are not equipped with strength particularly suited to using them as weapons. However, injuries from a goblin are all but guaranteed to carry tetanus and multiple diseases.

The intelligence of urban goblins is best described as "brute cunning". With the exception of goblin kings and queens or leaders of large gangs, they struggle with higher order thinking and have a cognitive level comparable to that of a six to seven year old, able to devise traps and primitive group tactics, but rarely thinking critically or planning in the long term.

Most urban goblins will arm themselves with anything available. It is very unusual for this to include complex weapons such as firearms, but it is not unheard of. The quality of the weaponry is usually directly correlated with gang size; gangs of less than ten rarely use anything more complex than clubs, while gangs of fifty or more could be equipped with almost anything not requiring technical expertise.

It is possible to bind or banish goblins, but since they are weak, obstreperous, objectionable servants, and have no empathy-stirring qualities, most hunters prefer to simply exterminate them.

And as for the email:

Urban goblins (3). Loiter near the corner of 3rd Street and Main Road. Sizes between 100cm and 150cm. No signs of unusual intelligence or armament. Absent during rush hour and near dawn and dusk. Appear mainly diurnal.

Reward: 900 kodi.

Deadline: 120 hours after receipt of this email.

Special conditions: none.

...I probably used to have some particular approach to handling goblins, but I've completely blanked on it. Huh.

That spring revolver sounds pretty weak. We should get a bow or crossbow. Unless those are illegal too.
We should also get some armour.

I'd love a crossbow. And a sword! It'd be kickass.

Mel Vision:



How It Would Actually Go:



So, uh, moving swiftly onwards, bows and crossbows are legal, but you need a license. Which I can't afford. I probably should make a completely legal bow, but I don't have any experience with archery. The other problem is that they're hard to conceal, so it's hard to pay quiet visits to people you want to assassinate.

I should get my padded jacket out the cupboard if I'm hunting goblins, though. It's just a regular jacket, but I've stitched some cotton batting onto the inside. Also, did you know that you can just order kevlar online? So I stitched some of that to the chest, back, and arms. It stops things from breaking the skin (well, so far it has), but getting stabbed still leaves a heck of a bruise. Oh, and I have a plastic breastplate. A gremlin suckerpunched me in the left boob once. Never again.

Anyway, goblins, huh.

1.	> _

Spoiler: Meta (click to show/hide)

If you're reading this on a phone, I suggest you try and find some way of reading my [abbr] tags, because I occasionally slip background info in there so it doesn't break the flow.

On the subject of Yóu Xiá.

I've left off Melissa's suggestions to give you guys freedom to come up with goblin-killing schemes. I have total faith in you! For some reason!

Also I pulled a Melissa and completely forgot she was supposed to also maybe look at the werewolf email. She may have a fit of memory on Tuesday.

[Kashyyk]

I was going to suggest some sort of biker jacket when reading that, so I'm glad to hear you've already thought of it.

It looks like quickly braining the first goblin with a wrench should put enough fear into the other two that they may flee or surrender.

How do we normally go about confirming completion of a job and then receiving payment?

Anyway, assuming no one else has any thoughts, I suggest scoping out the corner of Third and Main, see if we can find out what the goblins are typically up to.

Oh yeah, do we know anyone else in this business? Having someone else to watch our back would make such things infinitely easier

[Doomblade187]

+1 to scoping out the corner, carry a wrench with. If no wrench, bring the axe. When scoping out the corner, check for areas traps could be hidden.

[Egan_BW]

Sounds pretty simple. Weak, poorly armed, and dumb. All we need to do is not get bamboozled.

Hmm. What do we do if we brain one and the other two scatter? Goblins seem hard to chase. And a street corner is a bad place to trap them.
Maybe we could find a way to lure them to a place that we can lock down and force a fight? Or maybe just put down a rabbit trap with some bait.

[Sudurandom]

Make sure your shots are up to date. You don't want to take chances with tetanus.
Also you might be able to lure the goblins into a trap by faking an injury. 

[King Zultan]

We could just try to bash them all and hope they don't run.

[Egan_BW]

And then be disappointed, because life is hell.

[NAV]

+1 to scoping out corner first.
+1 to getting tetanus shot.

We should make a few molotovs. Burn goblins burn.

That jacket and breastplate sounds very good for protecting the torso and arms. We should see about getting a helmet and some sort of leg guards. Even nail together some planks into a shield. You can never have too much armour (unless is slows you down or makes you look suspicious).

[Arx]

It looks like quickly braining the first goblin with a wrench should put enough fear into the other two that they may flee or surrender.

Anyway, assuming no one else has any thoughts, I suggest scoping out the corner of Third and Main, see if we can find out what the goblins are typically up to.

I should go take a look at the corner. For some reason, a wrench keeps coming to mind as a good weapon. This isn't exactly a machine shop, I just have some simple tools, but there is an alright-size shifting spanner I can grab. I'll take the carving knife too, it's easy to hide strapped under my skirt. Betcha thought the skirt was just for fashion. I shouldn't need either, but better safe than sorry.



Armoured Coat: Mel will fatigue faster when running or climbing wearing this jacket. Defense rolls are counted as 2 higher against small slashing weapons and 1 higher against stabs.

I love autumn. It's warm enough that if I want to go somewhere in shorts so I can run easily I can, but nobody asks any questions if I wear a jacket around either. When winter comes around it's always miserable going on a stakeout.

While I'm walking, I should try and decide whether I want to ask someone for backup. Trouble is, most of the people I know aren't connected with this. The people I know that are usually want to  split the reward, half are useless in a fight, and the ones that don't suck in a fight... Well, you know how I don't work for the mafia? I'm pretty sure most of those guys do. Some of them scare me more than the monsters. It would be nice to have backup, though.

I should look up how long tet shots are good for, too. I had one a few months back after the gremlin job, but it's probably no use now.

Oh, and I need to mail the Council liaison to ask where to leave the trophies. Pretty much all creatures carry little effigy-things around with them tied to their life forces. Something to do with not belonging properly in this world. I've never found someone willing to properly explain the metaphysics to me. Anyway, I usually stash them somewhere with a signed note and then the Council EFTs me a payment. It all looks very above-board, there's probably a place somewhere that claims to be contracting me as a part-time worker or something.

...I should also maybe grab some other stuff to use against the goblins while I'm out now. I'm really tempted to make firebombs, but I don't know if that's a good idea in the centre of town. Hmm.

Anyway, to the road!


Sorry this is so short. I have some artworks I need to finish on a deadline, and haven't had as much energy as I'd like lately. I'll post another update tomorrow, wherein Melissa will actually make it out of her house.

Feel free to post more suggestions, but the update will at least start with going to the corner.

[Egan_BW]

No backup. Splitting the payout 50/50 would be terrible.

[King Zultan]

No backup. Splitting the payout 50/50 would be terrible.

+1 We need all the money we can get.

[Arx]

Yeah, it's probably for the best that I don't ask anyone for help. Cash is so tight right now.

I should be pretty close to the spot. Kinda surprising, this area isn't too bad.



Maybe a bit weird and it's really working-class, but it's pretty clean and looked-after. Wouldn't be too worried about coming here after dark, as long as I moved quickly.



...ah. Decay like that is basically putting up a sign saying "goblins, please!" Bet you a kodi there's a broken window at the back and the goblins are nesting in there.

The lock's pretty cheap and in surprisingly good shape. I could probably pick it in the time it would take someone to legally open a rusty, sticky old lock, but I dunno if I want to. The goblins are supposed to be out and about right now, but they might be in there. This is probably the best chance I'll get to scope out the inside of the building, though.

1.	> Take the chance, pick the lock. You've got the weapons, after all.
2.	> Too risky. Check down the alley and see if there is another way in or not.
3.	> Try and peer in through the gap in the boards, maybe there's enough light to see.
4.	> Meh, you've seen enough, just go home and prep.
5.	> _

Spoiler: Meta (click to show/hide)

Ordinary comic art quality trajectory: -^----
TFSF art quality trajectory: - _{- - - -}

Gonna try and be better about time management, though.