Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Urist McCheeseMaker]

This is fucking AWESOME!

The rage and stuff doesn't seem like something we can replicate anytime soon, so expect us to be at the level of the stumbling-thing. Still, this is quite handy. If nothing else, we can use it to affect things without anyone seeing what we're doing. Until it's too late. I like.

Look around for anything shiny to loot. Encrusted items and metal items are expensive, and will be shiny. If you see much that might be worth a few coins, ask for a moment to loot your kills. After all, they are your kills, caused by a strange and scary power. He'll understand. Do make an effort to calm him down and assure him that you're on his side. Remind him, if possible, that you owe these little folks a small debt because of taking you in. On your own, you'd have had trouble down here.

Also... try to get something that looks anything like armour. We want armour. Armour is good. BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD and all, but let's not let it be our blood. That's just stupid.

[quip]

This is fucking AWESOME!

The rage and stuff doesn't seem like something we can replicate anytime soon, so expect us to be at the level of the stumbling-thing. Still, this is quite handy. If nothing else, we can use it to affect things without anyone seeing what we're doing. Until it's too late. I like.

Look around for anything shiny to loot. Encrusted items and metal items are expensive, and will be shiny. If you see much that might be worth a few coins, ask for a moment to loot your kills. After all, they are your kills, caused by a strange and scary power. He'll understand. Do make an effort to calm him down and assure him that you're on his side. Remind him, if possible, that you owe these little folks a small debt because of taking you in. On your own, you'd have had trouble down here.

Also... try to get something that looks anything like armour. We want armour. Armour is good. BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD and all, but let's not let it be our blood. That's just stupid.

I got the idea that we killed them before he got to us and was scared of the goblin bodies + our killer laughter (but I'm not sure, I don't think it matters much anyway). And yes, this is awesome.

[Urist McCheeseMaker]

If we saw him get out of the dark after the killing thing, he saw us way before it happened. They have no problem with the darkness, remember?

[Nivim]

 Do a quick loot for now; mainly a chainshirt and a helmet, followed by small valuables. You don't really need to ask the dwarf to wait just so you can weigh yourself down further.

 Check your own aura again; curses aren't healthy for either party, and you don't really want to become like Ming or worse.

[Urist McCheeseMaker]

This wasn't so much a curse, as simple manipulation of one's health though.

[Nivim]

 Heh, just like someone taking a cleaver to your head is "simple manipulation of your health". We might not have used magic words or a doll, but the intent was just the same, and we laughed (maniacally) about it...

[Urist McCheeseMaker]

A curse is usually something that's permanently active. This just killed them. Death -is- permanent, but not because we made it so. I wouldn't consider it to be a curse.

... I think our magical amnesiac friend has gone quite schizophrenic by now, hasn't he?

[Argonnek]

Why, of course! It should have been the first thing on your mind! LOOT!

Your exhaustion temporarily forgotten, you jump over and start ripping valuables off of the corpses. Amulets, rings, bracelets, no piece of jewelry escapes your macabre harvest. Any limbs that prevent your looting are removed and taken with, to be dealt with at a later time.
Once the small stuff is taken care of, you look around for some armor. Most of the pieces are of no interest, either because of their material or their size, but there is one bronze shirt on a particularly large goblin that fits you. You wear it, but it's really heavy. At least it's armor! You also don an iron cap under your hood, and put some copper gauntlets over your gloves.

The exhaustion sets in once more, and you walk back to the fortress with the spear as a walking stick. You wander through the caverns, listening and looking for danger. You look at a fork in the path ahead, and suddenly wonder which path leads back. You check your map, and it leads you to the left. You continue your trek, checking the map occasionally to keep from getting lost.
You return to the valley -well, it looks like a valley- and make your way down to the fortress proper. You cross the bridge quickly, and finally drop the woolen sock into the stockpile.You go to the food stockpile and grab one of the purple mushrooms. You wolf it down and make your way to your hospital bed. Once there you flop over and sleep.

You stand in a hallway. On either side of you are cages, each containing a goblin. They all look dazed and confused. One is trying to plead with you to let him out. Another is crying, and a particularly large one is trying to give out orders.

[AntiAntiMatter]

Ask them about their situation.

[Nivim]

 Ah yes, we did not just drain, but drained into ourselves; these are the souls we ate.
As you listen about their situation, examine their confinement: check if the cages are strong; check if they rob more than freedom; check if they are unhealthy to those in them and those near them. Also, find out how well this hall dampens sound.
 Ask each one why they act differently from the others. Perhaps we should try giving them food for thought to take their minds off the situation.

Edit: Grammar failure from excessive prediting.

[Urist McCheeseMaker]

The particularly large one is probably the one whose chainmail we took. Must be a commander of sorts.

Right. If we leave them be and one "escapes", they'll probably cause us any number of psychological problems, most likely including fatigue. This would be bad. On the other hand, goblin prisoners could be useful, both in this dreamworld and in the real one. You might even be able to put them back in their bodies. But, don't count on it.


Question these goblins a bit. Be mean, but fair. Ask them just -why- they were attacking, and if they meant harm, rub it in their faces. They just got pwned, bitches. Also, see if you can open some kind of portal into the afterlife, to release their what-appears-to-be-souls. Preferably, more than one kind of afterlife.. heaven and hell, anyone? The perfect bargaining chip.

Then again, this is a hallway and if we want to find a portal, we'd probably have to open some doors and look around..

[Argonnek]

Apparently, you didn't kill them, you absorbed them. Interesting. You must remember in the future not to do that to larger or more powerful creatures.

You turn and address the one who is pleading with you. You can't understand his words, but you can understand his intent well enough.
"Why were you assaulting the dwarves?" you communicate.

"They destroy our trade! They burn our farms!" his replies.

"Why do they do that?" you ask.

"They say we steal their children! They are wrong! We do not allow thieves to live! We cannot control the actions of a few misguided souls! Now please! Release me! I have a family!"

"You can't be released, you're dead."

"What?" he steps back from the bars. "I... You mean I didn't faint? I wasn't captured. I died." He slumps down and puts his head on his knees. He hums to himself and stops responding.

You decide to examine the cages. They seem fairly strong, and are welded shut. Only the immensely strong could get through. Even if they did, the halls are made of concrete and the doors on either end of the hall are guarded by floating swords.
You walk up to the large, noisy one who appears to be the commander. She shuts up for a moment and looks at you.
"I suppose you'll want to be rubbing it in," she communicates.

"No, I want to know why you were assaulting the dwarves."

"I'll be having you know that they attacked first. They broke the treaty, so we've been taking out our vengeance on them."

"What treaty?" you ask. The dwarves didn't mention a treaty. They didn't mention goblins either, but you're getting distracted.

"The treaty of peace our kings signed when the humans sent the creatures of magic into the caves. It said that we'd work together until we were strong enough to retake the surface. They attacked first, they broke the treaty, they be needin' punishment."

"The other goblin over there," you point to the unresponsive one you spoke with before, "said that the dwarves attacked because thieves took dwarven children."

"That'd be right. Some of the older goblins didn't see tha need to work with the dwarves. They hid in the deeper caves and kept the old ways alive. The dwarves don't see a difference between the civil goblins that want to get our lands back and the babysnatchers, they only see..." She thinks for a second. "'Greenskins' I think they call us."

"How long ago were you sent to the caverns?"

She thinks for a long while. At last, she says "I think it'd be about 600 of your years ago. When humans fought with sword and bow. They had more children and expanded faster than any of the other races. It's to be expected with a race so short lived." She sighs. "And now we are only myths to them. What I heard last was that they even killed off the megabeasts."

"Short lived?" you ask. "How long do goblins and dwarves live?"

"Those dwarves live for a long while, but die of age even so. We goblins, though, we don't die of age. Our glorious leader was there when the humans sealed the last of the caves. I was just a wee one when the snatchers left for the depths years later."

[AntiAntiMatter]

Ask how you can aid the goblins.

[Urist McCheeseMaker]

Let's just try to get them some peace in whatever afterlife there is. Do ask them if any would prefer to stay and guide your efforts, instead of passing on immediately. Having so many goblins inside our heads can't do any good, especially when they grow restless. They'd be a distraction. The leader seems like the sort that would stick around and help, though.

On another note: inspect the hallways in case we have to repeat this trick. It might be good to know more of how it works.

[Argonnek]

"Do you know how I could help you pass on?" You communicate to the commander.

"How would I know?" she replies. "If you want to do that, ask the shaman."

"Where is he?"

She points to the crying goblin. He is simply sobbing in one corner of the cage and not doing anything else. You walk over and try to get his attention.
"Hey," you say. He ignores you. "HEY!" He jumps and looks at you, but the tears don't stop coming.

"W-what? I don't want to talk to you." He turns away to cry again.

"I can help you," you say.

"You're just another imaginary thing trying to get my hopes up. Go away." He does not look at you when he says this.

Instead of responding, you create a bucket of cold water above his head and dump it over him. He screeches and jumps away from you. He shivers, but you think it's more from the fear than the cold.
"Are you willing to listen now?" you ask him.

"What's the point?" he whines. "Even if you are the owner of this mind, you can't connect to the underworld. I've felt your presence, and it's powerful. Just not powerful enough." He slumps down. "It's hopeless."

Not powerful enough, eh? "Let's try anyway," you say cheerily. "I may have gotten more powerful, and it never hurts to try. Just tell me what is needed, then I can make arrangements."

He sighs deeply. "Okay. It won't work. If you want to try, you can. You need to somehow bridge the gap between here and the afterlife."

"How would I do that?"

"I don't know. I didn't complete that part of my training. I was drafted after I learned how to heal basic wounds. Connecting to the world of death isn't considered important by the military and is left to the older shamans. If you could get physically closer to the plane of death, then that might help. I don't know for sure."