Grubeck's Story

Twas not long before the sun peaked over the horizons and Grubeck awoke with fright, beads of sweat dripping down his body, salty droplets onto the earth. It was a strange dream that had overwhelmed the goblin but a simple one. A blade-no, a sword, double edged, ran through his body and had decapitated him. The man wielding the blade was nothing but a shadow figure of darkness; for there was no war roaring in the background but a blinding white light.

Afterwards, his lips twitched into a forced smile, and he took a long needed stretch. Grubeck sighed, packed up his goods, and spotted the mounts that layed before him and his crew. There were many regular mounts, horses, and such, but special mounts as well. As a shaman, Grubeck was intrigued by the varieties of mounts, one being a giant centipede! The second that Grubeck leaned towards it however, the other goblin, Urknenkt, took the special mount. Grubeck gave his kin a challenging look before he turned around back to what else could he ride. Admittedly, the shaman didn't really need a mount, but the rest itself was needed. Besides, he'd need to familiar himself with other creatures in order to mimick them. In the end it was a giant spider that had caught Grubeck; easily double his own size.

It was a fight to rather mount the black spider. Each leg was long and slender, sharp enough at the ends to stab a man, and it hissed, jumped back whenever a man or woman came within ten feet. The pitch black spider had an red hourglass mark on it's abdomen that seemed to glow whenever it felt threatened. The black widow, without a doubt, obviously felt threatened as Grubeck circled it slowly, back hunched, and fingers close to the ground to prepare for a sprint. "Come on, you damned, six legged-" Cutting off his own sentence, the goblin took off with a sprint to the spider's side who raised it's legs out to skewer the shaman. Diving under the beast to the otherside, Grubeck jumped on it's back, took hold of it's reigns, and despite reigning victory; the spider didn't give up on trying to throw him off. As it followed the caravan, it went ahead of everyone else on the trail, climbing up trees and then hanging upside down on a single thread, using gravity to try to get rid of the old goblin.

By the time the town was reached, Grubeck had finally broken in the mount, cursing it all along the way. The moment he got off the black widow, it early attacked him, stopping only at the limitations the reign held, tied to a tree. "That's right." Grubeck said, teasing it with a green finger in its reach before pulling it away. He decided to walk around town and noticed a couple of refugees, one of them, a harpy severly injured, nearly mauled to death. Admittedly, he eavesdropped their conversation and heard of the "griffin" that had done it. Griffins were a legend that Grubeck has yet to see, creatures with the body of a lion, head and wings of an eagle. If Grubeck could take a manifestation of such a creature; a great deal of destruction could ensue. It would take getting acquanted with the griffon, maybe eat it if it has to get to that point, then be it.

Such is the case with the larger animals; while if he tried he could probably mimick the black widow. Reaching the entranceway to the bar; an idea on how he could use his firebombs came to mine. Without the tar it wouldn't be combustable on contact but if consumed, with the help of a small mote of fire from his tribal staff, it could create a large flame and burn down groups. With that in mind, Grubeck entered the bar, and sat himself down near the dwarf. "Some mead' he told the barkeep, before looking at the dwarf right next to him, eyes keeping the words of the book. A large glass was settled in front of the goblin, so he took a quick swig, waited for the woman to finish talking, and said to the dwarf. "I could teach you how to see them." Without waiting for the dwarf's reply he turned to the cpatain with a curious question in mind. "Captain, where's all the war machines? No catapults, ballista, or even chariots. Looks like the forest tribes were more well armed then we are." Grubeck joked, taking a long swig of mead and awaited Asch's word. He did hope that Mellon Pass did have some of the mechaical creations. In his experience, they were very effective against buildings and ripped through anyone in their way.

The matter of choice was now... which mount was to carry the goblin count into battle, the stableman a snaketail that carried himself in a mannerism that Urknekt did not exactly felt too comfortable in, there was something not entirely right about him

Urknekt looked over the huge black warhorse, a stallion that weighted more than 3 of his kind combined, the beast towered over the short frame of Urknekt "As the goblin master can see, this is a mount fit for a king, o it has carried great men into peril... not so sure about having carried them out of it" Urknekt looked at the teeth of the horse "I dont suppose you have Ice ogres on your stables" The snaketail man took his pinky to his lips "I'm afraid that we do not know them by that name goblin master, what is wrong with this impressive specimen?" Urknekt looked at the beast and could not help to wonder if the Snaketail was making fun of him "Well to begin with a mount is something you must have quick access to, even to one of them tall ones the stallion would require an individual of an exceptional height to mount it with ease, my people would require some sort of... chair to get on top of it and in the mids of battle I can wager that would be dangerous, I might even be dead before I am able to grab him by the saddle"

The stablemaster shook the end of his tail, it was pierced with rings that clattered whenever he did that "Well my good goblin these are the ones most... conventional to the army but I assume the master and I know that sometimes just because a boot fits an elf doesn't mean we should use it" Urknekt could not help to chuckle at the joke "What are you getting at?" the viper smiled "There is a stock of much more unconventional creatures that the goblin master could find more to his liking, provided he was to take a look" Urknekt nodded in approval "Very well show me"

It was a good deal beyond the camp, the creatures housed there seemed to unnerve beasts and soldiers there and by the looks that the goblin was getting he understood the why all too well, 8 eyes like dark beads looked at him and the naga "What manner of creature is this?" Urknekt asked "Has anyone tamed these?" in the mountains of the north he knew of giant tarantulas that preyed on everything but ogres, they favored harpies as their meal for a reason "Not so much as tamed my good goblin master simply, teach them to carry weight with the promise of a feast afterward"

But who is it planning on feasting on?

"I'm not sold on that one I'm afraid keeping it fed would be an issue" the nagi nodded and they moved towards the next cage, like the other it had a piece of cloth covering it "well then how about this one?" before the cloth was fully removed Urknekt had to duck to avoid the dung that was thrown at him, it was a caged ape he could easily see the pros and cons that such beast would provide as a mount, a swiftness on hard terrains, a strength to carry him out and in but on a road he suspected his top speed would not be in par with a horse "How good is this one on the road" the nagi seethed of disappointment "It is a mount for special troops not for your common soldier my goblin master" Urknekt frowned and he said "I take it that the answer is no, this was a waste of time"

The nagi looked agitated by this and said "There is something else you could see, it is fit for your shot frame, it has sturdy legs to carry you fast and swiftly across the fields and it is not a predatory specimen, besides it has a magic trinket which makes it all the better" the goblin was intrigued now "very well show me"

Curled like a ball in its cage another insect awaited movement before showing itself off "What is that" the nagi placed in one of his fingers a dark green ring that he had been hiding in his pouch and said "This is a Berethill Centipede, found in the black islands were the lack of predators has made the insects there grow so large, it is a daunting place everything there just seems so disproportionate in comparison to what we find in our lands, if you think our spiders are big you should see the size of those creatures" he made some signal with the ring hand and the centipede began unraveling itself "Have you ever heard of the rings of power?"

"No" the goblin lied "Are they dangerous?" the stableman looked annoyed "They pose no danger, their crafting requires patience and magic and a defective ring of power could be the doom of its wielder, our magicians have become masters of this craft"

Wish I could say the same about those goblins that made ours

"I suppose one of those is related to this creature" The nagi nodded "Said creature has a name, you may call her Tropia and indeed this green ring allows me to talk directly to her understanding your Berethil Centipede is hte key to being a nightmare on the field, however one must be careful that the Centipede does not take over your mind instead"

The goblin drew his hand forward "let me try" the nagi looked at him with suspicioun "first we talk payment" Urknekt had been waiting for this, he drew a scroll and handed it to him "What does this..." the goblin cut him off "It means that I am under Captain Asch orders and I am to be supplied, expenses might be passed down to commander Strom"


*****

It was a real shame that the nagi did not housed Mamgons, now that would have been an imposing sight on the field, the goblin towering over buildings and trees alike, he would have an issue without a structure to ride the beast or the crew to man the firing positions and lead the behemoth forward, but it would look bloody intimidating.

Alas he had only seen them in the army once, they were more often than not more trouble than what they were worth, if you were lucky enough to have more than one at a time you had to watch out for the males not trying to fight each other either in camp or in the field for the Alpha position, the females were too elusive and not aggressive enough, and gods help you if you had a male and a female and they went in heat in the midst of battle.

Urknekt was content with his centipede Tropia, the need to place the ring had not surfaced as of yet but still he kept it at hand just in case, the riding position was something he would have to get used to, rather than sitting proud and tall like the tall ones did on their mares and stallions, Urknekt had to latch on the centipede's back like a monkey hangs on to a branch, he could sit at any given moment with his back pointing to the sky but that brought him out of balance and should the centipede have to rush few things stopped him from bending backwards and be as useless as nipples in a breastplate.

So he had to lean forward and tuck arms and legs to the centipede and take good care of his mounting chair, the nagi master had told him how troublesome it was to find a tamed giant centipede from the black islands, let alone a riding chair for the one he was riding one custom made with her attributes of length and weight in mind.

*****

He was entering the bronze claw now, late again but this time for a very different reason the first time he had been wenching as any goblin worth his mettle would, today he had been making bargains, he had sold the winged helm of the archer captain that he had slew, it had give him some good gold coins for his trouble.

Still the blacksmiths on this town were not up to the levels that Urknekt required, they had not yet been able to work the metal the same way the goblins of the north had, combining durability, resistance, light weight and the gears and cogs that increased the goblin's strength, hopefully somewhere else he would find that talent.

He entered and found the table were his group should be sitting, he recognized the old goblin, the female captain and the snakewoman.

“I don’t think we’ve all been properly introduced I am Masana Kelvaras. It is my honor to serve with all of you.” she was presenting herself "Aye hello there Masana, my name is Urknekt and gods know id like to get to know you better" he said with a perverse grin, the old goblin was making questions regarding mechanical things... maybe he could help Urknekt to keep his armor in shape "you should not bore the captain with dull things, cant you see that these tall ones got no love for destruction" he took a seat close to the goblin elder and the snakewoman, one by one he undid the locks on his helm and finally revealed his bald, gray face with his golden eyes "Lets talk about something interesting instead, but first!" he signaled the waiter boy and said "Bring us a good barrel cant you see these people are thirsty!"

If you had asked him before, Urknekt would have told you that he probably was not going to be very fond of this group of his with their stupid concepts of honor and duty and goddesses and crap like that, which, truth be told was devoid of any weight or meaning being just hollow words that a killer might use to paint himself a hero to its people.

If you asked him now, what he thought of the group, he would tell you that everyone but the goblin elder had their brains removed and replaced by horse`s excrement.

They were dull and talking about things of no real importance and as he could have bet his liver on, the elves proved to be unsocial freaks who stuck up behind and watched from affar, they reminded of cats, how he hated those creatures... they did however, manage to make a delicious stew when paired with honeyed orange.

He looked to the goblin elder but he seemed to be talking about capturing a griffon "Aye we should do that just to prove we can!" shouted Urknekt making his support to this endeavor clear

What in the bloody hell is a Griffon though?

He did not failed to notice that the nose less goblin was in deep talk with an icefolk with hair the color of wheat, mayhap it was not the right time to talk about necromancy with him at the moment, there was another individual who might offer insight but he was an orc and he just knew that no matter what they thought they knew it was useless to a goblin as himself.

That left him with the snakewoman, to hear her tell it she was some sort of priest,monk,wizard...thing and while he doubted she was an adept at communing with the dead, but since he knew well that the goblins were the risking type, thats why they had left their caves and managed to settle on mountains, rivers, hills and pretty much everywhere.

"Saaaaay" he said as he grabbed a seat near the snake woman "Kelvaras is it? do you by any chance know anything about... well i dont know how you southrons name it but" he realized something "you know what ill need a drink to talk of this stuff"

He lifted his arm and said "hey waitress two whiskeys here" the snakewoman replied "sorry I don't drink" Urknekt nodded and said "O I get it" he lifted his arm and said "hey waitress, two bottles of rum please" the priestess seemed struck by this and replied "Goblin I don't think you heard me, I DON'T drink" Urknekt nodded again and said "I know what you mean" he lifted his arm to signal the waitress again and say "Well have two cups of wine here" the nagi reflected something that Urknekt perceived as annoyance as she finally said "Goblin, Im not drinking any alcohol" Urknekt laughed "O why didn't you said that earlier" he signaled the waitress yet again and said "Hey well just be needing beers after all"

While the waitress indeed brought a bottle Urknekt never stopped to check if the nagi was drinking too, probably she wasn't thirsty but his head was dizzy by now "you know what woman, I think well pick this later I think if had enough for the day and plenty for the night as well, be seeing you later" Urknekt got up and mumbled "sweet dreams"

If he remembered it by next morning he would make a point to never drink so much without someone to undress him, it was difficult as hell to remove all the safety locks and to undo the cogs and remove the chains that composed his impressive infantry armor, putting a key in a keyhole proved to be a challenge to many when under the influence of alcohol and undoing such a complex system of armor was something that was well above and beyond the drunk goblin`s skills so he slept with some parts of his armor off and most of them still over him

He could not recall what exactly he had told the snaketail about the talk with the dead, had he used the name of necromancy to refer to the ability to speak with the dead, he could not tell you if he had gone into specific details or if it had been a really general talk but he wished she could do it, he wanted to talk to his son again, tell him how proud he was when he stormed that elven keep... and how his memory would be one of inspiration and valor when he died holding it, and how once Urknekt`s time walking on the land of the living was done they would finally make that trip to the Island of Aceplon.

He had other spawn, of some he did not knew even the mother`s name let alone the whelp but Lugush was special he was fast and cunning were the others were slow, he proved himself a leader amongst goblin kind and a formidable fighter, so formidable that they told Urknekt if he had sired the child with an ogre

Youre so ugly you might as well shack one

He smiled and his mind drifted away into the realm of dreams