Goblinkin a deckbuilding.., p.7
Goblinkin: A Deckbuilding LitRPG, page 7
“Sunrise doings,” Imelda said, waggling a finger. “Does he mean towards the east? That would make sense, right?”
“Probably,” Gareth said. “We should probably get going, right?”
“Before you go doings, you stinky! We help you!” Boss said, holding his nose to make his point.
“Right, yeah.” Gareth pulled his filthy shirt to his nose and sniffed it. Boss wasn’t wrong. “He’s got a point.”
Boss slammed the bottom of his staff on the ground and two goblins appeared from behind a curtain at the back of the room.
“Take these goblin friends to the splashings room,” Boss said with a smile. “Show friends the waters.”
***
Gareth could feel his muscles thanking him as he lowered himself into the water. It had been so long since he had been able to bathe, and he could feel the dirt slopping off him in waves. The goblins had led the party deeper into the cave system, the pathway winding downwards until it reached a large cavern filled with pools of hot spring water, steam wafting off them. The sense of relief emanating from the party had been tangible.
The two women had travelled to a pool on the far side of the chamber, one hidden behind a large set of stalagmites. Sarkuran and Gareth had chosen one near them and eagerly stripped off and jumped in after first dipping their clothes in a nearby pool to wash off the beetle gore that had covered them.
“Oh yeah, that’s better,” Gareth said, leaning back against the stone. The water was just the right temperature, hot but not hot enough to turn his skin pink. “Reckon we can convince the goblins to let us use these whenever.”
“Hopefully,” Sarkuran said, well aware that Gareth was partly joking. He wasn’t, Sarkuran had always been a vocal fan of baths and the inability to get one had been—as far as he was concerned—the biggest downside of moving to the tower. “I thought perhaps I might never be clean again. We don’t notice it, but I dread to think of how we smelled. I can’t imagine we were doing ourselves any favours when we met the Golden.”
“Not much we could do about that, but yeah this is heaven. I mean, this place is less than a day’s walk, right? It’s fairly close to the tower in reality. No reason we couldn’t pop back now and then…”
“Provided the goblins are amenable,” Sarkuran said. All around him, in the other pools, goblins splashed about. The creatures didn’t seem to have the same hang-ups that Sarkuran’s friends did, men and women mixing freely despite their nudity. “They seem rather friendly considering that we’re strange new creatures to them.”
“Probably on account of these,” Gareth said tapping the deck box that was still at his waist despite his supposed nudity. The box was magical and normally generated a belt for it to sit on, though now it was just floating off his hip. The water was no problem for it, enchanted as it was. “We have promised to use magic to help with this problem of theirs.”
“Yes, this problem is presumably more of a difficulty than we thought, considering the amount of experience points the quest provides.”
“Ah, so you’ve noticed it too.”
Sarkuran nodded. “Indeed, it is logical that more experience points should be awarded for harder tasks, though one has to question how exactly it is that the system knows how hard it will be for us. Is it making a prediction, or does it know the future in some way? Are things premeditated to that extent, are we just following along on the chain of events people call fate?”
“That’s uh, very philosophical of you,” Gareth said, scooping up some of the water with his hands and splashing it on his face.
“It's something I’ve been considering for some time. If you think about it things have gone exceedingly well for us.”
Gareth furrowed his eyebrows. “I wouldn’t exactly say that. Wildermount got attacked by nightmares, we started an undead uprising in Thot-Ankor and we totally upended the beliefs of the Golden Lands. If anything you could argue we’re cursed.”
“And yet, if I am understanding things right, Magda just so happened to cast your soul down to the one world that could possibly set right the things that were done to her, and you managed to stumble your way into the only place on that world that contained the information and people needed to set into motion a plan laid down thousands of years ago. It’s all very, coincidental if you grasp my point.”
“Doesn’t mean its fate or something like that,” Gareth said. “I’m not a fan of that idea, it’s too easy to shake things off, to kind of brush aside the things you do. I know what I’m doing and why I’m doing it, I understand the damage we’ve caused. I think pretending like it was all some grand plan that was supposed to happen is a cop-out.”
“I do somewhat sympathise with what you’re saying. For what it’s worth I rather hope you’re correct rather than myself. I would like to think I’m in control of my life, despite all evidence to the contrary.”
“Hah, don’t we all!” Gareth gripped his nose and dipped his head beneath to wash the grime from his hair. He remerged a moment later, water running down his face. “Like, for example, right now. I’m in control of washing all this crud off me and you can be sure that I’m going to get that done before I do anything else. Not missing this opportunity even if fate, or destiny, or whatever wants to intervene.”
“That’s certainly something I can agree with. If I had a drink on hand I would propose a toast to being clean. A shame. In my empire public baths were common and there were even servants who would provide wine and cheeses.”
“Now that,” Gareth said, waggling a finger at Sarkuran, water flying off. “That sounds like some kind of divine intervention.”
Chapter Seven
The bath had been time well spent. Gareth felt much better, the muck and filth from weeks of adventuring slopping off. His clothes had been washed in the same water and left to dry on rocks near the hot spring, the heat drying them quickly. Not having his trousers creak as he put them on was a pleasure that Gareth had forgotten. He wondered if a safe path could be created through the jungle between the tower and the goblin caves. There was more than one person in the growing town that would appreciate access to the goblins' springs and the little creatures seemed perfectly amenable to the idea. They had proven to be curious about Gareth and his friends rather than afraid and whilst bathing with watchful eyes on him wasn’t something Gareth had been looking forward to all his worries had melted away when the water had lapped against his skin.
He met the others at the entrance to the cave, his friends similarly washed and cleaned. The group had developed an odd kind of glow though Gareth quickly realised it was simply a lack of grime rather than an exudence of light. Everyone looked better as far as Gareth was concerned, fresh and revitalised, ready to head back out into the jungle to deal with whatever it was lurking out there that the goblins were worried about.
“Think we can get a brand-new teleport platform built that will send us right here?” Imelda said, wringing out the last of the water from her hair. “Maybe just directly into the water?”
“Tell me about it,” Magda said. She hadn’t needed to wash her outfit like the others, the magical material repelling dirt on its own. It didn’t protect her skin however and having the long bath had felt fantastic. It was one of the things Magda hated about her current mortal shell. Gods didn’t get dirty, and the sensation had been intensely unpleasant the first time she had experienced it. Washing herself had seemed like an unbearable chore at first, though her introduction to bathing back in Wildermount had quickly changed her opinion. Once she returned to her divine form Magda fully intended to carry on with the practice of having a nice long soak. “Maybe it’s something I’ll remember how to do once we activate more Godswords? You know, we always seem to get distracted by something on our way to those.”
“Just the way of the world,” Gareth said, despite not knowing if that was really the case or even being from Acamida, to begin with. It was a platitude, something to make Magda feel better about the diversion the group had found themselves on. “Besides helping the goblins will keep them on our side and make our lives easier. Means the people at the tower won’t need to keep their heads on a swivel looking out for goblins amongst the trees.”
“They weren’t doing that anyway. We weren’t even aware of the goblins. I do understand your point, however. More allies are always better than more enemies,” Sarkuran said, his tone making it sound like he was delivering ancient wisdom rather than stating the obvious. “Though I rather suspect the goblins would have been little threat to us. They seemed content to just avoid us rather than engage in any kind of direct confrontation. That makes sense considering the kind of dangers they must face in the jungle outside. The monsters there dwarf us sometimes, stealth is their only chance at survival realistically thinking.”
“Not that good at it are they?” Imelda whispered, nodding to a passing goblin. “I mean, we found that one by accident.”
“Eh,” Gareth said with a shrug. “Considering how many there are it was inevitable, the fact that it didn’t happen sooner is proof they are pretty sneaky. Besides, it could just be that Grobbit is bad at it, not goblins as a whole.”
“Felt like defending your people a little?” Magda said with a smirk. “Seems like they recognise their own.”
Gareth reached up and stroked the tip of his right ear. The point that was slowly forming was unmistakable now. The next step would be lengthening, a goblin ear long and a little floppy. “Yeah, I guess so. Only a matter of time before I develop the green skin and start talking weird.”
“Start?” Magda said. “I can barely understand you.”
“I suspect that it's our translation magic that’s causing the oddness rather than the goblins themselves,” Sarkuran said. “It’s entirely possible that it’s simply that the goblin language, or the language of these goblins specifically, is using a drastically different grammatical structure. This could be the only way to translate it so that we can understand it. These creatures might be perfectly eloquent to each other.”
Magda crossed her arms and pouted. “Alright, no need to make me feel bad.”
“That was not my intention. Besides the speaking style of these creatures is bound to create some difficulties for us. Such as for example where this trouble is located. East is hardly an accurate direction. Fully east? East northeast? And how are we going to determine what direction east is exactly? We have no compass.”
“What?” Imelda said, slightly offended. “Of course, we do.” She swung her pack around and reached inside, plucking out a small brass disk. She flicked the lid open to reveal a needle inside happily pointing towards the Wildermountian character for north. “You think I wouldn’t pack something so simple as a compass? That’s like the first thing you make sure you have.”
“Yeah, if anyone is going to have a compass on her, it’s Imelda,” Gareth said.
“We all have compasses, there’s one in every bag.”
“Right, so yeah, if anyone is going to have more compasses than necessary, it's Imelda.” Gareth snorted at his joke. “Anyway, at least we know what direction to travel in anyway. The goblin, uh, Boss, said this thing was in a ruin. Presumably, we’ll be able to actually find them. The jungle isn’t uh, the easiest thing to navigate.”
“No, it’s not,” Imelda said as she pocketed the compass. “We’ll have to be careful we don’t overshoot wherever this place is. We’re going to want to form a searching line.”
“A what?” Magda said. Imelda had said the words like everyone should know what they mean. Not everyone had spent their entire lives in a forest. Before being dumped down to Acamida this particular incarnation of Magda had only seen trees in the memories of the souls she had been tasked to judge.
“It’s where we spread out as far as we can whilst making sure we can still see each other. That way if someone gets into trouble we can collapse the line quickly, but we’re searching as big an area as we can safely. It’s a common thing when you’re looking for something in the forest and I’m assuming it’ll work here. This is basically just a hot wet forest after all.”
“Not sure I’m a fan of hot wet forest as a name,” Gareth said with a sneer. “Can’t see that taking off.”
“You’re probably right,” Imelda said. “Let’s stick with the jungle for now. Either way, this is our best shot. Hopefully, it won’t matter. At least this forest doesn’t shift about like mine does. Makes things a little bit safer.”
“Yeah, small mercies.” Gareth adjusted the straps on his backpack. Not because it was heavy, the bag didn’t weigh anything, but it was a sign that he was ready to leave. He was eager to get one with the quest, it was already late afternoon and Gareth didn’t want to be caught out in the jungle after dark if possible. “Come on, who knows how far we have to go to find this place.”
“Or indeed, how we get out of these caves,” Sarkuran said.
“Ah, yeah, that’s a good point.” Gareth had lost any sense of where he was in the goblin warrens as he had been led away by the Boss’s attendants. They had to be underground, he knew that at least. “How are we going to…hang on.” Gareth turned to a goblin who happened to be walking past, a sheet of rough clough draped over its shoulder to act as a towel. “Hey uh, hello.”
“Hello speakings!” the goblin said, excited to speak to the warren’s visitors.
“Uh hi. If I wanted to get out of the warren, which way would I need to go?”
“You are goblin. Goblin should do knowings.”
“Right, but I’m not a goblin.”
“You are goblins. I do the feelings. Just do the feelings too.”
“I’m totally confused,” Gareth said.
“I think the creature is saying that there’s some kind of innate sense they have about you. They can feel that you’re at least partially goblin thanks to your skill,” Sarkuran said. Of all of the assembled party, he had the most experience with skills changing the body. “That’s not unreasonable, plenty of beings are able to feel others around them, even humans. You ever get the sense you’re being watched, or wonder how you don’t bump into people in the street when you’re not paying attention?”
“I don’t think it’s quite the same as telling what kind of creature someone is.”
“All goblins know goblins. All goblins having the feelings of where to go. Findings of ways easy when goblin,” said the greenskin. “You knows. Just have to do the doings.”
“Wait, so you can feel every goblin in the warrens?” Magda said.
“Yes, yes.”
“Can’t hurt to give it a try,” the goddess said, shrugging at Gareth.
“I have no idea how I would even do it.” Gareth didn’t like the idea that he was somehow psychically linked to the goblins. He liked the little creatures but the concept that someone could know where he was at all times was unsettling.
“Just do the thinkings,” the goblin with a towel said. “Is easy.”
“Sounds just like using a feat if I’m being honest,” Imelda said.
Gareth held up a hand in submission. “Fine. Fine. I’ll try.”
He closed his eyes. Gareth didn’t know why but it felt like the right thing to do. He tried to shut out all outside influences, which was difficult because of all the goblins lurking nearby. At any given time the corridor was filled with them and the baths behind the party were particularly packed. There were so many that the noise was almost overpowering.
Until it wasn’t.
Gareth realised that the noise had dropped away, leaving only the knowledge of their sources. It was like he could feel every goblin around them, picturing them clearly in his mind's eye. The sensation stretched out, reaching through the tunnels, every goblin sparking into Gareth’s mind like a million motes of light. There were so many of them, far more than Gareth thought, the tunnels burrowing deep into the ground. He couldn’t sense the warrens, not directly, but he could feel where every goblin was within them, the flow of the creatures as they navigated them outlining the shape of the tunnels like blood flowing through veins.
Feat Unlocked: Goblinsense—Feel the presence of every goblin within a milot.
“It’s working,” Gareth said. “I can feel them.” He opened his eyes and the sensation remained. It was difficult for him to explain but it was almost like the other goblins had become a part of him. “Trying this unlocked a feat. I guess that’s how the goblins are doing it.”
“Fascinating,” Sarkuran said, walking around Gareth like he had discovered a new species. “The goblins must have some kind of hive mind. I wonder if that extends to our groblin friends. I suspect maybe not, seeing as they weren’t able to locate one another in the sewers. Maybe it’s what differs their kinds, a different evolutionary fork in a way.”
“Thank you,” Gareth said to the goblin, trying his best to ignore Sarkuran. “I’ll be ok from here.”
“No problems! Good luck with the doings.” The goblin gave an odd little salute and sauntered off towards the baths with its towel flopping on his shoulder.
“You can get us out now?” Imelda asked, curious about Gareth’s new power.
“Yeah, I can.” Gareth flexed his hands for a moment as he tried to focus on his new sense. It was a little overwhelming, but Gareth was finding that he could shrink the range if he needed to regain his composure. Knowing where everyone around him was at all times was slightly disorientating. “I can’t feel the tunnels, but I can feel the goblins moving through them, spreading out when they get to the entrance. It’s like I can’t see the road, but I can see the traffic.”
“Well, lead on then,” Imelda said. “Not sure how useful this will be outside of this situation, but then again that’s a lot of feats, right?”
“Speak for yourself,” Gareth said. He knew that Imelda was right. He was lucky, being reborn in Acamida meant that he had been a duellist from level one. All of Gareth’s skills and feats had been helpful to his adventuring. For most, they had gathered a few levels before getting their deck and as such had some powers that were useful to their old lives but largely useless for duellists. “I personally plan on getting stuck in lots of goblin caves from now on. Really make the most out of this.”
