The moment the creature fully entered into my demesne, the atmosphere became thicker and constricting. My demesne was locked up; I quickly tried to make some changes, even simply expanding my demesne, and confirmed I couldn’t make any changes to my demesne.
All I could do was watch who entered and how my dungeon fared.
As for what it was, I couldn’t help but laugh.
It was a little more than three feet tall with green skin, a sharp face sporting two big, wide ears, a round flat nose, and wicked sharp teeth.
There was no doubt in my mind that that fit the description of a fantasy goblin to a tee.
The goblin was dressed in leathers–pants, a sleeveless tunic, and well-worn boots. He carried a knife that glinted sharply in the low light in one hand and he carried a rucksack over his shoulder.
While the goblin scanned the room, I tried to use my Interface to inspect him. Fortunately, the skill did not seem blocked and worked normally; I was able to see his sigil array.
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 30.1298%" border="1">
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<td style="width: 40.674%; text-align: center">[Empty]</td>
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<td style="width: 27.097%; text-align: center">[Empty]</td>
<td style="width: 40.674%">
Dark Goblin (Level 2)
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<td style="width: 32.259%">[Brave Hearts]</td>
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<td style="width: 27.097%; background-color: rgba(126, 140, 141, 1); text-align: center"> </td>
<td style="width: 40.674%; text-align: center">[Empty]</td>
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The goblin–and it was actually named a goblin–was level 2, just like my skeleton, and also had one skill.
Brave Hearts - Improves courage and fighting skill scaling while in the presence of other Dark Goblins.
If I understood the skill right, this little guy would get stronger and braver the larger group of goblins he was with.
I wondered why he was–ah, here came another one.
Then a third one, and then a fourth and even a fifth. Two of the newcomer goblins were dressed similarly to the first one, although they held wooden javelins that were just taller than they were and tipped with flat iron spikes. They also had very short knives in sheaths held by loops attached to leather belts.
The second-to-last goblin was a little taller and filled out than the other four. In addition, he sported actual leather armor over his chest, along with leather bracers on his arms and even a reinforced leather cap. For a weapon, he carried a much longer dagger that probably was close to a short sword (for a human) and a small wooden buckler.
I inspected each one as they came in. They were all the same as the first goblin, except the one wearing armor and wielding the sword.
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<td style="width: 27.097%; background-color: rgba(126, 140, 141, 1); text-align: center"> </td>
<td style="width: 40.674%; text-align: center">[Empty]</td>
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<td style="width: 27.097%; text-align: center">[Skulk]</td>
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Dark Goblin (Level 4)
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<td style="width: 32.259%">[Brave Hearts]</td>
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<td style="width: 40.674%; text-align: center">[Darkvision]</td>
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Darkvision - Improved vision in low-light or dark environments.
Skulk - Enhanced sneak and hiding while in low-light or dark environments.
Now this guy was a goblin. I assumed that he was the leader of this little group. But he wasn’t the most interesting–
–that would be the fifth and final goblin and came in.
He was the smallest of the goblins that came in, and an inspection revealed he was level 1 and lacked any skills. He also wore patched up clothing, and carried no weapons. But what he did have was a large bag strapped behind him, much like a camper’s bag. And my demesne–or maybe Demesne?--let me “see” in the bag.[1] Inside, there were some small knives and other tools, a couple horns that have been carved hollow, one holding some dried food and the other fresh water, a lash of rope, a bunched up net, and a few other sundries. I really hoped I would be able to absorb all those goodies.
The scout moved through the room and stopped before the skeleton propped in the corner of the room. He peered over the skeleton then looked back towards the leader of the group and said something in a guttural language that I couldn’t understand (I now knew that I did not have any universal translation or language comprehension ability–lovely!).Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
The leader barked a command back to the scout.
The scout promptly turned back to face the skeleton, and then proceeded to–
–kick the skeleton as hard as he could.
The skeleton immediately crumbled under the force of the kick, the rib cage shattering inward and the whole thing collapsing. This did trigger the dart trap, and in the moment after, the darts flew out. But the skull was falling already due to the kick, and the darts had nowhere to go. They hit the inside of the skull and transferred their force such that the skull flew forward and smacked the scout right in the crotch. The goblin gave a loud screech, dropped his knife, and bowled over in pain.
The other goblins laughed loudly, especially the big guy. The scout rolled around and whimpered some more and the goblins kept laughing. Eventually, things settled down and the scout, not permanently debilitated, recovered. The leader and scout had a short shouting match, but the group proceeded from the first room towards the second.
They did not take the keys.
In the second room, the goblins saw the clay pots along the walls and floor and got visibly excited. The scout and hunters spread out and looked into some pots that were closest to the floor. One of the hunters reached into a pot, grabbed some of the black moss, pulled it out, and inspected it. The second hunter did the same, but he had chosen one of the pots that had a spider in it. As he rummaged around inside, he aggravated the spider, which struck out and bit the goblin’s hand. The goblin screamed and pulled back his hand, clutching his hand in pain.
The goblins converged on their injured brother and the leader inspected the bite marks. The group held a brief discussion and then the leader made a decision and issued orders. The other goblins went to the amphora on lower shelves and one by one grabbed them and threw them onto the ground, smashing them (the goblins were a little too short to grab the jars on the top shelf, so they used their javelins to push them off instead). When a jar with a spider was smashed open, the leader moved in quickly and stabbed the spider, dispatching it easily.
The goblin with the spider bite was starting to struggle and had a harder time breathing. He went to a corner and sat down. The other goblins, finished with their destruction, looked to their leader for direction. He made some commands, and the porter goblin left his bag near his injured comrade and took the other’s javelin. It looked like they were going to continue on.
They ignored the key on the floor.
They marched on and reached the bridge. The scout stood at the lip of the entrance and looked up and down. The leader shouted something, causing the scout to hesitantly walk onto the wooden bridge. Nothing happened, of course, so the scout walked forward and crossed the bridge. The hunter started to cross and about halfway the leader, in a fit of impatience, also began to cross the bridge.
With a great rumble, large stone rocks dropped from the top of the shaft''s ceiling. Both of the goblins looked up at the noise and then reacted as quickly as they could. The hunter rushed towards the far side, while the leader turned and tried to jump back. Unfortunately, neither was faster than gravity, and the rocks crashed into them and the bridge. With great cacophony, the two goblins, rocks, and the bridge''s shattered wood all fell into the spiked bottom.
The scout and porter both looked down the pit towards their dead brethren in shock and dismay. Then they started yelling at each other. After a brief argument, with some trepidation, the scout turned and headed down the stairs. He made it all the way to the door, but without a key (without any keys) he was unable to open it or even force it.
The scout trudged up the stairs and yelled more things at the porter across the gap. The porter goblin then went back and gathered the key in the spider room and the keys in the remains of the skeleton. He pulled the lash of rope from his backpack, looped it through the skeleton keys and tied it as a knot. Returning to the bridge, he then tried to toss the keys to the scout goblins, but he missed. Fortunately, with the rope, he was able to pull it back up and try again. All in all, it took six attempts, the scout providing loud, colorful commentary the entire time.
The scout took the keys and returned to the door. He took the first key–the correct one–and put it into the keyhole and unlocked the door. While I had been waiting for some delvers, I had made some tweaks to this room–specifically, I added a little bit of light moss on the box, just to make it more visible and added black moss on the walls and alcoves to make everything else less visible. If the goblin had another level, he would have easily and immediately spotted the two skeletons near the box.
I don’t think he did notice them, at least not from the door, but he did seem a little spooked. One step, two steps, then the skeletons moved to attack. The goblin dodged a clumsy strike from one skeleton, turned heel, and ran back up the stairs. The skeleton fighters walked after him, even the two hidden ones joining in the conga line. When the goblin got back to the broken bridge, he absolutely screamed at his friend. While I couldn’t understand goblin, I’m pretty sure the gist of it was something like “THROW ME THE FUCKING ROPE NOW!!”
The porter goblin furiously started tying the rope to the only thing he had–the javelin. He managed to complete the knot quickly and threw the javelin across the chasm like a javelin. The scout goblin ducked down as the javelin sailed just over where his head used to be, and went right into the rib cage of the first skeleton who had just arrived at the landing. The javelin didn’t do much damage to the bones of the skeleton, but it was firmly lodged there.
The scout goblin recovered quickly and dashed in to try to retrieve the javelin. He grabbed it with both hands and yanked it back, but the skeleton was relentless. I saw the skeleton’s sigil node flare with mana and the skeleton attacked with a swing of its club. The goblin tried to deflect the attack with the javelin but was still off balance from pulling it out from the undead. The club smashed into the goblin’s shoulder with a crunch, breaking the bone.
The goblin screamed in pain but did the only thing he could–he turned and jumped.
The scout jumped forward into the shaft, holding the rope for dear life primarily with his one good arm. At the same time, the porter goblin braced and pulled the rope. Unfortunately, when the scout swung across and slammed into the wall, he hit the wall with his bad shoulder. He screamed in pain, lost his handle on the rope, and tumbled down screaming until he was silenced with a loud thud.
The porter dude, ran to the entrance of the shaft and looked down. Then, his head snapped back up to look at the skeleton monster silently staring at him from the other side of the shaft. Brave Hearts must have lost its courage buff, because the porter, bereft of his leader, friends, and weapon, bolted in retreat. The goblin didn’t even stop to help his poisoned and now unconscious friend, grabbed his sack of stuff, and booked it out the front door.
The poisoned goblin hunter lay on the floor unconscious for nearly two days, before finally, mercifully, dying and ending my first dungeon run.