A Full House Divided Don’t Win No Pots

We went back to town and that was when we actually realized it was doing even worse than it was ‘fore we left. We talked to Millie, the innkeep with the pegleg. Did I mention that? She had a pegleg. We went back and talked to her and found out the goblins came back and raided the town, this time they didn’t give a hoot about thresholds or nothing. They waltzed right on into houses and kidnapped a couple of folks. Things wasn’t looking good, so we high tailed our way to the camp. We thought it was best to get there as quick as we could, ‘cause of the hostages, but also ‘cause it was raining devils and the fog was gonna be our friend while trying to sneak. On the way we found a crashed wagon that just needed a fixed wheel. We patched her up and strapped Charlotte to it so we’d have somewhere to haul all the loot we might be able to take back, as well as the folks that was kidnapped. Seemed like a good idea.

But when we got to the camp, it wasn’t at all what we expected. Their camp was in a skeleton for one of them - horizonbacks, yeah. A big one, the camp coulda fit hundreds of goblins if they wanted. But when we got there we only seen about ten of ‘em. We used that invisible potion we got a good couple hundred feet away. It was still pretty foggy and we got there at night so we wasn’t scared of them seeing us from far away. We made a whole plan before we realized how many goblins there were, Larry and I was gonna focus on listening and finding out their plans when Vebradu and Sledge was gonna get the kidnapped folks and find some booty to take back. But there was only one campfire and only one pile of stuff. Most of it wasn’t worth nothing, except for a safe Enrique told us about.

Vidar? Oh he uh. I don’t remember where he went. He was.. vague. He just kinda left for a bit. He must’ve been doing something important, probably getting paid by somebody to kill somebody else.

Anyway, we listened to what the goblins was saying. They talked for a good while, but basically their buddies weren’t able to like, actually die. Like, they couldn’t go back to the Faewild like they’re ‘sposed to. They’d die and get stuck here in Terrafirma. What happened was basically there was a uh.. necromancer type thing. That was living in a big ol black tower nearby. He’d come down with twenty-odd compelled mossy goblin corpses and would kill the goblins. But before they’d fully turn to greens again, he’d do some magic stuff. Which made them listen to him. There was a goblin there who was killed while compelled by him and came back and he was real shaken up when he talked about it. He didn’t know what he was doing, couldn’t see or hear nothing, just obeyed what he was told. Through magic, I guess. I felt real bad for the whole lot. I told ‘em if they quit raiding the town and gave back a few of the more valuable things in the pile we’d help. It was uh.. pretty important that we be the ones to help ‘em ‘cause they sent a scout to talk to some other tribes and apparently the Goblin King was back in business in Wool. I dunno if the news ever got this far south, but the king was preaching some “Let’s get revenge on the mortals for their greed.” So that wasn’t no good.

I figured it’d be better to help them ourselves. I uh.. If I’m honest, I didn’t think we’d be able to really do it. I just figured if we went to the tower and could kill a few goblins, I dunno, maybe twenty or so? Then their numbers would be tripled and they’d have an easier time fending for themselves. I just figured we could buy ‘em some time. Just long enough for them to lift the block on the road up north. I really wanted to get outta town before the full moon. But I told them about the meenlock den we took down, I said we had Vidar with us and they.. uh… well they definitely knew who he was. Sledge didn’t like me bringing it up but I think they respected the strength he had. Anywho, we came to an agreement. If they gave us back the hostages and all the stuff they stole and quit raiding the town, we’d help them with their necromancy problem. But they looked at me all confused - oh, well, I guess they were confused before. I forgot, when we started talking we were still invisible. The witch uh.. didn’t tell us how to stop it. But, that don’t matter, they was confused ‘cause they didn’t have no hostages. They hadn’t raided town for a coupla weeks at that point. And we realized if we didn’t deal with this then that whole dang town would get raided and be crawling with undead.

We had three days to kill the necromancer. That was all the supplies the goblins had left. After that they’d have no choice but to ask the Goblin King for reinforcements. Sledge and I went back into town with the leader of the goblins. His name was Barrel. I tell ya, I love goblin names. I used to think they were weird, but you shoulda met him, that man couldn’t have been nothing else but Barrel. Like I can’t be nobody but Javier, that was Barrel. I think hanging with him made me get Frida better, like no wonder she’d run off with goblins. I dunno if I’m making sense. I think I like that no goblin gives a rat’s behind on what anybody else thinks about them. Anyway, none of this matters, we went back to town. Sledge took the wagon off Charlotte and ran the whole way carrying me and Barrel. It was a bumpy ride, but it was nice that he could run at night while we slept. Or at least tried. It was bumpy.

Barrel and I was able to convince some of the guards and a priest to come and help us. We just told ‘em there was bigger fish than goblins and they understood. I mean, if you’re shooing a coyote from your coop and see bear dung, you worry more about the bear.