After the Flood

by A. C Carter

Goblin Stew Part 2

  Chapter 22

  The two Goblins walked into the cave room. Arilee noticed these Goblins were smaller like the Goblins they had been used to. Not as big as the Goblin Chefs. Now that they were closer, Arilee could see these two had claw marks painted across the chest of their blackened crude iron armor. The one on the left had red claw marks painted, and the one on the right had white claw marks painted.

  The Goblins surveyed the room. Arilee tried to scoot herself farther behind the meat rack the group was hiding behind in the corner. She was careful to keep herself in the shadows.

  The Goblin with the white claw painted on his chest snarled something to the other Goblin, and then pointed to the cauldron in the center. Then it pointed to the corner on the opposite side of the room from the group.

  The Goblin with the red claw painted on his chest snarled back and gave the Goblin a light shove. They glared at each other for a moment. The tension lasted only a second before White Claw snarled again turned and started walking to the corner while Red Claw walked to the cauldron.

  Arilee gripped the corner of the meat rack tighter with worry, as she watched Red Claw look into the large, black cauldron. The Goblin looked up to White Claw who was looking behind the meat racks opposite there’s. Red Claw smiled, and reached to grab something on the ground behind him.

  “Is that a ladle? He isn’t…?” whispered Chip, was watching through the meat racks next to Arilee.

  Red Claw dipped the ladle into the bubbling Goblin-filled stew and took a sip. It smiled wider, and took another sip.

  “Gross,” whispered Chip.

  Arilee almost relaxed for a moment, but Leela had gripped her shoulder and pointed. White Claw was now closing in on their corner. He had a long crude iron sword in his hand, held out in front of him.

  Arilee unsheathed her new Elvish Daggers and looked at Chip.

  “Chip, get ready to grab him.” she said while balancing herself on the balls of her feet. She made sure to remain low and behind the meat racks.

  Chip looked at her confused, but moved into a similar ready position.

  Arilee waited as the Goblin came closer. She knew he would have to get into almost reaching distance before he saw them in the shadows.

  When the Goblin was footsteps away, Arilee dashed out from behind the racks.

  “Now!” she whispered to Chip.

  Arilee quickly and silently stabbed her blades into eye-slits of the Goblin’s helmet before it had time to react. Her thin, elegant Elvish blades sliding between the metal plates.

  Chip grabbed the falling body before it clattered on the ground, and pulled it so it fell behind the meat racks.

  Arilee then bent over and pulled her daggers free from the Goblin. Blood began to spurt out like a fountain.

  “Oh no!” whispered Leela, who was still helping Slicks nurse his arm.

  Arilee’s elvish blade caused the monster to start bleeding egregiously. A small pool began to form around the Goblin. It drained towards the cauldron in the middle.

  “Oh no, oh no! Stop bleeding! Stop bleeding!” whispered Arilee in a panic, trying to cover the Goblin’s face with her hands.

  The blood trail trickled near Red Claw, who only briefly looked up during the scuffle as he was enjoying his early dinner.

  Arilee looked to Chip, “Get ready again. We’re going to have to get him before he notices us. I don’t think we have the energy for a drawn out fight.”

  As she said this, the Goblin noticed the trail of blood. Its face twisted in confused. Snarling, it drew its weapon.

  Chip and Arilee leapt out from their hiding place causing the Goblin to step back in surprise. They used their only moment to rush the Goblin. Before it could react, Arilee and Chip grabbed the Goblin by its arms and hoisted it in the air towards the cauldron. They used their momentum to slam it downwards into the boiling water. It splashed as it overflowed the edges.

  Using her leverage and weight, Arilee pushed the Goblin’s head downward as it squirmed.

  “Quick, Slicks, your shield!” shouted Chip.

  Slicks used Throw Weapon to toss the shield to Chip. His injury threw off his balance causing his throw to go wide. Chip jumped, reaching his arms out. The small iron shield spun through the air. Chip caught the shield, knocking himself off balance for just a second before he slammed it on top of the Goblin’s head. Arilee moved her hand just in time as the shield pushed the Goblin deeper into the cauldron. Using the shield like a lid, Chip and Arilee pushed themselves up and sat on top of the shield. It only took a minute before it was too hot to sit on anymore but the thrashing underneath it had stopped.

  The group relaxed. Arilee walked over to the cave wall and leaned her back against. She sagged down to the ground, exhausted from the fight. She looked over at Slicks, with Leela placing her hand on his injured arm about to perform a healing spell. Slicks winced at the touch.

  “No more charging in, Slicks?” Arilee said, out of breath.

  “Yessss, no more charging in.” winced Slicks, as a glow of light flowed from Leela hand into the cut on his shoulder.

  Leela looked at Arilee, her face drained. “I am starting to feel pretty tired myself. I’m not sure how many more spells I can cast. Especially if we have to fight a Goblin Warlock at the end of this.”

  Chip voiced his agreement, “I don’t have much left in me either. I’m not sure how much longer that potion the Scout Marshall gave us is going to last. We have to hurry to find that Warlock.”

  Leela looked around the room, “One thing that bothers me, this is a lot of meat and a big stew if the Goblin army is away.”

  Chip looked at the meat racks in both corners of the room, and then the cauldron in the middle.

  “Maybe they are expecting a victorious feast?” he offered.

  Arilee forced herself to stand up, and then nodded. “Maybe. But we need to keep going. We should keep our eyes open.”

  Arilee made for the room’s entrance that they came in through. The group wearily followed her.

  ***

  They slowly made their way back to the main passage. Chip had reignited the glow on the tip of his staff, slightly trailing Arilee who was now leading the way. Slicks had designated himself to the back after his reckless charge had caused more trouble than it was worth.

  The main hall was now empty with the Goblin guards out of the way. Arilee thought to herself that it might have been easier to take them out earlier by themselves than the hobbled fight they had in the Kitchen area. But then again maybe they would have had the same problem here with other Goblins coming to help.

  Arilee signaled for the group to slow down as they approached the next cave passage forking off the main hallway. She thought she could hear faint Goblin snarls coming from down the passage. She looked at Slicks whose tongue had been flicking since they entered the cave. It was impossible to tell if it was going any faster. She sighed.

  “Slicks do you sense anything?” she whispered.

  “Yessss. Goblins are just up ahead.”

  “Stay here, I am going to take a look.”

  Arilee crouched low and approached the wall. She carefully poked her head around the side and looked down the passage.

  It was a fairly short, straight passage, opening up into a bigger room. Piles of ragged armor filled the room. Smaller piles of weapons scattered the floor. In the back of the room, three Goblins dug through the piles of scraps. One of the smaller Goblins picked out a shiny looking sword, causing a bigger Goblin to come grab it from its hand. They seemed preoccupied in what they were doing. Arilee returned to the group.

  “There’s three more Goblins in that room.”

  Chip looked up, “What kind of room was it?”

  “Like some kind of Goblin Armory or something. Just filled with piles of gross armor and weapons. The Goblins won’t notice us if we move fast. No fighting this time.”

  “No fighting,” Chip and Leela nodded back.

  Arilee looked at Slicks
. “No fighting?”

  “No fighting.” he grumbled.

  The group crouched down and got behind Arilee. The passage was about ten feet wide. Quickly and quietly they followed her past it. Chip looked down the passage to see a small Goblin standing on a small hill of leather armor holding a shiny sword, swinging it downward at a bigger Goblin trying to climb up. Chip shook his head.

  The group made it easily to the other side.

  “We’re getting pretty good at this stealth stuff,” smiled Leela, proud of herself and the group.

  Arilee smiled back, “We are getting better aren’t we?”

  The group continued down the rest of the passage to the final fork. The passage on the left was only a few meters long and opened into a massive, dark and empty room. Chip shined his staff into it. Arilee guessed it must have been 20 to 30 meters long and half as wide. The ground was littered with dozens of piles of leaves mixed with torn pieces of cloth, feathers, and other soft looking things.

  “Do you think these are beds?” Chip turned and asked the group.

  Slicks bent down and poked around at one of the piles.

  “Musssst be their sleeping area.”

  “Strange.” said Leela.

  “What is?” asked Arilee.

  “You would think if the army left some Goblins behind that there would be at least some asleep here. I know we’re not experts but they wouldn’t have all the guards on duty at once. Right? Some would be asleep on a shift.”

  The group paused and looked around the empty room.

  “Do you think maybe they all left for the battle?” asked Chip.

  Arilee thought for a bit. She didn’t have an answer. No dialogue scroll appeared. All they had was their quest.

  Arilee shrugged, “Let’s keep looking. It looked like the other passage headed downward. Maybe we’ll find out more on level 3.” With that, Arilee turned and walked out of the large room.

  The group followed, descending deeper into the Goblin Cave.

  Drumming in the Deep

  Chapter 23

  Arilee lead the group down the passage to the third level of the cave. The air was colder than before. It was only a few steps into the new passage before Arilee could hear the rushing sounds of water.

  “Careful, the ground is slippery down here.” she said over her shoulder to the rest of the group following just behind her. Chip was closest behind her, using his staff to provide light for the group.

  The sounds of the water grew louder as the group turned down the next bend. After the final turn, the path stopped at a bridge and the cave opened up into a massive cavern.

  A cascading waterfall flowed from a hole near the ceiling into the depths below, splashing into what sounded like a thrashing river. The wooden-bridge hovered over the great ravine. Arilee thought she could see the flickering light of a torch at the far end of the bridge.

  As her eyes adjusted to the light of the cavern, she could see a trail of torches going down the far side of the cavern in a windy path to the river below.

  “Look there.” said Slicks, pointing to a point halfway down the path.

  Arilee focused her eyes more, and she saw a small trail of about a dozen smaller torch lights slowly moving down the path. In the middle of the torches was a green light, giving a faint steady glow like Chip’s staff. Arilee watched the lights descend the trail and disappear into what must be a pathway at the bottom.

  “That must be the Goblin Warlock there.” said Arilee.

  Chip looked at the bridge spanning the chasm to the otherside. He sighed. “Does that mean we’ll have to cross another bridge?”

  Leela walked to the wooden bridge and inspected it.

  “Actually Chip, this looks pretty sturdy.” said Leela as she took the few first steps and tested the rope acting as a railguard.

  Arilee watched Chip hesitate, before then walking to the bridge and testing it himself. He smiled, seeming relieved, and followed Leela the fifteen meters to the other side.

  Arilee followed next. Then Slicks.

  “It makes sense I guess,” said Chip, when everyone had made it over.

  “What doessss?” responded Slicks.

  “That the bridge would be sturdy.”

  “Why’s that, Chip?” asked Leela, who was listening in.

  “Well, if its a bridge the Goblins use all the time, then you’d think they’d keep it in good shape. They’d lose too many goblins.”

  Leela chuckled. “I guess that makes sense.”

  Arilee interrupted them with a whisper, “Come on this way, we need to keep moving.”

  The path down was marked by two standing torches leading to a descending path that went downwards to a bend. Then it turned the other way and continued down to another bend. It repeated that zigzag pattern to the bottom, fifty meters down.

  Arilee placed her hand against the wall to stabilize herself on the slippery rocks as she led the group down.

  A splash of water from the waterfall hit her face. Raising her hand to wipe it off, she looked back to check on the group. Leela and Slicks were handling it well. Chip was in the back sidling down the path with his back against the wall, but managing.

  Nearing the bottom, Arilee thought she could hear a rumbling noise rising above the noise of the waterfall. Step by step lower the noise became more consistent. Like a constant pounding. It was coming from the large opening in the face of the cliff at the bottom.

  Arilee crept her way to the bottom of the windy path. She could now almost clearly hear the sound of the pounding over the rushing river that coursed through the chasm next to her. Arilee crouched down and walked to the corner of the passage and peaked into the opening. She could now clearly hear the sound. She could see it.

  It was drumming.

  “Oh no,” she said.

  Leela was just reaching the bottom of the path, and quickly snuck up next to Arilee. “What’s wrong?”

  Chip froze near the bottom of the path, clutching the wall and stared at Arilee. Slicks finished his descent crept behind Leela. The two looked around Arilee to see what she saw.

  “Goblins," said Arilee. "All the Goblins.”

  The passage in front of her opened up to the top of a large circular room. The room had three stacked tiers, descending toward the middle. A series of stairwells led down to the middle and through the tiers. Along every row and crammed onto every tier was a Goblin.

  There must be hundreds of them, Arilee thought to herself.

  The Goblins backs were turned to the group, facing inward. A Goblin voice snarled something loudly from the center of the room, echoing off the walls as the Goblins cheered to whatever it was saying. The drums beat louder in response.

  Arilee crept closer into the passage and tried to look between the Goblins to see what they were looking at below.

  She could see a tall goblin wearing a dark robe in the middle, with a hood drawn over its face. It had a tall staff with the green light at the top they saw coming down the cliff earlier. In front of it was podium with a black opened book on it. She guessed that must be the Goblin Warlock, and the book must be the Grimoir. It looked liked there was someone standing next to the Warlock but she couldn’t see who.

  Then the Goblin Warlock yelled something, and the rest of the Goblins yelled back. It felt like the cavern shook with their cry.

  But then a new voice coming from the center emerged over the shouts. From next to the Warlock. It was speaking Common. The voice was deep and authoritative. Articulate. Arilee new that voice. It was Scout Thomas.

  “Quiet.” said the voice, hushing the ruckus of the Goblins. Arilee looked around for a place she could get a better look. She a ledge just above the passage she thought she could climb to.

  The voice continued. “The Corruption of Goblin Isle is almost complete and the Overlord’s military will be pushed back. Once the Ritual is completed tonight, the Dark Campaign will have truly started. The World of Elves and Men is coming to an end.”

  Ar
ilee pulled herself up the cave wall, finding little footholds to help push herself to the ledge. She looked down to see Scout Thomas standing next to the Goblin Warlock in the middle of the room.

  “Even now, Rituals like this are being conducted across the land. The Corruption will spread. In the far east, a great tide begins to grow. This time, it will be the waves of Darkness that crash upon the land and wipe it clean."

  He paused.

  "I, Maleth, will lead you to victory.”

  The Goblins roared in response.

  Scout Thomas raised his arms over his head, and then suddenly, his image shimmered. Then it shimmered again. Then, finally, Scout Thomas threw his arms down, and his image shimmered one last time.

  In a blink, a new being appeared in his place. It was tall, had bluish grey skin with yellow, malicious eyes. It had slick, greasy looking green hair that came down its shoulders. High cheekbones and pointed ears. It no longer wore Scout Thomas’s leather armor of the overlord, but ornate chainmail, decorated with a gold phoenix painted on it’s center.

  “When all the Rituals are complete, our Dark God will come again to lead us into a new day. A Dark Day!”

  The Goblins roared louder. The Goblin Warlock walked over to the open Grimoire and put his long, slender green finger on the page. It’s graspy, low-pitched voice began chanting in a snarling language Arilee had not heard before.

  The Goblins quieted down as the room darkened. The Warlocks voice grew to fill the room and echo off the walls. Arilee watched as dark tendrils of smoke grew from the Warlock’s staff. The drums began again, this time with a slow deep beat. The booming bass of the drum rumbling through the cave. The Goblins around the room began to chant a low rhythmic hum. The Warlock continued to chant.

  A panic seized through Arilee. She needed to do something. A dialogue scroll appeared.

  Dialogue Scroll

  -

  Sneak back and tell the group

  -

  Interrupt the ritual