The Goblin Burrow

Clapping his hands together, Barion attempted to psyche himself up for the delve. He was in no rush to be covering his clothes in dirt and shit, but it was either that or hang around outside until the person he was looking for finally emerged, which might have taken hours.

Naturally, he couldn't take the wagon in with him. All he allowed himself were the clothes on his back and the pouch on his belt. If there was someone accompanying him at that moment, they surely would have thought him insane for even considering entering the burrow.

"Wish I could block my nose somehow… oh well." He shrugged, and took a step into the cavernous hole.

Metal spikes adorned with cages at their tops decorated the wide opening of the burrow. The fire that burned within them was the only source of light down there. Barion at first thought it was a little strange that there were no goblins defending the entrance, but his worries were quickly resolved the second he stepped into the first chamber.

The stench of death and gore was even more overpowering than that of the heaps of shit piled in an unused corner of the room. The twisted, hideous faces of goblins were contorted in snapshots of agony, their bodies unmoving and still, some of them dismembered or cut clean in two. It was a total massacre.

The crude, wooden weapons which were stuck in their stiff hands proved that they hadn't been caught by surprise. Someone, or something, had pushed through them.

"So it's going to be like this the whole way down, huh?" Barion sighed, "Damn, I hate these burrows…"

For the first few chambers he passed through, the situation was exactly the same. Goblins slaughtered in droves, their blood mixing with and dyeing the muddy ground a sinful black. Soon, however, he came to a crossroads in the connecting tunnels, and could clearly hear the desperate yammering of goblins to the left. As he kneeled down and moved forward slowly, he was able to glimpse the next chamber.

The goblins in there were still very much alive, and seemed ecstatic about something. When Barion moved forward again, he saw exactly why.

A larger goblin, who wore the skull of some strange animal on its head, was prancing between the others with a severed head in its grasp, leaking a trail of blood as it went.

"Poor guy…" Barion didn't know what else to say, "Didn't stand a chance."

As he stood up and his footfalls made terrible squelching noises upon the wet mud, those goblins were quick to notice him. Brandishing their weapons in a frenzy, they pointed and screamed before charging as a single horde towards him, their minds occupied with nothing other than his violent death.

Moving with surprising speed, the head goblin leaped towards Barion and brought its club down onto his head, making a strange noise of confusion as his enchanted tunic materialised a hexagonal field to block the strike. The others, who targeted his limbs, were met with similar resistance. For an instant, it was almost as if Barion's entire body was enveloped by the magical forcefield.

"Release."

-And as he spoke those words, a wave of force expanded from his body, sending the goblins flying away from him. It was more to improve his field of view than anything else, though the impact had clearly given some of the goblins terrible fractures. While the creatures fumbled, he walked slowly into the chamber towards the severed head which the head goblin had discarded, lifting it by the hair to inspect its horrified final visage.

"Decapitated, so no chance for resurrection." He placed it back down, "Animals."

The goblins were shortly upon him once more, pointlessly swinging their weapons in a cruel attempt to break through his magical protection. But it proved futile. Barion estimated that their combined attack had yet to deplete the tunic's magical charge by even 1 percent. Turning to face them, he held out a single arm.

"How did this one go again?" He tilted his head, "...Cadaverous Fragorum?"

A shining light, which for an instant appeared like a kind of sigil, circled Barion's wrist, and then a ring of darkness expanded outwards from his body. As it engulfed the goblins, they at first went completely still, even their gibbering ending abruptly. Then, after a moment, their bodies began to vibrate with an incredible intensity, before the flesh beneath their skins suddenly tore and bubbled up, eventually rupturing in showers of blood. Just like that, every goblin was immediately killed, and Barion shut his eyes tight as he was bathed in the crimson liquid.

"Oh, I shouldn't have done that…" He tried to blow the blood from his lips, "I thought that was the instant death one?"

The invasive feeling of dark magic made his toes curl. It was a sensation he had never gotten used to.

"Well, I thought I might be able to save someone, but…" He sighed, "Let's just follow the trail of dead goblins from now on."

Returning to the crossroads he reached beforehand, Barion instead chose to follow the path of least resistance, shaking his hand as a sensation of numbness ran through his wrist.

It was unimaginable that the burrow had been allowed to exist for as long as it had. Barion continued to pass through chambers of slaughtered goblins, each one growing larger than the last. The piles of corpses had begun to feature hobgoblins--a more dangerous and intelligent breed of the beasts, but that didn't stop the bodies from racking up.

The melting heat of the deep earth slowly became more unbearable as he travelled through the homes of those creatures. Shacks constructed from twigs, pens for animals, pillories for restraining and abusing women alongside racks adorned with brands and whips--there was no end to the pseudo-intelligent creations of the goblins.

Eventually, Barion heard a noise that stood out from the squealing and screeching of faraway goblins. It was a sound not unlike what he had heard when casting magic--a low rumbling, and a piercing tone for which there was no comparable example. Following that, the very floor of the burrow shook beneath his feet as a tremendous light flared from the far end of the tunnel he was in. Marching quickly to the beginning of the next chamber, he witnessed an incredible sight.

In the air was suspended an orc--a kind of pseudo-goblin which was the strongest and most intelligent among its brethren, and below it stood a woman with her back to Barion. With a sickening crunch, the levitating orc was violently twisted until its guts spilled in a twirling arc out from its midsection, the creature gurgling in agony as it fell to the floor in a pitiful state of half-death. As this happened, Barion moved forward into the chamber.

"If you wish to live, then identify yourself." The woman, who did not turn around, said with a commanding tone, "Or would you prefer to suffer the same fate?"

Barion crossed his arms, "You've lost your touch. Can't you sense my aura?"

"...That voice." Slowly, the woman raised her head, "Is that…"

"It's certainly been a while, hasn't it?" He smiled, "Dorma."