Goblinshire (I): Looking For Work
The sound of trickling water and deep breaths filled the area as the first rays of sunlight began to peak through the canopy of dense green trees. A small brook that ran to through the forest had its previously clear and pristine water turned red, as the vestiges of a battle was washed off. Rezar felt melancholic, for some reason he had found himself in this reflective state of mind as he stared at his image in running water, he ignored the bloodied image in front of him as he took a handful of water and washed his face, relishing the coolness and the chill of the water, and the feeling of relief it brought him.
The bushes to his side rustled a bit, and Valka walked out of it, his greyish white coat a stark contrast to the deep and vibrant green of the forest. Somewhere along the line, the familiar had found its way out and followed after Rezar as he hunted the hobgoblins until there was all but one. And after that they both just found their way through the forest, following after the hobgoblin until he led them here, the outskirts of a town deep in the forest and nestled against a few large hills.
"Master are you okay?" Valka asked as he walked close, his paws eerily silent as he moved close to the necromancer who focused on getting the dried flakes of blood off his body.
"I'm fine Valka, did you scout out the town? What did you find out?" Rezar didn't feel like anything was wrong, but given the small massacre he just carried out in the forest last night all the way to the early hours of this morning, then it stands to reason that he might really have a lot to talk about and a few significant topics to get off his chest. But Rezar agreed with one thing, and that was the fact that he was a necromancer, a death class holder. No matter how much of a bloody affair it might be, death was what he dealt with.
"The final hobgoblin only passed through the town, or rather I should say village instead. The village seems to be one of the territory under the goblin king, the hills behind them is rich in iron and copper, and a few other miscellaneous ores. It's a mining village, and based on the sheer amount of activity I can see, it seems they're probably mainly responsible for the distribution of ores for forging within the Goblin King's territory and others included.
The population leans more to the goblin side, but there are only, and please take this with a grain of salt as I'm not that good with numbers, but the goblins make 60 or so % of the population. There are other races, most of which I think are merchants who purchase the ores from the goblin sanctioned miners, most of which are dwarves who I might add are also slaves. The other races seemed to have settled in the town, looks there's a lot of opportunities and wealth to be gained, and there's not much restriction in place for people who want to get in, you just have to pay a fee."
If Rezar had to be honest, he's had enough of anything that had to do with mining, slaves and a mining town or village. But for some reason it seems slavery is a big part of the lifestyle in Elysium, and it was puzzling how Elysium itself would allow such a thing. It seems no one's learnt anything about the pain and bad blood slavery caused in the real world. At the very least this time it wasn't prejudiced against race or creed, as long as you're an enemy that got captured or raided, you can and will become a slave. regardless of your race.
"So what do we do master? Do we skirt around the edge of the village and keep on chasing the Hobgoblin, or do we slaughter our way through the mining town?" Valka asked as his eyes glinted with the promise of carnage and destruction, but Rezar shook his head, he's done enough killing to last him a lifetime if he had to be honest.
"We're just going to find an inn and take a nap, then later we can look around the village and gather information and resources that might be helpful to our territory. We still don't know what this forest is called and how the demographic of power works. When the night comes, we can decide whether we're going to be slaughtering our way through the village or not. As I see it, the Hobgoblin has done his job, it wouldn't be too hard to find the bases of the goblin king after asking the right people the right questions." Rezar said as he got up, water dripping from his head and down his still growing teenage body. Grabbing his cloak from the low hanging branch he had hung it, and then hanging his massive scythe on his back, he turned around and worked in the direction of the village.
They were coming from the east, and have been chasing the hobgoblins at top speed west through the forest. The village itself was built south, facing north with massive hills and cliffs behind it. The hills themselves seemed to continue on for a distance and were quite spare of the dense forest, instead opening up to a prairie that stretched quite a distance to the south before embracing the forest once again. Such a wild expanse of land would have been a nice place to build a town, but given how open it was, it would be almost nigh impossible to fully defend it with building a fortress, as they would be open to attacks from all sides.
There was a well-made road, well it was more like an extremely large path, but given this was a fantasy setting, the smooth well walked road was more than enough to make the village accessible. The road stretched towards the north and seemed to curve 5oo meters ahead, going back west and leading further into the forest. If he had to hazard a guess, then this was the true boundary of the goblin King's territory, Tetum's base was an attempt at expansion.
Rezar shook his head and continued on towards the entrance of the village where two goblin guards stood mounted on top their forest wolves. Rezar had his hood over his face, covering his hair and shading his blue eye. Since there wasn't much of a restriction he hoped he didn't have to expose his features as that would make getting into the village that much harder.
"Halt! Identify yourself and state your business in Goblinshire?" Rezar raised an eyebrow at the pretentious name of the town, but gave an answer none the less.
"My Name's Rezar Deathwind…. I'm here looking for work?"