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Chapter 151 Goblin Scouts
🕑 Added 2022-01-24 20:00:15 +0000 UTCAuthor's note:
Hey there!
I got some more for you! Thanks for the support once again, I really appreciate every little bit! Now, I was thinking about exams coming up and decided to be a bit proactive with my time management. I will need more time in February to do things other than Owl. I want to finish the first arc of the new project by the 14th which is another 2-4 chapters. And then I have to prepare for exams. That means, next month and until at least mid-March, there will be three chapters of Owl per week. I'll get back to four in April to bring you guys up to 20 advance chapters. There might be missed posts right around the exams as well but most of them are on Mondays so I'll be able to take the weekend for final preparations. Just as a heads up.
The Q&A on Saturday was fun. I'll be doing another one at some point. Maybe in half a year or a year. You can read the question and answers in Discord, I made it a read-only channel.
That's it, for now, I hope you enjoy the chapter! V5 might finish this week. Possibly. I'm not sure.
Cheers!
tl;dr: 3 chapters per week for February and March.
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Goblins were an interesting race. They were less brutal than orks but not quite as social as the dwarves. Still prone to form groups, just not out of love for each other, rather simply for protection. They were also only a little taller than standing me. With the evolution of races moving from orks to goblins to humans, I was rather interested in how the individuals in question had been triggered. The progenitors had to have been dreaming for a more peaceful life. Why the goblins had been unsuccessful in separating from the orks was something I was interested to know. Possibly the lack of innate strength made them have to stick around the more physically inclined race.
Now, there was a group of at least thirty scouts moving through the forest around the camp. I was wondering what the ork’s plan of attack was but had no easy way to find out for the time being. What I could do was wait for dusk to darken the skies and then fly down into the forest under the guise of my shadows. At least the goblins were still searching by then. They seemed to be split into three groups, one of each reporting to an ork once every few hours. Other than that, they kept well away from the camp.
I found myself setting down on a tree close to one of their provisional camps. It took an hour of observing them until I understood their basic group dynamics. They were all equals. Three or four goblins stayed in the camp at all times, two moving around in a perimeter. The others went further, searching for ‘the monster’, which I presumed to be me. I would have trouble inserting myself as one of them, even with [Mingling], but that was not the purpose of the Skill. It literally read: “You have learned to mingle with groups highly differing from yourself without being suspected of harmful thoughts.” Nowhere did it mention appearing as one of them, though that was likely the easiest application.
After a deep breath, I felt prepared and silently dropped to the edge of their fireplace’s light radius. As of yet, none of them had noticed my presence. I gingerly took a step forwards, then steeled myself and walked closer with purpose. I had chosen this camp for the cover it was built in. No ork could see what was going on nearby from where they stood guard.
The goblins around the fire looked up at my approaching form with dropped jaws. I stepped up to the fire and lowered myself. Sitting was a bit weird but possible. It was more of lying, in all honesty. I looked around at the group, nodded at everyone and hooted a greeting. The first goblin to move was the one sitting on the other side of the fire. He raised his hand and pointed at me.
“What’re you doing here?”, he asked in their language.
I tilted my head. By now, the supersensory matrix had formed a connection with everyone. I had taken it slowly as to avoid spooking them.
“Looking to get some rest”, I sent.
The one sitting to my right pinched his shoulder. When that didn’t work, he punched the one on his right, eliciting a painful cry.
“The fuck was that for?”, came the complaint.
“You heard that?”, violent asked.
“Course I did!”
The one on my left snorted.
“They’re brothers”, he snickered at me.
I scoffed.
“Ahh. So, what’re you guys doing here?”
The one across the fire was distracted from the siblings' scuffle by my question.
“Searching for a monster, monster’s lair or something along those lines.”
“What kind of monster?”
“Flying. Bird or wyvern, from what we’re told.”
“So, a bit like me?”
They all turned to me. The one on my right grabbed my wing and gingerly pulled it up.
“Holy shit, that’s a bird!”
“Yes. I’m an owl”, I sent with exasperation.
His brother knocked the top of his head.
“Leav’er be, idiot.”
“You’d fit the description”, the one on my left said, “But you’re no monster. We’re still alive, eh?”
He looked at everyone and the goblins nodded. Just then, one of the two circling around walked up.
“Horg, your turn”, he said and big brother stood up with a long sigh.
“Sit between ‘em, would ya? This little shit is impolite as hell.”
The incoming scout looked at me, did a double-take at my hooted greeting, and heeded his fellow scout’s word. Now, someone else sat between little brother and me. I rewired the connection carefully while he got situated.
“So, you joining our team, or what?”
I shook my head.
“Not quite. I was more looking to poach you from the orks. How about you guys work for me instead?”
Opposite goblin lifted an eyebrow.
“Disregarding how unlikely we’d be to survive the betrayal, what’s in it for us?”
“I got food and a place to live without orks. I’m also planning to get rid of that thaumaturge.”
That stumped him.
“Well, if we’re out before you kill him, we might survive.”
“How?”, scout asked.
“I’m an [Assassin].”
That was apparently the wrong thing to say because everyone got at least half a step of distance from me.
“Shit!”, little brother exclaimed.
“You wanna eat us?”, left said.
I chuckled, further alienating them.
“No. I need info to kill the thaumaturge. Who’s with him in that tent? What can they do? What are their plans when they find their prey? Is there anyone else coming?”
Opposite drew in a sharp breath.
“That’s gonna cost you a lot!”, he whisper-shouted.
“That’s gonna cost us a lot”, scout corrected, “Look, we have no clue what the boss can do. If we want to find out, we’d have to sacrifice one of us.”
“Not needed. I’m not worried about the thaumaturge. I only need to catch him off guard. Which means, taking out or distracting those in his tent.”
“Aye, that’s insane. You’ll just get yourself killed. If not by the orks then by that monster we’re supposed to find.”
I blinked.
“I’ll be fine. I’m pretty fast.”
I flapped my wings for emphasis.
“Oh. Yeah. Wait, how?”
“What, how?”
“Why didn’t I see you’re a bird?”
“Skill.”
“That’s a Skill? That’s so unfair! If I had that I’d be with the boss eating the finest ale and drinking the best cheese!”
Little brother snickered.
“I wanna see that.”
After a moment, everyone realized what scout had just said and laughter broke out around the fire. We kept talking for a little more and soon I had their promise to keep an eye on the orks movements for any options to slip in. I did not trust myself to mingle as a goblin and fool orks. I would need some actual shapeshifting for that. The darkness cloak trick was too risky with a thaumaturge with two golems by his side. They would surely notice me being off.
The goblins did not want much in return. I asked them to inform the other squads to keep their investigation to certain areas. They would be much more likely to survive, was my argument, which held enough weight to convince them without any further discussion.
By morning, I had gotten some rest and took off into the shadows of the late-night before dawn would light up the valley too much. I kept observing the camp from the mountainside, hiding against the grey stone higher up.
The orks were slow to move until one of the big guards stepped out of the thaumaturge’s tent and started shouting orders. It was like someone had punched a nest of bees hard enough to make them serve their will. Soon after, the group around the ‘boss’ left the tent and moved into town. This time, I spotted the divide in their group. The diminutive male and the female warrior next to him kept as much distance from the thaumaturge and his guards as they could. The golems were not with them. I suspected they were left guarding the tent.
I observed with interest and soon found the group meeting with the town’s ork that had found the thaumaturge dead. He guided them to the building and opened the door. Everyone else was carefully trying to stay away as far as possible. When nothing happened to the one trespassing on a thaumaturge’s home, they visibly relaxed. The group entered and only minutes later, I heard a scream of rage coming from the place. It was followed by an explosion of fire burning through the wall of the workshop, the one leading into the courtyard. A charred body shot through the hole and impacted the opposing wall. I could not see well into the room but a few minutes later, the camp’s boss left with an angry gait. His personal guards followed to the camp where the madman secluded himself in his tent. The smaller ork closed the door to the house after the warrior threw out the charred body.
Was this another angle of approach? If I took out the female warrior, I might be able to extort information from the other occupant. I decided to keep observing for now.
-----
Nothing happened. For a whole two days, nothing happened. I kept visiting the goblin camp at night and brought some prey for them to roast. There was not much fauna left around here, though the first animals were coming from the surrounding valleys. I also visited the other camps to bring some food. They trusted me quite quickly. When I asked, it was because I knew their language. Only a friend of goblins would learn it. They were assuming I came from a goblin village to harass the orks far away. Interestingly enough, nobody suspected the village in question to be where I had warned them not to scout.
The information they gave me was mostly what I saw from the air. They had a few insights into some of the ork guards and within a week or so of nothing happening, the orks would start to get careless. My best chance to infiltrate would be around then. The thaumaturge had not left his tent. I learned the diminutive ork was his apprentice but without a proper Class. He had no Thaumonomicon. The apprentice was supposed to be inaugurated here and become the new ruler of the town. With all of the resources gone, that was not possible anymore. The Circle was weakened a lot from my unplanned attack on them and had not the expertise or gold to spare to fully restore such a remote location.
That was interesting but I could not quite see how it would help me. Other than my faint hope of the orks completely moving out once their ‘hunt’ was done with. I briefly considered my divebomb trick to take out the command tent but I was not confident in escaping in the aftermath. I would need to create a distraction for the camp itself. My best idea was to give the goblin scouts the location of the tunnel once it was closed off a little more. That might actually pull off some of the warriors but I felt the risk was not worth it at this time. Maybe I should take a closer look at that apprentice. He could probably give me some information. And if I offered him a Thaumonomicon and some resources, I might have myself an ally.
