6.3 - Conflict (Patreon)

6.3 - Conflict

Astarion

Getting down from the ceiling’s support structure had been surprisingly easy. 

In hindsight it made sense, such an extensive network of beams, struts and cut stone required maintenance, and so the Temple’s previous occupants had ladders to reach the place where they would need to work, ladders which the current occupants hadn’t bothered to move.

And so, they simply climbed down.

He led the way of course, descending when he was certain he could do so unseen, and then signaling each of the others to come down at his urging when the coast was clear.Lae’zel was the first to do so and honestly, Astarion expected that she would be all gnashing teeth and barely contained fury, but the Gith was surprisingly… professional. It was clear that sneaking around wasn’t her forte but she also understood the assignment and was following his lead without complaint or issue. 

It was downright charming really.

Wyll came down next, and as he did it was just as a cohort of Goblins with a half decomposed body on a cart began to march past.

One of them, a Goblin in an off ‘white’ monk’s robe of sorts smirked as he met Astarion’s gaze. “Sang like a pretty bird this one did, after the True Soul got to him.”

Astarion looked at the corpse, it was pale, but the signs of torture were there, extensive torture too. “He-” Astarion paused, clearing his throat and adjusting his voice to try and sound more ‘gravely’ the Glamour wouldn’t exactly hide the sound of his speech. “-He  held out a long time- err -looks like.”

“Nah.” The Goblin torturer chuckled. “Most a dis we did fer fun. True soul got him talkin in… what an hour? Barely even had to touch him.”

Urgh. Goblins. “Well… take him out before he stinks up the place even more.”

“Yeah yeah.” The Torturer dismissed with a wave of his hand.

Got him to talk… Was that the one that gave up the location of the Grove then?

Shit, had that been Halsin?

No it couldn’t be, too young. Boy couldn’t have been much older than twenty, much too unseasoned to be an arch druid.

He signaled Gale, to come down, and as the Wizard descended, the elf nodded to the four.

“Alright.” He whispered, “Let’s approach their priestess and see if we can get her isolated.”

“And if we can’t?” Gale asked. 

“Our illustrious blade of frontiers will cast Darkness, I slit her throat, Gale casts minor illusion to hide the head and we all get out before the little idiots learn how to rub their two braincells together to form a coherent deduction.”

“Reckless.” Wyll winced. “But… I’m not exactly full of better ideas. Lets hope we can get her isolated.”

“Enough talking. Let's go.” And there was the limits of Lae’zel’s patience it seemed. 

—

Sophia

Unlike the other team, Durge and Shadowheart stuck to the ceiling’s “support” structure to navigate. Because the roof was in such general disrepair that it looked like a lot of the walls that would otherwise segment and cut off parts of the temple from eachother could be bypassed, so it seemed like the team could cross from one end of the temple to the other just from up here.

Which was good.

Because frankly, the more she saw the less she liked these odds.

She had about twenty five arrows in her quiver, that’s what her quiver could comfortably hold.

She could have six quivers and it didn’t look like she’d have enough, and that’s assuming she hit every shot.

Between the numbers, however many magic fuckers were lurking around here that could use lightning and who knows what other bullshit given their track record so far, the only silver lining was that with her power she could literally phase through any wall to make her own exit if she really had to.

But these were still horrible odds.

They heard a scream up ahead, what sounded like a struggle and Sophia saw Shadowheart hurry her steps, trying to get a better look. Hess shifted into her breaker state, bypassing both her and Durge, and shifting back as soon as she reached a half decent vantage. 

“AT LEAST GIMME A SWORD!”

It was a man, filthy and dressed in rags, he looked like he hadn’t been fed in days as four Goblins with pikes made him walk a plank leading down into a… spider pit?

“We want ya dead, da dumb-knuckle! Not dead and Heroic.” One of the Goblins laughed before surging forward to kick the guy down into the hole. 

The man hit the ground hard enough that Sophia was sure ribs must’ve been broken, she could hear him whimpering, see him curl in on himself in the fetal position, expecting an attack.

And though she saw multiple glimmering dots that were eyes emerging from their burrows, none of them pounced.

“Heh.” She had to laugh just a bit, shaking her head. “Fuckin Hebert.”

The Goblins jeered and loudly began asking “What the hell’s wrong with the spiders now!?” And it was endlessly amusing to her seeing one guy get smacked around for feedin them too much beforehand.

“He’s lucky.” Shadowheart whispered.

Sophia wasn’t sure she agreed with that. She didn’t see a way to get him out, and when Hebert left the fuck was he gonna do then?

“Psst! You! You there! Pssst!”

The ‘whisper’ if one could call it that took her far too long to identify was being directed at them.

She looked down, straight down, where there was another prisoner in a cage, a guy wearing frills and puffy sleeves, who musn’t have been a prisoner for very long because his clothes were still clean. The man smiled, the large curled mustache curving upwards. “Oh! Good heavens thank you! You must get me out of here!”

The pretense at a whisper was gone! The fucking moron was damn near shouting.

Sophia hissed a long “SHHHH!” Pressing a finger to her lips. 

“How is he seeing through my Glamour!?” Shadowheart whispered beside the both of them. 

“Please please for all that is goo-”

“I don’t know but if we don’t shut him up he’ll give us away!” Durge said, and Sophia saw the glinting calculation in his eye in that moment. That window of insight that told her exactly what he meant by shut him up.

Barely more than ten days ago… she might have reveled in the idea. Barely more than ten days ago, she’d have probably shot the crossbow bolt herself and watched the result with a morbid fascination, drinking in every detail of it.

As it was, she shifted into her breaker state almost as soon as the realization crossed her mind, descending down towards the man in the cage.

She slipped inside of the cage, and the man startled. “Oh! Thank you! You mus-”

She rushed forward, pressing her hand into his mouth as she hissed. “Shut the fuck up moron! They’ll hear you!”

The man’s eyes widened, as if just realizing what exactly he’d been doing.

Carefully, she let him go, ready to elbow him in the throat if he started acting like a dumbass again!

But the man whispered when he spoke, looking past the half broken door where the Goblins arguing about the spiders had drowned out his earlier hollering. 

“Listen.” He said. “I have two potions of invisibility. One for myself to escape, and the other I will give to you, to aid in your efforts here, whatever they may be. You just have to open my cage.

Potions of invisibility.

A fucking pocket Stranger rating.

Honestly at this point why fucking not.

The other thought that came to her was that Columbo here wasn’t exactly smart. Cause she could easily rob him of both and just leave him here.

But she didn’t. She looked towards the lock on the cage, chain and padlock. 

Shifting into her breaker state she grabbed hold of the chain, making it phase right along with her and then placed it on the floor, swinging the door open.

“Capital!” She nearly punched him, but he reached behind him, grabbed two potions out of wherever he stashed them.

He handed her one, and downed the other, and just like that with barely a shimmer to show where his outline was, the man was invisible and she felt him brush past her to make his way out.

Shifting back into her breaker state she leapt up towards shadowheart and durge.

The white Dragonborn nodded. “Well done; What did he give you.”

Sophia jiggled the little glass bottle. “Invisibility potion.”

That, made Durge smile… viciously.

—

Astarion

The Goblin congregation was loud and disorganized.

And not very observant. 

Not unexpected, they were Goblins after all.

The issue was, the Glamour. Shadowheart was clear not to let someone touch them.

Now, granted, he was unsure if the whole thing would crumble away or if someone might notice their hand not quite touching the smelly bicep of a Hobgoblin rather than his comparatively paler and much prettier self -he probably should have asked- but he was taking no chances, carefully maneuvering and negotiating his way through the gaggle of wretched little things that called themselves sapient. 

The Priestess was flanked by two large Braziers and a massive half broken chandelier over her head. Any of the three could set fire to this place to cause a decent enough distraction. 

But still, as he drew close to the priestess, who’s name was Priestess Gut -urgh, he really detested these beasts- of all things, something happened…

Now, in hindsight it was probably something they, or at least he should have expected, just because he was keeping the little wriggling monster on a tight leash didn’t mean she was, she had no reason to. 

And so when the Priestess turned around and saw him, his tadpole was nice and calm but hers pulsed like a flare.

Her hands fell, , eyebrows rising. “Eh? Another true soul? Aint seen you around these parts.”

Her head turned and her eyes widened even further as she looked at the others. “Four True Souls?”

Astarion’s brain screeched to a halt, but he was always good at thinking on his feet. 

“We’re new.” He said quickly, “Just arrived really. Our…” Was the Absolute man or woman? “The Absolute gave me a… vision, telling me I’d find others like me here. They saw the same, we met on the road.”

“You are blessed by her-” Gut smiled and Astarion resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Fanatics were always the easiest to fool. 

Still, the Absolute was a woman then, good to know. The Priestess turned and grabbed a branding iron, glowing red hot from the flames of the brazier to her right. 

Oh no.

“Here! I’ll mark you with her symbol” The little beast said with a smile that was all fangs. 

“Aha-” His mind scrambled, thinking fast. No way was he letting this hag put her filthy paws on him, nevermind brand him like… like cattle. 

Luckily, Wyll came to the rescue. “My Priestess-” He made for a horrible Bugbear. “We are… new. Don’t really know much about the Absolute, would you mind err… tellin us everything?” 

His inflection was atrocious. Far too polite. He could still hear the Baldurian in him!

The Priestess narrowed her eyes. “Strange that a True Soul don’t know the ways of the Absolute.

Surreptitiously, Astarion brought his hand up, made a show of rubbing his wrist but was actually tapping the beetle hidden beneath the Glamour there.

Tap twice for in position, three times for running.

He tapped twice, and made ready to tap three times in just a second.

—

Sophia

“LOOK VAR TUSH, ARR TRUSH!”

If the big chamber at the back of the Temple didn’t give it away the shouting probably would have.

“Think that’s our guy?” She asked. 

“A Hobgoblin amongst Goblins, undoubtedly.” Durge whispered.

The Hobgoblin was large, from this distance, he looked almost as tall as Durge himself. 

“The Hell’s he doing?” She asked. 

“From the looks of it, trying to use a crude speak with the dead spell on that Mindflayer.” The Dragonborn explained, eyes narrowing. “The ones we found on the road, the ones with the dead dwarf… they were looking for us, The survivors from the Nautiloid. Undoubtedly that’s the goal here. Trying to ask the thing what it saw. Who we might be.”

“What’s the plan then?” Shadowheart asked. 

Durge looked around, taking in the whole room before seemingly coming to a decision. 

“You two stay up here.” He said quietly before pulling out that potion of invisibility and sloshing it. “I head down with this. When I kill the Hobgoblin, provide range support. I’ll cast some of my larger spells, cause mayhem, in the confusion I climb up and we run.

“We’re meant to actually take the tadpoles. I don’t think they’ll let you just… hoist him over your shoulder and waltz out with the corpse.” Shadowheart reminded. 

“The head is portable.” Durge reminded right back. She saw him reach up, the glamour that made him look like a bugbear obscured it, but she saw two distinct taps on his wrist, signaling Hebert. 

Shadowheart rolled her eyes. “You really think you’ll have enough of a distraction that they’ll let you climb the ladder back up here? She asked. “It must be… twenty? Thirty feet?”

“Don’t worry.” The Dragonborn said as he downed the potion in one gulp and vanished like wisps of smoke. “I have a plan.”

Madison

She tried to drown it out, tried to cover her ears, move away, but it was useless.

Every crack of the whip, every shriek of pain, it was boring into her skull.

“We have to do something.” She whispered, pleaded really, looking to Karlach who sat there, muscles in her jaw bunched as she grit her teeth, fingers white knuckled over her biceps. 

Taylor was sitting, her back to the railing, head leaning back, eyes closed. 

And Emma, Emma was watching Taylor.

Another crack of the whip, another pained shriek.

Madison  practically crawled over towards Karlach, keeping low. The pseudo bugbear watched her with an expression that said she already knew what Madison was going to say. 

Madison said it anyway.

“We can’t just sit here and listen to it get whipped to death.” She hissed.

“I understand.” Karlach whispered back. “And if it was just me I would already be down there. But it’s not! I can’t protect you girls from this many alone and if we start shit out here who knows how it’ll affect the others inside. It could get them all killed!”

Madison chewed on her lip, knowing that what the woman said made sense, she understood but…

“This is cruel.”

“I concur.” Barcus whispered, the small gray skinned gnome looked about as miserable as she felt. “Standing by is unconscionable.” 

“Isn’t it just.”

There was something strange in Taylor’s tone, Madison didn’t know what. And when she turned to look, Taylor was looking straight at her, an inscrutable something passing through the shadow of her eyes. 

But that curl of her lip, Madison recognized… disgust?

Then, Taylor looked to Karlach. 

“The others are almost in position.” She said, and Madison felt hope flutter in her chest.

“Wait…” Karlach began. “You mean that-”

“If we’re gonna save the thing we need to move now before we all have to run out of here.”

Karlach grinned, a big, toothy grin, grabbing the haft of her axe, Madison smiled back. Barcus pumped a fist. “Right!” The Gnome said, seemingly holding himself back from saying something else. She turned to look at Taylor but the girl had already started moving, leading the way as the chorus of insects all around them got distinctly louder, no doubt to further help obfuscate their movements.

Madison didn’t know what exactly had happened, why Taylor had looked at her like that when she wanted to save the Owlbear, but right now she was just glad they agreed to actually help.

“She always did want to be a hero.”

The muttered comment just barely reached Madison’s ear and though she didn’t react to it physically because right now there were much much bigger priorities and concerns; She really did begin to wonder  just what the hell was going on in Emma’s head?

She made a mental note to try and sit down and talk with her later. The situation was crazy, everything was fucked, but… well… Emma was her friend, as overwhelmed as Madison was by everything she should try to do… something. Emma had clearly taken this whole… everything much harder than Madison had. She and Sophia were her friends they should at least try to help and not just leave her trapped in her own head.

Decision made, she resolved to do exactly that… just as soon as they rescued this… Owlbear thing from the Goblins and got out of here.

—

Sophia

Her hands didn’t shake, but she was nervous. A queasy coiling thing writhing around in her stomach as she caressed the fletching of the arrow between her fingers. Watching the Hobgoblin chant his spell and the other Goblins chanting with him gave this temple an all too unnerving feeling on its own. Like an E-88 rally but worse. The Mindflayer’s corpse, twisting, twitching and moving on the ground, its cold half decayed corpse made her feel nauseous.

And then, the Hobgoblins eyes glowed green and the corpse rose up off of the floor like a puppet being pulled on strings and the whole room went quiet.

“Now squid-” The creature sneered “Show me what we are searching for! Who was on that ship!? Who does the Absolute want found!?”

The corpse twitched, and Sophia could see its its brain, visible along the back of its skull… pumping. Like a sack of air being filled and refilled. 

The Hobgoblin paused. “Humans… a half elf-” Shadowheart stiffened. “Gith… Children… Dragonborn? These are who our God seeks!?”

“She isn’t looking very hard”

The word was somehow both a whisper, and louder than a gunshot in the sudden quiet of the chamber.

The Hobgoblin’s eyes widened, turning around. “Wha-”

And a knife was in his throat.

Durge bled out of thin air like a living mirage, Blood gushed from the wound like a shower, bathing the Lizard’s entire arm, chest and face red.  Sophia gripped her arrow tighter.

The Dragonborn was smiling. 

The other Goblins screamed, some drawing weapons, others running to alert the others, but most hesitated, watching in disbelief as their leader choked and spasmed on the metal tip of the knife.

The Hobgoblin reached up, grasping and Durge started talking.

She didn’t recognize his voice then, it was something… gleeful.

“They always grasp at the knife you know?” He laughed, and looked around… addressing the crowd.

“Makes sense I suppose-” He continued as he stepped forward, the Hobgoblin stepping back, no, being forced back, Durge was… positioning him? “First instinct is the pain, then the realization that they can’t breathe. Reflex says remove the obstruction, so they grip the knife-”

The Hobgoblin started punching, clawing at the arm. “It’s not until after they’re a bit weak from bloodloss and the fact that they can’t suck in a breath to feed the muscles thatthey start going for the body holding the blade.” He laughed then, and it sent a shiver running up and down her spine.

She looked, and Shadowheart and her both shared the exact same look, an uneasy thing before turning their eyes back to the spectacle down below. 

Durge kept walking forward, kept dragging the Hobgoblin towards the edge of the pit. The victim was losing strength already, his legs beginning to give out before he collapsed and Durge followed him down, kneeling beside the dying creature still smiling as his red eyes watched. 

“But by then… it’s simply too late. Was too late from the moment the knife sank in really…” he made a show of looking around at the still stunned crowd. “Unless of course, one of you happens to be a healer? If you are-” He pulled the knife free making a show of wiping the blood off of it with his sleeve.. “You’re not very good at your job.”

“GUT HIM!” Someone finally shouted, and that was enough for the whole room to explode Goblins roared and gibbered, grabbing their weapons and closing in.

There were way way too many! No way they could ‘cover him’ or whatever.

Durge just laughed. “But then again-!”

He turned around, towards the… the spider pit.

With a wave of his hand a blast of rolling Thunder exploded outwards and shattered the collection of planks and shanty scaffolding that was the cage.

And spiders crawled out of it. A crawling ocean of black bodies, legs, fangs, and eyes..

The Goblins backpedaled, confused and horrified. 

Durge bowed like he was in a theater, conducting a play. His clothes still dripped with red.

The Goblins screamed, stomping, hacking and eventually, trying to run as the mass of insects started biting.

“You’ll have plenty of practice if you want to live.”

—

Taylor

We descended down to the courtyard where the Goblins had set up the field for their little game as quietly as we could.

It was fortunate, that so many out here were passed out drunk. Less eyes on us and any who might have turned to look at the wrong moment got a fly in the face for their trouble that served as decent enough distraction. 

“Think he’ll taste like chicken when we cook him?”

“Oh I hope so, big and fat he is. We’ll be eatin good for days off him!”

We drew close, and I was glad that the Glamour also hid Karlach’s fiery glow because passed out drunk or not these were a lot of Goblins. 

The others were almost in position, Durge was just about ready to make a move. I wasn’t sure what was going on but he seemed to just be casually walking through the crowd now and no one was reacting. Did he have a Stranger rating or something?

Didn’t matter, had to focus on the job here, he was doing his. 

“Can you swarm them?” Karlach whispered, the five of them hiding behind a ramshackle fence meant to keep the animals in. 

“I can swarm everyone.” I hissed. “But not until the others are ready- The targets might get away in the confusion.” Because while I would be able to keep track of pretty much everything going on the others didn’t exactly have oodles of practice fighting in the middle of a swarm. 

Actually… neither did I but it was my power so it didn’t count.

Karlach nodded. “Right right.” She peeked over the fence for a moment. 

“Then our best bet is to try and get them isolated… Knock out one, free the cub and let him loose when you call in your big swarm distraction… any ideas.”

“I’ve got one.”

It was Emma who whispered and I had to stop myself from physically reacting. Karlach and Barcus looking at her.

I didn’t look, I didn’t want to look at that fucking smug smile or that reward glinting on her forehead. 

“Tell them the boss wants the thing taken to the pen.” She whispered. “They have to keep it and their other animals somewhere.”

They… did keep their animals ‘somewhere’, not very far either, just across the bridge… It would actually take us away from the temple grounds, they had a few of those other animals there, the Worg things and… now that I checked was that a bear?

“Not a bad idea.” Karlach said, and begrudgingly I had to admit, if only to myself it wasn’t. She would know how to isolate people on short notice I suppose. “Alright, everyone’s makeup on?” Karlach asked, double checking the glamour. 

We all nodded. 

“Right- then…” She huffed a breath. “Follow my lead.”

The massive woman stood, axe over her shoulder and while I hesitated for a second, I did as she asked and followed right behind her, Barcus fell in step behind me and then Emma and Madison behind him.

“Oi mate!” Karlach hollered towards the Goblins that were tormenting the trembling owlbear cub. 

Looking at it, the thing might have once been cute, but now looked a mess. Bloodied, beaten down, it was trembling, large round eyes on a swivel as it looked every which way for the next thing that would hurt it.

Very abruptly, my chest ached…

I could relate.

“Yeh?” The one with the whip called back. 

“Boss wants the thing back in its pen, says they’ve got an idea for it tomorrow.”

“What!? Says who!? And I don’t recognize ya. Who’re you to give me orders.

“The one that’ll shove this axe up yer fuckin ass if you don’t obey what Rags has to say real quick!”

My brain stuttered. Rags? That was the name Astarion muttered? But he hadn’t been sure. Shit shit what the hell was she thinking!?

I tensed, my swarm beginning to buzz, sure that we had a fight on our hands when the Goblin grumbled. “Fine! But if this stupid chicken bites at me again I aint promisin it’ll get back to it’s cage whole.”

“You damn sure are promisin that!” Karlach grumbled. “Infact I’m gonna make sure you do what the boss says. Lead on!”

The Goblin glared with a rage in his eyes before he turned and started barking out orders to wrangle the beast back into its pen. 

Watching it was worse than listening to it up above. But I did watch, keeping up the act, Madison looked away, so did Barcus. I didn’t sense Emma move. But I consoled myself with the knowledge that hopefully, this would be the last time these Goblins hurt the thing.

Dog catcher sticks, or the equivalent, clamed down on its necks from two Goblins, the two jeered and barked orders at eachother to coordinate, the whip master kept on cracking the whip, and the temptation to rip it out of his hands and shove it down his throat was almost overwhelming. 

But… eventually, we started moving. 

It was slow going, mostly because the Goblins were kicking passed out drunkards out of their way.

The bridge was as dilapidated and crumbling as the rest of the temple, for all that it was made of stone I still felt uneasy crossing it, wondering if it’d just collapse under our combined weight.

And then finally, we made it to the pens.

If I thought the Goblins smelled bad, the mixture of piss and shit from their menagerie was much much worse.

“Not known for their Hygene.” I heard Barcus mutter behind me, his voice audibly holding back the gags. 

As we approached what I assumed was the owlbear’s pen, I noticed that yes, it was infact a bear.

A bear that was looking straight at me

—

Astarion

“But alright-” The Priestess suddenly said, her smile returning. “I ‘spose we all gotta start somewhere.” She said. “Follow me, Happy to help fellow True Souls.”

Huh. What a pleasant surprise, she was going to make killing her so much easier.

And no sooner did he think that singular, small stupid thought, did he feel the bug biting twice…

And a second later the sound of rolling thunder BOOMED through the inside of the whole temple, bellowing out from the rear and absolute bedlam followed in its wake. 

“The hell is tha’? The Priestess said, her walk towards a private room now a thoroughly impossible ask.

Oh to hell with it.

He tapped the insect three times. “Wyll, now!”

“TENABRE!”

The cloud was dark, and thick, he couldn’t see but he didn’t need to, she was close enough and he was a vampire.

Vampires thrived in the dark.

The knife sank deep, his fangs sank deeper. And distantly he heard a Goblin scream out.

“THE SPIDERS HAVE GONE MAD!”

—

Taylor

As we moved to walk past the bear… I knew immediately something was very very off.

Because no bear that I knew of would… tent its paw, to hold a roach, unharmed under its paw.

I’d simply been making it move to get it into one of the nearby tents, it could fly and so could serve as a good distraction on the guard there in a pinch, but the instant I moved to crawl it across the cage, the bear plopped his foot down… and held it there.

I stopped moving. Looking back at the bear cage- the thing was still staring straight at me.

Barcus actually bumped into me, and that’s when Karlach took notice.

The woman grasped at her axe, taking it as a sign.

And that’s when we heard thunder from inside the temple.

“Wha-”

The Goblin with the whip never finished his question. Steel cleaved open his skull with a crack and a burst of brain matter.

Karlach roared. 

The Bear roared.

And the Owlbear started to thrash, its previously beaten down demeanor becoming frenzied and desperate, the Goblins tried to hold on- 

And then Karlach was on them.

The whole camp was coming alive again, the Temple and the surrounding grounds beginning to stir.

My swarm answered.

A million wings, a billion claws and talons. The swarm buzzed and crawled and skittered and consumed. The whole temple was suddenly and violently engulfed in a cloud of buzzing wings and stinging stingers.

Goblins screamed.

Immediately the mages among them started trying to cast spells, but so many were drunk that they failed. I provided cover for the others inside, Karlach ripping the collars off of the Owlbear cub to let him loose, the bear roared and the cub ran.

“Come on!” Karlach demanded, moving to run into the hillside, urging Madison, Emma and Barcus ahead of her.

I turned and ran towards the Bear cage.

“Taylor!”

More Goblins came screaming, panicking out of their tents, arms waving trying to swat the swarms and swarms of flies roaches and bees off of them.

I reached the cage, the door rattling. The bear stared at me, didn’t move. Something was definitely up with it.

Karlach reached me. “The hell are you doing!?” She demanded. 

“Don’t know-” I answered. “But this world has talking, teleporting spiders, necromancy, mind reading tadpoles, flying squids and utterly random bullshit on a daily basis so fuck it-” I giggled, and the tinge of hysteria I recognized in my own voice wasn’t something I liked at all.

I tried to pull at the door, but it was useless, the one time the Goblins had to build something decent.

“Stand ba-” Karlach began, but rearing up the Bear let out a loud terrible roar it towered over both me and Karlach and came down like the hammer of a God.

The Cage door buckled, the rusted hinges snapping like matchsticks, I scrambled to get out of the way as it nearly collapsed on me and the Bear rushed out.

I thought that might have been the end of it but it rounded on me, I felt my eyes go wide, panic seizing me as it charged, all thousand plus pounds of muscle and fat and I’d made a horrible mistake.

And then, the bear scooted low, damn near sliding under me before it bucked up, practically smashing its spine into my pelvis and punching the wind and my guts right out of me as it kept on running, with me trying desperately to hold onto a galloping grisly bear!

“What in the bloody fuck is going on!?” Karlach asked, running after us.

I laughed until tears leaked from my eyes.

And the plan goes off without a hitch :3For those of you who've played the game, you already know what's up with the bear. But next chapter will fill in some... lets say blank spots on his circumstances and why he was 'trapped' in that cage. Now, to forestall some of the questions as to the Bear's placementIt never made sense to me that the "Animal pen" was inside of the temple. While Goblins aren't known for their hygene even a genuinely brain dead idiot wouldn't want to have the Worgs and other beasts pissing and shitting in an enclosed space when there's a perfectly viable and available EVERYWHERE ELSE that can be used. Either way, next chapter should clear up some things with "The Bear"And then... then we get to the fun part. The part I've been looking forward to since we started the fic. Back to the Grove >:)