Aporeu chronicles Issue 27: Retrieving a helmet
Stories from the adventurers
This week
Obtaining a helmet and a Worg breeding ground?Retrieving a helmet by Noaz
Today I encountered and killed my first goblin, making to initiation into the Adventurers Guild official. I also saw a little child being beaten unconscious and then stabbed, ending his life. After a week of training and furthering my combat skills in the Fighting Pits, I made my way to the Guild Hall. Having shaken off most of the weirdness that was last weeks’ quest, I see Gerolt standing by the notice board accompanied by Kaaravic and three other guildmembers I’ve seen around, but never properly acquainted myself with. They’re discussing a request posted by the local Captain of the guard and after greeting the group and exchanging names, we make our way upstairs to get some more information from Lornan. Lornan gives us more information and sends us to the man himself, Captain Valtorin. On our way there we loose Kaaravic for a bit, and I take a better look at the three new faces: Q, a kobold with a bandolier filled with flasks and daggers; Effie, a half-Elf woman who wears a beautiful red dress decorated with fine gold lines and has an elegant step in het walk, almost as if she is dancing to a silent soothing song. There are golden scales on the side of her cheek, going down and disappearing behind her dress; and Harry, a serious looking man wearing a uniform who apparently served as a soldier in the Britannia military. Arriving at the Captain of the guards, Valtorin, he tells us about the commotion and disturbances that happened in and around the city about 5 days ago. Fog appearing by the main gate, a bunch of cows that were set loose and went on a stampede, a child that was killed and another child which vanished. And during al of this goblins were spotted and his helmet was stolen by yet another child. All in all a messy kind of day by the sound of it! Valtorin continues to tell us that the guards he sent out to investigate the theft, returned empty-handed, but that his rangers -stationed outside the city borders- reported the sighting of a goblin clan deep in the woods to the North-East of town. All of a sudden Kaaravic asked to smell the Captains hair. A bit surprised, but quickly realising he’s asking for a scent he could follow to lead us to the helmet, the Captain offers him his gauntlet instead. Overcome with a sudden burst of adrenaline, I salute the Captain and vow to retrieve his helmet. Feeling a little bit awkward when seeing the reactions of my team.. While walking out of the office, Harry mumbles something about fencing the helmet of.. though he really impresses me by his stout composure, there is something off about him.. Once outside, Kaaravic finds some orphans, talks to them and hands them some food. What an absolute noble, gentle and kind man! We make our way to the outskirts of the woods and with my navigators tools I try and find the way we should head. Because the trees block my view of the sun I climb up in one and return when I find the correct direction. We walk in for quite a while, but eventually we find a hill with a cave. This should be the place the rangers spotted the goblin clan. While we cautiously make our way up to the entrance, Kaaravic just walks up and shouts something -in a language I don’t understand. What a man. Kind and courageous. But then, he is shot by 3 bolts. He then turns into a bear and charges in. We all come into action a rush to follow him. To the left in the cave there is a structure made out of rocks in which goblins are hiding and shooting at us. I jump forward to one of the holes in which I see movement and stab my sword in. I hear a deathrattle, one down. And immediately find another hole and stab again. Again I find purchase and see blood run down my blade. Then the rock structure caves in and all falls silent, the goblins defeated. Effie conjures four balls of light and we go further into the tunnels. The path is split in two by a 30 foot high ridge, on which Kaaravic the bear and Q (riding on his back) make their way up on, Gerolt and Effie take the path to the left while I follow the right. Being alone for a moment I take a pee. While taking care of business, a rope is suddenly thrown down from the ledge behind me and sounds of combat reach my ear. Looking up I see a goblin standing on the edge. Gerolt runs up and climbs up the lowered rope whilst I grab my own rope and throw it up. My grappling hook find purchase above, I pull and to my surprise the rope loosens and a goblin falls in front of my feet, the hook embedded into its shoulder. As I jank the grappling hook out of the dead goblins’ body, the fighting sounds cease. I yell up if it’s already done and Q affirms. I take a closer look at the goblin. My first real look at a goblin, I just take it in. And then I take his stuff. Walking around the raised platform I meet up with Kaaravic the bear and Effie. There lies another goblin. I look at him. Take his stuff as well. As I continue walking further into the cave, I hear the cries of a small child. Speeding up my pace and rounding a corner up ahead, I suddenly see Q beating the hell out of a kid with a bat and Gerolt just standing there, holding the rope with which the child is tied up. In a fit of rage I run towards them yelling and cursing. “Leave the fucking kid alone, what the hell are you doing?!!” As I do, the small child manages to slip free from its bonds and runs away, but barely makes it 20 feet before he falls over and stays motionless on the ground. ..snoring..?? Gerolt tries to calm me down and walks me over to the kid. Taking a stick the child is holding, it turns into a dagger. It’s an illusion. The child is an illusion. Gerolt throws the kid.. the.. thing over his shoulder and we walk towards the rest of the group who now apparently have found two more goblins. In my dazed confusion I don’t register much of their conversation. Only when Gerolt drops the child down onto the ground, stabs it, and it turns into another goblin. We reported back to the captain of the guard, and Lornan. Got payed. And… I don’t remember much of the day after that. I just walked the streets a bit. Saw some children playing. Thought of Zera.. Now I’m lying in my bed, thinking. I know so little of this world. I know so little about magic. And I need to know. I need to know more. There’s no use in growing stronger if my eyes can so easily be deceived and my mind so easily tricked. I need to know more.Retrieving a helmet by Q
Retrieving a helm story: (Editor's note: I swear I'm not lying, but that Kobold with the dark clothes just appeared out of the shadow in my office to drop this story off. I must've dozed off or something, because I didn't notice him come in. ..Or leave after we were done, now that I think of it.) I talked a bit with Mr. Gerolt while we were waiting for the rest to show up for this mission. After they all showed up, we introduced ourselves. There was Mr. Harry, a grizzled Human that looked like he saw his fair share of fights. Kind of like Mr. Gerolt, I suppose. Then we had Mr. Noaz, someone that Mr. Gerolt called 'rookie', so I think they know each other. Him and Mr. Harry both wore light armor, like me. Then we had Ms. Effie, who wore a pretty dress that turned from red to black and back to red as she twirled around. She is a Half-Elf with golden scales on her left side. And she used a strange kind of spear to dance with. And last, we had Mr. Vic. He's like Mr. Thamior! He also turned into a big bear. And I got to ride on his back! Even if it was for a little bit. Mr. Gerolt talks about staying behind the shield, but.. I think nobody actually listens to him when he says that, because that didn't really happen. He did say that it wouldn't really be effective with me, because he'd need to know where I was, and he didn't expect to know that any more than the enemies would. I like Mr. Gerolt. I hope him and Dr. V. can be the bestest of friends.
Anyway, after that, we go to Uncle Tea's office, though Mr. Vic is a bit weird and tries to track his way there.. He could've just walked with the rest of us and been there quicker. Mr. Lornan, as he's actually called, says that Captain Valtorin had his helmet stolen by a kid during the festival. Specifically, the day there was a stampede by one of the gates, and some Goblins attacked Ms. Kathnis on the market square.
I tell him that I didn't do it. I'm not a dummy, after all.
He also says that we should try to stay out of trouble with the city guard. I always do that. I don't see a reason to start getting into trouble with them now.
We go off to the barracks by the West gate, where Mr. Valtorin is, but Mr. Vic is being strange again, and shows up a while later. I'm starting to think he just wants to be difficult..
Anyway, we go inside the guard station, a place I try my hardest never to see from the inside. The guard at the counter has a bit of a laugh because the Captain got mugged by a kid. He tells us where the office is after he finishes enjoying himself.
As we go into Mr. Valtorin's office, we see he's very busy with paperwork, and checking maps and marking other maps. It all looks very important. And I totally didn't look at the map that had all the guard patrol routes on it. Nuh huh. I would never.
He tells us about the Goblin attack at the market, and one at the Drunken Sailor! Apparently a Goblin riding a wolf got inside and attacked the people enjoying their drinks.
Too bad for the Goblin that the Drunken Sailor was housing a lot of Adventurers and guards at the time. But then some kid used the chaos to run in, hop on a chair or table, and stole the Captain's helmet right off his head!
That's really bold. I'd never do that. Because that's a good way to get caught. The kid then ran off with the helmet, while one of the people that was drinking there gave chase.
The kid dropped the helmet, but they couldn't find it anywhere after the kid got away somehow.
Mr. Valtorin says his contacts in the Thieves' Guild haven't heard of anybody fencing the helmet, or boasting about having it, so his leads on that end ran dry pretty quick.
Then he tells us that over the course of the day, some fog covered the gate at the same time as the stampede happened, and then vanished just as quickly as it had appeared. And Mr. Vic says it must've been magic.
To make things worse, we hear that some poor orphan kids got attacked, too. One of the kids disappeared, and another one was killed. Mr. Gerolt didn't talk a whole lot, but I think he was listening very intently.
When we ask for as much info as he can give us, we learn the killed Goblins had some tribal markings, but the Kickinut tribe marking was on all 3 of them. And hunters in the High Valley Forest reported seeing Goblins in the area.
And so, we're offered some money for clearing out the Goblin threat in the area, with a little extra and a personal favor with the guard if we bring back his stolen helmet.
A favor with the guard is always nice to have in my line of work, so I'm all for that! ..And then he basically told us to get out.
The Sergeant that escorts us out tells us that the disappeared kid was called 'Marvin', and he was kinda chubby. And the killed kid was called 'Brian'. Mr. Vic goes off on his own again, walking towards the orphanage to get information.
I think he missed the bit where we got all the clues that the Guard could get for us, but.. Maybe he just wanted to help the kids.
While everybody talks a bit to make a plan of sorts, I run off to go get Mr. Vic. Who seems to be getting into trouble with the guard when I get there.
He gets out of it by leaving some rations and mushrooms with the orphanage to make dinner or something. Maybe that's why he wanted to go visit the orphanage.
I guide him back to the rest of the group, and we walk for about 2 hours to get to where the hunters said they saw the Goblins.
When we get close, Mr. Noaz tries to do something with tools, but says he needs the sun for that. So we climb up into one of the trees so he has a clear view, and he manages to find out where we need to go a bit more precisely.
Mr. Vic tries to find some Goblin tracks, but just guides us in a circle for a while. When I start marking a tree I could've sworn I'd seen twice before already, he suddenly spots some Goblin tracks. Not sure HOW he missed them, but he managed to do it.
I know Mr. Gerolt said we wouldn't have to worry about a tracker on this mission, but I'm getting a little worried about our tracker by this point. Some 30 minutes later, we get to a hill with a hole in it.
Apparently, that's where the Goblins are hiding. Most of us try to sneak up, emphasis on TRY. Mr. Vic knows he's not very good at it, so he just walks up ahead and calls out in what sounds like Orcish. I know, because I listened to Mr. Gerolt trying to teach Ms. Jade some.
No clue what he was saying, but it sounded kinda angry. But I think that's how Orcish is supposed to sound.
Since we can't really see anything inside from where we are, we start heading inside. And then Mr. Vic gets shot from a rubble pile by 3 arrows. Understandably, he's not happy about that, and says the Goblins can just die, then.
And then he turns into a big ol' bear, and runs around the rubble to get at the Goblins hiding there! We hear the clanging of a bell, but I help Mr. Bear-Vic take care of the Goblins. He dislodges a lot of the rocks so they can't hide anymore, and then we start tearing into them. Strangely, one of them's already dead when we get to it. Guess the others poked 'em through the arrow holes.
That's pretty neat, even if I didn't see it happen. There's a high-pitched scream from deeper inside the cave. I hop onto Mr. Bear-Vic's back as he rushes off towards the screaming. And I have to hold on to the fur real tight as he scrambles up the rocks to a platform about 30 ft off the ground.
Once we get up there, we spot 4 Goblins around a tied up kid, that's crying and screaming. I lower my rope so the others can get up to the platform, and shoot one in the throat. Apparently I'm pretty good at that, because he just topples over without a fight.
Then I get back up onto Mr. Bear-Vic's back, and the other 3 Goblins rush over to stab and slash at him. He doesn't like that, so he smashes one of them off the platform, and shakes me off his back as he tries to bite another one, but it's not that easy to get.
Unfortunately for it, I'm on that side of Mr. Bear-Vic, and I run him through and he collapses as well. Mr. Gerolt gets up and just eviscerates the last Goblin.
We untie the kid, who starts sobbing and crying as he says he's sorry he stole the helmet. He then says a special Goblin 'with a book' took it deeper into the cave.
Turns out, this kid is lying through his teeth, but can't really nail down what about, exactly. He asks us to take him back to the city. Mr. Gerolt ties the kid up and lowers him down.
We learn the Goblins specifically wanted the helmet because it looks cool. Then we spot 4 Worgs in a cage up on a ledge. Mr. Harry goes up there and jams the lever so they can get out. Which is pretty smart.
I try to bonk the kid so he'll stop his whining and crying, but even after 2 pretty hard bonks, he's still standing. Then he cuts himself free and tries to run off. But Ms. Effie does some magic and he just passes out, snoring.
That was pretty cool, I have to admit. Mr. Gerolt goes and ties the kid up real tight, and discovers that the twigs he was holding were actually daggers! That explains why something was off about that kid.
While we're dealing with that, Mr. Bear-Vic just stands up and knocks the door down, and there's an old female Goblin and a strange robed Goblin with a book behind there.
Guess we found the leader of the tribe. Mr. Vic turns back into himself, and talks with the crazy old lady about getting the helmet back. He gives her some mushrooms in trade for the helmet.
Turns out, these are 'magic mushrooms', and the woman is off in a corner while high on some kind of drugs. ..I suddenly think maybe Mr. Vic didn't want to just help feed the orphans..
After that though, he pulls out some paper and makes a contract to hire the smart Goblin. Who's name is 'Unox', btw. He seemed alright, but kept clutching his book the whole time. That was kinda weird.
Mr. Gerolt kills the 'kid', who then turns back into his normal Goblin self. I overhear something about 'wonderfully complex' from Mr. Unox, and he signs the contract.
Turns out that he's been running the tribe, and letting the woman, who is called Gignunnut, THINK that she was the leader. And now Mr. Vic hired Mr. Unox to take care of things. And I think he said he was claiming the entire cave.
All I know is that he said something about the Worgs and training beasts. Or maybe that was wishful thinking. Ms. Ranra said something about training big spiders of some kind. Maybe that's a nature-people thing.
Wonder if Mr. Thamior has plans to train animals to sell to Adventurers to help them out, too. I should ask him.
After we get all that cleared out, and explain to Mr. Gerolt that the Goblin tribe is no longer a threat, so we completed our job.
And we go back to town to report on our great success. I didn't say anything about the contract Mr. Vic made. I thought it would be best to be 'discreet' on that.
And that's the story of how we took care of Goblins in the forest that were bold enough to come into town and steal the helmet right off of Mr. Valtorin's head!
-Q-
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