12.23 - It's Up to You Now: Heresies of a Hobgoblin Warlord, Ch. 4
General Summary
Domokos, Robin, Eliana, and Riven investigate reports of a goblin outpost hidden in the western reaches of the Greenskin Plains in order to uncover the source of the demonic attacks against Last Rest and their connection to the orcish threat to the southeast.
They arrive at the outpost in Robin's skiff and are welcomed in as heroes, Domokos being ushered immediately to the tower where the Hobgoblin Warlord Dror Grengor holds council with the other goblin chieftains. When they arrive in the war room, they are greeted by at first wary goblin commanders and shamans and an ancient hobgoblin warrior, missing one eye and blind in the other and short several limbs, but the Warlord accepts Domokos as one of their own when he learns of who they are, inviting the heroes to a seat at the council.
The party learns that the well-disciplined goblin civilization united centuries ago as the Crimson Pact under the leadership of powerful hobgoblin chieftains in order to secure their people against the whims and machinations of the Dark Lord's ascension in the Reach Unsung, and have managed to maintain an uneasy peace in the Greenskin Plains for their people, their shamans cultivating the land in wildfields and the Goblin Citadel overlooking the semi-nomic civilization they were able to establish. However, since the fall of the Dark Lord, forces long dormant or otherwise restrained spilled over their former bounds, and the Blue Orcs for the east invaded the lands of the Pact, sacking the Citadel and burning the wildfields; after months of desperate maneuvering and devastating casualties. In a risky gambit, the lion's share of the remaining goblin forces were sent west in order to carve out a new home for their people after hearing rumors of peace and plenty having come to the lands past the river, with the nascent human settlement appearing to pose little threat to the might of the Pact, reduced as it may have been. It was Dror Grengor's one regret as a leader, the most fatal tactical blunder of his career and a stain on the history of his hobgoblin forebears, that his people were defeated by a rabble of humans and undisciplined heroes--but he confides to Domokos that had he known another hogboblin was commanding the enemy forces, he would have certainly reached out in friendship rather than war. Be as that may, Dror Grengor refuses all offers of asylum even in the face of certain defeat at the hands of the orcs and their demonic overlords, seeking instead of invite the heroes into a final hail mary to save his people.
Before he shares his plan, however, he asked for privacy to speak to Domokos alone, hobgolin to hobgoblin. The council adjourns, and the remaining heroes depart, leaving Domokos and Dror alone save for the Warlord's attendant, who closes the curtains to the room for privacy. Dror speaks to Domokos of heresy, referencing the younger man's heretic brand, and pulls down the collar of his own tunic to revel a brand of his own: written in familiar Abyssal glyphs and forming the shape of a bloodied hand grasping a cruel sickle. Dror reveals then the secret history of his people, how the goblin shamans harnessed demonic powers to safeguard the goblinoid race from a dark forces around them, many centuries ago, and how this tradition of abyssal mastery came to an abrupt end when the curse was lifted from the Reach at the end of the Great War, freeing the demons and allowing them to ally themselves with the much stronger Blue Orc Clan to the southeast, whose leaders they possessed and directed to wreck their vengeance on their former masters. However, Dror believes that there is a chance of cutting of the head of the snake, if the heroes are willing to use their aerial transportation to seek out the abyssal anchor among the orc leadership and banish it from this plane of existence, ending the brutal slaughter of his people.
As the two hobgoblin commanders discuss strategy, and the old warlord shares more of what he knows about demon and orc, Domokos notices something off about the attendant. He is just standing there, frozen, staring at the two of them with a far-off look in his eyes; the goblin bodyguard reaches into his pouch, where he had secreted away the preserved Tusker Demon horn Robin had offered to the war council as a token of peace and friendship--and puts the relic in his mouth, and bites down.
The next few moments are a blur. The attendant, a rictus grin plastered on his face, but his eyes still very much his own and spilling over with tears of mortification and agony as he plunges his dagger into the breast of his master and commander. Dror Grengor's misty eye seeming to find Domokos's across the table, uttering "It's up to you now," and a new weight settling across the younger man's shoulder's. The goblin attendant twitching as the tusk unleashes latent abyssal potential, his bones snapping and skin splitting to make way for an enormous, unfurling, snake-like demon bearing wicked demonblades in its various appendages. Domokos leaping to attack, only to be grappled by the thing's pincer. The rest of the heroes hearing the roar of combat, rushing back, hopefully not too late... a desperate struggle... Sand-Fury bursting through the curtained archway to tear the demon's tail from its trunk... Eliana and Robin both a blur of speed as they race past goblin guards and leaders up the spiral toward staircase to leap into the fray... Riven tearing through the open doorway wings unfurled and Wardenblade gleaming with righteous intent... the demon's body fading to ash as the broken corpse of the attendant lies sprawled at his master's feet... Robin looking at the remnants of the demon with a flare of lust and ambition, a moment of internal conflict, a decision being reached, a step back, his centuries of single-minded fixation giving way to a younger, more gentle, and perhaps wiser version of himself... Domokos bending over the Last Commander, placing a single hand on the old soldier's chest as he makes a silent promise...
As the rest of the council finally bursts into the room, Eliana of all people is the first to take up the cry that will then reverberate throughout the camp:
"All Hail Domokos the Heretic, Warlord of the Crimson Pact!"
Songs of Glory: Domokos (+3), Robin (+2), Eliana (+2), Riven (+2)
Report Date
31 Jul 2024
