A Goblin Encampment [Quest Moment]

Inside and underneath the covered bridge are a number of roughly 3 to 5 foot tall humanoids with strange skin tones who are sharpening or mending assorted weapons. Each of them has ridiculously pronounced and pointy ears, some long and tapered, some wide and scalloped; jaws containing what looks like a dog, mountain lion, alligator, or shark's teeth cramed into human mouths; eyes which shine with a faint unnatural light; and are wearing rags for clothes but peerlessly maintained armor.

The vast majority of these, 'people' I guess is the correct term, have either green or blue skin, with the dog teeth and pointy Elf ears, or the shark teeth and scalloped ears respectively; while a significant minority are red in hue, also with pointed ears and dog teeth, and a handfull are other colours, such as truely black skin*, or bright yellow*. The larger members of the, (and my Orcish companion would be hideously offended by this,) 'tribe' I guess I will call it, (at least in my own head,) appear to be the leaders, with the only one that stands more than five feet tall, (who has orange skin, blue extremities like hands, feet, nose and ears, teeth like a venomous snake, and is dressed in half-plate armor,) appearing to be the, (for want of a better term, and again Mayfair would be appalled,) 'Chieftess' of the 'Tribe'...
*(The ones with teeth like an alligator and mountain lion respectively, the former of which has no ears and the latter short and tapered ones...)

I know what these creatures are, they were part of my extensive briefing, they're Goblins and Hobgoblins, each created primarily from one type of Mana, the one displayed by thier skin tone. They spawn with thier armor and weapons, according to their type, and probably formed in the vicinity due to the construction of the bridge having disrupted the ley-lines again. They were MEANT to destroy the bridge, but, (being sapeient,) found it a convenient place to set up camp, and so the disruption continued, spawning more and more goblins. Some of those goblins, rising to dominant positions and crafting better armor for themselves, "Morphed" into Hobgoblins, and eventually, one of them, becoming the dominant member of the 'tribe' managed to go through a "Para-Morph" into a "Unique", a special rare monster which probably has never existed before, and will never exist again without diligent development of a tame member of the base monster type by a Monster Tamer...

Cindra is a powerful monster, and I am quite happy to have her as my first... [[I'm sure thou art Robin Komadori Simmons, I am better by far than THOSE riff-raff!]] Cindra mentaly interjects.

[[Fine, OK, you're probably a five star and the Chieftess is maybe a four, but, you are a Black, she's a 'party-colour' Orange and Blue, that's Very Rare, even among party colours. Not only that, but as we have seen already, my spells won't cut the mustard with five stars and above: I'm not a Wizard, I'm a Monster Tamer, and even if their riff-raff, I can use more kinds of mana to empower them and make them dangerous to roughly equal monsters. I want them, or at MINIMUM the Chieftess, are you going to help me get them, or cause trouble?]] I ask Cindra.

[[What does 'cut the mustard' mean?]] Cindra thinks back, confused.

[['Adequate to the job',]] I reply, [[or in this case with the addition of 'won't', 'Inadequate',]] I explain.

[[Very well, I will help thee rope in these Riff-Raff, but I make it plain, I do this only because thou hast asked it of me and I am bound to serve. Also, I will have thee know that I am not just a 'party colour', but a Tri-Colour! I am a Black-Red-Blue, and for thy information my kind are considered a SIX star Monster!]] Cindra mentaly huffs at me.

In point of fact, I am duely impressed. Monsters can be AT MOST six colour mixes, and that basically only occurs at the ultimate morph levels of divine avatars. 'Party Colours', those that; mix/are receptive to/can be empowered by; two different types of mana are rare, and each increase in the degree of mixing is rarer still. Not only that but some types mix more easily than others. For example, black/red, ALMOST common; black/blue, again, almost common; black/indigo, same... Red/Blue? EXTREMELY rare, and in Cindra's case I am willing to BET that she's "Black Ascendent", the black mana tieing the other two into cooperation when they normaly would fight each other to a standstill. There are twelve colours of mana and of those only four play well with all the others; Black, the Mana of ****, entropy, decay and pain; White, the Mana of spiritual power, rebirth, metal, and hope; Brown, the Mana of the Earth, dirt, minerals, and patience; and Pink, the Mana of all life, desire, joining, and pleasure. Of these, Pink Mana is unique in that it does not form monsters with a 'pink' affinity, or, arguably, all living things core affinity is pink mana, but, unlike all other types of mana, pink is used to heal instead of attack, defend, or perform a task...

[[You've done your homework little mage, but theory and practice are two different things...]] Cindra smirks inside my head.

[[Well, you're more worldly-wise than me, how would YOU go about catching these things?]] I respond.

Unbidden, three approaches appear in her mind.

Method One: Frontal ****.
She could charge in there with me feeding her mana from behind and massacre the goblins with mana-blasts. Unlike physical attacks this has the chance to bind the goblins into Monster Eggs that I can put into an element incubator and grow into loyal monsters.
Advatages: I am almost Guaranteed to get several fanaticaly loyal goblins of the blue, black, and red types. Also, forcing a monster into egg form can cause it to 'Enhance' and become stronger when reborn...
Problems: forcing monsters into egg form is very dicey, there's a less than twenty-five-percent chance any given monster will become an egg, which drops precipitously the more divergent the Mana blast used to bring it down is from its own colour. Not only that but it would take time and resources to hatch all the eggs.

Method Two: Drop A Bridge On Them.
Another thing Cindra could do is destroy the bridge. This would cause the ley-lines to reconnect and begin dissipating the goblins. The Weakest will succumb first, allowing me to offer the others salvation by making a blood pact with me.
Advantages: I'd probably get most of the senior hobgoblins without having to deal with the goblin servants. The bridge that's caused the infestation will be gone.
Problems: they would instantly know I'd played them for suckers when they took the binding, making them as surly and resentful as Cindra herself.

Method Three: Shock And Awe.
Basic goblins of all types are a One Star Monster. Even their Chieftess is probably no more than a four-star. Cindra can land at the other end of the bridge while I block off this end, and she tells them "We're going to make this simple, you serve Robin there for a year and a day willingly: or we kill you..."
Advantages: IF it works I get the entire tribe, and because goblins normally work on a "might makes right" system they probably wouldn't resent it. (Much...) Additionally, if things go south, we can switch to method Two or One...
Problems: It's the biggest gamble of the three, I would be holding one end of the bridge alone, and as we have seen; I ain't that much of a mage by the standards of this world. Also, if it does work I'm going to have to give up a lot of blood to bind all the members of the tribe... (Each member individually is a trifling amount, but the whole group together: I see over fifty Goblins and Hobgoblins total down there...)

For the moment the three of us are hidden by a fold in the land and a patch of darkness created by a huge oak tree, but I need to make my decision quickly before they see us and **** us to go with plan one in a less than advantageous position...

This chapter is the first "Quest Moment" of the story, though this story as a whole is not a "Quest" story sometimes I will post a chapter where I'm not sure how I want to proceed, and in those moments I will post a Quest Moment chapter.

To explain what a "Quest Moment" is, it's a chance for the readers to influence the direction of the story. When I post a Quest Moment chapter at the end of it I post one or more questions about what the readers want to happen next and a set of answers to chose from. By posting comments on that chapter for a few days to a week with the identification codes of the answers the readers want to see written. When a consensus of at least three votes is achieved, or there is no consensus but I decide that voting has dragged on long enough, I will call a close to the voting and write the next chapter.

Questions to vote on this time:

A: Which of the three plans does Robin go with, is it successfully completed, and what's the backup plan if not?
A01: Frontal ****. (Fully Successful.)
A02: Frontal ****. (Partially Successful.)
A03: Frontal ****. (Unsuccessful: goes to bad end.)
A04: Drop A Bridge On Them. (Fully Successful.)
A05: Drop A Bridge On Them. (Partially Successful.)
A06: Drop A Bridge On Them. (Unsuccessful.)
A07: Shock And Awe. (Fully Successful.)
A08. Shock And Awe. (Partially Successful.)
A09: Shock And Awe. (Unsuccessful: Go to A01 as backup plan.)
A10: Shock And Awe. (Unsuccessful: Go to A04 as backup plan.)
A11: Shock And Awe. (Unsuccessful: Go to A06 as backup plan, and when that is clearly failing go to A02.)
A12: Shock And Awe. (Unsuccessful: Go to A06 as backup plan, and when that is clearly failing go to A03: leading to a bad end.)