About how you expected...

Not that you gave him any other choice, not that you wanted him to have another choice.

Kluzz, Level 8 Barbarian Chieftain
Monster, Microboss, Goblin, Explicit

Kluzz is large compared to goblins, about the size of a dwarf, and most of the way to becoming a hobgoblin. He wears no armor but his rage and his greatclub carry him through most fights. Your host remembers him taking on the wolves that roam around the forest, smashing their bones and shrugging off their attacks.

So if he gets ahold of you he could rip you limb from limb, and you can't use any abilities that would tip the tribe off. It won't matter once you are in charge, but before then any psionic powers could alienate your allies and make the entire tribe want to kill you.

No pressure, right?

Not that you had a better choice than to take this particular monster on. Lucky for you Kluzz has no clue what he is fighting. All he sees is his brother stepping up to challenge him.

And he does not like it.

"In what world do we find ourselves brother, that you think you have any right to what I claimed as mine?!"

As you begin talking you get your sense ready to avoid any surprises.

"We woke up in a world where none of us will respawn again. So unless we claim a territory, we die. We all die."

(I am going to kill him and make a hat out of his skin.)

"Then I'll claim that cave you found for us, after I kill you and have Stiasha make me a nice magic hat out of her former lover! How's that sound Stiasha?"

"It would be an ugly hat," you hear the familiar voice of the tribe's shaman, and see her leaning against her staff glaring at you, "but if what he says is true, can we afford to lose any more of us?"

Stiasha, Level 7 Shaman
Monster, Goblin, Explicit

"We can afford to lose one more, besides, after we have that cave you and I can work on making more!" He turns to grin hungrily at Stiasha with that plan in mind.

Which is exactly something you were waiting for.

Taking aim, you pull a poison arrow out and fire straight at his head...

And watch his rage boil over as his hand shoots up taking the arrow in place of his head.

Sneak Attack-Failed, Hit! 3 Damage

Poison-Resisted, 5 Damage, 4s

"IMGONNARIPOFFYOURHEADANDSHITDOWNYOURTHROOOAAAT!!" Kluzz shouts, drawing his greatclub over his head and throwing it at you two-handed.

Eloquent and terrifying, you decide this as you realize sensing him will do nothing with him not thinking. You have just enough time to dodge out of the way and draw your next arrow.

Poison-5 Damage, 3s

The club flies past you as you take aim and Kluzz leaps at you.

Critical Hit! 6 Damage

Poison-5 Damage, 4s

You hope that isn't your last hit on him as he lands next to you and smacks you with a backhand knocking you senseless.

Critical Hit! 20 Damage

One more hit like that and your host is dead.

You clear the stars out of your vision long enough to see him raising his foot to end this soon to be short fight.

Poison-5 Damage, 3s

Poison-5 Damage, 2s

Did they add a luck stat? You would swear the gods had since the poison damage swayed Kluzz enough to miss your head, and had given you the second you needed to draw your knife, drive it through his foot and pin it to the ground. As you roll away you begin concentrating telekinesis on your knife pushing it down to hold him in place for the arrow you aim and fire, drawing another immediately after to fire again.

Hit! 2 Damage

Hit! 3 Damage

Poison-Not Resisted, 5 Damage, 59s

Critical Hit! 6 Damage

Poison-Not Resisted, 5 Damage, 59s

Poison-5 Damage, 2s

Poison-5 Damage, 1s

Kluzz is not looking good with no way to resist all of that poison eating at him from the inside, but even that won't stop him from ripping your head off if he gets ahold of you. Which starts to look more likely when, seeing he can't pull it out of the ground, he rips his foot away from the knife and starts walking towards you. His new limp giving you enough time to fire your last poison arrow.

Hit! 3 Damage

Poison-Not resisted, 5 Damage, 59s

"You put up a good fight brother, made me proud, and when I am using your skull as a piss pot, wearing my new hat, I'll remember...blough" his sentence gets cut off as the massive amount of poison in his system makes him stumble and cough up blood.

Poison-5 Damage, 58s

Poison-5 Damage, 58s

Poison-5 Damage, 58s

Poison-5 Damage, 1s

Poison-5 Damage

At this point it's clear that the fight is a lot closer than any of the surrounding goblins thought at the start. So Red and Blue, knowing that by now you have sufficiently pissed him off enough that they would be next, take this as the perfect opportunity to step in. They surround Kluzz and stab him in each side with their spears, attempting to hold him in place for you.

Sneak Attack-Successful, Critical Hit! 20 Damage

Sneak Attack-Successful, Critical Hit! 20 Damage

"Argghh, of course your two idiots would help you here," he attempts to struggle trying to grab one of the spears, but his wounded foot keeps him off-balance and your companions are standing behind him. Kluzz being to muscular to reach behind him and grab the spears, he sighs, finally out of rage. "Fine brother, you win, end this fight, and lead our people to their deaths. Hahaha-khugh."

Poison-5 Damage, 57s

Poison-5 Damage, 57s

Poison-5 Damage, 57s

Poison-5 Damage

Critical Hit! Finishing Blow!

level up x 2

Tired of hearing his voice, and not wanting to have the entire tribe watch him die from your poison, you fire an arrow into his throat. Ending the fight you relax, then a not very happy Stiasha walks over, grabs the claimant crystal off of Kluzz's corpse, stands next to you and holds it in the air. "Do you all accept this victor as our new leader?!"

A surprised sounding cheer of consent floods over you, as the sound of a promotion plays in your head.

promotion to microboss

"Great, congratulations, now wait here while I go grab a few things, and get your tribe ready to move out," Stiasha throws the claimant crystal at you and starts organizing the tribe to build carts to haul all of its resources. You decide to take that time to finally claim those levels, check out your new stat sheet, and cut off Kluzz's head for a snack later on.

Level 6 Experimental Tadpole
Monster, Microboss, Mind-flayer(level 4 goblin host), Explicit
Experience to level up-580
Attributes
Strength 15(7)Dexterity 25(27) Endurance 15(7)
Charisma 15(7) Manipulation 15(7) Appearance 10(7)
Perception 25(27) Intelligence 47 Wits 27
Skills
Stealth 25(35)
Dodge 25(35)
Sneak Attack 30(35)
Crafting(Mindflayer) 10
Skills(host)
Tracking 20
Scavenging 15
Stealing 15
Archery 30
Crafting(goblin) 20
Feats
Universal Language- Can understand and is understood by all creatures
Burrow-a successful physical sneak attack allows you to attempt to burrow into your targets brain, gaining permanent control over their body, permanently adding their intelligence to your own, and gaining access to their skills and feats as long as you inhabit them
Underwater breathing-can breath underwater
Psionics- Gain varied psionic abilities governed by your intelligence stat
-Blind Sense-a specific sense of all living things within a number of feet equal to your intelligence, and a general sense of living things within a number of yards equal to our intelligence, focusing on a target allows you to read surface thoughts from them
-Charm-gain command and control of target you can sense if they fail their saving check against your intelligence, no saving check if the target has less than half of your intelligence
-Blast-a short range psionic blast that knocks living creatures within range **** if the attack reduces them to 0 HP, damage=1.5*intelligence, range= .25*intelligence
-Beam-a beam of psionic energy that targets a single creature, knocking them **** if the attack reduces them to 0 HP, damage=1*intelligence, range= 2*intelligence
-Telekinesis 2-(requires concentration)move an object with your psionic power, max weight in pounds=intelligence, max speed in feet per second=.5*intelligence
-Aim-increase the accuracy of all attacks using minor telekinesis
Boss Feats
Psionic Commander-minions under your command gain minor resistance to outside psionic influences, and minor vulnerability to your psionic influences

Inventory
Shard of Arkus: qty 1(equipped)
Inventory(host)
pack of poor rations: qty 3
hide armor(goblin): damage threshold 3(equipped)
dagger(goblin): damage 5/ critical damage 10(equipped)
short bow(goblin): range 80 ft short/320 ft long(equipped)
arrows(goblin): qty 23, damage 6/ critical damage 12
head(goblin): Uncommon, Learnable Feat(Mindflayer option only)

Good news and bad news, you got a few new feats and skills from the level up and stat increase, and it appears you can now gain feats from eating special brains, great. Not so great would be the feature the gods took away from you. Your host used to share in experience, growing in level with you. If it no longer does that, you will either have to heavily rely on your minions and psionics, or get an upgrade soon.

That will be a problem for later. Right now you see Stiasha walking up with her fighting gear, which appears to be less clothing than her casual tribal clothes were. She is covered head to toe in white painted stripes spiraling down, her hair done into a ponytail with an ice fox cowl pulled over her head, and of course the only thing providing her any amount of modesty is a barely opaque wrap made of cave spider silk spiraling down in the opposite direction of her pattern. Not that you hated the view, though that same hate filled stare is making you think you are missing some vital piece of information.

"The tribe will be ready to move out tomorrow morning, we will have carts enough to move our resources to the cave, and your two lieutenants will show the tribe the way. Tonight we are going to go and claim it so that nothing can steal it out from under us."

She gives you a potion, "drink this so that we can get going."

You sense no reason not to drink it, so you do, and you feel your hit points restore themselves.

After a mile or two of walking she turns to you to say something.

"Now that we are on our way, you can explain to me why I shouldn't kill you, and make sure our tribe isn't just going to be ended by you in your brother's stead."

:countdown until world open:
6'06:54'01