You're a Goblin, not an Orc! Bargain away!

"Hello!" You begin cheerfully, fighting your Goblin instincts to cringe and hide with all your might. This is something that Pet has talked with you about. As a small person herself (compared to most Players, anyway!) she has had to stand up for herself often. Acting like prey will make people treat you like prey, and when you're dealing with carnivorous spiders the size of your cave, that's a bad idea. You see one or two spiders slip a little closer, eyeing you with alien body language. You really hope that its interest, and not hunger. Your highly-tuned survival instincts can't help but notice that there are more trying to slip around to the sides. There might be thirty to forty looking at you right now. You're pretty glad you decided to talk things out!

"What do you want, little juice-bag?" Asks one of the larger ones in a grating, rasping voice. Greenish liquid bubbles down its over-sized fangs. Something draws your attention to several long wounds that track down its side and throbbing abdomen. They look almost like burns. It looks like these guys tangled with a Mage at some point in the recent past. This gives you an idea.

"I want to trade with you! If you let me poke through the stuff left over in your cocoons and take 3 things, I'll give you a stash of healing potions I got recently. Not that you need them now, but they could give you an edge on the next group of Players that tries to raid your forest!" This causes a stir, and whispers buzz back and forth through the rustling trees. The spiders converse among themselves for a bit before the same large spider moves forward and speaks with you again. "What good would potions be, if we can't pick them up to use them?" 'What good are the items, if you can't pick them up either?' You almost snap back, but restrain yourself. Instead, you suggest "Well, why don't you use your webs to tie a potion off to your foreleg? Then you could tip the thing up to your mouth whenever you needed it."

"Let me see the potions." The spider demands next. It seems eager, betraying the need it feels for healing. Smirking to yourself, you get down to some serious bargaining. In the end, you wind up agreeing to give them 'all' of your potions in exchange for two items from their stashes. Not being a complete idiot, you bundle up the potions and leave them in the bushes next to Pet, warning the spiders that your friend will smash them all if they eat you while you're looking through their pickings. From the frustrated gnashing you see in some of the more impatient versions of the large monsters, you suspect you were right to be cautious. You don't mention that you've kept two of the potions back, there's no reason for them to know and you don't want to give away everything. Your skin crawls underneath their flat stares as you cautiously move into the woods to see what you can see.

A lengthy period of time later, covered with cobwebs and with bits of various things stuck to your fingers, you emerge from the shade of the trees with an actual spear and a light breastplate. These aren't the magical powerhouses you were hoping for, but honestly you had forgotten that Players take their stuff with them when they die, respawning back in town. Every so often, however, you have a Player who drops something trying to run away. Apparently a fear of spiders is something shared by things that aren't small twitchy goblins! In any case, the armor has the ability to take an otherwise lethal hit. If something would kill you outright, it will destroy the breastplate instead. Likewise, the spear returns to your hand when thrown. Not an uncommon ability, but its also well made and beats the pants off of your rock-on-a-stick.

A careful bit of maneuvering results in the spiders dragging their bag of potions into the forest and the two of you retreat with your new-found goods. All in all, a really good day!