You Work All Day And What Do You Get?

Something warm. Something wet. Something very pleasant.

Baal didn’t want to wake and loose this nice dream. But fighting against waking was useless, once you realized what was happening you were already awake. Interestingly enough, however, the pleasant sensations coming from his groin didn’t disappear with his dreams.

He looked down and saw the mess of blue green curls of Bunny’s hair as her head bobbed along his shaft. She was taking her time, using steady slow long strokes and softly suckling with her wide lips.

Not a bad way to be woken up. Certainly better than the bee. He must have shifted and alerted her to his status change, as she began to lift her head to look at him. He quickly stopped her by resting his hand on her head. It was a not so subtle sign to continue that she was happy to oblige. As the gobliness continued her tender ministrations, Baal continued with his usual morning ritual and opened his blinking menus.

Fame increased!
Fame: 56
Survive an Enemy Vendetta for 5 days! +5
A Quest Against You has been Updated! (Expanded)
Quest Advanced (x1) +5
Quest Failed (x1) +5
Quest Failed (x1) +5
Quest Accepted! +1
Quest Accepted! +1
Quest Accepted! +3
Diplomacy +4 (Expanded)
Rumors of your wealth are spreading! +2
Rumors of your domain are spreading +2
Got a minion! +3 (Expanded)
Got a lesser minion! +1
Domain Sired lesser minion +2

Oh goody, more new changes! Somehow adventurers had failed his quest, or more probably just gave up thinking he wasn't worth their effort. Someone had advanced the quest line, most likely by looting his damn dungeon. And what the hell were the goblins doing? A new minion? Not recruited but sired?

Whatever.

At least he had more than fifty fame points again, that seemed to be the minimum cost for anything remotely useful.

He put slightly more pressure on the small goblin’s head. He needed her to finish before he moved on to the other tasks for his day. As much fun as it would be to pin her down and rut her into the bed, he had more important things to do...

Baal dismissed the fame window and lightly slapped himself. What the hells was he just thinking. He was a disappointment to orcs everywhere. He reached over the eager green goblin and cupped her full heart shaped ass. Hooking a finger into the rabbit fur shorts she wore, he pivoted her around until she was lying on his stomach, ass to his face, never ceasing her work on his manhood.

The shorts dissolved into her inventory as she realized her lord’s intentions. The sweet musky scent of her arousal flooded over him. She was drenched, dripping on him from both ends as her dark green folds oozed their honey onto his bare chest and she continued to coat him with more of her slick saliva.

Baal ran a thick pudgy finger along her slit to collect some of the juices. He luxuriated as he licked the finger clean. His cock pulsed with even more heightened arousal. He returned his digits to her dripping hole and slowly pressed in. Despite his meaty fingers being almost as large as the average goblin penis, it was an easy fit to her who had become accustomed to his own monstrous member.

He explored her folds and the little button of her clitoris, and was rewarded when he found the bundle of nerves deep inside as she redoubled her own efforts to please him. The two rocked together for several long moments before her suction overcame his tolerance.

The orc exploded, coating her mouth and throat in sticky fluid. She had **** but to swallow or suffocate. Even as the warm cum coated her stomach, he found the nerve cluster again. This time he pressed from within and from the outside at the same time. Her own fluids shot out from around his busy fingers and sprayed the surprised orc in the face as she screamed in pleasure. Her drawn out wails faded as she collapsed back down to his thighs and ended with a throaty burp. The gobliness happily mewed as she nestled against his softening cock.

He gave her several moments to rest before rolling her off him, he needed them as well after all. He was careful not to disturb Ash as he shifted out of bed. A rather silly notion given the disturbance they were just causing, but the little one didn’t seem to mind.

He re-equipped his clothing as he left the room. He may have been accustomed to the shabby pants and shoes but he made a mental note to upgrade them soon. A dungeon lord shouldn’t look like a pauper.

Some of the goblins were still resting in the nooks and crannies of the dungeon but he did note Feathers already busy in the arena. Had she even slept last night? He could also hear the pounding at the forge of the goblin smith as he moved to the store room to check the current dungeon inventory.

Dungeon Inventory:
324/500
Goat wool x1 (common)
Rat fang x 5 - (common )
Fox paw x 1 - (common)
Rabbit hide x 2 - (common)
Rabbit paw x 2 - (common)
Cyclops crow feather x 4 - (common)
Empty Bottle x22 - (common)
Pine Wood x 38 - (common)
Queasy Berry x 8 - (common)
Stone x 175 - (common)
Sweet Grass x 30 - (common)
Badger claw x 1 (uncommon)
Creeping Moss x 18 - (uncommon)
Lizard Meat x 4 - (uncommon)
Scrap Ore x 11 - (uncommon)
Igneleon Hide x1 - (rare)

Even with all the new construction, there was still a surplus of stone, but yet again ore was running low and all of the best wood had been stolen.

Baal moved to the item room. The smith was already forging new tools, using the ore and wood to create metal implements to replace the stone ones. That was good. They would need to be even more efficient gathering resources. He also ordered the goblin to use the forge to create more glass bottles from stone.

Baal then moved to the wood working station. There were new options available here as well but for now he just needed something simple, two wooden crates to fit in the new guard room. The crates were quickly constructed and added to his inventory and Baal moved on to the magic workshop.

By now Bunny was up and following him as he approached the appraisal table. Feathers had added two new items yesterday and their rarities in the dungeon inventory had piqued his curiosity.

Lizard Meat - (uncommon)
Uncooked food item. Tastes like chicken?
-note- Eating raw food may result in a status ailment

Was that really so uncommon?

Igneleon Hide - (rare)
The scaled skin of a camouflaging lizard, used for item crafting. Increases Stealth and Dexterity.

Now that was a useful item! Pity it was rare, but the mountain was full of those awful lizards, at least now there was a suitable reward for killing them!

Back to the item room he went as Bunny followed him curiously. He took the time to show her the menus as he checked the new crafting options. It certainly wouldn’t hurt if there was someone else to do the crafting, at least for the common goblin gear. Baal selected the new hide and smiled at the description of his chosen item.

Ambusher’s Stride
+2 Defense
+2 Dexterity
+20% Stealth
Set Bonus 1/4
???
???
???

Those were much better shoes! If only he had gems maybe he could make them even better. For now though he would take them as they were. The crafting itself took much longer than he was accustomed, nearly a solid hour of tapping the wooden table, but the result was worth the effort.

The new shoes were actually boots. The insides were softened leather while the outsides were covered in the hard scales of the Igneleon, though in a fashionable pattern, and seemed to shift and change colors even as he held them aloft to look at them. He eagerly replaced the shabby reinforced boots he had equipped. It was strange to look down and not see his toes peeking out, but it was a nice change.

He walked to the arena in his new footwear and was surprised to see Feathers and Suo sparring. The goblin barbarian was clearly the aggressor, chasing the small slime around the arena with her twin tomahawks. However, it was actually the slime who appeared to have the upper hand. The nimble shapeless mass launched itself around the training dummies and other obstacles, catching the goblin with surprise tentacle lashes from her blind spots.

The slime might as well be playing a game of tag. Worse, the barbarian knew she was being toyed with. It only fueled her berserker rage, increasing her destructive power, while decreasing her rationality.

If Suo were smarter it might have used a different tactic. Baal didn’t have to watch long before he realized the slime’s advantage was slowly but steadily decreasing. The terrain however was clearly more beneficial to the slime. It was impossible to corner the nimble creature in the round arena.

The two tangled again for several seconds before the slime broke free and flung itself across the room, bouncing like a ball. Feathers quickly gave chase as Suo sought cover behind the summoned skeleton still mindlessly stabbing a training dummy.

If the slime thought itself safe, it was wrong. The enraged goblin never slowed down, only slightly altering her route as she smashed through the tattered skeleton with a furious roar. Or at least a roar for a goblin, it still sounded mostly like a squeak to the orc.

Still it was one thing for his two minions to have a match, but it was another thing entirely for them to interrupt his precious experience harvesting.

“Enough!” He shouted to the pair. “Suo, end this!”

The slime bounced several more times before coming to a stop and stood its ground against the charging goblin. The twin axes slammed towards the unprotected slime. Even with its natural damage reduction the magically enhanced weapons would not leave it unscathed. Its droplet shaped body came apart at the last second, flowing effortlessly away and around from the charged weapons. The slime reconstituted its body around the goblin’s exposed forearms, binding them together with a firmly wrapped tentacle as the rest of the body advanced on to the barbarian’s upper body. Feathers raged and cursed, struggling to free herself, but helpless to stop Suo from wrapping itself around her head. Bubbles filled the translucent slime as the goblin gave a long muffled scream. It still took several long moments for the lack of oxygen to overcome her rage and Feathers to slowly sink to the ground.

The slime pulled itself off with a plop and landed on the ground in front of the kneeling and gasping goblin.

“Suoso?”

“I’m... fine... win... next... time...” Feathers gave a weak smile as she struggled to find her breath.

With his mana regenerated above half, Baal summoned a new skeleton and set it to to gaining experience points for him. Then went to inspect the dungeon. The smith was still working on metal tools for harvesting. The two builders were roughly a tenth of the way to constructing the large mess hall. He expected another goblin to have given birth according to his fame menu from the morning but oddly that wasn’t the case. However, the full blood goblin child was now a toddler, walking and babbling incoherently, so not that much different than an adult goblin. It still irked him that his own spawn wasn’t growing at such a speed, but hopefully that was due to a difference in quality.

With little else to do, many of the other goblins filtered into the training grounds once the arena was again safe. Baal resigned himself to climbing the narrow winding staircase to the watch room above the entrance. Two of the mob goblins were keeping lookout through the narrow slit windows to the path outside and welcomed their lord to the empty room.

He took the two crates he had made out of his inventory and placed them at the far ends of the **** holes. Taking the excess stone he had also pocketed into his inventory he filled each crate with fifty units of the common item. It was weak ammunition but it was what they had. He also took four of the minor paralyzing potions and the two minor poison potions and split them among the ammo crates. He considered leaving the guards some healing potions for emergencies, but knowing the goblins they would probably just throw those at an adventurer as well so he declined.

He took the time to look outside as well since he was there. It looked different in the daylight. Similar to the old view from his cave hole, but an even better vantage for seeing the path leading to his door and the foothills and forest beyond.

The mess hall would be finished in another day or so. He needed to replenish resources but he also needed to refill their dwindling food reserves. They would have to go out in groups again. He didn’t like the thought of leaving the dungeon undefended. But it was as defensible as he could spare for now.

He had Bunny gather the available goblins and set his orders for the day.

Baal himself was better at gathering ore, and the occasional gemstone, than any of the goblins; so he would be heading back up the mountain. Feathers, having proven her ability to kill the Igneleon lizards would go with him to hopefully farm more of the rare hides. That meant they would also need to take one of the few remaining mob scavengers who could break it down into items.

Bunny would therefore be in charge of the other unit. They would head to the forest, harvesting wood, gathering plants and food, and hunting whatever game they could. To that end she would take the trickster a well as one of the mobs currently standing watch. He also gave Bunny the bottles the smith had produced and ordered her to gather fresh water. As long as he wasn't able to use the mana spring water in potions, he'd need another source.

The problem with the second group was one of manpower. Three goblins, even as trained and equipped as they were, simply weren’t strong enough on their own.

“Suo,” he called for the slime knowing it was somewhere nearby.

“Suo?” The slime answered as it rolled between his feet.

“Go with Bunny and keep them alive.”

“Suo!” It responded rather defiantly.

Baal stared down the little slime. Though it was more difficult for a creature that didn’t have eyes.

“Susuo...” the slime relented as it sadly rolled to the ex chiefess.

That only left the smith, two builders, and a single mob goblin to keep the dungeon and the little ones. The earth elementals were not useful in a fight and still busy building the caves. The tiny air elemental would help keep watch. Even if it couldn’t talk, it could at least alert the others, and it did have the haste spell to aid them.

Suitably convinced in his plan for the day, Baal dismissed the groups.

He took a new metal pickaxe with him as he, Feathers, and the mob goblin climbed the mountain. Baal focused on mining as Feathers hunted, and the leather clad spear wielding scavenger stood guard. There were signs of more traffic on the mountain, humanoid footprints in the rocky soil, and several resource nodes previously mined by someone else.

On the positive side though, the metal tool made a massive difference in mining efficiency, and they made very good progress. They reached the plateau much earlier than usual and mined it clean. Feathers had also managed to kill a half dozen of the lizards. Sadly no hides were scavenged but at least they got the meat.

It hadn’t been part of his original plan, but considering their progress on the day, Baal decided to push further. He had lived long enough on the mountain to know where to find his meals. They lacked the ranged skills necessary to take on the agile goats, but now that he was stronger there was another tempting food source calling to him.

They kept as much off the main trails as possible and continued to mine as they traveled. Several times they hid as the wind carried voices of adventurers on the mountain. There were also the odd marks left by the vicious little kobolds to keep trails and territory.

But Baal’s interests lay elsewhere. He took the little group high above the plateau and around the side of the mountain. The terrain here was even steeper. There were more boulder resources scattered but many were impossible for him to reach. Several times the narrow trails they walked withered to little more than a handhold along the cliffs. That was the trick to this particular venture, as hard as it was to get in, it was even harder to escape with a prize, especially when you were under attack.

He hushed the goblins as they approached a blind corner. They had arrived. A large ancient withered tree grew at an angle from a recess in the cliffs. Its roots twisted into the rock, breaking the trail, but giving rather easy access to the large tree. It’s branches, likewise thick and winding, connected new pathways through the air for anyone adventurous or suicidal enough to travel. The way the rock face folded gave protection from the winds and rains and the tree’s massive branches gave perfect nesting grounds for his target.

A dozen or so man sized bowls of mud, twisted wood, and grasses clung to the tree and the rocks. Each nest held a magnificent site: a beautiful bare chested feathered woman. Harpies. The lizard like legs and talons of a bird turned into the supple thighs of a woman. Each one supported wide hips, narrow waists, and gravity defying breasts. They wore no clothes, but rather unfortunately strategically placed feathers blocked the best places from view. Slender female arms quickly gave way to vibrantly feathered wings. They had otherwise humanoid heads and faces,complete with hair of a variety of colors and styles, but sported clear deep avian eyes and a crest of feathers on their foreheads. The larger the crest, apparently the higher the status.

Gods what he wouldn’t do for an hour with one one of those bodies, but he’d settle for at least making an escape this time without being thrown from the cliff to his ****.

Half of his mana was still going to the summoned skeleton back at the arena. But his overall mana pool and pure magic power were both much improved over the last time he’d tried this. Still there was no reason not to be prudent. He dismissed the far away summon and meditated for a moment to slowly refill the missing mp. He had also made sure to have the two goblins collect some stones as ammunition. The spear and tomahawks would work fine if the bird women stayed close, but they preferred ambushes and hit and run tactics. Unfortunately the harpies also had excellent eyesight. There would be no sneaking up on them.

Baal took a moment, preparing a powerful charge of dark energy into his staff, before turning the corner. The alarms immediately began to ring out in shrieking screams. Baal didn’t hesitate. He fired his staff blast into the nearest nest.

Harpy - ???

The blast hit the bird woman, ripping apart flesh and feather alike.

• 15 Experience

One down, but a dozen harpies were already taking flight and that blast had used nearly all his remaining mp. He took advantage of their momentary confusion to pull a bag of the mana spring water from his inventory and take a large swig. His mp bar flashed and began refilling at an accelerated pace.

“Get the eggs!” Baal ordered the goblin scavenger.

Each harpy egg was a was a thick spotted oval nearly the size of a goblin’s head. They were also delicious. Better yet, each harpy would lay a clutch at a time, anywhere from three to eight eggs. When they had taken flight to attack, they had left the nests defenseless.

The scavenger rounded the narrow path around the cliffs and clung to the ancient and withered tree trunk. The first harpies had already turned on him, diving at him and strafing with their clawed feet. And if they couldn’t claw him to **** they would try to yank him to his doom. Baal covered for the goblin, firing magic back at them, but the agile women easily dodged his small blasts and gave him no time to charge a larger one.

As the scavenger climbed the tree, Baal and Feathers backed deeper into the crevice. The folding cliffs and large tree at least gave some cover. The next harpy that attacked was **** to move slower and Baal’s magic hit home. It wasn’t enough to kill the monster, but it did drive her back. However, more were coming behind her, screaming and clawing in a flurry of angry feathers and breasts.

Baal feigned another attack with his staff but activated his Miasma spell instead. The sudden debuff caught the harpies by surprise. The three caught in its range suddenly fell weakly from the sky. Baal snagged the first as she fell, bashing the light bird against the cliff and clubbing it with his staff. Feathers jumped on the second, slashing both winged arms with her axes. It wasn’t enough to kill or dismember the harpy, but it did cripple it, sending it plummeting below as Feathers leapt back to the path. The stiff third harpy fell until she passed out of the Miasma then quickly regained her flight.

• 15 Experience

• 15 Experience

A sudden high pitch squeal, different from the harpy’s screeching suddenly rang out. The scavenger goblin had been caught unawares while raiding a nest and a harpy was now taking flight while grabbing him by the shoulders. Feathers launched her flaming tomahawk without caring about the likelihood of loosing the powerful weapon. The narrow hand ax flew threw the gap between the cliff path and the nesting tree, planting itself in the harpy’s back. The burning effect spread to its sensitive feathers and the woman fell screaming into the nest, landing on top of the shrieking goblin.

“Throw!” Feathers shouted to her master.

Throw? Yes she had thrown the tomahawk. She’d be lucky if she didn’t loose it at this rate. Feathers shook her head at the burning nest and gave Baal a meaningful look. Oh... throw!

This was probably a bad idea but the orc didn’t have time to think about it as he grabbed the small goblin by the back of her rabbit fur vest and bikini cut shorts. A dozen meters of open air separated them and the roughly meter sized nest resting in a low branch of the aged tree. If he missed, Feathers would have several long seconds to reconsider during her fall.

Baal tossed the goblin.

Feathers gave a battle cry as she flew through the air. Baal’s strength was good. She made the distance. His aim however... the barbarian's eyes widened as she realized she would be too high and clear over the low nest. Just as it looked too late, the scorched harpy stood up. Feathers desperately grabbed an outstretched wing and held fast. The harpy screamed as the goblin ripped out remaining feathers by the handful and they all fell into a heap into the relative safety of the still burning nest. Feathers retrieved the thrown weapon and slammed it into the bird again

• 15 Experience

In the meantime Baal had undone the Miasma spell and retrieved the water skin for another drink. The harpies had taken note of this behavior, as soon as the flask appeared from his inventory another bird woman had swept in and ripped it away from the orc.

Fuck

The harpies were wary now and he had used most of his tricks. A particularly striking harpy, with short red hair and a tall orange crest of feathers on her head hovered above them all, directing the lesser harpies.

“Woman!” Baal calmed out to the leader. “Call off your flock!”

“Little orc!” She shot back, her voice dropping with venom. “You come here, steal our eggs, kill our brood, and expect to leave with your life?”

A chorus of “thief” and “murderer” joined from her clique.

“No,” Baal calmly replied. “I am giving you one chance to keep your own. I am a boss. I am stronger than all of you.”

He wasn’t lying, though he had omitted the micro part of his description.

The harpy leader eyed him suspiciously. The little orc was certainly strong. As were the foul goblins that followed him. Four of her sisters were dead and another was injured and they had barely scratched the intruders. It was like fighting adventurers. The logical thing to do was avoid the fight. But monsters were not typically logical creatures. They were creatures of habit and instinct. And the instincts of the bird women were to fight and defend their nests.

One of the harpies screamed and dove towards the orc. As enraged as she was, she made no attempt to evade, and Baal had been using the time to talk to also charge another blast of dark energy.

• 15 Experience

And that was all of his mp. All he had left was a bluff, but he was a liegelord and he had his silver tongue feat.

“Half!” The orc shouted to the harpy.

The remaining bird women looked at one another uncertainly.

“Give up half your nests,” Baal continued, “and we will take only those and leave here. Or you can die trying to protect them and loose them all!”

The other harpies whispered in hisses to their leader, trying to convince her not to take the bargain. But she still looked unconvinced. Another push then.

“You choose which nests,” he offered. “You choose the half to keep!”

Of course she would want to protect her own nest, the nests of her closest companions, and the largest nests for themselves.

The goblins had continued to loot while Baal had distracted the harpies but now they stopped to watch. Feathers readied both axes while the scavenger nervously aimed his spear.

The red and orange harpy and the orc stared one another down. While Baal did his utmost to show indifference, the flame colored harpy was smoldering. But she didn’t have to like it, she just had to take the offer.

“Half,” the bird woman finally agreed.

The seven remaining harpies took to their nests, the injured one shielded by the leader in her own nest, and watched the goblins quickly looting the homes of their fallen sisters. They wailed and glared at the orc with hatred but stuck by the bargain.

In short order the two goblins shimmied back across the tree trunk to the cliff path and joined the orc. Baal knew he had made enemies today. Not that he was particularly afraid of the harpies wrath, but they could make things difficult for him on the mountain in the short term. He doubted the uneasy peace would last long enough for them to even get back to the dungeon, the harpies best chance to attack was while they were stuck on the thin to nonexistent trails near the cliffs.

Harpy Egg x19 - ??? (Uncommon)

Harpy Feather x1 - ??? (Uncommon)

He needed a peace offering then, but what? The pork bellies were delicious but the whole point was to gain food not give it away. He had his staff and the short sword he crafted for himself, both useless to the harpies and he wouldn’t leave himself defenseless. That only left...

“Take this for your sister,” Baal offered as he took a minor healing potion out of his inventory.

He then produced the metal pickaxe and plunged it into the cliff wall. “And take this for yourself. If you learn to use it properly, you’ll gain much more than you lost today.”

Fame Increased!
Fame: 58
Diplomacy +2 (expanded)
Rumors of your generosity and wrath are spreading! +2

Thankfully, once the trio left the nesting area the harpies did not reappear. The orc was almost going to allow himself to relax when the trail began to shudder. A narrow trail on the edge of a cliff was a bad spot to be stuck during an earthquake. The scavenger goblin lost his footing and almost fell over the edge before Baal grabbed him by the back of his neck.

“Hold on!” He shouted over the roar of falling rocks.

They hugged the cliff as debris continued to rain down around them. The orc was suddenly aware of a shadow falling over them. He looked up in time to see a massive boulder hurtling towards them.

“Move!” He ordered.

Feathers was first. The small goblin was able to run down the narrow crumbling trail. Baal still held the gasping goblin scavenger as he inched his own way down. Too slow, he knew. With his free hand he grasped the rock above him, praying his mana had recovered enough.

The heavy rock continued to fall towards them. The scavenger could only watch in horror as his boss scrambled along the rock face, carrying him achingly slowly either to safety or their mutual ****. High above them and the falling rocks was something else. The outline of something... big...

The boulder was right on them now. They were almost clear but not far enough.

“Boss!” The goblin screamed in horror.

Just as the goblin closed his eyes hoping for a quick ****, a skeletal hand emerged from the vertical wall of rock. Next came the rusted sword as the skeleton pulled itself from the summoning circle. It managed to pull part of its upper body free, lifeless holes where eyes should be looking down at the forest far below, before the rock smashed into its back. The skeleton had leveled up along with its master. Its defenses were higher than ever, though it still offered pitiful resistance to such a bludgeoning attack. It did however, alter the rock’s descent just enough to bounce it clear of the trio.

The path was widening now, even though the shaking earth offered little in the way of secure footing, Baal and Feathers were sprinting.

“Boss, big thing!” The scavenger yelled over the noise.

No shit ‘big’. Only two things Baal knew of could cause earthquakes on the mountain and throw boulders, and he very much doubted The Great Wyrm had come to deal with the upstart orc microboss personally. Not that the alternative was much better...

Giants

The great hulking beasts roamed the mountain with impunity. Worse, the were very territorial, attacking anything that crossed their path. Baal knew better than to go into their territories, so why was it attacking them?! The monolithic monster roared with laughter as it rained more rocks down. The bastard was toying with them. Playing with their lives for sport.

Strength was the only thing that mattered to monsters. He had used his superior power to attack the harpies, now it was his turn to be the prey.

As Feathers began to lag, the orc picked her up as well. One thing that had never disappointed him was his stamina, and Baal continued to pump his legs even as the muscles burned in protest and his lungs screamed in pain. The giant continued to use them for target practice until they finally rounded the mountain yet again. They descended down to the familiar plateau before he finally stopped to rest.

The resources here still hadn’t respawned but it was better to stop and collect themselves. Not keeping a low profile on Mt Imporne was just asking for more trouble and he’d had enough for one day. The sun was already getting low behind the mountain, draping the forest below in long shadows. Further down the path and resources had returned. Baal took the time to collect these as well before moving on. He may have given away the pickaxe, but he could make as many of those as he wanted, and he still had the stone hammer. It was a productive, if dangerous, day. Hopefully the other group had been as successful.

It was getting even darker and colder as he approached his dungeon.

“Boss back!” He heard the watch goblin shout from above as he opened the wooden doors.

The orc crossed into the entryway but stopped short. Sitting in the room between the doors and the gate were three new goblins he hadn’t seen before. They were clearly scared and exhausted, they also looked rather banged up and malnourished, but showed no signs of hostility to the orc or his party as they watched him with wide fearful eyes.

“Master!” Bunny greeted him as she shimmied under the slowly rising portcullis to join him.

“Who are they?” Baal asked the obvious question.

“Meet in forest. Bad dog kill tribe. We save. Want join us!” Bunny smiled as she thought she had clearly explained the situation.

“Bad dog?” He asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Mhm. Bad dog. Black. One eye.” She agreed.

“Awoo!” A goblin helpfully added from the room above.

That sounded disturbingly familiar. A bloodthirsty one-eyed black wolf hunting down goblin tribes. Baal took a closer look at the battle weary goblins. Though still scratched and bleeding they had at least been given some form of aid. Two wore the kind of simple loincloths his own tribe had started with. They also each had a simple sling for throwing rocks attached to their hips. The same weapon the trickster has started with. The third goblin was slightly taller though just as thin. What spots the orc could see were darker in color, his hair was thin and balding. He was clearly an elder but rather than appear weak, the goblin appeared more regal in a set of tattered robes and a twisted walking stick. He eyed the orc with equal parts fear and suspicion but there was also a glimmer of wisdom in the old eyes.

“Do you pledge to serve me loyally? Do you swear to follow any order to the best of your ability? Do you wish to be stronger than you can imagine, but know your strength will belong to me?”

“Yes!”

“Swear!”

“I will follow, my lord.”

The older goblin even sounded different than the rest.

Fame Increased!
Fame: 161
Diplomacy +105 (Expanded)
Rescued a neutral faction in peril +10
Defended a neutral faction against overwhelming odds +25
Rumors of your power and protection are spreading +5
Absorbed another faction into your own! + 50
Adoration recruitment! +5 (x3)

The fame rewards rushed in. Even if the party hadn’t been as successfully gathering materials, the fame more than made up for it.

“Good!” Baal exclaimed as he moved into the entry level spire floor. “Feathers save me an egg but pass the rest around! Tonight we feast! How goes construction of the mess hall?”

Bunny updated him on the meager dungeon progress as the other goblins scattered to fulfill their new orders. Baal was in such a good mood for once, it took him several long paces to realize he had been walking without stumbling over anything. He had gotten used to his small companion always being underfoot.

“Suo!” He called out.

Where had the slime gotten off to now?

Bunny stopped mid stride. He turned and looked at the smaller gobliness in confusion. She was trembling. Her overly large eyes tearing up in an incomprehensible mix of fear, sadness, and regret.

“...Slimey... dead...,” she finally choked out.