The Palace

Authors Note: Hey there, I hope you enjoy this chapter, I will be taking the rest of December off from publishing but I'm excited for you to see the chapters to come in the new year!

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!” John yelled as he ran from a dog-like creature with two ugly falmer-looking things riding it.

As soon as he had entered the palace, they had spotted him. The mount yipped while the riders both laughed and yelled, prompting the scary dog creature to give chase.

He’d managed to turn his head while running, long enough to Observe the thernan goblin riders, but the thing they rode seemed to catch up as he did, and with no other option he focused on running.

While making his way through the hall, he spotted and Observed a fernken gremlin. Unfortunately, he was unable to do anything else with it as his pursuers were still hot on his heels. “I have to be able to do something. Oh, stairs!” he thought aloud, running towards the foot of the staircase.

’I need some kind of plan. None of my skills are useful for this. I could maybe use Instant Trigger to calm or scare them, but that could cause them to panic, so probably not the best plan. Think, John, what else do you have?’ John internalised as he raced to the landing at the top of the stairs. He paused, momentarily looking around for options. There were several directions that he could run but he didn’t have time to think about it.

“The net!” he blurted as he remembered. The sound of laughing, shouting and yipping chased after him, and in a moment of panic, John turned and continued running up to the next floor.

Quickly he pulled out the net. It had more weight than he remembered. John didn’t want to lose points before getting any, so he didn’t risk throwing the net while they were on the staircase. Instead, he moved back, clearing enough space for the three creatures as they reached the second landing. As soon as they were in position, John struggled to throw the net, catching all three under it.

The two goblins screamed as their mount skidded across the wooden floor trying to avoid the net. Unfortunately for them, the net was cast wide and entangled them easily.

John breathed a sigh of relief, before cautiously walking closer to the trapped trio. Not running on adrenaline anymore, John finally took in his surroundings. The palace was quite beautiful, being almost entirely constructed from wood and only having things like carpets, curtains and one or two other fabric adornments, even the windows were devoid of glass.

Despite the yelling coming from the two goblins that had chased him, John realised no other goblin had joined them in their pursuit of him, and now he could tell why: the entire palace was filled with distant yells, laughs and chattering. Despite seeming like a goblin raid on the palace, it sounded more like a sports event or a kids playground.

Finally, John’s gaze fell on the dog creature that had been chasing him. Before, all he had seen was a dark shape with a white head running at him, but now he could see it clearly. The black fur that covered the creature had made it look much bigger but John could now see its lithe shape. The legs looked much too long for its body, almost as if it were on stilts.

Its head was the most curious part of its body, however. Large wide ears which pointed upwards with a rounded tip stood atop its head. Its eyes were hard to find due to them almost blending in with the shorter fur which encased them, but the fur stopped just short of its muzzle.

What John had thought was white fur covering its face was now clear to be bone; its short muzzle was entirely devoid of skin or fur, that was until John saw it open its mouth, which he could see black flesh on the inside of, along with a wine red pointed tongue. Though the creature's body reminded John of a wolf or fox, its head only reminded him of a bat.

Curious as to what it could be, John cast Observe.

Family: Gobliniod | Branch: Skullfaced Barghest
Size: 96cm (Shoulder Height) 134cm (Length) | Weight: 26kg | Sex: M
Level: 8 | Points: 4
Creature Description:

Like most barghest,skullfaced barghest diet usually consist of carrion. However, this is only when they are wild or in a pack. It is common for other creatures to train and keep barghest as hunting partners or guard animals.

The head of the skullfaced barghest has evolved to be bare bone due to their scavenging; fur and skin around the face often become a detriment when digging into a carcass that have body acids and other corrosive materials. This adaptation has benefited the skullfaced barghest in more than one way as their scary visage helps ward off larger predators that might want to attack.

Personal Description:

Due to being part of a goblin tribe, this barghest's skin and fur have grown to cover more of its head than it would have in the wild.

It is cautious enough to keep it out of trouble, but being a younger adult, it still takes more risks than necessary in the name of curiosity.

Enjoying its first time out of the goblin camp and having fun playing chase with you and its goblin masters, though being caught in a net has it a little scared and confused.

John didn’t want to waste any more time, assuming both Robin and Ellie had probably been raking in points. John drew the tagging gun and took care of the mount before wrestling the other two enough to clip their ears too.

Once all three were gone, John stored the net in his inventory once again. “Okay, seven points, nice. Hopefully, the next set shouldn’t take as long.”

John smoothed out his clothing as he turned and began walking down the corridor. Already being on this level, it made sense to John to clear it. As he walked he heard the sound of laughing and muffled talking from the other room.

Carefully, he crept over to the ajar double doors and peered in. The room was tossed, clothing and everything else strewn around. From the objects and clothing, it seemed to be a girl's room, which was confirmed when John found the source of chuckling and speaking.

Two figures roughly a metre and a half tall stood facing each other. Unlike the goblins he’d just tagged, they had a more human shape to them, though their hands, feet and head were quite different. Their hands and feet had four digits each and were stubbier.

The head of the one John could see properly had quite strong features and a squarish jaw, though it seemed quite narrow for its size. It also seemed to have quite an overbite with two lower canines which slightly protruded.

The skin colour wasn’t what he expected either. It wasn’t green, blue or even bright red skin; instead, the skin tone was more of a natural-looking red-brown.

John had to stop scrutinising the appearance of the goblins, however, as he stifled a laugh. He’d not really paid attention but now he realised what they must have been talking about between each other.

The one he could see fully held aloft a pair of plain panties, inspecting and showing them to their friend, while the other seemed to be arguing back and wore a pair of them on their head, using the leg holes to see through.

Once John had made a sound, the two goblins turned towards him. John took a half step back due to them looking more capable than the other two goblins. The one with underwear on its head spun around and shouted, “Man!”

The other nodded. “What want?”

John surprised himself, stepping forward. “I, uh, I was just exploring the palace,” he replied.

“Explorings?” the first repeated.

’Should probably Observe them to see what they actually are,’ John thought. Before he did, however, he looked above their heads willing their nameplates to appear, causing him to chuckle at Belb and Blork.

Name: Blork

Family: Goblinoid | Branch: Lowland Hobgoblin
Size: 147cm | Weight: 41kg | Sex: M
Level: 8 | Points: 4
Creature Description:

Lowland hobgoblins are a lower class of hobgoblins, only being able to loosely grasp a second language.

Unlike most hobgoblins, lowland hobgoblins don’t see the value of money. If a lowland hobgoblin raiding party attacks a settlement, their usual target is food, supplies or slaves.

Despite their penchant for raiding in large groups, individuals or small numbers are quite amenable to conversation.

Lowland hobgoblins have duelling natures. On one hand, they are painfully curious and eager to learn anything and everything, but on the other hand, they have a strong ingrained mob mentality to be stubborn and reject outsiders' help or knowledge. Lone lowland hobgoblins have been known to integrate into cities and towns extremely well.

Personal Description:

Likes his new strange hat, the material is soft and feels good against the skin, but the smell is confusing, intoxicating and arousing.

John cleared his throat awkwardly as Belb and Blork stared at him. An idea formed in his head. “Hey, you both seem to be curious about those. I could explain what they are if you’d like?” John probed.

They both looked at each other then back at John, seemingly weighing their curiosity. Blork, still wearing the panties as a mask, reached up and stroked the fabric. “What want?” he asked.

“Well, my friends and I are playing a game, and to win I have to give as many gifts away as I can, but you would need to close your eyes in order for me to give it to you. So if I tell you what those pieces of cloth you’re interested in are, you have to close your eyes and let me give you a gift,” John explained. He reasoned that a gift would be a more enticing incentive than asking if he could just outright tag them, or asking them to just close their eyes.

The two looked at each other, talking in what John assumed was Hobgoblin, then they turned back to him and nodded.

John explained to the two that what they had was female underwear, which had likely been worn before they had touched them. The two hobgoblins laughed and chattered amongst themselves before getting serious once again. Giving John a nod, they both closed their eyes.

Once John was eight points richer, he scoured the rest of the room. Other than the mess, it was what he would expect to see in a girl’s room, though devoid of any technology and with a much more natural theme. As John was about to leave, he noticed something inside the wardrobe. A small wooden knob, just visible behind a shirt on the back wall of the interior. Moving closer John grabbed hold and pulled, opening a door on the inside.

The compartment held several long strips of cloth, most of which had blood stains. There were also several weapons, and a stack of sports magazines, which all focused on different styles of fighting. Trading cards were stuck to the walls and door of the secret compartment, each depicting a different fighter, some seemed animated, others still. The last thing John noticed was a glowing, shimmering trading card booster pack. He reached into the wardrobe and pulled the pack out.

Secret Location Discovered: Aerie’s hidden past time
Reward: RPG Class starter pack, +10 Points

Shaking his head, John continued looking on the same floor. It seemed to be mostly family rooms and bedrooms. Luckily there were several goblinoids in the rooms, mostly goblins and gremlins which he easily caught and tagged using the net from his inventory. The goblinoids made a lot of noise as he captured them, but once he’d cleared the floor, it seemed much quieter.

The final room he inspected was another bedroom, similar in size to the others, though much more spartan. There was a sturdy wooden bed which was neatly tucked in, clothing all folded to perfection, but most of the room was empty. The only other things were a weapon rack and a mannequin with odd-looking armour on it; it made John think that maybe the owner of the room was probably a bodyguard, given a room on this floor in order to protect the other occupants in case of an attack.

As he moved around the bed, he let out a yelp as his foot collided with something. After getting down on his knees and pulling a rug up, he found a trap door.

“Nice, I hope this counts as a secret. Hemet said we’d get rewarded for secrets so this should be a nice little bonus on the scoreboard. Hmm, I should see if I can check to see the points the others have,” John mused as he crouched on the floor, touching the metal ring-pull on the trap door.

Score board:

Robin: 57
Ellie: 54
John: 49

John was so distracted that he hadn’t heard the footsteps rushing towards him before a feminine voice called, “John, watch out!”

Player 4 has entered the game

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