Private Western Brisshal Goblin Swattin

[Brutus Dahlgren]

Brutus found himself sitting on a large stump, twiddling his thumbs idly as he waited. He would occasionally open up his Hud to see if Guy had responded to him again. The two had been talking about taking a job together for a while, and finally the stars had aligned for them to get at it. The message had been rather simple.

The Guy

Meet me at the clearing in Western Brishal when the UI tells you you're in Western Brishal. You know the one, just off the main western trail, circle of stumps with the big firepit.

Nothing back yet, worrying, but Guy wasn't exactly the chattiest of motherfuckers sometimes, but he was dependable. Either way, he needed to make sure he was ready for the fight to come. His bars were as full as can be, although his hunger was going to be a problem to deal with if this turned into a multi day affair. His canon was loaded, and his inventory was loaded up with provisions. Worse come to worse, they could camp out here in this clearing if need be.

@The Guy

 

[The Guy]

THE GUY showed up when he was called for. It was a trait he had every intention to display for everyone to see... unfortunately, he'd recently fallen asleep when @Brutus had asked him to eat lunch with him a few days ago, putting a bit of a dent in that image of his.

He supposed that it made his arrival to the clearing all that more of a pleasant surprise. Making sure that he wouldn't show up in a way that made Brutus whip out his cannon on reflex, THE GUY waved a hand in hello to the comparative titan in the clearing.

"Hey..! I would've sent you a message, but my throat has just been killing me. My bad, amigo." What did his voice have anything to do with the text massaging system?! THE GUY had such a habit of saying dumb things like this... For all Brutus knew, he'd nor messaged back on purpose just to make that stupid joke.

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"Haha! Nice one bud!"

Guy was famous for his strange brand of esoteric humor, but Brutus found it quite endearing. Either way, he was glad he was here and not standing him up like that one time he'd asked him to try out the taco place in Dunnstads. But that was a rare and isolated incident, a slight tarnish in an otherwise immaculate record. Either way, it was time to get to work.

"Anyways, here's the shimmy. I told you earlier that we were dealing with Goblins that had raided a trader. The man hiring us could give a fuck less about the gold and goods that were taken, but among the items swiped was a priceless family heirloom, a ring he was going to use to propose to his sweetheart. He wants us to get that back come hell or high water, anything and everything else we recover is fair game to claim."

After running the situation down, he would pull out a map of the area and point a finger to a trail. "This is that trail over there." He would point to his left to the small path they'd both taken to arrive here. "About a mile west from here is where the attack happened, at the bend by the river." He circled the spot on the map with his finger. "Witnesses report the goblins heading north, where to I have no clue. Any questions?"

@The Guy

 

[The Guy]

"Why goblins? Where the hell are they all coming from? Maria, I grow wild as I see the green tide grow despite our efforts." The armored head shook left and right, exasperated at the needs that had been piling up for the two. He was just glad that Corsair didn't get caught in the shitshow of goblins quite as often as the two of they did.

"We'll need to be quick-anything taken without care has a habit of rusting. Rings included, you understand? We won't want it stained red when we bring it back to the poor sod who hired us."

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"Of course." Brutus nodded, they did need to work quickly. "I'll take point, stay close and lets haul ass." The Giant grunted, shouldering his canon and pasting a grin over his face. "Try and keep up with me." He would begin making his way down the trail at a breakneck speed, having gotten used to hiking over his many hours logged into the game, he could practically jog down the rugged paths of the forest with nary a problem. His body would grow slick with sweat, and he would find himself chugging at his waterskin periodically to rehydrate. After about an hour, the two found themselves at a bend in the road that crossed a small creek. An overturned wagon signaled this to be place of the attack, alongside several bloodstained rocks. The giant paused, squinting as he began to search the surrounding area.

"Lets see if we can find any tracks." Brutus, declared, nose flaring as he tried to pick up the potent scent that goblins often carried with them. "Once we have our heading, we can try to run them down as fast as possible."

@The Guy

 

[The Guy]

"Hmm! Well, if that's what you desire-THE GUY has you covered, no need to fear! Watch this..!" The man cried, stepping swiftly into the forest ahead of them. In an effort to catch the scent, this psychotic man all but leapt into the dirt, rolling around and sniffing around like a wolverine on fire that had proper fire safety training...

It allowed the two to notice it. Brutus saw the ominous signal first, yet they might as well have found it together.

"AH!"
"Ah!"

THE GUY was rolling inside of a footprint. The footprint was as large as he was. It was shaped like that of a goblin's print, yet that was no print that a goblin could own. What the hell had they uncovered?

"You... you can't be telling me that they just picked up the trader's cart and left... Right?" And yet, given by the fallen plank beside that footstep, that's exactly what had seemed to happen.

Why hadn't the trader told them about this?

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

Brutus paused, looking at the giant footprint and squinting for it. It was a goblin footprint allright, but...huge. Like, fucking Huge. Was it a Texan Goblin perhaps? Was he shaq sized? Had he been drinking his milk and eating his vegetables. The possibilities were endless, but also incredibly dangerous.

"Jesus fucking christ."

The words left Brutus' lips aghast as he stared at the trail. One step lumbered over to another, and then another. Jesus this thing had huge steps. Trees yielded to it, snapping and leaving felled logs in its wake. It was like they were dealing with a giant, not a goblin. A giant goblin if you will.

"Guy...we may have bit off a bit more than we can chew." Brutus called out, growling ever so slightly. They'd never mentioned this in the report. Luckily he was equipped to fight something this big, his canon would actually be appropriate for this.

Maybe.

@The Guy

 

[The Guy]

THE GUY kept careful watch over the footprint. It was like he was trying to measure what kind of body could have made it as best he could, measuring up the man ahead by their footprint in the soil.

"Maybe it's a bit more than we expected. That's not going to stop me, though. You thinking what I'm thinking?" He asks, allowing silence to give thought to @Brutus Dahlgren 's mind for a moment. Antonio's excitement was palpable as he elaborated, "Imagine what kind of cred we'd get by pulling this thing's head out to town! And I want to see the look on that damn merchant's face, too. I don't know why he sent us on what he thought to be a suicide mission, but he's going to damn well pay for it if THE GUY has a say in the matter!"

His gaze turned towards the forest just as his footsteps did the same. THE GUY led Brutus into this forest now, before they ran out of guts to face whatever lie on the other side of the journey. Best to dive in head-first, he thought, because he wouldn't be getting a chance like this again.

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"Let's become legends!" Brutus grunted to Guy.

The Giant followed the Guy with his canon loaded and slung over his shoulder. He would keep pace with the other fighter, keeping his resolve in check as they got further and further along the trail. A giant goblin was something for sure, he would truly cement his legacy as a protector of Brisshal if he and Guy slew this creature.

If.

The tree's grew denser, and thus their trail more clear. The large creature had carelessly battered trees aside from its path. Fallen logs led the way to the creature, which they would find tucked away taking a nap in what would appeared to be a large crater like ring of rocks. It's lair was lined with all sorts of pilfered goods, boxes and barrels filled with all sorts of bits and bobs, the bottom of the pit was lined with a menagerie of fancy rugs, furs, and rags all mixed together into a chaotic nest.

The creature was huge, easily thirteen or fourteen feet tall, easily weighing over a ton. Curled up, the creature looked helpless.

Looked.

Brutus would turn to the guy and press a finger to his lips to silently shush him, and then began to creep to the top of the crater to take a spot to shoot, motioning for the man to follow suit.

@The Guy

 

[The Guy]

A quiet step followed Brutus' own. Were it not for the game's need to add a small noise to the sound of his quiet footsteps, THE GUY would have been entirely silent. That's what he told himself, anyway-he couldn't attest to the properties of these boots aside from how they were worse than the ones he was used to in real life.

He counted the straggling bodies around the target destination. This was something that was really easy to do, because there weren't any. THE GUY was sure of it now, this had either been a trap or all of these goblins had decided to combine into one giant creature. El Goblino, if you would.

He readied the twin pistols he beheld, one with bayonet affixed out and ready to fire. THE GUY's targets were the arteries found in the inner thigh and the side of the throat. He was ready.

The signal was made. The battle began.

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

BOOM

Brutus opened up with a blast of his canon. WHAM. It smashed into El Goblino's skull with incredible power. The creature jerked awake, not as if death throws, but as if the giant had just dumped cold water on its head whilst it was asleep. The creature let out a rather upset roar, not in pain, but annoyance, and it was then that Brutus realized he'd fucked up. The creature lurched to its feet, looking around sleepily for the annoyance that had attacked him. The creature's eyes settled on the giant first, eyes narrowing as it sized up the canoneer from his hole.

"COME GET SOME!" the beastman howled, stuffing another shot into the barrel and blasting away.

BOOM.

The creature ate another shot on the chin and let out a screech as it reached for a fallen tree and casually hefted it upwards like a club. He would swing it at the giant, forcing him to abandon his defensive position. He would shoot a couple fireballs towards the creature, hopefully keeping it's attention for @The Guy

 

[The Guy]

Several volleys of steel lacaerated the skin of the goblin's sides. Blood began to spew from the titan's arteries as it staggered while standing. Moments later, the bleeding stopped.

"Shit!" It could flex muscle and skin strongly enough to close small wounds. THE GUY had no choice from then-he had to go closer in. Otherwise, it would begin closing in on Brutus while he was reloading. Leaping from the cliff, THE GUY executed a perfect roll which would have found him harmless in real life, yet taking falling damage in the game regardless.

He still needed to work on that.

The armored soldier switched tactics from precision to distraction, back to precision again. Ensuring with a shot to the face that it would be looking for him, THE GUY ran carefully to a blind spot in the monster's eyes, behind the leg where he latched onto the skin. As a terrible spider would, he climbed up the monster's mass up towards the thigh where the old wound was.

El Goblino was able to close small wounds, and so he'd make a larger one. THE GUY took personal action to tear open the wound himself.

Flesh and blood fell to the ground with a clatter. A terrible roar cried out, and El Goblino took a knee.

He was open.

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

With the path opened, Brutus seized the opportunity. He would charge forward, leaping into the air as he spun the canon around. A burst of pyromantic flame shot from the canon propelling him forward as he spun and spun, building up full momentum.

"DAHLGREN SPECIAL TECHNIQUE: SIDEWINDER SLAM!"

The man slammed his canon into the side of the El Goblino's skull. WHAM. The creature howled, staggering to the side dizzily as the giant tumbled through the air. With a twirl, he righted his canon the right way, popping a ball in and sending another shot towards the creature. The Goblino howled, and like a photon torpedo into the exhaust port of the deathstar the ball went down the creatures gullet.

BOOM.

The creature shrieked in pain, cluching its stomach as it began gushing blood from its mouth. It would take a few staggering steps and then collapse, smashing its skull open on a rock. Brutus crashed to earth, not yet figuring out how to land these special moves, rolling around violently before coming to a slow, skidding stop.

"Ack, Fuck." The Giant would growl, scooping himself off the dirt. "I need to practice my landings..."

@The Guy

 

[The Guy]

Blood soaked into the ground and blackened as it mixed into the soil beneath. A large pool flowed freely open after a single wound was torn. If the monster wasn't dead yet, it was going to be. Just to accelerate this process of bloodletting THE GUY severed open the arteries on El Goblino's neck.

"That's the lot of it. You think that we could drag any part of this into town? A finger, perhaps."

So began a trial of long and hard work. For some undiscernible reason THE GUY happened to have a bone-saw on him, allowing the two to work in tandem and saw the smallest finger right off. Antonio commented on the notion that this was nasty, but necessary.

That would be why, when the two returned together to the town in which the 'sad' merchant lie hiding, they did so with a finger just barely longer than Brutus was tall. They took the damned and rotting finger and, like an accusation, laid it out before the man pointing straight at him.

"You and I need to have a talk. You sent us to our deaths. Why?"

 

[Ashifili]

DM Spice: Asshole? Or A...

A foppish hat, and period-appropriate attire, dyed richly with greens and golds. His collar was laced and his hair well-preened, as could be expected out of a Yladian who took exceptionally well to the civilized life of humans. The Merchant, Eliseno Contarini, cut a slight, but tall figure, granting him a silhouette most attractive to ladies of the noble echelon, and upon the approach of the two goblin slayers, he ran up to meet them, stopping only when a large, green finger was jabbed in his direction.

"Oh dear Travelers," he crooned, "I see that your efforts have borne fruit, and those miserly mongrels have been dispatched with, despite the barbarous brute that accompanied them! Truly, you two must be heroes matchless amongst those called here by the Stars, unparalleled in might and wit. Though, I must confess, I see no evidence of such...encounters of the deathly nature, seeing how spotless the two of you appear! Are you quite fond of exaggeration, friend of Sir Brutus the Brave?"

The Yladian clapped his hands together, as if to dispel this most curious of moods, motioning them to come join him at the table where he sat, enjoying the fine weather and a pot of brewed tea.

"And I do hope that you've recovered that item of great import?"

Mechanics

What exactly did Eliseno do wrong, in truth? There is something off about this man, for certain, but his composure remains unshaken, as expected of any merchant who has made dealings with the high-browed aristocracy of Falderen. But if your arguments are strong, perhaps that mask can crack, and perhaps the truth will reveal itself.

Or maybe he'll just roast you. Verbally, of course.

❰ 300 / 300 ❱

Eliseno's Composure can only be lowered by Expertise Presence or Knowledge checks. Be physical with him, especially while out in the open and without justification, will cause your reputation to drop amongst the townsfolk. And if this interrogation persists for more than three rounds, too much attention will be drawn, and Eliseno will use this opportunity to manipulate the townsfolk into getting the wrong idea, painting the adventurers as the bad guys here and making it difficult to pursue further. His own deflections are quick and easy to make, with most of them centered around how he simply forgot certain facts, owing to how dangerous the situation was and how emotionally traumatizing it was.

Spoiler: THE TRUTH

Eliseno Contarini is, indeed, a merchant. A merchant with several dealings, one of which is with the Ganizza Tribe in Western Brisshal, an offshoot goblin family who had been exiled from the coalition of tribes that reigned within Eastern Brisshal. He, through his contacts, will leak information regarding the caravan pathings of his competitors to these goblins, who in turn will raid, murder, and then split portions of the goods with him. A perfect plan to weed out competition whilst obtaining more merch without dirtying his hands...but Eliseno got greedy.

And so, the matriarch of the Ganizza tribe sent one of her sons to teach him a lesson, and he in turn, sought the bright-eyed adventurers of Astorea as an answer to reply to her rebuttal. After all, it's just another goblin slaying quest. These idiots would do it for free!

Hell. This Brutus fellow has done it for free.

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"It's quite interesting..." Brutus would quip, examining his nails as if they were the most interesting thing in the world. "I've done a lot of goblin swatting quests, they Goblins call me the Loud Death, the people call me the Red Giant. I'm a bit of an expert on the topic." He would crack his neck, then his knuckles, the loud popping accenting his words.

"Yet I did some clerical work on the way here, cross referencing the tasks I've taken, who they were for, things like that. These goblins are a real menaces to merchants like you, or I should say, merchants not like you. Of all the goblin postings I've found, this is in fact one of the first ones you've ever made." His eyes would narrow into slits. "Interesting eh? Tell me, how does a man like you run your trade through goblin turf for so long and suffer nary an attack eh?"

The elvish man stiffened slightly, but outwardly passed on no other tells. Inwardly, the Lion could hear the mans heart begin to quicken in its pulse. He'd gotten something going it would seem.

Expertise Check
1d100 (53) + 25 = 78
Presence | Brutus Dahlgren | 677C1

Composure 222/300

Sheet
@The Guy

 

[The Guy]

THE GUY stood in shock for valuable time that he could have been spending on interrogation. A man who sent them to their deaths now wishes to remove all involvement and information about such a misgiving--Joseph had not expected for Terrasphere to be so realistic on the matter.

He probably should have expected such a thing from this game before any other, he thought, but there was always time to find surprise around any corner. Now that surprise had left him slack for a moment, holding onto the literal giant goblin finger that the man acknowledged yet denied altogether.

He turned away for a time, planting the finger on the ground. He decided it would be best for him to face the crowd while he regained his composure, his presence there to deter others listening in on or asking about the conversation at hand.

Expertise Check Roll
1d100 (11) + 5 = 16
Presence | THE GUY | 677C1

Composure 208/300

Character Sheet
@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

The set down finger was picked up and pointed at the merchant, jabbing the necrotic digit into his chest accusatorily. The elf scowled, but Brutus' fiery gaze kept him from doing anything too acerbic. "What's wrong, cat got your tongue?"

"How dare you accuse me of any such unscrupulous acts." The elf brushed the finger away from his chest with disgust blazing across his face. "And don't touch me with such a...nasty trophy you brute. Unlike rabble like you and your friend there, I am high class and of superior breeding. I would never deign to stoop so low as to deal with such green devils. I dare say, mine own run in with them was traumatic enough on the trail, I cannot fathom how one could stomach their presence for a prolonged period of time."

@The Guy

Expertise Check
1d100 (18) + 25 = 43
Presence | Brutus Dahlgren | 677C2

Composure: 165/300