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[RP] Echelon: Arisen


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#201
Siderealmidnight

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Prologue: The First Night

Cave Shaytan: Day 3

 

One by one the hunting parties returned, exhausted from their first day in the relentless desert sun. First as always were the hobgoblins. Dangerous enough to be recognized as desert predators in their own right the hunting party of Quill, Dice, and Rena had provided the entire rest of the cave with food during their "infancy" and had looked after themselves for months before that. They returned with woven sacks full of dripping meat and even some of the precious hard stuff the hobgoblins called "shinestone". All of this went to the skull the hobgoblins shared, that of a large, eyeless creature possessed of several rows of fangs. The two frontmost fangs had been removed an unknown time ago and the hobgoblins deposited their catch into that opening. After this was done for the moment the hobgoblins returned to the titanic reptilian skeleton that served as home to the goblins and waited to see who returned.

 

The first goblins to return were Talky, Rap, and Yosh. They came bearing a meager collection of feathers and a beak, telling stories of a creature all of shinestone that, despite its sluggish movements, they could not penetrate enough to kill. The hobgoblins didn't ask why the group hadn't continued the hunt. They didn't need to. All it took was one look at Talky to see that the hunt had broken him. Sometimes newborn goblins broke on their first day, turning into breathing corpses that stared blankly ahead of them. His companions had probably noticed his state and returned early to see if it could be reversed, a kind but futile gesture. Once a goblin broke the light left their eyes and never returned. Quill made a show of convincing the young goblins that they would take care of Talky, but all the hobgoblins knew that it was not so. It would be a waste of meat to leave a broken goblin alive.

 

The next group to return all but collapsed as soon as they reached the shelter of the cave. The three goblins presented a gradient of injuries, one almost unscathed, another with a series of deep bite marks lining the muscle surrounding his shoulder, and the last a mass of hardened blood and scab tissue from the waist up. All were feverish, but between them they carried a veritable horde of objects that came from Lizardmen and Hyenas. These were far from the fiercest of predators in the desert, but having survived an encounter with both on their first hunt was impressive. "Knew I was right to gamble on you." Dice said as he carried Jin and Gig, one on each shoulder, to an area of the colossal reptile's tailbone that was out of the sand and provided the wounded goblins some shade. There would be more to do for them later, though most of the burden would fall on their ability to heal.

 

Twilight was just ending as the next group came. They were far less battered than the group before them, and they brought four rock-carapaced creatures back with them for all to enjoy. Quill let out a whistle when she saw them all. "That's an impressive catch," she said "Those roccritters are harder to find than a friendly Knight. They rarely ever move during the day and are practically impossible to separate from any ol' rock. How'd you find 'em?"

 

And thus began the longest story the young goblins had ever heard. Clash spun their encounter with the creatures into a grand adventure with him as the cunning genius and the others as his dimwitted lackeys, watching in awe as he solved the most difficult problem the world had ever seen. Or at least that's what everyone thought he was saying. His words were difficult to parse when considering his juvenile goblin speech patterns and that he talked so fast his voice was barely distinguishable from the buzzing of a sandfly.

 

That night the cave ate well. The goblins were allowed the best meat from the kills they brought home and the hobgoblins seasoned their meat with some powder they apparently stole from the lizardmen that made the meat taste even more delicious than usual. It was a happy atmosphere as goblins swapped stories of their kills over the fire, hampered only a little by their command of their language. All except Trin, who stood silently near where her injured comrades slept, practicing different strokes with her new-found weapon in the darkness at the end of the "cave".

 

Despite some injured goblins and the loss of Vic the ancient predator's graveyard rang with the sounds of joyous laughter. That night many things were set in motion, but that is a story for another day.

 

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#202
Muninn

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Patch, Eri, Boom Boom

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