A day like every other. Greeting goblins in the morning, anxiously awaiting an adventurer, or passing king to host. Unfortunately he wasn’t lucky enough for either.

Light but frantic steps blazed towards the house where the man quietly milled Roya.

"Benefactor! Benefactor! Please help us! We have no one else to turn to!" A voice calls, reverberating through the thick walls and reaching the man. The words made the man jolt and force the break on the mill stones.

He moved as fast as his legs would take him. Which was a little above a slight run.

Arriving he saw an out of breath Gally. Her olive green skin was gray from either fear or breathlessness.

"Attack!" She spouted in goblin tongue. "It’s bad! The chief’s back is acting up too. It’s the worst possible time."

"Attack? What do you mean? Who’s attacking? Humans?" The man asks, growing equally as nervous as Gally.

"A war. Goblin war. Probably either the Ku tribe or the Vee clan." Gally explains dropping to her butt in desperation, and exasperation. She had likely sprinted the entire way here.

"Will you take me to Gunt?" The man sighs. He always anticipates excitement filled days but this was not what he imagined for the day.

"Pahhh." Gally grunts taking a long sip from a bucket of water. "Yeah. Let’s go. I don’t think anyone will hassle me for bringing you inside considering the circumstances."

Agreeing, Gally lead the man towards the camouflaged hole near the Roya field. Ducking inside the man found himself in a small tunnel. It was only barely tall enough for him to stand upright. Most room connections forced him to duck his head and step carefully. Yet nonetheless they arrived at a deep inner chamber only after a few short minutes of running.

Gunt was resting against a shoddy looking table with a hide chest guard and helmet adorning him.

"Gally what are… Why did you bring him here? You know its dangerous right now!" Gunt instantly complains looking at us two with somewhat nervous eyes.

"Dad I know but…" Gally begins with a pleading tone.

"No but’s. This is Goblin issue, we must…" Gunt declares before crumbling down from pain.

"Would you mind explaining what is happening at least. I may be able to help somehow. You say it’s a Goblin issue, but in my eye’s you are my friends and neighbors. So your issues are my issues."

"We…" Gunt begins to refute but Gally’s stare forces him to think better. "We detected the sound of tunneling around half an hour ago. It’s from the west indicating that its probably the Ku tribe."

"Tunneling…" The man says, processing the word carefully.

"Mhm, Goblin war is fought with careful tunneling. Our strong defense lies with our early detection but the place they are tunneling is one that is near impossible to defend."

"They will likely come break through near a connecting room. The room is long and wide and has eight entrances leading to other important areas in the village. If they can claim it our chances of victory or even escape are near zero." Gally adds to be sure the current situation is properly explained.

The man could do nothing but gulp nervously.

What could he realistically do? Defeat hundreds of goblins with his kitchen knife? Perhaps, but that would leave a bad taste in his mouth and would surely poison the pool that is his relationship with the Gu tribe. Even if protecting them, goblins can’t like the sight of their brethren dying to human hands.

A peaceful solution need be found.

The man wracked his brain for a solution, thinking back to every experience he had so far.

A rogue wolf would be helpful. Bear would easily mop the goblins up too. But again, peaceful solution.

It would be good if the man could tame the goblins in the same way he did for the Gu tribe. But Gunt claimed thier’s was the only tribe who performed the ceremony.

"We can win." The man confidently says after a long moment of thinking. "No, we will win. It’s almost a sure thing."

Both goblins in the room suddenly grew grins. They had instantly grown confident. They needn’t even hear the plan. That is the extent to which the goblin’s of the Gu tribe trusted the man in the forest.

Without explanation the goblins began to purposefully cave in their carefully dug tunnels.

Seven of the eight route to the room were cut off. The final lead to the man in the forests backyard where most of the Goblins had taken shelter.

The sound of digging was growing ever closer as the man carefully set his trap in the long tapered room.

Soon crumpling of rocks could be heard but already another sound was overwhelming it. The room had grown quite hot and the smoke from the fire was choking the air.

As soon as he spotted the first goblin troop from the enemy tribe the man in the forest tunnel tossed a thick pile of canes atop the flames.

Instantly the pale smoke turned to black ichor. The, usually medicinal, herb when introduced to fire creates a particularly noxious smoke. The man turns on his heels and dashes with all his might towards the exit tunnel.

Stepping past a wood support he carefully kicked its base sending it tumbling and causing the final wound.

The pressure wave from the falling dirt and rock cause the black smoke accumulating in the room to be forced down the tunnel where the awaiting soldiers stood. It even reached as deep as the enemies forward staging room.

The sound of hundreds of goblins tumbling down from smoke inhalation was an unexpectedly loud one.

The earth seemed to shake from the event. And indeed it was an earth shaking event.

With the plan a success Gunt and his men returned to the cave and began digging out the collapsed tunnels.

The man couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty about that, but Gally assured him it was nothing to worry about.

With the Ku leader and generals all captured the Gu tribe was somewhat speechless. They had never expected this many prisoners of war, let alone to win the war.

The Ku leader took a short while to awake. The smoke was apparently far more potent than the man expected.

Looking at the sight around him the Ku leader couldn't help but sigh. He understood what it meant to lose a goblin war.

All of the present party knew what it meant.

Except for the man in the forest.

But maybe that was for the best. Because his suggestion was one the goblins would have never chosen for themselves.

The Ku tribe, as their leader described in a last ditch effort, had a problem of their own. That problem revolved around food, as many problems do.

The Ku tribe doesn’t harvest from the earth like the Gu’s. The Gu’s often experiment with mushrooms and Dirt Sow harvesting, but the Ku’s cared little for that. Their diet was meat and a grain that grows near their home. That was their staple. But in recent years movement of beasts caused herbivores in the area to grow a taste for the grain causing them a shortage.

Of course they hunted the herbivores but it was too little to late, in the last year they have almost half as much grain as the year prior.

And it would only snowball from there.

"How about you Ally with the Gu tribe." The man suggests thinking about it only momentarily.

"Ally?" Gunt asks with a look of shock.

"Mhm, like an Alliance. The Ku tribe hunts meat for the Gu and the Gu will farm grain for the Ku. Of course you will promise non-aggression, as well as support during times of crisis. But this of course would go both ways."

The goblins stared at the man in bewilderment. Was the suggestion that out of the realm of possibility?

"The alliance of the tribes." A goblin near the back of the group lightly murmured trying to figure out the strangely shaped words.

"Goblin King." Another says, dropping to a knee in reverence.