Andrew’s Adventures (2/2)

Andrew rises up into the air and starts to spew out runes like the first set. This time though each circle created has a deeper red color to them. Once there are exactly 101 of these new rune circles floating around him Andrew sends out a burst of pure mana. Each rune circle absorbs a massive amount of mana and right before they can’t hold anymore go screaming off into the distance. In less time than it took for the original circle to retrieve the deer-headed goblin they all return. Andrew waves his hand again and the circles sort themselves by tribe and then the elders of each tribe come to the forefront.

This time as Andrew draws out the goblins he doesn’t try to settle or control them. The two herbivore elders curl up into balls of panic. The two from the omnivore tribe hold themselves together a little better. However it is the three from the carnivores that surprise Andrew the most. They stand there in midair as if this was how they were meant to be.

Without waiting for Andrew to say anything the head elder from the carnivore tribe starts to speak, “You must be the one that boy sent! Thank you for coming out to our humble tribe. Can you really help us become a civilized race?”

Andrew just has to laugh at his brazenness. Especially with how the truth spell above its head glows a deep sinister red at his thanks. He shakes his head, “you really don’t know what you got yourself into! There is only reason one I have not turned you into a puppet. That is that I really do want to discover how to turn your people into a civilized branch of the goblin family. You’re all out of my circles only because I feel each of you need to be judged for your people to move forward. Don’t worry about the rest of your people. They can see and hear all that is happening right now. Anyway, first up is to get some actual truth out of your mouth!”

Ribbons of golden light fly out of Andrew’s forehead and wraps up each of the elders. “Those ribbons of forced truth should be enough to get it out of you. Now starting with whoever is in charge please start explaining the scheme and once done speaking let the next elder in importance say their piece.”

A rough voice speaks out but the source shocks all the still trapped goblins and even Andrew. The young herbivore elder expounds upon his great plan, “our people are trapped in this wasteland. Such a horrible place to be and they don’t even realize it! If it wasn’t for that group of adventurers who enslaved me as a pack mule, I would have been ignorant of it as well. Instead, I learned the truth of our world. Instead, I lived long enough to know what needed to be done. Those foolish adventurers believed me when I sent them into the death zone while I stayed back to ‘take care of the camp’. However despite knowing what to do, I didn’t have anyway to do it. So much frustration until it dawned on me. If one group of adventurers can enlighten me another could save us!”

“But how was I supposed to get their help? Back then I wasn’t even an elder yet. I thought maybe being an elder would be enough but after an ‘unfortunate’ accident came through to open a position for me I found otherwise. I spit on my tribe! Just because we eat plants does not mean we have to be so weak! They didn’t even let me become head elder despite my wisdom. I spit on them again! So what if the eldest is has a few years on me? I realized that they could never fulfill my plans. Instead, I needed to depend on the stronger tribes.”

“I first thought to use the omnivores. They eat meat and plants equally so I thought that they would at least sympathize with my plight. A rejection and another ‘accident’ later moved me to a more drastic measure. I realized I had been going about it wrong! Why bother with trying to get others to see it from my point of view? One captured carnivore youngling later and my plan could continue. With the mask of a greater predator I convinced the muddle-headed sprog that I was the highest elder. Over a few nights I fed my version of what the outside world was to it. How weak most of the civilized people where and most importantly how tasty! With my knowledge of cooking from my slave days I easily turned dead adventurers into kingly feasts for that stupid kid.”

“It worked perfectly! Once I released him back into the tribe the rumors of the outside world spread. Soon enough as if by magic the elders of the carnivore tribe subjugated the other two tribes. Even my pitiful tribe was able to shape up with the threat of death hanging over their heads. Most adventurers were too powerful to take on so we simply let the weak and the sick meet them. Nothing came of these sacrifices until that boy came along. Finally someone weak enough that we could force them to do our will! One sob story later and he was off on his way. However you showed up and I fear my plan might have fallen through. Screw the rest of my tribe! I just wanted to be civilized so I could break free of this cursed place. That’s all I ever wanted.”

Not even Andrew knew how to respond to this rant. In fact, even with the magical compulsion the carnivore head elder took a few moments to start talking. His story was a lot shorter though and boiled down to wanting a bigger hunting ground without any real understanding of what being civilized meant. From there, the rest either parrot the carnivore elder or simply state they wanted to become a civilized sentient to escape this place. Andrew still not sure what to do with this mess ends up shoving them back into their circles and popping back home with them.

After that no one would see the animal-headed goblins for a long, long while. Though some adventurers would notice Andrew had added a couple more floors onto his tower. Rumor is he has some sort of special breeding project going on up there though of what no one really knows.

Later on once Jason reaches his destination he would find a letter waiting for him from Andrew at the guild.