“What was that all about?” Tantus asked Deacon.

“I guess the local mage wanted to confirm if we are going to take this quest,” answered Deacon as he shared the details with Tantus. While he was occupied, Deacon took a look around the bar noticing that everything seemed to be back in order, so he headed over to Amanda and Sophie.

“I’m sorry about before. The wound is still fresh,” Sophie said before Deacon could start speaking.

“No worries. I was just coming over to tell you two we got a quest. Some kids have gone missing north of here and apparently their local problem solver is headed west. If we go now, I think we can wrap it up quickly and get back to our own journey. What do you say?” Deacon asked trying to change the subject.

“I’m not feeling all that great. I think I’ll just retire for the evening,” replied Sophie as she stood up.

“Come on Deacon, Alfred will take care of her. I could use something to stab and I’m sure you feel the same way,” Amanda said as she grabbed Deacon by the shoulder and pointed him toward Hani.

“Oh, right. I guess we need to do something with the jester. I keep forgetting about him. Why do you think that is?” Deacon asked Amanda.

“He has a strange set of abilities to go along with his weird hat. I think you two will get along quite nicely,” she finished patting him on the back as she joined Tantus and Ralph.

“So Hani, we were given a quest to go look for some missing kids. Any interest in coming along?” Deacon asked politely.

“No thank you. I think I’ll stay here and drink tonight and think about my future,” slurred Hani followed by a large pull from his mug.

“To be honest with you Deacon, we’ve been drinking for several hours now. I don’t think the funny man would be any use to you out in the wilderness. Can’t hold his ale, hiccup” replied Earl Tirebrook. The master mason was hunched over the table at this point with a glazed look in his eyes.

“Right, so just help out around here if you can. I don’t know how long it’ll be before we get back,” Deacon told them before turning and looking at the Regulators. All three of them got up from the table and headed toward the door, so Deacon followed suit.

Outside the tavern the sun was just setting over the horizon. The streets were starting to empty as the guards began lighting lamps along the streets. The Regulators headed out of the western gate and began their trek north. This area was lightly wooded with foothills. Deacon kept looking around having various rocks fly into his bag with Polterheist. After about an hour of travelling they came across a break in the landscape.

“This can’t be Clayton Ravine, right? I mean we left Clayton southeast of here,” Deacon asked.

“Clayton Ravine runs across the kingdom. It’s said to be a battle scar left by giants. No, giants aren’t actually that big. It’s been lengthened over time from storms and natural disasters. Some think it’ll make it all the way to the ocean someday,” Tantus answered.

“Wait, a crack in the continent that just keeps growing? Isn’t anyone concerned about that?” Deacon queried.

“It would take years and an army of earth mages to fix it. Unless you have a better idea?” Ralph asked back.

Deacon didn’t have one. He did wonder if the ravine was on a Faultline or something. The kids couldn’t have jumped this and there was no bridge here, so the party started to look around for some kind of clue as to which direction they went. Tantus pulled out a glowing stone that illuminated about four feet worth of space to help him and Ralph see. Amanda was nowhere to be found. Deacon kept them all to his back as he could see for a good fifteen feet with his Soul Sight. Several broken branches caught his eye as a shrubbery looked like someone or something had run through it. As he got closer, he noticed there was some blood on the leaves.

“Over here. Boy I’m really missing Elle about now,” Deacon commented.

“Aww, does baby miss his elf mommy?” Ralph teased while making a frowny face.

“I thought we left the jester back in town. If you’re done, I’d like to point out the blood on these leaves. Anyone else think its dumb for kids to play this far from the village and so close to a cliff wall?” Deacon asked.

“No, no. Sometimes you just want to get away from your parents and have something of your own. I remember building forts in the woods as a kid. Depends on where you grow up, of course. Some regions are too dangerous for that. But this is still the Griffin Kingdom, shouldn’t be anything too bad out here,” Tantus explained.

“Looks like they went further east. Not sure why, if they were hurt wouldn’t you go back home?” Ralph asked before something dark dropped from one of the nearby trees and they heard a loud thud. They all turned in that direction to find Amanda dragging a body from the woods.

Amanda dropped the body of a goblin with two dagger hilts jutting out from the top of it’s head. This goblin was different from the flyers Deacon killed back at the village. It was more lean with dark patches along it’s green skin. The eyes were much wider as well as the ears being more akin to rabbit ears. They could rotate around and flopped flat against its head.

“What the hell is that?” Deacon asked.

“I don’t know because someone didn’t create a party before I had to kill it. We’ll have to do this the old fashioned way by looking at it. It’s obviously a goblin but it doesn’t fit the description of any goblin I’ve ever heard of,” Amanda said with annoyance in her voice.

“This is only a couple hours out from the town. Let’s climb up that rise over there. See if we can get a lay of the land. I have a bad feeling about all these altered goblins,” said Ralph looking around.

“Looks like this one was bred for scouting. It’s large eyes could increase it’s perception and the ears for greater frequencies. This is all speculation mind you. Not sure what would bring about all these changes to the goblin species though,” Tantus added.

“I could just use Sayance and ask,” Deacon offered getting nods of agreement from his gathered team.

Deacon absorbed the soul energy from the body and used his ability. A ghostly image of the goblin rose above the body and began to look around. The ghost ears twitched back and forth as well. Deacon could tell immediately that this soul was uncommon classed. Everything he heard about goblins up to this point led him to believe their souls would be common at best. This situation just got more troubling as they learned more.

“What were you doing out here?” Deacon asked the soul while spreading his aura around it so the others could both see and hear.

“We hunt. We find. You soul eater. We come to you,” it said.

“What do you mean soul eater?” Ralph asked.

“We hear story about you and speaker for the old one says we go get you,” it replied.

“Never let a scout escape. Son of a bitch,” complained Ralph.

“How many of you are there?” Deacon asked.

“Many, many hands,” it answered as it started to flicker from green to white.

“Not much of a scout if it can’t count. Ask it where they are,” Tantus said quickly.

“Where are the rest of you?” Deacon asked.

“Whole valley, we break free from dirt and rock in the valley,” it answered wincing from some unseen pain.

“Did you see any children out here? Human young?” Amanda asked.

“You let me die now. It hurts. No eat my soul. Soul for the old one,” responded the goblin as it started fidgeting against Deacon’s spiritual grasp.

“Answer the question,” Amanda said stepping in closer holding the dagger she got from the Nether plane. It’s ghostly eyes started to flash with white light.

“Yes, we capture humans in morning. Others bring them to the tribe. It hurts,” was the last thing it said before Deacon banished it to the Nether.

New language learned- Old Goblin, this is the language of ancient Goblins. By using SAYance to learn this language, this knowledge is temporary. You will have one week before it is no longer available.

“I know the Goblin tongue,” Deacon said as he dismissed the prompt.