The bandaged fellow let out a melodic, hearty laugh as he listened to Brock and lifted his left hand slightly as if asking the other man to stop jesting. "Oh now, I would have been long since dead if I really were as careless as you assume I am." He glanced around in a manner that might have to the untrained eye seem like he was nervous, in truth the fellow tried to decide which of his many names he should give to this particular lot of people.

The Bastard of Vo Kadrak was the first name that came to mind - he was quite well known by that name in many lands, but that didn't quite feel like a proper name, it was more a nickname - admittedly a nickname he had grown quite attached to for some reason or other. His eyes caught the certain look Rook gave him - he knew what it meant. "Fear not, my condition is in no way infectious. It is good to hear that you indeed are not bandits. I am Marius of Blackwood, the second best swordsman in these parts of the world - hopefully the best swordsman in the woods at the moment - and a humble cleric of Antharg, the Lord of Healers." What this 'Marius' left unmentioned was that Antharg was also the Lord of Plague, Sickness, Disease and only after those the Lord of Healers.

When he heard someone reciting a spell Marius quickly changed his stance - though in to a more cautious one instead of an openly hostile one - and produced a holy symbol from under his shirt. It seemed to be shaped like a slightly curving silver sword roughly large enough to fit inside someone's clenched fist - though upon closer inspection it was actually the body of a female elf, writhing in either pain or extacy. With a little movement he wrapped the silver chain that held the symbol around his left wrist while looking around to find the originator of the spell.

Rook let out a yelp of surprise when Lily collided with her from above, convinced for a moment that they really were surrounded by this Marius fellow and his henchmen!

Not yet realizing that she knew her attacker, Rook quickly snatched up one of the arrows that had fallen loose from the quiver during the fall and had it knocked to her bow string almost by the time she was back to her feet. "Kaiden!" she yelled again, barely keeping the note of panic from her voice. She was still unaware that her companion was in a battle of his own. The archer held the bow with the string pulled halfway back, disheveled hair falling down across her right eye while she swept the arrow tip in the general direction of the strangers, intent on lodging the sharpened projectile into the gut of whichever "attacker" came toward her first.

The she-elf was just about to clear the area when she heard the familiar sound of someone speaking in the eldritch tongue. Crap. She looked around for a trap of some kind, but she didn't look close enough to the ground. She blinked, and then Lily found herself face down in a pool of mud. Her right arm flew out to brace herself for the fall, in doing so she dropped the objects she had stolen from Rook.

Lily lay for a moment in the mud, seething. When she finally caught her breath, she reached into her boot and hurled a dagger at the wizard that had cast the spell. She intentionally missed his head by an inch and let the dagger hit the tree behind him. "That was for the mud old man!!" She hurled herself out of the mud and pulled another dagger from her waist. She charged at him, forgetting about the parchment and map that lay beside the mud puddle, "And this is for ruining my revenge!!"

With the elf successfully doused in mud, Bargle took a moment to congratulate himself. "That will teach a young whelp not to-eh?", The wizards beard curled up in fright as a wicked looking dagger darted pass his head, narrowly missing him. Bargle turned to see a very angry, mud covered she-elf in full charge at him, and struggled to dodge out of the way. But his feet became tangled in his giant purple robes and he could barely sputter out a few words of incantation to protect himself. The spell seemingly fizzled and the elf found herself tackling a pile of empty purple robes.

A few feet away, Bargle reappeared stark naked, quite embarrassed.

Not to much further up the path, in the forest something was approaching what smelled like a deer, something large and fluffy, with very sharp teeth and razor like claws. The air was warm and the forest was in full bloom. The creature could almost taste the deer he was so close, his ears and nose picked up every movement every sound. Just as he was about to pounce and win his dinner for the night the sounds of voices just down the path startled his prey and the deer took off at full speed. The creature started sprinting through the trees after the prey as fast as he could and in a moment he had closed the distance between he and his quarry, with his immense strength he slammed the deer up against a tree and sunk his teeth deep into it's throat stifling any sounds it might of made, with a quick motion he pulled the deer's heart from its chest and ate it. After that the creature collected himself and slowly took back the form of a Wood Elf.

Delbrix breathed in a soft sigh of relief and then with his father's magical ring he was clothed again in his Ranger clothes and hooded cloak, his druid blessed woodsman's hatchet on his belt, his Elven short sword on his waist and his bow and quiver on his back. Delbrix the demigod, son of Kalborix God Of Wolves And The Hunt. That was the title he had been given along with his gift/curse. Delbrix was different than any normal werewolf, being that he could change forms whenever he wanted, heal from near fatal wounds in a short time, and possessed greater strength and speed than the common werewolf, not to mention his was white as snow with bright blue eyes. With his fathers blessings he was also much harder to see in the wilderness as it seemed he could blend into the trees, making him quite sneaky.

After cleaning himself off in a small creek, Delbrix went and used his rope to secure the deer high in a tree away from other predators. Once it was fully secured he started creeping towards the commotion until he was close enough to see what was going on. From his hidden position higher up the path he could see a group being attacked by what looked like a rogue. However when she went to stab the elderly man in the purple robes he ~poofed~ away and she stabbed empty clothes and the mage reappeared not far away, Delbrix knew better than to get involved in human business but his rash side wasn't listening to his minds warning as he knocked an arrow and took aim at the scene below. His voice was booming and much like that of royalty, "CEASE AND DESIST!" When they would look up the path they would see Delbrix, An obvious Ranger and Wood Elf, about six feet tall with brilliant blue eyes, dressed in Ranger garb. He was standing in the middle of the path his elven bow glinting softly in the light, his face was one of deadly seriousness, the first person to make a violent move upon another would receive a very serious wound or death itself. Delbrix had the high ground and none of these humans would be able to reach him in time to stop his arrows, besides maybe the wizard. "YOU DISTURB THIS FOREST WITH YOUR VIOLENCE! YOU WILL STAND DOWN OR MEET THE GODS TONIGHT." His speech made it clear he was an elf from the old elven kingdoms, back before the humans had driven the Elves deep into the south, it wasn't uncommon to see stragglers from those times. But to be at the opposite end of one's bow was not a very promising situation for anyone.

@Kelewen@Blox@bloonewb@Polybius@MayLily915@Marcus XVI@Kiss Of Night

Brock wasn't convinced when 'Marius' told him that he wasn't careless. It was pretty simple to Brock, if you were walking around breaking everything under your foot, then you had to be careless. He shook his head at the bandaged man.

When he mentioned that he was the second best swords man of like half the world, Brock scoffed. As he openly laughed at 'marius,' "If you are the second best swordsman, than swordsman must be more amateur than I thought." He didn't want to tell the man that he was a swordsman himself. As he didn't have much respect for this guy.

A whole bunch of things happened but Brock first turned to notice the old man from before that he was supposed to meet. He noticed the fellow was under attack. As brock approached him he abruptly reappeared somewhere else and had no clothes on.

"C'mon, ya geezer, you didn't have to strip here, this isn't your bedchambers..." He stared at the naked man with a frown.


He then heard someone demand loudly that he Cease and Desist. Like this was a palace courtyard and two peasants were fighting and the King himself was going to have none of it.

Brock stuck out his tongue at the wood elf ranger, "I don't fall under your command, Elf."

...That had to be the most he had seen of any wizard in ages, and in this particular situation that wasn't really such a good thing. "I would not make such assumptions. The fact that I warn people of my presence should not be taken as any sort of a sign of my capabilities as a swordsman." Marius stated politely as he shook his head and turned his attentionfrom the wizard to theelf that dared to point an arrow roughly to his general direction.

He began hearing laughter, laughter that caused him great unease - for at that moment his master had heard the ranger's words and taken them as a challenge. It was rare for gods to stepo the mortal world - in fact these days they didn't actually step through the proverbial veil, but occasionally did either speak, or extend a hand so to say. Antharg was no exeption.

Now to his credit it had to be said that Marius would have warned everyone of what was about to happen had he not been paralyzed by the laughter he alone could hear.

Then a voice spoke. A voice that made the bandaged elf double over in pain from the sheer pressure of a god speaking through him. Blood trickled out of his eyes, like he was shedding tears of blood, every scar in his body opened up to be closed by gangrenious growths that disappeared back in to scars in the blink of an eye. The single word was completely incomprehensible to mortal ears, but it did carry the meaning well. It countered the demand of ceasation of hostilities with one of it's own.

The single word spoken by his master through his mouth had left Marius gasping for air and he barely managed to pull some of the bandages away from his mouth to spit copious amounts of blood to the ground.the blood turned the spot black and caused the plats to either die or mutate.

Luckily to the others Antharg's word of repraisal would at worst cause them to maybe lose their lunches or have a damnably striking headache if they were unlucky.

Rook swung the tip of her knocked arrow away from Marius, then toward Lily and then the wizard's robes and then the naked wizard and finally at the elf pointing down at them with his own bow, still trying to decide who was aligned with who and who was actually a threat to her and to Kaiden.

But it was Marius and the rather terrifying word that he spoke that finally convinced her that the best course of action was to get the hell out of there... as fast as possible. Deciding to the abandon the map, for going for it would have taken her closer to the others, she turned and hurried in the same direction where Kaiden had disappeared.

If only she could find her companion quickly, maybe that demonic bandaged thing back there would content itself killing the others while they got away from here.

@Blox@bloonewb

A curse escaped Lily's lips as she stumbled and fell on her hands and knees. She looked up to find the old man standing a distance from her naked. Despite of herself, Lily felt her lips turn up into a smile, then finally she started to laugh. "You damn fool.." She gasped for breath between each word.

As she slowly rose to her feet, another voice demanded they stop their violence. Lily smirked and slowly turned to the person speaking down to them, as if he were some king to rule over them. When her blue eyes rested on the figure standing over them, her mouth fell open and her eyes grew large. It can't be... She thought to herself. "Are you.." She was just getting ready to ask the man if he was the elven demigod Delbrix. She had grown up hearing stories about him from her Nanna. The man standing above her met the exact description of the Elf her grandmother used to tell about.

Before she could ask, she collapsed to her knees again as the man wrapped in bandages spoke. Blood ran from her pale pointed ears and she watched through squinted eyes as the Rook took off. She looked up to the demigod, "Please", she pleaded. "You have to help. She is from the human family that convinced the other humans to drive up deep into the southern lands. I am getting my revenge for out kind!! Please help!!"

@Kelewen@Marcus XVI@Kiss Of Night@Polybius

@Gareth@Marcus XVI@MayLily915

The first of the humans to answer his command was a man who obviously didn't understand his disadvantage of Being at the end of Delbrix's bow, "Brave words...Brave or foolish...you reside in this forest then you fall under my jurisdiction...and I've no qualms about sending you to the afterlife...your human violence is disturbing the delicate balance of the fore-"

Delbrix might have said more but suddenly a silence washed over him as his fathers voice whispered in his ears protecting him from the horrid word that was spoken, His father said a single word as well, a warning to his son that he was in over his head, "Antharg." Delbrix's eyes went wide upon hearing this revelation, he watched as The Plague Lord's single word sent the others to their knees or if they were lucky, just made them feel quite sick. Delbrix's mind danced around the thought of using his father's power on his arrow but he knew that if he struck Antharg's Vessel there would be bloodshed.

After that horrible word was spoken and people were separating quickly, he heard a voice, a pleading voice that could only belong to one of his kind, "Please..." Delbrix's eyes turned to the one he had originally pegged as a rogue and then he realized she was one of his kind, albeit much younger than him, this mattered little for it had been many years since he had seen another of his kind, because when all others abandoned the northern forests and fled to the south Delbrix stayed behind to guard his fathers kingdom. Now it seemed fate had brought his next trial to his feet. As the She-Elf spoke he realized the situation and now one of the descendants of the ones who had stricken his father's land, slaughtered their people and laid waste to their kingdom was now escaping into the forest, Delbrix knew he needed to be quick but secretive so he spoke in the old elvish tongue hoping she knew their language, "{Grab What You Took And Follow Me! We Shall Give Chase!}" With that Delbrix took off into the forest disappearing into the trees as if he had never been there.

The human version of the events of two generations passed was probably very different than the elven version. Though Rook had no reason to doubt the version she'd heard numerous times from her grandfather and then her father.

The rock trolls, orcs, and ogres united under a single banner, calling themselves the Bloodcrushers. They pushed south and launched an assault on the northern elven territories, their sheer numbers were enough to threaten to overrun them completely. The elves, fighting desperately to hold back the tide of the Bloodcrushers, had reached out to the human kingdoms to the west, pleading for help, offering fertile land if only the humans would send aid. The human armies heeded the call of their allies, bringing thousands of cavalry to aid the elves. And together, they pushed back the horde, though hundreds of human soldiers lost their lives.

And then the elves refused their promise, offering only a small token of land, an insult really to the memory of the hundreds who had died to save elven lives. After months of failed negotiations, the human lords grew impatient at the haughty elven nobles. They banded together and took the promised land by force. Already diminished by the fight with the Bloodcrushers, the elves ceded quickly.

While there was tension for decades, slowly relations were getting better.

However, Rook wasn't thinking of her history lessons as she fought her way through a tangle of briars that tore at her shirt. She was thinking only of putting distance between herself and Marius. She thought she heard something moving ahead. Hoping it was Kaiden, she pushed her way forward...

River succeeded in grasping his shoulders, but the man was elusive, and soon they were rolling around exchanging feeble poorly timed blows. With a grunt, River thrust her fist into the back of the attacker's head, knocking him out cold. He slumped into the dirt, and she got up, releasing her pent up breath. There was a crashing in the shrubbery, obviously another human. Will this one be as disagreeable as the last? Preparing for the worst, she began looking for escape paths.

Perched in the tree, River could get a good view of the source of the noise. The crashing came from a female, armed with another one of the deadly weapons she doesn't understand. Maybe she's affiliated with her attacker, in which the best thing to do would be to hide and hope for the best.

"Ya shoulds gets up, yes ya shoulds..." Marius heard a familiar, raspy - if not in this situation completely unwelcome - voice from next to himself. The goblin standing next to the hunched over bandaged elf could well have been just a figment of his imagination - after all it seemed to be completely unaffected by the Lord of Plague's divine word. Not to mention that the goblin was also a giant in comparison to the rest of his kin - standing nearly 5 feet tall when standing up straight. "I thinks them elf-y gods were nasty, an' the drow-y gods even worse, but then ya boss decides to speak all god-y like." The goblin offered a surprisingly strong hand to the bandaged elf who seemed more or less still dazed from the rather painful happenings.

"Stybs? Is that really you or am I just hallucinating again?" Marius inquired from the goblin while using some magic to clean himself up and another little spell to burn away the black, mutating blob from the forest floor while being very cautious not to allow the fire to spread.

"Yes!" The goblin squeaked and took a better hold of the broken pickaxe he used as a walking stick - and an impromptu weapon and holy symbol to boot. "Stybs Orcgutter! At ya service elf-y." Stybs pointed at himself with the thumb of his left hand and smiled a very toothy smile. The smile however disappeared as soon as it had arrived when the goblin noticed that Marius was still not quite back to fighting fit. "Ya needs a good dose of healing-y magics, yes ya do." The statement was made with a surprisingly grim and slightly worried tone.

The bandaged elf swayed back and forth a bit before shaking his head. "I'll manage. The last time that happened..." Marius shook his head again and gathered his bearings while glancing up slightly. "I think you overdid it slightly m'lord." He felt a wave of amusement through his connection with Antharg and just shrugged his shoulders. "Though they did overreact a bit too in my opinion."

"Yeah yeah... the last time tha' happened all them dwarf gits was even more stunty and very very veeery dead... and bubbling, yes them was." Stybs glanced around cautiously and sniffed the air. "Ya think we shoul go an' try to make 'nother contact with 'em humans and that other elf-y? Maybe I'll do the talkin' this time." He kept seemingly absentmindedly staring at the trees, like he was looking for something in particular. "Ya gotta be one damn git to get yaself mixed up with the Lord of Plague, ya know that? Even them drow-y gods ain't as mean..."

"Well.. yes. Very bubbling." Marius couldn't really remembered what had happened the last time - after all he came to a week after the whole debacle, but what the damn goblin had told him it had at least been an interesting watch. "Hey now, all of us can't be chosen by a god to lead your people out of slavery. Still... you are not completely wrong on that statement." The two began moving towards the rough direction Rook had moved towards.

"o'course I ain'ts wrong! I is very smart! Ya coulds say Stybs be smartiest goblin thar be!" The goblin made another toothy smile and cackled. The funny - or unnerving - thing about the goblin was that his eloquence and smarts seemed to very much depend on the situation. Occasionally he might be the daftest goblin you ever see, but when it came to fighting or gods forbid siege of some sort Stybs was frighteningly efficient. He was also very good at riling people up and inciting a large mob of people - usually of many races - to do what he wanted. Maybe one of the goblin gods had a nasty sense of humor.

The noise ahead ceased a few moments before Rook broke through the thick foliage. "Kaiden!" she gasped, seeing her friend lying unmoving on the ground, his head tilted slightly to the side and a bit of blood on his clothes. For a moment, she actually thought he was dead and her heart jumped into her throat.

Keeping a firm grip on her bow helped keep her hands from shaking as she hurried toward her friend, dreading what she would find there. When she reached him, she spun in a slow circle, surveying the brush for sign of danger. Spotting nothing, she knelt and a small wave of relief washed over her as she realized Kaiden was breathing.

She set down the bow with the arrow still knocked loosely. "Kaiden," she said as she took hold of his shoulders and shook gently. "Kaiden, can you hear me?" She trying to whisper, but fear made the pitch of her voice rise involuntarily. "Please, Kaiden, wake up!" His head rolled slightly to the side.

Forcing down the panic that threatened, she took a deep breath to steady herself and decide on a course of action. "Didn't my mother tell you to watch out for me?" she said then, only slightly calmer, but enough to slip her arms under his shoulders and begin to drag him out of the small clearing, hoping to keep him safe by hiding his location. Of course, she didn't have enough hands to carry the bow too. No matter... she'd just have to come back for it...

@Kiss Of Night@bloonewb@Marcus XVI@Gareth@MayLily915@Polybius

Meanwhile, a short distance away at the hidden magician's fortress...

The invisible elf moved carefully, winding carefully between the misshapen hovels the goblins called homes. There was over a dozen of them, enough for a veritable army of the green skinned bastards. Stepping aside, the invisible elf allowed a small group to pass her by and then resumed her invasive winding journey through the goblin village until she reached the far side.

At the edge of the village was a precipice, a massive drop of what she gauged to be a hundred hands or more extended in both directions like a waterless moat surrounding the ancient, decaying fortress. Near her was a half dozen wooden columns, planted in the bare earth just at the edge of the precipice where the earth met stone. Atop each was affixed an elaborately decorated skull, painted in blood and surrounded wreathed in thorns. She could also see the stumps of several other pillars. What they meant she wasn't quite sure. Perhaps they were iconic, representing some form of challenge or warning?

Whatever they were she was more interested in the magician's fortress. A single stone arch extended between the precipice and the fortress, two could easily walk abreast on the bridge and cross the fifty stride gap. She stepped in a paddle as she stepped onto the archway and left several footprints on the cool stone as she quickly made her way across and examined the door and archway.

When she had started this little expedition she hadn't counted on a goblin village being on the front doorstep or she'd have hired adventurers to help her find this treasure. This was her second trip under the mantle of her invisibility spell and she began to commit the next sequence to memory. It was unfortunate. Her own invisibility spell, crafted herself, was inferior to the regular variety. It affected her and only her, clothes and equipment she wore remained completely visible so she had to rid herself of everything, including even her notebooks! As a result she now needed to commit portions of the runes and shapes on the entryway to memory, return to her hidden belongings and then transcribe them. At this rate it was going to take days!

The small group of goblins that passed the invisible elf continued on, oblivious to her presence, and headed into the surrounding woods. The moon would be full in just a few nights and they were on a mission to obtain the required sacrifices.

But they had not traveled for more than a quarter of an hour when the sharp-eared Garuk paused. "Do you hear?" he asked the others quietly in their native tongue. It was a voice... maybe human, maybe elven... but definitely not far away. He grinned, extremely pleased that perhaps they would not have to travel all the way to Ashdown to obtain the sacrifices.

They fanned out and crept forward quietly, now communicating only via hand signals.

---

Kaiden's unconscious form was heavy and awkward, but Rook managed to drag him to the edge of the clearing. A few times she thought she might have heard a small noise escape him and hoped that might mean he would wake, but he remained blacked out.

Carefully she laid him down and was in the process of arranging his head and arms in a position that didn't look too terribly uncomfortable when a rough voice in an unfamiliar tongue barked out from behind her. She spun in surprise, only to find six vicious looking creatures with greenish skin, cruel eyes, and even crueler weapons had encircled her while she fretted over her fallen friend.

Goblins! She reached instinctively for her bow, but the weapon lay uselessly in the middle of the clearing!

"Nee down!" spat one, motioning toward the forest floor. Rook looked about wildly. When she hesitated, one of the goblins with a bow pointed it at Kaiden. "Down! Or deed deed deed!" it said and the archer, not seeing another option that didn't get herself or Kaiden killed within the next few moments, slowly got to her knees.

"I smells gobluns that I does..." Stybs remarked,calmly as the odd pair ventured forth. Maaarius simply nodded as he was sure the goblin had a noticeably sharper sense of smell. It did not take them long to find a clearing where someone had discarded a bow, and judging by the footprints had began more or less began carrying something

"Better take this with us, it's owner might miss it." The bandaged elf mused more to himself while picking up the bow. He did not like goblins, at least goblins that originated from around the area.

After some more skulking the pair located a group of goblins and their prisoners - or soon to be sacrifices. Marius was about to say something just as Stybs stepped out from where he had been hiding and spoke in the language of his race. "(How about you lower the bows, boys?)" The giant of a goblin suggested calmly while leaning on his pickaxe walking stick. The goblins hopefully would recognize from the fact the fellow in front of them was at least a head taller than them and the orc skin cloak hanging from the scrawny shoulders that this fellow was the so called Liberator. A goblin of whom orcs tell vfrightening stories about to keep their kids well behaved. "(That gal wouldn't be worth your arrows anyhow.)"

Three of the goblins began binding Kaiden's feet so that they might more easily drag him back to their village. The other three pulled Rook's hands together in front of her and wrapped a leather cord about her wrists. She did not resist, fearing that if she did her hands would be bound behind her back instead. This way, at least she might yet find some opportunity to act.

Not realizing that Stybs was not affiliated with the others, Rook felt only dismay at the arrival of yet another goblin.

Garuk narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the large newcomer, lowering his bow now that their prisoners seemed sufficiently in check. He'd heard of the Liberator, of course. They all had. But the exaggerated tales portrayed the famous goblin as taller than an orc, broad shouldered, clad in armor made of dragon hide, and eyes that blazed red. And he did not connect that image to Stybs.

"These ones belong to us now," Garuk said in the goblin tongue, assuming Stybs was hoping to claim whatever coin these two might be carrying for himself. But even if this new guy was tall, there were six of them and only one of him. Garuk wasn't about to be cowed. "Beat it, Stretch."

Slipping quietly through the foliage the invisible elf moved aside a large frond and peered upon a sudden gathering in a small clearing. The goblins she had sidestepped before and allowed to continue had captured a pair of adventurers and was in the midst of lashing their limbs. Then came another thing... a hobgoblin? No. It was a goblin the size of a hobgoblin! Ouch.

Then they began arguing.

The invisible elf had to wonder what they were all doing here. Were they tracking her? Did they just happen to stumble across her path? Did they have any idea that all her clothes and equipment were just over the rise. Worse still were the notebooks. Her notes on the the magician's keep were there. She then considered helping but how could she. Her invisibility spell was fragile. Any form of attack would end it and what could she do? Charm one of the goblins? What would be the point? She could daze one, or perhaps summon her own goblins to attack and cause a ruckus but all that would endanger her. Maybe an illusion? Technically that wouldn't be an attack. She could do that but an illusion of what?

For now though, she would see what the big goblin did.

Stybs sighed, it just seemed to dawn to him that the stories of his exploits may have been a tad bit... exaggerated, still there was power in the stories, in belief. "Now you are thinking that I'm just some tall git who thinks he's being smart or funny, yeah?" He smiled his toothy smile that would have been a tad bit unnerving to a member of the other cares, but to a goblin it was nearly charming. "That git looks a bit like the Liberator fellow from the stories, but that can't be it, right?" The tall goblin rolled his eyes and changed his stance in to a more calm one. "Maybe I'm just some old git who's gone mad in his old age, right?"

Marius remained hidden and waited patiently. He had seen this kind of a conversation many times and the strange pair had made convincing goblins a magnificent little performance. For now he'd just have to wait for the sign and keep a simple spell of enlargement ready.

"Then again, if I am the Liberator what are you gonna do?" Stybs tilted his head a bit to the left and shrugged his shoulders. "Stybs Orcgutter is the greatest there is! Able to kill a dragon with a gaze and shatter the chains of tyranny with a wave of his mighty green hand." To an outside listener the goblin language sounded strange, like someone was speaking orcish and choking on cockroaches or the like, but the goblins could be quite eloquent - now unfortunately it did not translate well to the common language.

The stories told of the Liberator also mentioned that he was not just a hero for goblins, no, he was a hero of all the downtrodden, a hero of freedom itself. Your race did not matter to him, if you were a prisoner or a slave the Liberator just might show up and save you. No matter what he'd have to fight! Be it the mightiest of dragons, the strongest orcs, stubbornest of dwarfs or the sneakiest of goblins. Now this tall git didn't seem like he was planning on fighting, but there was something about him, something quirky.

"Maybe I'm just one of them cooky old storytellin' gits? A bit too deep in a story, right? Carrying one of these for flair, right?" Stybs lifted the broken pickaxe while smiling the toothy smile and let out a cackle, which some goblins would call a hearty laugh. "Now just think about it, what if this old git actually is the Liberator, right? You gits would be in biiiig trouble." Goblin humor was strange, it emphasized on the suffering of other goblins and in those standards the tall goblin had actually told quite a funny joke.

Marius gripped his holy symbol and waited for the other goblins to react. What little he understood of their language - what little Stybs had bothered/been able to teach and explain - a joke of some kind had just been told, not that the pale elf really understood goblin humor. Still he hoped the old goblin would manage to handle the situation with words instead of violence.