Your father gives a great cry as he charges towards the sleeping ogre. You nock an arrow on your bow and take aim at the nearest goblin. In a single fluid motion, your arrow is loosed and that's one dead goblin.
But something is happening here. You aren't sure what. It's like an itch at the back of your mind, a persistent feeling that *something is not right.* You focus on that as you string another arrow and fire at another target.
For the first few minutes of this you're able to fire at a decent pace. Several goblins die to you in the first minute or two of the fight and your father seems to have the ogre well in hand. The goblins have noticed you and turned towards you, but many are too cowardly to charge you.
As you focus on that strange feeling you notice something. A strange light coming from the back of the cavern. There, one goblin is dressed a bit differently than the rest--in that's he's actually dressed. Leather and bones line his waist-line in some crude parody of a belt. A feathered crown sits atop his head. In his hands is a staff. Atop the staff is the skull of a human.
He stands in front of what can only be described as an altar. The altar has a slight glow to your eyes. Yet even as you notice this, the other goblins work up their courage and charge directly towards you. You can't afford to pay too much attention to the goblin priest and you resume your firing into the approaching horde.
Yet the goblin is doing something. The feeling of wrongness swells and, when you have a moment, you take a shot at him. Yet something seems to steer your arrow away. You're certain that you had aimed correctly and the shot wasn't too far off; something changed its course midflight!
You draw one of your twenty bronze arrows. It is a heavy weight in your hand. When you had been practicing, you had succeeded with these no more than one in ten times. But you felt like it would be necessary. You nock the arrow and pull the string back.
You take a deep breath and let the arrow fly...
It's a success! The arrow travels the length of the cavern and flies directly through the goblin and into the altar, destroying it! But something is happening...
Something has gone wrong.
The remnants of the altar flares brightly for a moment and an inferno of fire erupts! In a moment it will fill the room!
Your father speaks a word. The word seems to have a physical presence to it, as if you could reach out and pluck it from the air. The flames from the altar still in the air for a moment before converging on the goblins, burning them to death! Even as he does this, the ogre is driven back by a single great kick!
You fire a normal arrow into the ogre. It seems to do little more than enrage it and so you fire more. As you do this, your father lashes out with his spear, driving it deep into the ogre's eye and slaying it.
"Well, that wasn't according to plan," he says. "Nice shot with the arrow."
"Thanks," you reply. "It seemed like it was doing something so I figured... might as well kill it before it does?"
Your father smiles at this.
"That's the exact right response. If you think you're facing some sort of mystical danger, confront it with overwhelming force. Destroy it before it can do whatever it attempts. Very, very few men have the ability to counter them. "
"You seem to have done alright at that," you note.
Your father begins inspecting the dead goblins and hums to himself. After a few moments of examining their ears, eyes, and teeth, he begins to speak once more:
"Not truly. The fire had no master after you slew the chief. Anyone with some skill could seize it. But come over here and tell me what you see."
You follow his instructions and examine the corpses. You've never seen a goblin before today. This is your first opportunity to examine one up close. It's flesh is a deep green. Your father peels back the lids on the eye and you note the color; a deep red, with black pupils.
Next you examine the teeth. The canines are extremely pronounced and the rest of the teeth are fairly sharp. Something about its face has an unsettling quality to it as well. You aren't sure if its because it is dead or something innate to the goblins.
You tell your father as much and he lets out a sigh.
"I thought as much. I will have to report this. These are not normal goblins. For the last three centuries they have been changing. Not most, of course. But occasionally we come across a tribe that has strange features to them. Often they have some sort of sorcerous backing," he explains.
You're a little unsettled by the news. In the stories, goblins are always the weakest of monsters, almost always serving some other greater creature. While that is the case here--their is an ogre after all--the idea that they are changing... it can't be good news, can it?
You and your father begin the work of tallying up everything the goblins had stolen from passing travelers. Their is a surprising amount. Several cut gemstones, even more uncut gemstones, and a large amount of silver coins. Most of the coins bear the marks of the Protectorate upon them.
Most of if likely came from merchants traveling from the Protectorate, through Kavodel and its lands, and north to the Great City of Carine. Carine lay on the edges of the Kadmonim grasslands and trade with those peoples could often be lucrative. Though they were heretics that worshiped false gods, your education had assured you their gods were simply fake, not demons or anything.
A part of you idly notes that just because your people considered them fake doesn't mean they are. After all, they have somehow resisted demons for many thousands of years, just as your people have. They must have something to allow that.
You do not speak your heresy and instead leave the cave with your father. He finds a large stone, draws his sword, and cuts it into a flat surface. You think you see a flash of white light come from his sword as he swings it but... you aren't entirely sure?
The two of you spend the rest of the time dragging the bodies of the goblins and the ogre out of the cave, as well as the remnants of the altar that had exploded. You pile them atop the make-shift altar, pour sacred oil over them, and set it alight.
A large bonfire erupts from your altar and the two of you spend a few minutes simply staring at the fire. After a few moments it dies down and you resume your journey.
The two of you spend the next week and a half scouring the countryside for anything dangerous. Mostly, you find nothing. This isn't too shocking. Most demons in this region come from the Mountains of Fare to the south or the Shekelesh Desert to the east.
The two of you return home. You are quite a bit wealthier than you were before, the goblins had managed to hoard quite a bit of wealth. Your father encourages you to save it, in the event you need it one day, and for now you will heed his advice.
Several weeks pass. Your father makes the journey to Kavodel to report on the strange goblins the two of you had encountered. Before he leaves, your father encourages you to take the time to learn and practice your skills.
What do you focus on while your father is away?
[] You see what Afra can teach. She prepared several healing salves for your hunting trip and knows much about plants.
[] Gideon has been your teacher for many years. You suspect you know much of what he can teach. Still, the Shrine to El in your village is a peaceful place. Spend your time within it, listening to his stories, and see if your peculiar extra sense (or senses?) might pick up on anything.
[] Practice with your spear, shield, and bow. See what the limits of your body truly are.
