>>18060950
Go bring those carrots back to camp. No reason to make decisions on an empty stomach.

>>18061091

You pull out the ones that are ripe (most of them will take a few more days) and, after giving them a quick rinse in the river, bring them back to the part of the camp that belongs to Shtath's tribe.

Shtath seems to be cloistered in her tent. You can hear her voice coming from inside; sounds like she's casting a long and complicated spell. The rest of your tribemates are hustling and bustling around, and warily keeping other goblins from getting near their tents.

Shetsh the ilgoblin, who you're starting to think might have some kind of xenophile crush on you, eagerly takes the carrots from your hand and adds them to the stores. As he does, he asks what you think of the other tribes.

>>18061142
Let's explain, as well as we can, that you think Grekl Mogla seems mysterious - that you're not sure whether she's smart or dumb, but she clearly has something planned.

>>18061171

"I met Grekl Mogla," you approximate in Goblidigook. "Strange grekl. I don't know if she's smart, or stupid."

At the mention of Grekl Mogla, Shetsh seems to get tense, and look around as if afraid to see her sneaking up behind him.

"Grekl Mogla. She's a bad one."

He talks very fast and very quietly, but you know you can make out the phrases "gone for years," "always lies," and "killed her own mother."

"Very bad. And very powerful. Mother wasn't happy to see her hear."

>>18061315
Pat him on the head. Was it tonight that Mogla said to meet her?

Hm. Don't really know much about the other goblin tribes though. I suppose a lot of them look similar to us?

>>18061341

Tomorrow morning.

>>18061355

If by "us" you mean Grekl Shtath's tribe, then yes, they all look pretty similar. If you meant "us" as in "Web of Green Sprouting Vines the elf girl," then hell no. You're a sexy teenaged elf, they're hideous goblins.

>>18061385
Let's tuck into a tree a bit early and try to reach our biomancy out as far as it will go. Get a real, good feel for the area that we're in. Maybe try to push some range limits that we haven't really pushed before.

>>18061419

After making sure Shetsh and Ersel know which tree you're using (wouldn't want the grekl to think you've run away) you plug yourself into one of the riverside trees. Its much taller and healthier than most of the ones you've been using, and its been a long time since you've gotten to sleep in the day.

Sleep is so much more restful when the tree is mid-photosynthesis. You are in every blade of grass, dream of the lives of a million insects. When you awake, it is nearly midnight. And you feel immensely refreshed.

>>18061315
Let's ask what he thinks of humans

>>18061484
Whoop, guess I was too late

>>18061497

Clarify please. Humans in general, or specifically the ones across the hills?

>>18061484
Let's dance for the first time in a while, then try to reach out as far as we can with our biomancy.

Where is everybody at the moment? Have the goblins settled in for the night or is there a big group meeting going on?

>>18061523
Well… why not both? First in general, then followed by if there are any in the are.

>>18061558

(this is before you go to sleep for the afternoon)

Shetsh seems to think that humans are a bunch of selfish, conniving ingrates who treat their females like cattle and place "friends" over family. They're tough, though. Almost as strong as hobgoblins, and they have deadly weapons and armor. They're best either far away, or dead.

The ones across the hills have powerful magic in addition to the rest. You make out the words "wings," "sharp," and "horde."

>>18061552

The goblins are all guarding their own corners of the camp, being coldly unwelcoming toward each other.

>>18061558

Its been so long, your legs are stiff when you try the steps. But your memory is good, and the full moon helps stimulate that part of your brain. You roll and twist across the open prairie, your first Moon Salute since you were stolen from your home.

A few minutes later, Grekl Shtath hobbles over with a handful of ilgoblins and her alpha hobgoblin.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING???"

She looks ready to cast a spell.

>>18061675
"Oh! Um, dancing, ma'am. I haven't gotten to dance in so very long. Would you like me to do something?"

>>18060950

>>18061675
"Dancing! You should try it some time, it's fun!"

>>18061740
>>18061698

"I...the the Celebration of Dusk, the Moon Salute...its been so long since I've gotten to..."

She growls. "You do your stick-person dances where none of the other tribes can see, or not at all. Half the grekls think you're trying to bring down a curse on them! Your people actually dance just for FUN???"

>>18061740
Ahahaha. No.

Wait. Actually, yes.

>>18061740
>>18061698
She probably thinks we're casting a spell or something. Either that or goblins abhor dancing, and are some sort of Puritan hard labor enthusiasits.

Either way, we're celebrating that we're alive and for the most part safe. And people aren't putting iron around us anymore.

See if the goblins now how to dance. If not, offer to teach them, starting with Shetsh

>>18061829
"...Yes?"

>>18061829
"I'm sorry, I didn't know. Goblins don't?

>>18061829
"...is that a bad thing? Also, I wouldn't ever want to curse you. All of you goblins have been so nice to me ever since you started trusting me enough to not tie me up while I sleep. If it bothers you, I'll stop."

>>18061829
"It's easy! You just listen to the beat of your heart, and start moving your feet. Having music helps, but anyone can do it."

>>18061838

She peers at you very carefully. You notice with a start that she is no longer blind; from her right eye socket gleams a beady, yellow eye. It looks sharp and alive, but somehow a little too small for her face. Her left socket is still scabbed and empty.

"Let me watch. I need to know there's no magic here."

>>18061832
NOPE. Their dances are a form of magic ritual, our Grekl was doing it to enlarge the sparks to fireballs in our escape from the Orc ambush.

>>18061870
"Yes, ma'am! Would you or any of the others like to join me? It's easy and fun. Also, music would really help too."

>>18061870
There isn't magic in the Moon Salute, right?

Anyway, let's dance it for her.

>>18061894
Not so far as our teenaged education taught us, before we were abducted

>>18061870
"I'll need a partner to do it right. It's supposed to be a chorus of bodies singing praise to the stars and the void."

>>18061889

She looks at you like you're not making any sense. You decide you had best not push the music issue.

>>18061894

Well...sorta. According to legend, the night dances were once supposed to go along with one of the Songs of Creation, and those are definitely magical. So the dance might have some subtle, non-practical magic in it.

>>18061927

I'm kind of imagining a slow graceful ballete kind of dance, like the twisting of branches in the breeze that gradually grows more frantic.
To this music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyknBTm_YyM

>>18061927
Let's dance for her. Hope some other goblins join in. Dancing alone is, well, lonely...

>>18061982

A bit like that, yeah.

>>18061990

Does everyone think this is a good idea?

>>18062027
Yeah, let's do it.

>>18062027
If solo, yes

>>18062027
Oh god, the GM is asking "Are you SURE?"

Singly I guess it is then

>>18062035
>>18062046
>>18062086

Deciding not to invite the goblins to join, you begin doing your most practiced solo portion of the Moon Salute. Your hands stretch up to the moon, the White Grove of Ora, and you slowly bring them down toward your head, showing her your love for her nocturnal glow. You bend forward and swivel your torso, inviting the wind to carry you, and throw back your head, mind expanding out to grass and moss and tree. You raise an arm to your side again, your hair-tendrils writhing about your neck as if eager to get up and dance on their own...

And then you lose all sense of where you are. Your vision clouds. Your ears ring. A fiery pain strikes your body as you lose your sense of balance and collapse to the ground, your biomancy flickering out from the unexpected attack. You gasp for breath, choke...

Then you feel yourself weakly coming too, and the alpha hobgoblin is holding your hands behind your back as the grekl slaps you cruelly across the face.

"YOU LYING, TREACHEROUS LITTLE TWIG! After we cared for you and brought you to our kin, you lie to me and weave secret witcheries!? Ingrate filth!"

She screams something in goblidegook too fast for you to make out, her one restored eye narrow and angry...not to mention afraid.

You are bound, gagged, and thrown in a tent under heavy guard.

>>18062194
Let's just sob all night.

>>18062194
The hell?

>>18062319
Clearly there was some small magic in the dance. Magic that Web was too ignorant to realize.

>>18062194
Well... Fuck. All I can think of is to profess our ignorance, which is handily the truth, as much as we can.

From outside the tent, you hear them talking to each other. It seems that you were "invoking the dreaded night-queen" and "thought the grekl was too ignorant to know it when she saw it. You feel sick to your stomach, an acrid taste left over in your mouth and a sore pain in your limbs from whatever attack spell she used on you. You still can't get your biomancy to work.

You are being guarded by two hobgoblins, both with heavy, wooden clubs at the ready. They regard you with a mixture of outrage and fear.

>>18062392
If the goblin feels betrayed we feel ten times as badly stabbed in the back.

We entered the camp of our own volition, help these people, save their lives, and this is how we're treated?

Grelka could at least take the time to see that the dances magic was of the helping the green things grow variety rather then call down hellfire before calling us traitor.

>>18062423
Just sob all night. We're scared, confused, and depressed. That's it.

>>18062439

You try to think, despite your pounding head. The Moon Salute...you were never sure if it was true or not, but according to legend it goes to the words of a Song of Creation. A song associated with Ora, the night goddess and guardian of the All-Soul. But that's just a bit of historical color. The dance isn't used for anything besides fun and ritual, and not even the serious business religious kind of rituals.

Basically, u pretty mad at them right now.

>>18062423
Tell the Hobogoblins that we want to talk to Grelka as soon as possible, we need to explain about this being a dance of creation not destruction.

If they don't, threaten to have birds eat their eyes and plants sprout in their stomachs!

>>18062502
We're gagged. All we can do is lie there and cry.

>>18062515
What's the gag made of?

If it's plant fiber, we can manipulate it.

>>18062567
We can't really biomance right now, a little too hurting all over.
Also, I'm pretty sure we can't biomance no longer living plants.

>>18062567
Our biomancy has been turned off. Literally the only thing we can do is cry.

>>18062567
I don't think we can unless it's still alive.

>>18062502

You try to get them to understand through the gag, but they either don't understand or choose to ignore you.

The night drags on. The two hobgoblins are replaced by two others. You wonder what Shtath is planning to do to you. You wonder if you will ever be trusted, or loved, or even so much as respected again.

The tears cannot be stopped. And in the tent there's not even any moonlight to be caught in them.

After an eternity of silence and misery, everything seems to go preternaturally quiet. You look around. The hobgoblins seem to have fallen asleep at their posts. Both of them. Suddenly.

"I wasn't expecting to speak to you until dawn, at least," says the voice of Grekl Mogla from somewhere you can't see, "but plans change."

You feel her wrinkled, leathery hand undo your gag. She's standing behind you.

"Well, let's hear the lying witch's side of the story, shall we?"

>>18062592
Oh. Then. There's nothing to do now but wait and feel very conflicted.

>>18062634
*Sob* "I... guh-huh... I was just dancing! I don't know what's going on..." *sob* "Why are you doing this to me...?"

>>18062634
"Paranoid hag, have you become so seperated from nature that you curse the stars and their creators?"

"....it was just a dance. People say it was sung by Ora, the protector, during creation but people say a lot of things. There's never been any magic in it before, and if there were it would be the helpful, protective kind."

>>18062634
1: We don't understand what's happening.
2: We had no knowledge or belief that there was any magic in the dance.
3: What the hell.

>>18062667
>>18062710

Note: Grekl Shtath was the one who locked you up. You're talking to Mogla now.

>>18062735
>>18062634
Darnit, they all look similar to us!

Then just ammend it without any hags, keep the paranoid bit

>>18062710

"Calm down, elf. I had nothing to do with this foolishness."

>>18062734

"One," she explains, "Grekl Shtath's sons seem to think that you were casting a powerful spell and trying to hide that fact from her. Two, I've seen the Celebration of Dusk, and while I too was alarmed at first, I have since become convinced that the dance alone is powerless without the words. The answer to your third question is that, as I hinted at before, Grekl Shtath is an idiot."

>>18062836
Well, what's going to happen to us?

They're not going to kill me are they?

Would that Mogla had found us rather than Shtath, she seems far more reasonable.

>>18062914

"I couldn't tell you that. She probably thinks she failed to break you properly when you were first...adopted. She'll try again now, and it will be a much longer, much more brutal process."

She steps into view, her odd, bluish skin making her blend in with the shadows as she stands over the unconscious guards.

"Unless, of course, you were to leave her tribe."

>>18062950
"Only if I can take the il and bog I befriended with me. They're dear to me, and I think they genuinely care for me."

>>18062950
Wait...I can leave her tribe? Am I an honorary goblin now or something? Or is this more like trading property?

>>18062950
Just... what do you propose?

>>18062484
>the night goddess and guardian of the All-Soul
>>18062423
>the dreaded night-queen
Something tells me there's a slight religious difference here. If they hate the our way of life that much I don't see how we can ever get along, really. With them or this other bitch, no matter how understanding she pretends to be.

>>18062961
The Ilgoblin might (but probably doesn't) like us enough to leave his mother, but I doubt the bog will.

>>18063003
Yeah, the dude was just telling us how crappy the humans are for valuing friends over family, there's no way any of them are going to help. Asking them would just tip the tribe off to our escape attempt.

>>18063027
Still gonna feel bad leaving him behind. Hopefully, if/when we do leave, we can make it a legit slave trade or something so he'll still respect us if we meet again. Although I guess he might not like us anymore NOW, what with the dancing shenanigans.

>>18062961

She shakes her head, looking slightly amused. "You really are naive, aren't you?"

>>18062978

"It is usual, at gatherings like this, for the grekls to trade their sons, giving each other new mates. But I don't think Shtath would want to see any of her rivals come into possession of what she sees as a powerful weapon like you."

"No, this would have to be done without her knowledge."

>>18062994

She smiles. You know its supposed to be friendly but good gods, those teeth.

"We leave this tent and go to mine. We make it appear as if you regained your magic and used it to subdue your guards and escape. The other grekls and I will breed a goblin army the likes of which this land hasn't seen in five centuries, and, with your help, we crush the orcs forever."

>>18063073
But what if the other Grekels search the camps and find me hiding in yours?

Also, we don't want to fight a war. We just want to go home, whatever is left of it.

>>18063118
No no, we do want to start a war. The orcs enslaved us and we really really hate them and we'd give anything to wipe them out and if they believe that they they might be more lax with their security and we can escape and go home easier.

Mogla stands, waiting. You don't think she's going to wait much longer. Wut do?

rolled 15 = 15

>>18063267
Doesn't seem to be much choice I can see.

"... Alright. Let's go."

>>18063267
Go with her, but be resigned to the fact that this time, once we get the chance, we're leaving all the goblin business behind us. We thought we found a new home among goblins, but we were wrong. We won't make that mistake again.

I'm going to miss that Ilgoblin

>>18063308
Yeah, me too. He was a serious bro. I was hoping he and the bog would come with us... I grew really attached to them...
>emotional trauma again.

>>18063341
Family over friends, never gonna happen.

>>18063281
>>18063289

"Alright," you say, mournfully acknowledging that you won't get to say goodbye to Shetsh or Ersel, "let's go."

Grekl Mogla grins and begins a frantic, tarantella-like blur of motion, along with soft, fast, lunatic whispers. The sleeping hobgoblins stir a little.

Then, she raises both hands, claws her fingers, and brings them raking down toward each sleeping body. Then, she bends down and gently kisses each one on the cheek.

They stop breathing.

"Come along, now," she says, cutting the ropes that bind you with her bone knife, "and drink this."

She hands you a small, leather waterskin containing a liquid that doesn't look or smell like water.

"This will break the blood magic she can use to curse you. I assume she's tasted your blood for that purpose. Now, haste!"

Between your natural stealth and Mogla's powerful magic, you sneak back into her own, private tent.

"Welcome."

>>18063430
Cautiously sip it. Cautiously.

>>18063533

You nervously sip it. Very bitter, almost certainly boiled from plant stems. She warns you that you'll need to drink the whole thing to make sure you're safe.

Her tent is an interesting place. While her bedding is the same pile of deerskins that all the goblins seem to use, there's also a crudely-built wooden table with a variety of curiosities on it. Skulls of strange creatures, a human-made bag of beads and charms, and a stack of books.

"I've travelled," she explains.

>>18063609
"You can read? That's really something."

>>18063609
>Liberal goblins

Aaaand its time for OP to sleep. Quest will resume on monday night at the usual time.

>>18063651

"Most Grekls can, a little. I made sure to learn a little more than most, when I visited the human lands beyond the dorf kingdom to the south."

If there are any last things you guys want to do/ask before I end the quest for tonight, do so.

wait, how did I miss this thread?

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff

rolled 9 = 9

>>18063686
perhaps we should see if we are allowed to browse through the books, if we can read, of course.

might get a secondary magic school in concert to biomancy. Alchemy, elemental, or especially mind magic would be nice. I doubt we could get time magic, which is the p0wn since this seems to be a low-powerd setting.