Chapter One:
A Slippery Slope
“I want to get this straight, if I may?” The speaker was a young woman, tall and strong and furious. Waiting only a moment for any objections, she pointed a sturdy metal spoon at a now severely scarred man and continued speaking, “You, Jym, specifically need to confirm that I’m hearing this correctly. You poisoned yourself, and Davien without his knowledge, to counteract the effects of the priest’s poison? Did he, or anyone he works with, ever actually attempt to poison you?”
Jymgreen, an entrepreneurial and enthusiastic man, a goblin man, but a man no less, nodded vigorously and added, “Yeah, and I even saved my rat for the end. I had not eaten for like three days so I think I mighta sucked it down the wrong way. But I’m tellin’ you, it did get bigger after it died. They keep growing, you know, I’m sure of it. Overall though, the poisoning was a terrible experience.”
Looking briefly toward Davien, his tall human friend who was just now waking from a deep slumber, he pointed and said, “Besides, he played along. He blamed that on the priest too. Shoulda seen it! The shock, the awe, I was impressed he got it out before he lost consciousness.”
“Play along? What?” Still bleary eyed and weary he had caught only the tail end of the story.
“See,” Jym croaked just before the young woman could speak, “Davien’s alright, I’m alright. . . well I’m a little cold, but regardless of that everything turned out just fine. I need a drink. It’s on you Davien, I’ll get you one. Want one Leira? He’s ok with it. Four of the house best comin’ up.”
The goblin had a rapid fire way of speaking, and coupled with his now severely damaged throat, he sounded how Leira expected a toad might sound given the ability to speak. Sighing heavily, she turned towards Davien. “How are you? How did the two of you end up making it out? Is anything he said true?”
Not worrying over the wording he whispered, “Trash.”
“Excuse me? Trash?”
Davien nodded slowly. “They threw the goblin out with the trash once they got his hood and cloak off. I guess even fiends know better than to eat goblin meat. Good thing he can hold his breath so long, otherwise his meal might have actually killed him.”
“That’s not as clear as you might expect Davien. When I got into that abattoir he was dressed head-to-toe in Oren Gray and shouting obscenities at a zombie you were controlling with a makeshift puppet rig. I imagine there’s a bit between the choking and the partying.”
“Nope, pretty quick transition. Once we confirmed you could compel his spirit to answer our questions, Jym kinda just. . . uh. . . suited up.”
Sensing that Leira was about to push whatever issue she had with the goblin, a common theme in their discussions, he took a tactic from Jymgreen and deflected, “Did he say four? Of the finest? We’re still in the temple, where the hell did he go? We don’t have time for this nonsense Leira. Did you find an entrance to the lower chambers, did that prig Oren spill the beans? Need I remind you, just because the fiend is put in a box doesn’t mean the fiend is not still there. A twisted jack in the box, as it sometimes seems to be.”
Leira looked around the chambers they were in. The priest’s room was opulent to the point of ridiculousness. Oren had been an actor prior to becoming a ‘priest’ for this new order that called themselves ‘Supplicants’. “More like slaves.” Leira mumbled this thought aloud before answering Davien’s question. “Oren managed to refuse my requests at first, being so close to his personal deity. Jym changed the spirits tune. We’ll leave it at that.”
Even being the closest thing to a friend the goblin had, Davien often preferred to be left out of being in-the-know concerning the alarmingly violent Jym. “Well then, where is he?” Davien asked this last question mostly to himself just before his eyes lost focus and began to glow a subtle sapphire blue.