Kara’s dreams are, despite how many times she’s emptied herself into her two disciples, dominated by lewd acts in strange, impossible positions. Even Dalia filters into a dream or two, once wearing a slave collar and crawling on all fours, the other begging for forgiveness, showing how much she’s willing to do to earn it.
But before she wakes, a clearer dream comes. Text rolls across her mind:
DOMAIN ESTABLISHED
And the domain becomes clear, too, centred on their small burrow at the edge of the forest. The small ring of territory is coloured the same orange as her eyes. To the north lies Meadowbrook, and Dalia’s farmstead — both are shaded the same azure, which continues up the map beyond her vision (concerning, perhaps, but not necessarily terrible — yes, it might be the frontier of a great empire, but it might merely be a minor Lord’s castle up there). And, to the west, deep within the forest, a snaking dark green that must be Jaika’s former tribe.
Claiming this scrap of territory, modest as it is, earns Kara another level up, and, at last, an opportunity to really consider things. Her dazed, dreamy consciousness gropes for more information, and at last finds it — though where she had expected the hard certainty of numbers, she finds the soft ambiguity of language.
Your Strength is: Physical Labourer
Your Dexterity is: Gifted Acrobat
Your Intelligence is: Cunning Barbarian (harsh, but fair)
Your Stamina is: Weekend Hiker
Your Charisma is:Town Preacher
All well and good, but how to boost them? Is it enough to simply do? She resolves to check again, next time she sleeps — if today goes according to plan, her Intelligence should rise (assuming that’s how it works).
Known Languages:Goblinspeak, Felinid, Common
And then there’s just the matter of her next perk, and she knows exactly what she needs for her plan to succeed. If there really are as many goblins as Jaika claims, their failure to take the town can only be down to poor organisation and logistics. With Budding Warchief added to her Perk List, Kara should be able to coordinate the construction of a few simple siege engines and get a decent battleplan. At least enough to crush Meadowbrook’s militia.
Newly Level 4, Kara awakes to the mouth-watering smell of meat and herbs. Jaika, truly more valuable than gold, has turned a scraped rabbit pelt into a makeshift pot for a deliciously aromatic rabbit stew, complete with three eggs, cracked on top and perfectly poached.
“You have good timing,” says Jaika, as Lily giggles at something Kara didn’t catch. Kara stretches out her long body as far as she can in the cosy burrow, flexing her claws. “Is goblin delicacy. Wa-kai-ah.”
“You got anything to eat it with?”
“The leftover bread will make splendid trenchers!” Lily’s irrepressible energy in the morning is an utter mystery to Kara. “And Jaika gave me her fork.”
“Gift for pretty lady.” Jaika blushes.
“And me?” Kara asks.
“You afraid to get hands dirty?”
Suppose she isn’t, come to think of it — she can make Jaika lick them clean.
The stew’s heavenly, just another point in Jaika’s rapidly growing column. Earthy spices, foraged from between roots, dance across Kara’s sensitive tongue, and Lily outright moans as the first forkful goes down.
“Jaika,” Kara says, around a mouthful. “Well done. This is a dish that inspires passion.”
The goblin blushes again, and the remaining bread as well as the entire stew disappears in what seems like moments.
Lily has tried her new blue dress on for size — perfect on her, of course — and Jaika is thankfully covered up too, in her old loincloth and bra, so Kara can’t be totally distracted by her horniness. Her disciples are both gorgeous, and she would fuck them all day if she could, but she’s been running in circles in the tutorial area for too long — it’s time to make a move. Kara slips on her new tunic and breeches, (infinitely more presentable and comfortable than her beggar’s rags, say that much for Dalia).
Kara tilts her head, considering her disciples, and after a look of careful scrutiny, she decides Jaika looks far too fuckable and not at all fierce enough. She grabs the fur cloak from the bed and pins it around Jaika’s shoulders. “Gift for a pretty lady,” she says, and the goblin blushes deeper still.
With the addition of the fur cloak, huge and suitably vicious on the tiny goblin’s shoulders, they look like a proper little adventuring party.
Jaika is equipped with her own small dagger, and Lily with Kara’s as they emerge from their burrow into the first rays of light. The forest is misty with morning, fat dew drops glittering everywhere like tiny crystals.
“It’s time to lead us to your people, Jaika.”
“Yes?”
“They’re going to help us spread the beauty of Sayla to Meadowbrook.”
The goblin knows the territory well; she leads them along an old game track, single-file past high branches and low shrubs.
“Are you certain of this, darling?” Lily asks quietly. “Jaika is ever so lovely, but they surely cannot all be like her.”
Kara basks in the name for a moment before replying. “That’s why we’re putting Jaika in charge of the others.”
If their guide had heard, she’d have insisted there was no way she could possibly lead so many — but Kara’s waiting to spring that on her, once she’s gotten the measure of the current chief.
They emerge from the forest into a small clearing, which is split in two by a roaring river, fed by a small waterfall. “The secret way in,” says Jaika. “You will get wet.” Hand in hand, like a gaggle of schoolgirls, the trio run through the waterfall, coming out on the other side soaked and shivering.
They find themselves in a narrow cave, more a crack in the mountain than anything. Jaika leads the way further into the stony gloom — deceptively deep, the stony crack just keeps going down. Kara and Lily are surprised and delighted, respectively, when the totally unadorned, painfully narrow cave opens up to to a wider, ravine-like alley, decorated richly with berry-dyed hides and animal bones.
Surrounding them, goblins appear, emerging from tiny cracks in the stone wall and from makeshift buildings — and, seemingly, from nowhere at all.
“What exactly was the point of taking the secret entrance?” asks Kara, ill at ease but doing her best to project confidence.
“We are alive, no? We go front way, scouts kill us before we have chance to speak.”
“Your people don't like sunlight much, huh?”
Jaika shrugs. “We like. We hide because we must.”
The drawn bows and lowered spears around them have a certain insistence that makes Kara draw herself up and cast her gaze around the ravine. “I have an urgent message for your Chief. Where is Roguz?”
War drums beat, their pounding bouncing off the sheer rock and filling the space like water thundering into a bath. On a high bluff above them, goblins stir, rushing out of the way. In their place appears someone who immediately inspires a queasy feeling in Kara, the same one you get from shapechangers and skinstealers: a blue-haired, blue skinned orc with utterly ridiculous breasts and a hand-crafted fur robe that barely covers them. She sneers down her tusks, reaching out beside her and conjuring a skull-tipped staff resplendent with waving blue feathers.
“Roguz is dead!” she thunders. “I have-” Her face screws up in further irritation. “S-silence the drums! I am speaking!” It takes a moment for the beat to die away, and she can’t hide the pretty purple blush on her cheeks. “I have slain Chief Roguz, and now it is I who leads these people! You may bring your message to me, kitty, but be warned — it would be foolish to stand against me. I have mastered the Secret Magiks, and am more powerful than you could ever know.”
Kara tilts her head, chewing her lip in thought. This is… bizarre, to say the least. But I’m nothing if not adaptable. “Then I will bring my message to you, oh mighty Chieftain.”
“Good. Your companions, they shall remain under guard, as guarantee of your good behaviour. You shall be brought to my grand audience chamber, and I will hear your plea.” The orc points her staff at Kara, and it wobbles in the air slightly as silence hangs over the ravine. She flushes again. “D-do the thing!”
The goblins around them bang their spear butts against the ground, the echoing drums return, and as one they chant, “Chief-tain May-nier! May-nier! May-nier!”
Level 4
New Perk!
Budding Warchief — Soldiers will fight for you; they may even die for you. You gain basic strategic knowledge and schematics for rudimentary siege equipment.