The goblin in question was called 'Bread'. He had the healthy teeth and clear skin of a newborn goblin, but already a scar over the bridge of his nose.

Scratch had ushered everybody out, and they explained the situation near the children, while the wounded were being treated.

"Must flee." Bread said. "Humans. Goblins. Wolves."

Scratch crossed his arms, showing strong impatience with the feral goblin's fragmented speech.

Fat quickly took over. "B-Bread is from the river tribe. They had to e-escape, adventurers have killed their leader, and other goblins have started raiding in that area."

"Raiding? Who can afford to raid when the place is teeming with hit men?"

"They might feel they have to." Said Second. He and Quiet had arrived at around the same time, but been distracted by the new litter. "If they've run out of food."

"How many?" Scratch addressed Bread with.

"Huh?"

"How many of you are here trying to get asylum? That's what you want, right?"

"No want asyloom. Just want safe home. Fifteen goblins, we serve you."

"They want to be part of our tribe, Scratch." Fat explained.

"Scratch give us mother." Bread said, repeating information imparted to him from earlier generations. "They say, go to Scratch, Scratch is leader."

"I see..." Scratch looked Bread up and down. If he was from the river tribe, he had to be born from the woman they'd snatched from the farm. It was the cave tribe that had introduced the concept of bread to them, so this child that was named after it had to have been born since then. "Well, no use in having them hide out in the forest. Bring 'em in, they can stay here, on the tower."

"Thank you." The goblin did a strange little bow and ran off.

There goes our buffer. Though I suppose we're stronger together. Cyclophan will no doubt be pleased too, to have more monsters near his shard thing. Scratch thought to himself.

-

There were too many things to consider now. Adventurers storming in during the night, refugees, children, Barbara's loyalty, the suspicious healing salve, the half-baked mission board scheme, it was disorientating having to think about all of it. "Did everything go well?" He asked Second.

"We updated the board as you asked, but that's not on my mind right now, what's on my mind is what happened here, did things go well with you?"

"Apparently the sounds of childbirth attract adventurers. We've got a new litter, I didn't even catch their names."

"Yuto, Sota, Yuki, Hayato, and Haruki" Said Quiet, holding one of them.

"What's that, Chinese? More enemies of yours, Barb?"

Barbara shook her head.

"Good, because that's a horrible basis for naming your offspring."

Next to her George came up to Quiet and spoke softly to him. "Can you go sit with Linus? He's hurt in his legs and we're using the salve." Quiet handed the infant to his nephew and left to comfort his other one.

It didn't escape Scratch how important Quiet had become to them.

-

Suddenly he felt very tired. The rush of adrenaline from the fight had subsided and he felt the fatigue setting in.

"I trust you have a plan," Second said in his ear, "because we don't have enough food for all these goblins to last three weeks more."

There were too many things to consider, just... way too many things.

"Guildmaster. There are more matters for you to attend to." Marie urged her aging superior.

The past years it seemed like the man wasn't able to focus as much anymore, and his memory was fading.

"Oh dear." The aging adventurer groaned. "It's all going so fast, and I haven't sorted all these applications yet."

The desk was a chaotic mess of strewn about papers and etchings. The weekly deluge of mission requests, adventurer applications and training kept the management of the Eston branch busy on any given time of year, but during the culling it was extra busy. Then there were these distressing reports from the cliff side...

"I suppose I can't expect you to sit in for an old man, can I Marie?" The guildmaster said with puppy dog eyes.

"Sir, with matters such as these, the presence of the guildmaster would absolutely be necessary."

"You're right, you're right, of course you're right." He lifted himself out of his chair and almost fell over. "Zounds, Dronk give me strength."

"Shouldn't that be Rhada, sir?" She came in to steady him. He had just invoked the god of war, instead of the goddess of fire that was the patron to his country.

"Not the way I do it." He laughed. "You know, once, all members of the guild had to swear loyalty to-"

"Sir."

"I'm rambling. The meeting. I'm sure that I can get myself to-"

"Not at all. I agree now, you should get some rest. I will sit in for you."

"Marie, you're an angel."

-

An angel huh? She thought to herself as she descended to the conference room. A familiar spirit, more like. The way you keep getting me to do your work for you.

"Marie." Boris, the quartermaster stated as she came in. "Boss has you doing his dirty work again, hasn't he?"

"Helping where I can." She gave a fake smile.

"How're things with the succession, you must be first in line for guildmaster."

"We don't discuss such things." She was a little offended. "The guildmaster still has many years of dedicated service ahead of him."

"Huh-hm." Boris gave a non-commital response.

"You can let them in now."

-

In came a reasonably sized party of level F adventurers. Three adults and two kids.

Marie was pleased to see she still had an intimidating effect on newcomers as the man in front took a step back at the sight of her. Her tall and broad stature was what made her such a good vanguard, even if she hadn't been on any adventure for almost a year now.

"Take a seat, huh, 'Xandra's party'." She read the name of a piece of paper in front of her. "Who of you is Xandra?"

"Yes, me, I'm the leader!" The weakest looking member wormed herself through the posse to the front. A young girl wearing martial artist batons on her hips. Or maybe a halfling.

Marie suppressed a sigh. Somehow she felt like this was going to be an exhausting conversation. "Why don't we go over exactly what you saw in that forest."

-

After the adventurers relayed their story, Marie sank into deep thought.

There was a moment of silence before she spoke. "David, was it? You've only been a ranger for a short while now, are you absolutely certain?"

"Was hard to miss, miss. Everything was trampled. If not by goblins, then by something stronger, but there were close to a hundred of them."

"The farm raids, from before, how many were those?" She asked Boris.

"There's been another farm raided?" One of the other adventurers interrupted, the little boy, this time.

"You know of that?"

"We found a world memory, a few weeks ago, we showed it to the guild master!" Xandra waved around the little whisk card.

"What!?" Marie snatched it out of her hand. It clearly showed goblins sneaking around a house to break in in the back. Did the guildmaster forget? We could have been prepared for this.

"We've known about these farm raids for a few days now." Boris explained. "We heard a member of the Tanner family has taken up residency in the town, so we hoped to convince him to have some of his family's troops make an excursion there." He scratched the back of his head. "He wasn't cooperative. That patch of land is getting increasingly dangerous, there's reports of adventurers attack each other over some anti-adventurer bounty."

"Your report has been vital." Marie told the adventurers. "This can't continue, the enemy is growing too powerful. Either the adventurer's guild deals with it, or duchy will have to establish a fortress here."

"So what now?" The healer of the group asked.

"You can be the first to hear. We're issuing a promotion quest. Any rank F party that slays this orc lord can ascend to rank E."

"Shouldn't you take this up with the guild master?" Boris asked.

"I'm sure he'll come to the same conclusion. A goblin nests needs to be dealed with as quickly as possible. A hundred goblins, that counts as a nest."

After that, the meeting was adjourned and the adventurers left.

"Rank E? Only half of all adventurers reaches rank E!" She could hear Xandra exclaim in excitement as they walked out. To the "how do you even know that?" of her same age party member.

It seemed like the rookies were eager to take on the quest.

"Think they'll make it?" Boris asked.

She scoffed. "Let's put an official notice on the board just in case these don't."

"Where's the rest of them?" Scratch kept recounting the visiting goblins, they were now seated in a huddle against the side of the tower.

The sun had already gone down, but the light of the stars illuminated the world plenty for goblin eyes.

"Fifteen. Did nobody we've met before make it?"

Bread wildly shook his head. "Nobody."

Scratch sighed. It was no wonder goblins were primitive, in less then a month the entire population of the tribe had been replaced. There was no passing down of knowledge under those conditions.

"Listen up!" He addressed the refugees as a group, his own family at his back in the form of Kicker and Biter. "Our two families will work together to survive the culling, do you know what the culling is?"

There was no answer, but the generally blank and questioning expressions answered his question.

"This onslaught will last for three more weeks." He held up his fingers. "After that, humans will stop appearing... as much. That's twenty-one days if anyone's wondering."

The children were looking at their fingers trying to figure out his numbers.

"Now we can't take care of you. This isn't a soup kitchen. So after today's meal you'll have to hunt your own food, however, we will build a shelter from the rain and cold here for you to sleep in, is that understood?"

There was nodding from at least a few faces.

"Good. Then for the coming three weeks, be our guests."

"Only three weeks?" "No more than that?" Kicker and Biter asked him when he turned away from the crowd.

"Even hunting their own food they'll be a burden on our ability to get it. Long term, they'll be more valuable as allies than as family." He said curtly. And I didn't raise these ones with my own values like I did you. He thought. "Now let's organize into groups and set up some roofing."

-

The tower was built from mining refuge packed with earth and stacked logs, with some planks on the top as flooring.

They leaned left over fragments from the mud-huts against it to create enclosed spaces and created one larger room from left over lumber and thatch roofing.

Once the visitors came to understand the process they eagerly helped building shelter.

Eventually the judgment had to be made whether or not to let them use their water. Scratch decided they could use filtered water from the well, but not the condensed water from the purifier.

All of them were parched and they crowded around the well to drink from it. More than a dozen wild goblins in loincloths flooded the square and Barbara was brought back inside with the children.

Even at the river the kids had lived in a permanent state of slight dehydration, due to how unclean it was. But now they could drink to their own hearts content.

A fight even broke out over who could get to it first and for how long.

Scratch made eye contact with Bread and with a commanding expression gestured for him to stop it.

A single goblin was dragged out of the brawl, singled out as the instigator, and made to wait for water last.

After that, they continued building. Though some of them had collapsed and fallen asleep in the half-finished shelter.

By the time it was finished the sun was already creeping up.

"Aw shit," Scratch complained, "that's what you get."

"What you get?" Asked Second.

"For all this 'kindly neighbour' stuff. We're at the end of our latin here, it's day and we're gonna have to pull through without sleep, without meditation."

"It's worth it." Second stated.

"Hhhmm." Scratched doubted.

"Gahaha!" Gubok celebrated while devouring the humans' fruit.

He lifted the basket above the swirling mass of green bodies to keep it to himself.

Humans sure were stupid, stockpiling all their resources in one place just for a stronger race to come collect it. He had no idea why Ragar had insisted on staying hidden.

He could easily hop from farm to farm, gather food, and grow his goblin army using the residents for a few days before moving on. By now he had more minions than he could count.

"Give food!" A young one rudely snorted at him.

"Scram, 'noid." He barely looked at the goblin, until it slammed its club against his shin.

Immediately he kicked it in the chest, making it fall over, and crushed its skull with his heel.

That was another great thing about goblins. There were no politics. If any of them were dissatisfied with his reign, they would quickly make it clear so he could crush them. It made them a lot easier to control.

-

When his appetite was fulfilled for then he threw aside the food for his underlings to scrounge on and waded through the sea of green.

The building was, in his view, unnecessarily large for the number of occupants. Three elders, a mated pair, and a couple of children, hardly an entire clan.

But his army barely fit inside, the goblins filled every inch of flooring in the building they were tearing apart. He could hear the screams of their victims coming from the cellar where they'd been found.

Before long, he'd have enough of them.

Ragar should have found the shard by now, either that or moved on with the clan. With a large enough army, he'd be able to overwhelm his old clan and take control.

His fists tightened imagining himself killing Kubar and claiming the title of champion of bloodshed. He execute anybody that challenged the way he had taken control and feed them to his flock.

-

His fantasies of triumph were interrupted by the sound of shrieking humanoids.

Both his own and the taller kind were making noise near the entrance of the domicile. Some real warriors had dropped in to challenge his rampage.

Gubok violently kicked his minions aside to find Ragar's warhammer, strewn on the floor in his eagerness to feed.

Flashy lights lit up the early morning sky as the challengers were rending apart their smaller kin. Magic. Gubok thought with revulsion. The insidious tool of humanoids, humanoids and demons.

He burst through the inelegant wooden opening to confront the small task force of human fighters. They weren't with many, but they seemed to have no trouble wading through the mass of greenskins.

Normally, Gubok would have felt fear when encountering them. Not long ago he almost died to a team of humans. But he had since learned that humans as strong as that woman were rare.

The humans that had killed Ragar and the others had smelled musky, like the moss of the forest, these ones smelled awfully like soap. The cleaner humans smelled the weaker they were. By the droves they would pour into the forest, wielding inferior equipment, challenging only their weaker kin and fleeing from the sight of orcs.

One of the humans pointed at him and shrieked those weird monkey shrieks. It seemed like these were willing to fight.

Gubok grinned. He didn't like fighting as much as an orc was expected to, but he liked it a lot more when his enemies were weaker than him.

With a few well placed bashes he broke their formation, allowing his tiny servants to flood their bodies and tear them apart.

Yes, champion of bloodshed, that future was inevitable.

Scratch's pessimism turned out to be unfounded.

The refugees themselves had a hand in defending their new home. On top of that, despite the first half of the month not being over yet, the number of adventurers seemed to dry up.

That day, only a single party attacked their home. They killed some of the wild goblins, but none of the cave's inhabitants.

It didn't stop him from grumbling all throughout the day.

"Just- just get in you piece of... damn-" He cussed at his needle while sewing clothes.

"Is Scratch angry?" Fyro asked Quiet.

Quiet shook his head and gave a soft word as alternative, "Tired."

"Ah, hes's irra- irrit-"

"Irritable."

"You know I can hear you." Scratch spoke loudly and irritated. "You go do this. I'm taking a walk."

He threw the half-finished tunic at Fyro and stomped out of the dining room.

-

Fyro looked at the skin quizzingly.

"For the kids, when they grow up." Quiet said, he was working on his own piece.

"I know that! But how... where do I..."

Quiet's eyebrows shot up, this was the first time they'd sewn clothes since Fyro had been born, he didn't know anything about it. "I'll show you. Sit here." His voice grew louder and more confident in the teaching role.

-

Scratch would have to pass through the foyer in his path to the surface. Barbara hadn't left it since the day before, it was being aired of bad smells and possible toxins so the entrance was kept wide open.

Passively, they had all come to the understanding that she would not run away. She was the one watching over her litter, and attending to them when they needed something. So now they were trusting her to do good by them as well.

Scratch had the vague sense that that was a bad move, but he didn't have the energy to think about it. They were going to have to trust her.

Before he went up the stairs and through the hatch door towards the foyer, he encountered Fat and George, carrying a vase of water downstairs.

"Brittany." George said, subconsciously licking his lips.

"She's finally asking for stuff." Fat added.

"Who- Ah, yes. The prisoner. Yeah, no, it makes sense that thirst would be first. Go ahead." He let them past. They had a different woman on the premises. Her position was a lot different to Barbara's.

-

When Scratch came up through the hatch the goblins were surrounding the newborns once again.

Even in the half day since their birth, they had grown noticably.

Scratch just took a glimpse at the toddlers playing on and over Barbara's lap, over Second's shoulder, and intended to keep moving, but Fat stopped him.

"One of them was inside this morning."

"One of who? The loincloths?"

Fat nodded affirmingly. "Sniffed out Mom."

"Argh!" Unintentionally, Scratch's groan of frustration turned into a yell. "I knew this was a bad idea, did anybody get hurt?"

"B-but Bread and the others stopped him and punished him." Fat quickly continued. "So in the end, there wasn't a pr-"

Scratch put his hand over Fat's face as he passed him. "Don't. They're not your friends."

As he left the cave, Fat and Second exchanged a meaningful gaze and quickly followed.

-

The river goblins were hanging around the tower, some lying on the ground and enjoying the sun, others chasing each other around the structure.

Bread abruptly stood up when he saw Scratch approaching and ran up to him.

"Where is he?" Scratch wanted to know.

Bread tried to maintain his composure. "Loud no longer friend, we stop-"

"But where is he now, what are you doing with him?

Bread gestured in a direction and took Scratch to where they had taken their transgressor.

Fat and Second had caught up to him and followed them both.

-

The impulsive 'Loud' had been dragged towards the latrine trench, which was teeming with slimes.

There, two goblins were pummeling him to death with wooden clubs. Presumably so they wouldn't have to drag his body very far afterwards.

Seeing this Scratch increased pace and yelled out to them. "Stop. What in the world do you think you're doing?" His tone was that of an angry parent, admonishing children for drawing on the wall.

The two pintsized excutioners stopped what they were doing and looked at each other doubtfully.

"Who put you up to this?" Scratch asked, in a more normal tone, once he stood next to them.

"Strong say-"

"Strong, is that your leader, Strong?"

"Yesh."

Second glanced at Bread, he had assumed the goblin that had come to plead with them had been the leader of the group, but diplomacy was a delegated task in this tribe, apparently.

"Strong say, no make magic goblin mad."

"Magic goblin?" Scratch continued his inquiry. "Who's magic goblin?"

The goblin pointed an unsure finger towards him.

"Me, I'm magic?"

"Yesh."

"Well what really makes me angry is unnecessary deaths in my backyard, pick him up."

Those present all looked at the mangled criminal twiching on the ground, several broken bones and bruises.

"We can heal him, pick him up."

-

Eventually, Loud was lathered in Cyclophan's false flesh, coming out far from pretty.

Scratch used the opportunity to climb up to the tower and address the refugees.

"Yo, listen up dunderheads! This isn't your new home."

His strong words got the attention of the population and they stopped what they were doing to turn their heads towards him.

"Everything inside these barriers belongs to me." He gestured towards the perimeter. "We let you sleep here, but we don't let you live here."

There was a silence.

"Do you understand what I'm saying? There's no river goblin embassy here, you don't get to have your own rule of law. Nobody gets executed unless I say so. So I brought your boy Loud back."

He gestured towards the healed goblin, he looked like he was mummified in bands of skin, covering up the wounds on his chest and arms. The others took their distance from him.

"He knows not to do it again, don't you Loud?"

Contrary to his name, Loud didn't speak. Instead he slowly nodded. His lip was trembling.

"And that's good enough for me. Anybody got a problem with that? Good." He didn't really wait for anybody to properly speak up. "Nobody gets near the cave, except for whoever here is called Strong, Strong I want to speak with you."

"What's a rule of law?" Fat asked when Scratch climbed down.

"That's a great question for another time." He answered, scanning the crowd for the visitor's leader to turn up.

【Rudy, where are you going?】Xandra asks me.

【I just... have a feeling that this is where he's made his new base.】I try to explain.

How can I explain that I know where the dungeon of bloodshed is because I played this as a game in a previous life? I can't.

【Well, I don't like it,】David says,【ever since we've entered this part of the forest, I haven't heard a single bird or insect. It's completely dead.】

I vaguely recall some dialogue the first time the hero in the game approaches a dungeon, I think they talk about all animals fleeing from the area. There is also a musical effect when the player comes near one, the happy overworld music stops and is replaced by a creepy silent rustling.

I eagerly increase my pace, we're definitely close!

Then the ground falls away beneath my feet.

【Rudy!】

The pain is immense, I cut open my legs as I fall into a spiked pitfall. My feet sink into something liquid and I realize it's slime.

【Agh! No!】I grab the ledge and Theresa and David quickly pull me out.

-

【That's most of my mana.】Angela says, after she's done healing my leg.

【This is great!】Xandra claps her hands.

【Me getting hurt is great?】

【No, not that, don't you see? This means you were right?】

【Huh?】Theresa cocks her head.【What do you mean?】

【Goblins can't make traps like these. Unleeesss, they're controlled by a dark lord!】

【So we're heading in the right direction then.】

【Are you sure we're prepared?】David bites his lip.

【We just gotta use our specialties, that's how adventurers do it.】Xandra explains.【Dave, you're a ranger, so you scout a safe path for us, without traps】

David nods solemnly.

【Theresa and I will defend against goblin ambushes, and Angela can heal us.】

【But not too much.】Angela sighs.【Please do not get hurt as much as this in one go anymore, okay?】

【And Rudy...】Xandra looks at me.【... you can, uh, help carry the orc's teeth once we get back.】

Like the ear of a goblin, the teeth of an orc serve as proof of having killed it.

【Alright, Xandra, we'll follow you.】

Just hearing that makes her jump up and down excitedly.

Rogue Class

Rogues are sneaky backstabbers and lock picks, it's a role most suited for fighting intelligent monsters that hide in fortresses or dungeons.

Adventurers registered as rogues have access to rogue equipment and subterfuge lessons at the guild.

Many rogues are former thieves' guild members, becoming an adventurer requires one to give up other affiliations however.

Many legendary parties throughout history had a rogue member, aiding them with the infiltration into enemy territory.