Chewing on a piece of the glob he was laying on, he dutifully rested his body, occasionally drinking some water. He filled his stomach with the foul-tasting matter, to stop it from cramping so badly from hunger. Despite his eating a lot of the greasy substance, his status still reported that he was [Starving], which indicated that the nourishment potential of this matter was nonexistent. Normally fat was great at sating hunger and providing energy, but this fat had lost all its nourishment potential, at least for a being as large as him. The small rats might be able to eke out enough to survive off it, but all it served him for was filling up his stomach.

He studied the ceiling again with his good eye and counted the bricks again. He had found that it was an excellent way to pass time, and helped him to practice his focus. He first counted all the stones, then only the stones with slightly luminescent moss on them, then the stones with cracks on them, and whittled away at the time, all the whilst chewing boredly on a piece of rancid fat.

He slipped out of consciousness again from exhaustion, like often had happened, his counting efforts exhausting his mind and body, and the world turned black on him. When he woke up, he checked his status again, in the hope that his annoying [Debilitated] effect had finally vanished.

Crag

[Level 5] [Goblin] [Zealot]

[HP 17/240]

[MP 8/8]

[ST 3/28]

+[CH 10/15]

Stats:

[Vigour 10]

[Intelligence 6]

[Wisdom 7]

[Dexterity 7]

Traits:

[darkvision] [unrelenting]

Skills:

[spot] [pick] [minor carry] [minor identify] [track critter] [burning passion] [inspire]

Quests

Rituals

[Ritual of reactivation]

[Ritual 4 out of 4 started: Exercising judgment]

[One day Sixteen hours remaining]

[Exercising judgment]

[Choose one of these options in the location of your choice]

[ - Puzzle]

[ - Nightmare]

[ - Vengeance]

[ - Death]

[ - Adventure]

[ - Eldritch]

[ - Mushroom]

[ - Slime]

[ - Carnivore]

[ - Trap]

Effects

[Starving] [Wounded - grievous]

With a sigh of relief, he noticed that it had finally gone, and his stamina had ticked up a few points! He also felt slightly better, although he did still hurt all over, he felt a little bit more energetic and had a drive to finally move on from just lying here being bored. He had things to do, a tribe to feed! Honor to gain from the treasures he had found! But first, he had to heal and to heal he needed more time and food so his body had something to work with. And starving to death would not be preferable either.

With an effort he rolled on his side, keeping his body off the fat as good as he could whilst it was slowly sinking into it and pushed off with his legs. His long unused muscles protesting against the movement, the wounds on his legs painfully rubbing against the fat and each other. Grunting in pain he made his way towards the walkway, bit for bit inching closer to the solid ground, but keeping near the water.

When his stamina had dropped back down to one he decided to take a rest and to consider things. He had lost his iron rod somewhere. He hadn’t been able to spot it anywhere on the walkways where he could see it. He hoped it was around the corner where he had lost it. Otherwise, he would have to scour the waters here to try to find it. Or whatever had made the wound in his chest had stolen his rod! Just the thought of someone having stolen his rod made him angry.

His anger didn’t last long though, as he lay there on his back, his boredom quenching his anger, waiting for his stamina to tick up. Occasionally he drank a few drops of water or grabbed a new piece of fat to chew on. He studied how far he had come on this fat mound, and looked at the groove he had dug in it with his body. He estimated he had come halfway to the walkway, maybe a bit less. If he would wait until he had three or four stamina he would be able to make it in one go. He decided he would recover stamina faster if he would take a quick nap, he felt tired enough for one at least. For the first time in days, he let the slumber and darkness come over him voluntarily.

--------

Gasping for breath, heart beating rapidly in his chest, he crawled forward on the stone bricks of the walkway. Using the grease that covered his body now to smoothen his way over the coarse bricks. Exhausted he collapsed, breathing hard. In his mind, he cursed his fate that he was so weak that he couldn’t even stand up. He couldn’t even lift himself. Forced to crawl around like a bloody rat. He was a goblin! He was supposed to stand on his legs and dominate the lesser beings, not crawl among them!

Breathing angrily he looked around to see if there was anything he could eat, anything at all that would help him. Finding nothing, his anger grew larger. There had to be something here! He had killed all those rats, they couldn’t all have flushed away, could they?

Rolling on his back he stared at the spiders and small bugs that crawled over the ceiling, and he could feel saliva building up in his mouth. If only he could stand up, then he could forage a meager meal from the critters up there. But they all stayed away from him, high and safe from the dangers down below.

With a grumbling stomach, he looked around in frustration. He was near the bend in the sewer. Maybe he would find something there. Waiting for a bit for his stamina to slowly tick up, he dearly missed the pieces of grime he had chewed on to sate the pain of hunger he had suffered, and his stomach was sending out painful pangs to protest being empty.

Feeling fed up with waiting, he rolled back on his side and dragged himself further to around the corner of the sewer with grunts and groans. What he saw there made his heart beat faster and elation filled his mind. There on the walkway was the rat he had captured before, dead and in the early stages of decomposition. His mouth filled with saliva at the sight of that beautiful morsel of food.

Eyes fixated on his prize, he dragged his painful body as fast as he could to the rat, who had luckily not made it far beyond the bend. Out of breath he dropped down near the rat and stared at the beautiful morsel whilst he recovered his breath. After a few moments, he rolled himself on his back with a groan. Urged on by his hungering stomach, he grabbed the rat, and did not take time to look at it, but bit in the soft belly, taking a large chunk out of the rat.

Chewing the slightly rancid meat sparingly, he swallowed it as quickly as he could. A feeling of contentment washed over him as he finished the rat in a few bit bites, his stomach finally thankful for some proper food. Licking his claws clean he felt the warmth of digestion spread through him. His stamina was dreadfully low, so he allowed his consciousness to crawl under the warm blanket of sleep so his body could digest his small meal.

--------

Waking up he felt re-energized. Checking his status he saw to his relief that he was no longer [Starving] but merely [Hungry]. He hadn’t been [Hungry] before because the food supply of his tribe had always been sufficient to keep everyone fed. He inspected the description of [Hungry] to learn of its disadvantageous effects.

[Hungry]

The lack of food has caused you to become sluggish and lethargic. Your body’s self-healing properties and stamina recovery are severely hampered through your lack of nourishment.

He did not know what hampered meant, but he guessed it meant something around the gist of it not working as well as it should work. He checked his health and saw it had ticked up to 25 points, which were five points more than he had ever had! His stamina had recovered to five points. A wealth considering how anemic his pools had been the past few days. He felt his body up and down as good as he could and noticed that his wounds didn’t hurt as much as before, the wounds finally closing up a bit and turning less sensitive. He could finally touch the ground or things without burning pain running through him.

He crawled towards the wall and rolled on his back, then slowly worked his back up the wall until he was sitting. Breathing a sigh of relief he enjoyed the feeling of sitting instead of laying on his back or side. Taking in the sight of this part of the sewer from his higher position. Sadly noticing that his beautifully constructed wall was partially destroyed where the walkway was. Whatever had put that hole in his chest must have broken through that. Looking over the wall his eyes lit up as he noticed several rat corpses stuck in the wall at different heights, where the floodwaters must have deposited them. They were severely rotten, but probably still edible. He had eaten dead rats that had been further gone. As long as they hadn’t turned into a slimy foul-tasting mess, he could get something from them.

With joy blossoming in his heart he threw himself sideways and started to drag himself as fast as he could towards the remnants of his wall which was hung with delicious food. Drool escaped from his mouth as he crawled, eyes fixed on the wall.

When he finally arrived at the wall, he saw faint specs of light flying through his vision and he felt as if the sewer was turning upside down. He closed his eye, but then quickly opened it again, as the feeling was worse with closed eyes. He rolled on his back and tried to fix his gaze on a specific brick above him, trying to convince himself that he was lying flat, and the world wasn’t swimming around him.

When nausea had receded a bit, he dared to slowly move his gaze towards the dead rats stuck on his wall. They were all out of reach of him from his prone position on the walkway. If he could stand it would be relatively easy pickings, but in his weakened state, it was impossible.

He mulled the problem over, how to get to the food that was so close but just out of reach. Looking around him for something that might help, for example, his iron rod, which he sadly hadn’t encountered, his eyes fell on the broken pieces of trash that once were his wall, which were floating in the water near him.

He was lying the wrong way around to the water though, his useless left arm facing the water. He turned around laboriously and then started pushing the water down with his good hand and then pulling it towards himself, hoping to coax the wood to float towards him in his reach. After a few times the wood started moving towards him slowly, and many scoops of water more, his hand grasped around the board of wood and lifted it over his body out of the water.

Taking some time to recover his breath, he considered how he would use the board to get a rat from the wall. He had only one arm to use, and the board was quite long and heavy. Playing with the board, flipping it on his stomach, an idea started to form.

He moved as near to the wall as he could, with his legs sticking past the wall. He then put his useless arm over the board with his right arm, to hold it into place, and pulled the board further over the water with his right hand, until he noticed his left arm was being lifted and the tip of the board tipping down.

Then he pushed from under the board, the tip moving upwards towards a piece that was jutting out of the wall. He almost missed it but with a desperate extra push, he managed to lodge it on top of the extrusion. Taking another breather from the exertion, he studied the situation. He was only a hand width away from a rat hanging there, tantalizingly out of reach.

He used his right hand to keep the board pushed against the wall and laying on top of the extrusion. Rolling his hip up a bit, nudging the board to move along further. Bit by bit the board inched closer until it was finally under the rat corpse.

He then pushed the board up, nudging the corpse. After a few nudges the corpse loosened and as his luck would have it for a change, rolled down the board towards him, stopping halfway through instead of falling in the water.

He then carefully pulled down the board over the extrusion, bringing the rat closer and closer, until he could flip it on his chest, the board falling into the water with a loud splash. He quickly grabbed it and pulled a bit on the walkway so it couldn't float away.

He turned the bloated rat around and used his claw to open the soft belly of the critter. He then scooped the almost liquified and foul-smelling remains out of the rat. He then dunked the gutted corpse in the water and moved it around vigorously, so all the inedible stuff would be flushed out.

Having his meal ready, he chewed down on it and worked it away, ignoring the tangy taste. Worse fare than this had been his share as a minor goblin in his tribe, who couldn’t contribute much to the wealth of the tribe. You learned to just eat and not pay attention to the taste.

He managed to get three more rats with the help of the board and a few failed attempts, before he was utterly exhausted, but with a full stomach, and blacked out for a bit in a satisfied haze.