It was the week after the raids started. Zalrodal was dressed regally to welcome his new subjects into the fold. He looked less like some warlord living with goblins and more like a general dressed in black. Migaal had made sure his outfit was fitting to convey his station and at this point, Zalrodal could do nothing but trust that his demon companion knew what he was doing. As he was walking through the main hall of the castle he remembered what some of the Stenjin had brought to his attention when he returned from the attack. They had travelled deeper into the dungeon and found old reports about the dungeon and the castle above it. The text claimed that this was the resting place of some old king and had been named Lord’s Rest in his honour. It was time for the new lord to wake up and speak to what where nearly a hundred humans. If it weren’t for the new arrivals of goblins searching for riches, he would have been scared of being outnumbered by his own prisoners. Zalrodal gave a quick signal with his hand and the goblins before him got to work. Heavy oak gates were opened amid the groaning sounds of goblins, Zalrodal bathed in the coming sunlight and emerged atop the steps leading into the courtyard. The goblins had gathered all the humans in the courtyard so that Zalrodal could speak to them all at once. He looked at them a sea of mostly angry and confused faces adorned by hats of every colour that could naturally be found. All of them were naturally unarmed but if they had tried to charge him in unison nothing would have stopped them apart from perhaps Blackrock standing at Zalrodal’s side in his imposing War-form.

Zalrodal stood at the edge of the steps and waited a moment for the gathered crowd to properly pay attention to him. He cleared his throat, “Greetings! Greetings!” he began, “I welcome you all to my kingdom in the mountains and to my castle.” Zalrodal swept his hand around in a semicircle his hand stretched out against the fortress’ walls. “Before we start, I am happy to inform you that contrary to what most of you probably believe I have not brought you here as slaves, but rather as citizens, citizens that can help me make this a great place to live in,” Zalrodal spoke on remembering the script Migaal had given him, “You all possess skills of great interest to me and my people, be it in construction or farming, smithing or weaving, your skills are welcome. I have asked the goblins of the Bark Tribes to construct some rudimentary housing for you outside the walls, you are free to expand on it and we have prepared the necessary equipment for you to do so,” Zalrodal wondered if it was wise to let them run wild outside of the walls but it was important to earn their trust somewhat. “Before we continue onto matters of business and organisation I am sure that you are hungry,” Zalrodal gave a signal to the goblins and Stenjin standing at attention, a large number of cauldrons filled with broth were brought forward and placed before the gathered humans, whatever counted as a bowl amongst goblins was also handed out to each person. Zalrodal himself took a step back and sat at a table the Stenjin had brought out for him and ate some of the food that Migaal had magically summoned, a platter of meat large enough to make the goblins around him breath heavily at the thought of digging their teeth into the meal. “You may eat now, if there is anything that can be done to make your stay more comfortable do speak to Guglak here, he will sure to help you with whatever needs you might have. The goblin looked at his lord and then the crowd, “Yez, yez, I helpz youz, want more soupz, we get more soupz, yez.” “As eloquent as ever, Guglak,” Zalrodal said loud enough to get a couple of quiet chuckles out of the gathered, “Whoever wishes to speak to me while we eat is free to come here and ask whatever it is you wish to ask,” with that Zalrodal turned his attention to his plate and waited for the first human to dare walk up the steps.

Zalrodal was deep in conversation with the ferret sitting at the other end of the table. He was slowly getting used to seeing a ferret holding cutlery and eating what would usually fall under the category of normal food. “Next we should try to go after a more protected settlement, test out how strong our forces actually are. If you want to get anywhere you have to set your sights further than the local villages. How about the Rain-Fort?” Migaal asked.

“That’s the fortress at the bend of the river, we’ll need to find a way to scale the walls, without loosing all the goblins as they climb…”

“Ahem,” a low voice could be heard from the steps. Zalrodal turned his head, there was a young man, no older than twenty-five holding a yellow hat to his chest. At the foot of the steps, a group of villagers glanced up expectantly. They had probably pushed the man up being too scared to climb the steps themselves.

“Greetings, what is your name?” Zalrodal asked.

“My name is William, my lord,” William said his voice trembling, “What will happen to us now?”

“Happen?” Zalrodal asked and turned in his chair, “nothing in particular will ‘happen’ to you, I expect you and your friends,” he pointed at the villagers looking at William, “I expect you to work for me is all, build a farm, make some coats, weapons, raise some cattle. Villager stuff I suppose, you should thank Migaal here for giving you such favourable conditions as well, as you won’t be taxed for the first three years of setting up, well apart from being expected to share some of the food you produce and teaching the goblins how to do what you do. Don’t be afraid if they don’t understand what you are teaching them, I don’t expect them to.”

“Some of us are wondering what will happen to our families, not everyone was, ahem, invited here,” William said.

“Of course, of course, you may invite them over, in fact, we were going to search for whoever wasn’t ‘invited’ anyway if you and your fellow villagers worked appropriately. We have great hopes for our future cooperation. Isn’t that right, Migaal,” the ferret sitting at the other table nodded and made some noise as it continued eating its meal.

William the villager returned to his people to tell them of the news and they quickly came to a decision. If what the aspiring Dark Lord said was true then they would be happy to join. Free material for housing, a nice forest and castle nearby, their own farms and no taxes for the first couple of years. No taxes were something any villager was happy to hear about. Over the next couple of hours, various villagers experts in their respective fields spoke to Zalrodal about their plans and ideas. There was a lot of work to be done in the coming months, it would have to be accomplished quickly before the Kingdom of Arberon realised villages are joining their future enemy.

A number of villagers spoke to Zalrodal before the day was over, speaking about their different trades and asking for support in building these up. William was the spokesperson for the farmers and was the first to speak to Zalrodal. He and the other farms wanted help in getting their tools from their villages and bring the cattle to the fortress. Of course, Zalrodal was aware that many of them would run away while they were there but those that stayed would at least be sure not to run off in the future unless things changed around here. Migaal had mentioned this beforehand and they agreed that they would allow those who wanted to leave and let the goblins who happened to witness it make their own decisions on what was appropriate.

The next person to ask for help was the local smith, Gedrick, the smith was one of the most important people to join them, although not a weapon-smith, he could certainly learn but apart from that nails, and tools were necessary to expanding Zalrodal’s territory in a way that didn’t just give empty plots of land. He asked for help in getting the main pieces of his smithy and stones for the construction for the new one. Zalrodal pointed him towards a group of Stenjin who would be more than capable in carrying anything he needed. More people came to him asking for help with tools and building their houses and the Stenjin were sent out to support them in their endeavours. For the rest of the day, Zalrodal had to send Guglak and some of the other tribe leaders to calm down the goblins before they got too excited about all the humans around and started getting ideas that would not be in the benefit of this new alliance, mainly murder.