Ancient Ruins - Ashmir Countryside - Present

The dark stone hallways of the ancient ruins gave a cold and ominous welcome to any who dared delve into its shadowy depths. Adventurers from the nearby town of Sherfield often flocked to these infamous ruins as a way to prove their strength and search for valuable artifacts held within the sprawling subterranean structure.

Despite hosting dozens of expeditions over the years, its enigmatic depths continue to offer up countless new routes and trials for unsuspecting explorers. The structure’s origin has been shrouded in mystery, and its original architects are as of yet...unknown.

The only noise that could be heard throughout the echoing halls of a particular corridor within the ruins could be attributed to a half-demon adventurer’s black leather boots as they slid across the smooth stone floor.

The young woman’s worn down black and crimson leather armor bore the scars of dozens of expeditions etched into its rough exterior. A thin layer of dark steel woven atop the sturdy leather base added protection for her upper thorax, shoulders, forearms, and thighs. The light yet durable armor offered a decent balance of protection and maneuverability.

Her sharp violet eyes held a serpentine poise, and when paired with her short black horns, often drew the gaze of passing adventurers. Most of her long black locks were tied into a loose ponytail that swooshed side to side as she moved through the large corridor. The dim glow of the small travel lantern fastened to her hip reflected off of the silver charm dangling from her neck.

Silver longsword in hand, she stalked down the long hallway, eyes rapidly scanning the faintly lit environment for threats and opportunities. Her ears perked up as she began to faintly hear sounds coming from deeper within the darkness. She approached cautiously and slid beside an archway leading into a portion of the labyrinth she had yet to explore, a faint light and soft voice drawing her attention.

She could hear someone mumbling in an unfamiliar accent before she peered around the archway to see for herself. The large stone room was filled with dusty bookshelves, and cobwebs dotted its high ceiling. There appeared to be a small green creature wearing a brown robe holding a large book next to a ramshackle campfire.

“What the...is that goblin talking?” She pondered before turning the corner and slowly approaching the pint-sized creature.

While goblins were rather harmless creatures, by and large, they had managed to garner a rather unsavory reputation for indulging their greedy tendencies through theft and other petty crimes when around human settlements. While the small creatures possessed many skills, speaking the common tongue of the land...was not one of them.

“Hello?” She called out hesitantly, sword lowered by her side.

The tiny creature seemed startled by the new arrival, but quickly gathered itself. “Hello! My name is Gobly!” The creature beamed.

“By the gods he really does talk...well that’s interesting…”

“Gobly, huh...why are you down here alone? Don't goblins usually travel in groups?” she asked, peering wearily at the yellowed-eyed creature.

“Gobly got abandoned by the other goblins...so now Gobly just sits and reads books all day” He nodded solemnly.

“What do you even eat all the way down here?” She asked curiously.

“Gobly eats lost adventurers” The small creature answered coldly as its soft features darkened. His crackling campfire throwing his shadow onto the wall behind him.

A single bead of sweat trickled down her face as she tensed, the possibilities beginning to run through her mind. “I could easily slay a dozen goblins, but is this one different? Some unique mutation...advanced breed...a phantom?”

The goblin only managed to hold that expression for a few moments before it exploded into laughter. “Your face...ahahahahaha.”

The grip on her sword loosened as she breathed a sigh of relief. “Gods do I hate these little bastards sometimes.”

“Yeah yeah, laugh it up greenskin” She lamented as she lowered her sword. “So what do you eat?”

“Bread mostly...Gobly is a master chef!” He smiled gleefully before walking a few feet to his left and lifting a sheet that concealed a large basket half-filled with the most crudely baked bread she had ever laid eyes upon.

“It's super tasty! Want some?” He asked excitedly.

“Bread? That’s an incredibly generous description,” She thought to herself as she eyed the barely baked clumps of dough.

“Oh, no thank you...I ahhhh, just ate.” She lied. “In any case, I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Stella Sinclaire. I’m a silver ranked member of the Ashmir Adventurers Guild.” She declared proudly.

“I’m Gobly...the, umm, smartest Goblin in all of Devos!” He returned in a dramatic reveal as his arms spread wide in a grand gesture.

“Is that so” She commented, eyes narrowed.

“Who could say” He shrugged, tossing a clump of “bread” into his mouth before chewing enthusiastically.

“I apologize for not introducing myself sooner...it's just...well...you know...the whole talking goblin thing…” She confessed.

“Gobly understands,” He chuckled before gulping down another piece of “bread.”

“It was nice to meet you Gobly, I should be on my way though. Want to do a bit more exploring before returning to the surface,” Stella commented before withdrawing a folded hide map from a pouch on her waist and marking a small symbol for the large library room she had found. “I’ll stop by here another time to search these shelves for anything of value.”

She turned towards the room’s exit as she heard the campfire get doused and faint footsteps hobble up behind her.

“The truth is...well...Gobly has been trapped here for a while. Gobly didn’t know how dangerous it was until he started hearing the voices.” He confessed.

“It’s the dead you’ll have to worry about in this place,” Stella breathed as she ran her left hand along the silver blade of her longsword.

“Th-The Dead?” Gobly choked out, fear seeping into his voice. “You think I could tag along with you?”

“No chance small stack, only got room for one in this party.” She teased as she poked her head out and checked both sides of the dark corridor.

“Gobly is so dead...ohhhh such a very dead goblin” He muttered to himself as he paced back and forth, hands on his head in contemplation.

“Even seasoned teams of adventurers struggle this far into the labyrinth, he’ll never make it out alone. There's not much to gain here but...what good am I if I can’t even save one stranded goblin” She contemplated as she turned back to face the creature. “Alright fine, but stay close, and do exactly what I say.”

“Oh wow! You sure are nice for someone that looks so...well...evil!” Gobly remarked happily as he quickly scooped up a small pack and threw it on his back.

“Hey!” Stella gasped, mock hurt in her voice.

“The dark armor, the horns, the eyes...Gobly was pretty sure you were like…suuuuper evil” He confessed as he joined her side.

“Okay yeah, you know what, that’s fair,” She sighed, throwing a defeated glance sideways before exiting the room and looking to her right into the darkness of the unexplored corridor, the thrill of the unknown beckoning her further into the underground maze.

“Silver ranked huh...that’s like, super tough right?” The goblin asked as the pair made their way into the left side of the corridor. Dust and cobwebs were the only things adorning the walls of the dark stone hallway before them.

“Oh yeah, you have nothing to worry about. Unless of course...we run into the specter of midnight, soul wraiths, hags, the abomination, blood cultists, or lesser demons. But don’t worry, most of those damnable creatures prefer to hang out on the lower floors.” Stella stated as her razor-sharp eyes scanned the dimly lit environment in front of them.

“Oh...well that’s nice to hear” Gobly whispered shakily, his hands holding the straps to his small backpack tightly. “This shou-” Gobly began before suddenly noticing a small object whistling towards him at high speed before it froze inches from striking his head.

“Why are people shooting arrows at Gobly!” He panicked as he scrambled behind his savior.

“They’re targeting the lantern light. Hug the left wall and stay low,” Stella ordered calmly as she eyed the ancient arrow resting in her palm before snapping it in half with a loud crunch.

“Arrow looks too old to be shot by anything but a skelly” She surmised before another came flying from the darkness and she easily deflected it with a flash of her sword. “They only have one archer. There shouldn't be more than a handful of them”

She dropped into an offensive stance, sword raised beside her. “Skeletons ahead, I’m going to push them, watch our back,” She called out before slowly advancing forward, keeping her eyes and sword trained ahead.

“R-roger that!” Gobly stumbled out as he slid against the left wall while keeping an eye behind them.

The first thing the pair heard was the clattering of bone against the stone floor as they moved forward. The shambling remains of three former adventurers emerged from the darkness as Stella sidestepped another arrow. One wielded a sword, one a sword and shield, and the last a bow. The skeletons were set up in a loose triangle formation with the two melee weapon wielding skeletons attempting to guard what would have once been a ranger in its time among the living. They wore nothing but loose bits of shredded armor and rags now, and their ominous visage was only amplified by the unnatural movement of their reanimated limbs.

At around three meters distance Stella froze and waited patiently for the skeleton archer to loose its arrow before quickly deflecting it with her blade. As the rusty arrow ricocheted harmlessly, she exhaled before immediately closing the distance to the pair of skeletons and thrust her sword through the skull of the sword-wielding one before it could react.

“Ahhhh Stella?” Gobly whispered loudly before noticing that she was fully enveloped in the heat of combat.

With their formation shattered she withdrew the long silver blade before spinning and slashing through the archer’s neck, sending its skull tumbling to the ground with a dull clatter.

The last shielded skeleton shambled forward a few steps before Stella winded back and delivered a crushing kick to the shield, sending the skeleton reeling back into the stone wall before her sword came crashing down into its skull and the dark energy swirling in its eyes faded into nothingness.

“There's something coming!” Gobly tried to shout in a hushed voice.

She threw a glance over her shoulder as she withdrew her sword from the skeleton’s skull and noticed Gobly staring at what appeared to be a dimly glowing green fog slowly inching down the hallway towards them from where the skeletons had come from.

“Well that’s just dandy…”

“Get down,” She barked as she immediately dropped to the cold stone and froze, catching her breath. A few moments later she crawled up next to her companion and noticed his panicked expression. A biting chill washed through the hallway as they began to see their breath manifest as white plumes of fog.

“Gobly doesn't like this...not, one, bit,” He whispered shakily as the spectral cloud grew closer.

“Don’t move an inch...and whatever you do...don't breathe.” She commanded in a stern voice before she took in a large gasp of air and stilled completely.

Gobly swiftly followed suit, taking in a deep breath before freezing in place. The cloud slowly passed above them, thrumming with a sinister power as its grim aura enveloped them. He could make out dozens of floating spirits swirling in the tangled mass of souls before he tore his gaze away and tightly squeezed his eyes shut.

Gobly suddenly felt a thin skeletal hand gently brush against the top of his head, which elicited a small gasp before he felt the abnormal sensations suddenly fade away and he began to open his eyes. He was greeted by an empty hallway and a hand being offered by a standing Stella. The goblin grasped the extended hand and was hoisted to his feet off of the cold stone floor.

“Well that wasn't so bad, huh?” Gobly smiled brightly as Stella placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

“All that's left now is the blood sacrifice” She muttered coldly as she eyed the small creature.

“Yeah all that's left is the...wait wha-” Gobly stuttered before he watched Stella’s silver blade thrust into his chest. He looked down to a small pool of red soaking through his robe as he felt a sharp pain begin to wash over him.

He looked back up to see that her head had was replaced by the skull of a skeleton and began to cry out in a mixture of shock and fear. Before he was completely lost to the spectral horror, he felt a warm hand slip into his and squeezed it tightly. He clung to the feeling, and it seemed to reel him back to reality as he regained his senses in the real world.

The next thing he registered was him waking up on the smooth stone floor with an outstretched hand tightly grasped by Stella. He glanced back to see the cloud had just past them and continued down the hallway as the pair remained sprawled across the floor, gasping for air.

“You alright?” Stella asked as she collected her blade and pulled herself to her feet.

Gobly nodded and rose to meet her. “You're not gonna sacrifice Gobly...right?” He pleaded

“Sacrifice Gobly! What, no, of course not. Like I said, while you're by my side you have nothing to worry about.” She reassured him. “It would probably just piss them off anyway. Even these eldritch horrors have standards.”

Gobly wiped a few tears from his eyes before hobbling over and warping his arms around her waist in a tight hug. “Thank you for bringing me back.”

“No sweat small stuff. We can’t have the smartest goblin in Devos losing his mind in a place like this after all, now can we.” She confessed as she gave him a quick wink before turning back towards the hallway.

“What was that thing?” Gobly asked as they continued traveling through the dim corridor.

“Vengeful souls...I’m afraid more than a few adventurers have lost their lives to these cursed ruins. Some weren't ready to move on, and some...well they never got a choice,” She answered solemnly before throwing a glance back to see that the trailing goblin still appeared to be a bit shaken up by his encounter with the spirits.

“Relax...like I said, you got nothing to fear with me around,” Stella comforted her goblin companion. “I’m silver ranked, remember,” She boasted as she flashed him a smug grin, her violet eyes swirling with determination.

“That’s right!” he beamed happily.

“Now get over here and lend me a hand you little rascal. These unfortunate bastards aren’t going to loot themselves.” She smiled back before scooping up the loose loot left from the bony remains.