It takes me all my willpower to not fall out of the hover-car as I am hit by the barrage of boxes. I can't help but growl in annoyance at the myriad of system notifications that I have to process. Thankfully, I had not been damaged during the battle with the cyberbeasts, or I would have had to sort through tedious messages about "damage" and "conditions". Tribnak the Goblin looks over at me from his seat and I wave it off, "the tedious machine is being annoying." He nods and turns his attention back to making sure our journey through the jungle goes smoothly.

As much as the notifications annoyed me, the notifications are drowned out by the euphoric sensation of power that accompanies them. I feel my mind and body feeling sharper and better than they have felt in quite some time, but that sensation in turn is drowned out by the feeling of my mana capacity being doubled. Pure eldritch power flows through my veins and I feel my dreamborn beast howl in Joy as the energy rushes through my brain and my soul.

Finally, my pidly mana capacity has started to return to the semblance of acceptability. That the Interface decided to allocate my principle and patron spell without consulting me, however, manages to sour my mood for but a moment. I would probably have picked something a bit more versatile than Hardening as my next principle, a defensive focus have merits but one should be more established first. In the end I wave these feelings aside as there are more important things to think about.

I have won. My status as a Warlock has been secured and my time playing with the crew can finally come to an end. I won't have to mask my nature before them anymore, my status as a Warlock is solidified. That means as long as I maintain my membership in the crew and keep up my sacrifices to Mara, then there is nothing in this pitiful world that can threaten me anymore. Now all I have to do is bide my time, reclaim the magic that I have lost and then usurp Mara's power. Those powers are rightfully mine and I will become the god I was destined to be.

When I have time to myself I will spend my new Accomplishment Points wisely, those should help me shore up my mystical shortcomings. I grin at the thought of me destroying and hampering my future enemies with the magic at my command. Tribnak finally speaks up as I have been lost to the reverie for several minutes, "We are here. Now, you better show the brass some respect." He makes a sliding notion along his throat, and I note with amusement that it must have been centuries since a lowly Goblin dared as much as speak to me without permission, let alone actually threaten me.

The vehicle drives into what looks to be a solid wall of trees, but they turn out to be illusory. I marvel for a moment at the sophistication of the illusion, but the rest of the camp meet my expectations of a goblin encampment beyond that. In front of what looks to be another stone temple, several patchwork tents and shacks are standing in relatively neat lines. Green-skinned Goblins are moving around the camp in the large numbers that their kind usually grow into when left to their own devices. I note that half of the goblins are dressed in the grey jumpsuits that the ones working in the Shieldmaiden facillity dress in, while the others are dressed in various other garments that seem more at home in my old world.

The hover-car lands in an area of the camp that seems to be dedicated to housing various vehicles, everything from mechanical vehicles like the hover-car to carts and mounts. Tribnak jumps out of the vehicle and leads me through the camp towards one of the tents at the end of it, all the goblins in the street stare at me. I note to my satisfaction that it is not just my status as an outsider that draws their attention, but also my garb that clearly marks my status as a Warlock. At least it does so to me, and I hope that the old Goblin instinct to bow before their betters still remain in these. As they owe people like me every courtesy and every sacrifice. As it is their nature to not only let me step before them but also on them to get me where I need to be.

I am tempted to remove my mask and show them my features, maybe these lost lambs remember their superior cousins the Hobgoblins? If they don't it could potentially jolt that memory back into them, but I do not have time for such frivolous displays at the moment. My sartorial resplendence has to suffice for now, I am sure that given time I can bring these Goblins to heel.

That hope is quickly dashed as I enter the tent where I presume the commander is. The shabby patchwork tent hides a secret treasure trove of strange technological devices. A Goblin female stands before a large metallic table full of maps, documents, and strange devices laying spread out over it. Behind her several large machines stands and are blinking with various lights, my analyze skill informs me these are known as "server-cluster, cyberbeast control module, computational devices" and similar strange terms. I am still only a neophyte when it comes to knowledge of the machines of this world.

The Goblin woman has several scars decorating her face and a long read pony-tail. She is dressed in a combination of a jumpsuit and some kind of cloth pants, a perfect fushion of the disparate attires outside. Her crimson eyes meassure me coldly and she speaks, "Tribnak leave us. I will see you for your exaltation later tonight. I will speak with our guest here alone." The woman speaks with the authority and control of a field general, Tribnak immediately nods to her command and steps out.

For a long while the woman and I just stand there, looking at each other coldly. Two predatores sniffing each other out, neither of us want to speak first. Or so I mistakenly thought because after a few moments the Goblin speaks. "I don't have time for a pissing contest, I have a resistance to lead and getting into stupid alphaing bullshit will do neither of us any good. Let me strip you and your friends off any illusions here. Think party-transfer, so your party-members will be able to hear this conversation." I reluctantly does as she says as she goes silent to wait for me, I lift my hand to indicate it has been done.

"Good, since you all can hear me now. Let's get the introductions out of the way now, my name is Vles and I am the leader of this resistance. Y'all have been hired to help with our efforts to save this planet, however, that comes with a few caveats. You are not our saviors, nor the prophecized chosen ones that have come to lead the "uncivilized indigenous people" to overthrowing our oppressors. We have invited you and you are here to be of assistance, but nothing more."

I am glad that my mask hides my mouth because it is wide agape in surprise at the forcefulness of the Goblin. "The Mercenaries that Shieldmaiden hired are primarily so that they can slaughter us, the cyberbeasts are just an excuse for them to bring in outsiders to do it. Your job is to be our inside agents who can sabotage their efforts and dig up information at the top, as Shieldmaiden are restricting access for my other agents. You accepted the job and as such these are not requests but ultimatums, with all that being said I am glad to have you all on board. You can end the transmission now."

It takes me a bit of mental fiddling, but eventually I manage to find a way to end the process. Once again it is just me and Vles standing there alone in the room. "I will tell you a story and in turn I think it is reasonable that you tell me one in return." She indicates a set of chairs and we both move to sit, I on my end have problems with the miniscule chair that was clearly built for Goblins. We once more look at each other before she begins.

"Several years ago this planet lived in relative harmony, my kind was busy with our own struggles and lives. Then suddenly monsters out of our worst nightmares ascended out of the oceans and darkest caverns of our world. These monsters of flesh and metal destroyed countless settlements and had our bravest warriors running for their lives. All hope seemed to be lost and we prayed to our gods, sacrificed our young and old, called out into the void, and tried everything else. All to find some kind of salvation from the beasts. And something did answer us." Vles stops for a few seconds as she is seemingly lost in the narrative.

" A group of humans answer our desparate calls for help, not gods or angels but they might as well have been compared to us. Shieldmaiden arrived and they used their devices to save us from the brink. And the leaders of our various nations thought that these benevolent saviors were oh so generous, in return for their much needed aid we just needed to give them some land for a facility. Even that was a demand masked as an offer and we readily accepted it. Since then countless Goblins have moved to work for our venerated benefactors." Vles clenches her firsts so hard that her knuckles almost portrude through the green skin of her fists.

She takes a few deep breaths and focuses her gaze back on me, she bares her teeth in an ironic smile. "What none of us could have known is the real price we had to pay. The years passed and more and more of us were born, raised, and died in the factories of Shieldmaiden. Our culture stripped from us and we were transformed from a proud people into glorified slave labor. One of many species that the greed of the Shieldmaidens has subjugated. While more and more of my people grew up as slaves, the proud kingdoms outside of Shieldmaidens territory, became fallen shadows of themselves. Decadence growing among the ruling class that Shieldmaiden bribes with technology and exotic gifts from other worlds, the populous subjugated by their rules and pacified with drugs and missionaries." I can almost feel a palpable aura of power radiate from the little Goblin as her tone grows more strained and bitter with each passing word.

"AND THE ENTIRE THING WAS ORCHESTRATED!" She jumps out of the chair and steps towards me, while her entire body trembles with barely surpressed fury. Vles points a finger up at my masked face and it vibrates before me. "The beasts were planted by Shieldmaiden and carefully managed to do as little damage to the resources of the planet as possible, only our lives and civilization was to be harmed. When they were done and this planet became their, they left their beasts hidden underground and were content to suck us dry."

She then smiled at me and her arms goes back to hanging by her side. "But their efforts to keep it hidden failed. What they don't seem to know is this, when someone with an NVRI dies their nanites are programmed to leave the corpse and enter the nearest eligiable carrier...and failing that they enter the nearest living being capable of hosting them." Vles turns and steps back to her chair, at which point she jumps back up into it. "Shieldmaiden had wisely made sure to keep NVRs as far away from us as possible, the best way to ensure that we remain dumb, weak, and cut off from the rest of the galaxy. What they could not have known is that I managed to find a way around that little weakness."

Vles pulls out a jagged piece of sharp scrap metal that had been attached to an ornate bone handle. "When I stabbed my supervi- slave-master to death with this. His interface became my interface and through it I learned so much, the power it gave me was astounding. Especially when the interface updated itself to the Freedom Fighter edition." She grins at the memory and goes silent for a moment while examining the weapon.

I must admit that this Goblin would have been a fabulous storyteller in another life, oration is not a skill most would attach to her kind. The contents of the story did not overly surprise me, the only thing that really annoyed me with it was that such petty merchant princes could have such powers. Surely, such power should be reserved for more deserving beings than useless masters of currencies and sales. I am sure the rest of the crew would be more outraged but not any more surprised than I am.

"I am impressed Vles, let me summize the rest of your little tale. When you killed you first agent of Shieldmaiden, you then fled and used the interface to make yourself more powerful and knowledgeable then you could have dreamed of? This let you gather Goblins from the tattered remnants of your society and from among the oppressed workers that slave for the foreign invaders?" I ask as I want to move on from the tedium of the tale and over to the portion of the conversation that would be more relevant to me specifically.

Vles looks back up at me and frowns at my rather blunt response to her story. "Don't be a rude bitch please." She says giving me a sickenly saccharine smile before her face goes back to it's more default fierce expression. "After I managed to steal one of the command devices for the Cyberbeasts, it has been far more easy to do damage to the shieldmaiden interests on the planet. One of the perks is that I can see through the eyes of the beasts, and well I saw some very interesting things when I oversaw the group attacking your crew. My control is not perfect sadly, so that is why your Captain was harmed."

She then gives me another even more sweet smile before she continues. "But then that damage turned out to be rather trivial didn't it, I saw what you did...Glyphie. I saw how you summoned countless limbs from voids in reality, made one of my beasts cybernetics malfunction and strip the control of another away from me. All with a few hand gestures and shouted commands, and then I saw you manage to bring a purple goddess appear before you and heal your Captain."

My insides grow cold as the Goblin reveals just how much she knows, and questions and scenarioes starts flowing through my mind at breakneck speed. Could I kill her? Maybe, but in the process I would have hundreds of Goblins after me and I am sadly isolated here in the camp. Does it matter if she knows? Yes it does, control over knowledge should never be surrendered voluntarily. Could I dominate her mind somehow? Not with my present tools, with the elixir of slavery or collar of obedience maybe but beyond that I only have my piddly Lesser Dominate spell.

"Relax, what you can do will remain secret...unless you were to do something untoward toward me and mine." Vles adds and gives me a reassuring smile, I can feel my mind calming inspite of all logic and I feel my dreamborn beast stirr. Could she be affecting me with some kind of strange system skill? It hardly matters at present as my monster gives me partial protection from such things, but in the future I need to study exactly how much power these Interfaces can grant someone.

"The thing that interests me far more than your personal story and your mystical powers, which based on everything I have learned should be impossible by the way. Is the nuggets of knowledge about my own people that you mentioned, you claim that my species comes from this world that you are from. One in which if I am to understand it correctly are one of many species?" Vles continues her calm line of questioning as she carefully seems to pick each word while varily watching me.

This line of questioning, however, did more to calm me than the strange ability of the Goblin commander. After all a discussion about history could lead to a trade between us, trading with a Goblin invokes strange feelings of humour in me, but the novelty of the idea is worthwhile enough by itself. "Yes, Vles that is in fact true. Your species lives in plentiful numbers back where I come from, and the fact you live here is especially interesting to me as I do not know why or how you could have come here."

Vles in turn smiles at me and says. "Please remove that ridiculous mask, I want us to speak face to face now that I think we both understand each other. This knowledge interests me as well if I am to be honest, my agents will already tonight be dispatched to search through our oldest libraries and interrogate the wisest of Goblins in the various nations on the planet. Just so we can learn more about the old histories and see if there is not more to be learned about that."

She waves her hand dismissively in the air for a moment before she returns her attention to me, as I oblige her by removing my mask. Vles stares at my features for a few seconds until she continues to speak. "But, that is not what I wanted to ask you about. Your fellows from the Incredulous care deeply about socio-political issues, and based on all my research into them. They would be willing to lay down their lives to help me and mine regain our freedom, but you Glyphnax, you I sense do not share their enthusiasm. You don't disagree with their views, but let's be honest you do not give a single fuck about us. You do not care at all about the Goblin plight on this planet."

"You are right again Vles, I don't." I say coldly as I surpress my various thoughts and emotions on the matter. "This whole operation is only a means to an end for me. Maybe nostalgia for your kind and a distaste for the merchant princes motivate me slightly, but beyond that your kind does not matter to me." Vles nods after hearing my response and she seems evidently completely unsurprised by this. "There we have an understanding. I can work with a blatant opportunist just as much as with an idealist."

"We will work together to uncover the secrets of my people's past, and you will aid me in freeing this planet with your magic. In return your secrets will be kept and depending on how much you help me, I will agree to owe you a favor?" Vles presents as her opening suggestion, unfortunately or fortunately for the Goblin I am not interested in haggling like some petty money-changer or merchant. I rise up from my chair and walk over to the leader of the resistance, my hand outstretched and I say. "Well then little Goblin, I can work with those terms. Let's begin." She takes my hand and gives me an almost crushing handshake.

We spend the next hour discussing various plans for the upcoming days, I make sure to keep the details about my magic purposefully vague. At a starting basis we agree to give me a secluded area of the clearing to serve as my private magical laboratory, when I am more situated I will start working on means to aid this revolt. On her end Vles will use her agents and influence in Goblin society to dig up more knowledge for us about their mysterious arrival on the planet.

Yet another few hours later after having been given a private area, and I put up a more refined version of the magic that I used to contain the sound when killing the bigots, back on the space station. I feel a presence approaching me through the darkness of the jungle, a ravenous and angry one that seems as primordial as the night itself. Out of the shadows a cat springs into my newly marked territory, the very same fae that I had summoned. But something about it seemed strangely off, but before I can identify what the cat hisses at me. The hiss carrying with it something more ancient than the sound that a cat could make.

The image of the cat disappears leaving a hunched fealine beast with hands like an ape. This large creature comes with a primordial growl as it moves towards me. "Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuugar Plum," it says as the Faerie moves threateningly towards me. I stop in my tracks at the unexpected statement from the Faerie, "errr what did you just say?" The Faerie growls again and slams one of it's hands into the ground, it leaves a white residue on the dirt and I then notice something strange about it's fur.

"YOUR COMPANION NAMED ME SUGAR PLUM!" It howls in a combination of anguish and incomprihensible fury. I blink and whisper, "Tlokbur". She must have encountered the cat on the way out of the temple and attempted to adopt it, not knowing it was a Fae. An unnamed fae that was like a block of clay, just waiting to be sculpted and defined by another. The most defining trait an Eldritch creature could ever get is it's first name and this fae had now been thusly named. A name which no matter how unwanted it is could never be undone or taken back.

The cat ROARS again and I feel the ancient wrath of the fae radiate from it towards me, along with the feelings of digust assosciated with the Night Court. Sugar Plum of the Night Court then charges at me with alien sorrow and anger plastered all over it's face, and what had already been a tiring day turned into an even more tiring Night.