Act I, Part V: Captivity

By Antuul Dralosi, Scavenger

I woke up a few hours ago and to my great surprise, my foot had been reattached and healed, but I still feel weak. The one who is watching over me, Gabrin, he calls himself, tells me that he’s been waiting for me for some time. He’s a strange creature—not like the rest of the goblins who have been in and out of my cell. No, he’s different. He’s a hunchbacked runt with a deformed face that looks like it’s been scrunched up and twisted at a strange angle and he’s definitely not with it. His mind is long gone, I can tell that much already given how he rambles about how I’m some prophesied hero of sorts—some ‘dead god’ as it were. I don’t know. I’m scared though. I should’ve never come here and now I don’t know if I’ll ever get out, especially as long as Gabrin and his guards are here watching over me and spilling their praise onto me like a pack of drooling hounds. I don’t know who or what he thinks I am, but he’s mistaken. I’m not some dead god and my name’s not Dagoth—it’s Antuul, but he doesn’t seem to get it. He swears up and down that I spoke to him in a vision hundreds of years ago, but that’s impossible. It’s absurd. But to be honest, I think he’s the only thing keeping me alive at this point. I’ve seen how the other goblins look at me, especially the one they call the Commandant, and it’s not good, but they don’t seem to argue with Gabrin for some reason. I don’t know why. Maybe he’s some kind of priest or something, but either way, I don’t like it.

To be honest, I’m more scared now than I’ve ever been in my life, even when Dro’garra would come stumbling in after a long night of drinking with that hungry look in his eyes. He was always faster than me—and he was always stronger, I could never get away, no matter how much I struggled, but this is different. I knew back then that once Dro’garra was done with me, he’d just toss me aside like a used rag and that would be that—I don’t know what’s going to happen with these goblins once they find out I’m not this Dagoth guy they think I am. They’ll probably just kill me and eat me, but I don’t know and I don’t want to find out either. I have to get out of here. I have to. But how? How the hell am I going to get out of here when I’m locked in a cell with two of their guards watching me at all times. I don’t know if there’s any escape to be honest, but I know if something doesn’t change fast then I’ll probably be dead in a few days. I guess I could try to play Gabrin, but I don’t know how successful that’ll be. He’s clearly mad, but he’s not stupid, I know that much already. Hell, he might even be smarter than me, not that that’s saying much, but it does mean I have to really plan this out if I’m going to try to pull a fast one on him. I’m scared though that he’ll see right through me and then what? He’ll probably let the Commandant run me through if he figures out I’m trying to pull a ruse on him, but that’s a risk I have to take, isn’t it? If I don’t try, I’m gonna die for sure and if I do, maybe, just maybe he’ll trust me enough to let me out and I can make a run for it. Who knows though, this could be it for me. I had a good run though—I did more than anyone thought I would with my life and I guess if I die in here with all these monsters then that’s okay, I guess.

I just wish things could’ve gone a little differently with my life, I suppose. I wish my mother hadn’t sold me to Dro’garra for a couple ounces of sugar. I wish I hadn’t have stuck around with that bastard as long as I did and you know, most of all, I wish I didn’t get involved in that incident that night. If I’d have just left things alone and kept playing the tables, I’d have never gotten into trouble with Sero, but you know me, always trying to be the big damn hero and now look at where I am. I’m locked in a cage with an insane goblin as my only hope of getting out and getting home, and then what, I still don’t have Sero’s money and he’s not going to give me more time. Hell, the only reason he didn’t outright kill me when I stabbed one of his men is because he knows I bring a lot of money into Ald Uxith, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to be patient forever—in fact—he’s probably already got a bounty posted all over town with my name on it.

It doesn’t matter though. That’s too far in the future to worry about right now; I need to think about how I’m going to get out of here and fortunately, I can already hear Gabrin’s labored breathing as he’s coming back down the stairs from his talk with the Commandant. Here’s to hoping this works—if not, I played my hand the best I could. It wasn’t great, but it was the best I could do with what I had and that’s all we can do, right?

-Antuul Dralosi, Scavenger