Chapter 253

The trek into the Duskwood was a smoother process than the first time, with them knowing the general location to look through. So long as their assumption was correct, the goblin nest would be near where they had fought the empowered Raid Leader.

They took Malice out of the [Capture Core] on the outskirts of the forest, wanting to have their sixth member ready to respond at a moment’s notice. The wolfgirl vibrated with excitement, having been looking forward to the fight. To her senses, it hadn’t been long, if any time at all, since leaving yesterday. Malice had said being stored in the capture core was similar to sleeping, but not exactly, and that was obvious enough just by how aware she was between transfers: she didn’t have to groggily wake up; she barely had to orient.

Natalie wondered whether she even had some vague awareness of what was happening outside of the core. She could see that going either way.

Less than an hour of exploration led them to their target.

The goblin base, or nest, or whatever a person wanted to call it, was a collection of primitive and hastily made shelters with a large fireplace at the center for cooking and providing heat. Animal corpses lay scattered a short distance away, stripped for meat, their bones exposed to the air. More interesting were the crates: food, textiles, spices, the plunder of merchant wagons they’d been attacking for the last several weeks. They were stacked in one giant pile, obviously unused, just sitting there to be ... she didn’t even know. Worshiped? The pile of goods gave a vague impression of an altar.

Natalie wondered whether that was a valid impression, or if she’d been influenced to believe so, knowing Greed had made one of these creatures a champion. Though maybe ‘champion’ was too strong a word. Natalie doubted that Lust’s patronage of her was at all comparable to Greed’s for these goblins.

There were plenty of the creatures left, even with the limited view Natalie had, peeking between trees a fair distance away. They’d done good work thinning their numbers during previous skirmishes, but clearly the operation was larger than Tenet, or Tarenhelm, had initially thought. For that matter, it had already been a more difficult quest than assumed from the two bands they’d already fought, much less this final encounter.

The creatures busied themselves with their daily lives, and it was a bit unnerving watching them eat, walk around, organize their altar of goods, and other such activities. It didn’t humanize them, since none were talking, chatting, laughing, or anything else she’d expect to see in a camp of sapient beings, but it was still weird and made her uncomfortable.

One goblin stood out, bigger than the rest. That, too, came as no surprise, or only half of one, because it was still a shock to see a goblin nearly three times the size of the rest. The thing’s muscles were even more bulging than the Raid Leader, and if Natalie had to guess, that was not only because it was more deeply imbued by Greed—the true leader of this clan—but also because it was strength-focused, not agility like the dagger and bow wielding Raid Leader.

After observing the camp, taking care to stay hidden—it was fortunate they’d found the base without being seen—Natalie and her team retreated to discuss their plans.