Shaddar climbs the stairs to the top floor. Cutt is waiting for him.
“Is all well? Have you followed my orders?” Shaddar questions.
“Yes. The two strong males each took their own room as you wished. Neither one was very talkative. But the other three? Wouldn’t shut up for anything! The scrawny one, named Kodarm by the way, and the two sisters, Zoda and Grunda, all wanted to bunk together. Drunken ramblings as far as I could tell – nothing of any import to what they said. They’ve been snoring in there pretty much since the door closed,” Cutt answers. He points to the rooms as he mentions their occupants – a thoroughly unnecessary gesture since Shaddar can sense the minds within each room.
“You may go. Eat or sleep as you will,” Shaddar broadcasts to Cutt and his other two thralls as well. The gnome scampers off.
It is clear from the low-level buzz of non-thought that the three hobgoblins from the brothel are already asleep. Not too surprising, considering the amount of food and ale they consumed.
Shaddar enters the room of the first hobgoblin male.
The powerfully built specimen is examining the features of the room, checking for possible exit routes should he need them. Shaddar approves.
“I hope you enjoyed your meal,” he begins.
The hobgoblin nods and says, “You have shown me and my kind far more respect and kindness than anyone else in this city.” There is the hint of a question in the statement.
Shaddar addresses it by saying, “You are due much, much more than that. And that is why I have summoned you here. To begin to work together to correct this gross injustice. I am against all those who would keep hobgoblins down.”
“My name is Kug.” Shaddar is amazed that his voice is so calm. Kug’s thoughts are seething with emotion and anger, but his outward appearance is tranquil. Amazing control for such a lesser being! It should not take much to crack the façade of peacefulness in the hobgoblin, however…
Shaddar dips his head in greeting and asks, “How is it, Kug, that the humans are able to control your people?” His voice drips with concern and perplexity. ”Why is your race so complacent under the burden of oppression? Especially when the humans are so much more fragile and stupid than hobgoblin-kind? How has this,” Shaddar’s features twist in disgust, “degenerate race gained dominion of such noble creatures such as yourself?”
Kug grits his teeth in frustration as his poker face slips off. “I know!” he growls loudly, “Everyone else in my band all tell me that I have to be quiet! Anytime I speak of resisting I am punished! If I so much as talk about lashing out against those that cast slurs at us, my own people hold me down and beat me! ARRGH!”
This display of passion pleases Shaddar. This is what he expected from a hobgoblin. So. His enemy has not been able to completely eradicate the fighting spirit within these beasts. Good.
“Once! Once I did strike back! Slammed a little pipsqueak into the wall for spitting at me! Never felt so good!” Kug seems to shrink into himself and the fire leaves his voice as he continues in a softer tone, “When my band found out, they hushed it up by saying that I had killed myself, then they gave me the worst beating of my life. Almost beat me to death, they did. Telling me that I was endangering the whole band with my foolishness. Heh. Foolishness? To strive for respect?”
Kug shakes off his melancholy and continues in a hard voice, “When they were done, they told me that if I ever caused another problem for any of,” he spits, “our masters… that they would kill me. For the good of the band, they said! To save our race, they said! As if living like curs is better than death…”
Shaddar has listened with hooded eyes. Now he speaks with tones of sympathy, “This is not right, Kug. Not right at all.”
Shaddar changes his tone to boldly say, “I have come to bring a new day of safety for your band and for your race. A day that no longer requires submission to this weak race of humans.”
Kug grins toothily, “Excellent!”
“I can tell that your band spared you because of your special abilities. You are strong. You have an aggressiveness that is useful to the band in your work perhaps? Well. That is nothing but a desire for battle, is it not?”
“Yes! I like to wrestle and my band has never been able to beat me unless four large lads were on hand to hold me down! Never less than four, and sometimes it has taken more than that!” Kug brags, slapping his large pectorals with one hand. “It’s me job that keeps me strong!”
From his thoughts Shaddar learns that he runs an underground turnstile that powers a water pump, pushing a huge metal bar around and around for hours on end to create water pressure for a fountain on a hill in the streets.
“This fellow must be as strong as he is boasting to be capable of such a feat,” Shaddar thinks.
“Allow me to confide in you, my friend,” Shaddar says while his tentacles writhe slowly in a gesture of satisfaction. “I am one of the gods of Change…”
Kug’s heavy eyebrows shoot up and he grunts.
Shaddar continues, “and I am here to bring about a dark change – for the humans, and a glorious one for the hobgoblins… Through violence and war!”
Kug is delighted by this talk! He growls and slaps his hands together in approval. His thoughts are interesting: “Don’t care who this guy thinks he is – if he’ll give me revenge against the humans!”
“We will make the humans capitulate and they will be the servants to the mighty hobgoblins and the drow!”
Kug leaps to his feet and shouts, “As they should!”
Shaddar nods briskly, “As they should. And this city shall be run under your glorious rule as general! I am assembling an army – in which the might of the hobgoblins will be the backbone.”
“Yes! Tell me what you require and it will be done! I have longed for this day! At last!”
“Tomorrow you will work with Toothsnatcher, the tall one with the horns. He is an expert at combat and can instruct you to become even more lethal than you already are.”
“Lethal? You mean we will… kill humans?”
“What better punishment is there? Is it not the outcome you lust after – deep in your fiercely beating heart? For the blood of your enemies to be spilled?”
Kug looks down, breathing raggedly for a moment, examining himself, then he looks up.
“It is what I lust for,” he confesses in a whisper, shocked at his own utterance.
“Then it will be granted and sated to the fullest, my General. Count on that! Now: to business! How many other hobgoblins feel as you do?”
“Throughout the city? I know not. We are not allowed to congregate between bands except for the seasonal festival. I have never been selected to attend the festival.” Shaddar sees in his thoughts that the festival is part of their culture here. Four times a year, the hobgoblins gather to talk and find mates from other bands. Only those who are deemed ‘acceptable’ by the band chiefs are allowed to have children. As a troublemaker, Kug has never been allowed to go to the festival, so he only has interacted with the hundred or so members of his own tribe.
So. The Lords of the city have an on-going plan for reducing the aggressiveness of hobgoblins by selective breeding. It has obviously not been 100% effective, but it tells him still more about this hidden foe. Fascinating. And perfect! For there is a major flaw in their collecting all of the submissive and well-behaved hobgoblins in one place. A flaw Shaddar will be only too happy to exploit.
“When is the next festival?”
“Next month. Why?”
“Excellent. On the day of the festival, you will speak to those in your band who are also not selected – the other hobgoblins who are ‘unacceptable’. Tell them that there is another party happening… and that they have been chosen to attend it instead.”
Kug grins with a mean glint in his eye as he puts it together.
“All of the troublemakers in one place? With none of the submissive ones mixed in to dilute the quality of the group? Why, the work is done for me – by my very foes! How convenient…”
Chapter 1 < Chapter 14 Chapter 16 >
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