Pain. Heat. The reek of scorched stone.
Karos Belfier stirred slowly, consciousness dragging him back like a reluctant tide. His body screamed with aching muscles, stiff bones, and something deeper. A low humming echoed in his ears, like the whine of a struck bell that would not stop.
He opened his eyes to a sky that no longer pulsed with time. The orb that contained Astrin was gone and all that remained was polished obsidian still holding its shape. Its volatile magic, once holding the memories of two vastly different entities, had detonated with such force it knocked everyone unconscious leaving behind shards of fizzling magic and the occasional spark across red-hot stone.
Karos rolled onto his side and groaned. His fingers brushed the familiar leather sheath of his dagger.
"Still breathing," he muttered, sitting up.
"Barely," came Kara's voice nearby.
The Lunar Elf leaned against a scorched pillar, her armor cracked and flecked with blood, her silver hair matted to her face. But she was alive, her eyes alert and clear.
One by one, the others stirred.
Shin emerged from a collapsed alcove; his face was blackened with soot and his eyebrows singed. As he crawled free of the rubble, his left boot in his hand, he looks up. "Note to self: if you ever see a talking orb begin to glow red, maybe don't hold on to it while standing in a group!"
Yazdrin Khalazza staggered to his feet with a snarl, one of his blades missing, the other clenched tight in his fist. "That was not what I was expecting," he said, voice low and gravelly. "Whatever it was, if it goes off again I might have to start stabbing. Just a word of warning."
Karos nodded. " We survived."
He barely had time to feel relief.
A sharp, panicked voice shouted from one of the hallways up ahead.
"There they are! The big boom! Get 'em!"
Shadows darted over the broken rock walls. Figures swarmed in, armed with rusty spears, slingshots, pickaxes, and what looked suspiciously like a melted chandelier tied to a stick.
"Goblins, at least five. From the sound of the footsteps." Yazdrin said through his labored breathing
Green-skinned, wiry and wide-eyed, some armored in scraps of old dining ware and others in mismatched bits of guard uniforms, most likely looted from the dead. They descended with shrill war cries and clumsy tactics, surrounding the crater like ants swarming a broken egg.
Karos and Kara rose in an instant. Shin ducked behind a piece of rubble. Yazdrin stood tall, teeth bared, blade ready.
"Wait!" Kara shouted, bending over and picking up the same orb that just exploded moments before. "We're not your enemies but I will use this again if need be."
"You make sky big boom!" one goblin hissed, jabbing his stick-spear forward.
"You burn our walls!" screeched another.
"You set free the Clatterbone!" cried a third.
"...We did not," Shin muttered.
Several goblins closed in, weapons raised, eyes twitching with panic and rage. One particularly stubby goblin in a pot helmet screamed, "Execution by steam bath!"
But before anyone could attack, a deep, gravelly voice echoed from the rear of the mob:
"Hold."
The goblins parted like water as a tall goblin emerged, hunched and draped in robes stitched from chicken feathers and cave moss. His face was older and scarred, with an eye missing and a staff carved from the rib of something that clearly wasn't human.
Karos sensed power in him. Not power of arcane natural, but social. Authority. A chieftain, maybe. Or worse: a politician.
The elder goblin stepped forward, his gaze sweeping the four intruders.
"So," he rasped. "You are the ones who cracked the air and rattled the walls."
Kara didn't move. "Shin what are you doing? Will you get over here and talk to them? Maybe they will be less aggressive."
Shin appears from his hiding place, boot now placed firmly back onto his foot. He slowly approached the goblin leader who sniffed the air with his large pointed nose. "You are goblin, yes?" He leaned on his staff and cocked his head.
"Half, but yes I am a goblin. My father was human." Shin grinned, picking his tooth with a cracked fingernail.
" No, you just goblin no half." The goblin gave a crooked grin, one of his teeth falling out in the process. "Goblins much better looking."
Karos stepped forward slowly. "Are you the leader of this pack?"
"Hush, I speaking with goblin not giant." he said sticking out his tongue.
The tension around them loosened by a hair.
"I Grivnix the Wise and Slightly Damp," he declared. "I could feed you the snapping mushroom but, I use you."
Karos exchanged glances with Kara. Motioning with his hand to lower the orb she had been using as a deterrent.
"Go on," Shin said carefully. "We'll follow your lead."
Grivnix lowered his voice and motioned for the adventurers to follow him away from the crowd. The goblins murmured and scattered as they approached a side path leading to a broken stone door overrun with vines. Its lock still holding it in place.
"The temple not empty when you came," Grivnix said, glancing back at them. "We forced to leave weeks ago. It… claimed."
"Claimed?" Yazdrin asked.
Grivnix nodded solemnly. "By thing of bones and venom. Clatterbone."
Shin blinked. "Okay. That's a name."
"He show up last big moon," Grivnix continued. "Fell from hole in sky, full of mad. Think he chief of temple. He not chief, I chief. He take over the home, kill our tribe, and turn throne room into… an ugly mess."
"A mess?" Kara repeated.
"Yes. all he do is ziggy-zag round chair. Sometime he make music with bones banging. It bad sound."
"And now you want us to kill him," Karos said flatly.
Grivnix turned to face them, his expression suddenly grim.
"Yes! You stop him. Kill, banish, seal whatever it take. Clatterbone mean to eat all friends. He grow bigger. If he not dealt with soon, he kill all and then no goblins."
Kara folded her arms. "And what do we get?"
Grivnix grinned.
"I give you part my treasure and you leave no dead. I lay on bed till it dead."
That got Karos's attention. "Treasure?"
"You go now," Grivnix said. "Clatterbone guard big door to below. You find pretty light deeper in, if you no die."
The party fell silent.
Shin leaned on the top of Grivnix's staff. "So, to recap: we just survived an explosion, almost got executed by goblins, and now we're being hired to kill a bone snake in exchange for ancient secrets."
"Sounds about right, less sophisticated in your breakdown, but I guess it's close." Yazdrin muttered.
Karos looked back the way they came, then toward the mossy path and sealed door that led deeper into the ruins.
"Alright," he said. "We'll deal with Clatterbone."
Grivnix smiled wickedly. "Oh, I hope you no die," he said. "He make much noise and make ears bleed! It very bad."
Upon coming to an agreement and a promise of safe passage, Shin looked at the others. "Let's get this show on the road then." he said smiling and puffing up his chest.
"What do we do with this?" Kara asked holding up the orb.
"That key, use to open, hole is on ground next to stone with scribbles." Grivnix said while picking his teeth with the tip of his staff.
"Ready when you are." Yazdrin said, drawing his swords. "It's time to break some bones."
"I couldn't agree more." replies Karos.