[h3]From the depths to the surface and back again[/h3]

“Representatives, please! There’s no need for all this alarm!” Lilly, secret daughter of Asheel and member of Tricity’s council, called out, attempting to defuse the uproar her clarifications about the nature of the Dominion had caused among her fellow council members. 

“Beneath our very feet exists a god chosen civilization ruled by a mind controlling despot, that is most certainly reason for alarm!” retorted a snouter giant in both height and girth as he slammed a fist down onto his sturdily built chair, before pointing a fat finger at Lilly “How do we know you are not compromised right now, and this isn’t some scheme of this ‘Maxima’ you spoke with?”

“How do we know every goblin isn’t compromised?” a young beastkin with the body of a human and head of a tuna added hysterically, jaw flapping at the top of his head while the one eye he was looking at them with wheeled around the room, looking for answers, befre fixing on the closest goblin council member. 

“I know my own head you ingrate, and I’ll gut you if you need me to prove I’m not under this peace enforcing princess’ spell” said goblin woman, who had come to the meeting in a set of overalls of all things, and who was the last sitting representative of the greatly diminished miner’s union, bit back at the tuna-kin, before putting one of her boots up on her chair so she could pull a knife from it.

“She’s got her! Assassin! Monarchist assassin!” the tuna-kin shouted in a panic as he rose from his own seat, knocking over his chair, only to fall over it and  knock over the representatives who had come to his aid.

It was all Lily could do to hold her face in her hands while her avian companion Seam quietly asked if they were always like this. They were all saved however, when the doors to the chamber were quietly opened, and an aged looking kingfisher wildblood entered the room, his cane and pegleg clacking against the fine stone floor.

The Speaker, a man old as the world, a mortal not from woman born but made by the hands of gods, and thus one of a rare few who could practice the arts of speaking with other’s past lives, took the scene in for a moment. As he did a platypus-goblin attempted to calm the situation, only to be grappled and accused of being mind controlled as well by a muscular croaker, prompting him to try and stab the tuna-kin with his poisoned spurs, at which point the Speaker decided to intervene.

He raised his cane once more, and struck it forcefully into the ground, causing runes on the handle to glow and create a pulse of awe to radiate through the room, while at the same time, he used his actual power to touch every soul found therein for just a moment.

“That is quite enough” the speaker declared, with a voice that, though now withered, still held the command and confidence of a powerful leader. He was, of course, not one, merely a spiritual guide, but still, he brought the council to order and to their senses just long enough for a thankful Lilly to rally a rather simple argument “If she wanted to control everyone and take over, surly she wouldn’t have me tell you what she could do. And especially not that her will could be broken”

“Hmmmmf. Broken by the will of a legendary hero” the large snouter, one Counselor Vontibrath, retorted, clearly unconvinced, though with more of a debative tone now rather than an accusatory one “besides, we had already heard an account of this Dominion from… oh what was that Aardvark-kin’s name?” he snapped his fingers twice, before a pig-kin beast woman whispered something in his ear “ah yes, Desmond. He already told us about how how you, council member, ensnared your companion here while the other goblins held him up and blade and hammer point without a second thought about your prior allegiance”

“Hey, I can vouch for all of this so don’t you dare use me against her” Seam bit back at the big snouter

“Hmm, yes, you say as you wear the gifts of the god who is patron of this land of slaves, a god we may well have misplaced our worship in if he created a land so antithetical to our values” Vontibrath replied in reference to the fancy armor and diamond topped swords Seam had been gifted, prompting several gasps from the more religious among the rest of the council. Only a few however, as Galaxor’s addition to the rota of gods worth veneration was rather recent.

“Galaxor’s worthiness is a topic for another time, but is hardly a reason to distrust Seam” Lilly replied evenly, before pressing forwards with what she hoped would be her winning point “Still, I understand that the council might have difficulty trusting either who’s lives Maxima has touched, which is why I invited the Speaker here”

“Ah, I see it. This Maxima can controle goblins, but you have not always been a goblin, have you, my teacher?” the old bird quietly said as he caught on, despite lacking much of the initial context, before addressing the council at large “If you will allow me just a moment, council members, I shall bring clarity to this situation”

There was some further discussion and a vote on the motion of taking him up on the offer that took a fair bit longer than a moment, but after that, those in their room closed their eyes, followed the Speaker’s steps, and then opened them in a shared vision of sorts. Before them a great serpent-kin, a snake in all but her eyes, one who sat coiled lightly around Lily in a comforting hug rather than a crushing bind, and who spoke in defense of her current life.

“I am here. I am free. I saw all even if could not help when the queen held Lilly’s mind” the serpent-kin said, seemingly ashamed of not being strong enough to intervene, before explaining in her short words that “I saw how god and queen played a twisted game with a hero, threatened to leave him forsworn. Saw too how Lily danced around the queen to prevent that end, and bartered great treasure for home from the god” 

The counselors, their own past lives leaning over their shoulders like an ensemble of advisors, nodded along, looking quite relieved, but some, the great snouter Vontibrath
Chief among them leaned in with a great deal of interest at hearing one word, and that was “treasure?”

[hr]

Months in the future, but not many, down in the depths, a wall cracked, and a monster with too many limbs, hardened digging claws and a mouth sloping stone melting acid burst through into a cavern filled with ore, gems and crystals galore. Its arrival was met by a line of armored pike wielding goblins, the miners working this holiest of sites having already long since cleared out after hearing it scratching at the walls. 

With a cry of “For the Dominion!” They rushed the beast before it could recover its strength from its digging work, a dozen diamond tipped blades impaling the beast before their owners fell back, and a second row seamlessly charged past them and delivered a second sequence of stabs. These two backed off to get behind a remaining pike wall, preparing slings to continue to contribute to the fight with, but the caution was unwarranted with regards to the beast, reduced to a pincushion, collapsed to the ground.

It was, as it turned out, still warranted however, as no sooner had the beast fallen but 3 figures burst out of the tunnel it had dug. All three were tall and slim, with pointed ears, but that was where their similarities ended. A sea of tawny feathers somehow moving silently on 4 sets of viciously sharp talons that where reinforced with bronze and which starred down the goblins with the massive light drinking eyes of an owl came first, followed by a tower shield carrying humanoid tortoise moving unnaturally fast thanks to the rings carved all over its shell, and a elf with angelic swans wings wielding a glowing trident and  covered in shimmering tattoos that hurt to look at.

The shield carrying tortoise-kin immediately put themselves up front, slamming their shield into the ground in a taunt and catching a dozen thrusts and stones upon it as a result while the howling owl started to slip to one side of the pike wall. The goblin commander was no fool however, and she barked two short commands that prompted the wall to start backing up and angling its flank’s pikes after the hulking owl-kin so as to not get flanked by it. A few took jabs at it as it got too close, only to be rebuffed by the most powerful hoot they had ever heard, the sound wave pushing them back with physical force rather despite only momentary deafening them

The third of the bestail figure’s number did not join in this positioning and, rather than attempt to flank the goblins from the other side, the swan-kin called back into the tunnel “someone tell the boss we found the goblins!” before telling the others to “hold you two, hold!” prompting them to back off a few steps.

The goblin commander was quite sure she could take them still despite the unusual abilities they had demonstrated, but she wanted answers rather than blood, and so she was happy to use the space to back up and take an even better defensive position. Once she was situated atop a small ridge and had sent a runner to report the situation with another hyper efficient command, she called down to the beastfolk,  demanding to know “Who are you? Who do you serve?” and then regarding the monster they had initially put down “Why are you associating with outer beasts!”

Her answers arrived on cloven hooves that trampled through the blood of the fallen beast, flaked by another such monster, several more beastfolk equally as eclectically armed and armored as the first three, and followed by some kind of plaque that held, of all things, a little garden. “That, is, or was a Chimera made specifically for tunneling. Top of the line and damn expensive” the group’s leader, a certain snouter large of height and girth, informed her as he emerged from the rock dust, lightly brushing it off his fine long coat and tophat, before informing her that “And these fine folks serve me, just as I serve Tricity, and we’re here to stake our fine home’s claim on this god gifted bounty!” as he swept a hand across the caverns the goblin had been protecting

“Any objections?” Vontibrath asked, as yet more beastkin (along with the odd snouter and croaker) peaked out of the freshly breach into the hold site, not a goblin or miner’s union member in sight. 

[hr]

Weeks in the future, but not many, Vontibrath paused in his digging to admire his work. It was a fine patch of land he owned, one he had carefully cultivated only the most fascinating underground plants, all of it growing in soil that had traveled with him from the outskirts of tricity to the heart of its richest district, and now down here into the depths of the world where he might be the first of his kin to stake a claim.

True, it was a touch of a downgrade from his lavish lifestyle up with the movers and shakers on Trictiy’s northside, but his other work made it more than worth it. Setting down his trowel, he stood and looked down from his rooftop garden and out over the burgunning town growing around the entrance to the cave of unlimited bounties. True, there were some hurdles to be found in this new operation. No one made Buggies quite like goblins, and with their banning from the exposition, lest they be compromised by the mind controlling despot they now shared the cave with, they had to rely on newer, more experimental methods of transportation. The only recently tamed Chimeras had resulted in a few unfortunate accidents, it was true, and there had been teething problems with the Runecraft and R’kava modifications made to the miners, but it was all worth it.

With the first outer beast infested and then earthquake collapsed mines restored, and bolstered by the unending ore growth of the cavern, Tricity was once again king of the eastern waterway’s metal trade, and this time it was free from the stranglehold of those dirty unionists. No now it was Vontibrath who had that stranglehold and by Hummus, was he going to milk it for all it was worth. 

First thing’s first on his agenda, muscling in on as much of the cave’s bounties as possible. The Dominionites had had a head start after all, it was only fair that they make way for his, or rather Tricity’s, workers for a time. And if that argument never moved back into something more balanced? Well, now wouldn’t that be a damn shame?

[hider=summary]
Lilly and Seam have finally gotten back to Tricity, and the council is not best pleased by their report that there is a goblin mind control based empire underground. They freak out for a bit, before the Speaker, a first generation kingfisher-kin who can speak to the past lives of others, clears things up. 

We are also introduced to the big pig counselor Vontibrath, who proceeds to lead a goblin free expedition down into the underground, and who down there stakes a claim to the city’s promised half of an infinite ore spawning holy site Lilly got out of Galaxor, putting the city properly in contact with the Dominion, and sowing the seeds of future strife.  

There is also a small through line about the continued misfortunes of Tricity’s miner’s union, a mostly goblin organization that lost most of its members to the outer beasts, its mines to earthquakes, and now its industry to Vontibrath’s goblin free mining operation. Only time will tell how this will impact the goblins of the city as a whole.
[/hider]