[IC] Of Goats, Goblins, and Mages

[Goat God]

As Zeal was listening to what the Robot was saying, suddenly a giant zeppelin had arrived in the sky. "What?" he said, pointing with one hoof, to show his new friends the sight he saw. The blimp had come to a stop just above, and an intercom started to blare. “This is an announcement. Any and all persons with the names of: Zeal Seprah, Katherin Winter, Bergunsherguoffgunsun, Jeffery, Theodore Rygate, Rita, SS model U6840-P793-G15, Drax, Malfeas Baphomet, and Dmitri. Please come up the platform we are about to deploy.” The intercom said as a platform fell down, for them to get on. Zeal, not trying to question the police force, a thing that never works in goat cities, steps on. “Guys, we should probably go with them. This could be important. Maybe even money involved!”

[KatherinWinter]

Katherin looked up at the sound of her name. What the heck? How had they knew she was here? Probably some spell she decided. She hadn't broken any rules that she was aware of. Of course she was new to the area so it was possible that she had broken a law she wasn't aware. Katherin decided that the only way to figure out what was going on was to go to the platform to find out, so Katherin headed in that direction.

[CallaLily180]

Rita sighed and sipped on some water, she then went over to her dresser and packed some things. Who knew what they were doing but since they were about to 'deploy' she had to pack her things. She made sure to get everything necessary and magical that she could.

Afterwards she left her house, locked it up in full and started on her way over to the to platform. Part of her was excited, part of her was silent, trying to figure this out and comprehend as well. Maybe it was a good thing, maybe it was bad.

On they way she saw the other SpellBorn named Katherin, that wasn't very exciting, but that didn't matter much. She simply passed her and carried on.

[Razbat]

Drax climbed out of the damp wreckage that was the RoboTraveller. "That certainly is one way to put out a fire." He said to no one in particular. He didn't have much more time to think before he, and all the others were called out onto a platform. A few other spellborns, and a goat had arrived during the fight.

Throwing all caution to the wind, Drax stepped onto the platform. He wanted some adventure after all, and he wondered where the ship would take them.

[Brasslazer]

Theodore burst through the rubble of the RoboTraveler, wet and very unhappy.

"Did you guys forget that I was in there? Lucky I was wearing my armor, could've gotten hurt." He complained. As he said this, he heard the announcement from the blimp. He might as well get a job of some sort. And there might be some more fighting! He threw his hammer to the ground, where it was swallowed up and taken deep underground, and he stepped onto the platform.

[Goat God]

Once everyone stepped on the platform, the platform started to pull up. when it was up, the team of misfits could see a marvel of machines. Engines and Steam pipes and little machines spurring about. Zeal thought he had died and gone to heaven. His eyes were lighting up like candles on a birthday cake. "This is AWESOME" he said looking around. "Yes, it is indeed, 'Awesome'" a voice said. A really old looking goat had stepped around the corner, along with a Spell Born and an Ogre. "Welcome to G.O.O.P's Head quarters, the Zeppelin 5000. and before you ask, no, we did not try to make it 5000 times. just 5. don't ask where the other ones are, and how they are not with us today. it's time to follow me, I will explain more in the briefing room."

[drewccapp]

Crak stood in the briefing room. Mop in hand. He had been told to clean the place thoroughly, and he did. Now every surface had a clean sheen to it... even things that weren't supposed to have a sheen. The smell of Pine Sol wafted in the air. Was done, so he just waited for the boss-man to come back and tell him what to do next. The mining pick on his back, Pick, had been silent the whole time he was cleaning, so he probably was sleeping or something.

With no more work to do, Crak stood vigilant for his next job.

[thewizardguy]

Shor had been aboard the boat previously. Much like those who now entered, he had been asked aboard by the Ancient Goat. His first instinct, of course, had been to bash the goat's brains in, shattering his skull, and then perhaps slaughtering the crew. However, the goat had then repeated his request with quite a lot more diplomacy, convincing Shor that he meant no disrespect, and was not treating Shor as a slave. It was a request, not an order. While Shor didn't see the difference, he was smart enough to know he was dumb, so he'd just gotten on board.

[CallaLily180]

Rita sighed, moving with the others to the important meeting. Soon arriving in this place she smiled and looked around, wondering what she would find and if she would find it.

Seeing nothing of true interest she left the room and stood outside of the door, twiddling with her water crystal and looking through her things. Now was the last and only chance to make sure she had everything. "Hello? Anyone inside?" She asked as she peeked into the door of the meeting area and shrugged. "Bummer." She stated after just a second, clarifying that she had given up on this annoying search.

[drewccapp]

Crak's eyes bulged a moment as he heard someone calling into the room. He blinked a moment and gathered himself before responding with a happy. "Crak is here. Crak do good work. Crak cleaned room like boss-man said. Yep yep."

He walked over to the door and stared at the man creature with shiny eyes that was standing just outside. There was a group. "Crak do good work so man-creatures can do work in big room. Yep yep."

Now get another job damnit Pick growled at him. Crak turned his head toward Pick and tapped it with the mop he still was holding. A streak of wet rode across the floor from where he walked. "Crak will get to that." He glanced back at the man-creature. "Crak want more work. Yep yep."

[Astarael42]

Percival was floored by the size of the zeppelin, hell he had been floored by the size of the G.O.A.T. He had seen them, a scant few, but always up in the air, never so close up. He felt a bit awed. Particularly since there were so many shiny things.

He joined the platform with the others, curiosity driving him though there was a fear in his gut too. After all this was completely new and while one goat might be interesting a whole army of goats was a bit more terrifying. Thus he once again was searching for a place to hide.

A passing rubbish bin looked promising. It was passing him…mounted on strange little legs that were kept in motion by a bunch of gears. Percival was just about to leap in when a rare thing happened. He thought ahead. It was such an unusual occurrence for the goblin that it was nearly as frightening as being on a giant goat filled police zeppelin.

In fact it was the nervousness that Percival felt that made him do the unthinkable, and actually think. So startled was he by this nearly unheard of action on his part that he stopped dead in his tracks for nearly 5 minutes, long enough to go unnoticed as everyone else tramped by him leaving him alone staring at nothing.

When he came out of his startled zombie state he looked around and realized it was empty here. That was nearly as nerve wracking as being marched ominously along down a corridor. Everyone knew if you were marched with guards down a corridor your end was right around the next bend. He never realized standing alone in such a corridor was just as bad.

“Wait for me” he yelled at the top of his rather raspy goblin voice and he began to run flat out. He didn’t know where he was running only that he was looking for others. Dashing like a mad thing around a bend he didn’t see another robotic rubbish bend working its way down a perpendicular corridor. Rubbish bin and Percival collided with a tremendous crash that sent Percival toppling end over end. He barely had time to tuck himself into a ball like a pill bug and roll down the corridor, protecting himself from most of the bruising he would have otherwise received.

He rolled, and rolled, and rolled. He was surprisingly aerodynamic as he rolled along and friction didn’t get much of a chance to slow him. He could have unrolled his body and would have come to a stop easily, but the jostling shook the few wits he had gathered to the four winds and he was completely bamboozled. He rolled to a stop thunking neatly, and somewhat harshly, into a pair of non-moving feet. Percival looked up blearily unable to focus on who or what he had run into.

“Urrrmmm, uh, sorry” he mumbled trying to gather enough of his scattered wits to remember the few polite manners he had picked up in his rambling travels.

[Enso]

Jeffery had never seen a place as interesting as this. He walked along with the group and tried to focus but found himself being distracted every time he turned a corner and then the group seemed to be splitting up and Jeffery found himself standing alone in the hallway. Jeffery plopped down on his scaly behind and dumped out his belt pouch full of plants and unrolled his alchemy scroll and started sorting the plants into piles, tossing the ones he didn't see pictures of into a trash chute. Before he knew it he had taken up the entire hallway and was blocking the path of at least a dozen people. Jeffery didn't seem to notice the dozen or so folks stepping carefully past him and his piles of junk as he sorted, most giving him dirty looks either because he was taking up the entire hallway or because they were used to only seeing Kobolds when they raided a defenseless village or caravan, there had never been one like him as far as Jeffery knew, but hey, he'd been wrong before.

[Astarael42]

When Percival finally shook off the confusion his roll had caused he realized he was looking up at a kobold. And not the one had had run into earlier, this was an entirely different kobold. He was surprised he hadn’t knocked the creature over, he had used that rolling maneuver for attack as well as defense and it had bowled over more than one unprepared person.

He got to his feet, albeit shakily, and looked the creature over. Then he looked around at the nice sparkling clean room. No wonder he had slid so nicely along the floor, it was clean. Was being the operative word. He left a nice streak of dirt and a bit of soot behind him when he had rolled.

“Er, um, sorry about that” said Percival. “Odd that there’s all that dirt there…why did you clean the whole thing except that one great streak of dirt from the door to your feet here? That’s very weird.”

Percival never had any concept that he was often coated in a nice layer of grime. After all he had never taken a bath in his life, just accidental dunkings when people poured buckets of water on him for no reason that he was ever able to discern. People were weird.

[KatherinWinter]

Katherin looked around studying the people with her. She still wasn't sure what this was all about. Still she wasn't going to turn down an adventure. She would see where this took her.

[thewizardguy]

Shor was a walking mountain of a being. Ogres were easily the biggest intelligent race in the world, males standing 2,4 meters high on average. However, even for an Ogre, Shor was a hulk. He had been the strongest in his village, which is how he had survived the slaughter of his clan. He stood at 2,7 meters, maybe a little more, with the smaller races such as Goats and Goblins coming only barely above his knees. As such, he was, of course, forced to bend down quite a bit, annoyed at these tight spaces. He followed the goat into the briefing room, however, and luckily, it was a lot taller. While most likely it had been made with a high ceiling to look impressive, and not to accomodate Ogres, Shor was simply relieved he didn't need to duck any more. However, as he straightened out, he still didn't speak a word. He wasn't much of a talking person, and never had been. He would find out what was going on, and if he didn't like it, he'd leave.

[drewccapp]

Crak didn't understand what the goblin meant by what he said. That dirt had clearly followed him into the room, but Crak was unfazed by the mess. He had done his job to make sure the room was usable by others and now that it was in use he felt accomplished. There were a lot of people using it too, and that left him particularly proud.

"Crak did good job."

[Goat God]

As the group stepped into the briefing room, The Goat Commander sat in his chair. “I haven’t told you my name yet. Unfortunately, I’m not allowed to tell you that. You will refer to me as G.O.O.P Commander.” He said as he pressed different buttons, which brought up screens that showed info on the missing Goblin King. “Now, as you already know, the Goblin King is missing. He has been missing for a month now. I know it seems stupid that he’s been missing for a month now, but the goblins haven’t noticed anything is wrong. The only time he ever steppes out is when the goblins declare all-out war. The Diplomatic stuff is dealt by the Royal adviser. We haven’t been able to find him. And before you say anything SS, neither have your forces. You should not deal with this, but we can’t argue with Base Code.” He turned in his chair. “We are not allowed to search anywhere but the cities, Thanks to Law 274; no searching in Tribal Areas. That’s where you come in. You are not part of the G.O.O.P, and you can search. You all have shown signs of Heroism. What we need are heroes. If you find and bring back the Goblin King, the G.O.O.P will pay you 10,000,000 credits, which will be divided among you all, a quarter of which will be given to you upon acceptance. What do you say?”

All Zeal could think about was rolling around in his money. “Uhhh… What do you guys think? That’s a lot of money.”

[YamiCuoreLaroux]

Dmitri had been following along quietly this whole time, still unsure of exactly how he had gotten roped into this. One minute, he was buying bread, the next minute, he was accused of stealing it, and the minute after, he was being pushed into a wall at a bar and dodging falling lanterns. After the fire had broken out, he had mostly been shoved around until he practically fell out of a window and the platform had been lowered. At first, he thought this had something to do with the bread, which he had not stolen, no matter what that drunk guy from earlier had thought. After hearing all the commander had to say, however, he realized that this was something a lot bigger and far more important.

Not to mention, it sounded like a really good deal. Maybe his luck was finally changing.
"I'm in. It's something to do, at least."

[KatherinWinter]

"Well Sir Goop, you can count me in." Katherin replied with a chuckle. She didn't know anything about goblins or their king, but it sounded like an excellent adventure. The money would be an excellent bonus. It would enable her to buy herself the house she had been longing for.

[Brasslazer]

Theodore eyes widened with excitement.

"So you're saying you're gonna pay us to go on an adventure. Well that's an obvious choice! I'm in!"