The fuck was this gross slimy shit? As I pulled myself up a black liquid began to drip from me. It came to around knee height. I’d been laying in it and it stretched as far as I could see. Hell, aside from a large gray circle in the sky, about all I could see was a dark inky hellscape stretching out forever. Aside from the gray circle, the one exception was a golden framed mirror. I winced back in disgust looking into it.

  There I was, or Dato, or both of us? The goblin body we shared looked back. It wasn’t quite my new body. It was a uniform light green color that seemed to shimmer and glow slightly. Yet, attached to his head was something else. Almost like a tick planted into the back of our skull, its legs holding tightly onto the neck and down the back. It was a shimmering golden color and unwieldy in its size. Being maybe half the size of my goblin body. It didn’t hurt, or at least I couldn’t feel it. Not its weight or really much else for that matter. A morbid curiosity possessed me as I reached back towards it. When they made contact I felt the touch. Not from the fingers I was moving, but as though I were that tick being touched.

  “What the fuck,” I said at the sensation.

  “Marvelous isn’t it, my little primordial?” A voice boomed and echoed out from all around me. Ripples formed in the inky liquid. It was deep and spoke in almost a singsong way. “Isn’t your soul fascinating? What a unique specimen and completely appropriate for your kind. You wanted my sweet little Leori’s power? Are you ready for it to be grafted on?” Lightning crackled in the gray opening and a billowing roll of thunder filled the area.

  “What are you talking about? What is that thing?” I asked, pointing at the tick creature on my back.

  “You don’t know? Of course you don’t, I imagine you're surprisingly ignorant of such things. That’s you, the real you. Not that crummy little goblin soul you’re puppeting.”

  “What the hell do you mean that’s me?” I looked back in the mirror at the nasty tick-like creature.

  “Move its limbs, my little Primordial.”

  Focusing on one of the legs planted in the goblin neck, I tried to make it move. It was a strange feeling but it did. The leg twitched and illuminescent light green blood trickled from where it pierced into the black inky expanse that eagerly drank it. I moved to put it back. “That’s not real! This is an illusion, you’re trying to mess with my mind!”

  “Your ignorance is fascinating! Your kind seems to know remarkably little. What a shame! To think this whole time my kin were fearful of little more than children playing make believe,” Soccra bellowed out amused, “but I suppose a child with the ultimate power of creation is a thing to be feared.”

  “The fuck are you talking about?”

  “Here I thought, you were going to give me knowledge for power? I haven’t yet graphed Dato’s soul to yours. Should I take back the promised power to answer your question? Or do I let your mind fester. Hmm, tempting decisions… Let us have it fester.”

  A giant quill descended from above. Its tip was larger than me and Dato combined. It dipped into the ink and drew black statues. There were many different fantasy races. Though, elves and humans seemed the most common. They all had freaky amalgamations of different sorts and sizes attached to them. Until finally in front of me was an inky-black replica of me.

  “I shall give this free of charge,” Soccra said, with almost a giddiness. “My peers don’t like you Primordials; I find you amusing. At first they thought it was some ploy, to goad them into attacking. A simple ruse to justify further retribution against us. To our shock and surprise so many of you parasites started dying.” The quill flourished and tore apart several of the ink figures. Leaving behind only their faces in the ink.

  “In several cases monsters attacked the village your host lived in only for them to also be killed,” Soccra continued as more statues dissolved. “Robberies gone wrong. One of you took over your host while they were in the midst of some war, he panicked then perished. It has been quite the comedy, for us at least. A slew of tragedies over the last year all involving you parasites. Some of my kin were emboldened by this. Sending some of their followers to kill those still around. We’ve admonished them of course. It’s proven far more interesting for us to watch you all unravel on your own accord.” A bit under half the statues had dissolved back into the ink.

  “Fuck off with that. We haven’t done shit to you!”

  “Really, now? Did not personally confess to puppeting our creations and wielding them to slay our other creations? You speak of what you don’t know. But we know. We have lived it. We’ve experienced it. We’ve been forced to watch your unyielding assault on what we’ve made. Yet from what I can tell your sins are simple, forgivable. You and them.” The quill flourished over the ink statues. “You’ve only engaged in multiple murders as far as I can tell. What god hasn’t done that? But the question is my little Primordial, what do you intend to do now? You’re quite dull when it comes to knowing about this world, but you still have much to offer me should you want more power before I begin.”

  “I know you’re lying. I’m not a god,” I retorted.

  “Your ignorance is astounding! You claimed your people to have made the world, to have control over us. How can you claim such power and not call yourself a god?”

  I stood in silence without a response.

  “I shall give you time to think. Let us begin grafting Leori’s power on to you.”

  Electricity started coursing through the quill as it descended towards me. It poked and prodded at both Dato and my souls. It was as though my whole body was on fire. A scorching searing pain as soul flesh was torn and ripped away. Until a murky gray liquid started coming from the quill, like ink from a pen. It filled and formed in the gaps that were made. Until finally it ended.

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  I looked in the mirror and saw Dato’s goblin body with what looked like a storm cloud on his back. With a golden glow in the center. I forced my will to move the clouds and could see the tick-like soul. Where before I could move the golden soul’s limb, they were now stuck in place. The grey cloud’s energy rushed through me in an exhilarating way.

  “You could try to save them, you know?” A voice whispered around me.

  I sat there for a while. The faces of the statues that dissolved still floated in the black ink sea. How many of us were there? How many have we lost? I spent the time counting. Looking and counting the statues. Around twenty were dead already, another thirty or so still alive. What the fuck was I doing? A goblin warband? Revenge? There were other players sent here like me dying out there.

  “Can I save them?” I asked, calling out into the void. “From your kin?”

  “Mayhaps, my little Primordial. Are you willing to pay the price?”

  “Which is?”

  “This one.” The quill created a bigger featureless statue. “The one you call GM, she’s unaccounted for. As far as I can tell the holder of the gravest sins. She’s the reason why you're here. Why they are here,” the quill gestures to the statues, “and why they’re dying. She is the very reason why your ilk suffers now. Hunt her down. Lay her bare before the gods to face our judgement. Bring her to justice.”

  “That’s not saving them, only sacrificing one of us.”

  “Then all shall die.” The ink statues began to shake and ripple. Slowly melting back into the pool below. “Think on it and give my Leori’s soul some time to settle. When you return to the world there’ll be one more gift waiting for you,” Soccra said as the light faded and I spent an age in darkness.

  ***

  I wasn’t expecting a bed. I began sitting up, my body felt strange. Stronger at the very least. Something felt like it was racing through me constantly and violently. I wasn’t sure how to let it out, but I wanted to.

  The book was chained tightly resting on a dresser in the room. The room itself wasn’t exactly goblin sized. Before I could get up there was a creaking at the door. My hands clutched around the blankets seeing a hob enter. She wore a maid outfit and was thickly built, muscular with short cut hair. Her eyes were unnervingly empty, almost lifeless. The maid stood there for a moment reactionless seeing me up.

  “Hello master Dato. I’m glad to see you’ve awakened. It’s grown rather drab here. Your guests are waiting for you,” She said, showing no expression whatsoever.

  “Who are you?”

  “Of course, my apologies. After tending to your unconscious flesh for so long I forgot we haven’t been properly introduced. My name is
  I glanced over to the book, still locked away behind its dark chains and back to
  “The book?” it asked looking at the book as well. For a split second its face twisted into a wicked smile before returning to normal. “Of course. I am a devoted servant of literature, that book being no exception. You should know you’ve been unconscious for 73 days, 6 hours, 44 minutes, and 3 seconds. Of which I have tirelessly attended to you and your guests for that time. Your second round of guests only arrived 1 day 8 hours, 20 minutes, and 42 seconds ago.”

  “What guests?” There’d been too much shit going on. I needed a break.

  “The initial guests consisted of three evolved goblins. The second round consisted of four dragons, and six dragonkin. Lord Soccra informed me there is only one dragonkin that is of worth and you are acquainted with.”

  I hopped up and headed to the door. The pulsing in my blood needed me to move. Better to see for myself then keep talking with the weird maid thing.

  It was a different hobgoblin village from the one I’d escaped from and it was trashed. There were maybe a dozen houses in its prime. Only a few buildings still stood. In each of the broken buildings were a number of hobs standing there. Their eyes all turned to me when I exited the building. Freaky.

  I started down the village's main street. A bigger house at the village's center still stood. Outside were three yellow scaled and one gray scaled dragon. They wore large metal collars that were staked to the ground in a pitiful state. A brass scaled dragon-person wearing heavy armor watched over them. He glared in my direction before looking away when all the hobs turned to glare at him. Guests? Probably should’ve asked more about them. Seemed a bit too late to turn back though. Awkward at the very least.

  “Dato!” Familiar voices called out. A few smaller footsteps came running from around the corner: Fi, Bato, and Bobo.

  Looking over the group, Fi held a gnarled branch as a staff in her one good hand and light robes, though with some leather appearing underneath. Meanwhile, Bobo was dressed in what looked like thrown together scraps of leather armor. He wore what was probably a shortsword across his back but was big enough on him to look like a greatsword. Lastly, Bato had daggers that looked more like short swords on him with similar armor to Bobo. I didn’t before but I was looking down when talking to them.

  “Are you alright boss?” Bobo asked. “Them strange hobs been watching over ya. We was trying to check on you, but you wasn’t there. Ya’ve been out for months.”

  “Months?” It was weird hearing that, but I guess it had been 73 days. “What’ve you been up to? Why’re there dragons?”

  “Kae’s been helping get us ready,” Fi said with a boastful smile, “also said them dragon lord’s a friend of yours”

  “Kae? Who’s that?”

  “That is us, master Dato,” All the hobs in the village said in unison. “Unlike you, our true name is too complicated for their minds to handle. So an exception was made on how they may address us.” So
  That shit was creepy though and unexpectedly my gobs were unphased by it. Though I guess they’ve had months to get us to it. The dragons and dragonkin guy seemed rather bothered by it. The guy kept a hand on his sword while the dragons rattled their chains.

  “What did you mean that the dragonlord’s a friend? I don’t know any dragons.” My gaze jumped between the different hobs, not sure of who to look at.

  “Perhaps not in this world. He is another of your ilk that Lord Soccra found and graciously negotiated a meeting for you.” An alien voice rushed through my head.

  Wait, another player? I wracked my brain, I still couldn’t remember anyone’s names, their real names at least. I pushed past my gobs and started running forward to the bigger building in the village. In all odds I knew them, right? Whoever it was.

  Bursting through the doors, it was warm inside and the dragonkin were sitting down around a fire for a meal, well, except for the one outside and the other chained in the corner. At the head was golden scaled dragonkin with platemail similarly adorned with gold.

  Our eyes locked at my entrance as though we both suddenly knew the other. He was me afterall, or at least one of my other characters.