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Of course, the party chose him to find her.
After some time in town, the group had lost track of the grey Tiefling Quanda; she had disappeared. Some had seen her close to the town’s mine and Ghast had been sent down it.
Ghast was having a miserable time. He still hadn’t found the right time to give Olen his necklace and now he was wondering if he’d wasted his money. The thought’s of what he should do were flying through his mind, he just wanted to show that he was more than what his race had been perceived to be, he was not a raider, he was not the savage type. It was becoming a lot harder to prove himself than he anticipated.
As the hobgoblin reached the main entrance via minecart, he leaped out and readied his hammer. As he entered the cave, the smell of many different drugs began to whiff up his nose. Ghast knew he was close. As he cautiously moved through the cave entrance, it revealed a corridor with door-sized holes, leading to different points of the mine. Around him were cobwebs and bones; Ghast was disgusted that no one had come to clean this place, lockdown was no excuse. Ghast followed the smell down the third hole on the right; as he entered the hole, he came to ramp which led him upwards, eventually leading him to an open area. He saw abandoned minecarts all around, some on the tracks, others knocked over on the ground. As Ghast continued, he heard voices, some sounded elegant, while one sounded really weird.
The hobgoblin put away his hammer and hid behind a tipped Minecraft; as he looked over, he saw three human knights following one white dragonborn. As Ghast analysed the four, he noticed they were carrying pots of leaves. Ghast smacked himself, the scent was from that, not Quanda, and he had gone down the wrong hole. The dragonborn turned to his knights and spoke.
“Boys, this is a good day for our little dealin’, with this new herb recipe, our sales will skyrocket.”
The dragonborn’s voice sounded so off, Ghast had no idea what the accent was.
“But sir,” one knight spoke, “won’t the people up there, figure it out, eventually?”
“We’ll be long gone by then, the town needs a cure, and not just this one, all of them! All we gotta do is say it works. One of you will pretend to be infected, then I will ‘cure’ you. this plan is full proof!”
Ghast was inquisitive about the group’s scam. Could that actually work? If it did, lockdown would end a lot sooner. Ghast thought about introducing himself to them, giving them tips on how to scam and getting piece of their bargain. No. Ghast was better than that now, he was not going to scam towns into getting more of their people killed, Olen would not be happy if she found out.
As Ghast continued to think, he heard a crashing sound and looked over the cart again.
“Who’s there?!” the dragonborn yelled.
As the dragonborn and his knights turned to the hole at the end of the cave that led further down the mine, they saw a grey Tiefling fumble towards them.
“Damn… that’s some good shit in there!” she yelled as she tripped over.
Ghast rolled his eyes. Quanda looked like she had been down here for a week, the smell of herbs eradiated from her.
“What the- she’s stealing our herbs!” one knight yelled.
Quickly, all three human knights grabbed the grey Tiefling and brought her to the dragonborn. Quanda managed to look up, her eyes widening before looking away, she was barley awake.
“How is this possible? How did you get through here without us noticing?” one knight asked.
“I- I walked in.” Quanda replied.
“How is that possible? We never saw you.” Said one of the other knights.
“This horned one must be a master assassin.” The third knight stated.
“Enough, boys.” The dragonborn spoke. “This bitch may have costed us a little. Paw, see how much we’ve lost.”
“Alright, sir.” The knight that had accused Quanda of being an assassin replied.
As Paw walked back into the holes, the dragonborn turned back to Quanda.
“You’ve made a mistake today, little lady. My boys are needin’ this here herb hole for our fine sellin’ business.”
“Wha- what? Who are you again?” Quanda replied.
“My name’s Nathaniel. I run this fine herb business. You have just committed theft! I do not like thieves.”
“Hold on!”
Both Quanda and Nathaniel turned at the voice they had heard. Ghast leaped over the minecart. One of the knights then let go of Quanda and unsheathed his sword.
“Who are you?” the knights grunted.
“How the fuck can you be against thieves when you’re planning to scam the whole town?! That’s quite hypocritical.” Ghast spat, crossing his arms.
“You really gonna lecture me, hobgoblin?” replied Nathaniel. “I tell you what, when we start sellin’ this shit, there’s no way we’ll be giving it to creamy, red eyes, like you.”
“Doesn’t that go against selling them?” Ghast retorted. “If you’re pretending this is a cure, but you’re not giving it to everyone, this shit’s still going to be going around and no one will be any safer.”
“No one will be safer, anyway. It’s a scam!” the knight yelled.
“I know it’s a scam,” replied Ghast, “but no one’s going to be buying it if you’re not confident giving to everyone.”
“Pff. Like the people there are gonna care if disgusting peach-faced grunts like you get any.” Nathaniel remarked.
Ghast clenched his fists at the sound of such comments. He understood why people thought that way about his race, most of them were violent, but most of them were also under the influence of Goblin Prime. Besides, the discrimination in this scenario was completely uncalled for.
“Alright, this is where I stop trying to be nice.” Ghast said as he reached for his hammer.
“Nice?” Nathaniel responded. “You’re not nice, no hobgoblin is nice. You ragtag, Owlbear lookin’, human eatin’ tank lickin’, demon fuckin’, piece of shits are all the same!”
Ghast gave the dragonborn a glare before launching a flame right at his face. As Nathaniel screamed in pain, one of the knights ran at Ghast, swinging his sword. The sword directly pieced Ghast’s shoulder, causing him to wince slightly; at this point, he was quite used to being stabbed.
“Ow! Ass!” Ghast spat as he swung his hammer.
The hammer made contact with the knight’s chest, knocking him onto the floor, Ghast then activated the bow attachment on his arm and fired. The bolt hit the second knight directly in the face, killing him. Ghast looked at his arm in surprise.
“Wow, I actually hit something with this.” He commented.
As Ghast was remarking on actually doing well in ranged combat, he noticed the Knight he had knocked over, getting back up. Ghast promptly kicked him the head, knocking him out. He then approached Quanda who was still in a daze.
“Horns… horns! Can’t you not be high for one minute?!”
The hobgoblin shuck her by her shoulders before she looked at him directly in his face and smacked it.
“Ow!” Ghast yelled, rubbing his cheek. “Can you not be like that? I came to find you.”
“Find me?” Quanda said, sounding confused. “I was just on a walk.”
“Walk? You’ve been gone for days, and you’re in a mine!”
“Well… I found a… I found…”
“A stash of herbs. Yeah, I know. But they’re not yours, they belong to other people, alright?”
“But… what if I bought some?!”
Quanda lost balance and fell, Ghast caught her, and helped her onto her feet.
“I don’t think they’re for sale yet.” Ghast said.
Suddenly, they heard the sound of armoured footsteps running from the cave. Ghast turned to see the knight that Nathaniel had called Paw, along with five other Knights. Paw was armed with an axe while the others had cross-guard swords.
“Nathaniel?!” Paw yelled as he saw his master still burning on the ground.
“Shit.” Ghast muttered. “Listen, horns. I need your head in the game here. we are going to be fighting a few humans, can you do that?”
“Fight? No!” Quanda replied. “I can’t fight, Ghast; I’m a pacifist.”
“Don’t even start with that shit!”
“No, Ghast. I will only fight them with words!”
Quanda then turned and faced the knights, she pulled out a torch of hers and lit it to get a better view of the area around her; the herbs had done a number on her darkvision.
“Listen… people. Let’s be peaceful! I am your- your friend!”
As the Tiefling walked forward, she tripped; as she did, the torch shot out of her hand, directly onto Paw. The knight screamed as he was lit ablaze, he fell back, setting the knight behind him on fire, who then fell back himself. Like dominos, it spread until each knight was on fire.
“Great work, horns.” Ghast commented, giving her a friendly pat.
“But- I didn’t mean it!” she panicked.
“Sure…”
Suddenly, the two noticed a shadow covering them; they turned to see Nathaniel looking enraged at them both. In a state of panic and surprise, Ghast immediately whacked his hammer around the dragonborn’s face. He dropped back down before turning on his back to look up at his hobgoblin captor.
“Since you’ve not only broken lockdown rules but also tried to scam people to their deaths, I think I have authority to arrest you.” Ghast charmed.
Nathaniel huffed.
“So… if they’re going to jail…” Quanda started, “can we?”
“Yes, horns. You can keep their herbs. We’ll only need a bit for evidence anyway.” Ghast replied.
“Yaaay!” Quanda screamed before running back into the hole where the herbs were located.
“Just leave some for later!” Ghast yelled.
“Is she your friend?” Nathniel asked, trying to get back up.
“Thankfully, yes. I’d be shit scared if she weren’t.” Ghast replied before kicking the dragonborn back over.