Chapter Sixteen

The Heart Of The Matter

“So orcs are much the same in the Dreadwood as they are in the Vesve,” Apallin said, before taking a swig of mead, “if somewhat less organized.”

“Orcs are much the same everywhere,” Weimar said with a chuckle. “I’d venture the reason many of the Vesve orcs are better organized comes from working for Iuz. Is it the same for the hobgoblins working for the Horned Society?”

“Sadly, yes,” Chloeithy said, glancing into the embers of the nearby fire for a moment. “The hobgoblins of the Yatils and the Vesve at least fight among themselves more.”

Weimar drank his Big Cedar Log thoughtfully as Chloeithy brushed her hair back behind her pointed elven ear. Chloeithy and her human friend Apallin belonged to the Knights of the High Forest. They regularly drank at the Wise Moose Tavern when they were in Highfolk Town. Weimar met them there, and soon they were swapping stories of defending the forests they loved.

“It’s funny, though,” Weimar said, as he raised his tankard to request a refill, “my gnome friend said that the hobgoblins we killed had tattoos that showed their allegiance to Maglubiyet. Why would they be fighting for the Society?”

Chloeithy and Apallin exchanged glances.

“Can you show us what it looked like?” Apallin asked, as Chloeithy retrieved a quill, ink and some parchment from her pack and lay them on the table.

Weimar’s sketch was rather crude, but it still showed Apallin and Chloeithy what they wanted to know.

“Those are the markings of the Spine Breaker clan,” Apallin said, as Chloeithy put away her writing materials. “What are they doing this far east?”

“They’ve pledged allegiance to the Horned Society, apparently,” Weimar said. “And wouldn’t they be ‘this far west’?”

“The Spine Breakers are one of the most powerful hobgoblin clans in the eastern Yatils,” Apallin said. “And I meant what I said about ‘this far east’, too. The Heart Piercer and Hacker clans would be in their way if they attacked Highfolk.”

“One of the dwarven delegates from the Yatils told me about the fighting happening there between the different hobgoblin clans,” Chloeithy said. “Could the Horned Society be involving itself in that?”

Ugtharn was every inch a hobgoblin war leader. He wasn’t particularly tall for his race, being some five feet and nine inches in height, but he was broad and thick, his plate mail seeming to almost strain to hold in his muscled frame. His skin was blood red in color, his apelike features twisted into a hateful sneer. His eyes smoldered with repressed anger, reflecting an inner fire that seemed apt to explode into volcanic rage at the slightest provocation.

As the chief of the most powerful tribe among the Spine Breakers, Ugtharn was the senior member of the Council of Crippled Helplessness, the tribal leaders who governed the clan as a whole. He’d led the Spine Breakers to victory over the Heart Piercers and the Hackers, and he reveled in his triumph.

Hobgoblins named their clans for the gruesome fates they inflicted on their victims, and the Spine Breakers were no different. Ugtharn and the rest of the Council of Crippled Helplessness stood on a raised platform, looking down at the sight of the Heart Piercers’ and Hackers’ ruling councils kneeling and shackled in two long lines. Two Spine Breaker hobgoblins stood behind each member of the defeated councils. One of the Spine Breakers held a large war hammer, while the other held a long wooden stake.  

Ugtharn smiled, reveling at the anticipation in the air as his clansmen waited for him to give the command.

“For Maglubiyet!” he shouted, as the rest of the Council burst into laughter.

The Council’s laughter was almost drowned out by the screams of the Hackers’ and Heart Piercers’ leaders as the Spine Breaker hobgoblins hammered the wooden stakes through their backs. The floor of the cavern where the leaders knelt soon ran crimson with blood, as they thrashed about in agony. A few of them were nailed directly to the ground, the stakes impaling them through and through and piercing the cavern floor.

Ugtharn smiled. A few of the Spine Breakers’ defeated rivals survived their grisly impalements, their every living moment one of unbearable agony. The Spine Breakers weren’t completely heartless, though. They would eventually put the crippled hobgoblins out of their misery.

Eventually.

Relaxing in his private quarters sometime later, Ugtharn poured himself some of the fine wine he’d claimed from the Hackers’ treasure hoards. He also made sure to pour some for his guest, before they sat down in comfortable chairs on either size of his blazing fire pit.

Ugtharn’s guest didn’t look like he would’ve been welcomed by most hobgoblins. He was small and slender, just over five and a half feet tall, and he didn’t seem to have an ounce of muscle on him. He wore a thick hood and cloak that seemed to almost engulf him, his features hidden behind a full facemask. Most hobgoblins wouldn’t have respected him, disdaining someone who looked so weak, but Ugtharn had good reason to feel differently.

“Everything worked well, I trust?” the masked man asked, as Ugtharn took a drink of wine.

He spoke the hobgoblin tongue as fluently as any actual hobgoblin Ugtharn had ever met, which made Ugtharn respect him all the more.

“Very, very well,” Ugtharn said, raising his goblet in salute. “Your advice was everything you promised and more.”

“I should hope so, considering that I staked my life on it,” the man said. Ugtharn couldn’t make out the man’s features behind his mask, but he was certain the man was smiling wryly.

“You took a large risk, and you’ll have a large reward,” Ugtharn said. “Ten thousand gold coins’ worth of gems, as you demanded.”

“You won’t have any problem getting the Hacker and Heart Piercer soldiers to obey you?” the man said, raising the bottom of his mask slightly to take a drink.

“What, just because they were our hated enemies?” Ugtharn said, his own smile turning into a malicious smirk. “They’ll obey us…once they know their place.”

Ugtharn laughed at that, as the masked man merely raised his own goblet.

“The Spine Breakers have nearly tripled in number with your help,” Ugtharn said. “Now, we’re hungry for blood and treasure.”

“You’ll find plenty of both in Highfolk,” the masked man said. Once again, Ugtharn was convinced the man was smiling.

They tapped their goblets together in a toast.