The Shadow Goblin awakened with a groan as his head pounded to the beat of the great drums, the booming sounds nearly splitting his skull open. "What," he groaned as he rolled out of his bed and fell to the floor naked, "is that damned racket?"

"No idea what you're talking about." His wife answered as she flipped through the pages of the heavy book she was reading, having done so many times before. "You haven't moved all day so I assumed you were dead."

"Yeah you wish." He responded as he clutched his skull and stood, looking to his Human wife reclining on her bed at the opposite side of their room. A shackle fixed to a leg of the bed and secured around her ankle insured that she couldn't go more than a few feet from it. His bed was far enough away that she couldn't reach him even when trying her hardest. He learned on their wedding night that if he allowed her anywhere near his sleeping form that she would try to strangle him.

When he asked his Father for a wife 'with some spirit' he did not mean one that tried to kill him every time they had sex. He couldn't even say her body made up for it; big tits, a nice ass, long black hair, and gold eyes did not help him keep it up when she was trying to rip his throat out.

"So, how you doing this morning?" He asked as he moved to their dresser and a small bowl of purplish berries on top of it. He took one and popped it into his mouth, the juice foul tasting and tingling his tongue. The booming drums eased away into nothingness and he let out a content sigh.

"It's evening." She answered dryly as she closed the heavy book shut and laid it on her nightstand next to her lit candle. "What were you doing last night? Trying to empty the Nest's stock of ale by yourself? You smelled like a brewery."

'Coming to grips with the fact that my Father may be going mad in his old age.' The Shadow Goblin thought as he pulled out a drawer and got some child sized pants. "Heard that there was a new shipment of girls getting in, wanted to see what all my still bachelor brothers and nephews would be petitioning Father for. Met with a few, got some drinks, and I decided to warn them all about the joys of married life." She sneered at his lie. "Aww, don't make that face honey." He said as he turned around and walked over her. She flinched and recoiled slightly as he approached.

"What do you want?" She asked as he neared her bed. "Don't you have something to go do?"

"In a minute," he reassured as he stopped at the side of her bed, "how you doing really? You coming along okay?" His eyes flicked to her slightly bulging stomach under her pink nightgown which held their growing children.

"I'm fine." She answered firmly. "If they don't come by tomorrow morning then it'll be tomorrow afternoon, you know that."

"Yeah, yeah I know." He said raising his hands up in defense. "Just… do they… feel any different than the others?" He asked, still without any proper sons despite being married three months. All he had spawned so far had been the same idiots that could be found anywhere in the world, squatting in caves and living in filth.

"No." His wife sneered as she answered having developed joy in his continued denial of proper sons.

"Alright fine!" He exclaimed as he turned and stomped away back to the dresser. "I just heard from some of my brothers that their wives can tell when the batch is special alright?!"

"I'm not a nut case whose been raped into obedience!" She proudly declared. "They may be allowed to walk freely but I still have my dignity!"

"You know you could be thankful then, considering that you got paired off with me and not sent down to the Breeding House to be used as a reward for good little worker Goblins!" He shouted back as he pulled out a drawer and put on a child sized shirt. "Hell, even before that! When Father had his agents buy you and all those other girls at the slave auction you were about to be sold to the fucking Dark Elves!" He slammed the drawer shut and turned to face her. "Do you have any clue what they would have done to you?! Any idea?!"

"Stay away from me!" She cried as she picked up her book and held it up to throw it.

"They would have started with hot iron, branding your skin with the symbol of whatever clan fucking owned you." He took a step forward, pink eyes locked with hers. "Then they would have bled you, hanging you upside down for days but using their magic to keep you alive. Your blood would be used in whatever sick fucking ritual they got going on that week." Another step and her arms began to tremble. "Then you have either been put to public or… private use." A step and her eyes started to tear up. "Public use means anything from being a pack animal for whoever currently holds your leash to being used as a live target for the trainee slavers and their lizards. But private use," he said as he took another step, "that's some real sick shit."

"Please… stop." She asked, tearing up as he got closer.

"What's wrong?" He asked softly continuing forward. "Don't like thinking about how this is the best you could have hoped for?" He grinned evilly as he stopped suddenly. "That when your family sold you they were fine wi-"

She screamed in anger and flung her heavy book at him. The moment before it hit him his flesh burst into grey smoke and the book sailed through it, crashing to the stone floor. The smoke flew through the air, under his bed, and around back to her bed. The candle on her nightstand went out as the smoke came together above her to become the Shadow Goblin again, now holding a long dagger in his right hand. His left hand went to hold her mouth shut before she could scream and he rested his dagger against her neck. His night vision allowed him to see the terror in her eyes clearly.

"I thought I told you to stop trying to hurt me Susan dear." He said coldly, her body trembling. "I've given you three months now, this behavior is just childish now. I'm tired of making excuses for you, for having to keep you locked up like this because I don't know if you'll try to run the second I take my eyes off you."

She tried to say something and he just applied pressure on her mouth with his left hand.

"Quiet. Here's what's going to happen. You have two more weeks." He started. "If I don't see you behaving by then, and really behaving not acting, then I'm going to have to get remarried. You understand?" He let go of her mouth and she sucked in a breath.

"Yes… Charles." She answered and he smiled at the use of his name, stepping off of her bed and throwing his dagger back onto his.

"Great! Glad we understand each other dear." He turned as she tried to wipe her eyes clean. "Well I'm off. I'll check to see if they have any dresses in your size down in the Treasure Room. One way or another you'll be coming out of this room for the first time in three months. And I'll be damned if you aren't looking your best!"

Susan broke down into sobs as the Shadow Goblin stepped out of their home, not for the first time leaving her crying and afraid.

The upper floors of the Nest were where all of the Father's children and their families lived, enjoying fine stone construction of once upper class Dwarven homes and the warmth of still active lava flows to light it. The Shadow Goblin walked passed a Hobgoblin, his cousin Mark, walking with his wife, a Human named Rachel, carrying wood while she carried blankets and pillows. Three young Goblins, a best three days old, following behind all sharing the pink eyes that made up the "upper class" of this Nest.

He gave them all a warm greeting and listened patiently to Mark and Rachel's plan to build beds for their new additions. Desperate as he was for sons of his own he didn't see much point to it, within two days they'd have reached maturity and be capable of living on their own. Then they'd be assigned work by Father and given homes of their own, there were still plenty to go around as Dwarf nobles often built multiple guest houses.

Bidding them luck he continued on his way to the Treasure Room, once the grand vault of the ruling family of this Dwarven city. Now it served as the storehouse of all the goods that had been scavenged from the ruins and from their patrols and raiding parties. Inside he found of all sizes laid out, various pieces of furniture, and the great pile of gold, silver, and treasure in the center. All of this more or less free to take, social pressure kept most from getting greedy with their possessions.

"Ah, Charles!" A Goblin Lord, his older brother Lawrence, called as he entered with his elven wife whose name escaped the Shadow Goblin. "Just who I was hoping to see!" He said a quick word to his wife who smiled and went on her way to the furniture as he walked to join the Shadow Goblin at the clothes section.

"Brother Lawrence." He greeted, looking up at the Goblin Lord who like all his kind stood just under normal Human height. "What's up?"

"Father has a task for you." His older brother revealed. "We have not heard word from the expedition to…" he glanced at where his wife browsed the furniture and then bent down to whisper to him, "find Kin Killer since they reported that Roger was killed. Father fears the worst."

"Really? I thought deliberately seeking out the one guy who makes a name for himself hunting our kind would go perfectly." The Shadow Goblin responded sarcastically. "So what does Pops want? He want me to lead a reinforcement or rescue party or…" He trailed off, not speaking the third option aloud.

"Yes, that." The Goblin Lord confirmed with a grimace. "I believe that younger brother Albert is still at his workshop near the fields. If you leave now you can still catch him."

"Right, well I'll see you later. Say hi to your wife for me." The Shadow Goblin asked as left the Treasure Room empty handed.

Leaving the upper floors behind the Shadow Goblin descended into the lower floors of the Nest, the glow of the lava flows fading away into pure darkness. Not that this was a problem for the hundreds of Goblins that lived down here. The streets were packed with Goblins of various kinds pushing and shoving each other as they went about on some ordered business. Some of the nimbler ones climbed above the streets and scurried along the roofs of the buildings or over the rubble that littered most of the Nest.

"Out of the way morons!" He shouted as he stepped onto Main Street. "Goblin with at least average intelligence coming through!" The Goblins, trained to recognize and follow the orders of every Goblin with pink Human eyes, parted and pushed against each other to allow for him to walk unimpeded. He made his way to the old mining tunnels of the city, the main tunnel and gate buried under a pile of rubble long ago, and along the way passed by what had once been an honor dueling ring. Once upon of time this arena had been used to settle matters of honor between Dwarf clans and celebrate holidays dedicated to the Dwarven God's of War, Honor, and Nobility.

Now it was the Breeding House, a long line of eager Goblins of all kinds snaking down the road waiting to get inside. The Shadow Goblin nodded to his nephews that served as guards, thankful that he no longer had to pull such duty. The smell of the women inside often excited the Goblins waiting outside and made them difficult to keep orderly, he sometimes had to beat a few down to stop a riot from breaking out.

That had happened only once, before he was born, but his elder brothers and Father spoke of the event and result on the defenseless women with disgust and horror.

His nephews waved as he passed taking the silver coin from a common Goblin who hurried inside as soon as the door was opened to him. All of the Goblins in the line carried a single coin, most silver and rarely a gold. These were rewards from their managers for good or superb work and would earn them time with the women who were not married off upon arrival. Silver got the Goblin access to a "common room", one of the old duel rings, where 3 to 4 women would be available for group use. Gold got them access to a "private room", anything from a repurposed private booth to old cleaner closets, where they would have a woman all to themselves.

Continuing passed this the Shadow Goblin continued walking for an hour, the crowd around him slowly thinning into nothingness, until he arrived at a roughly built gate in the side of this city's surrounding cavern walls.

"Hey! Aradan! Open the fucking gate!" He called out as Goblins scuttled into view to gaze down at him from the top of the gate. "I gotta go see Al!"

"Dammit! Who the fuck is…" A common Goblin with pink Human eyes shouted as he appeared on top of the gate with the others. "Oh, it's you Uncle Charlie." He said looking down at the Shadow Goblin. "You forget the schedule? We only open at dawn and dusk, Al will b-"

"You'll open 'cause I got orders from Father, I need to see Al now!" The Shadow Goblin cut him off. "So just open up will ya?"

"Alright, alright!" Aradan shouted throwing up his hands. "You heard him deadbeats! Get to work!" He ordered and the Goblins went quickly to work, working pulleys and levers to begin the process of raising the crude gate. "So what's going on?!" Aradan shouted over the noise.

"Got no word from the party sent after Kin Killer! Need to check in!" The Shadow Goblin replied, having not been told to keep his task a secret.

"Well fuck!" Aradan replied, the platform he stood on shaking as the gate settled into place. "That sucks!"

"Yeah no shit!" The Shadow Goblin responded as he walked through the open gate into the abandoned mining tunnel out of the Nest.

The walk through the abandoned mining tunnels was uneventful, any beasts and monsters routinely cleared out by patrols and the way guided by Shaman Totems. After an hour and a half of walking he came to the opening of the tunnel and he stepped out into the light of a evening sun peaking over the mountain ranges all around him. Walking to the edge of a cliff he looked down at the valley below that was shadowed in darkness and had been cleared of trees and was now covered in fields and crude buildings. Stepping away he turned to begin walking down the winding cliff side path that snaked down the side of the mountain to the valley below.

The trip down only took a few minutes and soon he was walking among the Goblins that worked the fields as they backed up and readied to end their day's work. Almost all of them were Shamans, their yellow goat like eyes marking them as beneath him despite having magic at their command. They tended to great bushes in the fields that grew the same purplish berries that he had eaten when he woke up only a few hours ago.

"Yo, berry picker!" The Shadow Goblin said to the first Shaman he came across. "Where's your boss? Where's Al?" The Shaman pointed to a large barn like structure at the edge of the fields. "Thanks, now get back to work." He walked passed the Shaman as he sneered behind his back and muttered curses to himself in Goblin. It was simple but it roughly came out to "Big walking shit eater." The Shadow Goblin pretended to not hear him as he walked to the barn and found the main doors wide open. "Hey Al I need you to tell m-"

His words were cut off as a large wooden contraption was wheeled out of the barn, pulled by a team of common Goblins. A Goblin Shaman dressed is clean white robes and bent glasses followed them and noticed his brother standing there watching. "Oh hello Charles, what brings you out here so late in the day?" He asked as the Goblins stopped pulling the contraption and now started pushing it to apparently face away from the fields.

"What's all this?" The Shadow Goblin asked as he watched the Goblins work a crank that pulled a large spoon looking piece back.

"This is a Catapult." Albert said with a great deal of pride. "Father has tasked me with building a number of devices from some schematics he had purchased. Next I'm hoping to build a Callista and then something called a Siege Tower." He closed his eyes and shook his head. "Although that will take a great deal more materials and wor-"

"Raaa!" A Goblin cried as it climbed into the spoon looking piece. "Thaarg!"

"Wait a moment." Albert said when he saw what the Goblin was doing. He walked over to the Catapult and looked at the common Goblin happily sitting in the spoon. "Get out, that's for rocks not good Goblins." The Goblin ignored his overseer and continued to rock in place smiling like an idiot. "Stupid and disobedient. Fine." Albert frowned as he walked over to a lever on the side of the Catapult. "Have fun then."

Albert pulled the lever and the rope holding the spoon back was let loose sending it crashing forward into a wooden bar held in the air. The Goblin in the spoon thing went flying as his seat was forced to stop, screaming in either joy or absolute terror.

"Hahahaha!" The Shadow Goblin laughed as he saw the little green dot fly away a great distance and then crash into the ground. The body managed to fly back into the air when landing before crashing down again. "He… he skipped! Like a rock!" He said through his tears, not seeing something this funny in a long time.

"Yeah," Albert said with a smile before turning to one of the remaining Goblins, "go mark where he landed with some rocks or something." The Goblin nodded and ran off while the others worked the crank again to reset the Catapult. "Now back to why you're out here?"

"Whoo." The Shadow Goblin breathed as he calmed down. "I need, I need to know which Work Group is matched with Expedition Party C. We haven't heard anything from them since they found out that Kin Killer murdered Roger." He explained, remembering from the report that they had found their brother with his head bashed into paste and his guard dead. It had been a major contributor to his binge drinking yesterday.

"Well you're in luck because all of my work group is matched with them." Albert smiled and gestured to the Goblins working on the Catapult. "Feel free to take one of them."

"Thanks, I'll…" The Shadow Goblin stopped talking for a moment and got an evil idea. "You said all of your work group right?" He asked as he turned to face the fields and looked at the Shaman that had muttered insults to him. "Even the Shamans?"

The Goblin Shaman behind him whined as they climbed the long circle staircase up to the highest point in the Nest. "Quit crying." The Shadow Goblin ordered as he continued up the stairs, seeing a light at the top. "We're almost there." Soon they had reached the top of the long staircase and he pushed the door open revealing a small chamber.

Before them was a mostly empty space that was open to the outside and faced the setting sun. The peaks of the mountains and the clouds were below them as this chamber was at the very peak of the mountain that their Nest was settled in. "Alright now stand in the cent-" The Shadow Goblin was cut off as a common Goblin silently stepped out of the shadows to stare at him, its chest bearing a strange red claw marking. Before long three more had emerged from the shadows to stare at him and the Goblin Shaman silently.

"Ah, I'm… sorry to disturb you all." The Shadow Goblin said, he had always been a little creeped out by these strange Goblins. They refused most tasks, spent almost all their time up here, and still somehow managed to convert others to their little cult. The only time they had willingly joined any Work Group or Expedition Party was the one to find Kin Killer a couple weeks ago. That should have set off a lot of warning bells now that he thought about it. "I'll be done in a few hours so just ignore us okay?"

The red marked Goblins stared at him for a moment before turning and returning to the shadows again. Sighing he beckoned the Shaman to follow him into the center of the chamber. "On your knees." He instructed and the Shaman did as commanded, too tired to reject a chance to rest. As he walked around to stand behind the Shaman he caught a glimpse of a doorway in the shadows that the red marked Goblins had disappeared into and for a brief moment he saw a room filled with candles and single suit of armor, sparkling clean, laid out reverently. There was a flash of a face from one of the Goblins and the door was shut, leaving nothing but shadows again.

"…Fucking freaks." The Shadow Goblin muttered as he laid his hands on the Shamans head. "Face forward, eyes closed." He commanded and the Shaman did so. "Think of your family, your brothers from your Father and Mother. Breathe slowly." The Shaman's breathing slowed as commanded, doing its best to remember how many brothers it had from the same Father and Mother. "Good." The Shadow Goblin said as he moved to kneel in front of the Shaman, rolling his jaw. "Keep breathing and thinking of them."

The Shaman remained like that for a moment, calmly breathing and thinking of all his brothers that made up this grand Nest.

Then the Shadow Goblin lunged forward and buried his teeth into the Shaman's neck, ripping it open with ease.

"GRAHHH!" The Shaman cried out as it fell back, the Shadow Goblin ripping and tearing its throat more. Blood poured out and over the Shadow Goblin drenching his clothes and face crimson. The Shaman tried to push him off but it was already too weak from blood loss to dislodge him as he began to suck his blood.

"Almost there, don't die yet." The Shadow Goblin commanded as he got off the Shaman and moved to cradle his head up. "Keep thinking about your brothers, you're doing this for them." With that he lifted the Shaman's head up and smashed it against the stone floor. There was a sick cracking sound and the Shaman's body twitched once, his eyes rolling up. Pulling his head back up the Shadow Goblin smashed him two more times before he was satisfied.

Feeling around the cracked open head the Shadow Goblin jammed his fingers into the soft flesh, pushing aside fragmented bone to get to the brains. Carefully he scooped out as much as he could from the tiny hole and ate it, sucking down the pulverized gray matter as he had done a few times before. After eating enough of the brain, about a quarter of it he would guess, he began to feel the voices at the edge of his hearing.

"Good job." He said as he left the corpse and walked to stand in the open air platform of the chamber. Gazing out at the setting sun and the clouds the voices became stronger and stronger. As he kneeled he could make out words. Most of them were Goblin until he came upon a familiar voice.

"You! You! And you! Come with me! We're going to get that son of a bitch! We're going to find Kin Killer!" It was the voice of his brother Thomas, a Shaman that had been part of the party sent to find and bring back the Kin Killer. Judging by his tone and word choice it wasn't going well.

Breathing deeply the Shadow Goblin followed this voice, following it beyond the chamber, beyond the mountains, beyond the lands around the mountains.

He followed it a great distance, nearly losing it sometimes.

"Alright, all of you stand still! I'm going to apply the spell now. If any of you move and fuck this up I will skin you!" His brother warned as he got closer.

The time it took to follow a voice over 400 miles away was great, it took hours for him to perfectly match his hearing and thoughts with the chosen Goblin.

By the time that his spirit had left his body it was night fall, the blood on his clothes had dried and hardened and the Goblins with the red claw markings had come to watch him, surrounding his body with silent staring eyes.

"-hing's first though," his brother Thomas hissed as he opened his eyes and blinked away the haze, "where are my fucking coins?"

"Wha," the Shadow Goblin tried to speak, this body unused to such activity, "wha… what tha hell is goin' on?" He asked as he looked at the scene before him, getting to grips with his surroundings. Before him was a Halfling pressing his dagger against the face of a tied up Elf and standing around them were two Gnomes and two Goblins wearing the exact same clothes.

"Who said that?!" The Halfling asked and looked around wildly and the Shadow Goblin realized that this was his brother Thomas in disguise.

'Meaning that those Gnomes are really Goblins and they,' he looked over at the two Goblins, 'got knocked out of their disguises. But,' his gaze flicked to the blonde Elf tied up and on the ground, 'who the fuck is she?' Clearing his throat to catch his brother's attention he said, "I did Tommy."

"How the fu-, oh no." His brother said surprised until he realized who he was really talking to. The blonde Elf looked supremely confused about what was happening.

"Yeah it's me Tommy." He said taking a step forward and looking down to discover that he was disguised as a Gnome. He looked at his strange hands before continuing on. "Now would you mind telling me what the fuck is going on?"

Down down to Goblin town.