“Aw crap.” Ian threw up his hands. “What do we do?”
“It’s OK. Let me think for a second…..” I paced the room. “OK. Got it!” I said a small prayer to Pelor and walked out to see the goblins.

“Hi guys. It’s me, Indira. The shining one.” Silence. “I know I look like a dwarf right now. But it’s OK. Pelor has a plan for me. Just like he has a plan for you.”

“As Lingaub can attest, I was dead. Yeah, dead. A beholder killed me. But Buzz saved a little piece of me and my friend Ian was able to perform reincarnation on me. And now look at me. This body (I flexed my arms) is strong. This body (I thumped my chest) is sound. This body is a righteous vessel for Pelor’s work!”
Without thinking about it I gave a Dwarven warcry. “<Thrund. Throng. Trogg!>” (which loosely translates into “Axes. Armies. Ale.”)

Later, as we were packing up to do back down below, Buzz came in. “Your talk really did the trick. They are on fire to do Pelor’s work. Although I think most of them are worried that when they die Pelor will bring them back as gnomes or something!”

A few minutes later Ian was at my elbow. “That was a rousing speech. Well done. Um, but, your Dwarvish is …. unconventional. You are not rolling your Rs properly. And there’s a click that you should do with your tongue on hard Gs….” He paused to see how I was taking this. I smiled encouragingly. “Um, OK and a <thrund> is a crossbow. Not an axe. You should have said <az> that’s the word for war axe.”

“Ian! Leave her alone. She’ll figure it out!” Sadi called from across the room.
“I think we should get in the habit of calling Indira ‘He’. We might be able to use the dwarf body as a spy.”
I turned to Acgar. “You’ve been thinking about this? Interesting idea, but didn’t I just blow it by talking with the goblins?”
“Not necessarily. They are, after all goblins. They’re not known for their acumen.”

I was out playing with some of the other guys in the rougher areas that surrounded my solar home. We were riding some of the smaller, safer, solar waves and having a good time.

We got to showing off and I jumped a huge swell and the next thing I knew, I was being swept thousands of miles into space. It wasn’t great and I was probably going to get into a lot of trouble, but at least I didn’t get caught in some planet’s atmosphere.

Until, of course, I did. It was a small planet with some really primitive natives and I figured they weren’t going to be able to help me get home. So I decided to wander around a bit and wait for the natives to grow up a bit and learn enough magic to help me get home. At least I hadn’t run afoul of any of the native spirits around the place. Until, of course, I did.

So, long story short, not too long ago there was a lot of upheaval and the cage the magma elementals had trapped me in finally broke and I managed to escape. And wow–a lot had changed. The natives were all talking with big words and everything, they didn’t live in caves anymore, and they had far less hair than they used to. I was pretty weak and insubstantial after all that time underground, so I was able to move about and observe them without being noticed. And then I saw it–a doorway home. It had to be–it shone brightly with the sun’s energy and it even smelled a bit like home. Excited, I dashed towards it and leaped through.

Only… it wasn’t a door. It was one of the natives. It turns out that I had entered a priestess of my great great great grandfather, whom these people called Pelor. And when I jumped into her I sort of, well… dislodged her. A little bit. So I figured I’d just pretend to be her for a while until she got back. What could go wrong with that? I did an awesome job of it too. Nobody, and I mean nobody caught on at first. For example–people kept looking at her and using this word, “Indira,” so I quickly searched her mind and figured out how to respond completely appropriately. I even fooled the little Ian named Gnome and something called a “Myntilly.”

But Myntillies, as it turns out, are pretty smart. This one sent a pale little grub-thing to get a piece of paper and when it returned, she used it to look at me. I mean really look at me. Luckily, she was pretty impressed, which just goes to show that Myntillies aren’t too smart. I mean–if she thoughts I was impressive–she should get a load of my big sister! Anyway, this Indira I was inhabiting and her friends were really worked up about something called a Drakthar and some demons that were going to open a portal, or something. I suggested we just wait a few thousand years and let it all pass, but they didn’t much care for that idea. So, I offered to help. I figured anything the Indira could do, I could do too–probably better. I mean, Pelor is my great great great, etc.

The Myntilly asked me if I knew the difference between good and evil. I wasn’t sure what she was talking about, but I covered pretty well and reassured her I knew all about good and evil. I wondered if this was some new thing the natives had come up with. Anyway, convinced that I’d be super-helpful, they started making plans. As they researched caves and debated about their next step, I got to thinking about the grub-things and portals. The grub-things were good at running errands, evidently, and a portal wouldn’t be a bad way to get home. So I sent four of them off to fetch me some sand. I figured if I could make a big enough glass lens, I might be able to project myself home. If I could safely get out of this Indira, that is. I could tell her mind was still in here, but it felt pretty far away still.

We decided to go to someplace called the Fiery Sanctum by swimming to the bottom of a lake… well, no we didn’t. We decided to have a grub-thing swim to the bottom of a lake first, so we could skip the swimming and just teleport in. We cast a lot of spells on him first–so many that he was barely recognizable as a grub-thing anymore–and off he swam. Something happened while he was swimming and everybody was gathered around the scrying bowl watching intently. I didn’t pay much attention because I was a little nervous about going underground again. What if the magma elementals were waiting for me?

The rest was a bit of a blur. The grub-thing reached an underground cavern, we teleported in, there was a big door that Gnome used some little chime-thing on to open it and the next thing I knew, we were fighting some big and terrible thing in a room that made my face hurt.

When I saw this thing–I suddenly knew what Myntilly meant by evil. You see, most things–like me and the Divas–consume some light, but we turn it into more light that we release back into the world. I do this literally (when I’m not trapped in an Indira), but for the Divas and the other natives, they did it more… um, metaphorically. This thing, however, consumed light and kept it. There was no light emanating out of this thing at all. It was dark and more than little creepy. And I knew we had to free the light it had consumed by cracking it open in any way we could.

The Divas were already at it–shooting it with arrows and such. They didn’t seem to be slowing it down much. So I commanded it to stop. I’m related to a god, after all, it’s rude to rush me when I’m still getting the hang of being mortal.

It didn’t listen to me, unfortunately, but kept rushing across the room.

Now I was mad. So I made it stop. And it did. Completely.

The Divas tied it up and took its weapon away. They also took away some jewelry and little round bits of metal it had. They seemed to know this creature and were debating about whether to kill it, or talk to it once it was able to move again. I watched it and realized that there was only going to be one way of setting its light free. I was going to have to bash it open. So I took this heavy bit of metal the Indira carried and hit it in the head. Several times.

It didn’t work. No light came out–just lots of red liquid and little chunks of pale meat. Was it possible that this thing was so corrupted that it could no longer even consume light? I couldn’t bear to think of it. When it finally slumped over onto the floor, I had a terrible ache inside me. It was like someone had been hitting me in the stomach while I hit the thing in the head. I turned and was violently ill, spitting up something from deep inside the Indira. It would be a while before I could bring myself to do that again–if I was even going to have the time. I could tell the shock of the experience had weakened my connection to the Indira and she was rising rapidly. Maybe she could take over for a while and I could rest. I imagined she was much more used to this sort of thing than I was.

As we rounded a corner, so close to our destination, we discovered that lava had bubbled up and flowed into the street. The heat coming off it was amazing.

At first all I could think of was how tired I was. We’d had a busy morning already. And then I realized that there were people on the lava flow! We had to rescue them.

A few had sunk into the lava. Their clothes were smoking and I thought they were unconscious. Others were standing quite still on top of the lava. I was reminded of the one time I’ve seen an ice covered lake. The people were trying to gently move and not break the ice.

The goblins, blessed their little souls decided to help out with a bucket brigade. They slowly inched out on to the lava, cooling it one bucket of water at a time.

Ian summoned a water elemental and had it touch down near the townspeople. Myntilly flew out to the center of the flow, trying to save the two people stuck in the middle and sinking fast. She was only able to recover their bodies, unfortunately.

I shed my armor as fast as I could and walked out onto the lava flow. I cast ice shield on myself. I reasoned that if the lava hurt me, it would take cold damage and thereby cool down. I moved with slow deliberate steps. Only once did the footing seem treacherous and, by the will of Pelor, I was spared any burns. A few of the goblins were burned and as I worked to heal them, one of the taller ones stayed at my side. As near as I can pronounce his name is Grruk. He speaks some Common and to help keep everyone calm, I talked with him as I treated his friends and brothers. Soft, soothing voice, slow steady movements. I didn’t want a goblin stampede on my hands. Well the side effect of the time spent is that Grruk says he wants to know more about my god, that a god with a powerful healer might be worth noticing. I will encourage his interest as best I can.

After that ordeal, and the two preceding, I just wanted a change of clothes and some quiet contemplation. When we got to the temple, with 15 goblins in tow, well it caused a stir. Buzz greeted us with a smile and immediately began flipping coins with the three goblin leaders. He says it’s a common game among the goblin tribes.

Kristoff came out to the garden and stopped dead when he saw the goblin troupe. He hurried over to me. “What is this?” He hissed in my ear, pulling me aside. “Kristoff, these are goblins who’ve been working under the city, in Drakthar’s way. They will stay here the night and in the morn– ”
His eyes got wide. “Stay here? Stay here? By who’s authority will they be staying here, Indira? Hmm? Junior cleric, Indira Burningwood, who says they are staying here?”
“Kristoff, I don’t want to play any power games with you, OK? It’s important. Isn’t that enough for you?”
“You have finally gone to far. I am going to write to the Council.” And with that he stormed off.

Lady Hollyamber Swordhand, a fellow cleric, came up beside, looking at Kristoff’s retreating back. She laid her hand on my arm. “Don’t worry, daughter. I’ll talk with him later.” She turned and looked into my eyes. “You presume too much, though. Imagine his life, yes? His duty is to the temple and her people, to Cauldron and its souls. Kristoff is yoked to the day to day. You fly off to glory and riches, but that does not make you his superior. In Cauldron he is your spiritual father.”
With that she walked away, leaving me to the silence of my own mind.

“The goblins? What on earth for? Foul little buggers, they’ll try to bite and –” Myntilly smiled. “We believe they have information that might be of use.” He blinked suddenly. “Of course. Of course! How could I not see that?! This way.” Myntilly flashed a quick smile at me. Not that she needs it but a quick eagle’s splendor spell can really make people see things your way.

The smell was stronger in the cell block. About 15 goblins were crowded in together. When they saw us most shuffled to the back. Three of them stayed put, looking sullen.
In order to cast her language spell, Myntilly needed to touch one of them. She held out a shiny copper penny. The tallest of the three raced up and grabbed it.

Myntilly spoke to them for a few minutes in Goblin. “They keep saying that Drakthar is dead and then long live Drakthar. Weird. They say that they simply move crates from one end of the tunnels to the other. Metal, ore, materials.” I thought for a moment. “Is Drakthar undead, do you think?” The tallest goblin spoke up. “Friend of Shining One, Drakthar can never die. He is dead.” I raised my eyebrows. “You speak Common? Excellent. I want to meet Drakthar.” The goblin started at this. He retreated to whisper with his brothers. When he came back his brows were furrowed in thought. “Drakthar is dead. No meetings.” I leaned forward. “Take us into the tunnels. We will see for ourselves.”

At that moment the earth shook violently for almost a minute. When the shaking stopped, I heard a faint grinding noise. “Oh god. The building. It might collapse. Krewis! Get these goblins out of the cells. Now!”

We raced to the front door. There it was easy to see that the noise was from across the street.

As we watched, a man crawled from the rubble. I knelt to heal him and he grabbed my tunic. “My family. Wife. Daughters.”

Ian and Brus were beside me by then and Myntilly and Acgar joined us.

Sergeant Krewis and the goblins stood in the street.

Ian quickly took charge. “Let me take a moment to assess.” He walked as far around the rubble as he could. He rubbed his chin. “Yes. Yes that will work.”

“Seargeant! If you please, bring the goblins here.”

He pointed to the far side of the rubble. “They can begin to clear the stones away.”

Acgar summoned Hamouk, her mount. “Where do you want us?”

He pointed to my left. “Try to drag these big pieces away.”

Acgar fashioned a rope harness and in no time Hamouk was hauling large debris from the site.
As the survivors were pulled from the wreckage, Myntilly and I gave first aid.

As the entire family was hugging and thanking us for saving them, Quinlan arrived.
“Damned earthquakes. We can’t catch a break. Glad you were here.” He turned and saw the goblins. “Krewis! What in Garl’s name do you think you’re doing? Those are goblins, man! I’m surprised they didn’t slit your throat and loot your body in all this chaos.”

I raised my hand to get his attention. “What?” He snapped at me. “Quinlan, it was my idea to use the goblins. I thought the jail was collapsing and I ordered Sergeant Krewis to bring the goblins out. Then it just seemed natural to put them to work.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “You ordered one of my men? You ordered one of my men?”
Myntilly hurried over. “Hello Captain Quinlan! I must commend Sergeant Krewis. He showed great valor in this rescue. A lesser man would have lost control of the goblins. It’s obvious that you’ve trained him well.” I wasn’t sure if my splendor spell was still active, but Myntilly was on a roll.

Quinlan turned his back to me. “Why,” he asked Myntilly quietly, “did you release the goblins?”
“We want to go down into the tunnels. Into Drakthar’s way.” She paused. “It’s a good plan. And the goblins, well, they seem to look up to me. There’ll be no trouble.”
Quinlan was silent for a long moment. “OK. But they better show up for their court date.”