Scouting Party
Two days after your arrival at the goblin village, some scouts return from the remnants of the ruins. Rin had sent them out to scavenge whatever they could from the detritus left behind by the arrival of her father’s castle. They returned with a few bags of supplies: steel armor and weapons, most of them twisted or broken. A case of blank scrolls, which could be of use to you. Half a dozen healing potions that miraculously survived the arrival.
Then, there was Mieren’s corpse.
It had shocked you to see her head and body tumble out separately from the goblins’ large travel packs. Decay had begun to set in, and her eyes remain open and staring in death.
“Oh? Is this the woman that foolishly gave her life for you?” says Rin callously, looking down at the corpse. “What a sad end.” Turning around, she sees your expression and stops. She does not say another word.
You walk silently towards Mieren’s body and kneel down. With a wave of your hand, you close her eyes.
“Wait… if they found her body, then my father’s…” Rin asks the goblins something. They shake their heads. That is right – if Mieren’s corpse could be found here, where was Demon Lord Kimaris’s body? Shouldn’t it have come through together with everything else?
But that is a mystery you will have to solve later. For now, you have to decide what to do with Mieren’s remains. Even if you were back in the Seven Kingdoms, reviving her would be near impossible for the priests, not after the decomposition has begun. Not to mention that they would rather kill you on sight than help you. You are not a powerful necromancer either; and even they have their limits, only being able to call back husks of the being’s former living self rather than achieve full resurrection. There were tales of a Necromancer Queen who could achieve such control over life and death – and was later struck down by the Goddesses for her hubris – but those were old stories dating back centuries now…
***
A. You have the goblins dig a purpose-built room under the great hall and you freeze Mieren’s body within it with your magic until you can find a way to bring her back to life.
B. You give Mieren’s body a decent send-off and burial. She would not want you toying about with her remains after her death.
***
You begin working on a spell to allow automatic translation of languages. You are uncertain where you are at the moment, and whether you will meet anyone who speaks your language, or even if the goblin language is any sort of common language for the people in this land. This way, you should be prepared, no matter what creatures you encounter.
In order to create the spell, you need a limited understanding of many different languages so as to identify the differences in linguistic rules: it would be needed to create a framework for the spell to operate within. You already have knowledge of the three common languages within the Seven Kingdoms, but that is still insufficient. You would need Rin’s help, and ideally that of a goblin.
Most of the goblins rarely venture far from their village – Grahferde – the ruins, and its surroundings, seeing themselves as the last guardians of Vaalgrahf’s legacy. Only a few have ever seen another settlement, and even fewer have interacted with non-goblins. Of those few, all but one had been wiped out by your arrival and battle with the minotaur. The chief goblin, who the others called Boss, brought his son to you. As far as goblins go, this was an even punier and scrawnier one than usual; according to Rin, he had been lost in the forest as a child, and enslaved by humans for a few years before managing to escape and find his way back to his people. At the moment, he was the sole goblin left alive that had experience with other cultures, if only because he was stuck looking after the village while the others had bravely ventured to the ruins on that fateful day.
Rin tells you his name: Runde. In his green-flecked, slitted eyes, you see a spark of intelligence beyond that of the average goblin.
As the quiet and shy Runde begins working with you on the spell, you recognize that he has a keen sense for magic. He’s not as good as you are – obviously – but he is talented for a goblin. Thanks to his help, progress on the spell turns out to be faster than you expected. Within two weeks, you have a working prototype.
Universal Translation. It will allow you to understand any speech within ear-shot, and translate your own speech into the language that the listener is most proficient in. You are not sure what will happen if the listener is equally proficient in two or more languages, but you suppose you’ll have to cross that bridge when it comes. For now, it will allow you to communicate with the goblins and learn more about them, as well as the new world you find yourself in.
From words to words; let all be understood. Murmuring quietly, you cast the spell. “Universal Translation.” Runde and Rin are your first test subjects. Looking at them, you say, “Hello. Testing. Can you hear me now?”
Rin nods. “Modern Demonic. It seems to be working as we expected… this is a useful spell coming from someone like you, I must say. Oh, and I am saying this in my own tongue, of course.”
Meanwhile, Runde is trembling, staring at you with glowing eyes. “S-S-Shining One… I hear and obey! I can hear you now!” He falls on his face and prostrates himself before you in awe. It looks like the spell is working just fine. Of course, it is not perfected yet: the mana cost is inefficient, and there is an annoying, buzzing static in your ears whenever it is active. That would take time to fix.
There is a polite but urgent knock at the door.
“Come in,” Rin says commandingly.
A tall, muscular goblin – he reaches almost up to your chest, rather than your waist like most of his kind – strides in confidently, wearing one of the few remaining helmets in good condition that they had salvaged from the ruins. He is missing an eye, an injury he displays proudly like a badge of honour. After all, it is not every day that the Demon God returns and accidentally scorches out your eyeball with a stray bolt while making an easy example of the flaming tyrant that once lorded over your kind.
Upon seeing you, he makes a salute and bows down so low that his helmet slips off, clanging on the floor. “O Shining One, and the Supreme Mistress of Darkness, Grand Princess Rinnefiela, I have urgent news to report!”
Mistress of Darkness? You glance at Rin. What has she been telling them while you had not been able to understand the language?
“Yes, what is it, Robust?” says Rin, her eyes avoiding your pointed gaze.
“Humans have invaded the ruins. They took down the Boss while he was out leading the Second Great Expeditionary Salvage Force! Only Petze made it back, and she is near death, pierced by many arrows. She… she insisted that I bring you this report at once, no matter what happened to her.”
“P-Petze?” squeaks Runde. “She… she’s dying?”
Robust does not reply to Runde, keeping his eyes firmly fixed on the floor.
“How many of them are there?” asks Rin.
“I… I did not think to ask, Supreme Mistress. I am sorry. I suppose… Petze would know.” Robust bows his head even further, seeming to expect some sort of punishment. “This is my failure for wasting your time, Great Ones. Have my life as compensation for my mistake!”
You stand up from your chair. This is a pain, but it sounds like something you should investigate at least perfunctorily. “Where is this Petze?”
At the sound of your voice, a gasp of awe escapes from Robust’s mouth. “Y-Y-Your Radiant Magnificence… you deign to speak to us in our own words! We are not worthy!”
“Yes, yes, we will leave the issue of worthiness for another time,” you say impatiently. “Where is this Petze?”
“Just in front of your old statue, Shining One, she staggered her way in here and bled all over the floor, but she did not mean it! And we will clean up the blood soon, we swear! At the moment, we have our healers attending to her, but she will not survive the day…”
You walk out of your study, heading towards the statue. There, you find it is just as Robust said: a young female goblin is being attended to by the old healers, her body run through by multiple arrows. There are marks of burns and frost all over her back – it seems that the humans have brought spellcasters. Though you can see the healers are doing their best, their traditional remedies of herb poultices would not be sufficient to save her. The healers look up when you arrive and immediately flatten themselves in worship. Cries of “Shining One!” echo around the hall. Ignoring them, you make your way to Petze’s side. Her eyelids flutter and open, her large cat eyes fixing themselves on your visage. She coughs, a bloody froth spilling from her mouth. It looks like the arrows got her in the lungs too.
“My god... Sh-Shining…”
“Calm yourself, Petze. You did well to make it back here, but I need to know the details of what happened at the ruins.”
Nodding her head worshipfully, even on her deathbed, she forces herself to speak. She tells you of how when they arrived at the ruins, there were human soldiers poking around, in shiny armor. She tells you of how the Boss valiantly fought so that they could escape, and how when she last saw him, he was pinned under a dozen spears. She tells you of how she stumbled back here injured, hoping to let you know of the invaders desecrating your land.
“How many of them were there?”
More than three tens, she could not count beyond that many.
“Did they use any magic?”
She nods.
“Did they bear any emblems?”
A flag with a two-headed raven. You are not familiar with that flag – it does not belong to the Seven Kingdoms.
“Where exactly in the ruins did you encounter them?”
She tells you: it is just next to where you fought the minotaur.
Petze coughs again, and her eyes slip shut. She will not be answering anymore questions.
***
A. You use a healing potion on her before she actually dies. She did well to come back and you should reward her bravery. Though you are uncertain if it will work on non-humans, it is worth the experiment: even if it doesn’t, at least you now know it doesn’t before being forced into a situation where you might have to use it on yourself.
B. You do not use a healing potion on her: you only have six, with no guarantee of being able to obtain any more. It would be a waste to use such a precious resource on a goblin, as there are so many of them to go around and so little of those potions in comparison. You will let her die a hero, and save your potions for a rainy day.
***
Next, you need to decide what to do about the humans in the ruins. From what Petze said, they are here for a reason, and it is no coincidence that they were found next to the site of your battle. After all, you had made a very strongly worded statement that could be both seen and heard from miles away.
A. You will head for the ruins. Whether you slaughter them, capture them for interrogation, talk to them or merely observe them… you will decide that after you get there. Bringing whatever is left of the goblin fighters would not be helpful: if this is a force that can defeat you, the goblins would be slaughtered outright. On the other hand, it might not be safe to go alone either, and having secluded yourself for the past two weeks, you are not familiar with the lay of the land yet. You would need a guide. Runde or Robust should be able to take you there, while having Rin at your side would be good insurance in case you run into anything you cannot handle alone. However, you think that one of them should stay here in your absence to keep an eye on things.
You decide to go with:
(Pick two)
I. Rin
II. Runde
III. Robust
B. It is too much of a pain to set foot out of the village. You send out more goblins to spy on the humans while fortifying the village’s defenses with more walls and traps. Perhaps if you leave them alone, they will go away after getting what they want. You will only deal with them if they happen to come your way.
I guess that is what SPOILERS were about. 
