>>5807638In her expletive-laced, circuitous narrative, Zith-Zi told you the tale of the rise and especially the FALL of Goblintown. She told you of how her race, and the related goblinoid and orcish peoples of the Goblin Wastes had followed the trade-roads back to their source, and sought a better life than that of an itinerant trader or part-time highwayman—the lifestyle they currently ‘enjoyed’. Over time, more and more had gathered there, building a shanty-town that grew out from the rpsitine, white walls of Hawksong like a bubbling tumour, or a festering wound—
“Or at least you’d think that’s how it was from how the humies bitched about it,” she said with a sneer of derision. “Squeamish fucking prisses. It was built near THEIR fucking waste overflow. If we goblins aren’t afraid to get a little grubby, well, it’s THEIR grubs! Or, you know… Whatever.”
You sat in rapt attention, with a student’s focus. It seemed to throw Zith-Zi off—rather unlike the response of a young goblin, you’d wager—and so she coughed and averted her gaze.
“Anyway,” she continued, “even if the humies never liked us much, we were useful. Cheap labour, gophers and couriers, a good place to buy and sell shit that was ‘outside the realms of good taste’, or usually had tariffs on it, or which… You know, maybe fell off a wagon, got a little dinged up.”
You resisted the urge to wrinkle your nose at the imagined goblin-market, and nodded.
“Then it all came tumbling down,” Zith-Zi sighed. “You know how it goes: a few humans go missing, rumours start spreading. ‘Must be the goblins that took em!’ ‘Have you checked Goblintown?’ Didn’t help that we were near the sewers, either.”
“Because of the rat-monsters,” you interjected, before you could stop yourself.
Zith-Zi stared at you with wide yellow eyes, which narrowed to points.
“What do you know about rat-monsters?” she demanded.
“I know the rumours,” you said. “I’m here for the truth. About them, and about the… Lizardfolk?”
Zith-Zi didn’t speak for a time, sizing you up in silence, and then she sighed, rolling her shoulders and looking away again.
“Well, don’t know about the rat monsters, but the lizardmen are real. Lizard-ladies, too. Skink-skanks, whatever you wanna’ call ‘em.”