The Thrice-Blessed IC

[Ridai]

(No dice to get Snigbat, but the display helps in other ways.)

Charging into the cave, Sìle follows. A path is cleared for the first few goblins, among them Snigbat, to see Shiver make a huge swing and not only cleave the two bodyguards apart, but continue right through and mulch several of the large rats. Sìle does his part to destroy the last few critters, more a little cleanup than anything else compared to what Shiver did. Teeka still thoroughly savages Hark, now covered in his blood.

Arriving at the scene of the massacre, the goblins are hesitant to get anywhere near Shiver, the giantess hearing the same goblin term over and over. It is not hard to guess it is what Teeka jovially translated as "Murder Mare". She also gets the sense that it sounds less amusing in their crude tongue.

Snigbat, meanwhile, swaggers to the front, grinning because of her easy victory. She says something to the goblins while making a discarding gesture towards the dead goblins' bodies, the still living goblin briefly protesting, before getting smacked by Snigbat and seemingly put in his place, the rest cowed just as much.

"Snigbat now beeg boss! You go now, ugly beeg one, take other beeg ones and run away!" Snigbat says to Shiver with a shooing gesture, extremely full of herself as the new queen of this tribe. Sìle, meanwhile, discovered a small back room, and guides an anxious young human woman out of it (if Shiver had to guess, she was part of the retinue of Nightstone's deceased lady), apparently a captive, perhaps the next meal for the rats.

However, Snigbat discovers something that rankles her. And rankle her it does a lot. The other goblins seem fearful of the blood-covered Teeka as well, who stands up with blood-dripping dagger in hand, all of them seeing the gory result of what she did to Hark. Teeka is leaving a greater impression than Snigbat, and this will not do. As Teeka spits and wipes her mouth once, beginning to walk over to Shiver and Sìle, Snigbat hypocritically shouts "Ugly monster keell gobbers! Snigbat say monster die! Go keell monster, cowards!"

The other goblins do not seem... enthused about the idea of getting closer to the unusual goblin girl who just tore their former boss' throat out with her teeth, but they also fear Snigbat, but they also fear Teeka etc. Shiver, Sìle, and the young woman seem to be entirely ignored. The goblins won't bother them anymore. Over on Teeka's side of things, the girl is shaking with barely contained rage, fixed on Snigbat. Evidently, this is hardly the first time she got backstabbed by the new boss, a lot of old wounds boiling under the surface. But she does not lunge for Snigbat. Instead, she looks up to Shiver and Sìle, perhaps the only people who treated her with any sort of decency in recent times, wordlessly asking them to go, get the villagers, and leave.

Shiver sees the situation clearly. Her show of strength puts her above all goblins present (whether or not that was ever in doubt), so she is safe, and in a position of power. But she also sees a tipping point for the tribe. Leave, Teeka sacrificing herself so the deal stands and they can leave. Take Teeka with her, and batter down any protests Snigbat may attempt. Or... give Teeka that one push needed to have the tribe see who comes out on top. The self-proclaimed, power-hungry, shouting boss Snigbat, or Teeka covered in the former boss' blood.