The Goblin Got Away!

by Marc Mangus

  An outcast from his people virtually from birth due to his freakish appearance, Shiz' spent much of his formative years alone doodling with increasingly complex mechanical devices. The Merlogi artificers became threatened by the simple grace and beauty (by their standards) of his designs as he became of age and worked to further undermine his already fragile place in the clan. Little did they know that the little malformed goblin was an open gate to the swirling Essaence of the world...

Tolkemak, Arch Techno-Mage of indeterminate age and race


  Tolkemak is a wizened old man too short to be any of the standard mannish races and too tall to be of the Shire or one who frequents the Underdark realms. He has a biting sense of humor and loves practical jokes. His jibes and pranks are not idle however, and always seem to lead the one on whom they are perpetrated to greater understanding of the world around them. No one knows how old he is but his tales of the Second Age seem unusually vivid. He speaks of the great Loremaster Andraax as if he actually knew him. He also tells of the time when the Coalition came to the world and the failed efforts of the Alchemical Guild to understand their strange Magiks.
  Only taking a charge once an age, Master T found young Shiz' near death one day in a remote tunnel. Tolkemak and his helper Borivan were on one of his months long excursions through the Underdark in search of rare deposits of materials for his Arcane manipulations. The Dwarves, Goblins and other denizens of the deep had long ago learned to leave the Master alone since he was no threat if not interfered with. Tolkemak immediately saw the dance of probabilities swirling around the young Merlogi and decided it has been long enough since his last charge, Ari'amax, had left the fold. He had Borivan gather up Shizlink and cutting his trip short, returned home.
  Tolkemak made his home, of course, in a Place of Power. Among the tangle of roots and boulders 'neath the trunk of a great Tree of Life, only a few of which exist in the world, he worked for decades to forge an inviolate sanctum. The Tree itself was impossibly old and had nearly consumed the power of the Earth Node on which it sprouted. Tolkemak made his home in complete harmony with the Tree, always returned to it more power than he consumed. Over the years both had come to regard the other as somewhat of a Guardian or keeper and shared many secrets. The Tree also made his many Arcane alchemical and techno-magical manipulations virtually undetectable from the outside.
  It was to this place he brought the ailing Shizlink and nursed him back to health. Having been taught to mistrust everyone, at first the Goblin was alarmed and looked for means of escape. He soon learned to trust the Master as his health and personal power increased. He was also held captive by his fascination of the wondrous devices bedecking the Master's sanctum. His tutelage with the Master was difficult and taxing. He had to venture far and wide on many missions for the Master. These trips included going above ground during the daylight; something that was anathema to his people. After a few years, Shizlink came to the realization that these trips were meant to teach him about the world and not to collect items or information for the master; he was far beyond any aide Shizlink could provide. After this, though the workload didn't decrease, it was much more bearable. Shizlink began to experience something almost all the time that he only had in brief periods before: happiness.
  One kind of mission Shizlink always found the most confusing until he made his great epiphany. The master would have him sneak into surrounding farms in the dark of night, find broken equipment or devices, and fix them using his increasing knowledge of Techno-Magic. Sometimes he would find offerings of food, coins or other precious baubles near the broken item he was to fix. He always brought them back to the Master thinking this was how he made money. Once he knew enough of the world to know how valuable the Master's devices were however, he realized how ridiculous this idea was.
  It was on one of these missions that Shizlink's life took a turn for the worse. He was struggling to fix an old well pump powered by internal combustion one night. No matter what he tried the cursed thing wouldn't keep running. Since it was in a covered well house Shiz' didn't notice the sun come up, so intent was he on his work. As he replaced the motor's cover for the tenth time and tried to start it, it popped, sparked and burned out completely. He finally lost control and screamed all the curse words he knew in any language. His tirade was interrupted by Human voices shouting.

Male voice 1: "What was that?! I thought you told me there was no one else on the farm!"
Male voice 2: "There isn't, I swear! I don't know what that is!"
Male voice 1: "You know the penalty for avoiding the Tax. If you can't pay for everyone you'll have to send someone to work in the mine!"
Male voice 2: "NO! Please, I beg you! I only have one son!"
Male voice 1: "Shattup! Browken, go look in the well-house!"

  Shizlink was paralyzed with fear. There was no place to hide in the small building and a Browken (whatever that was) was coming for him. The door flew open and a human man wearing armor and carrying a strange, deadly looking stick framed the doorway. "This must be a Browken" he thought. The man was shocked by seeing a Goblin in the daylight but only for an instant. He raised the stick he was carrying and pulled the trigger. Shizlink's body felt as if it caught fire. Every nerve spasmed and every muscle contracted. Thankfully the intense pain was followed by blackness as he passed out.
  The Merlogi lost track of time as he lapsed in and out of consciousness. At one point he remembered laying on a cold, steel slab with bright lights shining above. Some strange creatures dressed in white loomed above him and seemed to be poking him with something although he couldn't feel it. Sometime later he awoke in a bare, square room. His face and throat ached as if he had been beaten and when he breathed it felt somehow different. He stayed in this room for some time. Every day (he assumed) a small door opened up and a small pellet was pushed in. After a few of these had piled up and he began to get very hungry he discovered they were a very bad form of food.
  Then his confinement ended. Two large humans came into his room one day and fitted him with metal boots that had magnetic collars at the ankles and a green pulsing light on the side. They marched him out into a hallway that became increasingly rough as it descended. Finally he was put into line with a great many other creatures in a long cave tunnel. He recognized Dwarves, Orcs, Gnolls and even other Merlogi. They all had the same droopy, subdued expression. He pushed on the Merlogi next to him and whispered to him in their own language. The other Goblin barely reacted. Then, one of the humans that brought him here yelled "Hey, you little kruz-ball, no talking!" and pressed a shiny silver cylinder to his neck. After that he began to see how important it was to work in the mine and not talk to the other creatures. In fact, he couldn't wait to go down there. After a time, they marched down into the poorly lit tunnel. He could almost feel the rock breaking under his efforts...

  Never seeing the Sun and being drugged out of his mind most of the time contributed to a feeling of timelessness. Shizlink went with the other Merlogi and some Gnolls into the deepest parts of the mine. In these tunnels the air seemed alive with strange smells. Sometimes the humans would come down wearing suits with some kind of breath filters in them. The smells didn't bother Shiz' that much but sometimes it was a little hard to breathe. One day as the work team dug deeper into a particular tunnel, the Gnoll to his right struck his axe into a vein of mineral or metal. As the metal head of the axe bit into the stuff. The sound seemed to echo though the air to Shiz' skin and bone into his very sould. For an instant he could think a little more clearly, then his mind clouded again. The Gnoll continued blithely along striking the rock, the vein, then the rock again until Shizlink thought he would go insane from the effects. Knowing Gnolls to be notoriously lazy, he offered to work during its break period. The Gnoll quickly agreed. Shiz' worked hard on the vein and broke loose some pieces of the strange mineral. He stuffed them in his mouth and took them back with him to his bunk. He began storing these chips under his bunk until he accumulated a small pile of them in a few months. The Master had just begun teaching him of devices that could store power and he began his meditations again with the rocks under his pillow. He would awake completely lucid during the night. It was thus that the plot to free himself began...

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