I did not have to wait long before the stew had been distributed throughout the caves. The goblins had an odd tradition of eating the bodies of their leaders if they died. This was notated in the [Monster encyclopedia], and the main reason I was confident in my plan.
The addition of the extra spell seemed to have a quantitative effect on the [Sleeping Poison] and caused the goblins to fall asleep around d 30 minutes after consumption. I did not know if there had been enough time for the stew to reach all of the goblins, but this was by far my best shot.
When the fat goblin guard's snoring had reached an even pace, I slowly made my way to him. I only hesitated slightly when I approached, and that was from an untimely and ungodly blast of had that came from the back side of the sleeping goblin. The smell caused me to vomit, but it did not deter me from gathering the things I needed from the guard.
The first was the weapon on his side. It reminded me of a pistol, but was decorated in a weird type of runes. The second was a set of keys. The keys were the important part, as I would need them not only to unlock the door, but to unlock the pillory.
When I opened the door, I found the goblin girls passed out on their beds, they were joined by several other goblins. They seemed to have made a dog pile on top of the girl, but she still had a satisfied expression while she slept. I could not help but shake my head, how could they enjoy such a situation? The idea of so many men... I had to stop myself from vomiting again.
I approached the pillory from the front, the women's eyes were wide open as she watched me creep towards her. I swung the keys on my outstretched finger. "How do we do this trade? I need those coins if my plan is to succeed."
The woman smiled. "Just accept the party invite that I will send you, from their I will initiate a trade."
I clicked yes, and the window was soon followed by another one requesting a trade. She quickly initiated the trade in which I accepted. Before I unlocked her, I quickly purchased the spell I had be yearning for.
[Poison Orb]
a modified version of fireball that shoots a ball of contact Poison. Causes the target 5 poison damage per second for 10 seconds. stacks up to 5 time. 5 mana. Evolvable.
Power welled up inside me, and I could not hide the happiness I felt as I did a quiet cheer. The woman let out a small laugh, but impatiently gestured with her eyes for me to keep my end of the bargain.
I nodded as I fumbled between the keys in my hand. On the third one I finally managed to unlock the pillory, freeing the human woman, no freeing Laurel from her bindings. The woman seemed weak, she could obviously barely move as she had been abused and starved for god knows how long.
Eventually she was able to get to her feet. Her body was extremely thin, she looked almost like a husk. Her body must have once been extremely beautiful, but now it looked deflated, her breasts shriveled. I felt pity for the girl as I looked around the room for something, anything that could give her some dignity. Eventually I found a couple cloaks in the corner, they did not smell very good, and were covered in blood, but they were better than nothing. I put the smaller on myself, for the last week I had been naked, but under the eyes of this woman I felt it was dirty and demeaning.
Laurel nodded in thanks as she draped the cloak over her shoulders and covered her head in the hood. She seemed lost as she looked around, her eyes finally landing on the pistol in my hands.
"Do you know how to work that?"
I shook my head "No, I just took it from the guard out there. Do you want it?"
She paused as she looked at me before nodding. "It is not my specialty, but my mana is the only thing about me that is not damaged. I currently can't cast spells, but using it to fire this should not be a problem."
I nodded as I handed her the pistol. I was not worried she would shoot me, as she needed me as much as I needed her at this point. I took one last look around the room before spitting a jar of water in the corner of the room. I quickly retrieved it and shared it with Laurel. The liquid seems like liquid gold to the woman who was half dead. She took a couple deep gulps before coughing harshly. A stream of water leaving her mouth as she did so.
After she was done coughing, she handed it back to me, and for no better reason I put it into my inventory. I had never had a chance to use it before and found that it held room for a total of ten items. I nodded as I saw it, I did not think it was a waste to store water in this space.
After quickly confirming Laurel was ok to travel, I looked towards the door. Now it was time for the truly hard part of the escape.