Chapter 2 - Part 3

“Hi, Fidget,” whispered a voice.

The goblin dropped the bag of metal fastenings it was carrying and turned around with a jump. A stern face was looking down at him. “Delegado! What in the name of The Six are you doing here?” Fidget began to quiver and thought he might wet himself.

“Looking for someone,” the half-orc said. He gave a small frown, to show his irritation. “I’ve been wasting a lot of time topside of the city.” Fidget swallowed. “Not looking for you though, so relax.”

Fidget nodded and picked up the bag, waiting for what the half-orc would say next. He knew Delegado would tell him when he was done.

“Yeah, four hours of walking since I got to this town. Criss-crossing my trail, bribing people, looking, talking to my bird – have you met my bird? – and dealing with gnolls. Never did like gnolls, but at least they’re all in Droaam now, or near enough of all. Anyway…all that work, and I have nothing. It’s very irritating.”

“I can imagine,” Fidget said guardedly, waiting for Delegado to tell him what he wanted. Fidget was in awe of many beings that were stronger than he was, but only Delegado had ever given him nightmares. It was because of Delegado that Fidget had fled from Breland to begin with.

“So I come down here, figuring it’s time to check out the tunnels of the undercity,” Delegado explained. “And who do I run into but my old pal, Fidget!” The half-orc smiled again. “You’re not selling fake gold mine maps anymore are you, Fidget?”

“No, no, honest work!” the goblin insisted. “Construction! I’m an architect’s assistant!”

“I know,” Delegado said, crouching down to look Fidget in the eye. “The gnolls told me. Your boss is Fainth, the shifter woman.”

“Uh…yeah,” Fidget said, totally confused as to the half-orc’s purpose.

“And you also run dice games…”

“That’s legal here!”

“With shaved dice…”

“Nobody proved that!”

“And you’re still selling information…”

Fidget suddenly realized that this was a good meeting after all. “Well,” he said. “Well, well. Ahem, yes.” He put the bag down and held his lapels of his filthy tunic while puffing his chest out. “Indeed. House Tharashk needs my help, eh? Well, for a nominal fee, for an old friend, a nominal fee –”

Strong hands grabbed his throat and lifted him high off the ground. Fidget’s visions swam, and he fought for air that did not come as Delagado held him high. “I don’t have a lot of time,” Delegado said, the half-orc’s words seeming to come from far away. “Let’s pretend we already bargained and came to terms and I already paid you, eh?” The ground rushed at Fidget and slammed into him painfully as Delegado dropped him.

The goblin slowly got up, spitting blood from a cut lip and holding his bruised side. “You – you didn’t have to be like that, Del,” Fidget insisted. “I’ll tell you what you want.”

The half-orc stooped again and stared at him. “Don’t galig with me, Fidget, I’ve been dealing with goblins long enough to smell their galig.”

“I won’t! I won’t!” Fidget promised, gasping. He didn’t speak orc, but he knew what that word meant. Only a suicidal fool would try handing Delegado some galig.

“Like I said, I can’t find the guy I’m looking for topside. So he’s underground. I’m having the main tunnels watched by some orcs, and they have nothing so far. Heh, they don’t know what he looks like, they’re just looking for someone out of place, but he doesn’t know that.”

“You don’t know what your quarry looks like?” Fidget asked, surprised into speaking aloud.

“You interrupting me?” Delegado glared.

“No,” Fidget said in his tiniest voice.

“So anyway,” the half-orc continued in an even tone. “That means he’s hiding in a tunnel that my orcs aren’t watching. And his little area of operations can’t be a place that the gnolls are patrolling, because he suspects – correctly – that I’m paying for their help, just like the orcs. Giving the orcs a better rate of course, heh.” Delegado’s tone was affected jocularity, but Fidget had seen the half-orc kill two men with the same tone in his voice. “Oh yeah, and he’s got to be in a place that neither kobolds or trolls are living in, because one group hates outsiders, and the other eats them. And since my quarry has brains, there’s probably some lead wherever he’s at that blocks divination spells. Now, you know the maps because you work for Fainth. Tell me where to go.”

Fidget coughed once more while he thought. “There’s a chamber that’s been hollowed out for storage, it’s near some natural lead deposits, just past a mess hall. That area is shifters, ogres, and gnolls mostly. A scattering of others. It’s not too popular, though, cause it’s in a tunnel left over from the old goblin empire. Some people suspect there’s some old traps still around, and the others are afraid of ghosts. Couple of gnolls once heard some unnatural moaning and saw some funny lights. They might have been drunk.”

“Not drunk, misled. Guy I’m looking for casts illusion spells, among other activities. He may have planted that worry to keep people away from his work. He’s definitely good with the lights and noises. As for the traps, anyone seen a trap actually work or just heard noises and seen old bones and pointy sticks?”

Fidget thought. “The second I guess. That area isn’t being used much yet, most of the work is being done on the topside, anyway. We’re making a city you know.”

“Yeah, I kinda picked up on that,” Delegado said. “So two different rumors backed up with some low-rent illusions makes it a low-traffic area. That’s my guy. Now, does anyone in particular like to work there, despite all these horrible stories? Anyone request to get rotated there, or just hang around there?”

Fidget considered that. “Yeah. Actually, yeah. One of your people does the inventory. He’s pretty bright for an orc, name of Jorg.” Fidget regretted the implied insult as soon as he said it, it had honestly just slipped out, but Delegado seemed to ignore it.

The half-orc stood. “This Jorg is a loner, avoids the other orcs, huh?”

Fidget picked up his bag, hoping that this interview was over. He checked for loose teeth. “Yeah, how’d you know?”

“Because he’s not an orc,” Delegado said. “Which way is this place?”

“Um, like this,” Fidget said, hastily drawing a map in the dirt on the floor. “Got it?”

“Yes,” Delegado said, striding away.

“I, uh, won’t tell anyone what you asked me!” Fidget called after him, trying to salvage his worth somehow.

“Oh, I know you won’t,” came the reply.