One morning, I opened my eyes to see
That the earth had nothing more to offer me
Serenely awaiting the end
I'm biding my time, sedating myself

Trying to fly with broken wings
Leaving me frustrated in pure agony
Won't you take me away on silent wings
Instead, I'm condemned
Sedating myself

(Wrythe - On Silent Wings)

Intertwined Fates

Chapter 3: Goblins.

After butchering the so called 'Paladins of Tyr', our newly formed duo decided to head trough the blood soaked bridge of Gnoll corpses that laid on their path and head down through the river.

"I see a village in there. Could be something useful..." given what happened a while ago with a plan to get something to drink, Doom Marine gave his companion a look, as if trying to silently ask her if she is serious right now.

"Or there could be more trouble. We won't know until we see for ourselves." Karlach finished, not really giving any reason for Doomguy, in spite of his skepticism, to argue, so they went ahead.

"Hey, what was that loud stick you shot at me with a while back?" she initiated a small talk, remembering their first meeting. He saw no reason not to tell her…

"Shotgun." But his responses remained as laconic as before... Mostly.

"Okay… what is a shotgun, exactly?"

"A firearm" he pulled out the weapon in question, demonstrating it in its full grace while showing its basic mechanisms. Then he took a single shotgun shell "loaded by this" and showed it for Karlach to inspect.

"So much sound from this little thing... What's inside?"

"Gunpowder and iron pellets" he then pointed at the bottom part of the shell "When injected, hammer hits here, triggering the explosion while setting up a gunpowder in flame, after which pellets are released and fly down the barrel at high speeds"

"Neat... Can I try it out sometime?" she asked, hopefully.

"No" this is his shotgun and he is not going to give it to someone, who can accidentally fire it off without even pulling the trigger, but that one word from him was enough to make Karlach wince for a moment.

"Ouch... What about that other thing you cut me with back then? The… roaring one? From what I saw you do with it, must be quite a weapon"

"It's a Chainsaw" Once he said it, the gears in the head of a tiefling started to work at full speed. Saw – chain – spinning…

"Wait, were you trying to carve me up with some advanced wood cutting tool?"

He was silent until they carefully crossed the river trough the slippery rocks. "...Yes" Once again, Karlach was flabbergasted by the revelation.

"Hells, you are one diabolical bastard, are you aware of that?" he looked back at her for a moment then continued to walk forward.

"Yes" he is. But can you really blame him, given the things he had to do since Phobos?

"Well, at least you are not trying to gut me with a thing anymo…" she stopped when they both noticed a corpse of a man laying not far from them and a dog, circling him around – guarding him, even.

"Oooh, poor boy... Can we take him with us?" Karlach asked, hopefully. Doomguy looked at his companion then back at the scene at hand. He understood that he can't just make a dog leave its host – dead or alive. But perhaps he could try to befriend it.

Once they got close enough, the dog started to growl at them, warning them to stay away. To show that they mean no harm, Doomguy stood on one knee, slowly placed his shotgun on the ground and moved his right hand forward, so it could learn his scent and maybe calm down a bit.

The Dog, with some hesitation, got closer to him and took a sniff of his hand, seemingly calming down and relaxing a bit shortly after. Knowing that it's safe, Doom Marine took a glance at its collar and realized…

Whatever was written on it, he can't fucking read it.

It doesn't really look like English – more like an odd combination of hieroglyphs of different languages – some of them were even considered as dead ones.

"Can you read it?" he looked back at his companion, she gave him an inquisitive look

"You can't read common?"

"Can read English. Not... this" He slowly circled his palm around, trying his best not to call these letters a bunch of senile scribbles. Karlach nod in understanding, slowly approaching the two and kneeling beside her companion to see the Dog's name.

"His name is Scratch... Gods, I wish I could pet him..." she whined a bit.

"Scratch, huh?" he mused dog's name aloud, while giving him a gentle pat on the head – Scratch liked it and Karlach was somewhat jealous of the Doomguy the whole time. After the pleasant session of the head scratching ended, our duo proceeded to go forward, giving the dog some time to process the fact its host is dead and prompting tiefling to start up a small talk again.

"Hope he'll be alright and maybe even follow us, now that you gave him your scent… Didn't took you for an animal type guy." Karlach told him, somewhat surprised.

"…I had a rabbit – they are a little bit trickier to befriend than dogs." He stated as a matter of fact, before remembrance hit him like a truck at full speed.

"REALLY? Awww, what was the puffer's name?" There was no turning back now for the Doom Marine: he started it, he will finish it.

"Daisy... She died a while ago" he said, with a barely noticeable hint of sadness present in the voice. Karlach breathed in to calm down, somewhat understanding that the topic is a soft spot for him.

"Well... I hope her final moments were the happiest ones – surrounded by people, who loved and cared for her" she tried to offer a brighter outlook regarding this topic, not knowing that the final moments of his favorite pet were probably the most agonizing ones before they put her head on a spike…

"You still haven't explained to me how do I differ a Tiefling from a Cambion." He tactlessly switched the topic of conversation, somewhat bewildering Karlach

"I explained you the difference! What else do you need to kn-" She couldn't finish as he interrupted her

"How do I – a man not from around these parts, who had never dealt with Cambions and Tieflings until almost a day ago, visually differ the two, so I would understand who is an actual devil that needs killing, and who is just some bystander with a very little trace of devilish ancestry – someone like you?" he finished, prompting Karlach to try answering on his question.

"Usually? They look more fiendish, bigger horns and a pair of big wings." She grabbed her chin, as if remembering something "Though if I think about it... Some tieflings may have a pair of wings too… and not every Cambion gets to be born with 'em. Then there's a thing with six fingers on hands for both so..."

'Perfect... Might as well just start killing tieflings in hopes one of them is going to be a Cambion' he sarcastically thought to himself. This might be a problem…

"You know what? Why don't you just keep me around for the time being? I'll see a devil – I'll point my finger at it for ya to smash! Then sometime later, you'll learn to differentiate us and them yourself." Karlach suggested.

"huuuum…. a personal, living and breathing devil tracker with an axe and blazing fires of Hell, huh?" he mused, tone somewhat dry and monotone "... I'd appreciate it."

"It's a deal then!" she responded with a smile, then jokingly raised her hands up in surrender "no contracts or any of that devil shit, by the way" Somehow, this cheerful, joking, easy-going attitude made Doomguy smirk in amusement from what he was seeing and hearing.

Once they managed to reach the seemingly abandoned village, they noticed dead bodies – plenty to their left and one not far from a cart next to an entrance – a tiefling.

"Let's check the bodies: I'll look over the ones near the bridge and you near village, 'mkay?" Karlach proposed and Doom Marine nod in response. Once he approached the corpse, he noticed a backpack – might be useful to collect supplies for the night and maybe - if he is lucky - collect tools and some ingredients to solve his soon-to-be-obvious problem with shotgun shells – he got about 10 shells left plus two loaded in a double barrel, plasma rifle's out of juice and chainsaw, sooner or later, will run out of fuel. He'll have to improvise with whatever he can.

He checked the Backpack before him – it had some provisions plus gold coins – local currency will always be of use.

'Won't hurt to grab some' he thought and then, after equipping that said backpack on his back, went for a tiefling on the ground – he died about few hours ago to arrows, by the looks of it.

"Poor bastards were ambushed by goblins – no chance. They had some food with them" Karlach said, while hurriedly returning to his side, lots of slightly melting off cheese in hands. Doomguy quickly pointed at the backpack of his, while holding it open for his companion. Understanding, she quickly and carefully threw all the cheese inside.

"That was close... Now come on: we got a village to check" he nod in agreement. But then, once they crossed the entrance, they heard a bit of a ear cutting squeaky voice from the roofs to their right.

"Git over there! Surround 'em like!" Cursing their luck, Doomguy curiously looked at the green skinned creature, trying to guess what could it possibly be.

"What's up with the Gremlin?"

"Very close, but no – it's a Goblin. Be ready – while cowardly, they are a nasty bunch" Karlach corrected him and also warned him to be ready for a fight.

"quit ya talkin'! You just got into the wrong town, fellas!" There was a hint of maliciousness in the voice of that creature "And don't bother running: my archers got a decent aim and plenty of arrows" it pointed at the direction of other archers, feeling smug and confident about the situation...

But then Doom Marine introduced his counter argument.

"And I got a chainsaw" he grabbed his repurposed wood cutting tool from behind, starting it up, letting the motor loudly spin it's chains "the great communicator" then making it rev louder and spin the chain faster to get the point across – to make them understand why it got plenty of dried out blood on it.

"would you like to have a chat?" His terrifyingly monotone, yet calm manner of speech, combined with a much louder than usual roar of the diabolical tool at hand send chills down the spine of every Goblin present.

"Eeehhh... hold up there, lads. This one's more than we can bargain for..." Goblin, using her shaking hands, signed the others to lower their bows "you can come, just... Just keep your nose clean, ye?" then they went back to guarding an entrance, probably to ambush someone else, who might dare to venture into the village.

"Not bad tough guy – Didn't knew you had it in you!" Tiefling whispered to him, kind of awed, prompting Marine to shrug it off with his response.

"They are chicken shits – not really worth the praise." Then he went towards the doors to the right - seemed to be locked for quite a while, given the rust on the said inner lock and door hinges with green, that partially grew all over the wooden entrance.

"I don't think either of us got any lockpicks. We should return when we..." Karlach wasn't able to finish her sentence due to Doom Marine kicking the door open, breaking whatever mechanism kept it locked from the inside. "Or we can do that... Thirty minutes since meeting you, you seem to find ways to keep the girl surprised, don't you?" Doomguy just shrugged at this as he went down inside with his companion.

It was dark with some very poorly lit corners here and there. Basement resembled something like a workshop – a fine opportunity to find supplies he'll need if he wants to remain an exceptionally effective killing machine. He motioned his companion to check the area next to the stairs while he'll look what's further ahead, behind the door he saw that – it wasn't just a workshop, it was a blacksmith's basement.

'Wonderful. If I am lucky, I can find something like sulfur or maybe even saltpeter - doubt this world invented gunpowder just yet.' He thought about the idea of crafting his own shotgun shells – it's a time consuming process and quite of a pain in the ass to set up his own little workshop with tools that could at least do for the time being, find and/or make the rest of the stuff and account for the fact he never really tried to make those himself – not before, not after Phobos.

Fortunately, he got the knowledge of the process, learns pretty quickly and he was always a handy man even before becoming a mechanic as an additional skill of his.

First he decided to check chests to the right – the one on the floor seemed to be rigged to explode and since he had no desire to hurt himself just to see what's in there, he went to check one up the ladder. Inside, he found a sword, a strange metal with an odd orange glow and some note...

A note he could not read

"There wasn't much, but I found some booze, thanks the Gods." Karlach returned, a bottle with liquid of suspicious quality in hand. Marine then remembered what he promised a while back... "What's on your end there?"

"What can you tell me about this piece of metal?" He presented her a chunk of strange metal, causing her to gasp from surprise.

"It's the infernal metal! Hang on tight to that, alright?" she almost pleaded him. Marine gave her a reassuring nod before proceeding to look over the rest of the place.

"What are you looking for?" His tiefling companion asked.

"Sulfur, saltpeter, charcoal - might be great if you stumble upon some lead, salt based acids and quicksilver. There's also some tools, various vials I'll need and lots of paper, so if you see any book – grab it" He listed off. Karlach seemed to scoff from amusement.

"What, are you trying to make a potion of sorts?"

"No" he pulled out a shotgun shell "Want to make more of these, given that this... world likely got no gun shops to just come in barging and buy three little boxes of fun things" then, while putting it back, added "nor there's any demon possessed solders armed with shotguns to kill and plunder for ammo" he continued on his way towards the big smelter nearby.

Karlach seemed to understand what he was getting at, and then remembered one thing she didn't yet ask him about. "Hey, that place and creatures I saw when… when the tadpole connected us… what was that?" Marine stopped, unsure what to say.

"Demons" he said with venom in his voice.

"Can't say I've ever seen those... Well, maybe somewhat similar to 'em..." Karlach scratched her head a bit "Would it be fair to assume that I saw… Hell in that head of yours?" no response from him – she took it as a 'Yes'.

"Were you also dragged in there against your will?" she inquired. The gravely silence filled the basement. Then, Doom Marine resumed marching towards the smiting area with shelves and said just one word - loud enough for tiefling present with him to make it out.

"…No" That gave her pause. If he wasn't dragged in there, then why? Was he hunting someone – like that 'Blade of Frontier' that chased her all over Avernus? Or…Or he is some damned soul – like a lemur, sent to Hells to suffer?

The latter made Karlach chuckle a bit – if it's the latter, for a damned soul, he looked quite alright - roughened up around the edges, maybe. Besides, his heart seems to be in a right place...

So far... Even with a mix of violent behavior thrown in between...

Is she still that naïve girl from a decade ago, that thinks the better of people, when they are not?

She shook her head off, deciding that it's better to tag along and see for herself who this stranger really is. If he is actually a decent one – she'll tag along longer. If he is a piece of shit like Gortash...

She'll kill him. Or will try to, at least. She had to admit: this man is no joke in a fight – he is diabolically dangerous.

While she was busy thinking, Marine was able to ransack the place for whatever useful junk they could take, then they left the basement and went towards the mill on their right, picking up some still fresh fish off the cart. Once they got closer, they saw plenty of goblins with some odd oversized hounds cackling – someone just as small as them was tied up to a windmill.

"Oh, man... this gnome seems to be having a bad day." Tiefling commented aloud. Marine knew what he must do...

"Look who is there – another little birdie that wants to fly!" a nearby goblin said in malicious amusement, the rest are laugthing at the misery of the one, they tied up.

"GET ME OFF THIS THING!" yelled an unfortunate fellow.

"Hehehe... If you two are going to talk with that beak of yours, you too will fly..."

~BOOM~

Whatever that Goblin was trying to say fell on deaf ears the moment a super shotgun shredded his entire body into a paste, alerting everyone present in the area. An unfortunate and gory end that met their leader put 'em all in a state of shock, making them all hesitant to do anything. Doom Marine kindly gave them a hint, while loading another pair of shells into his shotgun…

"Are you just gonna stand there?" and then locking it with a loud clicking sound, making all present wince in fear "Get out. Run, while you can." The final statement left no room for an argument. Every remaining goblin near the windmill ran for their lives and even hounds followed their masters. When the area was secure, he and Karlach went around to check if they can somehow stop the mill from spinning. They saw two levers – one speeds the mill up and the other stops it.

Needless to say, stopping the thing was the priority for the duo of our outworldly misfits, so they pulled down the stop lever. While it was slowing down, they went back to the place, where the tied up man would eventually hang off from.

"Cut me loose!" he rudely demanded – wasn't necessary, but given that he was like that for quite a while, no one really held it against him. Doomguy pulled out the flaming sword, moved it closer to the rope and slowly waited for it to free an oddly-looking, short and dark skinned man with pointy ears.

Once the man landed on his feet, he tried to shake off the dizziness from all that turning and spinning. After that unpleasant sensation had subsided, he started:

"Well? What are you waiting for? Off with it!" shortest person in the area demanded, confusing the second in height, but most dangerous in the area man and a half.

"Come again?" Marine wanted to clarify what the little guy meant.

"You saved me and now you are going to extort me. Isn't that how it works?" dark skinned gnome exclaimed in annoyance.

"I need nothing from you." Doomguy plainly stated.

"Nothing?!" resent hostage of the windmill loudly asked, surprised.

"Would you prefer me to mug you instead?" Marine inquired the short man with a monotone sarcasm, making him wince.

"N-no. No, I wouldn't"

"Good. Now off you go" Doomguy gestured him to leave, but then remembered one detail he felt is important to tell to the recently freed man, so Marine placed his hand on Gnome's shoulder, spooking him in an instant.

"Fair Warning: Don't go in that direction - there's a goblin ambush near the entrance to the village... For now. Take the other route." Short man looked at the marine for a moment, then nod his head in gratitude.

"there's my backpack laying somewhere around here. If you find it - take whatever you like - I'll travel lightly from now on." Marine gave him a nod back before the short man turned around with intent to escape the village. As he disappeared out of their sight, Karlach hesitantly asked him about their next course of action.

"Well that's one good deed for today... What now?" Marine thought about it for a moment.

"I say we go towards that bridge near the entrance... Might also kill those goblins near the exit" Karlach wasn't so sure about the plan.

"I don't know... Not sure if I want to get closer to the proximity of the crash landed nautiloid. As of goblins? While they are a nasty bunch, they are cowards. Besides, they haven't attacked us so far..." She then paused, pointing her thumb at a recently deceased Goblin "even after you turned that into a mashed tomato"

"Far point about goblins... Still, we could find something useful on the way there and near the crash site" He offered his piece of mind about the future perspectives.

"Alright, I hear ya... Let's get on with it, then!" Karlach said cheerfully. Now they just gotta try not to fight those green geezers...

"Oi! What was that bloody noise over there?" They were stopped by the same female Goblin that let them trough. Doom Marine felt like today is the day to be very convicnig.

"One of yours got too shit faced" he pulled from the back his shotgun "and played around with barrels, which led to a loud 'boom' you heard a while back." Then shook off whatever bits of gore and blood were still left on the weapon in hand, gifting the faces of present goblins a much more paler skin shade "the only thing that was left of him after that... was a bloody pile of unrecognizable gore." He added some venom to the last part.

"Eeeh... Well... I bet the fella had it comin' right?" the one, who did most of the talking questioned the Marine with a mixture of hope, terror and uncertainty.

"Are you willing to find out?" He just keeps fucking with 'em, doesn't he?

"No-no-no-no-no, we're... we're good, just... Just leave, alright?" Goblin practically begged, making it clear that the duo can safely pass and not expect an arrow in the back. Once they got to the bridge and went down its path, Karlach spoke up:

"You could have been a fine negotiator under different circumstances, you know? - scare the shit out of the party and make them do things on your terms" it prompted Doomguy to give off a quick and dry laugh.

"Doubt it. I'm a well-trained Space Marine, not a smooth talking diva"

"Solder, you don't need to be a diva to make someone shit themselves – let alone be smooth with your words."

"Perhabs..." While Marine was pondering on the words of his companion and they had already crossed the bridge, the spotted someone up ahead – a lot of goblins with hounds running towards somewhere – a raid of sorts

"I don't like this... Come on – we need to see what these bastards are up to" She declared and ran forward, Doomguy, in spite of an additional weight on his back, was easily able to keep his pace up with hers. By the time they were able to catch up with the large group of green skins, the fighting just started.

"Kanon! NO!" they both heard someone shout from the top of the gate entry, which started to rapidly fall down. The three people that remained tried to hold it open in hopes of slipping trough, but it was futile, for they could not hold it for long, allowing the gates to finally close.

"Shit… FORM THE LINE!" a young man with curly hair commanded, weapons drawn and ready. Marine by the time had a flaming sword in left hand and a shotgun on the right. An advantage of coming from behind the raiders served this combat machine quite well: he started to hack at goblins before him – like they are toys he needs to bash with a hammer in one of those machines at amusement park – then shot at the goblin on top of tall rocks to his right, distance be damned, most pellets reached the intended target, killing the goblin with a crossbow.

"He-he-he. Nice, one, tough guy!" Karlach swung her axe, cutting a hound's head off and then fatally stomping on a head of its rider, once the creature fell down.

Once goblin realized they are being attacked from behind, another surprise awaited them...

Goblin archer was taken out with a blast of strange green energy. The one, who stood near looked up in surprise and saw a dark skinned man descent down the hills.

"Damnable roach!" the man said as he stood before the now terrified goblin. He tried to take a swing at a man, but he just slapped goblin's weapon off his hands.

"Provoke the blade" warlock stabbed the little fiend with his rapier, spun around with a grace of a dancer to pull it out of his recent victim and point it at the remaining raider party "…and suffer it's sting!"

'talk about dramatic entrance right here…' Marine mused to himself. The start of the raid for goblins was already more than just bad – it was awful. But things were only getting worse for them from now on...

The moment goblins realized there's one more opponent to fight, their leader was disintegrated into chalk with a powerful fireball, followed by very accurately shot arrows into their direction – more people: three of them Marine met on the Mindflayer's ship.

The goblins came here to raid the place, but they ended up being surrounded from all the possible directions: the one they came from, the one further ahead, the high ground of the Gates with their marksmen – even some fancy looking guy came down from the mountains to distract them and kill few of their own.

It was at this moment when goblin raid party knew for sure: they Fucked Up.

As the goblins started to panic in their desperate attempt to find a salvation of sorts from such a merciless ambush of the very fate itself, they started to fall down one by one with no small assistance of everyone present during the fight. Once the ground was clear, a trio of run-aways from nautiloid, plus few they picked along the way approached the Doom Marine.

"Holy Spirits – Marine! You made it! Shadowheart and Durge said that you were winded off the ship… Guess you are as tough as you look like, big guy!" Tav hit him in a left shoulder, smiling, somewhat happy that the man before her is not amongst the dead. Marine just stared at her silently, not willing to point out he was shot about twenty minutes ago in the very spot. Then...

"That was the last of them… Inside – all of you! More might follow!" they heard the man – tiefling – yell from top of the gates. The ones, who moments ago ran for their lives and stood with their backs against the wall rushed trough first.

"I think it's better if we get in… Come on, we can discuss our wild ride experiences later." Blonde elf gestured to everyone and went to the Groove first. The rest followed. As he made his way, Karlach spoke

"I like her already… The only thing I don't like is the presence of the 'Blade of Frontier'." She pointed at the man, who had artistically showed up on the scene with his rapier "He was after yours truly when I tried to escape Avernus. Bastard's very persistent" Then she paused, thinking over something "but he did showed up to assist these people – to assist us. So… Maybe he… he is not that bad, you know?" he realized she was conflicted about something

"Are you worried that you might have to kill him?" he questioned her.

"I don't want to kill anyone, unless the bastards deserved it and there's no other way, so… Yes… a little bit." She finished. Doom Marine once again realized that he is not traveling with a demon, but someone, who endured a lot and tries to hold on to whatever makes someone...

Human.

He found it funny – this tiefling is much more human than he is since Phobos.

"...We'll see how it goes."

Yes, I know - this chapter is more talking and describing stuff with little action and it won't be the last one. Fortunately, if you played the game, you know that there's plenty of combat scenarios that can play out and scenarios that will play out anyway.

Also, did you knew that it's actually possible to make shotgun shells at home? I was not aware of that until a few days ago when I stumbled on a decade old video on Youtube - fella used hardened paper to make shell casings, adviced to wax it for waterproofing and used some carboard pieces (aside from primer, gunpowder and pellets). Figured would be neat for Doomguy to try making some (the D&D universe (and Baldurs Gate 3 world, based on the same D&D) pretty much got the ingredients to cook up some gunpowder (saltpeter, sulfur, charcoal), mercury fulminate as a primer for his shells and find some temporary make-do alternatives for pellets until he finds the proper way to make 'em. Downside is finding the right acid - Nitric Acid may not even be called 'Nitric Acid' within D&D universe)