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Zergiot stayed a day or two in Starilaskur as he considered what he
would do next. Although officially he worked with the goblins to
increase the territory of "The Lurching Tower Empire", he had no real
loyalty to Moriarty or Blade, knew they considered themselves in charge,
and loved the attention and praise the goblins heaped on him. All of the
goblins of Starilaskur loved him for what he did and many of them kept
mentioning that Zergiot, a human, was doing more to rebuild the Dhakaani
Empire then Haruuc Shaarat'kor, the hobgoblin king of Darguun. He even
heard whispers from some of the goblins that Zergiot would make a better
lhesh, or goblin king, then Haruuc. Most of the goblinoids in
Starilaskur were from the Dhakaani tribe, and it wasn't long before the
elders of the Dhakaani tribe offered to make him an official goblin and
member of the tribe. Zergiot considered his options and decided the
glory he could obtain from the goblins helping them rebuild the Dhakaani
Empire was greater then anything else he could do and worth the risk. He
readily joined and his face was permanently branded of a clans in the
Dhakaani tribe. A few goblinoids refused to accept Zergiot and left but
most of them remained, all of the goblinoids that left were of the
Ghaal'dar tribe which is the same tribe Haruuc Shaarat'kor is a member
of.
Some time later the Dhakaani elders told Zergiot they heard that Lhesh
Haruuc was trying to claim credit for the rebellion of Starilaskur.
There were also rumors he was working on an alliance with The Daughters
of Sora Kell in Droaam. The elders told Zergiot as a member of the tribe
he had to help them maintain the honor of the tribe, the only real way
of doing that now would be for Zergiot to declare himself king, travel
to the capital of Darguun, Rhuukan Draal, and challenge Haruuc to a
duel. They told him that if one of the three tribes refused to recognize
the current king and declared their own who challenged the current king.
Then all three tribes were required to send a champion in a three way
duel to the death with the winner confirmed king of all the tribes. If
Zergiot won not only would he be king of all the tribes, and by
extension all of Darguun, but it would prove the current push to reclaim
the ancient Dhakaani empire was instigated by the Dhakaani tribe and put
the Dhakaani in their rightful place as the lead tribe. Zergiot agreed
and they left almost immediately.
Zergiot and the goblins traveled south on the lightning rail which they
abandoned just before Sterngate then marched through the Marguul pass to
Rhukaan Draal. Before leaving the elders assigned a young female goblin
named Twilight as both a bodyguard and to help teach him their ways.
Twilight didn't seem like a warrior and when Zergiot questioned this the
elders told him she has powerful magic of some sort. Twilight seemed shy
about being in the presence of a great hero like Zergiot and mostly
stayed near him looking for trouble and keeping quiet. Zergiot heard her
mumbling to herself occasionally but she always denied she said anything
and got embarrassed when he asked her what she said.
The journey to Rhukaan Draal was long and mostly uneventful. While
passing through the Marguul pass they passed a goblinoid army traveling
the opposite direction but finding out that Zergiot's group were goblins
the army let them pass and continued marching towards Breland. When
Zergiot reached Rhukaan Draal he found that news of him challenging
Lhesh Haruuc was all the news of Darguun. Leaders of all three tribes
had come to Rhukaan Draal expecting Zergiot to challenge Lhesh Haruuc to
a duel. The Dhakaani of course fully supported Zergiot, the Ghaal'dar
refused to accept the "hew-mon" while the Marguul were divided. Zergiot
also heard that Haruuc had made a treaty with The Daughters of Sora Kell
in Droaam to divide Breland between them. They heard that Droaam was
moving east from Graywall while Lhesh's army was moving east from the
Marguul pass. The Marguul were very divided as many of them felt having
a "hew-mon" as a leader was going against goblin ideals while others
felt that the treaty with Droaam was "giving away the empire to the
hags". Zergiot made the formal challenge to Lhesh Haruuc and it was
decided the duel would happen between Zergiot, Haruuc, and the Marguul
champion tomorrow.
That evening the elders of the Marguul tribe talked with Zergiot. They
wanted to know what Zergiot was planning to do for the goblins. He told
them his goal was to rebuild the complete Dhakaani empire and not half
of it. While willing to work with other races, goblinoids had ruled
Khorvaire once and would do so again. They pointed out that he wasn't a
goblinoid and seeking to rule them. Zergiot pointed out the brand on his
face declaring he was a goblin of the Dhakaani tribe for all to see. He
also pointed out that the current lhesh has been promising the goblins
conquest but has been spending the last four years being diplomatic to
the other nations and when the opportunity to expand came he immediately
requested help from Droaam. The Marguul elders were swayed by Zergiot's
diplomacy and told him they would support him.
The next day Zergiot was taken to the arena, when getting ready the
Dhakaani elders gave him a sword. They told him that this sword was one
of three magical artifacts used by the ancient emperors of the old
empire, the scepter was lost when the last emperor vanished and the
armor was owned by Haruuc and would probably be used by him during the
duel. They also gave him a self standing tower shield made custom for
him. Right before the duel started he cast some shield spells on himself
then placed himself in front of the gate he was assigned. The door
opened and he saw the arena. It was a large circular room with pillars
strewn around it. The pillars went about halfway up to the ceiling but
didn't reach them. The pillars had spikes jutting out from them going
all the way up to the top of the pillars. In the center of the room was
a large pits with magical flames shooting out of it. The arena was
completely enclosed and there were no stands for viewers to watch.
Zergiot had been told however that the duel would be displayed elsewhere
in the city through magical means to avoid the risk of a spectator
trying to interfere with the duel. There were two other open doors
situated equidistant around it. From one came Haruuc Shaarat'kor, a
large powerful hobgoblin wearing armor and equipped with an axe. From
the other was the Marguul champion who was wearing what sort of looked
like a suit of armor but looked very very strange. It was large,
unwieldy, and looked not only cobbled together but as if it couldn't
protect the goblin inside from anything. Haruuc took a few careful steps
out from his door keeping an eye on Zergiot. The Marguul champion saw
Haruuc and wasted no time dashing as fast as he could toward him. Haruuc
saw this apparently suicidal goblin coming towards him and swung with
his axe. As his axe hit the goblin it's armor, apparently full of
explosives, detonated damaging Haruuc. The goblin inside was killed
instantly, obviously a suicide bomber sent by the Marguul elders to help
Zergiot.
Zergiot moved towards Haruuc but didn't charge towards him. He stopped
between the fire and a pillar and set up his shield. Haruuc saw what
Zergiot had done, roared "cowardly hew-mon" and charged the shield
striking it. The shield managed to remain standing upright though it was
damaged a little bit by Haruuc's blow. Zergiot cast a magic missile at
Haruuc damaging him more. Haruuc grew angry and rather then trying to go
around continued to hack at the shield. The shield was well made and
continued to withstand the blows but it was getting battered. Zergiot
began moving back and cast another magic missile. Haruuc grew angry and
leaped over the shield swinging wildly fortunately, Zergiot had moved
back so Haruuc missed. Zergiot attacked with his sword and Haruuc dodged
the attack. Zergiot and Haruuc struck at each other with their weapons
for awhile but neither could get past the others defenses. Zergiot
eventually ran away defensively so Haruuc couldn't hit him towards the
edge of the arena. He cast spider climb on himself and crawled up the
wall to the ceiling. Haruuc roared at him for being a coward and
demanded Zergiot come down. Zergiot just fired his crossbow at him and
was pleased to see it did some damage to Haruuc. Zergiot then realized
he couldn't reload his crossbow or cast spells on the ceiling like this.
Noticing that the pillars didn't have spikes on the top of them he
crawled on the ceiling directly above one of the pillars and then jumped
down casting feather fall as he did so to avoid getting hurt by the
drop. He reloaded his crossbow and fired another shot at Haruuc, this
time the bolt deflected off Haruuc's armor. Haruuc growled and threw his
axe at Zergiot, Zergiot just dodged. Zergiot cast ray of frost at Haruuc
and smiled as Haruuc winced with the shot. Haruuc went around the pillar
looking for a way up and didn't see one. Zergiot hit Haruuc with another
ray of frost. Although Zergiot's frost spells didn't do much damage to
Haruuc they did hurt and Haruuc knew if he didn't do something that
Zergiot would eventually just wear him down. He went back a bit, started
running and took a running leap at the pillar. He leaped about halfway
up the pillar and impaled himself on spikes.
Blood began dripping down but Haruuc pulled himself off the spikes,
looked up at Zergiot and said "I'm coming for you little hew-mon".
Zergiot shot him with another ray of frost. Haruuc began climbing up the
spikes by jamming his arms and legs onto them, Zergiot could see how
badly Haruuc was hurt with every foot he climbed up but Haruuc was
determined to reach Zergiot at all costs. Zergiot tried casting his ray
of frost on the spikes and he could see they got a little cold but it
didn't slow Haruuc down at all. Having nothing better to do Zergiot kept
shooting Haruuc directly with ray of frosts until he reached the top.
Haruuc's arms and legs were bloody chunks of meat by the time he reached
the top but he never stopped. When Haruuc got to the top where he was
about to try and grap Zergiot, Zergiot cast shocking grasp on Haruuc.
This turned out to be the final blow and Haruuc fell dead from the
pillar.
As champion of the duel, Zergiot was declared Lhesh of all goblins, the
Ghaal'dar a little begrudgingly but they didn't challenge him. Shortly
afterwards a gnome delegation from Zilargo arrived. When their Zilargan
intelligence service realized they would be indirectly trapped between
Droaam and Darguun they had worked out a non-aggression treaty with
Haruuc and were coming to sign it. They were frustrated to discover that
Haruuc had been supplanted by Zergiot and they would need to work out a
new treaty. Zergiot met with the gnomes and with the help of the goblin
elders used his diplomacy to work out an agreement with them. In the end
Zergiot promised not to attack Zilargo, this was a lie and Zergiot had
plans to invade Zilargo when the opportunity arose but knew that
wouldn't be right away and this treaty could give him time, Zergiot also
promised not to help any other nation that might invade Zilargo, finally
Zergiot promised he would not assist Droaam in their invasion of Breland
or interfere with any attempt Zilargo made to attack Droaam. In return
Zilargo promised they would not attack Darguun, Zilargo would not help
any other nation that might attack Darguun, and Zilargo would also
provide 5 elemental airships to Darguun. Zergiot demanded the gnomes
sign the treaty "in the goblin way" with the same enchanted dagger. The
gnomes had one of their delegates cut his palm with the dagger while
Zergiot had one of his "top ambassadors" cut for his side, in reality a
very low-level goblin who's death wouldn't matter. The goblins said
nothing but were silently impressed at how quickly Zergiot was learning
goblin ways to quickly sacrifice a low-level underling for the contract.
The gnomes didn't make any mention over Zergiot doing this, whether
because they didn't catch on to what he was doing or didn't care he
didn't know. As soon as he obtained the 5 airships he had his most
trusted goblins strip one of them down completely to reverse engineer
the technology and learn how to build them using goblin technology and
magic. They had trouble understanding everything themselves so Zergiot
made an agreement with Moriarty. Moriarty would send some artificers to
also study the airships and help the goblins understand the technology,
in exchange Moriarty would also gain the technology to build airships on
his own.