Goblin Quest - Hunclay’s House of Horrors

The Bayside Stranglers were killers. Not the neat, clean kind with contracts and a code. No, these goblins thrived on chaos, grinning through bloodstained teeth as they cut their way through the world. The Baroness knew that when she called them back. Knew it when she thanked them for ridding the town of kobolds. And she sure as hell knew it when she offered them another job.   Gooch trained. Gakk and Xmoek bought potions, a wand, and whatever else they could get their greedy little claws on. Xmoek stitched together a "dragon suit" out of fresh scales because sometimes insanity looks like ingenuity. Meanwhile, a witch named Anagrit had an offer—rare herbs in exchange for forbidden knowledge. Standard witch fare.   Then came the real job: Hunclay’s Manor. A dead wizard’s estate. Old magic, old traps, old ghosts. No one in town would go near it, which meant only the reckless or the desperate would take the job. The goblins fit both categories. No looting, the Baroness warned. Just clear the place out. Five thousand gold. Enough to make them nod, even if they were already planning how to skim a little extra off the top.   The manor loomed in the mist, silent, waiting. The Grand Hall was lavish, but a house like this never showed its fangs right away. Gakk found the trap by stepping into it, dropping straight down into a pit. Meanwhile, Gooch, in true goblin fashion, found the birdcage and ate the corpses inside before spitting out something important—a magical charm needed to break the manor’s defenses. A win, by goblin standards.   They moved on. The kitchen was stocked, but the real prize was behind a locked door. Hunclay’s lead servant, Mathezik, had holed up inside, barricading himself away from whatever horror had swallowed the Witch Tower. It didn’t stop the Stranglers. They dragged him out, and he talked. About Hunclay hiring kobolds to sabotage the Witch Tower. About research into "the stars." His voice shook. His eyes darted. Then he ran, cursing the goblins as he vanished.   The basement was a tomb of secrets. Wine, meat frozen behind a wall of ice, a stockpile of magical components—all useful, but none of it dangerous. Not yet. That changed when they found the iron door. Covered in runes. Xmoek knew them. Knew what they were for.   The door wasn’t locked.   Inside was a summoning chamber. A pit at its center. The runes on the walls pulsed with something unnatural, and then it came.   A horned demon. A nightmare with a halberd. Its flesh barely noticed fire. Its wounds barely mattered. It hit like a battering ram. Xmoek went down. Gooch followed. Gakk, bleeding but breathing, hauled Gooch back from the brink. Then the goblin did what goblins do best. He bit. And didn’t stop biting.   The demon screamed as Gooch’s jaws locked tight. Flesh tore. Blood sprayed. And then, at last, it died.   The Stranglers stood in the aftermath, panting, wounded, but still standing. Hunclay’s Manor had more horrors waiting for them. More traps, more shadows, more things best left forgotten. But for now, they had survived.   And survival was all that mattered.