The black tentacles unravel themselves to reveal a dark ball shape. This ball starts to break with red cracks. A crimson light glares out of them. Then the sphere shatters, and out comes Bandos, but he looks very different now. He throws all of his weapons and even his armour aside. Uggy stares at him with her mouth agape and her eyes wide in shock. "What is you?" she murmurs in a shaking voice.
His entire body is covered in a black carapace and red tendrils. His eyes, which were previously emerald green, now have obsidian irises and red corona for pupils. His horn pulsates with a strange new power. From his hands grow red vine-like appendages which look like the most lethal whips. His torso is covered with black skull-shaped markings, and sleek black feathery wings erupt from his back. And his voice has a different echo to it, an oddly chilling, bloodcurdling voice with undertones of somebody dying a most painful and bloody death.
"They sent their skavids to search sources of magical energy across Gielinor. The two sources from which they infused me are the Death Altar in the Galarpos mountains, and the Blood Altar in Morytania which also had traces of Icyene essence from the time when Saradomin ruled that place. Did you know that the Icyene have powers that only work when blood is nearby? My power has not only returned, but also increases when lives are taken, and when blood is spilt."
Bandos grins at Uggy, one eye squinted and teeth bared. The effect actually scares Uggy for the first time. "These newfound powers are perfect for a god of war! Did you really think you could stand against me, the god of war come to wreak destruction and death upon this universe? You, a mere goblin, could defeat me?" He cackles, the air and earth filled with the sound, and yet more cracks come but this time, instead of lava, black and red tentacles burst forth and reach out to grab Uggy, to squeeze the life from her...
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"Me still can't believe we catches that thing. It was huge! And really tasty too."
Gurts feels a lot better now; he jumped out of bed feeling healthy as a hornless unicorn, just two days after they had eaten the wild boar ensnared in the net the night before. Uggy cut a lot of its hide off to make a blanket for her father, and what remained was a reasonable enough amount to provide two coats for each other. It was the middle of Wintumber, and snow blanketed their tent and the remaining traps set up to deter intruders.
They built a pair of snow goblins after the meal, a male holding a baby and a female with a crossbow in hand. "Me believes in fate," says Gurts. "Me believes we goblins is going to be really happy one day, and go to a beautiful place." Uggy, having looked at the snow figures for a few seconds, frowns at her father's words. "What is you talking about, Daddy?" And Gurts looks back at his daughter. She has grown a lot over the months, and has grown to chest height to him. But Gurts still bends his legs slightly to level his head with hers, and says, "Me wants to tell you a story, Uggy." She listens raptly...
Three months pass, and they sit down in the tent after another hard day's gathering. A small fire crackling away in a large clay pot Uggy had taken from a mansion in Ardougne, they talked about hopes for the future, what good things would happen for them, and dreams that the same could happen for all goblins. As the evening went on, the fire died out and the moon and stars came to life. "This place is so nice," sighs Gurts. "Me is so happy that me finds this place for us. You is going to have wonderful life, Uggy, me knows it. Me has blessing to be with you!" A radiant smile lights up his face, and the effect lights up Uggy too. They wrap their boarskin coats over each other and curl up for the night, ready for hope to come the next morning.
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Uggy deflects the first batch of tentacles coming her way, and they hit some of the goblins watching the battle. They explode into a mess of blood and guts, and the carnage seems to empower Bandos further. The death hardens the carapace around him, the blood spillage heals him and grants him further strength. He laughs more as the carnage and destruction ensues; his desire for destruction before increased by the death and blood energy.
Uggy, on the other hand, becomes enraged at the sight of her comrades dying and their killer getting a kick from it. Her hand grasps the dagger, she clicks the gizmo on it and a lightning bolt strikes her at the same time. She stabs her legs, her arms and her heart with it, clicking while doing it. Her entire body transforms; muscles bulge, electricity crackles, green turns to aquamarine. The energy resonates into the dagger, transforming it into a blade that is almost as long as her entire body height. She clasps it in both hands, a vein throbbing in her temple. "You wants to kill my friends? You kills me first!!" And she charges, faster than Bandos can keep his eyes over.
A tentacle lunges in her direction, and she slices it cleanly. Bandos places a hand on his mace, and it is coated in darkness. She launches a furious assault on the black shell covering Bandos, willing herself to shatter it and plunge the blade into his chest. He blocks her attacks and makes counter-strikes, trying desperately to push her back, but she doesn't give way.
Both Uggyists and Bandosians alike watch this exchange for two full hours, not moving, even when they are being caught up by Bandos' tentacles. Both factions agree, this is the wildest fight they have ever seen.
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Midday. The sun is at its highest, casting the longest and narrowest shadows over the trees. Within these shadows lies Uggy, waiting for the newest batch of lizards and fish to be caught in the nets. It's a hot day; she is sweltering in spite of the shade which oddly seems to be shrinking. The nets are still empty. She's becoming a little impatient, and looks up in a reflex. It's at this moment when she realises that the tree she was underneath has caught fire.
Uggy jumps back, stunned. How did this tree, which was her favourite hiding place, suddenly catch fire like that? Then she hears voices, both goblin and tallun, coming from the tent's direction. "No," she whispers to herself, "they isn't!" She abandons her fishing and lizard catching, running towards the tent, which has been ripped apart by a fight between the Na*ogoshuun and the talluns dressed in red.
"Daddy! Is you OK?" She gets past the fighters and reaches the tent, which is torn and empty, of all the things they had collected for each other, and Gurts. She panics now, and it isn't long before she finds him in a fight with a tallun holding fire in his hands. He sees her and shouts, "Uggy! You has to get out of here! You is in danger!" The tallun turns to Uggy, a leer on his face. She takes her knife out. "Uggy, no! You can't! You needs to run! Not worry about me!" The tallun wraps his hand around the fire, and throws it at her. Gurts sprints up to her and jumps in the way, taking the hit.
Uggy stares at her father, his back singed, his face screwed up in pain. "Not worry about me. You has to run, Uggy." Then he falls at her feet. The tallun turns to Uggy, lighting another fire in his hand. She raises her blade, but then she listens to her father's last words, and runs. "Coward!" shouts the tallun. The other talluns and the Na*ogoshuun hear the word, and all chase after her, copying that word in unison. She keeps running.
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Uggy runs to the east, further than Ardougne, further than anywhere she's ever been, Gurts' final words in her head. "Me believes in fate." She runs east until she reaches the sea in Witchaven, then runs north. "You is in danger, Uggy. You needs to run." She hits a fishing town with a large mountain to the east. She stops to catch some fish, wary of the talluns there. The mountain has wolves in it, but she finds a rocky outcrop close by. Sneaking past the talluns, she takes a fishing rod and puts it in her crossbow, tying it around her waist. She fires into the rock, her light frame easily supported by the rod. "Me has blessing to be with you!" The radiant smile on her father's face in her mind. More talluns, but they seem different to the ones in the graveyard or Ardougne. One of them walks close to her. "You keeps away from me...me is...not..." The figure fades, and she collapses, into nothingness.
"How are you feeling?" The words and gentle voice wake Uggy up, and she finds herself in a bed smelling of plants. There is a bowl with some steaming fluid on the top next to her. One of the talluns, an old male with a beard, looks at her with concern. This is so strange, she thinks. Why isn't he attacking her like the ones in red or around Ardougne? Uggy makes to get up, but the man holds her down gently. "You mustn't get up, or the wounds will open. You should rest." She lifts the sheet up to find her side with a white bandage on it, and a red splotch. She was cut by a poisoned Na*ogoshuun blade; she can tell by the smell of it, and the herbs on the bandage.
Uggy is confused, and she can hear goblin voices rather close by. She frowns at the tallun. "Where is we?" The old man strokes his beard as he says, "Welcome to Taverley. Here we practice the ways of Guthix, the god of balance." Uggy recalls the name; it sounds familiar. "God of balance? Me heard of him from past."
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Uggy is sitting on the bed now, supping away at the vegetable stew Ballistix has made for her. "Me thought talluns was dangerous. We lived in west near them wearing red, they sets fire to home and releases food we catches. You saved my life, me is grateful." She turns to the goblin noises coming from another direction. The old druid turns to her with a furrowed eyebrow. "They can't be your friends if you travelled such a way from the west. Is there someone you know over there?" Uggy shakes her head; she had never went further east than the general store in Ardougne before fleeing her home being attacked.
"How long does I have before I heals?" Uggy is getting antsy because she hasn't moved in a good while; goblins in general spent much of their time fighting, and so were physically very fit and active. Sitting around is quite an alien thing. Ballistix sits next to her and says, "Young lady, sometimes you need to have patience. If that dagger had went further left it would have hit a major artery and you would have died long before you got here." He rummages in his robes and takes out a wooden horse. "Take this with you, as a token of good faith." She turns the horse over in her hands and notes the carvings; the knives that druids used were very different to goblin daggers, the cuts were smoother than what she could do with hers. "Me has heard of horses, but me never saw one here. Does they really exist?"
Ballistix changes the dressing on her side yet again. The bleeding has all but stopped, and Uggy is walking again. She helps him out with chores, which were quite different to what she did with Gurts; washing robes, growing herbs and vegetables, making potions. She has even managed to concoct different recipes all by herself, much to Ballistix's shock. "You are very intelligent indeed, Uggy. I never thought goblins even had a touch for herblore or farming!" She chuckles modestly.
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Her wound is healed and the poison has been cured, so Uggy can continue travelling to the east. She's curious about the goblins nearby. But before she moves on, she goes south to the trees there. These trees reminded her of the graveyard near the tent she used to live in with her father. She avoids these, so moves towards the water to cut other trees. Uggy has never seen these trees in the past; their branches and leaves seem to droop, but she could tell they were very much alive. She cuts a log from the tree, which is harder than the ones she used to know, and cuts away with it using her knife.
Ballistix wakes up and goes to check on Uggy again. Instead of finding her, he finds a wooden goblin holding a baby, with a note underneath. He picks up the figure to look at the note, but he pauses at the detail on the carving. The young goblin never failed to surprise the old man; the carvings with the knife aren't as refined as his, but they were the marks of exceptional skill nonetheless. He sets it back on the top and looks at the note.
"Thank you for taking care of me when me was passing by. Me never forget your kindness, you is truly special. Me has decided to see goblins near here to see if me finds my fate there. My daddy told me something good happen one day, he feel it. If me meets with them, they might tell me what me needs to hear, so me will listen. You has my blessing Ballistix, you is special. Please take care and listen to your feelings. Uggy"
Ballistix sets the note down, sits on the bed and sighs. "Guthix be with you, Uggy."
She reaches the goblin village and sees everyone there fighting. No tribes or anything, just green against red, and the same was with the leaders bickering. Shaking her head at this ridiculous show Uggy decides to leave but the leaders stop her. "You is from west, right? We can help?"
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Bandos sneers at Uggy with those eyes, with black whites and red rings for pupils. "You're protecting the goblins? The weakest race of all of my toys?" His foot rests on her face in the dirt, tentacles beginning to sprout from it and stroking her face with malicious bloodlust. He leans in towards her, applying more of his weight on his foot. "Listen, Uggy. I am the god of war, come to wreak destruction upon the cosmos. Death will sing its melody into the air. Blood will flow into rivers and oceans. I will rule the earth of all planets, and they will be my personal playgrounds."
Uggy snarls back at him, her face contorted with rage, "We goblins is strong. We is smart, and we has potential to prove in the universe. You stamps us in the dirt, you tosses us into the air, plays with us as if we is dolls. Me is better god of war than you ever was. We works as team because that makes us strong. Harmony makes perfect war machine, and you fails because you doesn't know it." She pushes herself out from under his foot and suplexes him, crossbow aimed at his head.
Bandos laughs raucously at this. "'Harmony makes the perfect war machine?' Don't be ridiculous! War is about taking what is yours alone, bending the world to your own will! You talk about harmony? What are you, Armadyl? Saradomin?" He roars in laughter, and more cracks appear, making the battlefield an island in a sea of magma, with tentacles for lakes and rivers. "Let me show you what a real god of war is about!" He picks up his mace and bright red patterns emblazon the cold black metal. He smashes it, and the lava on the floor actually rises up and surrounds the battlefield in a dome. "No retreat, no surrender, Uggy. Prepare for your death." Uggy takes the other crossbow out, and they sparkle to life. "You does same, Bandos! Me proves to you the truth about us goblins!"
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Uggy fires a furious volley of shots straight at Bandos, who deflects or catches most of them with the red and black tentacles he sprouts from his body and the ground. Then she shoots further projectiles into the clouds and ash above the dome of magma surrounding them. Bandos summons various creatures from the lava and they all attack her at once. Uggy slices one in half with her dagger, which explodes and douses her in the fiery, sticky magma. She dodges their attacks and they hit each other, showering the whole arena in fire and rock.
Bandos wields his crossbow, which is imbued with a red and black aura, and fires. It narrowly misses Uggy, but she hears faint voices screaming in despair coming from the ammunition. As it hits the dome of lava, the entire dome changes shape into a massive skeleton with black markings and glowing red eyes. The skeleton roars and tries to smash Uggy with a colossal, bony arm, but she backflips cleanly and peppers it with shots, which do nothing but stick to it.
Uggy fires several more shots around the battlefield while dodging Bandos' tentacles, mace and crossbow, and the skeleton behind her, then says "You is finished now." She clicks the gizmos on both of her crossbows.
Every single shot she has fired, around the arena, on Bandos' carapace and tentacles, the skeleton, the earth, and the ash and clouds above; each and every one of them crackles into life. And natural lightning combines with the aerial shots and huge, thick bolts crash down over the entire arena. Bandos' black armour and tentacles are gone! Uggy pulls out her dagger, which has grown into a colossal serrated blade from the storm, and plunges it into his gut. He spews out blood, rune energy and divine energy at the same time. And he says to her, "You are the greatest warrior I have ever met, mortal or deity. You are truly worthy of taking up my mantle, and making the universe quiver." He falls. She wins.
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"Hail New High War God!" The goblins, ogres, trolls, ourgs; all of them both on Uggy's side and Bandos', roar their praises for Uggy, who is officially the new god of war. Bandos lies dead for good, his energy absorbed by her, and even Zarador is humbled. He says to her, "We were wrong and you are right. Harmony does make the perfect war machine. You proved that by believing in your people to the end." Uggy smiles at him and replies, "Me never gives up believing. They is my family. You is all my family, and we all fights together!"
Then she walks over to her tallest fortress with the Dragonkin. This one is a Dactyl, and is on good terms with her. They talk about the future, and she reminisces about the past, and the reason she decided to protect the goblins.
Her past, she remembers...
Uggy talks to the leaders of the goblin village near Taverley and she starts making perfect compromises. Bentnoze and Wartface actually agree for once! They join her on her journey to find her fate. So does an ogre shaman trainee following her since she ran from the west, offering her strength. And then she reaches the Dorgeshuun on her own under Lumbridge, and although they don't join her, she learns valuable lessons, such as staying open-minded and using technology. She becomes the progenitor of invention with the power of lightning, something she picked up from Zanik.
Her skill with the dagger and crossbows, along with her agility and aptitude with the gizmos she has made, give her quite the following from all sorts of areas, including the Rekeshuun from the Wilderness and the Ekeleshuun from Lumbridge. Then she meets the player themselves, who provides the key ingredient to her final destiny...
