The Tabaxi and the Goblins – My Time in Yellyark

Rhaan, 990 – Eyre, 991 YK

So, the Helm of Volaar will be handed over after lot of gems and various metal weapons and shields are handed over. Done. Plus, Jhazaali, Duusha, Valii, and I have to stay with the village for a period of approximately seven months to teach the Biting Ants about battle (more the Dhakaani’s job), Xen’drik outside of the general area of the village (my job), and whatever they may ask about. I’ll get to some of that a little later. But first, some general info on living in Yellyark.

Though we’d been wandering the jungle for over a month, the Dhakaani were still getting used to the heat and insects. Having grown up here, I didn’t have as much difficulty. They had run out of the repellant we’d gotten from Stormreach and it seemed like the fact that we were less active made them more aware of the heat. Still, before long, they appeared to stop noticing those hardships. It’s remarkable how adaptable the mind and body can be when you cut off alternatives.

When you’re in the middle of the jungle without a Giant-built wall surrounding your semi-metropolitan city, you find that you’re a potential food source for the other inhabitants of your environment. This gets you seeing things in very different ways. Though our hosts were pretty efficient, the fact is, finding food was a constant act of survival (and not exactly an easy task). It turns out, to protect their quality of life (for what it was), the tribe needed to specialize in tasks and work together. Not that specialization and working together is foreign to city dwellers, but it isn’t really a matter of life and death the same way that it is here.

As populated as the jungle is with fauna, meat is still a bit of a rarity for an entire village of goblins (we’re talking about approximately 300 lives here). It can take days for a hunting party to bring back large game, such as a dinosaur, giant snake, or girallon. These are also highly dangerous so most of the time smaller game is hunted and only provided to elders and those who have been deemed to have done some special act for the community. The village’s primary food is a root vegetable known as cassava. This is difficult to prepare as its flesh contains small amounts of toxins that must be painstakingly removed with traditional methods. This can be eaten as is (after cooking generally) or made into a sort of flour.

These are just a couple of the difficulties, and the point is that overcoming all these daily obstacles meant constantly working together. Everyone I met had their own form of specialized knowledge and contributed in some way to the overall health of the village. Despite the fact that illness, accident, and death were ever-present realities, the tribe seemed to function like a highly coordinated organization.

The separation from the thousands of distractions available in Stormreach led me to some deeper thinking. Now, I was still just a teenage Tabaxi, so maybe I wasn’t the deepest thinker, but with nothing else to divide my attention, I began to reflect on things like family, community, and purpose. Community and purpose are key to Dhakaani society and that appeared to be true here as well. However, a difference here was that some of the Biting Ant’s “devotion” to their community was based upon the forcefulness of Queen Grabstab. In other words, a form of fear. This is where the Dhakaani differ and this was what Jhazaali explained to me was the result of the Daelkyr corruption from millennia ago. Dhakaani goblinoids are naturally devoted to their community. It is the first and last thing. Muut (as mentioned above) is everything, and atcha follows. Anyway, I think was beginning to understand the concept of muut more (although Jhazaali says no non-goblinoid will ever truly understand it).

Now to what they wanted from us. The well-crafted metal weapons, shields, and armor (light and piecemeal as it was) were new to the group. They did have an adamantine scimitar they had acquired from a Drow scouting party. This was in the possession of their champion, the only goblin that matched the Queen in size (height anyway). Other than that, the few metal weapons they had were somewhat shoddy ironworks. Their hunters/warriors were trained in ways to put their new superior weapons to use. Not that they couldn’t stick with their excellent skirmisher tactics, but the better weapons and protection allowed for the implementation of some different tactics that Duusha was happy to teach them. She was remarkably tolerant of their incessant questions and mistakes but was definitely forceful. And a forceful bugbear of Duusha’s skill is nothing to be trifled with even if you outnumber her a dozen to one. Jhazaali and Valii also helped in the training, implementing courses using more finesse and sneak attacks. I was happy to take part whenever I could and especially enjoyed Valii’s teachings. During one of my sparring matches is when everyone learned that a disarmed Tabaxi is never quite as disarmed as you think as we have claws that are as potent as wielding a dagger. The village’s medicine man wasn’t quite as pleased with my triumph though since I apparently did some internal damage as my goblin adversary began his celebration a little too early. Anyway, combat practice also went both ways. The goblins also taught us better ways to attack within jungle settings along with many tactics for jungle survival that went beyond even that of my father’s teachings.

All of that was good, but Jhazaali and I were often left out of it since we also had to meet with the Queen and her advisors to talk to them about the world at large. I detailed day-to-day life in Stormreach. They were very interested in trading with the city and I talked to them about that as much as I was able. Unfortunately, I was no expert, but I did promise them a meeting with some of the Tabaxi merchants who could introduce them to the wonders of the Marketplace. Jhazaali spoke to them of Khorvaire and “proper” goblinoid culture. A culture rich with tradition, ancient lore, steeped in battle and craftsmanship that this world has not witnessed for thousands of years.

Just in case I didn’t mention this… The Dhakaani have been separated from everything since the Daelkyr corruption. They are not a part of warlord Lhesh Haruuc’s union of Darguun, but they don’t make this known to most people they interact with. Foreseeing the doom that the Daelkyr corruption meant for their society they sealed themselves away from the upper world of Eberron. They maintained their ways and planned their eventual return to bring their brethren back to the ancient truths and to regain their empire. That part I’m not supposed to speak too much about so I’ll leave it at that and my readers can just assume it’s a few goblinoid warlords greedy for some more land, even if it is quite a bit more impressive than that.

So, this probably seems like seven months was kinda a long time just to go over these things but just know that the questions (both ways) and training (both ways) went into great depth. Through all of this I learned a great deal about the Biting Ant tribe but also a lot about the Dhakaani. I’m sure you can tell by my writings so far that I have great respect for the Heirs of Dhakaan and that only increases once I get to Khorvaire to spend time within their culture directly. That’s still a ways out though. Anyway, the seven months went by. We all learned from one another. I learned I am fascinated by the Biting Ant tribe but have no desire to live within that kind of society. I also learned that this is something I’d like to do with my life. Anthropology (a study of all different cultures of intelligent life, not just man(anthro)kind).

Guess I’ll just call it here. Unless you have any specific questions… None? Okay. The Queen does hold up her end of the deal (although she obviously didn’t want to and I think she originally planned to double-cross us but it was apparent that the Dhakaani could bring a world of hurt to the village if needed). Jhazaali gets the helm. The tribe awards us with some items of import (I get a pretty cool dagger crafted from obsidian and dinosaur hide and a custom-made, wooden ant mask). Dad comes back with the other Dhakaani plus six more bugbear warriors (told ya there could have been a world of hurt for the Queen if she reneged on the deal). We have a small feast/celebration and head back to Stormreach with four of the Biting Ant elders who I am to introduce into the merchanting culture of the big city. That goes down without a hitch either and, to this day (or at least the last I heard) Yellyark and Stormreach are doing business in primitive collectibles. A professor from Morgrave University was very pleased with me when I was able to give her a personal introduction to the Biting Ant craftsmen that had set up a small shop there in Stormreach.

And this brings me to my next foray into working with family. My grandfather Sandal to be specific.