Come to the Darkside we have cookies!

I have a good friend who has a writing blog (writenowanyway.blogspot.com check it out!) and her post this week has to do with guilty pleasures.  I absolutely LOVE this idea. We all have those guilty pleasures that we may, or may, not confess to.  There are a few things I would count as a guilty pleasure but perhaps one of my weirdest is my need to cheer for the bad guy.  Really.  When I watch a movie, read a book, or look at a video game I like seeing the hero but a little voice inside me always says, "Poor bad guy, they just wanted to achieve their goals."  it never matters if the goal is the destruction of mankind I still manage to have a little empathy for the bad guy.

I always cheer a little at the end of "Empire Strikes Back" because Vader has a small victory (though I am a little sad the handsome Han Solo is frozen in carbonite). This need to identify with and empathize with the villian causes a conflict of interest when it comes to my own story telling, my hero will usually always win but sometimes I think the bad guy should win; with that mind here is just a piece of fantasy I have written with that idea in mind:

P.S. I borrowed the name Ehbon from a broadcast D&D campaign so I give credit for that name to JP McDaniel creator of Ehbon!

He stared across the counter at the barkeep.  The goblin poured and handled the ale with a precision that attested to his many years serving as barkeep, the stilts attached to his legs seemed less like wooden boards and more like an artificial extension of the goblin's legs.  Ehbon sipped his ale watching carefully each move the goblin made, the stilts obviously were used as a tool to help the keep reach and serve his customers at the much taller human sized bar.  Human's notoriously were better tippers than the goblins so it only made sense that this seemingly innocent creature work for higher tips even if that meant creating wooden bodily extensions.

Ehbon pulled the arms of his black cloak down over his hands trying to hide the shaking that had started to become evident in his wrists; he knew what his task would be and he quivered in anticipation.  Though the goblin appeared to be harmless Ehbon knew the power he harnessed and desperately wanted to grab it but patience was the key to this delicate mission.  Ehbon chugged the last of his ale and reached into his pouch retrieving a gold piece.  He set the money carefully on the counter making sure not to make any noise or draw attention to the coin keeping his palm over the coin he pulled his cloak down over his face careful to conceal his face from any onlookers.  He quietly muttered a prayer to his God Bhaal and then in hushed tones cast a spell on the coin.

He got up and walked over to the fire leaning on the mantle and watching the bar carefully, it was only a matter of time now.  The goblin shelled out a few more drinks and ran back and forth from the kitchen serving those meal orders.  Finally the goblin noticed the gold sitting on his counter, he ambled over and picked up the piece placing it in his pocket.  Moments passed and Ehbon began to wonder if the spell failed, he knew something should have happened by now but the goblin was still ambling about.

A piercing scream broke through the noise of the tavern as the goblin grasped his hand. "It burns!! Help me please!!"  he flapped his hand madly in the air as if he were trying to shake out a fire that only he could see.  He stumbled around the counter still attached to the stilts running for the water barrel placed near the fireplace in order to catch the rain from the leaky roof.  He shoved his hand into the barrel and as soon as the skin hit the water it started to produce boils.  The goblin threw his hand from the water falling backwards onto the floor.  His face swelled with boils as they quickly began overtaking every inch of skin, "Help."  his cry gurgled as the boils swelled his mouth shut.  Ehbon walked over to the goblin knowing he had to be quick as many in the bar were now watching the spectacle, he leaned over the goblin looking him square in the eye and whispered "it's mine now" he reached under the goblin's neck and ripped the ruby amulet from the goblin's neck concealing it under the sleeves of his cloak. The goblin gasped his last breath and as he died Ehbon saw in the goblin's eyes that he knew who had killed him and why.