You aren't going to let this fat fuck get a chance to possibly shoot you in the back, plus you're too pissed about him trying to molest you.

With a couple quick moves you pull out your dagger, stab him in his arm and relieve him of his fancy pistol. Graham screams out like a little girl and now pleads for his miserable life.

"Please! No, don't kill me!" he whimpers pathetically.

Once again, much like how it was Klint, you show no remorse and pull the trigger of the pistol.

It's the first time you've ever used one; so the unexpected kickback nearly causes you nearly drop it. You also weren't expecting it blow half of Graham's stinking face off. His obese corpse slumps lifelessly against the carriage wall.

"Shit." You remark to yourself being in awe of the power of the weapon.

Never being one to miss an opportunity, you quickly deprive Graham's body of the jeweled rings on his fingers. You then also go through the pockets that you can get to and get a bag full of gold coins.

After looting Graham's body, you remember that there is a skirmish going on outside. A quick glance shows several bandit types fighting the mercs. The mercs are out numbered, but thanks to their armor and better training, they're doing a good job of fending off the bandits.

You get out of the carriage with the intent of just running off into the woods, but then you might get lost. It occurs to you that you do have an advantage that will allow you get away a lot faster and still stay on your course.

While one of the mounted mercs bashes in the head of a bandit you take the opportunity to shoot him while his back is turned. The merc's armor is of no protection and he cries out as he falls from his horse.

"Who the hell is that guy?" one of the bandits shouts.
"Dunno, but who cares, he's killing their side!" another says.

You quickly run to the now ownerless horse and clumsily get on. You're a bit vulnerable for a few seconds, but fortunately the bandits seem to now think you're on their side and don't focus on you (and the remaining mercs have their hands full)

You soon manage to control the horse (which is anxious to get away from the chaos anyway) and gallop away until the skirmish is far behind you and you're basically left alone again. Unfortunately your horse suddenly starts wheeze and wobble. You manage to hastily get off before it collapses.

There on it's left side you see what the problem is. In all the ensuing the chaos, the horse actually took a few crossbow bolts. Probably damage to vital organs and its adrenaline is finally wearing off. Bad luck for you and even worse luck for the horse. Not having many more options, you start walking.

In any case there's two more bodies to your count now. Granted Graham deserved it, but that merc…well he made a living risking his life, it just happened that today his time was up. You had to survive a dangerous situation and that's it.

That's how you're justifying that one anyway.

Still, you at least acquired a few goodies for your troubles. You're going to have to learn more about how to take proper care of this pistol because it's far too valuable of a weapon to neglect. It'll certainly make dealing with shit in Holgard a bit more manageable.

The rings are what surprise you most. You're no jeweler, but you have stolen enough cheap baubles in the past that you can tell a fake when you examine it in greater detail. The gems in the rings are actually common, but altered slightly (especially their color) to resemble more valuable ones. Even the ring is gold plated rather than pure. Looks like Graham wasn't as rich as he made out.

However, the little pouch of coins is real money so there's that at least.

You continue along the road, which as you guessed starts alternating from being intact, to dirt with a few stones to being little more than a well worn path in the grass. Even the occasional signs aren't much help given that many are flat out damaged in some way.

Your natural instinct to just keep going in a straight line like you were doing, but unfortunately for you, the path completely disappears into forest. Doesn't help that the road also branches into several paths that twist in different directions. You weren't expecting that so you aren't sure which way to go.

While you're pondering this decision, a voice calls out to you.

"Hey! Where youz tryin' to get to?"

You then see a person dressed in simple clothing coming out of the forest. He's a little shorter than you, in fact he's a little greener than you too. Doesn't look like an orc though, not nearly big or massive enough. Goblin perhaps, but he's taller than one and almost a bit human looking. A short green human with a few warts on his face and a bigger than average nose.

In any case, you maintain your usual caution.

"Okay, that's far enough. Who are you?" you ask.
"Me? I'm just Warts." He answers picking his big nose.
"Appropriate name."
"Grhm. So youz tryin' to get to Holgard?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Well cuz, I can lead you to it. Lotz o' paths in this forest lead lotz o' places. Easy to get lost if you don't know da way."
"You know the way huh? How do I know you aren't going to lead me into an ambush?"
"Youz don't I suppoze. Take yer chances going alone an' getting lost, don't care. I just try to earn a little extra coin for drink an' leadin' clueless humies like yerself gets me some…well when they aren't throwin' rocks at me that is."
"What are you exactly?" you ask.
"Huh? What you mean?" Warts replies.
"I mean, you don't look quite like any greenskin I've ever seen."
"You seen a lot o them have ya?"
"Well no, but I've heard tales…"
"Then you don't really know nuthin' then do ya?" Warts says in a perturbed tone.

Actually he's got a bit of a point.

You decide to get right to the matter.

"Alright, assuming I take you up on your generous offer, how much is it?" you ask.
"Oh, yeah price…hmm, you want to go to Holgard right? Five gold coins." Warts answers.
"Five gold coins just to lead me through the forest? That's fucking outrageous!"
"Holgard is tricky to get to if you don't know the way. Lot of false paths get made. Besides, you lot usually have more than enough gold. I see you humies travelling all over in your rolly boxes filled with goods."
"Do I look like I'm in a rolly box carting around a wagon full of treasures? I'm just a simple traveller down on his luck."
"Down on luck huh? You should pray to Yag more. Anywayz five gold. Final offer."

This greenskin obviously has no concept of haggling. It really isn't like you don't have the coin, it's more like you don't want to give so much to the likes of him after being fortunate enough to acquire it in the first place.

Ultimately, he's either telling the truth about the forest being that treacherous or he's completely bullshitting you. You'll just have to decide for yourself.

You threaten Warts

Why risk getting lost or paying this greedy greenskin when you can just force him to lead you out of this forest?

You get closer and then pull out your pistol. Warts eyes go big for a moment.

"Iz dat one of those shooty things?" Warts asks.
"Yep, and better yet, it's one of those multiple shooty things." You respond.
"Hey, I don't got no money humie. The only thing I got in my pants is muh dick and I ain't givin up dat."
"What you're going to do is lead me out of this here forest for free or you get a hole in you bigger than one of your nostrils."
"Grm. So that's how it is huh? Ol' Warts gets cheated again. (Sigh) Fine. You got the upper hand, follow me." Warts says in a resigned tone.

Warts begins to walk and you follow close behind. Several times you get the impression he's going to try to run off, but it seems like he's so reconciled to his fate. Almost like this has happened to him before.

Time passes and it feels like you've been walking through this forest longer than expected.

"Hey greenskin, how much further is it?" you ask.
"We still got a ways ta go. The damn bandits are all over dis forest and I'm trying to keep us away from their camps. So we gotta go the long way less you fancy a fight." Warts responds.
"No, I guess not."
"Grm. Didn't think so. You wouldn't last in a real fight without dat shooter."
"Alright watch it, pimples."
"Dat's Warts!"
"Whatever just shut up and keep moving."

Warts continues to remain silent about his situation as you keep the pistol trained on him. Night begins to fall and once again you begin to get agitated.

"Great, it's getting fucking dark now. If you think you're going to…" you start to say.
"SHHHHHH! Hear dat?" Warts says and stops to listen.
"No." you say, genuinely not hearing anything.

Warts stands still for a moment moving his head as if to hear the sound he heard again, then all of a sudden…

"SHIT! IT'S A BLOOD STALKER! RUN! RUN!" he shouts and takes off ahead of you.

You're actually so surprised by Warts exclamation that you don't even try to shoot him, you just try to follow him as you also run through the trees.

You aren't sure what a blood stalker is and you still don't even hear anything, but Warts never stops shouting about running for your life. He even turns his head to see if you're still following and that's when he takes a fall over something on the ground.

"ARGH SHIT FUCK! MY LEG!" he yells.
"Come on get up!" you say momentarily stopping.
"Can't! My leg's all twisted! You'll have to carry me!"
"Fuck that, you're on your own!" you say and just continue running ahead.

You fully expect Warts to shout obscenities about you leaving him behind, but you don't. Since you haven't looked back, you actually think the blood stalker caught him, but you don't hear any screams.

Then you soon believe that the blood stalker has caught you because you feel multiple sharp sensations go into your chest.

However, you're conscious enough to realize it isn't any sort of creature at all, but instead a swing trap that you triggered while running and not paying attention.

You look down and see several sharpened branches puncturing your body, yet keeping it held up at the same time. Blood comes out of your mouth and despite the pain being fairly terrible, you cannot even utter anything louder than a dying groan.

"Hey Warts! Ya cowardly little grub, youz can come out now! Got da bastard!" you hear a gruff voice exclaim.
"I wasn't hidin' ya idjit, I was pretendin' to be hurt in a fall." Warts shouts back.

At this point the pain is becoming more of a numbness and your vision is beginning to blur. Out of the corner of your eye, you see a green figure bend down to pick up something, most likely the pistol you dropped when you triggered the trap.

"Hey a shooty. Dis what the humie was threatin' you wit?" the hobgoblin asks.
"Yeah, an watch where you point dat thing! I had enough of that already." Warts exclaims.
"Guess you were lucky me an' da boys were out huntin' this way. Too many humies in da forest nowadays."
"Yeah an' fortunately I noticed the signs since I nearly stepped in hobgoblin shit a couple times. Just glad this dumb humie couldn't tell the difference between it and regular animal shit."
"Well you always were an expert on shit Warts."

You can barely hear the two greenskins now as your body continues to bleed out and your organs shut down.

"Heard ya yellin' about a blood stalker. You still usin' dat ol' lie?" The hobgoblin asks.
"Hasn't failed yet surprisingly. Guess people just don't know there ain't no such creature." Warts replies.
"Well, guess let's start strippin' him. Huntin' been a bit thin, so this is actually a bit of luck for us. Tell ya what, you can have what's in his pockets and I'm just gonna keep da shooty and his body for eats, deal?"
"Better deal than I got from this asshole."
"K, hey you lot! Get yer asses over here an' help us pull dis meat off the trap."

Soon several hands grab your limp body and pull it off the spiked trap. At this point any remaining life your body might have had is gone and you don't even hear the further taunts of Warts or his hobgoblin buddies.