The Story of Golbûrz

### Preface:

This story is about the server history of Capt\_Percy. Almost everything told in this story is true and changed to make it fitting in the story and the world. All the players that are mentioned

## Server Details

### Name

Capt\_Percy

in this story are called by their rp-name or a new version of their username. I tried to make it fit the Gundabad History as best as I could and I hope I did it right, feel free to give feedback on my story if you feel like I forgot something or wrote something wrong in the comments.

Enjoy reading!

## Prologue

This Story begins in the dark forests of Mirkwood near the evil fortress Dol Guldur. Here we see a creature, a slave, working for the foul orcs of Dol Guldur so that they can construct their dark fortress. Day and night the slaves have to dig, carry and place rocks until they drop dead on the ground. Seeing his fellow slaves falling to the ground one by one our friend knows that if he stays here for too long he too will one day succumb to the work. Nothing but death awaits you in this foul fortress. The only way to make it out of Dol Guldur alive is by escaping. So our slave friend decides to come up with a plan. It is hard to think of something when you constantly have to work but he manages to create a plan. ''First, I will hit another slave with my pickaxe when the guards aren't looking, if I'm lucky he will fall and start to cry and yell. Then when the guards take him away to the fortress I will break my chains and run into the woods.'' After the guards walk past him he takes his pick and with all his strength puts it in the leg of the slave next to him. He quickly pulls the pick out of the leg and acts like nothing happened while the slave yells and cries as if he is dying. The guards quickly run towards the yelling slave and tell him annoyed to get up and get back to work. They don't see the wound our friend has made in the leg of the slave. When they see why the slave is yelling and laying on the ground they grab his arms and drag him away from the rest of the slaves. This is the moment our friend sees his chance and he hits with all the strength he has left his pickaxe on the chain tied around his ankle. "I'm lucky these stupid orcs don't take good care of their things." The slave thinks as he sees the chain is completely rusted. One hit is all it takes to break the chain. He takes a quick look around him and sees no guards at all. Quickly and as quiet as possible he sneaks through the mine towards the entrance. Arrived at the entrance he sees two guards standing next to the entrance. ''Damnit, I knew this couldn't be easy." Luckily our friend has made up another plan. He sneaks to some of the other slaves and breaks their chains for them acting like he is freeing them. As he expected they all immediately run to the entrance unkown of the guards standing there. The guards are surprised by this great escape of the slaves and run after the slaves shouting and cursing them. When they are quite some distance away from the mine our friend now decides to sneak out and runs as fast as he can to the trees.

## Chapter 1 - Gundabad

Kryx looked in the fire. "Damned humans" He tought. "Three farms and one small village and none of them would take me." 'Get outta here you stinking monster!' The last one had said. "All I wanted was some food and shelter for the night. But no, that was way too much to ask for me. Just because I'm not as pretty as them humans and elves." His whole life people had despised him. Even his own family had left him in the woods when he was young. He didn't even know what he was, perhaps the son of a small human and a dwarf, although he had never seen dwarves before. No, it was more likely he was the son of some raped human woman who escaped after an orc attack. He had the pointy ears of an elf or orc but he was way too small to be either of them. "I've been running all my life from what I was, will I ever stop?" He thought to himself as he pulled his meat out of the fire. He liked it burnt. There was a lot of wildlife in these parts, yesterday he killed a large deer from which he could eat for days. That was different when he was still in the forest. The humans called it 'Mirkwood', there were pretty much no animals there except for the giant spiders he came upon. They almost got him if not for his fellow fugitive, a human he met close to the fortress he escaped from. He wouldn't tell Kryx his name because he mistrusted him for his look so Kryx just called him human. They decided to travel together through the forest when they heard some spiders coming. The human decided he had better odds if he left Kryx behind as bait and ran away as fast as possible. Luckily Kryx was small and he managed to crawl inside a tiny cave underneath a tree. The spiders couldn't reach him there so they decided the human was an easier prey and went after him. After that he didnt se the spiders anymore but he thought he heard something far away in the forest. It took Kryx more than a week to get through the woods. He probably didnt take the fastest way but he made it just in time before he ran out of supplies. Now he was wandering through the vales of the great river looking for some place to settle for a while and make a plan for the future. "My future..." He thought. "Do I even have a future? Will I keep walking Middle Earth forever?" During his days as a slave a feeling started to grow inside him. A hunger for power and might. "Is this part of what I am?" He had often wondered. But how was he supposed to gain power? There was nothing here but farms and every now and then a small village. There were rumours about a hidden city in a golden forest but that were just stories and even if they were true it would be full of elves. He hated elves more than any other race in Middle Earth, thinking they are better than him because they're so pretty. No, he would never go to the elves. He could of course go back to the fortress in the forest but the chance was too big that they would turn him into a slave again. There was nowhere he could go. Everywhere people would despise him and call him a monster. "Perhaps I am destined to roam Middle Earth forever." He said to himself. It was easy to fall into the habbit of talking to yourself if you're always alone. He felt his eyes become heavy and knew he needed to sleep. "We'll see what tomorrow brings." He told himself as he laid down and put his cloak around him.

He woke up to the sound of whispering and footsteps. He quickly grabbed his dagger and jumped up, looking around him. He was surrounded by shadows with glowing eyes. At first he could not clearly see what the shadows were but after his eyes got used to the darknesss of the night he saw them. They had pointy ears and were uglier than humans, though they were smaller than the orcs he had seen in Mirkwood. The creatures walked slowly around him whispering to each other and staring at him, most of them had daggers and small blades but some had bigger weapons like a mace. "What do you want?" Kryx yelled at them. As answer he got more whispering and some of the creatures moved their weapons in his direction like a threat. Kryx cut one of them as the creature moved closer and almost put his little dagger in his back. Then all of the creatures stopped whispering and moved back. Kryx heard heavy footsteps behind him and when he moved to face the sound he saw a big shadow approaching him. When the shadow came into the soft light of the campfire Kryx saw his face. It was one of the ugliest faces he had ever seen. The creature was obviously an orc although neither of his ears were still on his face. One of his eyes was hidden under his big eyebrow while the other's pupil was pure red. He wore a warhammer and armor made of some special kind of steel Kryx had never seen before. The orc looked at Kryx for a while and then said with a harsh low voice: "Who are you?" Kryx thought to himself: "If I tell him the truth what will he do? Will he kill me or will he spare me? Well, I guess it doesn't matter. I don't have anything to lose anyway. What is life worth if there is nothing good in it?" "My name is Kryx" He told the orc. "And who are you?" "I am Grahknag!" The big orc said. "The mighty General of Gundabad! I am sure you have heard of me." "Ah yes! Gundabad!" Kryx answered. He had never heard of this Gundabad before but he assumed it would be best if he played along. "What is your business in these parts, Kryx?" The big orc said. Kryx told him he had been enslaved and how he escaped but he did not tell him his captors were orcs. The orc smiled after hearing the story. "Har har har, that is a great story my friend! Why don't you join me on my way back to Goblin-Town? You are one of us Kryx." Kryx looked at Grahknag wondering if that was true. "Well... You are the first friendly face I have seen in a long time. But tell me, where is this Golbin-Town and what is it like?" "Goblin-Town is the great city of the goblins! It is located north of the High Pass in the Misty Mountains." Kryx knew this was an opportunity for him to finally gain power and might and decided it would be worth to check it out. "Okay Grahknag, I'm in." "Har har" Grahknag laughed. "That is good to hear! Get your things together Kryx! We are leaving right away."

They followed the Anduin Road and later the Great East Road. They were travelling for five days when they arrived at the Old Ford. Kryx travelled with Grahknag almost the entire journey. Grahknag told him about the different clans of Gundabad and about the civil war that was going on in the Goblin Clan. There were different competetors for the crown of the Goblin-King and the role of warchief of Goblin the Goblin Clan. Grahknag was a general under the command of Wilba-thûr. There were other competetors as well from which Harag-nâgh the largest host had and thus the biggest threat for Wilba-thûr was. "The warchief has need of men like you Kryx." Grahknag said. "I was sent to find men willing to fight for him but all I could find were these stinking goblins." He was talking about the orcs Kryx saw when he woke up. Goblins were the lowest of the lowest in the ranks of the orcs. Creatures whose only advantage in battle is numbers. "Grrmpf, it is hard to find strong uruks these days. This host is big but without good men to hold it together it will probably break as soon as they find out we are losing. Goblins are cowards Kryx, remember that. Don't ever put your life in their hands if..." He stopped in the middle of his sentence. "Whats that sound?" He took his warhammer of his back and yelled at his men to get in line. "Whats going on?" Kryx asked curiously as he looked at the orc giving commands. "I smell dwarves!" Grahknag said. It was at that moment when Kryx heard the sound of a horn. We're under attack!" Grahknag yelled. The host was on the bridge at that moment so they were trapped. Kryx saw the dwarves coming at them from both sides of the bridge. He had never seen dwarves before and even the goblins looked tall compared to them. That did not mean they were not able to fight however. The goblins were running and screaming as the dwarves cut through their lines. Kryx turned around only to see dwarves cutting through the lines on that side too. Grahknag was storming into the dwarves on the west side of the bridge so Kryx decided he should go help the east side. As he ran to the fighting he saw dwarves climbing the side of the bridge. He threw one of his daggers at them but it bounced right of the armor. "We are surrounded." Kryx thought. "There is no way we will win this battle. Grahknag said it himself, the goblins will break sooner or later. If there is one way I can survive this it is by fleeing myself. But how am I going to get out?" He quickly made a plan to escape the axes of these dwarves. "You there! Come with me!"  He yelled at some goblins standing on the back of the fighting. "Theyre coming over the side! Kill them!" He instructed them and he made sure to follow them slower than their pace. The goblins did as told to but failed to kill them all. So they ran away after a few seconds. The dwarves roared and followed them, mad with bloodlust. Now the side was clean and Styx jumped into the water. As he suspected there was a boat there with which the dwarves came to the side of the bridge. Kryx climbed aboard and rowed under the bridge to the shore. When he arrived he saw Grahknag standing with a few goblins left. "They're being slaughtered..." Kryx said to himself. After which he turned around and fled into the forest.

It was misty. Mistier than he had ever seen. He had decided he hated the mist, through which he could not see futher than his own hand. It was also cold, but he liked the cold, just as he liked heat. He had always loved extreme weather conditions. When it was cold it would snow and when it was very warm it would not rain. He hated the rain. He had been travelling through these mountains for 3 days now and he was almost out of supplies. Travelling through the mountains was tough and slow. It would probably be a lot easier if he followed the High Pass, but that was used by the dwarves. After the massacre at the Ford he had seen the tracks of the dwarves following the road back to the mountains. If he would have followed them they would probably have killed him at sight. He still wanted to go to Goblin-Town though, after all he had to do something. There was nowhere else he could go and now that Grahknag was dead that warchief probably needed new men anyway. He was lucky that Grahknag told him a lot about Goblin-Town and its location during their time together otherwise Kryx would get lost in the mountains right away. He had to be close now, according to Grahknag's stories there were a lot of tunnels underneath these mountains but they would be of no use to Kryx now. "All of these tunnels start and end in Goblin-Town my friend." Grahknag had told him. "There is one of the few gates into the great system." Kryx was wondering about how Goblin-Town would be when he saw them. Footsteps in the snow. These were no animal footsteps and they weren't dwarven either. The dwarves made very deep tracks because of all the armor they wore. Theses were tracks of feet without boots. They had to be of goblins. Kryx followed the tracks for 2 hours when he saw it. A massive gate made of wood and stone. It wasn't a pretty gate but it looked pretty strong. There were two firepits in front of the gate which made it clearer to see the entire gate through the mist. On the wall of the gate hung a big banner with three mountains on it. "The banner of Gundabad..." Kryx murmured softly as he walked to the entrance...

## Chapter 2 - Goblin-Town

Kryx walked to the giant gate and knocked three times where after he shouted: “Let the lord of these great mountains come forth!” After a moment of silence he heard someone high above him yell at him: “Who are you and what do you want?” As Kryx looked up he could see that a small head had appeared out of a tiny window. “I am an orc and I request an audience with your king!” Kryx yelled back at him. The head disappeared and suddenly a lot of laughter could be heard and in every window and arrowslit of the fortress were glowing eyes and fire to be seen. Kryx stepped back a few meters but soon felt something sharp pressing against his back. As he turned around he saw dozens of glowing eyes and crawling silhouettes through the mist. “Not again…” He murmured to himself as he put his hands in the sky. He could hear the big gate open behind him but decided to keep his eyes on the goblins behind him. Multiple hands grabbed him from behind and pulled him inside, the goblins behind quickly followed. As he looked around while the goblins led him through a tunnel he saw skulls and bones lying around everywhere. The entire tunnel was supported by wood and looked like it could collapse any moment. The tunnel was long and kept going down deeper into the mountains, at one point the group passed a bridge and Kryx could look down for a moment, deep beneath him he saw a giant cave with wooden pathways and bridges everywhere, the cave was so huge that the bottom was too far away to see. They soon reached a gigantic cave with one large bridge across with on the other side a throne. On the sides of the cave were wooden platforms with thousands of goblins and instruments on them. They were busy constructing weapons and ammunition, Kryx looked down the bridge and saw goblins crawling everywhere. They were all busy constructing giant war machines. The signs that a war was going on could be seen everywhere. Kryx looked back up and realised the goblins had pushed him almost in front of the throne. On the throne sat an old bearded orc shouting commands at the goblins around him. When the group arrived in front of the orc he looked at them and yelled at them: “What is the meaning of this?! Who dares disturb me in my work?” Now that they were in front of him Kryx saw that the orc must have been very old, for his beard was long and the signs of old age could clearly be seen on his face. The armour he wore was decorated with metal and jewels, it was clear this orc enjoyed luxury. On his belt hung a shining sword, probably dwarven. Kryx came to the conclusion that this orc spent a lot of money and time on luxury but from what he had seen of the town he knew that the goblins were probably short on money, wars are expensive after all, nonetheless he knew that he had to be careful if he wanted to live through this meeting. One of the goblins that brought him in answered the old orc and told him that this stranger was found knocking at the front gate. On which the orc replied that they shouldn’t bring guests to the throne room but throw them in the prison. The goblin, clearly scared by the orc, apologized and promised that it would not happen again to which the old orc said that it indeed wouldn’t. The goblin stepped away frightened while the old orc said: “Who are you to dare summon me?” Kryx stepped forward and looked the orc in his eyes and answered: “I will not tell you my name but I will tell you this; I am the person who will help you win this war, I am your salvation.” The old orc looked surprised by the boldness of this intruder and said: “How do you know we are fighting a war here? And what makes you think we need help from the likes of you?” “Simple” Kryx told him “Everywhere here are signs of war and it is no secret in these lands that the host of Wilba-thûr is losing ground against Harag-nâgh’s host.” The old orc was impressed by Kryx’s skill but decided not to show it. “If you are so clever then tell me this; Do you know how we goblins fight our wars?” He asked him instead. Kryx was frustrated by this question, the old orc had managed to ask the only question to which he didn’t have the answer. Kryx told himself to calm down “This is not the right time to lose control over your emotions Kryx.” He told himself and he calmly told the orc “That I do not.” “Ha! Not so clever now are you?” The old orc said “I think we might be able to use someone like you in this war. But I will not permit anyone in my kingdom to go without a name! From now on you will be called Golbûrz, it means Goblin-Prince in my language! If you prove your worth to me I will promote you to be my right hand! I am in need of someone with a bit of sense at my side… You there, maggot! Give this one a larger house than the others!” One of the goblins bowed before his leader and led Kryx away. “Wait!” Kryx said loudly “Tell me, how do goblins fight wars?” The old orc smiled and said: “Humans and elves fight their wars above, on the plains and in the trees! But goblins, goblins fight their wars inside the mountains!” The orc began to laugh and the goblins soon joined and within a minute there was only laughter to hear while the goblin led Kryx away.
Two months long had Kryx not seen the sky, he hadn’t left the tunnels and caves of the goblins since he came to them. Life had been tough at the beginning, the work was long and hard, the food was disgusting but the nights were the worst. The goblins did not know night or day so they kept working all day long. When Kryx tried to sleep he could hear the sound of pickaxes and shovels crushing down on the rocks and the screams of captives and slaves. He did not mind where those noises came from but the fact that they kept him from his sleep disturbed him the most. Luckily the goblins quickly found out about the cleverness of Kryx and this gave him an opportunity to rise in the ranks. He became an adviser for the designers of Goblin-Town, which were many since Goblin-Town had only just begun to grow. Soon he even outsmarted the greatest of the designers and became the head architect of Goblin-Town. This brought him closer to the Goblin-King who had almost forgotten about him since their first meeting. Kryx used his knowledge and ability to manipulate to get closer to the King who had now pronounced him his right hand. This is how Kryx got to the point where he became Goblin-Prince and was named Golbûrz. From now on I will speak of Golbûrz when referring to Kryx since this is what everyone did back then.                                                                                  His new position allowed Golbûrz to learn a lot about the history of the goblins and of Gundabad. Apparently the orcs of the Misty Mountains were united under one banner and several clans which worked together in bigger wars and alliances. Each of these clans had their own warchief and area which they controlled. The goblins formed the Goblin Clan and the Goblin Wars were wars about which of the smaller Goblin Groups got to rule the Clan. These wars had been going on for ages but this promised to change soon since there were now only three major Goblin Groups left with each their own Chieftain. Wilba-thûr was one of these chieftains and his group remained at the fortress of Goblin-Town, in these days Goblin-Town was no more than one great hall with multiple tunnels leading out of them. The other two chieftains were Harag-nâgh, whose forces remained at the fortress of the Eagles’ Eyrie, and Yagmurz, who controlled a smaller force in a small fortress north of Goblin-Town. Wilba-Thûr planned to make Goblin-Town the capital of the Goblin Clan but first he would have to get rid of Harag-nâgh and his opposition. “That filthy coward Harag-nâgh is hiding beneath the eyrie, since we found out that the eagles are gone he went in there and hasn’t left his fortress. How am I ever going to kill him if I can’t reach him?!” Wilba-Thûr cried out as he sat on his throne. “Perhaps I can be of assistance with that…” Golbûrz whispered from behind, the king decided that the prince would stand next to the throne but Golbûrz preferred to stay a bit in the shadows of the throne. “How do you mean? How could you possibly think you could be of any use to me concerning killing someone?” The king asked surprised, Golbûrz grinned and answered: “Oh your grace, you have yet to see me in action… Grant me permission to travel to the eyrie and I will make sure that there will be nothing left of Harag-Nâgh’s force.” The king looked at his right hand and nodded slowly. “Very well… You are free to go and end the opposition of Harag-nâgh… You will be rewarded greatly upon your return should you succeed! But know that if you fail you are not welcome here again or I will end your life…slowly…” He sat back in his throne while Golbûrz bowed and left to gather his stuff.

The road to the eyrie was long and tough but it gave Golbûrz an opportunity to explore the mountains, finding strategic points and places for camps or constructions should the need ever arise for either. Once he arrived at the eyrie he looked up the high mountains and caught a glimpse of what was supposed to be the old eagles’ eyrie. When you looked lower you could see the fortress of Harag-nâgh built around a smaller hill. Golbûrz made camp out of sight of the fortress and constructed a plan on how to get in and kill Harag-nâgh’s most important officers and generals. For this was his plan, once these individuals were gone the only thing holding the goblins with Harag-nâgh would be money and the lack of alternative. This was something Golbûrz could offer them since he also planned to steal the treasury of the eyrie.
Two weeks after he left Goblin-Town Golbûrz returned with a large group of goblins following him, Wilba-Thûr welcomed them gladly and complimented Golbûrz with his success. Harag-nâgh was still alive but formed no longer a threat for the Goblin King and soon Wilba-Thûr would be declared warchief by the other warchiefs and receive the Goblin Dagger. The goblins organized a great feast to celebrate their victory and partied on for three whole days. On the second day the warchiefs came and made Wilba-thûr the fifth warchief of Gundabad. On the third day the sounds of the feast could be heard all across the mountains and scared all that moved there. On the fourth day it was silent, the goblins were all sleeping and resting from the feast as the sun came up. Golbûrz was one of the first to wake and realized the guards were not out since all were too tired to stand, he quickly ran to the king’s rooms and knocked on the door. To his surprise it was open and he could step right in. Inside he found the signs of a fight and on the ground was painted in blood; “Come to the front gate for your king” Golbûrz got scared and confused by this sight, everything seemed to go so well for the past three months and now it was all falling apart. Not thinking about what and who to take with him he speeded to the front gate, the Goblin-King was the first person that ever respected him and he could not risk losing him. He opened the gate and ran out into the snow, looking around for a sign of his king. He saw no track of him until he turned around and look up. He could just see Wilba-Thûr spread into the sky as he jumped on top of him. He felt a stinging pain in his shoulder as he fell on his back in the snow. He could not believe what was happening, his king was stabbing him in his arms as he sat on top of him. Golbûrz managed to take his knife out and stab his king in the knee. This saved his life as the king rolled of him and crawled away. Golbûrz tried to get up but failed, the pain was too intense. His looked as his old king and asked; “Why?” as the blood came out of his mouth. The king laughed, standing straight up and leaning on his sword. He looked at the giant bag of gold he was carrying on his back and smirked at Golbûrz. “I ought to thank you, you brought it right into my hands. The treasure of the Goblin Clan…” The look on Golbûrz face changed into a mix of disbelief and anger. Wilba-Thûr laughed one more time before turning around and walking away, leaving Golbûrz for dead. But Golbûrz was not dead, in fact he managed to crawl back inside where he kept himself warm until some goblins found him and brought him down, making sure their prince did not die while their king was absent. Golbûrz stayed unconscious for a long time and when he finally woke up, almost healed, he found out that there was only a handful of goblins left in Goblin-Town. After they heard of the betrayal of their warchief the goblins ran away and made Harag-nâgh their new warchief. All the work Golbûrz had done was gone and on top of that the only person he ever looked up to had betrayed him. Golbûrz was broken as he remembered what the world was like, he remembered who he was and how no one would ever care for him. Golbûrz too decided to leave Goblin-Town behind and find some solitude. He had to remind himself of who he was and had to make sure something like this would never happen again.