Written in the Cards Part 11

"Damn," Vivian muttered when Mia conjured a naked green skinned teenage girl that wouldn't have looked out of place in a brothel if you ignored the fact that she had light green skin and red eyes.

"Captain Snotfucker reporting for duty!" the busty goblin announced with a smile as she glanced around the farm, eager to impress the boss.

Mia studied her goblin commander, hoping she'd misheard her name and wondering if she'd overdone it on trying to make her look attractive and cute because she didn't look particularly intimidating since she was only about five and a half feet tall. "Captain Snot, you're going to be taking a group of goblins and raiding a noble's mansion, I want his library packed up and carted off and I don't want any dead innocents."

"Can we skull fuck the bad guys?" Snot asked as she bounced on her feet excitedly, causing her breasts to bounce.

Mia reluctantly pulled her attention off the goblin's bouncing breasts, knowing she didn't have time to get distracted. "No, I just want the noble dead."

"Can we piss on his corpse?" Snot asked, hoping the boss wasn't going to completely ruin her fun.

"Absolutely, but only after they're all dead," Vivian told her, wanting to make sure the goblins didn't get blindsided while having fun.

Mia glanced at Vivian then sighed. "Fine."

"How many gobos are you sending with me?" Snot asked, wanting to know what she had to work with.

"I was thinking fifty goblins and four more commanders, that means each goblin commander is in charge of ten goblins," Mia explained as she used her interface to slightly adjust the next goblin commander that she could summon so that she'd look like Snot's sister rather than her twin.

"I'm still in charge, right?" Snot asked hopefully.

"You're my best goblin, of course you're in charge," Mia assured her.

"Yes!" Snot squealed as she danced in place, not seeing a point in calling her master on the fact that she was currently her only goblin. "Don't worry, I'll fuck the knights up."

"Don't be afraid to run if the knights are too tough," Mia told her as she summoned the second commander.

"Don't worry, we'll run if we have to," Snot assured her.

"Captain Nutcracker reporting," the second goblin commander offered.

"Excellent, I want everyone to come back," Mia replied as she worked on tweaking the next commander so that she looked slightly different as she wanted to be able to tell them apart.

"What if we get a really annoying goblin?" Nutcracker asked.

"We'll talk about it when you get back," Mia told her as she summoned her third goblin commander.

"Captain Knockers reporting," the goblin said as she stuck her chest out, showing off her breasts. "Do you want us to kidnap the maids?"

"Leave the maids alone, they'll probably just run," Mia ordered, fairly sure she was going to have to find someone to teach the goblins ethics or at least some standard of reasonable behavior when they got back as they seemed a bit too eager to cause trouble.

"Permission to spank Snot's ass?" Nutcracker asked hopefully as Elena walked over with a basket filled with vials.

"Save it for the party when we get back," Snot told her, knowing they were in a hurry.

"Okay!" Nutcracker replied cheerfully then frowned. "Wait, how are we going to carry the loot back?"

Mia gestured toward the mirror that Mist had created for the mission. "Mist created another pocket dimension using a wooden mask that Lisa gave him. Once you clear everything out of the pocket dimension, you can sneak into town with the mirror, kill the knights, loot the mansion and take the mirror back to the farm. I'll have Victoria pick it up a couple of hours before dawn and teleport it back to camp."

"I can work with that!" Snot said cheerfully, excited about the loot that she'd bring back to her master.

"We'll need a blanket to cover the mirror in case someone sees it," Nutcracker suggested.

"Good point," Nockers agreed as she jumped into the mirror to start cracking skulls and clearing things out.

'Might have to work on their impulse control,' Mia mused as she worked on adjusting her fourth commander's features so that she looked slightly different than the rest.

Elena set the basket on the ground near the remaining goblins. "When you break the vials, they'll flood the area with a weak sleeping gas. They won't be enough to knock the knights out but they should be able to knock out the rest."

"Nice," Snot replied with a grin, not seeing a reason to complain about something that would make dealing with the 'innocents' easier.

0o0o0

"At least we're protected from the worst of the rain," Zora offered when the rain went from a light drizzle to a steady downpour.

"I'm not complaining," Mist replied as he glanced at the overhang that was doing a decent job of keeping them dry despite the wind and the pouring rain. "It's nice to just relax and not worry about things for a bit."

Zora glanced at Mist then went back to focusing on the path ahead of them as the 'road' wasn't in the best shape. "Are you saying you're not worried about the goblins?"

"Not particularly," Mist admitted as he pushed more mana into improving her Gypsy card. "Worst case, the knights slaughter the goblins in the forest, realize they're summoned minions and rush back to the mansion to save the mayor. Even if the goblins can't kill the mayor, they shouldn't have a problem taking out some of his guards and giving him something to focus on while we get out of range of his tracking devices."

"Or he blames Azara for the minions and sends a large task force," Zora suggested.

"I doubt it, he's a coward. He's going to want to keep his best soldiers around, at least until he convinces himself that he's safe," Mist argued, thinking about the things the local had said about the lunatic. "Besides, as far as the squires know, Benifold was the only one with a card that could point to her actual location or to the location of the last place the card could find her. With him dead, they'll have to physically track her with hounds or Sir Marcus' card and that detects spiritual traces from someone traveling through an area. She's on the farm in the mirror, meaning they're not going to have a clue where she went because there won't be any traces. The blood tracking spells their mage has have a limited range which means as long as Azara stays on the farm for a couple of hours we should be in the clear."

"Hopefully," Zora muttered, trying not to worry about the nobles sending a bunch of knights to kill everyone involved.

“Yeah,” Mist agreed, less sure about the plan than he'd like but figuring it was out of his hands at this point since they'd already sent the goblins. He listened to the sounds of the forest and the rain for a couple of minutes as he waited for his mana to regenerate enough to finish paying to boost her cards, doing his best to ignore the shadows in the forest.

He pushed his mana into the Gypsy card that he'd been working on boosting and smiled when five potential cards appeared over the old card. 'At least the panties Vivian conjured stack with the lab coat and the boxers Sarah conjured,' he mused as he glanced over the five potential cards.

"Looks like we have two good cards and three cards that don't really improve anything. Do you want more Agility, Allure, and the ability to jump five times as far or do you want more Magic, Magical Talent, and the ability to see in the dark? The second one makes your eyes look like cat’s eyes when you're using that last ability."

"Does the magic card drop my agility?" Zora asked as she glanced at the shadow filled forest, leaning toward the card that boosted her magical talents and let her see in the dark but wanting to make sure she wouldn't cripple her agility if she took it.

"No, it just doesn't boost it," Mist replied as he double checked the other three cards to make sure he hadn't missed anything.

"Go with the magic card, talent cards are rare and you can always find magic items to boost Agility," Zora told him.

"I figured but I wanted to check, in case you wanted the Allure," Mist replied as he selected the Eldritch Gypsy of the Arcane Kitten card.

"Not particularly, I'm already at the point where I'm going to be noticed walking into a crowded bar," Zora replied.

Mist glanced at Zora's garishly colored patchwork dress. "You're an attractive girl with red hair and a dress that screams look at me, you're going to get noticed regardless of your Allure."

"There's a difference between being noticed and magically drawing everyone's attention and desire," Zora offered. "Besides, if I take the dress off, sneaking through a crowd is a lot easier."

"I don't know, I've generally found that an attractive and naked girl draws a lot of attention," Mist teased.

"You know what I meant," Zora replied with amusement.

"True," Mist replied with a grin, glad that he could cheer her up.

"How far do you think you'll be able to boost my cards?" Zora asked after a couple of minutes of listening to the rain hit the roof of the wagon.

"I don't know," Mist admitted. "We're not in a hurry and Zaldar's ability doesn't change the curses when he resets things so we can probably reshuffle everything until we get something that works if something goes wrong."

"How many times did he have to reshuffle Nathan's cards?" Zora asked.

"I lost track," Mist admitted. "His bloodline card was pretty solid but the other three cards were close to useless if you ignore the cursed bits on the cursed card."

"At least you figured out we could reroll the rest of the cursed cards without messing up the qualities Vivian hands out," Zora pointed out.

"Yeah," Mist agreed as he used the mana he'd regenerated to boost her third card, giving him five cards to pick from. "Huh, we have some actual choices this time, do you want a dancing talent that comes with the ability to walk on air as long as you're moving, an excellent Enchanting talent that comes with a boost to Allure and Magic as well as an upgrade to the Enchanting skill that expands what you can do with it, a Durability and Allure boost tied to how much skin you're showing or extra physical abilities?"

Zora sighed. "As much as I'd love a general boost to my physical abilities, take the Enchanting talent, it's worth the boost to Allure."

"Okay," Mist replied with amusement as he carefully selected the Gypsy Enchanter card that boosted her magic and Enchanting skill. He pulled one of Elena's greater mana potions out of his pocket and drank it.

"I thought you were trying to avoid drinking potions," Zora teased.

"I was but I'm curious," Mist replied as he put the empty vial in his pocket and boosted the card again, creating another five potential cards. "Do you want a minor talent for creating clocks, a boost to magic that comes with the ability to magically create cloth, a boost to your wild magic talent that comes with the ability to conjure cursed dresses or a card that gives you a large boost to Magic, Allure and Agility along with the ability to conjure magical cloth and a talent for tailoring?"

"Go with the tailoring card," Zora told him, fairly sure her ability to blend into a crowd was going to take a serious hit from the Allure she was picking up.

Mist carefully picked the Starlight Gypsy of Eldritch Weaver card and checked the mana cost to boost the card, not surprised that the price had jumped. "The price jumped. Let's see if I get something useful then we should probably swap drivers so you can take a break and stretch your legs while I wait for my mana to regenerate."

Zora glanced behind her at the door that opened into the wagon where they'd mounted the mirror to the farm on the wall then focused on the road. "I could get used to having a magic mirror, it would make the wagons a lot less crowded."

"Just wait until I finish Beth's cards and she can build a swimming pool," Mist replied as he spent the mana to boost her third card, getting five potential cards.

Zora smiled as she thought about seeing everyone naked. "Maybe you should be working on boosting her cards first."

"We've got time…" Mist trailed off as he read the description of the card he'd probably be grabbing. "Huh." He quickly checked the rest of the cards to make sure that they weren't in fact better then grabbed the Eldritch Gypsy Cat Lady card.

"Huh?" Zora asked.

"I grabbed the card that lets you add a cat summoning ability to cards," Mist replied as he pulled another mana potion out of his pocket.

"That's neat," Zora replied as Mist drank the potion, excited about having an ability that would let her add something to cards.

"It also increased your magic more than the rest of the options and everything else gave a small boost to Agility, Allure or Magic," he explained as he spent the mana to boost her card again. He glanced over the descriptions. "I'm going to assume that you don't want to give people the ability to cause their summoned cats to explode, right?"

"Yeah, no," Zora replied, wondering why the hell that was an option.

"Cool. The rest of the abilities are sort of doubled up. Do you want the ability to see through the eyes of every summoned cat you hand out or do you want to give people the ability to see through the eyes of their summoned cats?"

"I'd probably get myself in trouble with the ability to look through the eyes of everyone's cats," Zora admitted.

"That's fair," Mist replied with a grin, knowing he'd probably spy on people that he shouldn't if he had the card since the ability to see through their eyes was a hidden ability which wouldn't show up on their cards. "Okay, do you want the cat quality to give people Agility and come with the ability to talk to cats or Magic and a talent for luck based magic and the ability to talk to the cats they can summon?"

Zora shook her head, fairly sure that knowing what every cat was saying would be a bit annoying. "There are spells to talk to animals, I'd rather be able to hand out the magical talent."

"Makes sense," Mist replied as he selected the luck based card and spent the mana to upgrade it. "Huh, three of the cards give the cat owners a good physical boost while the cat is out but the magical talent becomes random, the other two increase Allure, one for yourself and the other gives the ability to the cats."

Zora glanced at Mist. "What's the difference between the first three?"

Mist glanced back over the three cards. "One of them lets you turn into a catgirl and back and increases your hearing and Agility in that form, one of them gives you the transformation and increases your hearing, Agility and Magic in your transformed form and lets the cats see invisible creatures and magic but it comes with a curse, something you own when you slot the card will get horrifically cursed, generally something you're wearing. The other one gives the owners of the cat the ability to summon a tentacle tail that can grab things in addition to improving the physical boost."

"The curse only happens once, right?" Zora asked thoughtfully.

"Yeah," Mist agreed. "But once might be enough to kill you."

"Not if Vivian gives me the crone ability on my cursed card and you can boost the curse resistance," Zora suggested with a grin, fairly sure she could get enough curse protection charms from her clan to soak the curse, at least long enough for Mist to destroy the cursed item. "Besides, you can destroy items by using them to create mirrors, that should include cursed items."

"That's a lot of ifs," Mist warned her.

"It's a solid ability and my family has some curse protection charms that actually work," Zora argued, knowing that the card came with some risk but willing to take the chance as long as she had people around to help.

"Okay, final choice?" Mist asked, wanting to make sure.

"Final choice," Zora agreed, hoping he could get rid of the curse before she had to deal with it.

Mist carefully selected the Cursed Eldritch Gypsy of the Black Cat card. He checked the mana cost to boost it then spent the rest of his mana trying to boost it when he realized the cost was just over his max. He pulled another greater mana potion out of his pocket and drank it then spent the mana to boost her card, getting five new cards. "One more time."

"Sure," Zora agreed with a smile as she turned her attention to the road.

Mist frowned when he realized the first card would create a cursed collar when she first used the card that would wipe her memories, leaving her skills intact and under the control of anyone that had her leash in addition to the other curse. 'Yeah, no,' he thought, not seeing a point in grabbing the card, even if it did increase the physical boosts the cats could hand out significantly. 'That's almost worth finding an asshole.'

"Anything good?" Zora asked, figuring the silence was a bad thing or a good thing.

"Sort of," Mist replied as he double checked the curse on the second card. "The first card is basically useless unless we want to give the card to an asshole. It conjures a magical leash on the user that wipes the memories of the first person that puts it on and puts them under the control of anyone that has their leash. The second card conjures a cursed shock collar but it also increases the base Durability the card gives you. The third card gives your catgirl form a boost and gives any summoned cat minions you have a boost to their Durability equal to one fifth of your magic but also comes with a cursed collar that makes you want to strip while wearing it."

Zora laughed. "I don't have a problem with my friends seeing me naked and that sounds like something you can destroy to make a mirror. What about the last two?"

"Nothing useful, one loses the ability to hand out cats for a physical boost and the other loses Magic for Allure and you get a delusion that you're a goddess," Mist replied, not seeing a point in mentioning the rest of the curse that would result in her eating people as he wasn't planning on grabbing that card.

"Go with the third card, having the cats hard to damage sounds good and that would help my familiar," Zora said.

"Just to be clear, that only helps your cats," Mist told her, wanting to make sure she understood.

"It also gives me a boost, so it's fine," Zora told him, not seeing a reason to complain.

"Okay," Mist replied as he picked the Eldritch Gypsy of the Tiger Queen card. He wasn't surprised that the mana cost to boost the card had jumped considering the boost to her catgirl from was impressive. "And I'm out of mana. Have you figured out what you want Vivian to give you for a cursed card?"

"The Crone's durability and the professor's ability," Zora replied without hesitation. "Being able to teach cats or conjured creatures magic would be useful and there's a decent chance the slimes would change into something more useful or maybe the magical items would shift to something new when you boost it. Either way, it's a significant boost to magic and magic is awesome."

"I'll let her know and see if I can find someone to take over driving," Mist told her as he grabbed the railing and stood up so he could open the door and go back inside the wagon.

"Thanks, I'm getting cold and wet," Zora admitted.

"No worries," Mist replied as he walked back into the wagon to find Vivian, happy that Zora had been willing to drive for as long as she had.

0oo0

"Hey boss, how we getting over the wall?" one of the gobos asked as he looked up at the stone wall that surrounded the farms around the town. "It's at least four goblins tall, maybe five!"

"No guards, no problems," Snot said cheerfully as she grabbed the smaller goblin by his arm and leg and tossed him, causing him to squeal as he flew over the twenty foot wall.

"No squealing, squeal on the way out," Knockers told the gobos as she grabbed one and tossed her over the wall, hoping the rain and distance was enough to hide the noise as she didn't want to get noticed until they were already busting into the mansion.

Nutcracker snickered as she adjusted her grip on the blanket covered mirror then sprinted toward the wall and jumped, launching herself over the wall and barely resisting the urge to squeal in excitement. She let go of the mirror before she hit the ground, causing it to float a couple of inches toward the ground before hovering in place.

"Once you're over, we'll sneak toward the hill," Snot told the gobos as she tossed another one over the wall.

"Then we rush the gates and loot the mansion to the ground!" Knockers told the remaining forty seven gobos. She glanced over at the other two captains that stood head and shoulders taller than the normal goblins. "You can help."

Spanks glanced at Nibbles and quickly started tossing gobos over the wall, turning it into a competition to see which one could toss the most goblins before they ran out.

Snot snickered as she increased her own gobo tossing efforts, not wanting to lose.