I call this one 'Snakeheads', although I think the title 'A Japanese Goblin Tale' works too.

It did go through my online workshop www.critters.org so it may actually be readable.

It's about 3000 words. By Creppy.

"Goblins are not magicians.” Quartoko had started at the sight of the White Serpent Spirit and now looked around for Alom.

Alom watched as Quartoko turned to the Yamabushi, Sojo.

“This boy does not even look like Goblin. And now this nonsense.”

“Settle down Quartoko.” Said Sojo. “He does seem a bit fairer than we, but he is surely a Goblin."

“I am sorry Sojo, I mean no disrespect to you but," Quartoko sighed. "The children say his skin is not like ours, more scaled than creased, and he is not interested in the fire like Goblin boys are. This is an odd child. Now these spells, what goblin can do this?”

“Yes. Yes. He is unique. But what would you have had me do, leave him wandering the swamp? Just a toddler he was." Sojo passed his hand through the fading image of the White Serpent Spirit. "Besides, this spell could be useful when he is ready to raid. It is quite convincing.”

“Not as convincing as a fireball.”

They both laughed.

Alom was relieved as the tension broke and the returning raid party continued toward the center of the mountain village of Kyotito. The spoils that were not already taken by the raiders would be dropped there and the boys would fight over the remaining weapons and equipment.

Alom waited till the village was preoccupied, then slipped away to practice his spells from the book he found on the edge of the marshlands. He liked to wander the marshlands sometimes; he was drawn there. “What a foolish thing to do by yourself,” Quartoko would say when the guards would find and return him to the village. “What spoils are there in the marshlands anyhow? Will you challenge Orochia herself with your spells? What if the evil queen of the Snakefolk is not as frightened of your tricks as your little friends? Learn the fire boy. It is more becoming of a goblin.”

Alom respected Quartoko, but steered clear of him when he could. It would be a year before he could join the raiders, elders, and fire-makers on raids. He would of course, despite what they said, he felt very much like a goblin and wanted to contribute to this village as everyone else did. He wanted to show Sojo he could help and show Quartoko that he was brave too.

"It is a realistic image and maybe it would frighten Orochia." Alom said to himself. He felt bad for scaring Quartoko, but a little satisfied. The White Serpent Spirit, god of the Snakefolk, illusion was a more difficult spell from his book. He was getting better. Previous minor tricks like making loud crashing noises succeeded only in getting the other goblin children to stop teasing him openly, but they still pointed and whispered when he was near.

He hid his spell book down the west side of the Kyotito Mountain. He found the book a year ago, just after he learned to read the everytongue language of all folk. Found was not what happened exactly. He was pulled to the book on one of his walks near the swamps.

The Yoshima village spanned up the western mountain, next to the Kyotito mountain. The Yoshima mountain was smaller than the Kyotito so one could see over it into the flat-lands. The Kyotito and Yoshima warriors liked to raid the flat-landers and those folk in the sea lands to the north. The marshlands and its eerie inhabitants, the Snakefolk, were unspoken allies to goblins. So too were the creatures of the dark forests about the marshlands. Raids rarely went East into these lands. The forests started down the east side of the Kyotito. The Kyotito-Yoshima lake was the water source for the Kyotito and the Yoshima villages. If it were discovered that neighboring villages or other mountain dwellers were using the lake, there would be trouble. The Kyotito-Yoshima was the main source of food, Sushimi fish and Rolio crabs, for both villages. It was usually quiet by the lake after the return of the raiding party.

Alom lifted a large rock, tilting it up to view his spell book. He was excited to try a spell named Timed Summon. He would use this spell to make traveling easier and hopefully stealthier. Timed Summon would call the caster back to a familiar place after an amount of time. The caster had only to know the starting place intimately, how it looked and smelled, the sounds there. Alom could not get the Timed Summon to work at the base of the mountain or the forest out trail towards the marshlands. He would try the location of his book this morning. If this failed he would use his own quarters in the Yamabushi Monastery. Alom spoke the everytongue of the Timed Summon spell in monotone. He uttered the number of hours as a full day. He would, if the spell worked, return to this place tomorrow morning.

He turned to put the book away when he saw the snakeheads from the corner of his eye. “Oh no!” he gasped. Two large fish were staggering toward the Kyotito-Yoshima lake. They were 3 feet high and nearly 6 feet long each They walked unsteadily on tough fins. These were the fish eating snakeheads of legend he thought. They walked on land between lakes and rivers and decimated food supplies. Once the food was gone they would jump out and walk to the next body of water. They were poisonous to eat, impossible to catch in water and reproduced faster than all other fish, producing hungry offspring every couple months. The snakeheads left only death in a lake or stream. Now Alom saw the two wobbling grim reapers headed for his villages’ food source. My people will starve, he thought. He dropped the rock and ran to see Sojo at the monastery.

“Sojo, Sojo,” he screeched to the elder. Sojo slept on his rock bed, victims' blood splattered across his cloth shirt.

“Wha. What is it Alom? Keep it down or you’ll start a melee in the middle of the monastery.”

“The water sir. Walking fish. Snakeheads!” Sojo was wide-awake now and on his feet. “How many?” Sojo reached for his staff.

“Two.”

“Were they male and female?”

“I don’t know.”

“Listen to me Alom. The males are a bluish black color and bigger than the females. They move faster, steadier. How close are they to the Kyotito-Yoshima? Damn!” He reached for the raid horn and stepped out into the thin morning air. He blew the horn. Goblin males of age came running to the monastery. Quartoko seemed to appear from nowhere.

Alom spoke, “they were 20 yards from the lake when I left.” Alom recalled that one fish was darker and smaller than the other. It was the worse case scenario.

“I think they were male and female.” Alom said.

“We are too late then, they are in the water.” Groaned Sojo. “We have two months or less before they reproduce and maybe six before the food supply is gone assuming the female is not already pregnant. They must be found and destroyed immediately. We must also prevent any more snakeheads from entering the lake, where there are two, more will follow.

Later that day Quartoko had arranged, with the Yoshima sentries, posts around the Kyotito-Yoshima to watch for more snakeheads. They started fishing parties despite the legend that no one had ever caught a swimming snakehead. It took the warriors most of the morning to change the string on their fishing rods from the thin line that was commonly used to the thicker cartilage wire taken from the bones of victims.

But Sojo confessed to Alom that the only solution was the cottontop weed from the marshlands. “The weed is irresistible to the Snakeheads, yet poisonous to all who eat it. The problem, boy, is that it only grows in Orochia's hunting grounds.” Alom was quiet. He wondered what he could do. They were all exhausted already. The afternoon and night had passed and the sun was rising again. Sojo started arranging a raiding party to find the weed.

Suddenly Alom felt a tingle in his toes. His feet rattled, his knees followed. His waist started and it kept rising. As Alom stood watching Sojo talk to his warriors, Alom disappeared. Sojo described the cottontop weed as a bright green weed with a brown bulb of cottonfluff on top. Alom’s vision flickered and he was looking at his rock. He could still hear Sojo talking in the distance. He had transported from the Southwest shore of the Kyotito-Yoshima to his rock with the spell book under it, about 70 yards away on the Southeast shore. His spell had worked. He looked over to see if anyone noticed his disappearance. They did not. Alom decided, he must go get this cottontop weed and use his Timed Summon spell to summon himself back. He would plant the weed in the Kyotito-Yoshima and save his village.

He did not ask permission from Sojo. He knew Quartoko would not allow it. He also knew somehow, that the raiding party would find only trouble. Orochia was waiting for them. He wanted to warn Sojo, but he was a boy and if he started warning elders about the dangers of raids they would only laugh. The raiding party was to leave at dusk, so Alom decided to leave now. The weed was two days walk. He cast the Summon spell, being careful to do it the same as before but to return in two days. He would take a short sleep at the Eastern base of the Kyotito this evening and then travel by darkness. He would have the weed in his hand on the second morning and it would be transported back with him, he hoped.

One of the snakeheads jumped from the water and let out a screech like an eagle, but with a metallic ring. The sound was returned from the south. Sojo yelled, “To arms, to arms, here come more of them.” Alom snuck away in the chaos. Snakeheads are not fighters and were slaughtered instantly. Alom heard the metallic screech as they were killed.

He started down the Kyotito. He entered the forest and continued down. The forest was dark but not frightening; Alom had walked this way many times and enjoyed it. He found a spot at the base of the mountain and lay down to sleep. He awoke to the raiding parties’ horns as they set out. He got up to keep moving. He knew it was the goblin way to announce their arrival with drums and horns, but he felt it would be unwise on this mission, he worried about his village and the raiding party that now followed him. He walked quietly and he stuck to the thicker brush. He felt watched.

He continued all night. He was tired and had eaten no food since he left the village. He knew there would be fish to eat if he could reach the swamp. He felt sick to his stomach. He stumbled. Did I set the spell to summon me back to soon, he wondered? He became lightheaded and his vision fogged.

He barely saw her through the trees. His mind was as cloudy as his vision as Orochia came closer. She was white with green scales, six arms and two legs. She had long red hair and she was both terrifying and beautiful. In the fog she appeared to have eight heads.

“Alom. It is good to see you again.” She hissed.

“How do you know me snakewitch?” Alom shouted through the fog.

“I made you. Little goblin.”

“You are not a god, just an evil leader of the Snakefolk.”

“Alom, you are more courageous than I thought you would be. It is good. Goblins are so cowardly. I have killed the White Serpent Spirit, god of the Snakefolk. I killed him with spells from our book that you are keeping safe for me. I am the god of the snakefolk now and soon of all goblins too. You are my creation Alom, and you will serve me. You and others made by me will repopulate the mountains after all the goblins come for the weed and are destroyed and the rest starve as the snakeheads eat all the food. You are a much heartier goblin, smarter, braver and not so ugly. Come to my swamp and stay with me Alom. You will be the first yamabushi of the new order of goblins loyal to me.”

“I will save the goblins. I will use the weed to save our food.” Alom felt drowsy.

“No.” She said. “You will come and stay with me. We will wait for your friends to come and you will watch me destroy them.”

Alom woke. He could still hear her in his head. It had been a dream, but he was sure that she had put him to sleep and given him the dream. He still lay some yards from the swamp where he fell. He was starving and he went to the swamp for food. It was late afternoon already. He wondered how he would get the weed now. She was surely guarding it. He wondered how close the raiding party was. He was scared but he pushed on faster now. The ground sagged into marshland. He would travel to the end of this day and through the night he thought. If he kept moving at a good pace through the water, he would just make it before the Timed Summon spell called him back. He had lost time. He wondered if that is why Orochia put him to sleep. She wanted him to stay with her. Could she somehow cancel the summon spell? Did she really make me? Am I part Snakefolk?

"It doesn’t matter, the elders and goblins have given me nothing but love and kindness, they have accepted me and I will not let them perish." He spoke to the blackened mangroves that now rose around him.

He saw the weed and nearly cried out in joy, instead he bit his lips shut and looked around. He was sure she was there. He stepped up to a dry patch of ground. There was a small shallow pond between him and the weed. The weed grew together in an almost circular patch. There was just enough light through the canopy to sustain it. It was nearly morning he thought. Alom moved in closer, back into the water. It was just a foot deep here.

She appeared between him and the weed. “I thought you might reconsider this little quest,” She said.

“I must help my people.”
“I am your people! I am your god!” She screamed. She did not like it when things did not go her way he thought. I wonder what she would think at the sight of her old god. Alom cast the spell under his breath while she continued screaming at him. The White Serpent Spirit appeared to her left. Alom's feet began to rattle. “Oh no!” He said.

“What is it my little,” she turned to see her former god. “But your dead.” She was stunned.

Alom made a break for the weed. He got past her as she swung at the mirage.

“An illusion!” Her sense was back. She was enraged.

Alom’s knees and waist began to shake. I won’t make it he thought.

Orochia raised her arm and threw a bolt of energy and Alom. “You will not trick me again!” Her voice was shrill.

Alom dove onto the weed and got two big handfuls. He yanked them from the wet ground. His arms and head were rattling now. The energy bolt passed through him. He looked up at her and saw Sojo behind her with his ax raised in full swing. The raiding party had come. His vision flickered.

Alom was looking at his rock again. He sat wet and tired with two hands full of cottontop weed. He had done it. He got up and called for help.

Two weeks later the snakeheads were dead. They simply floated to the surface; they were dried in the sun and burned. No one ever saw the raiding party again nor did they ever see another snakehead. Quartoko, the new yamabushi, allowed Alom to stay on in the elders quarters, and even asked if Alom could teach his "tricks" to any interested Goblins.
Orochia never came out of her lands and never sent Alom another dream or snakehead. But his book disappeared several days after he returned.

The goblins went on raiding and pillaging as goblins do.

So here you go guys. Another game for you to try out. I call it The Castle Card Game, a little game involving building a card castle. I used to love building castles from a well worn deck of cards as a kid. Who didn't? But what was more fun than building? Bringing them down.
So here are the rules. Have fun. Email me questions.

The Castle Card Game Rules
This game is written and published by Creppy
Game time: 60-90 minutes.

The Castle Card Game is both a strategy and a skill based game. Build the best card castle, try to take down your opponent's castle before you run out of castle defenders. The game takes a little card building skill, a little card throwing skill, and a little strategy to win the day.

Take two 54 card poker decks and separate each into to a pile with face cards (including the Jokers) and one with the aces through tens. Give one deck (of two piles) to each player. Shuffle each face card deck and number card deck, keep them separate and place them in front of you.

You will need a little space. A table top will due but watch out for overly smooth surfaces, they are tough to build on. Map out about a 2 foot by 2 foot area for each player. This will be where you will build your castle and play your face cards into battle.

We assign numbers to each face card. Kings are 3, Queens are 2 and Jacks and Jokers are 1. These numbers will be used to resolve the battle phase. So in battle Kings beat Queens and Queens beat Jacks and Jokers. But King vs King could result in a tie and the player whose turn it is wins all ties. We will talk more about battles soon. First we need to understand the object of the game and turn sequence.

Objective:
There are two win conditions. Kill all your opponents face cards and you win. Or dominate the battle arena and you win. There are three battle spaces for each player left right and center. If at the end of any battle you have three cards in the three spaces and your opponent has none you win. You will need to build a better card tower, throw a better catapult card (ace) and keep you face cards strategically placed to accomplish one of these conditions.

Layout:
Split a table in half (again 2' X 2' per player should be enough space.) The center line is where your face cards will battle there are three men in battle at a time each placed centered on the center line about a card with apart, no more. The area on your side it where your reserves, castle, catapults, face, number and discard decks will be. See picture below:

Building:
Any enclosure that has three sides and is covered will be considered a castle. Each of the three sides must be slightly taller than the width of a card. There are small marks on the long side of each card to indicate legal height, about 2.25 inches. A roofs must cover nearly half the space to be considered legal. There will be room for interpretation here. Part of the game is throwing cards to destroy card castles so there will be times when part of a castle is standing and part is not. Any card that was part of a castle and is now laying flat after being hit by a thrown card (catapult) is discarded to the Number Deck Discard Pile. Any card(s) that fall in the game in non-build time, when moving reserves around for instance are left flat until the players next build phase. Events like bumping the table or a breeze from a passerby should stop the game for a short re-build phase. Again there is much that can happen, work it out with your opponent in a fair way.

Build Phase:
Let the building phase last 3 to 5 minutes depending on the skill of the players. If the castle falls down and you have some build time left, scoop up the cards and re-build. However, any card that does not make it into a building in the allotted time should be held by the player or laid flat out of the play area. The player whose turn it is builds first, after the start card is flipped, the number of face vs. number cards is decided and the face cards are drawn and placed.

Turns:
Each player flips the top card of his or her number deck. Aces are moved to the bottom of the deck and cards are drawn until a non-Ace card is drawn. On turn one the player with the highest number goes first. The other player then decides which card is used to determine face cards and which is used to determine number cards (this is decided by the player whose turn it is after turn one.) Divide each number by two and round up for the number of cards to draw and play. Use the card flipped as the first card drawn. This table will help.

Card	Num
2	1
3	2
4	2
5	3
6	3
7	4
8	4
9	5
10	5

So if Bob draws a 10 and Sally draws a 4. Bob goes first but Sally decides that they will each draw 5 number cards and 2 face cards.

Face cards fill the area in front each player left to right. So the first card drawn goes to the left spot and the second card goes to the middle spot and the third card goes to the right spot. The 4th and 5th cards if there are any go to reserves. Reserves must be placed one card length from your left spot and all cards in reserves must be face down and adjacent so that they form box if possible. You may rearrange them each turn as you draw.

So in the build phase players build the best Castle they can. For each level you add to your castle Kings, Queens and Jacks get Plus 1 to their number score. Queens will also get a point for each structure you build. Jokers get no castle bonus. Aces (Catapults) can be used after the build phase or placed in reserves. They can only be used after both build phases but before battle and before moves. If there is a need to decide who Builds first. The player whose turn it is builds first. Then moves unused build cards to his hand of off the play area. Any build card that has text on it that allows it to serve some other function, if played, must be moved to the area indicated on the card. Player two must follow the same sequence after player one.

Battle:
After player two has completed his or her build phase players move to the battle phase. The player whose turn gets two moves and is able to throw his catapult(s) if he has one. So player one gets two moves but player two gets one. Swaps are legal from Reserves to any of the three battle spaces. Moves into adjacent empty space is OK and adjacent swaps are OK. Then the battle is waged; deal damage with lowest number first where the corners cannot strike each other, in case of a tie player one strikes first. When the assigned number of the striking face card is larger than the blocking face card the blocker is removed. You may strike on blocker with more than one attacker but the corner cards are out of reach from each other.

For example our player from above start with 5 Number cards to build with and 2 face cards. The both build one structure each and it's Bob's turn. No catapults were drawn so there will be no card throwing this turn. The battle field looks like this:

Sally		Q	Ja
Bob	Ja	Ja

Bob knows he can kill the Sally's Queen here, each Jack is 2 while Sally's queen is for (Q starts at and gets +1 for each structure and +1 for each level.) moving his Jacks around won't do him any good, All he could do is move his jack into a corner which would allow Sally to move her queen into the corner and out of reach. It's his turn so his Jacks both strike before Sally's one Jack. So he is ready to kill her queen. Sally knows queen get big fast so she make the following one defensive move.

Sally		Ja	Q
Bob	Ja	Ja

So damage takes place and Sally loses a Jack. Her queen takes two damage but it restored on the next turn.

Throwing:
Throwing happens when a players draws an Ace in the build phase. If it's drawn in the initial phase it's move to the bottom of the deck. The Ace is then moved to reserves and can be picked up and hurled at your opponents castle prior to battle moves. A player throwing against your castle should stand back about 2 or 3 feet depending on the player. Misses should be possible. A thrown card that touches any battle card or any reserve card after it lands, destroys those cards. They are discarded to their proper piles. A catapult card is discarded to it's owner's number discard pile after it is thrown. Any Number cards that are part of a structure before the throwing phase and are flat as a result of the throw after the throwing phase are discarded to the number discard pile.

Reserves:
May be moved around as you draw. Each reserve card must touch at least one other reserve card on at least one side unless it's the only reserve card. The first reserve card should be about a card length from the leftmost battle space.

Turn sequence:

Both players	Initial phase each player flips his/her top Number Deck card . Aces get put on the bottom of your deck.
First turn player 2 choose which deck to draw which number from. After that the player whose turn it is chooses.	Remember to take the number divided in half and round UP.
Player one draws and places face cards left to right.	Extras into reserves.
Player one draws build cards and builds a castle	Aces go to reserves.
Player two draws and places face cards left to right.	Extras to reserves
Player two draws Number cards and builds	Aces go to reserves
Player One may throw catapult.	See rules on Throwing
Player two may throw catapult.	See rules on Throwing
Player one may make two legal battle moves.	Swap, move adjacent, swap with reserves.
Player two may make one legal battle move.	Swap, move adjacent, swap with reserves.
Battle lower numbers always strike first. Dead cards don't strike	If you have a face card at each of left, right and center space you win.
Next turn. Players flip the top card of their number decks	Player two decides which number pulls from which deck again, b/c it is now player two's turn.
Player two places face cards left to right in any open space.	don't move the cards that are there (until the move phase.)
Player two draws number cards and builds.	Aces to reserves
Player one draws and places face cards cards left to right.
Etc...

This was a more simple game when I started, but I think it will still be enjoyable if you are patient. It takes time to build a good card castle and they do fall down often/easily, but seeing your card throw wipe out an opposing castle and then consequently destroy their forces is just worth the time and effort.