Maro was confused, the goblins came from the direction of a small village that looked like it was run by humans. At least the one guard by the gates was human, he circled around and approached the village from the opposite direction, not wanting to be associated with the direction of the goblins.
It was as dainty as dainty could get, all it had was what looked like an Inn, a large barracks and a bunch of tents. The buildings were within the crude wall, most tents were outside. As he was walking in, he noticed a myriad of races; Humans, Dwarves, gnomes, orcs, a couple Elves, a couple trolls, various types of beastmen and… Goblins…
Maro gulped, did he just commit double murder? He assumed Goblins were evil and were kill on sight, but he forgot this was a "utopia" where everyone got along… damnit… Maro tucked the knife on his hip under his shirt and then did the same with the coin purse. Maro needed to grab some sort of information regarding this world fast, before he accidentally murdered someone else.
It was a couple hours before sun set, when he entered the Inn. It looked a lot worse on the inside then on the outside, the smell was absolutely pungent, it reeked of sweat and shit. Loud and rowdy… Orcs and Goblins on the left, beastmen in the middle and the Human looking races on the right. Despite the wonderful utopia where everyone got along, Maro couldn't help but laugh at the self segregation of the races, the tension was clear.
But Maro was comfortable, he'd been in way more tense situations before, where multiple armed groups were within arms reach of each other trying to negotiate a flimsy ceasefire. This was a Tuesday night for him, he put on his Intelligence Ops hat and went to see how much a drink would cost here.
Turns out it was incredibly cheap out here, this was just a semi-permanent logging village and 95% of the people here were loggers, either as employees or contractors. The sack of copper coins he got from the Goblins was enough to drink, eat and sleep at the Inn for 6 months almost. And the best way to gather information was through drinking. Finally! The beer was cheap and strong, not a bad combo. He was determined to give his brand new pristine liver a work out.
The Innkeeper was one wide dwarf, he looked monstrously strong, I guess he had to be to keep the rowdiness in check… His name was Kadrin. With his thick, greying facial hair, he kind of looked like a barhouse Santa Clause, he had to pay Kadrin a week upfront of his stay to get him talking, but talk, he did.
Within two beers, he had a basic rundown of the nation, day to day ongoings and opportunities around the logging village.
Some Hero, long time ago, had a mixed race party that killed a random demon lord. After killing the Demon, he had enough clout to create a new kingdom called the unity kingdom in the demon lords vast territory and enshrined equality for all races in this new kingdom. After the hero died, the Kingdom was run by a council of Stewards, one Steward was appointed by every major race and they co-ruled.
It took one generation for things to start falling apart, Bandits operated all across the kingdom, territories in the periphery started splitting off due to racial tensions, crime was horrendous, business integrity was non-existent and this ultimately led to constant conflict and small-scale battles. Despite this the Kingdom was still the largest country and had the biggest influence in the continent.
As for local operations, this was just a simple logging camp on the south east of the country. Nothing going on except for work, to supply wood/income for some local Goblin lord. Anyone could join up as long as you could swing an axe, Maro decided to drink and gather information for a couple more days prior to deciding on what to do.