“The cave entrance is on the beach. About fifty feet away. I can see two goblins, each with shortbows, keeping guard.” Kara drew a small battle map in the sand where the beach met the coastline woods, the rest of her allies gathered around her and listening. “Grukk, you’ve got a crossbow, right?” The half orc nodded. His new armor of made of overlapping scales of steel covered his torso, as well as gauntlets and shin guards. “Good. Okay, Grukk and I will try and take the two guards outside the cave out. Once they’re dead, Alydrezea and I will sneak in. Grukk, Boris, you two stay outside the cave. Come in when you hear fighting.” Everyone agreed to Kara’s plan, and moved into position. Sadly, the sun shining off Grukk’s armor caught the goblin’s attention. They screamed something in their guttural language and fired arrows the fighter and rogue. Kara was quick to act as always, shooting off a crossbow bolt into the side of one goblin archer. Grukk was up next, firing his own crossbow into the same goblin. The bolt hit it in the neck and the monster gurgled as it fell dead in the sand. Seeing his only ally down, the second goblin ran off into the cave screaming a warning! Kara tried to stop it with a second shot from her crossbow, but the bolt didn’t have enough power behind it, and it fell into the sand. The thief cursed under her breath and held up her hand for the others to wait.

They waited….and waited…. but nothing came out of the cave. There was no counterattack. Boris and Alydrezea left their hiding spot in the woods and ventured down the beach and towards the cave mouth. Grukk and Kara were trying to peer into the darkness. The large number of tracks in the sand showed that this seaside cave must only have one entrance. There wasn’t any light down there either. That would be a problem. Goblins can see just fine in the dark, but a human cannot. “Damn it. Alydrezea, you go in first.”
“Huh? Me? Why?” The dark elf asked with a tilt of her head. Boris himself looked at the thief with a slight glare. “You want to send her in alone?”
“She’s a drow. She can see better in the dark than the goblins can. I bet she’ll get in there, scout out any danger, and come back before the goblins can even see her.” Boris was not convinced of her reasoning, but the druid gave a smile. She patted her minotaur friend on the back. “It’s alright. I’ll just scream if I need you.” Before anyone else could protest, the drow walked into the mouth of the cave. It wasn’t long before she vanished from sight.

Alydrezea walked low and carefully through the caves. The dark held no fear for her. In fact, she could see better now than she could in daylight. Her eyes like white pearls in the darkness and gleamed out information. She could make out the innards of the cave, and about sixty feet in, there was a rickety bridge. The bridge was ten feet high, close to the roof of the cave. Anyone taller than a goblin who stood on the top of the bridge would likely hit their head on the cave roof. It connected both walls and acted a means for goblins to rain arrows down on intruders. The goblins were quiet, but alert. Clearly waiting in ambush. Alydrezea began to worry. There were only three goblins on the archer bridge, and she could not see any others around. So, she tried to sneak closer. There was a loud metal clang, and Alydrezea felt a sharp pain in right leg, along with a warm and wet liquid trickling down to her foot. Looking down, she had been caught in an iron beartrap. It’s metal jaws had clamped just above her ankle. Her hands clamped over her mouth as she tried to suppress a scream, and tears ran down her eyes from the pain. She saw the goblins move, and ready their arrows quietly. So, she let out a shout.

Back the mouth of the cave, Boris was staring into the darkness like a guard on night watch. His bovine ears perked up and he charged into the cave, as a feminine scream came out of the lair’s mouth. Kara and Grukk heard it as well and they race to catch up to the minotaur. They arrived in time to see Alydrezea, but only a shadow. “Drezea!” Boris called out, his voice echoing of the cave walls. He could smell goblins, lots of goblins. The whole place reeked of them. He also smelled Alydrezea, and blood. He felt an arrow smack into his left arm, and he grunted in pain. Kara soon arrived with a lit torch. The torchlight showed their druid friend was caught in a beartrap. Her hands were outstretched, as she concentrated cast a spell. Silvery starlight curled around her hands and shot into the ground underneath the goblin archer bridge, and a small wall of brambles and thorny plants erupted from the earth. The pathway was narrow, only about twenty-five feet wide from wall to wall. Half orcs can see well in the dark, almost as well as a dark elf, and he saw that behind the magical bramble bush, were two large beasts. Their bodies were like wolves, but their faces were clean shaven, and they had thick, yellowed teeth. Their shoulders were abnormally large, and their eyes held a hungry malice. But they were kept at bay for now. Grukk wasted no time, and fired off his crossbow into one of the three goblin archers, putting him down in a single hit. Boris moved in, and with his immense strength the opened the beartrap and freed his friend. The dark elf smiled at her large savior, “T-thanks…heh…guess there was an ambush a foot.”
“Puns?! Really?!” Kara shouted in exasperation as she fired off another shot, killing a second goblin. The third one got down onto his belly and fired another arrow at Alydrezea. It just barely missed her gut. Boris stood in front of her, his glaive at the ready as he faced down the two beasts that were trying to tear their way through her magical bramble. She let her spell drop, and one of the monsters charged in at Boris. Before it could clamp its fetid jaws around his leg, the minotaur lowered his head and the monster impaled itself on one of his sharp caped buffalo horns. Boris thrashed his head away, leaving a small trail of blood on the sandy floor of the cave. In a swift motion he cut to the side with his glaive, and the yelp of pain from the dog-like monster confirmed a hit. But it was still moving. “What are these things?”
“Worgs.” Alydrezea informed the party through a painful cry. “They are to wolves what goblins are to humans.” The worgs were making odd noises, it sounded just like the goblin language.
“Anybody speak goblin?” Kara asked, putting the third archer down with a lucky shot from her small crossbow. “Not a bit of it!” Grukk responded, setting his crossbow it its place, now unsheathing his sword and shield. Together with Boris, they made quick work of the two worgs as their blades cut them down. Alydrezea drank down a healing potion.

“Are you feeling better?” Boris asked, the dark elf left the glass bottle in the sand. “Much better! I’m not really at full strength, but I can walk now.” She stood up with no issue, the wounds from the beartrap were gone. “Boy, that was close. If I didn’t put up that bramble bush, I would be in big trouble by the time you guys got here. Sorry about that.” She placed her hands together in a gesture of apology. Boris poked her in the head with a finger and a scolding. “Next time, change into something to escape and get out of there.”
“I said I was sorry.” The dark elf pouted; Kara patted her on the back. “well, the whole cave knows we’re here now. We should hurry in deeper.”
“Are we just going to leave with the shrine?” Grukk asked. “It would be better to kill them all. Otherwise, they’ll chase us down.” The others nodded in agreement and kept going down the path. Kara stayed in the back with the torch. Alydrezea and Boris walked side by side, and Grukk stayed up front. After that first battle, they were all alert and with each other’s help they manage to avoid any more beartraps and even a tripwire trap that fired a poisoned arrow into the cave wall. They came across only one fork in the cave, with two paths leading in opposite directions. Right, and left. There wasn’t any decent way to tell which path was safter or more direct. The faint sound of goblin voices chanting could be heard, but there was too much of an echo. Boris’ bovine nose twitched as he smelled the air. “The scent of goblins is stronger on the path to the left. The path to the right smells like Ogres.”

“Huh, how about that. Well, I’d rather fight goblins than ogres again.” Kara’s sentiments were shared by Grukk who went down the path that led to the left. There were no traps down this hall, and that made everyone a bit wary. There was light at the end of the tunnel, and the smell of several fires and odd roasting bits of meat. Kara moved up ahead of the rest, putting out her torch in the sandy cave floor. The smell of brine and goblins was filling her nose as well by this point. Peaking her head around the corner, the pathway opened into a large cavern. There was more space here, and she saw only five goblins working on something. They were chopping up and sawing off wood from a pile of logs. The goblins themselves all wore bits of pirate and sailor clothing….they were building some kind of…boat? At the far end of the large cavern were two larger figures. One was slouched while standing. It was covered in patchy, brown fur. It was almost as tall as Grukk, and had a square face with a mouth full of fangs, with eyes like the goblins. It would shout and kick any goblin that wasn’t working or was working too slowly. It had an eyepatch covering its right eye and wielding a crude iron morning star. The creature next to the furry one is what worried Kara. It was a clean six feet tall and stood upright. Its face was similar to that of the goblins, but its skin was a matted red. It wore fine scale amor, with a sword on its hip and a pirate hat on its head. It surveyed all the goblins with intelligent yellow eyes.

Kara ducked back from the corner and gestured for the others to remain quiet. “Okay, so there are only five goblins in that cavern. But there’s a bigger problem in there.”
“The bugbear?” Alydrezea asked confidently. “I could hear him from here.”
“yes, the bugbear is a problem, but these goblins have a leader. A hobgoblin. He’s going their leader. If we can take him out, maybe the rest of the goblins will surrender.”
“We’re badly outnumbered here…” Grukk added in, “We’ll have to use shock trooper tactics. Go in hard and fast. I’m the best fighter here, I’ll take on the hobgoblin.” Boris snorted in protest at the half-orc’s claim. “I should be the one to fight that hob! I’m the strongest of any of us, and that includes you, half-orc!”
“Boys, boys!” Kara interrupted, sense a spat between the two warriors. “You’re both beautiful muscle-bound meat heads.” The rogue smiled, sly vixen she was, with a calming pat on the shoulder to the boys of her crew. “Boris, look. Maybe you want to take on the bugbear instead? He looked more muscley than the hobgoblin pirate.” The minotaur thought a moment and relented his desire to fight the goblin leader. “Fine. But next time we fight a horde, I kill their leader!”
Grukk gave an agreeable nod. “Deal. Alright, Boris will keep the bugbear occupied. I’ll go for the hobgoblin. Alydrezea, Kara, you two keep the little ones off me.” The two ladies smiled, and everyone readied their weapons.

The goblins were rattling on as they worked on their ship building project, when they saw a large figure charging at them from the tunnel entrance. One goblin had just enough time to shout out, “Gree-ha—grk!” The sharp horn of Boris penetrated the gut of this little goblin. The impact was so great, that the little terror when flying, its body going splat against the half-built boat, staining it red with goblin blood. The entire crew stood in stunned surprise, as Grukk charged in next, heading straight for the Hobgoblin. This goblinoid captain drew his cutlass and shouted out in the Common Tongue in a harsh pirate voice. “Don’t just stand there, you sea-rats! Kill ‘em!"
The little creatures all scrambled to get their weapons and into the fight, the brutish bugbear stepped between his captain and the charging half-orc. The monster's morningstar smacked into Grukk's shield with a loud ring of mettal, the force stopping his charge dead! Alydrezea stayed by the tunnel entrance, a ball of starlight left her hands, turning into a small sphere of red-hot flames right on top of another goblin. The drow's pale eyes began to sparkle, and the stars themselves seem to manifest out of thin air around her. The stars gathered round the druid, reflecting in her shadow and on her skin like magical tattoos.
Kara fired a crossbow bolt from the shadows, smacking the burning goblin in the leg! She hung the farthest back, and though her shot gave away her positon the rogue gave a confident smirk. The goblins shook off their surpised and began to act, the bugbear's morningstar slammed into Grukk's shoulder! His new armor absorbed most of the blow but it still hurt, his sword arm shook. The three goblins that weren't shot down or on fire scrambled into the half-construsted boat, the let loose arrows into Boris and Grukk and then ducked behind cover. Alydrezea smiled, and moved her graceful grey hands, the flaming sphere followed her gesture and smacked into the unfinished goblin boat! The magical fire ignighting the poorly constructed vessel on contact, and the flames would soon spread to the rest of the boat.

Hearing the sound of heavy footsteps behind him, Grukk side-stepped out of the way. The confused bugbear looked up just in time to see a huge minotaur barreling towards him. Bugbears are bizzarly agile for their size and it dove out of the way of Boris' goring charge. The brutes stared each other down. "Go! Kill the hobgoblin! This one is mine!" The fighter turned and got into swords range of the goblinoid pirate captain. He brought his greatsword down on the smiling creature, and with a metal clang the hobgoblin had parried Grukk's first strike. Grukk lost his footing in surprise, and the pirate slashed his cutlass into the half-orc's exposed under-arm where there was no armor for protection. The pirate let out a laugh. "You call that swordplay? Your kind never did know how to properly handle a blade. I'd be happy to show ye, if ye don't bleed out first!"