Grinless' unlikely comrades were not in a tunnel near him, but their racket carried all over, echoing throughout the large cavern. It was enough that the three witches and the dragon all stopped what they were doing to hone in on the intruding party.

Their notable entrance was the sole focus of the cavern inhabitants, a circle of witches and dragon ready to welcome or more likely capture them. In their clumsy ignorance, the elf and dwarf were too busy arguing to notice this even as they entered the cavern. Their shouts of who was Grin's right-hand man versus who was the idiot that lost master Grinny echoed out until they finally noticed they were surrounded.

Then they went silent, and Krigga sniffed loudly in the quiet, said, "Sounds like big cave thingy. Smells like old compost and dry rot though. Some peoples here?"

A vexed looking witch snarled, "Just some old compost piles and a huge dry rot factory." The dragon growled menacingly.

Goobdwib and Fernfrick had the grace to look sheepish, but Krigga blinked blindly and said, "We's in trouble again?"

The dwarf cheerfully replied, "Ayup. Worry not, Master Grin will save the day!"

Grinless shook his head at their stupidity and crawled silently into an exit tunnel.

The witches bickered about the dwarf's comment until the dragon rumbled, "Other one's here," sniffing loudly.

Grinless froze, feeling giant glowing eyes upon him. Then he was caught up by a long tail. "Drat!" he cursed.

Set before them the witches and dragon went into their takeover spiel, Grinless yawning and looking about, clearly not interested. While one witch went thru their stuff another covered them with a staff glowing dangerously. The third witch saw to a large bubbling cauldron while the staff-wielding witch talked "...so with this powerful sleep potion in mist form blown about the land by Bonemaw here," indicating the dragon, "We will rule all, my sisters, Egra," pointing to the one searching their stuff, "Tegra," the one at the cauldron, "and I, Fedra. And you'll not be stopping us, er, who're you again?"

Goobdwib and Fernfrick glanced at each other, trying to announce themselves first, but it was incoherently jumbled.

Grinless cut in raucously, "Nobody! And no care 'bout your plans."

All three witches stared at him.

Fedra, said with slitted eyes, "How do we know for sure?"

"Yeah," cried Tegra, stirring the cauldron, "How do we know you're not really adventurers waiting for the moment to stop us?"

Goobdwib and Fernfrick looked about to burst with heroic declarations.

Grinless silenced them with a look and shout of, "NO! Me no adventurer, just wanna be alone. THEM idjits," pointing to the other three, "want dumb adventures and quests."

The dwarf and elf looked shocked at this. Krigga just looked pale.

Grinless went on, "Me say 'Bah' to quests. You take over, have nice time. Leave me alone, me no care."

"Really?" said Fedra, stroking a warty chin. "But again, how can we know for sure?"

Grinless rolled his eyes, "You let me go, me no stop you. Me far away, me no CAN stop you. Or give me private cave, all to self. Just leave alone. Want know for sure? Keep others tied up 'til you takeover."

The three erstwhile Grinless mascots looked shaken by his surprising disloyalty.

Krigga was actually shaking with need for blood. He even sniffed and said, "Um, you gots any small blood-filled critters to drink? Please?" He was ignored.

Egra, sifting thru their things, said, "What do we do with them after?"

Grinless shrugged, "Me no care. They won't leave me alone. Really annoying."

Tegra cackled with delight, "Oh, I like this goblin," winking at him.

Grinless shifted his eyes left and right, not wanting any other fans (or anything more).

"Hey, not so fast!" Egra said, having discovered the group banners made by the dwarf and elf, unrolling them. Goobdwib's new banner was rough with loud, contrasting colors and misspellings, proclaiming in bold lettering, "Grin's Great Gusto Group." Fernfrick's was neater, more elegant in script, spelled right, with complimentary colors, saying, "Grinny's Good Guys."

Egra eyed them suspiciously, "Is that right? You're THE Grinless, the hero?"

All witchy eyes narrowed on him.