Hidden behind the smallest boulder they could find at the end of the tunnel that could fit them all. Aelric was on one edge and Faye on the other, while Ailbe and Elsie remained in the middle with their backs pressed to the rock. Faye peeked around first, gazing into the cave; she was looking into a much larger cavern space that flatten out from the tunnel entrance. Almost double the width and height, and well lit too; 35 feet wide and 30 feet tall. The flaming torches showed her who owned this cavern. 

Immediately, she saw the huge 9-foot shape of an Ogre walking slowly. It was dressed in animal furs, possibly from unsuspecting beasts it had killed, and it carried a stone club in his belt. In the Ogre's great hands looked to be a water bowl and Faye's eyes followed the direction it was walking. Her eyes took her to the back corner of the cavern where a wicker cage hung only a metre and a half off the ground. There appeared to be an animal or creature jumping around inside. Faye's eyes darted around the cave, seeing a number of things they could look into if the Ogre weren't here; first of all, wanting to go over to check out the caged creature. 

Faye hid her head again, returning to the others. She retold them what she saw, a simplified version, but in what was a little louder than a whisper. 

"Sssh, use your quietest voice," Else hushed Faye with a finger to her own lips. 

"I was," Faye replied, unsuccessfully attempting to be quieter.

"Then try not talking then." Aelric may have whispered that but you could still hear the sarcasm in his speech. 

"Okay, onto the situation at hand," Elsie whispered firmly. "What do we do? We need to come up with a plan."

"Obviously we need to take care of the Ogre first before doing anything else. Working as a team worked well the last two times, so I don't see why it won't again," answered Ailbe. 

Aelric nodded. "That's true about the past two times. So I'll take the ogre, head-on, while Faye and Elsie both flank me. Ailbe, you sneak around and grab the cage since you're so good at staying hidden. I've been wanting a pet for a while." Then, before Ailbe could even open her mouth to protest, Aelric had said "Let's go!" and ran out from behind the boulder with his glaive out in front.

As Aelric ran, he didn't leap over or jump at the Ogre, he went down this time. Sliding underneath, between the Ogre's legs, he slashed at them with his blade. The Ogre hadn't enough time to react to him since Elsie and Faye followed ten seconds later. They each ran out from either side of the rock, drawing their swords as they did, and aiming them high to reach the Ogre's forearms. The plan's success was told by the deep guttural roar that bellowed out of the Ogre. However, that wasn't enough to take this creature down. 

As frustrated as Ailbe was with "the plan", she started to follow it anyway. Attempting to take the cavern outskirts, around the battle to the cage, which wasn't difficult for her since she was skilled in espionage. Unfortunately for her, the Ogre was directly beside the cage and completely aware of its surroundings, despite the three humans attacking it in its home. The Ogre lifted its large stone club from his belt, grunted, and swung it at Ailbe, flinging her off to the side. 

Aelric watched Ailbe hit the Cavern wall and needed to draw the Ogre's attention away from her, so she could recover from her possibly dazed state. The Ogre's size did inhibit his speed, however, it still swung his club at Aelric. Fortunately, Aelric was faster and slashed between the ogre's legs as he rolled back under them again, making it howl in pain. The Ogre doubled over and threw its hands every which way to try to catch him. It missed Aelric by the hair on his head, as he circled around and slid his blade across both joints. 

The Ogre fell to his bloodied knees, howling louder in pain. The echo from it pierced the adventurer's ears and most of them had to try to block the noise with their hands. A surge of anger ran through the Ogre and it lunged at Ailbe in the last attempt, but Faye hadn't covered her eyes and was able to foil this plan. She struck the Orge from behind with both her blades, sending it crashing forwards, killing it.

Ailbe painfully got up and dusted herself off, not moving too much as her body ached all over, so she surveyed the scene from her position. There was the creature in the cage, jumping around even more frantically than before. Perhaps excited that its captor was dead or maybe even more panicked that these four new killers would kill it too. As for the rest, there wasn't much to be found in the cave. A straw bed, stone jars, and a table and chair are all that are immediately visible, but on a stone shelf above the bed, a small silver box caught her eyes, as well as Faye's. 

As for Aelric and Elsie, they were next to the creature's cage now, which was making even more racket. 

Faye ignored the noise or was too focused to care, as she walked over to collect the box. "This is mine," she told the group, climbing onto the bed and reaching up to finger the shelf. It was higher up the wall than she realised and 

"How is that fa-," Ailbe tried to protest.

Although Aelric interrupted her. "Alright. This one's mine then." He was pointing to the creature in the cage with a slick grin. 

Elsie shot him a disapproving look. "Al, you can't keep it as a pet."

"Don't." Aelric matched her look.

She held her hands up defensively. "Alright, sorry, but you still can't domesticate it." But disapproval turned to sly in Aelric as he turned back to the creature. 

Back over by the bed, Ailbe watched as Faye gradually pulled the box closer to the edge with her fingers. With one more last curl of her index finger, the silver box slipped over the edge and fell into the palm of her left hand. Bringing her other hand down to twist the box in her hand, looking at each side. Nothing had any meaning, only swirls and decorations that were clearly just there for 'prettiness'. So with her right hand, she gently prised open the lid, however as she did, a yellow gas escaped. It was pale and sickly at first, then as it enveloped her face it dissipated. 

The gas must have been toxic as Faye's eyes started to water. Dropping the box onto the bed, she coughed and held her breath while waving her hands agitatedly around her head, trying to escape the gas cloud that had enveloped her. "Damn you, Roxanne!", Faye choked and sputtered, trying to breathe. "If only I had kept those nose filters instead."

Faye's lungs felt like they are bursting as she was forced to inhale. Opening the box had come with consequences. When the gas cloud finally dissipated, Faye felt weaker. Light-headed and unsteady, she decided she needed to rest for a moment. But still, she first put the silver box in her backpack before sitting down on the bed, thinking that she may be able to reuse it. 

Neither of the two by the cage saw Faye flailing about, instead, Elsie watched as Aelric tapped on the creature's cage and asked, "Hey, little guy, want to come along on this quest with me? I'll look after you." 

Inside the cage, a small, sinewy creature with brown, scaly skin was jumping up and down; he was a Goblin. Round his neck hung a black shiny rod on a leather cord. Aelric hadn't much interest in the necklace rod and Elsie only had an interest in it, not the creature. Whereas, Ailbe had turned her attention away from Faye and was wandering slowly over to the cage. Saying nothing, only rolling her eyes at what was said to the creature. Then just as Aelric was about to open the cage, she unsheathed her sword and ran it through the bars, into the goblin. 

"Hey, that was my pet. Why'd you do that?", Aelric snapped at her. 

Ailbe shrugged. "You told me what to do, so I killed your pet, now we're even." Not giving him time to retaliate, she turned on her heel and left the cavern. Aelric took one look at the dead goblin before chasing after her to argue, he wasn't about to let her win that easily. 

Elsie and Faye exchanged looks before Faye cursed. "Damn it. Now Aelric is going to be in a mood." 

"When is he not?", Elsie replied, shrugging. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Just needed to sit for a bit." Faye nodded, starting to carefully stand up from the lumpy bed. "But we should catch up to them, make sure they don't kill each other."

"Good point, will follow you in a second."

Faye gave her a nod in reply and left the cavern in pursuit of Ailbe and Aelric to make sure nothing irrational happened. Elsie, however, was left standing next to the cage. Unlatching it, she opened the cage and reached her hand inside. Over the lifeless body of the goblin, her hand picked up the rod and carefully pulled it out from around its neck. Once outside of the cage, Elsie examined it; the rod was made of ebony and there was a screw thread at one end. A smile burst onto her face upon seeing the letter G neatly inscribed at the other end of what must be the handle of the dwarfish war hammer. Putting the handle gently in her backpack, she left the cave to tell the others.