On the ramparts of an ancient and crumbling fortress, a hobgoblin in a black duster stands alone before an army of goblins. Interspersed among the goblins are hobgoblins in their long black robes. The hobgoblin in the black duster screams into the morning air, blasts of freezing water vapor punctuate his every word. When his speech finally comes to an end the goblin army howls in response, raising their crude weapons into the air. The sounds of the bloodthirsty horde echo against the mountainside.

Danny and Phantom huddle in the alcove of a tree where they have waited the past day. The trip there had been two and a half days straight of Phantom running tirelessly. The closer they got, the more goblin patrols they had to avoid. Phantom had no trouble reaching the ruins of the fortress. Traveling along the tops of the trees, they easily avoided detection by the wolves that were being ridden by the goblin patrols.

Only a few trees had managed to grow this close to the fortress and the rest had been cut down. Danny had used some of his nature affinity to get them across a few of the larger gaps between the trees.

While Danny was observing the goblin encampment, he was actually waiting on his pursuers to catch up. Not needing to stop and rest probably gave Phantom the biggest edge in speed.

The fortress was circular in shape with four large towers situated half way between each point of the compass. Three of these four towers had collapsed and only the southwest tower remained mostly standing. One of the collapsed towers had a large plume of smoke rising from it.

There was a center keep, but many of the walls had fallen and you could see what remained of the rooms inside. The outer walls of the fortress were intact save a few points where someone, probably the goblins, had filled it in with loose stone.

A few hours later, after the goblin army had left, Cranny announced, *Danny, it’s show time.*

The fortress still had a sizable force that had remained behind, and the only thing that stopped Danny from letting loose was the fact that there were probably prisoners inside. There was also that hobgoblin in the duster he needed to have a chat with, otherwise Danny might have already attacked on his own and cut loose without restraint.

Danny rode Phantom down the canopy of the trees and began to make their way around the back side of the fortress from where they had been waiting. This terrain was rocky and steep, not affording them many places to hide.

He could sense the approaching force and, as they all entered the range of his senses, was shocked by their sheer numbers.

*Yep, looks like they can’t live without you, Danny*

There was no alarm, no goblin scouts rushing back to warm the fortress.

The noonday sky grew dark as hundreds of arrows almost completely blocked out the sun.

Danny urged Phantom towards a crumbled section in rear of the fortress he had spotted. This wasn't a hole in the wall, as much as a steep incline they could use to scale the walls.

The mass of arrows fell into the fortress and along its walls. Danny timed his entrance immediately after the first volley. When the sky only brightened for a few moments, he knew he didn't have much time. Ducking into a walkway running under the ramparts, Danny found a safe place from the next flight of arrows. Just as they came to a stop, arrows fell like a sudden spring shower. Already, many arrows and dead goblins littered the ground and Phantom found the footing challenging.

Unfortunately this location was also being used by a half dozen goblin soldiers. The two groups stared at each other awkwardly for a few moments.

As Phantom tore into the nearest two, Danny leaped off and activated earth affinity, covering himself with stone armor. Phantom's quick reaction distracted them long enough for Danny to pierce the remaining four with spikes of earth.

Where the earth used to move slowly it now sprung out of the ground at Danny's command. With the goblins now dead, Danny realized the walkway under the ramparts used to be a hallway. The part of the collapsed wall they used to enter with had also collapsed this hallway on one end and removed the inner wall.

Danny quickly moved towards the uncollapsed portion of the hallway. His earth aspect gave him a detailed view of the fortress layout. The fortress had been built to survive a siege and those who had built it, dig deep. Sensing a large room far below, Danny headed for that, but not before closing off the way he came in.

This was the plan he devised. Physically cut up the fortress into bite sized pieces while the elves caused a distraction.

Most of the goblins that had survived the rain of arrows were huddled in the exits to the courtyard. The hallway Danny entered, wrapped around the entire fortress and only way down into the bowls of the structure was through a large doorway on the north side.

Any entrances were quickly sealed as Danny passed them by them. He simply pushed any goblins lingering in these doorways, out into the courtyard. He and Phantom made quick work of any goblins they encountered that couldn't be herded or corralled. Danny couldn't help but find it odd they didn't come across any hobgoblins.

*Why so down, Danny?*

Danny grumbled internally, *I spent all that time learning those two handed weapons and I can’t use them.*

*Then make a one handed weapon.*

Danny sighed, *Nah, I just don’t feel like it.*

Cranny mumbled, *Apparently, I didn’t have to look very far to find a princess…*

Danny stopped, *What was that?*

*Oh, look at that! Were here.*

Stopping at a particular spot in the hallway, Danny sealed off the way they were headed as well. Making sure it looked like a collapse from the other side. Focusing on the ground, Danny created a stairway headed downwards.

The storage room they entered was empty of goblins but filled with raw unprocessed ores. Danny knew where they were getting the materials to make those crude weapons from.

He still had another two levels to go down to, but the floors had not been built on top of each other. They spread out towards the center of the mountain. Each floor held a single main hallway with multiple branching hallways. Different sized rooms littered each branching hallway.

Danny peeked outside the ore storage room and down towards the main hallway. Goblins were quickly filing by, armed to the teeth. The stream of little green bodies seemed to never end. It looks like they will be keeping the elves busy for a while.

When he and Phantom first stepped out into the hallway, a goblin happened to spot them, but the crush of bodies behind it quickly pushed it along. Danny waved and sealed off that portion of the hallway he was in. Why take unnecessary risks if you didn't have to.

With Danny's knowledge of the fortress' layout he easily made his way in the direction he needed to go, by passing through the rooms and avoiding the main hallway. This first basement floor seemed to be mostly storage rooms. When he got near the end of the floor, he encountered a surprise.

He knew he was about to enter a large room, but it was in his path taking a straight shot down to the end of this floor. As Danny opened the wall into the new room, he was met by two goblin soldiers guarding a mangy looking dwarf who was shacked to the nearby wall.

A couple of other, smaller goblins, were apparently assisting the dwarf as he worked at a forge. One was carrying a crude sword over to a massive pile of weapons while the other was sharpening the swords as best he could. The smoke Danny had seen coming from one of the crumbled towers up top, had been from a vent to the smelter taking up a corner in this room.

The room was like an oven and Danny wondered how the dwarf and assistant goblins hadn't turned into jerky by now.

Danny had immediately closed off the doorway to the room and Phantom had quickly dispatched both the guards. The two assistants ran and cowered in a corner. As Danny walked over to the dwarf, Phantom ran towards the occupied corner.

Danny touched the shackles on the dwarf's feet and they fell off, "Good day, sir. How are you? My name is Danny."

The dwarf hadn't moved a muscled when Danny and Phantom walked in, and seemed scared to death of the cat just killed his former assistants.

Turning around, the dwarf looked closer and began to eye Danny cautiously before speaking in elvish, "Why are you speaking in human, Mr. Elf? I only know dwarven and elven. The names Dain. Thank you for releasing... is that armor made of stone?"

Danny had forgotten he was still in his earth aspect and released it. Pieces of stone fell to the ground around him.

Danny switched to elvish, "I am actually human but I know elvish as well. How did you wind up here?"

Dain tenderly inspected his ankles, "I was with a dwarven delegation to the elves, hoping to see if they would let us do a bit of prospecting in their lands. We was hoping to form a sort of business partnership with anything we find. Figure with the elves buying all their ores and metals from us, they wouldn't mind us providing the goods a bit closer to home.

Blasted goblins took us by surprise and knocked me over the head before I knew what was what."

Reaching out with nature aspect, Danny scanned the man for injuries. Using nature aspect he did his best to heal the cuts on the man’s ankles, from the shackles. There were a few other signs of poor treatment he had received from the goblins.

Being the first dwarf he had seen, Danny scanned the man's body with his mana sight. He was surprised to find that, while the dwarf's mana was unlocked, it all seemed to flow along his mana veins only to be ejected from his body once it got near his skin.

Not really the time to go much further into this, Danny asked, "Do you know if there is anyone else being kept here, and where is the hobgoblin with the black duster?"

The dwarf frowned and shrugged his shoulders, "When they caught me, they brought me here and I work, sleep, eat, and shit here. I am a miner, not a blacksmith. I know a little about metalworking but just repairin things. Which is good in a ways, as all I can make are some shoddy swords and armor for them."

Danny pondered on what to do with the dwarf and decided it best to just bring him along.

Dain quickly agreed, "Better safe with you then trying not to get captured again by those little bastards!"

"You know how to fight?"

Dain shook his head, "My clan have been miners for generations. We are not trained to fight."

Danny had Dain follow behind Phantom and him, and call out if someone was flanking them. Dain made sure to grab one of his newly finished "swords". Danny reactivated his earth affinity, and reopened the door. A gathering of goblins on the other side started to move into the room when they were engulfed in a forest of earthen spikes.

Dain whispered to himself, "Gonna give me nightmares for weeks, the earth killin like that isn’t natural."

Not wanting to really inspect his handiwork too closely, Danny pushed the impaled goblins to either side and sealed the hallway. In the last room across from Dain's they were able to descend through the floor again.

The second basement floor was obviously meant for use as a barracks, as dozens pallets littered the floor.

Frowning, Danny created a stairway down and cautiously looked for traps or an ambush.

The hallway was empty and when he checked the surrounding rooms they were too all empty. Danny frowned, as this was going far too smoothly. The goblins on the floor above, apparently didn’t realize he was making his own way through their home.

Moving through the second floor was uneventful. Danny made sure to close off all the hallways he went through, just in case.

After opening a whole to the third and final floor, Danny was greeted by, what he slowly realized was, a mass of naked female goblins.

Danny was about to kill them when he noticed the door to the room was sealed with iron bar door, like a prison. The female goblins all looked up at him in fear. The poses some of them took when cowering triggered a connection in Danny's brain.

Danny looked over at Dain, "They are all being kept locked in here."

Dain made a disgusted face, "Why in the elements would they do that?"

Danny squatted down and thought for a second, "The soldiers up top were all males. I think all the hobgoblins have been male too..."

Dain shook his head, "That doesn't make any sense, the female goblins are the warriors, not the males."

Danny shrugged and decided to change the location of his hole, then he made an enclosed staircase that led right down to the branch hallway of the third basement floor.

Once again, they were greeted by empty hallways. Apparently everyone, who wasn't sleeping, was sent up to fight the invading elves.

Danny took the time to check all the cells, only to confirm each was filled to capacity with what he was now suspecting were pregnant female goblins. He was shocked that they had not left any guards behind at all.

Danny heard a loud explosion come from somewhere above and dust fell from the ceiling, "The elves are inside the fortress. We don't have too much time."

Dain looked up confused, "Elves? Wait, Time for what?"

"I need you to wait out here and don't come in unless you have too."

Danny walked quickly as he skipped the last few branching hallways and opened the large double doorways at the end, Phantom padded along silently behind him.