Zalrodal awoke amidst a mountain of stolen grain, he opened his eyes and slowly adjusted to the dim light. In front of him was nothing more than a small campfire and a room filled with little trinkets of a value barely worth mentioning. The only other person in the room was Guglak, although, 'person' might not be the most appropriate of terms. Guglak's green head turned around, greasy, tangled hair plastered to the side framing his enormous eyes. His wide mouth opened revealing rows of teeth and tusks alike, his body was bent forwards his hands placed before him like claws. Guglak scampered over to his master, using one of his hands as an additional leg as he walked.

"Master, Master," the green creature spoke, "You wake now? Guglak wait you, Master. Guglak prepare meal for Master." Guglak gnarly arms stretched out towards the fireplace, his outstretched finger ending in a blacked claw pointed directly at the roasting rat impaled by one of Guglaks wooden spears. "It nearly ready Master, come, come," Guglak beckoned his master out of the fortress of stolen grain and towards the fire.

Zalrodal arose creating a wave of grain that spread across the cave floor and walked towards his measly meal. He had greater aspirations than stolen grain and roasted rat. His time would come when he commanded more than a measly band of goblins. He bit into the rat, juices flowing into his black beard. Now that he thought about it, where were the other goblins, only Guglak was in the room, but of course, Guglak was always with him. "Do you know where the others are?" Zalrodal spoke in a heavy voice, "I would hope they are doing something useful with their time,"

"Of course Master, goblins work hard for Master, yez, others just guarding the entrance, Master not worry, yez?" Guglak looked towards the only entrance to the cave and back to his master. "Do you want me to getz them, Master?" Guglak spoke spittle flowing out between his crooked teeth.

Zalrdoal gave a small sign with his hand agreeing to Guglak's idea and the creature scampered off into the darker tunnels. Zalrdoal might not have a great army or hideout but at least he would try to act befitting of a Dark Lord, it was his aspiration to one day rule these lands not out of a dirty cave but out of a citadel of darkness that spread its shadow across the land. Zalrodal continued living out his perfect empire in his mind as he ate the remainder of the rat.

A screech filled Zalrodal's ears, the noise was followed by hasty steps coming directly into the room he was in. He stood up and faced the entrance, curious to see what could have caused such a commotion. Guglak came running out of the shadows of the tunnel and hugged against his legs, the goblin was out of breath its ugly head pressed against Zalrodal's thighs, even at full height the goblin barely reached his waist, and Guglak was considered tall amongst his kind. "Master, lightz, lightz in tunnelz. Theyz're coming for uz," Guglak spoke, his only emotion fear, "youz muzt protect Guglak, Master!" It was at these moments that Zalrodal felt some margin of strength, he was relied upon by his servants and soon he would bring the same fear into his enemies that now took hold of Guglak.

Zalrodal pushed the goblin around his legs aside, the small green body skittering along the stone floor. Soon the light of torches could be seen along the walls to the tunnels, there was only one thing that would march into a goblin cave, torches in hand and scaring his most loyal servant into submission. Adventurers. Filthy adventurers, truly the filth of the world. If it weren't for them, men like Zalrodal would have conquered the known world ages ago.

The group of adventures crashed into the room, their leather boots trampling the trinkets that Zalrodal's servants worked so hard to acquire. Their faces were illuminated by the light of their torches and the room's central fire. There were two men and two women in the group although they could barely be considered so, as a close glance to their faces revealed their youth. The adventures were equipped in chain mail and leather and held and together their arsenal consisted of bows, swords, and magic wands. Zalrodal, on the other hand, had nothing but his goblin sized sword, the blade chipped and crude although menacing lacked in size.

It was time for Zalrodal to give the adventures what they came here for, "Who dares enter my layer, I am Zalrodal lord of this place. Leave now or die, brave adventurers," his voice boomed through the cave, "I Zalrodal will destroy your puny attempts at..." he stopped speaking, the adventurers had started talking between themselves in the middle of his speech.

"Let's just kill him and get the loot," one of the adventurers said.

"Shouldn't we let him finish talking at least?" the wizard asked.

"It's alright, he won't say anything interesting anyway, we might be able to buy something cool if we put together all these trinkets though. Let's just get it over with,"

The adventurer charged at Zalrodal, his sword held high and shimmering in the firelight. The blade whistles through the air above Zalrodal as he dodged under it and struck the adventurer with his goblin sword, he struck true but the adventure did not seem too panicked, yet, Zalrodal was not a complete push-over, a small group of adventurers could never hope to defeat him by swinging around their swords wildly.

He saw one of the other adventurers draw an arrow and release it from his bow, the arrow shot out at tremendous speed striking Zalrodal in the shoulder, "You think your puny weapons can harm me?" he yelled, his blood pooled around the arrow wound but he remained standing, he dodged another strike from the sword-fighter and returned the blow this time making the boy retreat. He turned towards the adventurers expecting them to be cowed by his power, he was surprised to find a red glow above one of the adventurer's books and a crude wooden wand pointed at him. The adventure chanted in her melodic voice and the room was filled with red as she yelled, "Fire Ball!!!"

The last thing Zalrodal saw was the ever-growing wave of flames crashing against his body and searing him from head to toe, his vision soon went from red to black as his body crashed lifeless against the ground his body still half engulfed by flames. The adventurer's had won and taken every last valuable out of the cave.