"Are we really leaving now?" Brian said as they were about to exit the city limits.

"You think we shouldn't?" Ylva inquired from ahead of him.

"No, we shouldn't." Brian shook his head. "It'll be dark before long. I don't think any of us want to travel at night."

"We might make it before then," Hector said. "Darmus said it wasn't too far away."

"Several hours," Brian corrected. "He said several hours. It'll be dark way before we get there."

"That could mean anything. I say we keep going," Calvin said.

"And what about you, Ylva? You barely slept at all last night." Brian turned to the other most sensible member of the party for aid.

"I can stand, and I can stab. That's all I need," reasoned the Norsewoman. Brian grumbled deep in his throat.

"We're on a timetable here, Brian. Who knows how long the goblins will stay at the cave? If we miss them, we might never find them," said Hector.

"Something tells me they aren't very good at sneaking around. I mean, their goblins! Tiffany, you're outdoorsy, right? You could track them if they move?" Brian said.

"Not really," denied Tiffany. "I used to go hunting with my dad, but it's been a long time. Also, I don't know what goblin tracks even look like."

"They're like human feet but smaller, with little claws," said Brian.

"That doesn't help," Tiffany began. "Tracking a deer is one thing, because I know deer. I don't know anything about goblins, or how they act. I only know they're green because Darmus called them green-skinned."

"For the record," Hector said, "green-skin is a slur. We should probably watch who we say it around."

"I thought that was a Warhammer thing," said Calvin.

"It is, but it probably applies here, too, since the orcs and goblins are green," said Hector. Calvin just shrugged.

"Guys, focus," Brian said. "I really think we should sleep for the night."

"What, are you scared?" Calvin joked.

"No," Brian was pleading at this point. "I just think this is a bad idea."

"We have a prefect chance, Brian, we have to take it," argued Ylva. "We can't let the goblins get away."

"But they're not going anywhere," reasoned Brian. "Think about it. What are goblins gonna do with an old cup and a bunch of trade goods? They probably can't use most of it, and no one in the Empire will trade with them. We know goblins like to steal things just for the sake of having more things. They won't abandon their loot."

"Darmus said they were able to take away everything in his cart. They're more than capable of moving," Hector said.

"But that's only the cart. I'll bet my entire coin purse they have more loot than that," Brian said.

"I'll take that action," Calvin interjected swiftly.

"You're not helping, Calvin," admonished Brian.

"Man, stop being such a bitch. They're just goblins. We'll be fine," Calvin said.

"Not if we're exhausted and blind," countered Brian.

"Enough," Hector said, not a yell—or even a forcefull huff—but the others still quieted at his call. "Let's put it to a vote. Everyone in favor of waiting a night, raise your hand."

Brian put his hand up immediately. He looked around to find he was the only one doing so. The others walked on as they had been.

"All in favor of going after the goblins right now?" Hector asked while raising his hand. Ylva, Calvin, and even Tiffany followed suit. "That settles it, we press on."

"Sorry, Brian." Ylva gave him a soft look.

Brian deflated. His shoulders sank and he bent over just slightly. Idiots, the lot of them. He dropped to the back of the line, lamenting his sour fate. He couldn't find any version of reality where this went well. He looked up to the sky to see the sun just waning past midday.

The gods of this world were real, right? Brian raised a quick prayer up to his deity, that Bahamut could either ease their path or keep the sun in the sky a little longer. Maybe he could pass word on to Pelor? It was the best hope he had right then.

The party's instructions were to follow the treeline. The only problem with this was that the Cyrengreen Forest could not be seen from the road. So, this meant traveling off the beaten path, a solution Brian protested greatly. The roads were patrolled, they were well kept. Moving away from them introduced the party to danger and slowed them down. If everyone wanted to complete the quest before nightfall, then to intentionally travel at a slower pace flew completely in the face of that. It made no sense.

But, Brian was outvoted. Ylva seemed gung-ho about finding these goblins, even more so than usual when it came to fighting. Calvin also wanted to hit stuff with his kanabo. Brian worried his barbarian class may be rubbing off on him a bit too much. Even Hector and Tiffany, the most cautious—or, at the very least, indifferent—party members wanted to go after the goblins right away. At a vote of 4 to 1, Brian was powerless to stop them.

So, he resorted to staring at the forest. They kept a good hundred feet or so from the dense dark conifers, a distance that seemed safe enough from the outset. Brian wasn't so sure. Where they had camped the night before seemed safe, but they all knew how well that worked out. It was foolish to assume they were any better off this far away than they were closer to it.

Just as Darmus said, the forest eventually dipped even further from the road before bulging out in a little peninsula of trees. The closest point happened to be a singular tree a few feet apart from the rest at the very apex of this outcropping. With a moment to orient themselves to the sun dipped dangerously low in the sky, the party plunged into the depths.

Brian completely lost all sense of direction the moment they entered the forest. The only reason he had any idea at all of where to go was because he could still see the sun poking through the branches. Yellow streams lit the way, shining at their shallow slant. If he kept those lights on his right, that meant he was traveling west. What angle indicated northwest, however, was a different story. Hector and Ylva seemed to know where they were going better than anyone else: Not just right then, but in general. Brian decided his best course of action was to just follow them.

The sun had almost completely set by the time a hill rolled into view, bathed in the light blue flecked with red which signaled the coming of dusk. Traveling left around the hill revealed an opening in the earth. It looked far too symmetrical to be a natural occurrence, as if people had either made or refined it. It even had the remnants of a few stacked stones to act as a trail marker, though those were mostly scattered.

"You think this is the place?" Calvin asked as they stopped before it.

"It has to be," reasoned Ylva. "It's the only hill with a cave in it that we've seen so far."

"I know one way to check," Hector said. "We can send Noche in."

At the sound of its name, the fey fruit bat appeared on Hector's shoulder. It had been a while since Brian saw the creature, and he'd forgotten how big it was. It stood just under a foot tall and took up most of the shoulder it occupied. Brian had never seen a bat before, but he always thought of them as much smaller creatures, more like rats or mice.

"Yeah, that's a great idea," Ylva said.

"I'll just do the thing Caleb does, and tell you what I see," explained Hector.

"Can you do that?" Calvin asked.

"I think so. Let me check my book..." Hector dug the aforementioned spellbook from the pocket in his robes and began thumbing through it. While he did, Brian took a moment to explain the situation to a clearly confused Tiffany.

"One of the abilities of the Find Familiar spell is that the master—in this case, Hector—can link telepathically with their familiar and see what they see," he said, keeping his voice a bit low so Hector could focus.

"That's what he's doing now?" Tiffany asked.

"It's what he's trying to do," clarified Brian.

"And Noche is a familiar?"

"Yes," Brian said. "A familiar is a magically conjured fey—a fairy-type creature—that takes the form of an animal," he added after realized Tiffany might have never heard of one.

"I'm surprised you haven't asked these questions yet," Ylva observed.

"I thought Hector just had a pet bat," Tiffany said with a shrug. "How was I supposed to know it was magical?"

"And the vanishing into thin air didn't tip you off?" Calvin said.

"You people do weird shit all the time," Tiffany said. Brian couldn't argue with her.

"Okay, I got it!" Hector exclaimed suddenly. "You ready, Noche?" The bat, of course, didn't say anything.

"I have you." Ylva put a hand on Hector's shoulder.

The two of them shared a nod. Hector took a big breath, and his eyes went white. Noche's flared a similar color before returning to normal. The bat flapped from Hector's shoulders and plunged into the cave, squeaking all the way.

The atmosphere visibly shifted as the adorable little bat noises moved further into the darkness until they disappeared entirely, replaced with an eerie silence. Brian waited with breath caught in his throat, prepared for something to go horribly wrong, as they often did for poor Frumpkin. Then again, bats were much more common sights within caves than cute orange kitty cats, so maybe Noche wasn't in that much danger after all.

"There are six of them," Hector said. His speech came in a lethargic drawl, as if extremely distracted by something else. "Four of them are small, like regular goblins. One of them is really big and wearing armor. There's one with a weird staff. Oh!"

"What?" Ylva said.

"One of them just threw a rock at Noche. I'm getting him out," determined Hector. A moment later, the unharmed bat appeared from out of the cave to rest on Hector's shoulders. The wizard's eyes went back to normal. He blinked a few times to recover his bearings.

"How was it?" Ylva asked with a chuckle.

"Echolocation is weird," Hector said. "It was like I could see, but I couldn't see."

"That's a good point, though," commented Brian. "If it's dark in there, we won't be able to fight."

"You can just cast light on the ceiling when we go in," Ylva said to Hector.

"That means stealth is out the window, then," Hector said.

"There's only one entrance, and two of us are in armor. I don't think we would've got very far sneaking," Calvin said.

"We blitz them, then," Ylva said. "Calvin and I can be in the front. Brian, you take the middle. Tiffany and Hector can bring up the rear. Hector casts light on the ceiling, then then the three of us rush in, and Tiffany provides cover fire."

Brian considered this for a moment. "It's a bit direct, but I think it might be our best option. I agree with Calvin that we're probably not stealthing in there."

"We did the same thing at the halfling's house. What was her name?" Calvin said.

"Isalda," supplied Tiffany.

"You alright with this plan, Tiff?" Ylva asked.

"I've said multiple times, now, that you guys are the planners. I'll follow whatever idea you have, but I don't know what I'm doing beyond that."

"That settles it, then," said Calvin. "We run in, crack some heads, go the fuck home."

"Any objections?" Hector asked. No one spoke up, though Brian had several. "Ok, then. Lead the way, Ylva."

Ylva must've been going out of her way to hide the exhaustion in her bones. Her steps were solid and strong, nary a falter as she fell in behind Calvin at the head of the formation. She drew her sword and shield, and went inside.

What little light penetrated the entrance became swallowed up by the darkness after just a few steps. The near sudden blindness caught Brian off guard. Unconsciously, he reached out to grab Ylva's shoulder. She gave no reaction to his touch. A second later, a small hand grabbed at the tunic sticking out from below his chest armor. At least Tiffany was as freaked out as he was. This not being able to see in the dark thing was getting old.

The narrow passage sloped steadily downward for several feet before it curved sharply to the left. Darmus had said traders used this cave as a camp, but he doubted that. How would anyone get a cart down this slope? He had a hard enough time with two feet, let alone four wheels.

A few steps after the left turn, the cave opened up. Brian couldn't see, but he could feel the claustrophobia lift from him. He was about to wonder if this was where the goblins were when he heard Hector move behind him.

"Now!" Light flew from the wizard's staff and illuminated a spot on the ceiling. Ylva and Calvin surged forward. It was on.

White light filled the room. It was a large, vaguely circular chamber, mostly flat with a few stalagmites sticking up here and there. A large earthen column rose all the way up to the right. One goblin tucked into an alcove next to it. Another took cover by the far wall. Three, including the big one, huddled around some bones in the middle. The one with the staff stood well behind them. Brian made this one immediately as a nilbog.

As the humans had made no attempt to hide their approach, the goblins were ready for them. The one to the right drew back a crude shortbow and fired at Calvin. The arrow found his shoulder. The goblin furthest away seemed to aim a bow at at Ylva, but the shoddy weapon snapped under the strain of drawing it back. The arrow clattered to the floor. It quite obviously cursed in goblin before drawing a slightly bent sword.

The nilbog drew a crossbow with one hand and fired at Calvin. The shot went wide.

Thinking quickly, Tiffany ducked into a divot just shy of the chamber entrance. She leaned out to find a shot beneath Brian's right elbow. She fired at the goblin with the broken bow. Her bolt found the creature in the side, but passed through mostly skin. The goblin didn't seem too bothered by it.

Ylva charged right up to the biggest baddie in the room. While the others carried crude weapons, this one had a fine longsword in both its hands. That, coupled with the maille and nasal helmet it wore, and its sheer size, singled it out as a hobgoblin. Ylva struck down at it with a vicious overhand chop. The hob parried with ease, a sinister smile on its face. It pulled back and swung low, but met shield instead of flesh.

Brian stepped out into the chamber, hugging the right hand wall, so as to prevent blocking the entrance. With a hand on his holy symbol to the Platinum Dragon, he let golden light travel through his body to collect in his other, outstretched hand. He aimed it for the archer goblin taking cover by the rock column. The guiding bolt of energy shot from his hand, but could not overcome the earthen barrier.

One of the goblins used the distraction of its bigger companion to move around behind Ylva. It swung a rudimentary hatchet toward her back. A quick flick of her eyes allowed the shieldmaiden to lean out of the way. However, this motion made it difficult to avoid the other goblin who came up to her left. It bashed a club into her shoulder. She winced at the impact, but wore the pain like a champ.

Hector ran out from the mouth of the cave, stopping at a point close enough to engage, but still well away from the fighting. He crushed a trio of pecan tarts in his hand, then waved a feather at the hobgoblin. A familiar pink mist traveled from his staff to ring the target's head. Unlike before, where enemies had to shake off the effect, the hobgoblin didn't acknowledge it in the slightest. Either it had the fortitude of a brick wall, or the intelligence of one. Either way, the spell took no effect.

Calvin let out a blood-boiling scream as he charged up to the goblin who dared attack Ylva from behind. He swung across his body with reckless abandon. The hefty kanabo smacked the goblin so hard across the face its head almost turned around backward. With a snapped neck, it fell to the ground.

The archer goblin Brian had shot at returned fire. Where the human had missed, this monster found much better luck. It managed to shoot the tiny spot where Brian's pauldron did not overlap with his chest armor. The arrow slid between four scales and dug deep into the flesh of his shoulder, missing the bone by a hair's breadth.

The other archer, bow now broken, ran up to Ylva's right. It tried to stab at her, but she blocked with an almost lazy motion of her sword.

The nilbog moved up a few feet. Not one to be outdone, it produced three little tarts from within its robes and waved a gnarled old feather at Ylva. The pink mist Hector so often employed now emanated from the nilbog's staff. It circled around the Norsewoman's head. She clamped her eyes shut and shook her head. A dumb smile crept across her face for but an instant before it vanished, replaced by a stare of total death toward the nilbog. It recoiled slightly under those fierce green eyes. That certainly didn't work as intended.

Tiffany reloaded her crossbow and fired at the goblin on Ylva's left, the one that just hit her with a club. Her bolt pierced through its temple. The light left from its eyes immediately. It died before collapsing to the ground.

Ylva didn't like being surrounded. In this, the hobgoblin was her biggest threat. She pushed her shield into its chest to open it up, and then stabbed upward, underneath its helmet, straight through its lower jaw and out through its head. The only thing that stopped her blade was the metal barrier atop the hob's head. It took a ragged breath before Ylva retracted her weapon. The hobgoblin died in a heap before her.

Brian was concerned about the continued arrow fire from the remaining archer goblin. He moved up on it to remove this threat. With his shield hand on his holy symbol, black tendrils engulfed his other outstretched palm. He went to place it upon the enemy, but it was too fast, snaking out of the way with a shuffle most human bodies wouldn't be capable of. Knowing he was now caught in a protracted melee, Brian drew his hammer.

Hector knew enough to avoid exchanging mind-altering spells with another caster. So, he instead went for damage. He placed a drop of water atop his staff, then drew a diagonal slash in the air with it. Blue like a comet tailed the weapon. He then thrust it forward, and a thin shard of ice hurtled toward the nilbog. The robed goblin side-stepped the projectile, and then rolled forward to avoid the following detonation. For a moment, Hector thought that was kind of impressive, but he expelled the notion from his conscious.

Where Hector missed, Calvin saw an opportunity. He rushed up to the nilbog and attempted to bring his club down. But wait, this goblin was actually a pretty good fighter. Indeed, it was the coolest goblin he'd ever seen! It deserved to be praised, not destroyed. Calvin dropped his club to get down on his knees and worship at the feet of the great and powerful nilbog. He bent down to place his head and hands on the floor, came up to stretch all the way to the sky, before repeating the bow, all the while a blank expression on his face.

The nilbog, satisfied with its handiwork, drew back its staff to swing at Calvin. The strike, however, was mistimed. As the creature swung, Calvin began a new bow. The twisted branch topped with a broken elf skull sailed harmlessly through the air Calvin once knelt in. Foiled by its own magic, the nilbog just growled.

The archer goblin stowed his shortbow in favor of a curved single-edged sword. It took a diagonal swipe at Brian. The cleric blocked with his warhammer. Instinct kicked in and, for the first time, he moved under the power not of the Gift of Knowledge, but his own training. He caught the opposing blade beneath the head of his hammer and then yanked across his body, just as Ylva had showed him during their little sparring session. The goblin's sword flew out of its grip to land somewhere near the entrance.

Tiffany ran up beside Hector while reloading her weapon. She aimed at the goblin facing down Brian and took a shot. To hit a moving target without shooting her friend proved too gargantuan a task. Her bolt went wide.

Ylva rounded on her only remaining opponent, the goblin to her right. She flicked her sword at it. The goblin dodged and grabbed her wrist. A simple slide down toward her hand saw her weapon wrenched free and flung across the floor. Without wasting a single breath, Ylva yanked her arm free and drew the seax sheathed laterally behind her waist, the one she'd had commissioned from Lundgrum.

Hector uttered some words in Silvan, drew back his staff, and thrust it forward at the goblin that just disarmed Ylva. A beam of pure cold raced from his implement toward it. Ice crusted all over the goblin's torso and left shoulder. The green flesh beneath froze and died. An agonized cry seeped from its lips, but it remained standing on wobbly legs.

Calvin came up from a bow, and locked eyes with the nilbog. What had he been doing? Why was he on his knees? Where was his weapon? As whatever effect had taken him wore off, he only knew one thing: This goblin was somehow responsible. He gathered up his club and prepared to attack.

The now unarmed archer attempted to flee from Brian. The cleric lashed warhammer out as the creature sprinted past him, which caught the goblin in its chest, but didn't do enough to stop it. The thing recovered its curved sword, spun around while drawing its bow, and took a shot at Brian. The arrow buried deep in Brian's unarmored left thigh. He grunted and his weight on the limb faltered. He was okay, if in a lot of pain.

Seeing as its enemy was no longer subdued, the nilbog took the only option remaining. It cracked the staff down on Calvin's shoulder. The impact hardly did anything to the leather tunic the barbarian wore. The nilbog looked behind him, desperate for an escape. This wasn't fun anymore.

Tiffany didn't like that one bit. This goblin thing had weird magic and it was hurting her friends. She aimed upon the nilbog. Before she would loose a bolt, she realized something. The nilbog was well within its right to defend itself. If anything, to do so was an admirable feat. This puffed up goblin deserved her respect, nay, her praise. She put down her crossbow and began bowing to the nilbog, as she ought to.

Free of enemies, Ylva charged up to the nilbog. She took a swing at it. What followed was strange, because she was absolutely certain her seax made contact. She saw the blade pass through the purple robe and emerald skin, and even felt her wrist brace against the resistance of a foreign body, yet when she looked at the point of impact she saw no damage whatsoever. She blinked rapidly and shook the cobwebs from her mind. This nilbog was playing with her, destroying her sense of reality. She had no idea what was going on anymore.

While most of his friends focused on the spellcaster, Brian still had his own problem to worry about. He caught up to the goblin archer and pulled back his warhammer. Divine warmth filled him. Bahamut guided his strike, rang it true against the archer's head. The skull caved in. The goblin gave a strangled screech before it spluttered, coughed up a little blood, and then troubled him no more.

Hector repeated his previous action. Another jet of cold sprung from his staff. This time, he barely caught the nilbog's unoccupied hand. The appendage froze up, but its owner didn't seem to care all that much.

In his anger, the only thing Calvin felt was pure rage for the nilbog which had plagued his mind. With a sinister shout he dragged his kanabo straight down. The nilbog's neck snapped in at least two places. Its legs sprawled out on either side. The thing's pelvis hit the ground so hard it bounced once before coming to a stationary stop.

And then, silence. Just like that, it was over. Brian puffed out a few big breaths, not because he was particularly tired, but to expel some of the adrenaline from his system. He didn't have much experience with battle yet, but it always left him a bit keyed up. Maybe that would dissipate with time.

He wasn't the only one, either. Calvin took a few ragged breaths, but for the wrath still in his system. He slowly came down with one long exhale to signal the return of his sate of mind. Then, he kicked the dead nilbog in the face.

"Bitch," he said while stowing his club. Being under the nilbog's influence mustn't have been pleasant.

Hector walked over to Brian. He looked about to say something, but Ylva interrupted him.

"You guys need to come see this," she shouted. Brian hadn't noticed her sneak off into the alcove behind where the nilbog began the fight.

"Is it another hole in the wall?" Jested Brian as he approached.

Ylva shook her head. "Worse."

"Shit, dude..." Calvin trailed off as he joined Ylva. When Brian and Hector reached them, they saw what all the hubbub was about.

The pale corpse of a human man had been laid in the corner. On his head he wore a mask made from the face of a goblin. His feet showed boots made from goblin feet, his hands gloves of goblin hands, just like the madman beneath Isalda's house had done with his rats.