"Everything about that damn lizard is infuriating! Even talking about them is a disaster, I can never decide if I should be saying; him, her, them, it, or something else entirely!"

Aggy had complained constantly during the past hour as the three companions followed Thisss out of the city and along the road that connected Providence with settlements in the east. Finally though, she had brought up an issue that Terri could actually help with.

"You should call Thisss him as he's a male," Terri replied to the agitated dwarf.

"And how do you know that young cleric?" Aggy responded. "I haven't seen hide nor hair of anything 'dingle dangling' in the three times we've interacted with the lizard so far."

"That's not how you tell a male from a female with the lizardpeople," Terri answered. "Their reproductive equipment is all stored internally until it's.............ah..........lizard love time. The main visible differences between the sexes are that their heads are shaped slightly differently and that the males have a bluish tinge to the scales on their back. Oh, and the females are usually a bit bigger."

"Bigger," blurted out Aggy, "no wonder they were the stuff of nightmares where you grew up, they're monstrous. And where did you come by this information may I ask, you didn't have it when we first saw the thing in the ‘Cup."

"It was that first encounter that inspired me to do some research," answered Terri. "After that night I started visiting the library and found out a number of interesting things about lizardpeople. For one thing-"

Terri was interrupted when Flem grabbed her arm and pulled the young cleric to a halt. "Look ahead," the elf said, pointing down the road. "It seems our cold blooded teammate has reached his destination."

Flem was right. Terri squinted her eyes and saw that away in the distance, Thisss had stopped walking and was now looking intently at the ground. The three companions waited for a moment, watching him move back and forth repeatedly over the same spot, before resuming their journey along the road.

The trio had been unable to catch up to Thisss due to Aggy's stubborn refusal to move any faster than a brisk walk during their journey. This had frustrated Terri in particular but the extra distance came in handy now as it gave them all an excellent opportunity to observe the lizardman's odd behaviour. After surveying the area in an upright position Thisss was now down on all fours, covering the same ground once again, with his long blue tongue flicking in and out. Occasionally he would lift his head, point his long muzzle skyward for a few seconds and then drop it down again. He was still doing this when the three companions arrived and continued for another full minute before finally standing up and addressing them.

"I see that you have decided to accompany me on this quest. That is acceptable, however I caution you not to try to help or participate in any way as your incompetence will only end up endangering yourself, your warmblood friends or even worse, me."

Terri expected this to provoke another angry outburst from Aggy so she turned around to restrain the volatile dwarf. Surprisingly Terri found her sitting quietly on a large rock beside the road and looking completely disinterested in the whole affair.

"It's fine with me lass," Aggy responded to Terri's look of concern. "If the daft lizard wants to do everything himself then I've got no problem with that. Just make sure you take his advice and keep your participation to a minimum. I don't want to have to start looking for a new flatmate before we've even completed a single quest."

Terri accepted the dwarf’s compliance gratefully before turning back to the still searching Thisss who had now moved off into the bushes beside the road.

"Ah Thisss," Terri said, "would it be ok if you let us know the details of the task we're doing? It might help us to stay out of your way if we know what to expect."

The giant lizardman paused for a moment and then removed a piece of paper from a pocket on the belt around his waist. Passing it to Terri he said, "This is from the task board. I acquired it last night before the other teams had a chance to steal it from us." He then went back to tasting the air, and sometimes the plants and the ground, as he methodically worked his way into the underbrush.

Terri and Flem looked at the slip of paper together, it carried yesterday's date and read:

'A group of goblins have been robbing and sometimes murdering travellers on the east road into Providence. The latest attack occurred this morning at a location approximately four miles from town. This location has been marked on the road with a white peg driven into the ground. Your task is to locate the base of operations the goblins have been using to launch their attacks and report this location to Gravenhall. Your payment will be one token for each member of your four person group.'

"Well, that doesn't sound so bad," Flem commented. "We don't actually have to fight the goblins or return any of the stolen goods, we just need to find out where they are and get away without being discovered."

Terri was about to reply when Thisss returned from the bushes and addressed the group. "I have detected the scent of the goblin bandits and will be able to track them back to their lair. Follow at least ten paces behind me so that your warmblood odour does not corrupt the scent trail." With that the giant lizardman turned around and began to forge a path through the dense forest that covered the land next to the road.

Aggy heaved herself upright with a sigh. "Alright team, it looks like it’s time to play follow the leader. Just make sure you take his advice and stay back a bit, goblins aren't stupid and there's a good chance they've booby trapped the path back to their hideout."

They followed Thisss through the dense bush for over an hour without covering much distance. While the goblins had put considerable effort into hiding their trail, most of their tricks were no match for the lizardman's exceptional ability to taste their scent. Their only effective defences were the many false trails they'd laid down that led nowhere, as these had to be searched individually until the true path forward was found.

The sun was rising to noon, and it was hot and steamy even under the shade of the forest canopy, when the group broke out onto a clear, well trodden path. Aggy opened her backpack and offered around a canteen and some hardtack biscuits which Terri and Flem gratefully accepted. Thisss declined the offer but he stayed nearby while the others ate and drank, frequently looking up and down the path as if unsure which way to go.

Watching this Aggy was unable to resist commenting on it, "Don't bother waiting around for us oh mighty leader, unless of course you've led us here into the middle of nowhere and now you're not sure which way to go."

Thisss responded without apparent offence, "That is incorrect. The way forward is obvious to me, and would be to you as well if your warmblood sense of smell wasn't so horribly stunted. The question is not where to go but how to go. The path ahead is obvious and well used, therefore it has almost certainly been trapped in some way to prevent pursuit. I am not familiar with these creatures and therefore I am unsure how they will assail us. We could follow the path by walking a short distance to the side of it but this would slow us down and they may have laid traps there as well. I am unsure how to proceed safely."

Flem looked up from where he was sitting on the trunk of a fallen tree. "In that case it looks like it's time for me to earn my token. I learned a lot of skills during the last year at 'rogue school' but the two I focussed on most were opening locks and finding traps. I'm happy to lead the way but progress is going to be slow and I want you all to stay back a fair bit. It's my first time doing this 'for real' and if I get it wrong there's likely to be a pretty large splash radius."

Thisss eyed the elf for a moment before replying, “Your offer is accepted. If necessary I will dispose of your remains in a place where the swamp eels cannot reach them, as is the custom in my tribe.”

“And I promise to do the same for you, should the need arise,” Flem replied solemnly, with only a twinkle in his black eyes betraying the effort it took not to smile.

They travelled slowly along the forest path for almost twenty minutes before Flem spotted the first trap in the form of a pit that stretched across the full width of the path. The opening had been hidden by a canvas cover; cunningly disguised with a light dusting of soil and forest mulch. Fortunately the goblins had become lazy about concealing their tracks and Flem easily spotted the path they'd made through the bush to bypass the pit. He carefully scouted the second path to make sure it wasn't a subtle double trap and then motioned for the others to come forward.

"They're planning to be around for a while if they've gone to the trouble of digging a pit trap," he said. "We'll have to be careful not to disturb them when we find their hideout, there could be an awful lot of them."

Two more traps followed in relatively quick succession; a tripwire that fired a tree mounted crossbow and then another pit. This seemed to mark the end of the goblin's precautions however, and after another half an hour of slow progress Flem noticed the light in front of them beginning to change. He called a halt and the rest of the team quickly joined him. "It's getting lighter up ahead so we're probably coming up to some kind of clearing. We'll need to be very quiet and very careful."