With Flem leading the way the four teammates crept along the path until they arrived at the clearing. It was a roughly circular open space, probably five hundred feet across, with trees surrounding it on the left and right. The far side was bounded by a huge escarpment, a cliff face that climbed more than fifty feet above the tops of the trees that were crowded around its base. Near the centre of the cliff wall and almost directly across from the four companions was an opening, a black shadow twenty feet wide and ten feet high.

They were all thinking the same thing but it was Aggy who said it quietly to her companions: "You know team, a cave not far from the road would be a fantastic place to hide, if you were a gang of goblin bandits."

"I completely agree," Flem replied, "and I think that means we've earned our tokens for the day. Let's head back to Gravenhall and tell them what we've found."

"That course of action is not acceptable."

The whispered statement came from Thisss who was standing behind the rest of the group and staring fixedly at the cave entrance across the clearing. "We do not yet have enough proof that this is their lair, it could be a decoy. I will enter in and make sure we have not been deceived."

"Enter in!" Aggy struggled to keep the volume of her voice from rising. "And what will you do if you get in there and find it's filled to the brim with dozens of goblins?"

"That is unlikely," Thisss replied, "I have only detected the scents of eleven distinct individuals during our journey here. Even if they are all present they will be no match for me."

"Of course you'd think that," Aggy muttered. "And have you considered the fact that they might not have sent the whole troop out on that last raid? Maybe they only send a third of their gang each time and there's thirty of them in there waiting for you. Look, if you want to risk your life for nothing by going in there that's fine, but we're getting the hell out of here." She looked hopefully up at Terri and Flem for support but their faces were undecided.

"I'm not so sure Aggs," Terri said slowly. "Thisss may be right, this cave could be a decoy. We haven't seen any signs of people coming and going. We should at least wait a bit to see if anyone turns up."

Flem nodded in agreement. "I agree that hiding and watching is probably going to be the best course of action, but if that's the plan we'd better get off this trail and into somewhere more hidden. If we follow the edge of the clearing round to the left we can take shelter in that thick bush just below the cliff face."

The others looked at where Flem was pointing and saw that he was right. A particularly dense section of understory plants near the base of the cliff on the left hand side of the clearing would offer excellent concealment. Aggy reluctantly agreed that this was a safe enough way to confirm if the cave was occupied and the group began to carefully ease their way around the forested edge of the clearing. It wasn't until they'd arrived at their destination that Terri noticed Thisss wasn't with them.

"We might have a problem," she whispered to the others as they nestled down into the thick shrubs. "Thisss is missing and I'm pretty sure we can all guess why."

Aggy swore under her breath while the trio scanned the trees for any sign of the giant lizardman. It didn't take them long to spot him striding confidently out of the forest on the opposite side of the clearing.

"That makes things a bit more complicated," Flem said in a hushed whisper. "Given that I'm not a six and a half foot monster lizard I'm not exactly keen on the idea of walking into a cave full of goblins. On the other hand I also don't like the idea of letting him go in there alone."

After a moment it was Terri that replied, "One of my cleric professors this year had a lot of useful little sayings that have stuck in my memory. One that seems to fit here is: 'You can't heal stupid'. The professor was trying to say that a cleric shouldn't risk their own life to try and save someone who has stupidly gotten themselves into a dangerous situation. He said that trying to save that person would almost certainly result in the deaths of the idiot, the cleric and then the rest of the team. We should wait out here and see what happens."

The three companions watched as Thisss paused beside the entrance to the cave, probably trying to adjust his eyes to the difference in light. Terri realised she was holding her breath, desperately trying to will the giant lizardman into turning around and walking back into the forest. It didn't work. After another few moments Thisss plunged into the darkness with a ferocity that suggested stealth had never been his plan. Almost immediately the sounds of battle filled the air, closely followed by screaming and then a terrifyingly loud hissing roar that could only have come from Thisss. Surprisingly it was Aggy who broke cover first, racing towards the cave entrance with a speed that belied the length of her legs. Terri and Flem followed a half second later, drawing their weapons on the run while sprinting after their dwarven companion.

As she ran Aggy called back over her shoulder, "Terri, make some light," and as the trio reached the cave entrance Terri raised her hammer and called forth the power of her god. The intensity of Avandar's response reflected Terri's desperate need to help, and the hammer blazed forth like a beacon, filling the interior of the cave with light.

The scene before them brought the three companions to a startled halt. In the centre of the cavern stood Thisss, surrounded on all sides by the bodies of four mutilated goblins and holding a fifth struggling creature in his huge clawed hands. As the trio watched he lowered his head and wrapped massive jaws around the goblin's neck before bringing them together with a 'snap' that took the unfortunate creature's head clean off.

"Ogden's big brass balls," exclaimed Aggy, "what happened here?"

Thisss casually discarded the lifeless body of the goblin and turned to face the group, "They attempted to use the darkness of the cave to ambush me, it was not a successful strategy." He was absolutely drenched in blood, breathing heavily and coming as close as a lizardperson can to actually smiling. Some of the blood was his own due to a deep gash on his left thigh but he seemed not to have noticed the wound at all.

Recovering from her shock, Aggy quickly took charge. "Terri, heal that wound on Thisss' leg, I'll keep watch on the forest. Flem, take a look around the cave and make sure there's nothing else nasty waiting for us. You'll need to borrow Terri's hammer."

Despite Thisss' complete disregard for the wound on his leg he did not object when Terri used her amulet and Avandar's power to heal it. Flem took Terri's glowing hammer and began exploring the remainder of the cave which was small, no more than fifty feet square and mostly empty. Within minutes the elf reported back to the rest of the group who were now waiting just inside the cave's entrance, each carefully searching the forest for signs of movement.

"There aren't any other nasties waiting to be set off or leap out at us from a hidden chamber, but there's nothing of real value here either. Some food and belongings taken from the robbery victims and a few copper coins were all I could find. Nonetheless, the mess and certainly the smell tells me that this is where the goblins have been living. I think that our work here is done and we should get the heck out of here before the rest of the tribe gets back.”

The other members of the team agreed and after a final glance at the trees surrounding the clearing they ran swiftly back to the dense bushes they had occupied only minutes before. Once they were safely hidden from view Aggy broached the subject of how to get home.

"Alright team, all in all things have turned out ok, but now we need to figure out the best way to get home without running into any more goblins. I'd love to make a beeline straight back to the road rather than using the goblin path, but you can't see the sun under the canopy of the trees and it'd be awfully easy to get lost."

"That will not be a problem," Thisss replied, "I have much experience navigating the swamps of my homeland and I am confident I can lead us straight south until we reach the road."

"Make it southwest," Aggy answered, not bothering to question the lizardman's competence this time. "It'll take us further away from the goblin path while still heading in the right direction."

Thisss proved as good as his word and after an hour and a half of pushing through foliage and getting tripped up by vines, the companions arrived at a point on the road that was somewhat closer to home than the white peg where they had started their adventure.

When they arrived back in town their first port of call was the accounts department of Gravenhall to report their findings and collect their tokens. The clerk made no comment whatsoever on Thisss' bloodied state, they simply marked the job as completed and then placed four square, wooden tokens on the bench in front of the party.

Aggy looked at the tokens somewhat ruefully before addressing the clerk. “You know we did a bit more than just locate their hideout, there’s five dead goblins lying on the floor of that cave. For all we know the rest of them will discover the carnage and leave the forest for good - don’t we deserve more than just one token?”

The clerk seemed unperturbed by the question and looked calmly at Aggy over the rim of his half moon glasses. “The task only required you to locate their base of operations Ms Thunderhammer, anything above and beyond that stipulation was not part of the contract and therefore performed gratis, or free of charge. The intelligence you have provided is appreciated and a task relating to the elimination of any remaining goblins will be posted to the level 2 task board tomorrow morning.”

“But we’re only level one,” Aggy snapped back in frustration.

“That is correct Ms Thunderhammer, and as such you need to be protected from tasks that are likely to prove too hazardous and therefore deadly to you and your party. I really don’t know what you were thinking when you entered the cave, there could have been thirty goblins in there for all you knew.”

Aggy shot Thisss an ‘I told you so’ look before scooping up her token and stalking away from the desk clerk, closely followed by her three companions.

As they exited the main gate of Gravenhall Aggy was the first to speak up, "Alright Thisss, I'm pretty sure this is the point where you would normally pipe up and tell us exactly where and when you want us to meet you, so this time I'm going to save you the trouble. How about we meet at the task board every second day at nine in the morning and choose our tasks together, do you think that's something you could work with?"

"That is acceptable," Thisss replied.

"Great, and do you think you can be on time from now on?" Aggy added with more than a hint of frustration in her voice.

"Of course," the lizardman replied. "Now that you have proven your ability to consistently be on time there is no need for me to make allowance for your possible lateness. I shall meet you at the task board at nine in the morning on the day after tomorrow." Thisss then walked off without a word in the direction of the east road that they had spent so much time on today. The remaining trio headed off in search of either a late lunch or an early dinner, happy in the knowledge that whatever came after, they had successfully completed their first official task for Gravenhall.