In twos and threes, the goblins slipped over the cliff wall and headed for the hiding spot beneath the pier. Slugger led the way, with Dizzy trailing close behind him. Kitty and YDB waited for three breaths before following. Slugger’s squad paused, then crept down the wall, keeping low.

Soon all the goblins were standing under the dock, looking up through the slats to see if anyone was around. None of the fishermen had returned early, leaving the area abandoned. Slugger checked the sewer grate for the latch Isaar had spotted earlier. The goblin undid the hidden catch, and the others “Oohed” as the way under the town opened.

“Boom!” whispered YDB to Dizzy. “Boom, boom, boom.”

“I don’t… Wait. Slugger, wait! YDB has an idea.”

“What? How can YDB have an idea?” asked Slugger. He held his hand up to stop the goblins from entering the town.

“I don’t know. But YDB never says more than one word at a time. Now he’s been saying 'boom, boom, boom' since we got here."

“Boom, boom, boom,” said YDB. This time, Dizzy noticed that YDB had also raised a finger at each word.

“Boom, boom, boom. Three times. Why three times?” asked Dizzy.

“Outhouses,” answered YDB.

It suddenly dawned on Dizzy. “Three outhouses, three booms. You want us to blow up all three outhouses?”

YDB nodded excitedly.

Slugger grinned. “Yeah, that does make sense! If we go up through the seats as Isaar said to, we can only get three or four goblins at a time. If we blow the outhouses up, all of us can come up at the same time! Good thinking, YDB!”

YDB grinned at the rare praise, repeating “Boom, boom, boom!”

Slugger turned to the rest of the goblins. “New plan. We’re still going to hit the town all at once, but first, we’re going to blow up the outhouses. Instead of coming up through the holes one at a time, we’ll all be able to hit the ground at once,” he explained. The grins of dozens of goblins lit the underside of the pier in a yellow glow.

“All right, we’re going to have to scout out the tunnels first. We need to find the bottoms of the outhouses, then set the bombs so they all go off at the same time. We also need to have everyone far enough back, but able to get to the holes and get up and out all at once.

“Dizzy, this will be you and me, plus YDB and Twill. We will go in first. Lazybutt, give Dizzy those bombs.”

Lazybutt removed his bandoleer and handed them to Dizzy. For a moment, Dizzy thought to add the three spares he had placed into his bag but decided to hold onto them for now.

Slugger continued giving orders. “Lazybutt, Hammer, and Storm, bring your squads into the tunnel. Kitty, you too. Stay with Hammer’s group until we get back. We’re going to set the bombs, but not light them until we’re good and ready.” All three leaders nodded. The goblins making up the squads grinned as the moment of the attack came closer. This was more like a goblin raid.

“Let’s get going,” said Slugger. He led Dizzy, YDB, and Twill into the sewer, staying on a narrow walkway. In the trench beside it, foul water slowly flowed down to the grate and out to sea. Goblin eyes easily made out details in the near darkness.

The tunnel led away from the grate, moving slightly upwards. Twenty feet into the passage, an arch opened into a room. Dizzy looked inside and spotted several dust-covered crates.

“Should we check them?” he asked Slugger.

“Maybe on the way out. If they had any valuables, someone would have taken them long ago,” replied Slugger.

Eventually, they came to a three-way branching. Sewer water flowed sluggishly down from each one. Shrugging, Slugger chose the right-hand tunnel first. Ten feet in, another arch with a subterranean room was found. No boxes or barrels were in this one, just the dust of abandonment. Steps along one wall ended at a bricked-off doorway.

“If there is nothing closer, we may have to wait in here for the bombs to go off. Let’s keep moving,” said Slugger.

At last, the right-hand passageway ended under a small building. Above the goblins’ heads were four holes about a foot in diameter. A moment later, a yellow stream splashed down into the sewer. A relieved “Ah,” could be barely heard from above. Moments later, a door could be heard opening and closing as the person above finished and departed.

Dizzy looked up, seeing how the building had wooden beams that were driven into the ground and lighter wooden planks making up the rest of the construction.

“A bomb on each beam, and the rest under the floor to blow the outhouse up and away?” suggested Twill.

“Sounds like a plan. YDB?” said Slugger, looking to YDB for his opinion on using explosives effectively. YDB nodded with a toothy grin. The goblins quickly lashed the bombs in place, tying the fuses together to allow all the bombs to go off at once. Once that was complete, the four goblins headed back down to the junction.

It took the goblins only a half hour to get all three outhouses rigged with explosives. Slugger kept glancing over his shoulder in case Isaar or one of the orcs came to check on the delay. None appeared, and Dizzy chalked it up to their large size and the low, smelly surroundings.

Once the bombs were in place, Slugger led the goblins back to the main force. The goblins began hopping up and down in their excitement. The attack was almost ready to begin.

“YDB, let’s have those firesticks,” said Slugger. YDB quickly handed out his fuse lighters, three each to Slugger and Twill, putting the rest back in his pouch.

“Here we go. Me and Smash to the west, Dizzy, you and YDB to the north, Storm, and Twill to the east. I want you to count your breaths as you go up. Everybody should be there in ten breaths, so count fifteen breaths, light your fuses. Run back here, then when the bombs go off, we’ll all run to the outhouses. My squad with me to the west, Lazybutt, your squad will wait for ten breaths, then go to the north as well.”

Slugger paused. “I guess the orcs will tell us the rest of the plan after we take the town over.” For a brief moment, he seemed unsure. “Let’s move out!”

Three pairs of goblins began walking back to where their bombs were set, breathing slowly and steadily. “One… Two… Three…” said Dizzy under his breath. He looked at YDB and was glad for a moment it wasn’t Kitty he was with. She likely would have asked a question or made a comment by now, and he would have lost count.

By breath eight the two had returned to the outhouse. Dizzy grabbed the end of the fuse and held a finger up. YDB nodded, and pulled out a fire stick, holding the end against a bit of dry rock.

"Now," said Dizzy. YDB slapped the firestarter against the rock. The device popped, and flame engulfed the end. YDB carefully lit the fuse, then dropped the firestarter into a puddle. The chemicals continued to burn for several seconds before going out.

"Let's go."

The goblins ran to the meetup point. Smash and Slugger were waiting for the other teams. Storm and Twill had not returned. Dizzy looked down the tunnel she and Storm had taken. A moment later, the two goblins arrived.

“OK, get ready then. Smash, hold your squad back until you hear the third...” “Twelve… Thirteen… Fourteen… Fifteen!”

The darkness of the underside of the latrine was briefly lit as the stick flared to life. YDB held it to the fuse and grinned as the string began to pop and sizzle. The flame moved up to the bombs at a steady rate.

“Let’s get out of here!” said Dizzy, and the two goblins took off at a run.

Just as Dizzy and YDB reached the cellar room the goblins were hiding, Slugger and Hammer came sloshing down the channel. “Where’s Storm and Twill?” asked Slugger.

All four looked up the third passageway. Long seconds passed, then Twill and Storm could be seen heading back.

“What happened?”

"We had some trouble," Twill explained.

"What sort of trouble?" asked Dizzy.

“Uh… Rain?” answered Twill. She didn’t look happy.

“Ew!” said Kitty from where she stood, having moved to be closer to her team.

“Did you get it lit though?” asked Slugger.

“Yeah, third try. First one, Smash dropped the firestick. The second one got rained on, the third one worked,” answered Twill.

BOOM! BOOM! Two explosions shook the tunnel as Slugger’s and Dizzy’s charges went off almost simultaneously. A moment later the third charge detonated.

BOOM!

“Boom,” finished Slugger. “CHARGE!”

The goblins splashed as they charged towards their new openings. Above, the residents could be heard yelling as the outhouses soared into the air.

Storm’s squad of goblins surged ahead of Dizzy, Kitty, and YDB. “Let’s get ‘em!” “Woo-hoo!” “Take no prisoners!” came the battle cries. Before the townspeople had a chance to figure out what had happened, the ground near the outhouses was swarming with goblins.

“To Arms! To Arms!” shouted the human sergeant as he whipped his head around in all directions, trying to see where the goblins were coming from.

Unlike the goblins’ first attack on Driftwood Landing, this time the goblins didn’t have a simple goal of “grab something and run.” The orcs wanted destruction, and the goblins set about the task with relish. Dizzy popped out of the ground just in time to see two goblins tackle the human sergeant behind his knees. The man went down with a thud, losing a tooth. Three goblins ran towards the hay stacked up near the town’s stables, clearly intending to set it on fire.

Dizzy scanned the town for his nemesis, the cat. He spotted it on top of the school building he had seen the little girl enter a few days earlier. Baring his teeth, he began to look for a way to the rooftops. All thoughts of warning the elves slipped from his mind as he focused on petty revenge.

Kitty and YDB followed in his trail as Dizzy leaped to a rose trellis that had been nailed along a nearby building. “Here, kitty, kitty, kitty,” he said with malice. “I owe you for what you did at the farm.”

The cat sprung away, landing on the roof of a nearby building.

“Gonna make it hard, huh? We’ll see about that,” said Dizzy as he continued to stalk the cat. As the feline rounded a corner of a roof, Dizzy followed.

“Wait, look Dizzy,” said Kitty. Down below, a human was hurrying towards the side gate Isaar had indicated the orcs would enter the town through. The man looked left and right, making sure no one was looking his way while the goblins ran amok. Only Dizzy, Kitty, and YDB had a line of sight on the gate. Lifting the bar, he pulled the gate open. Beyond waited Isaar and his orc troops.

“Hurry, the goblins are burning everything!” said the man. "I don't want to be the mayor of ashes.!

“Don’t worry. You won’t,” replied Isaar. As the man turned to lead the orcs into town, Isaar suddenly thrust his sword into the man’s back. The traitor let out a long scream as Isaar twisted his blade savagely.

Dizzy and Kitty’s jaws dropped. Isaar had betrayed the man who had betrayed his community. The cat was forgotten.

“Serves him right, turning on his own,” said Kitty. Dizzy nodded in agreement.

“Ship,” said YDB.

“What? What ship?” asked Dizzy.

YDB pointed. Out to sea a ship had rounded a point further up the coast and was sailing towards the town. On its highest mast flew a black flag.

“I think Isaar didn’t tell us the entire plan,” mused Kitty. “This isn't what we signed up for.”

The trio of goblins watched as the orcs charged into the town in a tight wedge formation. The human defenders were rallying on the muscular dwarf, with the warrior trying to lead them into an effective counterattack.

“Form a combat line, ye daft fools! They’re just goblins!” he turned as Isaar and his pirates charged down on him.

“What?” was all the dwarf had time to say as the orcs slammed into him, knocking him into his troops. The orcs thrust spears and swords as the dwarf tried desperately to roll away. Moments later, he was still. The humans broke ranks and ran as the orcs charged into their midst.

Dizzy watched, first with excitement, then with growing dread as the goblins and orcs tore through the town.

The orcs were driving the goblins before them, using them as expendable fodder. Dizzy saw a human female try to defend herself as two goblins attacked from both sides. She was fending off their daggers with a broom when an orc thrust his spear into her chest. The woman went down with a shriek of agony. The two goblins stopped, jaws dropping to the ground.

“Move it, ya little bastards,” roared the orc spearman. The two goblins turned to battle further, but their hearts weren’t in it anymore.

“Did you see that?” asked Kitty.

“Yeah, they killed her and she wasn’t a threat. We would have just tripped her and laughed,” replied Dizzy.

“Mean,” added YDB.

“Yeah, the orcs are mean. Really mean, not like goblins,” said Kitty. “Maybe because they’re bigger? More muscle, bigger teeth, and tusks?”

“I don’t know. But we need to get down from here. Forget that cat, we need to get on the ground and see what we can do,” replied Dizzy.

The raid wasn’t fun anymore. Dizzy didn’t know what he was going to do next, but he knew he wasn’t going to help the orcs slaughter helpless townspeople. He glanced around, finally remembering to look for the elves. He hoped it wasn't too late.