The enemy seemed totally unaware of their arrival at the waterfall, yet annoyingly, for Kireth at least, they were all stationed a distance apart. Kireth curled his mouth, his chance to affect a number of them was limited.

His eyes darting over the scene he picked out two lucky winners stood in close proximity to each other.

‘Can you hear me, little one?’ he whispered. ‘I am your nightmare… Gorga Amin!’

The attack had begun, although Tradden was not sure that the assembled goblins and kobolds realised it.

He wondered about the merits of just staying put, but rejected that tactic on the basis that the creatures were going to see the group sooner rather than later. Better to start taking up positions and try and maintain the initiative given to them by the element of surprise.

Remembering something that Khalin had told him once, he moved under the boughs of a nearby tree, looking for some cover whilst they waited for the enemy to come to them — surely they would?

Remembering that he had bought a crossbow from Caldring and never actually fired it in anger, he now unslung it, flicked off the safety, and looked for the more choice targets.

One of the creatures had the same markings and equipment as a previous opponents — the ones with the annoying slings that attacked from afar.

‘That’s the one…’ whispered the young fighter to himself as he tried to get a bead. It was a tough shot, through the various trees and bushes, but not impossible…

Zero followed Tradden’s suit — deftly moving forward and shooting through the trees at one of the kobolds.

There was no way Khalin was going to make up the ground to the nearest of the enemy before they would be able to react.

As arrows from his allies whistled into the trees, Khalin hefted his shield and readied his hammer as he deftly padded up to the edge of the cover.

He then stood ready to strike any greenie or man-lizard that was foolhardy enough to come through and investigate.

Kireth’s eyes narrowed as he whispered words of unspeakable horrors, trying to twist the creature’s mind and increase its torment.

Tradden had ducked down slightly when Kireth had started mumbling — he knew what that meant, and he waited for the fireworks.

Nothing happened except a very, very — almost inaudible in fact — high-pitched screaming sound starting to ring around his ears. Ignoring the cursing mage behind him, he tried to track down the source of the sound.

Worryingly his senses directed him a solitary leaf, floating down to the ground from a tree in front some distance in front of him, in the direction of the nearest kobolds. Even more worryingly, he noted that Zero, stood to his left, also seemed to have noticed it, and their gazes both fixed on their leaf, their heads tilting down in unison as it spiralled down to the spongy floor of the copse of trees.

As it touched down to join its many leafy brethren covering the area, forever to be its resting place until the gods reclaimed it back into the cycle of life, both Tradden and Zero could swear that it had a final word, that being “Whhhhhhhhyyyyyyyy?”

The two men, both stood with similar positions, crossbows ready to fire, turned their heads and shared a meeting of eyes for a second, before breaking the look and turning their eyes towards the enemy. Neither man would ever speak of it again.

Seeing that none of the creatures had yet made any movement towards them as of yet, Tradden held his ground and fired another shot at the slinger, trying to ensure that he had its full attention…

Also noting that many of his comrades were stood in the open, the young fighter shouted out: ‘Find cover if you can!’

If the various kobolds and goblins were armed to the teeth with bows and crossbows, they might just pepper the group with shots. Tradden was hoping that was not the case — his style of fighting was up close and personal. He waited to see what they would do…

Zero knelt down and took aim again at the kobold he had perforated a few seconds earlier.

Khalin snarled, snapped the javelin out of his side, and swiftly scanned the scene, his martial instincts quickly taking over.

‘Zero,’ he yelled over his shoulder, ‘don’t let that scaly rascal outflank us! Tradden, take the middle! Beltak?’ he stole a curious glance at the cleric. ‘Know any good prayers for killing greenies? If not…’ he roared, eyes wide and blazing, ‘follow me! Ha ha!’

With that the warlord hurtled to meet the three oncoming goblins on the right, again trying to prevent the group from becoming outflanked. Cunningly darting just inside the treeline to gain cover as he grew close, he ploughed into the largest goblin in the centre, hammer-hand whirling…

The warhammer hit home with a satisfying crunch of bone.

‘Follow up on one of these stunty bastards, Beltak!’ urged the dwarf as the frenzy of battle took hold.

Kireth’s eyes darted over the scene, taking in the possible threats.

A single kobold was trying to flank them on his left; Tradden and Zero were almost surrounded; and Khalin and Beltak faced three. It was a “no brainer”. Tradden would certainly need help.

The staff began to vibrate within his grasp as he called forth the words, words that one day would shatter cities. ‘Templa Koron!’

Zero had watched helplessly as javelin after javelin after javelin speared into the little copse of trees where Tradden had been taking cover. The branches obscured his view, but he was concerned to hear a howl of sadness and pain emanating from the now porcupine-like set of bushes.

‘Tradden? Tradden — are you… dead?’ enquired the rogue, suddenly fearful.

His fears grew as one of the larger kobolds barreled into the copse, slashing away and hoping to rend human flesh.

A frosty blade suddenly appeared, and the kobold’s strikes were parried away. As it slinked around the side of the trees, Tradden was exposed fully — miraculously untouched except in one, important, respect on which he explained angrily.

‘My shirt! My bloody shirt! This is my last good one as well! How am I going to get that kind of quality in this gods-forsaken land now?’ He picked at what was left of the large frilly collar on his left hand side with his free hand — ruined. He would have looked almost tearful were it not for the murderous look in his eyes.

Zero breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Not to worry my friend. It would have been mine in this evening’s game of cards anyway — I have won all your gold so far, and the shirt from your back is the next logical…. What in the hells are they!’

The tone of Zero’s voice snapped Tradden out of his fashion-related rage, but before he could even start to wonder why the rogue was so concerned the reasons became all too apparent. Strange, grub-like creatures were swarming over his legs, and whilst they could not penetrate his armour they quickly found ways in-between the joins, and he felt a very, very unpleasant sensation on his thighs and calves. The ground in the middle of his current cover was literally crawling with the things — time to move!

As he ran out, the grubs seemed to drop away, and bar the odd ticklish sensation he seemed clear of them. He now had other problems however, not least of which was that he had not yet had chance to draw his other sword. There was no time do anything than to strike out at the nearest creatures…

Thinking back to the problems caused by a creature using a sling in a previous battle, Tradden growled out: ‘Someone take care of that bastard with the sling!’

Alarmed at the proximity of his enemy, Zero darted aside nimbly and let loose another bolt at it.

Khalin’s grin grew wider as he beheld the throng of goblins surrounding the two heroes — the warlord seemingly never happier than being in the very heart of the battle — there was no doubt things could turn very ugly very quickly given the sheer advantage in numbers the enemy held.

The dwarf wasted no time trying to even the odds, raising his shield to better guard himself and his companion, and thrusting his hammer at the largest of the goblins again, looking to finish it off…

Khalin had no time to savour the minor victory and turned to the next opponent. ‘Who’s next?’ he challenged, grinning manically at the next greenie, before yelling over his shoulder: ‘Hang in there, Tradden, we’ll have these greenies on the run in two shakes of a hammer!’

But Khalin was not done there…

The dwarf quickly decided the goblin to his right would be the best target, eliminating another threat to Beltak. Outside the treeline would be no cover to protect this one…

The warlord cursed as the strike failed to hit home. ‘Your go, Beltak!’

What had started out as “Advantage, Party” was quickly becoming a disaster. Bad luck and poor decisions were weighing heavy. The gods were plainly against them — more reason to despise them.

Deal with that which is right in front of you for you cannot clearly see the future until you have.

‘Right,’ thought the mage, ‘free up Zero first so that he can better aid the others.’

Pointing his staff at the enemy, it pulsed a familiar glow. ‘Gurtha da Simone!’

‘Right!’ snarled Tradden, drawing his second sword, and batting away some grubs, ‘I have had enough of this!’

He howled in frustration as he lashed out, twisting as he did so.

As the kobold on him hit the ground, dead, Zero hastily backpedalled to beside Kireth.

‘Thanks,’ he huffed in relief.

He then planted his feet and took careful aim at the kobold that was jabbing viciously at Tradden. If he sliced its arm in the right spot, it might just blame its ugly friend beside it…

Khalin surveyed the enemy carcasses strewn around himself and Beltak in barely concealed wonder, then briefly locked eyes with the panting cleric. ‘Why didn’t you do that before?’ he queried, before his questioning look broke into a hearty guffaw and he slapped his new comrade on the shoulder in a gesture of approval and new-found respect.

He then turned to sprint to Tradden’s aid…

…diving momentarily out of the treeline then back in to attack the nearest kobold from cover.

Khalin pointed his hammer at the larger kobold that had been leering at Tradden. ‘You’re next scale-face!’ he challenged, hoping to distract the dragonshield from the defenceless fighter.

Only a short time ago a wound such as this would have had Kireth staggering back in shock. Now, he looked down at the flesh wound and curled his lip in annoyance.

He flicked his wrist at the kobold, as one might swat at an annoying wasp. Giving it little more attention.

The creature let out a final gasp of air, sank to its knees and fell forward.

Kireth stepped over it to stand next to Zero.

Tradden’s vision started to narrow a little — pain was coming from all directions at the moment. He was fast getting used to the fact that he and Khalin were the “front line” in any battles against the various creatures they were coming up against, but he feared he would never be ready for the many slings and arrows of misfortune (Tradden was quite educated) that were always coming his way…

Trying to choke back the rage, he instead looked to focus his anger into a more positive form. However, the calm, cool precision he had found in previous battles would not click into place due to the pain, and he could only lash out again, trying to twirl round despite his immobility.

The young fighter took a moment to steady himself.

Once again, his twisting, cleaving attack bore fruit in terms of its ability to harm foes, but it prevented him from breaking free from the gooey mess. The movement did however have the benefit of shaking loose some of the burrowing worms.

Zero changed targets to the kobold slink, skulking around behind Tradden. He set his feet, took his aim, and let fly.

The bolt flew straight past the slink and harmlessly into the trees beyond.

Khalin stepped out of the treeline, moving around the side of the slink trapping the creature between himself and Tradden.

‘How do you like that, lizard?’ bellowed the dwarf and brought down his hammer.

A retreating enemy, fleeing for its very life, its back unguarded and open to attack. So what?

The mage raised his arm and smiled.

Tradden watched immobile, seeing the kobold running for the cover of the cave.

‘Get him before he alerts any others,’ he shouted, quickly sheathing his sword and drawing his crossbow.

He forgot about the rot grubs in his haste, loading the weapon and firing quickly at the sprinting kobold.

As the bolt flew wide Tradden cursed, then looked down as the grubs had scampered up his tunic while he aimed.

Tradden wasted no time in trying to wriggle free from the glue, but just could not move.

Zero peered through the trees at the fleeing kobold and took aim.

‘Drat,’ he cursed.

With the remaining kobold well out of the dwarf’s range, Khalin turned and assessed Tradden’s predicament. The young fighter was well and truly stuck, and though the ghastly beasties swarming him appeared to be moving more slowly, they were still persistently gnawing at the human.

It appeared the only option would be to get his hands grubby, so to speak.

‘I’m going to regret this…’ grumbled the warlord, before stepping carefully towards the fighter and attempting to splat the grubs with his hammer…

‘Gods be damned!’ screamed the normally mild-mannered Tradden, venting his frustration. He rounded on the group in general, nearly falling over due to the now stone-like goo affixing his legs.

‘Next time! Next time we kill those bastards with the slings FIRST!’

‘And will someone get these bloody things off me?!’ he finished, swatting with one sword and trying to scratch with his other hand — not easy when holding a short sword.