Snorri woke in a cold sweat. After hiking through the day and long into the night, his dwarvish companion finally declared they were going to make camp. From what he could tell, he must have fallen asleep by the campfire. He looked around for Buulk, his Gnomish senses allowing him to see, as well as looking out from the small copse of trees that surrounded him. The trees opened out into a vast, dark marshland, and as Snorri quinted, he could make out a flickering green speck of light. He quickly made his way to his feet, sword in hand, and spun around, searching for Buulk’s silhouette in the darkness. No dwarf appeared. He looked down at the smouldering remains of the campfire. Several dwarvic runes had been scratched into the dirt, and unfortunately, he had no way of reading them.
He turned back to the speck of green light in the distance. He searched his brain, trying to remember where he had seen that colour before. His stomach clenched as he realised he was seeing a green goblin fire. He gripped his sword slightly tighter. If the goblins had ambushed Buulk, he would need help. Without the dwarf, Snorri would have no way of getting to the trading post, let alone finding the gnomes in the dwarfish city. He crept from the trees and quietly, as possibly, he made his way towards the fire through the dark marsh land, staying low and ducking behind low bushes as he made his way towards the fire.
As he grew close enough to make out the details of the goblin campfire, he searched the air for goblins. He gritted his teeth as he set his eyes on a trio of the evil creatures standing close to the fire, apparently trying their best to keep warm. Snorri dove behind a bush, extending his goblin hearing and allowing him to hear the goblins mumbling amongst themselves in goblin voices.
“Just saying, the dankeeys are probably getting cold too, Jay." One of the goblins yapped.
“Donkeeys don't have enough brains to get cold, Phil." Another goblin, apparently Jay snapped. "Anyway, you should put out the fire if and of Garblac’s lot come back; theyll spot us from miles away,” he finished to groans of disapproval from the other two.
“Face it, Jay, if that lot were coming back, they would have come back by now. The idiots got themselves killed by the dwarfs.” The final goblin grunted.
“I know, boss, but still, we can't be freezing our ears off all night,” Phil grunted.
Snorri dared to peek out from his hiding position towards the fire once again. The trio of goblins were all spaced evenly around the fire now. "Arracop,” he thought through out into the recesses of his mind, “Are you there?” All that returned was silence. For now, at least he was on his own. Pushing the thought of the demonic spider from his mind, he activated the appraisal skill. Three sparkling golden numbers flickered into life above each goblin's head. two threes and a four. he smiled. Together, they would have a combined level equal to his, perhaps a fair fight, but as Snorri silently moved into position, he decided not to fight fair.
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He charged wildly into the light of the fire with his sword in a low two-hand grip. Before the trio of goblins could react, Snorri drove the tip of his sword deep into the closest goblin's stomach. The creature screamed as Snorri wrenched his sword free and sprang to face the remaining pair. The goblin had been fast to grab their weapons and came at him as soon as their comrade fell to the ground. Snorri panicked as two goblin swords came swinging visibly towards him. “Parry! Parry! Parry!” he screamed as he wildly slashed his sword towards the charging goblins. The words had the desired effect. He sword slashed towards the first goblin blade, sending it flying from its weilders and clattering away before sweeping up to block the second screaming goblin. Snorri sliced at the goblin as it stumbled from the force of his block, letting forth a spray of neon green.
Snorri dove towards the final goblin, level four. The creature had recovered its sword, but as Snorri charged towards it, he realised it was not the sword the creature was raising but rather that it was using its other hand to raise a narled-looking horn to its lips. Arracops blade buried itself deep into the creature's unarmoured belly as the goblin Blew hard into the horn, letting out a large, dicordant blearing sound in a prolonged blast before falling to the floor. Suddenly, Snorri heard a twig snapping somewhere around ten metres from the green goblish fireside. He snapped his head towards the sound as five huge shadow forms charged towards him.
As the creature came into the firelight, Snorri was able to better pick out the features; they were goblins, but giants; the smallest of them was at least two feet taller than the Buulk. Snorri activated the appraisal skill as the creature set eyes on the trio of goblin corpses. Five golden numbers burned into the veiw above the creatures heads: three fifteens, a sixteen, and a nineteen. Snorri raised his sword into a defensible guard as the five creatures finally noticed him. The largest of them let out a furious roar as they charged towards him, reamaing for letting out their own roars as the group surged towards Snorri in a see of green flesh.
Snorri screamed as he firmly stood his ground against the oncoming horde. He raised his sword to block as the wave broke upon him. But a huge wooden club bigger than himself smashed into his guard and crashed into his ribs, sending him flying with a sickening bone-crunching crack. By the time he had hit the ground, the huge goblish creature was upon him again. As he spans to face them, one of the brutes charges him, tackling him to the ground and pinning his hand to the floor. “Smash its head,” he yelled to the rest of his packmates as Snorri struggled helplessly against its weight. Another of the creatures moved into position and raised a huge club into the air. Snorri closed his eyes and waited for the end.