The humans that joined Arberon were quick in starting their new lives, in a matter of days they had built a couple of larger houses in which they slept together while the remaining ones were built. The addition of the stenjin to their workforce proved to be a great boon in their efforts. While it took tools, carriages and multiple humans to carry a single log or large boulder it was not an uncommon occurrence around Lord’s Rest to see one or two logs strapped onto a stenjin’s shoulders and being carried out towards the sprawling village. Zalrodal had ordered for the smithy to be one of the first buildings constructed and the project was well underway, soon new tools and weapons would be available to him and his goblin horde. As Zalrodal’s headquarters continued growing so did the news about its existence spread throughout the lands, more and more goblins from the mountains arrived at the castle every day. These goblins reported news of monster movements around the surrounding lands which might be related to Zalrodal’s growing domain or perhaps the surrounding kingdoms were finally taking action against the monsters in their own lands.
Zalrodal himself however was nowhere to be seen at the castle for he had taken Blackrock and a group of goblins on an excursion across the Eberon river. He had heard the news of unknown figures inspecting the remains of the villages they had raided and wanted to ascertain their identities and then take care of them before they looked any further. They crossed the Eberon in the early morning and immediately walked into the village, everything was as they left it only that the houses had been marked with red crosses. Someone had been here before they arrived.
“They must have searched the houses and marked the ones they were done with,” Zalrodal said.
“I’m happy to see you are finally learning something,” Migaal said jumping of his lord’s shoulder, “although you did have a fantastic teacher.”
Zalrodal raised his eyebrow at the ferret standing in front of him, “They probably already searched the other villages already, and I don’t think they’ll return to a place they’ve already searched.”
“I havz idea,” a goblin sputtered out, the green face of the goblin looked up at Zalrodal nearly at a right angle the goblins eyes surrounded by the red paint covering swathes of its face, “we sneak attack humanz!” the goblin exclaimed.
Zalrodal looked at the goblin and then turned his vision to the whole village, “I don’t see any humans to ,sneak attack, unless you’ve seen something I haven’t.”
“Now don’t try to be clever and hear him out, if the goblins know how to do one thing it is how to sneak attack,” the voice on his shoulder retorted.
“Yez, yez, goblinz good sneak,” the goblin jumped around in excitement, “we light big fire and then lead them to forest, yez, yez,” its eyes starring expectantly at the Dark Lord, “then we sneak, sneak, and kill!”
“What is your name?”
“I’m Rigrig, great master,” the goblin said, “I comz from mountainz, makz great treasure here, yez, yez,”
“You’ve done a good job, Rigrig, we will follow your plan. A fire you said, and then how do we lead them into the forest for the stab stab as you would call it.”
“Simple matter, yez, yez. Take humanz boot, make printz to forest. Stupid soldier followz, then stab stab.” Rigrig could barely contain his excitement upon the mention of stabbing something. The goblin truly seemed a dangerous asset but a useful one.
Zalrodal and the goblins hid in the forest across the river and looked into the village from their ambush positions. Some of the goblins hid in the bushes while others had climbed nearby trees, Blackrock simply lay on the ground and did its best not to move at all and appear as part of the local landscape. Under the directions of Rigrig the goblins had taken some human boots that remained in the village and filled the ground with footprints, they simulated the movement of panicking people and then made clear prints of their own leading away from the village and into the forest. Once that was done they created a large fire in the middle of the village, leaves were added onto the flames so that the smoke was truly visible from a great distance and then they waited in position for the ambush. They didn’t have to wait long, around midday the goblins on the trees could see some dust clouds rising in the distance and a group of riders coming towards the village. The armour they wore glittered in the sunlight.
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The knights arrived in the village shortly after and immediately went to look at the fire. They yelled out into the village, calling for the villagers to come out that it was safe now, but of course, there was no response. One of the knights climbed down from his great steed and looked at the ground, he passed his gloved hand over the footprints and said something to the others, they followed the footprints with their gaze leading them towards the forest. Zalrodal could not help but smile that the plan was working and some of the goblins were equally as excited although they quickly returned to the calm professionalism they could only display before an attack. The knights mounted their horses again and moved towards the forest, the hoofs of their steads clacking on the bridge. The knights weren’t far from them anymore, but they waited patiently to get them into the forest itself, a panicked horse would not do well in the underbrush of the woods and once the knights fell from their horses the goblins would proceed with the stab stab.
The riders made their way into the thicket of the forest, unbeknownst to them they were already surrounded by a green horde, an aspiring Dark Lord and a rather large stone. While some of the knights seemed to be on edge riding after the footprints the others laughed and told jokes to one another. One of the knights took off his helmet and complained about the heat, the next thing he would complain about was the arrow protruding from his face.
The goblins attacked in an instant, the forest which was calm and peaceful just moments before was filled with a cacophony of war cries. Arrows rained from the trees while other goblins ran at the horses, knives and spears at the ready. Zalrodal jumped out of his hiding spot turning Migaal into a wicked blade in his hand and charged along with his goblins. The knights were quick to react and drew their swords slashing around themselves and covering one another's back forming a tight-knit circle. Perhaps if the knights had faced only a band of goblins their defence would have worked, it was a great challenge for a goblin to take down a man in plate, however, they did not count on the stenjin war-form. The ground started to shake as Blackrock stood up, at its full height it towered over the riders. Blackrock grabbed one of the knights out of the circle and crushed the man in his armour, the knight’s body was flung aside as he searched for his next target. The horses were panicking, neighing and screaming upon seeing the stenjin and the knights seemed equally distraught as their weapons did not leave a single wound upon the stenjin’s black surface. As the knights turned to face the stone construct they were assaulted by the goblins. Rigrig, jumped into the air and onto one of the knights, his legs wrapped around the knight's shoulders, he lifted up the face-covering on the knight’s helmet and sunk his daggers into the man.
The knights were defeated quickly, quicker than they would have liked to admit, goblins were not the usual life-ending threat to a group of knights, but with some organisation, a war construct, and a man with a demon ferret there was not much they could do. The goblins gathered the bodies of the knights and stripped them of their weapons and valuables. They returned home with new loot and weapons for the goblin horde and the knowledge that they could take on Aberonian knights if it came down to it.