A sombre mood had fallen upon the group as they walked away from the monolith. The revelation of what was to come had left them quiet, reflective, and Chance more so than the others. While the others remained convinced that the glimpse of what was to be was not to be taken as set in stone, he could not shake the feeling that it was. Was that him, or Craghand who felt that way? And what else could it have meant?

It was them, evidently, upon the monolith. The chances that four others as varied as them would be together seemed unlikely, especially given what he had learned. They were an unusual group. If, then, the monolith had known they would get together, and represented them in ancient carvings, then surely the rest of what it had shown must also be, or would come to be.

When would it happen, now that was the question. It would have to be the last of the events, with all the others that were shown coming before. He had time at least. Time enough to make plans, time enough to make a difference.

He was going to die and he knew it. Oh, everyone would die. That was unavoidable. It was a natural part of life. Yet, as a kid, he had never really thought much about it. He was young and had a long life before him to enjoy first. Now he knew, for certain, and was not sure how to take it yet.

Would his death here mean his death back in the real world? He had no means of knowing that. And even if it didn’t, it would still lead to the death of Craghand. It was something that the dwarf would have to know about.

He was Chance Cranlin though, who bucked convention and thumbed his nose at authority. If any misbegotten fiery demon thought that he would simply roll over and die for it, then they had another thing coming. He wasn’t going to play nice or fair, and if fate or predestination or anything else of that type thought that they were going to get the last word in, then they were going to rue the day that they crossed him. He was going to figure out a way to get out of it, alive.

His previously dour mood picked up as he made that vow, and as they emerged back out of the forest again, back onto the path. With a fresh spring in his step, he started along the path, headed towards where the kobold camp lay.

“We will need to be careful,” Yrip called out as they walked. “There will be traps along the way.”

Chance turned to look back at Yrip. “Traps?”

Yrip nodded. “Iyari are small, not exactly strong or able to fight well. There are many dangers out there, much larger dangers, and so we rely on traps to protect ourselves. Lots of traps.”

And they are good at it too, Shags added.

Chance slowed his pace as he walked, a concerned frown forming. “What are we looking for?”

“Anything. Everything,” Yrip told him. “Some I may know where they are, others might be new.” The little kobold scurried ahead of Chance and began to look around carefully, head swinging backwards and forwards. “Don’t disturb anything. And whatever you do,” he added, looking at Snarl, “Don’t do any sweeping, even if you want to.”

Shags started to sniff about, his nose low to the ground as he moved forward along the path. They walked slowly along, following the kobold and the wolf as they scouted the way ahead. After only a couple of minutes, the pair stopped, where a large drift of leaves had been blown across the path.

Here.

Chance looked at the leaves that Shags stood in front of. He couldn’t make out anything, They looked like a normal pile of leaves to him. “What am I looking at?” he asked.

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With a great deal of care, and very slowly, Yrip began to clear away the leaves. As he did so, a rope, stretched tight across the path, and concealed beneath the leaves, came to light. It ran off the path, over to a nearby tree, and as Chance followed the course of the rope, up into the trees, he could a bundle of large rocks hidden up among the branches and leaves, supported by the rope. Someone tripping over the rope would bring the rocks crashing down on anyone unfortunate enough to be beneath them.

“That looks painful,” Chance noted as he stood starting up at the rocks.

Just a little, came Shags dry response.

Chance took care as he stepped over the once-hidden rope, to make sure that he didn’t trigger it. He kept a close eye on Snarl as the gnoll followed, half afraid that he wouldn’t be able to help himself and would try and sweep the untidy pile of leaves. Though the gnoll did twitch a little, he made it across safe, the trap undisturbed.

It wasn’t the last trap that they uncovered, either, as they continued on down the path. There were other trip ropes, some that were linked to falling rocks, while others were designed to send logs rolling across the path. There were cunning concealed pit traps that led to deep drops or sharpened stakes. One had a supple branch embedded with rusty nails pulled back under tension, so that when it was tripped it would lash out across the path, slamming into anyone walking along it. The kobolds had certainly gone to a great deal of effort to impede anyone who approached their camp. It was only through the guidance of Shags’ senses and Yrip’s knowledge that they were able to navigate a path through safely. Chance knew that if he had gone alone, he would have blundered into any number of them, with terrible consequences.

It took a great deal of time and effort to make it through the traps unscathed, to emerge from the trees to where the kobold’s camp was located. There were a large number of them, the small scaly lizard-dog men, milling about in a place of crude tents. It looked little better than the goblins camp, with gear and belongings scattered at random all through it, in a manner that Chance just knew was causing Snarl’s hands to itch.

There were a lot more of them though, and startled yelps came from the kobolds as Chance and his friends emerged from out of the trees. Many of them scattered, scrambling away to seek shelter in tents or behind trees. Three remained behind; they looked nervous, as if they wished not to be there, hopping about from foot to foot, wringing their hands together. Most of their nervousness seemed directed towards Shag.

Chance looked down at Yrip. “How do you wish to do this?” he asked.

“If you can stay here, for now,” the kobold answered, “I will go and speak with them first, to try and reassure them.”

Chance nodded. The last thing he wanted was to spook the kobolds if he could help it. “Go for it.”

Yrip seemed hesitant at first, taking a deep breath before finally walking forward. The three waiting kobolds looked at him, then beyond to where Chance, Shags and Snarl stood, then back to Yrip. When Yrip arrived, they all began to talk at once, very animated in their conversation, with lots of gesturing and pointing about.

Shags yawned and settled down on the ground, head resting on his paws, though his eyes remained open as he watched the kobolds. Snarl took the opportunity to do a bit of sweeping, as much out of habit as any real desire to do any cleaning, Chance suspected. It certainly caught the attention of the kobolds, who seemed puzzled by it.

“I wonder what they are saying,” Chance said.

They are arguing about Yrip having left, unannounced, Shags offered,

“You can hear them?”

Oh, yes. My sense of hearing is very good, and they are very…animated. I suspect this may take a while.

“They do seem an excitable people.”

The wolf seemed to snort at that. Oh, yes, that they are.

It took quite some time for the discussion to calm down and all the gesturing to stop. The other kobolds had largely crept back from where they had been hiding, back into the camp. Most sat around, watching and waiting, on the far side from where Chance, Shags and Snarl waited, trying to keep as much distance between them as possible.

Shags rose to is feet. It is time, he announced.

“Time for what?” Chance asked.

Before the wolf could reply, Yrip turned towards them and gestured for them to approach, to come and join him.

Time for them to decide what to do.