Morning came too early. I was roused by Iva stealing my blanket and tossing my loincloth in my lap. When I didn't move, she proceeded to dump a portion of her water skin over my head before dropping that, too, in my lap. The water was more than enough to wake me, but the half-full skin falling towards my groin had me bolt upright, cradling my softer bits protectively.

"Good morning, sleepy," Iva said, smiling down at me. "Melk says it's nearly Esh's feeding time, so if we want to get a good look at him, now's our chance."

It was then that I realized I was naked and blushing. I grabbed my loincloth, unsure of what to say. Turning on her heels, she walked away, ordering Melk and Gwyn to begin packing up. As she walked, her hips swayed far more than they normally did. I was unsure if it was just to tease me or if she wanted me to look, but either way, I enjoyed every second of it, until I realized how badly I had to relieve myself.

Standing up while holding my loincloth in place, I peeked out the curtain to make sure the path was clear and snuck to the privy. Melk had pointed it out when we first set up camp. It was a natural outcropping that had running water. A small underground stream came out of the rocks to form a tiny waterfall before running back into the ground. If you sat in the right place, you could both do your business and lean back to take a shower.

After relieving myself with a huge sigh, I leaned back and quickly washed off the last two weeks' worth of grime. The cold water was a shock at first, but totally worth it. I even washed off my loincloth before tying it back on and slipping inside to warm up and dry off by the fire as long as I could."

By the time Gwyn and Melk had done their morning business, I was mostly dry and feeling nice and toasty. We had a small breakfast of our leftover cave slug meat before slipping out of the cave to watch for Esh's feeding time. Apparently, whatever he was, he made the goblins feed him multiple times a day while it slept the rest of the time.

We didn't have to wait long before we noticed a large commotion below us. Goblins were rushing all over, heaping what looked like stacks of cave slug meat in a pile to the left of the large cave below. It was huge in comparison to the other caves, large enough for three men to ride through on horseback. Moments after the goblins had begun stacking food, a loud roar echoed through the cavern, goblins nearest the cave slapping their hands over their long, pointy ears. After the echoes of the roar faded away, a figure flew out of the cave, bouncing several times before finally rolling to a stop, revealing it to be the mangled corpse of a goblin.

Melk winced when he saw the body slide to a stop. "Poor Vekt," he said sadly, shaking his head. "Vekt was here last night, told Great Esh Melk was hiding, I think."

Iva patted Melk on the head, offering her condolences at the death of a tribe member he actually seemed sorry for causing. A moment later, we could hear the heavy footfalls of a large bipedal creature. Unsure what kind of creature could possibly walk on two legs and make that kind of noise, we all held our breaths in anticipation as shadows darkened the cave entrance before the beast finally emerged.

The thing, Esh, was enormous. It was mostly humanoid, with a wide stance and fat, short, stubby legs and a huge, round torso. Though it looked like an overly fat merchant from its stomach to its feet, that's where the similarities ended. It had massive, muscular arms dragging an enormous wooden club in one hand. Atop its shoulders sat not one, but two grotesque heads, though the skin was green like an orc, the features resembled humans more than orcs.

"Bring me Melk!" its dual voices roared, slamming its club on the ground hard enough for us to feel the impact where we hid. It then sat and began gorging each of its mouths on the mound of slug meat.

"Ettin," Gwyn said, her face pale as she watched the monster gorging itself.

A slap on my shoulder broke my gaze from the beast Gwyn had named an ettin. I had never heard of one, but if we had to kill this thing to continue, we definitely needed more time to plan. Looking up at Iva, I saw her hurriedly putting her pack on and, upon seeing me still lying at the cliff's edge, she pointed urgently past me. Looking in the indicated direction, I could see a small horde of goblins making their way to the ropes at the edge of the path below me.

We quickly began strapping on our packs as well and, following Iva, we made our way past the privy. There was a dark, shaded area of the cliff where the magical ambient light that this cave's ceiling put off didn't quite reach. We all climbed down the cliff to a small ledge Gwyn had prepared earlier for us. As we hid, dozens of goblins ran all over above us, searching the cave we had just vacated for Melk.

My fingers ached as we clung to the cliff's face, waiting for the goblins to get bored and leave. Finally, after what felt like days, Iva slunk back up to the ledge and, after peeking over, waved us forward. Just as we were cresting the top, another loud roar echoed through the cavern, making us all cringe in fear. Looking down on the camp we were just in, we were just in time to see the massive Ettin grab a goblin that had gotten too close.

Lifting it high in the air, he dropped the flailing goblin into its open maw. Biting down with an audible crunch, Esh turned his head, sharing the other half of the poor goblin with its other hungry mouth. Both jaws chomped down and, after a few yanks, tore the body in half before gulping the pieces down like hungry birds in a nest. After finishing his goblin meal, he roared at them once again to find Melk before turning back to his original meal.

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All of the goblins scattered then, flowing like ants out of each of the tunnels. There must have been at least 30 goblins in this tribe, all serving this ettin who called himself The Great Esh. We waited a moment longer after they had all left before we relaxed and put our packs down again.

“We should attack now while they are all away!” Iva said suddenly.

Nodding my ascent I began digging through my pack in preparation to attack, I needed to make sure I used my most potent exploding stones.

“You're crazy!” Gwyn cried out. “I'm not going anywhere near that thing,” she said, bolting back into the cave.

“You will come and you'll help fight as well” Iva said, nearly shouting at the other woman as she entered right behind Gwyn.

“Shhh if he hears you were screwed” I hissed and at that moment a huge boulder exploded on the wall just above where I was standing. A little lower and I'd have lost my head for sure.

Both Melk and I ducked at once trying to make smaller targets. Pulling out my sling I tied one end to my wrist. I had never tried launching a stone from this distance and I didn't want to lose it over the cliff in the first attempt. Ordering Melk to fetch the girls I got one of my heaviest stones. Jumping to my feet after another large boulder exploded I spun my sling and the moment it was up to speed, sent it flying.

The stone sailed through the air to explode a good 10 yards in front of the beast, showering it with tiny pebbles from the point of impact. Laughing, it began searching for another stone. Esh took his time finding the perfect rock to lob at me, all the while making sure he didn't get within range of my missiles. Digging through the rubble a broken rock Esh had thrown I found the biggest stone that would fit in my sling. Dodging his next boulder I quickly stood and began to work the sling.

I had to work much harder getting it up to speed and my arm burned by the time I let it fly. My aim was true and it bounced off Esh’s shoulder. With a whoop of joy I ducked to begin searching for a similar stone that I could quickly scribe the exploding rune onto. I had gotten quite good at it and could practically do the rune blindfolded now and could scribe in less than a minute. Now that I knew I could reach it with the larger stone I was sure I could hurt him. The smaller bullets Gwyn made would probably just make him angry, so I needed something bigger.

Esh laughed when this stone didn't explode and bent over once again to find the right bolder to crush me with. Ducking down below the rim of the cliff I pulled out my scribe and got to work. I nearly ruined the stone when Iva, Gwyn, and Melk burst from the cave at a sprint towards the ropes, Gwyn yelling and flailing her arms at the same time. Iva must have given her a direct order and the magic considered it to come from me.

I laughed as I saw Gwyn following right on her heels, all the while demanding Iva let her go and that she wasn't going to die fighting an ettin.

“Quiet” I ordered as they ran by and Gwyn’s jaws instantly clamped shut, earning me a glare as she silently slid over the edge and down the rope.

I was working on my second larger bullet by the time the group got to the bottom and began to circle Esh. Gwyn stood back near some stalagmites shooting small stones at him with her earth magic. Iva and Melk, weapons drawn, had circled around him and were to either side ready to dash in and strike when Esh gave an opening.

Esh roared in pleasure picking up smaller boulders in both hands, his two heads able to watch both fighters and keep Gwyn in his vision. Gwyn’s stones did no noticeable damage and just seemed to bounce harmlessly off his rotund belly. She kept it up for a bit before sending two stones rocketing simultaneously at each head.

Esh saw them in the last minute and ducked, Gwyn’s sudden attack missed one head completely but cut a deep gash in the right head spilling blood down into its face. Just as Esh was distracted I stood and began twirling my sling once again, my arm really burned this time and I knew I had to make it count, I wouldn't have the energy to do many more like this.

Just as I got my sling up to speed Melk dashed forward and with his newly scribed blade slashed out catching Esh in the ankle. The blade bit deep into the back of Esh’s heel and he roared in pain dropping to one knee while Melk sprinted out of his reach. The loud explosion rocked the cavern when my projectile met Esh square in the chest. It was powerful enough to knock the beast flat on his back.

Not missing out on the momentarily stunned Esh, both Iva and Melk dashed in, each driving their blade deep into one of the ettin's skulls. His big meaty hand caught Iva in the back and sent her flying through the air to bounce off a stalagmite, where she laid motionless on the ground. Eyes only for Iva, I flew down the ropes. Sprinting past Esh, I was happy to see his thrashing was beginning to look more like convulsions.

Sliding to a stop at Iva’s side I gently rolled her limp body over. I did not expect to see a naked and grinning Iva looking back at me. The ash from her clothes and healing charm fell aside as she wrapped her arms around my neck and whispered in my ear “where's that spare chest wrap?” Once the embrace ended I told her my pack was up on the ledge still and turned to deal with the Great Esh.

Melk was staring as a nude Iva walked past, I saw him actually wipe drool from his chin and ordered him to find the key. He had a big grin on his face as he turned and began searching Esh’s body. I caught myself reaching up to make sure I hadn't either. Finding that I didn't, I smiled and began to help search for the key.

Not finding the key on the body we moved the search into the giant cave. The smell was almost enough to make me vomit, it was all I could do to keep from running away as fast as I could. Activating a light stone I walked to the back of the cave looking for the path out of this level. To my horror I found it, buried nearly to the ceiling in Ettin shit. Apparently Esh had been trying to hide the gate behind a huge wall of shit, he must have been working at it for quite some time.

Turning in disgust I searched the rest of the cave finding only a few tattered pieces of clothing and a broken wooden chest. Tossing the lid aside a big grin split my face as I found the jackpot, a pair of steel bracers and a very expensive looking leather vest. None had runes on them and both looked to be made from quality materials. I slid on the bracers and vest before striding out of the cave.