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After his year
as one of C'Mander Derviskopal's seconds, Zigny was promoted to Third
Sergeant and allowed to pick his command of one of the outposts. He
chose the Doorway, because he felt no one was motivated to man the
little used cave system the way it should be watched. That made him the
sixth highest ranked svirf in the Seventh Pick. It's strategic
importance none could deny, but to devote massed resources to a
possible threat, when none had come for such a a long time was
irresponsible when manpower was so tight. Only two goblin tribes had
ever tried to settle into the caves and a clan of urds had tried to
roost, but the svirf had quietly waited until they rested and attacked
with reinforcements, wiping the offenders out.
To attack in such a cowardly manner frustrated Zigny, but
to allow one goblin free was to spread the word of Sparkside and
possible gnomish treasure. Then the true threats, prepared warbands and
endless waves of raiders, would arrive. The deep warren provided a
perfect place for a goblinoid tribe to set down and build defenses, but
lying in the bottom of this particular warren were trapdoors able to
release dozens of svirfneblin in several different tunnels. A dedicated
search and several large hammers would allow access to wide tunnels
leading into the main gates of Southreach and beyond into Sparkside.
This, the least obvious threat, he worried over the most.
After only half a year as Master of the Doorway, he had
come to truly enjoy every moment at his post and with his men, and
allowed his own second to take the busier coldwatch, while he stood
with minimal guard in the vantage during the day. He had gained the
respect of the young gnomes and motivated quite a few to at least
participate in the activities of being prepared. This was due to
encounters with monsters and small bands of kobolds without proper
weapons prepared and defenses ready, more than any motivational
speeches by Zigny, but his quick thinking and preparations had saved
several of them and they had repaid him by working at the listening
posts in the deepest tunnels of the warren.
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He watched
through the dark holes in the cold stone, when he heard a scraping of
hard leather on stone. Like the edge of a hardened shield on the rough
wall, the sound stuttered as if the shield skipped across the wall, but
Zigny could see nothing. He knew his spyholes were hidden in the
deepest tunnels, so someone slowly exploring would taking some time to
venture far enough to be seen. The softer sound of footfalls and low
grumbling voices soon replaced the sound of the shield. Around the
final corner passed the newest explorers of the Doorway warren, two
huge goblins, holding well-oiled blades and hard leather shields.
Following closely behind was a large hobgoblin, who seemed to grunt
orders at the other two, point around the dead end chamber and spin
around and return out of view. As they poked around the chamber, Zigny
got a good look at the monstrous goblins. They appeared to be
half-hobgoblin at least, maybe some bugbear in them, but probably
half-goblin. Maybe the leader's children by one of his goblin
followers, or members of his tribe. They were easily as strong as a
svirf, and taller than a normal goblin or gnome. Either would be a good
match for him, he feared he could lose to the both of them if forced to
fight them both simultaneously.
Actually, Zigny was nearly right. The remnants of the
hobgoblin tribe FurCloz, who had been nearly eliminated in a failed bid
for supremacy in the goblin town of Lurp, had gathered several bands of
raiding goblins, kobolds and urds and created a small bandit army. The
two half-goblin/ half-hobgoblins weren't the children of Chief Neem,
the
hobgoblin leader, and weren't the only members of his tribe. Two
others, female hobgoblins, also fought among the bandits. One commanded
the kobold shock troops and shard-slingers, the other owned a ring of
flight and led the urd bombers and scouts. Chief Neem rarely led the
main force of goblins personally, usually his plans involved them
splitting into two groups and attacking separately led by the
half-goblins. His urd scouts had reported the caves from an aerial
reconnaissance flight. His entire tribe had broke camp and raced to the
complex, exactly what the wandering tribe had been searching for, a
defendable base in a new region.
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