The Creeps

   Having been recently almost annihilated, the once powerful hobgoblin tribe of FurCloz had been reduced to five members, but had quickly begun scouting for better prospects. Now they had found new land and the new warren's timely arrival only proved their luck had changed.
   Chief Neem had been hated among the leadership of his tribe. Though he had become skilled with his weapons and a powerful warrior, he never gained the rank he had earned. He knew some magic, having trained for a short time at the feet of the tribal shaman, but after a regrettable "accident" that left the shaman's star pupil disfigured and ultimatly slain by the tribe, his training had ended. His victim, for it had been no accident, had been the Chief's nephew and though the leader hated his sister, he had many hopes for her son. Now Neem was Chief and the luck of the tribe was changing.
   Neem surveyed the entrances to the warren, one was wide enough for a wagon, two would easily fit a goblin, but the other three were large enough to fit a hobgoblin or orc. He didn't plan to command goblins forever. Tribe FurCloz would be feared again, now he need only secure his fortress. He glanced at his half-goblin lieutenants and nodded, they in turn spun on a heel and barked orders to several of the gathered throng.
   First, came the Tunnelrats, wiry, almost armorless kobolds, tails swinging viciously as they ran into the shadows and dove into the depths. The reptilian scouts were adept at searching for traps and predators and surviving to warn the clan. Behind the nimble frontline marched the more organized Shard-slingers, kobold warriors armed with tiny knives and slings loaded with wooden spikeballs, bits of metal, sharpened stones, or most commonly poisoned shards of glass. Followed by the kobold shocktroops and their young, female hobgoblin leader Ilk.
   The Sikli, as the shocktroops called themselves, were armed with rusted longdaggers and wore many layers of loosefitting patchwork leather, made from giant lizard skins. Their leader wore the same material only it had been fashioned into a fullbody suit of lammellar armor complete with a large lizardskull helmet. Her crisp military march and demeanor, as well as her sixfoot frame, stood out from among the hopping three foot tall berzerks.

   The kobold wave took the largest chambers and spread to scout the beginnings of the deeper tunnels, with the silent Tunnelrats doing a more thorough search. With the first phase complete, the remainder of the bandit army marched into the caves. Chief Neem led his two lieutenants through the tunnels, as the scouts returned to the first chamber to report their findings to Yshtra, the second hobgoblin female. He wanted to examine their depth and decide where his personal quarters would lie. The tunnels furthest down ended in moderately large chambers, a few Neem decided would work well as his personal quarters. They were large rooms but had narrow openings into the adjoining chambers. One he thought very strange since the large smooth tunnel ended at a blank rough wall. Here he sent his seconds to check for signs of mining and quickly left the tunnel. Too much like the kobold murderholes of his home warren for his liking. That blank rough wall could hide any number of holes out of which ambushers could fire crossbows and spells. That tunnel alone made him nervous, but it seemed untraveled so he hoped it was an abandoned project long since left behind and unfinished.
   The two Gert brothers, half-goblin twins, were also nervous. They felt eyes on them, but followed their orders to look for recent marks on the stone wall and hurried out of the tunnel. They returned to the shallowest caves and found Chief Neem speaking with Ilk and Yshtra about defenses and assignment of quarters. As the brothers came close, Neem sent the hobgoblin captains to their tasks and turned to them. He had a malicious grin, the brothers knew that boded well for the tribe, but meant despair for his enemies.
   Zigny had watched as the brothers turned and hurried away, then raced off to the guardhouse to alert his men. Master Zigny ran on blurred legs back to the barracks used by both the warmwatch and the coldwatch, it was closer than any of the listening posts and held runners to warn the Hold. He found them first, the youngest of the svirfneblin assigned to the Doorway, they were the fastest and could speak intelligibly at incredible speed. They had repeated back his message after he had said it twice, then they raced to speak to C'Mander Derviskopal, who would be in command of the hold on this watch.