The knight picked up his sword. “Fear not,” he reassured the huddled townsfolk before he closed the church door behind him. He strode down the main street. The band of thirteen goblins loitered around the town well bickering. Once they noticed him, their hulking leader shouted and they assembled in a half-hearted line across the dirt road behind him.

“Who you?” the gang boss asked. A giant among his kind, the goblin stood as tall as the knight that stopped thirty paces in front of him.

The man held up his sword in its scabbard. “I'm the one that's going to stop your reign of intimidation and violence.” His long blade sung as he drew it from its sheath.

The water, if it could be called that, slapped the stones with an audible “thwap.” He eyed the dingy rocking in the turgid black liquid and looked back to Cadmagor.

“Well, what are ya waitin for?” the dwarf grumbled and stomped toward the boat.

“I thought dwarves hated water, and that muck looks far more vile than water!”

Cadmagor leveled his dark eyes at the thief and said: “You and your whining! This muck is the only thing standing between me and that undead maggot-ridden hussy sorceress that took my daughter. Now, you can stand here quaking like some hairless tree climber, or you go through with the deal and get in the boat!”

The thunder rolled once more and the rain continued to fall. Everyone was soaked to the bone and the heavy shackles made trudging on the slick earth risky, but the long train of men didn't stop.

“Not much farther!” the sprite shouted. Gerrard clung to the rough hewn steps as he descended sideways. Each outcrop was just big enough for him to place his foot along, and dew-slick stone only complicated the process. “Please hurry!” the diminutive being urged as it bounded down the cliff.

“C'mon this place is dead,” his friend whined as he stood.

“Wait, just wait a little longer,” Elijah urged, and glanced back at he bar again.

The imp tittered, “You're messing it all up, old hag!”

“I don't want ta here nothin from you, yah wormy cur!” she fumed as she swatted at the bat-winged heckler. The agile creature easily dodged her swing and began to sang in an off key as it danced along the tops of her component jars.

Connor examined the humanoid, he couldn't see any scales anywhere. Actually, the being resembled a salamander more than a lizard. His brother elbowed him and he shook his head. “Sorry...I'm just a simple farmer from the country. We don't get out much.”