Edwin crawled the last few steps and slowly, carefully, lifted his head above the low brush that provided them cover. Stunned, he froze.

“By the gods!”, Leodin whispered next to him, only to be immediately shushed by Bordan.

Edwin agreed with him, though.

The valley below them was absolutely teeming with little, green monsters. They were sitting around small fires, scurrying around, fighting each other… Edwin didn’t know where to look.

“Try to get a count.” Bordan whispered. “And look for the leader.”

Edwin began counting the goblins around one of the fires, when two of them stood up and trundled off, joining one of the groups that were watching a few other goblins fight. Moments later, part of another group broke off and crowded around the fire, disrupting Edwin’s efforts. He started again, getting as high as twenty-seven, when a fight broke out right where he was counting, and the monsters started running all over the place, making it impossible to tell which he’d already counted and which he hadn’t.

Edwin sighed, glancing over to Bordan. The former soldier was scanning the camp with a look of concentration on his face. Maybe there was a trick to counting large numbers of enemies, Edwin mused. If only he knew it.

Edwin gave up and started looking for the leader instead. Now that he wasn’t distracted by the mass of small bodies, he immediately spotted one hobgoblin, then another. They were further up the valley, where the trees were denser. One of them was on all fours, drinking from the small brook that was running the length of the valley and was probably the main reason why they’d established the nest here, the other was slumped against a tree, watching a group of goblins that were practicing with bows.

Edwin quietly cursed. He counted two dozen archers, and while they only hit their targets once every few shots, accuracy mattered little when you had volume. As he watched, one of the archers fired his last arrow and ran forward to collect it, just as his neighbor in the row fired. The arrow went wide, barely missing the head of the first, who flopped to the ground with his hands above his head. Sitting up, it turned around and began waving its fist at the shooter, who waved his bow at him threateningly. Edwin couldn’t hear them over the din the other monsters were making, but he could imagine the argument. The rest of the archers stopped shooting and watched. Suddenly, the sitting hobgoblin rose and stalked over to the one who’d run onto the range. The shooter saw it coming, stopped arguing and backed away slowly.

The first goblin seemed to think the other one had given up, waving its fists at its adversary in triumph. Only then did it realize where the shooter was looking and turned towards the approaching hob. Immediately, it tried to make a run for it, but it had wasted too much time and the hobgoblin was too close. Two quick steps took it within reach, and one of its long, gangly arms shot out and grabbed the fleeing goblin’s leg, making it tumble to the ground. The hob pulled the goblin towards it, then raised it up while turning towards the other archers. It shook its prey like a caught rabbit, gesturing at the others who were huddled together in fear. Then, the hob drew back and slammed it into the ground like he was splitting firewood. They were on soft earth, so it survived, scrabbling at the hand that held it while pleading with its bigger cousin.

The pleas went unheard, as the hobgoblin swung back his arm, then spun around and flung the smaller monster down the valley. This time, Edwin heard the scream as the monster whistled by.

It flew high over its teeming brethren that stopped what they were doing to gape. It made it far, almost all the way to where the small valley curved – when it impacted a tree with a crunch, tumbling to the ground lifelessly. Silence settled over the monsters, and the hobgoblin roared a few unintelligible words and gestured at the cowed goblins. They began to scuttle around, much more subdued than before, and several groups began to move towards the edges of camp.

“Let’s get out of here.”, Bordan whispered. He didn’t have to tell anyone twice.

They crawled backwards until the were out of sight, then stood up and hurried back the way they came. As they passed the dead sentry, Leodin’s bolt still sticking out of its head, Bordan turned to Edwin.

“Bring the corpse. Maybe they’ll think it ran off or something.”

Without a second thought, Edwin grabbed the monster by the neck and moved on. Its lifeless limbs were flailing annoyingly, but it was light enough that Edwin could have carried it all day. The adventurers turned their backs on the nest and made for their camp.

--- ----- ---

“As I’m sure you’ve all heard by now, Bordan’s party found the nest.”, captain Vellis said once everyone was gathered. It was several hours later, and the last party had finally returned from scouting. Vellis, who’d stayed behind with two of the squads, had quizzed them relentlessly on what they’d seen in the meantime – which, in Bordan’s case, was a lot.

“It’s a few hours southeast of here. Closer than I’d like, but far enough that they shouldn’t stumble into our camp before tomorrow. They had patrols, but goblin patrols are apparently worse than Marradi ones, so I doubt that they will range this far out. Still, we will post additional sentries tonight.”

Vellis rolled up the map where he’d marked the location of the nest and replaced it with another sheet of paper. This one held a rough drawing of what they’d seen.

“The goblins are holed up in a small valley which has a small stream running through it. It provides them fresh water but doesn’t restrict movement. The central area is free of trees, while at the top and bottom are dense copses. The hillsides here and here are too steep for walking, but climbable. In these locations, they can be walked up and down. On the far side over here is a small cliff face. The surrounding hills are wooded, but lightly so.”

As he spoke, pointing at the charcoal drawing with the tip of his dagger, slowly painting a picture that everyone could see. Vellis and Bordan had pretty much filled the map themselves, with Vellis bombarding the older man with one highly specific question after the other, and Bordan answering each one quickly and precisely. Even though Edwin had actually seen the nest, he’d learned more about it while listening to those two talk than he had staring down at it from their perch on the hill.

“The enemy forces consist of around a hundred and fifty to two hundred goblins, most of them the feral kind. Bordan’s party spotted thirty archers and fourty goblins with shields, ten of those wearing armor. Additionally, there are at least three hobgoblins.”

A murmur went through the gathered adventurers, and Vellis looked up from the map.

“That seems like a lot but remember that we have seventy men…”, Vellis paused, looking at Gerrit’s group. “Seventy people ourselves. The real problem is that according to Bordan, there is some kind of structure, probably a cave, here in this copse of trees.” He pointed at the area near where the archery practice had been. Edwin had been surprised when Bordan reported that he assumed there to be a cave, as he hadn’t seen anything through the dense foliage. Bordan had explained his assumption by the odd number of creatures that entered and left the fairly small area, and that they hadn’t seen a glimpse of the nest leader. There had to be more to the camp that they hadn’t been able to see from their position.

“We assume that that is where the leadership, as well as the eggs, are located. If we can gain control of this area, we can trap them inside to prevent them from fleeing, then root them out once we are ready. With the banner in line formation, we can plug the mouth of the valley almost entirely, so I suggest we attack them from there. It would most likely force them to attack us head on, where we are strongest. I considered attacking from the hillside, but we have a limited number of archers we could bring to bear, and it would likely cause the goblins to scatter and attack us from all sides.”

He paused to gather his thoughts, then continued.

“Over the last few days I’ve spoken to several of you regarding the best way to combine our two forces in an attack like this, and Gerrit, Bordan and I have come to the conclusion that the most sensible way is to have each force stick to their strength. My banner will fight in a shield wall, taking the goblin charge head on. The marksmen will be positioned behind them if possible, or off to the side if necessary due to the elevation, and will give covering fire, concentrating on taking down the hobgoblins. The fighters will cover the formation’s flanks and rear, as well as the marksmen should they be detached. Each party, aside from the marksmen, will stay together for this to make best use of your experience. Would anyone like to add something?”

Plenty of the adventurers did, as they weren’t quite as used to being told what to do as soldiers were, but Edwin tuned them out. Instead, he studied the newcomers.

Shortly after they made it back to camp from their scouting trip, the first of their reinforcements had finally caught up to them. Edwin had taken an immediate dislike to Foris, as loud people who had to be part of every conversation were his personal hell, but at least his party had added three spears and two crossbows to their numbers. Edwin was curious about their strangely uniform weaponry, as most parties, like Doren’s, were a wild mix, but pride and spite prevented him from talking to the boisterous leader.

Vellis, with Gerrit’s help, had finally suppressed the adventurers’ need to have a say, and Edwin turned his attention back to the conversation.

“Alright, that concludes this part. I’ve authorized cooking fires so that we can all get something hot in our bellies, but they will be extinguished after dinner to not give us away. Make any preparations you need, get some food, then get some sleep. Tomorrow will be hard work.”

That announcement was received well, as the previous night they’d only eaten cold rations for fear of their fires being spotted. Edwin, like everyone else, was looking forward to proper food.