A Need For Destruction

The Orcans and Humans plotted the death of the Goblins in their territory. Both groups decided on overwhelming force and sent outriders to gather the nearest groups, since both had other searchers in the area. Before long, a group of nine had become a group of nineteen, including ten elves and nine humans. They had wasted no time putting the group together, as they moved ever closer to the goblin devils while the larger group was assembled.

It was only three days after the first meeting of elfs and humans that an elf scout reported contact with the goblin main group. The good news was that the goblins were traveling in a leisurely manner, with little expectation of trouble. They had a couple outlying groups, but to far flung to be of concern. The bad news was that the scout was only able to observe two human and three elf prisoners. He did not know the humans, but he knew that Mora was missing from the elfs. Knowing goblins, he hoped that two of them had been taken away for better training. The alternative was equally possible, because goblins had no qualms about eating sentient species if they lacked other game at the time.

The new group of Human-Elf allies were serious overkill for destruction of the main goblin group, but that sat quite well with them. They had observed the gobos enough to know that they were always lethargic in the morning, so they struck at first light. The goblins didn't even realize they were being attacked until half of them were dead. No human or elf was even seriously injured during the fight. A few of the captives had to be hunted down after the fighting was over, because they were so wrapped up in the aphrodisiacs and addictive drugs of the goblins that they wanted to escape until their masters could relocate them. Nevertheless, the main goblin group, and one of the outlying groups, were all but eliminated. A couple gobos got away, but not enough to fret about. The third goblin group vanished into the forest. They somehow got wind of what was happening and scattered like leaves on a breeze. The freed captives had to be watched for a few days, to make sure they didn't try to escape from their rescuers until the effects of the goblin magics wore off.

The only clue to the fate of Mora and Caryn came from the dying utterance of a goblin. The other captives had no idea what had become of them, save that they had been ridden away early one morning. The dying goblin had said, "Ye'll ne'r spy dem agin! Deys agone to Goblin Town an nows dey goblin whorses."

Unwilling to let it go, the allies did have one more chance. A talkative captive from the outlying group that was destroyed revealed the time and location of the planned rendezvous, giving hope that the so-called ponygirls would show up at this meet.