Not the smartest underlings you've ever met, that's for sure

An earthy smell assaults your nostrils as you stoop inside the vine-strewn tunnel that serves as the entrance to the goblin dungeon. The lair's mouth has none of the same presence that your new dungeon does: even the old design announced its intent as a dungeon clearly, whereas if it weren't for the notification earlier you'd think that you were just wandering into a random cave. Tlax moves at the front of your group, slicing away any vines which lie directly in your path, Sera behind her, followed by you and then your three ranged companions.

Tlax cuts away a particularly thick curtain of vines to reveal a large, oblong room with a deep chasm filling much of the floor. Rickety bridges crisscross the pit, while structures dot the various islands along the sides and platforms jut out into the void. The occasional rope or wooden ladder dangles into the darkness. Ordinary goblins, beastmasters mounted on wargs, and even an ogre dot the area, some chatting or relaxing while others stand on guard or patrol. Celestina crouches down, bow in hand, and creeps into the room. She looks over the edge and then comes back.

"There are torches all down the sides of the chasm. Whatever we're looking for is probably near the bottom." She whispers so quietly that you can barely hear her from five feet away, a look of concentration on her face.

"Okay, let's keep a low profile and not bring the whole dungeon down on us just yet. How many do you figure are on our level?"

"One ogre, around five of the mounted ones, and maybe thirty normal ones. I think we could easily take them with the element of surprise, but it'd be loud as hell. Too many for us all to sneak past." Celestina beams as she speaks: the contrast from earlier this morning is stark.

"Let's stay here for a bit and see what we see. We've got lots of time: there's no need to rush into things." Celestina nods and creeps back over to the cave mouth. The rest of you crouch in a circle, the only motion the rising and falling of your chests and the flicking of the gorgon's long tongue.

"Azazel!" The ranger's whisper pulls you back to reality after a few minutes, and you do your best to crawl over to where she's hiding. She points across the cave, and you see two of Shadowdagger's companions escorting a bound adventurer, several skeletons flanking them. They walk into a tunnel directly across from you, then a moment later emerge without the skeletons or captive. They're heading directly towards you! You pull Celestina back.

"Everyone, we have incoming. We need to hide and we need to hide now. Kill them if they spot you, but let's try to give them the slip." Everyone nods, although nobody moves to actually do anything. "Erm, does anyone know much about stealth?" Celestina and Tlax nod in response. "Okay, Tlax, you make sure Mary and Ari are covered. Celestina, you're with Sera and I." They motion for you to lie down near the tunnel wall and then begin piling leaves, moss, dirt, and vines on top of you. It isn't a perfect disguise, but hopefully it'll fool someone who isn't looking too hard. A minute later, Alex and Orin walk in your direction.

"... I don't know why my lord is wasting our time with these prisoners. Clearly none of them have any interest in joining us, despite our offers and our righteous cause." The low voice of the archer drifts towards you.

"Aye, and there are some fine lasses there too. Shame, I could use an 'assistant' or two. But alas, no vision. Say, think I can keep one anyways?"

"You know as well as I do that our lord was clear that they must join us of their own free will or be killed within a day, Orin Greenthumb. He doesn't want the gods to be angry. Besides, such petty pastimes are beneath us."

"Of course ye'd say that. Bah, I'll follow our lord's will, but why are the bad guys the ones that get to have all the fun? That imp, fer example. Say, have you seen Jared Swiftblade? He wasn't at the rendezvous."

"I'm worried he might've been captured. Or even defected. He was saying some strange things over in Deepcrag."

"Well, we can ask Shadowdagger Nimblefingers or Elena Frostmantle if they've seen him when we get to back to the camp. I'm looking forward to being away from these stinking goblins. I know it's for ..."

Their conversation trails off as the two adventurers make their way out of the dungeon, thankfully too absorbed in their conversation to pay much mind to the debris on the right side of the tunnel. You stand up and begin to brush yourself off.

"Say, angering the gods, what was that about?" Most of your companions shrug, then Celestina speaks up.

"Monsters sometimes capture adventurers for quests or whatever other reason. Usually it triggers a new escape quest with rewards for breaking free, so most people even like it from time to time. But if people are held too long or are unhappy with how it plays out they can, um, appeal to the gods for intervention. Sort of. Anyways, if the gods decide to, they can free the adventurer and maybe take punitive actions against the monsters. That's why nobody can be imprisoned forever: the monsters who do that tend to get dealt with pretty quickly."

"Wow, that's harsh. If only the gods sided with monsters for a change. Wait, so I could've been erased for imprisoning the sorceress?"

"No, probably not, since she started it by spawn-camping you. The admins—sorry, gods—would probably tell her she deserved to lose her character for that. Erm, be imprisoned forever. Anyways, she also probably wouldn't go to them due to the whole necromancy pact thing. They might be okay with it, but they might not. As a result, adventurers in sketchy situations like hers are more at risk of having to abandon their characters if things go wrong. It's why you don't see that too often either."

"Anyways, this is all besides the point. Shouldn't we go free those adventurers?" You raise an eyebrow at Ari's suggestion.

"Why would we want to free them? It's way out of our way." Sera nods in agreement with you.

"Well, maybe it'd make us some friends. You never know if it might come in handy later." Mariel smiles at the thought of meeting new people.

"They would be a good dissstraction." Tlax chimes in.

"Yeah, sorry Mary. Not really the time for making new friends, although it wouldn't hurt. Tlax gets what I was thinking." The warlock looks apologetically at her angelic friend. This cold, calculating side of Ari turns you on. "If we can release a bunch of them, it'll really cause some chaos."

"Keep in mind that we're monsters too. What if they turn on us?" Sera raises the exact objection that you were thinking of.

"I'm not saying it isn't a risk, but there are a lot of goblins out there and only five of us. If even some of them work with us, or just go a different direction, it'll be a huge help. Worst case we back off and let the two sides wear each other down, but I think the adventurers will want to help us. Keep in mind they probably have quests to escape and/or clear this dungeon, not to kill random powerful monsters who will help them do so." You nod at her reasoning. It's actually been fairly easy to convince adventurers to work with you in the past when what you want aligns with their quests. The rest of the time not so much.

"Okay, you've convinced me. Sera you in? And Celestina, you're awfully quiet. Any thoughts?"

The warlike fury nods. "Long as they know who to stab I'm happy with it. Worst case, maybe it'll be a fun fight. Let's just do it before I realize how stupid of an idea this is."

"I'm not a fan of why we're doing it, but if we save these people then all's well that ends well." Celestina nods as well. She'll have to get used to the monsters' perspective on these things, but for now you can't really expect her to distrust adventurers implicitly like you do.

"Okay, Ari, Celestina and I will try to sneak over to the prisons since we can pass as a group of adventurers. The rest of you wait here for the signal, then regroup with us."

"What'sss the sssignal?"

"All heaven breaking loose."

"I can work with that." Sera smiles and grips her sheathed sword's hilt.

Celestina takes the lead out into the room and you and Ari follow close behind, crouched over and walking as silently as your feet allow. The three of you duck behind a low pile of unused wood, and she glances around the side of it, fingering the number 2. She turns back to you and makes a questioning expression and runs her finger across her throat while holding another finger to her lips. The two of you nod and she turns back, then motions 3... 2... 1.

Two goblins walk past the wood pile and Ari stabs one of them while you lash at the other with your sharp tail. The weak monsters are dispatched instantly, and each one falls to the ground before vanishing a moment later. Celestina looks back around the stack of boards then gives a thumbs up and starts moving again. A moment later, you're behind another pile just next to the first bridge.

A beastmaster mounted on a warg walks up and down the bridge, his elevated head visible even above the barricade you're currently camped behind. You want until he turns, then give Celestina a thumbs up followed by a questioning look. She nods, so you dash out and swing under the bridge, dangling from the wood slats. The two elven women follow you, and the three of you slowly climb along the bottom of the woodwork while you try not to stare into the chasm below. A low growl causes you all to freeze.

"Wot iz it boy? 'Venturerz? Ye, 'ole place stinkz. Best da boss getz wut 'e wantz and we'z kill 'em, then we smellz propa den agin." The warg growls again. "Oy! Stuff it! I knowz ye can smell 'em." You hear a soft thud and a canine whimper.

You wait a moment for the footsteps to resume then quietly release the breath you didn't realize you were holding. A few more slats and you're at a tall island of rock sticking up in the middle of the chasm, and the three of you start working your way around. You almost fall when the rock below your foot crumbles, sending bits of dirt and rock tumbling into the darkness below.

"OW, DAT HURT, YA GIT." "MEAN GUY, NO HIT CLUBBA." "NO HIT BASHA EITHA." "BUT NO HIT CLUBBA MORE." "OWW, WHAT DAT FOR?" A loud argument breaks out directly where the rock fell, two ogre voices booming through the cave. You wince, but the alarm isn't raised. Evidently this isn't the first time they've made some noise.

You continue around the huge chunk of rock, now careful to test each foothold and handhold before putting your weight into them, and after the longest minute of your life you're swinging below the bridge at the far side. Once you reach the platform scaffolding at your destination, Celestina climbs up the scaffolding and peeks over the top.

"Who dere?" She ducks back down and goes white as you hear footsteps approach the edge. He looks down and makes eye contact with Celestina. "Hi purty elf." He gives a dumb, toothy grin. She stabs him with an arrow and he groans before falling into the pit.

"Robba? Where you go?" Another goblin walks over, and this time your tail sends his limp body over the edge. After a moment of silence goes unbroken by any more goblin voices, Celestina peeks up again, then climbs up and motions for you to follow. The three of you dart into a guard post which stinks of unwashed furs and bodily functions. The two seats are vacant, possibly belonging to the two unfortunate goblins who just went skydiving. You peek out to see an ogre staring directly at you. He blinks and you duck back inside, peeking out again a minute later to see him scratching his heads with confused expressions on his faces. Finally, after you're worried you might never be able to un-smell the things you've smelled, not a single remaining enemy is looking your way and the three of you dash into the small tunnel and out of the huge, goblin-infested cavern.

"Well, let's never do that again. I am not a stealthy daemon. Good work, Celestina." You pat her back.

"And I didn't bring nose plugs," Ari wrinkles her nose and coughs as quietly as she can into her hand. "But yeah, nice work girl."

"Thanks. Let's go free these people."