Being the continuing dramatization of six friends Dungeons and Dragons adventuring…

Click here to read the preceding chapters.

They left Yusdrayl’s throne with measured respect, bowing heads and guarded optimism. Meepo scurried ahead, clutching his spear like a badge of restored dignity. Though still small and trembling, he walked taller now—no longer merely the Keeper who had failed, but a guide entrusted with hope.

The Hall of Dragons

The Hall of Dragons opened before them in solemn grandeur. Twenty feet wide and stretching far into shadow, its marble pillars bore relief carvings of serpentine dragons locked in eternal embrace. The stone had been worn smooth by centuries of passing feet, yet the dragons still seemed alive, coiling in frozen motion.

Two kobold guards waited before a heavy wooden door at the far end. Meepo spoke rapidly in Draconic, gesturing with excited flicks of his claws. The guards eyed the party, then nodded.

“They lock door behind us,” Meepo explained. “For safety. When you return, knock like this.” He demonstrated a sharp pattern—tap, tap, pause, tap.

He then lowered his voice. “Trap ahead. Only walk on middle stone. Very important. Very very important.”

Farden snorted. “Understood.”

The door closed behind them with a thick final thud. Ahead lay a narrow passage, its floor falling away into darkness on either side of a slender central catwalk. The party crossed slowly, one by one, careful foot placed before careful foot, until they reached the far door and eased it open.

They had entered goblin territory.

The First Blood

Beyond the trapped passage was a short corridor bending sharply left, ending in another locked door. Isledie knelt, ear pressed to the wood.

“Goblins,” she whispered. “Several.”

Alder knocked.

A guttural voice answered. A password was demanded in Goblin.

The party stared blankly.

Farden shrugged—and kicked the door clean off its hinges.

The stench struck first: rot, old grease, smoke, and unwashed bodies. Inside, two goblins leapt for their bows while a third fled through a rear door, shrieking.

The arrows flew.

Steel answered.

Eric clambered up Farden’s back like an indignant backpack and hurled a firebolt over his shoulder, setting a goblin’s filthy tunic ablaze. The skirmish ended as quickly as it began.

The chamber was a goblin barracks: tattered hide hammocks, broken cookware, dented armor, scattered bones. The firepit in the center had burned low but never clean.

“We’re expected now,” Alder said quietly.

Farden only grinned and opened the far door.

The Violet Hall

Beyond lay another corridor lined with dragon pillars. Torches burned in crude sconces, their flames tinted violet by strange fungal oil. The light shimmered hypnotically, casting long, distorted shadows that twisted across the stone.

Doors lined the hall.

They chose the one at the top.

Goblinville

The door opened—and the world exploded in arrows.

Isledie barely had time to throw herself aside as shafts clattered against stone and flesh. She screamed as one cut across her shoulder, another grazing her thigh.

Alder slammed the door shut just in time, breath ragged.

Silence fell.

They had glimpsed it only briefly—but it had been enough.

Goblinville.

A vast chamber, fifty feet deep and sixty wide, its vaulted ceiling rising like a fallen cathedral. Violet fungus-light flickered from dozens of sconces. Mushrooms and rot crept over stone. Goblins swarmed the floor—arguing, shoving, eating, fighting, existing in constant brutality.

A hoard of refuse lay piled along the southern wall—broken wagons, rusted blades, cracked statues, mouldering furniture, and rat carcasses.

Thirty… perhaps forty goblins.

And now, they were alert.

The party breathed, planned, and acted.

Eric sent Mage Hand to open the door. Alder whispered a Sleep spell into waiting air.

The door swung wide.

Chaos erupted.

Goblins collapsed into enchanted slumber. Others screamed. Arrows flew wildly. Fire and steel answered. Then—

Two side doors burst open.

Hobgoblins drove goblins forward like hunting dogs.

Farden roared and charged. Alder followed.

The rest held the doorway, cutting down anything that rushed toward them.

The battle raged in choking violet haze. Goblins fell. Hobgoblins snarled and bled. Eventually, the flanking attackers were broken, retreating back into their passages.

Alder and Farden pursued.

The Hall of the Goblin Chief

The side passage narrowed, then widened into a ten-foot corridor ending in a heavy door.

Farden stepped forward—

And the floor vanished.

Only quick reflex saved him as a pit opened beneath his feet, cruel spikes glinting far below. A narrow beam crossed the gap.

Slowly, heart pounding, they edged across.

Beyond the pit lay a round tower chamber.

They opened the door.

The chamber was forty feet wide. In its center yawned a circular shaft, ringed by a low stone wall and glowing faint violet from depths unknown. Pale vines clung to the shaft walls, creeping outward like veins.

At the far side stood a throne.

Before it stood a massive hobgoblin, armored and scarred, flanked by guards and a stern female goblin. A strange humanoid-shaped plant grew from a stone pot beside the throne.

The hobgoblin smiled.

“I am Durnn,” he said. “Chief of the Durbuluk tribe.”

His eyes narrowed.

“Kobolds lie. They always lie. Leave now, and I allow you to keep your lives.”

Alder considered this.

Then he nodded.

“Sound advice.”

He stepped back, closing the door with careful politeness.

Retreat and Regroup

They retraced their steps in silence, rejoining the others in the violet-lit dragon hall outside Goblinville. The party was wounded, weary, and painfully aware of how deep they had ventured into enemy ground.

“We need rest,” Will said quietly, “and healing”.

No one argued.

They returned to the goblin bandits’ old lair, barricaded the doors, tended wounds, and slept—knowing full well that the dragon they sought, the tree that haunted the citadel, and the war between kobolds and goblins were far from resolved.

And somewhere beyond stone and shadow, Calcryx waited.

Click here to read the next chapter : Frost, Fire & Fallen Crowns