A smelly hand was stretched out from a corner slightly darker than the darkness that covered the rest of the passage. It grabbed Runar by his shoulder and dragged him to the side. A brutish voice grunted something, followed by a more malicious one speaking in common tongue:

-Who be ye? Where be ye going?

-I am an important messenger, said Runar. I bring a message that you would be wise to heed. Take me to your leader.

-Where be ye from?

-A foreign power of such supreme power that your kingdom should tremble in awe.

-E must be from Mordor! Pascalis is coming, or worse!

-Show him in, said another goblinoid voice.

Runar was led to a smaller passage to the side. The main corridor he had been walking through did not lead to the king, but to the dining room. Trust a goblin to know what's important. The passage was lit by torches here and there; all of them carefully arrayed to give the messiest and most disordered impression. After all, goblins do have a reputation to protect.

A scary and overbearing soundtrack could be heard. It grew steadily in power. It was the royal hymn of Gundabad, composed by the Great Goblin Guest-Composer, Grieglog. An exhausted and, to say the least, bored orchestra had to play it over and over again.

There he was. The mountain king himself!

-Do you have somewhere I can put this sack? It contains extremely dangerous contraptions, spells and other artificial artefacts that belong in a fantasy game. In short, do not touch, said Runar.

-Use the cupboard over there, said a well-spoken goblin.

-You really have cupboards here in the middle of a mountain?

-Well, no, but it sounds like at least a tiny inch of civilization to call it a cupboard instead of just "random hole in this dark and stinking cave".

-I see.

Runar dumped the sack in the random hole and proceeded back towards the king, careful to keep his hood down. He was silently taking note of the situation. Some unfortunate dwarfs were chained in front of the rock that served as throne, looking unfortunate. It was understandable since they were not only caught between a rock and a hard place, but also literally in a rock that was also a hard place. The king seemed to be going through their valuables. Runar took a deep breath and then stepped forward, trying to ignore the smell.

-Hail my liege!

-Hargh, what? Said the king.

-An honour, sire!

-Who be you?!

-Someone you would be wise to hear out, said Runar with his darkest, most ominous, voice.

-HA! Grunt! What could you possibly offer ME, Lughorn the chieftain and boss himself!?

-Survival.

-HAHAHA! Go on.

-Smoke rises from the Mountain of Doom. The hour gro…

-What the…The Mountain of Doom is a volcano. Smoke is always rising from it. What kind of lame attempt to sound scary is this?

-The world is changing. I feel it in the earth. I feel it in the water. I smell it in the air. Much that once…

-BWAAHAHA! Cut the crap! The world is always changing. Now get to your point, puny cultist!

-There shall come a time when the land has fallen to wickedness, where honour has no meaning and kinship no value. The many gods do battle against one of their own for supremacy in Heaven as well as on Earth. Armies of faith shall clash and the land will be stained red.

From the East shall come one sent by the gods but of no gods; of this land but not of this land; born of man but without father or mother. The one will darken the skies and cause the very ground to tremble. The one will come clothed in fear and cleanse the land in fire and blood; leaving nothing behind but death and sorrow.

-Sigh…The boring old prophecies again. Don't people ever tire? I mean, honour and kinship NEVER have any value here, the gods always battle and quarrel, armies always fight, there ALWAYS emerges warlords from the eastern edge of the map with max dread and experienced cavalry stacks. What's new with this?

-The chief inquisitor is coming.

-Hrmm, I know of that Pascalis figure. But I don't fear him! Nobody messes with mighty Lughorn!

-Pascalis is not here to quell the heresy. He is on the run (Runar was getting desperate).

-WHAT?

-From a being of such might that he will change the foundations of Middle Earth.

-YOU DON'T MEAN THE POINT BLANK-FIRING ARCHERY GOD?!

-Yes (finally something worked, Runar thought).

-This is serious. Who knows how the Rebalancing will hit us? It may be a blessing or a curse. Surely it is the coming of the Rebalancing that has sparked all this religious unrest in the mountains.

-Gundabad would do well to gather all its strength and focus entirely on surviving the Rebalancing. I can help you do so.

-How?

-I have important contacts in Erebor. For a minor fee I can put forth the word that Gundabad wishes peace.

-What minor fee?

-Perhaps those prisoners over there? I will take great pleasure in using them in a ritual of the most appalling kind in the Khurch Of Vampires And Savages, shortened KOVAS. The boy can perhaps be raised to be a cultist himself; he can join our Juvenile Age classes, commonly known as classes. I am sure he can become a true dreadlord if he just starts early. As a bonus, I can add the specific information of where Pascalis is at the moment and mark him out on a map, provided you provide me with a map out of here. What do you say, do we have a trade agreement?

The king of Gundabad suddenly had a vision of a fearsome vampiric monster of dwarven stature like the mysterious cultist before him.

-No! I have had enough of religious fools mongering and wondering about in my mountains! I will not suffer another cult of raving madmen. What would it be like, the king actually SANCTIONING sacrificing people to gods – my orcs kill enough of each other as it is – and perverse comparisons between the heat of battle and carnal pleasures? NO!

-Shall I send word to Erebor about peace then? Runar asked.

-By all means, but NO trade of prisoners or culting in my lands. Begone with you.

Runar retreated back into the crowd. He was feeling miserable. While peace was good, what would happen to the imprisoned dwarfs? He grabbed his sack which felt a little lighter now, and followed the dimly lit passage out.

The journey back was uneventful. There were several other cloaked figures heading out too. Runar crossed the unattended town and passed the guards who did not bother him, seemingly happy that one more of the troublesome subjects left the town. When they had passed out of sight the sack began to move! Runar threw it away at once and grabbed his mattock.

Out of the sack crawled Halvdan.

-Must you throw me at the hardest spot on the ground?

-What the heck are you…

-I am a spy after all, hihihihihi!

-And I have had to carry you through all that town and back! You lazy wretch!

-Wait, I'll explain. It was better that I remained hidden because then I could operate undisturbed. I have found some pretty interesting things in there.

-Like what?

-Some correspondence telling about this crazy religious crisis and perhaps other things. Not only that, but I could slip out and overhear your conversation with the chief idiot of Gundabad. It was quite amusing actually.

-Amusing? I failed catastrophically to save those captured dwarfs. I'm not much of a diplomat really.

-Yes you are. Thanks to your show which, although you didn't notice, kept every goblin perplexed, I could sneak out and release those cultists and give them some spare cloaks and fake beards. I think you must have seen them on the way out.

-I did pass some hooded cultists…

-I thought so. Let's continue to the meeting place up among the trees.

Runar and Halvdan continued when, with a great thundering noise, the world seemed to shake. It was as if some great force had blown through all things in Middle Earth.

Startled, the dwarfs hurried to the wood where they indeed found the dwarfs previously held prisoner in Gundabad. They were called Dori, Drig, Krolk and Biruf. They were dwarfs from the blue mountains far to the west, the rarely seen cousins of the Erebor dwarfs. All praised Runars diversion and skill at improvising as well as Halvdans cunning.

-What were you doing here, asked Halvdan.

-We were sent to investigate the strange rumours of the Rebalancing that were to come from the north. Obviously we were captured, as you can see.

-What is the Rebalancing?

-I believe we felt the first wave of it just now. It is a great change that will sweep over all of Middle Earth it is said, and define each race and people even more, broadening the local variations of our ways and our cultures. No one knows how it will affect them, not even we. Our leaders are looking for ways to prevail, should the Rebalancing be unfavourable.

-What would they be?

-We don't know. One thing we did find however was the cult of the Ex-arch god. That will surely be a boost to our morale and prevent economic depression, having the aid of the god of encouragement. We eagerly joined his cult.

-Halvdan and I are continuing westwards now, said Runar. We will try the pass west of Gundabad now that some sort of peace is established. Hopefully we can reach it before midwinter and manage to cross before the pass is snowed in completely. Will you come too?

-Sadly not. We will go south to warn the other followers of the Ex-Arch about Pascalis. It is time to leave this neighbourhood permanently I think.

-I second that. It was nice to meet you four. We hope to make it to Ered Luin one day.

-Before we go, please take this as a small token of our endless gratitude. It is the blade of the Blue Serpent, a family heirloom. May it serve you well. Without your help, we would be ex-dwarfs by now.

-I…it is a grand gift. But it should really be Halvdan who receives it. He is the one who rescued you.

-And how far would he have got if you had not been diverting all their attention away from us? It was you who stood in the middle of a hundred hungry goblins. The sword is yours by every right.

-Well, thanks. You truly are a follower of the god of encouragement, said a touched Runar.

After they parted ways Halvdan and Runar spent a lot of time scouting the entrance to the pass. They could not make out much of whether or not the goblins patrolled it. It was a long and dark way, but a way out of the goblin kingdoms.

-He was right, you know, said Halvdan as they stood and watched the pass.

-Who?

-Dori. You are the one that should have that blade. I would never have been able to pull off the stunt of plunging into a hall full of goblins and just fool them completely. You were not pulling their leg; you pulled off their legs, their arms and their head. That should be well worth a Diplomat's Scroll. I am impressed to say the least.

-Do you really think so?

-Of course. Shall we empty the sack now and have a look at the documents I confiscated?

-Do you have more things hidden in that sack?

-Umm, yes.

They emptied the sack on the ground. The things left were a wide assortment of weapons, ropes, hooks and all of Halvdans various specialized sabotage contraptions.

-Where you going to lay siege to that fortress while I was negotiating? Why did you bring all this with you?

-Isn't that obvious?

-No?

-You don't think I would have let you go inside a fortress full of enemies all alone? If any of those scummy goblins would have raised his hand against you I would have started a war on my own that would make the War of the Wrath look like a skirmish.

-Thanks Halvdan.

The dwarfs made camp in the woods near the mountain pass. They were just about to study the letters taken by Halvdan when the chapter suddenly ended. All studies would have to be postponed to the next chapter of the story.