Roy immediately ran out into the street and saw a man running away. He barreled down the street chasing after the would-be assassin, readying his bow as he ran.

Aiming at the back of the man's knee, Roy fired a shot. The arrow lodged itself into the dirt of the road. He aimed and fired again. This time, the man stumbled and fell.

The ranger was tying the wounded man's hands behind his back when the rest of the group showed up.

"Who are you and why are you here?" demanded Black, holding the terrified man up by his shirt collar.

"M-my name is Dayn and I – I was hired to kill you!"

"Who hired you?"

"I – if I tell you, he'll kill me!"

"I'll kill you right now," threatened Black.

"I come from Batterhill," said Dayn, speaking very quickly, "My employer is a gang leader there, who told me to kill the vampire Black Widow because Widow's gang was encroaching on our territory –"

Black narrowed his eyes. "Give me the name."

"I – I can't –"

Without hesitation, Black pulled a dagger and slit Dayn's throat. The body slumped and fell into the dirt with a dull thud. Blood gurgled from the open wound, splattering onto the ground and onto Black's shoes. Black licked the blood off his dagger and sheathed it.

"So," said Cynder, "You're a vampire and a gang leader."

"Yes. I am."

"You must have enough gold to bury yourself in," said Roy. "So why bother coming on our quest?"

Black shrugged. "I've been… away for a while."

The group exchanged glances, but said nothing. After a moment, Roy motioned for them to head back to the tavern.

#

Above the tavern, there was an inn. The inn-keeper was a gruff old man of an exasperated temperament. He was chewing on a piece of tobacco when Roy approached him.

"Excuse me," said the elf.

"Whaddya want? We're closed."

"I was hoping to get a room. Several rooms, actually."

"Only got one room available, and it'll cost ya," replied the inn-keeper.

Roy looked to the group. "We can split the price if we take it," he suggested. The others nodded in agreement – they didn't have much of a choice. Outside, snow had already begun to accumulate.

#

He heard Black's voice: "Fire! Get up!"

It was around two in the morning when Roy woke to the sounds of men shouting and metal clashing. Drowsily, he poked his head out the small window to discover tongues of flame lashing at the tavern, and crawling up towards the inn. Below, hordes of goblins were rampaging through the streets.

Hurriedly he made his way down the stairs. The others, also woken by Black's call, rushed to grab what they could and ran after him.

The goblins were parading down the road, lighting buildings on fire and attacking anyone they crossed paths with. A chorus of screaming filled the air, and some of the goblins chanted "For the glory of Yeenoghu the demon lord!"

Roy shot arrow after arrow, but it seemed that whenever he took one down there were two more to take their place. If they were following the orders of a demon lord, they wouldn't stop until the city was in complete ruins and nobody was left alive.

"We have to get out of here," said Twile.

"Wait," Black interjected. "Let's try to capture a commander."

"What's the point? We know they're working for Yeenoghu," Cynder replied.

Black shook his head. "Not necessarily. They could have been hired by somebody else."

"Let's move towards the gate," said August. "And we'll see what we come across."

As they snuck towards the gate, they came across a goblin that was bigger than the others and dressed in more elaborate armor. "There," said Black, pointing at it. "That's got to be a commander."

They were hiding in the wreck of a building behind the goblin commander and his entourage, and all at once they jumped out and began their attack.

Roy fired his arrows at the commander while the others took out the smaller goblins with melee attacks. They took them out with relative ease, and soon all five of them were ganging up on the commander.

"Wait!" said the goblin. "I surrender! I surrender!"

Black held a knife to the goblin's throat. "What is your name, and why are you attacking this city?"

"My name is General Skemad, and we were hired to attack this ciy," said the goblin.

After flashing an I-told-you-so smirk, Black returned to his interrogation. "Who hired you?"

But before Skemad could answer, another wave of goblins attacked. One landed on Black's shoulder and caused him to fall backwards. Skemad escaped behind the ranks.

The group fought back this second wave of attackers, and then rushed for the gate, which was now little more than a pile of rubble.

#

"Who would hire an army of goblins to attack Fallcrest while claiming to be under orders from a demon lord?" asked Black. They were in the woods south of Fallcrest now, camping out with what equipment they had.

Twile shrugged. "The temple of Bahamut," he suggested.

Cynder's gaze was fixed on the ground as he said, "I think it must be."

"They're out of control," said August. "But there's no way we can stop them."

Roy thought about it for a moment. "What if we made an alliance with Yeenoghu? We could tell Yeenoghu that the temple is impersonating him, get him to attack the temple – have them wipe each other out, even."

Black shook his head. "He won't do it. His forces aren't enough to overpower the temple's."

"We'll raise our own army," Roy added. "Send them in."

August blinked. "Where are we going to get an army, though?"

"You're talking about something that would change the entire world," said Cynder. "Are you sure we can do this?"

"Why not?" said Roy.

Twile nodded. "I'm in. The temple of Bahamut destroyed by home, slaughtered my village. I'll do anything to defeat them."

"I'll have to consult Bahamut about this," said Cynder.

"That's it!" Roy interrupted. "Once we've got the corrupted followers of Bahamut and the followers of Yeenoghu all in once place – if we could convince Bahamut to come and wipe them all out – it'd be like two birds with one stone for him."

"First things first: We'll need an army of our own if we want to convince Yeenoghu to attack," said Black. "And I know just where to get one. It's time for the Black Widow to return to Batterhill."