Snark smirked in satisfaction.
Klarg was still asleep, in his chamber dubbed the 'Treasure Room' by the great oaf himself.
Snark had to admit, the idea of having a treasure room, or treasure of any sort, was appealing.
Still, as he looked around the space, past the snoozing bugbear and at the various piles of junk in the room, he couldn't help but feel this was all rather short-sighted.
Klarg was content to pillage caravans and rest on his haunches in between.
'Not I,' thought Snark.
No, Snark felt he was meant for more, for better things. Brief images flashed in his mind, chittering hordes of goblins shouting the title 'Chief' at him from a massive cavern, his throne of bone sitting in the middle, gathered from his many defeated foes.
'You will be the first…' Snark thought to himself, his beady eyes landing back on the snoozing bugbear as he turned in his sleep, his massive, blunt mace still clutched to him like a child clutches a stuffed snake.
He idly considered the other human they'd captured, lying near Klarg, though in much better condition than that bestial one they'd found on the road today. Snark shook his head. How he could stand to sleep near that reeking oaf was beyond the goblin's wildest imagination.
Shrugging, he turned, making his way back down the tunnel, towards the rest of his tribe. As he entered the greater cavern, looking to the pools and the dam his people had made, he pondered his next move.
The human had been tied in the goblin den, awaiting Snark's decision on when to tell Klarg what had happened.
His fellows didn't question him. Apart from being undeniably more intelligent than he, there were few who wanted to go near Klarg in the first place. The bugbear was as likely as not to use the lash, instead of the carrot, to get his followers in line.
Yet, the so-called 'chief' had been commanded not to lash Snark without recourse.
Again, Snark smirked as he walked, the hobgoblins were good for something after all.
Reaching his tribe's den, a little more than a dozen heads turned his way, regarding him with interest.
Something slithered through the back of Snark's mind, a sort of painful twinge he quickly pushed away.
There had been three times this many goblins, once. That was also to say nothing of the women, and young ones.
All of those had been taken by the hobgoblins when they arrived.
'Better to keep them safe,' the commander of the group had assured them all, as the still cooling body of their former chieftain lay at his feet.
What was it to Snark if a few goblins were prisoners of some stinking hobs? He had all he needed, power, respect, authority. The fact that this cost his tribe everything meant…meant little to him.
He could feel his shoulders drop slightly, and realized he'd been standing silently for several moments.
Looking to his goblins, he opened his mouth to speak, when an almighty roar echoed through the cavern, coming from near the entrance.
Whipping around, Snark could hear goblin shouting and screeching amid the grunts and growls of something massive.
Behind it all, he just barely could hear a dwarven voice, shouting what sounded like orders in his native tongue.
Snarling, Snark whirled around as icy fear lanced through him. The dwarf-rat had come, and somehow he'd brought a bear.
"It's the dwarf-scum! Go, go and kill! Do not let him enter this cave!"
Hooting and hollering, his goblins went for their weapons and began dashing towards the entrance tunnels.
Snark threw out a hand, stopping four of his tribesmen from heading towards what he was sure would be their deaths.
"Bring him," he pointed to the human, still tied and lying dazed in a corner.
"We go to Klarg," the goblin sighed, knowing that his chance of seizing some level of control for himself was eroding before his eyes.
As if to emphasize that thought, he heard one of his clansmen cry out before the cry was cut off by a harsh, wet crunch.
"Now," Snark said, glaring at his stunned and terrified looking companions. They sprang into action, moving to grab the human's restraints. Snark only hoped the bugbear would be enough…
Bromar was making short work of the goblins. Normally, in confined spaces like this, he would have been at a massive disadvantage. However, he was just wide enough to block the tunnel completely.
Without being able to surround him, the goblins lost their numerical advantage, and given the bear's massive size and thick hide, their weapons could do little before the oncoming wall of fur and muscle.
Dane crawled along the ground, occasionally letting a bolt fly between the beasts stanced legs when he had a clear shot.
"Would you stop that," he heard the bear snarl, "the bolts get stuck in my jaws something awful."
Dane smiled, but ignored the bear. Complaining aside, he was keeping the goblins towards the back from having a chance to take a clear shot, as his bolts kept forcing their skirmishers up front to stagger back into them.
Within less than a minute, the goblins lay strewn about the entrance tunnel, and the scene of blood and gore fit for a butcher's shop was all that remained between them and the goblins' nest.
Dane stood as Bromar continued inward. The bear sniffing loudly as he lumbered into the cavern ahead.
"More of them," he could hear the bear muse, "and a Bugbear."
There was a loud snort of disgust, "A reeking bugbear at that."
Dane nodded, "Likely tha leader. Did ya smell the lad?"
Bromar grunted, "Human's here, too. Smells…" he sniffed again, "smells like he's not covered in too much blood. I think he lives."
Dane sighed, "Well then, let's get after it."
Klarg was in a towering temper after Snark's rather abrupt awakening. However, hearing the bear and dwarf shouting, the bugbear had enough sense to know that walloping Snark at this point was going to harm his chances in the upcoming fight, more than it would help his mood.
Snark could hear the shouting and roaring die down, and the goblin hooting and shrieking along with it.
Five. Now there were only five.
Klarg snarled, getting to his feet and swinging his mace as though to test it.
"Dwarf,you said?" he looked at Snark.
Snark nodded fervently, his clansmen nocking arrows and looking at him nervously.
Klarg grunted, "Not Klarg's first dwarf. Won't be Klarg's last."
He began taking lazy strides towards the center of his chamber, flanked by his pet wolf and two personal bodyguards. These were not goblins of Snark's clan, but fierce, ferocious goblins brought in from far away by the hobgoblins.
They looked at Snark with an air of derision, and drew long, wicked scimitars, readying shields and looking for all the world as proper Goblins should.
'Maglubiyet's chosen,' Snark mused.
Klarg's wolf, Ripper, began snarling and sniffing the air fervently.
A bellow from the cavern ahead, however, tucked the wolf's tail at once. What came around the corner was more than Snark could have anticipated, and he took an involuntary step backwards.
The bear was massive. No, massive wasn't right. The bear was godlike in size, standing as tall as Klarg at the shoulders, and wide enough so as to be able to crush the bugbear under his massive form.
Klarg even looked taken aback. His bodyguards, however, merely snarled like Ripper and banged their shields with their weapons.
Snark took another step back, seeing the dwarf come around the left side of the bear.
He said something in dwarvish, which Snark didn't understand. However, when Klarg responded in a rough approximation of the same tongue, Snark realized he'd mistaken the great 'chief' as more of an oaf than he actually might have been.
Still, Snark had no intention of dying here, which was exactly how this was starting to look like it might turn out.