20.2ᴘᴀᴛʀᴇᴏɴ.ᴄᴏᴍ/sᴛʀᴀᴛᴏᴛʜʀᴀx

He nodded his agreement and then had her pack away the only tent that hadn't been ruined by the Orc, Eliza's tent. It was much much nicer than the old Goblin tent they had been sharing, with no patches or tears, a big upgrade. Rain picked over the camp but there wasn't much of value that Opal hadn't already taken and packed up, most the slaves had gotten away and what food there had been Opal had already fed him while he slept. He eyed the blood covered anvil hammer lying on the stone floor, a brutal reminder of just how dangerous taking a leveler head to head could be.

Rain didn't want to carry the chains the three slaves were attached to so it was left to Opal. She handled it surprisingly well, turned out that a rapier was quite good for motivation and discipline when prodded into the softer parts of the body.

They wandered deeper into the tunnels looking for easy signs of monsters or levelers. It didn't take long to find. A sandy stretch of unusually large tunnels lit by moss-light. In the sand were many many webbed footprints, an alarming amount even.

They decided to secrete the slaves in a side cave temporarily and then hide in a crevice tucked away behind a boulder so that they could spy on any potential passing traffic.

A few minutes later they were disturbed from their watch by the sound of many tramping feet.

"This is them, it's gotta be, that big a group must have been what made all those footprints," said Opal peeking around the boulder excitedly.

The owners of the many feet soon came into view. Rain already felt his mouth watering. Fish people. Fish. He liked fish.

The fish-like people were blue-green scaled, short, barely five foot tall, and had ray fins protruding from their forearms, shins, tail, head, and back. Their heads were very fish-like and large with droopy barbels and wide catfish-like mouths. They were also heavily armed with bone tipped spears and wooden bucklers.

"How many do you count? Forty four?"

"I count forty four of them yeah. I know these monsters, they're called Piscine. S'lot. Must be a big tribal lake nearby."

"Urgh, don't talk to me about lakes, I'd kill for a bath right now."

"I wouldn't do that in their territory, they are nearly unbeatable in water, they just love to drag unsuspecting Gobbos under and go into a feeding frenzy."

"Hmm really? At least they don't look as well-armed as Kobolds, better trained though..."

They watched the group march past. For the first time Rain heard a language that was not Common, the Piscine seemed to have their own unique language that consisted of burbling warbling noises that the lead Piscine of the march babbled at each other.

The marching Piscine disappeared around the corner and the pair slunk back away from the tunnel.

"The problem is that we can't beat that many Piscine in one go, there's just too many spears. They'd turn us into pincushions."

"Then we just need a strong monster to come and kill them, like the giant snake."

"Sure, but we don't have that. So…"

Rain scratched at his ear thinking hard.

"We… we just need a different kind of trap right? Maybe a more traditional trap?"

"No materials," scowled Opal.

"Yes we do, we have the remains of the slavers camp."

"... We… we do have that, that is true…"

Rain could see machinations ticking into place behind Opal's eyes.

"Got something?"

"I don't know, maybe. Let's go back to the camp."

They collected the secreted slaves and took them back through the path they had come by.

Rain helped stake them down then sat and watched as Opal picked around the camp examining things with new eyes.

"Maybe, maybe we could do something with this..." she said as she dragged the remains of the tents to the center of the camp.

"Well?"

"It's not complicated. We make a pit trap. We can use this canvas stitched together to cover the hole along with the tent poles. Piscine walks over, and splat, they fall in."

Rain peered skeptically at the heap of canvas. "I hope you don't mind me saying so but this plan has some flaws."

"No it doesn't, It's perfect!"

"Really now? And what's going to stop the back part of the army from stopping once they see the front half fall in?"

The Goblin paused. "I hadn't gotten that far."

"And what happens once they are in the pit? Can't they just climb out?"

"Well, that's why we make sharp things to put in the bottom of the pit."

"How? out of what?" said Rain looking around the camp.

Opal gave him a sour look before suddenly brightening up. She scampered to a pile and pulled out a slave stake, a metal rod about three foot long with a point designed to be hammered into the ground so slaves could be left securely.

"Alright, that could work, maybe, and for the back half not falling in?"

Opal turned and her eyes fell on the increasingly nervous looking slaves.