Poking around the cavern strewn with an assortment of cots and stolen loot from the countryside, the adventurers detect the approach of more potential adversaries. Davros, the sole member of the team fluent in the goblin language, can hear a hobgoblin’s insistent voice, “they crossed the bridge… they freed our prisoners… this way!” They are shortly accosted by a huge hobgoblin captain, accompanied by another hobgoblin soldier and two chained dire wolves. 

The captain demands that the party throw down their weapons and surrender. “You know I cannot allow you to leave. But, you have proven yourselves to be capable warriors! Throw down your weapons, and join the Impaled Heart!” This demand is, of course, met with flat refusal and insults. Captain Ulfe releases Zak and Thrag, the dire wolves, and an intense battle ensues. An additional soldier, lurking in the shadows, joins the fray. The fight turns against the hobgoblins, and ultimately, Ulfe, Zak, and Thrag are all gruesomely slain. One soldier remains alive, and he is taken captive by the party. He reluctantly offers to take them down to where there are other dwarves, like Mishok, if they don’t kill him. He suggests two options: talk to “grandma” or go through the blocked passage. Asked why it is blocked, he asserts that it is because of “little stingies.” Rather than have him unblock the passage, they decide to tie him up and explore a side passage. Sartan and Mishok discover secret passages that lead to a small room occupied by an elder hobgoblin woman dressed in the robes of a shaman, and two attendants. This is “grandma” and she is none too pleased to see these intruders. She commands Sartan to fall, and he does. She conjures an ethereal spear which deals serious wounds to her opponents. One of her attendants is slain, but the other stations herself in a favorable spot to pepper the intruders with arrows. Ultimately, the explorers gain the upper hand. The shaman shoves open a door and flees into an adjacent room, putting some space between herself and her attackers. This large room has a high ceiling lost in the the darkness and a broad stone staircase leading down a crevasse into the blackness below. She casts a spell and immediately shadowy, winged shapes descend from the ceiling. They flap around the party members, sinking their long sharp probosci into any exposed flesh they can find, drinking as much blood as they can.