Nurpus hears Agna rambling on about Fort Rannick and tries to remember anything else, but gets distracted at the end.
"Where we get dogs?" Torch asks.
Bart rides on his clearly superior hellhound, he does help the other goblins gather up some lesser mounts of their own.
Mugmuff goes and recruits himself a goblin dog, even if it means acquiring it from another goblin, and mounts up, ready for travel.
Agna also finds herself a gobbodog. She would summon one, but it wouldn't last long enough.
Torch mounts a goblin dog and prepares to travel.
After running around and yelling "BANG" at every dog, he find the least scared one and jumps on.
When the other give him the expected odd look, he answers.
"Need to find doggo dat likes booms. Purpus noisy."
The goblin heroes mount up on the hairless canines and quickly ride out of town, goblins cheering as they go, certain that the chieftains-in-training can keep the town safe from the prospect of invading hordes of trollgers.
Heading southwest, the goblins make quick progress, leaving the surrounding environs of Sandpoint behind them and heading towards the Mushfens, which they hope to use to hide their progress as they head west. Crossing the river and plunging into the marshes, the goblins move under cover of the inhospitable swamp. For nearly a week they plod along through the sticky mess until finally they come to the surrounding hills of the Fenwall Mountains, their landmark to start heading north along the banks of the lake and towards the Skull River.
Crossing the river once more, they come into the open plains, and signs of humanity can be seen once more, worked fields and cleared forests just along the horizon. Mugmuff informs the group that the longshank settlement known as Whistledown is just to the east of them, and their destination further to the north, another week or so away.
"Gobbos wanna make boom boom with Purpus tonite?"
"Nurpus likes boom boom."
"I'M HUNGRY. Let's steals food. Stupid longshanks never even sees us if we goes quiet."
"Yes, we steals food and maybe lights a fire or three," Torch replies, nodding in agreement.
The thought of food overpowers Bart's mind and he nods viciously at the possibility of raiding the longshanks food houses.
Mugmuff facepalms and then sighs... goes along because the others all seem fixated on the idea.
Waiting until the cover of night the goblins slowly creep into town, using their innate powers of sneakiness to stick tight to the shadows as they skulk around in search of noms.
The sneaky goblins make short work of the poorly guarded human settlement, gaining access to a well stocked bakery and butcher shop and coming away with arm loads of sweet treats and dried meats. Dropping bits of food along the way as they go, the goblins easily make it to the outskirts of town without so much as a sneeze in their direction from the poorly trained longshank guards.
"Let's go, we eats good the rest of way there, now!"
Nurpus looks to torch excitedly.
"Burn Burn Burn!"
He then grabs something flammable and attempts to light it off Torch's torch.
Bart is too busy eating to think about burning. Why stupidshanks pickle vegetables instead of eyeballs and fingers I'll never know.
Woofy on the other hand will gladly help light Nurpus's flame stick if Torch is uncooperative.
Nurpus, unsuccessful with his attemots to "steal" torch's fire, turns to the new firepuppy.
He holds out a pile of rags, clothes, and hay wrapped around a chair leg to his new burny friend.
"Dracarys!"
Woofy looks up like its time to play fetch.
Once Nurpus throws it, Woofy goes and fetches and comes back with it on fire.
Bart continues to eat.
Against Agna's demand, Nurpus gathers up some flammable materials and holds them in front of the flaming hound's mouth, which quickly ignites them into a smoldering pile of fire. The gunslinger lobs the bundle high into the air towards one of the homes on the outskirts of the town, but much to his surprise the hound intercepts the flaming mass in midair and quickly returns the fire to Nurpus, who stares off at nothing in particular for a moment, completely flummoxed at the creatures actions.
"Agna be's right, we no gotz time for burns down the town... Letz eat and ride.
Bart continues to stuff his face before continuing, not particularly caring about burning such a stupid village to the ground.
"See? Burning-doggie knows. No burn town, we has other stuffs to do. Leave stupid longshanks alone."
Torch is more than cooperative, having been barely able to keep himself from setting fire to something as they searched. He applies his torch to the nearest building as he eats, trying to get it to light.
Nurpus, saddened by the 'no burning' command, finds a small shrub to set on fire rather than a house.
"FINE. YOU NO FUN!"
Torch kicks at a small pebble, looking downcast.
Woofy comes and rolls in front of torch, helping to get a flaming belly rub.
The goblins, including a downcast Torch and Nurpus, slink away from the town, leaving only a small burning bush as a reminder of their passing. The group makes up time quickly as they strike out to the north, traveling along the lake and then the river which feeds into it. Soon they are surrounded on all sides by thick forests, and each of them can feel unseen eyes peering back at them as they pass.
For three days they make progress, until at last coming to a clearing to the north, where the forest gives way to scrub and grassland near the base of the mountain range to the north, and their ultimate target, the fort itself. Some distance to the east Torch picks up the scent of roasting meat, intermingled with the familiar smell of ogre.
Investigating further, the group comes upon a clearing near the edge of the forest which contains two large structures. The woods around the clearing are decorated with several hanging cornhusk-and-leather humanoid shaped fetishes. Inspecting one of these fetishes reveals it to be stuffed with what appears to be a mix of dirt and human hair. A tangled field of corn and other diseased plants grows in the eastern section of the clearing, while to the north slump two sagging buildings: a barn and a farmhouse. Both have had their windows boarded over, and moss and fungus grow heavy on the shaded sides of the decrepit structures.
Bart giggles a bit from on top of Woofy before remembering the last moss he tried to eat and spits in disgust.
"Trollgers wanna scare away longshanks with those dumb straw-men. Straw-men no scare longshanks. Them likes them arguments. Stupid trollgers...." Agna says, absentmindedly. Then she snaps back to reality. "Hokay, so we kills the trollgers and takes their stuff. Right? We should sneaks up on them. When they's got no weapons."
"...and burns them!" Torch finishes the sentence for her.
Woofy looks up when Torch says burn.
That and fire might be the only words he knows in common.
Bart sneaks toward the left building and motions for companions to follow.
Agna follows along, quietly?
Quietly!
Torch trundles quietly along behind, his namesake weapon at the ready.
Mugmuff heads to the left building with the others.
The pack of dirty fire-chucking muffin stealing goblins makes their way to the north, keeping close to the treeline as they sneak towards one of the buildings. Just as you come through a stand of trees you see a massive looking trollger standing about forty feet away and moving in your direction, scanning the trees and field as it lumbers about. The trollger has a grotesquely deformed head that resembles a giant pumpkin on the right side, a huge puffy mass of tumors and overgrown bone that give his head a lopsided look.
As it peers in your direction there is a snap as Agna steps on a small stick, breaking it in two and looking from her feet to the trollger several times before realizing that her position has been discovered!
Woofy circles around only getting a little closer, while Bart draws his shinny new wand and gives himself the strength of a cow.
Mugmuff waits for a chance to surprise the trollger with a sneaky attack...