A Traitor!

Upon first arriving in Harmondale we strolled about town and conversed with the locals. We encountered a gent, Hairbaugh, near the Tavern by the city arch.  He kindly informed us of the signal fires placed on the hillsides of the three major roads leaving Harmondale.  Their purpose, he explained, was to call for assistance from our neighbors should we encounter great difficulty.  We politely thanked him and went on our way not giving it another thought. What could possibly happen?

Leaving the city we immediately ran into trouble.  The fort was under siege!  The soldiers, greatly outnumbered, fought bravely.  It stirred within us a sense of duty and anger so hot we immediately joined the battle.  After assisting the soldiers we charged the fort and slew the last few of the goblin horde only to realize too late our folly. 

Additional forces had appeared without the fort and were now attempting to regain what had been lost.  Cheerfully we used the fort's defenses to our favor and ran about its innermost perimeter shooting off the deadly machines within.  We were almost victorious when Jaquanna fired  sparks into a goblin troop at close range, knocking all but myself and Garreth unconscious.  Grabbing up our comrades we fled back to the city.  After we holed up in the Tavern overnight our companions regained their strength but were loathe to return to the fort. 

We lit the fires and took a hurried trip to Steadwick in Erathia to beg the Queen's assistance only to find her door locked to the likes of us.  Solemnly we returned to Harmondale in hopes the reinforcements would arrive soon.  Trudging toward the village we heard shouts above us on the southern hillside.  Our hearts leapt with a short lived joy when to our horror we found not the reinforcements we so desperately needed but horde after horde of goblin troops.

Some time later after a grueling battle we won the day, but again at dear cost.  Sorely wounded we stumbled on toward Harmondale and found our faithful soldiers had all been slaughtered.  This sight, above all else, sent each of us into a berserker's fury so intense we cared no longer for our lives and rushed the fort anew.  We came upon the enemy in our wrath and left none standing.

We spent the night in our Castle due to our late return  as undesirable and unsanitary as it was with the heaps of trash upon the floor.  Garreth gathered kindling for a fire I was trying to coax back to life in the kitchen's hearth.  I grabbed a piece of parchment he had placed among the kindling and the blood froze in my veins.  A chill ran up my spine and I stood rigidly to face my companions.

"There will be no reinforcements."  I spat the words out as if they were poison. 

"No need now." Garreth rumbled.

"There never would have been reinforcements." I ground out.  The others stared at me uncomprehendingly. I showed them the letter.  At this point there was no stopping Garreth.  He ran the distance to the Tavern and yanked Hairbaugh around to face him.  Thrusting the message into his face Garreth hissed "Traitor!" 

To our great astonishment the human we had faced threw off his disguise and Garreth faced one of his own.  Our breathe caught in our throats as Garreth reeled back.  Being a goblin himself he had spent years trying to make the other races see him for who he was and not base their judgments upon his racial heritage, so it probably hit him the hardest.  A single blow so quick none saw it loosed and Hairbaugh laid dead at Garreth's feet.

The irony of this was that Hairbaugh had died by his Commander's own weapon, Grognard's Cutlass, which Garreth had appropriated from the Goblin Lord upon his death.