The Dungeon Crawler
an excerpt

"Goblins," the Northman said.

They came into the map room with faces split with wide, diabolical grins. Their teeth shone like two rows of ragged diamonds set crookedly between thin, gray lips. Their skin was green like rancid swamp-water and was as rough and leathery as a lizard’s. Black hair hung like dried clumps of seaweed from their jowls and their eyes gleamed yellow glaring hatefully at the two men above impossibly wide cheekbones and great hooked noses. They moved in a group, keeping close together.

Maalthuud knew they could see in the dark better than he. Despite his many years in the underground, keen vision in the near total darkness came naturally to these creatures. The goblins paused and Maalthuud could see they held warped wooden spears in their sinewy clawed hands. Each donned a chain hauberk, rusted and pitted and in tatters as if torn from the bodies of fallen dwarves, and they wore bands of moldy leather around their arms, legs, and feet. They gnashed their teeth and their purple tongues were wet with saliva.

The goblins stopped, their heads bobbing slowly up and down in the near dark. Their yellow eyes and slit pupils reminded Maalthuud of the eyes of the great cats that used to prowl the night in the jungles of his homeland.

"Graasstik," they hissed to one another. "Graasstik nom naasik."

The Northman's knife gleamed in the green deepstone light. It shook in time with his trebling hand.

"W-what are they saying?"

"They must have expected dwarves." Maalthuud raised one hand so that his palm was flat and facing them. "Easy, friends," Maalthuud said in dwarven, but was cut off by a hissing, raspy squeal.

"Naasik nom!"

The goblins raised their crooked spears high. They were tipped with ill-shapen metal barbs, but had been keenly filed until they were pointed and deadly. They thrust them forward at the two and made guttural barking noises in the backs of their throats.

And then there were more of them. From all sides they emerged from the shadow, a dozen, no more dark shapes with vile, yellow eyes. The two men were surrounded and the air was charged with danger as the goblins moved closer. The goblins grunted and one in the back howled, a shrill, excited cry, as if a bark from a wild dog lusting for blood. There was a sudden rush of movement and the goblins surged forward.