Wandering about the area near the west gate, Kerrich Mercer stops to watch a group of young elves playing marbles. His eyes light up and he grins nearly madly as he watches them. You can see him slightly kicking his leg out occasionally as if to help a marble along. He shakes his head and hurries away. In his hand is one of his own marbles... He puts it away and wanders over to the guardsmen and begins chatting. As he does so a guard on wall watch suddenly screeches and falls, his chest pin-cushioned by a mass of black feathered arrows. Kerrich and the guardsmen rush to the top of the wall (carefully keeping some cover between them and whatever it was outside that shot the arrows) and find that a small horde of swamp goblins stand ankle deep in churned mud and grass. A group of 20 or so of them hold a large tree stripped bare of branches and brandish it like a battering ram. One of the guards laughs for a bit then gurgles in his own blood as a goblin gets a lucky shot in. Kerrich is outraged at this turn of events, of course. He yells to a few guards with crossbows to return fire (which they had not yet done. Being leaderless tends to do that to guards) and he pulls out his broad sword. As bolts fly down from the wall, the goblins scurry into the swamp for cover. Kerrich jumps from the top of the wall and lands rolling and running towards the swamp. In one hand he has his broadsword, awkward though it is in one hand, and in the other a small marble. From the distance of the wall you can not tell the color, but when there is an explosion of body parts and goblin hide from a portion of the swamp some meters off to the left of him one gets the idea of what the marble does. Suddenly there is a snap as he trips the trap of a net around him. Three trees unbend, lifting and enclosing Kerrich in a goblin net. As he wriggles about figuring out what to do in such a predicament, a number of the goblins come out of hiding. "Heh heh heh..." one says to his friend. "Lookit this one, eh? He's got ta work pretty good in the chambers, me thinks. She'll like this one.." The other goblin replies with a series of gutteral grunts, not even barely understandable, even for the other goblin. Kerrich, though, still has his sword, and his marbles. As the goblins speak, Kerrich reaches into a small pouch and pulls out another marble. Looking at it forlornly, he drops it. Suddenly there is agreat billowing of smoke, completely enveolping the swamp around Kerrich and the net he is in, as WELL as Kerrich and the net he is in. When the smoke clears, Kerrich stands upon the net, and there are four little dead goblin bodies around him. Three goblins rush behind him and he moves his shoulders slightly so that the broad sword follows (as he grips it with two hands this time) and then goes swinging about behind him, cutting three goblin skulls in half, just exposing the spinal column. Running into the swamp, the rest of the goblin attempt to get away. Kerrich chases them and catches up with a few that carry a large wooden chest. Kerrich messily kills the three goblins, sustaining only a small wound to the ribs as a goblin dagger is thrown at him, and looks in the chest. It is full of silver, gold, jewels, and other precious items. But Kerrich recognizes it for what it is- wealth of the farmers up north that were raided by the goblins. So, being a good type of guy, Kerrich goes north witht he chest, returns all the cash, and walks away with a reward enough to equal... 20,000 gp.