Durrn "Warchief of the Durbuluk Goblins"
Standing six and a half feet tall, the mighty, the swarthy skinned warchief of the Durbuluk towered above even his elite hobgoblin guards. Rulership amongst the goblin races is said to belong to the strong, and everything about Durnn's appearance spoke volumes about a warrior of terrifyingly disciplined, fearless brutality and depravity. A figure encased in black iron scales and spikes, he carried a black-horn composite bow, a hooked sword and a shield bearing the wicked goblin face of the Durbuluk. Most disturbingly, round his neck, hung skeletal finger after finger of vanquished foes: goblins, hobgoblins and kobolds for sure, but humans also. And sitting in the centre was a finger which still bore mouldy swollen flesh, and a heavy gold signet ring...
Durnn was a brutal hobgoblin chieftain, who ruled the Durbuluk goblins inhabiting the Sunless Citadel from his stone throne in a north-western tower. Hated and feared in equal measure by the kobolds, Durnn's battlefield prowess seemed more than a match for even the mighty Tam, but the hobgoblin was ultimately undone by his rage. Rather than finish his foe, Durnn was distracted by the provocations of Gregory, the cleric of St. Cuthbert. Tam and Gregory were able to keep the warchief seperate from his fanatically loyal guards. Gregory finally brought him down with his mace, and Tam, not one to take any chances, showed his respect for a dangerous foe by promptly beheading him. The killing efficiency of the warchief was demonstrated by the elation of the kobolds at their foes' death, and Durrn's head and armour now adorn the dragon-altar which sits behind Yusdrayl's throne.
Grenl, the goblin shaman
Twisted and stooped, even for a goblin, Grenl had long, sharp nails, jagged teeth protruding from blackened gums and long stringy black hair hanging down over her horrific eyes. Her greasy, sallow skin was adorned with countless bone, leather and iron totems. Around her neck hung a particularly prominent symbol of evil, a crude bloody axe icon to the dark power Maglibuyet.
The adventurers never heard of Grenl before encountering her in the battle before Durnn's throne, where she attempted to weaken the goblins' foes and revive their warchief with foul incantations to dark powers. It seems likely that she lived her wretched life much as she died, as advisor, soothsayer and healer to the brutal warlord. Once Durnn fell Grenl attempted to flee but even the agile goblin shaman was not swift enough to escape St. Cuthbert's judgement and Gregory's mace sent her plummeting to her doom through the chasm which rent Durnn's throneroom's floor.
Belsag "the Hunter"
More than seven feet of muscle, this towering goblinoid nevertheless moved with speed, balance, and silence that is as surprising as it is terrifying. The 'hunter' was difficult to hear even in his blackened scale armour, and wielded an unusually well-made morningstar (clearly not of goblin-manufacture) with deadly proficiency. Despite his speed and skill, his visage was wholly bestial: beneath an iron helm adorned with the horns and teeth of strange underdark prey he sported wedge-like ears, small white eyes devoid of fear and feeling, a maw brimming with sharp teeth. A pair of foul dire rats serve as Belsag's 'hounds': their skin covered in pustules, they slaver and snap with yellow incisors as they yank at the chains with which the hunter effortlessly holds them at bay.
Truly a "Hunter", effciency as a killer was evident in the terrified whispers of the kobold's, Yusdrayl's shrill demand for his head, and the trophies of his slain foes which adorned the Durbulak's treasure room, amongst them the white dragon wyrmling Calcryx! It was Belsag who lead the raid that broke through the kobold defenses, slaying a good number of them and then rending asunder an iron cage before subduing the dragon wyrmling itself. Belsag's deadly proficiency almost brought the adventurers low also: alone but for his dire rat 'hounds', the savage hunter contemptuously fended off the blows of all the adventurers and sent the warrior Tam crashing to the ground. Ironically for the 'Hunter' it was Oreth's wolf companion Marrok who turned the day, pulling Belsag to the ground such that blow upon blow could be rained down upon him. Even then the beastly warrior managed to stagger to his feet, but this time the towering Belsag was finally felled by the nimble little Erky, who darted between his legs to land the final blow.
Talgen Hucrele
Identified by a devastated Erky as the young warrior who shared a prison with him for about a week, Talgen Hucrele is sadly no more. His was the body of an athletic young man, six foot tall and well built, his fair visage marred by abuse and decay amid the stange, loamy layer of earth and rotting vegetation which covers the floor of a cavern bathed in the eerie violet light of phosphorescent fungus. You suspect that he is intended to join the goblin, kobold, and rat corpses in some sort of underground fertilizer. He wears the padded leathers which warriors wear under mail, and a great dark patch of dried blood highlights the blow through the heart which likely killed him. A finger is missing from one hand.
First Karakas, and now Talgen: two of the four missing adventurers have been found slain, both in horrific circumstances in the black depths beneath the earth. Talgen Hucrele was one of the two scions of the wealthy Hucrele merchant dynasty whom Tam, Gregory, Oreth and Lareth had been employed to find by the family matriarch, Kerowyn Hucrele. As yet there is no sign of Talgen's sister, Sharwyn Hucrele, nor the rumoured ring-leader of the expedition, the paladin Sir Brafford.
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