Reclaiming Paphos

You stand in a street surrounded by goblins, though you are confident you can easily fight your way free. Goblins are known to be adept at survival, favoring flight over bravery, but there are other threats in the area

The goblins explain that the surrounding area is contested so there are often patrols but they are not hard to avoid if you are careful and quiet...

The group quickly exits the Remnant and starts heading back to New Paphos. You hug the side of the path to get the benefit of the path for quick travel, but are able to quickly retreat into the tall grass along the path if needed. It is still night and you travel without lights. This (and the heavy chest) causes you to travel more slowly, but you do the best you can. Currently Arc and Skeeve are the ones carrying the chest to give Kaarik and Aizashi a break. You make good progress for several minutes, but then your luck runs out!

Behind you, you hear a small band of what you assume are hobgoblins (because of their voices). You can see their torchlight approaching, but you can't see them yet. However, ahead of the group they also hear other voices coming toward them, too. They do not have torches going and you aren't sure what they are. You scamper off the path into the tall grass to try and hide. Unfortunately, as you are trying to get to a better spot to hide, Skeeve trips and the chest crushes some dried vegetation making a noise that you have to assume both groups heard.

You are able to see that the group with torches raises their light to try and get a better look at the "crow". Not able to see far enough, they start to resume their progress when the other group comes into range. Arc is able to see (and tell the others through Skeeve) that the other group are lizardmen! (Lizardmen were part of one of the groups trying to seize control of the Remnant from the hobgoblins.) Once in range, they proceed to forget about the crow and start to face off against each other. There appear to be six lizardmen and five hobgoblins.

The leader of the lizardmen steps forward and says, "What are you doing out here making all of that noise?"

A hobgoblin retorts, "We're looking for someone and it's none of your business!"

"You're looking for someone? What did they do to get you that riled up? Did they steal something? Did they kill someone ... ?" His trails off and his eyes open wider with realization. "How many of you are out here looking?" He quietly waves at one of his soldiers, who turns to run. However, the hobgoblins figure it out, and kill him with a volley of arrows. With a roar the remaining lizardmen charge the hobgoblins ...