The Ghost Dungeon Master

"Arghh! Where am I am?" Clifford slowly sits up and groan while he takes a look at his surrounding.

Zayne who is sitting on the chair while looking out the window as he enjoys the morning breeze turns towards Clifford and said, "Ohh, you're finally awake."

"What happened last night?" Clifford with a pale face asked, holding onto his head in pain with both of his hands.

"You drank too much and partied too hard last night, you were totally blackout and couldn't even recognize anyone when I was carrying you back to the room." Zayne said laughing out loudly while Clifford mȯȧns in the back, "Arghh"

Knock knock knock!

"ARE YOU BOYS AWAKE YET???" Rebecca's screaming loud voice could be heard from outside of the room.

"We're washing up now, you girls can head downstairs first." Not long after Zayne replies Rebecca, steps could be heard heading down the stairs.

"Arghh" Clifford had a pale face, he immediately rushes into the toilet and starts splashing water on his own face to freshen up. "Bleeghh"

"Clifford, you okay?" Zayne looks over and asks as he heard the sound of water being splash all over the place.

~~~~~

A few days earlier, on a wide-open plain north of Runeguard, a small white bird could be seen from a distance flying into a monster horde's camp. The small white bird flew inside the largest tent that is located right in the middle of the camp, not long after a small squeaking voice could be heard.

"My Lord, I have just received a mana message from our master, he has tasked us to take over the attack on the border town of Runeguard." These words came out from a hyena head like creature with a body of a dog (let's just call it a Kobold), it stood up on two feet with a cane in its hands that has a glowing blue gem-adorned on top. It walks up to a much larger size Kobold which was almost as large as an orc.

"What?!" Hearing the news from the smaller counterpart, the kobold mage, the oversize Kobold flew into a rage as it stood up from its chair and screamed. "Why are we attacking that town instead, what happened to that small stupid goblin lord and his midget army who was tasked to attack?"

"Mmyyy lord, the goblins seem to had .... gone to capture a dungeon that they had luckily stumbled upon." The smaller Kobold stuttered and shivered as it gives its reply.

"F***ing hell dammed those bloody goblins, why are they so lucky." The Kobold lord begins picking on its teeth with a bone toothpick as it looks towards another smaller kobold on the side and commanded it." You, go and ȧssemble the trolls."

"Yes, my lord!" Upon hearing the kobold lord's orders the smaller kobold immediately scramble out of the tent in order to avoid being killed by the kobold lord's rage.

Seeing the smaller kobold left, the kobold lord turns and looks back towards the kobold mage who had to inform it about the new arrangement. "So is our master sending any more new troops to us? We don't have any weapons to siege a city, as you should know."

"My lord, our orges should be enough to destroy the small walls that surround Runeguard." The kobold mage reply to the kobold lord's question.

Unhappy with the news, the kobold lord spoke in a low voice as it glares at the kobold mage who begins to quiver in fear. "So there isn't any backup troops?"

"Our ... master, believe ... the troops we have at hand .... is enough ... to destroy a few ... towns like Runeguard." The kobold mage stutter as it replies under the intense stare from the kobold lord.

"I pray you are correct." The Kobold lord smiles as it releases its gaze from the kobold mage and sat down to continue dining on its meal. .

~~~~~

Clifford slowly stumbles down the stairs with heavy feet as though he is wearing full plate armor, while Zayne follows closely behind just in case he falls down and injured himself.

"What took you guys so long?" Rebecca shouted towards the stairs when she heard stomping coming from the direction of the stairs.

"You guys do know we have to make preparations before escorting the dwarf to the new dungeon right?" Rebecca sarcastically said when Clifford and Zayne took their seat at the table.

"Yes mdm, stop nagging already, my ears are ringing." Clifford reply as he places his head on the table, trying all sorts of methods to try and stop the headache from the hangover.

After placing their breakfast on the table, the waitress begins knocking next to Clifford with her knuckles, "Hey dummy, this is a dining table, don't sleep here. If you want to sleep go back to your room."

"Arghh!" Clifford groans in reply. He begins straightening his head with his chin as a pivot and pull the plate of breakfast close to his mouth. He slowly lifts the spoon with his hand and draggingly scoops the food on the plate right into his mouth as he slowly munches.

After having their breakfast, seeing Clifford unable to function properly, Zayne said to the girls, "You girls, head out first, I'll catch up after I put this big baby to bed."

"Alright!"

~~~~~~~

Somewhere along a pathway to the west side of Runeguard. A group of kobolds could be seen chatting.

"Hmm, these humans are so slack, they don't even have a sizable army to defend. The attack tonight will be easy."

"Hahaha, yea, they seem so weak. How long do you think the fight will last?"

"I don't know, maybe 1 or 2 hours?"

"Shhh, I hear footsteps."

The kobolds in the area immediately became silent. Within a short span of time, a group of 4 adventurers could be seen walking just a few meters away from the kobolds. They seem tired and were not being alert to their surroundings.

After a short deep snarled, arrows begin flying over from the left and right, peppering two of the adventurers in the middle of the party with arrows. One was instantly killed on the spot, while the other had a protection amulet, which had saved his life, however, he still took substantial damage and drop to the ground to avoid the subsequent arrows.

Shocked by the sudden attack, the warrior in the front draw his sword out, lifted up his shield as he shouted out, "AMBUSHHH!"

Hearing the shout, the archer at the back draws his bow, however before he could ȧssist his party member. Two kobolds, one from the left, the other from the right run past from the bushes behind the warrior as each of them slashes one of his Achilles heels. While another kobold dashed towards him from his front and slammed into his shield causing him to fall backward. Before he realizes what happened, the kobold had already stabbed a knife into the throat of the warrior.

The archer immediately shoots his arrows at kobold which is currently on top of the warrior. While the other survivor turns around draws his daggers and begins crawling towards the archer.

Seeing arrows flying towards it, the kobold immediately rolls to the side into the undergrowth out of the line of sight of the archer.

Another two kobolds one from each side jumped out of the undergrowth towards the crawling survivor. The archer manages to hit one of his targets, the momentum from the arrow knock the kobold away, however, the other kobold had managed to stab his party member. Realizing that he is the last remaining survivor of the party, the archer immediately turns around and runs, trying to escape from the tragedy that just happened.

"Awooo"

"Wow, I can't believe that human had managed to hit me." as the kobold removes the shoulder pad that the arrow is embedded in, a stream of blood could be seen coming out from the wound where the arrow had landed.

Seeing the stream of blood the kobold beside it points at the bleeding wound and said, "You should probably bandage that wound."

"Enough talking, quickly dispose of these bodies, there might be more of them coming through this pathway." A low growling noise could be heard coming from the middle of the bodies.

"Yes sir." After a short reply, the rest of the kobolds walks out from either side of the bushes. They begin dragging the corpses of the adventurers away from the road while looting the gear that they find useful to them.

~~~~~~~

It was already evening when the group returns to the inn where they are currently staying. Zayne who is carrying most of the consumables and the equipment that had been repaired is currently walking behind the girls.

"You girls sure this amount of food is enough?"

"Of course not, if it wasn't because of that drunkard we would have purchased more. We have to make do with this amount, we can get packed lunch and dinner from the inn tomorrow before leaving. That way we should have enough for the trip."

After arriving, the trio headed to their rooms to drop off the items they had bought earlier. Before heading down to the dining area to eat their dinner, Zayne tries to wake Clifford up.

"Hey Clifford, time to wake up, it's dinner time."

"What?" Clifford groans as he sat up and takes a look out the window.

"Oh my god, it's already so late, why didn't you wake me up earlier? Don't we need to buy our rations for tomorrow?"Clifford hops out of bed and begins wearing his clothes in a panic. "What about our equipment, don't we need to go collect them."

"Clifford calm down, your equipment is here," said Zayne as he points to the side. "We also bought the rations as well."

Hearing Zayne's words, Clifford immediately lay back down onto his bed with a sigh of relief.

Seeing Clifford's actions, Zayne immediately drags Clifford out of bed and said, "Hey! Don't go back to sleep, eat your dinner first."

"Alright, alright!" Hesitatingly, Clifford stands up and follows Zayne down to the dining area.