As the sneering honor guard of Hobgoblins led him at spear point through the camp, Cathayan Ambassador Eg-Shen and his aide De-Ling could only marvel at the army around him. As far as he could clearly see and gathering into muddled shadows even further from his vision was the army of Hobgobla-Khan. Numbering in the hundreds of thousands, the Hobgoblin encampment covered several square miles of the Western Plains.
All around Shen was the pungent odor of Hobgoblin and wolf, the two races living in mutual harmony. Here and there tooth and clawed battles broke out between gathered wolves, fighting for bones, pups or mating privileges. Beyond the fighting lupines were the Hobgoblins themselves. From the depths of hooded cloaks or sheltered yurts, the Hobgoblins paused as the Ambassador walked past, glaring at him with both hatred and a morbid sense of menace. The needle sharp teeth in their heads were clearly visible as they grinned long and menacingly at the Cathayan visitor. Eg-Shen shook inwardly, being surrounded by the army of unscrupulous monsters and their unclean beasts. Huge bonfires lit up the afternoon sky as the small army of camp cooks set about feeding the horde of monsters. As was the case of late, rations were getting smaller and the menu far less varied. As the famine form the south threatened the human populace of Cathay, so too had famine and disease come to the army of Hobgobla-Khan. It came as no surprise to Shen when he saw a small Hobgoblin child wander too close to a pack of starving wolves that the beasts tore into the greenskin child, ripping out its throat before it could even call for help, then dragging the corpse back into the shadows of the tent city to be devoured. The sight of such carnage was hardly something new to the jaded ambassador to the Hobgoblin nations, but Shen was still shocked to see that none of the nearby Hobgoblins gave the loss a second glance, instead worrying about their own rations while keeping a wary eye on their mates!
.JPG)
