Everyone is talking about war. A [Goblin Lord] has arisen to the south of Liscor and Flos, The King of Destruction, is gearing up to reconquer his empire. The city of Liscor feels safe enough from the goblins behind their walls, but racial tensions are at an all time high thanks to the actions of Erin and Ryoka. Erin rescued a human girl who was exiled for not only stealing from the market but assaulting Kershia and burning down her shop. Ryoka saved a gnoll child who's tribe was wiped out by the goblins, but the cub is now seen as a doombringer by her people. Even the minions of Az'Kerash are on the move as they search for Ryoka to ensure she can't reveal that the [Necromancer] is still alive and the location of his lair. Since the Antinium "discovery" of a dungeon entrance near the city everyone with [Danger Sense] on the continent feels a sense of foreboding, but at least the adventurers are hoping for lots of new treasure.

Erin quickly regretted saving the [Princess] Lyonette because she's an ungrateful lazy pain in the ass. On the one hand, Lyonette was thrilled to finally level again but she's less thrilled that she's now leveling as a [Barmaid]. Torvald finally had enough of Erin's demeaning orders after she built a sleigh and had him haul it with a belled harness, so he abandoned her miles from Liscor hoping something would kill her and set off on his own. Now Erin's back but she doesn't see that Lyonette finally started taking responsibility for the Inn and wants to hire additional employees to handle the influx of adventurer business due to the new dungeon.

The first couple of Gold Ranked teams have started into the dungeon and discovered incredibly vicious traps so it's slow going. One of the them is the Halfseekers which is the only team to ever include a goblin, although he eventually betrayed them and killed half the team. In the meantime, Ceria has reformed the Silver Ranked team Horns of Hammerad with the [Warrior] Yvlon, [Necromancer] Pisces, and the exiled Antinium Ksmvr. While they are learning to work together, we finally get the side story behind how Pisces and Ceria know each other from the Wistram Academy and why they were thrown out. 

The goblin Rags figured out the best way to survive was to become Chieftain so now she's concerned with protecting her tribe. With the Goblin Lord advancing from the south, Liscor is getting nervous because with so many bored adventurers around it won't be long until the city starts paying for goblin extermination missions. Her plan was to conquer the local tribes so she'd be strong enough to survive facing the humans to the North, but things took a strange turn when the feared warrior tribe the Redfangs came south to slaughter her tribe. Her superior tactics were no match for Garen Redfang's superior warriors, but he purposefully lost to the tiny Rags in their duel because she's a superior chieftain overall. I mean she actually organizes her people and keeps them fed which is a novel concept for most goblin chieftains. Unfortunately, Garen isn't following the goblin tradition that says a former chieftain who surrenders must obey their new chieftain, and his tendency to issue orders is undermining her authority. He also dislikes humans and starts moving the tribe north into the human lands although he refuses to explain why.

Liscor's wall and the imminent Spring flood season make it a tough target for the Goblin Lord's army, but poor Esthelm can't say the same. The final battle for Esthelm is an odd mix of goblins, humans, and undead in a mixed up four way battle. The Goblin Lord, a gold ranked adventuring team and two wildcard teams. The first are the warriors Garen sent out to kill "the human innkeeper" and the last group is the [Skeleton Warrior] Toren who now has the ability to command a few lesser undead and wants to see what he can do with his new skills. Like most of the battles in this series it's a strange mix of heroics, tragedy, and humor.

With this third book Pirateaba seems to have leveled up their writing. Goblin culture and conversations are fun, there are some interesting new characters added to the roster, and the climactic battle is both dramatic and has a ripple effect in the upcoming books.