Book 4. Chapter 34
Cid had them dismount and walk their horses in the hopes that the shorter height and the lack of dust kicked up from the hooves would mean that they'd see the band of goblins before the goblins saw them. They approached slowly with Brych guiding the way. He followed his nose at first, then his other senses as they drew closer to the monsters.
Brin saw them all with his Invisible Eyes from the beginning, of course, but he couldn't tell anyone that, and besides, approaching slowly was the right decision.
They were short and ape-like, with thick arms and shoulders, and while they were bipedal, it seemed that they'd have little problem bending over just a little more to walk on their hands. They were furry, somewhere between humans and monkeys, and colored a muddy beige that let them blend in with the landscape.
All of them bore weapons, but most were simple clubs. A few had actually managed to tie a rock to the end with strips of leather, and one carried a simple spear.
The strangest part of them was the variety of shapes and sizes. Some had longer arms, some had longer legs, one was the size of a child while another was as big as Hedrek.
They didn't speak as they walked along; Brin had heard that they didn't have language or if they did it was very crude. They seemed to follow a leader as he led them along, eyes darting everywhere as he scouted the path or perhaps looked for prey. Strangely, the leader wasn't the biggest one, but he was the highest level, a whopping 28. Most of the rest were around level 20. Not terribly high, but a decent threat to the low levels of the Lance.
It was strange to know they were so close but be unable to see them with his eyes. Well, Brin couldn't currently see anything with his eyes, but he also couldn't see them with the Invisible Eyes he'd positioned at his eye level. The plains looked flat when he was looking across them, but they rolled gradually in a way that often obscured wide swaths of land.
There was also nowhere to hide. When the Lance crept forward near enough to start being able to see them around the slow bend of the earth, there was nothing to block their view and the goblins saw them right back.
They were three quarters of a mile away. The goblins didn't look particularly alarmed by Brin's group, but they turned and started moving the other direction.