From the introduction:
Deep inside a Goblin wood there is a bald green hill crowned with three burial mounds. A venerable winged Gnome, a sculptor of enchanted trees, is imprisoned in one mound tasked with creating marble doves in the dark. His keeper, a white marble golem animated by the spirit of a long dead Orc-king, sits at the grand buttressed entrance to his ancient mound. The spirit is bound to the hill. From here it surveys the wood to the East and once a day menaces the Gnome and chases and consumes a marble dove. The third mound has no entrance having been sealed up centuries ago by a Goblin wizard to contain an evil spider still sleeping within. The Witch-faced Goblins of the wood, beak nosed with jutting chins, cultivate elaborate mustaches and wear wide-brimmed leather hats against jumping spiders. Goblins are dark humoured but no more wicked than men. Only the formidable Orc-king Gilgakgad’s burial chamber remains intact.