Chapter 18

Two days and one river crossing later, a hunting pack of Gnolls brought in the corpse of a Manticore. It was five metres long from the tip of its spiked tail to the front of its strange, Human-like face. Reptilian wings that Qrs imagined what a Dragon might have spanned as wide as it was long. The beast’s black tongue lolled out from between rows of serrated teeth.

“What was that about old enemies and old friends again?” Qrs asked Ysvrith.

“It occurred to a few of us that if we became too resilient to its attacks,” Ysvrith replied, “it would simply give up and hunt elsewhere. This felt like a wasted opportunity, so we crafted an ambush: one of us took a spine and pretended to be felled out on the field. The Manticore came down to retrieve its ‘kill’ at night, and became the hunted instead.”

The corpse of the Manticore was set down near the shore of the river, where the gathered Gnolls set about dismantling their kill. Qrs wrinkled his nose as an atrocious stench filled the air.

“Manticores are highly poisonous,” Ysvrith continued, “so our friend here will not be useful for food. Its hide will be fashioned into several sets of leather armour, and the poison can be extracted from its body. We will see how Jaldabaoth’s minions enjoy the taste of our poisoned arrows the next time they come our way!”

“There’ve been no further sightings of Jaldabaoth or his minions since the ford, by your reports…”

“This is true,” Ysvrith nodded. “But we will be spending the winter around here somewhere. He may finish with the tribes in The Neck during that time and continue eastward.”

“I’d rather he head south and play with that Slane Theocracy.”

“A hopeful thought, but we must make ourselves ready should he move in our direction instead.”

Qrs looked up from watching the Gnolls work on the Manticore corpse, sweeping his gaze out across the grassland. After their crossing, he knew it to not be very wide, but it was still far enough that the forests of The Neck could not be seen.

“I know that the last of us are on our way out of there,” Qrs said, “but could we leave some sentries back in The Neck to keep watch?”

“That is my intent, yes,” Ysvrith told him. “Throughout the winter, our packs will be roving around as they usually do. We’ll have ample warning should new movement be spotted to the east.”

“What about the west?” Qrs asked, “Have you found a way over the mountains yet? We effectively have our backs to, well, a mountain until then.”

“I’ve sent several dozen bands of scouts to search for the best passes. Avod has sent her armies to scour the forests on this side of the Undead. We should know what we need to know within a few days.”

“I see,” Qrs breathed. “Then I guess all there is to do is wait.”

Ysvrith nodded and went on her own way, and Qrs was quickly accosted by several of his tribal elders, who had been waiting nearby.

“Does that mean we should delay our preparations?” One of them asked.

“We’ll still be here for at least a few days yet,” Qrs answered, “so we can at least get a few things done. We’ve still got plenty of people on their way, so places need to be made for them…have there been any problems with what we talked about earlier?”

“All understand the necessity of consolidating the tribes,” the elder replied. “We’ve selected three sites for our winter villages, and the people are quite pleased with the locations. This forest is lush with nature’s bounty; once the Undead have been cleared away, we should be able to sustain ourselves easily.”

Qrs slowly nodded his head in agreement. With all that had happened, this rich forest with its few threats was a welcome reprieve for the weary refugees…though they still couldn’t figure out what had happened to its former inhabitants.

He had personally led a warband to one of the ruined villages near one of the locations for their new settlements, easily sweeping away the weak undead within. The buildings were constructed from some combination of wood and stone, crumbled and burnt away as the scouting reports had initially described. There were distinct markings carved on the stone here and there, but he had no idea what any of it meant.

Time had worn away what belongings remained, leaving the few unburnt rooms with nothing left but dust and decay. So far, the scouts had reported many villages in a similar condition, as well as several stone towers that also lay broken and ruined. Judging by the size of the structures, Qrs decided that those who once dwelled here were around his height, or perhaps a bit shorter.

The presence of the Undead in this otherwise vibrant land suggested that the people here were subjected to some event that destroyed them in their entirety. War or plague were likely candidates, leaving behind a miasma of violence, suffering and anguish in its wake to create areas steeped in the curse of undeath. The lack of Undead anywhere but within these settlements meant that their fate had befallen them before they even had a chance to flee.

Qrs thought it a shame. Without the unsettling idea that something might appear to take them in the same way as the forest’s former inhabitants had mysteriously vanished – and the idea that Jaldabaoth might appear to attack them at any moment – he thought that he might have been happy to call the beautiful place home.

Several days passed uneventfully, with more and more of the refugees making the journey across the grasslands. They had been divided into their separate races to minimize incidents along the way, though slaves were still made out of the most problematic to fuel the Dwarven trade. The grouchy merchants always seemed to find reasons to drive up their prices and devalue the slaves that were offered in exchange, yet they reliably came regardless, always selling their entire inventory.

The Hobgoblin army appeared to have hit its stride, its many detachments moving to systematically exterminate the Undead. They had even located and overwhelmed some sort of Undead caster lairing in one of the old towers, finding a small trove of magic items and various curiosities. The Gnolls, too, started returning with their reports. A usable pass had been located – conveniently located at the top of the valley where they were camped – and additional scouts had been sent to investigate the other side. They would hear of what awaited them soon.

That evening, Qrs made his way to the pavilion to meet with the council and discuss their most recent findings. Within stood Ysvrith and Avod at their customary places around the brazier, but only a few of their subordinates were present. Qrs’ elders, too, had declined to attend what they considered an unimportant meeting in favour of organizing their growing settlements. He assumed that the others were missing as well for related reasons – their time in the forest had been peaceful, and the idea that they would need to start planning for the coming winter was on everyone’s minds.

“I guess this will be quick,” Qrs said, “unless we’ve gotten a good idea of what’s on the other side of these mountains.”

“We have,” Avod said. “We’ve got some good news and some bad news.”

“Which ‘news’ will we have to deal with first?” Qrs asked.

“The good news, I guess,” Avod answered. “The area on the other side is a large, highland basin between the range here and another one further east. The land’s even better than the forests on this side, and we found a bunch of tribes living there as you’d expect. It’s highly defensible: protected by mountains and ridges on all sides.”

“Alright, this bad news has to be extremely bad if you’re putting it alongside this…”

“It is,” Avod said. “Every way out of the basin is into Human territory.”

Qrs tamped down the simmering anger at the mere mention of the disgusting race. Everything was going so well; why did they have to appear now?

“I thought this basin was supposed to be large,” Qrs said. “How did you find out about Humans so quickly?”

“We’ve only started poking our noses in,” Avod told him, “the information about Humans is from the handful of Goblin tribes we’ve run into so far. The only ways out of the basin are this pass above us, over the ridge into the plains to the south, or north along the river flowing out of the highlands.”

“What about the range further east?”

“They say that they’re impassable,” Avod replied, “and just looking at the other side from the pass up here seems to support that idea. Maybe if we had some winged Goblins…”

“There’s winged Goblins?”

“It was a joke.”

Qrs crossed his arms, sighing in consternation over the ideal location with its less-than-ideal Human neighbours. If there were tribes in the basin…

“How long have these tribes been living in this basin?” He asked.

“As long as they can remember,” Avod answered, “out of those that my officers have asked.”

If that was the case, it was possible that they could still winter in the basin, then strike out afterwards. Both the Humans of the wall and those of the Slane Theocracy appeared to only go as far as their immediate borders when it came to their conflicts with the wilderness tribes.

“What do they say about these Humans?” Qrs asked, “Do they behave like the ones we know of? What of walls and fortifications? Our attacks might not be stopped by them, but they’ll get in the way of everyone else when we decide to move on.”

“There’s no mention of any fortifications, and there’s no need; the terrain itself is barrier after natural barrier. Rivers and falls; cliffs and canyons; ridges and mountains. The locals appear to divide the Humans into northern and southern groups. For either direction, however, they consider incursion into Human lands tantamount to suicide…”

Avod’s voice trailed off, and she pursed her lips.

“What?” Qrs frowned at the rare expression.

“These Humans – both groups reportedly worship the Six Great Gods. The same gods as the Humans of the Slane Theocracy…actually, they claim that the Humans to the south are the Slane Theocracy if you can believe that.”

That wasn’t possible, was it? The Slane Theocracy was the Human nation south of The Neck. If they were also south of this basin over the mountains, that would make this Human nation at least as large as the Abelion wilderness itself. Such a weak race shouldn’t be able to hold onto such a vast amount of territory. It appeared that they were everywhere, for that matter: behind the wall to the west, the cursed Chef was mentioned to be from the north of the Hills, the Elven lands of Evansha and the Theocracy were to the south, and now this…it seemed that Humans and their ilk were more plentiful than even Goblins.

“Is there any truth to what they’re saying?” Qrs asked.

“We have only their accounts to go on,” Avod answered, “but their tales were taken by different officers in different places, and they all match. There’s one thing that stands out, too: the Humans in the south share the same practice of conducting raids against the tribes as the Humans near The Neck. It could simply be due to having a shared religion, though. According to some of the people we’ve picked up along the way, these gods of theirs put Humans above all others, and demand our deaths.”

“Then what about the Humans in the north? Are you saying that they worship the same gods, yet don’t raid the tribes?”

“According to my scouts,” Ysvrith told him, “the way north is more difficult to traverse. Aside from the floor of the deep canyon that the river follows, only a few narrow passes offer a way through.”

That was something, at least. If they entered the basin, it was likely that they would be able to defend their position as long as they could deal with attacks from the Humans to the south. While doing so, they could strike at the northern Humans until they had been softened up enough to break through and continue their flight. If there were plenty of Human settlements to raid, they wouldn’t even need to gather food for the winter – they could just raid their way north.

“I bet you’re thinking about hitting those Humans in the north,” Avod smirked.

“I am,” Qrs looked up from his thoughts. “What of it?”

“Maybe it’s nothing, but I should warn you of at least one other thing: the tribes we’ve spoken to have offered a sort of puzzle.”

“A puzzle?”

“Yep,” she nodded. “The lands in the south have been turned into fields and farms; teeming with Humans and their settlements. The lands in the North remain mostly wild, as far as the tribes know, so the numbers of Humans dwelling there should be sparse by comparison. Yet the tribes here don’t consider trying to push them out for their territories.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Qrs frowned. “If the Human presence in the north is weak, why wouldn’t they?”

“I don’t know for certain,” Avod said. “But the thought borders on taboo amongst the locals. According to them, raids – even small scouting parties – don’t return. There are cunning traps laid all over the border, and the inhabitants are said to be absolutely ruthless. Once you enter these Humans’ territory, they will relentlessly hunt you down. They don’t sound like the Humans west of our old home at all, who cower behind their fortifications and break so easily.”

Qrs scoffed, trying to imagine a puny Human capable of what the Hobgoblin general had described.

“It sounds like an overblown rumour,” he said. “A fanciful tale, even. Are they even sure that those are Humans? Sounds more like some sort of monster living there.”

“That’s just what we’ve heard,” Avod shrugged. “I just thought I’d mention it. The reason why the south is considered a threat is easy enough to understand, but the north is decidedly strange…well, we’ll find out for ourselves soon enough.”

“That’s my thinking,” Qrs nodded. “The question is when we should start to occupy this basin. How many can we move through this pass in a day?”

“It’s a pretty wide pass that goes through a gap between high peaks,” Avod told him. “If we need to, we can probably move everyone in a few days. Since it looks like we have some leeway, I’d like to do this properly with the Goblin army: we’ll move through and set up base camps, subjugating the area piece by piece and adding to our forces. We can keep our noncombatants on this side so they can keep working in safety and deal with the Dark Dwarves. Our Gobs can keep a supply train going between here and the bases on the other side..”

The plan seemed solid – Qrs couldn’t find any faults with it, at least. The Hobgoblin general’s mind for logistics and planning was far better than his own. The benefits for all were clear, and if Jaldabaoth was spotted in The Neck, they could pack up and cross into the basin in good time.

“I don’t see any problems with it for now,” Qrs said. “Ysvrith?”

The Gnoll Matriarch shook her head, and Qrs looked back at Avod.

“Looks like your army is finally getting its chance to shine,” he told her. “Once you’re all done, we’ll put this absurd tale of these locals to the test.”