Andrew was having trouble concentrating. It was only halfway through the first day of waiting and already he got up from his inscription work three times to search the forest for new stones. He didn't need them, not yet, but he just couldn't relax and work like he used to. After finishing his fifth rock for the day he had enough and headed in the direction of the road, in search of Shelby. Maybe there was something else he could do to better prepare them for the caravan arrival.

What will help in the upcoming fight? We can't use explosives, and I can't forge anything new. Maybe some other weaponized combination of runes? Traps? Nothing explosive, but the old standard trapping circles could definitely make an impact on the caravan fight coming up. How mnay could I make before they get here? Is it worth it to do this when I should be making grenades instead?

Shelby found him first. He was walking towards where she was supposed to be keeping watch when he heard her voice call down to him. He looked up so see her sitting nestled in the crook of a tree with a clear view of the road leading out of the camp. She was idly sharpening a branch with one of the hobgoblin daggers, which she sheathed quickly before sliding her way down the tree to where he was standing.

"Whats up? Get tired of staring at rocks all day?" said Shelby as she landed and regained her footing among the roots below.

"Not much, and yeah, kinda. What's the camp look like? Can you tell if anything's changed since you were last there?" Andrew said.

"Nope, not a thing, not really, seems like there are less guards around I guess, but, I'm not really sure. I wasn't really counting when I was there."

"Fair enough. I know you mentioned an ambush site when we were making plans last night, do you mind pointing it out to me? I think I’m going to try and hide a couple traps nearby, in case the fight turns nasty."

"Yeah alright, camps not going anywhere."

The two of them set off through the forest, following along the road until they came a stretch that curved around the base of a hill and put the camp out of sight.

"Should be around here, the forest is thick enough we should be able to hide inside, and unless we make a hell of a lot of noise the camp shouldn't have a clue we're doing anything out here. I'm still not sure what to do about the wagon, we could probably roll it down hill into those tall grasses, but it wouldn't hold up to a thorough search." Shelby said.

Andrew thanked her before she returned to her post and started exploring the area around the ambush site. The road was hard packed dirt, easily able to hold a rune for a day or so. The forest was more difficult, the brush was thick and concealing, but would also make it quite difficult to scratch any runes into the ground.

I could place several circles in different places on the road, and we could retreat backwards through them. They would be easily visible though, and we wouldn't have any cover, nothing stopping them from just filling us with arrows instead. Might be able to find a few clearings in the forest to put them, but they would be dispersed randomly, we would have to be very careful not to get trapped in them ourselves.

As he walked he marked out a few promising locations, there were three close to the road that would probably work for rune carving, but there was something else that caught his eye as well. The trees in the forest were massive, some more so than others. There were several right by the road that were large enough that he might be able to carve a rune directly onto one.

But what would that do to the tree? And what would I put on there? A binding rune maybe? What would that look like when it's on a vertical surface? I'll have to do some testing before I mess with anything out there.

Andrew walked a good thirty minutes down the road from the ambush site until he found several comparably sized trees, then he got to work.

The first circle he carved was a simple binding rune. Carving on the uneven, curved surface was tricky, but nothing compared to the stress of the work he did outside of the goblin cave. He stepped back to inspect his work as soon as he finished, and noticed something odd.

I didn't put any mana into that yet, right?

MP: 405/410

Nope, just enough to fuel the chisel. It definitely looks active. Weaker than usual though, normally the glow would be much brighter. I probably wouldn't have noticed it if the bark wasn't so dark. I wonder if it works?

Andrew cautiously stepped up and into the range of the circle. He felt his body slow for a moment as the binding took place, then almost instantly break and fizzle out. The glow of the runes faded and he stepped away, frowning. He waited several seconds before the glow slowly seeped back into place.

Is it drawing mana out of the tree? Is that even possible? Is there a limit to how much it can draw? Is this thing going to kill the tree? That would certainly give something away. Huh. I guess I'll just leave it here and see what happens.

There was another workable tree nearby and so Andrew headed over and carved in an identical rune. This one began glowing as well. He activated this one in the typical way, and pushed thirty points of mana into it. The glow intensified significantly.

MP: 370

Probably won't be visible from a distance, still, it’s a hell of a lot more noticeable on a tree than in the dirt. This might be harder to use than I had hoped.

He entered the range of the circle, and this time his body slowed entirely. The familiar feeling of swimming through thick tar assaulted him, and he felt a momentary, uncontrollable surge of panic.

It definitely works like a regular circle, even caught me half a foot out from the surface. Give or take. Now to make sure I can still get out of these.

Andrew summoned up his memories of his first real fight with a hobgoblin. Of throwing himself into one of these circles in a desperate attempt to keep it from killing him. It seemed like so long ago now. He pulsed mana through his body, allowed it to fill his muscles and settle into his skin. Then he pushed it out, trying to pulse it out of every inch of skin at the same time. With each pulse he felt his restraints loosen, until he was able to slowly step his way out of the circle once again.

MP: 350

Alright, still got it. Though it still isn't a quick process, or a fun one, or a cheap one. Cost almost as much mana to get out of that as I put into it. I should probably get better at that, might come in handy some day. Only have a few days out here before the caravan though, and I'd like to have plenty of grenades by then. So little time. I should get started on the real work.

By the time Andrew finished with the ambush site it was already getting dark. His stomach was growling from a missed lunch, and Shelby and Kalan had visited several times to see the fruits of his efforts. Each time he walked them through his plans, and the circle locations, so that they would not be caught up in one on accident. He even had each of them step into a binding circle, and attempt to escape until they could do so without his instruction. Kalan had a far easier time of it than Shelby, and was able to escape almost as fast as Andrew himself. They all agreed it would be best not to try to tackle a hobgoblin into one, not unless they were fighting one on one at least.

There were three circles carved into the road, Andrew charged each of those up with a healthy helping of mana, in the hopes they would stay active until the ambush so that he could conserve mana the day of. He found a space for four more scattered in the forest along the road, they were all close to the road, and very well hidden by the surrounding underbrush. He only ended up carving two onto nearby trees. There weren't many in the area that were large enough to support one, and he still wasn't sure how useful they would be in a fight. He left those uncharged, his tests with the other tree circle seemed to show that it would pull mana from the tree constantly, by the time they were ready to ambush the caravan those circles might be the strongest of the batch.

When Andrew finally finished up and headed to the campsite dinner was already underway. He grabbed a plate and tucked in, catching the end of Shelby's observations for the day.

"-so I think we have at least a full day until they send a caravan out. I know it seems like they should have one ready by now, but they haven't done maintenance on any of the wagons yet, and I know for a fact they make sure the ones they send out are all fixed up. I had to spend all day emptying the one we traveled with so they could work on a wheel." She said, gesturing emphatically with a sharpened stick she was using to spear bits of boar meat. "In other news, we might have a different kind of trouble in the camp. We'll want to be careful of those buildings clustered right up against the walls. You know, the group of three they never let us near? I saw them bring one of those wolf things out of there, and it sure as hell didn’t look as tame as the other ones. They brought it through the gates, but I'll bet you there's more where that came from. Glad to see the workaholic has finally joined us. We were taking bets on whether or not a boar or a bear got you."

"Ha ha. You know I took on a bear when I first got here, bet that thing wouldn't last ten seconds against me now, I'm almost the same level."

"Yeah right, You're what? Level fourty or something? No way there was a bear that strong, boars barely break five on a good day." Kalan said

"What? Fuck you I'm serious, did I never tell you about that thing? Scariest day of my life, it had spikey bones and a big snakey tongue and everything. Just about walked right through the circle I trapped it in. Hell it was practically the first thing I met out here…"

They spent the evening joking and telling stories by the fire, and for the first time since the goblin caves Andrew slept peacefully.

The next day was dull. Andrew no longer had any excuses to put off carving stones. The ambush site was prepared, and Kalan and Shelby had watch duty more than covered. All that was left was preparing their arsenal. Carving the same four runes, over, and over, and over again.

The only distraction to be had was Shelby rushing into camp to announce that the Hobgoblins were doing maintenance on one of the wagons, Which meant they would probably be sending out the caravan the very next day. He was equal parts relieved that he had been so diligent already, and resigned that he truly would have to buckle down and get as many of them done today as possible.

I can't believe I got excited to hear about maintenance. Maintenance of all things! I'm not even thirty, and that was the highlight of my day. I'm not looking forward to fighting, but I can't wait to be done with this part.

By the time they were having dinner once again, Andrew had finished inscribing nine stones. His hands ached, his back was sore, his eyes had trouble focusing, and he somehow managed to gain a single point of vitality from inscription work alone. They were now in possession of a grand total of twenty five stones, five times what it took to ward off the last goblin invasion. It took a supreme effort of will to focus on the final planning session before the ambush tomorrow.

Might have gone a little overboard on work today. Bet we'll have to wake up early. Should probably pay attention to the conversation more.

"--We'll want to be at the ambush site early next morning. They usually leave early, and we aren't all that far from their camp. We need to be in position long before they ever see us, there's a section of hill that has a clear shot of the road, that’s where I'll be…."

Shit. I knew it.

"Right Andrew?" Shelby said, looking at him expectantly.

"Oh, yeah of course, right. I'm going to be right at the edge of the treeline, smack dab in the middle of the all the hidden circles and ready to draw their attention. I'll try to take one out with a blitz before drawing the rest into the forest and away from the prisoners." Andrew said quickly.

"Yep, and I'll be in the tall grass on the opposite side, I'll wait a beat, then hit them from behind with fire. Try to get the prisoners out and armed too, especially if any of them look like they know their way around a fight." Kalan said, giving Andrew a sideways look. "We all know the plan Shelby, we've gone over it a hundred times the last couple days."

"I Know we've gone over it, but I want to make sure, we know what we're doing." She said, "This isn't a game. If we fuck up one of us is dead, or the prisoners are, or the whole camp is coming after us and we might as well be. This is serious."

"We know" the boys responded in unison.

They went over the plan three more times before retiring for the night.