Despite his low hit points, Kaldalis wanted to give chase. Like, really, really badly. The four-fingered Syncoresi was more powerful than when he’d first faced it, and he worried that it would come back even stronger if allowed to live.

But as he took his first few steps towards the jungle, it was Myrin who grabbed his shoulder this time.

“We can’t,” Myrin said. She pointed back at the rest of the group. “Not like this.”

As Kaldalis looked, he could see that the rest of the camp was in no kind of shape to mount an assault. People were trying to gather up the dead and wounded, applying first aid where they could, and lining up the bodies respectfully where they couldn’t.

Kaldalis wondered how many of those bodies would become skeletons in about a half an hour when adventurers started to respawn, and how many would remain in the pile. Whole, forgotten.

It wouldn’t be until then that they would know how many were truly lost.

As much as he hated wishing harm on others, he hoped they were all players. They wouldn’t be able to replace any vital NPCs if they had fallen in this fight. Not without a way back to the mainland.

But there was good news to be had as well. With the temporary defeat of their leader, the other apelike monsters that had invaded the camp seemed to be beating their own retreat as well. With them vacating the area, survival was assured.

Even if it had cost them their one shot with the warbanner.

At the very least, the camp would last a little while longer. But only if he didn’t take everyone who would listen and march them out into the jungle. As it was, they’d barely run off the monsters.

If they hadn’t hit whatever the threshold was to make the creature flee just then, the jaws of defeat would have snapped shut on all their hands. Once the warbanner’s incense had run its course and stopped weakening it, the fight should have been over. It was only by luck (and persistence) that they’d managed to push that last critical bit of damage to force the creature to flee.

Now, with a cooler head, he really didn’t know how they could have hoped to fight it without the debuff. Out in the jungle, when the creature had been poised to slaughter them all right here in their camp.

Presumably, he had hoped to bravado it to death.

“Thank you,” he eventually said to Myrin. He didn’t like that his throat felt gummy, and his words sounded gruff. “You’re right. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“Don’t worry about it,” she said, playfully punching him just below the hip. It didn’t hurt, but it easily could have. “You want to get stuff done. I can respect that. But we have stuff to do here first.”

She was definitely right about that.

The people who weren’t helping with the wounded were already going around and helping put tents and other structures back together. People were gathering up scattered and damaged supplies and salvaging what they could. And a trio of people Kaldalis recognized as Adventurers League NPCs he had quests to provide construction materials to huddled around the gap in the wall that had served as the front gate - the main point of ingress for the beasts.

“Hey,” Kaldalis said, getting their attention as he approached. “I don’t know if this is more or less urgent given what just happened, but I got the vines, hides, timber, and all that you asked for this morning.”

“Oh,” the vathon (who Kaldalis believed was the lead architect) said before blinking at him from behind coke-bottle glasses. “I would think more urgent, at least now. We may have had them earmarked for improvements before, but I think we can safely redirect them to repair.”

“Security should be a priority,” one of the others said. She was a bhogad with large arms that were crossed and a kerchief holding her hair out of her eyes. “Why bother to rebuild until we can be sure that it won’t be torn apart again?”

The two of them looked to the third of their group. She was a finnian woman dressed in a thick flannel shirt. With a frown she looked between the two of them, and then up at the parts of the wall that had been scratched and scored by the battle.

The moment of silence seemed awkwardly long to Kaldalis, but neither of the other architects said anything to interrupt her thoughts.

After a moment, she gestured towards the bhogad with a nod.

“Alright,” the vathon said with a grimace, offering no further objection. “There’s no reason the same materials can’t go into defenses. But if any needs arise in the camp, those will have to be met as they arise. We live and die on the backs of the adventurers here. They met our needs by fighting off the attack. We’re no use to them if we can’t meet their needs by keeping the camp running smoothly.”

The finnian nodded to that immediately, and the trio accepted the materials from Kaldalis gratefully. Kaldalis felt his level increase to five at last. He wished he had been able to do this before the fight - getting those last five points of spear skill would secure him a new ability.

A quick glance at his character page also reassured him that the aplomb he’d spent on respawning had been earned back. He wasn’t sure when or how he’d gotten it, but he was grateful all the same - it meant his hit point maximum was back to what it should be.

“If you need ideas for defenses,” he added, “I’m sure more than a few of us adventurers would have some thoughts.”

“Like what?” the bhogad asked, a bit haughtily.

“I mean, obviously we want a door or portcullis or something here,” Kaldalis said, ignoring the tone. He pointed to the opening to the wall. “But what do we do when something comes knocking? We can’t just hide in here forever. So, we need to be able to fight.”

“I’m listening.”

“We can create a killzone. We clear the jungle back a bit farther. Set up somewhere the adventurers can go out and fight them. Maybe some towers right here for archers to stand on. A second set of doors like… Like an airlock. We can use the space between as a staging area for adventurers to prepare to march out without opening up the interior of the camp to attack. Or if the enemy breaches the outer door, it’s a little walled area where they’re at our archers’ mercy.”

“Like a barbican,” the bhogad said with a nod. “Like the one on Baimer Castle.”

“Smart,” the vathon said as he scratched his chin thoughtfully. “It leverages our assets. We have adventurers in plenty. We just need to give them the tools to maximize their effectiveness.”

“Even you can get behind a plan when you can look at it that way,” the bhogad said with a laugh. She reached over and clapped Kaldalis on the shoulder. “Thank you, friend. I believe we will have to ask advice of the adventurers here. We’ll make this a formidable city, in time.”

“Tent city,” the vathon grumbled, “with our resources going to the defenses…”

A grumbling argument erupted and Kaldalis left them to their discussion. He rejoined Myrin and headed back towards the middle of town.

They barely got a few steps from the bickering architects when Balrim found them. He looked horrified. Kaldalis couldn’t even get a greeting out, or ask what was wrong, before a hand clapped down on his shoulder, spinning him around.

“If it isn’t my favorite hero,” Onirioago said. The expedition leader. She had that rainbow outline around herself that told him she had a quest, and he wondered if he would have a choice in whether or not he accepted it. “You seem to have a gift for being in the right place at the right time, Kaldalis. Perhaps I should take a day off and spend some time following you. I wonder what other miracles I might bear witness to.”

“Er. Just lucky timing,” Kaldalis said before coughing. “I guess.”

“Lucky or not, I think I would enjoy the view,” she said, giving him a look that was not quite a leer. “I noticed the finnian with the spear was with you when you arrived. I had sent him to activate the warbanner.”

“Yes,” Kaldalis said, taking a measured step back to stand between Myrin and Balrim, “we helped him find and activate it.”

“Sorry,” Balrim said, clearing his throat to draw the expedition leader’s eye off of Kaldalis. “I know we only had the one.”

“That’s what it was there for,” she said with a dismissive gesture. “If I had wanted to save it, I wouldn’t have sent him for it. We will need to figure out how to get another one.”

“Sooner is better,” Kaldalis said, pointing north, roughly towards where he’d seen the beasts’ gathering. “There was over a score more of them about a fifteen-minute hike that way.”

There was a moment’s pause at that as everyone stared, dumbfounded at him.

Balrim gasped, his reddish scales turning a shade of pink as he blanched.

“A score-”

Myrin said a word in what he assumed was Spanish, even though Kaldalis had never heard it before. But he assumed it could only be a nasty curse, both from her tone of voice and the way she slapped her hand over her mouth as soon as it passed her lips.

The expedition leader clicked her tongue against her teeth. “Time and again,” Onirioago said, raising her voice to demand silence and attention, “you impress me, Kaldalis. You return with vital research - perhaps less vital than we thought, but no less dangerous to collect - you arrive just in time to save Ikzoz’s life - and my own besides - and you have information that is potentially critical to the defense of our would-be town - and the safety of others who venture out into the jungle for us.” Her eyes flashed with naked ambition. “I wasn’t wondering who I should assign to help gather materials for more of that incense for the warbanner, but my choice becomes all the more certain.”

“I, um,” Kaldalis cleared his throat. “I couldn’t have done it without Balrim and Myrin. I may have gotten lucky before, but without them, the whole camp would be dead on the ground by now.”

“Really,” she shot Myrin a look that was not quite a glare. “Is this true?”

“It was my hand that actually lit the censer,” Myrin said, crossing her arms over her chest in an artfully arranged manner. “And without Balrim, Kaldalis would have bitten the dust a dozen times over before we even got to the gate.”

“And Balrim also was the one who collected all the help we got at the end there,” Kaldalis added. “Considering how narrow the margin was on our survival, I suspect we owe him our lives more than anyone else.”

Myrin sighed. “I still can’t fucking believe that he actually said ell-eff-emm out loud.”

Balrim had been looking anxious and uncomfortable with the praise, but Myrin’s comment cut through it and he gave a snort of barely-contained laughter.

“Of course,” Onirioago said at last, looking over the trio as if unsure of how to address them as a group. “Well, then I shall assign this to all three of you. One of my lieutenants in this expedition is a man named Haldir. He knows what needs to be gathered for a replacement censer. Find him just past the wall on the north side of the camp. Get him what he needs, and we’ll be prepared to repel them again.”

A quest popped up on the right side of Kaldalis’s vision.

The Child of Fear

Speak to Haldir about creating a new batch of incense.

“The child of-” Kaldalis muttered, confused.

Myrin groaned. “It wouldn’t be a Monsoon game without terrible pun quest names,” she said with an expression that looked like she’d just bitten into a lemon.

“I don’t get it,” he said.

“Laurie Halse Anderson,” Myrin said. “Censorship is the child of fear. Censorship. Censer-ship.”

“I thought falsehood was the child of fear?” Balrim asked.

“Aleister Crowley. Different quote. Don’t worry about it. Fear has many children.”

Onirioago cleared her throat and the three of them started.

“Sorry,” Kaldalis said, trying to keep from looking sheepish. “Was there anything else we could do for you, or should we head out to talk to him now?”

“He sent someone back here once the monsters retreated,” the expedition leader said. “There was a fight to the north of the wall - where Haldir is now - that uncovered something. If he needs help investigating it, please do so.” She shook her head. “Though I doubt it will be as important as the censer. Please prioritize your tasks accordingly.”

“Of course.”

“Then get to it.” She gestured northward, dismissing them before turning on her heel and marching into the chaos of the recovering camp.

“Um, I guess we’re dismissed.”

“Grr. I guess saving the town wasn’t good enough for us to get cool armor,” Myrin said with a sniffle as she tapped on the decoratively molded metal plate over Kaldalis’s hip.

“If you want it, I’ll give it to you,” Kaldalis said.

“Mmm, no thanks. If I thought it wouldn’t grow a boob window as soon as I equipped it, I might,” she said with a smirk as she looked up at him. “But that corset look around your chest speaks volumes about the design team’s intent.”

“You aren’t wrong…”