As the evening fell, several of us were gathered around a fire. We'd been healed, burned the bodies of the goblins, buried our dead, and sorted through the ashes of the camp as we rebuilt. The camp was much smaller now, but word had gone out. Rangers and Druids would soon arrive to bolster our numbers. In the meantime, many from the village had volunteered to stay for a few days to help with the rebuilding and to guard the camp.

The conversation turned to what we planned to do about the attack. We had killed most of the Goblins and driven the rest back, but many had survived and fled into the night. They were certain to return with greater numbers to what they likely saw as the easy pickings of a nearly defeated enemy. Some of the Fighters and Rangers thought it would be better to take the fight to the enemy. They wanted to seek out the Goblins.

I wanted that too. But I knew rushing out without a plan would just mean more dead for us to bury. We had to deal with this like Rangers.

We had to find out what had changed and why. Why they were willing to attack out in the open like this. There were places mass Goblin attacks were more commonplace, but nowhere near here.

“Our first priority is information.” I said. “We have to know what we are dealing with and that means following the Goblins back to their lair.”

“There aren’t enough of us left to fight them in any numbers.” a Ranger named Eldrin said. “Even if we find answers, what will we do then?”

“We watch. We wait. We pass the information back until we ‘do’ have the numbers. Once we have a better understanding, we harass and harry them. We draw them away from our vulnerable areas, and cut down their numbers as much as we can.”I paused before smiling ruefully, “We’re going to need a lot of arrows either way.”

We decided a small party was the best option. Myself, Saelyn, and two other Rangers would leave at first light and track the goblins. Once we knew their location and numbers we would return and decide on the next steps. If there were enough of us, we would form a hunting party to track them down directly, rather than taking our strength away from the encampment. If not, we would send out more small parties to harass the Goblins and draw their attention away until we had the strength to deal with them.

No one could remember the last time this many goblins attacked one of the encampments. It was worrisome to say the least.I wanted to know more before we risked any more lives.

I still had all that reading to get to at some point.

***

The next morning there was still rebuilding going on, but now we were looking to outfit a search party as well. I had gotten as much sleep as I could, but it was restless. After waking up to the camp burning around me, I guessed I’d have trouble sleeping for a few nights at least.

We had salvaged as many weapons and as much equipment as we could. Saelyn kept finding new and inventive places to tuck away knives and daggers she found that I was surprised that she didn’t rattle and clank like an armoured knight when she walked, but she was as silent as the rest of us. Once she caught me watching her slip yet another dagger into her boot, but she just winked and suddenly it seemed to disappear.

While the four of us were picking through equipment and preparing ourselves, a runner found us and summoned us to the bedside of the senior living Ranger.

“The Goblins didn’t just sack and burn”, He said when we were seated beside his cot, several worried looking high-ranking clerics hovering nearby. “They also stole many items from the senior rangers and druids. You must retrieve the items if you can. Fortunately some of the lesser items were overlooked, so you may take what you need to aid you in your Quest. If you cannot retrieve sacred items of the Druids and Rangers, you must do everything in your power to destroy them. These creatures of evil must not…desecrate...”, he collapsed in a fit of coughing.

[Quest: Retrieve the sacred items of the Ranger Leadership]

[Secondary Quest: Destroy the sacred items of the Ranger Leadership]

[Quest: Retrieve the sacred items of the Druid Leadership]

[Secondary Quest: Destroy the sacred items of the Druid Leadership]

“We worry for him.” The high cleric spoke up, stepping forward. “All of our healing can deal with his physical ailments, but there’s something about what ails him we cannot cure. We have sent for our most powerful healers, we hope they are in time.”

The Ranger waved to indicate a long chest on the far side of the tent. I opened it, and stepped back. Inside were several bows, a quiver, several cloaks, an assortment of daggers and other weapons.

The bows looked nearly identical to me, so I passed them to the other Rangers for assessment. I could sense that the quiver was imbued with Arcane workings, and sure enough it had several compartments and seemed to hold far more arrows than one would expect for its size.

[Quiver of the Elements] - 75 arrows (25 in each of three compartments. Each compartment can imbue one of its arrows each hour with +50% Flame, Ice, or Lightning damage in addition to mundane abilities. Arcane abilities are negated if imbued by the quiver.), 6 longbow/quarterstaves in fourth compartment.

The arrow compartments were full, and the fourth compartment already held a longbow and shortbow as well as two staves. I would have to examine them in detail later. “Don’t you love magic?” I whispered to Saelyn.

The cloaks were all well made and intricately woven with woodland patterns. There were enough that each of us was able to find one that fit.

[Cloak of Elvenkind] - +5 to Concealment in Sylvan Realms, +5 to Survival in Sylvan Realms.

Saelyn eyed the daggers, and when no one else moved for them, she scooped them up and started examining them. They didn’t appear Arcane, but anyone could tell they were very well made.

Since none of us were particularly skilled with swords yet, we left those behind. Besides, we were looking for information, not a stand-up fight...yet. If it came down to sword work, it was likely our mission had already failed.

***

“These treasures and raids all seem far beyond what I would expect from the realm of trainees and apprentices.” I mused later, in our small group. “Something more serious than simply earning a Class seems to be going on here.” Saelyn seemed to agree with me, and even our guides were at a loss to explain, although they agreed that they had never encountered events like these before.

“Given that we seem to be caught between two systems,” Saelyn asked our Guides, “Are there things we are dealing with that don’t fit into either system? Is it possible something is…” she paused, “...broken? Is it possible a third system is trying to take over?”

“We have never seen an encampment overrun like this.” My guide said again. “The system is here to balance the forces and provide a challenging environment for apprentices to gather experience. The Apprentice Dungeon is to be the culmination of their training time here. After clearing the Apprentice Dungeon, apprentices would have gained several levels and be capable of moving beyond the boundaries of this area. We’re now seeing forces far more powerful than is possible here. After we deal with the goblins and secure the area for encampment and the town, I suggest we may wish to check the borders of the apprentice area.” it advised. “However, the ‘why’ of it is beyond my knowledge.”.

“A plan for another day then.” I answered.

The path of the fleeing goblins was easy enough to follow, now that the sun was up and the morning mists had lifted. They had made no attempts to conceal their tracks. The way was littered with discarded weapons and other remnants of the battle.

In addition to the four of us, a score of fighters and archers from the town came to provide some measure of protection from ambush. After a few hours the trail devolved to little more than scuffed boot prints. It seemed anything that burdened their retreat had long since been discarded. We decided to send our escort back with instructions to collect anything useful along the way. The smithies would have a considerable amount of raw material for some time to come from all the weapons and equipment discarded by the goblins.

Now the real hunt would begin.