In the Twilight Forest a large armed caravan marched through it’s barren, mist veiled woodlands. A force of over a hundred grey skinned warriors, three to four feet tall, mostly with sharp tipped ears and with a motley mishmash of weapons, all of them riding large monstrous boars. At the head of the column was the Goblin General. In the center of the formation Sigard and Mazia sat in a crudely converted wagon pulled by two dire boars, followed by the Golden Tiger, Mantis Queen and six tall creatures.

This caravan was the beginning of Sigard’s conquest of the Maze of Beasts.

Several days after Mazia gained her new name and body the Goblin General finally established contact. Apparently he had managed to subjugate a small goblin village within only a couple of days, but in doing so he had set off some sort of political crisis. Apparently the chieftain of the village he took over was the client of a rising warlord. So the next several weeks were spent embroiled in unrest, fighting, intrigue and even a major betrayal. The entire affair has finally stabilized enough to free the Goblin General to report back.

When Sigard and Mazia did hear of him, they were in the middle of their own preparations. Preparations to go back out and reach this ‘knot’ that Sigard had intended to investigate the first time. So both of them came to the decision that they needed to empty what little reserves they had to expand the size of their expeditionary force. At three thousand units of Quintessence per body, the six Trolls represented a huge investment in their reserves of Quintessence, that being almost all of it. They were scrapping the bottom of the barrel, the resource problem needed to be resolved immediately.

Luckily, now with the Goblin General contributing his forces they had a proper, if small, army. The goblins themselves already had crude hierarchy, with them forming various gangs. Each gang was ruled over by a boss who was subordinate to the chieftain, in this case the Goblin General. The various bosses establish their own complex hierarchy based on who is bigger, stronger, more aggressive, favored by the chief, got the bigger gang, or the best mounts. In the future, as the Goblin General expands his control over more tribes, he’ll start to gather chieftains as yet another layer in the pecking order.

The boars were particularly strange monstrosities. Most were simple Dire Boars being over a meter and a half tall, and sporting massive tusks but otherwise typical boars. Aside from the various mutations could be seen showing the possible directions that goblin breeders might take in crafting new mounts. The rest of the boars were the result of said breeding, being massive with greenish grey skinned creatures with writhing tentacles were the snout should be. These were the Abomination Boars, just one of the many subspecies created by goblin husbandry and the Mazes own distorting nature.

As the caravan approaches the cave entrance the goblin escorts maintain vigilance. Going into the tunnel they were now in the part of the Maze were Sigard started to have trouble. Were he encountered the adventurers then narrowly avoided the Vermun, at least for the most part. The Goblin General ensured that his goblin boar-riders maintained formation around the cart.

The cart that Sigard and Mazia sat in had been hastily renovated to resemble a carriage with high walls and a roof to provide protection and privacy. It had originally been built for goblins so it was extremely cramped, so both Sigard and Mazia were practically mashed together. The reason for this was that the loyalty of the goblins was not assured, meaning that there could be problems. Thus Sigard would command from the cart and keep his interaction to the average goblins to a minimum that they weren’t constantly reminded that their highest ruler was a human.

Sigard was still wearing the tattered rags he escaped with as they all he had. Having recycled whatever was scavenged from Sigard’s previous expedition Mazia was wearing scraps of cloth covering the bare minimum of her body.

“What are Masters plans after resolving the current shortage?”

“Once we have the time and resources, we’ll make the ruins in the Twilight Forest into a actual fortress. Also thoroughly search the Core tunnel complex to find all of the exits out to the wider Maze then build forts on top of all of them as well. From there start bringing more of the Mazes territory and monsters under my control.”

“Master, you should extend your influence to the Maze’s prefabricated city centers. They would require a substantial number of troops to secure but their repositories of resources that will help to augment Masters’ power.”

“…prefabricated…city?”

“Yes, they’re the regions of the Maze with the organized infrastructure to house large bodies of troops. Roads, buildings, sewers, warehouses and numerous other facilities.”

“Are you talking about the Forsaken Towns?”

The Forsaken Towns were well known amongst the hunters and adventurers from the surface. Resembling abandoned towns they tended to give a creepy aura to anyone who explored them. Numerous theories and rumors swirl around these places, from speculation on their origin to stories of undead residing in them.

“Is that what the intruders from the surface call them? Anyway, these ‘Forsaken Towns’ are prepared areas perfect to be made into fortresses to extend Masters control.”

“Really? What exactly is so special about them?”

“As this one has already said, there are a variety of facilities beneficial to Master’s cause. Warehouses containing resources, armories, workshops there’s even a great library that holds a vast amount of arcane knowledge and occult secrets.”

She was quite excited while talking. Back when Mazia was still just the Core she talked in a neutral tone, lacking any obvious signs of emotion. But after creating a human-like body, though still referring to herself as ‘this one’ she was showing excitement, especially about magic or the Maze.

“Can we really take possession of all the Forsaken Towns now? We need to be careful. I want to take control of the Maze in its entirety, but if those on the surface notice what we are doing, especially at this early stage then they’ll overwhelm us. No, not now, we should secure our position and build up our forces before openly challenging them.”

Sigard said the last part with malice and spite in his voice.

“Master, this Relentless Stalkers Guild you’ve talked about before, what’s your plan to destroy them?”

“…Honestly I’m sure. It’s got several hundred regular members, plus servant, workers and other hired helpers. That’s not including the army of new adventurers who shift around between different factions or those who work with established members. Best I’ve got right now is to trap them deep in the Maze and slaughter them with a vast army. Unfortunately I don’t have a ‘vast’ army right now, just a handful of monsters and the goblins that serve one of them.

But soon I will. I will not be forced back into servitude, and so I will place as many monsters between me and all of the self-proclaimed hunters who invade the Maze. I will hunt the ‘hunters’ and crush the entire guild into dust.”

Sigard had developed a vicious expression while he spoke.

Mazia silently stared at him, she thought of her masters’ needs and desires. The maligned hatred was clearly painted on his face. She also wanted to repulse the intruders from the Maze, but for her Master it was different, it was personal, he truly hated them.

While her body was pressed up against his, she pulled her arms up and embraced him.

“…Master, because of the vast numbers of intruders and their extensive penetration into the interior of the Maze. This one proposes for the deployment of agents to infiltrate the intruders strongholds on the surface. In order to obtain detailed knowledge on the intruders infrastructure and to keep account on the numbers and positioning of the Relentless Stalkers.”

Supporting her Master was really the only thing she could do. Ultimately working to finish this grudge quickly was the only real option. What else could she do, start preaching about how peace was best? Mazia wasn’t some stupid pacifist, nor a hypocrite, she wanted the intruders dead as well.

“Interesting, but what cou-“

“Screee!” Sigard’s response was drowned out by the bestial screams from beyond the makeshift carriages flimsy walls.

Boar-riding goblins were suddenly very animated, rushing toward the source of the screams. Sounds of fighting and goblins barking orders in their guttural language.

They were congregating around a band of Vermun. The rat-like humanoids with their giant rats though hopelessly outnumbered were fighting with savage aggression. They seemed to have stumbled into the goblinoid column from a side tunnel.

The Goblin General wasted no time in organizing his goblins against the Vermun, forming up and initiating a cavalry charge right into the small force of rat monsters. The large hulking boars with their deadly curved tusks tore into the rats breaking what little cohesion the band had, scattering them, the remaining survivors either fleeing or being cut down. And like them the fighting was over, so brutal yet so quick.

Sigard saw the engagement was wrapping up and travel was resuming, turned back to Mazia.

“Vermun.”

“The same creatures who gave Master some trouble the first time. Though Vermun would make an excellent addition to Master’s armies. Does Master wish to acquire some as subordinates?”

“I’m still wondering how that one giant rat managed to reach the Twilight Forest.”

“…This one cannot offer any answers at this time.”

“I know, it just bothers me. Anyway nothing I can do about it right now. I’m sure our escorts have plenty more monsters to kill as we continue on.”

After several hours and a few more brief skirmishes, the caravan had reached another massive cavern. An apparently lifeless cave, with irregular formations of boulders dotting the floor. The entire cavern was shrouded in darkness, oppressively so as it felt like the darkness was pressing in on the several torches they had brought.

“So this is the place?”

“Yes Master, the source of the ‘knot’ that impedes this one’s use of Quintessence is in this cavern. Also this entire area is thick with Miasma. It’s concentration is strengthening the darkness, impairing our sight and providing sanctuary to any threats.”

“Hah, great. Let’s get done with this.”