——— POV: 3rd person ———
4 rangers slept lightly under their makeshift cover, waterproof canvas stretched between trees. Although the weather was horrible, they had been trained to make the most of their brief respite. Their teammates keeping watch would wake them if anything problematic was spotted, but each of them kept their weapons within easy reach.
Unfortunately, the lookouts did not pay attention to bugs and could not spot movement underground. The rain made things worse by masking smells and the sound of small feet skittering through the bushes.
Ants, careful not to ever be visible in large numbers, gingerly wandered into the campsite and searched for food. Soon they located a couple supply bags belonging to those sleeping and converged on that location.
Beneath the surface horrific maws of sharp teeth chewed through the soil at full speed, the beasts' potent digestive systems dissolving anything that entered their mouths. Leaving empty cavities behind them as they went, they finally stopped beneath where the ants had congregated.
Bursting through the surface, several shredder worms waved their heads around before diving into the earth again. Out of the newly formed tunnels, scores of mice dashed out and chewed on backpacks, pouches and sacks alike. Once a hole was made, a line of ants from the tunnel to the hole would form as they each grabbed a piece and ran back.
The tunnel only led a short distance away into some bushes, where bunnyrats waited to stuff their cheeks with every crumb brought before they'd dash through the undergrowth to a safe location near the dungeon where they would wait again until a bird signaled that no one had followed them. Finally they ran into the concealed cave and spat out everything onto a quickly growing pile.
While this was happening, a spiders sneaked into the hoods, cloaks and quivers of the sleeping rangers. Not biting, as that would likely wake them, but on standby in case it was needed.
*******
Bluefang was furious. First he'd been laughed at and mocked by the other chiefs, then he'd been sent on what might well have been a suicidal mission if not for his quick thinking and luck, then his old hideout erupted in flames due to an overeager gob, and now ants!
Ants had swarmed their camp during the night and crawled into everything, chomped on his goblins while they slept, and made off with most of the leftover food. Although it hurt when they would bite, it would be hard for a gob to die from any bites.
The goblins had shrieked in pain, before stomping as many as they could and lathering themselves in mud. The food, however had been stolen, and the chief knew that hungry gobs were generally angry gobs. This could potentially be a problem.
"Breakfast!" The goblin chef banged on a rusty bucket at the usual time, as if completely ignoring the recent situation. Surprise filled Bluefang's face as he knew they were out of meat when he checked the food supplies personally just a minute ago.
Shoving a couple runts aside, Chief Bluefang led his warriors to the fire pit where the chef was stirring a large cauldron. The three legged bronze vessel stood amongst the smoldering remains of a fire with fragrant steam rising from whatever bubbling concoction the chef had produced.
Looking down at the portion he was served, the chief inspected his food as the others gathered and jostled each other out of the way until they formed a messy form of line in front of the chef. Bluefang saw a porridge of sorts made of mashed ants and wild oats with a few slivers those meaty tasting mushrooms as a garnish. Eating the ants would probably satisfy some of his desire for revenge and hopefully satisfy his hunger too.
This chef knew how to fix problems. Too bad it wasn't Grub'nut, that sneaky gob had ridden his coattail until he made it high enough at central and jumped ship. He'd probably have to be careful about this one doing the same.
Considering the food issue, ants could only serve as a snack or light breakfast if he was generous. It seemed that he would need to send out a hunting party to restock their meat supplies, thankfully the forest seemed to be full of edible critters recently. Populations must have bounced back without anyone hunting them.
——— POV: DM Blueberry ———
I watch in excitement as every step of the heist gets executed. I bought a whole lot more of those cheap critters for this plan, and it's already paid for itself.
The gobs didn't have much, their nasty food, some random bits and bods and quite a few arrows, all stolen amidst the chaos were at least worth a little. Food and trinkets were dissolved, arrows went to the gob archers. DP in this case was only a secondary goal for this heist.
The rangers had more valuable supplies. A dozen compressed nutrient rich bread wrapped in fresh smelling leaves were found in one pack, they got dissolved for sizable amounts of DP, except for a couple of the larger pieces that Berry'wart and Stewbag requested.
Dried meats and other food stuffs along with the strips of cloth, bits of rope, and other useless scraps were all dissolved. A handful of potions were stolen along with some coins, fishing supplies such as hooks bait and some coils of fishing line. Some items were too big and needed the mice to team up to carry. There was even a single beautifully crafted tiny dagger, which Trap somehow got his hands on.
"Good job team! Move on to stage 2!"
I give the signals for the suicide Bunnyrat squad to get to work.
——— POV: 3rd person ———
All chaos breaks loose in the goblin camp as 14 or so of the most plump bunnyrats ever seen in the woods "accidentally" stumble out from the forest in plain sight before squealing in fear and dashing away as a group.
The goblin hunting party consisting of 3 warriors and 5 runts that had just been assembled all yelled in excitement before giving chase. Others, eager for a share of the fresh meat grabbed their weapons while yelling out their noble intentions of volunteering for hunting duty.
Chief Bluefang barely had time to assign a few gobs to guard duty before he too had to join the hunting frenzy. As the chief, he couldn't give others the impression that he was lazy, or give them the opportunity to earn more merit than him. Goblin politics was notoriously unstable with constant shifts of power and short lived rulers, and Bluefang had no plans on being bumped off any time soon.
3 bunnyrats were quick to fall. Their extra weight making them less agile than usual, and with 15 gobs all throwing rocks spears and pointed sticks some were bound to hit eventually. The fallen were quickly grabbed and tossed into a sack by some runts as the warriors kept up the chase.